After visiting the GFZ Dendrochronology Laboratory in Potsdam Germany and giving a talk on my research, I travelled to Berlin with my two great tour guides Alex Mueller and Franziska Slotta. Alex is a technician at the German Archaeological Institute that I met at WorldDendro in Melbourne in January 2014 and we enjoyed the post conference tour together in New Zealand. Franziska is a PhD student at the Free University in Berlin and works at the GFZ Dendrochronology Lab. She was in my group at the Tasmanian fieldweek and is doing some interesting tree-ring work on the African Boabab tree. In this picture, we are taking the Berlin Underground railway from Potsdam to Berlin. I found that Berlin (like most European cities) had great public transportation. I only had about 15 hours in Berlin before I took the train to Prague first thing in the morning, but we really packed a lot in to that short time.
Habitation in the Berlin area was first dated to AD 1174
from the wooden parts of early structures in the area and currently has 3.5
million people making it the second most populated city in the European Union.
In the 1920s, Berlin was the third largest municipality in the world. There are
many monuments and historical architectural structures throughout the city.
The Fernsehturm (Berlin TV Tower) dominates the Berlin
Skyline and provides a landmark that can be seen from all over the city (unless
it is eclipsed by a close building). It is 368 meters (1207 feet) tall and has
1.2 million visitors a year. The building was originally designed by the East
German architect Hermann Henselmann in the 1960s and has been a landmark ever
since.
One of the most striking things to me is that the entire
city seemed to be under construction. The city is still rebuilding from the
ravages of World War II. Only one church steeple was left standing in the city
during bombing in World War II and that was left intact as a landmark for
pilots. In this picture, you can see the construction cranes along the Spree River
and the Berlin Cathedral in the background.
The Evangelical
Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church in Berlin (also known as the Berlin
Cathedral) was opened in AD 1905.
The Old Museum on the north side of the Lustgarten was built
in the neoclassical style by the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel and
completed in AD 1830.
Humboldt
University was founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin. Its name was changed
to Frederick William University in 1828 and was later renamed Humboldt
University in 1949 in honor of its founder Wilhelm and his brother Alexander
von Humboldt. The latter is a world renowned geographer and considered one of
the first biogeographers (which is my specialty). This is one of Berlin’s oldest
universities and is considered one of the most prestigious universities
worldwide for the arts and humanities. Bebelplatz
is an open meeting place outside of the opera house and some of the buildings
from Humboldt University where the nationalist German Student Association conducted
a book burning on May 10th, 1933 that burnt books by many authors
including Karl Marx and Albert Einstein. Today there is a memorial by Micha
Ullman at this site that consists of a glass plate in the ground with a view of
empty bookcases that could hold the 20,000 books that were burned.
This is the French Church of Friedrichstadt which is located
across from the German Church (located behind me as I take the photograph).
Berlin-Brandenburg
Academy of Sciences and Humanities was founded in AD 1700 by Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz who was a prominent figure in mathematics and philosophy. He developed
calculus independently form Sir Isaac Newton and also contributed to the binary
number system that is the language of computers.
The
Brandenburg Gate in Berlin is an 18th-century neoclassical triumphal arch commissioned
by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of peace and built by Carl
Gotthard Langhans from 1788 to 1791. It was much damaged in World War II and
was restored from AD 2000 to 2002.
The US Embassy in Berlin which is located right next to the
Brandendurg Gate. It looks more imposing than inviting, but I liked the bike
locked out front to the traffic retention barricade.
The Reichstag building is the central governmental building
in Berlin and was constructed in AD 1894, although it was severely damaged by a
fire in 1933. The building fell into disuse until it was renovated after
reunification in AD 1990.
The Chancellery (New Parliament
Building) which is the largest government headquarters building in the
world and a great example of modern architecture designed by the German
architects Axel Schultes and Charlotte Frank. It was completed in 2001 and cost
230 million Euros ($276 million USD). According to the website http://www.aviewoncities.com/berlin/bundeskanzleramt.htm,
only government officials are allowed inside of the building because of
security concerns.
This is the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma victims of
National Socialism which is dedicated to the memory of the 220,000 to 500,000 people
that were killed in the Nazi genocide. These two were gypsy cultures that were
also a target of the Nazi administration. The monument was designed by Dani
Karavan and was dedicated in 2012.
“The
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (German: Denkmal für die ermordeten
Juden Europas), also known as the Holocaust Memorial, is a memorial in Berlin
to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, designed by architect Peter Eisenman
and engineer Buro Happold. It consists of a 19,000 m2 (4.7-acre) site covered
with 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a grid pattern on
a sloping field (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_the_Murdered_Jews_of_Europe
Downloaded 1/3/2015).” This monument was dedicated in 2005 to honor the 6
million Jews that were killed in the Holocaust.
I found it to be very impactful and amazing memorial, but there has been
controversy about its development and construction.
Berlin was divided by the Allies after World War II into
four quadrants representing the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the
Soviet Union. In 1948, the Soviet Union set up a blockade restricting access to
West Berlin which Western Allies opposed through airlifting supplies into West
Berlin. The Berlin Wall was constructed in AD 1961 by the East Germans under
Soviet control. The Berlin wall was brought down on November 9th,
1989 at the end of the Cold War which I remember seeing on TV. Parts of the wall
are still on display in the East Side Gallery.
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Berlin Wall in 1986: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin#mediaviewer/File:Berlinermauer.jpg
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I also appreciated the juxtaposition of the history
represented by the piece of the Berlin Wall in the foreground with the graffiti
calling for Peace Now with the oversized capitalistic advertisement for the new
iPhone 5c (the phone that I actually have) in the background. I wonder if
capitalism and the current economic strength of Germany could have been
predicted when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.
The Rotes Rathaus (Red City Hall) was completed in AD 1869
as the Berlin city hall. It was in the northern Italian High Renaissance style
by the architect Hermann Friedrich Waesemann. You can see the Berlin TV Tower
in the background.
The Nikolaiviertel (Nicholas' Quarter) was built in AD 1200
and is the old city of Berlin. St. Nikolai-Kirche, (St. Nicholas' Church) was
built between AD 1220 and AD 1230 as a Roman Catholic church. It later became a
Lutheran church in AD 1539. The church was bombed by the Allies in World War II
and the Vaults and northern pillars collapsed in 1949. The towers were rebuilt
using the original plans in AD 1981 by the East German Democratic Republic. Today it is mainly used as a museum and as a concert
venue.
The Weltzeituhr (Worldtime Clock) at Alexanderplatz in
Berlin is an interesting structure with the solar system displayed above and
times around the world displayed on the side.
We walked through an open air springtime market which was
just closing up for the evening. There are
definitely many things to do in Berlin and even a website dedicated to open air
events and festivals (http://www.visitberlin.de/en/keyword/open-air-events-festivals).
We all ended the evening in the Perle Bar (http://www.bar-perle.de/Perle_Bar/Perle_Bar.html)
which had some very good cocktails and the bar tender played a great mix of
music where I first heard Caro Emerald (http://www.caroemerald.com/) and Kitty,
Daisy, & Lewis (http://www.kittydaisyandlewis.com/)
with a mix of Julie London.
