Today was spent with a respectable 12 miles of wandering in Berlin. It got cut short because a storm came through, so there was a park I was planning on going to, but instead headed back to my hotel early (19:00, so not that early!). My conference hotel is in the “city center” which made it easy to see a ton of sites.
There is a lot of history in Berlin, beyond just the wall, but that was still what I was most interested in.
Some maps, to help with the background if you’re unfamiliar. The first is how Germany was split up after WWII – there were Soviet, German, French and American sectors. Each had oversight of their sector, but they also worked together to govern the entire country, in what was called the Allied Control Council. The City of Berlin is actually in red/Soviet Union part. The Soviets wanted total control of Berlin, but the other three countries pushed back, so they split the city up as well. This happened in 1945, and kind of worked until 1947, when the Soviets decided they didn’t want to play any more.
West Germany was formally formed as a self governing country in 1949, as was East Germany (also known as the German Democratic Republic, and they were still basically governed by the Soviets). West Germany refused to acknowledge Berlin as a part of East Germany, and functionally believed it to be an occupied city.
The issue was, East Germany was losing a ton of their population. It was generally an open city between East and West Berlin. Teachers, doctors, and others that were educated wanted to leave East Germany – so they’d just head to West Berlin and take a flight out, where they were welcome by America/France/Britain/Eventually West Germany with open arms. These were smart, educated, useful people – the more, the better. East Germany was obviously not happy about this, as about 1/5 of their population left. Then, on August 13th, 1961, the first Berlin Wall was built. It was literally built overnight – people went to bed, and when they woke up in the morning, about 96 miles of razor wire fencing had been installed to surround West Berlin, with guards every 30 feet. August 13th is known as “Barbed Wire Sunday.”
After the initial wall went up, East Germans leaving dropped, but not enough – a more secure wall was installed. It was “improved” again in the mid 60s to clear the area outside of the wall to make people trying to get out more visible. The cleared area became known as the “death strip.” The wall was updated again, between 1975-1980, into what most of us picture as the wall. Back to the wall again later.
Interesting (to me, at least) note – West Germans had a draft, but if you lived in West Berlin, you didn’t have to serve. That meant West Berlin filled with anarchists, pacifists, artists and hippies. Those distinct cultures are what make Berlin so cool today. West Berlin was sometimes compared to Hawaii – Hawaii is of course part of the US, but the unique location makes it seem like a whole different world. That’s how West Berlin and West Germany were.
Anyway, the Brandenburg Gate, is the first “monument” I went to.
The gate was one of 18 in the old city walls, and the only one still left. It was built in 1792. Napoleon came through it in 1806 as he “conquered” the area (which was Prussia. at the time), and he actually took the statue off the top. He took it back to Paris with him, as a memento. 8 years later, they took it back. The story is that the woman driving the chariot was renamed Victoria, the goddess of Victory, and the plaza renamed to Pariser Platz (“Parisian Square“), so that German Victory could always look down on France.
The swastika is banned in Germany, as is giving the Nazi salute. A few years ago, an American in the square gave the salute for a photo, and a German punched than and knocked them unconscious.
Brandenburg gate is where Reagan gave his speech in 1987.
General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate.
Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
The American and French Embassies are on either side of the gate.
Iconic in a different way, this hotel is across from the gate. The Queen of England stayed here, as did Obama, and this is also the hotel where Michael Jackson hung his baby over the railing.
Next is the Reichstag building, where the German government convenes, with its modern glass dome. This building now houses Parliament – when it isn’t in session, you can look down into where they would vote. The building played various roles throughout the decades.
It was built in 1884. On February 27, 1933, a left-wing radical allegedly set fire to it – a fire which was later believed to have been set by the Nazis themselves. Either way, the fire is basically what allowed Hitler to throw out the constitution and start doing what he wanted.
There is a famous photo of the Battle of Berlin, that is maybe the first example of photoshop? The battle is the last (big) battle of the war, and lead to Hitler’s suicide. The Reichstag building was taken on May 1st. The below photo was taken a day or two later, staged by a photographer. He grabbed two nearby soldiers (on from Kazakhstan, one from Georgia) to pose with the flag. Soviet leadership loved the photo – until they realized that one of the guys had two watches. this is because they were looting everything they could. they wound up doctoring the photo and releasing it, so he was only wearing one watch, but the original was eventually released.
So then I headed to a Soviet War Memorial. There are over 350 Soviet memorials in the area – but they all mark graves. Germans are quick to point out this isn’t like confederacy monuments installed in the US; these are instead death markers of bodies. AND Russia signed an agreement with Germany when they left that they are still actually owned by Russia, but the cost of maintenance is paid by Germany, which irritates a lot of Germans. his memorial in particular was literally one of the first things built after the war – it was done in November of ’45. That’s because Russia was tryign to demonstrate that they had claim to the entire city, and to make sure the allies understood how much Russia had sacrificed.
Next I went to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe. There are 2,711 stones, all the same width and depth, but no two are the same. They vary in height, and slope. There are also no instructions, and the artist will not talk about what he meant by his design. The idea is that it can mean something different to each person. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, but as I was walking through it, with these tall blocks surrounding me, I had a pretty powerful reflection and reaction (i.e. I started crying).
I then went to…a parking lot. In 2007, the German government acknowledged that under this parking lot, Hitler’s bunker had existed. It was about 30′ underground, and had 30 rooms. He spent the last 5 months of his life in there, and it is where he killed himself.
Housing was built around the parking lot in ’88. The government didn’t want to share what the lot was, because they didn’t want it to become some creepy memorial, and it was filled with concrete. The eventually admitted it, partly because they were annoyed by people trying to “find” it and disturbing other things in the general area.
Fun fact. Hitler was worried the Russians would take his body and put it on display (like they did with Lenin), so he had given directions for his body to be burned. He killed himself by taking a cyanide pill and shooting himself in the head, because even he knew he deserved to be extra dead.
Then things get weird. The rumor is his bodyguards tried to burn him, but the Russians caught them burning his body, and THEY STOLE IT. But no one else knew. A death certificate wasn’t issued until 1956, with lots of rumors that he had actually escaped. In 1973, the Russians say they got a copy of his dental records, confirmed it was him, and then dumped his ashes into the Elbe River. No one wanted to bury him because they didn’t want that to become a memorial site either.
Next thing I went to is a classic example of Nazi architecture, the former Reich Air Ministry built in 1936. (It is now the German Finance Ministry). In 1952, they installed this mural – created entirely from hand-painted Meissen porcelain tiles, it depicts utopic East Germans celebrating life in East Germany.
It faces Leipziger Strasse. That’s interesting because that street in front of the mural was the site of a 25,000-strong protest by striking East Berlin workers on the 6th June, 1953. Soviet troops arrived to suppress the crowd, and it led to the (failed) general East German Uprising of 1953. This uprising led to a huge expansion of the Stasi, which were sort of the state police. they’re compared to the KGB in Russia – but they were considered far worse. It is estimated that one out of every 3 people in East Berlin worked for the Stasi – because they’d show up at your lunch table, tell you you had to do something or report on someone, and if you didn’t your youngest daughter would be given away. You weren’t really left with a choice.
The building was built “for 1,000 years” at Hitler’s request. It wasn’t actually hit during the war – instead, this building was used as a location identifier, to help the Allies know where to bomb. Normally you’d use hills or things, but Berlin is actually very flat – the tallest hill today is a hill built of a pile of rubble for WWII. So this building was preserved to use to base drops of bombs at other targets.
Berlin is a mix of new and old buildings.
I then headed to the Berlin Wall memorial.
In 1989, Hungarians wound up opening access into Austria. East Germans then start going to Hungary, to get into Austria; thousands more escaped by reaching the West German Embassy in Czechoslovakia. The system is crumbling, and East Germany needs to respond. They have emergency meetings, and decide that they’ll start loosening restrictions and allowing more freedom to travel, slowly.
Public Relations Minister Gunter Schabowski is supposed to share news of this loosening in a press conference. He’s given a note about the updates, but no one really explains it to him. He’s yammering on about the party and blah blah blah. Finally, toward the end, an Italian journalist asked about proposed changes to the travel regulations. Schabowski talked in vague terms about the need for reform. But then he remembered the paper he had been handed. He reads the note – and then is asked WHEN they changes will go into effect. He says that as far as he knows, it is “immediately.” Oops.
The press conference is broadcast, and people immediately start heading to the wall. Guards don’t really know what to do, so they just start letting people out. Now the news is saying the wall is open, so MORE people start showing up. So on November 9, 1989, the wall was taken down by the people, because some guy made a mistake. (The assumption is it wouldn’t have happened in a few years anyway).
I thought a lot about my dad while there, and cried some more. It’s interesting to reflect on the way this wall impacted lives from all over the world, and I spent some time here just sitting and reflecting.
In front of the wall is a mini museum and memorial – it is in front of what had been the (underground) offices of the Gestapo and Secret Police. It was discovered in 1990, when the wall came down. It is likely where Heinrich Himmler, the architect of the holocaust, worked.
From there, I went to Checkpoint Charlie. Their side of the checkpoint was huge. Our side, to get into the American part, was tiny. This was intentional – we (America) did not acknowledge that Russia had this right, and so we did not acknowledge it as a legitimate border – so our checkpoint for passports was “temporary.” And it really was – though it sat there for 30+ years, when the wall came down they came by and picked it up on a flatbed and drove it off.
Never trust a communist. Except, it really was safe to come into East Berlin as a “tourist” – you could get a visa for one day to visit, and it was the “easiest” way to see communism in action for most people. East Germany was happy to welcome you – you had to pay them for your visa, and then when you came in, you had to exchange about $60 worth into their currency. The thing is, there wasn’t much to buy in East Germany. Because, you know, communism. What you could buy was cheap – a three course meal was maybe $2.50. But when you went back to the border to leave, they would not exchange your money – so you were basically just giving them $50. PER PERSON. and it gets better. if you’re there past your Visa expiration (which was usually early evening), you had to pay a fine of $2,500. And if you couldn’t, the American Government would pay it for you – they did not want anyone stuck in East Germany.
It was a heavy day, and it started to get rainy, so I popped into a nearby cafe. When I had asked people what their favorite food in Berlin is, people kept telling me kabobs. There is a huge Turkish population here- they were basically allowed in as migrant workers and never left. So, I had some for dinner – and I managed to order in German, AND got the food that I thought I was ordering! Yeah for me!
And then my vacation ended. I’m still in Germany until Saturday, but the conference I’m here for has officially started. Though I really have thought a few times, maybe I should extend the trip. Everything has been amazing, and people keep bringing up Croatia!