Berlin in Depth
Every time I tell myself I’m going to relax and take it easy today on my feet, I end up walking all over Berlin. The neighborhood streets and historic sites here are too interesting to stay in one place.
I was up early this morning and headed over Kurfürstendamm to the U-bahn:
For Europe, Berlin is a sprawling city and it can take time to cross even if you’re zipping along underground. I went through 14 or 15 stops before I made it to the neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg to the northwest.
This area was relatively intact after the war and thus escaped socialist architecture while behind the wall. It certainly didn’t look like Alexanderplatz with its spacey buildings (the ORU campus in Tulsa would fit right in).
Today, Prenzlauer Berg is a leafy, lively area of Berlin filled with shops, parks and hipsters. Dodging bicyclists, I slipped in the main gate of the old Jewish cemetery on Schönhauser Allee. Elaborate headstones set in a sea of ivy stretched out in all directions under a dark canopy of green.
Established in 1827, the cemetery evidently contains more than 25,000 graves. Surprisingly, it was not deliberately destroyed by the Nazis although many headstones were smashed. Remnants today reside in a protected glass building that I passed at the entrance.
I read the cemetery was erected on the grounds of an old brewery and dairy farm. Remains of several cisterns could still be seen. In the final weeks of the war, German soldiers deserting the Wehrmacht hid in the cisterns only to be discovered by the Gestapo, executed and strung up in the trees.
A memorial plaque at the entrance gate reads “ They wanted no more killing; and that meant their death”. After that sobering experience, I decided to take the long walk back.
I remember seeing photos of Hotel Adlon on Unter den Linden from the 1930s. It looks similar today (minus the banners). The hotel somehow escaped major damage during the battle of Berlin but on the night of May 2, 1945, a fire, started in the hotel’s wine cellar by drunken Red Army soldiers, left the main building in ruins.
Three black and chrome examples of the best from German automakers were parked in front of the hotel to shuttle guests: a Mercedes S-Class, Audi A8 and BMW 7 Series. Yes, please…
I was intrigued by an interesting spot across Pariser Platz. The European Union presents “Experience Europe”, an interactive space that promotes the EU and its aims. In this age of rising nationalism and isolationism, I thought it smart the EU was bringing its message directly to the people on the street.
I continued walking past the Reichstag. I’ll be back on Sunday if the Germans approve my background check so I can scale the dome. I headed to the Moltke Bridge over the Spree where the Red Army battled German SS and Volksturm defenders within sight of the Reichstag.
Somehow, it wasn’t detonated and survived the war. Beyond, the vast Berlin Hauptbahnhof beckoned in glittering steel and glass. It’s the largest train station in Europe and seems more like a huge shopping mall covering numerous rail lines heading off in all directions.
Tomorrow, I’m getting on a train, resting my feet and heading out. Not sure exactly where yet but that’s part of the adventure.
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