Berlin

From Vienna I hopped on the train to Berlin, which I was very much looking forward to for all of its history. Also, its funny how I have been to the capitals of Germany, Netherlands, Brussels, Austria, France, and England, but never Washington DC.

Upon my arrival to Berlin, I went over to what is called the Topography of Terror. This is a building that is dedicated to the history of the National Socialist Regime, and of course the Holocaust. What is particularly interesting about this place is that it is on the site of the headquarters of the Gestapo and SS. So this where huge decisions for the Third Reich were made. Of course, the building are destroyed, with exception of the foundations of one of the buildings. Running parallel to the grounds is actually the Berlin Wall

The Berlin wall

The grounds were the headquarters were

Speaking of the Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie was right down the street. There was a museum dedicated to it right next to Checkpoint Charlie, which I surprisingly did not go into.

Checkpoint Charlie (and McDonalds)

Looking into the American Sector

Looking into the Russian Sector

The famous sign

Not so famous sign

The Berlin wall is marked throughout the city with these bricks, which outlines where the wall was

Here you can see the bricks, with the East on the left and the West on the Right

Unfortunately, the train leading to the main memorial to the Berlin Wall was out of service while I was there, so I did not get to see that, which kind of stunk, but oh well. Seeing the wall at Topography of Terror and Checkpoint Charlie was good enough for me.

Nearby is also the famous Holocaust memorial. Below the ground under the memorial is actually a small museum which tells you the history of the Holocaust and stuff like that. It was good. It had a lot of excerpts of letters that people wrote from the camps and stuff like that. I thought it was quite good.

A snapshot of the memorial

Inside the memorial

All the main things in Berlin are all really lose together so that was good. The next stop was the Brandenburg Gate. I don't really have anything to say about it, it was just cool to see. I've seen pictures of it from the war and it was quite destroyed, but they repaired it quite well.

Day

Sort of night

Around the corner is the Reichstag Building. Is it still called that? I dunno. Might be the Bundestag now. 

Here it is

I loved the Bundestag because it was just riddled with bullet holes. It was so cool. I didn't take any photos of it, but I really liked it. You could climb up into the dome of the building, but I didn't do that. This is one of my favorite things about Berlin was how there were just bullet holes everywhere because of the heavy fighting at the end of the war.

After the Bundestag I went over to the site of the 1936 Olympic Stadium. But unfortunately I went to the Stadium too late so it was closed. And then the next day it was closed because there was a soccer game. So I didn't go into the Stadium, but I got to see the outside, which was good enough for me. The thing was massive. This is also where Jesse Owens performed really well despite Hitler trying to use the game as Aryan propaganda. 

The outside of the stadium

The next day I went to the Wannsee Conference Villa. This is the Villa where Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann and other top Nazis met on January 20, 1942 to plan out how many Jews they planned to expel from each country to the camps. They also planned how exactly they would export the Jews from the countries and to the camps. The Villa itself was incredibly nice, situated right on the Wannsee lake. The Wannsee conference is depicted in the film Conspiracy. I recommend it.

The entry to the Villa

The back of the Villa, looking towards the lake

This is the room where the conference was held

The view from the Villa to the lake

This is a really nice house that is nearby the Villa

My final stop in Berlin was the Stasi Museum. The Stasi was the organization during the time of the Berlin Wall which monitored the citizens of East Germany to make sure that they weren't speaking out against the government and stuff like that. They would tap your phones, open your mail, and bug your house. It is a really fascinating organization. There is a really good movie about it called "Das Leben der Anderen" or "The Lives of Others." It is a fantastic film and I really recommend it.

So this museum had a bunch of their spying equipment, and showed you just how much info they really gathered in the people, and how many people were secretly working for the Stasi and informing on their friends, coworkers, neighbors. These people were know as a "inoffizieller mitarbeiter" or unofficial collaborator. They ranged from the everyday person to celebrities and were extremely effective for the Stasi.

The Stasi museum is situation in the Stasi headquarters. What is really interesting is that when it became evident that the wall was going to fall, the people of East Berlin came and occupied the building so that the members of the Stasi could not destroy the info they had gathered on people. Therefore, if you lived in East Germany, you can actually go into the archives and see what info they had on you, which is really cool but really creepy.

The Stasi Headquarters

One of the main conference rooms of the Stasi Headquarters

That was it for Berlin. Of course I had some Currywurst and Doener when I was here. I also saw the Tiergarten which is pretty famous, as well as Alexanderplatz, which I was excited to see because Jason Borne goes there in one of the films.

Next stop, London!