We stopped in Berlin on the way back from the Russia trip. It was all German efficiency upon arrival as we sped through passport control and grabbed our luggage, almost first off the carousel. A sea of pale yellow Mercedes taxis were lined up outside. We grabbed a cab for the short 20 minute ride to our hotel, arriving at around 8 AM in time for a wonderful breakfast.

We stayed at the Grand Hyatt, located near Potsdamer Platz. The hotel is very minimilistic, modern and influenced by Bauhaus design. I utilized my complementary suite upgrade from Hyatt's visa promotion and we were delighted to be ushered to our huge two room corner suite after spending 11 days on the substandard Amakaterina. The club floor was undergoing renovation so our perks included full breakfast in their Vox restaurant, afternoon tea and drinks and "snacks" in a different restaurant from 6 - 8 pm. The first night we decided to check out the snacks... Well, they presented everyone with a menu including hamburgers, Thai coconut soup, Thai salad, plus other items that easily constitute dinner. We ended up eating there two of our five nights.

We spent five days exploring Berlin, immersing ourselves in history, art and culture. Berlin is quite a happening city with enough to do to easily keep you busy for a week. There is construction and renovation going on everywhere. The public transit system is comprehensive, easy to navigate and if you look at all confused anywhere you will be approached by friendly people offering assistance. Virtually everyone speaks English. It was hard to imagine what this bombed out city looked like after WWII given what it looks like today. Totally striking were all the memorials and history museums explaining and acknowledging their past.

On our first morning we took the Berlin Walks four hour highlights tour to get oriented. We got directions to the nearby metro station intending to buy a multiple-day pass. Postdamer Platz is a large station but we couldn't see a ticket counter and initially ended up in the train part of the station, rather than the metro, but since there was hardly anyone waiting on the tracks we figured we must be in the wrong place and got directions to the S station on a different level. After fumbling around with the ticket machine and not figuring out a multi day option, we decided to hop on the train and look for a human later. In Berlin you are on the honor system to buy and validate your ticket and subject to a 40 euro fine if an inspector checks you, which seemed unlikely since we were only going 2 stops. We figured that if we had been able to conquer all types of public transport in Kyoto then Berlin should be a breeze, which it ended up being.

We met our terrific guide, Jim, at the appointed meeting place and set out on the tour, passing most of the main sights in East Berlin. 

Photo tour follows

First we strolled past museum island, situated where two branches of the Spree River meet and the site of five of Berlin's extensive museums, the most popular being the Pergamom containing amazing collections of classical and ancient near east antiques and the  Nueues Museum with Egyptian and papyrus collections.





From there we went to Palace Square, site of the former Hohenzollern palace, razed by Hitler so he could use the area for his massive rallies. One side of the square is taken up by the Berlin cathedral. Hitler made his speeches from the portal of what is now the Altes museum. Large scale renovations continue in the area, and particularly of the museums which will all be linked together. They are currently raising funds to rebuild recreations of the palace walls.

We crossed the river, proceeded down Unter den Linden and then passed by Humboldt University, attended by Einstein, Lenin, Marx and our guide Jim. Across from the university law library is Bebelplatz, one of the sites of Nazi book burning in 1933. A memorial containing empty bookshelves that could hold 20,000 volumes is viewable through glass in the plaza. There is also a plaque honoring the prophetic 1820 quote by poet Heinrich Heine "Where they burn books at the end they also burn people."









Nearby is the Neue Wacht memorial dedicated to the victims of war and tyranny.



And the former Arsenal, now the German History museum

We continued west down Unter den Linden to Pariser Platz and the Brandenburg Gate, beyond which begins the large Tiergarten park, once the royal hunting grounds. Located on Pariser Platz near the gate is the the Adlon Hotel (where Michael Jackson dangled his baby off the balcony), the US Embassy and the Kennedys Museum. The Berliners were evidently quite taken with JFK when he visited in 1963.







From the Brandenburg gate you get a view of the Reichstag dome. 



And here is a photo of the Bundestag and the memorial to the 96 politicians who opposed Hitler.

From there we turned south and walked through the evocative Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Completed in 2005, my guidebook stated that it was the first formal German government sponsored Holocaust memorial. 

We continued on towards the site of the remaining wall. Goebbels and Hitlers bunkers - now buried with rubble and covered by parking lots and apartment buildings - were once located in this part of the city along with other major Third Reich buildings, most destroyed during the war with the main exception being the Nazi Air Headquarters, now occupied by Germany's Finance Ministry. 

Scenes from Berlin - the Wall

Sightseeing bus passing by remaining section of the wall



The excellent Topography of Terror museum, documenting the years 1933-1945,  was built on the former site of the headquarters of the SS and Gestapo, next to the remaining section of the wall



Cobblestones in the streets mark the former location of the wall. These remembrance cobbles run throughout the city, sometimes even in the middle of buildings.



Checkpoint Charlie border crossing location, manned today by two actors playing American guards, next to the interesting but incredibly cluttered Museum of the Wall





Memorial to victims of the Berlin Wall, located near the Reichstag



Our tour ended at the Gendenmarkt, a lovely square flanked by twin churches.

A few photos from the fabulous Pergamon Museum

Pergamon Altar - 2nd century BC





Below photo of entire altar from Wikipedia



Market gate from Miletus -120 AD



Ishtar Gate (550-600 BC)







Lions guarding ancient Assyrian Palace

Wow, Leslie - Thank you! I have always wanted to visit Berlin and you just gave us all such a wonderful over view. It must have been an amazing, and often emotional, visit. Welcome home to you and Brad.

One day we took a Berlin Walks tour to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, used from 1936 to 1945, located in Oranienberg, a 25 minute train ride north of Berlin in a rather leafy area in the middle of town. Due to it's proximity to Berlin this camp was the headquarters for administering the other German camps. It was mainly used as a prisoner work camp, as were the other camps located in Germany. Our guide told us that the Nazis decided to locate the mass extermination camps outside of Germany, a fact that we never knew. 

More than 10,000 Russian prisoners were brutally treated and executed here during the war.  Ironically this camp was later used by the Soviets as Special Camp 7 for political prisoners between 1945 and 1950, with up to 12,000  prisoners losing their lives here in those years.

Today Sachsenhausen functions as a museum and memorial. It was an interesting, albeit depressing and disturbing day.

Entrance to the camp was next to tidy homes which housed camp staff back in the 30's and 40's. Not where I would choose to live today.





Our guide discusses the monument built by the Soviets dedicated to the Russian liberators of the camp, mainly extolling the triumph of communism over Nazi fascism.





Located in a separate area is the more contemporary memorial dedicated to the victims of the camp.

Yesterday we visited the German Resistance Museum, located in the building where general Stauffenberg worked and planned his assassination plot and attempted coup against Hitler. The exhibits here highlighting all phases of resistance to national socialism from labor unions, youth, Jews and ordinary citizens were all in German but they had complimentary audio guides in English to explain them. 

Courtyard where Stauffenberg and his fellow plotters were executed after their failed plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944. His story is the subject of a good movie starring Tom Cruise - Vallkerie. 



Stairway leading to the museum, highlighting various members of the resistance; located in the building where Stauffenberg worked.





Photo from the museum highlighting some people who helped Jews escape at great risk to themselves, including Otto Weidt, seen in top row; he was the owner of a workshop manufacturing brushes and brooms who fought with the Gestapo over the fate of every Jewish worker, insisting they were vital to the war effort, saving many, even rescuing a young girl from Auschwitz.  He was recognized posthumously by Yad Vashem as "Righteous Among the Nations."

Once again, fabulous photos, Leslie! Thank you so much for continuing to take us with you on your trip!

Thanks Kathy and Bonnie. Not home yet. Currently at the BA club in London waiting for our flight to Denver, then on to Albuquerque. We will probably get home a bit after midnight.

I havent been to Berlin either. It seems like such a sad and emotional place to me. Thanks for taking us along, Leslie. Have a safe trip home.
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Helen

And finally a few more photos:

The New Synagogue, substantially rebuilt in the late 1980's and early 1990's






The Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church. First photo from Wikipedia of old bombed out church next to the new belfry. Built in the 1890's it was badly bombed in 1943. They are reinforcing the remains so it was all under scaffolding when we visited the other day, but the idea is to keep the ruins as a reminder of the war and their culpability.



This statue survived the bombing -  From the original altar



In the memorial hall in the base of the damaged spire:



Interior and exterior of the new church contained in 4 buildings grouped around the ruins of the old church.

Really nice synopsis Leslie.

Fantastic Leslie! Safe travels home

That was really terrific, Leslie - thanks for taking the time! So glad you scored a nice suite after the cruise. Wishing you safe and smooth travels home!

What a fabulous report and pix! Thanks so much,

Thank you so much Leslie

Wonderful report and photos. One of those cities I hope to visit some day. I know you will probably be happy to get home, but I sure have enjoyed your summer travels.

Leslie, I always enjoy your photos. The one that sticks with me is the Kaiser Wilhelm church, I'm glad they kept those ruins, as a reminder of those years.

Thank you so much

Wow, Leslie, amazingly wonderful photos and commentary as usual. Berlin is on my to do list at some point. You have reinforced this.

Great reporting and photos Leslie. Did you happen to visit Reichsportsfeld, the site where 1936 Olympics took place ?

Thaks Leslie. You have a great eye with the camera

Leslie, thanks so much for the photos and the explanations. I can only imagine how emotional it would be to visit Berlin, given its WWII history.

Your explanations are especially meaningful to me this week because I am reading Erik Larson's "In the Garden of Beasts," about the American ambassador and his family during their stay in Berlin in 1933 and 1934, when the Hitler-era atrocities had begun but too few people could imagine the horrors to come. Several of the places you mention loom large in the book, like the Adlon Hotel and the Tiergarten. Also, my book club will be discussing "All But My Life" by Gerda Weissmann Klein this week, the memoir of a Polish Jewish girl who was a teenager in the 1940s. So I am engrossed in WWII history right now.

Thanks again for the education. Oh, and welcome home!

I am also reading In the Garden of Beasts, Priscilla. It is pretty enlightening isn't it?
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Helen

Yes, it is, Helen. As the author points out, the participants didn't have our advantage of hindsight, but still their "blindness" is stunning sometimes.

Thanks everyone for your nice comments.

Priscilla - I downloaded In the Garden of Beasts on my kindle before we left, but haven't started it yet. I am about 20% through Berlin 1961 by Frederick Kempe, a very well written and extremely readable account of the year the wall went up. The "enhanced edition" includes 41 videos from the NBC News archives which are viewable on the kindle app on my iPad and make history come alive. I highly recommend it.

Marcie - we did not see the 1936 Olympics stadium which I gather is used for soccer games today.

Priscilla and Leslie - Erik Larson was interviewed about a month ago on C-Span's Q & A show. If you are interested you can watch it here.
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/300399-1
It will take 1 hour to listen/watch the entire interview but I enjoyed it. Then again, I like history and also all of his books.

Betty, I didn't get a chance to watch the Erik Larson video today but want to see it. Thanks for the link. Larson is such a talented writer who finds a different perspective to each historical event that is his focus.

Leslie, I'm making a note of the Kempe book. I'm not familiar with the author but want to investigate given your recommendation.