Two for the price of one today!!!

As I mentioned in my previous post, the public transport system in Berlin makes it very easy to figure out how to get where you’re going through its web site. So, after collecting my bags, I headed out of the terminal at Tegel (no customs or immigration thanks to the EU and the Schengen treaty) and found the appropriate bus stop for the TXL bus which runs from Tegel to various stops in Berlin. From there it was pretty straightforward. The only mistake I made (or at least I’ll admit to!) is that after I got off the bus at Brandenburg Tor (gate) stop to change to the S-Bahn, I should have turned around and I would have got my first view of the Brandenburg Gate at night. It is VERY impressive at night (as I found out several nights later) but I was so focused on finding the S-Bahn station that I neglected to check out the neighborhood. Still, no big deal. The hotel was about 100 meters from the S-Bahn exit and you could see the sign from the exit.

An aside for a minute: In Europe there are two suburban rail networks, usually identified as the underground (or metro or U-Bahn) and an above ground system (suburban or urban or S-Bahn). I have not been able to quite figure out what the distinction is between the two as both run above and below ground, both use similar types of trains, both do extend outside the immediate urban areas although they do use independent stations (which may be connected, or close to each other, to allow easy transfer from one to the other). Irrespective of how they are distinguished, these are very efficient ways of getting around the cities I’ve visited and make fitting lots of locations into a tight schedule relatively easy. 

Day 1: In keeping with my policy of always seeing what I came for first, today I went to the Natural History Museum in Berlin. This ranked consistently in the top 5 natural history museums in the world (London and Paris are also in this group and I plan to visit those as well) but I’m visiting for one particular reason. The Berlin museum possess the first complete, and the second, fossil of Archaeopteryx ever discovered and they have it on display (this is the specimen that we have a replica of at school). They also have replicas of all 12 of the other known specimens of Archaeopteryx on display so this is a real treat. When you walk in the first display room, however, you are greeted with this:

The mounted Brachiosaurus skeleton that greets you as you enter the Berlin Natural History Museum.

Officially (it’s in the Guinness Book of Records) it’s the largest mounted dinosaur specimen in the world, reaching a height of over 13 meters. It’s of Brachiosaurus and is surrounded by mounts of other dinosaurs, including a very nice Allosaurus with what looks like a complete skull (they have recreated the head as part of the display). All very nice, but what about the Archaeopteryx? To say that I lucked out on my choice of day to visit would be an understatement. It turns out that a visiting scientist had the fossil out to do a detailed study of the specimen in the presence of museum staff. When I introduced myself, I was immediately invited to step into the little booth where he was working to take a closer look and take a photo.  Because he was getting close to finishing up his analysis for the day, he suggested I come back in about an hour or so and I could get a much better look and take more photos – which I did. In the meantime, I wandered around, looking at the rest of their evolution of birds display (which features Archaeopteryx) and discovered that, for the first time in 150 years, they had the first fossil (of a single feather) on public display, and not behind glass! More pictures!! The museum has a large collection of preserved specimens in glass and the storage room is on display. It’s huge, with several hundred thousand specimens on shelves that stretch floor-to-ceiling and completely fill a very large room (and we think we have storage problems). They gave a very nice explanation of the processes involved in preserving specimens and why, in a digital world, there is still a need for these specimens, some of which are over 200 years old. Finally, back in the gallery with the Brachiosaurus, there are displayed a selection of fossils from the same general fossil bed that Archaeopteryx comes from, but these fossils are of aquatic origin (the fossil bed is an ancient lake bed). Some of these are highly detailed (see the pictures below)  and were worth the visit by themselves. Altogether, a morning very well spent.

And this is why I came to Berlin. The second Archaeopteryx fossil ever found and the first intact specimen. The scale bar has 1 cm2 boxes.

Another picture with more lighting.

The very first fossil of Archaeopteryx was this feather.

This is Microraptor, an early bird fossil found in Laoning in China. This animal is unusual in that it has flight feathers on all four limbs. Reconstruction and wind-tunnel tests suggest that it held its wings in a biplane conformation as it flew.

This fossil, and the ones that follow, are all taken from the same fossil bed that Archaeopteryx is found in. They show a high degree of preservation. This is an armored fish-note the boney plates around the head and the heavy scales.

A horseshoe crab fossil that looks identical to the living animals.

A small lobster or large prawn

An ammonite, an early moolusc and related to today's squid and octopus

That afternoon, I went down to the Brandenburg Gate and strolled around that area (the Tiergarten and the Riechstag are nearby and the Unter den Linden is the street that leads away from the Gate). Historically, the Brandenburg Gate is the one remaining gate of the old walled city of Berlin. However, emotionally, it has a greater significance in terms of what it represented during recent periods of German history. During the Nazi era, Hitler organized many parades and celebrations along the Unter den Linden, using the Gate as a backdrop, and WiIlhelmstrasse, the location of all the important government buildings during this period leads off from the Unter den Linden near the Gate. And of course, for baby-boomers, it is the very symbol of the Cold War and everything that entailed. The Gate, and the surrounding area, retains a prominent place in modern Germany. Many foreign embassies are the same area and the area in front of the gate is sometimes used as a venue for political protest (as I discovered later).

The Brandenburg Gate, perhaps the most recognizable symbol of Berlin

You just have to have your picture taken with the Gate in the background.

The Reichstag which is to the right of the Brandenburg Gate after you pass through the Gate.

Looking from the Tiergarten side of the Gate

Looking down Bismarckstrasse which runs through the Tiergarten.

The Unter den Linden gets its name because of the double row of linden trees that lines the avenue. As you walk down the avenue from the Brandenburg Gate you pass through what might be termed the cultural, if not THE heart of Berlin. Institutions like the Berlin Dom (State cathedral), Humboldt University, Museum Island (which houses many world class museums all in one place), eventually reaching a complex that includes the Berlin townhall (the Red Rathaus) and the Berlin TV Tower. My intention had been to go up the tower to get an overview of the city but it had closed early to host a special event that evening. Tomorrow morning would do just as well, and an early start means no waiting in lines to get in.

Looking back at the Brandenburg gate from the Unter den Linden. The trees are the linden trees from which the avenue gets its name.

The Berlin Dom, or state church

The Berlin TV tower.

The Berlin Town Hall or Red Rathaus

This church stands next to the TV tower and across the square from the Town Hall. I took this photo because I like the interplay between the colors and shapes of the trees and the church.

This is where it suddenly dawned on me that my hotel was located right in the middle of the history of Berlin. Looking at the map and deciding to take the U-Bahn back to Potzdamer Platz, I realized that I could easily walk from there back to my hotel and on the way pass a remnant of the Berlin Wall that was maintained at the site of the former headquarters of the SS and the Gestapo. The buildings don’t exist anymore having been heavily damaged during the war and subsequently knocked down. The original cellar walls and foundations still exist and have been unearthed and now form part of a memorial, known as the Topography of Terror Memorial, to victims of both the SS and Gestapo, and the East German Stasi (secret police). There’s a documentation center and a series of displays that document just what went on at this site. The name of the street has been changed which is why I had not recognized the significance of the site previously (it's now called Niederkirchnerstrasse but was called PrinzAlbrechtstrasse during WWII).

Potzdamer Platz is a mixture of old and new buildings. This one of the newest.

Another view.

And tucked away between two newer buildings is one of the older buildings.

Looking out across the Platz.

Preserved section of the Berlin Wall at the Topography of Terror Memorial.

An overview of the memorial display. The brick work that forms the backdrop of the lower level is the foundations and cellar walls of the headquarters of the SS and the gestapo which occupied adjacent buildings on this street during WWII.

  

Another aside: Berlin, and I understand Germany as a whole, struggles with its past. The Nazi period and the time behind the Iron Curtain for East Germany have left scars which run deep. There appears to (from what I could see) a real effort to present an honest account of the past without either glorifying or discounting what happened. The Topography of Terror memorial was the first place I encountered this and would not be the last (more on this later).

As I checked the map again, I noticed that the famous “Checkpoint Charlie” was only .5 km away so wandered over to have a look. Like some many places of historic note, Charlie has become a tourist attraction with “shows” put on for visitors. By the way, the name Charlie for this checkpoint is an accident of history. There were three border crossing points in the US governed zone of Berlin, labeled Alpha, Bravo and Charlie after the first three letters of the radio phonetic alphabet. Charlie happened to be the one designated for civilian access and which exchanges across the border took place. It’s not really all that impressive, what with all the 21^st century advertising and such, but as a point of historic interest worth a look for a few minutes.

Checkpoint "Charlie" from the American side.

Yet another aside: One of the things you encounter as you walk around Berlin is a double row of bricks running down sidewalks and roads, apparently in a random fashion. This double row marks the location of the Berlin Wall and the randomness is a reflection of the random way in which Berlin was divided up after WWII. One particularly notorious stretch, which has been memorialized, was on Bernauer Street, where the Wall ran down one side of the street and literally separated friends and families who happened to live across the street from each other (more about this in Day 3).

A section of the double line of bricks that runs through Berlin marking the location of the Berlin Wall.

Walking back from Charlie I passed what must rate as the world’s worst car rental place, at least in terms of the cars they rent. For a price you can rent a truly horrible little car, that icon of all that was wrong with the communist system, at least the East German version, the Trabbant, or Trabbie. This car was a lemon right from the start. Equipped with an underpowered two-stroke engine, built with the characteristics of a tank (heavy, lousy handling, atrocious performance), the Trabbant was what people aspired to if they wanted a car in East Germany. The one good thing about a Trabbie was that it was likely indestructible. I once watched an episode of the British car show “Top Gear” where two of the presenters did a comparison of cars made behind the Iron Curtain to see if the communist system could actually make a good car (by their standards at least). One of the presenters took a sledgehammer to a Trabbie, and despite repeated blows, could not make a dent in the bodywork. They might breakdown for no reason, spew smoke like a chimney or rust away but they were solid. Actually, the has achieved a kind of cult status and that is why you can rent one of these cars for you tour of Berlin.

The stock standard two-door Trabbant sedan. None of your decadent, capitalist aspirational options on this car.

It did come as a station wagon as well.

So, all of this was within about 10-15 minutes’ walk from my hotel. Add to that the presence of several present day government ministries literally around the corner from my hotel and I don’t think I could have been more centrally located if I had tried.

Day 2: Today I went to the Charlottenburg Schloss (Palace) on the western side of Berlin. But first I returned to the Berlin TV Tower so I could go up and get some pictures of Berlin. Getting there early was certainly the thing to do because I could go straight up without having to wait (later in the day you have to wait for your assigned time, which could be up to 1.5 hours on really busy days). The Tower was built in 1965 by the East German government for political reasons and dominates the Berlin skyline. It has an observation deck at 203 meters above the ground with a restaurant located above that. The views you get are spectacular even on an overcast and, potentially, drizzly day. I would imagine on a clear day they would be breathtaking. Anyway, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Looking across Berlin towards the Brandenburg Gate.Where the buildings give way to park land is where the Gate is located.

Looking in the other direction. The river is the Spree on which Berlin lies.

After spending about an hour up at the top, I left and caught the U-Bahn out to the Schloss Charlottenburg. The nearest station is a little way from the palace so you get to walk up the main approach to the palace and you get to appreciate the effect this must have had on visitors to the palace at the time. Mind you, this was originally intended as a retreat, not a main residence, by Sophie Charlotte, wife of Frederick III, Elector of  Brandenburg who originally commissioned the palace. However, she died about 6 years the original building was completed. Her husband named the palace in her honor and Frederick and subsequent kings of Prussia expanded on the original palace. The palace was badly damaged during WWII but has undergone substantial reconstruction to reflect its original state.There are several different tours you can take, all self-guided with an audioguide (guided tours are also possible but the audiotours are great). You can also by a permit that allows you take photos. I chose to pay for both tours and a camera permit. The pictures of the rooms give you some idea of the opulence of the palace but being in the room and seeing the whole package as one unit (including the frescoes on the ceilings in many of the rooms) leaves an impression that photos simply can’t convey.

The view from the main gate

The next few pictures illustrate some of the rooms you can visit on the self-guided tours.

One room is given over to displaying Sophie Charlotte's porcelain collection. this room is as she herself decorated it.

Another view of the china room.

The next pictures feature some of the gold and silver ware collected and used by the royal family.

This is the main reception room for state events. It's still used for special events (concerts and receptions).

The state ballroom, also still used for special events.

A closer view of the decoration of the state ballroom

The remaining interior shots are of rooms in the personal living quarters of some of the later rulers who used the palace as a regular residence. These rooms have been converted from strictly summer use to winter use.

The large cabinet in this picture is actually a porcelain heater, which was feed through a hatch in the back to keep mess and intrusion out of the living quarters.

After finishing the tours I then went for a stroll through the palace garden/park. You might think that, given that it’s already fall and leavings are dropping, the gardens and parks may not be much to look at. However, I found the reverse to be true. I actually feel that I chose a good time to see the gardens as the fall colors gave variety to the scenes rather than a uniform green that would be present in spring and summer. You can judge for yourself.

The palace from the gardens.

Looking out into the gardens. The architect for the gardens was inspired by French palatial gardens, particularly Versailles.

Looking across the lake towards the palace.

Tonight I wanted to return to the Brandenburg Gate to see it at night, so in the intervening time I traveled back across Berlin to the U-Bahn station nearest to Bernauer Street. As I mentioned above, there is another Berlin Wall museum here that stretches along the street to show how the Wall was so divisive and disruptive and arbitrary. In one part of the memorial they have left the Wall, no-man’s land, an East German watch tower and some of the original floodlights intact so that you can see what the total effect was. By the time I arrived, the rain had begun and it was cold, wet and getting dark, which seemed kind of appropriate considering what I was seeing. They have a memorial wall featuring pictures of those who died trying to cross the Wall and plaques describing some successful attempts to escape. To get a full impression of the landscape of the Wall you can climb a tower that allows you to look down on, and into, no-man’s land. Very sobering.

A view of Bernauer Street and the Berlin Wall memorial there. The row of metal poles marks the location of the Wall and it's easy to see how it divided this neighborhood.

Looking down on the preserved section of Wall with no-man's land, a watch tower and the flood lights - all original.

Another view of the the preserved no-man's land.

Sections of the original wall are preserved here as part of a memorial to those who tried, but failed, to make it across the Wall..

Another section of Wall at the memorial, preserved in it's original location. Most sections of the Wall were removed very quickly one the first sections came down and only with special efforts were several short sections preserved in place.

To get to the Brandenburg Gate I needed to take the S-Bahn and the S-Bahn station adjacent to the memorial (Nordbahnhof) has a little museum-like display describing a little known consequence of the building of the Wall. At the time of the erection of the Wall three U-Bahn and 2 S-Bahn lines, with accompanying stations, ran under East Berlin. The resulting tunnels would have provided an easy escape route for people fleeing to the West so East German authorities boarded up the stations, sealed the entrances and took down any surface signs to the existence of the stations. They posted soldiers on the platforms and eventually even bricked up some of the platforms. Trains from West Berlin continued to travel the lines, sometimes even operated by the East Germans (!!!) but obviously did not stop at these stations. Over time people forgot about the existence of these stations and they have become known as the “Ghost stations”. When the Wall came down, it took a while for people to remember that these stations existed but eventually all were rediscovered, renovated and returned to service (Nordbahnhof, itself, was one of these ghost stations).

When I got to the Gate it was still light but the rain was still falling. I decided to hang around and wait as I figured the rain might add to the effect of the lighting on the gate and I think I was right. You might not agree but I like the effect of the lights, the rain and the clouds. This was also where I encountered political protest as there were a group of people protesting about the cruelty of deportations.

Two views of the Brandenburg gate at night, with the rain. I think this lends the Gate a power and presence that just isn't there during the day.

A full day, but a good day.

Day 3: Today I took a trip into the country to a town called Oranienburg that lies about 30-40 km to the northwest of the city. It is a pleasant 1hour trip by S-Bahn. From there, I walked for about 20 minutes through town and out to a neighboring village, down a country lane and through a gateway to be confronted with an iron gate with the words “Arbeit Macht Frei” incorporated into the iron work. Anyone familiar with WWII history will likely recognize these words as they figured prominently on the gates of the concentration camps operated by the SS. The village I had walked to was Sachenhausen and this was Sachsenhausen concentration camp the first concentration camp opened by the Nazis in 1933. The SS took over control in 1934 and, as this was the closest camp to Berlin, used it as a model or show camp for visiting dignitaries and allies. It also had a more sinister side as it also served as the test and training camp for the SS. This was where the SS and Gestapo tried out their techniques before using them on a larger scale at the more notorious extermination camps. Here, too, the guards and administrators for the larger camps received their training before being assigned to their first duty camps. But the history of Sachsenhausen does not end with the end of WWI, unfortunately, as the Russians took over the camp (it’s in the old East Germany) and used it for another five years as their own detention camp, building a separate set of barracks in a compound attached to one corner of the original camp and accessed through it. The camp has been set up as a memorial to both eras with a separate museum display in the Russian compound covering that era. The displays and descriptive notes do not hide what went on the camp and are very graphic in describing the various “experiments” both the SS and Gestapo carried out on prisoners. There’s a lot I could write about what I saw but a few pictures will give you some idea of what the camp was like.

This is the first glimpse of the camp prisoners would get as they marched through town to the camp. In its day the wall would have been solid concrete.

The road that leads to the main gate

The gatehouse.

These words became the slogan of all the SS camps but sent chills down the spins of prisoners who saw them.

This picture and the following three are views across the compound. The camp is remarkably compact given that up to 20,000 people were housed here at times.

The gravel pits mark the locations of the prisoner barracks.

These two barracks have been reconstructed from original material as much as possible

The rebuilt barracks are called the Jewish barracks and represent the typical quarters for prisoners in Sachsenhausen.

The Gestapo maintained a prison inside a walled compound within Sachsenhausen. many notable Gestapo victims spent time here.

A typical cell in the gestapo prison.

The killing trench.

Another view of the trench. Here a prisoner could be shot, beaten to death, or hanged with a wire noose.

Before using gas chambers and crematoria in the extermination camps, the SS set up small versions in Sachsenhausen, made by the same companies who would supply the larger version. Here they tried out the technology to make sure it would work.

There are two memorials in the camp. This one is to honor all the victims of the camp from both the Nazi and Russian eras.

This memorial is at the location of the camp gallows where prisoners were often hanged in front of the assembled prison population.

The Russian compound which was built as an annex to the original main camp compound and used from 1945-1950.

Having spent a morning in Sachsenhausen, I took the S-Bahn back to town and returned to the Brandenburg area. I began by starting to walk down Wilhelmstrasse. Some of the original buildings still exist from the pre-Nazi era but many are gone, so badly damaged by the war that the East Germans eventually pulled them down and put up apartments. Where this has happened, there are signs indicating what had been there during the war. A brief detour from Wilhelmstrasse bought me to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, usually referred to as the Holocaust memorial. This is a simple memorial composed of large concrete blocks each having the same footprint on the ground but varying in height as the terrain of the memorial undulates. Some of the blocks barely rise above the ground while others tower over you as you walk among them. Rather fittingly, the memorial is located on the site of the garden and grounds of the mansion once occupied by Joseph Goebbels.

The view down Wilhelmstrasse from the Unter den Linden

The Holocaust memorial built on the grounds of Goebbel's former residence.

A little further down Wilhelmstrasse is the site of Hitler’s Reich's Chancellery, now occupied by aparments. If you wander around the back of the apartments, you’ll find a sign telling you that under the parking lot of the building is where the Fuhrer bunker was located and where Hitler spent his last days. The bunker was progressively destroyed by the Russians and the East Germans so that little remains and what does is filled in and buried.

Some of the buildings on Wilhelmstrasse that survived the from the Imperial period and are still in use today.

The site of the Reich's Chancellery, now apartments

This parking lot now sits where the Fuhrer bunker was located.

At the far end of the government section of Wilhelmstrasse is a very imposing building once the headquarters of Hermann Goering and the Luftwaffe. The size and scope of the building, constructed on Goering’s orders as the old building just wasn’t big enough, is a testament to his ego and self-image. Today the building is home to the German Finance Ministry.

The former location of Goering's Luftwaffe headquarters, now the German Finance Ministry

At this stage I had seen about everything I wanted to see in Berlin and was ready to move on. It was time to begin my travels by train, the first being the trip from Berlin to Prague the next day. If you’ve been following along with my posts, you already know how that went so I won’t repeat the story in my next post. That will, of course, be all about Prague.

Doc