Berlin – Day Eighteen

Wednesday September 18 – we head out to get breakfast at a nearby cafe. The food is good & actually feels German, with a side of gherkins.

New Synagogue again on the way to breakfast.

Gluten-licious – the pastries in Germany are pretty damn good.

The neighbourhood where we are staying has some cool eateries & bars.

Admin

We have to do some travel admin, we need seat reservations on the train. We’re using an Eurail pass, but what isn’t particularly clear is that there’s no guarantee that you’ll get a seat. Exciting if you’re twenty two, less so if you need to get to your hotel on a specific time and date.

No idea just slightly bonkers. Seen on the way to the station.

Grim. This is a former WWII bunker. These bunkers are pretty indestructible, so they haven’t been demolished. This one turns out to be repurposed into an Art Gallery. Thanks to iPhone’s geolocation.

The Futurium shows travelling exhibitions designed by Richter Musikowski. We nipped into the cafe; it looked nice.

The Cube in Washingtonplatz in front of the train station. Designed by 3XN. No idea how it got its name.

It’s rather big. There’s three levels below ground too. Berlin Hauptbahnhof is the central train station, and was built in 2006. It was designed by Meinhard von Gerkan.

Reichstag Again

Marnie’s feeling a bit better today, so we decide to push on from the Railway Station to see some more sights.

The Chancellery Building. It’s big, it would be five stories high & not shown are the two wings. It’s a bit of a theme in Berlin of everything being on a vast scale. Designed by Axel Schultes & Charlotte Frank. The large sculpture is by Eduardo Chillida.

The nearby Administrative Buildings are equally huge, these are nearly a kilometre long.

The glass dome, there’s a circular ramp to the top and looks down into the chamber of the lower house.

Brandenburg Gate Again

The Brandenburg Gate is pretty close so we head there again.

The Brandenburg again. Disappointingly normal.

Brandenburg Gate is in the Embassy Area. There was a serious amount of Police waiting outside this hotel. We’re guessing it was a Swedish Diplomat?

Not mucking around. This guy got arrested in front of us. He was wearing a mask & didn’t seem the full bratwurst.

These were nearby, these are Stolperstein or Stumbling Stones, we have seen a few in Amsterdam & Berlin, but this is the most we’ve seen in one place. These plaques are small memorials to someone who died in the Holocaust. This was at the site of the former German War Office.

Checkpoint Charlie

When we got the taxi into Berlin we drove through Checkpoint Charlie. We were not too sure whether it was or not, as it looked quite commercialised. Turns out it’s quite commercialised.

Checkpoint Charlie was literally the frontline of the Cold War. Now you can get KFC. Fried chicken; the ultimate symbol of the West’s victory over Communism.

Jewish Museum

We walk on to Jewish Museum, which opened in 2001, and designed by the architect David Libeskind. This is quite a way from the main centre of town so it’s bit of a hike. If we had another day in Berlin, we would have gone through. It’s pretty amazing, for next time.

The design of the museum is reminiscent of a broken Star of David.

Topography of Terror / The Berlin Wall

Keeping with the uplifting theme we head to the Topography of Terror. This is probably one of the most affecting places we visited. Not only does this contain the longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall, it is also built on the remains of the former Gestapo Headquarters destroyed in the War.

The wall. The memorial is nearby & describes both the development of Nazism & the origins of the wall. It was very moving; we noticed several people crying.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

We head to the memorial, which is quite close to the Brandenburg Gate. It covers nearly two hectares, the site is covered by 2711 pillars. It was completed in 2004 and the design was by the architect Peter Eisenman. The pillars or stelae change height, and the ground slopes down in the centre. The idea is that you feel uneasy or dislocated amongst the stelae.

Hannah Arendt Stresse is beside the memorial, she was Jewish and a German Philosopher. She survived the War by moving to America. She is best known for the term ‘banality of evil’.

Neues Museum

After having lunch back at the hotel, we head to the Neues Museum. The Neues Museum / New Museum is part of the Museum Island complex of seven museums or art galleries, in or around the island. It was originally built in 1855 & like most things in Berlin was damaged during the War. Large parts of the building were effectively ruins, & were further neglected under the GDR. After unification there was a debate whether to restore the building to how it used to look, or preserve the existing structure. The completed building opened in 2007, preserves most of the existing structure, and was designed by David Chipperfield.