July 29 Day 46 Berlin

After such a heavy day yesterday, we decided we had had enough of the Nazis…and so decided to go visit the DDR (The former East Germany) Museum. This privately owned museum focused on bringing alive the experience of living under the East German and really Soviet rule from after WWII until the wall came down in 1991.  The place was a mixture of some very serious stories about The Wall, and the hardships for the people.  But, there were also with lots of fun and interesting exhibits like of a state-run preschool room complete with toys you could play with, and a full equipped East German apartment. We spent a couple of hours soaking in all of the really interesting facts of life, such as all children in the preschool were potty trained in unison, and the party officials got to drive some VERY nice cars compared to the common people.  A very well done glimpse into a society that was very much cut off from the West for a very long time.

Another chilling space that we visited was the place where in 1933 the Nazis had an enormous book burning, burning more than 25,000 books on this University campus. There was a memorial in which you had to bend down and peer into a room under the sidewalk under a glass pane.  There you could see empty bookshelves. Very grim, especially for a couple of book lovers like us.

We grabbed some lunch at an outdoor cafe along the Spree River and  then walked along the river. Berlin is such a beautiful city.  It is hard to grasp what a complicated history has played out here.

We ended up at the Nineties Berlin Museum which preserved the stories of what happened directly following the fall of The Wall. There was a huge emphasis on the music scene in Berlin, which was not so interesting to us.  But, there was also an area which showed video interviews of people who talked about what happened when the found out The Wall had been opened, and the aftermath of trying to reunite a city and then a country that had been torn in two for so long. There was a dramatic memorial to those who died trying to cross The Wall.  The names were printed directly across from an arrangement of AK-47s.  It was touching. There was quite a bit more about the Wall.  Fascinating!

We took the bus back home, arriving just minutes before a huge thunderstorm rolled through.  Dick and Patti were super happy to enjoy the rain from inside, while Julie and Lars were stuck in a doorway with others waiting for it to stop raining.  We connected back up and had one more good German dinner.  And there was some good German beer for those who like beer (everyone, except for Patti.)