Flakturm III
Adolf Hitler built a couple of huge fortresses, flakturms, in Berlin during the war. Most of them were taken down after the war but flakturm III still stands like a reminder of a dark time not so long ago. On top of the massive concrete bunker a piece of art has been placed.
Fernsehturm revisited
A closeup of the windows of the Fernsehturm in Berlin. I wish there had been time to go up there and experience Berlin that way.
Reichstag building
I’d like to thank all the contestants (2) for their participation in yesterdays intense quiz. Let me tell you, the excitement was palpable on an almost intergalactic scale;) The correct answer was the Reichstag building in Berlin. The entire area is magnificent and impressive with its open spaces and big buildings. It almost looks like something taken from a futuristic movie in my eyes because some of the buildings are really out there when it comes to architecture. To sum it up I’d say that it’s a really cool part of Berlin. The Reichstag building itself was finalized back in 1894. The dome behind, and above it, was designed by Norman Foster and built in 1999.
Quiz
It’s been a long time since I last had a quiz on the blog so here’s a new one to get the day started for you. Anyone recognizes the building in the picture?
Towers
A couple of weeks ago I showed you a picture of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. Here it is again, but from a new angle.
Holocaust Memorial
When I look at the pictures that I took when visiting Berlin a while ago I see that many of them show a scene from a darker past, whether it’s something related to the Second World War or from the following dark episode that was the iron curtain.
That is a bit sad because Berlin is, of course, so much more than that. It’s just that it is hard to avoid it. First of all it’s because the remnants and evidence are present all the time. It can be in the shape of a “stumbling block” or perhaps something as innocent as the famous “Ampelmännchen“. Secondly, I have to admit, it is because I find this part of history very interesting.
Today’s pictures show yet another part of a darker past. A darker past… This must be the very definition of that. In Friedrichstadt, in the middle of Berlin, is an open area that is close to 19,000 square meters big. This is the place that was chosen to hold the Holocaust Memorial. The memorial itself consists of 2711 concrete pillars of varying height. I think it’s a very different approach to a memorial but it’s really beautiful and it sure made me think walking there and occasionally touching the hard and cold concrete walls.
This is another thing about Germany that I like, if that is the right word to use when talking about this. They have a dark past which would be impossible to hide and even more important: It shouldn’t be allowed to hide. Instead they have come to terms with this and, as mentioned before, the history is always present when walking the streets of Berlin. The Holocaust Memorial is an example of that but the one that I like the most are the Stumbling Blocks. If you walk in a street somewhere you can suddenly stumble upon one of those which declares that in that house a Jew lived and what happened to them. We always read about the staggering numbers of people being murdered during the war and those stones in the streets is the only way, to me anyway, to give that incomprehensible number a name and a face.
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Chapel of Reconciliation
Back in 1985 the border patrols of East Germany blew up a church called the Chapel of Reconciliation located just by the infamous Wall on the death strip in Berlin. Standing there it was an insult to the East German regime and, in addition, it had become a symbol of what the wall was blocking for the East Germans. A few years after the iron curtain fell a new church was built on the same spot as the old one. The photo below shows a wall from within the church with its rough concrete surface.
The wall
While visiting Berlin I took a lot of pictures of the famous Wall. There are still so many photos left to post that I thought that putting them in a slide show would make it more interesting rather than showing you pictures of it over the next several days;)
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Hohenschönhausen revisited
A while ago I posted a few pictures from Hohenschönhausen which is the name of the Stasi headquarters and prison in former East Berlin. Today’s pictures show the long hallway with the thick isolated doors to the interrogating rooms open. I would imagine some pretty horrible things took place behind those doors. The second picture shows one of the standing cells in the dark and dank cellar in the bottom of the big building. I tried “standing” in it for a couple of seconds. I couldn’t stand upright because of my height so I had to crouch which wasn’t easy at all because of the walls that enclosed the cell. I would estimate the cell to have a depth of roughly 40 centimeters and a height of probably 160 centimeters.
Standing in there for 15 seconds made my body hurt all over and I can’t even begin to understand how it must have felt standing in there for many, many hours. Crouching with all of you body weight on bent and hurting legs. A weak body due to lack of food and water. An exhausted and tired mind because of perhaps years of mental and physical abuse with only a small hole in the bottom of the door for air. In the dark. Alone.
I don’t think you ever recover from that.
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No man’s land
No man’s land stretched through Berlin and Germany for many years, dividing the country in two parts. I seriously doubt that people on the eastern side of the iron curtain could get close enough to catch a glimpse through the wall but if they did, the second and third picture shows what they would have seen. The first picture shows a part of the two walls that has been saved as a reminder of what it looked like not that far ago.
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db
“<mike> d-_-b
<adam> how u make that inverted b?
<adam> wait…
<adam> never mind”
Many years ago I read the text above in an IRC chat somewhere on the net. It stuck with me because I found it so fantastically brilliant, stupid and funny in a glorious mix. When I sat editing the picture below and saw the “DB” I laughed out loud as the classic dialogue came back to me:)
Flakturm III
For a long, long time I’ve wanted to see the flak towers of Berlin. Back in 1940 three enormous concrete towers were built as a last defence against Allied air raids. Due to the massive 3,5 meters thick walls some parts of them remain to this day. We visited Flakturm number III which is situated in Humboldthain. This is also the one that has been best preserved. Seeing it made a big impression on me and I can only imagine what an impression it must have made on the 30.000 civilans who used it as a shelter during the final battle of Berlin.
Today trees and bushes covers much of the tower and the view from it but the construction looks more or less the same as it did more than seventy years ago. Today it is mainly a place for reflection, perhaps a game of chess on the many benches or climbing the high and steep walls of the old fortress.
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Berlin Hauptbahnhof
A guided tour through Berlin by our wonderful hosts took us by, amongst other things, the Berlin central station. Like all other train stations in Berlin I think it looks great, especially by the fact that all the light coming through the walls and the roof makes it very light and nice being inside of.
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A wing
Here’s a part of the infamous wall that split Berlin in two. Could it be that the graffiti perhaps is showing a piece of a peace dove?
The crow
When it’s a hot day in the city it’s always nice to hang out by the pool:)
In the dark
Below you can see examples of what the lightning conditions were at the Stasi headquarters. The two fluorescent lights are from the hallways and the naked lightbulb behind the grate is from one of the cozy cells. Not exactly something you would imagine took place not that far ago.
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Marmion – Schöneberg
Today we take another trip to Berlin and, at least to me, a magic name. Schöneberg is a locality of Berlin but to me it is also the name of one of the best trance tracks ever made:) I’ve been listening to it since it was released back in 1994 and ever since then it has been present on all my mp3 players and/or phones. To this day I still get goosebumps by hearing it or by simply just looking at the picture below:)
Please press the picture to hear the track.
AEG
A walk in Berlin took us by an old facility owned by AEG, or Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft as it is called in German which in turn means general electricity company in English.
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