Day 53 - 9 November 2012 - Berlin

It was a wonderful night's sleep in the 'Heart of Gold" hostel in the very heart of Berlin. Late last night our daughter Sarah-Jane flew in from London to join us in Berlin for these few days. She had spent some three weeks with us on the bike, from Linz in Austria through to Dresden in Germany, leaving us only a few days ago. Living in London as she does gives her relatively easy access to Europe. It was great to see her walk through the door into the crowded ground floor 'hang-out' area of the Hostel. The music was deafening, and the guests are almost entirley young and 'grouvy', so her two aging parents stood out in the otherwise wild crowd. It was 'welcome to your home for the next few days'!

Today started lazily with a late breakfast, and then a rough plan to explore some of the obvious things in the centre of Berlin. We set off with SJ to show her the famous Brandenburg Gate through which we cycled late yesterday afternoon. The Brandenburg Gate is basically the central icon of Berlin. Built from 1788, it was once one of the numerous 'city gate' entries to the city of Berlin, but it has also been the Gate through which conquering armies have paraded their troops, including Napoleon. It was severely damaged in WW2, and not fully restored until early 2000's. The Brandeburg Gate was basically the first point of closure between east and west in 1961, the 'Berlin Wall' actually crossing on the western edge of the Brandenburg Gate, blocking it off from access to west Berliners (in the photo, we are standing inside the former 'east Berlin').

It was a wonderful experience to stand at the Brandenburg Gate, and to be able to move freely to either side, which was not possible from 1961 to 1989. From the Brandenburg Gate, we walked a further few hundred metres inside the former west Berlin to be standing outside the magnificent building of the 'Reichstag', the German Parliament building. It was purpose built in 1894 for the recently formed German Empire, which became the Weimar Republic after WW1, and was used for the seat of Parliament until 1933 when it was severely damaged by fire which led to the National Socialist uprising and the coming to power of the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler. It was very severely damaged in the bombing of Berlin in 1945, and was not used again as the German Parliament until fully restored by 1999. It is truly one of the magnificent buildings of modern Berlin.

Within eyesight of the Reichstag building that is the centre of political power of the reunified Germany, is the memorial to the murdered Sinti and Roma people (referred to as Gypsies) by the Nazis during WW2. The Memorial was opened by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel only this year (2012). At the opening she said "Humanity means not turning a blind eye when another person's dignity is being violated". It is very significant that within eyesight of the German Reichstag, there is this memorial to the murdered Sinti and Roma people, but also a huge Memorial to the millions of murdered Jewish people, and a smaller memorial to the gay and lesbian people murdered under National Socialism. It was so lovely that a dear Roma lady sat just at the entrance to the memorial playing beautiful music on her violin. The Memorial is established in the top corner of the magnificent 'Tiergarten', the garden that covers hundreds of acres and which runs both sides of the main road of entry leading from the west up to and through the Brandenburg Gate.

From the 'Sinti and Roma' Memorial, the view back to the Brandeburg Gate through the beautiful trees of the Tiergarten was stunning. On television 'back home', often reference to the German Government is referred to as 'the Tiergarten' due to, no doubt, the proximity of the Reichstag to the massive and beautiful Tiergarten.

We walked back past the Bradenburg Gate down Wilhemstrasse to the Haulocost Memorial, which is only a mere few hundred meters to the southern side of the Brandenburg Gate. It is the largest Memorial of this or any other kind that we have seen, covering an entire city block of some 4.7 acres (19,000sq metres). At first sight it was very puzzling. It is literally hundreds if not thousands of polished rectangular marble blocks of idential dimensions excpept that each varied in height from any others. We were quite puzzled by the meaning behind it, it was just a massive maze but all in perfect lines in all directions. According to the architect, the arrangement of the thousands of polished marble blocks were intended to produce and uneasy, confusing atmosphere, representing an supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. As we reflected on this we could see the point although the Memorial has not been universally accepted by those who have seen it. The fact that this and other memorials to the millions murdered by the Nazis are so close to the German Parliamentary building (the Rechstag) says a lot about the positive attitides of the current German leadership and people.

It wouldn't have been avisit to Berlin if we did not visit Hitler's Bunker. The Bubker no longer exists, and the historians will tell you that he had numerous bunkers. However, this was the bunker where he and others close to Hitler spent their final hours. It no longer exists of course. The car park and blocks of flats behind are not built over the site which was severely blown up under the communist regime in 1947. Apparently it was too solidly encased on thick concrete to be completely destroyed by explosives, with some of the walls of the bunker now forming the foundations of the buildings on the site. The information board is all there is to indicate that we were standing on the site of Hitlers last hours. It is believed that he and also his 'partner' Eva Braun took their own lives in those final hours of the futile defence of Berlin. In the same hours, Josef Goebbels, the Nazi Minister for Propaganda and his wife Magda firtly took the lives of their six children before themselves committing suicide, rather than fall into the hands of the invading Russian troops. As we stood here, the car park could not hide our sense of sadness and despair at the events which took place here in 1945 at the closing hours of WW2 in Europe.

From the Brandenburg Gate we were also following the former route of the Berlin Wall. This is a surviving section of the 'Wall' featuring probably the greatest iconic picture of the Berlin Wall - the escape from the east to the west of one of the east German Border Guards. He was on guard duty. He was seen walking up to he large coils of barbed wire, pressing it down a bit then walking away. He came back and pressed it further and again walked away. Suddenly he turned, ran and leapt for his life from east Berlin into west Berlin. The leap was captured on camera and became very famous.

We walked to 'Check-Point Charlie', the official border gate in the official American sectore which checked access from east to the west at this point. We stood in a small crowd staring at the 'US MArine' on duty. We just happened to be standing next to an elderly retired US military Officer who was appalled at the atrociously attired "US Serviceman' on duty at Check-Point Charlie! The 'US Serviceman' is a German of course, and an employee just trying to make a buck. However, his dirty suade boots were a give-a-way, as was the sight occasionaly of the US flag dragging on the ground when he got weary. I was happy to pay him his 2 Euro though for his photo.

It was a joyous moment of course for all Germans when the news of the 'Wall' coming down made world news in 1989. The wall was quickly dismantled, but the tracking of where the 'Wall' used to exist has been traced out for history by this trail of brickwaork that twists and turns its way around and through the streets of Berlin to show where the 'Wall' used to be. It amazed us how intrusive it would have been, now that we could see where the 'Wall' went. It was rarely a convenient division of the city suburbs.

The 'Wall' however is a great tourist attraction now in Berlin. The city is being transformed now that Germany has been reunited, with a special 'Wall' open air museum in the city centre which is still being developed.

Some surviving blocks of the 'Wall' are simply on display for all to see what 'was'. These sections were powerful noticeboards, not just to the folly of the past but to the remaining 'walls' still exisiting in the world that need to experience the same outcome.

Berlin is an amzing place. Our day together confirmed what we had been thinking - it is far less exhausting to cycle all day than to walk the city all day. We found our way back to the 'Heart of Gold' Hostel, but not without going via the railway station to meet our Margot Salamon who was joining us for the weekend from Warsaw in Poland. She arrived safely on the late afternoon train. It was great to have lively conversation about our respective lives and travels since we last met Margot some years ago in Papua New Guinea. Co-incidentally she is a very close friend of Sarah-Janes.

Four relatively weary bodies rested well in the noisy hostel in the dark, back lane of inner city Berlin. It had been a great day of discovery and reflection. The most powerful symbol was the location of the various memorials to the millions who were murdered by the Nazis leading up to and during WW2. The location of the memorials so close to the German Parliament has not been imposed on the Government but in fact a choice of the German Government as a significant symbol of their sense of horror and regret at the atrocities of the former evil regime. This has a powerful impact and reflects the genuine intention of the German leadership now to continue to take a stand against any form of discrimination as a means of building a stronger future for the people of this country.

It is also a wonderful reminder of the powerful message of the apostle John writing of Jesus "For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:17). As we rest tonight in this great city of Berlin, we are comforted to know that the love of Christ is such that in Him we are not to know condemnation but in fact salvation. Its worth a thought.

From the great city of Berlin we send our love - Kelvin, Julie and Sarah-Jane