First day in Berlin

Friday, May 26 - We had an uneventful trip and arrived with all our luggage yesterday morning to be met at the airport by our friend Stefan Gnutzmann. After refreshing ourselves at his home, we left for a sightseeing trip of Berlin. We took the subway to the Zoo station, where we planned to pick up bus 100, referred to by Rick Steves as the bus route to see all the sights. The bus stop was packed by tourists waiting to take this bus, so Stefan took us around the corner and up one block to the point where the bus route begins. We were able to get prime seats on the upper deck in the front and took lots of pictures along the route to the center of the city.

The first sight we saw from the bus was the remains of a church that had been bombed in WW II and left to stand as a memorial. We then approached the memorial statue that honored the unification of Germany in the late nineteenth century and drove past the Belvedere palace, residence of the German president. Approaching the city center, we got our first sight of the Reichstag (Parliament building) and traveled down Unter den Linden past the famous Adler Hotel, Humboldt University, and other famous cultural sights. All of this is in the former Eastern Zone, but it is very difficult to see the change, except that most of the buildings in this area have been newly restored and are somewhat newer than in the former Western Zone.

We left the bus at the eastern end of Unter den Linden and began our walk back along this famous street. Our first stop was the Berlin Dom, a very large protestant church that had been built by the Prussian Kaisers in the late part of the ninteenth century. One doesn't expect to see a Lutheran church that is as grand as the churches in Rome, but this was very ornate with a gilt altar and a huge dome cupola. We were fortunate to arrive just at noon in time for a brief organ concert and service. The organ was huge with over 7200 pipes and made a beautiful sound in this grand space. We also visited the crypt in the basement of this church where many of the Prussian Kings and their families are buried. What was striking was the number of children who died very young. On leaving the church, Stefan pointed out the pock marks in the stone exterior. These are bullet marks from the fighting at the end of WW II. As we walked through this part of Berlin and noticed the many marks on the stone, we realized the incredible intensity of fighting that had occurred in this area at the end of the war.

After stopping for lunch, we went to the Pergamum Museum that we had read about in the guidebooks. This is one of the most fantastic collections of antiquities that one can imagine. The Pergamum Altar comes from the Greek city located just south of Troy in modern Turkey and is a prime example of classical Greek art and architecture. The temple and frieze that surrounded its base are rebuilt in a huge room that shows it off very well. We then went to a series of other rooms where we saw Roman ruins that had been reconstructed and, perhaps the most spectacular, the reconstruction of the Ceremonial Way from Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. This was a huge construction of enameled tiles showing the splendor of this ancient city.

Walking back to Unter den Linden and turning west, we encountered the Memorial that had been built to honor all who had died in the war and from the Nazi oppression. This was a small Greek style building, very simple inside with an open circular window in the roof, much like the Pantheon in Rome. In the center of this room was a stark sculpture by Kathleen Kolowitz of a mother and her dead child.

Next to the memorial was the main building of Humboldt University. Stopping here was meaningful to Phil, because this was where his thesis advisor, Dr. Michael Golomb, had studied before being driven out of Germany by the Nazis. Although the Mathematics Institute is no longer located in this building, it was still interesting to visit the space on the second floor that had the pictures of all the famous scientists who had taught at this institution, including Einstein, Born, Weierstrass, Helmholtz, Hahn, Fischer, Schrödinger, and Heisenberg.

We worked our way over to Checkpoint Charlie and back toward the Brandenburg Gate. On the way, we stopped at the Holocaust Memorial that had been dedicated only one year ago. This is a striking monument consisting of hundreds of large rectangular concrete structures that are laid out in neat rows and columns. They vary in height and are laid out on rolling ground, so as you enter the monument, you descend into it and become a part of it. It is a very moving experience.

We next went to the Reichstag, hoping to be able to take the elevator to the top and walk down around the glass dome that covers the Parliament and that is so evident in any view of the building. Unfortunately, there was an hour and a half wait, so since it was already late in the day, we decided to head for home. We met up with Stefan's wife Utta and their daughter Tanya for a very nice dinner.