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where can I find a specific type of car to rent (and possible damage) for an art project?
anyway, an artist I'm working with has received another grant for a group piece and part of the choreography requires a car. a black mercedes e-klasse, to be specific. now, as you can tell, I have zero idea about cars. it needs to be a car that is quite shitty but that still works and can be driven for short distances. the car won't be demolished but a single person will dance on the hood, so it might get a bit trashed. hence why I can't just rent a mercedes and I doubt that we could afford to buy a used mercedes with the grant.
does anybody have an idea where I could start looking? I really don't have enough knowledge about cars nor do I have any friends who own cars. sigh. would be grateful for any thoughts on whether this is possible at all. thank you if you've read this far, kind stranger!
A friend of mine did something similar for a piece at the Volksbühne and ended up buying an old E-Klasse from a guy in Lichtenberg who imports them from Hungary. They're usually rustier but cheaper. Try searching "mercedes e-klasse import" on Kleinanzeigen or Facebook Marketplace, you can find one for under a grand that runs but looks terrible.
If you don't want to buy, call the Fundus at the Deutsches Theater or the props department at the Schaubühne. They sometimes have old vehicles sitting in their storage in Reinickendorf and might let you borrow it for a small fee if you explain the project. Just don't expect them to be thrilled about the dancing on the hood part.
honestly this is so specific but also totally doable in berlin. check kleinanzeigen for "mercedes e-klasse defekt" or "bastler" - people sell old ones for like 500-1500€ if they have minor issues like a broken AC or bad paint. you don't need it to be pretty, just drivable for a few meters.
also try schrottplatz in hohenschönhausen or marzahn, some of them sell cars that still have tüv for a bit longer. you might find a w124 or w210 that's already beat up but runs. just call ahead and ask if they have any e-klasse that can still move under its own power.
if the grant is decent, you could also hit up a private car dealer in neukölln or wedding - they sometimes have old mercedes for cheap if you pay cash and don't ask for a warranty. just be ready to negotiate hard and bring someone who knows cars to check for rust.
Check with mobile theatre groups or open-air performance collectives. A few of them keep old cars as props and might rent one out for a few days for less than a rental company would charge. I've seen a beat-up E-Klasse parked behind the Pfefferberg courtyard space before. If you call the Theaterhaus Berlin Mitte or the uferstudios production office, they might point you to a set builder who has one sitting in a garage in Wedding.
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What is the correct spelling for a street name that appears differently on multiple signs in Charlottenburg?
Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.
if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point
honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.