Berlin, Die Zwei
Trip Start
Jun 05, 2006
1
9
33
Trip End
Aug 01, 2006
Berlin,
Germany
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Then we went to the Checkpoint Charlie site, where much of the drama where daring escapes to West Berlin went down. The museum there was actually pretty cool, and we spent a few hours perusing articles about atrocities performed by the Russian side, and some incredible stories of the ingenuity of East Berliners determined to get across the border. The most impressive were that of two families who built a hot air baloon and sailed it at 50km/hr across the border under cover of night; a young dude who built a minisub to pull him 15 km into the Baltic Sea to get to an ocean liner going to Denmark (the device later lead to several international patents and a commercial device); and a guy who hid his wife between two attached suitcases, with a hole cut to connect them lengthwise.
By that time we were getting hungry, and me and Jon ate our delicious free sandwiches while Jill and Kelly ate at a cafe.
Checkpoint Charlie
Then we went to the Jewish Museum, which I have to say was pretty incredible. It is very new, and the architecture was very closely tied with the museum's message of cautionary remembrance. Upstairs are a bunch of exhibits tracking the Jewish people and culture from ancient to modern times, putting their history and current situation in context, and celebrating Jewish leaders who have had a great effect on society. Below, which I found most impressive, was Holocaust related, with 3 hallways, or "axes", set at odd angles to each other, and denoting different aspects of the Holocaust. At the end of one of them was a memory garden, with a square filled with rows of 49 very tall stone columns. 48 of the columns were filled with dirt from Berlin and planted with oaks, denoting the 1948 founding of Israel, and one filled with dirt from Jerusalem, and representing the future of Berlin. Even more impressive, at the end of another hall was the isolation chamber. It was a very high ceilinged concrete quadrilateral, with two sides coming to a sharp point and leaving one end of the room more brightly lit and expansive. When you first walked in, you could hear every slight scuffle in the room reverberate, and were for some reason drawn to that dark, closed point in the corner. Our group entered and after settling down, we just stood there in silence, and could see faint glimmers of the bright sunlight outside penetrating the darkness and providing an eerie, isolated light. Ghostly sounds of schoolchildren yelling outside and the pressure impact of cars going by were almost like phantom voices of the past. It was an eerie feeling, and you couldn't help feeling what the architect had envisioned--the disoriented, creepy feeling of isolation that Jews torn away from their homes by the Gestapo must have felt. I was really impressed with that room, and with the museum as a whole, and I really felt the city has come a long way with coming to terms with its past.On our way home after dinner, we stopped by the Wilhelm II Memorial Church, which was built in the early 20th C and largely destroyed by bombing in WWII. One of the towers was left broken in half as a very effective reminder of the past. Tomorrow we're taking a morning train to Prague, where we're staying for 3 days. I'm excited to go back, since it was one of my favorite places in Europe when I visited 2 Christmases ago. I hope everyone is doing very well and has been having as good weather as we've been having. And as always, if I make an untoward statement, say referring to someone over the age of 35 as old, well feel free to leave a comment informing me of my error. Thank you, come again.
Hasta pronto,
Matt
Comments
What are you doing to that bear?
The people at work said it looked like you were doing more then rubbing her belly. It was Athena that thought you should make picachu drink. Your mom would never want get you to do that!! He is under age.. Oh yes that doesn't matter you are in Europe now not Alabama
We liked the hidden items pictures.
have a great time....
Re: What are you doing to that bear?
You tell your coworkers they need to get their mind out of the gutter. That bear isn't even anatomically correct, so it never even ocurred to me that a simple belly rub for good luck could be taken for some crass gesture. As for Pikachu, he is actually 452 years old and has been drinking since the age of 57...he wanted me to let you know that's well over the German drinking age, even with the euro conversion