Our first two days in Berlin; featuring Prussian buildings, free beer, a brief history of Berlin and the remnants of a wall.
After a 13 hour flight from Singapore, we landed in Berlin at 8.45am at Brandenburg airport. The Scoot flight was a massive improvement on the first in terms of cleanliness and food quality. The interior didn’t look as ghetto but the aircraft wings looked a little worse for wear…..
Both Sam and I managed to get some sleep on the flight. I managed almost 7 hours thanks to my combination of neck pillow, noise cancelling headphones and silk eye mask (thanks Jessie!). One of the first things I noticed as we came in to land were the number of wind turbines! Europe is definitely invested in renewable energy!
I received my first ever Schengen Visa stamp in my passport from a very serious German man! It was an exciting moment for me as this is the first time I’ve ever set foot in Europe! After collecting our bags we caught the Airport Express train to Ostkreuz before changing onto the S-Bahn to Jannowitzbrücke. We were all smiles once we finally reached our destination!
We decided to stay in Mitte which is German for middle and is literally the middle of the city (Germans are very literal with their names). After previously checking HostelWorld/Airbnb/various booking sites, we actually found a hotel was our best choice. I’m not sure if there was something on in Berlin but accommodation choices for the few days we were staying were relatively few even though we booked quite far in advance. We expanded the radius when we were booking but there was relatively no difference in price staying further out.
The Living Hotel Großer Kurfürst was so nice after our stay in the capsule hotel. We had so much room to ourselves and there was a BATH! The hotel is next to a gorgeous canal and literally across from Museum Island. Also, did I mention that every day we had complimentary bier?
After a refreshing shower we decided to go out for an explore around Alexanderplatz. Alexanderplatz is dominated by the iconic Fernsehturn TV Tower which was built in 1969 by East Germany as a symbol of Communist power. Nowadays it’s just an observation deck and restaurant with views of Berlin.
After the heat and humidity of Singapore, the refreshing cool air of Berlin was a welcome relief. We were also treated to blue skies which was lovely considering the weather forecast had been for this week to be overcast. It was super interesting exploring the area around the TV tower.
We found a kebab place for lunch before heading back on an alternate route to the hotel. On the way we passed by the Berlin Cathedral and Lustgarten. Lustgarten is where the infamous Nazi rallies were held by Hitler during WW2. Today it’s a beautiful spot with the only traces of its dark past being the bullet holes still visible in the buildings stonework.
We were both starting to feel jet lag at this point and decided to head back to the hotel. On the way, we stopped into Edeka (a local German grocery store) and spent some time wandering through the isles looking at the different German foods for sale.
We had noticed while we were out exploring that we needed cash. We had expected this in Europe so our next adventure was to find an ATM and dinner. It was interesting wandering through the Berlin neighbourhood around the hotel how standardised the buildings all looked. They were all relatively the same height and colour palette. It was also very quiet in the area we were in. Another thing we noticed was the little crossing man figure at the traffic light crossings. We learned much later on this figure had a name - Ampelmann - and he was something of a cult icon and a relic of East Germany. In the past you would know if you were in East Germany or not based on this man at the crossing signals. Now his use is more widespread.
After the ATM we stopped to have a traditional German baked potato for dinner! We had a freak out trying to figure out how much to tip (or if we needed to tip as it wasn’t exactly table service!). At this point, we were both hit with a wave of intense tiredness. We managed to stay awake until 8pm and then completely zonked out for about 10 hours. Thanks jet lag!
A friend suggested we do a walking tour of Berlin to orientate ourselves and learn the history behind all the tourist sites. We met our tour guide James and the rest of our group outside a Starbucks near Hackescher Markt.
The first thing James did was gather us all and give us a quick run through of the history of Berlin. I must admit I was pretty ignorant around the history of East and West Germany. I knew about the Berlin Wall but not the history behind it. How the Allies separated Germany into four and Berlin into four between them after winning the war. How France, Great Britain and the USA combined their territories into one to become West Germany and the Soviet territory became East Germany. How, because Berlin was located in East Germany but was still split between the Allies, this created the weird island of West Berlin that East German’s were using as a route to escape to better lives in the west. So East Germany overnight built a wall around the entire West Berlin enclave to stop East Germans from escaping that stood for nearly 30 years before falling in 1989. He also touched on Berlin’s history as a marshland and pointed out the piping around all the construction sites of today where they have to pump out the groundwater before they can do any foundation work.
Our tour continued over the river to Museum Island. As we passed by the buildings, James pointed out the bullet holes and patching work that had been done to restore the buildings to their former glory. Much of this island had been heavily bombed and damaged during WW2. Many of the buildings have been restored to their pre-war grandeur. It’s quite impressive really. Both the Berlin Cathedral and palace were nearly completely destroyed yet today you would have no idea. The palace in fact is a completely new build as the Soviets demolished the ruins of the palace after the war. It was rebuilt as the Humboldt Forum with a replica baroque facade and was only completed in 2021.
Across the river we stopped at the start of Unter din Linden, a famous boulevard of Prussian baroque buildings leading up to the Brandenburg gate. The facades of the buildings were stunning and transported you away to times long past.
Our next stop was Neue Wache, a remembrance building dedicated to the victims of war. It was very moving to stand in the empty space and gaze upon the sculpture of a woman holding her dying son.
We then stopped in at a Humboldt University. The plaza in the front of the university was the site of the infamous book burnings. Now, all that remains is a memorial full of empty bookshelves.
Continuing our walk brought us to Gendarmenmarkt. It is supposed to be one of the most beautiful squares in Berlin but is currently a construction site. This site is dominated by two beautiful churches - one French and one German. The two churches were the result of a rivalry between the two and in fact, one is 1 meter taller than the other. I’m not sure who really won because both churches were absolutely stunning!
From here we made our way around to Checkpoint Charlie which was the third checkpoint you had to cross if you started in West Germany to enter East Berlin. What is there now is a tourist trap with none of the original crossing checkpoint buildings and a large double sided billboard of an American and Soviet soldier. Our guide told us there’s a theory the Soviet soldier is actually a Dutch model who didn’t know his photo was going to be used for the historical site.
Here we stopped for lunch and I had my first pretzel sandwich. The bakery we sat at was dominated by a large banner in support of Ukraine. In fact, all around Berlin it was wonderful to see all the flags and support for Ukraine.
Our next stop was to a remnant of the Berlin Wall near the former SS headquarters (now the Typography of Terrors). This was my first time seeing the wall and I was surprised by how flimsy it was. It really only was a thin concrete wall and it’s shocking how much harm this thin barrier caused to a generation of Germans. James told us some of the most infamous escape stories of the time including the family who grappled their way over the wall on a zip-line from an adjoining building. Apparently the border guards were so impressed with the skill of the operation they thought it was East German spies sneaking into the West. Also, we saw Trabi’s! These were the only car you could get in East Germany and the wait times for these were up to 18 years!
The Detlev Rohwedder building next to the wall was built during the Nazi regime and is an example of the architecture Hitler was trying to aspire to for the Third Reich. The building is imposing and you are made to feel insignificant in its presence. Subtle things such as the windows being too high to look into from the ground and the door handles being oversized reflect that aspiration. Post-war it served as the Soviet Administration building and is now, ironically, the taxation office. Reflecting its time as the Soviet Administration office, a large mural on the building depicts the communist ideology. It was at this site an uprising took place in 1953 against unfair wages and productivity targets that was squashed by Russian tanks resulting in a number of deaths. Instead of washing away this dark part of their history, a contrasting mural of the workers at the protest is on the ground in front of the mural - the dream and the reality of communism.
Our next stop was to the site of Hitler’s bunker and the site of his death. All that stands in its place now is a gravel car park. We didn’t spend much time here and continued on to the haunting Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe where we walked among the columns in reflection.
From the memorial, we were able to admire the Reichstag building in the distance. The Reichstag building is the German parliament building. It was gutted in a fire in 1933, a fire that culminated in Hitler being given emergency powers which he then used to round up his political enemies. The dome was destroyed in the fire and following reunification, was replaced with a beautiful glass dome.
After four hours of exploring Berlin, we ended our tour at the Brandenburg Gate!
The East Side Gallery is the longest open aired gallery in the world. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, this section of wall was painted by 118 artists from 21 countries. Everyone knows the most famous section of the wall which depicts the Fraternal Kiss. Unfortunately due to its popularity, it was hard to get close to it to take a good photo.
It was interesting walking along the wall to see the Berliners enjoying the sunset along the banks of the river Spree. They do enjoy their public drinking here!! The other thing they enjoy that I don’t enjoy is smoking. It is endemic here. Coming from NZ/Australia it’s very rare to see anyone smoking - here everyone seems to smoke!
We took a bit of a detour on our way back to the hotel and walked through a couple of neighbourhoods. Outside of Mitte, the neighbourhoods were a lot more lively and interesting! Also did I mention today was Fathers Day in Germany? The guide told us that it’s pretty much man’s day and that we should expect to see lots of groups of drunken men roaming the street. We saw A LOT of this throughout the day. It’s also a public holiday. I checked and Mother’s Day is as vanilla as back home. I’d much rather a public holiday and the freedom to walk around with my girlfriends knocking back bottles of rose.
Another thing we noticed is the lack of garden maintenance in the city. The streets are relatively clean but the gardens are overrun and the lawns are in desperate need of a trim! This might be a reflection though of the city and its debt as it invests in infrastructure needed to reunify the city in the wake of the wall. Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit famously called the city 'poor but sexy'. I wouldn’t call the city poor - it is definitely rich in culture and history! I will be definitely be instigating more riverside drinking and picnics when we return to Melbourne!