Postcards from Berlin has been getting in the press! A couple weeks ago we were filmed for the RBB Abendschau television news segment, and we’ve had several warm articles written about the project in some Eastern Shore of Maryland-based newspapers.

Our visit to Berlin, Maryland last week was lots of fun! We made many new friends and spread the word about the project. We’ve added a couple new postcards to commemorate our visit; a brief recounting of the history of how Berlin, Maryland got its name – as told by Berlin, Maryland’s Mayor Williams, as well as a performance by the fantastic band Hot Buttered Nuggets – featuring the amazing Douglas Everton on guitar and vocal instrumentation.

You’ll also notice a bunch of new links on the left sidebar of the Berlin, Maryland page. These include many of the places we visited while we were in town, as well as links to a couple places we wanted to visit but unfortunately had to pass up this time around. If you’re from any of the Berlins and would like your business or organization included in the “local links lists” please contact us with a link to your site and we’ll be happy to add you to the ever-growing database!

This visit to Berlin, Maryland was a great way to jumpstart interest in the project. We hope as the project expands we’ll have additional opportunities to visit other Berlins in person as well. We want to extend special thanks to Michael Day, Angela Reynolds and the staff of the Atlantic Hotel, as well as Brad and Catherine Parks for their generosity, hospitality and kindness during our brief visit.

Surprise! Next week on Friday, April 9th, 2010 we’ll be spending our evening in Berlin, Maryland participating in the local Second Friday Art Stroll! Berlin Maryland’s art spaces open their doors from 5:30 to 8 PM once a month to public tours, enriching the town with their local creativity. Businesses with exhibitions to share display flags to identify themselves to visitors. We’ll be in attendance, stationed graciously at the historic Atlantic Hotel, conducting a storytelling workshop. We’ll have two laptops on site as well as wireless Internet access (courtesy of the Hotel) to enable Berlin-Marylanders a chance to get involved in the project on the spot! We’re very excited to get this opportunity and eager to return to the source of our inspiration for the project! So far Berlin, Maryland has taken the most initiative in participating, with 11 postcards submitted to date! Check out this article which appeared in Ocean City Today in March, and be sure to stay tuned in this coming week for more updates!

PS: don’t forget: On Friday, April 16th 2010 at 6PM we will be introducing Postcards from Berlin at the achtung berlin film festival in Berlin, Germany!

Phillip, Gabriel, Gavin and Tom on the KS12 couch the night of launch! Pati was in Stuttgart celebrating her brother’s graduation from architecture school so, left to our own devices, we pulled out the cool shades.

We are very happy to officially launch the Postcards from Berlin beta website today! Special thanks to Gavin, Phillip, Tom and Linda for helping pull the project together in the last weeks, as well as our awesome project partners achtung berlin and Palomar5! Thanks also to Nicole, Brandon and Malte for helping us beta test!

On Friday, April 16th 2010 at 6PM we will be introducing Postcards from Berlin at the achtung berlin film festival in Berlin, Germany!

We’re looking forward to getting your stories from American Berlins, and as an incentive to get the website buzzing with activity we’ve decided to award new registrations with twice the normal number of stamps up until the 16th of April. Our goal will be to present the top 12 most stamped postcards at the event!

Make sure you subscribe to our blog to get the latest updates. We hope to be getting a proper introduction video published in the next weeks

About Stamps

Stamps are the virtual currency of Postcards from Berlin. When you sign up you’ll get 10 stamps (sign up before April 16th and you’ll get 20 stamps!) Sending a postcard costs you 1 stamp; contributing to another person’s postcard grants you 1 stamp. If you successfully invite a friend to participate you’ll get 5 stamps. And of course, if there is a postcard you particularly like, you can show your support and encouragement for that postcard by giving it a stamp of your own. Just click the big stamp icon beneath the postcard’s image or video. Eventually, when we’re ready to determine the best stories on the website, the postcards with the most stamps will be getting a generous share of our attention, so stamp wisely! And remember: all of the stamp-based exchanges on the website are permanent, just like with real postage.

Video Transcription:

Welcome to the first episode of the Postcards from Berlin video blog. In this episode we’re going to tell you a little bit about the inspiration for this project. But funny enough, the story doesn’t begin in Berlin, Germany. Back in the summer of 2006 we were on a weekend trip to Rehoboth Beach. On the drive back we spotted a sign for “Berlin, Maryland” so we decided to pay a visit. It was strange for us to see the word Berlin printed on a road sign in America. At that time we were considering moving to Berlin, Germany and we were curious to see what this other Berlin was like compared to the German capital.

As we walked down main street we were fascinated. We took lots of photos and noticed some funny coincidences, but at the end we felt like tourists. When we got back to Germany we did some research and discovered there are lots of Berlins in America. Our photos were nice souvenirs, but they didn’t really tell the story of the town. We thought, “If only the people from the Berlins in America could send us some postcards!”

We created this project so you can tell us about Berlin yourself, transforming the postcard into a medium of personal storytelling. If all goes well, our plan is to pick the 12 most interesting stories and make an episodic feature film! But we’ll need your collaboration to do it.

In our next episode we’ll announce the opening of our website for participation and explain everything you’ll need to know to become a part of the project!

You can also watch and share this video on YouTube.