Capital of cool with wall-to-wall history
BERLIN, November 1989.A young lad wrapped up against the cold peers through a crack in the infamous wall as an East German border guard patrols the other side.the guard stares back at the boy... then breaks into a smile.and a watchful young press photographer captures a small touching moment symbolising one of the biggest shifts in 20th-century history.
The guard’s warm smile that day – only hours before demonstrators’ destruction of the hated wall began in earnest – would become one of millions that finally melted a Coldwar and signalled the rebirth of a nation and its most famous city.
Now, 30 years on, Berlin – still continually rebuilding itself – is the perfect place for a city break like no other. One that will make you think.and even move you to tears.
Yes, it has all the fun ingredients. Luxury hotels, fine restaurants, wonderful cafes, a lively arts and nightclub scene, the bustling Kurfürstendamm packed with designer
shops, and plenty of the usual sightseeing cliches – even a zoo.
But what pulls in so many of its millions of tourists is not so much what you see, but what you sense. The atmosphere of a sinister recent history close enough to touch; an unease that it could be repeated, but also faith-restoring awe at the sheer courage of ordinary people.
You come here to learn – and, this year of all years, to not forget.
Take Checkpoint Charlie, for instance, the border crossing in Friedrichstrasse between East and West, immortalised in a flurry of Coldwar novels.
It’s often the first tourist box ticked.the barriers and guards have long gone from the days when that young photographer, now my wife, last crossed the border. But for both of us the busy museum brings to life hair-raising escapes as fugitives from the Communist East tried to flee to thewest.
VISITORS gaze in bewilderment at the exhibits. People would squeeze into car engines or a band’s amplifier – any small space to sneak across the border. One man even flew to freedom in a home-made light aircraft.
There are so many moving stories, not least the escapes that ended with a bullet in the back. Give yourself at least an hour here.
Then cross the street and walk down Niederkirchnerstrasse to the Topography of Terror, an eerie, large open space where once stood the HQS of the SS and Gestapo.
Chillingly, along the same street where the foundations of these
Nazi buildings still lie, runs a long grey section of the Berlinwall, deliberately left in place since that momentous night on November 9, 1989, when the border was opened and East Berliners joyously embraced theirwestern fellow citizens. Only feet apart, the powerful proximity of these symbols of oppression are not lost on visitors as they file past the exhibition gallery in an unearthed basement where Gestapo prisoners are believed to have been tortured.
The main indoor centre contains a vast documentation of the atrocities of the Hitler regime so harrowing it becomes hard to take – but you will yourself on out of respect to generations lost, and in recognition of a nation painfully laying its soul bare.
It was a relief to move on to two famous Berlin landmarks that bore witness to the city’s 20th century upheaval. Both the 18th century Brandenburg Gate – the symbol of Berlin and a magnet for selfie-snapping tourists (getting those damned galloping horses in is tricky)
– and the
19th century Reichstag.
Still pockmarked with wartime bullet holes, the restored German parliament is topped by architect Norman Foster’s stunning glass dome.a spiralling walkway around the sides takes you to the top and offers 360 degree views across the city.you can get a free tour by booking a time slot (bundestag.de/en/visitthe Bundestag/dome/registration245686). Head there for sunset.
A three-course dinner in the posh rooftop Käfer restaurant will cost about £70 each, but we were on a budget, and a great find was the nearby Mama trattoria in Pariser Platz; stuffed for 34 quid.
The next day we headed East again, first to explore a more joyful Berlin. Ironically, it involved the wall, but this time a mile-long section covered in art – the East Side Gallery.the must-shot is an embrace in front of The Kiss – a portrait from a photo of a 1979 “welcome” snog between infamous Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East Germany’s puppet president Erich Honecker.
From there we strolled to trendy Boxhagener Platz for coffee and