Berlin Bits and Bites

The Market Gate of Melitus

Berlin has some amazing museums.  I went to the Pergamon Museum.  Although this museum does have artifacts from other areas and time periods other than Pergamon, it’s initial purpose was to house the Pergamon Altar in its actual recreated size and form.  It also houses other original-sized monumental buildings.  It was Carl Humann, a German road construction engineer who initiated the excavation of this ancient city back in 1871.  Due to an agreement with Turkey, Berlin, Germany was able to excavate Pergamon and send the artifacts it found back to Germany to be systematically examined and reconstructed.  And it is a pretty amazing site.  You walk into the first central room and you have this massive recreation of the Pergamon Altar which is 113 m long with a 20 m wide staircase cut into the side.

Sitting on the stairs of the recreated altar looking towards some of the friezes mounted on the wall

Obviously not all of the Altar is there in its original form and material but they have done an amazing job giving you a sense of the structure with what they found.  It is just mind boggling and huge.  The other displays in the museum were equally amazing – all of them recreated in their actual size.  There was the city of Babylon and other ones whose names I can’t remember so I will just post the pictures.

Part of one of the friezes recreated on the wall using the actual pieces

Ishtar Gate

Part of a palace wall structure

After spending a number of hours in this museum I headed out and continued down Under Den Linden street and to the Brandenburg Gate.  Just past the gate in what used to be the Death Zone is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.  This memorial was opened to the public in May 2005.  It consists of a Field of Stelae covering an area of 19,000 square metres and contains 2,711 concrete blocks plus an subterranean exhibition about the persecution and extermination of the European Jews.  It was a pretty amazing memorial.

Walking through the memorial

What was really interesting about the experience of walking through the memorial, is the effect of being in the middle of it.  As you walk through the “alleyways” of the massive grey concrete blocks, people will be walking through perpendicular alleyways and they will cross infront of you.  So it is all grey and just you and suddenly a person will appear and just as quickly disappear as if they were never there.  This of course is exactly the effect the designer Peter Eisenman was going for.  I am guessing it is trying to make the statement of how so many Jewish people just disappeared as they were exterminated by the Germans.  It is a pretty moving experience.  The exhibition centre is equally moving and certainly gives you cause to reflect.

The translation of an actual letter from a boy to his father before he was exterminated

One of the most intense displays in the centre was the actual letters and diary entries from victims and the translation of what they say.  These are illuminated in the floor in a very dark room and you can see an image of the actual document and then beside it is the German and English translation of what it says.  I had to read every one of them.

The outdoor museum infront of the remains of the building that used to house the Gestapo. This museum display information about the terror and propaganda of the Third Reich

After that I continued to follow the wall to go to the location of the famous Checkpoint Charlie.  This was where the foreign diplomats were able to come into and out of East Berlin.  Beyond that as you get to the area where the Nazi Ministries were located is an open outdoor museum which displays information on the terror and propaganda machine of the Nazi party and Hitler.  Also very interesting.  You can spend an entire day just encountering and taking in all of these memorials and museums many of which are free.

The sign you would have seen entering at Checkpoint Charlie