Charmless Charlie & the Jewish Museum
Trip Start
Jan 26, 2008
1
16
36
Trip End
Feb 29, 2008
Berlin,
Germany
Saturday, February 9, 2008
The Museum at Checkpoint Charlie was established on the 19th of October 1962 just over a year after the wall first began to be erected (13 August 1961). The exhibitions at the museum are quite moving, all throughout the museum there are various artworks inspired by the wall in its various phases. There is an interesting comparison of schoolchildrens artwork from the 60s to that of children after 1971. The earliest artwok is obviously influenced by the dramatic division of the city by the wall, one child had drawn a mother hen who was separated from her chicks by a wall.
You are now leaving the West!
After 1971 the wall merely became a backdrop in the children's artwork.There were interesting exhibits showing all the ingenious methods that were devised by inventive East Berliners to escape into West Berlin. There were tunnels, secret compartments in cars, bridge ladders, suitcases and speaker boxes that had all been used to aid in the many escapes. An interesting aspect of the exhibition was the pieces describing the attitude of many of the East Belrin border guards. Despite risk to their own lives there were many who never shot directly at defectors, some who would turn a blind eye to various activities, and some who managed to escape themselves. Many of the Border guards had been pressed into service and did not share the attitudes of their superiors.
The most moving part of the exhibition was the the last part describing the bringing down of the wall. In particular a bronze of a world renowned cellist playing at the wall as it was coming down behind him. The cellist and the cello had fled East Germany over 20 years previously and as soon as he heard what was transpiring in Berlin he had packed up the Cello and headed there. There was video footage of him playing at the wall which added to the atmosphere.
As I said, the museum is very moving and well worth the entrance fee, Checkpoint Charlie itself is rather Kitsch and almost completely lacking in charm. We took some photos and had lunch at Snack-point Charlie - I told you, a charm free zone.
After lunch we headed back up Freidrichstrasser, in the direction from which we had come earlier in the day.
Checkpoint Charlie
This time we spotted the sign indicated where we needed to turn to get to the Jewish Museum and so quickly found our destination. The Jewish Museum is spread across two buildings, an original building and one specifically commissioned to house the Jewish Museum's permanent exhibitions. The new building was designed b Daniel Libeskind and the construction of it was begun in 1992 and completed in 1998, the permanent exhibitions opened to the public in 2001. The building itself is fascinating from an architectural standpoint, the design of which is partly based on the idea of an exploded Star of David. The exhibitions trace the earliest Jewish settlements in Germanic Europe through to today. One of the first settlements was in a town with the unpleasant name of Worms - not sure what inspired the townsfolk to saddle themselves with that name.The exhibitions in the meusem are designed to give an insight into the history of the Jews in Europe and also to give details of their, for the most part, ordinary lives. There was some discussion of the steady rise of anti-Semitism over the years, I had not realised that the plaque was blamed on the Jews in parts of Europe. The Holocaust is dealt with but not in overwhelmingly horrific detail. The holocaust exhibits seem to have been designed in such a way as to allow Berliners/Germans to come to terms with what was committed in their name without making them feel they can never put it behind them.
We finished at the museum just after 5pm and decided to head back to our Hostel. On the way we stopped at a supermarket - Kaiser's! - to pick up some more provisions. During our train ride we were treated to a performance by a couple of guys who appeared in our carriage at one stop, played a couple of numbers, went a round with a cup looking for any donations and then got off at the next stop and presumably went to the next carriage. One of the guys was playing a guitar and the other what looked like a Russian Balalaika,the lute-like stringed instrument with the triangular body that I think I have mentioned before. By the time we got back to the station near our Hostel everything had started to close - things close early here, at 6pm most things close and by 8pm virtually everything is closed. This is in sharp contrast to Moscow and St Petersburg where things didn't even think of closing until 7pm with most places open till 9 or 10pm, including things like the fur coat and hat shop, and there were also plenty of places that were open 24 hours, even in the depths of Winter. Perhaps it is a bit different in the centre of town nut this early shut down in Berlin is a bit disconcerting.
