Part 64: Berlin: Snow, Snow, Snow. Feb 24, 2013

The next morning, I hopped on the tram through East Berlin to visit the Berlin Wall Memorial.  East Berlin is nice, but it’s still bleak.  I can spot a Soviet block apartment building from a mile away, and there were plenty of them here, albeit painted in bright colors.  The memorial is not exactly where you would expect it to be.  It isn’t near anything else, but it’s free, highly informative, and even has multimedia.  It was snowing profusely, but I still listened to the recordings of people telling their stories, saw the pictures of the 136 people who died trying to cross the wall.

Security at the wall was intense and included a “dead zone” between the two sides complete with razor wire, dogs, and machine guns.  In the nearest subway station, there was a fascinating exhibit on how the wall extended underground as well.  A couple of the suburban train lines passed under wall and back so the stations in East Berlin became ghost stations where trains never stopped.  Unfortunately this also meant that the rails in these areas were not maintained and sometimes trains derailed.  There were also armed guard stations on the platforms and tunnels were bricked up to keep people from using the underground to escape to the West.

I took a quick side trip to see the Berlin Synagogue, which wasn’t that exciting since you can’t go inside.  From there, I passed back through Brandenburger Tor to visit the Memorial to the Sinta and Roma killed in the Holocaust. 

I then visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.  It is a huge memorial that consists of 2,711 concrete blocks of various heights in a sloping area.  It would be a scary place at night.  Underneath the memorial is an information center.  It gives a history of the Holocaust and documents victims’ names and stories. 

Next up for the day was Checkpoint Charlie.  There is a recreation of the checkpoint complete with the sign “You are now leaving the American sector.”  Unlike my dad, I crossed the line without having to bribe a communist official in order to stay out of jail.  I also visited the Black Box Museum on the Cold War. 

Lastly, I went to the Topography of Terror Museum.  It is located on top of the ruins of the Gestapo headquarters and has an outdoor exhibit that shows the ruins of prison cells.  Inside there is a detailed exhibition on the history of the Nazi regime.  It is a little heavy on reading, but it’s very good and free.  :) 

I wandered through Potsdamer Platz to see the Sony Center.  After WWII, the buildings in the area were mostly destroyed and then it became part of the Berlin Wall dead zone.  After the wall fell, it was developed into an entertainment and shopping district.  The Grande Hotel Espianade Breakfast Room remains can also be seen behind glass and lit up in bright colors.

Lastly, I went to take a picture of the parliament building at night.  It was lovely, but more importantly someone was having a bit of fun and had stamped huge footprints in the snow.   It was nice to have a little bit of whimsy after a day of hard core, rather unhappy history.