Von Deutschland!

Hello team!  I am writing from Krakow Poland, after a lovely three day stay in Berlin on the hospitality of Irina, who graciously offered us her Berlin apartment.  We saw some impressive cultural memoria, as well as the populous and architecture of the German capitol, and Corinne wasn't arrested on arrival!  In all, a satisfying trip.  Here are a few highlights.  

We arrived in Berlin on Wednesday April 13, me from Rome and C from Stockholm.  C, having arrived three hours before me, assumed control of Berlin and had our transportation and finances arranged for our three day stay in the city.  That first day was pretty slow, we stopped at a cafe on our way in, along with a grocery store with Michael, Irina's partner and our secondary host, and ate in and bedded early.  

The following day we undertook the post-war history of Berlin, which became our focus for our short stay.  We attempted the Dali museum, found it closed, and wandered over to the German history museum.  On the way we saw the Jewish memorial - a 'cemetery' of concrete blocks filling a city block in central Berlin.  It was a dreary rainy day, and C and I took in the gravity and power of the monument.  Here are a few photographs of the blocks, arranged in cemetery fashion to great effect.  

The block varied in height and the ground level changed, creating multiple perspectives and effects

The walk ways and some of the police force

An overview of sorts - the blocks in middle are 8 or 9 feet up from the walkways

An eye level view

After the memorial, we passed the Brandenburg along with a main drag of central Berlin, often crossing paths with police columns escorting tinted Audi's carrying the western world's diplomats to and from meetings of NATO, convening in Berlin to discuss Libya.  The constant stream of police, as well as the drone of helicopters, blocked roads and assumed proximity of Hilary Clinton made us feel very important indeed.  Amidst the excitement we visited the German history museum and saw the Rome and Europe through the eyes of the Vandal and Saxons (who just wanted to settle in Roman territory is all).  From the sound of it, the Germans were building cities and princedoms while the rest of Europe was killing each other or succumbing to the plague.  In my version of history lay a dark period from the fall of Rome in the 5^th century to the Italian renaissance of the 14^th century.  However, it seems like the Prussians were at this time leading the charge of civilization, building castles and centers of learning in and around the dark forests and mountains of eastern Europe. 

As we somewhat expected, Berlin was often colored by its postwar history (of course, we also toured these areas specifically).  The history museum had broad sections on pre and post war propaganda with exhibits demonstrating the nuance of the National Socialists rise to power (I for one had grossly oversimplified that process – many people warned about the extreme right and Hitler specifically) with special attention paid to the death camps.  I can only imagine how a curator might handle the construction and placement and wording of that diorama -  (poetry and art after the holocaust is barbaric, according to Theodor Adorno).  After enjoying the museum, we continued to skirt the diplomats of NATO while making our way back across the downtown area en route to the Dali museum (which was not really worth the price of admission). 

Our next bit of history was about the Berlin wall itself.  After the war Berlin was divided into four sections – British, French, US and Soviet.  We developed our half and played by the rules while the Soviets decided to keep everything for itself.  When the built the wall in 1961, Kennedy was (according to the history over here) somewhat relieved that war was less likely with the divide up, and that the US had little choice but to accept the reality of the Iron Curtain having fallen over eastern Europe.  Facts of this are likely obvious to people who were adults when this was all going on, but I did not know that Berlin was entirely surrounded by Soviet controlled Germany, a tiny enclave of capitalism.  The East Germans supposedly did not see or think of this barrier as a wall – but as an anti-capitalism blockade, working to keep the evils of capitalism out.  Of course, the purpose was to stop the mass migration of people from the Soviet east to the west (who were leaving at a rate of several hundred thousand per year).  The wall divided the city in half, along roads, rivers, and even buildings.  There is upsetting footage of people running across barbed wire barriers (before the concrete wall), or jumping out of buildings that faced the west.  It was powerful and visually stunning to see the footage next to the wall itself – such a recent history buried beneath the surface of my reality.  It, along with a visit to a Stasi secret prison gave me a new appreciation for (though not changing my mind about) McCarthyism.  Here are some photos of the wall memorial: 

Comssioned art on the East wall - done 90 and 91

These images are mostly based on famous photos - (http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,615900,00.html ,  http://in-humanity.net/tag/east-german-soldier/ )

The following day C and I visited the secret prison of the Stasi (after the Soviets changed it from a soup kitchen into a secret prison – only the Soviets could use Communism to change a soup kitchen into a prison).  The tours (in Polish) were given by former inmates – our tour being in English was given by an historian.  The prison structure was simple enough – prison like, what was notable was the evolution of the function from torture to solitary confinement.  The Soviets initially used several forms of water torture (drips, a few inches of freezing water on the ground) sleep deprivation and packing people into tiny windowless basement rooms called U-Boats by the prisoners (who were exclusively political prisoners).  Later the prison used solitary confinement only to torture the inmates.  They went so far as to not allow prisoners to pass each other in the hallway.  It was a depressing, difficult tour.  C took a few photos inside of the submarine, though I do not have them with me.  I'm sure you can appreciate what it felt like to stand down there for even a minute - a cell with no moving air and twelve people.  Yikes.  

We were then on our way out of Germany and into Poland, where we have enjoyed the beautiful city of Krakow for the past few days.  Incidentally, due to a train station mishap, we are here for one more day – not the worst place to be around for a little more time.  Before we left we saw lots of Berlin, enjoyed several delightful meals (we looked often for German food but found mostly SE Asian fare – Thai, Korean, Tibetan, Vietnamese).  We a great brunch with Irina and Michael at a café they selected for us (whose name escapes me).  I took a photo of our food (along with a few of the city). 

Note the giant sculpture in the background

A beautiful rail bridge!

It was lovely weather, and a lovely city!

One final travel story on this entry – on our train from Berlin to Krakow, a fellow sitting in front of us managed to snooze his way out of Germany with a ticket meant to get him to Dresden in southern Germany.  The German ticket check had stamped his ticket without comment, but the Polish conductor was paying more attention and forced him off at the next station (in rural Poland).  He spoke Italian, and miraculously the woman across the aisle from him spoke Polish and Italian.  Corinne and I watched the exchange, the conductor telling him to get off, not swayed by the confusion with the first stamp or anything else the woman said to him.  As the Italian (maybe 19 years old) got off the train the woman who had advocated for him gave him a 50 euro note (almost 80$).  It was a powerful little episode about being cared for by strangers, and made me more resolved than ever to pick up fluency in another language (or two).  Thanks for reading!