Berlin is the capital city of Germany, and with 3.5 million people, it's also the largest city in the country. I heard more than once that Berlin is a very "international" city, with inhabitants having come from over 190 nations; it has always had a very cosmopolitan makeup, dating to before the birth of Christ. Fast forward to the 20th century...
After the First World War, Hitler brought his act north and Berlin became the capital of the Third Reich; after the Second World War, the heart of Berlin was a shambles. The city was then divided among the victors, in a similar fashion as the country as a whole. To illustrate:
The fun wasn't done yet. In 1961, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) surrounded West Berlin with a wall, which did not come down until 1989. East and West Germany were united in 1990, and Berlin again was a capital city.
I was born in 1969, and have always been a keen student of politics and history. In related news, I'm also a geek. Anyway, I work with many colleagues who were literally in diapers when Germany took its present shape. I try to tell them that this not-that-old man nonetheless remembers a time not that long ago when the world was a vastly different place. I can understand my parents having what I'll call nuclear attack fire drills in their school buildings that had bomb shelters; I can understand why the Cuban Missile Crisis legitimately scared them to death. Coming of age in the 80's, I was still fully able to understand the geopolitics of the planet's 2 superpowers. That's just the way things were. I couldn't believe when I was in college and the Berlin Wall crumbled. I never imagined it could happen. To wit: Rocky 4 may be a jingoistic farce today, but it well represented the times when it came out in '85.
Fast forward again - a WW2 bomb claimed lives yesterday as it detonated in a town near Bonn in Western Germany when it was disturbed at a construction site. Apparently, unexploded ordinance from that time is found fairly frequently (though usually without fatalities). That, of course, is a history lesson that Germans could do without. What about the period of roughly 35 years after the war? It is understandable that the Berlin Wall initially took a real beating; a lot of it soon became roadway and fodder for other construction projects. Then, as the number of remaining sections dwindled greatly, many people wanted to keep some of it as an historical reminder. Very recently, there was a big kerfuffle about moving a strip for a commercial project. The builders had the go-ahead, but had to do their business under the cover of darkness in order to evade protesters.
On a lighter note, Berlin is a city with a relatively young population with people from all over the globe. It has a great array of museums. Some of them can be found on Museuminsel (literally, Museum Island). The best-known is the Pergamon Museum, noted for its art and architectural collections highlighting ancient Greece and the Middle East. The Topography of Terror and the Berlin Wall Memorial are open-air sites and can't-miss. The DDR Museum was good also. The three gave great insight to what the Nazis did and what life was like in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany). I was steered away from the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Here are some photos of Checkpoint Charlie and of the wall, in original and new locations:
After the First World War, Hitler brought his act north and Berlin became the capital of the Third Reich; after the Second World War, the heart of Berlin was a shambles. The city was then divided among the victors, in a similar fashion as the country as a whole. To illustrate:
The fun wasn't done yet. In 1961, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) surrounded West Berlin with a wall, which did not come down until 1989. East and West Germany were united in 1990, and Berlin again was a capital city.
I was born in 1969, and have always been a keen student of politics and history. In related news, I'm also a geek. Anyway, I work with many colleagues who were literally in diapers when Germany took its present shape. I try to tell them that this not-that-old man nonetheless remembers a time not that long ago when the world was a vastly different place. I can understand my parents having what I'll call nuclear attack fire drills in their school buildings that had bomb shelters; I can understand why the Cuban Missile Crisis legitimately scared them to death. Coming of age in the 80's, I was still fully able to understand the geopolitics of the planet's 2 superpowers. That's just the way things were. I couldn't believe when I was in college and the Berlin Wall crumbled. I never imagined it could happen. To wit: Rocky 4 may be a jingoistic farce today, but it well represented the times when it came out in '85.
Fast forward again - a WW2 bomb claimed lives yesterday as it detonated in a town near Bonn in Western Germany when it was disturbed at a construction site. Apparently, unexploded ordinance from that time is found fairly frequently (though usually without fatalities). That, of course, is a history lesson that Germans could do without. What about the period of roughly 35 years after the war? It is understandable that the Berlin Wall initially took a real beating; a lot of it soon became roadway and fodder for other construction projects. Then, as the number of remaining sections dwindled greatly, many people wanted to keep some of it as an historical reminder. Very recently, there was a big kerfuffle about moving a strip for a commercial project. The builders had the go-ahead, but had to do their business under the cover of darkness in order to evade protesters.
On a lighter note, Berlin is a city with a relatively young population with people from all over the globe. It has a great array of museums. Some of them can be found on Museuminsel (literally, Museum Island). The best-known is the Pergamon Museum, noted for its art and architectural collections highlighting ancient Greece and the Middle East. The Topography of Terror and the Berlin Wall Memorial are open-air sites and can't-miss. The DDR Museum was good also. The three gave great insight to what the Nazis did and what life was like in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany). I was steered away from the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Here are some photos of Checkpoint Charlie and of the wall, in original and new locations:
Sign at Checkpoint Charlie
An American soldier (photo, top-right) is forever on guard
A long stretch of the Wall in its original location
It was difficult to comprehend that I was looking thru a gap in a once-divided city.
At a design studio
Selfie outside a hotel
The Brandenburg Gate
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
view from within
Interestingly, "everyone is getting a memorial" in Berlin. The Jewish people are the most noted victims of the Nazis, but not the only ones. I saw a sign for a homosexual memorial, and was told that the handicapped, etc. were also "getting theirs".
Hitler's bunker...
...was underneath this courtyard playground
On a final, more playful note, this hotel by the Brandenburg Gate is where Michael Jackson infamously dangled his infant son from a window :)
Auf Wiedersehen!
