As my first weekend (<– translation of the title in case you were wondering, Mom) in Berlin comes to a close, I am still finding it hard to believe that I am actually thousands of miles away from home. That is not to say, though, that my stay in Berlin so far has been anything short of incredible.
This past Friday I was able to wear my (completely metaphorical and non-existent) dorky tourist hat as we got a walking tour of the major historical sites in Berlin. Our tour started out on Pariser Platz, a few hundred feet away from the Brandenburg Gate, and nearby the foreign embassies. As we walked towards/under/away from the gate, our tour guide (a chipper Australian woman) talked about the history of the area, which was all new to me. It turns out that the Brandenburg Gate was in the middle of No Man’s Land during the division of East & West Germany, which is not something that I would have expected. Since the Gate is such a distinctive location, I would have thought that one of the controlling forces in Germany would have wanted that in their sector for preservation (or at least tourism benefits).
From the gate we walked to the infamously discrete Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The memorial, while being an enormous landmark of the city, has little to no signage describing what it stands for, which is something that the city & and the architect behind it have caught a lot of flak for. I personally thought that the memorial itself was well done (barring the distinct lack of signage), and really appreciated the thought process behind it. The memorial consists of 3000 concrete blocks of varying heights, set in a grid over very uneven ground. What I appreciated most about the memorial was that it allowed each person to take something different away from their experience there. Personally, what stuck with me most was the fact that it was a crowded and loud day, but once I stepped into the depths of the memorial’s center, I just felt alone and a little overwhelmed by the towering pillars surrounding me.
Once the group finished walking through the memorial, the tour continued, and we made stops at places like the last remaining building that was constructed during the 3rd Reich and learned about how the architecture was more intimidating and stark during that era (which, hilariously, apparently made it perfect to house the German Ministry of Finance). From there we made our way to a section of the Berlin Wall that is still standing, which I found incredibly interesting, because I didn’t really know what the Wall looked like outside of being slabs of concrete. I learned that a great amount of forethought went into the planning and construction of the sections of the wall, including having Olympic athletes try to scale it. This remains bizarre to me, because instead of focusing on forcing people to stay in a dismal country, all of the time and effort that went in to constructing a cage could have gone into improving the living conditions so that people wouldn’t want to try and leave. Obviously there was a lot of political and military tension in the area at that time, which I might seem like I’m discounting, but it just baffles me how different the Soviet’s priorities were than the Western countries. The point of the government is to help represent the people in a country so that everyone’s lives can be improved, and I know I’m not breaking any new ground with this tangent, but it’s obvious that the Soviets were not in any way concerned with the contentedness of their citizens.
Moving on from the unexpected tangent, and the section of the wall we were sitting by, we passed by Checkpoint Charlie, which, while interesting, has turned into a very commercialized area and was kind of disappointing. According to our tour guide, the only original piece of Checkpoint Charlie remaining is the wood holding up the “You are now entering the American Sector” sign. Compared to how other historic sections of the city were preserved and presented, Checkpoint Charlie just felt incredibly artificial.
The tour ended in a plaza in front of the Berlin Concert house, and we then hunted for a reasonably priced place to eat (spoiler alert: we didn’t starve), and then regrouped in front of the Reichstag building, and proceeded to go on a tour through it. This was my absolute favorite part of the week, because I
A) got some hella tight pics that you can see on my facebook (spoiler alert: they’re hella tight)
and
B) got to learn about the history of the building, and how it became the current house of the Parliament, and how it relates to the German sense of identity. Apparently, since the German government primarily operated out of Bonn during the Cold War, there was some push-back on the decision to move the Parliament to Berlin, but because the German government wanted to physically and symbolically represent the reunification, the decision was made to remake Berlin the capital city of Germany.
Something else I found really interesting was that the inside of the Reichstag building was almost completely redone, to show that the building had no ties to the darker past of the country, and instead stood to remind people that they should look toward the future and work to make it a bright one. The only original sections of the interior remaining are some columns that Russian soldiers graffiti-ed at the end of the Battle of Berlin, and they were left there to serve as a reminder and a warning: that what happened in the past cannot be allowed to happen again.
We also got to see the parliament chambers, and the party headquarters in the building, but my absolute favorite part was being on top of the roof. Our guided tour finished at sunset, and the views from the roof were incredible. The actual, physical size of the city didn’t hit me until I was on top of that roof, and it was bewildering how much different the city’s layout was from anything that exists in the states. Berlin has so much open space and parks that sometimes I have to remind myself that I’m in a city and not in a very closely connected system of towns. The Reichstag also has a glass dome sitting on top of it, and in it you can look down into the Parliament hall. This feature, and the very glass-centric interior design of the building, is meant to represent transparency in government, and how the government exists to serve their people, which is something that I think a lot of other political systems could learn from.
After we left the Reichstag building, we headed home to relax and reflect on everything that we had learned that day (or, perhaps more accurately, relax and get off of my very tender, tender feet).
The next two days of the weekend were also full of excitement and exploration (and more walking :/). We visited the Jewish Museum of Berlin, which was very interesting, and I noticed a common theme with some of their exhibits, and it’s that they were, like the Murdered Jews of Europe memorial, designed to allow each guest to take something different away from their experience, which I think is an incredible way to get people to make more personal connections with the events of the past.
On a much lighter note, I also had the chance to visit the Karneval des Kultures (Carnival of Cultures) in Kreuzberg over the weekend, which was really cool. The carnival was an enormous 4-day-long streetfair with tons of different little shops and food stands from many different areas of the world. I, loving to make snap decisions, decided to stop at a Scottish booth and eat haggis, which, while I am glad to have experienced it, will not likely happen again in the near future.
So far, living in Berlin has been nonstop with excitement and adventure, and I hope that this will turn into a common trend for the summer. Right now, though, I am wiped, and will be conserving my energy for my first day at my internship tomorrow (right now, I am sitting in my pajamas in the hotel lobby because our room is being cleaned, and it is the first time I have left the room today).
Till next time,
Adam “please like my pictures on Facebook so I can stop saying ‘hella tight pics'” Hayes
P.S. my roommate, the eternally disapproving John William Garry, suggested my quote be Adam “Desperate for your attention” Hayes. Here is the link to his blog so that you can report him for both cyber- and in person bullying.
Adam VS Germany 