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Monday, September 17, 2007 I’m on my way to Istanbul, and have some time to write this journal entry while sitting in Charles De Gaulle airport waiting for my flight. Over the past week, I’ve worn out some shoe leather walking around Berlin. Every plaza is the size of a football field, and walking on concrete for hours takes its toll on the soles of your feet, but I’ve seen much that is worthwhile. Berlin is a mix of old and new, and like other big cities, it has plenty of interesting places to see. Of course, almost all the buildings, even the old ones are new, i.e., they have been rebuilt since being bombed to rubble in the Second World War.  The
Germans have been really good at rebuilding and restoring. Restoration
decisions are excruciatingly difficult. Many buildings before the war were
actually already restored or rebuilt in earlier times when they were burned
in fires, or destroyed in other wars. So when modern restoration takes
place, people have to decide which former structure will be built.
Sometimes, aspects of a structure from several past versions are combined.
Tourist see, not necessarily what the original building looked like, but
rather what the government agency planners have decided it was best to
rebuild and show. This process is still going on as old buildings are still
being rebuilt. While most important buildings are open now, there are still
some important ones that are closed for renovation.During the Second World War much of the treasure from palaces and museums wound up in underground storage. Salt mines kept thousands of valuable works of art safe during the Allied bombing of Germany, and so today, tourists actually see original works of art, and original furnishings in rebuilt Palaces and rebuilt museums. When we consider the devastation that befell the German cities, it’s really amazing that so much was saved. Also, since Berlin was a divided city after the Second World War, there are some interesting things to note about what has happened after the Wall was torn down. As an example, I learned that the statue of a winged goddess atop the Brandenburg Gate used to face east, and was turned around after the Wall, which ran in front of the gate, was torn down. The statue was also stolen by Napoleon and brought to Paris for a while. The street that runs through the gate is Unter den Linden, and was a major East-West crossing point during the cold war. By the way, the Wall was really two parallel walls with a corridor in between. The last time I was in Berlin, I visited the Checkpoint Charlie display, but did not go back this time. My interest Environmental Science took me to the German Museum of Natural History. It is one of the largest natural history museums, with a gigantic collection and research facility. Two displays especially caught my attention. A display they call “Earth Systems” has a large sphere of the Earth with a video monitor that circles the planet at the Equator stopping every so often to highlight some aspect of geophysical science. For example, over the Yucatan, the video shows the effects of the meteor that struck the planet 65 million years ago. The extremely realistic computer generated video explains the process that resulted in mass extinctions of most of the life forms on the planet at the time, including the dinosaurs. At other points the video shows the structure of the mid Atlantic ridge, the Earth’s core structure, and it explains Tectonic plate movements. The video also shows the impact of mountain ranges on weather patterns, and the formation of volcanoes, islands, and much more. The second exhibit I liked dealt with Biodiversity. The exhibit explained the concept of “Biodiversity Hotspots” (regions with high levels of endemic species, first identified by an American scientist, Dr. Norman Myers). As the exhibit clearly points out, a relatively small number (25-50) places are the key places on the planet. There is some controversy about this idea. Some people don’t think we should emphasize hotspots because it may mean paying too little attention to other places, but, nonetheless, the idea is fascinating, and seeing the exhibit is striking. I spent a lot of time in all kinds of art museums too, and there are a lot of them in Berlin. I saw the bust of Nefertiti, along with Egyptian mummies, and thousands of artifacts from the ancient world in several museums. The Pergamon Museum is the most famous, and one of largest museums devoted to displaying the archeological finds of the past two centuries. Many of the most famous archaeologists of the 19th and 20th centuries were German, and they brought a lot of stuff back to Germany from the ancient sites they excavated in the Middle East. The rooms of the Pergamon Museum are filled with immense sections of ancient cities that were discovered in modern Turkey, Iraq and Iran. The most famous work in the museum, the Ishtar Gate, came from Babylon. They even have a display that portrays the “Tower of Babel,” also from ancient Babylon. Perhaps the best art museum is the Gemalder Gallerie in the Kulturforum near Potsdamer Platz. With works from the middle ages, and by many great European artists, I was mesmerized for hours. In one room, an artist, probably an art restorer, was painting a copy of a great masterpiece right in front of visitors to the museum. Nearby, the Gerwerben Gallerie shows household furnishings from ancient to modern times. The modern stuff looks like an Ikea showroom, but the old stuff shows the craftsmanship of artisans who may have spent years carving or making furniture, jewel encrusted clocks, porcelain tableware, vases and lamps, objects in gold and silver, etc. In an area called the Museum Insel (island), the Old Art Gallery, the Old National Art Gallery and the New Art Gallery kept me going for a whole day. The island, which is not far from the Brandenburg Gate, also has the famous Berliner Dom (Cathedral). The immense royal palace, Schloss Charlottenburg, was home to the kings of Prussia, e.g., Frederick the Great, until the end of the First World War.  The
only word to describe the place is “overwhelming.” The building just goes on
and on, as each king extended the place in a straight line outward on each
side of the main entry building. These extensions, mostly called apartments,
had rooms with specific themes. For example, there are Chinese rooms, Silver
rooms, and summer rooms and winter rooms. Each room contains extraordinary
furniture and other amazing objects. In one room there is a set of snuff
boxes, each encrusted with jewels, and each worth a fortune. Frederick the
Great was fond of snuff boxes, and purchased hundreds. Two huge halls, the
White Hall, and the Green Hall, functioned as places for state dinners,
parties, and places where visiting dignitaries were made to feel the power
of the Prussians. These decorations in these halls include gold and silver
carvings, ornate candelabras, mirrored walls, and fireplaces lined with
Delft porcelain tiles. In the back of the palace there is a large park. The
formal gardens are closest to the palace. Then trails wind around a lake and
lead to a smaller palace called the “Belvedere,” that houses a collection of
Berlin porcelain by a company known as KPM.At Potsdamer Platz, the Sony Center dominates an impressive shopping area. The Sony Center has a huge tent-like structure over its central open area. There are theaters, an IMAX, lots of stores, and lots of restaurants. The Sony Style store has all the latest electronic gadgets to check out.  Down
the block from the Sony Center is Legoland with a 20-foot tall Lego Giraffe
standing outside and a 10-foot Lego bust of Albert Einstein just inside the
doorway. I could go on, but you get the idea. Berlin is a city worth visiting; it’s high on my list of great cities, not just because of all the cultural sites, but also because it is a city full the energetic people from all over the world. To complete my visit, last night, I attended an Irish folk music concert just outside the famous Spandau Citadel, the infamous prison fortress that is no longer used for that purpose. The Irish band called itself “Midnight Court,” and only two of the four musicians were from Ireland, one from Belfast and the other called himself a “Tipper Boy” from Tipperary. The percussionist was from Malaysia, and the fiddle and bodran player came from Berlin. They played traditional Irish folk music using unusual instruments, especially on the part of a percussionist, who played Malaysian drums, a hammered dulcimer, and an accordion like instrument that opened like a box on the table. The fellow from Belfast played a guitar and banjo, and the Tipper Boy played a small box accordion. The setting for the concert was in an open-air performance space with a stage, and proper lighting and sound. The audience sat on bench seats facing the stage. It got a little chilly as the evening temperatures fell; I could see my breadth on the walk back to the train station. Philip Sternberg Scoutmaster, Troop 1131 |