We started off with a summary of the Memorial church. Here is Aaron in front of it.
Next we took a train over to the former East Berlin and met up with more tourists. From there we walked to museum island to get some additional information. Here is a museum in that area. It was the personal art gallery of the royal family. You can see some "character" in the columns. It is interesting to know that 90 percent of East Berlin was destroyed in WWII by allied bombings (60 percent of West Berlin).
The royals also had a private church on the island along with their palace. There is only a small section of palace left because the communists destroyed it during the Cold War (they kept the the balcony section from which the communists declared that the Kaiser was gone and Germany would be a socialist state). This is Aaron in front of the church (restored).
We then left museum island and went to the University square where the book burning took place. The Nazis had a list of 350 books that were banned, and they took books from this university library (and 20ish others) and burned them. In the middle of the square is an underground memorial containing empty bookshelves with enough space to store all of the books burned here.
Next was the square that has twin churches. They were built during the rule of Frederick the Great. He was extremely tolerant of different religions and allowed different religions to be practices in a time period when that wasn't normal. There are two identical churches in this square (one catholic and protestant, I think). Here I am in front of one of those churches.
We moved into more recent history during the Cold War. After WWII, Berlin was divided into West split in 3 parts (UK, US, France) and East (Soviet). Up until 1961, the two societies were integrated (people crossed the border to live and work) but because people were fleeing to the west, the east decided to put up a wall to keep the intelligent people (who were moving west) in the east. They literally put a wall (barbed wire fence) around West Berlin one foot inside the East German border one night (8 hours). Can you imagine waking up with a wall up around you? The only way in and out of west Berlin was via the supply routes guaranteed by the WWII treaties,. Here is Aaron in front of Checkpoint Charlie (American checkpoint). This isn't what it looked like (much bigger), but they put this up for tourists. There were only a few entry points into West Berlin, and the people from the East didn't have the opportunity to go there because once in west Berlin, they could utilize the the supply routes to flee from the east. However, tourists and western residents could enter the east for tourism (money).
Next we visited the largest remaining section of the Berlin wall. Here I am with the wall and the Topography of Terror exhibit. We visited the exhibit in depth during the next day.
We also visited the WWII military headquarter building. It is one of the original buildings in Berlin. It was intentionally missed by allied bombings due to an agreement between the US/UK and Russia. This is a picture of the building. There was a protest here at some point of people against the Soviet government, the east Berlin communists freaked out and the army killed a couple of hundred people. They put the bottom picture as a memorial to those killed. In the mural in the back (and also shown below), you can see a Soviet mural (propaganda that socialist life is good - which many people still believe).
We made a stop at the former location of Hitler's bunker and then went to the Jewish memorial, which was really amazing. When I was here in 2003, the design was considered highly contraversial, but I think it turned out to be a wonderful memorial. Here I am in the memorial.
Here is Aaron with the Brandenburg gate. This was in the dead zone during the Cold War. The Berlin wall was actually 2 walls with land mines and barbed wire (and snipers) in between called the dead zone. Back then you couldn't actually walk through the gates like you can today.
The two of us in front of the chancellor's house (equivalent of the white house).
Aaron and I in front of the Reichstag. This is where the parliament meets.
We tried to make a dinner reservation there, but they were full. We then went to a museum that had an exhibit of the plans that Hitler had for the city of Berlin (Berlin derives from the word "swamp" so Hitler was thinking of renaming it Germania.) He wanted to turn the city into the capital of Europe (and the world), and he wanted to build some massive buildings to match that status. It was interesting to see the plans.We were hungry, so we decided to get something to eat in the rotating restaraunt up in the TV tower. It was an excellent choice. The view was wonderful since it was such a nice day, and we had some good food and wine (riesling). I even had an ice cream sundae for dessert (Aaron had Schwartzwalder cake that was ok). It was a fun choice for our anniversary!
Aaron in front of a cool church and fountain. This is the square below the TV tower.
This is the tower. Fine communist engineering (actually, they had to hire a Swedish firm to come in and finish it for them)
Me up in the tower.
Aaron in the tower.
The view from the tower. Can you see our reflections in the glass?
By that point, we were tired, but stopped to take some pictures on the way back to the hotel.The Royal Church.
Aaron and the Brandenburg Gate.
A better shot of the Brandenburg Gate.
The Reichstag!
We took a train across town, walked back the hotel and crashed soon after. It was a really great weather and a fun day!April 28, 2008, Berlin, Germany
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