Berlin Part II

(From 2/23/2011)

As I write, it is 7:20 am, and I am in a bus that will soon start the 4.5 hour journey to Prague.  The temperature display reads -7°C (around 19°F).  I wish I could say I were going somewhere with warm temperatures and sunshine, but I don’t think it will be much better where I’m headed.  Fortunately, I think some of that Berlin toughness wore off on me.  I’m ready to face whatever the Czech Republic’s version of Mother Nature may throw at me (as long as multiple daily hot chocolate breaks are still an option, that is).

As for the rest of my time in Berlin, the city continued to grow on me during my last couple of days.  I started the second full day with a visit to the “Topography of Terror.” The place is, in my opinion, a must-see.  For one, it’s free.  Secondly, the indoor part of the exhibition, which showcases photographs, documents, and stories relating to the Holocaust, is fascinating.  Third, the exhibit is another excellent manifestation of Berlin’s interweaving of grim past and optimistic future.  The brand-new, über-modern building housing the indoor exhibition makes for a really interesting contrast to the extensive documentation of past atrocities which are housed inside.  And outdoors, I couldn’t help but be struck by the irony of the fact that as I walked along the foundation of the former Gestapo and SS Headquarters, staring up at a remaining portion of the Berlin Wall, the silence of the place was broken by the constant sound of a swinging hammer in a nearby building in the process of being constructed.  Berlin’s progress continues…

I could have spent practically all day at the Topography of Terror exhibit, but I was determined to visit the Jewish Museum.  And I’m glad I did, because it, too, was really interesting.  It was impossible to check out every part of it, as it covered almost the entirety of Jewish history, but I accomplished what I could and learned a lot. 

On my third and final day in Berlin, I spent the morning exploring the Turkish Market in the morning, drinking a delicious cappuccino, and visiting the East Side Gallery.  The latter part of the day was spent accomplishing my clichéd goal of eating a cheese pretzel (not as yummy as I had hoped, but pretty good), seeing the 3000-year-old bust of Nefertiti at the Neues Museum and the Pergamon Alter at the Pergamon museum, and finally finishing up with a delicious dinner and wine at the Einstein Café. 

So what can I say about Berlin to sum it all up?  It is a strange, unique, and fascinating place.  A girl I met in my hostel made an interesting observation …she said that it was as if the entire city was an apology.  That statement may be a bit extreme, but I would say that Berlin is a place in which you are continually confronted with reminders of the oppression that took place little more than 20 years ago.  With this painful history being so recent, it still has a bite, but nobody seems to be trying to wash it down too quickly.  I find it pretty admirable that Berlin is a city that is making efforts to progress into the future without forgetting the past.  

I, for one, am really grateful for the fact that this past being preserved.  It is a really valuable experience to see the evidence of what can happen when people choose to see the differences between themselves more than the similarities.  To me, Berlin is a gigantic, sprawling reminder of just how cautious we must be to prevent the continuance of these disastrous periods of history.