Berlin – Never Forget
Berlin, Germany - March, 2005
Berlin is no longer divided between East and West but instead is stuck in a no-man's land between its past and future. New buildings look space age in design but everywhere you go there are memorials to those who have suffered.
As you walk down to Potsdamer Platz, following the path of the Wall, you will pass by the newly constructed memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.
The first thing you realise when you look at a map of Berlin’s city centre is that it wasn’t divided straight down the middle to form East and West Berlin. Instead The Wall zig zagged down the right hand side of the Tiergarten splitting the city centre more two-thirds (West) and one-third (East). Today the only evidence that the city was once divided between East and West are the small sections of the Wall left standing. However, with a little bit of imagination and the shaded red line on your map depicting the Wall’s route it isn’t difficult to picture what it must have been like.
Street and place names in Berlin appear long and complicated but you soon realise that words have just been joined together, for example, Tiergarten means Animal Garden. It was here that the 16th century Prussian Kings came to hunt wild animals. More of a forest than a park it takes up 630 acres of the city centre and is affectionately known as Berlin’s lung. To the North runs the River Spree and to the South a canal - the Landwehrkanal. The Tiergarten itself is made up of rivers and boating lakes as well as a famous zoo.
A wide road called 17 Juni runs through the middle of the Tiergarten passing the Victory Column and the Soviet War Memorial before arriving at the Brandenburg Gate. During the time of the Wall – between 1961 and 1989 – the Brandenburg Gate stood in no man’s land and although it is now pedestrianised it is easy to imagine how impressive it must have been to enter the city through this gateway.
On the other side of the Brandenburg Gate is the start of a beautiful wide street, Unter den Linden, which translated means Under the Linden Trees. However, the trees that line the street today were planted after World War II as Hitler cut down the originals to make the wide boulevard more parade friendly.
Unter den Linden runs through the middle of a district called Mitte and it is here where you will find the majority of Berlin’s historical sites. At the end of the street lies an island – Museum Island - home to five museums built in the 19th century and is also where you can catch a boat that will take you up and down the River Spree. Even if you are not a museum lover a visit to the Pergamonmuseum is a must. The main exhibits include the impressive marble Pergamon Altar, the Roman Market Gate of Miletus and the 6th century BC Ishtar Gate of Babylon all of which will leave you speechless.
Also on the island is Berlin’s Cathedral – Berliner Dom – whose interior was rebuilt only in 1993 and has a crypt filled with the tombs of Prussian royalty. Next door to this beautiful Cathedral stands a derelict Soviet eye sore – the Palace of the Republic. Why this featureless block of grimy bronze glass has not been demolished is beyond comprehension, although it does prepare you for the equally unattractive Alexanderplatz which is where you will find the base of the Fernsehturm TV tower.
Friedrichstrasse dissects Unter den Linden and is the city’s designer shopping street. It passes Gendarmenmarkt a large square with two identical cathedrals flanking a concert hall built in the 18th century. Another quaint area to visit close by is Nikolaiviertel, a mock-medieval village surrounding an authentic 13th century church, which gives you an idea of what old Berlin would have looked like.
Although much of the city was flattened during World War II the majority of the historical buildings in Mitte appear to have been miraculously saved but as you walk around this area and look closely at the buildings you notice they are either pock marked from bullets or have been patched up with different sized squares of new stone.
The replica guardhouse is surrounded by sandbags and guarded by two uniformed soldiers holding flagpole sized American and French flags.
Not so lucky was the area to the South of the Brandenburg Gate – Potsdamer Platz. As you walk down to Potsdamer Platz, following the path of the Wall, you will pass by the newly constructed memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This unusual memorial consists of 2,700 charcoal grey blocks of concrete of varying heights that covers two city blocks.
The Wall ran right through the middle of Potsdamer Platz and a small graffiti covered section stands on a street corner as a reminder. It looks out of place surrounded by the brand new high-rise glass buildings. The only interesting part of this slightly sterile area is the courtyard in the middle of the Sony Centre which is filled with cafes, bars and an IMAX cinema and it is worth stopping for a cold beer to experience the unusual indoors/outdoors atmosphere.
Another area of Berlin that has been recently developed is the area to the North of the Reichstag. Here a row of new government buildings have been built along the river and appear so surreal that they could be mistaken as a painted backdrop depicting a space age Berlin.
Don’t be put off by the queue to visit the Reichstag’s new domed roof as it is worth the hour long wait and admittance is free. The biggest surprise is when you exit the elevator and discover yourself back outside again, exposed to the elements. After circling your way up the inside of the dome a few times, admiring your reflection in the mirrored core as you go, you eventually reach the top and can enjoy the view. Before heading back down the elevator it is worth walking round the photographic exhibition showing the Parliament building’s history.
Just south of Potsdamer Platz the Wall turned East so that confusingly Mitte now lay to the North and to the South was the American Sector thus explaining the location of the infamous Checkpoint Charlie. The replica guardhouse is surrounded by sandbags and guarded by two uniformed soldiers holding flagpole sized American and French flags. They in turn are watched over by a large photo of a young American soldier – Charlie? Souvenir shops and stalls line the street selling postcards of “bombed” Berlin along with US, British and Russian war memorabilia and almost obscure the entrance to the museum.
Before you cross the road you pass a sign informing you that “You are now leaving the American Sector”. On the other side of the street, which would have been the other side of the Wall, you are greeted by 1,056 two meter high wooden crosses that fill the two corner gap sites and is a memorial to the Wall’s victims. Close by is another memorial - Topography of Terror - a photographic exhibit running along a protected length of the Wall on Niederkirchnerstrasse.
The exhibition is located on the cellar-prison remains of where the SS Leadership, the Secret State Police and the Reich Security set up their offices and was where Nazi war crimes were planned and executed. As all the text is in German it is worth picking up a free audio guide from the portacabin, which will also ensure that you start the exhibit at the right end.
It looks out of place surrounded by the brand new high-rise glass buildings.
You may be wondering what there is to see in West Berlin and apart from the Tiergarten and the 17th century Charlottenburg Palace there is surprisingly little. For art and music lovers there is the Kulturforum which lies to the south of the Tiergarten. This eclectic group of 1960 style buildings is where you will find numerous art galleries, museums, the national library and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
The main shopping street in West Berlin is Kurfürstendamm or as the locals call it, the Ku’damm. This is a beautiful long, wide street modelled on the Champs Elysées and is where you will find the eerie remains of the bombed 19th century Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church. The ruined bell tower has been left standing as a war memorial and a new modern church comprising two honeycombed octagonal buildings stand on either side.
By now you will have realised that the city is filled with war memorials but it was at 115/116 Kurfürstenstrasse that we accidentally stumbled upon the most unusual - on a bus shelter. The poster that covered the shelter read “Never Forget” and explained that the hotel next to it used to be the HQ of Nazi Adolf Eichmann’s Jewish Department.
In the evening the best place to go is around Hackesche Höfe, a series of connecting Art Nouveau courtyards and close by is Oranienburger Strasse a street full of trendy cafes, bars and restaurants. The Ku’damm also has many restaurants as well as the streets surrounding the neighbouring Savignplatz.
There is a lot to do in Berlin especially if you are a history, art or museum lover and on a sunny day it would be easy to wile away an afternoon in a beer garden. It does seem a shame that Germany’s Capital will always be synonymous with the horrors of WWII as it has so much more to offer. However, it is more important that we never forget what happened here and thanks to the number of memorials I don’t think anyone ever will.