Reply to: Take My Breath Away

[scooterscot]

I lived in Berlin for over a year. There's many good suggestions here, The Reichstag, particularly.

But I would also suggest to consider just walking around. Spend a day in the old communist east, then the west the next day. Berlin is really two cities crammed next to each other.

Go to the top floor of Home English - KaDeWe Berlin just off the Ku-damm, there's a food court there like nothing you've seen before. This is where the well to do Germans come in on a Saturday morning to read the paper, sit at cheese bar with a glass of wine or something similar.

The Jewish memorial is worth at visit if you're near the Sony centre Stiftung Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas: Startseite and actually if you're they look out for a crazy green traffic light. Germany's first.

[Mich the Tester]

As you walk away, consider how this compares to the current levels of surveillance in the world and wonder if there is anything we should learn from the DDR.

Yes, a lot, not only about surveillance, but also about border walls and fences that politicians build 'to protect you'.

[BrilloPad]

The locals lik iot if you dress up in a Nazi uniform. Its very traditional.

[Flashman]

If you have the even the slightest interest in ancient history the Pergamon Musuem is unmissable.


Pergamon Museum Reviews - Berlin, Germany Attractions - TripAdvisor



Dr Jones may have the ark of the covenant but the Kraut archaeologists brought the whole flippin city back with them.

[Wanderer]

I've travelled extensively but Berlin just blew me away, it is one of the most fascinating cities I've been to. The winds of change have blown through but there is still a lot to see.

Don't miss the DDR museum. Yes, it's quite a nostalgic view and not especially critical of the East but I really enjoyed it. Lots of interactive stuff, lots of insight into the ordinary lives of people. If you are old enough to remember B&W TVs and stuff then you would probably identify with it better than younger people.

The Reichstag (or just the dome) is well worth a visit but you MUST book it in advance and get a formal invitation from the Bundestag. Security is tighter than checkpoint Charlie and you will probably need your passport too. Nearby are the Brandenburg gate and Holocaust memorial which are worth a look and a photo.

The old Checkpoint Charlie is now just a tourist attraction. There is a good museum attached with a load of stories about the methods people used to escape from East to West. Quite touristic maybe but this is a very important part of the city's history.

Sections of the Berlin Wall (Berliner Mauer) are preserved and there is a museum with lots of history. You can walk sections of the old wall and see the memorials to those who died and read their stories. In other areas a dotted line is the only indication of where the wall used to run.

There is a Stasi museum which I found quite fascinating. The scale of the surveillance operation carried out by the secret police against the East and West Germans is astounding. After the wall came down the Stasi tried to destroy all their records but people painstaking pieced the shredded or burnt documents back together so people could see what was written about them. As you walk away, consider how this compares to the current levels of surveillance in the world and wonder if there is anything we should learn from the DDR.

Berlin has a slightly more gritty, edgy feel to it than other German cities but trains and things work well as you would expect of a major European city. Wrap up warm because it can be very cold there at this time of year! Currywurst is worth a try (sausages with curry) if you are feeling cold and need a bit of a boost.

And let us know how you get on!

[Bunk]

There's also the Memorial to the German Resistance where Tom CruiseClaus von Stauffenberg and the other Valkyrie plotters were executed for trying to blow up Hitler.

[Mich the Tester]

Stasimuseum Berlin - Forschungs- und Gedenkstätte Normannenstraße

[Bunk]

If you have the time, take a trip out to Potsdam and wander around there. You could spend a whole day there though so not worth it if you're short of time.

There are lots of markets all over Berlin at the weekend if you like that sort of thing.

Oberbaumbrücke is a very picturesque bridge.

Museumsinsel (Museum Island) is good for museums. There's a shock

I'm not sure what the East Side Gallery is like now. Last I heard they were knocking some of it down for apartments but I think most of it is still there, probably still being restored.

Also, keep an eye out for the Stolpersteine on the pavement. They're a sobering reminder of what happened there.

[Bunk]

Weren't you permanently p!ssed throughout that contract?

[Mich the Tester]

Palast der Republik is gone though now,

Not before it took a lot of people's breath away thanks to all the asbestos inside.

[norrahe]

Checkpoint Charlie
Holocaust memorial
Fernsehturm, possibly a meal at the top
Reichstag

Will see what else I can remember.

Weren't you permanently p!ssed throughout that contract?

[Mich the Tester]

The GDR museum too is worth a visit.

Well, it shows the kind of comfort that DDR citizens didn't live in,


the full range of fine motorcars that weren't available to most of them;


the selection of delicious foodstuffs that weren't on the shelves in East German shops



and the money they could spend in a hopeless bid to buy this stuff;

[stek]

Brandenburger Tor, Siegersaulle, even the main railway station is worth a visit!

Palast der Republik is gone though now, but the Berliner Dom is close by.

The GDR museum too is worth a visit.

[Bunk]

Checkpoint Charlie
Holocaust memorial
Fernsehturm, possibly a meal at the top
Reichstag

Will see what else I can remember.

[Ticktock]

I went to Berlin a few years ago as part of a role that I was working on. They were having a fairly big team meting and arranged a walking tour of the city. I have no idea how much the guide cost, but it was pretty good having some bloke take you round and telling you the history.

Sounds pretty interesting.
Did you all have to keep in step?
Did you all keep quiet, or did he have ways of making you talk?
Were you allowed to enquire about what you saw, or was it only he that would ask the questions?

Ah, casual, historical racism. Don't mention the war.