Berlin

Let me start off by saying that anybody who has lived in Germany or Berlin over the last 100 years deserves to be acknowledged as a true hero on a personal level. When ever you get a little down after watching the news, reading the paper, or on the internet and wonder why the world is the way it is, and can there ever be a bright day; my answer to that is yes. All you need to do is look at a bright and shinning star - Berlin.
We learn in the history books about great and powerful cities. Cities full of wealth and power, greed and misfortune. These cities come and go, sometimes quickly like a storm, others stand for a while, but always fall.
In only the last century has the world seen some of the most horrific events known to man. Both World Wars, terrorist attacks all around the globe and of course the religious wars currently going on right now. Just by looking at the things man has done for power and greed in just the last 100 years is sometimes hard to swallow when you look at it in this light. Cities after falling from war usually take decades if not centuries to recover.
Berlin has been the center of two of the most horrific events in only the last 80 years; World War II and The Cold War dividing East and West Germany and Berlin. I admit that during school we learned about WWII, Hitler, the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Union, etc., but how much does the average 14 year old really understand? We see pictures and hear the stories always coming from the side that is winning. We hear of the things Hitler did, and just like watching a movie our minds don’t register that this isn’t something Hollywood has created, but actual events happening.
After spending a very short 5 days in the city of Berlin, I have come to think of Berlin as that shinning star off in the distance. The light in the darkness. Not just the hope, but the reality that people are resilliant and may suffer, but will always come back stronger than before. Here is a city that was almost completely destroyed by WW II not just the buildings but the people as well. Then to add salt to the wound, the Berlin Wall went up because of the cold war, separating east and west, not just the country, but the city itself. If you lived in West Berlin, it was like living on an island.
The Berlin wall fell in 1989, I was a senior in hight school, and although I knew what was happening, I didn’t understand the impact it had on not just the people of Germany, but of the world. Berlin is now full of memorials and plaza’s and museums that share this story, so hopefully we don’t forget and repeat the mistakes of the past.
Our time was short for a city with history like this, plus trying to recover from jet lag doesn’t help. Getting around the city is very easy with the use of the train system. One ticket will get you on the underground, the elevated, the trams, and the buses. You can get anywhere in Berlin using the train system. More on this in a minute.
One of our first stops was the Reichstag’s futuristic cupola. This is what we would all parliament, or the Capital Building. This is where the German Government happens. The building was built in the 1700’s and housed the government from that time on until it was burned to the ground by Hitler in around 1936. The only thing left standing was the stone walls. During the cold war is was in West Berlin, but sat empty to my knowledge. It was after the fall of the Berlin Wall (BW) that the govenment decided to rebuild it and use it again for its purpose; the government for the people.
During the rebuild They put a huge glass done on top of the building. Think of the US capitol building but with a glass top not copper. This is a walkway that winds around and up to the top of the glass dome and then back down. From there, you can see all of Berlin and is a great way to get familiar with the city before you begin touring the rest of the city.
They even have a head set that you put on and listen to the commentary as you walk up and around inside the dome. The amazing thing about the headsets is that you have our own little box with you like many museums have, but it can tell where you are in the dome and it goes along and talks about the things you can see from that point. If you are walking to fast it will tell you to stop for a minute. Once it gets done telling you about the view then it says to continue walking.
The next stop on our tour was the Brandenburg Gate. This was also built centuries ago, and somehow managed to survive everything that has happened to Berlin. It has needed repair, but has stood the test of time. All the buildings around the Gate, including many embassies, are all new buildings. Most of the buildings in that area were destroyed during WWII and after the Cold War they began rebuilding them to look like they did before the war.
Next on the tour was the Holocaust Memorial. It is a concrete labyrinth of upright stone slabs that seem to move in each direction forever with no end. Each slab is slightly a different height and the ground is not level so at some points the slabs are maybe 3 feet off the ground and at other points they stand over 15 feet high. This “walkable” monument is to commemorate the murdered Jews and other minorities of Europe.
More to come very soon about this incredible city!