I had the opportunity for a whirlwind weekend in Berlin, where I was speaking as part of a panel at the Fulbright Academy of Science and Technology conference.  Luckily, I also was able to do some sightseeing and take a few pictures.  First I took the train out to where part of “the wall” is still in place. I’m not sure what I expected, but it just looks like a cement wall… if you didn’t know that it had separated the city (in many ways), you could walk right by and just think it was a plain old wall.

In 1990, several artists painted murals and large works on the wall, but time, weather, and vandals have destroyed these pieces, for the most part. This section of the wall is one of the few remaining standing; it’s about a mile long and runs between Muhlen Strasse and the Spree river.

I also visited the Checkpoint Charlie museum (no photos allowed). This is a sobering reminder of how desperately people will resist being held captive – even if they’re in their own country. Approximately 5000 people escaped from East Germany, and the museum has an amazing collection of photos and artifacts detailing the many ingenious ways they got out – hidden inside the seats of a car or by dressing in homemade fake military uniforms, for example. One method I found especially clever was when a popular singer emptied out a large speaker he used in his concerts and smuggled his East German girlfriend out in it, after replacing the front cover. Probably the most famous photo of a successful escape, however, was taken two days after the wall went up and captures Hans Schumann, a border guard, leaping the barbed wire to gain freedom. You can see this photo here: http://www.videofact.com/cold_war/berlin/berlin43e.htm

Unfortunately, not everyone was so lucky and the museum also had photos of escape attempts that went wrong, ending in death, serious injury, or imprisonment. This museum reminded me, in some ways, of the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor, where visitors are reminded of the cruelties that humans can inflict on one another, and are frequently moved to tears by the tragic displays.  Many of the older visitors to the Checkpoint Charlie museum were visibly shaken and more than a few surreptitiously wiped away their tears.

Outside the museum is a reconstructed guardhouse where tourists can pose for photos with a “guard” and can even (for a fee, of course) have their passport stamped with a Checkpoint Charlie border crossing notation.

I also made a trip to the Brandenburg Gate, which is HUGE.  The gate was finished in 1791, but was dismantled and taken to Paris by Napoleon 15 years later. (I cannot imagine how they managed this.) The gate was then returned to Berlin in 1814 and was the only structure in the Pariser Platz left standing after WWII. This is where Ronald Reagan said, “Tear down this wall” in 1987, and Helmut Kohl walked through the gate from West to East on December 22, 1989 to symbolize the reunification of Berlin. A major project was undertaken in 2000 to clean the gate with laser “scrubbers” and restore it to its former glory.

The sculpture on top of the gate was originally a goddess of peace, but after the gate came back from Paris, the olive wreath was replaced with an iron cross to symbolize victory.

Near the gate is a series of white crosses, memorializing just a few of the thousands of people who were killed while trying to escape to the West.

More on my Berlin trip in the next post. Stay tuned!