Berlin: A Repented City

The girls had their Divisionals Swim meet set for this weekend in Berlin.  Kevin and I talked to the Dahlin's and the Cowart's and we all decided to make a mini vacation out of the swim meet.  We went up a day early, so we could spend a day site seeing in Berlin before the swim meet.  We joined the Dahlin's right after work on Thursday, and drove about halfway to Berlin and stayed in a super incredible Airbnb apartment.  We left early the next morning so we could get to Berlin by 10 AM to tour around.  

We found parking at a super expensive downtown lot, and walked out right across the street from the Memorial to the Murdered Jews.  We walked around the memorial with much reverence.  I am super impressed with Berlin and the German people.  They call history the way it was and used works like 'killed', 'murdered', 'slaughtered', and such.  They don't try to butter up the past, they say it like it happened.  A lot can be learned from the Germans and they way they handle dealing with the past.  The Memorial of the Murdered Jews consists of 2,711 columns of varying heights creating an outdoor maze.  

We had a long talk with the kids before we left the car about how most of the places we are going to see today are memorials out of respect of people that were killed.  We talked about how we expected reverence and respect and we would not tolerate running around.  Little Monster must not have comprehended a single words I said, because he saw the Memorial and immediately took off running and laughing.  This Memorial is super terrifying with little kids that are running and trying to hide.  It was almost impossible to find Monster because there are so many turns and so many columns.  We found him and I immediately put on a baby wrap and carried him in the back like a piggyback ride.  He was NOT happy about that.  He kept laying limp and throwing his head back.  He looked super squished and uncomfortable, but Kevin and I decided it was safer and more respectful to have the Monster contained.  When we got back on the large sidewalk, we let him free again.

We left the Memorial and walked just a block up and found ourselves at the Brandenburg Gate.  This gate is one of the best-known landmarks in Berlin, and it has served a huge role in the history of Berlin.  It was build it the 18th century.  It was originally a gate to the royal City Palace of Prussian monarchs.  It was originally called the Peace Gate.  Peace was not in the near future however.  When Napoleon took power, the gate top statue (the Quadriga) was like a trophy to him and he took it to Paris.  After his defeat the statue was returned.  When the Nazis took over, the gate was used as a Nazi symbol.  It miraculously survived WWII, with bullet holes, explosion holes and statues missing pieces.  After WWII the holes were patched and vehicles and people could pass freely through the gate until August 13, 1961 when the Berlin Wall came up.  The gate ended up being in no mans land and was not use again until 1989.  The Peace Gate sat in the middle of a torn Berlin, just sitting and waiting for 28 years to again be a sign of unity and peace.  If this gate could talk, it would be amazing to hear the history, sadness, joy and stories it could tell.

After passing by the Brandenburg Gate we walked just a few more blocks to the Reichstag Building. We wanted to see if we could get tickets to go inside for a tour.  We were able to secure tickets for our entire group at 5:30 PM tonight, so we decided to see the rest of the sites in Berlin, then come back for the tour. Before we left we saw the Memorial to the Murdered Members of the Reichstag.  This was one of my favorite memorials because it shows that 96 people tried to make a difference when Hitler was trying to take over.  There were 96 members of parliament who opposed Hitler and all those that opposed him were murdered between 1933 and 1945.  It was a very small memorial but a powerful one.  These men are heroes in my book.

 We decided we would hit up the furthest location walkable from the Reichstag Building and work our way back for the tour.  Checkpoint Charlie was the furthest we dare make the kids all walk, so we started our walk in that direction.  As we were walking, we passed by original parts of the Berlin Wall.  It was crazy to imagine a time when the wall spanned the entire city and divided families and friends.  It is such a thick and ugly wall made of rhubarb and cement.

We made it to Checkpoint Charlie without too much complaining from the little people.  There wasn't much to see at Checkpoint Charlie.  It was honestly just a tourist picture.  There isn't anything that is still original about the spot, other then that it was the original spot.  The stories around Checkpoint Charlie were super fascinating though.  If you are paying attention there are small signs all around the area that share stories that happened around the gate.  This location was a Berlin Wall crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War.  My favorite story is when the Soviets and the Americans had a face off in tanks during the Berlin Crisis of 1961.

Our next stop was at the Topography of Terror.  I'm not going to lie, I had the hardest time here.  This is the former site of the Gestapo headquarters.  So much evil happened and was planned in this location.  

The entire building is a museum now that documents the horror of Nazism.  There were very detailed and descriptive writings and very graphic photographs.  It was such a sad and empty feeling that was felt as we walked around and heard the cries of those murdered.  This was another place that raised my respect for the German and their blatant truth of history.  Nothing was hidden and nothing was sugar coated.  The pure terror was laid out for all to see.

After leaving the building, there is a section of the Berlin Wall right outside the building and part of the exhibit.  This was the closest we were able to get to the wall.  It's hard taking a picture by the wall.  We didn't know whether to frown, cry or smile.  In the end we smiled to rejoice in the current unification and growing that has happened in Berlin.

By this point, everyone was starving, so we decided to make it easy and hit up the food court at the Mall of Berlin.  We teased that it would have been funny if it was called Berlin Mall because Mall rhymes with Wall. Perhaps that's why it really isn't called that.  We ate dinner quickly, because we didn't want to miss our tour, and headed out and caught a beautiful sunset over Berlin.

We made it back to the Reichstag Building with about 15 minutes to spare.  We made it though security then were lead on a self guided tour of the Berlin parliament building.  It was super cool walking though and seeing how their government works.  They make everything open and clear for all to hear and see.  The building is absolutely beautiful.  This building wasn't always beautiful, it was set on fire in 1933 and damaged significantly by air raids. It sat damaged in no mans land during the Cold War for years.  The building was restored after the Berlin reunification in 1999.  It is now used as the German parliament building once more.  We were able to go on the rooftop and get a great view of the city.  We then walked all the way up the spiral glass dome while getting a full audio history and tour of Berlin as we watched out the windows.  Monster wasn't patient enough for the audio tour, so I ended up just chasing him as he ran all the way to the top, then back down again. Berlin is such an amazing city filled so rich with history.  I hope to go back soon and see more and learn more.  It was such a treat to spend a day here.