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Site of the Gestapo-SS Headquarters
That's right, just an empty field of gravel now.Today, we chose the
Topographie des Terrors as our museum of the day. It's not all that far from Checkpoint Charlie, so the bus ride was familiar, right down to getting bottles of
Mineralwasser mit Gasfrom the newstand thing near the bus stop. The bus is a double decker, so, naturally, we opted to ride up top. We arrived at our stop and to our left was this open field of large gravel, a building that looked like it was made from aluminum, a bit of The Wall that still stands, and some excavation showing the previous occupant of this chunk of land. Because there was construction, we had to cross the street three times just to get to the entrance.
The building was not there, and the landscape was ungroomed when Cheryl was last there, so we went inside to check it out. The inside museum is a well-organized history of the rise and fall of the Third Reich told mostly through photographs, documents, and eyewitness accounts. The whole exhibit was interesting and thought-provoking (and occasionally anger-provoking), but the one I had the most trouble with was the "how this all got started" section, partly because I was taken aback by
Selfie at The Wall
This section of wall still stands. how willingly people went along, not just with the demonization of the Jews, but just the whole program. I have a lot more thoughts on this, but they are unorganized, and will be controversial I am sure, so I'm going to take some time to make sure that what I write is actually what I mean. A preview, though: when I was taught about the rise of the Third Reich, both through school, and via the American media machine, I got the distinct impression that this was a uniquely German phenomenon; only possible at that particular time, only with the Germans, and only because of Hitler; specifically "Now, this could never happen here because freedom and democracy." Upon further consideration, I call bullshit. More on that later, probably.
The exhibit is quite extensive, and very hard on the feet with all the standing and reading, but there are benches and other places to sit and contemplate, so we made it through the whole thing without cheating anything too badly. We headed outside, got some pictures of the section of the wall that was still standing, including another totes adorbs selfie, and headed off to Potsdamer Platz in search of
Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin
This is the House of Representatives of Berlin. a very late lunch.
Of course, at this point, lightning flashed and thunder boomed and we got a nice thunderstorm on the way from the museum to Potsdamer Platz, which was nice because it cooled off the air and we didn't get too wet, and we got to cross the street underground to come up inside the Sony Center which is a giant mall at Potsdamer Platz.
We went to a place called "Josty" inside the Sony Center, which had actual German food, including the ubiquitous Currywurst & Pommes. There was a "sampler plate for two" so we ordered that, plus Cheryl got a
Schwarzbier and I got a
Radler which is a mix of a Pilsener and lemonade or lemon-lime soda or the like, and contrary to what you might think, quite tasty and refreshing. We're getting to a point where we are conducting our commercial transactions exclusively in German, which we also did here; the server had no problem understanding either of us, which is pretty cool. I'm sure we mixed in some English here and there, but I really did make an effort to just deal with it and try.
After a bit, she
Martin-Gropius-Bau
I liked the way this building looked. Turns out it's an art exhibition hall. brought us a giant platter with about eleventy billion different
Würste und Fleischen, plus some taters in various configurations, a couple of giant dumplings and a pile of sauerkraut. I'm not sure who the two people are for which this platter is intended, but it wasn't us; there was no way we were eating all of that. We made a good effort, though. We asked for
Mitnehmen so we could take the rest back with us to the hotel for dinner later. I announced that I was desirous of
Apfelstrudel, so Cheryl poked around and found us a bakery near the hotel which would be open still when we got there.
While we were eating, the rain and wind really whipped up, so we congratulated ourselves on the foresight we showed in deciding to sit inside instead of outside. At the end of the meal, I used some more German and asked
"Nehmen Sie Mastercard oder Visa?", and happily, they accepted either, so we paid and took off. We hopped on the S-bahn, and headed back to our station (which involved a really easy transfer to a different train), and went in search of the cake place, leftovers in hand.
The Wall
Below the wall you can see the excavation showing the basement of the SS headquarters, and portions of cells. We found the cake shop,
Der Kuchenladen, right where the map said it would be. Sadly, they did not have
Apfelstrudel, so I had to settle for something else. Cheryl got something with
Marzipan und Sauerkirsche, and mine had
Bananen. The lady at the shop wrapped our stuff up in a pretty impressive fashion, and we headed back to the hotel.
Our plan was to watch the Germany-Brazil fußball match, but it didn't start until 10pm, and it was early yet, so we hung out in the room, napped, read stuff, and listened to the rain, which I find soothing and relaxing. Finally, we made it to game time, so we got out our leftovers, and before we had gotten very far, Germany had three goals already. We finished supper, and it was halftime, and it was 5-0 Germany. As such, it was time for cake! We had our cake, watched the rest of the match, cheered when Brazil finally got a goal even though we were rooting for Germany, so the game ended at 7-1 Germany. It was late when the game was over, so we pretty much went right to sleep.
And thus ended another pretty good
The Wall
I like this perspective. day.
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