Berlin is incredible. By far the biggest city we've been too, and by far the coolest. I'm not sure whether Budapest or Berlin is better. Berlin isn't like the rest of Germany though. Most people you speak to who live here say that if you go to Berlin to experience Germany, you will be sorely disappointed. It's more of an international city.
Random shot of the city
In the morning, mum, Kendra and I wanted to do a cycling tour of the city. So we hopped on the tour bus for half of their morning tour, and then jumped off at the tv tower. During the Hitler years, he removed all statues and crosses from churches. It's quite ironic though that he then commissioned the tv tower which, when the sun shines onto, has a massive cross in the centre of it. The party said the cross was a plus for socialism lol.
Bikes!
A cool canal
Starting the bike tour
The bike tour was amazing. It went for four and a bit hours, with a pub lunch stop. There were about 70 people split into 4 groups for it. I don't have many photos of the places we visited because I couldn't be bothered to constantly get my camera from my bag. So have some history instead:
I've never enjoyed listening to history so much. The history of Berlin, and Germany in general, is incredible. We were taken to the place of the book burning, where the nazis burnt all forward and free thinking literature. There's now an underground memorial of book empty bookshelves.
I'm going to rant a bit through the post, so stop reading if you want. Prior to the rise of the socialist party, Berlin was the most democratic and free thinking place in the world. There were 26 Nobel laureates living there before the war. 1939, there were none.
At the Gendarmmarkt, there were two churches opposite each others, which were identical. One was 3m taller than the other - ego wars. On our way there, I unfortunately saw a woman under a truck who had been hit riding her bike.
The Gendarmmarkt - one of the churches, as
seen from the bus
The Gendarmmarkt
After the war, Russia, Britain, the US and France decided to split Germany into four parts and each raise their own part until it was able to stand on its own feet. And then that part would be released back to Germany. Russia, having lost 27 million people during the war, claimed the biggest part. Almost half in fact, called East Germany. The US took the top half of West Germany, Britain the bottom half, and France took Lorraine and Alsace. Berlin is entirely in East Germany. Problems arose in raising their own sections, and things started to go a it awry. If you had Berlin, you had Germany, and if you had Germany, you had Europe, the US was given half of Berlin after a while, West Berlin. East Berlin remained with Russia. West Berlin flourished and prospered, while East Berlin started suffering after a while and people started leaving to move to the west.
During 1949, the Soviets started what became known was the Berlin blockade, as part of Cold War tensions. Their aim was to cut off the West access to Berlin, so the East would have to supply the whole of Berlin, thus giving them control of the city. So, one night, Stalin (the Russian leader), started 'road works' on the West Berlin channels out. After a few days, things became clear that they were stopping people coming and going. So the Berlin airlift began. Stalin couldn't successfully block the West Germany air veins out. So the US started one of the most impressive air rescue missions I've ever heard of. Aircrews from the states, Britain, Australia, Canada, NZ, and South Africa flew over 200,000 flights in one year, providing 4,700 tons of daily necessities such as food and fuel to West Berliners. Eventually, it became clear that the airlift was succeeding, as the flights were delivering more product to the city than rail had done previously. In May 1949, the blockade stopped, and Germany became two separate states.
In order to keep the influence of the west out (really just to stop people leaving east Berlin), a wall was erected around West Berlin. At first very thing was rosey, kind of, and people were still able to cross rather safely and see over the wall. Eventually, tensions between the two sides increased and as resources were being pulled out of East Germany to help Russia, people were moving to West Berlin, the wall was made higher and it was made even more difficult to pass through it.
There were road veins passing from West Berlin to west Germany, which were considered to be a part of west Germany. As long as you were on west Germany soil, you could cross into west Germany without question. To go from east or west Germany into the other, you eventually had to go through Berlin, there was no other way to cross. Even if you lived on the border between the two, you still had to cross through Berlin. The first check point was at the border between east and West Berlin, Checkpoint Alpha. The second was when you reached West Berlin, Checkpoint Bravo. The third was when crossing from West Berlin into east Berlin and east Germany, Checkpoint Charlie. All papers were checked here, including how long it took you to travel between checkpoints. If it took you too long, things were suspicious.
And in 1989, the Berlin was came down.
Passing the Berlin Wall was pretty cool. The section that now remains is fenced off to prevent people from taking pieces, though you can buy them in any souvenir shop. It's graffitied with holes in it. And the part of the wall that remains and situated next to the former SS nazi/Gestapo headquarters.
Sitting on the Berlin Wall
Former Gestapo headquarters underneath
East v. West
Checkpoint Charlie
Inside Charlie
Berlin Wall artworks
We then cycled onto the former place of hitlers bunker. As its a bunker, so can't be destroyed, the Russians filled it with debris and rubbish after the war, and it's now buried 15m below a dirt car park surrounded by housing units. There wasnt even a sign acknowledging its presence until 2006, as they didn't want to even acknowledge hitlers former presence in the city.
Onto the memorial for the murdered Jews during the war. It's 2706 concrete blocks of differing heights and slopes. It incredibly ambiguous, and uncomfortable once you're inside it. You can't hear anything from the outside and can't see very far. If someone is coming near you, you can't tell from which direction. From the outside, it looks cool though. When it was erected, the government needed a chemical which could be painted onto it to make it easier to wash graffiti off. The company that won the commission was a German company, who it was discovered, during the war, was a subsidiary of the company that produced the chemical that was used in the gas chambers on millions of Jews. The company apologised, claimed it didn't know, and offered a lifetimes free supply of the chemical to the country.
Jewish memorial
A fact I found incredibly interesting too: the Nazi solider were dressed by Hugo Boss! Here's an interesting article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2040943/Hitlers-Tailor-Hugo-Boss-apologises-using-slave-labour-make-Nazi-uniforms.html
After the tour had finished, Kendra went onto another underground night tour, while mum and I went shopping. We were both exhausted from the previous night, so we had a reasonably early night.
Old photos from the net:
The Brandenburg Gate with the Berlin Wall in front
The night the Wall came down
Checkpoint Charlie
Charlie
Nazi/Gestapo uniforms by Hugo Boss
1989 - Berlin Wall comes down
