The Reichstag, Berlin
The Reichstag with the memorial in front. Memorial in front of the Reichstag, Berlin. Each slate plate corresponds to one of the 96 members eliminated by the Nazis after they grasped power in 1933.
The Brandenburg Gate, Berlin.The Brandenburg Gate consists of twelve doric columns, six to each side, forming five entries to corresponding roadways. Citizens originally were allowed to use only the outer two. Atop the gate is the Quadriga with Viktoria, the goddess of victory driving the Quadriga. The Quadriga currently faces East.
The Holocaust Memorial, consisting of 2711 concrete slabs is a memorial to the murdered jews across Europe by the Nazis. It's a huge installation and a bit weird to walk through it - as it is essentially blind corners - and as I am already developing a phobia about being run over by a cyclist coming out of the blue in Europe - walking between these slabs didn't help.
Marx and Engles (well I was on the eastern side!)
Berliner Dom (with Berlin Tower in the background)
The Humbolt University on Unter den Linden
The Altes Museum (Unter den Linden)
Much building and restoration work is occurring in Berlin. Reunification has left the city quite poor and so restoration work is taking quite a while to be completed. Behind the Altes Museum , the Pergamon and the New Art Gallery are being restored/built - hence the cranes.
Bebelplatz - the site of the book burning in the early days of Nazi ascendancy. The memorial took some time to work out, and see, what it was. Inside the glass cube are empty bookshelves. The people in the middle of the square are looking down into the memorial - probably doing what I did - wondering what on earth it was. It's only easily seen from one side due to glare (I think).
An East German toy with insulators on its head and an electrical plug for a tail - to encourage children to save energy - maybe we need to bring him back!! Also, a marvel of East German engineering - the Trabant (Trebi). Apparently if you ever took one to be repaired you had to supply your own spare parts - hence most people repaired their own on their kitchen tables (they only had a 2 stroke motor). The waiting list was 16 years long to get one!
The path of the Berlin Wall
The following photos are of the remaining largest section of the Berlin Wall. There was about 170 km of this wall enveloping West Berlin at the time. Now this section is an art exhibition. The last photo shows the reinforcing behind the concrete - no tunnelling out of here!
Approximately 100 - 150 people were killed attempting to cross the wall.
Approximately 100 - 150 people were killed attempting to cross the wall.
2 comments:
Is there a big difference in bulding styles between each side of the old wall?
cheers Plu
he pre-fab block style on the eastern side.
Most of Berlin was flattened during the war (probably by Jenny's dad). SO it's all rebuilt in somewhat of the original style.
Apparently, the east germans could construct an 11 story block of flats to habitation stage in 110 days.
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