Berlin: a city iconic for its tragic and diverse history and a place India and I couldn't wait to explore. With only 2.5 days to do it all in, we had a jam packed few days in Berlin and I would love to go back.
We arrived late in Berlin on the evening of the 29th of April. Several trains took us to Rosa Luxembourg Platz, only 10m from our hostel. Perfect. We (quietly) got ready for bed before crashing, absolutely exhausted.
As walking tour enthusiasts (and veterans by now), we began our time in Berlin with a free walking tour. Our tour guide was fantastic and very knowledgeable (I can't remember his name, but all of the guides we have had with the Sandemans free walking tours have been outstanding). Our tour encompassed Berlin's main points, from the Brandenburg Gate to the Berlin Wall, and The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe to Checkpoint Charlie.
We started at the Brandenburg Gates, a massively iconic structure in the centre of Berlin that is particularly well known because it was featured prominently when the Berlin wall fell in 1989, due to its proximity to the wall.
Our next stop was The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a massive space filled with different sized grey blocks. While there is no specific interpretation of this structure - it means what the viewer wants it to mean - I believe that it represented the heartache, isolation and devastation that occurred in Nazi Germany, specifically towards the Jewish community (each group affected by the Holocaust has a memorial). While the grey blocks are not in any symbolic pattern or number, they do represent the large number of people affected.
While we were at the memorial there were kids jumping onto blocks and playing around them. This didn't sit well with me - it is a place of memory and reflection and people (in this case, the parents of the children) have a duty to respect this place.
We were then taken to the area where Hitler's bunker used to be. While it was mostly destroyed by the Russians when they attempted to reconstruct that area of Berlin, some corridors still exist but are closed off to the public. This area, in my opinion, has been handled extremely well because there was no celebration of Hitler's life, and only a small plaque acknowledging that this was where one of the cruelest people the world has ever seen lived. The area is not cleared off - it is a carpark and a small grassed area where people living in the nearby apartment buildings walk their dogs. How appropriate.
Our next destination was the Memorial for the Uprising of June 17, 1953. The memorial is situated in front of the building that used to be Hermann Goring's Ministry on Aviation during the Third Reich, and what now serves as the German Department of Finance. The uprising occurred when 40 000 protestors marched through East Berlin to show their anger towards the economic disparity between East and West Germany. While West Germany was flourishing due to the American initiative of the Marshall Plan, East Germany had to pay reparations to the Soviet Union, leading to planned changes of higher taxes, more work for less pay and higher consumer prices. The uprising lasted for three days across much of East Germany, and while the government decided to withdraw some of the planned changes, the protests continued. The people were showing their distaste of the government, not a single aspect of its regime. When the Soviets and East German police force crushed the uprising, over 500 people were killed.
The memorial shows an interesting juxtaposition: a propaganda mural painted by the Soviets, showing how beneficial communism was, next to a large, blown up photograph of the uprising - what communism in Eastern Europe turned out to be.
We had a quick look at Checkpoint Charlie and learnt a little bit about its history - a crossing point between East and West Berlin.
These plaques feature outside businesses and homes that were owned by Jewish people. As our guide told us, many Jews returned to their places of work and residence following the end of the war only to find that they had been inhabited by others and that they had no where else to go.
At the conclusion of our walking tour, India and I went to a typical German restaurant for schnitzel and spaetzle (basically German macaroni and cheese, so basically heaven). It was here where we met Debbie and Steve, who turned out to be one of the highlights of India and my trip. Aged in perhaps their mid 60s, Debbie and Steve were on a cruise and were spending the day in Berlin. They were absolutely lovely, and we bonded over sharing photographs of our dogs after Steve started talking to us to see if we could help him with his iPad. Steve shared some great life tips, telling us to LIVE WITHOUT REGRETS, while Debbie seemed very concerned about us staying in hostels (don't you get scared?). She also told us to make sure we visited the Red Light district in Amsterdam (and a few weeks later, I made sure I did). After some kind words (you girls make me miss my daughter! You're so brave!) they were off into the sunset/ mid afternoon Berlin rain. A lovely chance encounter and such a great lunch conversation.
We returned to have a closer look at Checkpoint Charlie. Now incredibly, incredibly touristy, it was still interesting to see a (kind of) replication of what it would have looked like during the division between East and West Berlin. Of course, there is a McDonald's immediately on the West side.
Following our second look in at Checkpoint Charlie, we went back to the Berlin Wall to read the information along the side of it as well as visit the museum. When I think of Germany's history, my mind is too often drawn to the horrors that occurred under Hitler's reign instead of the years of the division of the country that followed, and so learning so much about the Berlin Wall and what it represented for the people of Europe, particularly those to the east of it, was fascinating.
After another morning of our fantastic buffet breakfast, it was time to visit the famous East Side gallery, an area on the east side (funnily enough) of the Berlin wall that has been decorated with artwork and graffiti. I believe that this represents hope - how colour and light can return in the face of devastation and death; and how laughter and happiness will ultimately triumph over evil.
We then returned to the centre of Berlin to visit the 'Place of Information' that is under the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This was probably the site that touched India and me the most, and we left feeling incredibly somber. I would recommend anyone who visits the memorial to read the information in the museum underneath it as well, as it helped us understand the horrors of the Third Reich much more. Too often, numbers are used to symbolise human pain and suffering, but it was the stories told by those affected by Nazi Germany that helped me comprehend what that time period was actually like. While in school I was always taught that people did not realise their death was imminent, letters and documents within the museum proved otherwise, and that was heartbreaking to learn.
After our visit to the 'Place of Information', we walked through the nearby park before looking at the Reichstag building. Massive and foreboding, it was amazing to see a building that so much history had occurred in. We didn't go inside but instead walked around, admiring the stature and details of such an iconic building.
Our last day in Berlin brought with it a visit to Tranenpalast, or the Palace of Tears. Named after the sad goodbyes that occurred in front of it, this was a point of border crossing where East Germans farewelled West German visitors who were returning home. Tranenpalast was probably one of the sites that I found the most interesting in Berlin because it gave a clear insight into the practicalities of having a life spread across two very diverse countries. Like many places of historical significance in Berlin, it is free to enter and I would definitely recommend a visit.
So, my thoughts on Berlin:
An incredible city filled with a massive amount of culture. There is so much to do that you could literally spend weeks there and experience something new there every day. Due to Berlin's history, a lot of the things to see are quite sad, however I believe that it is important to be educated on its past to stop history being repeated. Everything we went to in terms of museums and memorials was free, and we found many cheap food options. It was definitely the most budget friendly city of those that we visited on our trip!
Overall, I loved Berlin and would recommend it to any fellow history buffs.
Next stop: Barcelona!
No comments:
Post a Comment