Second Star to the Right and Straight on til Copenhagen: Visiting the motherland...

"Them that begin by burning books, end by burning men"

- Heinrich Heine

This past week I had the incredible experience of going to Berlin and Prague. For those of you who know me well, know that I am slightly OCD. Having a plan isn't just a nice thing to have for me, it's basically a necessity. So deciding to go to two foreign countries less than a week before I was supposed to leave kind of freaked me out, but I did it anyways. We left Tuesday night at 8:15 and flew to Berlin. My traveling companions were Keven, Jess, and Sophie(unfortunately Sophie does not like her photo taken).

In Berlin we stayed in Raise a Smile hostel, which was not only African themed but also all the money raised by the hostel goes to an orphanage and school in Zambia.

Our first day in Berlin we took a guided tour of the city. Getting to the tour began our problems with just barely making it top places on time. It seemed throughout the entire trip that we got places with about 2 seconds to spare. We also lost our metro ticket, which was a group ticket. So the 4 of us spent the entire day using the public transit system without a ticket.

This is the U.S. Embassy, right next to the Brandenburg Gate. All of the buildings surrounding the Brandenburg Gate have to be plain so that they do not detract from the beauty and importance of the gate.

This is the Hotel Adlon. It is the most expensive hotel in Berlin and it is also where Michael Jackson thought it was a good idea to hang his kid over the balcony.

The statue on top of the Brandenburg Gate is Victoria, the goddess of victory. When Napoleon came through and conquered Berlin, he liked the statues so much that he took it back to Paris with him. When Berlin finally got the statue back the renamed the square that the statue overlooks Pariser Platz, so that they would have Victory over Paris.(Another kind of ironic thing, the statue looks right at the French Embassy which is to the right of the gate.)

This building is the Reichstag, which houses the German parliament. This building actually has a huge historical significance. It burned in 1933, under suspicious circumstances. At this time Hitler had just been sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Because of the fire, Hitler was granted emergency powers, which included the right to arrest people without reason. With these powers he was able to get the parliament to pass laws giving himself absolute power. Allowing him to become the dictator of Germany without even breaking a single law.

This is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin. At the time this was built it was very controversial because people thought the money could have been better spent in other ways. In the end this memorial was built in the middle of the city two blocks from the Reichstag so that people would be forced to notice it and remember.

The artist refuses to give an explanation. The memorial is made up of 2,711 concrete slabs of varying heights.

Believe it or not under this parking lot is where Hitler's bunkers once were. This is also where Hitler and Eva Braun were married and committed suicide together.

This building was the headquarters of the Luftwaffe. After the war the government tried to get Coca-Cola to use this building as their headquarters, but Coke didn't really think that was a good idea. So the Finance ministry decided to go here instead.

First look at the wall.

This is Checkpoint Charlie, which was the entrance into the American sector of West Berlin.

This photo is actually of an American soldier who guarded the border here. When this monument was put up it was decided that there would forever be an American looking towards the Soviet side and a Soviet soldier always looking to the American side.

After the wall was torn down, there was nothing left of Checkpoint Charlie until tourists came and wanted to see it. So they build a replica and now hire actors to dress up as American Soldiers. The only thing that might be original is the frame of the sign.

This is the only time in our entire trip that we were in West Berlin.

Sorry this is for my love of Harry Potter.

This is Humboldt University where Einstein was a professor.

This is a plaque to show where the Nazi book burnings happened. The quote that I have written at the beginning of this post is actually written on this plaque, "Them that begin by burning books, end by burning humans" This quote was written in a book by Heinrich Heine in 1823. It is amazing that this quote has absolutely nothing to do with the Nazi's yet couldn't have been closer to what happened.

This is the monument to victims of war and tyranny. This memorial was actually really controversial because under the statue is soil taken from every concentration camp, an unknown soldier, and an unknown Holocaust victim.

This is the Berlin TV tower. When the tower was being built all of the churchs in East Berlin were ordered to take the cross' off of their steeples. This tower was supposed to be a symbol of the GDR's strength. What they didn't count on was that when the sun hits the tower the reflection is in the shape of a cross, and soon became known as the Pope's Revenge. A lot of money and time was spent by the GDR's government to try and get rid of the cross reflection.

This is one of the museums in Berlin, but I thought it was cool to see where the columns had been patched from the shrapnel and bullet damage.

This is the only place in Berlin where both walls still stand.

If you look closely you can see the West side wall on the far left and then the East Side wall on the right. So there were two walls one on each side then in the middle there was an illuminated area in the middle called the death strip. Then there was a trench to prevent vehicles from running through the wall, then a patrol track and a place for watchdogs, watchtowers, and then a second wall, and somewhere in there a barbed wire fence.

Food in Berlin was amazingly cheap compared to Copenhagen so we gorged ourselves. One day we ate 7 times!

You can't go to Germany and not eat Apple Strudel!

This is the longest remaining piece of the wall. Also the people weren't even allowed near the wall on the East side, so after the fall of the wall it was decided to make this empty stretch of wall into a gallery of murals.

I loved this quote written by the artist.

We felt super rebellious to be signing the wall.

So many people know that the wall fell in 1989, but did you all know that it was completely by accident? Throughout '89 there were many protests and as these protests grew the government decided that they would have to appease the people somehow. So they had a meeting and decided that they would tell the people that they would start opening some of the borders, if people applied, had the correct forms, and a bunch of other bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo. Unfortunately the leader of the East German Communist Party Gunter Schabowski was not at that meeting. On November 9th, Gunter was giving a press conference and a journalist asked a question that was not on the approved question list. The journalist asked what the government was going to do about the protests. Gunter should have denied answering but instead he pulled out the memo he was given on the meeting and read the first line that said the government would open borders, he said nothing about all of the other things. Then he was asked, when, and he decided it would be a good idea to say, right now. A few hours later people began showing up at the checkpoints saying that Gunter had just said the borders were opened. At this time the guards had no idea what was going on and they tried to contact anyone in charge who could tell them what to do. Soon there were thousands of East Germans waiting at the checkpoint and as our tour guide said they did what all good Germans should have done. They formed a line. Since the guards were not receiving any orders on what to do they decided to let everyone pass. Waiting at the other side were thousands of West Germans waiting with all the things that the East Germans hadn't been able to get, like bananas. Many East Germans spent that first night doing things that they hadn't been allowed to do in East Germany mainly going to the movie theater to see uncensored movies. The movie they all went to see was Dirty Dancing.

Our final night was wanted to eat traditional German food, so we were sent here.

This restaurant was in the middle of a mall, yet they still made it classy by green carpeting, fake trees, outdoor furniture, and red and white checkered tablecloths and the food was delicious!

Then next day we went and toured Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. It was crazy to be there and very emotional. I feel kind of weird about posting pictures on here, but if anyone would like to see them when I return home I would love to share them.

On our way back from the camp, Keven realized that he had left his apartment keys in the hostel. He decided to go back to the hostel while the rest of us went to find the bus station. With running and taking a taxi he was able to make it to the bus right before the bus closed its doors to leave the station.

I loved the bus rider through Germany because it was like being home again. If you look at these pictures you can't really tell if you are in Wisconsin or Germany. There was rolling hills, corn, John Deere tractors, deer stands, round bales, and windmills. It's no wonder that the German immigrants decided to settle in Wisconsin.