Ich Ben Ein Berliner (Day 2) - Part I

Ugh, it's actually Thursday now and I'm trying to finish this post. My sinuses are kind of stuffed at the moment, but The Flying Danish perseveres. It's kind of a mess around here because I'm trying to do three projects at once as well as book a trip to Stockholm this weekend and coordinate that with the trip to Malmö that CBS has planned.

Anyway... Saturday morning we set off for a walking tour around the former East Berlin. There is a company called New Berlin that is somehow related to our hostel which gives guided tours around Berlin. Our tour guide was named Melanie, who actually turned out to be from Georgia or something but was an excellent guide.

We started at Pariser Pladz, one of Berlin's most famous city squares. The most famous structure in Pariser Platz is the Branderburger Tor a.k.a. the Brandenburg Gate. Completed in 1791, it was actually commissioned as a sign of peace by Friedrich Wilhelm II. On top of the gate is the Quadriga (a chariot) which was originally driven by the goddess of peace. Napoleon took the Quadriga back to Paris after he conquered Berlin in 1806, and when it was returned in 1814 the olive wreath was changed to an Iron Cross and the statue now became the goddess of victory. Later the Iron Cross was removed by the East Germans as a sign of Prussian militarism, but was put back in 1990 after German reunification. According to Melanie, the statue now keeps watch over the French embassy which is also located in Pariser Platz. Seriously people, this lady has been through a lot.

Besides those buildings Pariser Platz has a few other buildings of significance. The Hotel Adlon is located there, which is mostly famous as being the hotel that Michael Jackson dangled his baby out of. The Academy of Fine Arts is located there, as well as a building whose inside is supposed to be shaped like a whale.

After that we headed south to visit the Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe. I'm not one to get terribly emotional around monuments but this one was quite moving. The design is kind of simple and complex at the same time, being made up of concrete slabs of various sizes. It's a little hard to explain but it's definitely worth seeing if you are in the area.

Next we were off to find the spot of Hitler's bunker which turned out to be a parking lot. The only indication you would have that something is out of the ordinary is a sign. It sounds a little funny, but is kind of appropriate if you think about it. After that we walked a couple more blocks to the former Reich Air Ministry and learned about its history mainly under the GDR. Then we moved on to check out other remaining sections of the Berlin Wall and revisited Checkpoint Charlie which, like much of Berlin apparently, has been rebuilt after it was destroyed or dismantled.

After we strolled passed Fassbender & Rausch, world famous chocolatiers, we moved on to the Gendarmenmarkt, another famous square in Berlin. The square has by three famous buildings, the Duetscher Dom (German Cathedral), the Französischer Dom (French Cathedral), and the Konzerthaus. A lot of the buildings we ran into were designed by Karl Schinkel, who was described by Melanie as Germany's most famous architects. He certainly did have a thing for columns.

Then it was off to yet another public square, this time Bebelplatz, which is best known for being the site of a Nazi book burning in 1933. Famous buildings here include the Staatsoper (State Opera House), the Alte Bibliotek, a big statue of Frederick the Great, Humboldt University across the way, and St. Hedwig's Cathedral, the latter of which we couldn't really see due to construction. Crossing the street we ran into the Neue Wache, originally a Prussian guard house it is now a famous war memorial. Next to that is the Zuegheus, the German Historical Museum and the Schlossbrucke (Palace Bridge). Seriously you couldn't swing a bat around here without hitting some kind of historical building.

We also learned about Ampelmännchen (more commonly referred to as Ampelmann), the character used as the "don't walk" character on East German pedestrian traffic lights. After German reunification the old stoplights were going to be replaced, which apparently created somewhat of an uproar as Ampelmann had become somewhat of a cult figure while teaching children the rules of traffic safety. Fortunately for us Ampelmann was saved and now lives on in East German traffic lights as well as the ice cube tray that makes Ampelmann-shaped ice cubes that I bought from the Ampelmann gift shop. How Ampelmann did not make it onto the They Might Be Giant's song Particle Man we will never know...

The last leg of the walking tour was Museum Island, as you may have guessed named after the many museums that reside here, including the Altes Museum, the Neues Museum, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Bode Museum, and the Pergamon Museum. Quite convenient if you are really into museums. Finally we stopped at the Berliner Dom, a huge cathedral, and learned heard stories about the Fernsehturm Berlin (the hideous television tower built by the East Germans) and how the Berlin Wall was actually came down.

Wow! The day is only half done and this post is getting really long, so I better split the day in two. I'll be slapping on a post about Stockholm today so things will be a little out of order but you're smart people, you'll figure it out.