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Europe » Germany » Berlin » Berlin
May 16th 2009
Published: May 17th 2009
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food porn alert!food porn alert!food porn alert!

potato pancakes with apple sauce and sugar
We loved uber cool Berlin! It was a city full of unexpected surprises, rich culture, troubled histories, pumping nightlife, colourful inhabitants and an intrinsically exciting vibe. It was definitely the most cosmopolitan city we have been through in Europe yet its dark past has not been destroyed or hidden by all the modernity. Similar to Vienna, it is full of museums and cultural hotspots, but in addition contains plenty of parks, plazas and places of solitude.

Adam again travelled with us to Berlin and as we hopped off the 5 hour trip from Prague into the busy Hauptbahnhoff (Berlin Central Station), all three of us instantly felt a wave of unexpected familiarity sweep over us, as it was the closest to Australia/America we had been for quite some time. Approaching our hostel, Adam pointed out that the flagpole out the front bore the North Korean flag. It must have been a mistake of some massive proportion, we concluded. When we checked in, we said we wanted to stay a further three nights, and the lady at reception laughed and said, “Are you sure?”

We soon discovered why.

The hospital style bunk beds and hospital grade linen, the shower cubicles with their ad-hoc shower screens, the speckly blue and white anti-slip linoleum flooring, the slightly schitzophrenic-esque acrylic paintings adorning the corridors all pointed to one scenario … this place used to be a mental asylum. We went back down to reception and curiously asked the girl who the hostel’s previous inhabitants were. She kept saying "psychiater! psychiater!" and had to google what that meant. “Ah! Psychiatrists! Zis place vors place for psychiatric patients!” To further add to our growing un-ease, she explained that it used to be the North Korean embassy - now they only own the building next door! It was certainly a colourful place - prices for the rooms and food/drinks kept changing on a daily basis, and much of the common area furniture had definitely not been replaced since the North Korean inhabitation of the building - but we enjoyed our stay nonetheless and came out alive and (just) sane.

I guess it should have been appropriate to stay there considering the dark and tragic undertones of the city. Berlin was where Hitler, Himmler and other high ranking officials from the Gestapo met to develop the Nazi Party’s anti-Semitic campaign to exterminate over 11 million* Jews from Europe. Berlin was the city that the Allied Nations (Great Britain, France, U.S.A. and the Soviet Union) succeeded in bombing almost to obliteration, destroying much of its infrastructure and built environment, which can still be seen today 60 years on. Berlin was the crux of a divided Germany for almost 5 decades, which saw a concrete wall built by the Soviets that dissected East and West Berlin, and prevented the inhabitants of their occupied eastern territories from escaping to the ‘free’ West Germany.

There is no shortage of memorials in Berlin, but the most important and evocative one is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Designed by architect Peter Eisenmann, it is less monumental and more about memory; less about grandsweeping statements and more about personal journeys. One makes their way through the 2700 plus concrete rectangular stacks which rise from the ground plane at varying heights, making each individual visit different and personal. The visitor’s centre is located underground, and as one descends into darkness, the story of the Jewish extermination during WWII is revealed. The memorial is powerful in that it tells a very neutral version of history and reveals the Nazi’s crimes against humanity from a very individualistic and personal level.

About 800 metres away lies the Jewish Museum, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind and similarly documents the persecution of Jewish people though from a much broader spectrum of history, from the Dark Ages through to the present day. It is a cleverly designed educational centre with a very hands-on learning experience, allowing visitors to discover the Jewish culture and their customs and beliefs for themselves. Having studied the architecture of the building countless times at uni, I was quite excited to actually experience it in physicality and I was not disappointed. Libeskind has completely revolutionalised museum architecture with the Jewish Museum and instead of dictating a singular museum experience, one meanders through the axis corridors, the Garden of Exile and the Holocaust Tower discovering personal emotions and senses of being that allude to that of the Jewish persecution.

With all this heavy and troubled information, we needed something to cheer us up, so what better way than to discover German’s uber cool gay nightlife. Berlin is an extremely open-minded city with a smattering of established ‘gay’ areas. The mayor himself is even gay, once quoted saying, “I am gay, and that is fine.” The first night we arrived, we searched for one of these areas but got a bit lost on the metro; luckily a colourful and flamboyant local came to our rescue. “Oh Tuesday nights is AWFUL! It is the vurst night for cruisink ya! I only go out on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday nights because I vurk you see!” He proceeded to tell us places to go … “If you like zie bears, there is the House of Shame … but you boiz probably are not into zat ya?” We managed to find a nice chilled bar despite this fellow’s misdirections, and on Adam’s last night in Berlin the two of us ventured out to look for zie pumping discotheques………..

Berlin is such a strangely beautiful city. Old parts of the wall still exist after its dismantling in 1990, as do partially ruined buildings preserved from the Allied attacks. Entire areas such as Potsdamer Platz that were completely desecrated in WWII have now transformed into buzzing modern hubs of activity with the Sony Centre commercial complex and the Kulturforum, boasting Hans Scharoun’s Berliner Philharmonie. But directly adjacent to many of these developed parts of the city lie completely empty barren sites, many of them in the old eastern side. Perhaps hinting that whilst the physical barriers are down the city’s guard is still up, and more time needs to pass for the city to be completely integrated in its urban environment. However there is an omnipresent feeling of hope and forward-thinking in Berlin that will see this scenario come to fruition.

We could live in this city.

*they succeeded in killing, whether by shooting or gassing over 6 million Jews from Germany, Poland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Baltic States (now Croatia, Macedonia, Albania etc), Netherlands, Italy, Greece, France, Denmark, Norway and of course the Soviet Union.



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18th May 2009

argh berlin! love that place :P when i went there it was freezing cold and snow-weather. i love berlin. could definitely live there too. love love love. go to munich!!!! xxx
18th May 2009

Lol last photo on the first page is typical jian.
20th May 2009

wow i see what ur saying about the jewish museum, its amazing!!! Berlin sounds fab!!! The hostel looks ummmm....sterile lol xXx
20th May 2009

hahahah thanks a lot emma!!! and yes elise sterile is certainly one of many words we had for that interesting uh place...
23rd May 2009

Hahahaha you're welcome sweetie! Love you! xox
29th May 2009

after 10 years living in Berlin i sometimes forget how great this place is. thx for reminding me! but the accent usually isn't that bad (or is it?) :) anyway, great blog. and elsie, there are certainly weirder places to stay in Berlin :)

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