Berlin Wall Memorial

Berlin Wall Memorial Visitor Center

From August 13, 1961 to November 9, 1989, a nasty line cut through Berlin's entire city center: The notorious Berlin Wall, built to prevent citizens of the GDR from fleeing to the West. West Berlin was an island located in the middle of the GDR.

As the wall alone couldn't stop people from trying to escape from the GDR regime, it was additionally fortified by a death strip all along the border, as well as a "shoot-to-kill" order.

The area along the restricted zone was patrolled, watchtowers were set up, signal fences giving silent alarms were installed and the land around the border was declared no-man's-land and was lit up bright as day during the night.

Observation platforms in the West allowed tourists and West Berliners to sneak a peek "over the fence" into an other world.

In the peaceful revolution of 1989, the guards of Bornholmer Straße border opened the gates on November 9th without formal order and masses of people flocked to the West.

The Berlin Wall Memorial partly is an open-air museum and the memorial grounds on the former border strip are open all year round. Admission is free. There also is a viewing platform at the Documentation Center (Bernauer Strasse 111). Don't miss it!

If you are up to some research, check out the specialized bookstore on the history of the Berlin Wall in the Visitor Center.

A really intriguing and actually quite spooky part of the Berlin Wall history is on display in the Nordbahnhof S-Bahn station: The "Ghost Station Exhibition". 

What is this?

As a result of all the wall building and the busy cutting the city in two halves, public transport network had to be divided too. Three lines that passed through the city center and a short stretch of East Berlin territory stayed open to West Berliners while East Berlin stations were closed down.

Read more on Ghost Stations

East of Eden

Yes, I like the name, guess why.

This is an independent international second hand bookshop in the very heart of East Berlin. Not really my kinda place, but maybe interesting to check out for some of you.

They seem to have regular events like readings, exhibitions and live music.

When I was there – late afternoon on a weekday – it was deserted. They have all sorts of books in European languages and provide seats to hang out.

Figures in the Park – Outdoor Exhibition

One of the first things to attract your attention when you enter the DRK clinical center in Berlin's Westend (Spandauer Damm 130) will probably be the statue right opposite the main entrance.

If you care to take a closer look at the surroundings, you will certainly realize that many other sculptures, namely a total of 33 and predominantly representations of human beings, are distributed throughout the parkland.

Over a period of 5 decades these statues were formed by sculptors like Schriebers, Loth, Szymanski, Klinge, Wilde and Winzer, before they found their home in Berlin's Westend.

On a balmy spring evening (hopefully soon to come) take a walk to explore this extraordinary exhibition. A detailed map with pictures of all the statues can be found here.

The "Große Fevi" (Big Fevi) by Dietrich Klinge (1999) caught my eye when I walked down from the tropical institute to the exit. The sculpture looks like it was made of wood, while in fact it is a bronze casting.

Old National Gallery

 

Pierers Universal-Lexikon, 1891 

Situated on Berlin's Museum Island (UNESCO designated World Heritage Site) the Old National Gallery harbors artwork treasures of the 19th century, namely Classical, Romantic, Biedermeier, Impressionist and early Modernist masterpieces (Friedrich, Schinkel, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Cézanne, Rodin, Liebermann, Corinth, Spitzweg etc). Currently the gallery is exhibiting the "Amalfi Sketchbook" by Carl Blechen.

The basis of the current collection was established in 1861, when the Swedish banker J. H. W. Wagener bequeathed 262 paintings to the Prussian king William I. Until the opening of the Old National Gallery in spring 1876, the collection was housed in the Academy of Arts.

The building itself (designed by Stüler, constructed by Strack) is shaped like a Corinthian temple (with attached apse) set on a high ashlar base with embedded rectangular windows. An impressive flight of steps leads the visitor up to the main entrance, through an open hall of pillars, while the bronze equestrian statue of the museum's founder, Frederick William IV, on the middle landing of the stairway is securing the building's front.




Heavily damaged during the air raids of World War II, the building was partly reopened in 1949. However, reconstruction work continued until 1969.

More photos
Homepage of the Gallery

East Side Gallery

The East Side Gallery, located close to the center of Berlin and running alongside the river Spree, is a 1316 meter long section of the Berlin Wall. After the opening of the Wall in fall 1989, the east side of the wall was painted by over 100 artists from 21 countries.

The gallery was inaugurated on September 28, 1990. It is the longest permanent open-air gallery of the world.
All photos here

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