It takes 21 hours of travel time to arrive in Berlin (with a 6 hour delay thanks to a little fog in San Francisco) and already I miss my little kiddo and his sweet hugs.
But here I am in Germany and I only have one day to see all I can before a week of work. So, Kate (my colleague) and I do a 4 1/2 hour walking tour of the city and get a quick refresher on our German history.
This is our tour guide – he told us he likes to hear himself talk so our tour is going to be a little bit longer than planned.
Museum for the Arts
Below is the "Berliner Dom," or the Berlin Cathedral. This version (since there have been churches/cathedrals on this site since the 16th century) was finished about 1905, so this building is technically only a little over a century old (which for Europe is nothing). The reason it looks so roughed up and blackened is, of course, because like most everything else it was bombed during WWII. Renovations have been going on since the 1970's.
The TV Tower was built to be the tallest landmark in Germany by the GDR. However when they got midway through building it they realized they did not know how to finish it, so they had to bring in some foreign engineers. Well the big ball at the top is made out of a reflective metal and when the sun is shining on it just right it looks like a cross is glowing on the front. Not exactly what the atheist leaders had in mind for a great communist landmark, hence the tower’s nickname: the Pope’s revenge.
The Rathaus was where West Berlin’s Senate sat before the wall went up and is now the Town Hall.
This memorial is dedicated to “victims of war and tyranny” and is called “Mother with her Dead Son.” The name says it all and it’s simplicity was truly beautiful.
The quote below is a 19th-century German poet Heinrich Heine’s which reads: "That was only a prelude. Where they burn books, in the end they will also burn people.” This marks the spot where the Nazi’s burned hundreds of books and below ground there is a large space of bookshelves which stand empty to symbolize the number of books that were destroyed. Below that is a student run book fair at Humboldt University which is just across the street from the memorial and of course the location is not an accident.
The Berlin Wall 1961-1989.
This is all that is left of the wall. The top of the wall is rounded to make it harder to climb over. But really it consisted of two walls with the death strip in between – the horrible place that was booby trapped and defended by armed guards to keep the East Berliner’s from getting across. At least 200 people were killed trying to cross but hundreds of people did make it alive.
On the Ministry of Aviation, turned GDR headquarters the socialist government had a mural commissioned for the long wall along the entrance- you can just barely see how long this thing is, it's painted on the wall behind those columns. It's supposed to show all the East Berliners facing the future together as a big, happy, socialist family.
In this same location a few years later a massive protest broke out against the government and the socialist showed their true colors when they fired upon their own people who just did not want increased work hours without increased pay. Now, set in the ground in front of the socialist mural is a photo of the crown from that day. It is the same size and length as the mural and shows the true reflection of the original mural.
Below are photos of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It is a huge space filled with large cement pillars of different heights. As you walk through the memorial you feel smaller and smaller as the pillars get higher and you are supposed to get the feeling of disorientation because you cannot see who is coming around the next corner.
Brandenburg Gate – the main symbol in Berlin and is the monumental entry to Unter den Linden. It was used by the Nazis as a party symbol and was once part of the Berlin Wall. The gate was the site for many notable speeches; President Reagan spoke to the West Berliners at the Brandenburg Gate demanding the razing of the wall in 1987. It became the main venue for anniversary celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Our tour comes to an end at the Reichstag building. Here is where the Berlin Wall's end really begins. So November 1989,Schabowski, the spokesperson for the government, is tasked with announcing that East Berliners will be able to get new visas that allow them to cross into West Berlin and return. However, Schabowski was not prepared to deliver the news and didn't have all his facts. So, when he makes this history changing announcement he doesn't get it quite right and says "East Berliners will be allowed to cross the border with the proper permission." And follows up a question about timing with "Well, as far as I know, effective immediately." East Berliners hear this, grab what they can carry, and run to the gates. It only took one guard to finally give in a just open the gates, others followed suit and the wall eventually comes down, figuratively and then literally.
The End.
Yes, that is a long post. But seriously it was a long day with lots of information to absorb and tired feet.
Berlin is a spectacular city, there is something for everyone. The people of Berlin told me it is “cool” and that is why it's the best place to live. There is a lot of revitalizing happening in this city and so much to do.
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