We have been in Berlin for the past eight hours or so. Most of the time has been taken up in the usual sorting one's self out in the new mileu: Finding the hotel, having a quicky nap to catch up on the fairly non-existent sleep in the past twenty-four hours; a scouting about the neighbourhood for transit markers and shops for the basics -- milk, yogert,bananas. We are staying in the central part of Berlin -- the Mitte so we are set up to connect with all the places we want to see. We've bought a three-day pass for the transportation system and found our way to the main train station to buy tickets for Warsaw on Monday. The station itself is vast, rather like the one in Rome, filled with stores, and gelato shops. Back at the hotel we've spent considerable time sorting the internet connection and the transformer/adapter needs. But, all in place now! Behind all of this is trying to take in the enormity of simply being in Berlin itself.
It is a city of wide boulevards, rather like Paris, though with modern buildings rather than ones from the 19th century. As such it is not as elegant as Paris but it is very interesting with varied, sometimes surprising pieces of architecture. We walked up to the Brandenburg Gate and then along the Unter der Linden, the main street of formerly East Berlin. We were walking all about places which carry the weight of the history I have been writing and thinking about. Many people were around, primarily tourists. The city and the people are very concerned about its and their history and make no effort to hide it. Along Unter Der Linder are large displays memorializing the conditions of 80 years ago in 1933 when Hitler came to power and his private military force, the SA, by then about 400,000 strong, was dramatically altering the tenor of the society: physically assaulting, sometimes murdering Jews, social democrats, communists, and any other group deemed incompatible with their leader's vision of the new Germany. The first concentration camp was set up in that year to hold political dissidents and Jews. We will be visiting it on Sunday.
Tomorrow morning we will meet with Martin Jander, a tour guide that we contacted through the local JCC, He will take us to the primary Jewish sites in the city, including the Jewish memorial museum. Martin has a PhD in history and has done a lot of research on political dissidence in East Germany, so I'm looking forward to talking with him about a lot of the history of the country and the city. Berlin is an exceptionally vibrant place. The scale of reconstruction that has been accomplished here since the war and especially since the fall of the Wall in 1989 is astonishing. People that we have spoken with to buy tickets, to get directions, or in restaurants have been universally friendly and welcoming. The sense one has is of a people who have developed a security and pride in their city and in what they have done. It doesn't have that arrogant sense of pride that one connected with Germans when I was younger, however. It is a genuinely pleasant place to visit. I'm happy to find this to be true.
It is a city of wide boulevards, rather like Paris, though with modern buildings rather than ones from the 19th century. As such it is not as elegant as Paris but it is very interesting with varied, sometimes surprising pieces of architecture. We walked up to the Brandenburg Gate and then along the Unter der Linden, the main street of formerly East Berlin. We were walking all about places which carry the weight of the history I have been writing and thinking about. Many people were around, primarily tourists. The city and the people are very concerned about its and their history and make no effort to hide it. Along Unter Der Linder are large displays memorializing the conditions of 80 years ago in 1933 when Hitler came to power and his private military force, the SA, by then about 400,000 strong, was dramatically altering the tenor of the society: physically assaulting, sometimes murdering Jews, social democrats, communists, and any other group deemed incompatible with their leader's vision of the new Germany. The first concentration camp was set up in that year to hold political dissidents and Jews. We will be visiting it on Sunday.
Tomorrow morning we will meet with Martin Jander, a tour guide that we contacted through the local JCC, He will take us to the primary Jewish sites in the city, including the Jewish memorial museum. Martin has a PhD in history and has done a lot of research on political dissidence in East Germany, so I'm looking forward to talking with him about a lot of the history of the country and the city. Berlin is an exceptionally vibrant place. The scale of reconstruction that has been accomplished here since the war and especially since the fall of the Wall in 1989 is astonishing. People that we have spoken with to buy tickets, to get directions, or in restaurants have been universally friendly and welcoming. The sense one has is of a people who have developed a security and pride in their city and in what they have done. It doesn't have that arrogant sense of pride that one connected with Germans when I was younger, however. It is a genuinely pleasant place to visit. I'm happy to find this to be true.
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