Lighting Up Berlin

For about ten days in October, some of Berlin's landmarks are lit up in novel ways and the evenings turn into street parties, with lots of people toting cameras and tripods. Richard's camera caught this image of the Berlin Dom (cathedral), with the Fernsehturm (television tower) in the background.

Telling us what to do with peelings, in a lighthearted way

I spotted this poster while waiting on the platform for the S-Bahn and gave it an A+ right away. What a clever way to encourage us to put our biodegradable waste in the right container. Throwing something away here requires just a moment of thought, since you are expected to sort your trash into paper, white glass, colored glass, 'light packing material' (aluminum cans, plastic containers, etc), biodegradable and "all the other stuff". Big bins live out back behind our building, to collect everything. It doesn't take long to learn the system and I think most people believe it's worth the effort and do it routinely.

Don't Drink and Fly

A few weeks ago we spotted this plastered witch about a block away from our apartment and we get a chuckle from it every time we walk by. 'Seems that the Germans have imported Halloween from America with a passion and are having a good time with it.

Day trip to Wittenberg--the city of Luther-- with Jerry and Wilma

Well, when an October day dawns bright and crisp in these parts, you're wise to make the most of it. We decided to head for Wittenberg, with my brother Jerry and his wife Wilma who were spending a week with us. Takes about an hour to get there, travelling through rural countryside, heading southwest from Berlin. Life is quieter there and moves at a slower pace, but we were surprised to find out about all the famous people who've lived or visited there: Frederick the Great, Napoleon, Peter the Great, Maxim Gorki, Tsar Alexander the First . . . . .
Martin Luther, of course, is the person who's put the city on the map. People come here to see where he lived and preached, leading up to his split with the Catholic Church. His statue has pride of place in front of the Rathaus. Other things to see here: churches, paintings by both Cranachs ("Weinberg des Herrn", Lucas Cranach d.J., photo below), and surprises like this half of a bike advertising a bike shop, spotted by Jerry, the inveterate photographer.

On the way up, climbing the Schlosskirche tower in Wittenberg

Jerry and I decided we couldn't pass up the chance to see Wittenberg from up high, so we paid our 2 euros and climbed the tower of the Schlosskirche (castle church). This is the view when you've just about made it to the top. The climb is on a well-worn spiral stone staircase, and it's a tight squeeze if you meet someone along the way.

View from the top of Wittenberg's Schlosskirche

So, this is your reward for climbing up to the top ! Look one direction and you see a farm surrounded by the city. Another direction, far in the distance, you can see ultramodern windmills.

Windows along Sophienstrasse, Spandauer Vorstadt

Spandauer Vorstadt shop windows and courtyards: an interesting part of Berlin to explore on foot. Once a struggling working class district and the home of many Jewish immigrants from the east, now it's full of pricey galleries and shops and has a thriving theater life at night.

St. Hedwig's Krankenhaus

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Still in the area called Spandauer Vorstadt, Berlin's oldest Catholic hospital (St. Hedwig's, 1844) has this welcoming inner courtyard. We found it by accident when we were looking for restrooms (of course . . . )

Workers' Movement

In a city that often seems very much 'under construction', you still find many reminders of the past. This is the entrance to a courtyard in the district called Spandauer Vorstadt, once the meeting place for workers who founded Germany's communist party, led by Karl Liebknecht. He called for a German proletarian revolution in 1918. Germany ended up with the Weimar Republic instead, and very hard times that opened the door for Hitler.

Berlin's Jewish Museum

This striking new building designed by Daniel Libeskind has a footprint that looks like a bolt of lightning. The shape and design of the structure itself is intended to convey something of its difficult subject, two centuries of Jewish life in Germany. Full of odd angles, slit-like windows that look out over 'voids', and uphill passageways, it's a challenging place to visit. Airport-type security at the entrance and crowds inside, of all ages.

Memorial near the former Jewish Cemetery

Berlin is full of reminders of the Holocaust, such as this very moving memorial, built where a Jewish old people's home used to be, a place used as a detention center for young and old about to be shipped to concentration camps.

Sometimes the reminder will be a small plaque on a building, telling you about what happened there or who lived there, or it might be a large poster mounted behind glass at a bus stop, such as the one near the Philharmonic, where concertgoers can see the face and read about the man who was one of Hitler's legion. Some are very recent markers, so I think you can say that this is an unfinished subject here.

Berlin's New Train Station

Berlin's magnificent new train station (2006), its Hauptbahnhof, has five levels, some of them underground, and you can actually look down from the upper levels and watch trains arriving below. It took a while for some architectural critics to warm up to it, but now the consensus seems to be that it's a huge success and something the city can be proud of. Try to imagine a place that can handle 1100 trains per day and 300,000 people. Its nickname is 'the glass cathedral'.

The Hackeschen Hoefe

This is one of eight inner courtyards called the Hackeschen Hoefe, built between 1905 and 1907 and restored during the 1990s. Mosaic tiles decorate the walls, in an art deco style. Inner courtyards like this one, combining living quarters and workshops and the 'backyards' of stores facing the street, were common in Berlin at one time, though very few as beautiful as these. Today one of the hot spots in the city, with cafes, galleries, shops and a few small theaters.

Harvest Festival at the Johannesstift in Spandau

Last Sunday was great weather for this harvest festival at a church near Spandau, the Johannesstift. Fun stuff for kids to do, and an old threshing machine cranked up for action, but mostly people come here for the food and to listen to the music. Lots of different kinds of cake (32 at one place, according to their sign) and wurst, of course, so you can imagine how good it all smelled. I brought home some Zwiebelkuchen for our supper. It's an 'onion cake', savory rather than sweet , and traditional for this time of year in Germany. It's good.

The Chancellor's Headquarters

Tagging along with Richard's students, and after a security check that resembled the airport, I had a chance to get inside the Bundeskanzleramt a few days ago. The photo to the left gives you an idea of the size of the place. Angela Merkel, Germany's current chancellor, presides here now but the building was the pet project of Helmut Kohl, chancellor when Germany was reunited 19 years ago. A large building for a large man, so goes the story. Lots of glass, used very intentionally to suggest transparency and openness, in contrast to the heavy, fortress-like Reichstag that you can see across the way (top photo). This view of it is from one of the balconies of the Bundeskanzleramt.

A Hike in Alt Luebars

At the risk of repeating myself, did I mention that Berlin is BIG ? Both a city and a state, it even has rural areas. One of them is Alt Luebars, a village that's been swallowed up by the expanding city. It's a great place for a hike, with paths that take you right through the fields. People on horseback or bikes come along occasionally, but most are just walking, often with their dog along. It's a quiet place. You can hear the birds.

Dahlia Festival at Britzer Gardens

If you're lucky enough to be in Berlin on a sunny day in the fall, you can go to the Dahlia Festival in a lovely big park way to the south of the city center. Dahlias came to Germany about 200 years ago, when Alexander von Humbolt brought some back from Central America. Lots of different varieties with very descriptive names (pompoms, sea anemones, cactus-dahlia, etc.). Come in the spring and find tulips in these same beds.

A Birthday Present

Do you like my birthday present from R ? Her designer named her 'Tochter Lucy' (daughter Lucy), so I think Richard couldn't resist when he saw her in a shop window. She's standing on our kitchen windowsill here.

Inside St. Annen Dorfkirche

Third time lucky, I finally found the door open and had a look inside. The oldest stones in the walls date from the 1200s, but the church was burned down during the 30 Years War, rebuilt in 1670s, badly damaged at the end of WWII, rebuilt again in the 1950s. The wooden altarpiece with this carved figure is a reproduction of the original from ca. 1500. The traces of wall frescoes (near the windows) were probably painted by migrant artists from Bohemia in the late 1300s. They were painted over during the Reformation period and by chance rediscovered in 1893. So, visit one small village church and trace Germany's turbulent history through 8 centuries !