Week 42: Visiting Berlin

We had a long weekend for President's Day and decided to spend it visiting some friends in Berlin. A good friend of mine from undergrad is currently in Berlin with her husband who is a visiting researcher at the Max Plank Institute. He is spending the time working on his book, while my friend is working on finishing up her PhD. Both are history of science people with science undergrad degrees, so it made for a nice weekend of low-key occasional nerding out. 

Berlin is a bit of a trek from our location in Germany. We did some investigation into plane fares, flight times and other options and decided on taking the City Night Line to get to Berlin. We had, a number of years ago, done a trip on the West Coast of the US where we booked a sleeping compartment on Amtrak for our leg from Portland to Sacramento. It was reasonably comfortable, and we figured that if it was okay on the American rails, the German version would be quite nice. 

We were not disappointed. The City Night Line had a similar layout as Amtrak, with a two-story car and bunk beds, with the rooms just big enough for the two beds. Frankly, that didn't matter so much, as we had a 6 hour ride, boarding the train at 1am and arriving in Berlin at 7:30am. We were only worried about sleeping, which, I am happy to report, we did quite well.

One thing about life in Europe, is that striking can occasionally interrupt, even in a very business friendly country as Germany. We arrived in Berlin and there was a transit strike on one of the main train lines. We had been warned ahead of time, so it wasn't a big deal and we were able to quickly find a cab to take us to our friends' apartment. They were just getting up as we arrived, so we joined them in some breakfast and coffee, chatted and caught up, before figuring out what we would do for the day. 

After some investigation in the guidebook, we decided on a walk around the city and visit the Dali Museum. In our walk from our friends' apartment, we walked up past a Soviet War Memorial (that statue is just as huge as it seems) and to the Brandenburg Gate. This was our first trip to Berlin, so we didn't have a very good sense yet of the historic layout of the city, but, as we found out in later museums and from reading, the Brandenburg Gate was right on the edge of the Eastern and Western sections of the city.

Brandenburg Gate

After passing through the gate, Jason found a bit of Boston, right next to the Museum: The Kennedys.

Jason contemplates ordering a "Regulah"

From the Brandenburg Gate, we walked to Potsdamer Platz, which was, 22 years ago, a no-man's land between East and West Berlin. Now it is a rather open area, with a number of buildings and an underground train terminal. It was here we found the Dali Museum. The exhibits mostly contained collections of drawings with a few sculpture pieces and the experimental film Un Chien Andalou. You can click below to watch the film yourself--a couple notes, it is silent and does not have a plot as such. Oh, and there is an eye slicing scene. Not a movie for everyone, but I enjoyed it.

The next day we spent some time at the Berlin Wall Memorial. The subway station near the memorial had a great display on the way the subway worked in the divided city of Berlin, including the various escape attempts and "ghost" stations. From what we read, it was pretty amazing, with the subway being split into two and trains being operated by the East, but through the West. As soon as the East realized that people were escaping through the tunnels, they bricked them up, where possible, and put armed guards where it wasn't.

The memorial itself was very interesting. Our guide book noted that it was the longest length of the Berlin Wall that was still standing. They also had a section that recreated the wall and the no-man's land between the East and the West. From the top of a tower, you could look down into this area and see what it would have looked like 22 years ago. Man, what a crazy time.

Recreated Section of No-Man's Land Between East and West Berlin

In the evening we went with our friends to see a movie that was part of the Berlin Film Festival. They had a selection of movies that were representative of Soviet film making. We ended up deciding on Gibel Sensazii (Loss of Sensation), which is a bizarre movie about how engineers are doomed in the evil capitalist countries. It included robots that were controlled by a saxophone. Yes. You read that right. With a saxophone. Unfortunately, I cannot find any videos to link to that show that. You'll have to keep an eye out for yourself!

On our third day in Berlin, our friends had to go into the office, as they work German schedules and did not get President's Day off. Jason and I went and did a bit of exploring, stopping by first Alexanderplatz, which was firmly in the East before reunification. Alexanderplatz was to some extent a Soviet show case, so there is some of that fantastic 1960s looking futuristic architecture that you see in Tomorrowland at Disney World. Except here, people lived and worked in it.

The iconic item in Alexanderplatz is the Fersehturm (television tower). We didn't get a chance to go up for a view, but did get a good look at it against the (mostly) blue winter sky. It is quite a sight.

Me and the Fernsehturm

Our last sight to see in Berlin was the Neues Museum. The museum was heavily damaged during the Second World War and was generally left to decay by the East until the mid-60s, when they started some restoration. The restoration stopped at reunification, but was started again a while after, with the museum finally reopening in 2009. The most notable display there is the bust of Nefertiti, which was pretty amazing to see in person. This, like the Elgin Marbles I discussed in my last post, has controversy surrounding its presence in Germany. The Egyptians would like it back and have been asking for a number of years for it. The Germans like it and want to keep it. Much like the case with the Elgin Marbles and Greece, it is unlikely it will happen any time soon, if only due to other pressing matters that are occupying the leaders of Egypt.