Germany Highlights 2024: Berlin Part 1

Berlin is a very important city for many reasons. It is the most populous city in the European Union, with just less than 4 million people calling it home. It is the capital of Germany. The city itself was split up between the Allied Nations (France, Britain, and the USA) and the Soviet Union after World War 2. Berlin is also a cultural hotspot, with many museums, performance venues, theaters, etc. 

We arrived fairly late, so we settled into our apartment and briefly hopped out for dinner. It was my first time trying blutwurst (blood sausage), paired with liver sausage, and I really enjoyed it. When speaking with our server, she explained that she did not personally like blutwurst and it was considered an acquired taste. I guess I’m one of the lucky few who liked it right away.

We were in the neighbourhood of Prenzlauer Berg, maybe 50 meters from where the Berlin Wall used to stand. After the fall of the Wall, many of the neighbourhoods along its path received an influx of money and experienced rapid growth and renewal. Our apartment was near Mauerpark, a large multi-use space including restaurants, historical sites, basketball courts, a community garden, an arena, and space for special events.

One of those special events was the flea market which we got to attend. It was quite large, and the stalls had everything from clothing to books to occult material. We spent the majority of the day at the flea market and, to be honest, my wife would have stayed until sunset if I didn’t want to have an afternoon siesta. 

The following day, we decided to visit the Berlin Wall memorial. According to Google Maps, the walk to the memorial should have taken 18 minutes. It ended up taking us almost 5 hours because the path to the memorial was lined with informational plaques, audio recordings from survivors, videos of escape attempts, markers where escape tunnels were discovered, art pieces inspired by the wall, and much more. 

The first hand accounts of escapees, police officers, politicians, and civil rights activists during the construction, reign, and destruction of the Berlin Wall were very heavy. It’s easy to forget the horrors committed to other people on the far side of the world, but these exhibits express in painful detail just how bad life was under communism.

After our very long walk, we ended at the actual Berlin Wall memorial. There, we saw a reconstruction of the entire wall. I have attached a photo with a short explanation:

There are still a few sections of the Wall that have been left standing. The Germans view their own history in a much different way than Canadians. There is less self-flagellation over their role in past atrocities, but they also don’t hide or sugarcoat their participation. They understand that what was done was wrong, and the best way to prevent it from happening again is to shine a light on the past, look unflinchingly upon it, and then hopefully learn from it.

That was a heavy and intense day, so we took a break at our apartment for a while and then visited the local beer garden. In case you haven’t tried it, fresh soft pretzels pair very well with a wheat beer. 

The next day, we visited the Kulturbrauerei (Culture Brewery). This area was formerly a historical brewery, but it was transformed into an event space along with some other cultural centers and businesses. We attended and spent some time in the museum. The museum showcased what life was like in East Germany, the (HEAVY SARCASM) worker’s paradise. Life under a communist government was marked by spying, secret police, food lines, shortages of critical goods, spying, suppression of free speech, banning of books and music, and did I mention spying? They also had a very unique exhibit on heavy metal music in East Germany. Punk rock has very strong anti-government messages, so it was banned very quickly in East Germany, but heavy metal fans were apolitical enough that they were monitored by the secret police but not outright banned. I noticed that Rammstein wasn’t mentioned in this exhibit, and then realized that Rammstein was formed in 1993 in Berlin, a few years after the fall of the Wall. By this point in the trip, my wife and I had been walking and reading far more than we were accustomed to, so we decided to go home for a quick break. We grabbed my first ever currywurst on the way home. I was expecting a lot more curry flavour, but it was basically French fries, mayonnaise, ketchup, sausage, and a very light dusting of curry powder. A little over-hyped, but still good street food. We knew tomorrow was going to be another busy day, so we called it quits early and decided to sleep it off.

BONUS: This building used to be a water tower but they converted it into apartments!