Berlin - the division and reunification of East and West

Today (9 November) marks the day that 28 years ago (1989) that the Berlin Wall came down and it is apt that we find ourselves in Berlin.  We have been parked up on an Aire in Köpenick (formerly of East Germany) on the outskirts of Berlin (N52.45914 E13.58532) for 3 days.  It is very old but has all the provisions we need water, electric, waste dump and Wi-Fi for 15 euros a night.  There are toilets and showers but they are ancient and used to be part of an historic gas works (1826-1918) and looking at them I don't think they have been renovated since 1918!  Needless to say we decided to use the facilities chez Sonny.

Sonny (the motorhome) facing towards the old Köpenick gas works of former East Berlin

A lot of the roads remain cobbled in these parts, with trams running down the middle of the housing estates.

We were ready to tackle Berlin having had a relaxing few days in the country at Dollenchen on an Aire behind a guest house.  The guest house is run by Jörgs Kräuter, a real character who doesn’t speak a word of English but him and Mel managed to converse quite nicely in German.  The guest house has been in the family since 1912 and it is almost as if time has stood still with the decor, and his memorabilia collection including old trabants and trucks.

Before leaving we travelled to Lichterfeld, a village about 8kms away to see the F-60, a series of 5 conveyor bridges used in brown coal opencast mining and the largest movable technical industrial machines in the world.  The cutting height is 60m, hence the name F-60.  With a length of 502 metres, it is described as the lying Eiffel Tower.  It is 80m high, 240m wide and weights 13,600 metric tons – it is a beast!  The first of its type was built in 1969 and the last in 1988.

F-60 at Lichterfeld

The train station from Köpenick Aire is only a 300 metre walk and a few stops later, with the use of the S-Bahn and U-Bahn you are in the centre of Berlin.  We decided to buy a Berlin Welcome Card - costs €19.90 for 48 hours to use on all public transport and gives discounts of up to 30% into places.

With the fall of the Berlin wall in November 1989, unification followed in 1990 and ended 40 years of division between capitalist west and communist east.  With it brought freedom of travel and material wealth for some, but it also brought widespread unemployment, social breakdown and blacklisting.  So, for many it was a celebration, but for some a disaster.  After all these years some feel there is still a divide between the people of the east and west.

The last time we were both in West Berlin was in 1987.  Mel had worked in East Germany up until 1986 but I had never been able to travel into the east part of Germany because of the intelligence work I did,  so it was new experience for me and an old one for Mel.  For us it is about the city’s history, with its streets tracing the transitions from imperialism to fascism, division to reunification.
We made our way to the remains of the Berlin Wall at Bernauer Strasse.   The Berlin wall, built in 1961 by the GDR (German Democratic Republic) and was more than 140kms (87 miles) long.  In June 1962, a second parallel fence was built 100 metres further into East German territory. (A further inner German border ran between East and West, 866 miles long from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia).  It was one of the world’s most heavily fortified frontiers, a continuous line of high metal fences and walls, barbed wire, alarms, watchtowers, booby traps and minefields.  It was patrolled by 50,000 armed East German guards, to stop the emigration of East German citizens to the West.  Winston Churchill referred to it as the Iron Curtain – the separation of the Soviet and Western blocs during the Cold War.

Mel standing outside the largest remaining part of the Berlin Wall

At least 138 people died at the Berlin wall between 1961 and 1968.  Some were shot or fatally injured whilst trying to escape, others took their own lives when they knew their escape had failed.

Memorial to those who died at the wall.

A commemorative museum has been set up across the road, full of interesting facts and figures. From the top of the museum you can see over the remaining part of the wall and into what is now a memorial.  At the time the people wanted nothing to remain of the wall, and understandably wanted to delete all reminders. Fortunately, for history sake the government fought to preserve part of it and most of it went on resurfacing East German roads.

Remains of the Berlin Wall and view from the top of the commemorative museum.

Spikes placed along the bottom of the wall that people would land on trying to jump over and escape East Germany

Houses, churches and cemeteries were all destroyed in the building of the wall.

Crossing what was known as Checkpoint Charlie below, the best known border crossing between the East and the West. These are not the originals and we will be seeing these tomorrow when we visit the Allied Museum, in the former American Sector.  Checkpoint Alpha was located between East and West Germany at the beginning of the Berlin Corridor (the transit route between West Germany and West Berlin) and Checkpoint Bravo located at the end of the transit corridor between East Germany and West Berlin.

This sign made us laugh on the underground at Checkpoint Charlie

The iconic East German traffic signs -known as the little traffic light men designed in 1961 by East German psychologist Karl Peglau

Soaring 368 metres into the sky, Berlin’s Fernsehturm (TV Tower), the city’s most visible landmark and the highest building in Europe open to the public.  Constructed between 1965 and 1969 by the GDR as a symbol of communist power.  When the sun reflects off the globe it forms a cross, much to the amusement of those living in West Germany at the time, who dubbed it 'the pope's revenge' much to the reported humiliation of the GDR authorities.

Neptune Fountain, which sits in front of the Rathaus.  With the man himself sitting on a giant shell, surrounded by marine animals and four mermaids which represents four of Germany’s main rivers.  Shame the fountain wasn’t working though.

Interesting modern sculpture overlooking Museum Island

Berlin Cathedral, built during the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II (1894-1905), although part severely damaged during the WWII and since restored.

Baroque Ceremonial Sarcophagus

A couple of hundred steps takes you to the top, giving you a 360 degree view.  

Three little Trabi’s sitting in a row.  The Trabant was the pinnacle of East German automotive engineering - you placed your order and 15 years later you would get your car!  You can have a tour around the city in one; we watched them go out in convey and the engines sounded pretty rough and didn't look very comfortable.

We came across a police escorted parade through Berlin commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the great October socialist revolution (led by the Bolsheviks and Lenin).  The communist uprising that led to the creation of the Soviet Union that took place on 7 November 1917 in Russia  but was in fact the 25 October as in those days they were using a different calendar than the west hence known as 'the October revolution'.

On Unter Den Linden is the Neue Wache – the ‘New Guardhouse’  Designed in the 19^th century as a guardhouse for the Prussian royal family, today the building serves as the ‘Central Memorial Site’ of the German state, a place of national remembrance dedicated to the victims of war and tyranny.  Inside the large open top building is a moving War Memorial of a mother holding her dead son.

The remains of the Kaiser Wilhelm Church, bombed in WWII and the new Blue Church built alongside it in 1961

DAY TWO
We headed straight to the Reichstag, where we had booked (online) a time slot to visit the glass dome.  To get in you went through a rigid security control system, you even have to show your passport (or similar ID).  We felt like we were going through an airport! It was designed by British architect Norman Foster giving a 360-degree view across the city.  It is accessed by two spiraling staircases (one for up, one for down) and you get an audio guide in the language of your choice, giving you information on the Reichstag building and its surroundings, the Bundestag, the work of Parliament, the construction of the dome and sights you can see as you go up.  Even with my fear of heights I made it too the top!  It was really interesting and all free

You can peer into the government chambers from above.  The idea of all glass was to make the government more transparent to the German people.

Brandenburg Gate - the Berlin Wall used to pass in front of here and an area known as 'no-man's land - in accessible by the East and West.  It is now the iconic symbol of Berlin.

Holocaust Memorial, comprising of 2,711 concrete stone slabs - a memorial to all the murdered Jews of Europe

The Infamous Berlin Wall crossed in front of the Potsdamer Platz – again a ‘no-mans’ land in former East Berlin.  The U-Bahn that runs through here was known as a 'ghost station' (as were a few others that crossed through the East).  The people of West Berlin needed to travel through these stations to get around the west part of the city; however, the train didn't stop so no one got on and no one got off and the platforms were heavily guarded by armed border police.  Potsdamer Platz, once waste land is now a site of modern architecture and soon to be the scene of a Christmas market.

Berlin Victory Column, that used to sit in front of the Reichstag before being moved in 1938 by Adolf Hitler

In the English Garden, opposite the Victory Column sits the Bismark Memorial.  This too was moved from the Reichstag by Hitler to make way for his world capital development!

Bismark Memorial in honour of  Prince Otto Von Bismark, the Prussian minister-president. With Atlas, showing Germany's world power status at the end of 19th century,  Germania on right symbolizing suppression of discord and rebellion  and a Sybil on left, reading the book of history. Behind is Siegried representing Germany's industrial and military power.

The Stasi Museum is housed in its former headquarters.  The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) governed the GDR for 40 years.  It maintained its power through the Ministry of State Security (Mfs) or Stasi as it was better known, set up under the guidance of the Soviet secret police.  By 1989 they had around 91,000 full-time employees, spying on its own citizens and keeping files on them all

Mel outside the former Ministry of State Security (Stasi) headquarters.

Members of the Stasi had to take a sworn oath of loyalty to the GDR, pledging to protect against all enemies and be prepared to give their life in the struggle against enemies of socialism

Below are medals awarded to Erich Mielke, Head of the Stasi - he was feared and hated more than any other man in Communist East Germany.  Although he spent 5 years in prison after the unification, he was never held to account for his intimidating crimes of surveillance and harassment of East Germany's 16 million citizens, torture and murder, and died in Berlin aged 92.  Mel was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1987 for the undercover work he did and in my eyes his medal is worth a million of those below!

The Stasi kept files on everyone.  Mel is working on retrieving his! 

Offices of Erich Mielke have been preserved on the top floor.

Heading back we stopped in Alexander Palace to see the tower and renowned Welzeituhr (World Time Clock) lit up.

It is said that to understand the people is to understand their history, and no more is true than in this city.  After all we have seen it is hard to imagine the suffering the people endured under Soviet Rule.
Tomorrow, we move on to Potsdam - Mel's old living and working quarters when he was in East Germany.

Sally x