Berlin, 28 Oct 2019
We started the day by diving into the life of the East Germans at the DDR Museum then did a walking tour as we made our way to Alexanderplatz. That was the morning, and we took it easy in the afternoon.
We had bought extra breakfast groceries on Saturday since the stores were closed for the most part on Sunday. We didn't get bread at the time, however, since there was a big bowl of extra rolls in the kitchen on Friday morning. We figured they would still be fine on Sunday after toasting.
DDR Museum
The DDR Museum gives visitors a sense of what life was like in communist East Germany. It's got lots of photos and videos, as well as a slew of artifacts (ranging from plastic egg cups to a Trabant). There was one section which talked about jobs; an engineer with a degree in 1988 would have earned less than 1,500 East German Marks a month (a color television that year would have cost about 5,000).
The highlight was a replica of a communist-era home. It's not just any home, though. It was a “full comfort” home that had its own bathroom. Furniture was standardized, and appliances were installed, so the apartments did look very similar. “What happens if you wake up to find your wife has a new hairstyle and your toothpaste tastes different? You had probably gone home to the wrong flat.”
The museum had a lot of people in it, and the entrance line was really long. We had purchased tickets online ahead of time, so we were able to go right to the entrance, which was handy. Oddly, they had you scan your tickets as you left the museum, too.
Communist East Berlin walking tour
Having finished going through the DDR Museum, we crossed the street to take a look at a sculpture installation that featured statues of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The installation is in the Marx-Engels-Forum, a park dedicated in 1986 by the East German government. A half-million Berliners gathered in the park to call for freedom and an end to the socialism preached by Marx and Engels. Other parts of the installation show exploitation during the Industrial Age before Marx and Engels, the struggles of workers around the world against capitalism, and a utopian workers' paradise.
A bit further down Karl-Liebknecht-Straße (named for the founder of Germany's communist party) we came upon a statue of Martin Luther, installed in the late 19th century. It did survive WWII, but shrapnel dented the body and tore off one of his heels.
Next to the statue was Marienkirche, which dates back to the late 13th century. While many churches survived bombing by the Allies, Marienkirche wasn't torn down by the East German regime like other churches. The mural in the narthex, “Dance of Death”, was being refurbished (it dates back to the late 15th century), but there were parts of it inside the church. Marienkirche has been Lutheran for about a half-century (explaining the statue of Martin Luther).
Hidden away in a small park is the Block of Women memorial by Ingeborg Hunzinger which commemorates the Rosenstraße Protest when Gentile women with Jewish husbands demonstrated on the street next to the park, which was the site of Berlin's oldest synagogue. The women prevailed, winning their husbands' freedom. A bit further along is another piece of the sculpture, a Berliner sitting on a bench, looking indifferent; Jews were forbidden from using park benches.
Going back across the street, we got a clear view of the TV tower which we had been seeing all over the city. It was built in 1969 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of communist East Germany. We chose to not go up, concentrating on continuing our walking tour.
Alexanderplatz is a huge plaza. It's the site where over a half-million East Berliners gathered just a week before the Berlin Wall fell, chanting “We want out!” On the square is the Galeria Kaufhof, a department store that used to be the ultimate shopping store during communist times. It's much fancier now.
Also on Alexanderplatz is the World Time Clock, which was installed in 1969. It cities labeled all around, and a wheel that turns around to show what time it is for the different cities. One hitch is it doesn't take into account Daylight Saving Time.
As we were walking around, we saw a human hot dog stand. Think of a New York hot dog kiosk, but instead of a cart, the hot dogs (being heated) are carried on a harness, sort of like women who would sell cigarettes from a tray they carried (but much heavier, and counterweighted behind).
Buskers are popular on the plaza; as we first walked on, there was a family who was enthusiastically strumming, drumming, and singing in Spanish. Later, there was your typical guy with a guitar like you would see in a subway.
The last thing we looked at was a mural that wraps around a building, covering two of the floors. It's titled Our Life. It served as propaganda for the sate with idealistic scenes of occupations and accomplishments that emerge from a socialist state.
Rest of the day
After our walk, we went back to Galeria Kaufof to get some lunch. There's an impressive set of restaurants. You can order from any of them from the tables; the people next to us ordered from different ones. There are also bakers, meat and cheese vendors, and a whole grocery store. After eating, we picked up some breakfast items, then headed back.
When we got to the hostel, the man who checked us in was working at the desk. What made that unusual is we hadn't seen him since checking in four days earlier. Not only that, for each shift, there was a different person. So this was the first time we saw the same person for more than one shift.
For the rest of the afternoon, we took a short stroll to a café to do some computing. The wireless connectivity at the hostel was quite good, but we figured a change of scenery would be good. We ended up at a co-working space with a café downstairs. We had much better luck with wireless connectivity than we did at Werk 1 in Munich.
When we were ready for dinner, we went about a block away to get some pierogi at a Polish place. Very good. Then we went looking for ice cream, but when the third place on the same block was closed, we punted and went to a bakery to get something there. Something to be said about being flexible.
That was it for the night; only a couple more overnights before we're home.
