A Life, Lived

Travel Tuesdays - Berlin Memorial To Gay Holocaust Victims

Yesterday was the day set aside by the UN on which the world remembers those affected by the Holocaust.

It seems fitting to head back to Berlin on Travel Tuesday to view another of the memorials to Holocaust victims that the German government has built over the past 10 years. In 2008 the German government unveiled a memorial to gay men killed in the Holocaust, set in Berlin's central Tiergarten Park, opposite the Jewish Holocaust Memorial.

The memorial consists of a four meter-tall block of concrete with a small window on one side. Through the glass, visitors can see a black-and-white film of same-sex couples kissing. An inscription says, "A simple kiss could get you in trouble."

In front of the memorial lay a bouquet of roses left by a previous visitor.

The Holocaust's impact on the Jewish population of Europe is better known than the fate of gays under the Nazis, but Hitler's regime was profoundly homophobic, and gays were relentlessly persecuted. In fact, homosexuality was persecuted to a degree unprecedented in history.

In 1935, the National Socialists issued an order making all male homosexuality a crime; the provisions governing homosexual behavior in Section 175 of the Criminal Code were significantly expanded and made stricter. A kiss was enough reason to prosecute. There were more than 50,000 convictions. Under Section 175, the punishment was imprisonment; in some cases, convicted offenders were castrated. Thousands of men were sent to concentration camps for being gay; many of them died there. They died of hunger, disease and abuse or were the victims of targeted killings.

Memorial to Politicians Who Opposed Hitler

The next memorial we saw was located immediately in front of the Bundestag.

 

This row of slabs (which looks like a fancy slate bicycle rack) is a memorial to the 96 members of the Reichstag who were persecuted and murdered because their politics didn’t agree with Chancellor Hitler’s. They were part of the Weimar Republic, the weak and ill-fated attempt at post-WWI democracy in Germany. These were the people who could have stopped Hitler. So they tried…and they became his first victims.

Each slate slab memorializes one man: his name, party, and the date and location of his death — generally in a concentration camp. They are honored here, in front of the building in which they worked.

This only accounts for the elected National leaders who were murdered by the Nazis. It would be a mistake to think that this was the limit of Nazi attacks on the opposition.

The remnants of the Communist and Socialist parties and members of the trade unions actively resisted the Nazi regime. Especially in the early years of the Third Reich, political prisoners were a significant portion of the concentration camp inmates. At the end of July 1933, about 27,000 political prisoners were being held in concentration camps in "protective custody." During its twelve year existence, Dachau was always a camp for political prisoners.

Many of those prisoners never returned home.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

The idea of a central memorial to the Jews murdered by the Nazis was first proposed in 1988, when German Jewish journalist Lea Rosh founded a group to support its construction and to collect donations. But a year later, the Berlin Wall fell and Germany was busy with the tasks of rebuilding and reunifying the two Berlins and the two states.

The idea was proposed again a few years later, and a resolution was passed by the Bundestag in 1998 to erect the memorial. This time, its completion was delayed by bureaucratic hassles, disagreements over concept and design, and opposition from many Germans.

In June 1995, the plan of Christine Jackob-Marks (a large sloping concrete surface with the names of the victims chiseled in) was declared the winner, but Bundeskanzler Helmut Kohl rejected it.

A plan by Peter Eisenman, a New York architect, emerged as the winner of the next competition in November 1997. In June 1998, the Bundestag decided in favor of Eisenman's plan, modified by attaching a museum, which Eisenman would also design.

Construction of the memorial began in April 2003. In October 2003, it was discovered that the German company Degussa provided some materials for the memorial and construction was halted - because a daughter company of Degussa had produced the Zyklon B poison used to murder people in the Nazi gas chambers. After some discussion, construction was resumed one month later, with continued involvement of Degussa.

On December 15, 2004, the memorial was finished. It was dedicated on May 10, 2005, as part of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of V-E Day. It opened to the public on May 12, 2005.

The memorial consists of about 2,700 concrete slabs ("steles") arranged in a grid pattern covering 19,000 square meters. The steles are 2.38m long, 0.95m wide and vary in height from 0.2m to 4.8m. The ground slopes unevenly. Visitors are encouraged to walk between the steles; the memorial can be entered from all sides and offers no prescribed path.

This feeling of groundlessness or instability which one feels as soon as you enter the memorial is thought to be an attempt to evoke the experiences of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust; visitors can wander through the stelae until they reach a disorientating claustrophobia, unsure of where they are and how to get out. 

Germany Remembers Nazi Terror

One of the things that fascinated me during my recent trip to Berlin was the manner in which Germans chooses to remember its Nazi past. In many nations there would be a marked effort to forget and to move on. Mind you, how to you forget a 13 year period during which your country plunged the world into a war killing some 50,000,000 people . . . and then there were the additional estimated 12,ooo,ooo victims of Nazi purification, terror, and retribution.

It would be a challenge to ignore that.

Through the various walking tours I experienced while in Berlin I got a better sense of how Germany was trying to remember to ensure that mankind learns from this dark period. At the same time, the country was actively working to create no memorials or inadvertent monuments to the Nazis and their leaders themselves which might become a rallying point for fringe elements in society.

Chris, our guide for the Topography of Terror walking tour, had an interesting perspective. Growing up in East Germany she was taught that WWII was a troubled period but that there was some glory to be found in the darkness. We were a bit shocked at that suggestion until she told us that the East Germany leadership predominantly came from the resistance to the Nazis - the heroes were those who fought Hitler and actively worked to undermine the war and extermination effort. In school they learned the stories of these remarkable heroes in addition to the darkness of war.

She then went on to talk about the year after the reunification of the country. East Germany no longer existed. The entire school curriculum was pretty much tossed out. For awhile there was no history taught at all because the teachers didn't know what was to be taught in the new Germany. When the new textbooks arrived things were very different - gone were the heroes that had been discussed previously. Instead there was a profound sense of guilt that permeated any discussion of the period from 1933 -1945.

I suspect that this continues today- particularly as those who were children during this period and may have witnessed the atrocities die out.

So Germany quietly remembers. There are memorials to the victims of Nazi terror - political opponents, Jews, the Sinti and Roma, and the homosexuals. A memorial to the disabled Germans who were murdered by the Nazis is in the works. You will find monuments to those who opposed Hitler. Significant events in Hitler rise to power are also commemorated.

The Topography of Terror museum is a big part of this remembering the dark past. This museum reminds us of how the Nazis used terror to manipulate, control, and intimidate people. It also looked at how these strategies were then 'exported' throughout Europe as Nazi control expanded.

I was struck by this photo that was on display:

In that sea of humanity there is one lone man who stands defiant, arms crossed refusing to cheer and salute.

I hope that if history ever repeats itself this focus on remembering a dark past would mean that more than one person would stand defiant!

My Last Day in Berlin

I woke on Tuesday morning with a plan of things I hoped to accomplish on my last day in Berlin. I checked in on my friend and she was feeling better but hoped to take it easy andrest up for the long travelday on Wednesday. I asked her if she needed anything and was told no so off I went. . .

Scupture above the entrance of Friedirchswerdersche Church

Berliner Dom - the main church in the city.

Statue of Martin Luther in Beliner Dom.

Steps to the top of the dome . . . 267 of 'em!

Assyrian sculpture in the Pergamon Museum.

Egyptian sculpture in the Neues Museum.

Cat sculpture in the Neues Museum.

Nefertiti's Bust - one of the world's classic pieces of art.

Juxtaposition - the famous TV tower overwhelming Marienkirche.

Lunch at the Galeria Kaufhof restaurant.

Starting my 50th birthday celebration early at the Hotel Adlon bar.

The Brandenberg Gate depicted in chocolate at Fassbender & Rausch- Berlin's most famous chocolate shop.

The tethered balloon that rises over what was once no-man's land. It is tethered to a Trabi car.

Oh oh - packing is gonna by a challenge!

One last trip to China City for dinner. Great Chinese food in Berlin!

Hmmmm, I think I know why I was so flipping exhausted by the time I lay down to bed!

Pergamon Museum

On our last day in Berlin Nancy was feeling a bit better but wanting to take it easy nonetheless. I had a long list of things I 'had' to do and see on this final day so off I went. The highlight has to be the famous Pergamon museum. All the guide books mention it, it’s on every list, every top ten compilation, but all the hoo-ha aside – nothing prepares you for the glory of this museum.  The outside of the museum is (like so much of Berlin) a building site; however once signs are followed around the fences, diggers, pipes and cranes; the museum is quite astonishing.

The Pergamon is unique in that it houses original, reconstructed monumental buildings such as the Pergamon Altar and the Market Gate of Miletus. Both of these extraordinary artifacts were transported from Turkey, and since its opening in 1930, there has been controversy over the legitimacy of the acquisition of the collection. Many have suggested that the collection be returned to Turkey. It would appear that during the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century German archeologists were busy packing entire classical sites in crates and shipping them to Berlin where they were reconstructed.

The star of the Classical Antiquities department is the Zeus Altar (180-160 BC), which is so large that it has a huge room all to itself. The frieze took over 20 years to reassemble from thousands of fragments uncovered in modern-day Bergama, Turkey. Steps lead from the museum floor up to the colonnade. Most fascinating is the frieze around the base, which depicts the struggle of the Olympian gods against the Titans. It is strikingly life-like, with figures that project as much as a foot from the background.

This department also contains the Market Gate of Miletus as well as sculptures from many Greek and Roman cities, including a statue of a goddess holding a pomegranate (575 BC), found in southern Attica, where it had been buried for 2,000 years. It was so well preserved that flecks of the original paint are still visible on her garments.

The Near East Museum contains one of the largest collections anywhere of antiquities from ancient Babylonia, Persia, and Assyria. Among the exhibits is the Processional Way of Babylon with the Ishtar Gate, dating from 580 BC, and the throne hall of King Nebuchadnezzar II (604 - 562 BC). Cuneiform clay tablets document a civilization that created ceramics, glass, and metal objects while Europe was still overrun with primitive tribes.

Upstairs is the Pergamon’s third collection, the Museum für Islamische Kunst (Museum of Islamic Art). Standouts here include the fortress-like, 8th-century caliph’s palace from Mshatta in the desert of what today is Jordan, and the 17th-century Aleppo Room from the house of a Christian merchant in Syria, with its richly painted, wood-panelled walls.

It was a spectacular place to be, to see, and had I not been trying to see as much as possible, I could have easily spent the whole day in the Pergamon Museum exploring all that she had to offer.

Starting the Birthday Celebrations

This is the year in which I turn 50.

I know some folks find the notion of turning 50 to be a depressing thing . . . not I. Frankly, in Jerry's sometimes twisted world, it is something to celebrate.

A few days ago I was chatting with my friend Diana on facebook and she mentioned celebrating her 40th birthday with a nice cocktail at the bar in Berlin's Hotel Adlon. I immediately decided that I would have a wee celebration on the 14th of every month in 2014 (my birthday being on July 14th). I won't be traveling to Berlin or some other exotic destination for my drink each month but I will plan something to make it special.

You may not know the hotel Adlon but I bet you have heard about it . . . it is the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby from a window while in Berlin. Unfortunate history - this is one of the best (if not THE best) hotels in Berlin. The rich and famous hang out here when they are in Berlin and yesterday I joined them!

I started the year-long celebration off with a chocolate/marzipan torte and a champagne cocktail with raspberry puree and raspberry liquer.

Wunderbar!

Creating and Spreading Terror

Yesterday our day started with a guided walk offered by Context Travel. I like to book guided walks through them because I have found that their walks are superior to those offered by other providers. They folks they hire to lead the walks are well-educated, well-connected, and know what they are talking about. Our guide, Chris, was a prime example of this - a degree in history, a second degree in German Cultural History, an East German who had fascinating stories to tell about how the reunification of Germany unfolded through the eyes of a young East German. All in all it was an enjoyable day even though we covered some horrific topics.

The walk is designed to explore the twelve years that still gape like an open wound at the center of Germany’s 20th century history: the years between 1933 and 1945 when Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party (the Nazis) steered Germany into war and terror. Over the three hours we learned more about the rise of the Nazis to power, the horrors and tragedies of their regime, and the events and circumstances that led to their fall. We visited a number of monuments that were designed and envisioned by Hitler’s chief architect Albert Speer that bear active witness to the reign of the Third Reich, trying to come to terms with this traumatic “past that will not pass away”.

Our docent walked us through the gate, to the Reichstag, then to the Memorial of the Sinti and Roma people (which had just opened the week prior,) on to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews, past Hitler's bunker and further on to the Topography of Terror museum all the while, stopping along the way at important buildings and sites.  It was fascinating.

Some of the stops I had already seen but there were a number of new ones  . . .

The spot where Ronald Regan made his 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall' speech.

Memorial to Soviet War Dead - the Nazis were particularly ruthless with killing Soviet soldiers that they captured. Some 14,000,000 Soviet soldiers were killed in the war.

Don't start with 'Jerry posted a picture of a garbage can . . . he has lost it.' This garbage can marks the spot where Hitler's private bunker had an escape route in the Chancellery gardens and into a nearby forest

The former office of the Air Force - Chris showed us how the Nazis used architectural features to dehumanize and intimidate those who entered the buildings.

I was intrigued by this sculpture:

Chris explained that it was dedicated to Georg Elser who attempted to stop the bloodshed of WW2 by assassinating Hitler in 1939. Acting on his own, he almost succeeded.

The walk finished at the Topography of Terror museum. On the same site, from 1933 to 1945, the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS were located there - the creators of the control that would drive a nation to war and exterminate millions of 'undesirables'.

In 1987, as part of Berlin's 750th anniversary. The cellars of the Gestapo headquarters, where many political prisoners were tortured and executed, were found and excavated. The site was then turned into a memorial and an open air museum. Many photos detail the history of repression under the Nazis.

Another section of the museum details the Nuremberg Trials, at which the leading surviving Nazi leaders were tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity. By pressing buttons, visitors are able to hear recordings of sections of the trial, including the voices of the leading defendants and the Allied prosecutors.

Given this focus of the exhibit upon the war criminals, the mechanisms of their administration and seizure of power, I learned a lot that I didn’t already know about the National Socialist Party. The plain facts of Nazi leadership are completely shocking and horrifying, and yet throughout the museum I was especially affected by the photographs—not just of concentration camps or the NS rallies (there were those, too), but very revealing and personal photographs of, for example, a Nazi Christmas party; the faces of dissidents; the public shearing of women accused of “intimate contacts” with an undesirable (in this case a man from Poland); guards from Auschwitz at the SS retreat in Sola-Hütte (“an idyllic mountain landscape”); former members of the SS guard, hiding their faces from the cameras at the second Treblinka trial.

The range of the photographs is impressive, and what they depict extremely emotional; in my opinion, it is very important to see. The Topography of Terror museum makes for a heavy but ctritical visit. I was shocked at how many of these 'control' strategies are still being used to some extent by governments today to manipulate the public and promote a rather narrow agenda.

Visiting the Bundestag

I confess that I did almost no research for our time in Berlin. I think I figured I'd do it while I had downtime in Amsterdam . . . which never happened. About the only thing I managed to do was book a couple of tours and find the hotel. Mind you, Nancy did nothing but but three tour books so I guess I shouldn't feel so badly. LOL

There was one other thing that I did - I read online that you could arrange free tours of the Bundestag (the more proper term Reichstag having gone out of favour with the Nazi connotations). It was free so we figured 'why not'. I wrote away and received a confirmation and a long document explaining what I needed to do and bring in order to get through the security.

We spend a great few hours yesterday wandering about the building, exploring the history, the architecture, and the way the two intersect with politics in this buiding. . . once we got through the rather intense security to get in and meet our guide.

I was surprised at how young a building it was - about 120 years old. Sure that may seem ancient by North American standards but remember in Europe it is pretty cmmon to find byildings which are 100s of years old.

During the short time the Bundestag has seem some incredibly traumatic history. On 9 June 1884, Kaiser Wilhelm I needed three attempts to lay the foundation-stone. It is said that, while he was using the tool, it cracked. The Kaiser did not like the Reichstag. He only reluctantly agreed to the plans of architect Paul Wallot and barely approved of his plans for a heavy stone dome. Because the Reichstag would then be even higher than the City Castle. Of course, MOST of all, he did NOT approve of the rabble trying to tell him how he should be leading the new republic.

Nonetheless, in 1894, after ten years of construction, the Reichstag was completed and its dome towered above the City Castle after all. Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was now in power and who was Kaiser Wilhelm’s grandson raged against this “pinnacle of bad taste." But what could he do? It's simple: He ended up discrediting the architect, referring to the Reichstag as the "Reich’s monkey house" and preventing the inscription "To the German people"(“Dem Deutschen Volke”) from being inscribed on it- which was added only in 1916.

Yet the Parliament building remained and, from that point onwards, it has reflected the turbulence of German history. On 9 November 1918, Deputy Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed from the window the creation of a republic. Things were fairly quiet for about 15 years and then not long after Hitler was elected disaster struck . . . disaster for the building and the world.

On 27 February 1933 under mysterious circumstances that still have yet to be explained, the Reichstag caught on fire, destroying the chamber and the dome. The Reichstag fire served as a pretext for the Nazi regime to persecute their political opponents. Hitler blamed the fire on the communists. The President was more worried about the communists than the Naxis so in a colossal boneheaded move he gave Hitler and the Nazis complete and unfettered power to act as they wished. This lead to the formation of the Third Reich.

This is the tunnel through which the individuals who set fire to the Reichstag gained access to the building

Unusually, during a period where the Naxis were building massive buildings throughout the city they left the Reichstag sit in its fire gutted state. Our guide explained that they used it as a prop - many of the pictures you see from the era show it with soldiers goosestepping past it, flags and banners waving in the wind. It may not have had for formal role but it had great symbolic purpose.

After being destroyed in the war the building was left to sit - an almost barely recognizable pile of rubble. Plans were made to demolish what was left until the Berlin Wall went up mere feet from the back of the building. Once again the structure had symbolic significance - this time for the allies who had defeated Hitler and were now engaged in the cold war against the USSR. There was enormous symbolism in the German Parliament building rises from the ashes within spitting distance of the Berlin Wall so rise from the ashes it did!

The former path of the Berlin Wall. Mere feet from the Bundestag.

It was rebuilt between 1961 and 1971 in a simplified form without the dome (which had been blown up in 1945 by the Russians), according to plans by Paul Baumgarten. It was used mainly as a museum and served no political purpose.

After German reunification, the German Bundestag decided to use the building as a seat of Parliament again. Between 1994 and 1999, the Reichstag was redesigned and expanded by the British architect Sir Norman Foster as a modern Parliament building while retaining its extensive, historical dimensions. The accessible glass dome, which initially generated a lot of controversy, has since become one of the landmarks of Berlin. Since 1999, the German Bundestag has been convening in the Reichstag building.

The plenary hall where the government meets. It is open to the east, west, north, and south, through large glass walls. It is also open to the cosmos through a giant glass dome.

During the tour we learned that there were three goals to this construction: to keep the building open and accessible to the outside to demonstrate the openness of the new government, art must be featured throughout the building, and the history must be shown. These pics will show how that has been done.

This memorial identifies those members of the Reichstag who were murdered by the Nazis. Each has their own piece of the sculpture inscribed with their name, where they were from, and the date they were murdered by the Nazis.

 

The Plenary Hall - open on four sides and to the skies.

 

This art installation has a box for every democratically elected representative of the Rechistag (up until the late 90s when they ran out of room).

This black box represents the Nazi era where there were no democratic elections.

 

Graffiti left by Soviet soldiers after the fall of Berlin. It was covered up during the first post-war restoration. Uncovered and preserved during the last restoration, the Germans went so far as to track down 5 of the soldiers and to invite them to the grand opening of the Bundestag.

 

The glass dome of the Bundestag - open to the elements. A gentle ramp allows you to walk to the top - stunning views of Berlin.

Hello Berlin

We arrived in Berlin a day ago after a seemingly never ending train ride from Amsterdam. Seriously, it was only 6 hours and we were in a first class car, but it just seemed to go on and on. I think that was my worst day for feeling sick with this cold so even an hour journey would have felt like 100!

By the time we got to Berlin I was in a blur. I do not really remember the arrival at all. We are staying at the Hotel Adina near Checkpoint Charlie and I LOVE it. The room is a huge suite - about 5 times the size of a normal European hotel room. I like the separate sleeping, living, eating, bathroom, and tiny kitchenette areas. I can't believe we got it for 85 euros a night . . . must have been an off-season deal.

Yesterday I was feeling 10000000 times better. After Nancy and I got our schedules synched via e-mail we met in the lobby and headed down to the Jewish Museum. It is located just south of the hotel in Berlin's vibrant Kreuzberg district. Built in 1999 and opened in 2001, it’s an attempt by architect Daniel Libeskind to express not only the horrors of the Holocaust, but also to examine the broader history of Jewish life and culture in Germany.The museum’s striking zinc clad structure, with its violent slashes for windows and unsettling zig-zag form, is intended to resemble a “dislocated” Star of David when viewed from above, readily indicates to visitors that they are not in for a comfortable experience.

The entrance to the museum is via an adjacent Baroque building, built in 1736, that originally housed the Prussian chamber court and later the City Museum. This all feels normal enough.

However, once you’ve passed the security check, things change quite dramatically. A steep black staircase descends into the heart of the main building, and what Libeskind describes as his ‘Trio of Axes’ – three lengthy, geometrically skewed corridors that crisscross to represent different aspects of the Jewish-German experience.

Along the Holocaust Axis, visitors pass a series of eerily lit display cases that showcase anti-Jewish Nazi propaganda, and personal mementos from those who either survived or were murdered in the Holocaust; an embroidered Star of David and phylacteries from Leo Sheuer, who spent 15 months hiding in a hole in the ground; letters between “Aimee and Jaguar”, two female resistance fighters and lovers who were separated by the Nazis and never saw see each other again.

At the end of this series of heartbreaking personal stories awaits the Holocaust Tower. Entered via a heavy metallic door, the tall, cold, strangely-angled structure is relieved only by a thin slit at the top that lets in a tiny amount of light and the muffled sounds of the outside world. I spent considerable time in there alone - it was amazing how the design evoked such powerful feelings - being separate, helpless, lost, hopeless, and fear.

At the end of the Axis of Emigration lies another disorienting experience; the Garden of Exile. This installation comprises 49 concrete columns that on first appearance look weirdly crooked, until you realise that the columns are in fact straight. It’s the ground that’s askew. This sudden perceptual shift causes a feeling of nausea that increases as you stroll in and around these towering, specifically built by Libeskind to provoke the alien, unnerving experience of exile.

The final Axis – the Axis of Continuity – winds its way through the rest of the building and, with the exception of the occasional deliberate dead-end (including one right at the top of the main stairs), thoughtfully-placed void, leaves behind the darker expressions of absence and disappearance to enter more familiar museum territory.

The broader story about the Jewish relationship with Germany comes almost as a relief, especially given the enjoyably innovative and varied nature of the exhibition. Spread over two vast floors, visitors find oil paintings, reproduced texts, films and touchscreen presentations, a coin minting machine, and lots of personal histories of the famous (Einstein, Rathenau, Liebermann) and the forgotten, such as the journal of Glikl bas Juda Leib, which gives rare insights into 17th century Jewish life for Jewish women.

We also learn of how anti-Semitism was a part of the Jewish-German relationship pretty much from the offset - at first based upon religious prejudices and later political/pseudo-scientific ones. Of course, the events leading up to the Holocaust are also covered, with further eruptions of the museum’s overarching themes of loss and absence.

It was an art instalation, Fallen Leaves (Shalekhet) by Menashe Kadishman, the cut the sharpest. When first viewed from above it looks like an interesting space with objects on the floor. When you focus on those objects you realize you are looking at faces with their mouths frozen open in a scream. These 10,000 open mouthed faces are coarsely cut  from heavy, circular iron plates cover the floor. The text panel in the museum said that this exhibition dedicates it to all innocent Jews victims of violent and war . Also the title “Fallen Leaves” raises suggestion both negative predestination and of hope for new life in the coming spring”

I had just got to the main exhibit when I started to receive e-mails from Nancy to say she was done and waiting. While she didn't intend for me to rush, she was content to enjoy a snack from the wonderful cafe and read her Berlin books, I suddenly felt pressure to get moving. In the end I missed a large number of exhibits meaning a return visit is required. I was also conscious of the time - it was close to 1:00 PM and our walking tour started from the Brandenburg Gate at 2:00 PM. We had no idea how long it would take to get there so we wanted plenty of time!

Off we went . . .

The tour we had booked was similar to the free tour we enjoyed in Amsterdam. In fact, it was offered by the same company and the tour concept originated in Berlin. The tour itself is free - at the end you pay the guide what you think he/she deserves based upon the tour.

Our guide was an American history grad who had been in the city for 6 years. There was an interesting contrast between the Amsterdam guide, who used history as entertainment, and our Berlin guide (George), who used history to inform and educate.

I won't go through the entire three hour tour because this would be the longest blog post EVER. I'll do separate posts on some of the things we saw and sites we visited. That being said, some of the highlights for me:

The Brandenburg Gate.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

The unpaved, non-descript parking lot underneath which are the ruins of Hitler's bunker where he spent the last 4 months of the war and where he committed suicide as the Russians stormed into the city.

The Berlin Wall. At this point I am standing in the so-called 'death strip' in East Berlin. 25 years ago I would have been shot dead for standing here.

One of the many pieces of the wall used for art installations. I understand that they are whitewashed over (or whatever technique they use) and new art is painted on top on a regular basis.

The double brick line that runs throughout the city. It shows where the Berlin Wall once stood.

The famous Berlin street food - currywurst. A grilled sausage chopped up, covered with curry powder and curry ketchup. Sounds gross but actually tasted yummy - even better with a beer. :-)

Gendarmenmarkt - where the 'twin churches' are located and the concert hall. The beautiful square is where Berlin's main Christmas Market is held in December.

Bebelplatz where you'll find Humboldt University, one of Berlin’s most prestigious universities dating back to 1810. This is the location of the infamous 1933 Nazi book burnings. When you walk into the square you will see many people staring down at the ground but once you get closer you will see a sunken glass plate between the pavement that provides a view into a room full of empty bookshelves. The art work of the Israeli artist Micha Ullman is called “Library”. These empty bookshelves could accommodate about 20,000 books which represent the books which the Nazis burnt on May 10th, 1933 on this spot.

There was also a plaque which included a quote from Heinrich Heine written in the mid-18oos that had a chilling accuracy . . .

That was only a prelude, there
where they burn books,
they burn in the end people.

It was poignant to visit at twilight. In the centre of the square was a woman playing music on her violin that would have been burnt in the fires as it was composed by a Jew - I loved the quiet defiance of art over the ugliness of book burning. Also many of the rooms in Humbolt university which overlooked the square showed wall after wall filled with books.