A fun park with cool sculptures
A picture at the Berlin wall memorial.
Famous picture of a soldier who jumped over the Berlin wall
Category: Berlin (Page 6 of 11)
Another meet up with the group and get a tour day! So glad that we have all of these opportunities to visit these places around Berlin and see how they have preserved history. This tour was particularly interesting because of its specific implementation in the community. Before I get into this however, I want to briefly touch on the two documentaries we watched onsite directly before we engaged with the wall itself.
The first of these documentaries showed us a look into how this wall came into formation and what was happening in the communities of citizens on both sides of the wall once it was in place. I was surprised to learn that the tensions between these superpowers of the GDR and the Allies known as the Cold War started a mere three years after the end of the Second World War. With this information alone I cannot imagine what it would have been like to be a German citizen at the time. To have survived the War only to find yourself stuck between governments that have their own conflicts of interest could only have been maddening. It was only during the tour we were told that both sides put Nazi leaders in places of leadership simply because they knew the people and the situation best.
The second film was a computer engineered reconstruction of both the Berlin Wall and the East/West boarder that divided the country in half. It focused largely on the wall itself and each of the components were laid out in a series to show what it would have taken to be successful in crossing this boundary. Two walls on either side of a “death strip” also known as no-man’s land where there was any combination of trip wires, “Stalin’s Lawn” (a blanket of vertical iron rods laid out on a grid), anti tank barricades, barbed wire, guard towers, trip lights, land mines, etc. In various escape attempts or just misfortunate events, such as children falling into the river and drowning in no man’s land, the wall claimed a total of 136 lives.
When we walked out into the light of day to look at this monument to the wall it was hard not to be immersed physically and emotionally in what this place meant. We walked along a portion of the wall that was reconstructed after it was torn down to show that liminal space between a world of capitalism and a world of communism. This was personally very hard for me to understand. It seemed a little perverted to build the wall again, in a place where this was a reality for residents who may still live in this neighborhood. This specific location was particularly hard hit with casualties because the gap between the two sides was so narrow. A church destroyed because it concealed a portion of the wall from view along the boarder, metal markers that represent the tunnels made to evacuate from East Berlin, faces of the victims(mainly young men, but some women and children as well) who fell at the wall, and finally a recreation of the death zone enclosed between two iron barriers. Even though the experience was sickening at times to contemplate, I couldn’t help but be in awe of the ingenuity and the general gumption of those who made it across. It wasn’t easy for them once they made it either; often bringing only a few belongings or nothing, often disowned by family members left behind, exiled from everything they knew it was certainly an isolated existence to stay or go.
It is easy to look back and say well they just could have waited the 28 years the wall was in place and then had their freedom, but they were under the impression that this would always be the case. These are people being led by fascism that took advantage of a desperate time to fortify its own standings. I can only imagine the palpable insanity of the situation.
What started with at a pillow fight ended at a fake checkpoint.
That being said this tour was incredibly informative and well led. The ten minute history blitz of Germany that took us from all the “Friedrichs” to the fall of the Berlin Wall was a great refresher on the formation of Germany as a country. This helped to situate us among the different monuments and buildings that surrounded us. A few notable ones were the Brandenburg Gate itself, the Victory Column, the Reichstag Building, and the US and French Embassies.
Within the majestic nature of these structures there was always an implication of what was even if it was only applied through the structure of what is now. The Reichstag Building is a perfect example. It was originally situated outside the city walls as a symbolic representation of how much the leaders of the time paid head to power of this parliament. The culprits of the building burning in 1933 remain unknown, and somewhat inconsequential, but Hitler capitalized on the event as another step towards elimenating the other parties in opposition to the NSDAP. It stood vacant Throughout WWII and was only partially renovated in the sixties where it sat mere meters away from the Berlin Wall on the Western side. Only in June of 1990 was the reconstruction started and was finished in 1999. The new clear dome that overlooks the parliament is only the present phase of the symbol this building has become. With tours of this dome open to the public one can see down into the proceedings. Although it still sits outside the gate it is no longer outside the scope of the citizens of Berlin.
This was our first glimpse into this city’s determination in it’s intention to take responsibility for its convoluted and often painful past. It was important for me to remember that these symbolic monuments were intented to somewhat permanently remember in order to never repeat the past, and was not meant as reparations for those actions.
The next site on our tour was The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. As we came up to this entire city block that has been filled with 2,711 concrete, rectangular pillars I found it hard to witness people laughing and playing in and around these man made stones. Having been to the Jewish Cemetery just recently in Prague, where I was told the artist who rendered the memorial found inspiration, I found the people running around all of these faceless, grave like pillars to be incredibly disrespectful. Our guide made sure to tell us straight away that the artist had intentionally attached no meaning to the piece other than the name. There was no plaque or instructions as to how to think about the site. The only rule enforced was one was not allowed to stand on the pillars. When pushed to answer what this space meant, even though he had intended a purposeful meaninglessness in it, he said it was meant to show how a man made structured and ordered system can still be chaotic and even maddening. With this in mind we walked through the pillars.
I was immediately struck by how the children were racing through them playing tag. I saw a little girl laughing for just a moment flash in front of me… And then she was gone. Another moment later and I could hear her soft footfalls and rapid breathing running past me down another row, but this time I didn’t see her. I saw the faces of my colleagues or sometimes just their backs as they stepped into line with my row and then disappeared again around a corner. In my mind I couldn’t help but displace these encounters over a longer period of time or in a different context that was more threatening and more permanent. When I I merged on the opposite side it was as though I was surfacing out of a lake, even though I was able to breathe freely throughout the experience there was a sense of releasing a held breathe and gasping for air again. My initial feelings of the laughers, and players, and all other sorts of being within this piece, was washed away allowing them to be as much a part of the memorial as the pillars were not. We briefly discussed with our group what our individual experiences of this were and moved on to the next site. I had a hard time leaving.
I don’t want to go too much further in depth about any of the other places we encountered that day because they all pale in experience to this sacred moment for me. That being said the other tour sites were also moments of important and conflicting duality. From Hitler’s bunker site that is now just a gravel parking lot to the tourist trap that is a mere representation of what Checkpoint Charlie was, it was certainly provoking to see how these places were inhabiting the city today.
From my session on Friday, I found out from other CIEE students that there were pick up games every Monday at 7 at the same field right next to the school. When I went over I stopped by the school first to see about logging into their wifi, which I had had a problem with. While I was there, I saw a group of three or so guys walking walk passed me, all of whom seemed athletically dressed up, it was possible I would be seeing them again soon. Following shortly behind them, though, was one of the guys I had Met on Friday, Brian. He decided to wait up for me, some walked overtone field together. As it turned out, last Friday had been the first time he had gone to one of those sessions, and today was going to be the first time he had gone to a Monday session as well, so we were both new to this whole ordeal. When we arrived at the field there were already a good number of guys scattered throughout the field passing various balls back and forth with each other. There were the three guys from before. As we walked on to the field and started getting our gear on, I noticed that more and more people kept arriving. More, and more and more. Eventually there were more than 30 people in total there. I walked up to some random guys, luckily enough they spoke English, they had said that there had not been this many people before and that this was too many. Half of the group was various CIEE and random people, the other half, as one man named Mathias, I think, said that he belonged to a ‘company’ that was practicing and that there was another ‘company’ they were going to play against. I asked for confirmation on what company meant but I didn’t really get a straight answer. What I really wanted to know was if he meant ‘club’.
Because we were too large of a group, we were going to half to split the groups into the two divisions mentioned earlier. Frankly, these other guys, who were Germans, didn’t seem to want to have anything to do with us. So my group, the CIEE plus, took one half of the field, divided, very slowly, into two teams, and eventually started playing to the goals horizontally along the field. I was, of course, very disappointed to see this happen, I had desperately been craving playing with some Germans, but here I was with Americans and a couple Italians I think they were. At first, as the game began, it was so sloppy, people didn’t know which way to go, know one was passing to anyone else, people weren’t taking it seriously, it was awful. I tried to lift up the tempo and get everyone focused, but the strangest thing happened in the process. My boots, which were brand new, kept slipping of, even from the slightest change in direction. This was incredibly infuriating, because this meant I was surely going to have to acquire new ones. In the meanwhile I performed surgery on my shoelaces and managed to come up with some strange concoction to try and suffice in the meanwhile.
The level of play amongst this group was a little disappointing, there were some skilled players to be sure, but there was no chemistry, which is an essential part to the game, especially in pickup. I would occasionally glance over at the other side of the field to watch the other group play, from what I saw, they were definitely a higher level than what I was dealing with, mostly because they all appeared to be players, whereas some of the guys in my group were just random students coming out to have some fun. I am totally fine with this, I was just disappointed that if we were going to have to segregated so harshly, I would have rather been on the other side. While I would occasionally look one way at the other group, in the opposite direction, along the sidelines, a new group began to form. This was a group of 40 to 50, maybe even older, year olds. Someone amongst us said something about us having to give up the field for them, but that sure wasn’t going to happen while I was around. Eventually when enough of them showed up, they asked if they could play against us; they had nine, later eleven, so we would have to have subs. As sure as I was that this was going to be a slaughter, I did welcome this, it would be a change of pace from what was going on and we could at least play ‘against’ rather than with, some Germans.
When the game started up, I was surprised to see that these fellows all played with fire! They may not have been able to compete with us athletically, but they’re weren’t going to back down from the competition. As they game went on, we got into our groove and we started to turn the whole thing into a one sided affair. Yet they still never gave up. They kept on motivating each other, as well as communicating with each other organizationally. It was inspiring to see. I picked up on words like rechts and links and linga, which I figured out meant line. As it got dark the lights for the field turned on and we kept playing into the night. These guys just wouldn’t quit. Their hard work eventually paid off for them as they managed to get a couple quic, successive goals. They desperately wanted a third, but when it wouldn’t come and we regained the momentum we had, they decided to call it quits. It was 9 pm. The other group had stopped playing and all left quite a while ago and I had not even noticed! Things may play out differently next time with the teams, but I will surely keep coming to this pick up on Mondays.
In Monday we, as a class, all went to the Judisches Museum to experience a journey through the history of the Jewish faith. We were lucky enough to have our own private, guided tour for the first half of our visit. Our guide gave us an in depth look into the years from the creation of the Reich in 1871 to the years leading up to World War 2. His presentation focused on the lives of some of the most influential Jewish people at the time who were each groundbreaking in their own way. He also discussed the feeling of the time of the German Jews wanting to belong to this newly formed empire.
After the tour we were given an hour and a half to see the rest of the museum on our own. The different exhibits focused on different times in history, yet there was always a chronological theme to them all. Ranging from old books to concrete Windows and from immigrant populations to in depth looks at concentration camps, the plight and success of the German Jewish population, as well as their existence though out history were on display for us to take in.
One of the most memorable exhibits, for me was the a space called, if I remember correctly, The Void of Sorrow? I looked it up online and the actual name of the presentation was Fallen Leaves. This exhibit consisted of a room with ten thousand metal face plates with eyes and a mouth cut out covering the ground. As you can see in the picture, every step you take is uncomfortable and sends a chill down your spine. The feeling of walking over the faces of thousands of people who suffered was almost too much to bear. One small detail that many people may have overlooked is that the farther in to the corridor of faces you walk, the progressively smaller the faces get. The smallest faces are hidden in complete darkness in the back.
“The Emergence of the Modern Age: Jews in the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic.”
Berlin
After a morning with Adorno and other friends, Rube and Mandy put on their country mouse shoes and took the U2 to the U3 to Dahlemdorf Ubahn station: a thatched hut, btw., from whence they walked to Grunewald, Berlin’s largest greenspace. They walked around the eponymous Grunewaldsee, stopping to eat only twice (having fortified themselves at the Crobag in the Alex-U), first at Forsthaus Paulsborn and then again, a mere kilometer later, at their new favorite Biergarten, Châlet Suisse.
After scouring the area for two weeks now, I realized that the closest field to where I am living in Steglitz is a complex called Lichterfelde. Along with the two turf fields, one of which I played with the roughly 8 year old Nieltz earlier, there is a grass field with stadium seating. It is a small venue to be sure, but lovely none the less. I had been to these fields many times now, so I decided this would be the weekend that I finally saw their team play. Their game was at 1:30 on a Saturday, so at around 12:30 I biked over, which takes closer to twenty minutes as a whole actually (I may have said ten minutes earlier). When I got there this venue, which had been rather empty the last couple times I had visited it, was now full of people. This wasn’t like the Berliner AK game I went to with Ian where there were police everywhere, but I’d still say there were a couple hundred people there, packed into a small area. What is interesting to note is that this team, should it win the regionalliga and then the next two following leagues, could theoretically be in the Bundesliga, where teams have stadiums that pack tens of thousands of people into them. That’s just how the system works here. The likely hood of that happening is low though, so one has to relish the history behind a place like this. The club, FC VIKTORIA 1889, was founded in, duh 1889, and so there is a brick building at the entrance that serves as the locker room, bathroom and most likely club house as well. The field is grass, of course, but not the nicest grass I’ve ever seen; I was able to go on it earlier since they don’t lock the fields during the day. When the game finally started I decided to stand rather than sit.
The match was a good one, ending with a 3-3 tie, two of the away teams goals, though, came off of very lucky deflections where the ball bounced right to one of their players. In my opinion the home team was the better squad. They controlled the game and had most of the momentum. The level of play didn’t match the BAK/Zwickau game, even though they are all in the same league, but it was good competition none the less. When of the players on VIKTORIA, their center defender #4, Mike Eglseder, was very impressive, with twenty minutes left in the game I decided to keep my eyes on him the whole time. He was very athletic, confident and had good instinct, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he was playing in the Bundesliga in a couple years.
Current tunes: Moonlight Serenade – Glenn Miller (not by my choosing this time, it’s on the cafe’s radio)
Current location: Cafe Katulki
German word of the day: Kuchen – cake
“Ich möchte ein Stück Kuchen bitte.”
Dearest Readers,
It’s been too long, far too long! At least that’s what a select few of you have been, very pointedly, telling me. I apologize, but I’ve been a bit busy of late, and school takes precedence over you I’m afraid (even those of you who are funding my education).
To start: I have arrived safely and have been in Berlin for 3 weeks now. My time has been filled with fun, confusion, stress, merriment, and homework. Primarily homework. Pretty much what one expects to encounter on a study abroad. I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world. My Spain trip? Eh… that was primarily memorable for the people and some interesting experiences; this trip, this trip will stick with me for the rest of my days.
Because I am so late in writing this up, I will be breaking my “Previously on Turnip’s Travels” into a couple of posts. If you are only here for pictures and don’t want to read about my exciting life and journeys, the check out the “Pics or it didn’t happen (it happened)” tab. That is where you’ll find the visual aids to the journey. I’ll be including some photos in posts as well, for ‘emphasis,’ but not a lot.
I left the States on the 30th of March. I arrived to a drastically different feeling Philadelphia International Airport, not only because I was excitednervousanxioushappysadthings!, but because it was DEAD. I have never seen that empty an airport, save for Honolulu at 5am and Frankfurt on a particularly odd day. I got through check-in and security in record time, we are talking 15 minutes TOPS, and arrived at my gate 1 minute after that. My Lufthansa flight, which I expected to be packed to the gills, was completely empty. Well, at least the entire rear of the plane was. 46K was an island unto itself. The vast sea of seats that are normally filled on international flights held nothing but my preconceived idea of the people who would usually be there. My little oasis in the very rear of the plane was only bordered by a woman in 46A and a man, who for some reason I couldn’t figure out, moved from 30K to 35K.
My wonderful flight attended heard that I spoke German from the woman who I originally asked for a seatbelt extender, and then proceeded to ask me where I came from. Me, with my terrible, probably tinnitus having hearing and my tsunami of emotions, thought he asked me if I had a long night. This confusion was quickly resolved and we proceed to carry on the rest of my flight using only German. And I got to spend the rest of the flight with the seat arm up (well, partly up, the last row’s arms don’t fully fold up), and a row- nay! A section all to myself.
Upon arrival to Frankfurt on the 31st, I was going to wait an hour for a classmate to arrive, and travel on from Frankfurt to Berlin with him. A “simple” thing to do. Suffice to say, nothing is ever “simple” when traveling, and my poor traveling companion was almost left to his own devices in Frankfurt. I was on the train, having run into another classmate, who was actually in the same train car, and received a call from Kev.
“Has your train left yet?” he asked, slightly short of breath.
“No? Why? Where are you?” My confusion was high.
“Because I’m the hauptbahnhof and I think I’m at the right train…”
“Track –?”
“Yeah.”
Then came the one sentence that could have crushed the happy moment: “Last call.”
“Get on the train!”
“Which car are you?”
I told him as the last of the passengers are were beginning to board.
“It doesn’t matter, just get on the train, you can walk through to find us.”
“Hold on! I think I saw you, stick your head out!”
I stuck my head out of the door closest to me, we saw each other, I waved frantically, and he started running. Imagine, if you would dear Readers, that OJ Simpson airport commercial from the 90s, but in a train station. Kev made the train by the skin of his teeth, our first travel trial was over; we both sat down and watched the scenery go by.
(Our surprise traveling companion/classmate later told us in the dining car that the conductor had broadcast that Kev was running and to let him get on the train. I laughed.)
Upon arrival to Berlin Hbhf, Kev and I bid “good day” to our classmate and proceed to meet up with our lovely friend and classmate, Renata. The rest of the day didn’t really have anything noteworthy to report. We met Renata, who was going to share my hotel room for the night, put our things down, walked around the neighborhood, found our school, ate, and then I went to bed.
On Friday, April 1st the fun really started.