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The sky over Berlin is never dark. Even at night. The main cause is the city's heavy light pollution. Berlin's streetlights, its signs, its permanently illuminated buildings - all they contribute to the problem. So much so that for the past two decades the city's observatories, like the Planetarium am Insulaner, have not been able to see the Milky Road. Light spreads over Berlin like a massive dome.

One of the main contributors to light pollution in big cities like Berlin are light advertisements - former neon signs have been almost entirely replaced by environmentally friendlier but otherwise much more unforgiving LED lights. The first illuminated ad sign installed in the German capital was the 1896 "Molton-Wein" ad on Spittelmarkt. A year later a red-and-white illuminated sign appeared on Leipziger Straße.

But it was the 1898 debut that made history: the first moving light ad in Berlin. Here's how it found its way onto Berlin's theatre stage and into the local lingo. And what it had to do with Berlin's most famous enfant terrible.

Links and Recommendations:

Christopher Isherwood Walking Tour "Isherwood's Neighbourhood" with Brendan Nash
Jonny Whitlam's Waking Tours of Berlin "Whitlam's Berlin Tours"
Photo of the Manoli-Rad on Berlin's Alexanderplatz
Wilhelm-Foerster-Sternwarte at Planetarium am Insulaner
More about Manoli Cigarette Factory in Berlin at Jewish Places.

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Music for the show by ...

THE WHEELS KEEP ON TURNING: BERLIN AND "MANOLI LINKSRUM"

Berlin Companion Podcast