Berlin is made of a number of small municipalities that used to be separate political entities that unified to form the city of Berlin, sort of like New York. I have been meaning to explore more of the outskirts of the city and decided to start with Spandau. The biggest draw for me was this old Citadel there that dates back to the middle ages. Unfortunately not much is left of the original fort other than a single tower that dates to the 12th century. I went up in the tower and it is amazing how far you can see from up there. This part of Germany is rather like Michigan in terms of flatness and climate. You can see for miles and miles! I got a feeling for how big Berlin really is in terms of land area as I looked back and could just barely see the Fernsehturm that stands as the highest point just a little bit to the East of the center of Berlin. Next to the tower was the second oldest structure in the fort which is a hall that dates to the 14th century. It was not really open to the public I don't think, but I found an unlocked door and snuck inside for a few pictures. It definitely had the feel of an old meeting hall, reminding me a bit of Hrothgar's great hall from Beowulf or the Great Hall of Rohan in Lord of the Rings.
Most of the rest of the fort dates from much later, perhaps 18th or 19th centuries. It has a large mote and massive earth and brick walls surrounding it that remind me a bit of Ft. cHenry in Baltimore. I think it was used by the Prussian army until the rise of the Nazi's when it they used it for chemical weapons testings. There are still a few buildings that are closed because they are cleaning them out from that. After the war, several of the prisoners of the Nuremberg Trials were held there before the trials. After the war, in typical GDR fashion, the citadel was left to sit there until the unification at which point much of it was restored and is now used for cultural purposes. There is an art school now that meets in one of the buildings (what a random place for an art school) and I went inside what I think used to be a storage chamber that had been converted into a modern art gallery. There was some really nice stuff in there and they let you take pictures of the art (or at least there were no signs saying otherwise and they didn't stop you if you did) so I took some pictures to remember it by. Most of it was very modern art, but nice modern art. Some was of course downright ugly, but a lot of it was a
very surreal style that reminded me a bit of Salvador Dali or Myst and I really liked it.
There was also a museum of old technology I think, though I never really figured out what it was about. It had everything in there from old rifles to a carriage to a WWII era motorcycle to Prussian military uniforms to candelabras. It was interesting.
One of the most fascinating displays at the Citadel was an exhibition on the history of artillery. They had cannons dating back to the 17th century all the way up to the second world war. I was quite impressed by the old cannons which had remarkable craftsmanship in them. The
old cannons were absolutely beautiful. I know that one does not usual refer to military equipment as gorgeous, but these cannons were practically works of art. Just about every inch of space on them was covered with engravings and even the little nobs for carrying, aiming, and loading the cannon were carved with elaborate designs or formed into the shapes of pomegranates or grapes. The modern cannons were much more functional but also interesting. They had an early Gatling gun (sort of reminiscent of that gun that we found sophomore year that can shoot at a rate of a million rounds per second, though I highly
doubt this gun could get that much speed.) I did not realize this, but modern artillery is rifled. I could see the grooves on the inside of the barrels. I though rifling was only for accuracy at further distances, and with artillery, accuracy is more a matter of ballistics than aiming. I guess the increased angular momentum gives the shill a bit of stability in flight that makes it less vulnerable to wind so it can go further. I wandered around the Citadel for several hours and
had quite at time.
Just a short walk away from the Citadel is "Alt Spandau" (Old Spandau) which is the old downtown of the city of Spandau. It is remarkably unchanged since the Middle Ages and since it is further away from the city center and industrial parts of Berlin, it was remarkably
undamaged in the war. The old Rathaus (city hall) is gorgeous (actually most of the Rathauses around Berlin are amazing, and very historic too. The one a block away from my house is the place where JFK gave his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech - apparently that does not really mean "I am a donut" because no one calls that type of donut a Berliner here, only in other parts of Germany. Furthermore, the "ein" is quite appropriate for giving emphasis to the sentence and that is exactly what JFK was trying to do. But anyway, back to Spandau) I came there just in time for a Street festival, which Berlin seems to enjoy quite a few of this time of year. There was quite a bit going on around the old city center and I took lots of pictures. There was also an old church too. I really want to some real old stone Gothic churches or cathedrals. Unfortunately, Berlin is pretty far from any sandstone deposits so most of the churches are Gothic brick or other architectural styles, which are nice, but not as amazing as the other styles. It was quite a day, but totally exhausting. I came back and took a two hour nap.
In the evening, I met up with some other Americans from another study abroad program in Berlin and we chilled at this absolutely fascinating bar/restaurant called Slumberland. It is an African themed bar that has R&B/Bob Marley music playing in the background and lends itself
for a very chill place to hang out (which was exactly what I needed after such a tiring day walking around Spandau). For some reason the floor is all sand, which is pretty cool They also have some fascinating drinks there. I had a banana flavored beer and another girl had a mango flavored beer. You drank them out of a wooden bowl too! I never would expect banana or mango beer to be any good but it was actually amazingly good! I was pretty tired so I went home after that for a nice restful sleep.
Being a physics major at Amherst college was pretty boring so I decided to expand my horizons and enter a study-abroad program in Berlin for the fall semester.... full info
