Berlin

I stepped off the train in Berlin, not really knowing what to do to find a place to stay. It was late at night and that has generally meant trouble for me as far as easily finding a hotel or hostel. I have ended up at the mercy of some merciless cab driver or something like that. But that has been in developing countries. This was Germany. And that has advantages.

When I headed up the escalator, at the top there was a big sign at the top of it telling of the A&O Hotel and hostel. And the prices they advertised on the sign seemed, if not cheap, at least reasonable for being in Europe. It also said they were close to the station. I worked out which side of the station to leave, and found my way there. And they were open! Yea!! I registered and went up to my room. It was easy. I like western countries for how easy they are to get around in. Developing countries are good for learning other cultures and getting around cheap and for just learning about what you are capable of. But it sure is nice to come to a place that is just easy for a change.

Now it was time to figure out why I had come to Berlin. Naturally I wanted to learn about the Berlin Wall. And I decided that was going to be my main focus. There are probably other attractions of the city, but my main focus going to be about the war stuff and the divisions that came after.

I got up and went to the tourist information office. And that is exactly what it was. None of this we-are-going-to-call-ourselves-a-tourist-information-office-so-we-can-get-tourists-in-here-and-then-sell-them-a-bunch-of-tour-packages-because-we-really-aren't-a-tourist-information-office crap. They were a tourist information office. However, unlike the one in the station at Frankfurt, where Eunji and I went to get some information, they weren't all that friendly, or out-of-their-way helpful. I would ask a question, and the woman gave me an answer. Knowing I was not from around here, she didn't do anything to give me extra information about what to do or how to do it. But that's okay. I still got a discount card for things and a map and set off. But the public transportation system isn't the most transparent thing in this world. And I had a glitch or two when I began. It would have been nice if the orientation package helped, or the woman in the office helped. But I found a nice guy on the train I started with who helped me learn the ropes. And figure out that I was on the wrong train for where I wanted to go. Oh well.

I got myself sorted out and finally got to Checkpoint Charlie. After the Second World War, Berlin was divvied up kind of as spoils for the victors. The beginnings of the cold war were in place and the west and the east each ended up taking about half of the city. There came to be West Berlin and East Berlin. But the city was located in East Germany. As tensions mounted between the US and the USSR, the divisions between East and West Berlin became more and more exacerbated. In addition the policies of the communists, who controlled East Germany, didn't appeal to many East Berliners. They wanted out. So they started streaming into West Berlin. That part of city, still in East Germany, was nevertheless controlled by the western powers. Naturally, this migration of people to the west pissed off the authorities in the east. More and more controls were put in place to keep people in East Berlin. At one point a blockade was mounted by East German authorities to try and choke out West Berlin. If no supplies could be gotten in, maybe they could gain control over West Berlin and they could have it all. But a provision drop campaign was mounted by the air forces of the west, particularly the United States, and the blockade failed.

Eventually things proceeded to a somewhat logical conclusion. The authorities of East Germany could not prevent people from going across to West Berlin with simple policies alone. They needed a barricade of some sort. So they put one up. On the 13^th of August in 1961, the East Germans put up barbed wire fences at the dividing line between East and West. This was, in some cases, right outside apartment building doors or even through buildings. One place that straddled the dividing line was a church.

Over the next few days and weeks, the barbed wire fence was changed into an actual wall of concrete and metal and other materials. There were still entrances between the two halves of the city, and there were checkpoints in place at these entrances to make sure that people passing were allowed to be doing so. One of these places was Checkpoint Charlie, arguably one of the most famous spots of the Cold War.

One man, who had been separated from friends and family in East Berlin decided to put in a memorial museum near the wall on the West Berlin side to show the stories of people affected by the Berlin Wall. It is located near Checkpoint Charlie, and has been there since shortly after the wall was erected. It is still there now, twenty-two years later, showing the history of the wall and what has happened after, even as the whole area has been rejuvenated and renewed.

Inside it is a great big jumbled maze of stuff related to the Berlin Wall. It's interesting, but unordered and without too much flow. There are rooms with Ronald Reagan during his speeches and appearances at the wall to convince the USSR to take it down. There are stories of people who risked their lives to save Jews during the war. There are lists and lists of people who died during the war and afterwards in camps and other places, but whose death certificates could never be given to relatives. And it's all just a mish mash.

And the place is huge. It's interesting, but it would take a whole day of being interested to go through it all thoroughly. I found it a good stop, but ultimately not really where I wanted to spend my day.

In particular, although there are pieces of the Berlin Wall in the museum, there is not much and it's out of context. After an hour and a half or so, I headed back out into the cold of the day.

I wandered out and past the remnants of Checkpoint Charlie. Or maybe it's not really. Maybe it's a fake, a mock-up to play to the ridiculous hordes who flock here to see that part of history. It probably really is the old check post, but it has a Christmas tree in front of is and silly soldiers in front of it exhorting people to come and get their passports stamped at the check post. And it sits in the middle of the street, while all around there are no further signs of what was happening twenty years ago. Not except for the twin line of bricks that runs through the street, showing where the Berlin Wall used to sit.

It's a bit tacky. Even while it is showing a valid piece of history.

So I wandered around the streets trying to find some signs of the wall that still existed. I knew they were there. And I knew that one of them was nearby. But I hadn't figured out which direction was which yet and it was a bit of walking around in an ever expanding circle to find... 

...a part of the old Berlin Wall.

When the wall was first breached, back in November of 1989, the first impulse of Berliners was to take it down, to erase its existence as quickly as possible and resume life as a reunified city, and country. Fortunately, someone quickly realized that to do so would be to erase some history and try to hide it, forget it. And no good could come of that.

So in Berlin, there are small sections of the wall that have been preserved. In addition, at this site there was also a museum, the Topography of Terrors museum. On the site of the museum used to stand a bunch of buildings that served as the headquarters of Hitler and his command as they orchestrated the events leading up to the Second World War and into the war, and then to the final stages when the war was lost. Those buildings were damaged severely in the aftermath of everything and were taken down. One sign also states that the German people also did as much as possible to put it out of sight so they could forget that such a horror originated from within their society. Those building are gone now, but some of the foundations have survived.

And on top of it now stands the Topography of Terrors museum which outlines the beginnings of the war, from when Hitler was elected to leadership of Germany, through to the final stages of the war. It's a free museum and is very well presented and organized. There are loads of photos and films that can be viewed and tons of information. I really enjoyed the couple of hours I spent in there, if enjoyed can really be a word applied to an investigation of the horrors of that war and what was going on in the minds of the people who started it.

After that I walked through the streets for a while, getting my bearings. I wanted to find the Brandenburg Gate. I did find it, but then I was unable to head to another section of intact wall, where there was a memorial to victims of the wall and attempts to escape East Berlin for the west. That would have to wait until the next day.