Hi, I haven't had a chance to post my pictures from Berlin... My WIFI has been very limited. We checked into our hotel, we'll be staying here for two days. This is a really nice hotel, but the bathroom has glass walls and is somewhat see through so you feel a bit on display....
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| Park Inn Berlin Alexanderplatz |
We had a full 8-hour day of sightseeing with a tour guide. Here are some cool places we saw during our visit to Berlin... It's pretty Americanized... We were fortunate to have a hilarious Brittish Tour Guide who's name was Nigel. He took us around to all these sites.
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| Tour Guide Nigel |
Remains of Hitlers Chancellery:
These fragments were salvaged during the construction of a new foundation for another building. These are former window eaves or frames from the Third Reich Chancellery.
Gedenkstatte Deutscher Widerstand:
Nigel took us to see the German Resistance Memorial for those who were against Nazism. Although the memorial is primarily intended to commemorate those members of the German Army who tried to assassinate Hitler in 1944, it is also a memorial to the German resistance on a broader sense.
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| Those against Nazism who were executed |
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| Where the shooting took place to execute the ones against Nazism |
The current Olympic Stadium was originally built for the 1936 Summer Olympics. During WWII, the area suffered some damage. After the war, the British Military occupation used the Northern part of the Sports Field as its headquarters until 1949. From 1951 to 2005, the Olympischer Platz had a giant antenna transmitting for all the portable radios in Berlin.
The Berlin Victory Column:
Berlins Victory Column (Siegessaule) is located in the midst of the Tiergarten Park. The 230 foot monument commemorates Prussia's victory over France in 1871. The column is topped by the golden statue of goddess Victoria, fondly called Goldelse (Golden Elsi) by the locals. The golden statue played a supporting role in the fantastic film "Wings of Desire" by German director Wim Wenders. There is an open-air viewing platform right below the goddess but it takes 285 steep stairs to get there.
We drove by this monument on our tour of Berlin but did not have a chance to walk up the stairs to view the Tiergarten. The monument is quite beautiful and can be seen from afar.
Brandenburg Gate:
The Brandenburg Gate is a former city gate, rebuilt in the late 18th century as a neoclassical triumphal arch, and now one of the most well-known landmarks of Germany. The gate is the monumental entry into the Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of Linden trees, which had formerly led directly to the city palace of the Prussian Monarchs.
During the post-war division of Germany, the gate was isolated and inaccessible next to the Berlin Wall. The area around the gate was featured in the media coverage during the opening of the wall in 1989. Throughout its existence, the gate was often a site for major historical events. Today it is considered a symbol of the uproarious history of Europe and Germany as well as European unity and peace.
Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral Church):
The Cathedral of Berlin is the largest church in the city, and it serves as a vital center for the Protestant church of Germany. The Cathedral is a Baroque Cathedral built between 1894 and 1905. The inside of the church is beautifully designed. There is a reconstructed pipe organ, built by Wilhelm Sauer that has more than 7,000 pipes. The stained glass windows are decorated with Nativity scenes and were originally created in 1905 by Anton Von Werner. The dome is intricately decorated with mosaics.
Our group decided to tour this Cathedral. The cost was about $4.50 Euros per adult and $2.50 Euros for children. We were able to climb the 270 steps towards the top of the dome which had an excellent view of the city. In addition, there is a crypt at the bottom of the Cathedral with more than 80 sarcophagi of Prussian Royals. These were impressive tombs and caskets, some had their crowns sitting on top of the caskets. I found this to be an amazing thing as I have never seen a real crypt before.
There is also a coffee shop located in the Cathedral on your way out which was a nice thing for us being from Seattle and loving coffee as we do. They serve Einstein coffee which I found to be a very funny name for coffee.
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| Berliner Dom Cathedral |
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| Cathedral staircase Main Entrance |
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| Organ |
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| Altar |
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| Cathedral Dome Ceiling |
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| View from top of Cathedral |
Holocaust Memorial (Jewish Memorial for Murdered Jews):
The Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe also knows as the Holocaust Memorial, is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The memorial consists of the field of stelae and an information center. It was designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold.
Eisenman's design is rather unique. The memorial occupies about 205,000 square feet of space near the Brandenburg Gate and is just a short distance from where the ruins of Hitlers bunker is buried. The memorial is made up of 2,711 gray stone slabs that bear no markings of any names or dates.
The slabs are situated in a wave-like pattern. Each slab is five-sided and unique in shape and size. It is said that Eisenman hoped to create a feeling of groundlessness and instability, a sense of disorientation. Our group had the opportunity to walk through this maze-like monument. I can tell you that walking through it does make you feel disoriented and somewhat lost. The sad thing is that we noticed some of the slabs are cracking already and the monument hasn't been open for that long (14 years or less).
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| Holocaust Nameless Tombstones |
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| Walking through disorients you |
Topographe of Terrors:
The Topographe of Terrors is a historical site that commemorates the era of National Socialism. It's located in the center of the capital and provides information about the headquarters of the National Socialist SS, police state and Nazi reign of terror.
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Berlin Wall:
At the end of WWII, the Allied powers divided Germany into four zones that were occupied by either the USA, Great Britain, France or the Soviet Union. The same was done with Germany's capital city Berlin. As the relationship between the Soviet Union and the other three allied powers disintegrated, the occupation of Germany turned into a competitive and aggressive atmosphere. Although the intent was to reunify Germany, the new relationship between the allied powers turned Germany into the West versus the East, Democracy versus Communism.
We learned on our tour that the living conditions in West Germany and East Germany were very different. West Germany was a Capitalist society and experienced rapid growth in their economy. Living conditions were far better on the West side than that of the East side. On the East side under the Soviet Unions control, a Communist Society was established. The economy dragged and individual freedom was restricted.
By the 1960's East Germany was rapidly losing it's workforce and population. People wanted out of East Germany and were fleeing to the West side. After losing approximately 2.5 Million people by 1961, East Germany was desperate to stop this mass exodus. They decided to build a wall to stop their citizens from crossing the border to the West side.
The Berlin Wall was erected in the late evening and stayed up for 28 years keeping East Germans from fleeing to the West. It's destruction on November 9th, 1989 was quick and celebrated around the world.
During our visit to Berlin, we were able to view a large portion of the Berlin Wall that is still standing today. This piece of wall is situated right across from the Topography of Terror building. In addition, there are decorated pieces of the Berlin Wall remains standing around Berlin. We were able to pick up a piece of the wall from a souvenir shop in town to take back home with us.
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| Decorated piece of Berlin Wall |
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| Berlin wall that still stands by the Topography of Terror building |
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| Decorated pieces of the Berlin Wall |
Soviet Union War Memorial (Treptower Park):
This Memorial is located in Treprtower Park. The memorial was built by Soviet Architect Yakov Belopolsky to commemorate 5,000 of the 80,000 Soviet soldiers who fell in the battle of Berlin between April - may of 1945. What I found interesting was that the memorial was erected from the ruins of Hitlers Chancellery.
As you walk into the park you see "Mother Russia", weeping at the loss of her sons. She is standing on a 50-ton block of granite from the of ruins of Hitlers Chancellery.... a symbol of "crushing the German Reich"
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| Entrance into Treptower Park |
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| Mother Russia |
Primary focus of the memorial is a 12 Meter tall statue of a Soviet Solider with a sword holding a German child and standing over a broken swastika. The statue commemorates the deeds of Sergeant of Guards Nikolai Masalov, who risked his life under heavy German machine-gun fire to rescue a three-year-old German girl whose Mother had disappeared.
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| Sergeant of Guards Nikolai Masalov |
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