BERLIN--AN EMOTIONAL ENCOUNTER WITH HISTORY

Our first view of the Berlin Wall

Berlin has so much history, some of which happened in my lifetime, and some that recalls incredible horror.  Traveling there was very emotional.  I remember President Kennedy’s ich bin ein Berliner speech, given  in 1963 just a few months before his assassination, and I remember President Reagan telling Gorbachev to tear down this wall.  That speech was at the beautiful Brandenburg Gate, and that is one of the destinations on this trip. 

When the Berlin wall came down, a friend  from England sent me a piece of it, and I've seen blocks of it displayed in Washington DC’s Newseum where there is a Berlin Gallery in which one sees eight 12 foot high sections of the original wall and a German guard tower near Checkpoint Charlie.  Both the remainder of the Berlin Wall and the site of Checkpoint Charlie are important sites included in our tour of Berlin.  All I can say is that nothing compares to the real thing—up close and personal.  It's horrible.

The events occurring in Berlin, whether in my lifetime or not, are part of my psyche—education gained in and out of school.  And it is impossible for me to divorce Berlin as Hitler’s headquarters and all the unspeakable damage he inflicted to millions of people from the Berlin of today--at least not in the few hours afforded us on this tour.  That may be an impossible shortcoming.

Nevertheless, I wanted to see Berlin as a modern city far removed from its sad history.  But that was only partly possible.  Berlin purposefully keeps some of this history alive so we should learn from it.  But as we drove through and had some stops at the end of our tour, we caught brief glimpses of a different Berlin.

The Berlin Concert Hall.
What a grand building befitting grand music of the German masters.
It is located on the Gendarmenmarket square

This is the French Cathedral, built by French religious refugees,
the Hugenots, between 1701 and 1705. Bombed in 1944,
it was reconstructed and dedicated in 1987.
It sits on a beautiful square, Gendarmenmarket.

We took a train from the port to Berlin, so our time in the city was limited.  However, the tour aimed at showing us the history and some of the drama of the city.

I think everyone on our tour bus was most anxious to see the remains of the Berlin Wall.  Even being there, it was difficult to imagine the insatiable urge to escape government oppression and to live in freedom that motivated hundreds to risk their lives and many to lose theirs.  Even the graffiti on the walls tells a story.  On one side, there is order and art.  On the other side is bedlam and ugliness.  They want to keep it that way. Our guide tells us of all the building still occurring in what was East Berlin because in East Germany, workmanship was shoddy and ugly. Building replacements is going on everywhere. 

Parts of the wall are painted neatly and cleanly

The eastern side of the wall is left ugly and unrecovered.
It is a constant reminder of what was.

He said that apartment buildings, for instance, were basically concrete blocks manufactured elsewhere and stacked.  Those that remain are ugly and being replaced, but that seems like an almost never-ending process.  Berliners want a beautiful city, and they’re working on it.

Our stop at the Brandenburg Gate was another eye opener.  It is the only gate remaining of the 14 original gates in the wall around the entire city.  The wall was not for defense, and the gates simply made it easier to levy taxes on people entering the city.  The Brandenburg Gate is one of the most attractive because it was erected in an area where wealthier people lived.  It is merely a beautiful reminder of an earlier time. It became an important, decision-making setting when President Reagan delivered his address there telling Gorbachev to tear down the wall.

The spectacular setting of the Brandenburg Gate.
It's truly magnificent and stately.
The entire Pariser Platz is impressive but cold.

The Pariser Platz on which it stands is a big open space, filled, during our visit, with many people, probably tourists like us, standing on the site of history.  Along one side of the square is the U.S. Embassy with benches in front of grass and flower beds.  A little further away and around a corner is the British Embassy.  There are stanchions cordoning off that street from vehicular traffic, erected, according to our guide, because of threats.  Disturbing.  

The American Embassy in early spring.

The British Embassy, just off Pariser Platz

But all in all, it’s a beautiful area, very neat. But the atmosphere, with the grey buildings and blocks, is very cold.  That’s not the feeling we’ve gotten at all in different areas of Germany we've visited on other trips, so for us, this severity is almost uncomfortable.

Checkpoint Charlie. This iconic site draws crowds, but anyone with historical knowledge knows that this is the best known crossing point of three between East and West Berlin.  A sturdy building was never constructed on this site because our president felt it was a symbol that the Berlin Wall, constructed in 1961, was temporary.  

Checkpoint Charlie is that little shed-like building in the middle of the street.
The picture is of a United States soldier, Jeff Harper.
On the other side is a photo of a Russian soldier, but to be honest, I never looked
up at it.  I went straight to the Checkpoint Charlie.

Checkpoint Charlie, maintained by the U.S. military, was the only way military personnel, diplomats, and foreign tourists were allowed to enter East Berlin.  The original guardhouse is now in the Allied Museum.  Would you believe that this spot is one of Berlin’s most popular tourist attractions with over 900,000 visitors a year.  (https://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-should-know-about-checkpoint-charlie)

Our last major stop was another eye opener—the Allied Museum.  In this rush visit to Berlin, we really didn’t have much time at this museum, and that’s a shame because it chronicled the Allied involvement in Berlin between 1945 and 1994.  There is information on how America created a “little America” so servicepeople and their families would have a taste of home.  

It also houses the original East Germany guard tower that loomed over Check Point Charlie. 

A plane on exhibit is one used for the German Airlift—from June 26, 1948 until May 12, 1949—when the Soviets blocked all land and rail traffic into West Berlin, an island sitting in the Soviet Bloc of Germany and inhabited by two million people who needed food, water, medical supplies, clothing and other necessities of life.  This was President Harry Truman’s brilliant and peaceful answer to the Soviet demand to have more say in the future of Germany.

There is so much to see at the museum and so much to learn.  But time was short.

I’m probably not being fair to Berlin in this post.  So let me leave you with a few pictures of another side of the city that we did not really have enough time to see and enjoy.

Restaurants and sidewalk cafes abound

Plenty of people out enjoying early spring weather