Octoberfest is party time in Berlin and Alexander Platz, a huge outdoor plaza in the middle of the city, is overflowing with happy Berliners quaffing beer at communal tables singing, laughing and dancing.
I’m nursing a lager, four euros for the drink and another for the glass stein which I get back after returning it to the bar. The Germans are nothing if not practical.
It’s hard to imagine this raucous plaza was once a marshalling yard for Soviet troops immediately after the Second World War when Berlin, like the rest of Germany, was split into East and West until reunification in 1990.
That’s the thing about Berlin, it wears its schizophrenic heart on its sleeve. Witness the many landmarks that acknowledge its Nazi past and the East – West divide that followed sitting next to modern additions such as the new interactive Futurium on Alexanderufer or the plethora of high-end shops along Kurfürstendamm.
Führerbunker, a reproduction of Hitler’s subterranean hideout (the original has been paved over) is one of many reminders of Berlin’s past.
Another is the Jewish Holocaust Memorial, a maze of concrete blocks across the street from the federal Ministry of Finance. The complex dips in the middle and, as I walked towards the centre, I felt dread and oppression, much like the Reich’s victims felt, I’m sure, as I imagined the columns closing in on me. The Memorial is intended as a place of reflection, and it works.
The Reichstag, once again the seat of the German Parliament, sports a new glass dome overlooking the Spree River and the collection of parks, cafes, and new office buildings which now line its shores.
Nearby Brandenburg Gate is Berlin’s “people place” where everyone flocks for concerts, events and yes, protests.
Berlin has done a fantastic job of rebuilding. Expunging 46 years of Soviet influence hasn’t been as easy. I took a bus tour of the city and the moment we crossed into the former East Berlin the change was unmistakable.
Karl-Marx Allee, the sector’s main road was designed with May Day parades in mind. Think tanks. Unadorned, blockish Soviet-style apartment buildings still pepper the neighbourhood and Café Moskau, a former hangout for Communist Party officials still sports a mock Sputnik on its roof. The Berlin Tower, a communications tower erected in 1969 by the Soviets remains the highest vantage point in the city.
Other Cold War landmarks include the disappointingly kitschy Checkpoint Charlie. The checkpoint is a replica, moved from its original location to a busy intersection and thus a tangle of tourists and traffic.
Yep, I confess. I contributed to the mayhem by jostling for selfies. I rested at nearby Charlie’s Beach, a bizarre outdoor food court complete with beach sand and deck chairs and gobbled my kebab next to a chunk of the Berlin Wall.
Make no mistake, the Wall and its impact on the city is still a fresh wound. Over 140 Berliners died trying to escape to the West. Their names and portraits are on display in the Tiergarten next to the Brandenburg Gate.
The East Side Gallery is another reminder of Soviet incursion. When the Wall was first erected in 1961 Berliners covered it with slogans and graffiti.
When the Wall came down in 1989, some of those painted sections were relocated to Mühlenstraße, beside the Spree river, and the original artists invited to recreate their iconic works.
The result is a blaze of colour and protest. East German leader Erich Honecker kissing Soviet boss Leonid Brezhnev on the mouth is the most famous and most photographed of the lot.
There are 170 museums in the city. Five of the most noteworthy are clustered at a fork in the Spree called, naturally, Museum Island. Each of the five specialize in a different facet of world history including Byzantine, Etruscan, Roman, Greek and Islamic.
I didn’t make it to all 170, surprise, surprise, but my favorite was the German Museum of Technology, a sprawling collection of planes, boats, cars and in a nearby train shed, mid-century steam locomotives and coaches.
I’m not a gearhead but the Technikmuseum is the most comprehensive transportation collection I have ever seen. It also documents the evolution of computers, photography and printing.
Berlin is not all about facts and figures. The Tiergarten, Berlin’s own Central Park, with over 210 kilometers of hiking trails, a zoo, and an aquarium smack dab in the middle of the city was a welcome respite from sightseeing.
Nearby Spreebogenpark with its wide lawns and waterfront promenade was another picture-perfect place to sit and watch the Spree and assorted water craft move by.
And the food? I ate well.
My Airbnb happened to be kitty corner to Zur Letzten Instanz, the oldest restaurant in Berlin. I swear the menu hasn’t changed much since 1621. I dined on pork knuckle, potatoes and red cabbage and washed it down with a refreshing pilsner. Back in the 1960’s, West Germany was awash in beer production. It’s fallen off now but, not to worry, there are still plenty of suds around.
The next day the city hosted the Berlin Marathon. Streets were closed, barriers were erected and audience vantage points were determined. The streets crackled with excitement as the city came alive with hundreds of tourists for one of the world’s premier sporting events.
Afterwards, I paused at my favorite coffee shop, Berliner Kaffeerösterei, and took stock of my visit. Maybe it was acknowledging the ghosts of the past or being swept up in the city’s high-pitched energy but I couldn’t help feeling I had stepped into something beyond the here and now.
More to the point, I realized how fortunate we Canadians are. Freedom is something we take for granted.
History comes alive in Berlin but it is also home to modern enterprises, “smart” office towers, companies that make satellites and the Technical University of Berlin which turns out those folks that make the satellites.
“Ich bin ein Berliner,” President Kennedy said to his West German hosts in 1963 at the height of the Cold War, correctly predicting that Berlin would re-emerge as a unified and influential capital city.
“I am a Berliner,” he proclaimed. Me too, Mr. President, I thought to myself as I sipped my cappuccino overlooking multi-faceted Berlin.
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