Yesterday we had a tour booked with Context Tours. It was the Berlin Welcome Tour. We had done a similar tour upon our arrival in Naples and loved it. The tour is designed to provide an orientation to the city, a bit of the history, and help us get our bearings.
We met our guide outside our apartment building. She asked us what we were interested in seeing and where we'd like to go. I left that up to Paul since I had been to Berlin and had an idea of the layout (although not in our direct neighbourhood).
We started off. It wasn't long before she pointed out some stolperstein.
The stolperstein art project was initiated by a German artist in 1992, and is still ongoing. It aims at commemorating individual persons at exactly the last place of residency—or, sometimes, work—which was freely chosen by the person before he or she fell victim to Nazi terror.
The majority of stolpersteine commemorate Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Others have been placed for Sinti and Romani people, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, black people, members of the Christian opposition, Freemasons, the Communist Party and the European anti-Nazi Resistance, military deserters, and the physically or mentally disabled.
South of our apartment we stopped at a church called the Zion Church. Apparently during the years leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall this was a base of the resistance. In the mid-1980s, opposition groups such as the “Zion’s Church Peace and Environmental Circle” began meeting in the basement of the church. It was also where they hid the “Umwelt-Bibliothek” (Environmental Library), containing officially prohibited books and magazines on environmental and human rights topics. Following a raid, the Stasi arrested some of the members, which only brought the group to wider attention. Supporters held vigils and the events were closely reported in the Western media. The arrested members were soon released and the group gained great popularity, becoming a driving force in the civic movement that led to the end of the GDR.
I doubt we would have had any knowledge of these things having happened in our neighbourhood without our guide!
As we wandered around she pointed out restaurants to try, places to shop, etc.
Much of the area we were traveling through was a an area where many Jews lived prior to the war. She showed us the distinctive architecture they used for their houses with a series if interconnecting interior courtyards. One of the was decorated in decorative tiles in an art nouveau style.
We crossed the Spree and stopped for a bit on museum island where Dionysia explained the history behind the Berliner Dom and the various museums on the island.
As we crossed back to the mainland our guide stopped us and pointed out a nondescript building to us.
In that middle yellow building is where Angela Merkel lives. When she became leader of Germany she refused to live in the house designed and built for the German leader. Instead she chose to live in the apartment she has has since she was a student at the university. You can't see if from the picture but there are two police officers located outside - they are the only indicators that one of the leaders of the free world is living there on the second floor.
We continued on our way wandering along the main thoroughfare towards the Brandenburg Gate. From time to time Dionysia would veer off and show us something that was slightly off of our route.
Eventually we ended up at the Jewish memorial where we sat and talked about the artist's design and the intention behind the distinctive memorial that everyone either loves or hates. The individual concrete blocks are laid out on an undulating background, divided up by symmetrical paths. The blocks gradually increase in size as they move into the centre, allowing just a fraction of light to penetrate through. The many different paths create a maze and a sense of “getting lost” among the grey, monotonous blocks, which combined with the lack of light inside the monument engender a particularly strange feeling for the visitor.
After we left the memorial we ended up at the traditional tourist stop - the Brandenburg Gate.
The Brandenburg Gate is one of the most iconic sights in today’s vibrant Berlin. More than just Berlin’s only surviving historical city gate, this site came to symbolize Berlin’s Cold War division into East and West – and, since the fall of the Wall, a reunified Germany.
It was here that we said auf wiedersehen to Dionysia. We were hungry so we stopped at a restaurant that she recommended for a late lunch.
We had a toast to Berlin. I had a bowl of chicken soup (now that Paul's cold has roosted in me I am eating a lot of soup) and goulash. Paul had schnitzel. All amazing food.
Afterwards we slowly made our way back to the apartment.
I did notice this modified billboard along the way . . .
Evidence of the anti-immigrant sentiment which Dionysia told us has thrown the country into a bit of a turmoil since the recent election.
By the time we got home I was exhausted. Six hours of walking will do that to an old, out of shape man! I had a nap while Paul did some laundry.
When I got up we popped over to the store only to find it closed today.
We made do with what we had in the fridge for dinner.
A great first day in Berlin!
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