In Berlin: every street breathes history, and every step is a journey through time

Today we get a glimpse into the history of this amazing city, so fine, yet with a dark past which it is not afraid to explore and attempt to resolve. But before the detail time for the usual update on the morning.

Morning

After a long travel day yesterday, my body demanded a lie-in. I didn't wake until  until 5.40am and I got up and went onto Flickr and uploaded yesterday's photos.

People who have been reading my holiday blogs for some time will know I have strong views on showers - preferring the flexibility of European ones over the static, pour down from the top approach which is most common in the USA. Here in Lulu Guldsmeden they have my favourite of all - both. So I was very happy especially as it also had a good water flow, something which not all hotels manage. 

Breakfast

Ablutions done for both of us we go down for breakfast at 7.15am. In line with its corporate brand the breakfast is both sustainable and organic, but even better it is very tasty. It also includes that great Danish stable - Rogbrod or Rye Bread as we call it - seen below on the left.

Our Route today

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I’d done some preparation for this holiday by downloading from sites called things like "A day in xxx" or "24 hours in xxx". Normally I’ve mixed a serious one written by a travel professional with one written in a more folksy blog like format. Then I combine the two into our list for the day, this is the approach I took today, though this time it was "Three days in Berlin" and "72 hours in Berlin" that were my source and very helpful they were. The route was something like the one below:

 

Today we wanted to focus on history, and based where we are on Potsdamer Strasse, it made sense for us to start with Potsdamer Platz. We left the hotel at 8.30am and a bus came almost immediately.  

Potsdamer Platz

I stand here in Potsdamer Platz, as I did first in 2006, when here with Professor Norah Jones at a conference on online education, and note how much has changed in that time, and how much had already changed by then.

Bob Dylan's words come to my mind:

Come gather 'round people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the waters

Around you have grown...

The song, 'Times they are a changing' reflects how this place has change. For me the post-war settlement was fixed from my birth (in 1958) until my 30s - 1990. The impact of the change in that time when. Drew at age 12 and I at 32 having lived with the wall for a generation. Yet know, as before the Cold War this Platz is a modern vibrant location. The only mementos being of bits of the wall telling you what was once here, not so long ago. 

Brandenburg Gate

The logical next step would have taken us to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, but as that doesn’t open until 10am, we decided we would do it later and walked past and up to the next historic site, the Brandenburg Gate.

 

This emblem of 1780s Prussian endeavour is topped by a Quadriga (Four Horses pulling a carriage). A image seen in Greek art and present in Wellington's monument in London and in Venice and other places. This quadriga was taken to Paris by Napoleon Bonaparte after his victory against Prussia but restored after his fall from power. 

The gate is such an emblem of Germany, and Prussia before it – even though it ended on the east side of the wall in the era of the German Democratic Republic (DDR) and was inaccessible from East and West it is an amazing sight and is now very well restored, reflecting the hope and promise of a reunited Germany at the heart of Europe.

 

Those who died crossing the Wall

Opposite the gate is a memorial to people who died as they crossed from East to West Germany at the height of the Cold War, it is heart-rending to think of so many lives lost. 

Reichstag

Just around the corner from the Gate is the Reichstag, the centre of parliamentary power in the Weimar Republic and a symbol of National Socialist power even after Hitler had ignored it as a form of Government. Today it houses the Bundestag and Bundesrat the two houses of the German parliament. A place to remember hope that can emerge from even the darkest moments.

 

Through the Brandenburg Gate

We walked through the Gate and onto Pariser Platz (Prais Square), with the US embassy on one side 

and the French embassy on the other.

From here the street, now called Under der Linden, to recall that in the immediate post war period only fast-growing Linden (Lime) trees could be seen in Berlin as everything had been devastated.

Along Under der Linden we come to a memorial to the Ukraine War, this is directly opposite the Russian Embassy. 

Given the challenging times of war in Ukraine, the Russian Embassy is blocked off from visitors and the U-Bahn station exit on that side of the road is closed. 

 

Berlin Bears

If you have been looking at Flickr, you will have seen a number of bear statues in the photo stream. These are part of the Buddy Bear campaign which Eva and Klaus Herlitz developed them in 2002 in what they suggest is "A Peace and Tolerance Initiative from Berlin to the World". It made for fun bear spotting as we walked from place to place. A small sample of them are below (some are not formally Buddy Bears, but commercial efforts to develop the theme).

Gendarmenmarkt

Up to this point we would have visited the sites we had without any pre-information. They are so well known. But an area I'd never heard of before, but visited today was the Gendarmenmarkt.

In this large square are the, so-called French and German  Churches and the National ConcertHall, even the major renovation work being done doesn’t take away from the impressive nature of this place developed at the height of Prussian power and the arrival of Huguenot refugees from France at the time they were oppressed.

 

German Church

French Church

Ampelmann

You will have noticed me speak of the little red and green men with hats of street crossings. Well here in Berlin they take them seriously. Opposite Gendarmenmarkt is a shop that sells Ampelmann products(towels, t-shirts, hats, coats etc. etc. Drew was very, very tempted.

 

Checkpoint Charlie

A little further on, through a park designed for skateboarding and an interesting water feature (turned off today) 

is another of the points where the wall made a big impact. CheckpointCharlie is known the world over from espionage films and the real-life conflicts that bought people to have tanks facing each other at this point. 

Today it is a commercial centre full of tourists, yet there is an air of tension and concern which reflects a sense that history has seeped into the ground at this place.

 

We both lived through the latter days of this experiment of a city run in capitalist and communist ways – and it seems both of us are somewhat hushed (a miracle in my case, Drew would say,) as we walk through this area. But we were going to be hushed even more.

 

Topography of Terror

One of the reviews (three days in Berlin) I’d read raved about a museum/centre called ‘Topography of Terror’ – It is based at 8 Niederkirchnerstraße and built on top of the site which housed the Gestapo and SS headquarters during the National Socialist regime. 

The centre has free entry and a free downloadable audio guide. The guide is open to the public, and while it makes more impact when listened to alongside the pictures in the centre it is also a heart-rending story in its own right. The sense that what happened was not accidental or circumstantial, but a deliberate and diabolical attempt to de-humanise great numbers of the German population and that of the neighbouring nations in the Reich, is very firmly delivered. In a stark setting of gravel where so many died.

 

If you wish to see the photos and text, some of which remain painful many years on, you can go to Flickr at this point and move on from there.

 

The story is broken up into five headings: To listen to the audio click on each of the headings below:

1 - National Socialist Seizure of Power

2 - Institutions of Terror

3 - Terror, Persecution and Extermination in the Reich Territory

4 - SS and Reich Security Main Office

5 - End fo the War and Post-War Era

 

Taking the time to take in the history and the photos is really powerful and emotive. Men and women’s ability to enjoy fun, nights out and picnics at a time when they spend other parts of their lives undertaking mass killing and hurting others is made so clear here. The contrasts are highlighted and the judgement is left to the listener, not enforced by the speaker. If you are lucky enough to go to Berlin, I’d strongly recommend a visit to this place, but if not find time to listen to the five audio pieces.

 

Jewish Museum

The final place we visited in the day was the Jewish Museum, we had booked tickets, as like many such places, for example the museum in Denmark, you have to book in advance, so checks can be made, as occasional bomb attacks are made by the far right or supporters of the oppressed people in Palestine. We arrived at just before our slot of 1.30pm and spent the next two hours taking in all the museum had to offer.

After the raw and hurtful sensations of the Topology of Terror this place, while acknowledging the Shoah in the complex architecture and the various zones was more focussed on explaining Jewish traditions to the world. It doesn’t balk at mentioning the harm down to the millions of Jewish people in Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia and many other places, its real focus is on Jewish religion, the Torah and the Dietary laws – the forms of Jewry: Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Kabbalistic and quotations about being Jewish.

 

It even includes a section of images of Jewish people, which you can, of course, see on Flickr, they range from Leonard Nimoy, through Leonard Cohen to the Marx Brothers and Jesus!

 

We finish our visit just before four and caught the number 41 bus to Potsdammer Platz and then the 48 back to stop directly outside of our hotel.

 

Bus/Metro Ticket

You’ll have noticed that we have gone past the 24 hours since we bought our Metro ticket. With four separate journeys since last night and through today we spent €8 on the Ticket and had €12 worth of trips – not a huge saving, but a saving all the same.

 

It turns out we had walked 13.9 km (8.6miles) but didn’t feel tired as we had learnt so much and achieved more than we might have expected.

 

It was time for a refresh, a change and to go out for the first posh (Drew prefers poncy) dinner of the holiday, but more about that in the next post.