Criss Crossing a Berlin Without Borders

Brandenburg Tor (Gate)

       The Brandenburg gate was originally a gate to collect taxes on the way into eighteenth century Berlin.  In the early nineteenth century, the Hohenzollern rulers of the city decided to expand the size and grandeur of the gate, so as to reflect their own prestige. The Brandenburg gate has been marched through by Frederick the Great, Napoleon, Bismarck, and many other great European and German statesmen.

The Brandenburg Gate is one of Berlin’s most important monuments – a landmark and symbol all in one with over two hundred years of history. A former symbol of the divided city, it drew visitors who used to climb an observation platform in order to get a glimpse of the world behind the Iron Curtain, on the other side of the barren “death-strip” which separated east from west Berlin, geographically and politically.

It was here that on June 12, 1987, Ronald Regan issued his stern command to his cold war adversary admonishing him with the words: “Mr. Gorbachov – tear down this wall!”. The speech delivered to West Berliners was also audible on the east side of the Gate and echoed President von Weizsacker’s words which translate as: “The German question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed.”



When Germany was reunified following the fall of the Berlin in November 1989 the Brandenburg Gate quickly reinvented itself into the New Berlin’s symbol of unity. It was officially opened to traffic on December 22, 1989 and 100,000 people came to celebrate the occasion. Unfortunately this also resulted in severe damage to the monument which needed to be restored and was only officially reopened on October 3, 2002.

John:  “This was a pretty awesome gate. The Iron Cross and Prussian eagle made me want to go conquer some unsuspecting nations and then march down the road to the Victory Column and laugh at the foolish non-Germans! But really, It was beautiful and I loved seeing it.”

Victory Column (Siegessälles) 

Heinz (“like the ketchup” his exact words) transported us on his bicycle from the gate to the column, while taking a scenic route through Tiergarten.

       Berlin’s Siegessäule - Victory Column – was unveiled by Emperor Wilhelm I on September 2, 1873 as a monument to Prussia’s victory in the Franco-German war.

The 67m high symbol of victory originally stood in front of the Reichstag but was relocated to the Tiergarten’s main roundabout by the Nazis in 1938.  They had plans to expand the area around the Reichstag as the new capital of the German Reich – Germania.    

      

John:  “This was an awesome pillar. The gold-plated Fortuna statue on top was beautiful and awe-inspiring (as well as potentially valuable… He he.) What was not so beautiful was listening to William’s screams as he climbed up the narrow spiral staircase, apparently “terrified.”

Holocaust Memorial

       Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial, located on a stretch of the former “death strip”, where the Wall once stood near the Brandenburg Gate, is Berlin’s stunning monument to the Holocaust, dedicated to the Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide of World War II. Impressive in its awesome grey soberness, it includes an underground Information Center, which complements the abstraction of the memorial with personal documentation about individuals and families.

It took 17 years for the Memorial to be completed in Berlin. Its foundation stone was a Bundestag resolution passed on June 25, 1999 to erect a Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This was followed by years of discussion and deliberation, until the Monument was completed on May 8, 2005. US architect Peter Eisenmann conceived the winning design consisting of 2711 rectangular blocks of concrete laid out in grid formation, recalling tombstones.

John:  “This was beautiful and harrowing. I was highly impressed that the Germans didn’t try to cover their history, no matter how unsavory (unlike the Americans regarding the Native Americans). A sobering and intensely human experience.”

Berlin Wall

A 200-meter-long section of the “Grenzmauer (border wall) 75,” the fourth version of the Berlin Wall used from the mid-1970s onwards, stands on Niederkirchnerstrasse on the grounds of the Topography of Terror documentation center. Souvenir hunters chipping off bits of the concrete in 1989 and 1990 left deep gashes in this section of the wall, which today is protected by a fence.

John:  “It looks like just a wall, but it is really a symbol of defiance, arbitrary rule, the trivialities that divide us, and the desire to overcome that unites us. The Berlin Wall cannot be truly summed up in the English language. I’ll leave that to the Germans.”

Checkpoint Charlie/Museum

Checkpoint Charlie was the best known border-crossing of Cold War days. The sign, which became a symbol of the division of Cold War Berlin and read like a dire warning to those about to venture beyond the Wall – YOU ARE NOW LEAVING THE AMERICAN SECTOR – in English, Russian, French and German - stood here. It is today an iconic marker of territorial boundary and political division. Until the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, it signified the border between West and East, Capitalism and Communism, freedom and confinement.

Historically, the site is important because from 1961 to 1990 it functioned as the main entry and departing point for diplomats, journalists and non-German visitors who used to be allowed to enter East Berlin on a one day visa after exchanging their Deutsch Marks on a one-to-one basis for East German currency. More dramatically, US and Soviet tanks had a close encounter here in October 1961 when J.F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev’s tanks faced each other in an acrimonious moment feared around the World as a possible lead up to World War III

John: “The museum smelled like old cigarette smoke and a perfect view of Checkpoint Charlie was blocked by U. S. army impersonators who wanted some euros to pose with them, but it was still very interesting. Strange how such a small shack attracted such attention. The famous 4-language sign was on display, and I could only read one and a half of the four.”

Tiergarten

       A large, heavily forested park in central Berlin, containing monuments, ponds and paths.  Comparable to The Mall in DC & Central Park in NYC combined.  We are standing in front of a pond and a memorial to a triumvirate of Germany’s finest composers and musicians, Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn.  Beethoven is on this side.  This one is for your Kristie!