Berlin! History.... History.... and more History!
Our stay in Berlin was very rich in history. We toured the museums and learned more details about the holocaust then we had learned eons ago in school. It is a little tough to find that balance of happiness when your exploring a new place and the heaviness of the history of the city. We opted out of a tour to a concentration camp after the time spent at the “Murder of the Jews Memorial” and “Topography of Terror.” Instead we chose to go to a beautiful city park and enjoy the surroundings.
I wasn’t prepared for Berlin, I somehow I had imagined it would be more like the other European cities we saw. Berlin was very heavily bombed in World War II and the signs are still there. There is a lack of old Architecture from the before the 20th century. Some of the current monuments display the damage that it received as the city was bombed in WWII as the alleys entered the city towards the end of the war. We were informed by a guide that the Berlin wall had only been down 27 years but it had been up for 28 years.
· The Berlin wall – The Berlin wall came down in 1989. On one side of the wall, East Berlin, the buildings tend to be made of cement stone and show little for architectural beauty. Many of the buildings are square, flat and a monotone color. Also there are big blue above ground pipes that carry water – the sight is unforgettable and heavily distracts from the scenery. However, on the Westside the architecture tends to be more ornate but not the beautiful that we were enjoying in France. The blue above ground pipes cannot be seen here thankfully.
· Memorial of Murdered Jews – A memorial of heavy grey blocks line an uneven ground that appear to be a maze. The person who designed the memorial wanted to capture how the people were all treated as non-individuals and were left lost to what was ahead of them in the future treatment. At first sight, I did not care for it but once we went below and went through the museum, it made more sense to me. I felt it is a very fitting monument.
· The Victory Statue – We climbed the 300+ stairs to the top to see a wonderful view of Berlin. The Victory Statue was erected in 1873 to memorialize the Napoleonic Wars and the Germanic Wars. We walked away with the education of how many wars that Germany has been a part of.
· Tiergarten Park – A lovely huge park in the middle of Berlin. There is a lake you can rent boats, numerous trails to jog, walk and run on and plenty of grass to lay on to catch the sun’s rays. We stumbled upon an area with nude sun bathers, which happens to be acceptable in the city.
· A big surprise was the Olympic Stadium. The scene was the 1936 Olympics where Jesse Owens won 4 gold metals. We toured the facility and gazed over the complex from one of the towers overlooking the practice fields. I was shocked to learn that Hitler had won the bid for the Olympics. Many countries boycotted the event.
We left Berlin with the thankfulness that we had gone. We each learned more than we anticipated. I would really enjoy coming back to this city in 20 years to see how it has changed and moved on from the past without forgetting it. There was one store front sign that I saw (and regret not taking a picture) that said “The past is over” and it made me wonder about the feeling of the everyday Germans and their children growing up with all that heavy history on a daily basis. Beth
