A wet, cold, windy day in Berlin!

Today it rained ALL day - but it didn't stop us!! First we headed to the Berlin Dom - the Protestant Cathedral. The Dom was severely damaged during WWII and has since undergone extensive rebuilding works which were only completed in 2002. We were able to visit the main church as well as the massive crypt with the huge sarcophagi of important past rulers of Germany and their families.

The Berliner Dom.

The interior of the rebuilt Dom.

As we left the Dom it started raining and didn't stop! So we jumped on the HOHO bus in search of a shelter from the rain and found one in the form of the Brandenburg Gates!

Our rain shelter. AKA The Brandenburg Gates.

We spent a large part of today learning about the last 100 years of German history. In some ways it raised more questions than answers.

First up was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and Information Centre. This was quite a confronting and well put together tribute to the millions of men, women and children who died at the hands of the Nazis. It's separated into different areas: the stark Field of Stelae at street level and underneath a timeline, the Room of Dimensions which displays moving letters, diary entries and notes written during the Holocaust, many from people who knew they were about to die, the Room of Families which told the stories of 15 families before, during and after the Holocaust, one particularly moving story was that of a woman who was only 11 when she survived the horrific events of the Holocaust and eventually settled in Sydney, the Room of Names which recalls briefly the names and stories of murdered and missing Jews from all over Europe, the Room of Sites which contained information on places of persecution and murder, and finally a room that contained images and information about Holocaust commemoration sites all around the world.

The stark Field of Stelae at the Memorial.

From here we jumped back on the HOHO bus and journeyed along a section of the Berlin Wall to Checkpoint Charlie.

One of the few remaining sections of the Berlin Wall.

It's difficult to imagine a city divided as Berlin was until 1989 - not that long ago. At the site where Checkpoint Charlie once stood is now a replica and a number of displays and museums to educate people about the history of a Germany divided.

A replica of the U.S. Checkpoint.

Looking from West Germany (Allies) to East Germany (Soviets).

We spent a number of hours at the Checkpoint Charlie museum trying to get our heads around the political situation in Germany and other Eastern Bloc countries between the end of WWII and the 1990s - not an easy task and our brains hurt! We learnt about NATO, the Cold War, people who risked their lives to save Jews only to disappear into Russia never to be seen again, the extraordinary lengths people went to in order to escape East Germany and the eventual reunification of Germany in 1990.

 

After a very long day we were lucky enough to walk from West Berlin to East Berlin - no one stopped us, no one asked to check our papers and we didn't have to pass through any checkpoints. Only 24 years ago it would have been a very different situation.

 

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