As you can see, it is hard to summarize a weeks worth of travelling into even two blogs, so pardon the length, but I think it is well worth it and even necessary. So we will continue where we left off, which I will remind you, was during the second day bus tour of the city. As I said, there is so much history in Berlin, and even the names told a big story. The former French sector was known for having a lot of the commerce, so most of the businesses/streets had french names and architecture. Below is not the French sector, but rather the former USSR sector and they had some Trabi's on display with fun colors and even a limo trabi!
After the Bus tour, we were given options on several museums to visit. I went to the Neues Museum which, in case you cannot figure out the translation, means the New Museum. I, not having read the description of what would be inside, assumed this would be a museum on new history (cold war, etc....) but rather it just meant that this museum physically was newer than the "old museum." Therefore you can imagine how surprised I was to walk in an find ancient Egyptian ruins. The museum is most famous for two things. It houses the bust of Nefertiti (which I assumed had gold on it, but seeing it, it was actually quite humble in that regard) which people could not take pictures of, and then the hat below
It was confusing to understand exactly what this hat meant. From what I understood, it wasnt just a hat that represented nobility, but rather some sort of astrological power. The person who was allowed to wear this could predict the future up to 500 years (again I could have completely misunderstood this). Anyway it was on all of the brochures for the museum, but to me it just looks like a giant, phallic, gold blob on someone's head.
I took a picture of this because, although you cannot see so clearly, I am pretty sure it is the same granite that is in our kitchen ;)
"When you see a sculpture without arms or a head, you know what to do...."
So here begins day 3, where we did not have to be awake until 11am. However, we are in Berlin, so it seemed really dumb to sleep in that late, so instead I got up at 7 to do some exploring while my *cough cough hostel cough cough* roommate (all of my roommates were a part of the Bonn group) and I when around to the Tiergarten and the Siegessauele. On the way there we past the ministry of defense (although the national one still remains in Bonn).
Don't know if you can read it, but this is the headquarters for the CDU (maybe Merkel has an office in there...?)
Here is the infamous Siegessaeule, which means the Victory Column, directly translated. It has an interesting history of being conquered and captured. Hitler actually moved it to its current location from in front of the Bundestag. After the fall of Berlin in WWII, the French actually brought it back with them to France as a sort of "capture the flag"-like trophy. France and Germany have a long history of stealing each other's artwork, however it usually ends up back in the hands of the original owner.
Potentially one can climb to the top, however it was closed this day for some reason.
After the fall of Berlin in 1945, they erected this memorial for 200 unknown Russian soldiers who had lost their lives in the battle. It was on the East side of the wall during the cold war, but after the unification, the city of Berlin took over the finances as a remembrance for these soldiers
If you can see that all around this memorial, there is a forest called the Tiergarten. This entire forest was destroyed during WWII, and after the war, the citizens of Berlin had no source of food since 80% of the city had been bombed. The dirt that remained from the forest became the home of a garden for the citizens of Berlin. They began to plant potatoes and other vegetables. In the 50s, after the country had gotten back on its feet, Great Britain donated forest worth of trees to plant. Therefore it is also called the Englischen Garten.
Berliner bear!
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| Egyptian Revolution |
At 11 we went to the Stasi prison. Which was set up promptly after the war by Stalin as a Concentration/Death camp in East Germany. 900 people were killed or tortured there within 2 years. Then it transformed to become a prison for political opponents or those trying to escape the east. They specialized in psychological torture. The older rooms didnt have toilets or windows or mattresses. Certain rooms had Chinese water torture, or were filled with water up to a couple of inches at the bottom. There were also some cells that had no ceiling. They would not tell the prisoners where they were, or for how long their sentence was. Our tour guide, halfway through the tour, revealed that he himself had been in this prison. He had lived in eastern Germany, bought a ticket to Budapest, and then a ticket to a small town right by the boarder to Austria (where he would have presumably gone into Austria to be free). However, the ticket officer noticed that he had not bought a return ticket, so he was deported back to Germany and put in prison and arrested for the "thought of trying to cross the boarder." We were all completely shocked to hear this. He told us stories about the interrogation room and the psychological tricks that were played on the people. For example, they would reveal that they know a lot of information about you, and this would make the person feel very self conscious because obviously the member of the Stasi was very close to them. They also had phones in the interrogation room and they would go on the phone and talk as if a person's husband was the Stasi memeber, or that this kids were getting put up for adoption, etc....
Here is the watchtower from the prison, which happened to be right in a neighborhood
Saw this on top of a random building in East Germany, Ohio!
The next day we went to Wannsee Konferenz, which was where the Holocaust was designed. It was a real paradox that day, because the place is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to, yet it was home to the beginning of one of the most horrific things in modern history.
Here is a picture depicting the "ideal German Family" that the Nazis used as propaganda.
Our tour guide was explaining the Mischlings, or the famous poster explaining Jewish heritage and what was allowed and what was not allowed. She was telling us that she used to have difficulties explaining it, until one day someone told her that it is similar to in Harry Potter.... the Pure Bloods, Half-Bloods, Mudbloods etc..... her exact words were "The 7th Book IS the Nazi Regime, I could right my dissertation on that book, if that woman is not the most brilliant mind..." So for all you haters out there, this is why you should read Harry
Here is the actual room where they made the decisions. The official documents of this day are very vague and a lot was excluded, but they have deduced that this is indeed the place because it was revealed during the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961 in Israel.
Above is a picture of a picture that I took from the building in the 30s and the picture below is the same building, but one that I took.
Below are quotes from survivors of the Holocaust
After this we got ready to go to the Bundestag, or the Parliament. We were a bit early, but we walked around and I saw this lovely array of Berliners ;) didn't eat any, but some of the flavors are so funny I had to take a picture
It was 11.11 on this day, so there was a little festival for Karneval going on. Unfortunately for us, however, it was a national holiday so no parliament was in session.
Bundestag! A mixture of new and old
Future politician.....?
The ceiling over the Bundestag is very unique because it represents the transparency of the Government, people are allowed to walk up there to demonstrate that the German people are always overseeing the representatives.
Here we are on the "Tribuene"
After seeing the floor, we went up to walk in the tower, and the sun was setting (it was like 4:30 btw.....) and the sun looked like a reversed German flag, or maybe it was just priming.....
The next day we went to Potsdam, which is about 45 minutes out of Berlin, and also the capital of Brandenburg. Here is the famous San Souci, which is the pleasure palace of Friedrich der Grosse, who was the King of Prussia and the Kurfurst (I have no clue what the translation of Kurfurst is, I keep trying to figure it out, but from what I can deduce it was basically like a king but without any religious affiliation, so no divine monarchy) or Brandenburg.
I made everyone (attempt) to spell Berlin! If you see in the background ,there is ruins on top of the hill, these are actually fake ruins built by Friedrich der Grosse because he was fascinated with travel
Here is his grave, which people put potatoes on, because he introduced the potato to the German farmers.
Entryway to the palace.... needs more gold if you ask me....
His personal Art collection
Book collection...
Portrait
Here is the chair that Friedrich der Grosse died in...
Here is a painting depicting his death
Our tour guide let us go into the garden and eat some of the figs, it is pretty cool to say that I have eaten a fig and some grapes out of Friedrich der Grosse's garden
The windmill was the fist thing to be built here
Lastly is some more pictures from the east side gallery...
It is hard to imagine that one can be homesick for a home that really isn't theirs, but coming back to Bonn felt like home. I could have easily stayed in Berlin exploring for another week, but there is something about Bonn that is unlike any other city, and I wouldnt change where I was studying for anything....
