A couple of Tuesdays ago (November 7th) Karl called me from work to tell me that he had found a VERY cheap train ticket to Berlin and that I should go...so on Thursday (November 9th) I hopped on a train and I spent my weekend in Berlin! I had not been able to return to that fair city of my mission since my mission, 9 1/2 years ago, so it was a very exciting trip for me! I stayed with a friend of ours, Michaela Müller, whom Karl knew from his misison in Berlin.
Berlin is an amazing and unique city. It is constantly evolving...it is very much a microcasm of Germany itself...German history is reflected in its captial. You can experience the old Hohenzollern palaces at Unter den Linden, the modern 21st century at Potsdammer Platz, the communist remains of the Wall and even Nazi shadows here and there. The city is at once ugly and beautiful, old and modern, united, yet still divided.
As we walked the streets and saw the sights of Berlin I had two reacurring thoughts: "Of course I'm in Berlin! Did I ever leave?" and "Where the heck am I?! This is NOT Berlin!"
Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate)
In 1788-1791, Carl Langhans built 14 gates around Berlin for King Frederick Wilhelm II. This is the only surviving gate, which has Victory riding her chariot toward the city. The Berlin Wall ran just on the other side of the gate from where you see Michaela and I standing. The gate now separates the streets Unter den Linden and Strasse des 17. Juni going into Tiergarten (a large park...think New York's Central Park) behind us. During my mission, the #100 Bus drove back and forth under the gate and a black market was located just off to the right in this photo where you could buy Nazi, Soviet, and East German memorabila. Now the buses drive around the block and the black market has moved down Unter den Linden near the Dom. But still beautiful!
Potsdamer Platz
During my mission, Potsdamer Platz was simply known has Europe's largets construction site. It was nothing but a famous pile of dirt and a collection of cranes (the cranes had become so permanent feeling that an artist had created an installation of neon lights for them). Today, Potsdamer Platz is all shiny and new! The plaza had once been Berlin's busiest city centers, but WWII left it desolate and the Berlin Wall was built right through the plaza. After reunification, construction began and today it is a collection of hotels, theaters, and shopping centers, the best known of which is the Sony center shown above. But it was all foreign to me.
The Holocaust Memorial
Between Brandenburger Tor and Potsdamer Platz is the new Holocaust Memorial, or Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Karl and Michaela happened to be able to visit the memorial the week it first open last May 2005. I loved this memorial...it was amazing. It is a large square with stone blocks of various sizes. They begin quite short...even flush with the ground...and grow taller and taller as you walk through them. We are free to explore the grid between all the blocks and the only rule is that you do not sit or climb on top of the blocks. As you get deeper into the blocks they become higher and higher so cannot see over them and you become in danger of walking right into someone walking down a perpindicular path. You could almost become lost in them...it begins to feel almost like a labirynth. I got the feeling that is presented a simple, logical grid that became more confusing and disorienting as you explored it as link to the twisted logic of the Final Solution.
Gedächtniskirche and Ku'damm
As my train rolled into Berlin Thursday night, I looked out the window into the darkness and city lights for anything recognizable...and suddenly, for a brief moment between buildings, I saw the Gedächtniskirche! The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (as its known in English) was built in the 1890s as a memorial to Kaiser Wilhelm I from his grandson Kaiser Wilhelm II. During World War II it suffered heavy damage, nearly completely destroyed. Instead of tearing down what little remained, the church remained as it was as a memorial to the horrors of war. Two modern structures were added flanking it in the 1950s, a tall bell tower and a circular chapel (knicknamed by Berliners as the lipstick and powderbox...or the the disco church by us missionaries 10 years ago). Along one side of the church runs a long street with a long name: Kurfürstendamm...but no one calls it that. Whether from affection or ease, the street is simple known as Ku'damm. This street was obviously located in the capitalistic West Berlin because it is a shopper's heaven: you'll find everything from H&M to Laura Ashley, from Pizza Hut to Hard Rock Cafe. My favoriate is Kaufhause des Westens (Shopping House of the West)...but again, noone actually calls it that. Its known simply as KaDeWe (say "Kah-Day-Vay") and its huge and expensive and sells American food and expensive pens and fashionable clothes and pretty buttons!
Unter den Linden and Palast der Republik
Perhaps the heart of Berlin...or at least one of them...is the street Unter den Linden. The name means "under the lindens" after the linden trees that have always lined the street (except for during the Third Reich when Hitler knocked them down to make the street more parade-friendly). It was created during the 1600s for the palaces of the Prussian royalty. The royalty wanted a grand boulevard to ride down to Tiergarten...the large park in the center of Berlin that use to be a royal hunting ground. Now the palaces have became museums and opera houses...and former communist parliment buildings. This street lay in former East Berlin and the communists torn down the 15th century Hohenzollern palace for ideological reasons, bulding their parliment building on top of the foundation in 1976 calling it Palast der Republik (Palace of the Republic). After reunification in 1990, the debate began over what to do with the building...the biggest problem being that it was full of asbestos. So it has been closed up and gated off, sitting in limbo for the past 16 years...until now when the building is finally begin gradually and carefully (because of the asbestos) demolished. It was strange to see this familiar building being finally stripped.
Pergamon Museum
Along Unter den Linden is one of my personal favorite spots in Berlin...Museuminsel=Museum Island! A little island of one world-class museum after another! Michaela and I visited the Pergamon Museum. A giant ancient Greek temple built around 180 BC known as the Pergamon Altar was relocated to this museum in Berlin...and it is stunning! I love the dramatic Hellenistic relief sculptures surrounding the temple depicting the Greek gods in battle against the Giants (with legs of snakes!). There is also a wonderful collection of Greek art through the centuries as well as an ancient Babylonian gate. It was all as wonderful as I remembered it...happiness!
Reichstag
The Reichstag building was built in 1894 to house Germany's imperial parliament. Although it had been damaged by fire a few times (the last being in 1933 giving Hitler an opportunity to rise in power) and was damaged in WWII, the building still stands. During my mission it was also a construction site, I saw it only from afar. Now it boasts a new glass dome and again houses Germany democratic parliament. Michaela and I stood in a line for an hour for the opporunity to go up into the glass dome. The dome looks down over the parliment at work and has a winding walk way that looks out over all of Berlin in a gorgeous panoramic view. It was strange to finally get a close-up view of this historic, important building!
Although so much was still my Berlin, the city had changed tremendously in less than a decade. But that's Berlin...a city that is constantly changing. Marlene Dietrich said it best when she sang:
"As long as the old linden trees stil bloom, Berlin is still Berlin!"
Listen to Marlene sing a few lines from this song here: scroll down the song list to Disc 2, song #25, click on "Solang noch Unter'n Linden (Berlin Bleibt Doch Berlin)".
Click here for lots more photos of my weekend in Berlin!
And click here for a good 1999 newpaper article written as the German parliment was about to move from Bonn back to Berlin. It gives a good point of view on the unique characteristics of Berlin and a little of its unique history and may help give you a sense of why this city holds me spellbound!
