The side of it was exposed rough brick. He said that it was a building that had been bombed during the war. Boris pointed out many old buildings that survived the war, but they needed renovations. While East Berlin and West Berlin were separated a lot of the buildings were left as they were. Boris pointed out a building that you could see marks from bullets. Since the wall has come down, there has been a lot of renovations, but there is still a lot more to do.
There are a lot of memorials all around the city in honor of the Jewish people and others who lost their life. There is one that had a bronze table and chair that was tipped over. It was signifying the way people were just forcefully taken out of their homes.
Boris was terrific. He had so much knowledge of the history and of the area. His walk was seven hours and it was only 10 euros. I certainly got an education.
We saw parts of the wall that are still standing. It was fenced in so it can be preserved. Laurie and I plan on going back to some of the spots he pointed out so that we can visit on our own.
Boris pointed out the first synagogue that was saved during Kristallnacht that took place Nov. 1938. It was a riotous night where kids were throwing rocks at the synagogues and other Jewish buildings. They were also setting places on fire. Kristallnacht means the night of the broken glass. This synagogue was saved by one brave police man who stood up to the crowd. Unfortunately, the synagogue was bombed by the allied forces. It was rebuilt.
We visited where Checkpoint Charlie was. It is not there any longer, only a replica. The original is in a museum. This is the crossing of East Berlin to West Berlin. The Americans had the territory on the west side, while the Russian had the East side.
The other place we saw was the Brandenburg Gate. This was the only gate out of 14 that survived the bombing. Everything around it was bombed. While the wall was up the whole square around the gate was left empty because it was in the center of the two walls. See there were actually two walls, an inner wall and an outer wall. The space between the two walls was called the death zone. Over 100 people died trying to cross the wall while they were up. I heard that some people did make it over the fence.
It has been 14 years since the wall has come down and a lot has been done to help East Berlin, but everything is not blissful between the East and the West. I am sure it will take many years to make the two sides feel as one Berlin.
Boris pointed out where Hitler's bunker was and where he died. The bunker is still there but not open to the public. The whole day was wonderful. Now I am off to the Reichstag. It is open until 10:00 tonight.
Laurie and I found our way to the Reichstag. This is the place where the German Parliment sits. There is a glass dome on the top. It is free to go in to get to the top. Since it was free and there wasn't a long wait we went in. The elevator takes you to the outside terrace. We were hoping it would be dark enough. The dome has a ramp to the top that I thought we could go up in but it was closed. At least I saw a pretty sky at sunset.
Laurie and I took a walk down Strasse des 17 Juni. The street is named that for the 1953 workers uprising. This leads to the Victory Column. We saw post cards of it lit up so we wanted to see it. This commemorates the 19th century Prussian military adventures.
On the way down the street, we saw the Soviet War Memorial. It has the first Russian tanks that entered the city in 1945. We found the subway back to the hostel. We got back about 10:30. I was certainly ready for bed after a full day of walking.
August 7, 2003
This morning I went across the street to the fruit vendor. I bought blueberries. I don't know where they came from, but they were delicious. A great treat on my somewhat dull cereal.
Laurie and I went to find a monument that we saw yesterday. We wanted to take pictures. As we were leaving we ran into Boris and his tour group for the day.
The next plan that Laurie and I made was to make our way to a place called the Topography of Terror. It is an outside museum that was created out of the cellar portion of the former SS/Gestapo headquarters. It is one side of the long building. Pictures and documents were displayed documenting the history of the rise and fall of Hitler and his followers along with the people that were his enemies. It still amazes me that he could have so many people follow him and that he could have so much power.
Everything is written in German, but we could get free headsets to hear about the displays in English. The museum was very basic, but it didn't need much more to make an impression. It took two hours to go through it all.
The next stop was to get something to eat. I bought peanut butter. I haven't had it in a very long time. It tasted so good. I just had a spoonful of it and crackers on the side.
We needed to eat before we tackled our next museum. It was called The Story of Berlin. We had to go through a shopping mall to get there. It seems like a fairly new museum. It covers about 800 years of history displayed in an unusual way. I didn't read everything because I was tired of reading, but I enjoyed walking through it. There were some things that were quite moving. One display had two walls facing each other. One wall signified the East and the other wall the West. On each wall they had film running displaying the people waving to the people at the opposite side as the wall was going up. At the end of the museum it had TV screens televising the news of when the walls came down. It was very moving.
Part of the museum tour was to be guided into an original radiation proof bunker. This bunker holds 3592 people. In the event of a catastrophe people could go into the bunker. It would automatically close the gates when it was full. It would get to be about 92 degrees and very humid. The only thing people could do is sleep on the cots. The generator would only last 14 days then people would have to go outside. There are several bunkers throughout the city, but it would never house all of the city's inhanitants. It
