Wedding’s little wonders

Mostly untouched by the generic trendy stores plaguing Mitte and elsewhere, Wedding is still home to some great specialist locales. Here are five that caught our eye.

Sustainable umbrellas An umbrella from Rossman is only three euros, but how long before it breaks and ends up in the landfill? Why not shell out some more for an umbrella that’s built to last? Rolf Lippke’s family has been building and repairing umbrellas for 133 years, so he knows something about sustainability. Josef Müller founded his umbrella repair shop in the little city of Georgswalde, Czechoslovakia in 1882. His son Reinold moved the business to Ebersbach in Saxony in 1947, and eventually the business came down to Rolf Lippke, who took over a shop on Müllerstraße in 2009 before relocating to Transvaalstraße in 2013. Schirmfachgeschäft Lippke has umbrellas for men and women in every pattern and style, from Technicolor animal prints to basic Berliner black. A pocket one from Knirps costs €39.50 and its frame is reinforced with durable carbon fibre. If you somehow manage to break it, there’s no need to toss your brolly: just bring it back to Lippke for repair. GVV Transvaalstr. 46, U-Bhf Rehberge, Mon-Fri 10-18, Sat 10-14

Western warehouse Manfred Stöwhase acted in the festival circuit around Germany as a gun-wielding cowboy character called Roy Dunn, and it was tough to find adequate costumes. In 1976 he decided to take advantage of the untapped market in Berlin and open a Western store for clubs, performers, and regular urban cowboys. Today, the store is owned and operated by his son, Robert. Whether you want to spice up your look with a country accent piece, or outfit yourself like an extra from a John Wayne film, Roy Dunn’s has everything from bolo ties to fringy chaps to Stetsons. But their lone-star product is cowboy boots. They come from Spain and Mexico, and range in price from around €190 to a pair of snake and crocodile skin boots, costing €460. They even ship to the US, where cowboy fans covet Roy Dunn’s pointed-toe style, as opposed to the classic American rounded-toe. Even if you’re not in the market for boots or bandanas, every customer gets a free cup of coffee. Yee-haw! GVV Kameruner Str. 3, U-Bhf Seestr., Wed-Fri 11-18, Sat 10-14

Maggot vending machine It’s 6am on Sunday morning. With your rod and your hooks, you head for the Spree, ready to reel in whatever lurks on the bottom – but wait! Who’s got the maggots? Angelhaus Koss does, and you can buy them 24/7 from their Maden-Automat. Alexander Koss has owned his fishing store for 54 years. Six days a week, fishermen from all over Berlin come in to pick up poles, lines and lures, but what if you head to the lake before the sun comes up? After almost a quarter century of business, Koss decided to repurpose an old vending machine and make live bait available for fishermen all weekend. The Maden-Automat holds 20 to 30 bottles of live maggots, for the bargain price of one euro each. But get there quick: by Monday they’re likely to sell out. GVV Tegeler Str. 36-37, U-Bhf Amrumer Str., machine in operation on holidays and weekends

Film goes mod Tucked inside the Centre Français, re-opened in October of last year, 1960s movie theatre City Kino is not only a wellpreserved piece of modernist architecture, it’s also Wedding’s sole destination for arthouse films. Current directors Anne Lakeberg and her partner Wiebke Wolter left the theatre largely untouched: a colourful geometric glass ceiling welcomes you inside, the 230 seats are upholstered in red velvet, large oak panels hover on both sides of the walls, and the screen resides behind a stage still used for live theatre. The old 35mm projector was too damaged for Lakeberg and Wolter to use, so they’ve had to rely on DVDs for their programme of OV indies – from Snowden doc Citizenfour to entries in May’s Jewish film festival – but starting this month they’ll have a new digital projector and Dolby surround sound. EE Müllerstr. 74, U-Bhf Rehberge, check Facebook page for programme

Music nerd heaven On a quiet tree-lined street near the chaos of Gesundbrunnen, Echo Bücher, a small music bookstore run by thirtysomething author and Spanish expat David Armengou, has become one of the hubs for a growing community of artists and creatives in the still-affordable and still off-theradar Soldiner Kiez. For the last two years Armengou has presided over a carefully curated selection of mostly English and German books on subjects including Berlin’s electronic scene, the vinyl revolution and Afrofuturism in the music of Sun Ra. It’s also home to an exhibition space for music-inspired visual art, a café and bar with a small selection of records, and a venue for the occasional DJ show. Hang out on any given afternoon and you could run into everyone from neighbourhood musician, writer and synth fanatic Michal Matlak to Einstürzende Neubauten’s Alexander Hacke. AB Grüntaler Str. 9, S+U-Bhf Gesundbrunnen, Tue-Sat 12-19