Sunday 12 June The tourist brochure has very good day trip suggestions with maps, so we picked the Divided Berlin trip and followed the map. Our first point was Checkpoint Charlie, probably the most famous border crossing between East and West Berlin.
Before we got there we went to the nearby Checkpoint Charlie Museum, set across three levels in a building that was used by the media to monitor and report on news events there. The exhibition is incredibly comprehensive, documenting the events leading to the wall’s construction in 1961 to its destruction in 1989. I can remember hearing news about building the wall when I was at school, and thinking, if communism is so good, why to people have to be kept from leaving - simplistic but still a valid question.
The museum showed the many ingenious attempts to cross from east to west and the stories attached to them. There were some of the actual vehicles used to smuggle people out of East Germany. It successfully humanised the events, for example one telling panel contained the quote ”Sincere thanks to all GDR border guards who never wanted and never will show any accuracy in shooting at refugees”.
Far more refugees could have been shot, and some GDR border guards were taken off duty or punished for ineffectual execution of their responsibilities. There was the violoncellist, Mstislaw Rostropowitsch, an escapee, who returned from Russia 40 hours after the came down and played pieces by Bach. Almost three hours later, we exited the exhibition with a much better understanding of Berlin’s history, and stood with many other travellers to be photographed under the iconic border sign. The photos show a sample of the displays, written in four languages.
It was only a short distance from Checkpoint Charlie to a large section of the former wall, and site of government during the Second World War. The site is essentially bare, but there is a new exhibition Berlin 1933-1945 Between Propaganda and Terror. It is sited in the foundation and is open air, but under shelter – like a 200m bus shelter.
This was another excellent exhibition, documenting the rise of Hitler and the Nazis to their downfall and aftermath, leading to the separation of Germany. We spent another two hours there learning about the power struggles and machinations that allowed Hitler to take control, and of the failed resistance within Germany to stop him. His tactics in power were little different to those of Stalin and other autocrats in the eastern bloc.
It also provided background to the development of the Aryan ideals and persecution of any individual or group who did not fit this idealistic model. Hitler’s rise was also facilitated by the economic conditions of the time and his promises of jobs and growth. Australians take heed. This is a difficult topic for the Germans to deal with, but the exhibition was well done considering the process involved in selecting the issues and topics to be presented and the very emotional issues being covered.
By now we were pretty saturated with information, and needed a break. Frances was keen to see The Wall, a panorama exhibition of East Germany during the partition. I went to see the nearby Trabant Museum. As I said ealier during this long production run, millions of Trabants were produced and it was the most common vehicle in former East Germany. Iconic photos and film footage of the fall of the Berlin wall show East Germans driving across the border in their Trabants.
The museum had a selection of different models but was not really comprehensive. Also interesting was the fact that you could pay to drive a Trabi around the block, the little 600cc two-cylinder two-stroke engine chugging away.
There was also quite a bit of very colourful paraphernalia for sale by the artist Thierry Noir, a French artist who is claimed to be the first street artist to paint on the Berlin Wall.
Frances' first sausage in roll with a Berliner beer.
There are some pretty weird things here, for example curried sausages.
The smell of cheap curry is so bad you don't really want to stand downwind.
Before we got there we went to the nearby Checkpoint Charlie Museum, set across three levels in a building that was used by the media to monitor and report on news events there. The exhibition is incredibly comprehensive, documenting the events leading to the wall’s construction in 1961 to its destruction in 1989. I can remember hearing news about building the wall when I was at school, and thinking, if communism is so good, why to people have to be kept from leaving - simplistic but still a valid question.
The museum showed the many ingenious attempts to cross from east to west and the stories attached to them. There were some of the actual vehicles used to smuggle people out of East Germany. It successfully humanised the events, for example one telling panel contained the quote ”Sincere thanks to all GDR border guards who never wanted and never will show any accuracy in shooting at refugees”.Far more refugees could have been shot, and some GDR border guards were taken off duty or punished for ineffectual execution of their responsibilities. There was the violoncellist, Mstislaw Rostropowitsch, an escapee, who returned from Russia 40 hours after the came down and played pieces by Bach. Almost three hours later, we exited the exhibition with a much better understanding of Berlin’s history, and stood with many other travellers to be photographed under the iconic border sign. The photos show a sample of the displays, written in four languages.
It was only a short distance from Checkpoint Charlie to a large section of the former wall, and site of government during the Second World War. The site is essentially bare, but there is a new exhibition Berlin 1933-1945 Between Propaganda and Terror. It is sited in the foundation and is open air, but under shelter – like a 200m bus shelter.
This was another excellent exhibition, documenting the rise of Hitler and the Nazis to their downfall and aftermath, leading to the separation of Germany. We spent another two hours there learning about the power struggles and machinations that allowed Hitler to take control, and of the failed resistance within Germany to stop him. His tactics in power were little different to those of Stalin and other autocrats in the eastern bloc.It also provided background to the development of the Aryan ideals and persecution of any individual or group who did not fit this idealistic model. Hitler’s rise was also facilitated by the economic conditions of the time and his promises of jobs and growth. Australians take heed. This is a difficult topic for the Germans to deal with, but the exhibition was well done considering the process involved in selecting the issues and topics to be presented and the very emotional issues being covered.
By now we were pretty saturated with information, and needed a break. Frances was keen to see The Wall, a panorama exhibition of East Germany during the partition. I went to see the nearby Trabant Museum. As I said ealier during this long production run, millions of Trabants were produced and it was the most common vehicle in former East Germany. Iconic photos and film footage of the fall of the Berlin wall show East Germans driving across the border in their Trabants.
The museum had a selection of different models but was not really comprehensive. Also interesting was the fact that you could pay to drive a Trabi around the block, the little 600cc two-cylinder two-stroke engine chugging away.
There was also quite a bit of very colourful paraphernalia for sale by the artist Thierry Noir, a French artist who is claimed to be the first street artist to paint on the Berlin Wall.
Frances' first sausage in roll with a Berliner beer.There are some pretty weird things here, for example curried sausages.
The smell of cheap curry is so bad you don't really want to stand downwind.