sister_luck (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sister_luck) wrote2008-07-29 06:33 pm
sister_luck) wrote2008-07-29 06:33 pm
Ruins.
You can still ask me questions about my Berlin trip here, but impatient that I am I've decided to post my first pictures before the first questions.
This was my third trip to Berlin and that meant I played guide for the boyfriend for whom it was his first visit to our capital city. Of course, there's no way of escaping the city's history and you feel it everywhere. Even though I'm old enough I never travelled to Berlin when it was still a divided city. I did set foot on GDR soil shortly before re-unification in the summer of 1990 but that was just a short stroll after a sailing trip on one of the lakes further north near Ratzeburg. My family did have relatives in the East though, or as my grandparents said "in der Zone" and they sent loads of packages full of coffee and other consumer goods over there just before Christmas time. In return, we got lots of Dresdener Stollen and assorted knick-knacks. I still own a bracelet and a tiny enameled bowl that were sent as thank-you gifts. But enough of the past, let's move to the present and the future.
Back in 2005 when I finally got to see Berlin (twice!) the Palast der Republik, the pride and glory of the GDR regime, was already a hollowed-out core ready for demolition waiting to be replaced by the old Stadtschloß that stood in its place before the communists blew up its ruins in 1952. Incidentally, when my parents went to Berlin in the mid-1990s, my father returned convinced that the Stadtschloß had already been rebuilt, because the ingenious proponents of the plan to bring it back had draped the Palast der Republik in sheets that had the old palace printed on them. That was one of the weirdest arguments I ever had with my dad. "No, it's still there. I saw the Volkspalast." - "But I saw the Stadtschloß. It's been rebuilt." - "Believe me, it hasn't. They're still trying to raise money for its demolition." He finally believed me when he saw the pictures....
And no, the Stadtschloß still hasn't been rebuilt and no, they haven't yet finished demolishing the Palast der Republik what with it being so near the river Spree that they have to pump tons of water out of the basement, so that they don't end up with a flooded building ground. I don't know which was the bigger eyesore, the brown steel and concrete brick or the cranes and ruins. In the evening light it looked strangely beautiful.
A nice contrast with the cathedral:
This was my third trip to Berlin and that meant I played guide for the boyfriend for whom it was his first visit to our capital city. Of course, there's no way of escaping the city's history and you feel it everywhere. Even though I'm old enough I never travelled to Berlin when it was still a divided city. I did set foot on GDR soil shortly before re-unification in the summer of 1990 but that was just a short stroll after a sailing trip on one of the lakes further north near Ratzeburg. My family did have relatives in the East though, or as my grandparents said "in der Zone" and they sent loads of packages full of coffee and other consumer goods over there just before Christmas time. In return, we got lots of Dresdener Stollen and assorted knick-knacks. I still own a bracelet and a tiny enameled bowl that were sent as thank-you gifts. But enough of the past, let's move to the present and the future.
Back in 2005 when I finally got to see Berlin (twice!) the Palast der Republik, the pride and glory of the GDR regime, was already a hollowed-out core ready for demolition waiting to be replaced by the old Stadtschloß that stood in its place before the communists blew up its ruins in 1952. Incidentally, when my parents went to Berlin in the mid-1990s, my father returned convinced that the Stadtschloß had already been rebuilt, because the ingenious proponents of the plan to bring it back had draped the Palast der Republik in sheets that had the old palace printed on them. That was one of the weirdest arguments I ever had with my dad. "No, it's still there. I saw the Volkspalast." - "But I saw the Stadtschloß. It's been rebuilt." - "Believe me, it hasn't. They're still trying to raise money for its demolition." He finally believed me when he saw the pictures....
And no, the Stadtschloß still hasn't been rebuilt and no, they haven't yet finished demolishing the Palast der Republik what with it being so near the river Spree that they have to pump tons of water out of the basement, so that they don't end up with a flooded building ground. I don't know which was the bigger eyesore, the brown steel and concrete brick or the cranes and ruins. In the evening light it looked strangely beautiful.
A nice contrast with the cathedral:
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It's a good place for a weekend break - good public transport and lots of sights within fairly easy walking distance (we still managed to both ruin our feet) and great museums. But more about that later.
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I miss Berlin..and how it was when I first got there.
Too many memories.
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*hugs*
I didn't want to make you cry.
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xxx