Destination Berlin

I’ve been fortunate in my life to have lived in Paris from 1979 to 1990, and visited other places, such as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Bucharest, Romania, and several different places in Europe.  But one place in particular has eluded me thus far, and I do want to go there before I die (after, if that’s possible):  BERLIN.

[I actually covered this topic on March 2, 2012 with a blog titled simply "Berlin".  However, that mostly covers a fiction novel, The Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson, and a nonfiction book, Berlin At War, by Roger Moorhouse.  Fortunately most of the current blog does not repeat the prior one.]

Initially the capital of Prussia, and then the capital of unified, Imperial Germany (1871-1918), the Weimar Republic (1918-1933 – though my high school history professor, Mr. Mimmack, noted that since Adolf Hitler took power by legitimate means in January 1933, technically Nazi Germany qualifies as an extension of the Weimar Republic itself), and Nazi Germany (1933-45).  

After World War II, both Germany itself and Berlin were separated into East and West.  East Berlin was the capital of East Germany, more officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR in English, DDR in German), whereas the West German capital, of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublic Deutschland, in German) was Bonn, best known as the birthplace of Ludwig von Beethoven, though he moved to Vienna at 21.    

In 1961 the East Germans, fed up with their own people escaping from boring, oppressive East Berlin into West Berlin, built a WALL (no thanks to Roger Waters, though he did play a concert there) – eventually torn down in 1989 when the Soviet Union collapsed, bringing the East Bloc down with it as well.  Berlin finally became one city again.

Germany vs. Prussia vs. Brandenburg.   Brandenburg is a province of Prussia.  Up until 1871, Prussia was a sovereign state, a kingdom run by a king (konig).  Of the various different entities which collectively made up what became Germany in 1871, Prussia was the most important.  Bismarck, the architect of Prussia’s success against Denmark (1864), Austria (1866), and France (1870) orchestrated Prussia’s takeover of the rest of Germany to become the empire, and the King of Prussia, of the Hohenzollern dynasty, became the Emperor (Kaiser) of Germany.  Was Germany truly unified, or did Prussia simply take over the rest?  During WWI, the various different kingdoms and principalities supplied their own armies to the cause, with varying degrees of independence, Bavaria being the second-strongest after Prussia.  In any case, Brandenburg was a sub-part of Prussia, which itself was a sub-part of Germany. 

The fervent Germanophile I have been, I was obviously fascinated by Berlin, but so long as it was divided into West and East, with that pesky, inconvenient WALL, my interest was attenuated.  I wanted to experience the Berlin of the Kaiser, Weimar Republic, and Nazi-Town.  Since time travel still doesn’t exist, that’s not a realistic option, but maybe one day I can visit the current city, which has enjoyed reunification for the past 30 years. 

Unknown.  A recent film with Liam Neeson, January Jones, and Diane Kruger, taking place in modern Berlin.  Neeson plays a guy who winds up with amnesia after his cab plunges into the river.  He has to figure what is going on, while other considerably less polite people try to kill him.  The TV Tower and Brandenburg Gate feature prominently – and one character is a former Stasi (East Germany secret police) agent. 

Babylon Berlin.  I reviewed this series after its second season and watched the third when it came out.  Oddly, I don’t see much in the way of panoramic views of the city in this show.  For that matter, I don’t recall seeing Brandenburg Gate at any point in the series.  Although set in Berlin, I don’t see nearly enough of it to make a difference.  Likewise with “Gentlemen Comrades” taking place in Moscow in 1918.  My guess is that too much has changed in Berlin and Moscow to allow those cities, at the present time, to effectively portray their older selves.  I recall reading about “The Last Samurai”, that Tom Cruise movie from way back, taking place in Yokohama in the late nineteenth century but filmed on a soundstage somewhere because present day Yokohama is full of neon and skyscrapers and looks nothing like its late nineteenth century self.

That being the case, I’m on notice that if “Babylon Berlin” cannot show me old-timey Berlin, there’s a limit to how much I can enjoy.  However, the following appear to be the most famous Berlin landmarks: Brandenburg Gate (1788); the rebuilt Reichtag (no longer on fire); the TV Tower; Charlottenburg Palace, the Gendarmenmarkt; the Tiergarten & the Victory Column; the Kurfurstendam (commercial avenue, Berlin’s Champs Elysees), and Unter den Linden (fancy tree-lined avenue).  Needless to say, if I did visit, I would appreciate a tour.