this place was something else.
i cannot imagine what i would have been like to be fenced in as the people of the communist Germany were. Today the significance is somewhat downplayed by the constant stream of cars racing by and the all too colourful artworks. Upon a closer study one realises that all the artworks are indeed centrally themed around freedom and peace and therefore should naturally be colourful. By my 5minute stop did not leave my time for anything else than a quick run, and silent contemplation and then a frustrated toot from the bus driver.
but nether the less i had much to think about as we made our way toward the city centre of berlin for another walking tour.
This walking tour was fantastic, it took in all the sights.
Including:
The Bebelplatz- Where 20,000 books were burnt as a censorism of pro- jewish ideas or even for the simple fact that the author was jewish. I love that when you look down into the glass window that shows empty library shelves as a reminder of the lost book, that the first thing you see is your reflection. What better a way to remind people of their own responsibility in this world. If not to stand up against and racist ideal, then to at the very least to fight for our right to protect our freedom of speach, thought and pen.
The former place of Hitler's war bunker, which is now currently a car park infront of some boring apartments. Im glad they tore it down, im glad that when i stood there and looked at that sight all i could see were cars dripping oil, rubbish littering the street. and much to our bewilderment, an attempted drug drop. it is a beffiting memorial for evil adolph.
The Holocaust Memorial: oh, i could have walked this place for hours and never come out again.
'The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold. It consists of a 19,000 square metres (4.7 acres) site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs, arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. The stelae are 2.38 m (7 ft 10 in) long, 0.95 m (3 ft 1 in) wide and vary in height from 0.2 to 4.8 m (8 in to 15 ft 9 in). According to Eisenman's project text, the stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason.' (cited by Wikipedia)
The former headquarters of the gestapo:
those sick few who were incharge of co-ordinating under Adolph Hitler.
Check Point Charlie:
Now wasnt this place a decrepid tourst trap! We were warned by our tour guide not to get to close as the fake officer who was there to pose for photos would demand two euros per photo. I decided two euro was a small price to pay and i began to approach him with a polite smile on my face. '2 euro for a photo little girl'he called. now immeadiately i was pissed off. freaking tourist whore mongerer. So i bluffed and said i was just interesting in knowing if this is the original building. i had known it wasnt thanks to our lovely and very informative tour guide however the officer cried out 'yes yes yes, do you want a photo or not'. i told him i didnt have to small change on me. and he turned to me and said 'do you have a daddy or a boyfriend here little girl...' i immeadiately started hurling insults at the bastard as i walked away. telling the other young girls behind me to not touch the pervy old guy. My god did he put me in a bad mood.
seeing as check point charlie was the last stop on the tour i set off into the streets of berlin in quite a huff at the decrepancy of some people! much enraged i did not want to go back to the museum island and indulge in the exhibits within the oldest museum in germany, or the really well displayed hitler exhbit in the national gallery. Instead i wandered the back streets of berlin for hours on end before finally sitting down on a grassy knoll and playing with a border collie in the sun for a few hours.
Although i did end up going back to the Neue Wache Memorial: Originally a guard house and an arms storehouse it now serves as a war memorial. Inside is a mother and her fallen sun. The somewhat beautiful thing about this memorial is that there is a hole in the roof, so that like the soldiers fallen and the mothers left behind, this statue is left to withstand all weathers- i.e all tests of strength and measures of grief.
I also stopped by the Karl Marx statue. why on earth they have a statue commemorating the father of communism and the catalyst for the creation of a divided germany i do not know. But i will forever remember the story of how my friend time jumped the fence that surrounds it to punch the statue square in the face. take that commie bastard!
