The Berlin Expert (Berlin Day 1)

After a good night's rest, we woke up refreshed and energised for our first day in Berlin. Some friends had told us earlier that we "absolutely must" hire this tour guide called Jeremy Minsberg, and American Jew living in Berlin. A few months earlier, I had organised this tour, and with a certain amount of anticipation, we walked downstairs at 9:30am to meet Jeremy. A friendly native of Minnesota, we headed off on our tour with Jeremy. We caught the train to West Berlin, emerging in front of the Kafhaus des Westerns (or KaDeWe as the locals know it). The largest department store on the continent, the KaDeWe is the pride of West Berlin.

Continuing along the street, we arrived at the Kaiser Wilhelm II Memorial Church - which was unfortunately covered in its entirety by scaffolding. However, the modern part of the church was still open, so we were able to glimpse the amazing prayer hall that is used by the congregation today. 

Apparently there is not much of historic interest in West Berlin, so we followed Jeremy to the train station, which was our chance to ride the S-Bahn for the first time!!

We travelled on the train, discussing various aspects of German life with Jeremy, before we got off at the Berliner Hauptbanhof. The station cost 3.5 billion euros to build, and the whole concept is about German Governmental Transparency, which is a major influencing factor in their governmental designs. No joke, you can stand on the road, and see Angela Merkel in her office at the Chancellor's building, you can see every single MP's office from the road, as well as the speaker's chair at the Bundestag all from the front of the building. We walked up to the Reichstag (the building is the Reichstag, the parliament is known as the Bundestag).

It's an impressive building, and Jeremy described it as a Money - nice from far away, but up close its all a mess. We quickly saw what he meant. Up close, the building is riddled with bullet holes and impacts from where Russian artillery fire had hit the building. After they had won Berlin, the Russians used the building for target practise. When the decision was made to move the German capital from Bonn to Berlin following re-unification, the Bundestag decided that they would refurbish the Reichstag so that it could once again be used as part of the Plenary Chamber.

We walked across the garden in front of the Reichstag, to the Memorial to the Soviet Soldiers, which was constructed by the Red Army after they had taken Berlin. Built out of material from Hitler's Reich Chancellery, the construction is enormous, and is built at the place where Hitler used to stand and watch Military Parades. Interestingly, the memorial lies in what was West Berlin, and the threat to destroy the memorial was once used by the West after the Soviet refused to let military personnel across Checkpoint Charlie in 1961.

then to the Brandenberger Tor (Brandenburg Gate), one of the symbols of Berlin, and of all Germany. Originally one of 7 city gates that encircled Prussian Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate was the one that the road to Brandenburg stretched from.

The Brandenburg Gate is impressive, and to see it was the moment that "Berlin" caught up with Mum, who admitted to being overwhelmed by the city's history and the enormous influence that it has had on history, and that history has had on it. We then had a glimpse at the DZ Bank on Parisier Platz, which has an enormous Frank Gehry sculpture inside of it, and despite it's uninteresting look from the outside, is amazing from the inside. There is a rule in Berlin that all buildings must have flat sides that face the street (not sure why though - I don't think the German's are into ostentatious facades near their city landmarks...?). 

From here, we ventures around the corner to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe - known colloquially as the Holocaust Memorial. A series of 2,711 (the number is not symbolically significant) concrete slabs make up the memorial. I don't want to tell you too much about it - in case any of you ever do decide to go to Berlin - I'd prefer you go into the memorial knowing as little about it as possible - as we did too. I'll simply say that I found the experience wholly disorienting, and only a glimmer of the horror that those who were murdered experienced. 

Just a few blocks south of the Holocaust Memorial is a series of inconspicuous apartment blocks from East Berlin. Then, a sign appears describing the site as that of the Fuhrerbunker - the place where Adolf Hitler spent his final days while Berlin fell around him. There's nothing but the sign, but it does give a good overview of what was there. Highly controversial to even mark the site, it was eventually done so that they could attempt to demystify the bunker, and that it was a vast underground palace where Hitler and Eva Braun partied the final days away. In fact, the bunker was smelly and cramped, with poor sanitation or air ventilation. I've included here a picture of a silver car parked next to a tree. Under there are the remains of Hitler and Ms. Braun. No plaque remembers them, and there was nothing on the sign to say that there they were. We were told by Jeremy that the location was not known for sure, but was almost certainly assumed to be just there, as descriptions by those who survived the war attested to.

We then continued on to through East Berlin to a building that used to house the headquarters of Hermann Goring's Luftwaffe (Air Force), this building too was riddled with bullet holes, but had a Meissen Porcelain artwork adorning the facade, showing how "great" life was in East Germany. 

From here, around the corner is the Topographie des Terrors, a museum documenting the crimes of the SS and the SA, which we chose to visit later on. A section of the Berlin Wall remains neat the Topographie des Terrors, and it was a surreal experience to see the remains of the SS Headquarters, the Wall, and then Goring's Headquarters in the background. 

A little further along the street is Gendarmenmarkt (named after the French Police - yes...), considered one of the most beautiful squares in Berlin. It is home to an Opera House, and the French and German Cathedrals (Dom), both of which were damaged severely in the war, and only restored partially even after reunification (as the East couldn't afford the construction costs). 

                             

We then walked up to Unter den Linden (Under the Lime Trees), the large grand avenue that houses many of Berlin's educational and governmental institutions. Here we saw the Neue Wache, Berlin's equivalent of a war memorial, which houses a copy of a statue of a mother holding her dead son in her arms, sculpted by a German woman who had lost her own son in war. The room is completely empty, and it was an emotional experience for all of us. During the time of the Third Reich, Hitler had the room converted to that of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and everyone was expected to pay their own homage to the soldier who had given his life for Germany during the First World War. 

We then continued along Unter den Linden to Museuminsel (Museum Island), and saw Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral), which was rather spectacular. We walked across to East Berlin, and said goodbye to Jeremy at Alexanderplatz, the former main square of East Berlin. We thanked him for the amazing time that we'd had in Berlin in just the first day.

We were all pretty tired from all the walking - so we caught the U-Bahn back to Potsdamer Platz, and bought some groceries for dinner, and enjoyed a home-cooked meal in our amazing apartment. We then picked up James from the airport - Emily was relived to see him safe with us in Berlin - that's for sure...