Berlin
A treasure trove of human history
by Dr Shamim Ahmed
It was evening when we reached the huge Berlin Railway Station. As part of our European tour, we had boarded the train in the afternoon at Groningen, Netherlands. We were lodged at Potsdamer Platz. Completely destroyed during WWII, today it is the most famous square in Berlin and boasts many trendy modern buildings, malls and hotels.
Berlin is the capital and largest city of Germany. It is a world city of culture, politics, media and science, and serves as a continental hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transport network. A huge sprawling city, with wide boulevards and parks littered with historical sites.
During our tour, we tried to visit as many places of interest as possible. We first dashed to the Brandenburg Gate, an 18th-century neoclassical triumphal arch, and one of the best-known landmarks of Germany. It is built on the site of a former city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg, which formerly led directly to the city palace of the Prussian monarchs.
Close by is the Reichstag, the seat of the Bundestag, the German Parliament, yet another of Berlins best known landmark. The Reichstag was erected in 1884-94 as the proud manifestation of the power of the German Reich. This imposing neo-renaissance building was bombed during World War II. Completely reconstructed, today it is again the seat of the Bundestag.
We then walked to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, also known as the Holocaust Memorial in memory of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The visit was indeed moving, as we recalled one of the most gruesome genocides in history.
Nearby is the The Fhrerbunker, an air-raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery. It was the last of the Fhrer Headquarters, used by Adolf Hitler during the Second World War. Hitler took up residence in the Fhrerbunker in 1945 and it became the centre of the Nazi regime until the last week of World War II in Europe.
The site is now marked with a small plaque. Hitler and his supposed wife, Eva Braun, were cremated in a shell hole in front of the emergency exit to the left of the Fuhrerbunker in the garden of the Reich Chancellery. We viewed with awe as we recollected Hitlers role as the mastermind of the Holocaust.
We spent an entire day at Berlins Museum Island. A UNESCO World Heritage site in the heart of the city, it is a treasure trove of human history. One of the worlds most important museum complexes, it is home to priceless cultural treasures. Collections at the Museum of the Ancient World, New Museum, Old National Gallery, Bode Museum and Pergamon Museum were extremely fascinating as we travelled through art and culture from the cradle of civilisation in Mesopotamia through Egypt, Classical Greece and Rome, Byzantium, the Islamic World and the Middle Ages, right up to the modern age and 19th century Romanticism.
Beautifully restored, the New Museum now presents treasures of the Egyptian Museum, along with collections of the Museum of Pre-History and Early History and parts of the antiquities, providing us a fascinating insight into the origins of mankind.
The exhibits at Egyptian Museum are simply unique and awesome. Its extensive collection tells us about the history and culture of Ancient Egypt from 3000 BC to Roman times. The time of King Akhenaton is especially well represented. The famous bust of Queen Nefertiti is kept here.
A few yards away is the Marx-Engels-Forum, a public park named after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, regarded as the founders of the socialist movement. With profound respect, we spent some time at the park remembering the role of these two great men who carved a niche in our history.
Closeby is the magnificient Berlin Cathedral. It was once the court cathedral of Prussias Royal Family and was conceived as a protestant answer to St Peters Basilica in Rome.
We spent another day at the historic Berlin Wall, a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), the Wall was more than 140 kilometres long. Its demolition officially began in 1990 and was completed in 1992.
The East Side Gallery is an international memorial for freedom. It is a 1.3 km-long section of the Berlin Wall located near the centre of the city. It is possibly the largest and longest-lasting open air gallery in the world. The paintings at the Gallery document a time of change and express the euphoria and great hopes for a better, freer future for all the people of the world.
We later visited Checkpoint Charlie (or Checkpoint C), the name given by Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of East and West.
We also found time to visit the Jewish Museum. An architectural masterpiece, the museum provides depictions of 14 historical periods from the Middle Ages to the present, and paints a vivid portrait of German-Jewish life.
We also visited the New Synagogue, built from 1859-66 as the main synagogue of the Berlin Jewish community. Because of its splendid eastern Moorish style and resemblance to the Alhambra (in Spain), it is architecturally unique. We could not visit the main prayer hall as restoration work is still in progress.
The visit to the Ethnological Museum, one of the largest of its kind, was simply amazing. It houses half a million pre-industrial objects, acquired primarily from the German voyages of exploration and colonisation of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Travelling in Berlin is like walking through the pages of history. The entire city is like a museum!
