Friday, October 22, 2004
amazing berlin
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 01:07:02 -0700 (PDT)
We have been in Berlin for two days and only have one more. This is the most
amazing city. I don't think I would want to live here because it isnt the
most cheery city. But it is so filled with history it is just absolutely
amazing. From Fredrich the great to hitler and the nazis, to the cold war,
and finally the new growth of the city. That is why I thought I should write
now, then again when we leave becuase I have so much to say.
On the first day we took an all day walking tour. The tour left the hostel
at 10am and we didnt finish until 7pm!! But it was amazing! Our guide was an
american who is working towards his masters in German history here at
Humboldt U. He has been living here for several years and knows everything.
I highly recommend this tour - brewers' best (becuase the founders last name
was brewer, not becuase you see breweries). and it was only 10euro. He took
us to everything, from the reichstag - where he told us the history of the
building, about the fire that helped bring the nazis to power, to the battle
between the soviets and the nazis that kille 5000 people in that one
building to the brandenburg gate, and the war memorial to the soviets that
died liberating the city, there we heard about how that memorial was the
only place that soviet soldiers went in West Berlin during the cold war, and
how the West Berlin police had to protect them. Of course we saw parts of
the old wall, and heard
about all the fortifications that were put up, and we went past checkpoint
charlie. But it was the smaller, less well known sites that were really
interesting. When he took us past the new synagogue (not exactly new, it was
built in 1890-something then destroyed by allied bombs during the war when
they were trying to hit the building down the street) there he told us about
the police officer that pretty much single handedly saved the building from
mobs rioting against Jews not long after the nazis took power. He made a
speech to them about how it was part of the city and so it was their history
too, then he put out a fire that one of them started. We also went past the
remains of the gestapo headquarters, and the old airforce building, that
despite being the largest office building like anywhere at teh time, was
completely missed by allied bombs during the war, now it is the ministry of
finance. And we sat on the ground above hitler's air raid shelter and heard
about the last days
of his life and the few days after. Incidentally, the air raid shelter is
still there, but the city wants everyone to forget about it, so it is not
marked or anything, but all the tours and history books know where it is. We
also heard about a lot of buildings that were there before the war, like
hitler's new chancellor's building that he built for himself and spanned
three city blocks, and was completely covered in marble inside, with 20 foot
ceilings. (after the war it had sustained heavy bomb damage, and being in
eastern berlin, didnt get any attention in the way of repairs - not that
anyone wanted to repair it - so people looking for building supplies carted
away most of it. you can see pieces of the marble all over town, including
in the subway station below where it was located. Oh and some of the really
small pieces of information were really interesting, like the fact that
there are somthing like 42000 trees lining the streets of berlin, and they
know that becuase each one
has been systematically counted and catologed and numbered - in fact the
guide pointed out one tree that had two numbers on it, one from before the
fall of the wall, and the other in a new numbering scheme developed after
the fall. Mostly, I thought the tour guide gave us a good idea of what it
would have been like to be a berliner during those turbulent times. We can
see the accounts of atrocities and the big events all over town, but the
nitty gritty of everyday life for the average berliner is harder to find.
The next day we went to the checkpoint charlie musuem early to try to avoid
the crowds. It was a really interesting musuem focused mainly on history of
the wall itself and the escape attempts, and successes. We were alone when
we got there and I was totally engrossed in what I was reading that I didnt
notice the 50 people come into the little room I was in, when I turned
around I almost had a panic attack, the tour buses had started to arrive and
there was no where to move! Nevertheless the musuem was still interesting.
After that we went to the topography of terror exhibit in the former
basement of the ss headwqarters. the building is completely gone and all
that remains are the foundations, but there is a free outdoor exhibit that
details the rise of the ss to power and tells the stories of numerous people
imprisoned and murdered there over the years. Mostly the exhibit focused on
the people that were target becuase of their opposition to hitler, those
were the people that were
mainly imprisoned and 'interrogated' in that building. However the
building also served as a place to plan the systematic extermination of the
Jews. The calculating manner with which this was done is just unbelievable.
Not to mention the fact that it was allowed to happen by the population that
for the most part didnt agree with hitler on that idea, but were too afraid
to do anything. There was a letter included in the exhibit that was sent to
all of the german police on one night informing them that there were going
to be riots against jews and their places of business and synagogues, and
that the police were not to interfere. This struck me as interesting becuase
it implies that the police force would have interfered, they would have done
something but becuase the ss sent out this letter, and the police were - for
the most part too afraid to do anything - they follwed the orders adn looked
the other way. (except for that one who saved the new synagogue.)
After the topography of terror we had lunch, then went to teh egyptian
musuem to see the bust of nefrititi. Thursday was free musuem day so we
tried to hit the free state musuems that day. After the egyptian musuem we
ran a few errands then went to KaDeWe (short hand for the german for -
department store of the west) for dinner. Seth thought I was insane that I
had this department store on my sightseeing itinerary, but even he was
impressed. The place is huge! 7 floors and everything you can imagine! On
floor 6 is the gourmet grocery store/food market where we had dinner. It was
like a whole foods on steroids. Counter after counter of food, both takeaway
and eat in. they each had little counter where you could have dinner,
complete with wine and thier own brand of beer. There were two counters with
like 100 kinds of cheese each, and a whole bakery including pasteries and
breads and cakes. There was an entire fish market including every kind of
thing that swims, and some that were
STILL swimming! And a raw meat market area the size of which I could only
compare to sams club, except that the large size of the display case didnt
hold large portions but rather a large selection. Then there was chocolate -
swiss, belgian, german oh my! 100 different teas in loose leaf jars, a pate
bar, a raw oyster bar, a cooked seafood bar, a champagne bar, a beer bar, a
wine bar and a huge selection of bottles of each. And this was all on one
floor!! The place we chose to eat was the antipasta bar - they sold sundried
tomatoes, olives, feta cheese etc to take away and made pasta to eat there,
with the ingredients that they sold.
After dinner we headed over to teh pergammon musuem. Which was again
amazing, and free. One room was more amazing than the last! The first room
held the amazing pergammon altar which filled this huge room and included a
partial recreation of the facade of the building, along with the original
designs from the sides of the immense building. I think we spent at least a
half hour in that one room. then there was room after room of greek and
roman art and architecture. On the other side of the altar were the exhbits
from ancient middle east area. first there was the entire facade from this
huge marketplace building. Next came the gate of ishtar. From the ancient
city of babylon, it was just unbelievable in scale and beauty. There were
tons of sculptures and pieces of temple from this era in the middle east. I
cant remember which cities or civilizations they all came from becuase it
was pretty late by then - like 9 pm and we were exhausted!
Ok was that long enough for you, sorry but there is just so much to tell
about this city. today we are heading to the new synagogue and the jewish
museum.
Meg and Seth
We have been in Berlin for two days and only have one more. This is the most
amazing city. I don't think I would want to live here because it isnt the
most cheery city. But it is so filled with history it is just absolutely
amazing. From Fredrich the great to hitler and the nazis, to the cold war,
and finally the new growth of the city. That is why I thought I should write
now, then again when we leave becuase I have so much to say.
On the first day we took an all day walking tour. The tour left the hostel
at 10am and we didnt finish until 7pm!! But it was amazing! Our guide was an
american who is working towards his masters in German history here at
Humboldt U. He has been living here for several years and knows everything.
I highly recommend this tour - brewers' best (becuase the founders last name
was brewer, not becuase you see breweries). and it was only 10euro. He took
us to everything, from the reichstag - where he told us the history of the
building, about the fire that helped bring the nazis to power, to the battle
between the soviets and the nazis that kille 5000 people in that one
building to the brandenburg gate, and the war memorial to the soviets that
died liberating the city, there we heard about how that memorial was the
only place that soviet soldiers went in West Berlin during the cold war, and
how the West Berlin police had to protect them. Of course we saw parts of
the old wall, and heard
about all the fortifications that were put up, and we went past checkpoint
charlie. But it was the smaller, less well known sites that were really
interesting. When he took us past the new synagogue (not exactly new, it was
built in 1890-something then destroyed by allied bombs during the war when
they were trying to hit the building down the street) there he told us about
the police officer that pretty much single handedly saved the building from
mobs rioting against Jews not long after the nazis took power. He made a
speech to them about how it was part of the city and so it was their history
too, then he put out a fire that one of them started. We also went past the
remains of the gestapo headquarters, and the old airforce building, that
despite being the largest office building like anywhere at teh time, was
completely missed by allied bombs during the war, now it is the ministry of
finance. And we sat on the ground above hitler's air raid shelter and heard
about the last days
of his life and the few days after. Incidentally, the air raid shelter is
still there, but the city wants everyone to forget about it, so it is not
marked or anything, but all the tours and history books know where it is. We
also heard about a lot of buildings that were there before the war, like
hitler's new chancellor's building that he built for himself and spanned
three city blocks, and was completely covered in marble inside, with 20 foot
ceilings. (after the war it had sustained heavy bomb damage, and being in
eastern berlin, didnt get any attention in the way of repairs - not that
anyone wanted to repair it - so people looking for building supplies carted
away most of it. you can see pieces of the marble all over town, including
in the subway station below where it was located. Oh and some of the really
small pieces of information were really interesting, like the fact that
there are somthing like 42000 trees lining the streets of berlin, and they
know that becuase each one
has been systematically counted and catologed and numbered - in fact the
guide pointed out one tree that had two numbers on it, one from before the
fall of the wall, and the other in a new numbering scheme developed after
the fall. Mostly, I thought the tour guide gave us a good idea of what it
would have been like to be a berliner during those turbulent times. We can
see the accounts of atrocities and the big events all over town, but the
nitty gritty of everyday life for the average berliner is harder to find.
The next day we went to the checkpoint charlie musuem early to try to avoid
the crowds. It was a really interesting musuem focused mainly on history of
the wall itself and the escape attempts, and successes. We were alone when
we got there and I was totally engrossed in what I was reading that I didnt
notice the 50 people come into the little room I was in, when I turned
around I almost had a panic attack, the tour buses had started to arrive and
there was no where to move! Nevertheless the musuem was still interesting.
After that we went to the topography of terror exhibit in the former
basement of the ss headwqarters. the building is completely gone and all
that remains are the foundations, but there is a free outdoor exhibit that
details the rise of the ss to power and tells the stories of numerous people
imprisoned and murdered there over the years. Mostly the exhibit focused on
the people that were target becuase of their opposition to hitler, those
were the people that were
mainly imprisoned and 'interrogated' in that building. However the
building also served as a place to plan the systematic extermination of the
Jews. The calculating manner with which this was done is just unbelievable.
Not to mention the fact that it was allowed to happen by the population that
for the most part didnt agree with hitler on that idea, but were too afraid
to do anything. There was a letter included in the exhibit that was sent to
all of the german police on one night informing them that there were going
to be riots against jews and their places of business and synagogues, and
that the police were not to interfere. This struck me as interesting becuase
it implies that the police force would have interfered, they would have done
something but becuase the ss sent out this letter, and the police were - for
the most part too afraid to do anything - they follwed the orders adn looked
the other way. (except for that one who saved the new synagogue.)
After the topography of terror we had lunch, then went to teh egyptian
musuem to see the bust of nefrititi. Thursday was free musuem day so we
tried to hit the free state musuems that day. After the egyptian musuem we
ran a few errands then went to KaDeWe (short hand for the german for -
department store of the west) for dinner. Seth thought I was insane that I
had this department store on my sightseeing itinerary, but even he was
impressed. The place is huge! 7 floors and everything you can imagine! On
floor 6 is the gourmet grocery store/food market where we had dinner. It was
like a whole foods on steroids. Counter after counter of food, both takeaway
and eat in. they each had little counter where you could have dinner,
complete with wine and thier own brand of beer. There were two counters with
like 100 kinds of cheese each, and a whole bakery including pasteries and
breads and cakes. There was an entire fish market including every kind of
thing that swims, and some that were
STILL swimming! And a raw meat market area the size of which I could only
compare to sams club, except that the large size of the display case didnt
hold large portions but rather a large selection. Then there was chocolate -
swiss, belgian, german oh my! 100 different teas in loose leaf jars, a pate
bar, a raw oyster bar, a cooked seafood bar, a champagne bar, a beer bar, a
wine bar and a huge selection of bottles of each. And this was all on one
floor!! The place we chose to eat was the antipasta bar - they sold sundried
tomatoes, olives, feta cheese etc to take away and made pasta to eat there,
with the ingredients that they sold.
After dinner we headed over to teh pergammon musuem. Which was again
amazing, and free. One room was more amazing than the last! The first room
held the amazing pergammon altar which filled this huge room and included a
partial recreation of the facade of the building, along with the original
designs from the sides of the immense building. I think we spent at least a
half hour in that one room. then there was room after room of greek and
roman art and architecture. On the other side of the altar were the exhbits
from ancient middle east area. first there was the entire facade from this
huge marketplace building. Next came the gate of ishtar. From the ancient
city of babylon, it was just unbelievable in scale and beauty. There were
tons of sculptures and pieces of temple from this era in the middle east. I
cant remember which cities or civilizations they all came from becuase it
was pretty late by then - like 9 pm and we were exhausted!
Ok was that long enough for you, sorry but there is just so much to tell
about this city. today we are heading to the new synagogue and the jewish
museum.
Meg and Seth
