Berlin Ostend I started shooting in Ostend in the summer of 2007 and again in August 2008, and was confident about the district’s cinematic power. I had visited the former Pioneer Park several times with my daughter, so I was aware of the picturesque potential of the present-day recreational centre and park. Other places in Ostend were new to me because I had not been there since my childhood. I felt less restricted in my search for shooting sites in Ostend than in other Berlin districts, because the geographical boundaries of Ostend are less clear. In the Wilhelmine era (1890-1914) a garden suburb named “Ostend” had been planned (as well as on other ends of the city), and a few buildings were erected on the Spree. But industry was faster; it also needed space to grow with good access to roads and rails. So, in the end, the garden suburb existed only in the name of a few streets: The Ostendgestell in the park (found on older maps), Ostendstrasse in the Oberschöneweide district, and another Ostendstrasse on the other side of the Spree in the Oberspree district. Because I was born in Oberspree, I included more of this area than the length of the tiny street. Near Oberspree, incidentally, there is even a “Westend”, the name of a street in the former autonomous town of Köpenick. I have no memories of the house on Sanddornstrasse where I was born, but an early childhood memory