After a thousand of alarms and some crazy dreams (which I have come to find occur when I sleep in a new place), it was up and ready for another day. We ate some breakfast, carb-loaded with the delish rolls and headed on our way.
We had decided that we wanted to check out the "Check Point Charlie" museum. According to Claire and her guidebook, the admission was free. When we arrived we realized she had misread it and it actually said admission fee. After shelling out our 9.5 euros, we headed into the museum with walls of just facts. It was hard to absorb all the information. The museum focused on the division of Berlin into East and West and the communist rule that plagued the East Side. Determined to reach freedom and the West, East Berliners used various methods of unorthodox means to get across the division line. Homemade submarines, homemade hot air balloons, tunnelling, special made hollowed surfboards, special designed trunks of cars, fake passports, etc. Room after room depicted the conditions and the situation from many angles. One room was dedicated to the United States involvement and displayed a video of Ronald Reagen's speech. The thing that I found most interesting was the books and books of people who had been detained by soviet work camps. Upon closer inspection, I found a listing of "Metz"s ( Werner Metz) who had been at these camps and died there. I wonder what the connection is there.
After leaving the museum we took some photos with the guards. (At a fee ofcourse) and Jen got her passport stamped by an over enthusiastic man (from East Berlin) who was very animated.
We had plans of going on the "New Europe Tour" at 11 so we hustled over to the Bradenburg Gate to the Starbucks meeting place. (Go Figure). We had heard great reviews about these tours, and the best part is, is that they are free. You just tip your tour guide at the end. It is an inexpensive and comprehensive way to see a new city...perfect for us. We met our tour guide, Louis, from England, who we grew to love...some more than others. From the Parisier Platz in front of the Bradenberg gate, you can see a variety of ambassies, US and France to name a few. The French embassy is very cold and guarded looking, proof of a French mindset of preparedness against the Germans.
Louis gave us an overview of the statue on the top of the gate. Originally this statue was Eirene, the Goddess of Peace. But upon his arrival in Berlin, Napoleon stole the statue and took it back to Paris. When the Germans later captured it, they added a staph, renamed it Victoria (the goddess of victory) and aimed it so it stared down the French Embassy, a reminder to the French of their loss. Just as Waterloo Station (been there, done that) in London reminds the French of their defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. No wonder the French are sometimes hostile, everyone is always reminding them of their defeats.
Next landmark on the square was the Adlon Hotel. Famous for its luxury and famous war bunker/air raid shelter, some famous visitors include Barack Obama. However, most famously, and most interesting to me, it is the hotel in which Michael Jackson hung his baby off the balcony. Now that is living history. May have been most surprising landmark of the day.
We walked through the gate and Louis gave us a short overview of German History. Basically everything I learned in high school and yet forgot and brought back in real life form. He recapped World War I and World War II, and even made some indirect stabs at Americans, all in fun (I think).
The Reichstag, or German Parliament building, is an important aspect of German's history. Not because of the decisions made in the building, but rather the history of the building that led the rise of Hitler. After World War I, Germany was left in complete destruction and debt (things learned in history class). However, this destruction was not enough for everyone to jump on the Hitler Bandwagon. Coincidence (or inside job) had it that during this time of Hitler trying to gain support and power to enact laws, an arson fire occured at this Parliament building. Officials claimed it was arson by a Dutch Terrorist. The image of terror and fear instilled in the people of Germany, allowed Hitler to enact special laws to "protect the German people". Some historians believe that this was an inside job aimed at getting Hitler the power he needed, and that the Dutch man who confessed to it, was just a crazy who had a history of admitting to crimes he didn't commit.
In the spirit of all things Hitler, we walked towards the Holocaust Memorial. Now you wouldn't know it was a Holocaust Memorial since the signage was very limited. But according to wise Louis, the idea of leaving the memorial up to interpretation was the aim of the designer. It is visible to all the people of Berlin, located centrally between Political and Commercial districts as a daily reminder of the mistakes of a country. It is cement slabs of varying height that are set so you can walk through them and immerse yourself into the memorial. It is supposed to evoke emotion and empathy. Some of the common interpretations are that of grave stones or a graph of the varying anti-semantic feelings of Germany. Ironically enough, the slabs are painted in an anti-grafitti paint that was manufactured by the same company that produced the gas for the gas chambers at the extermination camps.
Following the Hitler trend, we walked to Hitler's bunker. You wouldn't know it from the outside, it looked like a trash filled car park. Appropriate for a man who killed so many and loved glory to having a carpark as a the symbol of your life. Below the ground we stood on was the bunker in which Hitler and his wife Ava Brown killed themselves on April 20th 1945 (on his birthday). We didn't actually go in the bunker, it is closed for safety reasons and to prevent any rise in Nazi support (which is minimal but still exists). Hitler was as crazy as we perceive him to be, a child of parents who were actually cousins, Hitler had a weird family life. He loved (romantically) his niece and was so deranged that he drove mutiple lovers to suicide. It was weird to be standing at the place where only 65 years ago, arguably the most horrendous man of all time killed himself in defeat.
We then went to the former Nazi HQ, the last remaining Nazi building. It had bullet hole damange and the name was scratched off...reminscing of a time when Germans destroyed anything of their past instead of embracing it, owning up to it, and learning from it, which is now their mind set.
Then we headed to the current Finance Building, former German Military HQ and later Soviet HQ. It was one of the few buildings not bombed during the wars, perhaps because it was used as an aerial point of reference and also because according to Louis the men in Britain calling the shots believed "if we bomb their HQ, they will bomb ours" which just happened to be where they were calling the shots from. Louis explained it in a much better english accent. The outside of the building had a long mural on it, depicted the joys of communism. How great it was be in the East. Communist propaganda at its finest. However, that is not how it really was, and proof of that was a rebellion that occured there on June 17 1953 which resulted in a massacre of about 250 protestors who were sick of communist rule. It remains a historical place and an equally sized mural was put in on the ground near the building showing that life was not as great as portrayed in the mural of "the joys of communism".
Behind the Headquarters is a remaining piece of the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall stood for 28 years from 1961-1989. It was erected to keep E. Germans (Communist) from fleeing to W. Germany (Democratic) where they were welcomed with open arms and helped to set up new lives. It divided families, loved ones, friends, and ended relationships and changed lives. After the wall came down, divorce rates spike up by 8 percent, perhaps divorces occurred because lovers seperated by the wall were reunited. The wall doesn't seem that hard to climb or get over...but back in the day, the wall was surrounded by a "Death Strip". A first wall stood, if you climbed over that, you got to an area in which snippers would gun you down, if you escaped the snippers, you had to avoid the machine guns, if the machine guns didn't hit you, then there were hungry dogs waiting for you, then landmines, then an electric fence, and then finally you'd have to be boosted over the fence. Suddenly doesn't seem so easy.
Kept on trucking, passed the Triabbis. East German Cars since they couldn't import. Made of plastic. Better yet, people waited YEARS for this cars.
Next we stopped at a piece of vacant land. Exciting, yes. It is symbolic of the land disputes that occur when the former owners were killed in the wars, or in Auschwitz or other concentration camps. More interesting is the grafitti at the back of the land that says in German "Bring Back the Wall". For people raised in the land of the free, it is hard to grasp why people would want a wall that seperated them confined them. 12% of Berliners want the wall back, perhaps because there are high levels of unemployment (nearly 14%) and East Berliners are still less prosperous than West Berliners.
Made a loop back towards Check Point Charlie which was Louis said was a rip off and very tourists. Oops. Louis told us that it was named Check Point Charlie because it was the last of 3 checkpoints you had to go through to cross from East to West-- Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. As an access point between the sides, many crazy stories happened at this location. Including a man left to die since neither side wanted to make first move to help him. Or a Austrian man who wanted to bring his lover to the West with him so he rented an Aston Martin and sped through the gate, ducked as they went under the gate.
Hungry and frozen, we had lunch at Aroma Cafe. Warmth, free water, free bathroom, and a chicken sandwich made it a great break.
We passed a mini cooper with a german flag on it. The symbol of the bear is popular. Perhaps because BER-lin or because it is a fierce animal or one of the previous leader looked like a bear. I was too cold to pay attention, and Jen "the flame" Matchett was doing jumping squats and lunges to get the blood flowing.
We went to another famous square with both french and german churches and then towards Humboldt University. One of the famous undergraduates of Humboldt, none other than Sir Albert Einstein. But he was kicked out for his "dirty jewish psychics". I wonder what admission officers regrets that one. In this square near the Humboldt Library, a burning of books that contained anything jewish, homosexual, or different was burned. Underneath the memorial to this destruction of literature is a pre-emptive quote that says "if you start burning books, it will lead to the burning of people" made years before Nazi rule. In attempts of rectifying history (like a lot of German attitude), people now sell books outside Humboldt.
Near this was a famous Opera House (surprisingly Hitler loved the Opera). Here Louis our tour guide said he has experienced a few times where a undentinated bomb was located and thus evacuation had to occur.
Then was the Wartime and Tyranny Memorial. A Building containing a single statue of a woman holding her dying child, powerless. The statue was created by a woman who lost all of her family during wartime.
Underneath the building is the graves of victims and soldiers alike. As we talked about the statue, we had a gypsy woman and children ask us for money and if we knew english. Something to avoid (learned that from our encounters in Turkey). We continued on Musuem Island and saw the Berliner Dome. Here people gathered in protest and community against the wall. It was only in places of worship did people have the freedom of speech. They could talk cryptically about "Jesus Overcoming Barriers", code for figuring out how to overcome the wall and communism.
Behind the Berliner Dome is a space needle looking structure named the TV tower. It is the 2nd tallest structrue in Europe, and was built in celebration of 20 years of communism. In the sunlight, a cross is apparent. Some believe that this is the pope and religion coming through when the sun shines.
At the end of our tour, we sat on the steps of the Berliner Dome and Louis told us about the fall of the wall. And how in someways it was an accident. In 1989, communism was losing power thanks to Gorbachev and tension was building in Berlin. It had been made public that Gorbachev was no longer behind East Germany and the politicans knew they'd have to ease the tension building. They decided to have a press conference and say that "eventually, the borders would be open". However, the press secretary who made the speech had been sick and missed the de-briefing. After an hour speech talk about agriculture, the press secretary gained attention when he made his statement "the borders will be open". He had forgot the most important word: EVENTUALLY. The press went nuts, and he was bombarded with questions. None of which he was prepared for. Upon asking if the Berlin Wall was one of these borders, he searched the press release and found nothing but the words "all borders" so he said yes. When asked "When?", he couldn't find any dates on the document except November 9th (that day) and so he said "Immediately". And just like that, the biggest oops in history, people fled to the borders. Thousands of people rushed the gates and the guards afraid for their lives just let them go.
First on the list of things to see and do.... see Dirty Dancing and eat Bananas...things not available in the East. West Berliners opened their homes to these temporary refugees. But after a few days, most people returned to the East. That was, after all, were their home was. So no, contrary to popular belief, David Hasselhoff did not bring down the wall, but a giant OOPS did. Hasselhoff did perform in celebration the day the wall came down... what a German Popstar. He actually sang and swung back in forth of the Bradenberg Gate when the wall came down.
We bid farwell to Louis and found our way to a subway station. We crossed a bridge were a creepy woman was playing the accordian and smiling at us. We even ran into Louis on the train, Claire was estactic. :) We got off, found a Dunkin Donuts for some hot chocolate and warmth and headed to see the remaining parts of the Wall that have been turned into murals.
About 1.6 kilometers of the wall is covered in murals about freedom, the dawning of peace, inspirational quotes all by international painters. I tried to get Laura to give me a boost over the wall, but it is definitely too tall for that.
One of them is a mural of Erich Honecker passionately kissing Soviet Leader Leonid Breshev called the Brotherhood Kiss. It symbolizes the East German and Soviet connection. We thought it was Reagen and Gorbachev...Google told me otherwise.
We strolled down the wall until we walked down by the river where the sun was shining. Jen and Claire busted out some Sound of Music singing and me and Laura sat on the pier soaking up the sun.
We then caught the subway to the Hitler/German Resistance Museum--Claire really wanted to see it. The free museum depicted the life of people against Nazi rule. Something simple as the detainees in concentration camps who "stuck it to the man" by making the B upside down in the saying "Arbeit Macht Frei" or "Work Makes You Free". A silent symbol of their rebellion. Reading about Auschwitz gave me the chills. Most of the rest of the Museum was in German so we just walked around, looking at pictures and learning about the people who rebelled against German rule. Strong willed people.
We walked back towards a subway station and found a restaurant called Alex with a goodlooking menu. I had some delish Bruschetta and we all talked about missing home and our friends and things that we missed most.
After dinner, we took the subway to back to the Parliament. We got some souveniors then to the Parliment to headed up to the Dome. I straddled the line between West and East Germany...two places at once, check. After finding the right entrance, we went through security and up to the roof. Normally, you can walk around the dome that looks down on the parliament...a reminder to the politicians that the "people are watching". But it was closed for some reason so we just got a view of the city at night from the roof.
Tired and cold, we walked home to the hostel, passing a movie set filming a stunt act for a future movie with Liam Neilsen. Then it was time for bed. Early morning train to Prague in the AM.
Truly a day when I learned so much. Much more than any class.
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