Palenque's Berlin Journal

Old Aug 26th, 2005, 11:30 AM
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Re the Reichstag dome: I tried twice last May to get into it, both times in the very late afternoon/early evening.

The line outside the front steps was relatively short, but progressed at a snail's pace. People were let in in 'clumps' of maybe 15-20. Once inside the door, they didn't move further for at least a half hour.

So, that means that anyone joining the entrance line further than, say, 20 people away from the door has at *least* an hour's wait before they are finally allowed to proceed into the dome itself. Any further back than that probably means a very long wait indeed.

Neither my bladder nor my feet would have permitted me to stand in line for what I estimated to be another 1-2 hours, so I had to give up.

So, you're lucky to have gotten to see it. And I'm jealous!

People should be aware of this constraint when planning to go themselves. I'm told if one goes very early in the day, the wait is as short as it's possible to be.

PS: Great to read these posts from someone who's obviously as enthusiastic about Berlin as I. Great city. Underrated by most folks, I think.

Fritzrl
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Old Aug 26th, 2005, 02:35 PM
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Pal Q, here is some reading for you. I don't expect to change your mind, just broaden your perspective:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007113

This is published every 2 weeks in the Wall Street Journal; perhaps the only place you will find out about anything positive?
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Old Aug 26th, 2005, 04:43 PM
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Wren - thanks i've looked up the article - but if the Wall Street journal is the only place you can find something positive about Irag it's probably because there's very little positive to report. I appreciate your effort however - but in my mind it's still an illegal war at least from what was claimed and shown to the American people as justification for it - sexing up the intelligence to fit your desires is how the Brits would put it. But i respect your views - sincerely and we all hope that Iraq does indeed turn out for the better though i see little hope of that.
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Old Aug 30th, 2005, 01:51 AM
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fritz, the thing to do at the Reichstag is to book lunch in the rooftop restaurant : then you get to go in the disabled entrance (underneath the main entrance) & go straight up. The food was quite nice. We did still have to queue for a while to get the lift back down, but only for c.15 minutes.
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Old Aug 30th, 2005, 08:46 AM
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TEMPLEHOF AIRPORT
Here's a sight i havn't been to but is on my to do list: Templehof Airport. Right in the heart of Berlin, archaic Templehof Airport is, according to my reading, an old-fashioned airport that looks exactly like it did during the time of the famous Berlin Airlift, when, after the Russians and the DDR blockaded access to Berlin by the Allies a huge airlift was put in operation to fly in needed essentials to the now isolated western part of the city. Templehof was central in this plan. But it's pictures of the passenger hall that captivate me - something right out of the 50s. There is a monument to the Berlin Airlift out front and perhaps some type of museum inside about it. The airport's future is in doubt - hemmed in by the city the airport is of limited use, though it's still used by air lines. The airport was kept alive because of the wall apparently as one of two airports in West Berlin, along with Tegel, and now, with access to East Berlin's Schonefeld airport, a huge airport well outside of the city - Templehof's future is in doubt.
If anyone has been to Templehof and can tell more about it, please do!
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Old Aug 30th, 2005, 09:23 AM
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Palenque,

Thanks for your journal and ideas about Berlin. My family leaves for Prague, Dresden and Berlin in just over two weeks.

This is my forth year in a row of European travel. I've been slowly working my way east. Started off with Paris, Nice and Barcelona. Year two Rome, Amalfi coast and Lisbon. Last year Garmisch, Munich, Lake Como, Dolomites, Venice and Istrian Peninsula (Slovenia & Croatia). This year I've been really looking forward to Prague, but have had mixed feelings about Berlin.

I enjoy seeing and experiencing the history of "Old Europe" but suppose its time to take in a little "new" history with Berlin. The idea of a modern city seems out of place to me when I think of Europe, but I like your thought about "the chance to see a major world capital being re-created practically in one fell swoop."

Thanks. I'll share my impressions upon our return in October.
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Old Aug 30th, 2005, 11:45 AM
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Caroline -- thanks for that tip. Next time I go (and I have no doubts there will indeed be a next time), I'll just plan on a lunch in the Reichstag's restaurant.

PalQ -- I can indeed tell you more about T-hof. I lived in one side of the building in the early 70's while stationed in "west" Berlin in the USAF, working as a, er, German linguist. OK, OK: working as a....[whisper]...spy. Actually, nothing very glamorous, only monitoring DDR military telephone conversations.

Anyway, I got to know T-Hof from the inside out. My quarters were on the runway side of the building, so the window on my room looked directly into one of the immense hangars. Seen from the inside, it seems even more to be a massive structure -- overwhelmingly big, actually. As you say, it hosted the post-WWII airlift, then the NE end of the building housed US Military until about 1990.

Across the way, in a brick-wall enclosed compound, is one of the major headquarters of the Berlin police force. During the cold-war years, the police kept heavy armored vehicles in the compound, fueled and ready for whatever might roll in from the east. We used to joke that it was the best-equipped police force on the planet!

On the NE end was (is?) a beautiful old cemetary that was (is?) often visited by Berliners on Sunday afternoons. It didn't seem to matter whether they had relations tucked away there -- they seemed to regard it more as a quiet park and picnic spot.

The gates, fences and guardshacks that kept it secure during my tenure have all been removed, of course, so it's relatively easy to wander the grounds and explore the place.

I understand that plans to abandon the airport have been suspended for budgetary reasons. I can appreciate the dilemma the Berlin government must have in deciding what to do with it, as it's not only huge, but over-engineered. The demolition costs could likely be pretty monstrous in themselves. It seems too big to maintain as a mere 'memorial', but I doubt that Berlin needs that much more office space, either.

I visited T-Hof, too, last May -- sort of a nostalgia trip. Walked the length of the NE wing as I had dozens of time between my room and the bus that took me to work in the Gruenewald. The oddest thing about it for me was the cocoon of silence around it, as the place was *never* quiet years ago.

Fritzrl
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Old Aug 31st, 2005, 11:49 AM
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Fritzrl: thanks for the entry on Templehof!
PEACOCK ISLAND (PFAUENINSEL)
One of the weirdest places in greater Berlin is Peacock Island, so named i guess for the covey of pulchritudinous peacocks on it i reckon. In the Havel not too far from the Wannsee S-Bahn station this unique verdant island is not only a botanical garden but lovely relaxing park. The island is known for its 'follies,' which were a rage in the late 18th century- these false ruins or whimsical-looking structures (taken to the hilt later by 'Mad' King Ludwig in his castles) - on Peacock Island you'll find the Castle built in the 1790s and built as part ruins - the inside is furnished as it was by Quen Louise. there are several other smaller follies and lots of nice walking paths and interesting fauna and flora.
Nitty-gritty: Buses run to a boat dock opposite the island, just a few yards offshore - boats run steady upon demand. Wannsee/Havel boats may also dock here, but not sure about that. Anyway, a pleasant diversion. I walked here from Potsdam, a several-mile hike but a great hike - crossing the bridge that once divided West Berlin from East Germany - can't think of name but famous place in Cold War era because it was where spies were exchanged. Buses travel this route but not to Peacock Island dock as it's on a deadend road.
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Old Sep 1st, 2005, 06:25 AM
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TESTIMONIES TO NAZI BRUTALITY
PLOTZENSEE MEMORIAL
One of the most grim sights in Berlin is the Plotzensee Memorial, a former prison that was used by the Nazis to house political prisoners. After the July 1944 coup attempt against Hitler, some 100 conspirators were executed here - some quite gruesomely, being garroted - being slowly strangled by a wire - others were hung on meat hooks - the hooks are still there (this according to signs in the memorial). The prison is now a Memorial to the German Resistance to the Nazis. (How many lives would have been saved had the coup succeeded? Hitler was lucky to escape death.)
The memorial is in a gritty industrial area near the Westhafen Canal - near it are hundreds of garden plots used by Berliners not only to grow veggies but as a 'rural' retreat - the plots feature tiny gingerbread wooden huts that are a favorite retreat for locals on weekends.
MARTIN REGINA MARTYDOM CHURCH
About a kilometre due west of the Plotzensee Memorial is this church, built only in 1963 as a memorial to Nazi victims - a most unusual church on the inside as it was designed to evoke enslavement and death - a F Konig sculpture is a feature point.
TOPOGRAPHY OF TERROR
In the building that served as the headquarters for the Nazi's SS, Gestapo and Security Service was demolished during the war and lay as wasteland until the 1980s, when excavations were carried out that uncovered the building's intact basement - the basement has now been developed as a 'silent witness to the Topography of Terror', with documentation attesting to the Nazis persecution of enemies and planned 'Final Solution' of the 'Jewish problem'.
THE ANTHALER BAHNHOF
Near the Topography of Terror is the facade of the old Anthaler Bahnhof - once a major Berlin train station that was destroyed in the war. All that is left forlornly standing silent sentinel to a bygone era is the immense brick facade.
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Old Sep 9th, 2005, 12:08 PM
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SUNDAY MARKETS
Berlin is famous for its Sunday markets and though i don't know the locations of these institutions i've seen several and they range from flea markets to junk markets to antique markets to food markets to book markets, etc. So if in Berlin on a Sunday head for the local market!
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Old Sep 13th, 2005, 09:06 AM
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TACHELES
The Tacheles arts center, coop or squat or whatever the heck this weird place is, is an interesting experience -especially for younger folk. In the former East Berlin, i believe this is an old factory or some such thing and was taken over by squatting artistes years ago - anyway the several-story building presents a difference surprise on every level - with several art galleries a Biergarten and the uniquely decorated Cafe Zapata. At night there are popular raves. Times i've been there you're free to wonder the cavernous place. For those seeking something different:
Oranienburger Str 53-56; open 24 hours(Oranienburger Tor S- or U-Bahn)
(Not been there in a few years - anyone been there - a better current description would be appreciated.)
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Old Sep 14th, 2005, 01:20 AM
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PalQ (Bob ?), this is all fantastic stuff - you seem to have an inexhaustible store of good recommendations !

Would Tacheles be the place we walked past on our way from our hotel on Friedrichstrasse to the Sammlung Hoffmann ? It had a tepee round the back Sounds an interesting place to visit - I think our guidebook just made it sound like it was artists' studios, though it did also mention raves. "several art galleries (and) a Biergarten" : does life get any better ? Another destination for the list next time !

We chose the guidebook we did because it had the longest section on small galleries & artists' spaces, but there was so much else to see we never got around to a single one.

You really should be asking Fodor's to employ you to write their guidebook !

All the best, Caroline.
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Old Sep 14th, 2005, 04:30 AM
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Hi Caroline,

Tacheles is quite a dilapidated building located up the Oranienburg Strasse. It was a former department store, I think (or at least that was what our guide during a contemporary german art course told us ...). The DDR authorities had planned to take it down completely, but after the Fall it was taken over by artists, and nowadays there are ateliers, a disco ...

Depending on where your hotel in the Friedrichstr was located, you might have passed near it when going to the Sammlung Hoffmann. If you walk up the Friedrichstr, go under the S-Bahn lines, continue up and then turn right into the Oranienburger Str, you will see it.

I was there two years ago, and I think that it could have been interesting 10 years go, but nowadays it is pretty overrun with young tourists trying to look a bit "alternative" (and drink cheap beer and tell all about it while sitting in Plaza Santa Ana in Madrid ...).

I find much more interesting all the art galleries near the Hackeschen Höfe ( Sophienstr and the likes ), and I have enjoyed some good modern ballet in the Sophiensäle.

http://www.sophiensaele.com/
http://makeashorterlink.com/?F5B926BCB

BTW, I think this thread should be sent to Travel Talk Greatest Hits one. Pretty good info on it ...

Rgds, Cova
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Old Sep 14th, 2005, 06:23 AM
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Hi Cova - yes, I think that must have been it. Thanks for the links - more good info ! I hadn't heard of the Sophiensäle before. I do agree about how much good info there is on this thread, & that it should be brought to people's attention. Especially since the search function doesn't work very well (can't find my own Berlin trip report now & it sank pretty much without trace). Do you know how to send it to 'Greatest Hits' ?

Regards, Caroline
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Old Sep 15th, 2005, 10:19 AM
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Caroline and Cova - thanks for your kind words - yes Tacheles as i remember had a large teepee out back in the courtyard - and Cova you're probably right about Tacheles today - i have no idea and have no claim to knowing anything about art and galleries so i defer to your obvious expertise and greatly appreciate hearing it. I visited Tacheles several years ago and not recently - i just mention it because i thought it a unique place regardless of the art. thanks.
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Old Sep 16th, 2005, 09:28 AM
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A GREAT STROLL: DOWN THE UNTER DEN LINDEN
My favorite walk in Berlin goes down the famous Unter den Linden boulevard from the Brandenburg Gate to Museum Island and Alexanderplatz area; a stroll that takes you by some of Berlin's most historic and famous edifices, many extant from the Prussian heyday when the street was turned into a showpiece of Prussian might.
THE UNTER DEN LINDEN
This famous street was laid out in the 1640s by Frederick the Great Elector as a means of getting from his Berlin Palace to his hunting grounds of today's Tiergarten - a vast park. The Lindens refer to linden trees (aka lime trees) that traditionally lined the street and still do. The Unter den Linden was the heart and soul of pre-war Berlin - it's most fashionable and suave street - studded by cafes and swank shops, fancy hotels and several embassies. After the street fell under the auspices of East Berlin and the wall walled off its western end, running around the Brandenburg Gate itself, the DDR - East German authorities tried to reclaim a bit of its posh past - many of its buildings had been destroyed in WWII - making it a showpiece of Communist development - the first building erected after the war was the monumental Soviet Embassy, not the Russian Embassy.
THE BRANDENBURG GATE
At the western end of the Unter den Linden is Pariser Platz with on it the imposing Brandenburg Gate - the ubiquitous symbol of Berlin. On top of the gate is the famous Victory Quadriga sculpture of four horses created first in 1793 but then stolen by Napoleon in 1814 and later returned but blasted to bits in 1945 - a 1958 copy now graces the gate.
PARISER PLATZ
This was a major square in pre-war Berlin - site of the American, French and other embassies and the famous Hotel Adlon - then Berlin's most acclaimed hotel - recently rebuilt it's now a hotel again. The area is a hubbub of construction - the new American Emvbassy is rising - with a bit of controversy due to the need to set its front farther back from the street for security reasons than it was before - to do so the Americans wanted to be ceded some land in the rear, but this had already been dedicated to the new Holocaust Memorial that has just been finished. This memorial, just south of the embassy, has also been embroiled in controversy - some Berlin lumineraries were aloof to have it built here in such a prominent location. Anyway it's striking avant-garde design with many stone slabs is unique - and it's sobering message cannot be escaped. (And the fact that Hitler's bunker, under some sand in a nearby field is here adds a weird feeling.)
Anyway back to Pariser Platz and trekking eastward you see the Old Library (Alte Bibliothek), dubbed the 'Chest of Drawers' by locals because of its ornate front, extant from 1780 - the library sits on Bebelplatz - the site of the infamous May 10, 1933 book burnings by Nazis students - 20,000 books were torched, including ones by Freud and Heine and other 'subversive' authors. The German Opera sits on the other side of Bebelplatz. Also on the square is St Hedwig's Cathedral, Berlin's first Catholic church from 1773 but rebuilt from war rubble in the 1950s. The cathedral was supposedly modelled on the Parthenon.
South of St Hedwig's is the Gendarmenmarkt with on it one of Schinkel's finest buildings, the Schauspielhaus, an 1821 concert hall that still serves that function. Also on the square are the monumental French and German cathedrals.
Back on the Unter den Linden opposite the State Opera is Humboldt University - which is trying to regain its once lofty status as a major international university after East Berlin had turned it into an institution of Marxist-Lenin studies, bringing in thousands of students from the third world to be so instructed. Before the WWII Humboldt University was a luaded seat of learning - one that produced 27 Nobel Prize winners - its staff had included Einstein, Planck, Hegel and Lenin apparently studied here. In the middle of the Unter den Linden in front of the university is a famous equestrian statue of Frederick the Great (1851) which had been taken down during the DDR days because it was a focal point of hated Prussian militarism.
TO BE CONTINUED - GOING EAST FROM HUMBOLDT
(As i said in my OP into - this is not a scholarly, thoroughly researched article but a journal - even though i strive to get basic things right, corrections are always welcome as are impressions anyone may have of this walk and its many intriguing sights.
---especially more illumination on the new Holocaust Memorial - last Sep when i was there it was not open yet but you could see the entire thing from an observation point - i believe it's open - anyone been into it?
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Old Sep 16th, 2005, 12:03 PM
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Continuing down the Unter den Linden from Humbug, ah Humboldt University---
The Neue Wache (New Guardhouse) is one of Berlin's most acclaimed edifices architecutrally. Designed by Schinkel and dating from 1818 the diminuitive but elegant structure in the Greek temple motif features Doric columns. Now a Monument to Victims of Fascism and Militarism (since 1960) there is a perpetual flame as a memorial to them - formerly this was a fallen soldiers flame and memorial i believe - under the DDR a pair of heavily booted guards watched the flame, now guarded at most by a few bouquets (I believe military guard is gone but not sure).
Next is what is called one of Germany's finest Baroque edifices and one of Berlin's architectural gems - the Arsenal or Zeughaus - dating from around 1700 - it's especially famed for Schluter's 22 Masks of Dying Warriors in its courtyard. For a few centuries before WWII this was a war museum and military magazine and a testimony to Prussian militarism - Now it's a Museum of German History - under the DDR this meant a Museum of Marxist-Leninism in Germany.
Cross the River Spree to reach Museum Island and three world-class museums, foremost the Pergamon Museum housing one of the Wonders of the Ancient World - the Pergamon Altar.
TO BE CONTINUED - MUSEUM ISLAND

The distance from the Brandenburg Gate to Museum Island is less than one mile. Bus #100 also circulates i believe up and down the Unter den Linden.
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Old Sep 19th, 2005, 12:43 AM
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More fantastic stuff, thanks !

The Holocaust Memorial wasn't open when we were there. Didn't I read that there was also controversy becauase its full name is something like 'Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe', and some thought it should be a memorial to all such groups ?

Re Pariser Platz : we were very struck by the Frank Gehry DG Bank building - worth going in & peeking through into the amazing atrium. I seem to remember the French embassy, opposite, and the British embassy round the corner on Wilhelmstrasse also looked architecturally interesting. I believe you can book a tour of the British embassy.

Bebelplatz had building work going on when we were there & we were a bit baffled by what is supposed to be a memorial to the bookburning in the middle - someone told us it is usually a glass skylight showing stacks of books beneath ? But it was dirty due to the building work so we couldn't see anything.


I was very moved by the Monument to Victims of Fascism and Militarism, which we visited in the daytime when we could go through the door & at night when we could look through the grille (it was illuminated). I don't remember guards.

I hadn't heard about the 22 Masks of Dying Warriors which sounds v. interesting (didn't go inside the Zeughaus) - must see it next time.
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Old Sep 19th, 2005, 01:38 AM
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Hi Caroline,

I saw the memorial to the burned books. It is easy to missed, just a glass in the middle of the square, and you peek inside and see some books and bookshelves.

I donīt think there are guards anymore in the Neue Wache ( I no longer know whatīs the exact name, because I think that "Monument to the Victims of Fascism" was the name during the DDR, and now it has changed ...), but there is a very moving copy of a Käthe Kollwitzīs statue, "Mother with dead son" (more impressive if you remember that her son died in the First WW). More of her works can be seen in the Fasanenstr museum dedicated to her.

Rgds, Cova
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Old Sep 19th, 2005, 10:15 AM
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Caroline & Cova - many thanks for you imputs - forgot about Bebelplatz bookburning memorial under glass. And for DG Bank Atrium - always looking for new aspects of this walk. Great to not only write about Berlin but to learn new stuff from others!
Yes the name flap about the Holocaust Memorial i also think had whether to exclusively used the word Jewish or a more generic one that would include Gypsies, gays, Slavs and many other groups. In any case there, in my opinion, can never be too much light showcased on these atrocities, which occured in a very civilized country not that long ago.
Again, thanks.

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