Light painting in a bunker, Christmas Markets and Spanish & German Punks

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Another frosty day in Berlin and we walked to Alexanderplatz to catch a train to Gesundbrunnen where we were to go on an Underground Tour of a communal air raid shelter. Our multicultural group had two guides: Eran who did the talking and Christina at the back to ensure no one wandered off.

There were very few communal bomb shelters in Berlin during WW2, most people were encouraged to use their own basements. This particular shelter was created within existing tunnels around the underground station. I did find it a bit odd that there were spare rooms created when the station was built, but that was the best reasoning I got for their existence. There was only 8cms of concrete above us and the shelter wouldn’t have been all that protective had there been a direct hit. In fact, there were very few decent bomb shelters in Berlin and they were above ground, with many metres of reinforced concrete. After the war, the Allies had a bugger of a time trying to destroy them and one they only managed to half destroy, so filled it in with rubble and made it into a hill.

Photography was not allowed in the bunker, so that was a bit disappointing. We were all told to wear masks and we entered a green door at the side of the station. Original signage adorned the walls as the bunker had not really been used since the war - it would have been stripped of any metal and wood by the locals trying to survive after the war, but apart from that it was all but forgotten until the 2000’s.

All of the walls had a whitish strip of paint running horizontally along the middle, which actually was phosphorous, originally painted so that people could find their way around during inevitable black outs during bombings The infirmary and one other working area were fully painted with phosphorous. Even though the paint had been there many decades, it still glowed in the dark and Eran shone a torch on it to demonstrate this.

I volunteered to help with a further demo. I stood against a wall in the dark with my hands in the air and my eyes closed as Eran shot a flash gun at me. My shadow was immediately imprinted on the wall. Eran then used a torch to draw in a face and hair. I wish I could have taken a photo of this original piece of light painting art!

Many babies were born in the infirmary, pregnant women would stand outside the shelter waiting to be let in before the bomb raids began, worried that they may not be able to get in at the crucial time. Plus many midwives worked down there, so it was a preferable place to be, if not that pleasant for a baby’s first glimpse of the world.

There were also bunk beds, 3 rows high. Even though bomb raids would only last an hour or so, it would break up the sleep of the valuable women workers who were needed to work in the weapons factories, so they got to stay overnight. Again, it didn’t look like the best accommodation, but slightly safer than being above ground.

The bunker was rather warren like and if it wasn’t for the signs, it would be easy to get lost. Many rooms also had photos of the flattened city of Berlin, the rubble, plus copies of paintings that the SS had in their bunkers. They were painted as though they were superheroes, their shields looking like vast wings sheltering the Arian people below. One such picture had a SS soldier shielding a naked woman randomly!

There were also plenty of exhibits collected from various bunkers such as dirt loos, triple bunk beds, rusty guns, shells, clothing and gas masks. Truly poignant was a mask for a toddler that covered half their tiny bodies and their Mums would have had to pump air in. Plus a carrycot for a baby that just was a chamber rather than a mask. An accompanying photo showed a woman wearing a mask as she carried her baby in the protective chamber, walking down the road as though it was the most normal thing in the world.

Another very strange looking mask was for a horse, complete with a pair of goggles to protect the horse’s eyes. What a thing to force upon an animal and then make it work in the war. It’s just all bonkers in the worst way possible.

As we were in a German bunker discussing the raids on Berlin, Eran talked about how 80-90% of Berlin was flattened by British bombers and how it was a terrifying place to live. One embarrassing English guy got all defensive and piped up “We only did it after you bombed London, Birmingham, Coventry, Glasgow”. Eran dealt with it well, he asked what this guy’s point was? No one was denying that the Nazis were the bad guys, his own parents were holocaust survivors. The story he was telling today was the Berlin experience, the facts. That many Germans were Nazis and many more complicit was not being denied, but still they paid a price. I thought back to Daniel yesterday saying how people today struggle to understand how the average German looked the other way regarding the holocaust, but he said, if you’re wondering how you’d react in that situation, just ask yourself, ‘what are you doing today?’. And that’s painfully true; there are refugees drowning around Britain and many Brits think they deserve it. And what am I doing to help? When I was younger, I struggled to understand how average people could let the holocaust happen but now I see that it’s very easy. When you see how much hate people have for others they’ve never met based in skin colour, culture etc and how that hate is fanned by the press, politicians and social media, I can easily see how it happened.

The company that run this tour also do some good work to help survivors of war crimes that were until recently not acknowledged. The Germans had kidnapped many people and families from Eastern European countries and forced them into slave labour. These people lived in appalling conditions, worked long hours and had poor food. Many literally were worked to death. After the war, those who survived returned to their homelands now under Russian rule. Instead of getting help, they were accused of being traitors for working for the Germans and sent to gulags. So the people would burn any documentation that proved that they’d ‘worked’ for the Germans and needed to keep quiet about their traumatic experiences just to live. I can’t imagine how it would feel being not only enslaved, but having to pretend it never happened for the rest of my life.

In recent years, it has been recognised what happened and the German companies that still are trading today are paying compensation. So the few people that are still left alive can finally get a bit of closure and cash. However, they have to prove they ‘worked’ for the companies and of course, most got rid of the evidence many years ago. You’d have to wonder if you’d really sinned in a previous life However, Berliner Unterwelten had found a cabinet in one bunker with ‘employment’ records and were able to trace a few living people to give them the evidence they need. These people are very old, but at least they finally get to tell their stories without living in more fear.

Eran wanted to point out that though the Russians were liberators that doesn’t mean they were all necessarily good people and 150,000 German women were raped by Russians after the war. These women then had to go out and rebuild Berlin in order to get any rations. Post war Germany sounded only minimally better than during the war. A French lady asked if it was only the Russians that were the bad liberators, she wanted to know if the French went around raping the women and I was curious if the British had. Eran said it did happen, soldiers are known to do these things, but at this time, it really was the Russians doing it on a widescale. I had so many questions but we were running out of time and it was time to tip and leave.

We emerged from the bunkers into the cold where it was almost snowing. It was the kind of snow that’s like ash flying from a bonfire, just floating in the air and not lasting very long. We decided it was time for something more upbeat and headed to the Gendarmenmarkt Christmas Market which is meant to be one of the better and larger ones, situated between the French Church (Französischer Dom), the German Church (Deutscher Dom) and the concert hall of Konzerthaus Berlin.

We took the S-bahn to Stradtmitte station and started to look for it. However when we arrived, all we found was some building works and frustrated tourists following google maps directions. A nearby sign in German was easy enough to decipher that the market had been moved due to the works. It was a few streets away and we soon found it. This is the only one you have to pay to get in but it was only €1. It wasn’t as big or as magical as we’d hoped but the tat on offer was more varied than the stuff I’ve seen in English Christmas markets. It was expensive so I only bought one small cat shaped Christmas tree for €5. It didn’t take long to walk around it, maybe we needed to be there later in the day? We had some food and drink and decided to go to another one instead.

We took three trains to Eberswalder station because even though it was a direct line, the trains kept terminating. A short walk took us to the Scandinavian style Lucia Christmas market, located in the courtyard of a former brewery, the Kulturbrauerei and seemed a lot less touristy than the other markets we’d been to. There were rides such as a bungee trampoline, an old-fashioned chain carousel and crossbow shooting at a fake wooden castle. There were lot of Finnish and Norwegian crafts and booze. I had a gin grüh for a mere €3 that was warming and fruity.It’s not something I would drink normally, but in the cold and at the market, it was wonderful. I had another more expensive one with Finnish fruity gin that was also good. Drinks were served in ceramic or glass containers, so much nicer than drinking from plastic disposable cups. Deposits were required but I always got them back. Glyn was happier at this market and also found some more food. It was dark now, so with the lights, very Christmassy.

We returned to our Ibis hotel for a couple of hours. Glyn had a storming cold (note from Glyn-chest infection) and needed a nap. I still was writing yesterday’s blog which is probably one of my longest ever!

The day ended by going to the SO36 club on Oranienstrasse in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district and is known as a popular punk venue, made famous when David Bowie and Iggy Pop used to frequent it when they lived and worked in Germany. Glyn had pre-booked a gig that had 4 bands. The two he particularly want to see were a German band called the Stage Bottles that played Glyn’s favourite song, so he was happy. The headlining band was from Spain called Rude Pride and were very good. The singer spoke and sung in English because it’s a universal language - and great for me! Half way through, the drummer came to the front, sang and played saxaphone and the guitarist got on drums. They then started to play a lot of ska music and the tempo was quite different in a good way. The ended with a Blitz cover, ’New Age’ that I happen to like a lot.

The club was absolutely packed with people of all ages. You could actually buy a beer in a glass bottle (this is never allowed in UK gigs or even the theatre!), you did have to pay a deposit but given the amount of bottles on the floor at the end, not many bothered. It seemed like a very inclusive club, with neon signs saying ’No Means No’ and a list of all anti social behaviour like sexual assault, gay hate, racism etc would not be tolerated and if you felt victim to it to contact the staff. It was a good atmosphere and I felt safe enough.

We returned back to our hotel at around 1am, happy but tired and really looking forward to having to get up in 4 hours to catch a plane home.

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