Four friends and I started our 10-day European jaunt around in Berlin. As we arrived I instantly saw signs of there rich history. Outside a coffee shop right by our apartment was a popular car called a Trabi. It was no longer running but rather used as a symbol of the fall of the Eastern Bloc, we saw them everywhere in the few days we spent in Berlin. Some of my other initial thoughts were that this place wasn’t what I had pictured Germany to look like. It was a lot more difficult to find a ‘classic’ German pub with the wooden benches, barrels and tables holding boots of beer than I thought it would be. So after searching for this bar and failing we ate in a Turkish restaurant. We later learned about the high population of migrants primarily from southern and eastern Europe, the largest of this population being Turkish. This was do to a law put in place around 1685, rights were granted in the nation for religious freedoms along with other civil rights causing the population to climb from 1.9 million to 4 million.
I took a tour of this city led by a bubbly Irish tour guide who took us around Berlin showing and telling us of the divide between the East and West Berlin, Brandenburg Gate, communist buildings around Berlin and several other monuments. We went to the Royal Palace and Museum Island, which was indeed an island consisting of five major museums and two famous bridges leading us to it.
Next, we walked to the site of some of the most famous book burnings that occurred, around 40,000 people gathered for these burnings. A shocking large majority consisted of student groups leading Nazi party members. At the site of the burning reads a quote etched into the ground “Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings”, this was written by a German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine in 1823 as if a warning and predicting the fate of millions.
We proceeded to the Berlin Wall. The remaining decayed wall was one block long, and covered completely in graffiti reading quotes primarily encouraging peace. Next was checkpoint Charlie and the Topography of Terror which was the site of a political prison and where inhumane torture and killings occurred from 1933 to the end of World War II.
We pressed on, each overwhelmed but captivated by the stories and history lesson. We learned of Johann Georg Elser who was a German Communist that planned and carried out an elaborate assassination attempt on Hitler. He failed and became a prisoner in a concentration camp but also became a figure for Hitler to show he was a just leader. Eventually poor Elser was murdered in the final days of Hitler’s reign. This led us to the site of Hitler’s bunker and the place he died along with a commander and Hitler’s mistress. It is now nothing more than an insignificant parking lot.
We ended our incredible tour at the Memorial of Murdered Jews and a museum about the Holocaust which featured over 2,000 stone blocks of all different sizes, the meaning of each is left up to each viewer, possibly representing each victim and the unique personalities, race, and character. It was a remarkable day but also a terribly sorrowful one.
After a few Nutella crepes we were all in the mood for DAS BOOT so we headed out to dinner for our ‘splurging meal’ of steaks and das boot! That night we headed out on a Pub Crawl taking us to all the hot spots including a Ping-Pong bar, Goth and Metal bar (quite interesting), a 60s and 70s bar and then magic bar. We met some very unique people including two Israeli men, a UK gentleman and a few people from the Northeast creating quite diverse discussions and opinions of Berlin. My favorite bar was the Ping-Pong bar where we played around the world, and thanks to my Aunt Lisa, I knew to run fast around the table (: I learned the next day that Ping-Pong is a very popular game in Berlin in post World War II. The East Germans created a political police service and they kept the German citizens under close surveillance. This secret police service would create files on all the citizens that may try to escape over the wall to freedom. They went as far as to put cameras and microphones in bars to document people’s conversations. Because of this people started playing Ping-Pong to drown out their voices from the microphones.
The next day we went on an alternative tour and learned about street art and other hidden aspects of Berlin. We ended our tour at Mauerpark Amphitheater, which was a massive grassy park and outdoor market with live music. We got some beer and food and talked and drank the day away. That night we went to dinner with a German friend of a friend and we discussed several differences between Germany and America from dancing all the way to our health care systems. It was shocking how differently we viewed life in all aspects, neither side wrong just sizably different.
The next day we woke up early and went to the Reichstag building for brunch on the deck of the dome overlooking the city. It was incredibly beautiful but definitely a chilly day. We headed to the airport psyched to see what Budapest would have to offer us!
