Day 9 – Walking The Streets and New Nationality.

It happened again. The amusement of this was quickly silenced by the authority on the topic held by the proclaimer.

We met at the designated point for the guided tour, and were instantly welcomed warmly by Tour Guide Mike. An enthusiastic man, he did introductions with the three of us, then found out a little about us, quickly determining that J and D lived in London, and I was on holiday from overseas – New Zealand to be exact. I laughed, and said no, but close. He was a little embarrassed, as he said I sounded like one of his. He was a Kiwi! And he mistook me! He later covered this by claiming I have a very international accent – inflections on certain words from various places, but nothing definite. Considering how many people have mistaken me so far, I think he may have a point.

Kiwi or not, Mike was incredibly knowledgeable of Berlin. We started at the Berlin Ufa Palace Theatre, famous for hosting the premiere of “Triumph Of The Will”, quickly running through the history of the partial church and more contemporary church across the way, before we left to meet the rest of the group. We meandered through some of the same areas we had touched on the day before, but he gave us a greater understanding of where we stood in regards to East and West Berlin. This is where my education began, and still has me reeling. The easiest ways to figure out where you are, are as follows: if you can see tram-tracks: East Berlin. If your pedestrian traffic signals are being provided by cartoon-like men with hats, East Berlin. Enter Ampelmann!

When the Soviets occupied East Berlin, they altered a great many things, outside of the economic and social climates. One of the most obvious was the changing of the traffic signals to the aforementioned character. After the Berlin Wall fell (more on that soon) and the reintegration began, Ampelmann began to disappear. Realising how important it was as a cultural symbol, this assimilation of signals halted, and Ampelmann has remained in all areas of East Berlin. He's now to Berlin what the Flinders St Clocks are to Melbourne.

Mike took us through many areas, we saw the Bebelplatz again, we learnt about why some statues are currently in boxes, (being made of marble the freezing weather can actually crack and destroy them!) why all the construction work on buildings is devoted to massive banner ads (they can't afford the construction without the ad money!) and a whole lot of more important history.

Symbolism is a big thing in Berlin. Nothing seems to be done without symbolistic reason, from the traffic light guy, to the double-bluestone line that now traces where the Berlin Wall stood, The new ministry building has a bridge through the centre of it, that also intersects the line the Wall once stood on. The Reichstag has a glass dome over the parliamentary meeting rooms to symbolise the transparency of the country's running. The victory monument representing three victories for the country, and facing France...

*Friedrich The Great always took to battle at the front of his men, in a red outfit - this was to hide any bleeding and wounds he might suffer, so his men would see him fight on, and not give up whilst he was at the front.

*To satisfy a lot of the French migrants who took up the city's offers to replenish it's populous, they built a Calvinist church, and then to mollify the disgruntled Lutherans, built a near identical one opposite.

*During the war, to protect a lot of the historical statues, they were removed from their pedestals and buried in caves, pits and other safe areas. After the war, they were reinstated, allowing the buildings to be redecorated as before.

*A number of the famous buildings in Berlin were totally destroyed by bombing raids. TOTALLY. These buildings have been re-built using as much of the original stone as possible, and new material used to help recreate the original architecture. This disproves what I thought I knew yesterday...

*A great deal of the city that was built after the Wall fell is built of glass and steel. The symbolism here is to represent the transparency and modern outlook the country now has. A number of older buildings have also embraced this style, and plated their upper-stories with glasshouse-like installations.

*The Jewish Memorial is a field of grey concret slabs. No two are the same height or angle of lean, and the meaning of the entire installation is ambiguous. The only meaning the sculptor gave was that he used the Jewish cemeteries as inspiration to his work, and you can definitely see that.

One hell of an amazing city...

New Thing Learnt Today – The Germans built no monument, no building, no detail without good reason.