The train trip from Wittenberg to Berlin normally takes less than an hour on the fast train. However, they are doing some track work south of Berlin and we could tell when the fast train slowed down and we took some of the, would you say, “back tracks?” Even so I marvel at the extensive rail network in Germany. In just over an hour we pulled into the ultra-modern Berlin Hauptbahnhof. This slick, glass-covered station is a destination in itself. In addition to dozens of train tracks with long-distance and local trains arriving and departing all the time, there are hundreds of shops, cafes, restaurants and stands.
The architecture is clearly designed to make a statement that Berlin is a modern, international city. The plans started soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. After years of planning followed by the actual construction, the Berlin Hauptbahnhof opened on May 28, 2006. As you stand in front of the historic Reichstag, you can look to your left and see the imposing glass Hauptbahnhof standing proudly overlooking the city.
We found a taxi and made a short trip to the Berlin Intercontinental Hotel, one of the best hotels in the city. This proud hotel has hosted American Presidents, Kings, Queens, and many other governmental officials and celebrities through the years. Later in the afternoon, there were a number of police cars, darkened limousines, and dozens of security personnel. Someone very important was about to leave the hotel, but they would not tell us who.
We took a taxi to the Reichstag, the stunning legislative building that dates back to 1895. When the building was first inaugurated in 1895, the Hohenzollern family that had reigned for nearly 500 years was still in power. Back then the real power was in the royal palace. But when the Emperor was deposed in World War I, the German Republic was proclaimed at the Reichstag and the words “Dem Deutschen Volke” (To the German People) were inscribed on the façade.
The first democracy proved to be very weak. In 1933, Adolf Hitler had his henchmen to set fire to the Reichstag. Hitler and the Nazis quickly blamed the Communists for the fire, but it was a scripted move to gain total power and control.
The Reichstag was barely used during the terrible Nazi regime, but it remained a powerful symbol. It received serious damage due to bombings in the war. When Berlin was divided into East and West, the Reichstag was right in the middle. It fell into disuse during the Cold War, but now that Germany is reunited, the Reichstag has become the symbol of German unity and democracy.
To the side of the Reichstag there is a row of slate stones sticking out of the ground. It almost looks like a bike rack. There are 96 slabs that remember the 96 members of the Reichstag who dared to speak out against Hitler. When Hitler became chancellor, every single one of these critics was persecuted and murdered. Each slate stone memorializes one brave man who saw the danger Hitler posed and had the courage to speak up. You will find his name, his political party, and the date and location of his death. Most of the slabs had KZ which meant they died in a concentration camp. For years their names were forgotten, but now there is a lasting memorial in front of the building where they worked. It was a moving and sobering sight to see.
We walked beside the Reichstag and turned right. In the middle of the road that runs to the Brandenburg Gate, there is a prominent line of pavers running through the street. This line represents the former site of the Berlin Wall. On a fence running behind the street we saw a row of white crosses. Each cross represents a brave East Berliner who died trying to cross the Wall into freedom. At least 136 were killed in the 28 years the Wall was up. The final person killed was a 20-year-old who was shot and killed in 1989, just a few months before the Wall came down. Many of those killed were guards who longed for the freedom they saw on the other side of the Wall.
When you think of an image of Berlin, you think of the Brandenburg Gate. Originally one of 14 gigantic gates to Berlin’s old city, this is the last one standing, the only one to survive the war. The majestic four-horse chariot on top is driven by the Goddess of Peace. When Napoleon conquered Prussia in 1806, he took the huge statue back to Paris with him. Seven years later the Prussians defeated Napoleon and they brought it back, renaming the Goddess the “Goddess of Victory.”
During the Cold War this iconic gate was stranded in no man’s land between the East and the West. But then on June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood in front of this gate and demanded, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Finally, on November 9, 1989, the wall finally came down and joyful Berliners adorned the gate with flowers and celebrated.
We walked through the Brandenburg Gate and admired its beauty from Pariser Platz. We walked beside the US Embassy—it was so good to see the United States flag, and went over a block to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The Germans decided not to use the word “Holocaust” but intentionally chose the word “Murdered.” They were confessing that as a nation they murdered over six-million Jews during World War II.
This moving memorial covers the better part of a city block. It is more than ironic that less than a block away you will find a small sign marking the site of Hitler’s underground bunker. It was here that Hitler and his cowering staff sought cover while the rest of Berlin was being destroyed by bombs. Then on April 30, 1945, as the Soviet Army closed in on Berlin, Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide. A week later the European War was over.
There is nothing more than a sign that marks the site of the former Nazi bunker. The Germans don’t want to do anything to call attention or memorialize this evil site. When we visited Berlin over 10 years ago there was just a small, wooden sign. There is still only a solitary sign, but this more permanent sign has a diagram of the bunker and detailed information on its destruction following the war. The only thing that sits over the bunker site today is a parking lot.
One of the last direct orders that Hitler gave before his cowardly death was to execute the German pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was a leader in the “Confessing Church” movement that refused to put Hitler and the state before God and the church. Bonhoeffer recognized the evil in this man and refused asylum in the United States in order to suffer with his people. He rescued a number of Jews from certain death.
He was also involved in the resistance movement
against Hitler and was a player in the Valkyrie plot to kill Hitler. One may think it hypocritical for a pastor, a
man of God, to be involved in a plot to kill someone. But Bonhoeffer rationalized his decision by
saying, “If a madman is driving a bus with the intent to kill many people,
wouldn’t you be justified to take out the madman in order to save the lives of
many?”
On April 5, 1943 Bonhoeffer was arrested in his parent’s home in Berlin and two years later, following a direct order from Adolf Hitler, Bonhoeffer was executed on April 9, 1945, just days before the war ended.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is recognized today as a 20th Century Martyr. He is a true man of God who lived and died with dignity, courage, and grace. His last words were, “This is the end. For me, the beginning of life.”
I don’t know of a Bonhoeffer memorial, a Bonhoeffer museum, or a Bonhoeffer historical site. He never owned a home, but in 1935 his parents built a retirement house in west Berlin and Dietrich lived his last few years of his life there, writing and plotting the resistance against the Nazis.
On Saturday morning, the doorman at the Intercontinental Hotel hailed a taxi and I gave the driver the address for the Bonhoeffer House. I had read there was an English tour every Saturday morning at 11 a.m. It was a long taxi ride. At one point I thought the taxi was either lost or I had given him the wrong address. We were in a quiet residential area. The taxi driver was driving very slowly and turned down a short dead-end street. He stopped in front of a house.
“This is it,” he said in broken English.
I looked at the attractive home that gave no indication it was any different from any of other neighborhood houses. The meter was already up to 20 Euros. I was afraid I was going to have to pay another 20 Euros to go back to the hotel without finding the Bonhoeffer House. I got out of the car and saw a small sign at the gate: “Bonhoefferhaus.” This was it.
I paid the taxi driver and we walked to the front gate. But the gate was locked. The taxi was leaving. There was a bell at the gate. I rang the bell. A moment later a rather large German man opened the door and said to reach inside and open the gate. We did and he welcomed us to the Bonhoeffer House. He went into a room where two ladies from Texas were waiting. The younger lady leads a mission for refugees in Berlin.
By 11 a.m. a few other folks had come. The German man invited us into a large room with a big table surrounded by pictures on the wall. He explained that Dr. Karl Bonhoeffer had built the house in 1935 and Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived there until he was arrested in 1943. He asked where everyone was from. We had a couple from Australia, another couple from England, the two ladies from Texas and a young man from North Carolina. He had just graduated from UNC was tracing his grandfather’s World War II journey escaping from the Nazis.
There is only one room in the house that has been restored historically. It is the upstairs room where Dietrich lived. The desk where he wrote, his piano, and his bookcases are all original. The man told us that before we would visit the room, we would have a conversation on Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
The “conversation” ended up being an hour-long lecture without an opportunity for anyone else to speak. While I know our host, who was a volunteer, had the best intentions and obviously knew a great deal about Bonhoeffer, I was greatly disappointed. His English was not very good and he spoke in a monotone, making it very difficult to follow. But finally he stopped and we ascended the stairs and had the unforgettable experience of standing in Bonhoeffer’s room. He was in that room on April 5, 1943 when the SS agents came and arrested him. Two years later he was executed.
Bonhoeffer in his epic book, The Cost of Discipleship wrote, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
We walked with the ladies from Texas and the young man from North Carolina to a nearby train station where we caught a train back to our hotel area. We were walking up the sidewalk to the hotel when a big bus pulled up that had a “Viking” sign. A moment later, Ashley and Gay Whitfield, Jim and Beverly Black got off the bus. They had come from the airport after their long overseas flight. After they got their luggage into their rooms, we went across the street to a Greek Restaurant where we had a nice lunch and a great time catching up with our friends.
Saturday night we took a tour of Berlin. It doesn’t get dark until almost 10 p.m., so we started with a great German meal at a brewery. Berlin is a beautiful city, especially at night. The next morning we took a city tour. The traces of the war, both World War II and the Cold War, continue to leave their mark on this great city. Today, Berlin is lively and growing. Unless you have someone to tell you, you would not know if you are in the former West or East Berlin. Of course, we visited Checkpoint Charlie and saw remnants of the Berlin Wall. But it is clear that this is a city that is focused on the future while it honors and seeks to learn from its painful past.
We had an early departure Monday morning. We were going back to Wittenberg to board our Viking ship. But on the way we were making a fascinating stop at Potsdam. We had an excellent guide. He grew up in West Berlin and told us about life following the war and after the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961. He has a vivid memory of seeing President John F. Kennedy in 1963 when he famously said, “Ich bin ein Berliner!” He talked about listening to Armed Forces Radio and being introduced to Western music.
One of the most fascinating things he shared was traveling with his family to Italy each summer to visit his grandmother. He told about all the papers and documentation necessary to travel through East Germany. He remembers the soldiers at the border crossings and how they seemed intent on intimidating those trying to cross. He told how certain books, newspapers from West Berlin, and other items were forbidden. He said their holiday never truly started until they left East German and the Soviet soldiers.
We left the former West Berlin sector and entered former East Germany by crossing over the Glienicke Bridge where US pilot Gary Powers who was shot down over the Soviet Union in his U-2 Spy plane was exchanged for a Russian spy. Steven Spielberg brought this 1962 event to life in his 2015 movie “Bridge of Spies.” The dramatic prisoner exchange was actually filmed on the Glienicke Bridge.
We all got off the bus and walked across the bridge. It was a beautiful, sunny day. When we got back on the bus our guide told us something I had not realized. For the rest of our trip, from that moment until we departed from Prague, we would be behind the former Iron Curtain, in former Soviet territory. We would not have been able to travel in these areas 20 years ago.
When you visit Potsdam, you learn about Frederick the Great, the idealistic 18th century Prussian king. Sanssouci Palace was the summer home of Frederick the Great. This dazzling palace is small by royal standards. We did an outside tour. We also saw his simple grave next to the graves of his best friends—his dogs. Interestingly, there were several potatoes on his gravestone. It was Frederick the Great who introduced potatoes to Germany and people honor him by leaving potatoes on his grave.
We drove to the other end of Sanssouci Park to the New Palace. Frederick the Great built this massive showpiece in the 1760s to wow his guests and dispel rumors that Prussia was running out of money following the costly Seven Years’ War. It is a breathtaking experience to walk through this 1,000-room castle with its stunning Grotto Hall and Marble Hall. The last monarch to live in this opulent mansion was Kaiser Wilhelm II (the grandson of Queen Victoria of England) who was exiled from the country when the monarchy was dissolved in 1918.
We went into downtown Potsdam for lunch. It is a beautiful little town with cobblestone pedestrian only streets. We found a small restaurant at the top of a building where we enjoyed a light lunch with great views over the city. We had one more stop to make after lunch, the Cecilienhof.
This early 20th century villa was built in 1912 to house Crown Prince Wilhelm and his wife, Cecilie. He would have become Kaiser had Germany not lost the First World War. The beautiful Tudor-style villa was the site of the 1945 Potsdam Conference that decided the fate of Europe following the war. The big three—Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill had met at Yalta five months before and decided that when the war was over they would meet in Berlin. In those five months Berlin had been destroyed by bombs, Roosevelt had died, and Churchill would lose his re-election bid for Prime Minister while the conference was taking place. One has to wonder what difference it would have made if Roosevelt and Churchill had remained in power and healthy for just a few more months. The decisions made at Potsdam would impact the Western world for generations.
We were now traveling behind the former Iron Curtain, the result of that historic conference in the summer of 1945. Our destination was Wittenberg, or more specifically the River Elbe and the Viking Ship Beyla.
No comments:
Post a Comment