On the Second and Third day of my Trip, I could cover the following places.
1. Check Point Charlie and the Museum
2. Open Free Berlin Wall related information Site
3. The Museum made by collecting the belongings of People who were killed while crossing Berlin Wall
4. The Berlin Wall
5. The Gallery of Photos on GESTAPO Site
6. The Topography of Terror
7. The "Story of Berlin" Museum and Bunker to withstand Nuclear Explosion.
From the list above, I would like to discuss little about Point No.1, and Point No. 4,5, and 6.
1. Check Point Charlie and the Museum
If you have read my first post here, you understand that Berlin was divided in East Berlin and West Berlin. The Berlin wall was created to check the people fleeing from East Germany to West Germany. The Check Point Charlie is a technically Customs/Entry Point from Communist East Germany to US Controlled West Germany. In Check Point Charlie, the US Soldiers were stationed till unification of East and West Germany. There are still road signs preserved on the street, and old USSR and US Armies memorabilia are sold on the streets. You can read more on this here. See some Photos below:
As seen from the West Germany Side-the border point when you cross to the Soviet Side
Before Berlin Wall was erected, it was a barbed fence to stop East Germans to cross to West. Russia and Eastern Blocks did not want People to flee to West side.
These People were here in Check Point Charlie Museum. If you can recognize there is a photo of Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. Next time, when you visit here, you will see a Photo of "Nepali Poet".
The photos below are from the Topography of Terror Museum which documents how Hitler exterminated Jewish, Communists, Socialists, Trade Unionist, Russian, Roma and Sintis. The Museum is located on the site where there was a Secret German Police called GESTPO's Office during Hitler's days. More on Gestapo and Topography of Horror, you can read here and here. GESTAPO was referred as SS during Nazi Time and some of the exterminations carried out by Nazi were not even known by lower rank SS Soldiers/Police.
The Fate of the Jewish - blot on the Humanity
Sign placed by a Nazi on Jewish Shop and message urging German - not to buy things from Jewish
Sight Seeing - Hop-on and Off on the street of Berlin
Preserved Section of Berlin Wall - in front of House of Terror
Moment of Victory for US Soldier in WWII - When Adolf Hitler was defeated
Hitler's Propaganda Pamphlet. There was an English Translation of this which blamed Communists for Fire in Bundestag - Parliament and said Vote For Hitler. Hitler is No.1
This post is about my recent trip to Berlin. I hope you will enjoy reading this. In this blog, I have also included my few experiences from my Munich Trip which I had taken few months ago (About Munich Trip, I would write in some other blogs). Here it goes the details and the photos:
Berlin, the capital City of Germany is on the north side of Germany. We took GermanWings, low cost carrier of Deutsche Lufthansa. The flight was short and comfortable with Airbus A319 Plane.
The model of the Germanwings Airbus 319 with which we flew:
Germanwings.Airbus.319 to Berlin
Berlin has three main Airports - one yet to be opened. GermanWings operate from Berlin Tegel (TXL). The transportation within Berlin is very easy bus Bus, S-Bahn (Sub-Urban Bahn/Metro Train), U-Bahn (Underground Bahn/within City/Urban Area Metro Train) and by Trams (Short Distance Small Trains).
We discovered that Berlin offers variety of Tickets/Passes to you and you can buy it depending on the length of your stay. Of Course, you can travel by buying ticket each time you board Bus or Train but if you are staying there for whole day or more than two days and will be utilizing public transportation very frequently, then, it is better to buy day Tickets/Passes. These Passes will save your money and are hassle free. We bought a day pass of Euro 6.50 for Zone AB of Berlin and started travelling around.
If you buy day Ticket from Bus Driver, the ticket for Zone AB for a day looks like this and you need not have to stamp:
In the above Picture, you can see Two Day Tickets of Berlin AB Zone
In the above Picture, you can see the Two Day Tickets of Berlin AB Zone.
After buying a day ticket in Berlin Airport (Berlin Tegel - TXL), we started our trip. Our first trip was to "The Brandenburg Gate (German: Brandenburger Tor)". You must have heard India Gate, or Gateway of India, or Arc de Trump (in France). These all are gates honouring soldiers and the Brandenburg Gate is another such gate in Germany. If you would like to read more on this and the history associated with the Brandenburg Gate, you can look at this Wikipedia Page.
I must say that even at the end of March, Berlin was very very cold, wet and was snowing. The wind was blowing very badly at Berlin and it was difficult to hold camera on hands to click photos. Even the Camera Quality was bad and I have taken few photos. Some of such photos are here:
In the last image, you can see two people dressed as soldiers and holding flags of United States of America and Communist Flag of USSR. This is in total the history of Berlin - a very painful history. The guy who is holding US Flag is dressed like US Army and the another is dressed like Soviet Army. Germany suffered heavy loss on First World War (WWI) and when Hitler tried to take revenge of that in Second World War (WWII), it suffered again. Thereafter, the big powers divided Germany in East Germany and West Germany. Even the Berlin City was divided in East Berlin and West Berlin and East Berlin was ruled by Soviet Forces and West Berlin was further divided in US ruled areas, UK ruled areas and France ruled areas. At the height of the Cold War in 1960s, Berlin Wall was created by Soviet Forces/Eastern Bloc so that people will not flee from East to West. As per history, the wall was just next to this "The Brandenburg Gate" and the then US President Ronald Regan delivered his historic speech just next to the wall urging USSR Communist General Secretary Gorbachov to bring the wall down, to demolish it.
Ronald Regan says, "Tear Down this Wall". The Speech was made at 1987 and the Berlin Wall was demolished after fall of USSR in 1989. The Berlin City has major Museums and History covering the pain of Hitler's terror and Cold War on which I shall write more later.
After visiting "The Brandenburg Gate", we headed to see Bundestag (German parliament)/Reichstag. The building is a simple one in terms of architecture but has a very historic place as Hitler, during 1930 and 40s had complete control over it while spreading terror. Near to it, there is a Office of German Chancellor Both photos can be seen below and there is no barricade or presence of any heavy security forces in stark contrast to India and Nepal or other poor third world countries.
German Parliament.Bundestag.Reichstag
Office of German Cancellor
You can see in the photos gloomy and cloudy day and the snow all around. It was very difficult to take photos in minus 5 degree centigrade and when it was raining and snowing.
On the very first day after visiting Bundestag, we headed to Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It is not a cemetery but around 2000 box/stones erected to remember the Six Million Jews killed by Hitler and Nazi. You can read more on this here.
I will be writing more about #Hitler, anti-Jewish and #Nazism and #Berlin, #Germany more on coming days. If you like this post, do not forget to say hello!
