Reichstag at night

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John is my very first visitor, and a visitor is a good excuse to play "tourist". He was in London visiting his little biological brother, and he stopped over in Berlin to visit his little fraternity brother. Yesterday we walked all over "downtown" West Berlin...Ku'damm, the Europa Center, Tiergarten, Zoo Station, the new Embassy Row, and the KaDeWe department store. Highlights include: the Hertha Berlin soccer club gift store, throwing logs across the frozen pond in the Tiergarten, and the jaw-dropping "food court" atop KaDeWe. (Sadly, no Virginia wine was for sale.) We each got a "Berliner"--a jelly donut--and it's delicious! Ich bin kein Berliner. Ich hab' einen Berliner gegessen.

We also went to the Reichstag, which is like Germany's Capitol Building. It's the only old building in the new government quarter, which is where the Wall ran. It's free to go in and it famously has a glass dome, which really is a stroke of genius of post-modern architecture.

Historical background: It was built in the 1880s when Berlin was the capital of the not-so democratic German Empire...I guess as a bone thrown to the democrats (small D). After WW1, Germany became a republic, and after its birth in Weimar the parliament moved to Berlin. During Depression-era Germany the NDSAP (aka "Nazis") gradually gained seats, and tended to obstruct the proceedings and show up wearing their brownshirts. They won a plurality of seats in 1933, making the leader of the party, one Adolf H., Chancellor. A month later the building burned, and the Nazis blamed the communists. (So it wasn't the house of Nazi government, and Hitler never even set foot inside.) After WW2, the building was in the British sector, and the "call to the world" at the start of the 1948 blockade saw 300,000 people gather (around) there. When the Wall went up in 1961 it was basically part of it. Occasionally it was used by the West German government...like once a year. After reunification, the government voted to move itself from Bonn to Berlin, and the Reichstag got a major rehab. Its glass dome was designed by Sir Norman Foster...a testament to the transparency of democracy and a classy way to crown the city the capital.

Unfortunately, the other government buildings in the area are pretty much hideous, except the Swiss embassy. Also, just north of here they're expanding a train station to make it THE main train station for Berlin, a city with many train stations. Oh, and another complaint...they've seemingly spackled the numerous bullet holes on the Reichstag, which is a pointless and superficial way to deal with the scars from WW2. The building would have more character if they had left them.

Most of my nighttime photos are horrible, so I share with you my best ones, which happened to be on or around the Reichstag.

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Photos

John Pietras
it's cold outside

Reichstag
too dark

we can see you
the blue seats are where the Bundestag hangs out

Potsdamer Platz
the view from the top, looking south

Brandenburg Gate
artsy fartsy foto

Lehrter Bahnhof
the big dig, trails-to-rails

Lehrter Bahnhof
it's open for business, but just for the S-Bahn

Comments

[Coates and B]

Thanks for the photos, script
Thanks, Rawley, for a night glimpse of "your town" for now. B and I are enjoying the armchair visit. What kind of items do you need or want that you are not finding to make life comfortable? We just sent off a package to a guy who worked in our Floyd business and is now in Afghanistan (Army Reserves). Not that your living space is much better, either! That area you did not know what to call (kitchen) had some really good cooking equipment. Wish I could come over and cook you up a good meal. It's a rainy Saturday here and cold weather and maybe snow is predicted Monday. Good for our business so there is a positive side to bad weather. Stay warm, Coatesie