Day 1 Berlin. We have an 8:30 am reservation at the Reichstag. This is the political headquarters and home to the parliament for Berlin. We got to go up into the dome to get a panoramic view of the city. In the center of the dome is a mirrored cyclone shape. It was a representation of unity I believe and was constructed after the fall of the Berlin Wall. I could be wrong because there are so many memorials and so many similar meanings given their jam packed history in the last 75 years.
We went on another walking tour- SHOCK. And guess what? It was with Sandeman again. Our tour guide was Lewis who moved to Berlin from Amsterdam 7 years ago after planning to be there only 3 days. He fell in love with the city... and a girl. There is always a girl, am I right? Well Lewis is getting his masters in European History right now at the Humboldt University. He was a fount of knowledge about the city and the rich history that it possesses. I really should be putting this on trip advisor like he requested but alas, you will have to hear it first.
To start our tour, we see the Brandenburg Gate which served as the gate to the city in 1791. It is also the last remaining structure from the Prussian empire. The gate was a symbol of the division of Berlin and Germany until 1989 and today it is a symbol of unity and one of the city's most famous landmarks.
Some facts:
Germany is the highest in wealth inequality in the entire Euro zone.
Brl is an old Slovak word meaning marshland or swamp. From this we get Berlin, which is built on a swamp. It is the political and cultural center of Germany.
Next stop was the Hotel Adlon, which if you dont know, it is where Michael Jackson hung Blanket from the balcony. So that was fascinating!
In the time of separation between East Germany and West Germany and therefore East and West Berlin, there were two walls running parallel to each other. The space in between was the death strip or no man's land. From 1961 to 1989 East Germans were watching for other East Germans trying to escape to the West who would then be shot. The East was occupied by the Soviets and the West by the Allied Forces. The Berlin Wall was 3 meters 60 to 4 meters 20 in height throughout the city. It wasn't terribly tall and it was actually very thin as well. The first generation wall went up without notice in 57 hours. The Iron Curtain separates West and East Europe or socialist and nonsocialist Europe. At this point, you will find Checkpoint Alpha. You probably won't have much trouble passing this, then to get into West Berlin you would go through Checkpoint Bravo again without issue. To see East Berlin it's a different story altogether. You would have to go through Checkpoint Charlie and your temporary visa was only valid until midnight. The main purpose of the wall was to stop East Germans from leaving their East Germany. Although for certain people the East Germans didn't care- disabled people or seniors usually.
Next stop was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This was the first memorial erected in a reunified Germany at the center of Berlin. The designer, Peter Eisenhand doesn't give any explanation of the piece. He says, "to understand, just go into the memorial." This is experiential art, you must go amongst the stones to feel the power in it. There is a deliberate lack of information for the holocaust memorial. You are supposed to take an empty plate and fill it with the emotions that the memorial evokes for you. When you look at this work of art, you see various shapes and sizes of grey concrete rectangles. As you go into the memorial, the floor slopes down so you get deeper and deeper until the blocks are towering above you. It is a powerful piece, you need to experience it for yourself to gain the full appreciation, I think.
After that stop, we went to stand on top of Adolf Hitler's bunker where he committed suicide as the Soviets were surrounding Berlin. It is also deliberate that you wouldn't even notice its existence today. There are apartment buildings and parking lots over the destroyed bunker. His actual grave was distroyed in a secret location so that no one could go there for remembrance or mourning- such as the neo nazis. There shouldn't be anyway to commemorate the life of such a man.
We went on to the Lufwafta. This is one of the only buildings inhabited by the SS that survived bombings during the war because the Allies used it as a reference point on the ground. Now it is the German tax office. HA! Fitting! This building also portrays classic Nazi architecture. It has straight lines, intimidating dimensions and somewhat resembles a fortress.
All over you can see bears in Berlin. They aren't real bears, but life size painted bears. The Berlin flag is red, white, red horizontal lines with a bear in the center. Before all the deforestation in Europe, the European brown bear and lynx and fox ran wild here. It's the official animal of Berlin and you can see it on coins, flags, etc. The bears around the city are philanthropic bears very similar to the pelicans in fairhope. They are painted and donated and stand in front of the donating business.
We also got to see the German Church and the French Church. In 1685 French immigrants of Protestant faith came here to Berlin and built a church which the Germans didn't like so they built their own in almost exactly the same style. We learned a German cuss word today: Schitzen is "shit" in German. It is a fun one to say.
In front of the Humboldt University, there was a memorial for the burning of the books that Hilter had carried out. On a stone in the square is a quote that is very telling of what happened during the Nazi reign. "Where one burn books, one will eventually burn people," wrote Heinrich Heine in 1820. Its scary what accuracy this statement displays.
In the afternoon we did a Third Reich tour because it was with Lewis and he was so good in the morning. We also bought tickets for a pub crawl tonight with Sandeman's. They just do it all.
It is said that there are three main dramas in German history. In 1871- Prussia (berlin), Bavaria (Munich), saxony (Dresden) were the three Germanic states. Prussia sought unity among all German states under Prussian leadership, so now Berlin is the capital of the Prussian Empire (German empire also known as the Second Reich, where the Holy Roman Empire was technically the First Reich ). Try to follow because I am also having a hard time. I wasn't prepared for an 8 hour history of Berlin and Germany. So Kaiser Wilhelm II lead the Empire of the time into World War I. His promise was that in 40 days Germany would defeat the other nations. Not true. Now comes the Treaty of Versailles. Germany lost territory and cannot go to war again. Their Air Force and Navy were abolished and their Army was cut back substantially. They were to accept full war guilt for the First World War.
The second drama: Nazis used the Great Depression to get their power.
In 1928 they only had 2.6% of votes, but in 1932, 37.8% of the votes bought them the seat for the number one party in Germany. Now chancellor Hitler is named in 1933. Days after his appointment, there is a fire to burn Reichstag. So they tell the people this was an act of terror. To protect the Germans from terrorist they must suspend people's rights. Out of protection for the state the German political powers can now imprison people without legal help or evidence against people. This was the beginning of the ridding of inconvenient people, better known as political enemies. Hitler was saying that he would bring Germany back from the humiliation caused by the Treaty of Versailles.
There were over 40 assassination attempts on Hitler, none successful obviously. There was one man who planned for months to plant a bomb at a speech location of Hitler's. Everything went off as planned but Hitler left the lecturn 8 minutes before the bomb went off because there was weather that didn't permit flying, so Hitler had to be transported by train instead and they had to leave earlier. There is a monument to remember this gentleman and his efforts I suppose. He was caught at the border and arrested and sent to a concentration camp.
If you have ever studied World War II you know that mass media and mass psychology played a huge role in the war. Propaganda is directly linked with marketing, sales, and politics. Sigmund Freud was someone who made great break throughs in advertising. His cousin, Edward Bernatz (spelling again) worked with the U.S. government and Woodrow Wilson in marketing policies. He also came up with the Torches of Freedom cigarette campaign (aired at a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade) that encouraged women to smoke their cigarettes if they wanted to. This campaign had a huge impact on John Gilbert who worked closely with Hitler and the Nazis on their propaganda. He was so close to Hitler that he too committed suicide with Hitler in the bunker that day.
I have to say that it is an achievement to remember bad history so publicly. The Germans, and other former Euopean Nazis do a great job of honoring the lives that should not have been lost and forgetting the ones that should.
Like I said, we bought tickets to the pub crawl for the evening so we were going to run back to our apartment and change quickly before grabbing dinner and heading out. Well we were a little late, as per our usual it seems, and we ended up not having enough time to eat and make the pub crawl. We ate at a restaurant that Lewis suggested. Can you tell we love him? It was really good traditional German food and delicious German beer. We ended up just sitting and enjoying each other's company since we didn't have anywhere to be.
A few beers later we returned home and decided it was a good time to drink the Absinthe. Turns out there is no good time to drink Absinthe. We didn't feel anything other than sleepy. What we did learn is that you should never ever take a shot of Absinthe. Apparently there is some sugar and fire trick? Well too little too late I suppose. We all took our shot together and Cybil jumped up driectly after and puked it all up. I tell you, we were rolling on the floor laughing hysterically. It was so funny. I mean the licorice flavor isn't easy to get down, I will give her that.
That is me after absinthe shot. Tears running down my cheeks. Not something I will do again.
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