Berlin + Holocaust Survivor Talk

[warspite1]

It's not true to say it no cooling system, as it was air cooled. Many Porsches have been air cooled and air cooling has much to recommend it.

Well I was only quoting from the blurb in the museum. Maybe they were referring to the fact that the air cooling was as good as useless? - I mean given the state of the rest of the vehicle, I suspect that the Trabant's air cooling system was unlikely to be to Porsche standards [;)]

I'm surprised those thorough Germans didn't spell "brakes" correctly.

Maybe spelling the word as breaks was a freudian slip [;)]

[warspite1]

Remaining on the subject of the Holocaust, next up was a trip to Wannsee, a lake to the southwest of the city - on the banks of which, in January 1942, was held a meeting that 'discussed' the plans for the Final Solution.

We found the public transport system to be excellent and made use of the tram, bus, underground (U-Bahn) and overground railway (S-Bahn) during our stay - as well as a sight-seeing bus and river boat trip on the first day as a kind of recce. What is strange is that bus drivers appear totally indifferent to checking tickets and indeed on one journey the bus driver waived us onto the bus with a smile when we tried to pay!



Wannsee Conference

[wings7]

Thank you Robert for posting this slice of German history! You did a terrific job! You are our resident historian here on the Matrix boards! [:)]

Patrick

[warspite1]

Wannsee Conference (Cont)

And this is the house in which the 15 high ranking Nazi officials held a meeting discussed - chaired by Reinhardt Heydrich - to discuss the wiping out of the Jews from Europe....


Once again, as with other sites, the enormity of what took place here is truly staggering. Apparently this house was to be Heydrich's home after Germany had won the war.......



Fortunately neither happened - the Germans were utterly defeated in 1945 and the 'Butcher of Prague' was killed by British backed Czech patriots in May 1942...an act that is believed to have cost the lives of some 5,000 Czechs in reprisal operations.

[wings7]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Cold War Stuff - Watchtower

One thing that it would have been good to preserve is a section of Berlin Wall plus the no-mans land and all that went with it. Parts of the wall remain intact, but its largely left to pictures to piece together what the wall really entailed. The next few posts looks at the wall, but first we stumbled upon an old East German watchtower. There were two vertical ladders that led to the top and I am sorry to say my fear of heights stopped me from scaling this one. But my elder warspite managed it, putting her old dad to shame.


Oh well, at least I got to hold an AK-47 - didn't realise how heavy it would be.

I think we all wanted to see our gifted author and reporter in this portrait of you! [:(]

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: wings7

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Cold War Stuff - Watchtower

One thing that it would have been good to preserve is a section of Berlin Wall plus the no-mans land and all that went with it. Parts of the wall remain intact, but its largely left to pictures to piece together what the wall really entailed. The next few posts looks at the wall, but first we stumbled upon an old East German watchtower. There were two vertical ladders that led to the top and I am sorry to say my fear of heights stopped me from scaling this one. But my elder warspite managed it, putting her old dad to shame.


Oh well, at least I got to hold an AK-47 - didn't realise how heavy it would be.

I think we all wanted to see our gifted author and reporter in this portrait of you! [:(]

warspite1

If you'd seen my hideous visage you wouldn't say that [:D]

[warspite1]

Wannsee Conference (cont)

Once again the layout of the museum was superb, with everything in English as well as German.

And so to the room where the foul meeting was held.


The room in more peaceful times



The room today - looking at the same wall on the right



Such a beautiful setting for so terrible an act....

[warspite1]

Wannsee Conference (cont)

The glorious view of the lake from the garden



Denmark 1-0 Schleswig-Holstein

Away from the events of 1942, to the west of the building there is another piece of Prussian/Danish history on display. As we know, this Danish victory was short-lived and Prussia ultimately 'won' the territory of Schleswig-Holstein.

[vonRocko]

Wonderful pictures! Thanks for sharing.

[warspite1]

The Hohenzollerns of the 17th and 18th Century

The next site we visited was one of the few that we had to pay for. However, like the others, the exhibition was so well presented and the audio guides truly made the visit. Truly great value for money.


The beautiful Charlottenburg Palace in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin to the west of the city.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

The DDR Museum - The Trabant

And no story of the DDR could be complete without mention of this technical marvel [:(].....no cooing system and no petrol gauge....

And yet it fared better in the "moose test" than a Mercedes-Benz A-Class. [:D]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose_test

[warspite1]

Charlottenburg Palace

I know nothing about the early Prussian Kings and Queens but thanks to this exhibition I now know something, including that to be a Prussian king you had to be called Frederick...or William.... or Frederick William [:D]

The Palace was built on the instruction of Sophie Charlotte, who was married to the future Frederick I of Prussia. She became the first Prussian Queen. Originally named Lietzenburg - which took its name from the village of Lietzow - the palace was renamed Schloss Charlottenburg by Frederick after his wife's early death at the age of 36. The whole area became known as Charlottenburg and is now a district of Berlin.

At the start of the tour there is a visual display that charts the building and expansion of the palace from its beginnings in 1695 to the present day. This includes World War II and the excellent graphic shows the exact areas of the building that were destroyed by bombs. Most of the palace has now been restored and the internals are most impressive.

[warspite1]

A rare East German Success Story!!

I mentioned cult traffic crossing aids in post 1. The Ampelmann symbols were used in East German pedestrian crossings. They proved so popular that they remain in use today and have spawned their own shops with whole manner of Ampelmann items available to buy.

I did not get a shot of the crossing lights in use so have used this one from the net. The warspites also did the touristy thing of having our pictures taken outside one of the Ampelmann shops. Needless to say various Ampelmann keep-sakes were purchased [:)] Such a little thing, but sooooo cute. All cities should adopt a symbol of their own! Apparently the Mongols have a man on horse-back [:)]




My little cruiser adopts the pose...but she appears to have forgotten her hat

[warspite1]

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

The Kurfürstendamm is an avenue that runs for 3.5km. Bismarck wanted it to rival the Champs-Elysees in Paris. On this avenue stands the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church - or at least what remains of the church following an Allied bombing raid on 22nd/23rd November 1943, and a subsequent decision to pull down most of the ruins rather than re-build the church in all its glory.

The church was built in the 1890's and is named after Kaiser Wilhelm I. As the pictures below show, the church design was magnificent and the interior is no less so.


Kurfürstendamm is on the other side of the church



A model, providing a clearer picture of the design

[warspite1]

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (cont)

The top picture shows the damage to the church (looking from a similar angle to the top picture in the previous post).



The next picture shows the damage from the opposite side



Extract from the minutes of the first meeting of the Parish Church Council following the raid

[warspite1]

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (cont)

The present day ruins



The exquisite ceiling - although some damage can be seen in both pictures

[warspite1]

Three more subjects to go.

The Fuhrer Bunker and Reich Chancellery

I don't want to leave on a downer so the next subject is the Fuhrer Bunker and Reich Chancellery on Wilhemstrasse. Of course neither of these exist any longer, the Soviets/East Germans understandably obliterated the buildings. What is unmistakable though is that the exact location of each is known as the road remains in place, and so the plot of land on Wilhelmstrasse and behind, offer the last vestiges of these notorious buildings.


Looking from the road in Wilhelmstrasse at where the Reich Chancellery would have been. Note the new, Albert Speer designed, Chancellery building was constructed just around the corner on Voss Street (see below)



Pictures of the building



Brief history and picture of the building in 1945

[warspite1]

The Fuhrer Bunker and Reich Chancellery (cont)


Behind Wilhelmstrasse in what was the garden area of the Chancellery, the Fuhrer Bunker was built



A key to the various buildings (numbered below)

[durangokid]

Excellent photos and historical details, thank you.

I was first in Berlin in 1965 and found the beer first rate. Berliner Kindl was great but I preferred Shultheiss, even though it gave you this overpowering urge to invade Poland [;)]

[warspite1]

Berliner Fernsehturm

Visitors to the capital get the chance to eat at - or just observe the capital from - the Berlin TV tower, the tallest tower in Western Europe at 368m. The observation deck, which we visited, is 207m off the ground and you get there by lift that moves at 21km/h - apparently not the fastest even in Berlin, but impressive enough.


First floor - Telephones, gents ready made suits, shirts, suits, ties, hats, underwear, and shoes. Going up...



The tower seen from the Unter Den Linden



The Brandenburg Gate as seen from the tower - and a long lens....