Daniel Mezger

We started the day with a fantastic hostel breakfast before heading out to explore Berlin. Gab went to Berlin when she was on exchange 9 years ago and was excited to explore the history- filled city again!

A new European city but this time no free waking tour or self guided tour. We really threw our playbook away today and opted for a paid walking tour as it had great reviews! Given there is so much history associated with Berlin and Germany, we wanted to be confident that we would get a really in-depth experience and we were not disappointed!

We started our tour in the Hackersher market where many of the Jews used to live outside the city walls/moat when Berlin was a walled imperial city.

We then commenced walking around Berlin making many stops including at Musesum Island, Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom), Lustgarden, Babelplatz (which contains the St Hedwig's cathedral, the university and the Opera House), Brandenburg Gate, part of the Berlin Wall, Reichstag Building, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and Checkpoint Charlie.

Obviously, Berlin has a lot of history from being formed in around the 14th century, the Prussian empire, WWI, the rise of Hitler's Nazi Germany, WWII and the Cold War (and of course the division of Berlin into East and West Berlin).

A lot of Berlin's history was discussed by our guide as we visited different sites. Some specific facts or stories we found interesting include that:
- Berlin comes from Slavic word meaning "swamp" - because of the very swampy (and infertile) terrain in the area.
- The Prussian empire that Germany was a part of grew easily because the land was flat and easy to conquer/keep growing.
- The Prussian empire was very militaristic. There are lots of squares in the city which were used to drill soldiers.
- Berlin was formed in around 14th century so it was quite a latecomer in terms of European cities. It copied architectural styles of different time periods from other cities which is quite interesting.
- The Western part of Germany has always been quite different due to different terrain and Bavarian culture.
- All 3 Reiches (the Firat Reich up until 1918, the Second Reich after WWI and the Third Reich as declared by Hitler) used the Lustgarden square (square right next to Berliner Dom for speeches).
- Once he was appointed chancellor in 1933, Hitler cut down all trees along the old kings royal mile and replaced with columns to start the ‘Nazi victory mile’ which never eventuated.
- In 1933, in Babelplatz, students gathered and burnt books which were declared to be "un-German" and "degenerate". In one night, over 22,000 books were burnt in this square as part of state censorship. In the square, there is now a window to under the ground where there are empty bookshelves to signify the books which were lost and there is a plaque with a famous quote from a German Jewish pet Heinrich Heine from 1820 which says: “Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen": "Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people." This powerful quote is about the Spanish Inquisition (which was the biggest persecution against a religion in Europe up until that time) but sadly reminds us that history can repeat itself.
- We visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe which contains 2700 stones. The meaning behind the design is open to interpretation - some say the stones look like gravestones at Jewish cemeteries of different shapes and heights, others say that the stones are to signify the trains Jewish people were boarded on to go to concentration camps and others say the 2700 stones represent the 2700 pages in the Torah. It's a very moving place.
- We also saw damage across the city from the extensive bombing from WWII. In particular, the city was significantly bombed in 1945 in the Battle for Berlin which amounted to huge deaths of Germans and Russians.
- We also walked past the carpark where is us said Hitler’s body was burned and buried. It is not marked in any way but our tour guide noted that it is encouraged to take your dog there to do its business!
- Of course, our guide spoke about the aftermath of WWII and the division of Berlin into East and West. The most significant sites in Berlin (such as the cathedral and other important buildings) were in East Berlin as this was part of Churchill's negotiations with the Soviet Union. These main sites had to be "replicated" in part in West Berlin. For example, another cathedral had to be built in West Berlin.
- The guide spoke about life in East Berlin (especially as his wife grew up in East Berlin and escaped with her family). East Germany was very strict compared to other communist countries at the same time (as we have learnt about in our other travels). People were banned from learning English and many were very cut off from outside world.
- We saw the huge embassies for the Czech Republic and North Korea which were granted by East Germany to these countries as they were friendly communist allies. Interestingly, they can not now be taken back by the German government.
- We walked through the Brandenburg Tor (gate) which has been a symbol of the reunification of Germany and many embassies are very close. We witnessed large scale cleaning efforts of the gate as climate protectors painted it orange yesterday! A lot of the orange paint was removed but you can still see a bit of it in the photos - so you can definitely say our photos are unique!!
- After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, graffiti grew into east when the East Germans saw the freedom of the west Germans.
- We learnt that Berlin is a unique place in Germany and has quite a different culture to the rest if Germany. Apparently, 50% of Germans hate Berlin!

After a very informative tour finishing at the infamous Checkpoint Charlie, we backtracked to the ‘Topographies of Terror ‘ museum we had passed earlier. This is an open-air style museum which was the headquarters of the SS and Gestapo during the Nazi rule which (after extensive bombing) has now been excavated and turned into a musesum. It also just happens to be directly next to a section of the Berlin Wall which still remains. The free musesum was very informative and contained a lot of information about the rise and fall of Nazi Germany including the role of the SS and Gestapo, the Nazi ideologies (including memorials and information about different people targeted such as Jewish people, disabed people, "gypsies", Soviets and asocial people), details of public humiliation techniques ensured to ensure compliance with the Nazi regime by the masses, details of the officers and their ultimate trials and the horrors which occured not just in Germany but also in occupied territories including in Poland, Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Serbia, Norway, Denmark, Hungary, Greece, France and Italy. There was also a large area containing the details of people who had been imprisoned and tortured at the SS headquarters including Stalin's son, other people with links to the West, resistance groups and people who had attempted to assassinate Hitler. It was very in-depth and confronting but important to understand why things in history happened the way they did.

After this, we made our way to the Jewish Berlin Museum, a museum dedicated to explaining the history of Judaism as a religion and its place in Germany and throughout the world. Downstairs there is some very interesting architecture including an uneven labyrinth and 40m high "Holocaust Tower". Upstairs, there is much more informative exhibitions about the history and meaning of Judaism and how it is applied in daily life. One of the last exhibitions we saw was a room filled with floor to ceiling scrolls which listed the decrees which were put in place under Nazi control to limit what Jewish people were able to do in Nazi Germany. It was hard to read the extent of all of these decrees. Overall, we thought it was an interesting musesum and learnt a bit more about Judaism and Jewish traditions and beliefs.

We stayed in the museum until it closed at 7pm and then started walking back towards the hostel, taking in some lovely sunset views of Berlin as we walked. We stopped in at a bbq restaurant on the way back where we tried traditional German currywurst - very delicious! Of course, we also tried some Berlin pilsner!

We then went back to the hostel for showers and went to bed after a busy day (and with our brains filled with lots of information and thoughts!!)Read more