You can’t travel to modern Germany without acknowledging the past. The reminder of the past atrocities are “in your face” so to speak all the time. It is astonishing to think that less than a few generations ago the extermination camps were in full swing orchestrating Hitler’s “final solution” and the Nazi war machine was grinding its way through Europe.
We walked almost 2 miles across the city today in order to visit the East Side Gallery. From August 1961-November 1989, the Berlin Wall enclosed West Berlin cutting through the city. The East Side Gallery is the longest continuous segment of the Berlin Wall still remaining at about 0.8 of a mile long and covered back and front with interesting murals. It is the largest open-air gallery in the world. This part of the wall is located in the neighborhood of Friedrichshain at the border of the River Spree. Unfortunately, the entire side of the wall facing the River Spree has been defaced with graffiti making it not very enjoyable to view. On the street side of the wall, only about half of the artwork has been marked up with graffitii which really looks awful. Part of the street-side of the gallery has an ugly chain link fence in front of the murals to prevent graffiti. As we walked further down the wall, it appears that many of the graffiti-ruined murals were being redone. Apparently, some artists see the graffiti as kind of a dialogue, other artist don’t like graffiti on their own work. (We totally agree with the later; as the graffiti is ugly and contributes nothing to the artwork other than appearing destructive.)
We read that the artist started their work in the spring 1990. The old regime had barely collapsed and a democratic government prepared the unification with the West. This was an international project with 118 artists from 21 countries painted murals reflecting political changes in Germany and the world.
After our East Side Gallery visit, we walked over the Oberbaumbrucke Bridge which is very near the Gallery and headed into West Berlin. The part of West Berlin we walked through was very Bohemian filled with tacky shops and ethnic restaurants. There was lots of graffiti on all the old buildings which was really ashame. The East Side of the city is clearly much newer and nicer due to all the redevelopment that occurred after the reunification.
Our next stop, after a solid hour walk back into East Berlin was the Topography of Terror close to Checkpoint Charlie. It is an extremely comprehensive, clearly organized, outdoor museum chronicling the rise of the Third Reich, the Holocaust and the aftermath of the war through photos and stories. It is actually located on the former site of the headquarters of the SS and the Gestapo. The original building was largely destroyed during air raids but one small piece of the cellar where political prisoners were tortured and executed remains as part of the outdoor exhibit. The stories beneath some of the photos (in German & English) were so heart-wrenching with many of the images absolutely appalling. Our visit was a chilling experience for us.
