Germany, Berlin: follow the yell-- just brick, road

The great thing about rivers thousands of years ago is that they made water, transport, trade, etc. all available and cities built up around them.

The great thing about rivers today is that they are great to orient yourself when you get lost.

The great? thing about a large barbed wire concrete wall 50 years ago is... It kept east Berliners from escaping into west Berlin and therefore into the western world.

The great thing about a large concrete wall today is that it was memorialized by having a 2-brick thick strip run along the city in its place - which is also great to orient yourself in case you get lost :)

Speaking of following the brown brick road, if you did, indeed, decide to follow it, would you end up (a) really far north or south, depending on the direction you took or (b) eventually right back where you started?

Well, if you are learning all this stuff for the first time (aka me) then you are slightly surprised that it's (b). I think I had always pictured the wall more like I'd pictured the iron curtain.

First things first. Not history from 1000 years ago (consider yourselves lucky that it was sunny most days so I only spent an hour in the history museum instead of - well it was so extensive you could spend days -). We'll start in 1945 and go from there. Surprisingly there will still be too much. So, layout of Germany post WWII:

Make a square. Cut it in 4 and hand out 1 piece to each of America, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. Three of those become west Germany and get democracy, the other one becomes east Germany and not so much. If you don't know which by now, I really cant help you. Now in the (north-east) Soviet Square, right in the middle of that square, draw a circle. That is Berlin. Now divide up the little circle into the same 4 and separate out 3 vs. 1 again and you have now created east & west Berlin.

In my last post, I mentioned checkpoint Charlie. This was the checkpoint one needed to cross to get between east and west Berlin. Why Charlie? Well, you have alpha-beta-charlie, do you not? And clearly if you are traveling in your own country and would like to go from west Germany to east Berlin, you must pass through 3 checkpoints (of which the 3rd is most popular). Alpha, from west Germany to east Germany. Beta, from east Germany to west Berlin. And Charlie, into east Berlin.

Ok, so back to following the brown brick road in a circle. At the beginning of communism, some smarty pants people were like 'unh. unh. you ain't fooling me. I'm getting the duck out of east Berlin.' and they did so, by going into west Berlin, and 'poof' portal to the western world. In 1961, the government - GDR - figured this out, didn't like the brain / person drain, and were like hey, let's completely enclose west Berlin with a wall so east Berliners have no way to escape to the Western world. No more portal. Travel from east Berlin allowed only to other Soviet block countries.

Well, if were going to put up a wall, we have to do it overnight as a surprise, or else that defeats the purpose. So in one night we'll do all of the barbed wire and put up guards around the entirety of west Berlin. Oh, by the way if you are from west Berlin and happened to be visiting your aunt that night in east Berlin - too bad so sad. Talk about bad timing if the worst you'd anticipated the night before was a walk of shame (or is that a more recent concept?). Apparently 13 000 marriages were split that night? That number seems a bit high. But you also lost your job if it was in the opposite section of where you lived. Close relatives & family? Oh don't worry, you'll see them in 40 years when the wall comes down... Jebus!

Funny? tidbit. They had to divide up infrastructure. And there are 2 subway/metro lines here. The S-bahn and U-bahn, which they divided so each got one. But clearly, each ran through parts of the other half of the city. Evolve the term 'ghost stations' where the metro would arrive at a stop but either not stop, or not open its doors, since it was in the 'wrong' side of the city. Also guarded by armed soldiers.

BTW, wall not huge. I could be hoisted over with only a little trouble... I would just land in the no man's land / death strip with a bunch of guard towers watching me under order of 'shoot to kill'.

If I had time to tell the long winded story, the fall of the wall would be a cool story to tell, because turns out, in late 1989 the wall would fall moreso due to accidntal misreading of documents during an important press conference and less so due to, well, protests/more deaths/ WWIII - so I guess that's a really good thing.

And voilà, that more or less leaves us at Berlin today.

Yes I could have delved into a tonnnn more WWI and II business, because by golly it exists. But this was a new and different story - so -

We'll only have a brief discussion of the holocaust & other memorials. Because (if you recall me mentioning that those in Munich are small) it is important for the capital city to have something pretty large.

Like 2711 concrete blocks in the near - middle of downtown for a very specific 'memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe'. As to why that number or why they are placed in such and such way or such dimension, that is open to your own interpretation. It was, however, inspired by a Jewish cemetary in Prague which is overcrowded with gravestones (hey, I saw that!)

Memorial to all the books burnt of Jewish / Alternative authors is a glass panel looking into rows and rows of empty bookcases.

Memorial to 'victims of war & tyranny' is a sculpture of woman holding child, under which buried an unidentified WWI soldier and unidentified concentration camp victim together. Parce que nous sommes tous des victimes.

Memorial forget the exact name but for thanking the Soviets for liberation from Nazis - a soldier holding child and sword & stomping on swastica. Apparently, before the Soviet soldiers raped about 2 million women and brought communism, the people here WERE quite thankful to them for liberation. I can see that. Or this is also propaganda?

Ok, je pense que c'est assez pour une journee. Je suis, a ce moment, tres hate pour bientot passer quelques jours en Suisse, un pays qui - et ca doit être par magique - est restee neutre pendant les guerres, et que j'espere a moins d'histoire. If I'm naive and they do have a bunch of history, please don't ruin it for me, I'll deal with that when amongst the company of some beautiful mountains. :)