Berlin, Germany - Part 1

(2009) The events of the past have left their mark on Berlin's cityscape and the city is still changing today. Berlin has a vibe of its own and where you go, you can experience the pulsating life on the boulevards, in the art galleries and at the flea markets, and in the city's 300 clubs and 7,000 bars and restaurants. Berlin has become truly an international city as the capital of Germany.

In November, the city will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall which separated Soviet-occupied East Berlin from West Berlin. Markers around the city show where the Wall stood since 1961 that kept the East Berliners from fleeing to West Berlin. With the political changes taking place all over Eastern Europe, the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 unifying Germany shortly thereafter in 1990.

Most of its 96-mile length vanished after the fall, when sections wer sold, given away or carted off as souvenirs. There are many secionts in the United States, includig those at L.A.'s Loyola Marymount University and the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA. The remaining sections of the Wall still standing (including East Side Gallery and open-air exhibit at the S-bahn station at Potsdamer Platz) is one of the tourist sites not to be missed when visiting Berlin. The East Side Gallery is located on Muehlenstrasse and is the one of the largest remaining mile long stretch portion of the Wall between Ostbahnhof and Oberbaumbruke. In some areas of the city center, a double row of cobblestones marks where the wall once stood. Since unification though, it has only become a historical reminder of the hardship that Berliners have endured during the toughest and darkest part of its history.

Berlin today is a vibrant, modern, and exciting city that preserves reminders of both its glorious and dark past. Just stand at Potsdamer Platz where construction continues to thrive in a once-bombed out area during World War II, known as "Death Strip" that was filled with barbed wire, landmines and watchdogs in East Berlin. The broad expanse of empty space is now with new modern buildings and venue as a new financial and business district anchored by the Sony Center. The city's commercial hub boasts the redbrick Kollhoff, the crescent-shaped Deutsche Bank building, and the spinning Mercedes-Benz sign. A new 3-story shopping mall in a modern architectural setting boasts fashions, designer accessories, shoes and much, much more.

The glitzy steel and glass $5 billion Sony Center was designed by the German-American architect, Helmut Jahn, and built between 1996 and 2000, and become one of Berlin's most popular attractions. The soaring tent-like glass roof is dominated by a pool with constantly changing fountains. The piazza is surrounded by offices of Sony's European headquarters, apartment complexes, condominiums, Filmmuseum, restaurants, cafes and shops. There is a huge mulitplex cinema, Cinestar, with eight screens and the blue domed IMAX cinema which shows nature and science films in 360 screens. The Sony Center was built at Kaisersaal and stairways, bathrooms, and several other rooms of the epitome of luxury in prewar Berlin, Grand Hotel Esplanade, were moved and set behind a glass facade that can be viewed today.




Located outside of the Sony Center, the Ritz Carlton Hotel has taken over the honors as one of the ultra-luxurious hotel in the area where dignitaries normally stay while in Berlin. The modern facade is reminscent of Rockefeller Centre. The hotel with Prussion Neo-Classicist designs are comfortably furnished. The less expensive but business friendly Berlin Marriott Hotel is next door as an alternative. The Marriott is an elegant four-star hotel with spacious rooms at less than half the rate of the Ritz Carlton.

Walking north on Eberstrasse and along the eastern end of the Tiergarten, you will find the Holocaust Memorial. Designed by US architect Peter Eisenmann and built in 2003, it covers 205,000 sq. ft and is a memorial for the Jews killed by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945. The memorial is a labyrinth of concrete slabs which visitors can walk through; beneath lies an information center on the genocide.


Further north along Eberstrasse where markers for where the Berlin Wall stood can be seen on the street and at the end of Unter Den Linden at Pariser Platz is the most famous landmark and quintessential symbol of Berlin, Brandenburg Gate. When Berlin was split in two, the Brandenburg Gate became a neglected relic in the city's Eastern Sector. For many years it stood in no man's land next to the Berlin Wall. It is here that President Ronald Reagan in 1987 stood and cried: "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" This Neo-Classical structure completed in 1795 modelled the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens with a pair of pavilions that frame the Doric colonnade. The familiar looking Quadriga (chariot) crowns the structure driven by the Goddess of Victory receiving the staff bearing the Prussian eagle and laurel wreath adorn the iron cross. This gate was located in East Berlin and stood watch over the divided city until the Wall came down. Since reunification, the symbol of the city has become a mecca for tourists and street performers.




If it is early enough in the day (before 10AM), you can avoid the crowd that grows into the afternoon and walk up one block to the Reichstag. This massive 1884 Neo-Renaissance building designed by Paul Wallot houses the German Parliament. The inscription in the front of the building, "Dem Deutschen Volke" (To the German People), was added to the facade in 1916. The Reichstag was well known for the night of 28 February 1933 when a fire destroyed the main hall. The Communists were blamed, accelerating a political witchhunt driven by the Nazis who subsequently came to power.


The Reichstag was damaged with the onset of World War II and rebuilding of this important symbol begain in 1957 to 1972. The latest phase of rebuilding was in 1995-1999 crowned with an new glass cupola with a viewing gallery designed by Sir Norman Foster. It is this 360 degree viewing gallery where visitors can get a panorama view the city of Berlin. The kaleidoscopic shell with a mirrored funnel creates an optical illusion for the visitor as if trapped inside a huge glass spider's web. The wait to visit the glass dome can be 30 mins to over an hour depending upon the season.