Berlin, 27 Oct 2019
/We followed a different section of the Wall, this time starting at Checkpoint Charlie. After that, we wandered through the Gemäldegalerie, known for its European paintings from the 13th to the 18th centuries.
We woke to rain, so since we were planning on another walking tour, we hung out in the room a bit until it was expected to pass. Yes, we're used to rain, but we can still be pragmatic about going out in it. As it ends up, we waited long enough for there to be either no rain or light sprinkling while we were out.
Cold War walking tour
The first stop was Checkpoint Charlie, one of the crossings between West and East Berlin. What's there now is a mock-up, the actual checkpoint on the U.S. side of the border was indeed a shack. On the East German side, there was the Wall, a watchtower, concrete barriers, and barbed-wire fences.
As we turned down Zimmerstraße we went by the Trabi Museum and Trabi World. Trabi refers to the Trabant, an East German car designed to compete with the Volkswagen Beetle. As persnickety as early Beetls were, the Trabi was even more so. It had a two-stroke engine, which meant oil needed to be mixed with the gas. You filled up the tank under the hood since gravity feed replaced a fuel pump. As can be expected, Trabis are now popular; the museum was closed, but Trabi World was open, offering rides in refurbished Trabants. As we were walking a bit further along, a few of them were pulling out of Trabi World with tourists. True to form, the first one in line stalled and wasn't starting back up.
Next up, even while walking along a still-standing segment of the Berlin Wall, we went into Topography of Terror, which documents the Nazi years. The museum is located on the site of the former center of the Gestapo, the SS, and the Reich Security Main Office. It concentrates on telling the story through the lens of the Nazis rather than of the victims. This made the site feel different than the German Historical Museum, which felt like it tried to be as factual as possible. The Topography of Terror curators pulled no punches as if they were prosecutors arguing a case. Even the name of the museum sets the tone for the exhibit.
There are photographs, documents, and both video and newspaper clips that document the rise and fall of Nazism. The information is plentiful and dense and would take many hours to read everything on display. There is no charge, and it was pretty busy when we were there on a late Sunday morning.
Across the street from Topography of Terror is the former Air Ministry building. It's huge but was built mostly in secret. Since Germany was still subject to the Treaty of Versailles, it was not allowed to have an air force. The building survived WWII and was where East Germany was officially founded. The building became the DDR's Ministry of Ministries and now houses the German Finance Ministry.
In a corner which seems cut out of the Finance Ministry building is a small square which has a mural, Building the Republic. It was made by Max Lingner and is an example of Socialist Realism, showing members all across society all happily singing the same patriotic song.
Potsdamer Platz was our next destination. Before WWII, it was regarded as the Times Square of Berlin. It was leveled during the war, and afterward, was at the intersection of the American, British, and Soviet sectors. After the Wall fell, it was quickly redeveloped, with lots of huge corporate buildings. The Deutsche Bahn building is very striking with its curves.
We went down into the subway level and exited into the Sony Center, which is easily recognized with a huge canopy over the central courtyard. We had lunch of pizza and salad in the Sony Center, and there were lots of photos on the wall of celebrities who had been there, presumably during movie openings which happened in Berlin.
On our way to the Gemäldegalerie, we walked a bit to get a look at the Memorial to the Victims of Nazi “Euthanasia”, dedicated to people with physical and mental disabilities whom Hitler sought to remove from German society. Of course, the term euthanasia is understating what actually happened to the victims. Nearby was the sculpture Berlin Junction by Richard Serra (very recognizable as his style) which is also dedicated to those who lost their lives in the Nazi genocide program.
Gemäldegalerie
After lunch, we went looking for the Gemäldegalerie. It's in a whole plaza with cultural buildings, such as the Philharmonic, the New National Gallery, and a Musical Instruments Museum.
Gemäldegalerie translates as “painting gallery”, and that's appropriate. It has about 60 rooms on one floor of European paintings from the 13th to 18th centuries, mostly German and Dutch. The rooms form an outer ring with Arabic numerals (1, 2, etc.) and an inner ring with Roman numerals (I, II, etc.) Works great in writing, not so much when talking.
We were following suggestions from a book, and the first we looked at was a Holbein (German) painting which had a lot of detail. Having read through the description, we were about to move on, then the guard approached us and said that we really should pick up the free audio guide. He then pointed out some things about the painting and ended with another plug for the audio guide. We then went out, picked up the guides, then returned. He had moved onto another move, but we dutifully listened. Fortunately, the descriptions are about a couple minutes long, which is a good length. We ran into him a couple rooms on, and he gave us a thumbs up seeing we got the guides.
A very interesting painting was Fountain of Youth by Lucas Cranach the Elder (German), painted in 1546. The image tells a story with old women arriving at the fountain on the left, entering it, and when they exit on the right they're young again. The men don't go into the fountain but gain their youth through the women.
We also looked at Rubens (Flemish), Frans Hals (Dutch), Rembrandt (Dutch), Vermeer (Dutch), and Caravaggio (Italian).
Rest of the day
It was time to make it back to the room, so we wandered around and finally found the entrance to the U-Bahn station. Expecting to go several stops, the train stayed at the station with its doors open for a long time. Strangely, we had pulled up onto the “wrong” side of the station. There was a quick announcement, but it was hard to figure out what was being said. Most of the passengers left then started waiting on the platform. There was another train on the platform, but it was supposed to go the other way. Melody ended up asking the train operator what was going on, and there was some sort of disruption and the line wasn't running between that station (Statmitte) and our destination (Senefelderplatz). One option was to go to another U-Bahn line, but we decided to go to the streetcar instead. After that, we got back without incident.
After having relaxed for a bit, we decided to get some dinner. There was a Vietnamese/Asian restaurant less than a block away, so we split some summer rolls and glass noodles with chicken. Very good, and the total bill was €10.
So ended a day that felt pretty busy, and we were ready to do nothing for the rest of the night.