Bars
Hildegard Bar Lyrical drinks and musical cocktails
© Hauke G. Thüring
Map
Opening Times
Tuesday to Saturday 18-2 h
Address
Hildegard Bar
Marburger Straße 3
10789 Berlin-Charlottenburg
.How to get there
Contact
"Berlin, your face has freckles and your mouth is much too big," Hildegard Knef once sang so aptly about the metropolis on the Spree. Not only the actress and singer's first name is found in the name of the bar in the hidden side street near the Europa Center. Her songs and other musical inspirations can also be heard from the record player or the jukebox in the bar of cultivated music lover and cocktail impresario Thomas Pflanz.
His most famous creation recently celebrated its 25th anniversary: the Watermelon Man. Inspired by Herbie Hancock's song of the same name, Pflanz created the cocktail with vodka and watermelon as the central element. Pflanz has been shaping the city's bar landscape for 35 years, mixing at institutions like Bar am Lützowplatz, Lebensstern, Victoria and Windhorst Bar. In 2017, he finally opened his Hildegard Bar with its long counter, discreet lighting and cozy seating niches.
Pflanz explains his choice of location in Charlottenburg: "I'm a child of City West. This is where my cocktail roots are with Lützowbar and Rum Trader, and I'm just closer to a lot of familiar people and friends here." In addition to music, literary inspiration comes to the bar and quotes change over the back buffet, always making you smile or think.
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Pflanz has a particular passion for his "poetry drinks," which are inspired by works and personalities, such as Charles Bukowski. The "Zappa - dumb all over" with rum, amaro, oloroso sherry, coffee liqueur and plum cream, for example, tastes wonderful.
But we still have to delve into the subject of Hildegard, because two more ladies are responsible for the naming and thus the vibes of the bar. On the one hand, there is Hildegard von Bingen. The nun is considered a pioneer of herbalism and medicine. Her records from the 11th century explain how to use essences, herbs, barks or hops. "Her writings can still inspire modern bartenders," Pflanz explains, referring to numerous homemade bar ingredients, such as syrups or falernum.
And then there's Hildegard Dahlmann, whose portrait hangs on the wall opposite the bar. A sophisticated lady and daughter of the constructor of the 1897 building in which the bar is located and where art patron Timo Miettinen hosts exhibitions and cultural talks in his "Salon Dahlmann," thus continuing the salon culture of old Charlottenburg.
What a pity that Hilde Knef, for whom Pflanz prepared drinks at Carmer's on Savignyplatz long ago, can no longer experience this bar named after her. But her melodies still characterize Berlin nights, which end most beautifully in the Hildegard Bar:
Berlin, deine Stirn hat Dackelfalten | doch was wärst du ohne sie?
Wer hat dich bloß so jung gehalten | denn zum Schlafen kommst du nie!
Berlin, your forehead has dachshund wrinkles | but what would you be without them?
Who kept you so young | because you never get to sleep!
