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Berlin - Don't Mention the Wall

Few cities in the world have had a more eventful history in recent times than Berlin. A city that has existed before there was a Germany, as part of Germany and then as two parts of two Germanies is today at one with the nation again. But the times between have been as turbulent as those of any city on Earth.

Berlin was first recorded as actually existing in the 13th century, but it was not until 1701 that it became a capital, first as capital of Prussia, then of Germany after 1871, when Bismarck brought most of the disparate Germanic states together into one country. There it remained, unaffected by the loss of some territories through the Treaty of Versailles in 1918, until 1945, when the partition of the country between the western powers on the one hand and the Soviets on the other was matched by the splitting of Berlin.

Thus West Berlin became an island surrounded by the communist German Democratic Republic (GDR), first threatened by the 1948-49 blockade which was alleviated by the famous Berlin airlift, then physically split in two by the Berlin Wall, literally constructed overnight in 1961, which split both the city and in many cases families until 1989.

European communism's dramatic collapse in the autumn of that year saw the wall breached and stormed. Television pictures relayed around the world the sight of thousands storming the wall, some chipping off chunks with pickaxes. The breaching of the wall became a symbol of the downfall of communism and began the inexorable process which saw Germany reunified within months.

During its existence the wall generated a few urban myths. One was that President Kennedy, making a speech in the city in 1963, sought to confirm his solidarity with the people of the city by uttering the words "Ich bin ein Berliner," the unfortunate fact being that a Berliner is a kind of doughnut. However, the term is only used in southern Germany; the same confectionary is known as Pfannkuche (pancakes) in Berlin itself.

There was also the story that somebody on the eastern side had scrawled the words "never fear, Baldrick has a cunning plan" from the TV comedy Blackadder on the wall. This was a half truth; the words were indeed written, but all the graffiti was on the western side as nobody in East Berlin could approach the barrier safely.

Visitors to Berlin today may do well to understand just how reviled the wall was, for this explains why, unlike the Great Wall of China or Hadrian's Wall, the Berlin Wall has not been deemed worthy of preservation. Those looking for it will be largely disappointed, but there are a few stretches to be found. According to Berlin Wall online, the best sections still to be seen include Wall Park, where the Berlin Wall graffiti industry is alive and well and the East Side Gallery (the longest part). Checkpoint Charlie, the infamous crossing point, is also preserved as are some watchtowers, while in some places double parking stones mark the path of the wall.

Yet all along where the wall was, the areas that were once wastelands have been rebuilt. Thus the area around the Brandenburg gate has become a new, modern open space, a focal point for thousands of football fans in the 2006 World Cup. Around Potzdamer Platz the demolished wall is giving way to shops and apartments.

All this is part of a revival of the city that is seeing new growth flourishing. Berlin became the capital of a united Germany again in 1990, bringing back the machinery of government, but the city struggled economically as Germany faced recession, the old west Berlin subsidies dried up and the former GDR parts struggled as its decrepit industry and economy took years to adjust.

Today the city is still playing catch-up but is growing well and the visitor fascinated by modern architecture can see plenty of evidence, with modern buildings sprouting up all over the city. The reconstructed Reichstag, with its eco-friendly features including thermal water sourcing from an underground lake, is perhaps the most interesting of the modern structures.

It is culturally, however, that Berlin is growing fastest. Visitors staying in cheap hotels in the city will find a huge wealth of clubs, bars, restaurants and new musical talent emerging. There is plenty in the way of traditional culture too, with theatres and museums aplenty, all part of a city that is reinventing itself, but doing so in a way that promises the visitor a good time as well as a history lesson. That both can be done together is epitomised by the modernised Olympic Stadium, home of the 2006 World Cup Final, but also the site of a tribute to Jesse Owens, the black American athlete whose four gold medals the venue, used for the 1936 Olympics, wrecked Hitler's hopes that the games would be a showpiece of Aryan supremacy.

This mixture of vibrancy and poignany marks Berlin out as unique. The subterranean landscape beneath the city still has numerous bunkers used by the Nazis, yet it also has a full reconnected U-bahn. It has parts of a wall that held people back still in evidence, yet everywhere it shows, in new buildings and a cultural renaissance, a determination to press ahead into the future and become a great European city with an identity no longer shackled by the past. This, then, is Berlin. Nobody can afford not to look back, but the determination to look forward is as strong as any city on Earth.

This article is provided by Hotels Hotels Hotels suppliers of cheap hotels in Berlin

Updated: Mon, 03 Sep 2007 16:00:56

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