Berlin Beginnings

It was a long flight over night and we landed, exhausted,  in Berlin around 11:30 and took a bus to our apartments. They’re amazing, with a balcony overlooking the street we live on, Wilhemstrasse. This is apparently the same street that Hilter’s bunker was on (or perhaps under), the one he was found in. The view out our bedroom window is of the Holocaust memorial, huge grey stone cubes of varying heights in innumerable rows. It’s a sobering view to say the least.

Just two blocks over is Parisier Platz, a government plaza with the American Embassy, French Embassy, Arts Academy, the Brandenburg Gate, and a Starbucks. We’re in former East Berlin but just barely; we’re in apartments originally built to house Diplomats near the Wall.

                The first day we just wandered a bit to get a feel for things. We went to the big train station and walked along the Spree (river running through the middle of Berlin). I don’t know German at all but I’m trying to pick some up as I go. I’ve got Strasse and Platz.

                The second day, Tuesday, was the first real day of touring Berlin. We were largely aiming for architectural points but talked about a bit of history along the way. We went to Parisier Platz and went inside some of the buildings.

While somewhat bland on the outside due to laws intended on keeping the Brandenburg Gate the centerpiece of the Plaza, the insides were modern and interesting. The Arts Academy was full of sharp funky angles and the Bank was a Frank Gary design with a big wavy monstrosity in the middle. And a lot of glass.

We next ventured over the former Berlin Wall into West Germany, stopping to examine a piece of the Wall on display in Potsdamer Platz. This Plaza was once of incredible importance from entertainment in Berlin. It was once the bustling center for shops and the theaters, filled with people and a few cars in its later days. It had the first street light in Berlin. Unfortunately its heyday  was the 1910s and it was damaged in both world wars. By the time of the Berlin Wall it was nothing more than a field, harshly bisected by the Wall, with little hope of ever recovering. But once Berlin reunified projects were begun to bring it back to its former glory. The Plaza was sectioned and sold to four major corporations, three German and the fourth was Sony. The Sony Center was where we went for lunch. It has restaurants, shops, a film museum, and a movie theater.

                We visited the Philharmonic as an architectural piece but I loved it for the music. It’s a beautiful building built with a bowl-shaped concert hall completed designed for acoustics, the roof is shaped like a circus tent so that sound waves will bounce off at perfectly calculated angles. All of the other rooms, offices, and lobbies are built around the bowl underneath it on all sides. I love that it is built with such a complete focus on the music. They also refer to it as “democratic” a lot because every seat is supposed to be able to hear perfectly and even if Queen Elizabeth comes she sits amongst the crowd to enjoy he music best. They also have a policy of keeping the prices fairly low so that everyone can go to the concerts. They did not want fine music to be a luxury.  We walked into the smaller hall and the larger one while there were musicians practicing, a string quintet in the first and a full orchestra in the second.

                We were supposed to meet back up to go to the Reichstag that night and climb up into the glass dome on top. It looks extremely cool. Unfortunately when we got there we discovered that you have to reserve tickets 3 days in advance which is silly.

                Next was the first history day! So it involved going to the oldest stuff in Berlin and hearing Dr. Stuckey talk about the early days of Berlin. But we went to the oldest church from the 1200s, Nikolai Kirche, and then to the ruins of a Franciscan monastery church and then to lunch in Alexander Platz. Next was St. Mary’s Cathedral which was a cool mix of Gothic and then Baroque things added later.

Then was St. Hedwig’s in which a organ player continuously added to the mood by playing creepy gothic music. It was an interesting church though; it was round and supposedly based upon the Pantheon.

We also saw a memorial to the book burning done by the Nazi’s outside the Humboldt University. It’s a black square in the ground which upon further examination turns out to be a glass covering over a dark room filled only with empty bookshelves. Really creative memorial. And we spent some time in the Schinkel Museum as well, a former church designed by the famous architect of many buildings in Berlin. Then we walked to a big square in which we found the Opera house flanked on either side with beautiful churches.

                The last thing of the day was a big shopping center with a huge funnel shaped glass window-esque thing in the center.

 I just kept wondering what happens when you fall in.