Berlin History and Art

August 26, 2014 in City, Museum, Travel

Another day of history, memorials, museums and architecture, and my last set of photos from Berlin last year. These are things I like to explore and photograph in any city, and Berlin has probably the best collection anywhere I've been so far. History in particular, as the key events are quite recent compared to more ancient cities, and the effects are still visible in spots all around the city, down to bullet holes in walls. Any corner you walk around could reveal another memorial or plaque and memories of an impressive/terrifying history.

Berliner Dom and the Pope's Last Revenge

I started the day with an early morning trip via the Brandenburger Tor to the Soviet War Memorial in the Tiergarten. Early enough that the people dressed in historical uniforms or cartoon characters hadn't even shown up yet to start scamming tourists. The Soviet Memorial is particularly interesting/crazy once you see the photo at the bottom of this post - the Soviets had captured German soldiers start building it in the ruins of the city pretty much as soon as the war ended, before any sort of reconstruction, almost a penal exercise. The old rumour (supposedly disproven) was that it was built from stone from the destroyed Reich Chancellery. They even built it right in the middle of the street which was to be the 'Avenue of Splendours' in Albert Speer's grand plan for 'World Capital Germania'.

Early morning at the Brandenburger Tor without crowds and tourist traps

Tools, coins and occasional flowers on the Soviet Memorial

The memorial is still in use and regularly visited by Russians, who appear to leave spanners, hammers and coins behind in addition to the usual flowers. After visiting the memorial I made my way back to the Musuem Island to tick the Bode Museum and Altes Nationalgalerie off my list and finish the Island. The Bode musuem is another one focussed on both old and ancient sculptures - still not my favourite, but interesting enough and free to view since I cunningly bought the weekly pass! The building itself was fantastic though, very grand foyers and a dome at the far end. And I even found the sculptures more interesting than I expected and spent quite a while there.

After the Bode it was time for a quick Bratwurst mit Brötchen (sausage inna bun) behind the Berliner Dom, dodge the pigeons flying around, and off to the Altes Nationalgalerie to finish my seventh and final Museuminsel museum. Apart from a couple impressive sculptures in the foyer it is mostly a painting collection, and much more enjoyable than I expected since it was hardly mentioned in my tourist guide. Some really nice historical paintings from the German Imperial era... supposedly from the 'neoclassical' and 'romantic' movements, although I'm just an amateur art appreciator and haven't figured those terms out very well yet. Either way, I really enjoyed it, one of my favourites on the island.

Princess Luisa and Frederike of Prussia at the Alte Nationalgalerie

With half an hour to closing time, there was time enough to quickly sneak back into the Pergamon Museum, which I saw on my previous trip but not this time. Might as well, with nothing else planned, and quickly look at the massive and impressive altar, and try get a better picture of the famous Ishtar Gate of Babylon. I took plenty of photos to try and stitch together, but I'm still struggling with the software! Stitching hasn't really been my thing so far, but maybe I'll figure it out one day. But that's it for my second trip to Berlin. Really love this city, and I would come back anytime - although I've persuaded myself that next trip I will check out Munich for the first time instead! Hope they still have Currywurst there :)

Mural from the Ishtar Gate of Babylon at the Pergamon Museum

Construction in 1945. Ruined Reichstag at the top right. Photo by Hein Gorny.

Walking along the last preserved section of the Berlin Wall

Back to the Berlin Wall

August 20, 2014 in City, Museum, Travel

Seems I already went back on my word of 2 months ago and forgot to keep posting and catching up on photos from my last trip to Germany! Not many more left to go now, but since I'm in Europe again for the last three weeks I've taken many thousands more photos, and getting increasingly far behind in my photo publishing! Tempting to forget about these photos as a lost cause now, but well if I don't publish them, they'll never see the light of day! Maybe this batch today isn't the most exciting, but there are one or two still to come from the last trip that I'm quite proud of. Even worse, I still haven't posted about the last Horse and Rider portrait session I did with Tiffany, or the video work I've been doing with Sven for the Bokeh-Monster, or even my winter road trip and snowstorm in the deep south! One day I intend to stop procrastinating...

Preserved wall with Fernsehturm on the skyline

This day in Berlin, like a lot of my days in Berlin, was a day of museums and memorials. Maybe that's not what everyone else does in Berlin, but there are enough of both to keep me busy for weeks. I started with an early morning U-Bahn ride to the Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer (Berlin Wall Memorial) at the site of the infamous Bernauer Straße crossing, where many people escaped to freedom in the early days of the wall when it looked much less imposing than it became. At the very start, they just bricked up the first floor doors and windows of every house along the street - leading to plenty of footage of people jumping down from higher stories to freedom in the West. That didn't last long.

The complete section of the wall above was preserved by rapid action of the government the day before German Unification in 1990, declaring it a historical monument while walls were being torn down all over the city. The wall itself was much more than a simple wall, as can be seen here - it was continuously developed and 'improved' over the years into quite a fortification, with tall concrete climb-proof barriers, razor wire, electrical signal fences, steel spiked floors, dog patrol lanes, sand floors to show footprints, flood lights, and tall towers with machine gunners inside. The memorial itself stretches much further down the street, including foundations of buildings torn down to fit the wall in, an earthen church where the Church of Reconciliation famously stood in no-man's land between the two sides of the wall until it was destroyed in 1985, photos and memorials of the 138+ people killed crossing the wall, and video displays of people escaping to freedom in the early days. Overall the memorial was really good, a lot more to see there than just a piece of wall left behind. Definitely recommended in Berlin.

The Lustgarten at night. And because i needed another square photo to fit this spot.

The rest of the day was filled with museum visiting as I attempt to cross more off the list, particularly the remaining ones on the famous Museuminsel 'Museum Island'. This time I covered the Museum for Photography with it's excellent Helmut Newton galleries, and the Altes ('Old') Musuem on the island. This is housed in a very impressive Neoclassical building by the famous architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, built 1823-1830 next to the Berliner Dom. I enjoyed the museum, but its collection is mostly of ancient sculptures, which isn't my preferred source of culture :)

Watching a busker under the Alexanderplatz S-Bahn station

Back to Berlin (photos)

June 17, 2014 in City, Museum, Travel

Some time ago I was posting photos from my last trip to Berlin, but I got distracted by Christmas holidays and being a tourist in Melbourne, and then by various other types of shooting - particularly the 20,000 or so photos of horses I've taken this year! But with another work trip to Germany on the cards for August it's time to finish off the last few batches of photos from Berlin, and then a short trip to Weymouth to stay with my Dad on the way home to NZ.

One of many trips to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe

Evening train ride down to the Burgermeister

I'm struggling a little now to remember exactly what I got up to in Berlin! But being November it was getting a little cold, and getting dark quite early, which didn't make for great touristing. I was on a mission to see all of the main museums which I missed last time, and unfortunately it was pretty much dark by museum closing time, and I didn't get a huge haul of photos this trip. I found my self several times however at the Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas (Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe), and spent some time exploring there in relative peace and quiet without the usual hordes of school kids running around spoiling the atmosphere. First thing in the morning is definitely the right time to visit.

The I.M.Pei designed extension to the Deutches Historisches Museum — The I.M.Pei designed extension to the Deutches Historisches Museum

Xmas tree at the Französischer Dom — Xmas tree at the Französischer Dom

Christmas decorations were starting to come out, including a nice big tree in the Gendarmenmarkt, by the French and German cathedrals (Französischer and Deutscher Dom). The first museum I visited was the Deutsches Historisches Museum, which I had seen last trip, but left too late and had to rush through the end of it. It was really interesting though, and well worth repeating... but then again, I have always liked history museums! So far I'm only repeating things i'd already seen - but I did make a special effort to track down some new and interesting foods for dinner - allowing of course for some Curry36 currywurst for lunch first. Anyway, my first good find was Burgermeister, a burger joint built into what used to be a public lavatory below the train tracks in the Kreuzberg district. I think they really missed a marketing opportunity though by not calling it 'Toilet Burger'... that's what I called it in my head at least...

East German propaganda at the Stasi Museum

Preserved 1980's office of Stasi boss Erich Honecker — Preserved 1980's office of Stasi boss Erich Honecker

My first 'new' musuem of this visit was to the Stasi Museum, the museum of the East German secret police, based in their old headquarters - an otherwise innocuous looking office complex in East Berlin, still kept in the latest 1980's fashions - including the board rooms, director's office, and cafeteria where the secret police generals would discuss the most effective ways of spying on and persecuting their own citizens. The exhibits themselves could have used some modernisation, but overall it was very interesting, especially the miniaturised spy cameras installed into hollow tree trunks, bird houses, briefcases (of course), and the guard rooms with radio dials whited out over all the 'western' stations they weren't allowed to listen to.

Miniature camera collection at the Stasi museum

Exploring interesting alleyways near the hackesche hof

There was no light left for photographing after closing time, but I did still have fun walking around the city, re-orienting myself since the last trip, and looking for interesting places to explore, such as the dark alleys behind the Hackesche hof. And making a plan to fit in all the other museums to make the most of the remaining two days!

Berlin History and Art

Back to the Berlin Wall

Back to Berlin (photos)

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