Our holiday was a quite spontaneous choice. Suddenly, we wanted to go to Berlin, and then catch trains to Poland, because you can. The novelty of catching trains to other countries hasn't worn off, in spite of having done this a few years ago in Germany, Austria, CzechRep, Slovakia and Hungary.
We stayed in the dreariest hotel in Berlin. It was in a good area, but Oh, there was no attempt at decor, there was no personality in evidence as the receptionists spoke no English and had nothing to say. The breakfast was served in a small room and seemed to be the least the hotel could get away with - you could have scrambled egg and frankfurter, or cheese and ham and tomato and cucumber. I became used to the cheese salad breakfast. I chose the hotel because it was in an old building with very high ceilings in the commercial district. The stair case was impressive (there was no lift) and the doors were very tall and solid.
The place next door had the distinction of being a Jewish hotel with signs in Hebrew. (The Jewish history was to become the theme of our holiday and this wasn't a conscious choice; it's just inevitable) The ground floor of our hotel housed a restaurant - quite a nice one.
We bought 3 days of metro tickets, which turned out to be a really good idea, as we used the metro (and the S-bahn) a lot. From the airport we went to the Hauptbahnhof which was quite exciting in itself as it is on 5 levels.
On our first day we walked to town through the Tiergarten, which A kept calling the tea gardens although it actually means animal garden, and was a hunting park. It is the loveliest inner city park I have experienced, as it is very shady and quiet. Good for cycling and jogging. Mainly trees, and guess what? They are all quite new. The Berliners tore up the Tiergarten for firewood after WWII. All the decorative features which had been spoilt are being restored and replaced, with no expense spared. Good to see.
On the other side of the Tiergarten is an important monument - The Siegessaule - a gilded angel of Victory on a column. You can cross over the road and head to the Bundestag. My guide book calls it the Reichstag and perhaps the Germans do too? The Reichstag was hardly used from 1933 to 1999. It was the scene of the Nazi's last battle - 1,500 Nazi soldiers made their last stand here against the Soviet troops - extending WWII by 2 days. In 1995 rebuilding by British architect Sir Norman Foster commenced. In 1999 the German parliament convened here for the first time in 66 years. It must have been such a happy day. We made an appointment via the internet before we left England so we could go up to the dome and see the view. There are two ramps - one to go up and one to go down. Inside the dome a come of 360 mirrors reflects natural light into the chamber below. There is also a ventilation hole which allows the hot air from the chamber below to escape but the rain can't get in. Very clever - the commentary through the audio guide is very congratulatory of Sir Norman Foster which makes one wonder if he wrote it himself. Most of all we admired the view of the city.
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| Ventilation |
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| Light reflector |
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| Revolving sunshade |
The Brandenburg gate was the grandest of 14 gates in Berlin's old city wall. It is a monumental size but was designed as an arch of peace, crowned by the Goddess of Peace and showing Mars sheathing his sword. Knowing that it used to be walled up, knowing its history, is incredibly important and there are information boards all around it with photographs showing how it used to look at different times. The line of the wall is also incised into the pavement - one looks at it and marvels at how profoundly it ruined the city of Berlin. The Gate represents struggles for freedom, past and present. There is a room built into the gate called the Room of Silence, where you may contemplate the idea of peace on the planet.
Through the wall is the Pariser Platz. After Napoleon this square was full of important government buildings all bombed to smithereens in WWII. For decades, it was an unrecognisable, deserted no-man's land. But now it has been rebuilt with prestigious embassies, fountains and flower gardens. Unfortunately these come with a large branch of Starbucks and the scary face of Colonel Sanders. There is also a reconstruction of the Hotel Adlon, which was famous between the wars, and more recently it was here on the second floor that Michael Jackson dangled his baby from the balcony.
Across the square is a historic street called Unter den Linden. Sadly, the trees are rather small - perhaps a small variety of lime, but in the good old days, this was one of Europe's grand boulevards. It stretches towards Alexanderplatz with its TV tower. Down here we realised we wanted a refresher in German history and went into the Deutsches Historical Museum. This is a large, well-planned and well-stocked narrative of German history. I particularly loved some of the paintings. A family portrait showed the rise of the educated middle class in 19th century Germany - and this in spite of the fact that Germany was late to industrialise and yet! the education system seems to have been good. Then I was also most impressed by a picture of King Wilhelm 1 on his horse, looking down at the potatoes some peasants are digging up. He is very interested in the size of their potatoes. No wonder they loved him. The history of Germany mirrors our own - Germany seems to be our annoying younger brother in Europe up until, and during, WWI. After the first World War their history, of a country broken up between the victors and heavily in debt, becomes very black, and Germans were clearly looking for ways out of the mess and the humiliation. Looking for a new beginning - Someone who will stand up for them. Someone who doesn't believe they lost a war. Step forward, A Hitler. This part was very well-explained.
Further on up the road there is a group of museums long-established, on an island, and a cathedral. It is pleasant to lie on the grass outside the cathedral and have a rest. Eventually we dragged ourselves around the buildings but none of the museums appealed very much - full of antiquities. Another time, perhaps, because I would like to go back to Berlin.
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| Outside the Cathedral |
The next day we went on the S-bahn to the Berlin Wall Museum. We got off at Nordbahnhof, which was one of the "ghost stations" of Cold War Berlin. It was built in 1926, closed in 1961, and open again in 1989. As it was a dogleg of the East mostly surrounded by the West, Western subway trains had permission to go through this station without stopping. The station steps were bricked up with two walls but at street level they were still visible. Guards surveyed the tunnels to make sure no-one got on or off, - but in case they were tempted to abscond they were locked into a little room and watched the tracks through small windows. Down there the original wall tiles and the old German script survive, which is rather wonderful to see. We rose to the street rather stunned that the station stairs had been bricked up for so long. Almost immediately you come across the Wall park - the museum is outside where the wall used to be - a wide strip of grass with metal posts and pictures of the wall. Here the Berlin Wall, which was erected virtually overnight in 1961, ran right along Bernauer Strasse. People were suddenly separated from their neighbours across the street. I bought a postcard of bricklayers making the wall under armed guard. At gunpoint. It is the oddest thing.
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| Section of wall at the wall museum |
There is a section of wall to look at from above, exactly where it used to be. Two walls, with no-man's land in between, and a watchtower. Apparently the watchtower was brought from elsewhere. The gravel in between meant that anyone trying to escape would leave footprints. A church, which had been in use since the late 19th century, ended up between the walls, and was torn down in 1985.
We didn't visit the Checkpoint Charlie Museum (something for next time) as we were a bit fed up with the wall after this, and we were disappointed with Checkpoint Charlie as it is only a reconstruction for tourists, a photo opportunity with flags and signs.
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| This is all very silly |
We did stumble upon the Topography of Terror. This is an exhibit called Berlin 1933-45: Between Propaganda and Terror displayed outside behind a surviving stretch of wall - here are the ruins of the Gestapo headquarters and of the Nazi government. It's a museum of sorts - there are few artefacts; it's mostly written explanations and photos, like reading a good textbook standing up. You read about how the SS, the Gestapo (the secret police), and the SD (the Nazi intelligence agency) became a state within and state, with talons in every corner of German society. Here the Nazi machine planned the "racial purification" and the concentration camp system. The building was also equipped with dungeons, where the Gestapo detained and tortured thousands of prisoners. I thought about the characters in "Alone in Berlin". Poor old man, who ended up here, beaten up and playing chess while waiting for the death sentence to be carried out.
You have to hand it to the Germans, they aren't hiding anything. What happened is out there in the open, not hidden in a museum. There are photographs and documents.
The memorial to the murdered Jews is also outside in a prime position - it is an extraordinary maze of blocks which you walk up and down amongst without really understanding what it means. But this is lazy of me! What can I find out?
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| Rows of plain blocks, path goes up and down. |
Here is more information from Wikipedia:
According to Eisenman's project text, the stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason.[11] The Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe official English website[2] states that the design represents a radical approach to the traditional concept of a memorial, partly because Eisenman said the number and design of the monument had no symbolic significance.[12][13] However, observers have noted the memorial's resemblance to a cemetery.[14][15][16] The abstract installation leaves room for interpretation. The most common being that of a graveyard. “The memorial evokes a graveyard for those who were unburied or thrown into unmarked pits, and several uneasily tilting stelae suggest an old, untended, or even desecrated cemetery[17]”. The memorial's grid can be read as both an extension of the streets that surround the site and an unnerving evocation of the rigid discipline and bureaucratic order that kept the killing machine grinding along[3]”. Wolfgang Thierse, the president of Germany's parliament described the piece as a place where people can grasp "what loneliness, powerlessness and despair mean".[18] Mr. Thierse talked about the memorial as creating a type of mortal fear in the visitor. Visitors have described the monument as isolating, triggered by the massive blocks of concrete, barricading the visitor from street noise and sights of Berlin.[18]
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| Ariel view of the memorial which was built on area previously occupied by the Wall. |
Here is a review of the memorial from a recent visitor:
“Powerful Museum Underground ”
We initially went to just the above ground area only, which I did not find terribly compelling. However, we returned and went to the underground museum. I think the only way horrific events like the Holocaust don't get repeated is by making sure they are never forgotten. The museum begins with the broad strokes of how the concentration camps started and how widespread the crisis was. But the real impact of the exhibits is when they become personal. Pictures, diaries and personal accounts give a deeper meaning to the sheer numbers of people murdered. I can't say it's a pleasant museum, but I am very glad we went. Also, when you exit, the above ground area is more relatable.
Potsdamer Platz used to be partly in East Berlin and now it is a dazzling commercial square with busy roads, and some exciting cinemas and new buildings for Sony and Daimler - it celebrates the triumph of capitalism, if you like. We went there a few times as we were looking for an English film to see - but alas, English films are badly dubbed and unpleasant to watch.
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| Inside the Sony Centre - the dome |
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| Inside the Sony Centre - whopping great mall |
You have to walk a bit from Potsdamer Platz to get to the Kulturforum, where some major NEW art galleries and the Berlin Philharmonic concert hall is sited. This is the strangest part, because it isn't a popular place in spite of having those attractions. The spaces outside the galleries are desolate areas of concrete and the verges are full of weeds. The Gemaldegalerie houses great painting by Durer, Holbein, Brueghel, van Dyck, Vermeer, Giotto, Botticelli and a good number of Rembrandts. The collection is chronologically arranged in a purpose-built gallery, and is it popular? Really, no. So strange. It even has a good café with nice food and a good vibe. I took a photo of the basement because it is so extraordinarily empty.
I had the feeling that the Berliners themselves had somehow rejected this area, and I'd be interested to know why. I felt that it must have been very difficult, if you were about my age and had got used to the city the way it was with the wall in it, to have all the building work and the transformations of spaces into new spaces which reflect a mode of thought which you don't feel comfortable with. I mean, the dominance of the globalised corporations. I sympathised.
One space that hasn't been transformed, but which will be soon, is Alexanderplatz. This is a place that Berliners do enjoy. It is very concrete and East German, the buildings are very sixties and seventies, but the people go there in droves to hear buskers and buy crafts from stalls and see street entertainers and play with games and toys. It's great fun. But I think there are plans to improve it and perhaps this is something the Berliners don't really want. I think they might like more affordable rents and less glamourous rebuilding.
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| Alexanderplatz with communist buildings probably to be demolished - but should they be?? |
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| Famous 1960s clock |
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TV tower built by the communists - next time
we will go up! |
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| Fountain outside the Rathaus - building works going on in front of the Rathaus. |
