Ich bin ein Berliner

...these were the words of John F Kennedy in 1963 as he stood in Berlin and declared support for West Berlin in the middle of the Cold War. Visiting Berlin for me was like stepping back in time to a Modern History lesson from years 11 and 12 in high school, as all of my memories of learning about World War 1 (WWI), WWII and the Cold War came flooding back. So this blog will take a bit more of a historical tone, as this is what I most enjoyed about the city.

Our first views of Berlin when arriving on the bus were neighbourhoods from former West Berlin. This side of town looks much like any western city in the world. We soon crossed town to the former East Berlin, and it was almost like being in another city. Each building had a real 'communist style', usually grey and very plain.

Any history buff would not be disappointed by Berlin. The quality of the memorials and the monuments is fantastic, and you can enter most historical sites free of charge or for a small ticket price. There were a couple of main highlights for us - Checkpoint Charlie, the 'Topography of Terror' Berlin Wall memorial and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Most of the history I'm detailing here also comes from what I learned during a fantastic four hour walking tour.

Original Checkpoint Charlie sign

Part of the reason the history of Berlin is so fascinating is it was divided by a wall for several decades. Just as Germany was divided into East (Soviet communist) and West (British, American and French democratic), Berlin was also divided. To stop people leaving the communist east and moving to the west, the East Berlin government erected the Berlin Wall, which happened overnight, without any warning. Standing on the road where the wall used to stand, it's hard to imagine being cut off from your neighbours, friends and family just across the road. Checkpoint Charlie was the main entrance into West Berlin from East Berlin, and was heavily patrolled by the Americans and Soviets. The Checkpoint Charlie museum commemorates the numerous escape attempts (both successful and unsuccessful) across the wall. The ingenuity of East Berliners was amazing - from hiding in modified cars to creating a 'flying fox' and swooping over the wall in the night to dressing up as American soldiers. Each of these prospective escapees had to cross one side of the wall into the 'death strip' (where Soviet soldiers aimed firearms) and cross the second wall into the West.

Preserved section of the Berlin Wall

A fantastic free memorial dedicated to Nazism and Berlin during WWII is the Topography of Terror, near a preserved section of the Berlin Wall. I was blown away by the quality of this memorial - the pictures, written history and personal recollections of how Nazism took hold of Germany and the consequences for individual Germans really brought the history to life. On the same day, we also visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This memorial is a whole block of land filled with cement blocks - the artist designed this memorial so each person can make their own interpretation, but I felt the blocks resembled gravestones. We then went underground into the memorial information centre and read stories of Jews who were persecuted during the Nazi regime. Reading letters, postcards and personal stories from these people was incredibly haunting. In particular, entering one black room where stories of what happened to individual Jews were played over a loudspeaker can only be described as heartbreaking.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

When I just entered the city, my feeling over the first couple of days was that it was quite a boring, ugly looking city. But after being there for a few days, I really appreciated the history, culture and progressive feel of the city. Today, Berlin is quite multicultural, and continues to grow and develop. As over 90% of central Berlin was completely levelled after WWI, the city has a different feel to other European cities, some of which have much older buildings. We really enjoyed just walking around the city and seeing the old and the new.

Brandenburg Gate

During our time in Berlin we also took a train trip to nearby Potsdam, where former Prussian and German kings had their summer palaces. It was a great day trip and change of pace, as we viewed the palaces and gardens on a bus tour.

Castles in Potsdam

After getting a taste for Eastern Europe in Berlin, we were excited to travel on to Prague and Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic..stay tuned for the next blog!