Berlin, Germany

As typical, I'm behind on my blogging, but I have included our Thanksgiving trip to Berlin.  Taylor and I flew out early Friday morning and arrived that evening.  We spent all day Saturday touring the capitol of Germany rich with history from being the Nazi Germany headquarters to the split city of the Cold War.  The city was very different from many we have visited because while the history of Europe is hundreds and thousands of years old..much of the history of Berlin is merely 20 years old.  Therefore while other cities have had hundreds of years to rebuild and form into tourist meccas...Berlin is still in the rebuilding process.  They still have many areas from East Berlin that are being rebuilt after the fall of communism.  There are  many areas in the "Death Zone", the area between the walls of East and West Germany that were filled with land mines that has not been re-built.  

As we learned in our tour, Berlin is a very empty city.  Close to two million people fled or simply left the city after WWII, and between 1950 and 1980 another 300,000 fled a midst the rise of communism and the construction of the wall as we know it in the 1960s.  The city is working on re-building with their economy now resting on tourism they are struggling to provide jobs for citizens to draw them to move into the city. 

So after visiting, I wouldn't say Berlin is the prettiest of cities or even really the top of my list of favorites, but it was quite interesting to learn the history while walking through the actual landmarks where the stories occurred.  Taylor enjoyed the Cold War history aspect and has since rented multiple Cold War movies about stories of people defecting to the West...quite an interesting time.  Below are pictures from the trip.

The Berlin Dom located in East Berlin.  The cathedral was the site of many Nazi parades.  It was bombed  heavily during WWII and was not rebuilt as an exact replica, only similar.  Below is a picture of the original cathedral during Nazi Germany.

The many parades taking place in front of the Berlin Dom.  And just as a side note, it is highly illegal to display any Nazi symbols in Germany presently.  The country takes very seriously the vow to eliminate the culture of hate created during the Nazi regime.

 A national memorial hall dedicated to all victims of Germany's history.  It was originally built as a royal guard house for the New Guard in 1816.  It was another popular site for Third Reich parades.

 You have to look closely at this one, but it is a memorial of all the books burned by the Nazis in Berlin.  The memorial is underground and when you look through this glass it is empty white bookshelves big enough to hold all of the books burned at the burning in that location.  The memorial was done quite well.

 This little guy is the traffic signal man.  On all of the walk signals in Berlin, instead of the little white lit walk sign like in the States, they have this little guy who lights up in green when it is time to walk.  Taylor had noticed him and got a kick out of the icon every time we were crossing the street.  Then in our tour our guide told a story about the traffic signal man and said he is one of the signature icons of Berlin.  This picture is from outside the traffic light guy store, it was a large cutout version of the guy.  So funny.  

 Here is where the wall once stood dividing East and West Berlin.

 A sign from the Cold War (replica) posted where the allied forces could enter back and forth from East and West Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie.

Checkpoint Charlie.  The famous point where the Allied Forces could travel back and forth between East and West Berlin.  Many people also defected through this point by hiding in the engines of cars and other extreme measures to escape East Berlin.

 Again a picture of where the wall stood.  When erecting the brick significance line there was debate as to which way the plaque should read.  Of course the East Berliners felt it should face that way and the West Berliners felt it should face West.  It was determined that it should read right side up for all the West Berliners...so if you see a plaque on the ground and it is right side up, you are standing in West Berlin.

 This building was the headquarters Air Ministry for Hitler and Nazi Germany.  As you can see from the photo below, the building has hardly changed from when it was originally built.  It is one of a few buildings that avoided most damage during bombing attacks of WWII.

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 And the above two pictures show a portion of the Berlin wall.  It's really not a sight to see any longer as it has all been chipped away down to the steel reinforcement inside the concrete.  The wall you see in the history books with kids protesting to tear it down and graffiti decorating the side is no longer.  As Bud Schuller always told us when we went inside Wick's Cave at camp....the stalactites and stalagmites are beautiful inside the cave because of the designs they make and the water dripping creating such patterns and beauty.  But when you break off the stalactite to take with you, all you have is a rock outside of the cave, it has lost all its beauty and meaning.  I feel the same about the wall.  As a whole wall together it would have been a neat site to see, but since everyone took a piece of it...this is all that is left.  And all those people who took a portion, have a piece of rock that doesn't mean nearly as much when it is sitting on a shelf in your room as it would on a wall in a historical scene.  Sorry...little rant of mine!  Anyway...

Me in front of the wall with the Air Ministry headquarters building in the background.  That building is currently used as a government building...something with taxes, if I remember correctly.

There are a few portions of the wall that have been preserved.  This portion was painted after a famous photograph capturing an East Berlin guard defecting to freedom in the West.

This site was completed in 2004 as a memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe.  It is a beautiful site with open ended meaning as to what the blocks represent.  It very large and you have the ability to walk through it as the blocks get very tall in the center, up to 15.5 feet.

 A view from walking through the memorial.

 Here is Brandenberg Gate, a very famous area surrounded presently by many embassies, including the US embassy.  Which in turn results in the square being a very politicized area with protests and picket signs.  There was one going on while we were there about the war in Iraq.  Below is a picture of the gate during Nazi Germany.

 And finally the beautiful Christmas markets that were scattered throughout all of Berlin.  I found my nativity scene I've been looking for.  It is hand carved olive wood set by a vendor from Bethlehem who comes to the market every year.  It is a beautiful set that I love and I bought it with Christmas money from Mama!  Check out the picture!

They sure do Christmas right in Germany...check out the decorations in the shopping center.  So beautiful!

So...there is our Berlin trip.  And I have to give credit to this website for the Nazi Germany pictures of Berlin to go with the current ones we took while visiting: http://www.thirdreichruins.com/berlin.htm

Happy Sunday!