Ich bin ein Berliner

"Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was civis romanus sum [I am a Roman citizen]. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is 'Ich bin ein Berliner'… All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner!'"(John F. Kennedy, 26 Jun 1963)

Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany

12-14 Apr 2008

Berlin is an amazing city. Walking through the streets, one can literally see pages of history come alive. Meaning 'swamp', the city has certainly come a long way since its humble beginnings some 800 years ago.

First documented in the 13th century, Berlin was successively the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia (1701-1918), the German Empire (1871-1918), the Weimar Republic (1919-1933) and the Third Reich (1933-1945). After the Second World War, the city was divided; East Berlin became the capital of East Germany while West Berlin became a Western enclave, surrounded by the Berlin Wall from 1961-1989. Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, the city regained its status as the capital of all Germany. (wikipedia.org)

Off a rather interesting overnight bus journey from Prague, we arrived at the main bus terminal at the unearthly hour of 5.30am, shivering from the cold. On the way, the weather had been unkind, continuous bolts of lightning flashed across the sky, while rain and later hail pelted down mercilessly while we were in the middle of nowhere. tucked into the seats of our 25 euro bus, we were in between trying to get some sleep and watching a czech movie when we arrived at the border checkpoint. Our first encounter with the German authorities was none too pleasant, when they took our passports and didn't return it till a good half hour later. Even then, the bus couldn't leave because there was a joker on our bus who didn't have a schengen passport and had to be forced off the bus by 5 police officers, just short of creating a nasty scene on the bus. after him (and his friend) got off the bus into the bitter cold, we could finally continue our journey into the capital of Deutschland.

we didn't waste anytime. despite amassing barely 4 hours of sleep on the bus, we arrive at the hostel and head straight out to the Reichstag, with our new Australian friend whom we made while waiting on the bus. She's an exchange student at Prague and was staying at the same hostel as us! So we troop off to see the most famous building in Berlin - seat of the parliament. Since Germany was pretty much a monarchy/dictatorship for most of its history, there was hardly a need for a parliament. It was more like a display on the mantlepiece, until the time of Adolf Hitler. He played his cards well, and took advantage of a fire that broke out one day to blame it on the communist party. To cut the long story short, people turned to Hitler to solve their problems of bread and work in the days of hyperinflation following Germany's loss in World War I and the Versailles Treaty which left Germany in so much debt they would take the next 50 years repaying it. In that building, he persuaded (to put mildly) everyone to vote for the infamous 'enabling act', which essentially gave Hitler the sovereign power in German, and it was downhill from there. anyway, the building is a rather impressive one, with a glass dome on the top that's open to the puplic free of charge. The architect had wanted to remind the German parliament that whenever they had a decision to make, they should look up, to see who they were serving- the people. But of course, the lines to get in these days are so long, and all of them must be tourists...

We then split ways with Sarah, who had wanted to go for the free walking tour. We headed to the Charlottenburg Palace instead, and started our learning journey about the great Prussian Empire that once existed as a great military power in Europe. The palace was built by Frederick the Great's grandmother as a summerhouse, and later used as a Palace when she became queen. We spent the next 4 hours walking around, listening in to the audio tour and getting a crash course on those years in history. We were really tired tho, from all the walking we had done in Prague and the lack of sleep, and didn't quite take a good walk around the beautiful baroque-style garden grounds there was. Plus the bitter cold was quite a turn off. All said, we still somehow managed to stay out till 9pm, after landing ourselves in the modern downtown of Berlin - portsdamerplatz. the shopping centre actually opened till 9pm, what a rarity in europe, despite Berlin being touted as the next fashion capital of the world after New York and Paris. but i was wayyy too tired to shop.

the next day was museums day, for berlin also has more than 170 museums, and even an island dedicated to museums. the pergamonmuseum was highly rated, so we headed there to see the famous reconstruction of the Pergamon Altar. That museum was amazing too, it was another history lesson, this time dating back a few thousand years, giving us some visual insights into the ancient world we read of in the Bible. German archaeologists are rather good at what they do, i must say. they've managed to dig up remnants from the ruins of Pergamon and Miletus, ancient Greek cities situated in present day Turkey, and reconstruct the magnificent Pergamon Altar, where they sacrificed burnt offering to the Greek gods for victory over neighbouring cities like Galatia; as well as the old market gate of Miletus. For me, it was also a lesson in greek mythology, for there was a myriad of gods depicted in larger than life forms. More remarkably, those german archaeologists also pieced together the old Ishtar gate from the land of Babylon, and reconstructed using remnants and adding new pieces to fill up the gaps. It was incredible being able to get a sense of how the city was like in the days of King Nebuchadnezzar II, the same king who took Judah into captivity, cast Daniel into the den of lions, and made that huge statue of himself and made everyone bow down to it. They were the world power of their time, and the magnificent gate reflected the glory of the kingdom. we also wandered into Altes Museum, to view the world-famous bust of Queen Nefetiti of the Ancient Egpytian empire, whose beauty is said to be immense, and whose fame as Queen of Egpyt is only second to cleopetra. This iconic bust is one of the most copied works of ancient Egpyt, preserved in colour, encased in a huge glass box that's probably 100 times the size of the bust, and has her own personal security guard. totally reminded me of mona lisa in the lourve.

this trip was different also because we seemed to be friendlier than we usually are, and we picked up yet another friend that 2nd night. This german guy of turkish descent moved into our hostel room and couldn't stop talking. tired as we were, we had to keep up our conversation with him, and we even went for dinner together. i raised the white flag first, when i fell asleep after coming back while waiting for my turn to shower.

but the next day, he gave us a ride in his 2-door mercedes car to town, and saved us 20 mins of walking time. he was a nice guy tho, we did enjoy those conversations. anyway, we finally went on the free tour on the last day, and there was yet more to learn. but this time, it was more about the recent history of berlin, and germany. it's quite hard to imagine that all those events only happened 50 years ago, in the lifetimes of people who still walk on the face of the earth today. the rise of Hitler; world war II, where germany emerged as the losers once again; how east germany was engulfed by communism, and why the berlin wall came up in 1961; the cold war and hard life; sad, moving, inspirng and sometimes incredible stories of trying to cross the berlin wall; the cracks in the wall, and finally, its collapse.

the longest surviving stretch of the wall

But it doesn't stop there, berlin is still recovering, and those signs are visible everywhere. construction is ongoing; memorials are always springing up; people still walk the streets with scars to show for their valiant attempts at freedom. it is a city in the midst of modernisation, yet still treading the fine line between that and keeping its rich historical past intact by virtually reconstructing every significant building because literally everything was detroyed in WWII. almost none of berlin's monuments are original, save the symbolic Brandenburg Gate, but it is a city with an unparallelled wealth- of stories accumulated over time that sets it apart from any other city in the world.

the Brandenburg Gate

the very captivating tourguide tells the story of the glitch that caused the wall to come tumbling down...

for pictures, please click here .

(mummy: you can view the slideshow so that it'll be bigger, and use the arrow keys in case you think it's moving too quickly/slowly)

you can also view it below, but it's kinda small...