my first day in Berlin was a day that began with much movement and ended with very little movement. in Berlin now, there is much competition between companies offering free guided tours of Berlin, with the assumption that one tips the guide at the end. so i decided to partake in this experience. it was also this day when i renamed this whole tour to “Capitals, Cathedrals and Atrocities” because that is more or less what i had been seeing and learning about since i left Prague.
the walking tour was led by a history student from Dusseldorf who is living in Berlin and studying, well, history at Humboldt University, one of the oldest universities in the world. she is also the only professional historian guiding tours for her company, or so she claimed. so, she was to guide our tour around former East Berlin.
oh, a side note here, part of the service her company provides is to meet in “West” Berlin and be guided to the meeting point for the tour. the meeting point in West Berlin is outside a Dunkin Donuts at Zoologischer Garten, which is a big train station amongst other things. some of you may be familiar with a little rock group named U2. awhile back this band released an album entitled Achtung Baby, which is German for “Listen (Baby)”. the album was released a few years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and starts off with a song entitled “Zoo Station”. i never understood that title until now, since Zoo Station is the train station in Germany.
anyway, so the main meeting point for the tour is next to the Brandenburg Gate. the Brandenburg Gate, of course, is the most famous landmark in Berlin – again, photos are coming. it features a statue of a horse-drawn chariot on top which was, at one point, pilfered and taken to Paris by one Napoleon Bonaparte. upon its return to Berlin, the rider in the chariot was given a large staff with many symbols of Germany (a two-headed Eagle, for example) in order to make people certain that it is indeed German.
the Gate also lasted through many Wars and was one of few constructions actually left standing in the area at the end of WWII. so, for the Germans, it represents their endurance and survival. weirdly, the German government has now given permission to the U.S. to build a new embassy almost directly next to the gate. I say “weirdly” because of the security restrictions the U.S. puts on their embassies now which includes an enormous safety perimeter and it simply doesn’t seem like the area for the building next to the Gate is big enough for much more than a security perimeter and a one room shack.
on the opposite side of this construction site, heading south from the Gate, we saw the newly opened Holocaust memorial and museum. we didn’t have time to see the museum, but the memorial is fantastic. it’s hard to describe, but roughly, it is a concrete graveyard with tombs of multiple heights and angles, arranged symmetrically. it’s truly fantastic, but it’s “coolness” of design also leads many people to play among the blocks (which i think hinders its significance).
from there, we walked to the former site of Hitler’s bunker which is now nothing but a dusty parking lot. the Germans do not want Neo-Nazis congregating there, so it is left completely unmarked and unfamiliar. additionally, the pit where the Soviets found his body (yes, it’s been proven since the fall of the USSR that they found his body – what they did with it, on the other hand…) is immediately across the street from the parking lot except, of course, it is no longer a pit. it is now a soccer field and playground. so, in effect, children are playing on Hitler’s grave.
from there, we moved onto an old building that is soon to be refurbished (the scaffolding is up) that is one of few buildings left in Berlin to still show signs of WWII. there are bullet marks and chunks missing all along its façade.
around the corner from this building is what is now the Finance Ministry. it is one of the few remaining buildings that was actually built by the Nazis. the architectural style is very linear and right-angled. during the soviet times, it was the Ministry of Ministries and was, in particular, the focus of a massive protest in the early years of the DDR (German Democratic Republic aka East Germany). it was, for the Nazis, the Air Force Ministry and was left untouched by the Allied bombers in WWII. it also has a fairly substantial piece of Soviet propaganda still adorning one of its exterior walls, just behind the memorial to the protest.
behind this building is one of the largest stretches of the Berlin Wall that remains intact. the wall is now protected by a fence to prevent people from pillaging a chunk of the wall. contained in its immediate vicinity as well is a museum piece entitled “The Topography of Terror”, which tells of the horrors inflicted by terrorism throughout the history of the world and by the Nazis in particular.
a short walk away, following the old line of the wall, we reached Checkpoint C – one of the most famous gates between East and West Berlin and better known as Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie was dismantled at the end of the DDR, but rebuilt as a remembrance memorial sometime thereafter. on the street with the rebuilt Charlie is the Checkpoint Charlie museum, which i visited on my own the next day – but i’m getting ahead of myself.
after Checkpoint Charlie we walked into the older area of Berlin, starting with the Konserthaus and the two identical cathedrals that flank it on either side. in an earlier period of German enlightenment, when the royalty wanted to expand the population of the city, they encouraged people of many faiths to move to Berlin, Jews in particular. part of this encouragement came in the form of these cathedrals. so as not to discriminate between Christian religions, the two cathedrals were erected – one is Lutheran, the other is Catholic.
the next stop on our tour was Bebelplatz, which is surrounded by old buildings. on one side is the old Staatsoper (State Opera) which was also built by the same enlightened Germans. up until this one was built, the Opera was a thing for nobility and not the common individual. with the creation of this Opera House, the experience was opened up for the everyman at a cheap price.
opposite the Opera house is the building that served as Humboldt University’s library (and once again does, i believe) in the years before WWII. it is in Bebelplatz that the Nazis held their book burning. it is also here that one can find a very nifty memorial to the book-burning. the memorial basically consists of a room painted entirely white with nothing but empty book shelves. but the kicker is that it is under the plaza and one can only see it by looking through a small glass window in the ground at the center of the plaza. of course, when one looks in, there is a reflection of the looker which causes one to think about themselves as well. it’s a very effective, well-made memorial. across the street from the plaza is Humboldt University itself.
a little further east from Humboldt, there is what the Germans refer to as “The Wreath-Dumping Place”. in reality, it is a memorial to those who have died in any and all wars. originally constructed by the Soviets as a Soviet War Memorial, it features a single statue in the middle of an open building. the statue is a woman grieving over her dead child. it was changed to being a general war memorial after the fall of the wall. it is also here that foreign dignitaries come on visits to Germany to place wreathes in remembrance. the Germans feel that this ceremony is overused and overexploited and for this reason have given it the facetious name of “the Wreath-Dumping Place”.
from here, we walked across a bridge to Museum Insel (Museum Island), which contains many old (and some not so old) buildings. the island was the location of the original settlement of Berlin. the island contains five museums designed to house specific collections, mostly collections of items pilfered from other nations throughout the ages – i.e. Egyptian, Persian, etc.
centered around the Lustgarten (more accurately translated as “Pleasure Garden”, ahem), the central square of the island originally was surrounded by a museum, a large Protestant cathedral and a Palace. the first two still remain whereas the last was destroyed, not by the minute damage inflicted by WWII, but rather by the Soviets who resented such symbols of excess of an egalitarian class. there are now plans, however, to rebuild the palace. it seems like a bad idea to me, considering the other completely rebuilt palace (in Warsaw) that was quite disappointing to me.
next to the parking lot that used to house the palace is a Soviet-era building that is absolutely atrocious looking - it is quite possibly the ugliest building i have ever had the unfortunate chance to see. many people want it torn down and some people want it left as during the DDR, the building was one of the few that actually provided sanctity and pleasure to the population – it had a bowling alley, a cinema, etc. the problem is, though, that they cannot tear it down. due to the precarious nature of the island it was built on, if they tear down that building, the cathedral will also collapse.
the foremost of the museums houses what is reported to be a fairly spectacular collection of Egyptian artifacts.
it was on the steps of the museum that our guide told us the spectacular story of the fall of the DDR:
for many years, people had been struggling to escape the oppression of the DDR and it began to culminate in 1989 when the protests had grown to a size that made them impossible to disperse by the typical tactics of the DDR government. to appease the people, the DDR government announced that they would be making some drastic reforms. the DDR decided in reality that they would write one of the most confusing and perplexing documents on the nature of the reforms so as to appease the population without giving them any idea what the reforms would actually be. but, by now, the population was used to this trick and it didn’t work. the protests continued to grow.
so, on a day of national unity, the government decided to call an international press conference for only the second time in the DDR’s history.
the minister who was to speak to the press had quite a bit to drink the night before due to the stress of the upcoming press conference – after all, he was used to the highly staged, highly organized press conferences of the isolated DDR. in this case, he was inevitably going to be asked questions by nosy international journalists.
so, the day arrived and he showed up moments before the press conference was to begin. before he went on, however, an aide came up and handed him a memo.
“Really, Sir. You must read this. The other ministers met this morning and decided some things. You really should read this before going into your press conference.”
he stared at the memo for a moment.
“Ah, zis is too complicated. I must think about zis aftervards.”
so he folded up the memo and stuck it in his pocket. he received his well-prepared speech and headed for the podium. he took the podium and started his speech. the thing is, the man was not a great orator by any means and he was dry and dull. the international press got tired and most had left by the end of the three hour speech. those few that were remaining were either asleep or stunned at the end, so when he finally finished the room was silent.
taking note, the speaker must’ve thought to himself. “Ja. I am on a roll. I must keep speaking.” so, not having any more prewritten speeches left, he pulled the memo out of his pocket and read it directly.
“Residents of the DDR will now be allowed to get Vest German visas without restrictions.” What? That can’t be right! the press started to wake up and pay a lot of attention. the speaker began to get quite nervous. having not been given enough time to consider the memo, he had bypassed the usual bait and reverse tactic of the DDR, which was to carefully word every thing so that any liberties could be taken back.
hands shot up all around the room. the press had questions. the speaker grew more nervous. “Wait. Zer’s more.”
“Zee DDR will allow unlimited passage betveen East and Vest Germany.”
the hands stayed up. “Okay. Okay. You.”
“Excuse me, you said unrestricted visas? When will these be issued?”
the speaker studied the memo. his eyes glazing over. he looked on the front of the memo. he looked on the back. nothing.
“I zink it is immediately.”
the East Germans seeing this press conference immediately took to the streets. the West Germans seeing this press conference immediately took to the streets. the party had started. the crowds gathered and gathered. the border guards began to get nervous. at the Brandenburg Gate, the guard picked up the phone and dialed his superior. busy. he dialed the government security office. busy. he dialed as many offices as he could think of. busy. busy. busy. he dialed the guards at the other gates. they answered.
yes, the same thing is happening everywhere. what do we do? nothing. it will blow over like it always does.
at the Brandenburg Gate, a young man gets impatient and climbs on the wall. the guard is very nervous now. he decides to take action. he sprays the man with water.
the crowd, seeing this pitiful response, also climbs on the wall. the guards retreat to their sheds and decide that there is nothing to do. they raise the gates and remain inside. the wall falls.
this was the end of my walking tour. after which, i went to a pizzeria with cheap beer and spent the rest of the day socializing with other people from the tour. i got back to my hostel at midnight, or so.