I loved Berlin. Its such a fascinating city, because not only is it a cultural and economical center, everywhere you go is linked to something historically significant. Each place has its own ghosts left over from the totalitarian regimes that ravished Germany. Whereas to me, Prague seems to be rebuilding itself so that the dark parts of its history are hidden behind the beautiful facades and angry-looking natives, Germany's history felt more on display, ready to be accessed by anyone who only takes a second to look.
My friends and I took a 7am bus to Berlin Friday morning, so we arrived in the middle of the afternoon. We were immediately greeted by Dunkin Donuts and Burger King (and ended up consuming both during the course of the trip, unfortunately). We managed to find our hostel, despite the fact that the map key was covering the exact spot on the map we needed to find. A five minute walk from our hostel was the Reichstag, the German Parliament building. Hitler used a fire there as an excuse to come to power, as supposedly a communist had set that fire, which gave Hitler fodder to argue against the Communists in general, convincing the German people that he was better.
Today, you can go inside the Reichstag, which happens to be entirely solar-powered, walk inside it, and see a beautiful view of Berlin. My friends and I did just that, and were especially happy because it happened to be sunny. Here's the view from one of the spots inside the top dome of the Reichstag:
From the Reichstag, we headed over to the Brandenburg Tor (Brandenburg Gate), the site of Reagan's famous speech to Gorbachav, and one of the sites that used to be very near the wall. The Tor is located in Pariser Platz, one of the numerous spaces on a tour we went on the next day where, only about 20 years ago, it would have been very dangerous, even fatal, for us to stand. That's my lifetime! I still can't get over the fact that such a short time ago, communism still reined over places that I've actually been.
The first night, since we were tired, cheap students, we decided to cook dinner in the hostel's communal kitchen, which was lots of fun. We then wandered around Berlin a bit, not doing anything too strenuous, as to be prepared for our 3.5 hour free walking tour of the city the next day! We started the tour, which happened to be lead by an American from Georgia, in Pariser Platz. He pointed the Hotel Ardon out to us...not only does it have 12,000 Euro a night rooms with bullet-proof glass windows, it also was the site of the famous Michael Jackson baby-dangling incident!
One of the next things we saw on the tour was the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. Our guide pointed out that the Memorial is located on prime real estate, right in the middle of Berlin, and how admirable it is that Germans dedicated this spot to the most atrocious event in their history. Would the US do that?
As you can see, it just looks like a bunch of grey block things. However, when one actually walks through it, its a very interesting experience. The blocks start of small and get taller and taller as you walk through, and then get smaller and smaller again as you emerge from the other side. Architect Peter Eisenman stated that the Memorial was "whatever you wanted it to be". To me, it felt like it was alluding to how Jews must have felt as the Holocaust started: little prejudices and restrictions towards the Jews kept occuring, and then all of a sudden those things were built up into the atrocities of the concentration camps. Some Jews emerged from the other side, but the horror of the experience must have stayed with them. That's just my interpretation.
From the Memorial, we ventured to a parking lot. Well, at least it looks like a parking lot, but its actually the site under which Hitler's bunker was built, the place in which he got married and committed suicide. They've collapsed the bunker, but the floor and walls are apparently still underneath. They didn't want to put any sort of marker at the site, in case it attracted the wrong kind of attention.
We then saw the Luftwaffe, a building that hasn't been able to catch a break, as it was the German Air Force Headquarters (architecturally designed to make anyone standing near or entering the building feel small), the Ministry of Ministries during Communist Times, and is now the Tax Center. Aka, no one has, or will ever, like this building!
Right next to it was the second largest stretch of the Berlin Wall that's still standing. Again, I experienced another crazy moment in which, if I had been standing in that exact place 20 years ago, I would have been shot by snipers or blown up by land-mines, since I was in a forbidden zone.
After that we saw Checkpoint Charlie, the passage from East to West Berlin. Apparently its gotten really commercialized now, but it was cool to be there. After a short coffee break (since it had started snowing!) we saw the square where the Nazi book burnings were held, Humboldt University where Lenin and Marx studied and Einstein taught, the Opera House, the Neue Watch which contains a Nazi solider and a concentration camp victim buried together, the Berlin TV tower (apparently in the sunlight, a cross shows up on the tower, which the communists couldn't get rid of, so people called it the "Pope's Revenge"), the Berliner Dom (Berlin cathedral), and Museum Island. It was a really fabulous and very thorough tour!
That night, we went to get authentic German food. Unfortunately, most of that happens to be pork. At least my Jewish friend and I enjoyed our broccoli soup and baked potatoes!
The next day, we returned to Museum Island, to visit the Pergamon Museum, which houses a lot of ancient Greek and Roman architecture and statues, and pieces of the Ishtar Gates. A little bit of classical history in Berlin! At my request, we also found the Neue Synagogue, which was somewhat damaged during Kristallnacht (but saved due to the efforts of the local police chief), and then also damaged during bombings in the Second World War. It was built to hold over 3000 congregants, so is too big for the current Jewish population to use, but hopefully someday in the future it will become a functioning synagogue again.
I really loved Berlin, and greatly enjoyed visiting a place with so much rich history. I'd love to go back and see even more, because as exhaustive as that tour was, there is tons left to explore!
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