We set the alarms for an early start to Berlin. Luckily the weather appeared to have improved considerably – changing from cold, wet & windy to just cold and cloudy. We negotiated the regional, S-bahn and U-bahn train systems again with a Berlin card – excellent value with free public transport! First stop was Koshestrass station popping us right up at Checkpoint Charlie with its famous guardhouse and sign reminding Berliners until 1989 that they were now leaving the American sector. In reality the actual Checkpoint Charlie structure were demolished in 1990 but due to popular demand (mainly from tourists) it was reconstructed and has now become Berlin Disneyland according to the locals.
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| Posing at Checkpoint Charlie |
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| Dave with the famous sign (replica) |
Right next to the actual border crossing is the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie – the museum containing artifacts and stories on the development of the wall, the separation of Berlin and some of the escape attempts from the GDR (German “Democratic” Republic) into West Berlin, the little island of capitalism in a sea of communism of East Germany. Some were successful others not so successful. The escape schemes were really imaginative – hiding inside 2 joined hollowed out suitcases on a train, welding machines with secret hiding places, home made flying foxes and hot air balloons and a gamete of modified cars with hiding places or reinforced armor. People were really quite desperate.
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| The view along the street from the museum |
One story that really struck me was of a mother who after repeated applications to leave the GDR which were refused, decided to take her 2 young daughters through Czechoslovakia and Hungary with the assistance of a West German “escape” organization. Unfortunately they were caught. She was sent to prison fo 3 years and her daughters taken for rehoming with a good communist family. After her realease from prison she campaigned for her daughters return but as far as I know she never saw them again.
The whole museum was a bit disorganized – nothing was in chronological order but it was a really good introduction to post-war
Berlin.
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| Position of the American Checkpoint. A Matching Russian one was to the right a 100m or so away so the soldiers faced each other 24/7. |
We had some lunch at a Backhaus – bakery with delicious sandwiches and a Berliner (rather disappointing jam doughnut) and then made our way to the meeting point for a city walking tour. We had a slight hiccup missing the tours departure but hooked up with 2 other Aussie girls and phoned the tour company and managed to meet the group at the 2nd meeting point for the start of the tour.
We started with tour guide – David, near old the Jewish quarter of
Berlin and from a distance saw the dome of the Neue Synagogue which was narrowly spared during the Night of the Broken Glass by a brave policeman who stopped the Nazi’s single-handedly with a cultural protection order put in place by Otto Von Bismark. The synagogue however was destroyed (as was 85% of central
Berlin) by allied bombing. The dome has been reconstructed as a memorial.
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| the dome of the Neue Synagogue |
David also explained the founding of Berlin most probably by Slavic tribes form the east (much to Hitler’s surprise I am sure). The name Berlin actually comes from the word swamp n Slavic – So welcome to Swamp! Again Berlin like many other cities in northern Germany and Holland, Berlin is situated on highwater tables. So much so that when they buildnew buildings they have special pipes (they’re pink!) that carry out excess water from the foundations.
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| The impressive Berlin Dom |
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| The Altes Museum - Hitlers favourite spot for making his famous speaches |
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| Hanging out on Hitler's steps with our tour group |
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| More of the Berlin Dom |
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| Looking back at the Altes Museum from the Lustgarten - can you see all the soldiers... |
Directly across from the museum used to be the Berlin palace, this was again damaged in WWII however the Soviets this being in East Berlin, not liking symbols of royalty leveled the historic building and built a communist
Palace of the Rupublic of course eing so typically communist AKA ugly, after reunification a convenient excuse was found to once again level the site. Now they are currently rebuilding a replica of the old
Berlin Palace – talk about chopping and changing!
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| Statues along the way from the museum island |
Along this road we saw the Pieta-esque statue of a peasant mother holding her fallen soldier son. Originally a memorial to the victims of communism I Nazi times, transformed to a memorial to victims of fascism under Soviet rule and now a memorial to ALL victims of war and tyranny – just another example of
Berlins complicated history.
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| Berlin memorial to victims of war and tyranny |
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| The only contents of the memorial - a small statue of a mother holding her dead soldier son |
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| the roof above her is open so when it rains she is rained on, snows she is snowed on - this is meant to symbolise her exposure and vulnerability |
From here we took a stroll along Unter den Linden, the old royal road lined by Lime trees, hence the name meaning under the lime trees.
Berlin brags to be the city with the most trees in
Europe – they literally tagged and counted every tree in the city – talk about anally efficient Germans!
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| Unter den Linden |
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| Labelled tree |
Further along the road was the Holbolt university home of many Nobel prize winners and scholars such as Einstein, Marx and the brother Grim, as well as our humble guide David.
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| The Holbolt University |
In the square outside the university’s library is the Bebelplatz and memorial to the Nazi book burnings. This was the site of the first major burning of books authored by Jews, homeosexuals and other Nazi undesirables. The monument was actually a room lined by empty book shelves underground only visible through a window in the ground We probably would have missed it if walking around on our own.
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| The book burning memorial in the Bebelplatz - site of the first Nazi book burnings |
Thankfully we had a 15min coffee break before continuing on the 2nd half of the tour.
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| A Berlin wedding |
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| Along the way... brass markers outside many of Berlins residences marking the site that Jews were taken from and detailing where and how the residents died. |
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| a view of current vs post war Berlin |
Other reminders of East Berlin’s history also linger with Trabi Safari – where you can go on tour in
East Berlins favourite car and the little crossing men – fat bellies wit cute little hats. And of course some of the beautiful communist architecture – modular apartment buildings.
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| Anyone wanna come on a Tabi Safari with me |
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| Hrmmm - is an explanation needed here? |
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| The cute little East Berlin, stop - go guys |
Here we arrived once again at Checkpoint Charlie and learned more about the wall itself. After dividing
Germany into British, American and French (later to merge into
West Germany) and Soviet Zones the same was done in
Germany’s capital
Berlin, even though t was right in the middle of
East Germany. The east Berliners not really enjoying the communist regime on mass began transferring to West Berlin for a near free ticket into
West Germany and democratic freedom. Once the Soviets cracked onto this, they realised that their population was draining at a rate of knots. To combat this they tightened order control by nearly overnight walking off West Berlin from
East Germany – all in order to protect their comrades from the evil capitalist influences.
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| Back to Checkpoint Charlie |
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| Remaining section of the wall |
Over 3 generations of the wall it developed into an inner wall and a higher outer wall with the middle ground known as the deathstrip a no-man’s land where a warning of 3 x “HALT” was shouted before Eastern soldiers were ordered to “shoot to kill”. In fact if they failed to do so it was likely that they themselves would be executed as traitors.
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| more of the wall |
On our way further down Friedrichstrasse we stepped back in time a little further to 1920’s to learn of the street’s infamous reputation as a cocaine capital (we were reassured this is not why Checkpoint Charlie was named). Afterwards we turned on to Wilhelmstrasse – a rather infamous street for other reasons for the German people. Along this street at various times – the headquarters of the Stasi (East German secret police), the SS and Gestapo headquarters (now leveled and only the foundations remain with a museum on the SS called the Topography of Terror. Finally on the corner was the 1 time headquarters of the Luftwafe – where Goering planned all Nazi air operations which turned into the Ministry of Ministries in Soviet times. Interestingly its also where significant portions of the movie Valkyrie were filmed and special permission had to be granted to replace the swastikas everywhere in full public view.
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| The Luftwafe headquarters |
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| Where the 1 time swastika insignias were |
On the far side of the building was a memorial to the uprising of both East and West Berliners against conditions in
East Berlin, especially for the workers. It contrasts with the mural of the communist dream painted on the adjacent wall in the first few days after WWII ended and the Soviets liberated
Berlin
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| Hooray for Communism!!! |
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| The mural for communism in the back ground with the memorial for those killed in the protests over Soviet rule in East Berlin and East Germany |
From here we came to a carpark and sat on a grassy area to be told the history of Hitler’s last few days – his birthday and marrying Eva Brown so that she could die and honest woman. Then we were told that we were actually standing on the site of his suicide bunker and likely the ground where his and Eva Browns bodies were burnt with gasoline by the Nazis so that the Soviets couldn’t get to them. The Soviets did find the bodies (allegedly identified with dental records) but didn’t tell anyone until the 90’s – hence all the Hitler rumours. They tried to destroy the bunker but found its 4m thick concrete walls too hard to blow up, so instead they filled it with concrete and buried it. There is nothing significant marking the site for fears of neo-Nazis using it as a site of worship.
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| The ground under which Hitler and his wife Eva Brown committed suidide in his bunker |
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| Beautiful Soviet architecture |
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| The equally beautiful pink pipes, taking water away from the buildings foundations in the swampy ground of Berlin |
Next it was onto the Memorial for the murdered Jews. A concrete field of what looked like giant upright graves. A controversial monument A. because it is very similar to the one inside the Jewish Museum and B. because it the anti-graffiti coating on the side of the stones was made by the same company who made cyclone B gas used in the gas chambers during the holocaust – a little bit wrong for a Jewish memorial, but all the same the place was quite powerful.
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| A maze of blocks |
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| Through the middle, feeling very isolated - a symbol of the isolatin felt by the Jews |
From here we made the final part of our journey toward the famous Brandenburg Gate. Along the way seeing the Reichstag – parliament building from a distance with its glass dome, accessible to the public symbolizing the transparency of government now after all that has happened.
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| The Reichstag - you can just see the glass dome peeking over the top |
The gate located at the entry of the Pariserplatz has also had a bumpy history. The goddess and her 4 horses being pinched by Napoleon for a while and taken to Paris was returned and put back up in place but facing the other way – rumoured to be staring down at the French Embassy also located in the square.
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| The famous Brandenburg Victory Gate |
We also saw the Hotel Adelon where Michael Jackson dangled baby Blanket off the balcony – a bit of modern infamy for the city.
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| Remember the top where MJ dangled his baby |
Here the tour ended.
We took a scenic bus back through the Tiergarten to the Zoo Station and headed home pooped!
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