First Port of Call: Warnemunde (Berlin), Part 2

As stated in Part 1 for the day, our group was split into two. We got to keep the big tour bus. I don't know how the other half traveled. Everyone in our group could have a window seat or two to themselves.

Our driver drove us through the former West Berlin. Up until this point we had been in the former East Berlin. Twenty-eight years ago it took no skill identifying East from West. Now the East is having a building boom and it is not as easy to tell. Jim said a small percentage of the tax everyone pays goes into a fund to rebuild the East. The wounds are strong, and it will take many more years to fade. It would be akin to slavery in the United States in that regard. The wounds are deep.

The problem with drive-by tourism

We passed Charlottenburg Palace, home to the first Prussian queen consort, Sophie Charlotte. Charlottenburg is one of twelve districts in Berlin. Jim described it as a more relaxed, and green part of town, where people tend to move when they retire. It is a "garden colony." 80% of the people live in apartments and get plots of land with tiny houses on it so they can have a "yard." The houses are not habitable, good enough for roughing it, but not for living in.

As Jim talked, I was the dutiful student and took notes. Berlin has 3.5 million people in it (New York City has 8.5 million people). It dates back to the early 13th century. The first written records about the area date it at 1237 when it was a trading post on the Spree River. It was a swampy piece of land. The word Berlin in the Slavic language means swamp. As construction continues to happen, water is being extracted out of the city via ugly temporary pink pipes. Germany had a monarchy from 1701 until 1918 (the end of World War I. At first they were Prussian Kings, and in 1871 they were ruled by German emperors. A royal palace was built in 1706, and lived in until the 20th century. Mind you based on the little bit of research I just did, none of this seems to relate to Charlottenburg Palace, but is still interesting, at least to a history buff like me.

Today the palace is used for cultural events and wedding receptions.

A much better drive-by photo

After World War I, Prussia maintained a democracy until 1933, when Adolph Hitler came into power. He took the royal buildings for himself. 

We passed the 1902 Old City Hall. City Halls later became district halls as the seven different parts of town were unified under the capital in 1920. Today it has a vibrant downtown feel.

Berlin is a sprawling city of 345 miles. New York City is 302.6 square miles. The size of the city became clearer when Jim said the Berlin Wall was 100 miles long. ONE HUNDRED MILES LONG! More about The Wall HERE.

Interesting camera angle, but it works

Jim pointed out you can see the differences between East and West in how they were rebuilt in the 1950s, post World War II. East Berlin focused on rebuilding the subway (which we rode in 1990, after it was going between both sides again), and had narrower roads. West Berlin focused on bus lines and independent car ownership. Today both sides have elevated train tracks, with four S-Bon lines going East and West, a subway system, trams, and streetcars. The mass transit system is so strong there Jim can easily get everywhere by mass transit and does not need a car. A day pass is seven euros, a monthly pass is 60 euros. Students ride for free.

Our next drive by site was the Victory Column celebrating Germany's 1871 unification when they first became their own country, instead of a collection of different duchy. Otto Von Bismark was the architect.

We passed the Bellevue Palace located on the Spree River. Bellevue is the home of the president of Germany, a purely ceremonial position that comes with a great house.

This is near the Tiergarten -- the largest park in Berlin, filled with bike paths and people enjoying them. We did not have time to explore all 529 acres, but we did pop through when we walked from the Parliament Building to the Brandenburg Gate.

The Parliament Building, or Reichstag as it is known in German, has the words

Den Deusher Volke (For the People) on the lintel. I wish we had the time to go inside. The pictures on the Visit Berlin website are amazing, especially from inside the glass dome. 

In 1894 it became the official seat of Parliament, ruling over 40 different lands. The Prussian leader lived a few blocks away. The end of the empire came in 1918, with the end of World War I. The victors wanted more checks and balances in place, and thus was born the Weimar Republic (the unofficially designated name for the time period from 1919 to 1933). This building saw the heaviest fighting in the days leading up to end of World War II (May 21, 1945). Most of the damage took place in the final hours of the war. Jim showed us before and after pictures to accentuate his history lesson.

Post-World War II Germany was divided into four zones: British, French, American, and Soviets. The first three countries got along with each other, the Soviets did not. Berlin was firmly in the Soviet section, but as the capital, it, too was divided into

four zones. In 1949 the country was divided into two states: East Germany and West Germany. The three allies merged to form West Germany and the capital of West Germany was moved to Bonn. The communists ruled East Germany. West Berlin was was "an island of democracy in a sea of communism," as Jim so eloquently put it. In the 1980s this building became a history museum. In 1991 (after The Wall came down), the main seat of government was moved here. Twenty-five years ago, there was nothing in this area. Off to the side in the white building is the Federal Chancellery Building where Angela Merkel (the Chancellor of Germany) works. Jim said she "lives among the people."

We took a stroll through the park to Brandenburg Gate.

A little bit of the history of the meteoric rise of Adolph Hitler. In 1933 there was a move to oust democracy. A week before the election there was a fire, and all 81 communists in power were arrested, those anti-government were also arrested for being "involved." The events all fell into place for Hitler to win power. The fire accelerated the speed at which it happened.

In the park is a fairly new memorial to those persecuted during World War II, including gypsies, those subjected to medical atrocities, victims of concentration camps. It was hard to take a picture. There is a separate Holocaust Memorial we went to later in the day.

If you read our first post, you read Don and I had a quick visit to Berlin on New Years Eve 1990 when I was studying abroad in Paris.

This is our view from 1990:

And the view from last month:

This was a jaw dropping moment for me. I should have looked at our old photo album before leaving, and even brought a picture to compare on the spot. In 1990 the Place de Paris was empty. I did not take pictures of it (I was using a disc camera in those days and photography was expensive, the quality was stinky). 

Looking the two pictures, it is immediately clear the top one is lacking the statue Napoleon took to Paris in the 19th century (hence the name Pariser Platz). It has since been cleaned up, and a bunch of buildings surround the square -- including the American Embassy. It was a marvelous sight to see. All this happened in the past 25 years.

Jim's hand

American Embassy back in its original location

When the wall went up, three million East Germans moved to the West, leaving behind only 20% of the East German population. To stop the rest from leaving, they blockaded the border and put a 100-mile concrete wall through the center of town. This was how they lived from 1961 to 1989. As Jim was recalling the history I could hear Ronald Reagan's voice in my head: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Goose bumps. Today a cobblestone path indicates where the wall had been. In 1990, when we asked a guard where the wall had been, the eye-rolling response we received was "Wall, what Wall?"

Brandenburg Gate was named as such because in 1791 it was the gate (out of 18 gates throughout the city) that led to Brandenburg, a city now less than an hour from Berlin.

In the 19th century Napoleon moved the horse from the top of the Brandenburg Gate to Paris. In the early 20th century there was a push to restore this area, the symbol of division. In 2003 the French Embassy returned. In 2008 the American Embassy moved back. 

During World War II, 70% of the center of Berlin was destroyed, 80% of Berlin was destroyed by the 68,000 bombs that landed in the city. The area post-1945 was desolate. In the 1950s, the park was rebuilt as East Berlin and West Berlin rebuilt.

Today it is a thriving metropolis.
 


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