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Vier Tage in BerlinVier Tage in Berlin
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A short but fine adventure by Iain Read more

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  • TravelerVier Tage in Berlin

    Willkommen in Berlin

    April 21 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Our flight left on time and we climbed through the clouds leaving the grey skies of Birmingham for the sunshine at 30,000 feet. After just over 90 minutes, we descended through the now broken clouds to arrive at the Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg „Willy Brandt“ bang on time at 0905 local time.

    As a friendly member of the Bundespolizei stamped our passports, I got a reply in English to my (obviously) accented „Guten Tag“ but H got a reply „auf Deutsch“!

    The Berlin public transport system helpfully provided no fewer than 3 different modes of rail-based transportation to speed us to just round the corner from our hotel: Bahn, S-Bahn and Tram.

    We received a very friendly „Wilkommen“ at the hotel, which included directions to the nearest Cross of Nails from Coventry, having seen our home address. You’ll have to see whether we manage to find it.

    Despite our early check-in, we were able to access our room immediately, which was very welcome, beating our expectations that we’d just be able to drop our bags off.    Read more

  • TravelerVier Tage in Berlin

    Exploring Prenzlauer Berg

    April 21 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    After freshening up at the hotel we took a wander around Prenzlauer Berg, the area around the hotel, in part seeking somewhere for lunch.

    We found the Immanuelkirche, an evangelical church whose bells we’d heard tolling since arriving nearby and which gives its name to the street where our hotel is located - Immanuelkirchestraße. The building was closed but there was a lovely mosaic just above the main entrance.

    After seeing a number of cafes that were closed for the Easter long weekend, we headed towards the Alexanderplatz, a large square on the eastern side of the city centre. Just before reaching the Alexanderplatz, we spotted the Hofbraühaus, a huge Bavarian Bierkeller run by the Bavarian State (and formerly royal) brewery, complete with Lederhosen-wearing waiters and a live oompah band.

    Once fortified with generous helpings of Wurst, Wieners and Sauerkraut, and Kaiser Franz Josef’s favourite pudding „Kaiserschmarren“ (shredded fluffy pancakes with apple sauce), we took a Tram to Bernauer Straße.    Read more

  • TravelerVier Tage in Berlin

    Bernauer Straße & Wall Memorial

    April 21 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Our reason for visiting this particular street is that it formed the boundary between the French and Soviet sectors after 1945 and consequently part of the Berlin Wall ran alongside the road for much of its length between 1961 and 1989.

    A 1.4km stretch of the former border zone alongside the road now forms the Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer (or Berlin Wall Memorial) which commemorates the division of the city and those who died either seeking to cross from East to West, seeking to enable escapees and also those guarding the border.

    The site traces the history of the border which ultimately became the Wall, with a line of 12m metal rods marking the line of the border wall itself (to the western side of the zone), the area patrolled by guards and then the inner border wall (on the eastern side).

    Markers and information panels told the story of those who lived in the houses which originally stood in what became the eastern sector but whose front doors opened out into the western sector. The Eastern authorities soon nailed the doors shut in August 1961 shortly after the border was closed and the ground floor residents were rehoused elsewhere. Later the windows in the upper floors were bricked up after many escaped by jumping from the windows into the arms of the West Berlin fire brigade or being lowered on ropes. Eventually the houses were torn down to make space for the later ‘improvements’ to the wall.

    The Versöhnungskirche (Reconciliation Church), which was built and so named in the 1890s, stood just inside East Berlin right up close behind the line of the border, cut off from most of its congregation who lived in what became West Berlin. In 1985, the East Berlin authorities demolished the church to make space for a wider border zone, fed up with the unhelpful symbolism of a church focussed on reconciliation just inside the wall. In the mid-1990s a new Kapelle der Versöhnung (Chapel of Reconciliation) was constructed on the site of the old building and includes some (badly damaged) features rescued from the wreckage of the old church.

    Just outside the modern structure is a copy of a sculpture entitled “Reconciliation” by a British-born sculptor Josefina de Vasconcellos, other castings of which can be found in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral, the Peace Garden in Hiroshima and the Stormont Estate near Belfast. Inside, we learnt that the words of Coventry Cathedral’s litany of reconciliation is used each day in a memorial service. We also found a Coventry Cross of Nails (although this wasn’t actually the one mentioned earlier by our hotel receptionist!)

    The memorial park also features a 60m stretch where the final (1975-1980s) version of the wall and border zone has been reconstructed, with a viewing platform enabling us to see into the border zone between what we’re actually 2 walls.

    Another section included a dramatic memorial with photographs of the 140 or so who died trying to escape across the wall, with just their names and ages - many were adults but 70 were children and teenagers, the youngest only 2 years old.

    In other areas, archeological “windows” uncovered foundations of the previous buildings and border infrastructure.

    In many places along the pavement in Bernauer Straße, small markers showed the location of each successful escape, while other markers showed the path of tunnels dug under the border zone (sometimes from West to East by those seeking to facilitate escapees) and there was one dug by the Stasi to frustrate tunnelling.

    The site mostly now looks like a linear park on the site of the former border zone, with many pictures and stories about the building of the wall and those escaping or trying to so, and with the various intersecting streets that were cut in two by the route of the border. Walking through the park, with clear views through the wall marker posts, of the trams and traffic passing along the Bernauer Straße, was really fascinating and moving. I can just about recall seeing the newsreels of the wall coming down in 1989, and yet this place felt like something from another and (thankfully) long past age.    Read more

  • TravelerVier Tage in Berlin

    Reichstag or Bundestag?

    April 22 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    This morning we jumped on a Tram and U- Bahn to head into the parliamentary quarter to visit one of Berlin’s most famous buildings. This was also high on the “must visit” list for this trip, having not managed to fit it in when we visited Berlin 10 years ago.

    We booked several weeks ago for a lecture in English in the public gallery of the plenary chamber (no charge). We followed our instructions to arrive in good time for the security check, before we were taken into the building, and up to the public gallery.

    Our guide told us the fascinating history of the Reichstag, which is the name for the imperial parliament, from its origins in the 17th century until this building was built to house the imperial parliament of the newly unified German Empire in the 1880s, opening in 1894. The building then continued to be the home of the parliament of the Weimar Republic from 1919 to 1933, which was still called the Reichstag. 4 weeks after the Nazis came to power, a serious fire rendered the building unusable and so the parliament moved out shortly before losing its powers under the Nazi regime. The building was further damaged in bombing raids and in the battle for Berlin in 1945, when the city was finally taken by the Soviet Army, who famously raised the red flag of the Soviet Union above the building.

    Today the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the Bundestag (or Federal Parliament), and so the term „Reichstag“ now means only the building.

    The Bundestag was formed in 1949 and was initially located in Bonn, and neither of the 2 Germanies were permitted to use the Reichstag whilst Berlin and Germany remained divided. During the 1960s, the Reichstag building was repaired in order to house a new plenary chamber for the Bundestag as a sign or promise of the Federal Republic’s intention to return to Berlin - but this was not used except for exhibitions and one off events.

    After reunification, there was considerable debate over whether the Bundestag should stay in Bonn or move to Berlin and the Reichstag building. After a contentious and close vote in 1991, the decision was to return to Berlin.

    The British architect Norman Foster won the competition to renovate the Reichstag building and did so completely gutting everything except for the external walls. The new structure includes the eye catching dome which acts both as a vent for hot air rising from the chamber below and bringing natural light into the chamber. More importantly, the glass dome (and public access) symbolises the openness and transparency of the working of the Bundestag for the German people.

    One feature of the Reichstag which was inherited by the Bundestag is its half circle seating plan, so that all are notionally the same distance from the centre, and the members of parliament seated in their respective party groupings, from left to right. After each election, the desks and seats are rearranged to reflect the number of seats won by each party, leaving a gap to the next party’s seats.

    The lecture was delivered in an enthusiastic and entertaining manner, and there was also time for a number of questions.

    After the lecture, we went through a further security check (we were told to check for climbing equipment!) before we were allowed up onto the roof. Armed with an informative audio guide we set off up the helical ramp leading to the viewing platform, with tremendous views across the city as we climbed (and descended) the ramp as well as at the top.    Read more

  • TravelerVier Tage in Berlin

    Two memorial sites (and some currywurst)

    April 22 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    After leaving the Reichstag building, we crossed the road into the Tiergarten, in order to see the Memorial to Europe’s Sinti and Roma people murdered under National Socialism.

    The memorial takes the form of a circular pool of dark water, surrounded by the words (in German and English) of a poem „Auschwitz“ by Roma poet Santino Spinelli:

    Gaunt face
    dead eyes
    cold lips
    quiet
    a broken heart
    out of breath
    without words
    no tears

    The triangle in the centre of the pool represents the triangular badge the Sinti and Roma were forced to wear in the concentration camps.

    The site is dedicated to the memory of over 200,000 Sinti and Roma murdered by the Nazis, in labour camps and death camps. Estimates vary as to the death toll but is thought that at least 25-50% of the Sinti and Roma population in Europe were killed.

    Although small and in a corner of the busy city park, it was moving in its simplicity and the horrors of what happened to so many people.

    We then continued out of the Tiergarten, past the Brandenburger Tor, to find somewhere for lunch. A kebab and wurst shop served up three delicious plates of currywurst mit pommes while we sheltered from a brief shower.

    We headed across Unter den Linden (it’s a little like the Champs Élysée but with lots of lime trees) on our way to the Friedrichstraße railway station.

    This station was an important crossing point for civilian pedestrians crossing between West and East Berlin during the time of the divided city.

    Today, we needed to catch a train to the Zoologisher Garten quarter. However, we weren’t going to the zoo or the swanky shops of the Kurfürstendamm (this is really considered to be Berlin’s Champs Élysée).

    In fact, our next destination was the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirche (Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church), just next to Kurfürstendamm.

    This church was rather pompously dedicated to the memory of Kaiser Wilhelm I (of Prussia and then the German Empire) by his grandson, Wilhelm II, in 1895. When it opened, the memorial hall on the lower floor was unfinished for another 11 years.

    In November 1943, the church was badly damaged in a bombing raid. The ruins were briefly used by the church after the war but then it was decided that the ruins were unsafe and so the church needed to be rebuilt.

    After an architectural competition, German architect Egon Eiermann designed a radical new church and bell tower, initially without retaining any of the remaining building. After an outcry, Eiermann adapted his design to retain the damaged spire and memorial hall below, which now stand between the new buildings.

    The restored memorial hall is richly decorated with scenes from Wilhelm’s life and the Prussian royal family in mosaics on the vaulted ceiling. As a centrepiece calling for peace and reconciliation stand a damaged sculpture of Jesus, which used to stand on the altar in the original church, and a Nagelkreuz (Cross of Nails) from Coventry. A daily service also uses the words of the Coventry litany of reconciliation. This was indeed the church recommended to us yesterday by the man on reception at our hotel. At the opposite end of the hall is a gallery depicting the original church, its destruction and re-building.

    The new church was built in the 1950s and is an amazing building. The vivid blue stained glass designed by a craftsman from Chartres Cathedral includes some patches of yellow and red, and covers all 8 walls of the octagonal building. This creates a breathtaking effect as you enter the room. A large copper figure of the risen Jesus hovers above the altar, in stark contrast to the seemingly glowing blue walls.

    We sat in the peaceful quiet for a few minutes, taking in the stunning beauty.

    The new church also features a memorial to the Evangelical Christians who died at the hands of the Nazis given by the Catholic Church, and the original of the charcoal drawing known as the Stalingrad Madonna, drawn by a German soldier, Kurt Reuber, during the battle of Stalingrad in 1942. Copies of the drawing are held by each of the cathedrals in Coventry and Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad).

    Just outside the new church is a much more recent memorial to the 13 victims of a terror attack on 19 December 2016, when a truck was driven into the crowd at a Christmas market next to the church. A further 56 were injured. A gold-coloured metal alloy fills a crack running down the steps of the church and across the pavement, marking the spot where the truck came to a stop. The alloy stands proud of the pavement surface in order that the passing footfall polishes the metal, ensuring it stays shiny.    Read more

  • TravelerVier Tage in Berlin

    Back in time at the DDR-Museum

    April 22 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    After a brief pitstop for an ice cream, we jumped on a bus to take us back through the Tiergarten to the city centre.

    We left the bus at the far end of Unter den Linden to watch the world go by in the Lustgarten (pleasure garden) on Museumsinsel (Museum island), before locating our next destination: a return to the world of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (East Germany) at the excellent DDR-Museum.

    This was a highlight on our previous visit to Berlin. There are loads of interesting interactive exhibits with lots of drawers and panels to open, bringing many aspects of life in the East to life.

    Particularly interesting was a new exhibit (or at least we didn’t remember it!) recreating a typisch East German flat from the 1980s, with facts to discover behind every cupboard door! As you can see we enjoyed trying on some virtual clothes in one of the bedrooms.

    A touch screen innovation in the coffee table (perhaps not authentic) enabled you to select both programmes from the TV schedules from both West and East Germany.

    Just along the street from the DDR-Museum was a shop selling merchandise themed for the Ampelmännchen, the little green and red men originally used on East German pelican crossings, one of the few features from the former East that have risen in popularity since reunification, and which are now used on crossings across much of Berlin.

    Finally we took another trip to a Bavarian restaurant for dinner, although I sampled the East German staple, Solyanka, a meaty soup originally from Russia and popular across much of Eastern Europe. Apparently it’s a particular favourite of Angela Merkel. And for pudding, what else but Apfelstrudel mit Vanillesoße!    Read more

  • TravelerVier Tage in Berlin

    A harrowing morning at Sachenshausen

    April 23 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    This morning we took a tram, then a regional train and finally a bus to leave the city of Berlin to go to Oranienburg, a small town about 30km from the city centre,

    Just on the edge of Oranienburg was the site of Sachsenhausen, which was planned as the “ideal” concentration camp in 1936 as a model for other camps, as well as for training SS guards.

    As it happens, we were visiting on the 80th anniversary of the camp’s liberation on 22 and 23 April 1945 by Soviet and Polish troops.

    Most prisoners arrived by train into Oranienburg or Sachenhausen stations, before being marched under guard to the camp, entering under Tower A.

    Over 200,000 people were held at Sachsenhausen between 1936 and 1945, including a mix of political prisoners, those considered racially or biologically inferior by the Nazi regime, so-called “antisocials” career criminals and Allied prisoners of war. The PoWs were mostly Soviet and Polish soldiers with a few British and other nationalities. Some 10,000 Soviet soldiers were systematically murdered in 1941 in a new “neck- shot” facility, where a prisoner was taken as if to be measured against a wall, for a guard to shoot them in the back of the head through a disguised opening next to the measuring stick.

    The camp put inmates to work initially in the industrial yard, shoe testing on a track of different surfaces and building different structures on and near the camp. Others worked in food preparation or in the infirmary or the mortuary and crematoria. From 1938, a huge brickworks was built and then resourced by forced labour from the camp, and, after the war began, various armament factories were built at satellite camps close by.

    Many prisoners died of malnutrition and disease, medical experimentation as well as planned murder campaigns by the SS. Various methods of execution were tested and developed here, including gassing vans and a purpose-built extermination unit, known as Station Z (the use of “Z” grimly signifying the fate of the prisoners taken there).

    By early 1945, over 70,000 prisoners were held in Sachenhausen and the satellite camps, of which 24,000 were in the main camp. In April 1945, as the Allied forces moved closer, those who could walk were forcibly marched north west for 40km a day for several days, on minimal rations and. It shelter each night. Thousands were shot as they fell out of the marching column. Others considered too dangerous or sick to be evacuated were murdered. Another 3,000 were left behind in the infirmary, who were liberated when the Soviet and Polish forces reached the camp. Some 300 were in such a poor condition that they died after the liberation without leaving the camp.

    In contrast to the horrific conditions in the camp, the guards and officers lived in barracks with neatly kept flower borders and the most senior with their families.

    A number of the guards and officers were tried after 1945 for the murder abuse against the inmates.

    After 1945, the site became a prison camp ran by the NKVD (pre-cursor to the KGB) for a further 5 years. Some 30,000 prisoners were held in “preventative” custody, including middle and low ranking Nazi officials, SS and Gestapo members held without trial for years. There were also another 16,000 who had been convicted by Soviet Military Tribunals and 7,000 German prisoners of war and 6,000 Soviet solders who had committed offences. Conditions in the Soviet Special Camp were almost as terrible as under the Nazis.

    Finally the site became a memorial in 1961, initially run by the DDR authorities, before becoming the present museum and memorial in 1993.    Read more

  • TravelerVier Tage in Berlin

    Sachsenhausen 2 - as drawn by inmates

    April 23 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    As well as the many documents and photographs (many taken by the Nazi regime for propaganda or as part of their record keeping), were a number of drawings secretly drawn by prisoners.

    These are even more evocative and disturbing than the written evidence for the treatment meted out to the inmates.

    Here are just a few which were particularly striking.    Read more

  • TravelerVier Tage in Berlin

    Global Berlin at the Berliner Schloss

    April 23 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    We had lunch from a bakery in Oranienburg, before returning to Berlin. Our next destination was the Berliner Schloss or Humboldt Forum on the Museumsinsel (Museum Island).

    The building is a reconstruction (in concrete) of the baroque Prussian royal palace which stood on the site from the late 18th century until 1950, when the badly damaged remains of the palace were cleared by the East German authorities to create a large parade ground. In the 1970s, the Palast der Republik was built on the site and housed, amongst other public cultural facilities, the plenary room used for party conferences and the seat of the People’s Assembly (the non-democratic equivalent of a parliament in the DDR). In 2008, the Palast der Republik was demolished and plans were made to reconstruct a replica (of the footprint and facades) of the baroque palace in order to house a huge museum and exhibition space.

    It had started to rain on our way back into Berlin and the rain was lashing down as we ran the 10m from the nearest U-Bahn entrance to the main entrance of the Schloss.

    We had come to the Humboldt Forum in order to visit “Global Berlin”, a temporary exhibition focussing on Berlin and its connections to the world.

    On arrival we were fitted with bracelets which would be used for voting and interacting with the exhibits. After each interaction was logged by the system, a randomly allocated sound for each of us would sound in the room.

    After a fun hour or so, we came to the end of the exhibit and decided to seek out somewhere for dinner. We found an excellent restaurant serving Swabian specialties in particular (Spätzle) a short journey away by U-Bahn, near the Friedrichstraße station.

    And then it was time to return to our hotel, via a short jaunt on a Regional Express train across Berlin, and then our regular tram to just around the corner from the hotel.    Read more

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