The agenda for the day is to walk the area around our hotel. Some of it we saw yesterday, but that was from a moving tour bus. I would be radically against the tour bus, as nearly everything of import is near the city center, but then I would have missed the war damaged Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which is an absolute highlight.
We walked out of our hotel and headed West, but I turned back to the East to take this pic of the front of Hotel De Rome with St. Hedwig's next door. Personally, I am wondering if Rocco Forte named his Berlin hotel, "Hotel De Rome," to salute the Romanesque buildings all around.
It took me longer than a year, but I think the amateur linguist in me has decided that the English word for flatulence, "fart," comes from the German word for exit, "ausfahrt." I doubt I need to explain to you why we would use the word exit to describe said bodily function.
This image of Lenin is the only sign I saw anywhere that indicates the era of Soviet control over what was once East Berlin. The more I see of Berlin, the more I get it. They do not ignore that less than 50 year era, but in the course of a city's lifetime 50 years is not really all that long. In fact, Berlin has at minimum an 817 year history. For 44 years, the city was divided. That's around 5% of the city's life. Not insignificant, but in no way dominant.
Just south of the Brandenburg Gate, you find, "The Memorial To The Murdered Jews Of Europe." Berlin has built, next to its most important landmark, the most beautiful and powerful Memorial to the Holocaust to be built. I would need a helicopter to show you the vastness of this tasteful memorial. It is, quite simply, a breathtaking design; row after row of concrete caskets, of varying heights, with the ground beneath them rising and falling.
On the edges of the Memorial, you are taller than the caskets. Toward the Memorial's center, the ground moves lower and the caskets higher, until you are, in a sense, buried among them. Impossible to not feel emotions here.
The view from Ebertstraße. Mystifying. Please note that Ebertstraße is the street which one block away curves around the Brandenburg Gate and passed the Reichstag, meeting place of parliament.
I should also mention that beneath this memorial is a museum dedicated to the Holocaust, and that the design is by architect Peter Eisenman. The only other memorial I have seen which communicated death as clearly as Eisenman's design would be Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. And it is probably a good sign that our war memorials are now about the loss of life, and not the triumph of the winner.
Okay...
There it is, the Brandenburg Gate. Not in the rain. See those tents? The UN put together some sort of community outreach thing today, the day yours truly wanted to take pictures.
With the gate behind you, you can look straight down Straße des 17 Juni, and see the Siegessäule (Victory Column) in the distance. By the way, I think everyone is likely as ignorant as I was about June 17. This boulevard was named Charlottenburger Chaussee before World War II because it ran from the city to Schloß Charlottenburg. But note that just 15 to twenty feet in front me stood The Wall. After 1945 Schloß Charlottenburg belonged to West Berlin, while the place I am standing belonged to East Berlin.
On June 17, 1953, there was a mass uprising in East Germany. What began as a construction workers' strike the day before became a nationwide demonstration, involving citizens in more than 500 cities. The Soviets and East German government sent their armies in to put down the demonstrations, resulting in hundreds of deaths. After, even more were executed for their involvement. In 1953, West Berlin re-named this central street, which is a continuation of Unter den Linden on the West side of the Brandenburg gate, "Straße des 17. Juni," to commemorate the uprising. And I imagine the Soviets and East German government were furious.
From the East side, looking West. From 1945 to 1989, I could not have stood on this spot. Berlin restored the gate from 2000 to 2002. Who knows how poorly the Soviets let it deteriorate.
Across from the Brandenburg Gate, you see a Starbucks and Museum The Kennedys. (Got to love that grammar.) All day Europeans walk up to the Museum The Kennedys to take their picture in front of it. Why?
Our current President is pictured in the window. You have no idea how many Europeans rush to take pictures with President Obama. We had to wait a bit to take this picture, but it was worth it. I was hoping the Europeans would follow my lead and pose this way as well, but they were too reverential or something. (To my Right Wing friends, don't hate and enjoy that the world once again agrees with Sean Hannity that the USA is the greatest country on Earth.)
Not a great pic, but I include it for the red tent to the far right. See it? Good. Note it. It is important. But we didn't know until returning later.
Unter den Linden, stretching from Brandenburg Gate to the Schloßbrücke, which borders the Lustgaten. Look at this street and imagine how much it has changed since Germany reunited. This was East German, and likely desolate and ugly. By the way, Schloßbrücke means "Palace/Castle Bridge." I didn't know it, but across the Lustgarten is where the Berlin Palace once stood. It was destroyed during the war and not rebuilt. Now, there is talk of rebuilding it. I hope that they do, so that during my lifetime I can return and see Berlin as it existed before the tragedies of the 20th Century.
Walking toward Checkpoint Charlie, we came across this. It can be interpreted a dozen ways. I include it as an ego boost for the USA. Sure, I have fallen for Berlin and think it is wonderful, but even in Berlin graffiti/art acknowledges the importance of the USA.
There is Checkpoint Charlie, from the East. If you did not know, it is called Charlie as the military name for Checkpoint C. No idea where A and B were; perhaps they were British and French.
Not many East Germans got to see this sign up close. And if they did, they were likely dodging bullets. There was once an uprising in West Germany because a defector was shot by the East German guards and bled to death close enough to the American guards that they might have been able to save him. But saving him might have meant, no joke, Nuclear War. Such a tragic point of history.
That small gatehouse is Checkpoint Charlie. Visiting this area is wonderful, because for the whole city block East of the Checkpoint are walls covered with the history of the city's division and reunification. When you read how absolutely courageous the West was in defending West Berlin, surrounded by proxies for the Soviet Empire, it is simply overwhelming.
You saw this before. Right behind it is the wall of historical facts I just discussed.
On said wall, here is a picture of Checkpoint Charlie during the Berlin Crisis of 1961. The crisis is complicated, but good reading if you have the time. Essentially, the Soviets knew that East Germany would crumble if people kept escaping to West Berlin. They went as far as to threaten to tear up the agreement to allow Western control of West Berlin. It culminated with this October 27, 1961 standoff with USA and East German tanks a few hundred feet from each other. No shot was fired. Had one shot been fired, it is very, very likely that millions upon millions would have died in a nuclear war. Seriously.
To the pessimists out there, who like to say that the human race is flawed or doomed, you should really acknowledge that a larger percentage of humans beings are safer from war today than at any other time in history. And the trend continues.
Soviet style architecture, I think. No proof. Just a hunch.
The back of the German Cathedral, at the Gendarmenmarkt.
A closer look at the German Cathedral. This cathedral has a twin called the French Cathedral.
That is the Französischer Dom, or French Cathedral. Between the two cathedrals, sits the Konzerthaus. The Französischer Dom was built in 1785 to be a twin to the German Cathedral. Its name comes from the fact that this was where the Calvinist Huegenots worshipped, who fled Catholic France to Germany seeking religious freedom in the 1600's.
The Konzerthaus. Home to the German orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin. This building was completed in 1930, damaged in war and rebuilt.
I gave up trying to get a picture that showed the twin cathedrals and Konzerthaus. I knew that Wikipedia would have one, and it did. I wish the lens bent this less, as the twin cathedrals are truly beautiful to see undistorted. Maybe I should have tried to take a series of pics and piece them together. Too late.
Inside the German Cathedral, there are many stairs. Open to the public for free, I imagine that walking to the top every day would make one quite fit.
Back at the hotel, a self-portrait. Our feet were very happy that the Gendarmenmarkt sits directly behind our hotel.
Did I say hotel? Okay, remember the bitchin' pic from Frankfurt of the "hold the key in front of the sensor to unlock" door? Well, I finally realized the true superiority of this fanciness. Place the hotel key card in your wallet like so. When you come to your door, instead of funbling to take out the key...
Hold your wallet to the sensor like so. The door clicks open and you push, without ever taking out the key. I refuse to accept any opinion of this that is less than, "Totally awesome."
After Barbie's massage and my internet time, we decided to go for a walk in the early evening for some "magic hour pics."
Babelplatz, the plaza in front of our hotel.
St. Hedwig's, which has no lights of its own. Would be prettier if it were lighted against that just before sundown sky.
Unter den Linden at magic hour.
Am I overdoing it? I think I am. But I like these pics, so they stay.
Neue Wache, the Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Victims of War and Tyranny. That takes on greater meaning when you think that in recent history a German tyrant victimized millions and then soon after Soviet tyrants victimized many of the Germans under their control. You should recall from yesterday features the statue inside of a mother holding her fallen son.
The Belriner Dom, the Fernsehturm (TV Tower), and the Rotes Rathaus (City Hall).
The Berliner Dom at the perfect time of evening.
The Altes Museum features a modern art exhibition above its entrance at night. I have read that it scrolls, "All art is contemporary." However, it seemed to be reading out more than that to me.
Sorry to be redundant, but these pics all have merit in my book.
The sky makes this one a keeper.
t started to rain and we ducked into a Vietnamese restaurant that smelled delicious. Is it odd to have a Vietnamese person walk up to you and speak German? Yes.
In honor of my niece Amanda, I ordered the Apfel Schorle. (Think sparkling apple cider.)
Chicken satay with peanut sauce.
Rice noodles with beef and vegetables.
Crispy duck with vegetables and soy sauce. We were, without a doubt, delighted with our dinner choice.
We hopped into a cab, as it was a bit chilly and raining and Barbie had promised me that we would go to the Brandenburg Gate at night and she did not want to walk 20+ minutes. And I am glad that we did. Why? Look. There's two very cool things about this cab. See them?
Does this help? First, when do you have a femal cab driver? Never. And then to have a nice looking older German woman? Would you not expect a female cab driver to be large and scary looking? Second, in the green circle is the fare. It is an LED display incorporated into the rear view mirror. How cool is that? No leaning forward to see the fare.
It was worth it to come here at night.
Totally worth it.
These colums are simply gigantic. I have never seen stoe columns so large, and I tried to use my hand to give you perspective.
The Gate from behind, standing near the Reichstag.
The Reichstag. Darn trees are blocking out the dome. I would love to get a picture of it at night froma hotel roof or something.
See the two rows of brick? You guessed it. That line of bricks marks where The Wall once stood. A lovely tribute, actually. You can see the beauty of the area while also walking the path of The Wall and imagining how terrible it must have been to cut this city in two.
Remember the red tent? This is hunger strike against the Islamic Republic of Iran. It began the day before, during the UN event.
Their point of view is clear in any language.
A memorial to Neda, whom we all saw die on the news.
A tragic figure who just might become a timeless symbol. Personally, I have misgivings about demonstrations in the West directed toward Iran. I fear it can play into the regime's hand that the unrest is created by the West. Regardless... to be in Berlin when and watch a crackdown on demonstrators in Iran must be chilling. Was yesterday's UN event about Iran? It was held on Straße des 17. Juni, the street named after those who demosntrated against East German tyrany and were murdered. How did I miss that?
Perhaps I am wasting your time, but I share pictures like this of Unter den Linden to show that a street which was once trapped behind the wall today compares to the finest of Europe.
Lights. Accidental.
What's the point in flogging a dead horse? Because it's fun. Where you once had a Soviet controlled East German boulevard, today you have a Bentley dealership.
I forget wich King this is, or Kaiser I should say, but I like his statue's shadow on that building too much to leave it out.
Barbie keeping warm on the Babelplatz.
Yours truly doing the same.
Thus ended our last night in Berlin. But we shall return, that is certain.
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