Berlin, Part I

The last time I was in Berlin was in 1994.  I was studying abroad in Munich for the summer between my sophomore and junior year of college. 

Nineteen years.

It took me that long to return and I am amazed at the city's transformation. 

The Wall is hardly there.  There are many museums and sights and spaces and memorials to the city's brutal past.  There is a sense of the future here and it there is excitement in the air.

I would move here in a heartbeat (and finally, maybe, I would get back into practice of actually speaking German, not listening to it and reading it).  

I was lucky enough to have a friend from DC who has returned to Germany come to Berlin and act as my guide.  I am lucky also have another friend who lives in Kreuzberg who had us meet and eat in some amazing restaurants-- as well as convince me that on a Saturday, my hotel room is not the place to be in Berlin. 

Bush I, Kohl, and Gorbachev

My hotel was in former East Berlin and very close to Checkpoint Charlie.  We wandered over there and I remembered this being the real checkpoint as well as only one building commemorating the crossing point between East and West.  Now it is a major tourist attraction, complete with men dressed up in West and East German Army officer uniforms and a McDonalds.  The museum is now a whole block, and while we didn't go inside, the gift shop has expanded more than I thought possible.

Checkpoint Charlie, a model-- the original is inside the museum now.

 We wandered onwards and came across the "Stolpersteine," stumbling stones.  They are small, brass blocks that one walks across.  They are the work of Gunter Demnig, a German artist, and they commemorates victims of the Holocaust. Stolpersteine are memorials for an individual victim of Nazism, both those who died and survivors, who were consigned by the Nazis to prisons, euthanasia facilities, sterilization clinics, concentration camps, and extermination camps, as well as those who responded to persecution by emigrating or committing suicide.  They are placed outside the places where people lived. What is amazing is that these stolpersteine are now in all over Germany, but also in other countries: Italy, Hungary, France, Croatia, Russia, etc.  There are about 32,000 stoplersteine in over 700 locations and growing.  I find it a very personable and tangible way to memorialize the victims. 

stolpersteine

 Also along the road are great manholes that point to different landmarks.

On a mission to find good European chocolate, we went to Fassbender and Rausch, near the Gendarmenmarkt.  They have amazing showpieces: the Berlin Bear, the Titantic, the Brandenburg Tor, all made out of chocolate.  

my reaction to seeing the chocolate structures

It is all so huge and detailed and entirely made of chocolate!  I wanted to reach out and take a bite-- though, I think that they have now covered it in something so it won't rot, so that isn't the smartest idea.  HOWEVER.....

Brandenburger Tor (Gate)

For only 120€, I could own a miniature version of of the Brandenburger Tor!  It is 4 kilos of dark chocolate with an 18 karat gold Quadriga on top.  If it had been milk chocolate, it would have been mine!!!  

rows and rows of handmade chocolates

It could have been mine!!

 We then had to go to Pariser Platz and see the real thing.  I remember it being a huge almost empty square and now it is completely built-up, including a new and impressively-secure American Embassy.

Quadriga, four horse pulling Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory

Jakob and I by the shorter pillars

Walking through the Tor, we happened upon a protest in support of the PKK.  Massive amounts of people and police presence made us turn away from Strasse den 17. June and walk towards the new Holocaust Memorial, which is actually named the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.  The whole area is about 19,000 square meters and has about concrete pillars - so-called steles - of varying heights to create a grid-like structure. The cobblestone floor is smooth but unevenly inclined; there are hills and valleys as you walk.  You can enter the memorial from any side and it gets incredibly deep, so that the pillars tower over you.    

along one of the longer corridors

We weren't able to go underneath, where there is an exhibit that explains the Holocaust, as there was a huge line waiting to go inside.  Inside, we hopped on a bus and rode around the city to Kreuzberg, where we had a nice Italian lunch. 

Moritz and Jakob, my tour guides

remaining bits of the Wall pop up everywhere

The Ampelman: the man who tells you when to cross the street

The Berliner Dom