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CINEMA

What’s on in Germany: April 28 – May 4

This Week's Highlights: A festival of animated films screens in Stuttgart, a swan of a different stripe dances in Munich, and it's Gallery Weekend in Berlin.

What's on in Germany: April 28 - May 4
Photo: Princess' Painting by Johannes Weiland & Klaus Morschheuser

BERLIN

Galleries/Museums

Gallery Weekend Berlin

Berlin is an art city of the most extraordinary proportions. Make this the weekend you get to know the local players. Forty-four galleries participate in this year’s Gallery Weekend Berlin, a three-day extravaganza that’ll have you traipsing around town like an art champion.

Price: Free

Location: Various

Times: Friday, April 29, 4-9pm; Saturday, April 30, and Sunday, May 1, 11am-7pm

More Information: www.gallery-weekend-berlin.de

Wedding Walls

Wedding gets a makeover this weekend when seven international street artists unleash their paint rollers and aerosol cans on seven of the neighbourhood’s blank walls. Head to the opening event Saturday at Stattbad Wedding where artist and author Caleb Neelson presents his new book The History of American Graffiti: From Subway to Gallery. Lots of art to look at and DJs to dance to as well.

Price: Free

Location: Stattbad Wedding, Gerichtstrasse 65

Times: Saturday, April 30, 4pm

More Information: www.weddingwalls.org

Film

Jacques Demy Retrospective

Right up there with Godard and Truffaut, Jacques Demy is one of the greats. A retrospective of the French filmmaker’s work runs for one more week at Berlin’s Kino Arsenal. Sing along (in your head) to candy colored classics like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort, Saturday.

Price: €6.50

Location: Kino Arsenal, Potsdamer Strasse 2

Times: Through May 5

Phone: 030 26955 100

More Information: www.arsenal-berlin.de

COLOGNE

Events

Home and Garden Cologne

If home is where your heart is, head to Cologne’s Rheinpark this weekend. Dozens of flower displays, place settings, and furniture arrangements will inspire a spring cleaning and decorating spree. And all you royalists needn’t fret about missing the royal wedding. The long-awaited London celebration will be screening live.

Price: €10

Location: Rheinpark, Auenweg

Times: Thursday, April 28 – Saturday, April 30, 10am-7pm; Sunday, May 1, 11am-7pm

More Information: www.homeandgarden-net.de

FRANKFURT

Walking Tours

Frankfurt’s Criminal History

Just visiting? Or do you live in Frankfurt? Either way, perhaps you’d like to learn about the city’s criminal past. A knowledgeable guide leads a two-hour tour in German and English, Saturday.

Price: €12

Location: Tourist Information Office, The Römer

Times: Saturday, April 30, 1:30-3:30pm

More Information: www.frankfurt-tourismus.de

HAMBURG

Music/Concerts

Tom McRae

The British singer-songwriter easily goes from stunningly solemn to sweetly jovial in the course of an evening. Witness McRae’s hushed, honest serenades Saturday night at Prinzenbar.

Price: €15

Location: Prinzenbar, Kastanienallee 20

Times: Saturday, April 30, 7pm

Phone: 040 3178 830

More Information: www.prinzenbar.net

Elfi Baby Concerts

When a baby comes along, mum and dad’s social calendar turns upside-down. But an an onslaught of wet nappies doesn’t mean you have to miss out on your culture fix. The Elbe Philharmonic’s new concert series is family friendly. Let the little ones burp and fuss while the Ensemble Resonanz play Mozart and Brahms.

Price: €4

Location: Bürgerhaus Wilhelmsburg (Tuesday), Centrum-Moschee (Wednesday), Kulturpunkt im Barmbek Basch (Thursday), Sasel-Haus (Friday)

Times: Tuesday, May 3 – Friday, May 6, 3:30pm

Tickets: 040 357 666 66

More Information: elbphilharmonie.de

MUNICH

Theatre

The Pride

BeMe Theatre presents the English-language production of “The Pride”, a courageous work ripe with humour and pathos, intricately weaving the sexual attitudes in 1958 and half a century later.

Price: €18

Location: BeMe Theatre at the EINSTEIN Kulturzentrum, Einsteinstrasse 42 Munich

Times: Every Tuesday to Saturday from May 3, 8pm

More Information: www.BeMeTheatre.com

Dance

Illusions – Like Swan Lake

Bavarian State Ballet director John Neumeier’s take on Swan Lake alludes to one of Southern Germany’s most legendary characters, Mad King Ludwig. There’s no Black Swan in site but there is a mysterious “Man in the Shadows.” Watch the esteemed company twirl to Tchaikovsky’s beloved score Thursday night during Ballet Festival Week 2011.

Price: €7-70

Location: Nationaltheater, Max-Joseph-Platz 2

Times: Thursday, April 28, 7pm

Phone: 089 21 85 01

More Information: www.bayerische.staatsoper.de

Readings

Aaron Jaffe and Edward P. Comentale – Absolute(ly) Big Lebowski

The Big Lebowski is the quintessential cult film of our time, inspiring all sorts of cultural analysis, academic debate, late-night parodies, and white Russian bowling bashes. Aaron Jaffe and Edward P. Comentale’s new book Absolute(ly) Big Lebowski is the latest bit of media to spring from the Coen Brothers’ cinematic sensation. Join the authors Wednesday at America House for a discussion and screening.

Price: Free

Location: Amerika Haus München, Karolinenplatz 3

Times: Wednesday, May 4, 7pm

Phone: 089 55 25 370

More Information: www.amerikahaus.de

STUTTGART

Film

Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film

What’s better than a week of films? A week of animated films. When it comes to creativity, this year’s roster of international animators knows no bounds. Be sure to catch a few works by the great stop motion master Kurt Weiler.

Price: €9, €16 (After 6pm), €20 (Day Ticket), €80 (Festival Pass)

Location: Various

Times: Tuesday, May 3 – Sunday, May 8

Phone: 0711 925 46 123

More Information: www. itfs.de

MUNICH

Four injured as WWII bomb explodes near Munich train station

Four people were injured, one of them seriously, when a World War II bomb exploded at a building site near Munich's main train station on Wednesday, emergency services said.

Smoke rises after the WWII bomb exploded on a building site in Munich.
Smoke rises after the WWII bomb exploded on a building site in Munich. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Privat

Construction workers had been drilling into the ground when the bomb exploded, a spokesman for the fire department said in a statement.

The blast was heard several kilometres away and scattered debris hundreds of metres, according to local media reports.

Images showed a plume of smoke rising directly next to the train tracks.

Bavaria interior minister Joachim Herrmann told Bild that the whole area was being searched.

Deutsche Bahn suspended its services on the affected lines in the afternoon.

Although trains started up again from 3pm, the rail operator said there would still be delays and cancellations to long-distance and local travel in the Munich area until evening. 

According to the fire service, the explosion happened near a bridge that must be passed by all trains travelling to or from the station.

The exact cause of the explosion is unclear, police said. So far, there are no indications of a criminal act.

WWII bombs are common in Germany

Some 75 years after the war, Germany remains littered with unexploded ordnance, often uncovered during construction work.

READ ALSO: What you need to know about WWII bomb disposals in Germany

However, most bombs are defused by experts before they explode.

Last year, seven World War II bombs were found on the future location of Tesla’s first European factory, just outside Berlin.

Sizeable bombs were also defused in Cologne and Dortmund last year.

In 2017, the discovery of a 1.4-tonne bomb in Frankfurt prompted the evacuation of 65,000 people — the largest such operation since the end of the war in Europe in 1945.

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