Berlin

With the rain in Interlaken (and throughout Switzerland in general) showing no sign of letting up, we decided to cut our losses and head to Berlin a bit early, where we planned to meet up with Moritz, a friend that Jodie had met when he was an exchange student in High Prairie.

We arrived via overnight train to the very new Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Central Train Station) early in the morning. This station, which you can read about here) is one of Europe's largest train station and is representative of the renewal that is going on through much of central Berlin.


From here, we loaded up our bikes and made our way over to Moritz's apartment, where he lives with his girlfriend Elizabeth. We had a leisurely breakfast and then enjoyed the chance to use the laundry and dry out our tent and sleeping bags, which had been damp for the past few days.

Over the next few days, we had a great time exploring Berlin with Moritz and Elizabeth. With their guidance, we got to see most of the main attractions in Berlin as well as many eclectic neighbourhoods we wouldn't otherwise have seen. One interesting sight was the Russian war memorial, built in East Germany to commemorate the Russian victory over Germany Nazi forces during the Second World War. The monument was very militaristic, and featured huge statues of soldiers crushing enemies while cradling children, as well as panels describing the Russian army in very heroic ways. It was an interesting insight into the propaganda that was so common behind the Berlin wall.













































Another very moving sight was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, located near the Brandenburg Gate. This new memorial (completed in 2004), is a very unusual monument in many ways. It has no writings or inscriptions - in fact, it does not say what it memorializes.
Instead, as viewers approach they are faced with the discomforting sight of thousands of granite pillars that look like coffins stacked along an undulating landscape. At a closer viewpoint, it is evident that the pillars are actually very tall and spaced apart, allowing people to walk among them. The pillars are large enough, and numerous enough, to lead to a frightening sensation of being lost or closed in as one walks through them.




Jodie and I both thought that it was a very good memorial, in that it provoked many emotions (such as unease, fear and disorientation) that memorials aren't usually able to evoke. However, the memorial has provoked a lot of controversy in Germany because of its unusual design. Some problems are that the secluded areas make graffiti less easy to detect, and that some people use the granite pillars for suntanning or playing games. Another controversial issue is the the memorial was specifically designed with only Jewish victims of the Nazis in mind, and it does not memorialize the many other groups (the elderly, the Roma people, homosexuals, the mentally ill) that were targeted for murder. Some German politicians expressed fear that such a large memorial in central Berlin would forever overshadow any other aspects of German history or culture. If you are interested, you can read more about some of these controversies here.




Another aspect of Berlin that we found interesting was the renewal that has been ongoing in the years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. I have already mentioned the Berlin Central train station, a huge, impressive, structure that is only a few years old. Another example is Potsdamer Platz, a retail and transportation hub in central Berlin. It is located on an area that was divided by the Wall during the Cold War, and so was empty until the early 90's. When the Wall fell, there was much attention focused on the site because it was a large, undeveloped chunk of land in the center of a major European city - something which is of course mostly unheard of. The area now features an interesting mix of apartments and condos, business headquarters, theaters and restaurants, all built in an impressive style that feels both massive and airy at the same time. Finally, the Reichstag, the seat of the German government, is itself the product of a major renewal. Completed in 1999, the original building (damaged during the war) was almost completed gutted, rebuilt, and fitted with an impressive glass dome that emulates the original stone structure. The huge line-up of people waiting outside for the chance to enter and climb into the dome is a testament to its success in merging the modern and the historic.

The museums of Berlin are also very deserving of mention. There is an area of Berlin called Museum Island which houses a number of internationally renowned museums, all within a few hundred meters of each other. We enjoyed the Pergamon Museum in particular. It houses original, reconstructed monuments transported from all over the world, such as the Pergamon Altar, the Ishtar Gate, and the Mshatta facade. All of these are very big, very impressive structures that have been restored to their original size and shape (as much as possible), meaning that in many cases an entire wing of the museum is devoted to one piece.