Day 8 - Babylon, Luftwaffe and DW Griffith
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2008
1
9
14
Trip End
Sep 13, 2008
Berlin,
Germany
Monday, September 8, 2008
Next I went into the Babylon major exhibition. Wonderful, except for two things: (1) there was not enough air circulation, so with a large number of Sunday visitors, the atmosphere in the smaller rooms was highly toxic with CO2; (2) there were insufficient signs to tell you what way to go around, so I visited some areas three times (and probably missed others). But the exhibits were marvellous. The "myths" part showed statues, paintings, carvings and old book references to mythical Babylon: Nebuchadnezzar, the Whore of Babylon, the Fall of Babylon, and Semiramis. What was particularly good was the ability to see books which were normally in private libraries, or on loan from the Vatican. Wonderful art work - I just wish I could find them on the internet. In a small cinema room they were showing clips of the silent film epic Intolerance, a real favourite of mine, directed by DW Griffith. In a darkened room, with the high contrast old film just showing the lights of flames around the walls of Babylon, it was certainly atmospheric.
Then you go into the "truth" part, and see many hundreds of cuneiform clay tablets, descriptions of the system of government, land laws, judicial system and farming methods. Really interesting stuff, and well laid out so you could actually see them clearly. No photography here though. Bringing things up to date it showed some interesting posters and newspaper clippings showing how Saddam Hussain had used a lot of the Babylon myths and history as a kind of direct ancestor to his own system and reason of rule.
The whole visit costs either €12 for the museum, including the Babylon exhibition, or €15 for all museums on the same day.
I needed some fresh air, so I came out to the café in front of the Pergamon, and did the touristy thing and had some drink and a huge slice of strawberry torte. I was watching people, as you do, and trying to guess their nationalities. The French seemed to be easy to spot due their usually outlandish clothes and badly behaved children. The Brits were the ones who were the quietest, almost embarrassed to be there. But I really noticed just how many Poles were in Berlin. Not just a few - I actually heard just as much Polish while walking around as German. Also plenty of Arabic, and (of course) Japanese. No Chinese though - I think they are all in the USA and UK. Everyone getting on well, in a friendly atmosphere, getting by with a sort of German-English-sign language mulch that actually worked. Oh yes, and the Russians were the ones selling cheap fur hats, old DDR army regalia and red army badges. I never normally like markets in the UK, but this one was so different in its content that it was positively enjoyable to stroll around.
After this break I went back to the Bode museum, to do the ground floor which I missed yesterday. Oh dear, I would need a day to do this properly. I indulged myself in all the early Christian and medieval religious statues, reliquaries, icons and altarpieces. I was once again able to photograph so many of them that camera batteries were getting low near the end. I don't know about you, but I can thoroughly enjoy looking at old religious statues and altars, particularly the medieval ones with doleful faces of characters, superb bright colours, and usually the gold leaf background - all that, and I don't care for the actual religious content. I just like them for the quality of the art. There must be more people like me around, who like this sort of stuff, but I just haven't some across them. The quality of the carvings on the small portable ivory altars has to be seen to be believed.
Time was against me though, and I had to leave at 4:30pm. The market was starting to close down, fake Russian army caps were being packed away with DDR flags, hammer and sickle paperweights, and all sorts of war-related regalia, badges and ensignia. But still, even with this tacit acceptance that the world wars are now being "talked about" in Germany, even though you can get books on the Luftwaffe planes, on army uniforms (even buy whole uniforms), and even though you can buy books on Hitler - that all said, there's still one thing that I didn't see anywhere: WW2 Nazi memorabilia, Maltese crosses, swastikas, and the like. No doubt these are sold for private collections but you still don't see anything like that on sale. Goodness knows you get swamped with British WW2-related stuff if you go to war-related museums and places like Eden Camp or RAF bases open to the public. Here though, in Germany, you still cannot get maltese cross and swastika badges. I feel though it's only a matter of time before they are openly available in markets, to be snapped up by tourists and the genuinely curious. I'm sure it's just a matter of time.
Well, my poor feet have now survived four days of Berlin, so tomorrow I am driving right around Berlin, but a long way out, to touch the border with Poland, and come back through Lüneburg.
