Saturday in Berlin

The sun takes the edge off the Siberian chill as I walk across Berlin’s Lustgarten, translated as “Pleasure Garden,” however history tells that the garden has not always been a place for pleasure or “lust.” The park was originally developed in the 16th century as a palace garden, but over time, Napoleon’s troops have paraded here and the Nazi’s have held mass rallies.  Nevertheless the architecture around the garden on Museum Island is beautiful. The baroque and neoclassical buildings house world class museums with the exclusion of the Berliner Dom, the Berlin Cathedral, the largest church in Berlin, which still functions as a parish church. 

Berliner Dom

The Berliner Dom was built in the late 19th century in the baroque style with a ten metre high green tinged dome. Inside, I find that the dome is highly decorated with gold mosaic biblical allegories. There is a statue of Martin Luther, the German who initiated the Protestant Reformation. The crypt of the Cathedral accommodating the remains of the Hohernzollen family, the ruling house of “Prussia” for most of the 18th century, has an interesting array of coffins for me to walk between. Few are marble, most are wooden and some are plain tin which after four hundred or so years have sagging lids: not very regal. 

Interior Dome of Berliner Dom

I am sweating beneath my coat as I climb the 267 steps to the top of the Berlin Dom for the spy plane view of Berlin. The city looks flat and wide. I can see the gilded bulbous top of the Neue Synagogue, first built in 1859, then almost ruined on the night of November 3rd, 1938 when the Nazi’s staged anti Jewish riots known as Kristallnacht, or the Night of the Broken Glass. Rioters burned and destroyed hundreds of synagogues, vandalized thousands of Jewish businesses, and killed almost a hundred Jewish people. The Jewish prayer house was further bombed in 1943 and it wasn’t until the late 1980‘s that this new synagogue was erected.

A view from the Berliner Dom with the gold top of the synagogue in the top right quarter

Back on the ground on Museum Island, the grand and impressive, Alte Galerie (Old Gallery) houses 19th century painting and sculpture so it has French impressionists and Rodin’s first ‘The Thinker’ among other masterpieces. Of the German artists I enjoy romantic painter Casper David Friederich’s (1774-1840) obsession with light and the working class realism of Max Lieberman (1847-1935) and Fritz von Uhde (1848-1911). I am perplexed by the romantic painter Hans von Marées(1837-1887) numerous of paintings of naked men picking oranges. What does it mean?

Alte Galerie

Caspar David Frederich's Woman at a Window  1822

Max Lieberman's Cobbler's Workshop 1881

Image via Wikipedia Fritz von Uhde painting

The Unter den Linden, a famous street in Berlin is nearby Museum Island. The old arsenal of Berlin, the Zeughaus, is a three hundred year old pink baroque building on this street. No longer an arsenal, it has become the German Historical Museum covering two thousand years of eventful German history. It’s difficult to take everything in, in a single visit. Among the youngest of the artefacts are the cardboard placards used in demonstrations in East Berlin in 1989. The slogan “Wir Sind Ein Volk” (We are One People) on one of the banners became the motto of the "Monday demonstrations" that led to the fall of the East German State.

Zeughaus

Also on the Unter den Linden, the long street that leads to the Brandenburg Gate, is a Mercedes Benz “Gallery” attracting a crowd. Germany is of course famous for it’s contributions made to the automobile industry. In this Gallery, I see a model of Karl Benz’s 1886 patent of the first petrol powered car, a few other modern vehicles and the Mercedes Benz “accessory” shop (overpriced ‘status’ keyrings and caps).  On the other side of the road is the Automobil Forum with gleaming Audi, Opel and Volkswagen vehicles in luxe open-plan showrooms with swish cafes. It’s teeming with tyre kickers, both tourists and locals. Sean will get a surprise with his gift. I buy him a dark grey open Mercedes 300 SL Roadster. He hasn’t given me enough spending money for a real one, so he’ll have to be happy with the matchbox style toy version.