Spring Break Part 4 - April 2

We were told through our hostel about a great free tour done in Berlin that was paid for through tips.  This sounded great to us, to learn some more of the history of the city, so we met at the Starbucks near the Brandenburg Gate (thus far I can't decide if globalization is good or not) and awaited our tour.  Before that, however, we intended to go to the museum of German Communism near what is called Museum Island; we couldn't find it however so after taking a look at the Island we walked to the Gate.

Altes Museum

Oddly Gender Specific Statue; there's another with all females to the right

At the Brandenburg Gate our tour began with George from Missouri.  He gave us a history lesson of what was originally a fishing village and pointed out some of the finer points of the plaza.  The hotel left is from whence Michael Jackson infamously dangled one of his children.

The picture right shows where the Berlin Wall formally was with the brick line in the middle of the road.  Throughout the city one can see the brick base on which there sat the Berlin Wall, which oddly enough was used to encircle what was West Berlin.

This is the scene of Hitler's bunker in which he committed suicide.  The location wasn't known until the 90's, and by that point there was a parking lot over it.  It stands as a further reiteration of how Germany chooses to represent those years - the oppressed got monuments, and the oppressor's legacy is marked by a blue sign and a dirt parking lot on which dogs do their business.

In Memory of Hitler

This is the headquarters of the Luftwaffe and later the Communist Party in Berlin.  Keeping with the theme of having the building being a place that is to be feared and hated, it's now the home of the tax collection agency.

The Berlin Wall

East Side of the Berlin Wall, incidentally

The Communist Car

Checkpoint Charlie; none of this is original

Where the Berlins meet

This square, Gendarmenmarkt, was made to thank the French Huguenots who contributed culturally to the city, especially with the cathedral which gave a mass all in French.  The Germans were subsequently jealous, and so an identical one was built giving the mass in German.  Between the two is the Konzerthaus, which is a Concert House.

Konzerthaus

German Cathedral

French Cathedral

We then went down to where Albert Einstein taught until 1931, the Humbolt University.  Within it is a strange memorial for the book burning of 1933 in the square, which you can only see through a piece of glass in the pavement - a room of empty bookshelves with no entrance.










"That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also."
- Heinrich Heine, Almansor (1821)

We ended at Memorial to the Fallen Soldier, which was sculpted by Käthe Kollwitz, who lost a son and a grandson to the World Wars.  It's entitled Mother and her Dead Son.  Beneath it are the ashes of soldiers and prisoners of concentration camps, here both seen as victims.










As the tour progressed we were told of a trip the next morning to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.  The three of us wanted to go, and that occupied much of the next day.