Yidi
& David

20 years later, the building was sold to Werner von Siemens — yes, the founder of that Siemens, whose bust can still be found today in the park. His son Georg Wilhelm inherited and expanded the castle to its present-day form. But if you ask who built the castle, "the workers did", as Yidi's mum would say.

In 1927, Berlin city bought the place, and in 1933 the Nazis moved in as in so many places. Allegedly, they also burned it down in 1945. The Red Army repaired it to use as a hospital. Part of East Germany, the castle became a workers' cultural center. After reunification it was renovated again to its current state in 2016 and now houses a museum — in August there will be an exhibition on the GDR art scene.

David came to the park for a punk festival 10 years ago, and when he mentioned the place to Yidi, she said: let's go check it out. So here we are, celebrating in the café of this lovely Schloss.

So that's exactly how the first thirty minutes of their initial encounter unfolded. In the middle of the library's beautiful Baroque Revival halls, they found an empty desk, sat down in silence and wrote about a complete stranger sitting across from them.

When the time was up, David assumed they would first edit their notes before exchanging them. Yidi had other ideas. No editing, no polishing, just raw, stream-of-consciousness observations. David was fascinated by her spontaneity… and slightly concerned that this first date was either going brilliantly or disastrously.

Fortunately, after spending 2 hours at the library, Yidi asked David to walk her to her dance class. During the long stroll from Unter den Linden to Hallesches Tor, they discovered another unexpected fascination they shared: casinos.

Two weeks later, fresh from a radical honesty workshop, Yidi arrived punctually as promised, in a rented Tesla to take David to the casino in Potsdam. It was the only acceptable choice for someone accustomed to classy spa-town casinos in his home state.

The evening was full of surprises. On the drive there, the car started to make strange noises. Right after David managed the chaos of contacting the customer support and it miraculously was fine again. David claimed that Yidi staged the scene just to test how he would react under pressure. At the roulette table, when David had just started to experience the dangerous feeling known as "winning", Yidi wisely told him it was time to stop. She was right. On the drive home, a sneaky highway speed camera took an unsolicited souvenir photo to commemorate the evening.

The rest, as they say, is history. They talked about life and relationships, travelled the world together, started new jobs, moved in together, and, after David proposed at Leopoldsberg in Vienna last August, they eventually tied the knot at a little island called Ærø in Denmark on the day of spring equinox.

And now, all of us are here in Berlin to celebrate the next chapter of their love story. 🙂