Berlin -- Our History

Berlin .... a city full of public art and modern architecture.

Berlin...the only school crossing sign I have every seen

where the girl is helping the boy across the street!

Berlin....not just history.

Sunbathing on the Spree River.

While we were staying in Rome we met an American fellow who taught teaches philosophy (or was is psychology?) at a Univeristy in New York. We shared the wireless access point in the lobby. He was teaching an on-line course, so he had to stay in touch with his students and we were booking our accomodation and transportation for the last three weeks of our trip. One of our conversations was about our plans to visit Berlin because it's our history. Events that shaped, are shaping, Europe now, happened in our lifetime, in Berlin. I think we almost convinced him to change is travel plans and go there too. Berlin did not let us down, not at all. It's a fascinating city.

We rented an apartment in an area called Charlottenburg. The neighbourhood reminded us of Kitsalano in Vancouver: tree lined streets, restaurants, interesting little shops, small apartment buildings. It is in the area that was West Berlin was the only part of city that was not intersected by the Berlin wall. The apartment had all the things we needed, plus free internet access (no excuses for not getting the blog out) and a huge soaker tub in the bathroom.

I could live here!

Bike riding suits all of us as a manner of transport, so our first event was "Fat Tire" bike tours. Highly reccomended as an orientation to the city and its recent history. The city itself is a living museum because there are memorials commemorating events of the 1930s to the fall of the wall all over the place. A person can experience a lot just walking around and visiting these sites.

John and the group, listening to our tour guide. The TV tower in the background is the focal point of Alexanderplatz and was the pride of East Germany.

Berlin...divided city.

The route of the wall that separated east and west Berlin is marked by a double line of bricks that runs through the city. This is one of the only places where a part of the wall is still standing. The fence on the right side of the wall is to keep people from chipping pieces off for souveniers.

We visited three excellent museums: The Story of Berlin, The German History Museum and the Science and Technology Museum. "The Story of Berlin" is a multi-media museum with displays that trace the development of the city from the swamp to the present day. Three displays stood out for me. The transition years between WW1 and the rule of the National Socialist Party are recorded in the stairwell going down to the lower level. The first wall is covered with photos of the leading people in politics, business and the arts of the time. At each level there are the same set of photos, but fewer and fewer of the faces are there. Instead the photos are blank and printed with labels: suicide...missing...emigrated...arrested... It's a very effective way of illustrating the methods the government used to take control of all aspects of society. The stairway ends in a hallway that is lined with piles of books, and under the glass floor are more books illustrating the books that were burned by the Nazis. Anne of Green Gables! Following the WW2 section there is a display illustrating the conditions of life for the people of Berlin, and a duel display of side-by-side living rooms showing the differences between life in the east and west sides of the city. There is a full size model of a section of the wall, and visitors can peek through spaces in the wall to see films of people at the time peeking through sections of the wall as it was being built.

I was really impressed with the way that the German History museum is laid out. Instead ofhaving artifacts organized by category, the whole works is organized chronologically. Each display includes paintings, furniture, clothing, candlesticks and so on that relate to the theme. It gave me a good idea of what life was like, and if I wanted to know more I could log onto the computer displays or hit the next button on my audio guide. If you happen to go there, and if you are a museum type person, think of it as a two day museum. Do the upstairs on day one (beginning of time to end of WW1) and the downstairs on the second day (1914 to present day).

The third museum was the Science and Technology museum and I have to confess anything I could say is only hearsay because I didn't go! Nelson and John thought it was great. I figured shopping on the Kurfustendamm was more fun. We all enjoyed our day in our own way, I got souveniers and a good look at street life in the city, they got to play with airplanes, trains and hands-on science experiments. They never did find the real-working brewery, so maybe that's a two day museum as well.

Berlin...not just a city of history, but a place for the future.

This is the view from inside the dome of the Reichstag.