{"id":2398,"date":"2016-05-07T02:16:57","date_gmt":"2016-05-07T08:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dltwt.com\/?p=2398"},"modified":"2016-05-07T02:16:57","modified_gmt":"2016-05-07T08:16:57","slug":"the-east-side-gallery-the-topography-of-terror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/?p=2398","title":{"rendered":"The East Side Gallery & the Topography of Terror"},"content":{"rendered":"
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. \u00a0It 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.<\/div>\n
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We walked almost 2 miles across the city today in order to visit the East Side Gallery. \u00a0From August 1961-November 1989, the Berlin Wall enclosed West Berlin cutting through the city. \u00a0The 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. \u00a0It is the largest open-air gallery in the world.\u00a0This 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.\u00a0 On the street side of the wall, only about half of the artwork has been marked up with graffitii which really looks awful. \u00a0Part of the street-side of the gallery has an ugly chain link fence in front of the murals to prevent graffiti. \u00a0As we walked further down the wall, it appears that many of the\u00a0graffiti-ruined murals were being redone. \u00a0Apparently, some artists see the graffiti as kind of a dialogue, other artist don’t like graffiti on their own work. \u00a0(We totally agree with the later; as the graffiti is ugly and contributes nothing to the artwork other than appearing destructive.)<\/div>\n
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We read that the artist started their work in the spring 1990. \u00a0The old regime had barely collapsed and a democratic\u00a0government prepared the unification with the West. \u00a0This was an international project with 118 artists from 21 countries painted murals reflecting political changes in Germany and the world.<\/div>\n
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After our East Side Gallery visit, we walked over the Oberbaumbrucke Bridge which is very near the Gallery and headed into West Berlin. \u00a0The part of West Berlin we walked through was very Bohemian filled with tacky shops and ethnic restaurants. \u00a0There was lots of graffiti on all the old buildings which was really ashame. \u00a0The East Side of the city is clearly much newer and nicer due to all the redevelopment that occurred after the reunification.<\/div>\n
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Our next stop, after a solid hour walk back into East Berlin was the Topography of Terror close to Checkpoint Charlie. \u00a0It 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. \u00a0It is actually located on the former site of the headquarters of the SS and the Gestapo. \u00a0The 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. \u00a0The stories beneath some of the photos (in German & English) were so heart-wrenching with many of the images absolutely appalling. \u00a0Our visit was a chilling experience for us.<\/div>\n
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\"Art<\/a>
Art along the river<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"2<\/a>
2 girls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"East<\/a>
East Side Gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Continuous<\/a>
Continuous updating\/cleaning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Breaking<\/a>
Breaking through the wall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Trabi<\/a>
Trabi breaking through<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The infamous kiss<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Great<\/a>
Great decorative bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Topography<\/a>
Topography of Terror<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Interesting<\/a>
Interesting art<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. \u00a0It 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 … Continue reading The East Side Gallery & the Topography of Terror<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Si9J-CG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2398"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2423,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2398\/revisions\/2423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}