Back to Berlin
Germany has fascinated me since I worked here for a year after graduating from Auburn. I’ve hiked countless paths throughout the south, criss-crossing Baden-Württemberg and Bayern from the Alps to the Schwarzwald, from Munich and Nuremberg to Stuttgart and Esslingen. I’ve explored the Rhine, Main, Neckar and Danube river valleys along with Cologne and Frankfurt. But I’ve only ventured north to Berlin once. It was in December and I nearly froze.
I decided to explore the northeast of Germany during summer on this trip, starting in Berlin and then heading south through Dresden and Saxony. I’ll cross the border to visit Prague and the Czech countryside later in August.
I secured an Airbnb on Kurfürstendamm Straße, the famous shopping street cutting through west Berlin. Finding a reasonable place to stay in this city is not easy. My apartment here sits atop a BMW showroom surrounded by glitzy stores suitable for Rodeo Drive.
The main reason I chose this spot was its proximity to public transportation. I can hop on the underground with an U-Bahn stop just across the corner.
Berlin is not the traditional Germany that comes to mind for most people. It was destroyed during World War II and split between capitalism and communism as it re-built in the 50 years that followed. It’s subtle, but there are still Cold War cues as you walk through this leafy capital of Germany.
Take the Ampelmännchen for example. This little green guy shows when it’s acceptable to cross the street (and yes, the Germans do wait patiently for permission). He was used at crosswalks in the former East Germany. In the west, a generic human figure was used.
This is one of the few relics of the communist east that survived the fall of the Iron Curtain. Its warmth and humanity as a symbol (plus nostalgia) caused its popularity to soar after Germany’s reunification in 1990. Soon, crosswalks across the entire city, east and west, adopted the Ampelmännchen.
Reminders of war are certainly not hard to find. Just down Kurfürstendamm Straße is Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, its walls still pockmarked by the street battles for Berlin in the spring of 1945. The church was badly damaged during a bombing raid in 1943. Instead of bulldozing the ruins or a complete restoration, the city fused old and new as a permanent reminder of war.
In preparation for this trip, I brushed up on my German language skills with an online app that quizzed me daily. Several of the words and phrases seemed superfluous to me at the time. When would I ever need to talk about insects?
Shortly after this photo, a girl walking with a group to my side started coughing and bent over gagging. She gasped “fliege!” and I instantly knew she’d swallowed a fly. A small smile to myself as I walked on…
Berlin is a sprawling city filled with lakes, parks and trees shading its busy streets. Similar to Central Park in New York City, the Tiergarten covers more than 500 acres in the middle of the city. It began as the king’s personal hunting grounds but transformed into a natural escape from the urban jungle that grew to surround it.
I hiked through the vast Tiergarten to the Berlin Victory Column which anchors a busy roundabout on the main street axis to the Brandenburg Gate. There are underground tunnels that provide passage to the middle of the circle, cutting under traffic. The tunnels were built in 1941 to plans by Albert Speer in anticipation of victory and grand re-design of Berlin after WWII. Those never came to pass.
The reliefs along the column’s base commemorate the wars fought in the late 1800s to join various kingdoms together into one German Reich. Knowing what followed in the 1900s, Prussia’s militarism is chillingly evident.
One section struck me as particularly poignant. Here, a German soldier is embraced by his wife and child as he prepares to head to war to defend the Vaterland. Determined soldiers in Pickelhaube helmets march past the scene with the Brandenburg Gate forming the backdrop to the drama.
As you continue walking down the broad, tree-lined street, the Soviet war memorial jars you to the consequences of German militarism. It was built by the victorious Russians as the final resting place for thousands of Red Army soldiers killed in the battle for Berlin.
Black and white photos show Nazi troops parading down this very street on the precipice of war in 1939.
As I emerged from the trees in the Tiergarten, the Reichstag gleamed in the setting sun. It was here in February 1933 that a mysterious fire provided Hitler the pretext he needed. Just one month after he was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, Hitler used the fire to fix blame on the communists and suspend civil liberties in a call for law and order. Events rapidly spiraled down from there as the Nazis consolidated power.
Today, the re-built Reichstag represents German reunification. Visitors can scale a spiral walkway inside the modern glass dome that tops the building. The glass extends down into the chambers below, symbolically providing illumination for the German people on what their government is doing.
I’ll check that climb out later this week. Just around the corner is the Brandenburg Gate, a visual representation of tumultuous German history and specifically, the history of the city of Berlin.
The Goddess of victory carries the German Iron Cross in the quadriga, a triumphant chariot led by four horses.
Compare today’s setting to 1945:
On a happier note, here’s a photo of my first German beer on this trip, a nice dark Hefeweizen from Erdinger. I needed it after two days without sleep and all the travel. Hopefully this will help with the jet lag!
Lots more exploring planned here in Berlin for the next week.
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