Wordless Wednesday: Modern Lights

Lions & Tigers & Bears, Oh My!

Gorilla in the monkey house

It is repeatedly rated as one of the best zoos in the world and having visited, I can say I whole heartedly agree. First established in 1844, the Berlin Zoo encompasses 84 acres is home to 1,500 different species and close to 20,500 animals. It sits in the middle of a city that has survived occupations, wars, divisions and time itself.  After all of these years it is still going strong and visitors seeking a brief respite from touring the museums, Wall memorials and the general hustle and bustle of the city flock there on a daily basis. We visited on a cold day in the middle of the week and we were not alone as the line to enter queued for several city blocks. (Over 3 million people visited in 2013 alone). But the wait was worth what we experienced once we were inside.

When the Berlin Zoo was first opened, it was the first zoo in Germany, the ninth in Europe and was located on the outskirts of the city limits; today it sits in its center.The first animals were donated by Frederick William IV, the King of Prussia who had a summer retreat complete with peacocks, bears, kangaroos and water buffalo on an island near Potsdam. The first full time director was appointed in 1869 and from then until the end of the century the zoo continued to grow in both size and scope as exotic animal habitats with ornate structures were established. The building of a minaret topped antelope house, and Indian style elephant house, and Egyptian inspired ostrich house and the elephant gate house soon had the Berlin Zoo competing with the venerable London Zoo.

Have you ever seen a goat actually standing on the ground?

The Zoo struggled during World War I but it was during the second world war that the Zoo was essentially destroyed. Bombed in 1941 then again in 1943 and 1944, much of the Zoo's infrastructure was destroyed as was many of the buildings. The Germans established a flak tower on the outskirts of the Zoo to help protect Berlin and particularly the nearby government buildings from Allied bombing raids. They also built a civilian air raid shelter and hospital on the zoo grounds itself to provide a secure storage facility for precious works of art. This flak tower was the last holdout against the invading Red Army. But tragically, of the 1,196 animals and 2,519 birds that called the Zoo home, all but 91 were killed before the war was over. The Zoo was rebuilt after the War with new, more modern buildings and structures replacing those that had been destroyed. The Berlin Blockade, financial and food shortages and a lack of physical manpower resulted in the Zoo's reconstruction being slow going. Once it was rebuilt, however, the Zoo became a recreational destination for West Berliners as the number of species continued to expand. With the reunification of Germany the Zoo worked in close cooperation with the Tierpark Zoo in the former East Berlin with some animals coming west and their two programs complementing each other.

Penguin swimming

When we visited I couldn't help but compare the Berlin Zoo with our own Pairi Daiza Zoo here in Belgium. "Our" zoo is a zoo and botanical garden set in a rural environment with expansive ponds, fields and gardens. The Berlin Zoo, with its skyline filled with skyscrapers, is much more compact but just as impressive. There were animals of every variety, birds and water mammals. The Berlin Zoo has two species of penguins (including the majestic Emperor Penguins) and more importantly to a certain little boy, those penguins swam in the water. No matter how many hours we've stood and watched the penguins at our zoo, they have never so much as dipped their feet in the water. And as our luck would have it, we were able to watch the sea lions being fed. The show wasn't on the caliber of Sea World but Sidney loved watching the sea lions perform with their trainer. And let us not forget the playground. No European family recreation center would be complete without at least one playground and this playground was by far the best one we have ever experienced.

It may have been cold but this zoo is great to visit any time of the year. Plan on making a day of it; we were there when the gates opened and they were shutting them behind us as we left. But the day flew by so if you are in Berlin and need a break from war history, visit the zoo. You won't be disappointed.

The sea lion show

If you go:

Hardenbergplatz 8
10787 Berlin, Germany
+49 (0) 30 254 010
Accessible by U-Bahn & S-Bahn
www.zoo-berlin.de
Open 09.00-19.00, reduced hours during the winter
Adults 13 Euro, children over the age of 5 are 6,50 Euro; family tickets and combination tickets for the
      aquarium are also available

An East German Way Of Life

During our recent trip to Berlin we spent an afternoon visiting the DDR Museum. We initially decided to visit since it promised to be a hands-on and interactive place where touching and exploring the exhibits was encouraged. (This is always especially important when traveling with a curious and energetic little boy who wants to touch everything). The museum was all that but what we found was a combination of sadness and nostalgia and the reality that regardless of what side of the Wall one resided on, families wanted the same things.

The interior of the museum itself is dark and concrete which appropriately sets the tone for what you are about to see. Kitschy is a word that can be used to describe many of the exhibits in the museum (and I say this in the best way). An ubiquitous Trabi was meant to be sat in and "driven" through the streets of East Germany. Every day life is portrayed through the model kitchen, living room and bathroom in the museum. The appliances, furniture and accessories looked remarkably similar to those in my own American grandparents home. The avocado green and gold of the 1970s? Yes, the East Germans lived with that too. And the bathroom? It wasn't American at all and could only be described as functional but it did look awfully similar to many that I encountered in 2012 Albania. (Powder blue). Sidney was especially taken with the rotary telephone. He eagerly sat on the scratchy plaid sofa and dialed and chattered into the phone. He only stared at me in disbelief when I explained to him that that type of telephone was the one I grew up with. The manuel typewriter was another novelty for a boy who is

The novel rotary telephone

growing up in the electronic age. He wanted to know where the screen was and why the keys were so hard to push. Children's toys and books looked very similar to those of the same period in the west. I suppose the biggest difference would be the picture books, which obviously geared for a young audience, were filled with images of stern looking soldiers holding even fiercer looking weapons. The best part of all of these exhibits was that they were meant to be touched, opened and pushed; perfect for little explorers.

But there were obvious differences between life in the west and life in the east. The food that was available for purchase was limited, involved queueing for hours and in the end was pretty unappetizing. Essentially every aspect of life was dictated by Moscow. There were sparsely filled wardrobes displaying the "fashions" of the time. None were fashionable by any stretch of the imagination and even during a time when polyester was all the rage, these man made materials were enough to make my skin crawl. But these fashion options were deemed appropriate by Moscow so that is what was available. There was the vacation display showing happy families cavorting in the buff at the beach, playing tennis or simply lounging. The first thought that entered my mind was that such a display would be deemed pornographic and simply not be allowed in any American museum. Sidney actually spotted the display before I did. He paused, looked at it then turned and told me that all of the people were naked. His only other commentary was that it was silly to play tennis without clothes. That was that. One exhibit focused on women's reproductive health which seemed to be quite advanced for the time and in many senses was ahead of where the U.S. is today.

Gas up your Trabi, grab you atlas and hit
the road through these countries

But the museum displays the darker side of East German life as well. Set between displays of soldiers and Stasi were mock prison cells and interrogation rooms. And the listening posts? They were everywhere but you could experience them from both sides of the table--as the interrogator and as the one being interrogated. This portion of the museum sent chills up my spine and reminded me of how dark and often terrifying East German life was for the ordinary East German citizen. The Party leaders and other high level officials, however, lead a very different life. While those Germans who could afford them drove around in their little German built Trabis, solid and reliable Volvos were the car of choice for the Party elite. The explanation? Locally made cars were simply too poorly made and unreliable for official use. Now that really says something, doesn't it?

And there are so many more things to see and explore here. Overall this museum is compact but every space is dedicated to portraying an aspect of daily life in East Germany. Our visit was interesting, I learned a few new things and it was the perfect place for younger kids to have a hands on exploring experience. And for what is a relatively low price when compared to so many museums, spending an afternoon at the DDR Museum is well worth the time and expense.


If you go:

DDR Museum
Karl-Liebknecht-Str 1
10178 Berlin-Mitte
+ 49 30 847 123 73 - 1
www.ddr-museum.de

Open daily 10.00-20.00, Saturdays until 22.00
Adult 7 Euro, Children 4 Euro
Lockers are available but bring change since they won't make it for you. There is also a restaurant on site. Eat outside overlooking the Cathedral and river if possible.

Berlin: A City Divided

Remnants of and a reminder of where the Wall once stood

Yesterday my blog post included pictures of the  remaining portions of the Berlin Wall. Intellectually I knew that the wall divided a city in half but until I actually walked through the city I didn't quite understand exactly what this meant. The Wall literally and figuratively divided a city in half. It physically separated families from one another, split neighborhoods and even apartment buildings in two, and cut people off from their very ways of life. And contrary to what I had thought, the wall was not a solid straight line slicing Berlin in two. Rather it was quite the opposite. It zig zagged, twisted and turned through neighborhoods and along streets, taking sharp turns and in some cases dividing actual buildings. The line the Wall followed remains today so visitors can see the actual path it cut. But even without the line as a reminder in many of the neighborhoods along the Wall it is easy to see what was located in the east and what remained in the west.

Wall remnants dividing a neighborhood

The division of Berlin was one of the outcomes of the end of World War II. During post war negotiations, Berlin was divided amongst the four Allied powers of the United States, Great Britain, France and the (then) Soviet Union. Tensions quickly increased between Stalin's Communist bloc and the western allies with living conditions in the Soviet controlled German Democratic Republic becoming increasingly strict. Indoctrination in Marxism-Leninism became compulsory in schools, property and industry were nationalized and residents themselves were coming under increased scrutiny from Soviet secret police. As living conditions became more strict, East Germans increasingly wanted the Soviets to leave but that didn't happen. As a result, East Germans themselves began fleeing to the west. And the Soviet's answer to all of this was to construct a physical barrier that would prevent people from leaving.

In 1961, and seemingly overnight, the Berlin Wall was erected. At midnight of 12 August, the East German police closed their border with the west and by morning roads allowing access to West Berlin had been broken up and destroyed in an attempt to stop the flow of vehicle traffic. (Trains continued to move from the west to the east and back again but they didn't stop at the eastern stations where passengers saw only armed guards as the trains passed by. These stations became known as "ghost stations").

Exploring the rebar remnants 

A total of 124 miles of barbed wire separating East Berlin from the west were quickly erected slightly inside the Eastern line. By late fall the wire had been reinforced with a 12 foot high rebar and concrete wall essentially closing off the east from the west. For extra security a second wall was created with a buffer zone in between that became known as the "death strip". The death strip area allowed guards manning the strategically placed towers an unobstructed view of the entire area. The barrier was essentially impenetrable and the East German police made sure it stayed that way. Guards were ordered to shoot on sight anyone they saw attempting to climb over the Wall. The official number of people who were killed while attempting to scale the Wall between 1961 and 1989 is136 but other statistics have the numbers being higher. The higher numbers take into account bodies found along the Wall, suicides of people who died after failed attempts to cross the barrier and even heart attacks that took place at the official border crossings. Soldiers themselves committed suicide and the first victim is said to be a young woman whose apartment abutted the new Wall. Her back door which faced the west had been boarded up with bricks overnight and she attempted to escape to the west by jumping from a third floor window. The youngest victim was only one and the oldest was 80. Others attempted to dig tunnels under the Wall in order to escape. And in order to prevent the guards themselves from escaping they always worked in pairs and were not allowed to talk to one another lest they become friends. And of course the order to shoot extended to the guards as well.

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. With the falling of the wall life once again changed but it didn't instantly revert back to the way life had been before its construction. Remnants of the wall remained, and still remain today, and the scars of the past are ever present. You can see them in dedicated memorials, kitschy tourist traps and redeveloping neighborhoods. To commemorate the anniversary of the Wall's falling, a recent Washington Post article examined the realities of a today's Germany. Although there is no longer a physical barrier separating the east from the west, the country remains divided in so many ways. I read the article while sitting in my Berlin hotel room after spending the day traipsing through the city. With the images and history of a divided Berlin so fresh in my mind the article had a whole different meaning for me. It reminded me that while the Wall went up quickly its  coming down is taking, and will take, generations for people to fully recover from. History is powerful and Berlin is a city where recent history is alive and on full display for all to see. After all, those of us who forget where we came from are destined to repeat the mistakes of the past.

A photograph of a photograph of what was known as "Checkpoint Charlie"
Today it is one of the worst touristy photo gimmicks I've ever seen--
A prime example of a capitalist society

The Wall

I remember sitting in front of our television and watching the fall of the Berlin Wall. I was in high school at the time and I distinctly remember thinking that I was watching history being made and understood that what was happening was significant. Since that day twenty-five years ago I've studied history and have come to understand just how significant that act really was. But walking along the wall in Berlin brought the significance to a whole other level.

I'll write more about the history of the wall in a future post, but in the meantime here are some pictures I took as I walked along the East Side Gallery in Berlin and experienced the power of the Wall for myself. The artwork is more expressive than words could ever be yet my pictures can't capture the feeling of experiencing it in person.

Berlin After Dark

A few scenes of Berlin after dark: