May 21, 2017: A Walking Tour of Berlin
	May 19-20, 2017: We Travel to Berlin
	Return to the Index for Our Visit to Berlin

We still had a good deal of light this evening, so we thought we would go out and explore our neighborhood. We are on our own this evening, and we will be on our own tomorrow until our four friends arrive late in the afternoon and we move to the hotel where Prudence has extremely generously gotten us a room so we can all be together.

An Orientation to Berlin

To begin with, I'd like to take a little while to describe Berlin to you. If you have been here, then all of what I include here is probably already known to you. But for those of you who haven't visited the city, what I have to say may help you not only follow us along on our walks and excursions, but learn a bit more about the city.

Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its 16 constituent states. With a population of approximately 3.7 million, Berlin is the second most populous city in the European Union. Located in northeastern Germany on the banks of the rivers Spree and Havel, it is the center of the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Region (with 6 million residents from more than 180 nations the sixth most populous urban area in the European Union).

Berlin, seen at left in one of our pictures looking east from the top of the Victory Column, has a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers, canals and lakes; the largest of these is the famous Tiergarten.

First documented in the 13th century and situated at the crossing of two important historic trade routes, Berlin became the capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg (1417–1701), the Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918), the German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and the Third Reich (1933–1945). After World War II the city was divided; East Berlin was declared capital of East Germany. The West German capital was moved to Bonn, and West Berlin became a de facto West German exclave, surrounded by East Germany. From 1961 to 1989, West Berlin was surrounded by the Berlin Wall, constructed by the Soviet Union and Communist East Germany. Following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all of Germany.

Berlin is a world city of culture, politics, media and science. Its economy is today based on new, high-tech firms and the service sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations and convention venues. Tourism is also a major economic component. Modern Berlin is home to world-renowned universities, world-class museums too numerous to mention, and a plethora of historic sites- both ancient and modern. Berlin is familiar to most people as it is often used as a location for film and television productions. The city is well-known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts and a high quality of living; it is a young, cosmopolitan, entrepreneurial city almost without equal.

Let me orient you now to the area of Berlin we traversed. First, there is the transportation system. Comprised of the S-Bahn (surface train system), the U-Bahn (underground Metro) and numerous bus routes, the transportation system is easy and relatively inexpensive to navigate. Central Berlin is surrounded by an oval of the S-Bahn; spokes radiate outward to suburban areas. The map at right covers an area about nine miles by five miles. We will be making daily use of the transportation system, with our most traveled route being from the Zoo Station a few blocks from our hotel, around the top of the S-Bahn oval as far as Alexanderplatz.

On this map, I have marked a few of the major landmarks and locations we visited as well as the approximate routes of the two long walking tours that we did in the city. On our first full day here, Fred and I spent almost the entire day on a walk from the Hauptbahnof (the Central Train Station, S-Bahn/U-Bahn nexus, and destination in itself), past the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate and then eastward through the old East Germany all the way to Alexanderplatz. That's the line in green. On the first full day with Prudence, Nancy, Ron, and Karl, we did another guided walking tour that did take all day; it began at the Reichstag, took in the Brandenburg Gate, and then wandered south through the city, stopping at locations such as the Berlin Wall, the Holocaust Memorial, Hitler's bunker, Checkpoint Charlie and many other places you can visit with us on the page devoted to that day.

Although Prudence walked with us through part of the Tiergarten, Fred and I were the only members of our group to visit the Victory Column and see the incredible views from the top. Our entire group also spent an entire day on a motorcoach tour to Dresden, and five of us also spent a half day in Potsdam. The last major event was a cruise we all took on the River Spreee. You'll be able to go along with us on all these excursions on the subsequent pages.

Our Evening Walk

So, having gotten checked into our hotel while it was still quite light outside, and knowing that we would need at least something to eat this evening (it being only about seventeen hours since we boarded the plane in Miami), Fred and I decided to leave the hotel and head down Hardenberg Strasse towards the Zoo Station, have something to eat, wander around, and perhaps scope out the transportation system.

Our walk this evening covered the area from our hotel for the first night, the Wyndham Excelsior down to the Europa Center, a large enclosed shopping mall southeast of the zoo. As you can easily see from the aerial view at left, where we stayed for the first night and then the next four was only a short walk to the Zoo Station, a main transportation nexus. Fred and I visited the area this evening, and we would return here with the rest of the group tomorrow night. This prompts another comment on the pictures in this album.

The evening walk Fred and I took tonight, as well as the walks the two of us would take tomorrow around the Hauptbahnof, Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate and Museum Island, would be duplicated with Prudence, Nancy, Karl, and Ron arrived. This means that some of the pictures we took this evening will be duplicated on the page covering tomorrow night. Pictures from the other sites, which Fred and I will visit tomorrow, will also be at least partially duplicated when we visit those same sites with the group in the upcoming days. I might have gathered all the pictures devoted to a given location in the same place, but I concluded that this would lead to convoluted explanations of many of the photos. So, there will be duplicate pictures in this album. Please don't fault me too much if I describe, say, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (shown on the aerial view above as "Kaiser Wilhelm Gedachtnis Kirche"), once this evening and again on tomorrow's page. If, as you proceed through the day pages you do find pictures and narrative that seem to show the same thing or retell the same story, feel free to skim forward as you wish.

Hardenberg Strasse

(Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

The first part of our walk was down Hardenberg Strasse to the Zoo Station. As it turned out, we'd make this walk a couple of times a day, of course, since our starting point for almost every day here in the city was catching a train at the Zoo Station. So here's my first movie in Berlin (movie player at left); we are about a block down the street toward the station. There is one mistake in my narration, though. When I'm looking back up the street towards our hotel I am looking northwest instead of northeast.

Right down by the Zoo Station was this building- Amerika Haus. We all wondered what it was, and we speculated, but it wasn't until we looked it up online that we discovered our speculation to be pretty much true. After World War II, there was a need to provide an opportunity for German citizens to learn more about American culture and politics, and engage in discussion and debate on the transatlantic relationship. Run by the American government until 2006, Berlin’s Amerika Haus is one of many Amerika Häuser located across Germany.

The function and fortunes of the houses waxed and waned over time, although its importance here in Berlin was very different, as West Berlin was isolated amid the sea of East Germany. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, and especially the reunification of the country, the need for a USIA-sponsored information house declined. Part of that was also due to the enthusiastic adoption of American culture in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. In 2006 the Amerika Haus Berlin was officially handed back to the city of Berlin and its doors were closed to the general public- save for the occasional lecture series. Three years ago, the charitable organization "C/O Berlin" took over the building, and it hosts photography exhibitions there. In 2015, C/O Berlin was awarded an architectural prize for its sensitive refurbishment and revitalization of the building.

Here are some of the interesting sights we photographed on our way down the street:

An Interesting Sculpture

A Building Across the Street

A Neighborhood Playhouse

"That last beer was bad; now I have a hangover! Alcohol? Know Your Limit"

This sculpture was lighted

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is a Protestant church and is located between Hardenberg Strasse and Kurfürstendamm Strasse right in the center of the area known as the Breitscheidplatz. The original church on the site was built in the 1890s. It was badly damaged in a bombing raid in 1943.

Old Church and New Belfry

Three Church Buildings

As we walked down Hardenberg Strasse, we passed the Zoo Station, and then the church was off to our right. At this point, Hardenberg Strasse changes to Budapester Strasse, so the church (as well as the fountain we will see shortly and the Europa Mall we'll visit later on are between that street and the Kurfürstendamm (which come close to each other and then diverge, like a closing parenthesis followed by an opening one ")(" (except that they are east-west instead of north-south).

In my picture at the far left, you can see the remains of the old church as well as the new belfry (currently sheathed in a fabric covering to allow renovations to the outer skin). Taken a litter earlier as we walked along Budapester Strasse you can also see the new church building.

The construction of the original church was part of a Protestant church-building program initiated by Kaiser Wilhelm II and his consort Augusta Victoria to counter the German labour movement and socialist movement by a return to traditional religious values; he would name the church in honor of his grandfather, Kaiser Wilhelm I. The design competition winner called for a large church to be built in a Neo-Romanesque style, with 29,500 sq ft of wall mosaic, a 370-ft spire, and a nave seating 2,000 people.

The foundation stone was laid in 1891 and the church was dedicated in 1895, although portions were not completed for another ten years. The construction cost (6.8 million gold marks worth about $2 million at the time) was obtained primarily through donations. On the night of 23 November 1943, the church was extensively damaged in an air raid, although by no means beyond repair. A remnant of the spire and much of the entrance hall survived intact, as did the altar and the baptistry.

After the war, in 1947, the church foundation decided to rebuild the church, but the manner in which this should be done was contentiously debated until the late 1950s. The winner of the 1956 design competition initially proposed that the remnant of the old spire to be torn down, but that plan provoked a public outcry in which the ruined tower was characterized as the "heart of Berlin". The design was revised to preserve the tower, while most of the remaining structure was pulled down in order to build the modern church that now occupies most of the site. So now there are three major buildings- the new church and new belfry with the old, partially destroyed spire between them.

(Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

The ground floor of that spire has become a museum and memorial hall, nicknamed by Berliners "der hohle Zahn", meaning "the hollow tooth" (which it actually resembles). On one outside wall of the new church, Fred photographed me beside an interesting sculpture.

From the church, we continued walking east across the plaza between it and the Europa Center. We could see at the other side of the plaza that there seemed to be a large water feature of some kind, so I made a movie as we walked over to it, and I continued that movie as we had our first look at the Weltkugelbrunnen.

You can watch the movie with the player at left. I do not know why the first few minutes of the movie are out of focus, but just let it play a few seconds and it will clear up.

The Weltkugelbrunnen

Just east of the tall church belfry that was sheathed in orange fabric there is a plaza situated between the belfry and the Europa Center (also between the Budapester Strasse and the Kurfürstendamm). At the east side of this plaza there is a large fountain- the Weltkugelbrunnen- with stairs around both sides of it leading down to the lower level of the Europa Center (and a little cafe where we had some supper).

The Weltkugelbrunnen

The Stairs on the South Side

The Weltkugelbrunnen was opened in 1983; there was an open competition for the design of the fountain- a competition won by a Berliner, Joachim Schmettau.

The main part consists of several carved blocks of red granite, which form an approximately hemispherical base with the diameter being 8.5 meters. It is arranged in a pool of 16 meters in diameter. In the symbolic globe characters from different cultures are depicted.

The large pool of water is surrounded by a staircase that leads from the plaza to the lower level of the Breitscheidplatz and from there into the lower level of the Europa Center. We thought that some of the characters on the fountain were very whimsical. It seemed like a fun place to congregate, and there were certainly lots of kids around.

The operation of the Weltkugelbrunnen costs the district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf around 75,000 euros per year. This is a high cost for the district, so the Weltkugelbrunnen is dependent largely on individual and corporate sponsors.

We found a little cafe down on the lower level where we shared a light snack and a couple of desserts before we continued walking around.

The Europa Center

The Europa-Center is a building complex on Breitscheidplatz in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, with a shopping mall and an 300-foot high-rise tower. Erected between 1963 and 1965, it is today a historically preserved building. Most of the stores in the center were closed, but a couple of restaurants were open and so we could wander through the center.

In 1897 a residential building was erected at the site of the present-day Europa-Center. Then part of Berlin's fashionable "New West" (today also known as "City West"), the site was, from 1916, home to the Romanisches Café, a popular meeting place for writers, artists and people in the theatre business, as well as those who aspired to join them.

After an RAF air raid in World War II on the night of 22/23 November 1943, the building lay in ruins. After the war, the cleared premises were used only intermittently for more than a decade, according to need. Makeshift constructions were used variously by wrestlers, circus performers and missionaries, followed by food outlets and briefly a cinema hosting so-called Sittenfilme ("films of manners"). A local newspaper described the central site as a "stain on Berlin's calling card".

Soon after the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the situation changed. With the reconstruction of the Memorial Church, a committee was appointed to oversee the redevelopment of the Breitscheidplatz' eastern side. He commissioned the architects Helmut Hentrich and Hubert Petschnigg to design and build an office and shopping complex modelled on American malls. Construction work began in 1963, and in April, 1965, the Europa-Center was inaugurated by Mayor Willy Brandt.

The complex today has some 750,000 square feet of floor space divided into distinct units- a two-storey foundation with a basement and two inner courtyards, a cinema, a hotel, an apartment block, and the box-shaped 21-storey high-rise which, when it was constructed, was the highest in Berin. At present there are about 100 shops and food outlets in the Center.

United Buddy Bears

"Buddy Bears" is the name given to painted, life-size (6-foot-tall) fiberglass bear sculptures developed by Klaus and Eva Herlitz, in cooperation with sculptor Roman Strobl. The raised arms of the standing Buddy Bears are aligned on the dissemination of friendliness and optimism, and thus mediate a positive mood. The Buddy Bear has become an unofficial ambassador for Germany and has been a symbol of Berlin since 2001. The story of the Buddy Bears started with an artistic event in Berlin in 2001, the idea of which was to bring art to the streets of a metropolis. There are many of the bears scattered around town; we saw a number of them this evening on the Breitscheidplatz.

The first activity was the "Buddy Bear Berlin Show" in 2001. Artists painted approximately 350 bears to appear in the public domain, as decorative elements in the streets of Berlin. Four different bear designs (one standing on all four paws, one standing on two legs, one standing on its head and one in a sitting position) were used by these artists for the exhibition in Berlin's city center. Afterwards, many of the bears were sold at auction to raise money for child relief organizations. Nowadays, these Berlin Buddy Bears are exclusively presented on private premises, in front of hotels and embassies as well as in the foyers of various office buildings. Periodically, the original bears are shown in other cities, accompanied by more that are created by that city's own artists.

"United Buddy Bears" is the international art exhibition of more than 140 of the bears with the motto: "We have to get to know each other better, understand one another better, trust each other more, and live together more peacefully". In the exhibition, the bears promote "tolerance, international understanding and the great concept of different nations and cultures living in peace and harmony". The bears stand "hand in hand" in a "peaceful circle". The first of these displays was in 2002, when the bears were arranged in a circle around the Brandenburg Gate. 35 million people have already attended one of the exhibitions of the colorful United Buddy Bears.

Some Final Pictures from the Breitscheidplatz

We left the Europa Center, walked down to the end of the Breitscheidplatz, crossed north to Budapester Strasse and headed back towards the church. We found some interesting things to photograph.

A Sculpture on the Breitscheidplatz

Interesting Graffiti

We walked back towards the church, heading back to the Wyndham Excelsior.

For the last of this evening's pictures, I want to include a few views of what we both thought was a very interesting modern skyscraper. We had seen this building as we came down the street from the hotel and took this picture of it. Fred also took the picture at the far left earlier in the evening, and the one at the near left as we were on our way back to the hotel.

What made the building so interesting was the fact that many of the windows in some of the building's tiers were not actually rectangular, but rhomboid (the opposite corners of the rectangle moved slightly off the horizontal and/or vertical). Doing this gives the impression that the side of the building is not vertical but wavy. This could never have been done before curtain wall construction; since the outer sheath is not load-bearing, almost anything can be tacked onto the outside of the steel or reinforced concrete core.

Looking at the building is a little disconcerting because your eye wants to straighten out the window edges, since that is what your eye is used to seeing. This made the building very attractive, both in full light and in the light of the setting sun.

As darkness fell, we headed back to the Wyndham Excelsior for a great night's sleep.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	May 21, 2017: A Walking Tour of Berlin
	May 19-20, 2017: We Travel to Berlin
	Return to the Index for Our Visit to Berlin