Then We Took Berlin

Berlin was definitely on our bucket list and only a 5 hour train ride from Warsaw; how could we not go for a visit.

 Built in 1884, the train station has a beautiful glass roof which was letting in the sun as we arrived. The forecast for the next few days was sunny with temperatures in the mid 30's.

The station did not look like this after the Second World War. Nearly one third of Berlin had been destroyed by air raids, Soviet artillery fire and street fighting.




Photo: worldwarphotos.info

Berlin was over run by  Soviet forces in the early morning of May 2, 1945. In late 1944 the London Protocol agreement was reached by the Allies that had divided the country and Berlin into occupation zones that were to be controlled by the Allied Forces of Britain, USA and Russia with France joining later on.

Photo: Wikipedia

Germany and Berlin were to remain partitioned for the next 56 years. East Berlin controlled by the Soviets and West Berlin controlled by US, Britain and France. My first memories of Berlin were stories of the Berlin Wall, built in 1961 to keep German citizens living in Soviet controlled East Berlin from escaping into West Berlin. Between 1961 and 1989, 80 people were killed trying to cross the dead man's zone into West Berlin


Photo: Wikipedia

In the late fall of 1989, with the Soviet Republic collapsing, the Berlin Wall was opened between East and West Berlin. Dismantling of the wall began almost immediately.

There are only a few sections of the wall left standing. Amazingly, with the original graffiti intact in some places. In the early days of the wall, it could be very dangerous for West Berlin graffiti artists to tag the wall. In some areas, the wall was built a meter inside East Berlin so anyone approaching the wall too close could be shot at, as they were considered to be in East Berlin. I decided to chance it that day.

With only a few days in Berlin, we opted for an intense 6 hour walking tour of  the sights of Berlin.

The day was heating up as we started the tour.

Our first stop, the Berlin Old Museum.

The museum survived  while all around it were destroyed.






Photo: moddb.com

With temperatures in the 30's, our tour guide was awesome, taking us on only the shadiest routes.


Brandenberg Gate and plaza.

Home to some of Hitlers most extravagant parades, that is before the Allies arrived.



Photo: Wikipedia

Checkpoint C or more well known as Checkpoint Charlie was a busy crossing between East and West Berlin during the years after the war.



Photo: BZ Berlin

More cars and less tanks today.  Now a cartoonish tourist photo op complete with sandbags and guard.

We visited the Holocast Memorial, constructed in honour of  the  6,000,000 jewish lives lost in Europe during the war.

With the rise of Nazism in 1933, Berlin became ground zero for the persecution and descrimination of German Jews.

Jewish stores and businesses were boycotted. Book written by Jews were publicly burned. Culminating in 1938 with Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, when most of Berlins Jewish businesses and homes were looted and  synagogues destroyed.

Beginning in 1941, the city's 160,000 Jews were deported to camps around Europe and by 1943, Berlin was officially declared Judenrein (clean of Jews).



Photo: U. S. Holocast Museum. Holocaust Musem






Berlin Cathederal. Inaugurated in 1905, bombed in 1944.










Photo:Pinterest




Rebuilt in 1975. Currently going through another rebuild.


It has been our experience that owning a cathedral can be a real money pit.












Berling National Gallery survived the war almost intact with only the internal areas destroyed by a Russian incendiary bomb. 










Photo: Wikipedia

Now a beautiful place to catch a few rays and rest our tired feet in the 35 C heat. 

The Fuherbunker, home to Hitler for the last few months of his life.


He shot himself here, on April 30, 1945 and his body was burned in a garden near by. Or so they say?

Now, just a little dried up piece of grass in the middle of a parking lot. 


Any signs of what was here have been removed to avoid becoming a site for the Neo-Nazi movement to gather . 

Now you might be thinking that stories of death and destruction are the only things that Berlin has to offer a tourist. You would be very far from the truth.  

A planned 30 minute stop at a small Dali museum turned into a 2 hour romp through his life and art. He was way cool ahead of his time. 

Berlin is a young, vibrant city with lots to see and do. We only touched a little of what she has to offer. 

Of course for Nonie, no visit to any city would be complete without a visit to a fabric market. 

Finding this one, involved one subway, two buses and a several block walk to reach.

But, Nonie found her Zen and a few metres of fabric. 

Note: I file this blog on November 9, 2019, the 30th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down.