Berlin is one of the most interesting cities history-wise I've been to. And because I find all that fun history stuff so interesting this post is going to mainly be one big history lesson.
We start off at the Brandenburg Gate. This is the only gate into the city that remained standing after WWII. The rest of the square was destroyed along with 90% of Berlin. This makes Berlin very different from the rest of the European cities I've visited. Unlike everywhere else, almost all of the buildings are fairly modern. But back to the Brandenburg Gate. The statue on top was taken by Napolean when the French defeated Germany. Later, when Germany defeated France they got their statue back and changed the woman's head so that she is now Victoria, the goddess of victory. As a way of sticking it to the French, they made the statue face the French embassy.
The Brandenburg Gate was in the "death strip", the area between the two walls constructed to separate East and West Germany. The buildings surrounding the Brandenburg gate (US embassy, French embassy and famous Hotel Adlon) are less than 20 years old. They weren't built until the Berlin wall was torn down.
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| Brandenburg Gate |
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| Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe |
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| The site of Hitler's bunker, where he committed suicide. |
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| 'Mother with dead son' - Memorial to the Victims of War and Tyranny |
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| Me, Cat and Camille with the Berliner Dom in the background |
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| TV Tower |
The East Side Gallery is an international monument to freedom. It is a 1.3km stretch of the Berlin Wall that has been covered by works from various artists around the world. It is the largest open air gallery in the world.
We went to go get some classic German food for dinner one night...curry wurst. The guy at our hostel told us to go here, Curry 36. The line was down the sidewalk so we figured it must be good...and it was!
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| The curry wurst was invented in Berlin in 1949 |
One of the days we started off at the nearby concentration camps, Sachsenhausen. It was really interesting (and a bit depressing) to learn about everything that went on there. Prisoners that worked in artistic fields worked as counterfeiters here. They made fake American and British money as part of a plan to destroy their economies. After WWII Sachsenhausen was used by the Soviets for one of their special camps.
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| Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in nearby Oranienburg |
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| The gate into the camp. "Work will make you free" |
Boots for the military were tested by prisoners at this camp. The prisoners were given boots, with no regard to the size of their feet, and were forced to walk on tracks with different terrains for hours at a time.
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| Boot testing track |
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| Me with my bratwurst! |
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| Charlottenburg Palace |
We went to go see the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church which is supposed to be really cool and beautiful. It got bombed in the war and the hole still remains in the roof of the church. Unfortunately, when we got there this is what we saw. The tall white building is the church...it is being restored right now so this is all we got to see. It took us a while to realize that was the church...we were certain we were in the wrong place! Fortunately, the inside of the new church (the brown building in front) was really cool!
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Outside of Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church...
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| Inside the New Church at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church |
While it's hard to see in my picture, there is a transparent dome on the top of the Reichstag that is supposed to represent the transparency of government. You can go up in the dome and actually see politicians at work in the building.
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| Me and the Reichstag |
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| Big bike race going on in Berlin while we were there |
On our way to the Brandenburg gate we saw some street performers in the square. They were really good...and pretty funny too. My favorite part of their act was when they did a Backstreet Boys number.
The walk signs in Berlin all look like this guy with the hat. I thought they were really funny and then I realized Berlin is pretty famous for it. They even have souvenir shops dedicated to it! It is called the Ampelmann. He is the first pedestrian walk sign and was created because research shows that people respond better to pleasant images.
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| Ampelmann |
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| Some Nazi propoganda for mandatory blackouts during the war "The enemy seeks light! Lights out" |
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| A message written on the Berlin wall |
Checkpoint Charlie was a crossing point for foreigners and members of the allied forces at the Berlin Wall during the Cold War. The photos of the American and Soviet soldiers represent the two countries watching over the opposing sectors.
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| Checkpoint Charlie |
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| My awesome sperry tanline... |
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| Mini Golf! |
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| Me with my German pizza |
