fubar57
General
Very informative as usual. I had flashbacks from when I read "The Bunker"
Nuuumannn's European Tour of 2019
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- #102
Yes, Andy, it's well-trodden.
So, this is the Bundesministerium der Finanzen, bit it was constructed as the Reichsluftfahrtministerium, Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering's air ministry. Designed by Ernst Sagebiel, we saw his work at Flughafen Tempelhof, the RLM building is a typical piece of Nazi era architecture; the numbers tell it all - at over 250 metres long, there are over seven kilometres of corridors within its seven storeys, 4,000 windows in 2,800 rooms and during its height enclosed some 4,000 bureaucrats and admin staff. Beginning work in February 1935, it was completed in August 1936, an extraordinarily quick gestation time, as was common in Berlin's reconstruction under the Nazis. Post-war, it managed to survive the carnage of Allied bombing, which was remarkable as it was quite visible to the bombers overhead; I've seen air raid photography where the extent of ther RLM building is plainly evident. Owing to its state of completeness, it was refurbished by the Soviets and became the headquarters of the Deutsche Wirtschaftskommission or DWK - German Economic Commission under control of the Soviets, then the East Germans from 1947 to 1949. Within the Festsaal, its main hall, on 7 October 1949, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, DDR, was proclaimed, with William Pieck as President. As we saw in the previous post, the building became the focal point of the 1953 uprising, directly opposite Ligner's mural depicting a unified 'one big happy family' East German communist state - oh, the irony. After reunification, the building housed the Treuehand, Trust Establishment, which was headed by politician Detlev Rohwedder, whose sad fate was recorded earlier, thus lending his name to the enormous structure. Note that my presence withn the gated compound at the building's entrance is being monitored.
This is taken from the corner of Zimmerstrasse and Wilhelmstrasse and is looking at the southern edge of the RLM building. Note the stretch of the Wall at the left edge of the picture; this is one of only a few places in the city where an original section of the Wall can be seen. From there the Wall ran across the road to butt into the building, continuing from the building approximately in line with where the grey car is sitting at the intersection on the road. This was all within the Death Strip, and within the building itself, that entire southern wing was barricaded off to prevent access to the western sector. We are on the East German side, looking due west.
Crossing Wilhelmstrasse, we are now on the corner of Niederkirchenerstrasse, looking at the wall. This is the western face of it as it is covered in graffiti. There was no way that East Germans could get so close to the structure without getting shot. You also could not buy spray cans in East Germany! Now would be a good time to examine the Berlin Wall in a little more detail. Put in place virtually overnight on Sunday 13 August 1961 in the form of road blocks and barbed wire barriers, the Berlin Wall was the most prominent and tangible physical divide that separated the ideologies of the communist East and capitalist West, during the period of the Cold War, but y'all knew that already. Referred to by the DDR government as the Antifaschistischer Schutzwall or the Anti-fascist protection wall, it was the brainchild of eventual DDR president Erich Honecker, and came shortly after incumbent President Walter Ulbricht declared that, "Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten!" (No one has the intention of erecting a wall!) The numbers; it was over 156 kilometres long, of which nearly 112 kilometres was concrete barriers, there was 44.5 kilometres of steel mesh netting that ran along the Death Strip, with 186 observation towers watching over the feature from the east.
Throughout its existence from 1961 to 1989, there were four versions of the wall. The first was that erected from August 1961, which comprised simple barriers and wire fencing, then from 1962 to 1965 there was a basic block wall covered in concrete. From 1965 to 1975, the wall conststed of metal poles driven into the ground with concrete slabs slid between them, but this was improved on with the Grenzmauer 75, the Border Wall '75, from then to its end, which comprised prefabricated sections of L shaped concrete inserted in line, with cirular piping at its top end, making it more difficult to climb. Defences within the Death Strip from the wall itself on the Eastern side comprised mesh fencing, signal fencing, anti-vehicle trenches, barbed wire, dogs on long lines and beds of nails, also known as "Stalin's Carpet".
On the southern side of the wall in the previous picture is this rather desolate looking treelined space, the RLM building is to our right on Niederkirchenerstrasse, with Wilhelmstrasse behind us. During Nazi times it was the scene of the administrative branches of the most feared organisations of the regime. On this block, the Geheim Staatspolizei, the Sicherheitspolizei, Sicherheitsdient fur Reichsfuhrers SS, the SS Einzatsgruppen and the Sturmabteilung all had their headquarters. Their particular methods for enforcing Nazi ideology are detailed in the building at the centre of the site, called Topographie des Terrors and is a permanent exhibition on the horrors of the Nazi regime. Prior to the end of the war, this street was known as Prinz Albrechtstrasse, and directly in front of us was the Hotel Prinz Albrecht at Nr 8. Alongside was an arts school associated with the Kunstmuseum, surviving at the right of the picture as the Martin Gropius Bau behind the Topographie des Terrors building. The arts school building became the Reich Sicherheitsdienst - the Reich Security Main Office set up by Heinrich Himmler and chaired by Reinhard Heydrich, the 'Butcher of Prague', until his assassination in 1942. In the far left corner of the picture was the headquarters of the SA Brownshirts, the senior members of which were purged under Unternehmen Kolibri, Operation Hummingbird, which became known as the Night of the Long Knives on 2 July 1934.
We are standing on the eastern side of the Wall looking toward the RLM building on Niederkirchenerstrasse, named in honour of Kathe Niederkirchener, a communist activist who was shot in 1944 at Ravensbruck concentration camp. In the foreground are the foundations of the Hotel Prinz Albrecht and the Reich Sicherheitsdienst building, along which an open air exhibition has been placed. The Wall itself also serves as part of the memorial and there are plaques examining its history, too. Continuing on the subject, it's worth remembering that the Wall was constructed not to keep the West out, but to plug the inevitable drain of East Germans seeking a better life for themselves. During the Wall years, some 5,000 'Osties' defected to West Berlin; the actual number of deaths from failed attempts to overcome the barrier is not known and is thought to be as high as 200. All manner of means were used to defect, from scaling the defences, jumping from windows, hiding in vehicles transitting the check points, to the use of air and water traffic. One of the most public escapees was Thomas Kruger, who piloted Zlin Z-42 DDR-WOH and landed at RAF Gatow. Kruger stayed in the West, but the Zlin was dismantled by the RAF and sent back to East Berlin, covered in slogans, such as "Wish you were here" and "Come back soon" etc! The aircraft still flies today as D-EWOH.
This view was taken from the western end of the Topographie des Terrors site with the building in the middle ground and, in the foreground, the exposed prison cells below ground level of the Reich Sicherheitsdienst. As recounted earlier, the building that occupied this spot was an arts school that was part of the Kunstmuseum alongside it, but in April 1933, Hermann Goering, as Prussian Minister for the Interior established the Geheim Staatspolizei and installed it in the art school building, whose lease had just expired. A year later, Himmer assumed the role of head of the SD and its offshoot departments. Installed in charge of the Gestapo in 1933 was Rudolf Diels, whose task it was to refashion the building for his own purposes; the artists' studios in the building's southern wing became holding cells for political prisoners, within which over the next decade saw heinous torture and other crimes against humanity. One of their most well known inmates was a youthful communist named Erich Honecker, who, as we saw became DDR president in 1971 and was responsible for the Wall that borders the site to this day. Surviving the war, the building was demolished in 1951, but following restoration of the kunstmuseum next door, interest in the place's history grew and a move was made to erect some form of permanent memorial to victims of the nasties that occupied the buildings here. In 1986, these cells were uncovered and the Topographie des Terrors exhibition opened a year later. Note the Mongolfiera Hiflyer viewing platform that ascends to offer an uncompromising view of the city, although we'll see what the tourists see, from the Fernsehturm later.
Back on Niederkirchenerstrasse with our backs to the Martin Gropius Bau, the former kunstmuseum named for its architect that sat next to the SD headquarters, we are looking at the Abgeordnetenhaus Berlin, the House of Representatives of the Berlin legislature that occupies the original Preußischer Landtag building, named the Herrenhaus. Constructed in 1899, this building housed the Prussian House of Representatives at Prinz Albrechtstrasse Nr 5 and in 1919, the German communist party was founded here, but for our interest's sake, in Nazi times the Herrenhaus was seconded to Goering and he annexed it to the newly completed RLM building in 1936. It was named Haus der Flieger and was used as a casino and social haven for Luftwaffe personnel visiting the RLM next door.
Leaving behind the administerial hub of the former Prinz Albrechtstrasse, we walk westwards to Berlin's most prominent meeting point - Potsdamer Platz. This memorial stone on its southern edge commemorates young political representative Karl Liebnecht's call against the Great War during a May Day demonstration at Potsdamer Platz on 1 May 1916, following which he was arrested. A member of the Social Democrat Party, Liebnecht had spoken out against the war in the Reichstag, which led to his universal condemnation and his expulsion, which led him to joining forces with like-minded socialist Rosa Luxemburg, both of whom formed the Spartacusbund, an underground socialist movement opposed to the war. Both Liebnecht and Luxemburg, denounced as revolutionaries, were central to the January 1919 Spartacust Uprising, which was brutally suppressed by the police by the 13th, after condemnation by the newly installed Friedrich Ebert as leader of the Weimar Republic. Arrested a couple of days later, Liebnecht and Luxemburg were tortured, then assasinated, becoming martyrs to those who would shape the post-war German communist government.
This is the original Potsdamer Platz U-bahn station tiled sign, installed when the U-bahn began operations in 1902. Most other central Berlin stations have been refurbished and renovated over the years, but U-Potsdamer Platz' past as an unused station during the Wall years has ensured its original feel has been retained. During the dual occupation of the city in the Cold War, Potsdamer Platz was physically divided down the middle between East and West and its focus as a popular public hub was diminished, to the point that once fortifications for the Wall were erected, the place became a deserted empty space. Belowground in the subway system, U-Potsdamer Platz was a ghost station, a 'Geisterbahnhof' and trains no longer stopped there. At this time, a couple of the U-bahn lines that originated in the West ran through East Berlin, U6 and U8, the platforms of which were patrolled by DDR border guards, with the exception of Friedrichstrasse, a designated border crossing point. East Germans could not board these lines to head west, for obvious reasons.
The heart of Potsdamer Platz was divided in two from August 1961 with the installation of the Wall, sections of which have been relocated in the revamped space as a reminder of the site's past, although they are the wrong way round; the graffitied side is facing the east, which for reasons mentioned earlier was not possible. The path of the Wall can be traced through the entire city and Postdamer Platz is a focal point of the Wall's story. Initially, before the Wall's erection, the platz's importance as a meeting hub diminished rapidly, as both sides chose to create public centres within their own territory - the West at Kurfurstendamm and the East at Alexanderplatz. The dashed white lines painted around the city, arbitrarily indicating a somewhat fluid border crossed directly through the platz and took on a more permanent fixture with the construction of the Wall. As a result, the remaining buildings around the platz were demolished and what was once a bustling public juncture, inhabited by cafes, eateries and tourist sites, became a barren wasteland that no one dared enter. Here, the DDR border defences were at their strongest, with the Wall dog-legging through the platz' centre, although a strange anomaly of the border divide arose when the Wall, instead of following the official border that ran along the southern edge of the Tiergarten, which was in the British occupied zone, cut straight through Potsdamer Platz, creating the 'Lenne Triangle'; a little slice of unoccupied Soviet territory in West Berlin. Today the entire platz has been rebuilt, with a small sliver of the Lenne Triangle surviving as a green space along Lennestrasse, at the Tiergarten's southern edge, with the rest of it occupied by the hotel buildings visible in the background of this picture.
Next, more from Potsdamer Platz and the Bendlerblock.
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Crimea_River
Marshal
Hope you don't mind if I throw this in Grant. It was one of the most evocative sections that I saw of the wall in front of the Topography of Terror.
- Thread starter
- #104
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Excellent. thanks again for the tour Grant.
thanks Grant
Great shots Grant!
- Thread starter
- #108
So, again, thank you guys for following along. After a busy working week, it's time for more from Berlin.
We are still in Potsdamer Platz, one of the busiest junctions in Europe and one that has seen enormous change in its lifetime. Originally the juncture where the road from Potsdam met the city of Berlin in the 17th Century, there was an entry gate here in the city walls, but it wasn't until the 19th Century and the advent of rail in Germany that Potsdamer Platz became a busy plaza. Germany's first railway began in Potsdam and ended at Potsdamer Platz in 1838 and traffic around the site grew as a result. Three years later, another station was opened nearby, named Anhalter Banhof, which serviced towns to the south of the capital. We'll visit its remains. Potsdamer Platz was also prominent in the history of automobile traffic in Germany, too, with the country's very first traffic light installed in the centre of the junction. A reproduction of it has been placed where it used to stand. From the '30s onward, the Platz became Europe's busiest intersection, but Hitler and Speer's plans for Germania threatened Potsdamer Platz' importance with the installation of the massive North-South Axis to its west intending on bisecting Potsdamerstrasse. Post World War Two, as we know, the border between East and West Berlin ran directly through the junction and it was turned into a wasteland, but reunification has seen enormous reconstruction, most prominently reflected in the glass encased Bahn Tower by Japanese electronics firm Sony as part of the Sony Center. The building houses the headquarters of Deutsche Bahn, the national railway network.
Berlin Tour 63
The heart of the Sony Center is an open amphitheatre over 100 metres across, housing shops, eateries and a cinema and is crowned by this sculptural representation of Mount Fuji in Japan. Formally opened in 2000, the Sony Centre incorporates remains of the Hotel Esplanade, which was located on Potsdamer Platz and had been one of Berlin's most luxurious, until after World War Two, when it became deserted during the city's division. On reunification and the intent to reconstruct Potsdamer Platz as the focal point of Berlin becoming a united city again, the remains of the hotel's grand hall, the Kaisersaal, all 1,300 tonnes of it, was installed within the new structure. At night the leaves of the conical roof are lit up in multiple colours.
Berlin Tour 64
We have left Potsdamer Platz and walked west via Potsdamerstrasse to Sigismundstrasse, where we pass this rather ravaged house frontage. This is Villa Parey, and was built for the author Theodore Wilhelm Paul Parey in 1896. Today it serves as an photography and art collection library. its significance to our story is inconsequential, but for the shrapnel damage, serving as a mute reminder to the ferocity of the battles for the city in 1945. It's on the way to our next point of interest and provides an intriguing spectacle.
Berlin Tour 65
From Sigismundstrasse, we turn left into Stauffenburgstrasse and face the Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand, or German Resistance Memorial Center, which houses exhibitions on resistance to the Nazi regime, specifically, and the name of the street should be a clue, the 20 July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. During Nazi times, this building was known as the Bendler Block, as it sat on Bendlerstrasse - it was the headquarters of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, as well as the Abwehr, the intelligence branch headed by Wilhelm Canaris. Constructed in 1911 as the Imperial Naval Office led by Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, after the war it became the headquarters of the Reichswehr under the Weimar Republic. Under the Nazis the building saw occupation by the Seekriegsleitung, the Maritime Warfare Command, with the main building, this section facing Bendlerstrasse occupied by the General Army Office and the Abwehr. It was in here that Colonel Claus von Stauffenburg and associates plotted the overthrow of the current Nazi leadership, 'Operation Valkyrie' as it was known, the focus of the memorial established inside. The building is currently owned by the Ministry of Defence and utilises its office space.
Berlin Tour 66
This is the courtyard that the open entryway at the centre of the block in the image above enters and given the activities that took place here, is now a memorial space. Within this courtyard, Stauffenburg, General Friedrich Olbricht, Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim and Stauffenberg's adjutant Werner von Haeften were executed by firing squad after midnight on 21 July 1944 for their role in Valkyrie. The accused were marched through the double doors on the left, and lined against a barricade of sandbags against the wall where the wreath is located. Ludwig Beck was allowed to shoot himself. In the 2008 feature film 'Valkyrie', filming of the execution of the plotters took place here, with special permission granted by the Ministry of Defence.
Berlin Tour 67
Tucked away in the far corner of the courtyard is this relief commemorating the Imperial German Army in the Great War. It is the only memorial of its kind that I saw on my time in Berlin.
Berlin Tour 68
Retracing our steps, we have returned to Potsdamer Platz and have turned right heading south along Stresemannstrasse. This is the Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development housed in a building called Europahaus, Berlin's first 'skyscraper'! Constructed in 1931, Europahaus was part of a complex of buildings used for entertainment purposes, incorporating a cafe, movie theatre, dance hall and 'Bierkellar'. One of the building's features was a garden cafe on the top floor, which could be reached by high speed elevator. During Nazi times, the building housed the Central Trade and Industry Office from 1937 until 1940, when it housed the Reichsarbeitsministerium, or Reichs Labour Ministry. Another occupant was the offices of the anti-semitic propaganda newspaper 'Der Sturmer'. During the war, the building suffered a major fire, and only its skeleton remained. Rebuilt in the 1960s, it has had several occupants since then. Note the Berliner Baer with its arms outstretched in front. This was one of a series that were named United Buddy Bears created as a travelling exhibition in 2001. 350 of the uglies were placed on the Berlin streets and mercifully, they are few in number these days.
Berlin Tour 69
Walking south along Stresemanstrasse, we reach the remains of Anhalter Bahnhof, one of the big interstate railway stations in the city. Only the second train terminus to be built in Berlin, at the same time as Potsdamer Bahnhof, see above, Anhalter Bahnhof grew in magnitude owing to the number of cities the trains that departed from here serviced, such as Dessau, Dresden and Leipzig in the south of the country and to the east and beyond. In 1878 construction of the great hall, which the front facade that remains joined onto, was completed and during its heyday in the 1930s, some 44,000 people a day transitted through the station. With Speer's Germania plans for the city, Anhalter Bahnhof was to become a municipal swimming pool, as the North-South Axis was to sever the railway lines running south, and two new stations were planned, the Nord Bahnhof and Sud Bahnhof, at either end of the main boulevard. What we see here is the ornately decorated front entry archway, with the expanse of what used to be platforms stretching out behind it, now serving as a recreational space.
Berlin Tour 70
During World War Two, as the terminus for the main trunk line south and to the east, Anhalter Bahnhof saw political prisoners and other enemies of the state transported to concentrations camps, crammed in the most apalling conditions in windowless cattle carts. Suffering bomb damage during an air raid, the building was never rebuilt and following the division of the city, its lines were no longer required as it falls in the Western sector. In 1952, the burned out shell was demolished and for some reason, this section was kept. During the Wall era, Anhalter Bahnhof U-bahn became a Geisterbahnhof and remained closed, the underground station inheriting the name of the original terminus. In the U-bahn station entrance is this imprint of how the station looked in 1935. It was truly enormous. The surviving section can be made out at the building's front.
Berlin Tour 71
Finally for now, this is the Berlin Bunker, housing Berlin Story, an exhibition space containing a museum on the history of the Nazis and the city itself. It holds a repository on Hitler and, so the museum claims, is the largest surviving written archive on the life of the Fuhrer. I had intended on visiting, but disappointingly it was closed. Quite obviously an above ground air raid shelter, the bunker was begun at the end of 1941 and was finished a year later in October 1942 and was capable of housing around 5,000 people, although as the war progressed and the scale of the bombing grew, the building housed vastly larger numbers. A makeshift hospital became a permanent feature within. With the city's invasion by the Soviet armies, the complex was flooded by the SS. Post-war, it remained an empty shell and it wasn't until after reunification that interest in putting the bunker to practical use was shown.
Berlin Tour 72
Next, the Deutsches Technic Museum.
We are still in Potsdamer Platz, one of the busiest junctions in Europe and one that has seen enormous change in its lifetime. Originally the juncture where the road from Potsdam met the city of Berlin in the 17th Century, there was an entry gate here in the city walls, but it wasn't until the 19th Century and the advent of rail in Germany that Potsdamer Platz became a busy plaza. Germany's first railway began in Potsdam and ended at Potsdamer Platz in 1838 and traffic around the site grew as a result. Three years later, another station was opened nearby, named Anhalter Banhof, which serviced towns to the south of the capital. We'll visit its remains. Potsdamer Platz was also prominent in the history of automobile traffic in Germany, too, with the country's very first traffic light installed in the centre of the junction. A reproduction of it has been placed where it used to stand. From the '30s onward, the Platz became Europe's busiest intersection, but Hitler and Speer's plans for Germania threatened Potsdamer Platz' importance with the installation of the massive North-South Axis to its west intending on bisecting Potsdamerstrasse. Post World War Two, as we know, the border between East and West Berlin ran directly through the junction and it was turned into a wasteland, but reunification has seen enormous reconstruction, most prominently reflected in the glass encased Bahn Tower by Japanese electronics firm Sony as part of the Sony Center. The building houses the headquarters of Deutsche Bahn, the national railway network.
The heart of the Sony Center is an open amphitheatre over 100 metres across, housing shops, eateries and a cinema and is crowned by this sculptural representation of Mount Fuji in Japan. Formally opened in 2000, the Sony Centre incorporates remains of the Hotel Esplanade, which was located on Potsdamer Platz and had been one of Berlin's most luxurious, until after World War Two, when it became deserted during the city's division. On reunification and the intent to reconstruct Potsdamer Platz as the focal point of Berlin becoming a united city again, the remains of the hotel's grand hall, the Kaisersaal, all 1,300 tonnes of it, was installed within the new structure. At night the leaves of the conical roof are lit up in multiple colours.
We have left Potsdamer Platz and walked west via Potsdamerstrasse to Sigismundstrasse, where we pass this rather ravaged house frontage. This is Villa Parey, and was built for the author Theodore Wilhelm Paul Parey in 1896. Today it serves as an photography and art collection library. its significance to our story is inconsequential, but for the shrapnel damage, serving as a mute reminder to the ferocity of the battles for the city in 1945. It's on the way to our next point of interest and provides an intriguing spectacle.
From Sigismundstrasse, we turn left into Stauffenburgstrasse and face the Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand, or German Resistance Memorial Center, which houses exhibitions on resistance to the Nazi regime, specifically, and the name of the street should be a clue, the 20 July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. During Nazi times, this building was known as the Bendler Block, as it sat on Bendlerstrasse - it was the headquarters of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, as well as the Abwehr, the intelligence branch headed by Wilhelm Canaris. Constructed in 1911 as the Imperial Naval Office led by Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, after the war it became the headquarters of the Reichswehr under the Weimar Republic. Under the Nazis the building saw occupation by the Seekriegsleitung, the Maritime Warfare Command, with the main building, this section facing Bendlerstrasse occupied by the General Army Office and the Abwehr. It was in here that Colonel Claus von Stauffenburg and associates plotted the overthrow of the current Nazi leadership, 'Operation Valkyrie' as it was known, the focus of the memorial established inside. The building is currently owned by the Ministry of Defence and utilises its office space.
This is the courtyard that the open entryway at the centre of the block in the image above enters and given the activities that took place here, is now a memorial space. Within this courtyard, Stauffenburg, General Friedrich Olbricht, Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim and Stauffenberg's adjutant Werner von Haeften were executed by firing squad after midnight on 21 July 1944 for their role in Valkyrie. The accused were marched through the double doors on the left, and lined against a barricade of sandbags against the wall where the wreath is located. Ludwig Beck was allowed to shoot himself. In the 2008 feature film 'Valkyrie', filming of the execution of the plotters took place here, with special permission granted by the Ministry of Defence.
Tucked away in the far corner of the courtyard is this relief commemorating the Imperial German Army in the Great War. It is the only memorial of its kind that I saw on my time in Berlin.
Retracing our steps, we have returned to Potsdamer Platz and have turned right heading south along Stresemannstrasse. This is the Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development housed in a building called Europahaus, Berlin's first 'skyscraper'! Constructed in 1931, Europahaus was part of a complex of buildings used for entertainment purposes, incorporating a cafe, movie theatre, dance hall and 'Bierkellar'. One of the building's features was a garden cafe on the top floor, which could be reached by high speed elevator. During Nazi times, the building housed the Central Trade and Industry Office from 1937 until 1940, when it housed the Reichsarbeitsministerium, or Reichs Labour Ministry. Another occupant was the offices of the anti-semitic propaganda newspaper 'Der Sturmer'. During the war, the building suffered a major fire, and only its skeleton remained. Rebuilt in the 1960s, it has had several occupants since then. Note the Berliner Baer with its arms outstretched in front. This was one of a series that were named United Buddy Bears created as a travelling exhibition in 2001. 350 of the uglies were placed on the Berlin streets and mercifully, they are few in number these days.
Walking south along Stresemanstrasse, we reach the remains of Anhalter Bahnhof, one of the big interstate railway stations in the city. Only the second train terminus to be built in Berlin, at the same time as Potsdamer Bahnhof, see above, Anhalter Bahnhof grew in magnitude owing to the number of cities the trains that departed from here serviced, such as Dessau, Dresden and Leipzig in the south of the country and to the east and beyond. In 1878 construction of the great hall, which the front facade that remains joined onto, was completed and during its heyday in the 1930s, some 44,000 people a day transitted through the station. With Speer's Germania plans for the city, Anhalter Bahnhof was to become a municipal swimming pool, as the North-South Axis was to sever the railway lines running south, and two new stations were planned, the Nord Bahnhof and Sud Bahnhof, at either end of the main boulevard. What we see here is the ornately decorated front entry archway, with the expanse of what used to be platforms stretching out behind it, now serving as a recreational space.
During World War Two, as the terminus for the main trunk line south and to the east, Anhalter Bahnhof saw political prisoners and other enemies of the state transported to concentrations camps, crammed in the most apalling conditions in windowless cattle carts. Suffering bomb damage during an air raid, the building was never rebuilt and following the division of the city, its lines were no longer required as it falls in the Western sector. In 1952, the burned out shell was demolished and for some reason, this section was kept. During the Wall era, Anhalter Bahnhof U-bahn became a Geisterbahnhof and remained closed, the underground station inheriting the name of the original terminus. In the U-bahn station entrance is this imprint of how the station looked in 1935. It was truly enormous. The surviving section can be made out at the building's front.
Finally for now, this is the Berlin Bunker, housing Berlin Story, an exhibition space containing a museum on the history of the Nazis and the city itself. It holds a repository on Hitler and, so the museum claims, is the largest surviving written archive on the life of the Fuhrer. I had intended on visiting, but disappointingly it was closed. Quite obviously an above ground air raid shelter, the bunker was begun at the end of 1941 and was finished a year later in October 1942 and was capable of housing around 5,000 people, although as the war progressed and the scale of the bombing grew, the building housed vastly larger numbers. A makeshift hospital became a permanent feature within. With the city's invasion by the Soviet armies, the complex was flooded by the SS. Post-war, it remained an empty shell and it wasn't until after reunification that interest in putting the bunker to practical use was shown.
Next, the Deutsches Technic Museum.
Lovely shots Grant!
fubar57
General
Crimea_River
Marshal
Excellent once again. I was lucky to manage entry to the Bunker Museum and spent a good three hours there.
- Thread starter
- #113
Awesome Andy, there was no explanation why it was closed, just that it was. Hmm.
Anyways, From the Berlin Story Bunker we walk through the overgrown mess of trees that used to be the after end of the Anhalter Bahnhof's platforms but is now is Elise-Tilse Park, and cross the footbridge over the Landwehr Canal to the Deutsches Technik Museum; one of Germany's and Europe's finest science and transport museum collections. Note the C-47. Remember that there used to be one parked outside of Tempelhof terminal after the Berlin Airlift? There it is.
Europe 261
Within the section on radios and electronics is a display on Konrad Zuse, responsible for the world's first programmeable digital computer, the Z3, which he built in Berlin in 1941. This display focusses on Zuse's work in designing the Henschel Hs 293 guided missile, for which he built the Z1 mechanical computer, the predecessor to the Z3. The Hs 293's complex aerodynamics were calculated using it; that's a photo of it on the far right, with a control surface from the missile at top left. The sketched outline shows points of lift on a flying bomb's wings.
Europe 262
The interior of a cattle carriage used to transport 'untermenchen' to concentration camps serves as a memorial.
Europe 263
From here on in will just be names of things rather than the lengthy text that accompanies the most recent images. A Biber Class kleiner U-boot.
Europe 264
A model of the Deutsches Luftfahrt Sammlung that we saw earlier in the thread. Choccy fish if you can name all the aircraft types.
Europe 265
Arado Ar 96.
Europe 266
A restored tailwheel from an Fw 200 Condor, with an unrestored example in the case behind.
Europe 267
Nord 1102 Noralpha.
Europe 268
Ju 88G, with Fieseler Fi 156 above.
Europe 269
Bf 110F and Fw 44.
Europe 270
SNCAC Martinet, derivative of the Siebel Si 204. The metal frame behind is a slice of the Dornier Do X, destroyed in the Deutsches Luftfahrt Sammlung fire in 1943.
Europe 272
CASA 352L.
Europe 273
Klemm Kl 35D D-EDOD Liesel Bach, who was the first woman to fly over Mt Everest, which she did in 1951.
Europe 274
Arado Ar 79.
Europe 275
Not a Buchon, but the genuine article, a Bf 109E-3 confronting a WSK SBLim-2.
Europe 277
Gotha Go 242 skeleton.
Europe 278
Bucker Bu 181 fitted with Panzerfaust. This is the genuine thing, not a recreation made for the museum - this aircraft W Nr 501659 was built in Czechoslovakia in 1944 and was fitted with the Panzerfaust installation as a desperate measure in the dying days of the Third Reich.
Europe 279
He 162.
Europe 280
From L to R; Rheintochter R1 SAM with a HWK 109 509 rocket engine behind, suspended from the ceiling is FZG 76 or Fi 103, Ru 344 X 4 AAM, Hs 117 behind and Hs 293 guided missiles, He 162, Bu 181.
Europe 281
Next, More Berlin madness as we head for Checkpoint Charlie.
Anyways, From the Berlin Story Bunker we walk through the overgrown mess of trees that used to be the after end of the Anhalter Bahnhof's platforms but is now is Elise-Tilse Park, and cross the footbridge over the Landwehr Canal to the Deutsches Technik Museum; one of Germany's and Europe's finest science and transport museum collections. Note the C-47. Remember that there used to be one parked outside of Tempelhof terminal after the Berlin Airlift? There it is.
Within the section on radios and electronics is a display on Konrad Zuse, responsible for the world's first programmeable digital computer, the Z3, which he built in Berlin in 1941. This display focusses on Zuse's work in designing the Henschel Hs 293 guided missile, for which he built the Z1 mechanical computer, the predecessor to the Z3. The Hs 293's complex aerodynamics were calculated using it; that's a photo of it on the far right, with a control surface from the missile at top left. The sketched outline shows points of lift on a flying bomb's wings.
The interior of a cattle carriage used to transport 'untermenchen' to concentration camps serves as a memorial.
From here on in will just be names of things rather than the lengthy text that accompanies the most recent images. A Biber Class kleiner U-boot.
A model of the Deutsches Luftfahrt Sammlung that we saw earlier in the thread. Choccy fish if you can name all the aircraft types.
Arado Ar 96.
A restored tailwheel from an Fw 200 Condor, with an unrestored example in the case behind.
Nord 1102 Noralpha.
Ju 88G, with Fieseler Fi 156 above.
Bf 110F and Fw 44.
SNCAC Martinet, derivative of the Siebel Si 204. The metal frame behind is a slice of the Dornier Do X, destroyed in the Deutsches Luftfahrt Sammlung fire in 1943.
CASA 352L.
Klemm Kl 35D D-EDOD Liesel Bach, who was the first woman to fly over Mt Everest, which she did in 1951.
Arado Ar 79.
Not a Buchon, but the genuine article, a Bf 109E-3 confronting a WSK SBLim-2.
Gotha Go 242 skeleton.
Bucker Bu 181 fitted with Panzerfaust. This is the genuine thing, not a recreation made for the museum - this aircraft W Nr 501659 was built in Czechoslovakia in 1944 and was fitted with the Panzerfaust installation as a desperate measure in the dying days of the Third Reich.
He 162.
From L to R; Rheintochter R1 SAM with a HWK 109 509 rocket engine behind, suspended from the ceiling is FZG 76 or Fi 103, Ru 344 X 4 AAM, Hs 117 behind and Hs 293 guided missiles, He 162, Bu 181.
Next, More Berlin madness as we head for Checkpoint Charlie.
Last edited:
fubar57
General
What a great museum
- Thread starter
- #115
Crimea_River
Marshal
Great stuff. I loved the working model railroad showing the Anhalter Bahnhoff and its surrounding areas.
Good shots Grant!
- Thread starter
- #118
So, on with our walking tour; after a lengthy browse round the Deutsches technikmuseum, we walk to the Mockernbrucke U-Bahn station and catch a train to U-Kochstrasse, where we get off and walk north along Friedrichstrasse to this junction with Zimmerstrasse - a 'window' into a long past world. This is the site of the infamous Checkpoint Charlie, established as the crossing point of the East-West Berlin border wall in the central city, where foreigners and members of the Allied forces could go to the eastern parts of the city. From the western sector, from where we have approached, for many years the only structure was a wooden hut like this one, as the Allies did not officially recognise the border, whereas on the Eastern side, there were the usual accoutrements, barrier arms, guard posts, a watch tower, barbed wire and obligatory Czech hedgehogs. Note the 'You are leaving the American Sector' sign, next to that symbol of Western decadence that the East so obviously despised, the red KFC sign. The original Checkpoint sign is in the Allied Museum (not the KFC one - that's a more recent addition!).
Berlin Tour 74
Standing on the corner of Zimmerstrasse, we look directly across the border into East Berlin; we are actually looking due north. The purpose of the Russian soldier portrait is not known to me, and try as I might, I couldn't find his name on the interweb. A significant place in the history of the Cold War, Checkpoint Charlie was the scene of a stand-off between US and Soviet forces, which escalated into an international incident between the two major powers that sent nuclear bombers into the skies waiting for the word to strike... On 22 October 1961, just over two months since the erection of the Wall, Allan Lightner Jr, the senior American diplomat in West Berlin, wishing to go to the opera on Unter Den Linden - something that was still permitted at this stage on the proviso that passports or papers had to be carried by those entering the East, refused to show his passport and was turned away by East German guards. His reasoning was that he didn't recognise East Germany as a state and that he would only show his documents to Soviet guards. On hearing this, a few days later, General Lucius Clay, the staunch US officer who initiated the Berlin Airlift sent Lightner Jr back to the border under escort by US Military Police in Jeeps; he backed this forthright action with M48 tanks, which parked themselves 75 metres from the border, facing the East German checkpoint. In Moscow, not wishing to appear weak, Premier Nikita Khruschchev ordered the Soviet military to do the same and soon, T-55 tanks appeared and faced the M48s from the opposite side. For 16 hours, both sides' vehicles revved their engines and postured, while the world held its breath. In the UK, US bombers, armed with nuclear weapons took off and cruised in a holding pattern high over the Atlantic. This was one of the tensest moments of the Cold War and through back channels, US President Kennedy and Khruschev contacted each other in an effort to break the stand-off. It worked and slowly, one by one, each side's tanks began to reverse from their positions, with a T-55 being the first to bravely back away. Following this incident, Clay, once the Hero of Berlin was ordered back to the United States after being censured by the chief of US forces in Germany, and Kennedy and Khruschev established a back channel telephone link that they were to use once more almost exactly a year later during the Cuban Missile Crisis - that other time the world nearly stumbled into nuclear war.
Berlin Tour 75
Just down from the corner of Zimmerstrasse is the Haus Am Checkpoint Charlie, the first museum detailing the history of the Berlin Wall and the checkpoint itself. It's smaller and more claustrophobic than it looks, but is a fascinating glimpse at the site and its turbulent history. This marker point displays the shield of the DDR, that failed social experiment that dominated the lives of millions and destroyed many, and became the focal point of the nuclear stand-off that gripped the world for 45 years.
Berlin Tour 76
Walking east along Zimmerstrasse, we come across this simple staff in the middle of the footpath. The Wiki page on Checkpoint Charlie has this to say about the unfortunate individual mentioned on the memorial;
"On 17 August 1962, a teenaged East German, Peter Fechter, was shot in the pelvis by East German guards while trying to escape from East Berlin. His body lay tangled in a barbed wire fence, and he bled to death, in full view of the world's media. American soldiers could not rescue him because he was a few metres inside the Soviet sector. East German border guards were reluctant to approach him for fear of provoking Western soldiers, one of whom had shot an East German border guard just days earlier. More than an hour later, Fechter's body was removed by the East German guards. A spontaneous demonstration formed on the American side of the checkpoint, protesting against the action of the East and the inaction of the West."
The inscription reads "...He just wanted freedom."
Berlin Tour 77
From the turmoil of the border crossing, we head north along Friedrichstrasse and reach the Gendarmentmarkt, flanked by two identical towered neo classical buildings with the Schauspielhaus at its centre, otherwise known as the Konzerthaus Berlin. Originally a marketplace, hence the name, it is now a meeting site lined by cafes, with the Französischer Dom (French Dome) building behind us serving in its original role as a church, and the opposite Deutscher Dom (German Dome), in front of us now serving as an exhibition space. That's a statue of the poet Friedrich Schiller in front of the Konzerthaus. The Nazis took offence to it and had it removed. The Soviets reinstalled it. During WW2, both of the identical churches were burnt out after a daylight raid on 7 May 1944; the burning domes being one of the most iconic images of the Berlin raids. They have been reconstructed in their original fine appearance, with the Konzerthaus, having suffered fire damage was restored.
Berlin Tour 78
This image shows the striking interior of the tower within the Deutscher Dom. The building houses a multi-storey exhibition on democracy and the political process in Germany. Those models of the Volkshalle and Konigsplatz showing the Reichstag and Siegessaule displayed earlier in the thread are on the top floor.
Berlin Tour 79
From the Gendarmenmarkt, we walk east along Französischestrasse, past the green dome of St Hedwig's Cathedral into Bebelplatz. Formerly known as Platz am Opernhaus, this space was completed in 1743 and houses the state opera house on its eastern flank, St Hedwig's Catholic Cathedral at its southern end and the Humboldt University law faculty Bibliotek on its western flank. This is where Lightner Jr was heading when he was told to turn back by the East German border guards at Checkpoint Charlie in October 1961. After briefly being known as Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Platz from August 1910, after the Great War it was named after Ferdinand August Bebel, known to all as August, the German politician who founded the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD party in 1869. The site however is remembered for a less enlightened purpose enacted by those eternal heathen, the Nazis. These buildings are all postwar recreations, of course.
Berlin Tour 80
This is the Humboldt University law faculty library and once upon a time Vlad Ilyich Lenin himself perused its shelves for titles relevant to his interests, but in front is a plaque describing the infamous incident that took part outside the library, the book burning instigated by the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund, abbreviated NSDStB, or National Socialist German Student Union on the night of 10 May 1933. This rather drastic action was the culmination of the 'Action against the Un-German spirit', which was a purge of items that the nazis found to be culturally distasteful, notably works of literature by left leaning authors, democratic expressions and of course, anything by Jewish writers. Some 25,000 books were destroyed in the bonfire that took place here. This wasn't the only book burning, others in other cities were postponed by rain that night. The book burnings were wholeheartedly supported by senior Nazi officials, notably propaganda minister Josef Goebbels, who passed the cause of the action into law, banning libraries and book stores from stocking anything considered distasteful to the Nazis.
The plaque reads; '"Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen." Heinrich Heine 1820. In der Mitte dieses Platzes verbrannten am 10. Mai 1933 nationalsozialistische Studenten die Werke hunderter freier Schriftsteller, Publizisten, Philosophen und Wissenschaftler. "Bibliothek" Denkmal "Die Bücherverbrennung vom 10. Mai 1933 Von Micha Ullman Gebaut 1994/95.' Translated: '"That was just a prelude, where, to burn books, in the end you also burn people". Heinrich Heine, 1820. On May 10 1933, National Socialist students burned the works of hundreds of freelance writers, publicists, philosophers and scientists in the middle of this square. Library Memorial, the book burning of 10 May 1933, of Micha Ullman, built in 1994/95.'
Berlin Tour 81
Below the square is a car park, within which is an inaccessible room full of the exact titles that were destroyed on the night of 10 May 1933, stacked on shelves visible through this square in the cobbled floor. This rather simple but effective memorial was designed by Israeli sculptor Micha Ullman.
Berlin Tour 82
With the Bebelplatz to our right, we are standing facing east at the easternmost end of Unter den Linden behind us, appreciating what is a typically Berlin scene that captures the city's restless spirit perfectly. Buildings of the Humboldt Uni campus across the street a testament to the city's intelligentsia's aspirations, commuters on bicycles, combined with tourists in clumps and an open topped tourist bus reflecting the city's appeal to foreigners and Germans alike, the restoration of buildings ravaged by political events and war, and of course the crane reflect Berlin's constant state as a perpetual building site since the fall of the Wall, with the Ferhnsehturm, ever present, hovering over the city, reminding us of the past and the future - looking space age and yet being of the turbulent years of the city's division. One street lamp is going, while the others aren't, symbolic perhaps, of the city's rebellious history, or more prosaically that the current council has invested less in infrastructure than what has been in the past. Ahhh, so much going on here.
Berlin Tour 83
Next, we continue eastwards on our journey through Berlin's Dark Heart.
Standing on the corner of Zimmerstrasse, we look directly across the border into East Berlin; we are actually looking due north. The purpose of the Russian soldier portrait is not known to me, and try as I might, I couldn't find his name on the interweb. A significant place in the history of the Cold War, Checkpoint Charlie was the scene of a stand-off between US and Soviet forces, which escalated into an international incident between the two major powers that sent nuclear bombers into the skies waiting for the word to strike... On 22 October 1961, just over two months since the erection of the Wall, Allan Lightner Jr, the senior American diplomat in West Berlin, wishing to go to the opera on Unter Den Linden - something that was still permitted at this stage on the proviso that passports or papers had to be carried by those entering the East, refused to show his passport and was turned away by East German guards. His reasoning was that he didn't recognise East Germany as a state and that he would only show his documents to Soviet guards. On hearing this, a few days later, General Lucius Clay, the staunch US officer who initiated the Berlin Airlift sent Lightner Jr back to the border under escort by US Military Police in Jeeps; he backed this forthright action with M48 tanks, which parked themselves 75 metres from the border, facing the East German checkpoint. In Moscow, not wishing to appear weak, Premier Nikita Khruschchev ordered the Soviet military to do the same and soon, T-55 tanks appeared and faced the M48s from the opposite side. For 16 hours, both sides' vehicles revved their engines and postured, while the world held its breath. In the UK, US bombers, armed with nuclear weapons took off and cruised in a holding pattern high over the Atlantic. This was one of the tensest moments of the Cold War and through back channels, US President Kennedy and Khruschev contacted each other in an effort to break the stand-off. It worked and slowly, one by one, each side's tanks began to reverse from their positions, with a T-55 being the first to bravely back away. Following this incident, Clay, once the Hero of Berlin was ordered back to the United States after being censured by the chief of US forces in Germany, and Kennedy and Khruschev established a back channel telephone link that they were to use once more almost exactly a year later during the Cuban Missile Crisis - that other time the world nearly stumbled into nuclear war.
Just down from the corner of Zimmerstrasse is the Haus Am Checkpoint Charlie, the first museum detailing the history of the Berlin Wall and the checkpoint itself. It's smaller and more claustrophobic than it looks, but is a fascinating glimpse at the site and its turbulent history. This marker point displays the shield of the DDR, that failed social experiment that dominated the lives of millions and destroyed many, and became the focal point of the nuclear stand-off that gripped the world for 45 years.
Walking east along Zimmerstrasse, we come across this simple staff in the middle of the footpath. The Wiki page on Checkpoint Charlie has this to say about the unfortunate individual mentioned on the memorial;
"On 17 August 1962, a teenaged East German, Peter Fechter, was shot in the pelvis by East German guards while trying to escape from East Berlin. His body lay tangled in a barbed wire fence, and he bled to death, in full view of the world's media. American soldiers could not rescue him because he was a few metres inside the Soviet sector. East German border guards were reluctant to approach him for fear of provoking Western soldiers, one of whom had shot an East German border guard just days earlier. More than an hour later, Fechter's body was removed by the East German guards. A spontaneous demonstration formed on the American side of the checkpoint, protesting against the action of the East and the inaction of the West."
The inscription reads "...He just wanted freedom."
From the turmoil of the border crossing, we head north along Friedrichstrasse and reach the Gendarmentmarkt, flanked by two identical towered neo classical buildings with the Schauspielhaus at its centre, otherwise known as the Konzerthaus Berlin. Originally a marketplace, hence the name, it is now a meeting site lined by cafes, with the Französischer Dom (French Dome) building behind us serving in its original role as a church, and the opposite Deutscher Dom (German Dome), in front of us now serving as an exhibition space. That's a statue of the poet Friedrich Schiller in front of the Konzerthaus. The Nazis took offence to it and had it removed. The Soviets reinstalled it. During WW2, both of the identical churches were burnt out after a daylight raid on 7 May 1944; the burning domes being one of the most iconic images of the Berlin raids. They have been reconstructed in their original fine appearance, with the Konzerthaus, having suffered fire damage was restored.
This image shows the striking interior of the tower within the Deutscher Dom. The building houses a multi-storey exhibition on democracy and the political process in Germany. Those models of the Volkshalle and Konigsplatz showing the Reichstag and Siegessaule displayed earlier in the thread are on the top floor.
From the Gendarmenmarkt, we walk east along Französischestrasse, past the green dome of St Hedwig's Cathedral into Bebelplatz. Formerly known as Platz am Opernhaus, this space was completed in 1743 and houses the state opera house on its eastern flank, St Hedwig's Catholic Cathedral at its southern end and the Humboldt University law faculty Bibliotek on its western flank. This is where Lightner Jr was heading when he was told to turn back by the East German border guards at Checkpoint Charlie in October 1961. After briefly being known as Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Platz from August 1910, after the Great War it was named after Ferdinand August Bebel, known to all as August, the German politician who founded the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD party in 1869. The site however is remembered for a less enlightened purpose enacted by those eternal heathen, the Nazis. These buildings are all postwar recreations, of course.
This is the Humboldt University law faculty library and once upon a time Vlad Ilyich Lenin himself perused its shelves for titles relevant to his interests, but in front is a plaque describing the infamous incident that took part outside the library, the book burning instigated by the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund, abbreviated NSDStB, or National Socialist German Student Union on the night of 10 May 1933. This rather drastic action was the culmination of the 'Action against the Un-German spirit', which was a purge of items that the nazis found to be culturally distasteful, notably works of literature by left leaning authors, democratic expressions and of course, anything by Jewish writers. Some 25,000 books were destroyed in the bonfire that took place here. This wasn't the only book burning, others in other cities were postponed by rain that night. The book burnings were wholeheartedly supported by senior Nazi officials, notably propaganda minister Josef Goebbels, who passed the cause of the action into law, banning libraries and book stores from stocking anything considered distasteful to the Nazis.
The plaque reads; '"Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen." Heinrich Heine 1820. In der Mitte dieses Platzes verbrannten am 10. Mai 1933 nationalsozialistische Studenten die Werke hunderter freier Schriftsteller, Publizisten, Philosophen und Wissenschaftler. "Bibliothek" Denkmal "Die Bücherverbrennung vom 10. Mai 1933 Von Micha Ullman Gebaut 1994/95.' Translated: '"That was just a prelude, where, to burn books, in the end you also burn people". Heinrich Heine, 1820. On May 10 1933, National Socialist students burned the works of hundreds of freelance writers, publicists, philosophers and scientists in the middle of this square. Library Memorial, the book burning of 10 May 1933, of Micha Ullman, built in 1994/95.'
Below the square is a car park, within which is an inaccessible room full of the exact titles that were destroyed on the night of 10 May 1933, stacked on shelves visible through this square in the cobbled floor. This rather simple but effective memorial was designed by Israeli sculptor Micha Ullman.
With the Bebelplatz to our right, we are standing facing east at the easternmost end of Unter den Linden behind us, appreciating what is a typically Berlin scene that captures the city's restless spirit perfectly. Buildings of the Humboldt Uni campus across the street a testament to the city's intelligentsia's aspirations, commuters on bicycles, combined with tourists in clumps and an open topped tourist bus reflecting the city's appeal to foreigners and Germans alike, the restoration of buildings ravaged by political events and war, and of course the crane reflect Berlin's constant state as a perpetual building site since the fall of the Wall, with the Ferhnsehturm, ever present, hovering over the city, reminding us of the past and the future - looking space age and yet being of the turbulent years of the city's division. One street lamp is going, while the others aren't, symbolic perhaps, of the city's rebellious history, or more prosaically that the current council has invested less in infrastructure than what has been in the past. Ahhh, so much going on here.
Next, we continue eastwards on our journey through Berlin's Dark Heart.
Last edited:
Great shots Grant!
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