In which we visit Berlin à la GDR.

After a week in Portugal and a week back at work, I was ready for another vacation and eager to spend more time with old friends, so I hopped on a bus to Berlin to spend the weekend with my long-time friend, fellow Smithie and travel buddy (see Mallorca 2010, Istanbul 2010, Iceland 2010, among others...), Sarah, who happens to be studying in the Hauptstadt this year, hurrah hurrah. I'd been to Berlin several times, but the last time was already four years agozoooooooooommmm look at the time go! This was more of a social visit than a touristy one, so if you want touristy/other/more pictures check out other posts from 2009, 2010 and 2012. 

Well, we did do some touristy things, but avoided the main go-to sights. Instead we went to Bernauer Straße on the east/west border, where there is a brilliantly put-together park/memorial documenting the street's history and how drastically it was changed with the arrival of the wall -- the exhibit itself being multimedia-friendly, including photographs, audio and video clips, and physical structures. All information in German and nicely translated English. The park is a strip of green that runs for about two blocks, with various markers showing where the wall(s) once existed and it/they a.) affected the people who lived there and b.) reflected the political atmosphere over the years. Other markings included where escape tunnels had been built and successfully employed, as well as pinpointed escape attempts and specific events in other areas.

Many East Germans ran when they realized the scope of what was happening, especially while the wall was being constructed, and just took whatever chance they could to book it to the other side with no time to pack or think it over. Many more people didn't expect it to last and perhaps regretted their decision to stay when still walled-in three decades later.

After the wall went up in 1961, the wall-side buildings on Bernauer Straße became notorious for escapes because you could get over the wall by jumping out the wall-side windows. For this reason, the windows on the lower floors were actually bricked up and the ground-floor shops evicted first to eliminate the chance of easy exits that way. Some people did escape through the upper windows, though it was a dangerous thing to attempt and indeed the first person to die along the Berlin Wall was a woman leaping from her window there. Most did survive though, and there was one story in particular about a pregnant woman who had been able to tip off the West Berlin fire department in advance and have them catch her on the other side when she jumped. She gave birth three days later.

People were evicted from the wall-side buildings of the street in stages, the evictions kept secret and carried out suddenly to prevent escapes (ie. people jumping out their windows over the wall). There was an interview with one woman who, after returning home to Bernauer Straße from holiday, discovered that she no longer lived in her apartment and had been moved somewhere else. Soldiers had stormed the upper-level apartment and first run to block the windows so no one could jump out, then told everyone to pack up and leave, pronto. All the windows and doors were eventually bricked up and most of the buildings were later demolished, leaving only the blank, windowless faces of the connecting buildings behind.

Two escape tunnels were built there to help the East Berliners escape, the first of which helped 27 people sneak out and the second of which more famously freed 57 before the border guards were tipped off and put an end to it. A firefight ensued in which one guard was killed, who was then martyred by the government, accusing the wicked western smugglers for his death. Sewers were also used as escape routes with maps available and some West Berliners snuck into East Berlin to guide people safely through the underground labyrinth. This plot, too, was discovered and iron grates were implemented at strategic points in the sewers to block escapes, and were checked regularly.

Security technology improved over the years and anti-vehicle spikes were employed along the street and as blockades (though these were removed in the mid-1980s because of their negative image in the rest of the world), a rope system was put into effect that dragged concrete slabs under the back tires of any vehicle that broke through the barrier, trapping it, and later motion sensors were installed with sensitive triggers that would alert the border guards without the escapee knowing they had been detected, not to mention all the barbed wire and other unpleasantries.

Structure representing an old watchtower.

In spite of all this, Bernauer Straße was still a place where people on both sides would go to see each other from afar, though this was technically prohibited. Mail could still be sent east/west but the division of the city meant you couldn't see friends, family, lovers, anyone or anything located on the other side. As it was physically possible to see over the wall along this street, often people would arrange times to "meet" and would wave to one another until shooed away. One picture in the exhibit showed a newly married couple standing together with a bouquet still wrapped in paper, waving to his or her parents on the east side. The picture was paired with another of the parents looking down to them, waving, crying. Another picture that struck me later in the Berlin Wall Memorial was of a crowd of people packed in front of a little alleyway separating garden plots, someone in front holding up a baby. Border guards survey the scene and far behind you can see another crowd of people on the other side, trying to catch a glimpse of loved ones.

Later on, day passes were able to be arranged for West Berliners to visit friends and family in East Berlin for a few hours, though these passes were hard to come by and strictly regulated. It was a very special to finally meet in person again, though many people who had had such meetings said it made it even harder to say goodbye because no one had any idea when and if they would be able to see each other again.

There was a church in Bernauer Straße as well, amazingly called the Church of Reconciliation. Its front entrance was blocked by the wall, with its other entrances blocked off as well over time. The congregation continued to meet there until they were finally evicted outright and made to move elsewhere. From then on, the church tower was used for surveillance until the mid-80, when the government -- not liking the symbol the church had clearly become for the opposition -- literally had the whole thing blown up. After the act, cemetery workers hid the twisted metal cross that had once been perched on the spire, and it is now located there in the park next to the new, beautifully designed Chapel of Reconciliation. 

The Berlin Wall Memorial also had a great exhibit and a little tower of its own with a view over the restored border strip, also called the "death strip", around which life continues as usual in 2016. 

Inside I was particularly moved by video footage of protests -- peaceful ones -- all over Germany in the late 80s, and finally footage of the wall coming down, thousands upon thousands flocking to the site, flooding streets and trains, celebrating, looking dazed, crying. One man had just crossed the wall and was shouting, "Me! In West Berlin! Me!" Another shot started with a close-up of people scrambling over the wall in the rain and then zoomed out to show thousands of people standing there with umbrellas, people streaming over the wall and through the wall where an opening had been made. Footage of people holding "Welcome to West Berlin" banners, all without commentary, all very emotional. Even though I'd seen a lot of the footage before and learned about it for a long time and have spoken with people who were there when it happened, seeing it all put together there as it was still packed an punch.

We later went to the Kulturbrauerei to see their somewhat new GDR exhibit. We'd both been to a couple other GDR-related museums in Berlin, but not this one, which, to quote the website: "The permanent exhibition 'Everyday life in the GDR' shows the gap between the expectations of the SED-regime and the real living conditions of the people in the GDR. Individual stories illustrate the range of different attitudes under the communist dictatorship, which vary from committed support to resignation to opposition." The exhibit was much larger than expected and we didn't get through the whole thing before the closing announcement was issued from above, and there was quite a bit of sensory overload at first with all the objects, posters, photographs, audio recordings, video recordings, automobiles and the rest of the multimedia explosion that hits you when you walk in, but going slowly, one wall at a time, I was soon caught up in the recounting of this very surreal time and place, fascinated, often amused, sometimes shocked. The exhibit provided a lot of food for thought and I'll just mention some of the main things that have stayed with me.

One was a series of portraits taken by Stefan Moses of East Germans of all different professions taken in their work attire. Emphasis on all different professions, all different people, all different walks of life from coffin builders to business people to nurses to constructions workers to fishers to a particularly beautiful picture of a young shepherdess that I particularly fell for (for obvious reasons). They are simple portraits, lovingly taken, and the subjects all seem to be having a good time as many are laughing. It's an amazing visual summary of society at that time, and as the exhibit pointed out, some of the photographed professions no longer exist today. (There's a nice bio and description of the exhibit here).

A common theme was the Soviet Union being a role model, not only because the Soviets happened to take control of that part of Germany after WWII and not only because red happens to be a pretty color. All Germans and indeed a good chunk of the rest of Europe and world had just experienced one if not two very terrible wars and a lot of emphasis was placed on fighting the "war-mongering Western capitalists" and anyone who might promote another war. When the tension between the Soviets and the rest of the Allied forces escalated, the Berlin Wall was built as an alternative to war. You don't want war, the Soviets don't want war, so hug a Soviet today!

The SED State tried to keep as much control over its citizens as possible and one way of doing so was through its factories and other realms of employment. Now to quote the museum's info pamphlet: "Mass organisations and workers' collectives set the pace of daily life during and after work. By offering recreational and cultural activities, they created a feeling of togetherness and cohesion, but at the same time they served as a means of social control." Work brigades were organized as teams that often competed against each other on various levels, be it work output or sports teams outside of work, and there were big awards ceremonies honoring workers who had gone above and beyond in some way. You weren't forced to participate in such things, but often times people became socially isolated and or found themselves at other great disadvantages if they did not.

One propaganda video on display was "Die todkranke Ilona" or "The deathly ill Ilona" (the name might have been different) about a young woman in a textile factory who calls in sick to avoid a long shift when her boyfriend wants her to go dancing. Her work foreman happens to be at the same party and takes pictures of her dancing, then makes a little poster the next day with the pictures and something like, "We hope the deathly ill Ilona gets well soon!" and posts it for everyone to see. She is thus horrified and embarrassed and starts working extra hard to make up for her blunder. When everyone else starts working extra hard, too, she wonders if everyone else also has a bad conscience. Moral of the story: sometimes you screw up and wow, is that embarrassing, but if you work hard and get back on the right path it will be better for everyone.

Shaping the next generation was also an important factor, and often school classes would be paired with work brigades from various employers as a sort of pen pal or sponsor and they had many letters written by children, for example inviting the xxx brigade to their Christmas party, including a nice reply and presents for the kids later on from the brigade. Communist-friendly, all-day childcare was also provided by the State for hard-working parents.

Differences between generations was a big thinking topic as well -- imagining how life must be differently perceived in the GDR between older people who were used to life before the division and for those who were young or born afterwards, for whom it was normal without any sort of reference point to another kind of life other than what people tell them or what they might happen to see if they are able to receive West German television channels. In one part of the exhibit, school kids (9th graders?) in the 80s were asked to write essays describing what they expect their lives to look like in 2010. There were four responses on display and the remarkable thing was how the restrictions of the GDR played no part in their dreams. Most wrote that they hoped to be married with a family and kids, as well as a well-paying job and pretty house. One wanted girl to be a secretary for a millionaire and go on fancy vacations all around the world, like to Brazil. Some talked about technology and how there would be devices or robots to make life easier, though one mentioned that computers shouldn't control everything. There was concern for the environment and hopes that atomic energy would no longer be used. Peace reigned in all the essays. Life was good and people drove nice cars other than Trabi. Just normal kids with big dreams, same as any other.

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After all the heavy learning, thinking, and discussing, not to mention hours spent outside in the beautiful but very cold weather, Sarah and I felt more than justified tucking ourselves into the couch in the evenings with hot tea, kids' movies and Planet Earth. That on top of good food, good company, ample sleep, and banana pancakes to finish it off made it a truly ideal weekend. 

Nights 21 & 22: Berlin

Berlin: Capital of Germany and with 3.4 million people, Germany's largest city and second largest city in the EU after London. Divided in half by a concrete wall guarded by armed soldiers for almost 30 years, during which time over a hundred people were killed while trying to escape. Today one of Europe's hottest tourist destinations.

My host in Berlin was a woman in her mid-50s who lived on the east side and owned a thrift store. The had to babysit her grandkids the evening I arrived, but told me that her renter would let me in the apartment and loan me a key and that I should make myself at home, which is just what happened. I must admit, I was pretty shocked by this generous and trusting gesture. After arriving around 8pm and finally finding my way there in a dark, somewhat sketch area of town, the renter let me into the apartment and brought me to the beautiful guest bedroom, gave me a key, and wished me a good night. This woman had never even laid eyes on me and she had already given me a key to her apartment with all her worldly goods! I love Servas.

I was pretty tired after wandering around Meißen all morning, the two hours of train, and wandering around big scary Berlin at night without knowing exactly where I was going, so I settled down for the night and started planning my day in the city. My hostess arrived back around 9pm and we chatted for a little bit before she had to get other work done. I saw her briefly the next morning and then not again until the morning I left. It was difficult to figure out if she'd remembered anything about my project from my email and when all she talked about was how busy and stressed she was, I decided not to ask her to answer my questions, then didn't have time to anyway. This was very disappointing because I think she would have had a lot of really interesting things to say about Berlin and what it was like to live in a divided city. Bummer. Also, she loaned me a key and place to sleep and tea, but not once did she offer me food. That was fine because I was in Berlin and all where the food possibilities are endless; just interesting. I was still completely grateful.

So! I woke up to bright sunshine and headed out into the morning with a loose agenda. Basically I wanted to explore places I hadn't gotten around to exploring when I was there in October. Some of those things included the Jewish Museum, German History Museum, checking out the view from the TV tower, and having a look at the Brandenburger Tor, which I had only seen from the back last time. After buying a two-day Berlin Welcome Card at a train station for overall public transportation and museum and attractions discounts and finding some breakfast at a little supermarket, I headed to the Jewish Museum.

It was great. Really, really great, both due to content and architecture and how the two work together. Part of the museum is Jewish history through the years in Germany which is very well exhibited and interesting, and the other part is a giant zig-zagging building representing the evil of WWII. This section is filled with emptiness - only long hallways at strange angles. The walls are filled with personal possessions of Jewish people that had been murdered with a short description of their life relating to the artifact, and then their fate. Suitcases, sewing machines, family photos. It was shocking. One could also go inside the "Holocaust Tower" which is a giant unheated cement tower, again at with strange angles that throw one off balance. There is no lighting inside except for a tiny slit open at the top, through which you can hear the muffled sounds of the city. The air is cold and still.


I had a hard time getting through that part of the museum and reading all the stories it had to tell. After many hours inside, I went out in the bright sunshine once more and decided I couldn't handle another museum right away, so made my way to the observation deck in the TV tower. The thought that it might be crowded and I might have to wait for a long time never occurred to me until that's what happened. I got a 25% discount with my Berlin Card, but it was still way more expensive than it was worth. I waited in a room crowded with impatient people and then tried to get a good view through an observation deck crowded with impatient people. Berlin was pretty from above, sure, but it was so not worth the time and money. Oh, well. At least I could check that off my list.

From there I was craving more outdoor time, so I made my way to the Brandenburger Tor. There were lots of people there, too, of course. However, we weren't all crammed into an elevator together, so no problem. In further investigating the grounds, I found a room just to the right of the gate that had the sole purpose of sitting in silence. It was like they knew I was coming. The room was a project that was (I believe) put together by an interreligious organization with the aim of bringing together people from all different backgrounds to be in a peaceful environment together. They wanted it in the Brandenburg Gate especially because of it's been used so many times as a symbol of peace. Sitting there in silence with a few other people and then alone made all my Quaker bones sing. I was grateful for that time.

Once I'd regained composure, I went out into the loudness of the city in the direction of Potsdamer Platz, walking through the memorial for Holocaust victims on the way. I'd really appreciated this memorial in October and did just as much this time around.

Let's play "Name that ceiling"! (Katie B.?)

There wasn't too much going on at Potsdamer Platz, so I eventually strolled on back towards the Brandenburg Gate in the evening sun.

They'd turned the lights on by the time I got back. Oooooohhh.

The Reichstag (governing center - where all the Politik goes down) is right next to the Gate, so I went and sat on the lawn in front of it for a while eating yogurt-covered strawberries and watching the little people go around the dome in the ceiling until it was dark enough to take pictures.

Eventually I wandered back through the gate once more. This round of photos was my favorite. The atmosphere was so lovely - someone was playing guitar beautifully on the square, the moon was framing the gate perfectly, and then a man came and danced with fire to the street musician's guitar. It was still warm. The people were happy.


When the amazing fire dancing was over, I slowly walked back towards the metro that could help get me back to my host's apartment. I say slowly, because I ended up spending a long time taking photos of the cathedral, city hall, TV tower, and basically all things pretty at night.








I still hadn't eaten by the time I finally made it back to the metro stop I needed way on the other side of the city. It was almost 9pm. Then. I found the vegetarian burger joint. It was the most wonderful thing ever. EVER. Delicious delicious fake-meat concoctions, all bio, all glorious. The cute fellow working there even made me the most beautiful (and gloriously tasty) masala chai to take with me on my walk back. Yummm.

It was about 9.15 when I arrived back. I'd been planning on getting home and hour or two earlier to talk with my hostess, but that clearly hadn't happened. Her light was on when I came in, though her door was closed and all the other lights were off. I quietly came in and brought my computer out to the living room for a while in case she wanted to be social, but she didn't and I eventually went to bed feeling like a terrible guest and thought she was mad at me.

I woke up early the next morning to spend as much time with her as possible and to try to make up my absence to her. However, she didn't seem peeved at all by my late evening arrival home and just mentioned again how busy and stressed she was, almost like an excuse for herself. She said she hadn't been able to take many Servas guests recently because she had so little time for them. She wished she had time to get to know them all, but really all she could do was to share her space, which is exactly what had happened. Then I stopped feeling as bad, as she hadn't been expecting to get to know me anyway.

I wanted to visit the German History Museum and my host's thrift store before my early afternoon train, but I ended up getting somewhat lost on my way to the store and then didn't have time to museum it up as well. Crossing through a park on my way there, I was very impressed by this image of happy children and creatures playing on the remains of the old Berlin Wall. It was very striking.

After poking around the shop for a bit once I'd finally located it, I ate some yummy falafel while watching the trains go across this pretty bridge. If you're familiar with Berlin, it's the one right by the East Side Gallery, which is a long portion of the wall that is still standing and has been painted by artists. I recognized it from my last visit and felt accomplished.



When the time was right, I retrieved my things from the thrift store and said goodbye to my hostess before heading to the central station. I got there early enough to enjoy some amazing fig-marscapone ice cream before hopping on a train to the northeast coast, which would be my final destination on this nearly month-long adventure. It was a big disappointment not to have gotten to know my host or to hear her stories, but I'd still had a wonderful time in the big city.

The Photogenic Berlin Post

I'm back from the big city! (...Well technically Hamburg is also a big city, so:) I'm back from the really big city!

Die Gruppe von Smith took the super fast ICE train from heyah to theyah on Sunday, which took just over an hour and a half. We then deposited our things at our hotel, which was a large fancy schmancy townhouse with lots of chandeliers and big ornamented ceilings that is famous for being the residence of Asta Nielsen, a famous movie actress from the first half of the 20th century that I learned about in my Weimar Cinema course last semester. No time was lost before we were back outside and on to our next adventure : Der Schloss Charlottenburg! The Charlottenburg Chateau/Castle/Sparkly and Expensive Royal Residence is the largest remaining of its kind in Berlin. We took an audio tour around the many opulent rooms and oohed and ahhed over this and that. My favorite room was one completely decked out in over two thousand pieces of porcelain.

That night we had our first of several delectable dinners at upper-end restaurants around the city. Thanks again to Sophia Smith for those most wonderful extra pounds.

The next morning we took a Stadtrundfahrt (double-decker bus tour) around the city, got off part way and walked around looking at all the fun architecture.





That afternoon we visited the big Holocaust memorial, which was a huge area filled with almost 3000 of these rectangular stones of various heights. The ground dipped way down in the middle so it was like walking into a pit with the stones rising above you. All the air inside was very quiet and still.


Afterward we took a tour of the Reichstag building, where the German parliament meets and all the governmental stuff goes down. Because of the recent elections, all the suits were out of session during the change-over from party to party. The building was comprised of parts of the old building that was destroyed in the war and new modern architecture. My favorite part by far was the roof.


It was a huge glass dome with staircases spiraling around the sides with a mirror... thing ...coming down from the center. We even got to go up on the roof where there was a nice view of the city.

Once at the top of the dome, we could look down into the meeting room of the parliament.

That night a group of us went to a small but snazzy theater to see Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape auf deutsch. It was interesting and well-performed, though hard to understand at times. Mostly it just made me crave bananas.

On Tuesday morning we went on a tour of Berlin's Unterwelt - an underground bunker beneath part of the metro system. Some rooms were left in their original condition while others were set up in museum format with historical displays about the war.


Later on Sarah and I went to the Film & TV museum which was located in the shiny Sony Center.

I particulary enjoyed this museum for it's awesomely trippy use of mirrors and because it had lots of information about things I learned about in my Weimar Cinema course.

That night we went to a wonnnderful concert at the Berlin Konzerthaus. We had front-row tickets and enjoyed a program of the Festival Strings Lucerne with piano soloist, Martin Stadtfeld, playing Britten, Bach, Mendelssohn, and Haydn.



Wednesday morning brought us to the Berlin Zoo! There we got to see the legendary Knut of the world famous Youtube video. (I would highly recommend it.) He was in a habitat with his new girlfriend away from the rest of the polar bears. I thought he was rather small for a bear of his kind and quite dirty. He was still cute, but kindof a letdown after the most entertaining polar bear at the Albuquerque Zoo.


Carolyn was looking forward to this meeting for far too long. I was a little peeved that Knut only did entertaining things when my camera wasn't focused on him. Note this photo.

The brown bears were also quite wonderful and shared a habitat with wolves. This bear reminded me very much of my own brown Ber at home in the States.

Many of the big animals, such as this lion, were very kind in that they came quite close to Helen and I. It's my understanding that she can see light in somewhat short distances, so she was able to see a lot of them. (Helen, please do correct me if I'm wrong.) I was pretty satisfied with the zoo except for how it caged its big cats in small and unrealistic compartments. There I was not impressed.

Later we visited Checkpoint Charlie and the museum about the Berlin Wall. I hadn't known much about the wall and the consequences thereof before and found it very tragic, like most of everything else about WWII.


Afterward we walked along the Eastside Gallery, the longest remaining section of the wall that has been repainted be various artists.



On Wednesday some of us visited the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirche, which like the one in Hamburg was left in its mostly destroyed condition after the war. A new modern church in blue glass was built on one side of it with the belltower on the other and the remaining mid-section contains its historical exhibit. The mosaiced ceiling is still very shiny.


There was still a good chunk of time before our train left, so I went to the photography museum by myself before heading to the Hauptbahnhof. It was raining.

While waiting for our train home, I was wonderfully surprised by my Handy ringing with a call from Jesse. Hooray for fantastic brothers!

So that was my trip to Berlin. In conclusion, I didn't think the city itself was all it was hyped up to be, but I still had an enjoyable visit. I'm just not a ridiculously-large-city-person. But then again, it was very shiny.

(P.S. All of my Berlin photos can be found by clicking on this link.)