Friday, September 16, 2011
Berlin, Germany
Neither Jan nor I slept well last night, for no good reason, we just didn't. We had planned to be up and out early, breakfasted well, answered emails, wandered about, and be on the hopon-hopoff bus when it started at ten oclock this morning. But we didn't. We left the hotel about 12:30pm, dragging our tails behind us like old tired dogs, took some pictures from the bridge next to us, over the Spree River just behing the hotel, then walked over to the Ostbahnhoff to buy our tickets for tomorrow's journey to Leipsig to see Angie, and the train onward from there to Frankfurt. Had a coffee in the Deutchbahn ticket station, for breakfast, then bought a sandwich and a coke to go, and left the station looking for the hop on - hop off bus pickup down by the O2 concert house just east of our hotel. A bright sunny day, barely jacket weather but we brought them anyway. Along we walked, looking for the bus pickup point on our map, and just about missed the main event on our right ... a segment of The Berlin Wall.
The wall was a huge iconic thing in its day, which lasted from 1964 through to 1989 when it was torn down. It was erected to stop the flow of immigrant germans from the Russian-controlled area of Berlin to the American-controlled area. Some 2.8 million Germans escaped the Russian sector before the barbed wire, then the wall, almost ruining the East German economy in the process. In response the wall was erected to keep the East Germans from freedom. I have been aware of 'the wall' all of my life, but didn't really know much about it. In my mind it was like the wall of a prison, 30 feet high, 6 feet thick, barbed wire along the top and gun towers every 20 feet. And search lights, dogs, guns, men with dogs, men with guns, more guns, etc. So what did I see today? The wall is about 10 feet high, no barbed wire, about 8 inches thick at the bottom, 4 inches at the top, concrete encasing rebar, a round concrete cap on the top of the wall. But what you don't see, now, is the search lights, gun towers, dogs, men with dogs, men with guns, more guns, etc. Because they were there, back then. So the wall is 'smaller' than I had thought but that doesn't matter, there was a wide perimeter in front of the wall on the Russian side, and barbed wire in the pictures, and anyone who did try to get to the wall and vault it was shot. So, though it was not as physically imposing as I had thought it was clearly very effective to keep the East Germans in.
We took a lot of pictures of the wall segment by the O2 concert hall, then caught the tour bus, plugged in our headsets, and were on the tour for the next two hours. The tour hit all the high points of the city, as these types of tours do, and we stayed on the bus for most of the circuit until we had seen most of the east-end sights. There wasn't much in the east end of the city, the communist end, as they did not do much reconstruction after the communists arrived. Over 70% of the city was destroyed by American and British bombers in 1944 and 1945. Shocking. We hopped off the bus for the last time near 'Checkpoint Charlie', a famous site of a confrontation between Soviet and American tanks in 1961, and there are some great pictures of the two sides squaring off in an intersection with Checkpoint Charlie in the foreground. As we know now, the Russions blinked and slunk away, and the 'good guys' won. It's all true. A local hero, there is a monument to him now though I don't recall his name five hours after I heard it, was shot in this 'no mans land', and bled to death as would-be rescuers from the American side would have been shot had they tried to get to him, and nobody bothered from the Russion side as they had shot him in the first place. Now, looking around, could we imagine that, see those feelings on the faces of those around us??? No. My guess is that 60% of those around us were tourists, like us, seeing only the history. There were german actors dressed up like american soldiers, posing in front of the 'Checkpoint Charlie' building (itself only a replica, but true to scale evidently), as this place seems to be like Mecca for American servicemen of that era. Billboards all around us with great images shot by photojournalists of the time, of the Russian and American tanks gun to gun across an intersection there, at the corner of Friedrichstrasse and Zimmerstrasse. Tense stuff, well documented, and much in the Russian character of the era. The story boards went on to present the following years for Russia, including the debacle in Afganastan and that, at the conclusion of the unsuccessful adventure into Afganistan, the Russians proposed 'Glasnost' and 'detant' and as a result the cold war ended, Russia shrank, the Berlin wall came down, and Germany was reunified. Interesting. Does that mean something positive may happen if America (the new and strident Ursus Horriblus of a Russian bear on the world stage) pulls back from that benighted and pestilence filled land? Hope so.
Later, deeper into Berlin about five minutes, was a series of storyboards beside a building, with the history of the conflict that pre-dated Checkpoint Charlie. Included was the story of the Reichstadt fire in 1933, for which Communists and their Jewish backers were deemed responsible. We know now that: a. the story was false, it was a staged event by the 'Brown shirts', Hitler's goon squad, and b. it established the basis of the persecution of the Communists and the Jews that financed them, and c. the event was essential to establish a LEGAL basis for both the persecution and the investigations (unlimited search and seizure, guilt until proven innocent, etc) that followed. It does not take an Einstein to see the connection to '911', does it? So, so, so much more to say on that topic, but this is not the stage to use.
Free of the bus now, we wandered north toward Unter den Linden strasse, the divided main street of Berlin that has at one end the Brandenburg Gate (and nearby Reichstag) and at the other the new and modern Alexanderplatz. Arriving at Unter den Linden strasse we turned left toward the storied Brandenburg Gate. This street is the central show-case street of Berlin, filled with good hotels, Embassies, coffee houses, restaurants, and shopping stores. Down the middle lies a median, along which we walked. In the distance we could see the six pillars of the main Brandenburg gate, with the bronze statue of the winged goddess 'Victoria' (Victory) atop in her charriot, holding a staff (spear, scepter,?) with a cross device at the tip, crowned by an eagle, drawn by four rampant horses. Quite a sight. Evocative of martial glory, triumph, defeat of the foes, ascendance of the chariot, and victory of all that is good and right, protection of the populace. The stuff of goosebumps. But then on the storyboards nearby, the story that Napoleon marched victorious through these gates (inspired and copied from the columns and carvings of the Greek Acropolis) and, liking the imagery, captured 'Victoria' and took her to Paris minus the portals. She came back, of course, but now seems to face 'the other way' toward Alexanderplatz. Even our icons have a history, nothing remains the same.
Nearby the Tor ('Tor' is 'gate' in German, hence 'Brandenburg Tor' in the Guidebooks) are some more storyboards, showing its history through the ages. Napoleon's arrival is a painting, but the WWII eara is photos and the absolute devastation of the area around the gate is astonishing. Where I stood, photographing, a ruined truck stood, bombed and burned out, the gate itself blackened by fire. Later, another storyboard, showed the gate in the hiatus between war and reunification, standing alone and unaided, under the machine-gun range of the Soviets but outside the scope of the help by the American or British sectors. For almost thirty years. Another storyboard showed the Berlin Wall, just toward the Eastern Sector, with people crawling over it toward the Tor once again, celebrating the truimph of human will over dictatorship. Swarms of people, on the wall, climbing the wall, falling over the other side, swamping the Tor, arms in the air, celebrating. To them, a world-changing moment, a united (again) Germany. So much emotion around this symbol, an icon indeed. Here we stand, wanting to feel it but the emotions are not really happening. Not surprising, it is not the icon itself that involks the feelings, it is the events themselves, focused on the icon, that inspires. So, with no big deal going on, just the Gate standing there as it has though the ages, the raw emotions won't come to the fore, only the imagined ones. Impressive, no less.
On down the block to the Reichstag, or parliament building. Hitler was here when he was Chancellor, along with all his buddies. So many stories, so little time. He wasn't right in his thinking, he was WRONG!!!!! Who would doubt that. But the German people have been victimized and demonized for his wrongs, were and are still. You can hear the appologies in the disembodied voice of the recorded tour-guide message of the tour bus. Berlin was over 70% levelled by British and American bombs, as were ALL German cities. In fact, the bombing stopped before the war was over BECAUSE THEY RAN OUT OF VALID TARGETS. Dresden, never a military target at all, was bombed because it was the last untouched German city standing. It was a center for refuge processing from other targeted cities, filled with them, and it was hit by a firebomb raid that had the same devastating effect as on Hamburg. A non-military target, fire-bombed, and followed up with the escorting American fighters flying up and down the steets, machine-gunning anything that moved. Read about it, and weep for those events being part of our heritage, our doing, in this most holy of wars that Canada, America, and Britain have ever fought. It makes me ill to stand in these streets and see, in my lifetime, the horrors that my country and its allies created in the name of victory. Had I lived here, born in 1944, I would be dead now most likely. Or scarred physically and emotionally for life.
Later, we left that western section of Berlin around the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag, and walked west toward Alexanderplatz. We stopped for a lovely dinner at a sidewalk cafe, Pizza and Tuna Salad, and a liter of Pino Grigio, then walked on finally to Alexanderplatz and thence to 'home' at the Ibis by the Ostbahnhof. An earlyish night, 11:30pm or so, and a good night's sleep, finally, for both of us.
Part of our city tour took us to Alexanderplatz, with the guides explanation of its origin and development. We also toured by the Hauptbahnhof, newly constructed in 2004 for the world cup. Also the Tiergarten which is a huge nature park within the city of Berlin, now for the public's use but in the time of the Kaisers the private hunting preserve of the era's rich and famous. Following on, the Potzdammerplatz - a huge shopping area and tribute to the good things that financial success will buy, and other sights too numerous to mention, including the lovely Charlottesburg palace.
