Click here to see pictures (including a lot from the East Side Gallery) from my visit in Berlin.
Yesterday I set out to explore the city of Berlin on
foot. I walked about 15 minutes from the
hostel to Alexander Platz in Mitte, the center of the city. I first walked to the Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism, and then across the street to the
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.
I really liked what the plaque at the Memorial to Homosexuals said,
so I took a picture (it's in the album linked above). The memorial to the
murdered Jews is really interesting.
From a distance it looks like a city block full of differently sized
headstones and tombs. However, when you
enter and walk toward the center, the stones become taller and taller, so that
from the center you feel like you are walled in by graves on all sides. It is a very visible monument in the heart of
the city. Underground they have an
information center that tells the stories of Jews who were murdered during the
holocaust and their families. What I
found particularly interesting in the information center was their emphasis on
personal stories. They even have a
database to look up any Jew in the Holocaust because one of their missions is
that no one’s name or life story will be forgotten. It was a really moving exhibit.
After visiting the memorial, I continued walking and saw the
Neue Wache, a monument to all those lost in war. The remains of an unidentified concentration
camp victim are buried there along with the remains of an unidentified
soldier. The statue is of a woman
cradling her dead son, and there is a hole in the ceiling above the statue so
that she is exposed to the elements of the weather at all times. It’s another really moving memorial.
I continued walking through Mitte and visited the Berlin
Dome. It is the largest Protestant
Church in Europe. It is very ornately
decorated throughout, but the best part of the tour was the climb to the
dome. The climb actually takes you
outside to the roof of the church, and from there you can see an incredible
view of the city.
I took a break after climbing the dome and ate lunch at a
little café nearby. I had a banana and
nutella crepe and a “Lift” apple soda.
Crepes and apple soda might just be my favorite European foods. J
After lunch it was time for my much anticipated visit to the
DDR Museum. DDR stands for Deutsche
Demokratische Republik, which was the official name of East Germany during the
Cold War. The museum was
fascinating! It was really well designed
to have lots of interactive, hands-on exhibits including games and audiovisual
elements. They even had a Trabi, which
were the cars issued in the DDR, that you could climb inside and pretend to
drive. The “social education” exhibit
was really interesting (and scary).
Apparently one of the facets of the education system was a “potty bench”
where an entire class had to sit on restroom breaks, and remain until the last
person had finished. They also had a
typical apartment set up and decorated which was great. I learned about the roots of the “punk”
movement, nude beaches in the DDR, the “kiss of brotherly love,” the block party
voting system, mail order catalogues in the DDR, travel restrictions, and a
host of other really interesting topics.
I spent a few hours in there. It
was definitely my favorite museum so far on this trip, just rivaled by the
Hospital in the Rock.
When I left the DDR Museum it was pouring rain, but never fear, I had my
trusty rain jacket and plenty of daylight left.
I took the metro up to the Berlin Wall Documentation Center. It was not quite what I expected – mainly
just a section of the wall that is still standing along with some outdoor
exhibits to read. However, what was
really cool about the center was the Church of Reconciliation. The original Church of Reconciliation was
surrounded by the Berlin Wall when it was built in 1961. The outer wall went just in front of the
church, and the inner wall went just behind it, making it accessible only to
the border guards in this “death zone” of the fall. The congregation was forced to hold services
elsewhere. In 1985, the DDR government
demolished the church.
After the wall fell in 1989, the land was eventually returned to the
congregation. In 1999, they began
constructing a new Chapel of Reconciliation.
It is made from rammed earth, and the earth that they use actually
contains pieces of glass and other materials that made up the original
church. It is now a small chapel that
continues the mission of reconciliation in the community and world around
it. Beside the chapel is a Statue of
Reconciliation sculpted by Josefina de Vasconcellos. The same statue was also placed in Coventry
Cathedral in London, Peace Park in Hiroshima, and Stormont Castle in Belfast –
to represent reconciliation in places that were badly damaged by World War II.
This morning I again left the hostel with a plan. After stopping by the train station to buy my
ticket for tomorrow’s journey to Prague, I took the streetcar down to the East
Side Gallery. Wow! It is amazing. I absolutely loved the 1.2 km of wall that is
now the world’s largest outdoor art gallery.
Artists from 29 different countries originally created the East Side
gallery after the fall of the wall in 1990 as a collaborative effort. Today some of the work as faded and been
duplicated, some has graffiti additions, but most is still there – telling a
wonderful story of freedom, celebration, peace, and the triumph of the human
spirit. The atmosphere surrounding the
gallery is also great. There are, of
course, tons of tourists, and lots o hipsters and artists and musicians, but
for the most part everyone was very kind and polite, being sure to stay out of
my way when I snapped pictures and enjoying the awesome artwork together. The back side of the wall is entirely covered
with street art and graffiti, as is every open surface within a few
blocks.
After renewing my soul at the East Side Gallery I journeyed to the Jewish
Museum. I found its exhibits really
interesting, particularly one about the lives of Jewish women during the Middle
Ages. The museum covers the history of
German Jews all the way from around 400 to the present. It is a ton of
information , but it is very well done and covers important topics. The museum traces roots of discrimination
against German Jews all the way to the Middle Ages. It also features an exhibit that explores the
similarities and differences between Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. The last exhibit tells stories of Jews who
grew up in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria after World War II.
My last stop in Berlin was the Topography of Terror exhibit. This exhibit stands on what were once the
offices of Hiter’s Gestapo and later the DDR secret police. It has an in-depth outdoor exhibit about the
Nazi party’s tactics to gain and hold control, and to discriminate aainst
homosexuals, Gypsies, handicapped people, and Jews. Inside there is even more information. It was good information, but there was a
thunderstorm, and I was very tired, so about halfway through I headed on back
to the hostel.
Berlin is not a pretty city. It’s
loud. It’s filled with concrete; it’s
gritty and dirty. There are broken beer
and liquor bottles all over the sidewalks.
When I accidentally step in the bike lane on the sidewalk, I get
screamed at, cursed at, and narrowly escape bodily harm. Bikers do not just steer around me like the
friendly folks in Budapest. However, the
resilience of the human spirit here is incredible. Berlin is composed of counter-culture, modern
art, punk music, and a talent for constantly reinventing itself. Rick Steves described Berlin as “Europe’s
biggest construction zone,” and I’d have to agree with him, both literally and
figuratively. I would love to come back
and spend a few days just visiting the art museums here. Of course, by then it may be a completely
different city. It’s been an incredible
visit, and I’m so glad I got to see the Berlin of 2012.
