Adventures in Deutschland: Pictures from Berlin

Instead of a long post, I thought I would comment on a number of pictures--the most interesting or moving or eye-grabbing of my visit to Berlin. I traveled there to visit Zach, a teammate from Davidson.

Below is the first building that I saw when I stepped out of the train station. As you can see, the top still bears the effect of WWII bombing and one side also has noticeable damage. It was never repaired--to remind the city of the war's devastation. About 90% of the buildings in the city

were destroyed!

Here is the main German capital building. It's an impressive structure, famous for its glass dome protruding from the center section. Tourists can walk to the top, but I was a bit to impatient to wait in line. There was more of the city I had to see!

Fortunately, not every building was destroyed during WWII. This beautiful cathedral suffered only minor damage. The affected areas were restored and the cathedral looks as it did before the war--magnificent.

This is one side of the Russian political headquarters used while they occupied East Berlin after the war. The Russians painted this pro-Communist mural when they took over the building. Notice the worker and the authority (politician or boss) are exactly the same height. Universal equality is definitely a Communist ideal. What makes this terribly ironic is that the style closely resembles American realism. So basically the Russians use an American art form to promote communism (I didn't think of all that myself--the tour guide filled us in).

This is the famous Checkpoint Charlie. It was a major American checkpoint on the border of East and West Berlin. I took this picture from right about where the Berlin wall once stood. It's an absolutely fascinating city history and hard to believe that the wall came down only 20 years ago!

Zach and I visited a rebuilt concentration camp and museum in Sachsenhausen, just north of Berlin. It really is a sobering moment to walk through the camp and see pictures of what happened there. It's horribly uncomfortable but necessary to remember this history. I think knowing it is one of the best defenses against Fascism in the future. Let's tell this story so it never happens again!

Here's what remains of the crematory ovens--used to burn thousands of bodies. This was the most moving thing to see for me.

Zach and I also went to the Jewish Museum at Berlin. It was not just about the Holocaust but about the full history of the Jewish people. I took many pictures but found this quote particularly moving. It comes from a leading doctor of Hitler's effort in eugenics--killing off or sterilyzing whoever doctors deemed unfit for reproduction.