Berlin

Sioux City has prairie dogs, Omaha and Chicago have cows, Berlin has bears...

We spent three days in Berlin and loved this city! We saw so many things we thought we would only dream of seeing. We learned a lot about WWII history and also about Berlin during its division by the Berlin Wall. We loved Berlin's museums, in fact, Jeff had to drag the four of us out of them or we would still be there! Here are some highlights of our three days in Berlin...











Brandenburg Gate is more magnificent than we expected. This symbol of German reunification still has a celebrative feel, even more than a decade after the wall came down.







On the steps of the Reichstag, Germany's parliament building. We took an elevator up to a large, glass dome that we climbed to see Berlin below. The dome had pictures that covered the history of German government and of this building which was stormed when the Soviets took Berlin at the end of WWII. It was the burning of this building in 1933 allowed Hitler to blame the communists and sieze political power in Germany. The center of the dome has a mirrored funnel that is fun to see as you climb the ramps to the dome's top.



A view of Berlin (notice the Brandenburg Gate) from the top of the Reichstag dome. There was construction everywhere!










In the Reichstag dome.

















The massive, breathtaking Berliner Dom.








There is not much left of the Berlin wall. Near the Brandenburg Gate the location of the wall is marked by bricks in the cobblestone and by occasional brass plates in the cement like this one.








Sections of the wall can be found scattered about the city, complete with their awesome graffiti. This piece was in Potsdamer Platz which is thriving after sitting idle, bisected by the Berlin wall for nearly 30 years.










The kids are straddling the former wall. I wonder if they really appreciate the significance of what they are doing?











At one corner of the Tiergarten (a huge city park, analogous to New York's Central Park) is a memorial to those who lost their lives trying to cross the Berlin Wall.








This is quite a long expanse of the wall, intact and in its original location. The picture is of the former GDR side - note the lack of graffiti. This is also near the entrance of the "Topography of Terror", an open-air exhibit about Nazi atrocities during WWII and also about the Nuremberg Trials which included recordings from the trials themselves. It is built on the site of former Gestapo headquarters and the SS Central Command. We learned so much here about the great potential humans have for evil (the Nazis) but also about the real potential humans have for great good and courage (those that resisted, etc.). Some pictures from the "Topography of Terror" follow. We had headsets in English to help.






























A memorial at the site of the first Nazi book burning. The square the kids are standing next to is glass. If you look down through it you see empty bookshelves on all four sides.
In the background of the picture you see two interesting things. The statue of a stack of books (with famous German authors on the spines) - one of many "Germany land of ideas" sites. This one commemorates Germany's invention of printing equipment that allows mass publication of books. The buildings in the background are part of Humbolt University. Einstein and the Brothers Grimm, among other famous people, are former faculty members.







Beautiful Schloss Charlottenburg.










No trip to Berlin is complete without a visit to Checkpoint Charlie...





















The museums of Berlin are amazing! And there are SO many of them!



Our favorite was the Pergamon Museum. Here is the entrance to the Pergamon over the Spree River. An island in the Spree is called museum island because there are five massive museums there. They are undergoing lots of renovation. Some were not open or were partially located in a different building because of renovation.








The boys were getting in the spirit even before we went inside!
















Our favorites included the Gate of Miletus and the Ishtar Gate (both shown here) as well as the massive Pergamon Alter. The boys liked the bones of dead people and we also loved the Aleppo Room.





Another favorite museum was the Egyptian Museum where we saw the famous bust of Queen Nefertiti as well as lots of mummies (favorites of the boys). Audio guides in English made the museum exhibits a real memorable and educational experience for us all. The extremely well-done descriptions of the exhibits made everything interesting! Seriously - we would still be there pushing the buttons for each and every exhibit if Jeff wasn't moving us along!!





















One of the biggest highlights for Jeff was our visit to Berlin's 1936 Olympia Stadion (Olympic Stadium). And, WOW, was it ever impressive - with its amazing remodeling/modernization for the 2006 World Cup it was a stunning combination of history and modern technology!



































In this picture you can see both what is left of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche after it was hit by allied bombs in WWII and the Hall of Worship, built in 1961. Both are beautiful in very different ways and together make an impressive statement about the futility of war.

Here are a few pictures of the insides of both buildings...








































With our last couple of hours in Berlin we decided to go to Anne Frank Zentrum. As we entered we eavesdropped on an interview the staff was conducting with an old man who (because we listened in) we learned knew the Frank family. Wow! The most interesting exhibit here featured the winners of a writing contest sponsored by the Anne Frank Zentrum. Students were asked to find peers, relatives, family friends, neighbors, etc. who experienced war as children. They were to conduct interviews and submit an extensive report/essay. The winners included a girl whose grandmother was the daughter of one of the men killed because of his involvement in a Hitler assassination attempt, teenagers from Serbia, etc. It was really well done and fascinating!





















We visited several other smaller museums and several churches. As you can see we used our time in Berlin well, learned a lot and had a great time!