Berlin - Poor but Sexy 2

The beginning of the East Side gallery

Berlin Day 2 and we had heaps to do! We started with a trip to the East Side Gallery – one of the best preserved remaining sections of the Berlin Wall covered with murals including one of the most famous portraits of Soviet Leader Brezhnev kissing GDR leader Erich Honecker – basically 2 old men making out (which really happed I saw a photo) as well as 1 of the cute little Trabis bursting through the wall (like that would EVER be possible).

Their kiss

Our kiss

Trabi busts out of the GDR

The 1.3km long section was painted after he all of the wall but in 2009 they had to get artists back to restore the work – it is an outdoor gallery afterall and exposed to weather. After this we made our way back to central Berlin for what we thought was going to be a 2hour tour through the Topography of Terror – an exhibition on the site of the ruins of the Gestapo, SS and Reich security headquarters of Nazi Germany. What we discovered was an amazing collections of photographs and information detailing the rise of Hitler and National Socialism, the developments of the various enforcement agencies and then the stories of horror that they brought upon the people under their control.

The site of the former SS and Gestapo

The external Exibition

The permanent exhibition alone could have taken us all day to go through and absorb let alone the exhibitions on the trials of Nazi war criminals and temporary exhibition along a trench on the history of Berlin under Nazi and SS rule. We were disappointed to find that following in Hotler and Gobbel’s footsteps the other big 2 – Himler and Goering although caught by the Allies managed to commit suicide by cyanide pills (most likely those Hitler gave to his guests at his final birthday party shortly before killing himself) escaping trial.

Nazi rally in the Lustgarten

Dave chekcing out the exhibition

By this time we once again faced a late lunch 3:30pm. This left us a short time in the afternoon to work our way through the Jewish Museum – an amazing building designed by architect Daniel Libeskind with the bottom floor a maze of uneven floors and empty voids as well as niches filled with artifacts from Jewish life, mainly from those taken during the holocaust – blankets, photos, candelabras even a sewing machine. All culminating in a stark lonely tower, unlit except for a tiny slit at the topsymbolising the uncertainty of life for the Jews over the past 2000 years.

The voids and lonely corridors of the museum

The light in the dark tower

For some reason the Jews seemed to be the scapegoat throughout history struggling to keep afloat before some big hand starts drowing them again – the crusades and holocaust having extreme effects on the Jewish population of Germany. Before the holocaust Germany had around 500,000 Jews (the Nazis had the exact figures) ½ of these managed to escape before the holocaust. The remaining 250,000 perished. Now Germany has just over 100,000 Jews – seems they have been slow to return and I can understand why. A lot of survivors actually relocated to the USA.

Dave in amongst the altenative Jewish memorial

hundreds of thousands of steel faces representing each and every Jewish person killed in the holocaust

After this we went for a pick – me – up Berliner (beer this time not a doughnut) before heading home.

Post depression Berliners!