Berlin, Germany

As I have previously noted on this blog, my holiday plans don’t often include repeats, generally favouring the new over somewhere I had been before.  However, as I was in the area I thought that I would play another visit to Berlin, having first been there in 2000 and then again for work (with a little sightseeing on the side) in 2007. 

The first thing I noticed there was surprisingly how little had changed.  Whenever you think of Berlin (or whenever I think of Berlin at least) the amount of building going on is one of the first things that I think of.  And it is fair to say that there has been a lot that has gone on.  However, the pace (or ambition?) of change appears to have slowed a bit since the first flurry of change following reunification.  A loot at the skyline suggests there is still a lot going on, but there are areas (such as Alexanderplatz) where I would have expected things to have happened (and I am sure there were once plans) but have not changed (apart from the influx of “western” shops).  In some ways it is interesting to still have a lot of this “communist” architecture about, particularly for a visitor, but I am not sure everyone is happy about it.  One of the big building projects going on at the moment is the recreation of the old Royal Palace.  This had been bombed in the war, and replaced with DDR palace in smoked glass and asbestos.  This has now been torn down and the replacement palace is coming up in its place (I wonder if they are after a replacement royal family as well?)

Having been up the TV tower at Alexanderplatz when I first came to Berlin 16 years ago I had a fancy to go up and see what had changed.  However, the queues even to purchase a ticket from which would have had a 1 hour+ wait soon put me off that.  (At the Reichstag, which I also visited back then, you can no longer just turn up and visit the Dome, there is a limited ticketing system which you have to book in advance.  I didn’t, partly because I had been there before, but if you haven’t it still comes highly recommended).  As I couldn’t not go up some viewing platform I instead climbed the Victory Column in the middle of the large Tiergarten park.  At the top is a relatively small viewing platform (good job it is a little obscure and doesn’t get too busy) which is actually open to the elements and therefore means you don’t have to take photos through glass.  It also meant it was very cold up there!  However, it gave a good location to watch the sun go down and also see the police presence moving dignitaries around linked to an Israeli/German summit. 

I was the last one down from the tower (good thing I had got cold, otherwise I am not sure if someone would have to climb all the stairs to get me down).  Now, I mentioned it was in the middle of the Tiergarten.  In fact it is in the middle of a busy roundabout in the middle of the Tiergarten.  When I got to it there were tunnels under the roundabout that could be used for access.  On my attempt to leave, these tunnels were closed.  I therefore had to negotiate my way off which required a little bit of thinking about (fortunately there were traffic lights which, whilst not designed for crossing, at least stopped the traffic for a minute!)

As well as looking for above I also did a lot of walking around the city to see how it had changed from ground level (answer = lots at Potzdammer Platz, less so elsewhere!) and to get between the various sites I was visiting.

As in Dresden I purchased a museums card.  Here, it gave access to ~50 museums over a 3 day period for €24.  It was therefore easy to get good value from it.  I also had a “Welcome Card” which gave full access to public transport plus discounts at a broader range of attractions.  The full list of museums I visited over this time was as follows:

• DDR Museum – hands on museum of life in DDR times – busy with visitors (visited on Welcome Card)
• Willy Brandt Museum – story of his life (free entry)
• Gemaldergalerie – Old master’s gallery
• Kuntsgewerbemuseum – Museum of decorative arts
• (I also “visited” the art library and museum of prints and drawings at the same site, but they were mainly closed!)
• Musical Instrument Museum – Whilst I came across this due to the proximity to the previous sites it was well worth a visit with an impressive collection of instruments including some unusual pianos and a Wurlitzer organ (which was being played to some schoolchildren whilst I was there).  It also has a very reasonable café for just a coffee or a full lunch.
• Bauhaus archive – A repeat from 2000 – has been rearranged since but will definitely benefit from its proposed extension
• Museum of Photography (which mainly focused on the fashion photography of Helmut Newton)
• Hamburger Bahnhof – a great collection of contemporary art in an interesting location.  Whilst the main part of the exhibition is in the old station building, there is a key part of it in what could have been some form of engine shed which stretches on for miles (well, not miles but a long way!)  As part of one of the pieces was an installation of old arcade museums so I whiled away half an hour playing Ms Pac-Man (which is the same as Pac-Man as far as I can see) and Tetris, back from the days that games were good!

• Allies Museum – dedicated to the role of the allies in West Berlin (such as the Berlin airlift), located at an old US Army cinema.  Included an interesting exhibition on the different approaches to de-Nazification after the war. (actually free)
• Bruke Museum – art collection
• Ethological Museum/Museum for Asian Art/Museum for European Culture – three museums mixed in with each other in Darlem (and going through some reorganisation too it seems)
• Botanical Museum and Gardens – the museums card here would only get me into the museum, not the gardens, and they wanted full price to get into the gardens.  However, I also had a Berlin Welcome Card which meant I got it half price!  Whilst it was winter, the gardens were worth visiting as they had a large tropical house with plants in flower and grounds for a walk in (not that I wasn’t doing enough walking anyway!)

• Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle – temporary exhibition of a Jackson Pollock mural with supporting pieces
• Markisches Museum – City museum of Berlin with displays including the charting of the development of key streets over the years

• Nikolaikirche – rebuilt historic church
• Knoblauchhaus – one of the oldest houses in Berlin (and nothing to do with Garlic despite the name).  (free entry)
• Museum for Communication – mainly focused on the Deutsche Post, Deutsche Telecom etc with lots of history thereof (and some interactive robots).  Best part was a display of how the reunification was approached from a communications perspective (which included things like re-postcoding the whole country) 
• German Technology Museum – To be honest I mainly went here because it was so close to my hotel it seemed rude not to.  However it is well worth a longer visit than I gave it with a large collection of old train, aeroplanes, models of ships, cameras, computing and more.
• Deutsche Dom – Former cathedral now rebuilt and used as a museum of German democracy.  Whilst most of the displays are in German there is also some information in English and is quite fascinating (if you like that kind of thing, which I do!).   

Phew – never resorted to bullet-points before, but I think it was necessary here!  Particular highlights?  Probably the Hamburger Bahnhof was my favourite, but the Musical Instrument Museum, Botanical Gardens, Markisches Museum, Museum of Communications and Technology Museum were also very strong.

As you can see a busy time of it with lots of interesting things to see and more chance to practice my rusty German.  Berlin remains a great place to visit and comes fully recommended.