Day two in Berlin started off with a bang (somewhat literally!). After an early breakfast at the hostel, we set off to take one of the Berliner Unterwelten tours, in which you can explore underground ruins and little-known parts of Berlin. For our tour, we took the U-Bahn up to the Gesundbrunnen station, north of where we are staying at Rosenthaler Platz, and then walked just a few minutes to Humboldthain park, in which the ruins of a former Nazi anti-aircraft bunker are located. This bunker was built from 1942 to 1943, one of three massive concrete and steel flak towers throughout Berlin that were intended to be bomb-proof and able to shoot down Allied bombers raiding Berlin; the other towers were in the west, near the Zoologischer Garten, and in the east, in Friedrichshain. After the war, the Humboldthain flak tower fell into the hands of the French, who attempted to dynamite it, though they only succeeded in destroying half of the tower, leaving the other half still standing and able to be explored to this day. One of the most interesting parts of the tour for me was when our tour guide pointed out that the flak tower was, essentially, a failure at shooting down Allied aircraft (there are only around 30 recorded instances of planes successfully being shot down by this tower), but was a definite success in the bunker category. During air raids, tens of thousands of Berliners would shelter in the lower floors of the flak tower, and it functioned as a ground defense structure during the Battle for Berlin, which I found very interesting, having just written a research paper about the end of the Second World War in Berlin. Indeed, our guide pointed out that some of the damage to the flak tower was caused by Red Army tanks firing at it. Furthermore, although, the flak tower is just a cavernous ruin today, with piles of rubble surrounding the paths on which we were walking, I kept forcing myself to imagine what it would have looked like during the war, when there were soldiers’ barracks, cafeterias, shelter areas, a hospital, and other support functions located in the bunker. It would truly have been a great success for Nazi military architecture and planning, which the Nazis clearly intended it to be, as our tour guide explained that they had plans to “beautify” the structure by adding decorative stone and opening up the windows after the war, when it could become a symbol of victory and the new “Germania” in Berlin. After touring the inside of the bunker, we walked up to the top, where we had a commanding view of the surrounding area, as Berlin is generally quite flat except for man-made hills, such as the flak tower ruins.
From the Humboldthain flak tower, we took the U-Bahn from Gesundbrunnen back south to the district of Tempelhof, where we walked to the Platz der Luftbruecke, where there is a memorial to the Allied pilots who died during the Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949. The Platz der Luftbruecke is very close to the now-closed Tempelhof Airport, where much of the Airlift supplies was landed, although I was not able to really catch a glimpse of the terminal building, which is now open for public tours. Interestingly, Tempelhof is one of the oldest passenger airports, founded in the 1920s, and parts of the terminal building were refurbished and expanded by the Nazis in the 1930s; I would be interested to tour the terminal, but I don’t know if I will have time for it during this trip to Berlin. From Platz der Luftbruecke, we walked down Mehringdamm into the famous Kreuzberg district, which has some of the most interesting architecture that I have seen in Berlin so far. Most of the buildings appear to date from the late nineteenth century, and look quite similar to pictures I have seen of Paris or buildings that I have seen in Munich. Before proceeding with our afternoon tour, we stopped for lunch in Kreuzberg, and I ate at a Mexican restaurant, of all places! It had quite good food though, and I thoroughly enjoyed my enchiladas, although we had to rush to catch up with the rest of the group in time.
After lunch, we walked and took the U-Bahn farther into Kreuzberg in order to go to the Jewish Museum, which was Cheyanne’s project. We have studied the Jewish Museum during this past semester as a potential example of countermemorial architecture, and I studied the museum in greater detail in a class on the afterlife of the Holocaust, so I thought that I was prepared for what I would see. Also, many people have argued that the building would be a better memorial, and would function better, if it had been left empty, as an architectural symbol. The reason for this is that the building is a jagged, lightning-bolt shape, with empty spaces (voids) throughout the interior, symbolizing the void left in German society by the absence of its Jewish community, and slashes in the side of the building. At first, I thought that I would agree with the critics who believed that the exhibits took away from the museum’s powerful architecture, or even that I would feel that the architecture took away from the exhibits by being too overwhelming and dominating. However, after walking through the museum from the Axes of Exile, the Holocaust, and Continuity on the bottom to the permanent exhibition on the upper floors, I find myself expressing the minority opinion: I think that the entire museum works together. I felt that the museum integrated the exhibits into the architecture quite well, as they were designed in such a way as to not obstruct the voids, which were still visible, and to work around the unusual windows and ceilings. For instance, in one display area with sloping ceilings, the display boards sloped as well, to highlight the architecture. Furthermore, I also thought that the exhibits themselves were done very well, as they presented a kind of “general” story along the main path (which was marked with arrows to guide the visitor through), and the visitor could seek out more “details” on either side, where artifacts were displayed. Also, since the museum is intended to document Jewish history in Germany throughout the past centuries, the exhibits did not solely focus on the Holocaust, or even the twentieth century, but rather had a wide scope from 500 to the present, allowing the casual, less historically-informed visitor to learn about the trajectory of German Jewish history. However, for the visitor who wanted to seek out memorials related to the Holocaust, the museum features the Axes of Exile and the Holocaust on the lowest level. The Axis of Exile leads out into the Garden of Exile, which is a walled garden of tall stele, much like those at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, with uneven ground, designed to impress upon the visitor the disorienting effects of exile for the German Jews who fled from their homeland during the early Nazi period. The Axis of the Holocaust leads to the Tower of the Holocaust, a tall, dark tower completely devoid of any decoration or even light, save what comes in from a small slit in the wall. In some ways, I felt that the Tower was even more disorienting than the Axis of Exile, much like the Holocaust was much more devastating and disorienting than exile. Overall, I feel as though the Jewish Museum was an entirely worthwhile stop, one which I would recommend to any visitor to Berlin.
After leaving the Jewish Museum, I came back to the hostel to relax, before Cheyanne, Elise, Chelsea, and I went to dinner at Zur Rose, across the street from the hostel. It is a traditional German restaurant, as I searched out traditional German cuisine; indeed, I was completely satisfied with my Kaesespaetzle! Afterwards, we got gelato at a nearby shop (I got chocolate, natuerlich) and then returned to the hostel, where we met up with the rest of the group. We then decided to explore Berlin’s tram network, as there is a tram stop just outside of the Circus Hostel, and rode as far north and east as Pankow and as far south as the Hauptbahnhof, before taking the S- and U-Bahn back to our temporary home. I enjoyed riding the tram, as I had never before ridden on a tram in Germany, and I hope to repeat the experience during our trip! Tomorrow, we are spending the day out west, near Charlottenburg to explore several museums and KaDeWe; depending on time, I might launch another exploration of my own in the afternoon!
Making the Past Present 