Berlin is Forever Changing

I apoligize again for no pictures....This SD is not working....Sorry.

Today we did the free walking tour. We were all pretty stoked consider Berlin is a mass of history. Of course, we did it through the New Europe company, who has always provided consistently great tours. We met at the Berlinger Tor, this is a famous monument in Berlin...they put this symbol on everything.

Now on our way to finding the Berlingtor monument, we found a bit of home. Out of the cornor of our eye, there it was. Red, White and Beautiful. A CANADIAN FLAG!! When your overseas, you notice anything and anyone Canadian. And here was two large Canadian flags on a large building! We ran hard and fast towards this bit of home. Once there...we realized it was the Canadian Embassy!!! It took everything we had to go in. Cause, lets face it...the only reason we would be visiting the Canadian embassy is if we lost our passports. So we didnt want to jinx it. However....wonder if Canadians work there?

We got there and there was our tour group. We lucked out this tour with a guide named David. From the UK and hiralrous. His jokes and enthusiam were throughly entertaining. I especially apperciated the fact that he singled out the French couple and mockingly trashed their country....to the point they left the tour. Im sensing some countries have issues with the French.

Now we learned ALOT in this tour....by far the most fasinating tour ive ever been on. Berlin has a long and incredibly rough history. This city has been through so much, although walking around its hard to believe Berlin was ever anything but the greatest city in Europe to live.Berlin has come along way. So marks the saying "London will always be London, Paris will always be Paris, Berlin will never be Berlin, for the only constant in Berlin is that it is forever changing." So let me give you some highlights.

The Berlingner Tor is a famous gateway into Berlin. Its been around FOREVER and through the the Iron Curtain times was completely shut off to the public. As well, the statue ontop has a history of its own. When France conquer Prussia...to which Germany/Berlin was apart of at the time, Napeloen so loved the statue...he toke it for his private collection. When Prussia won back their state...obviously they took it back. Now, the Staute (Lady Victoria, Godess of Victory) looks directly across at the French ambessy across the street. So she can keep a close eye on the french.

Berlin also has the most interesting monuments. Some are large and purposefull to acknowledge the dark history they were apart of. While other sites have nothing to prove anything happened. This has been done to make a loud statement, as if to say we refuse to provide any attention to what happened here. Berlin will not let you have your glory. Let me elaborate.

One of the monument we visited is dedicated to the Jewish victums of the Holocaust. It is estimated that 11 milion people died in the Holocaust. This number is made up of homosexuals, disabled, communists, Germans who spoke up, and gypsys. However, 6 million were Jewish. Making up the largest category. Its this huge square of concrete blocks, all different sizes, all in various rows. When you walk through the the squares that get larger and smaller, you get an eery feeling. The gray concerte surronding you makes you feel small and alone. Then you look to your left and someone is walking by your row. But you only get a fleeting look at them, like a ghost floating by. The artist did a wonderful job. Everyone has a different experience, either way...makes you think.

Of course, there are many other monuments dedicated to the homosexuals and disabled and other who were victums of the Holocaust. This one is obviously the biggest. However, contraversy surronds it. There is an anit-grafitti chemical on the blocks. The company who provided the chemical is the same company who made the synide for the gas chambers in WW2. Hmmm....

The next stop was a parking lot. There we were in a parking lot in front of an apartment building all huddled around David waiting for him to speak. Looking around we were curious as to why this was of importance. The apartment building was pretty plain, the parking lot was just dirt and there was nothing spectular across the street. David, being a clever british man he is made a few jokes about the parking lot and how lovely it was. Then came the truth. Right below us is where Hilter took his last breath.

Looking down at your feet all you see is dirt. Knowing that Hitler killed himself 5 metre below that dirt however, is chilling. David explained that the bunker is still intact, although not due to lack of trying to destory it. Knowing that the Soviet were marching through Berlin and making the final movements to end the war, Hitler cowardly took shelter in the bunker. The day before he married his longtime mistress Eva, and the next day Eva, Hitler and his dog took synaide. Hitler commanded his close allies to destory his body, however due to lack of resources to do so...Hitler remained mostly intact just charred.

After the war, Hitlers body was cremaited and his ashes were sent down the river. The place he died (the bunker), was covered with dirt and made into a parking lot. All SS buildings and Nazi buildings were torn down. Many remain empty lots of dirt, for no one wants to build on anything Nazi material has occupied. Now, the Germans have good reason for this. Some say they are hiding their dirty past, trying to erase it. However, the Germans see it differently.

They have many monuments dedicated to the victums of the war and mueseums dedicated to educating people on the horrors of the war. But, when it comes to sites such as Hitlers death place....they want nothing to draw attention to such an evil man. They dont want Neo-Nazis coming to worship the place he died. As well, they do not want to give Hitler the attention and respect he wanted so badly. Therefore, his bunker is parking spot 34. Nothing special.

Next stop... Berlin Wall. Now there is just a block left of the infamous Berlin Wall. Its gated up, mostly because people kept chipping off part of the wall as a keepsake. Its amazing, you can still see the graffitti, saying tear down the wall etc. Looking at it, you think....well this is just a wall. Im sure you could get over it. However, there was this wall....then a strip called the Death Zone. Then another wall. This went all around the one half of Berlin. Now the Death Zone, was filled with barb wire, bobby traps, sniper towers, ditchs, etc. No one made it out of the death zone.

Now, of course the Berlin wall was an incredible story. But ill just tell of the fun facts. People literally woke up one day to barb wire and soliders defending this all around the city. If you were on the wrong side of the barbed wire you were now in communist territory. Your jobs on the other side? Your out of work. Your family and friends are on the other side? You wont see them for years. You went out with some buddies and stayed at their house? Time to find a new place to live.

Its really hard to believe. But this was the communist way to keep people from heading to the USA side of Germany. The Berlin wall started as barbed wire and went through 5 stages to end up the way it was. How it came down was amazing too. Now it wasnt that long ago, so some of you may even remeber the story. But I was far to young to now at the time, so the story fasicanated me.

For some time before the Iron curtain was collasping and communism was falling. But, it was one man making a terrible mistake that led to that night the Berlin wall fell down. One of the government officials was making a state speech to Germany. The plan was to give a few exceptions to who passed through the Berlin wall. The exceptions were still strict and useless, but the government thought it might calm the revolution. However, this state official did not go to the meeting and just winged it on tv. He was handed the speech paper and read it aloud.

A journalist askes
Every Berliner was watching this speech. That means every Berliner would be able to cross over! It was a fatal mistake on Schabowski part, he read the paper wrong. So all the Berliners went to the checkpoint demanding to be let through. Within hours there was such a crowd, there was nothing that could be done to contain them. The rest is history. Fascinating.
Another fasincating monument was located in this square just off of the main road. It was in this square that the book burning took place. 20,000 books by jewish authors, or authors the Nazi's deemed unfit were burned. If you look at the far right of the square there is a clear glass with a light shinning through. Looking down you see a white room with four huge empty bookcases. This room can store 20,000 books....but its empty because of what Hitler did.

Near the end of the tour we also went to a huge temple looking building. Inside was a statue of a mother holding her dead german soilder son. This monument is controversial. This one is dedicated to soilders who had died in battle in WW1 and WW2. Now, its true that the World Wars were started by the Germans. However, many mothers and wives lost their husbands and sons. Mothers that did not ask to have their men taken from them. Plus, many of them were forced to do so through conspriction.

So, really....shouldnt they be acknowledged as well? A place for families to grieve for their love ones? Not all of them were working in concetration camps. However, when you grow up in Canada and all you learn about Germany is Hitler and the NAzis....its hard to open your mind to the other side of things.
However, under neath this temple looking building is the body of an unknown jewish man and unknown german soilder. Hmm....dont even know what to think of that.

By the time the tour was done it was dark and frezzing. The whole way home we discussed the amount of history Berlin has to offer. Berlin is so rich in stories and mystery. You could study this place for ages. Just makes me want to find a German man to marry all the more.

Every Berliner was watching this speech. That means every Berliner would be able to cross over! It was a fatal mistake on Schabowski part, he read the paper wrong. So all the Berliners went to the checkpoint demanding to be let through. Within hours there was such a crowd, there was nothing that could be done to contain them. The rest is history. Fascinating.

Another fasincating monument was located in this square just off of the main road. It was in this square that the book burning took place. 20,000 books by jewish authors, or authors the Nazi's deemed unfit were burned. If you look at the far right of the square there is a clear glass with a light shinning through. Looking down you see a white room with four huge empty bookcases. This room can store 20,000 books....but its empty because of what Hitler did.

Near the end of the tour we also went to a huge temple looking building. Inside was a statue of a mother holding her dead german soilder son. This monument is controversial. This one is dedicated to soilders who had died in battle in WW1 and WW2. Now, its true that the World Wars were started by the Germans. However, many mothers and wives lost their husbands and sons. Mothers that did not ask to have their men taken from them. Plus, many of them were forced to do so through conspriction.

So, really....shouldnt they be acknowledged as well? A place for families to grieve for their love ones? Not all of them were working in concetration camps. However, when you grow up in Canada and all you learn about Germany is Hitler and the NAzis....its hard to open your mind to the other side of things.
However, under neath this temple looking building is the body of an unknown jewish man and unknown german soilder. Hmm....dont even know what to think of that.

By the time the tour was done it was dark and frezzing. The whole way home we discussed the amount of history Berlin has to offer. Berlin is so rich in stories and mystery. You could study this place for ages. Just makes me want to find a German man to marry all the moreabout a new law permitting GDR citizens more freedom of travel would go into effect. Schabowski famously told the journalist: "As far as I know, that goes into effect now, immediately."