Berlin
Facts (Berlin)
MY Favourite Places to Visit
The Berlin Wall
Oct 2013
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989.
Before the Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans circumvented Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and defected from the GDR, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin; from there they could then travel to West Germany and to other Western European countries. Between 1961 and 1989 the Wall prevented almost all such emigration. During this period over 100,000, people attempted to escape and over 5,000 people succeeded in escaping over the Wall, with an estimated death toll ranging from 136 to more than 200 in and around Berlin.
Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and finished in 1992.
This wall marks the most remarkable history of Germany. Although there is not much to see from a tourist''s perspective, this is definitely one place that one must visit when situating in Berlin.
Checkpoint Charlie
Oct 2013
Checkpoint Charlie (or "Checkpoint C") was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War (1947–1991).
East German leader Walter Ulbricht agitated and maneuvered to get the Soviet Union's permission to construct the Berlin Wall in 1961 to stop Eastern Bloc emigration and defection westward through the Soviet border system, preventing escape across the city sector border from communist East Berlin into West Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of East and West. Soviet and American tanks briefly faced each other at the location during the Berlin Crisis of 1961.
After the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc and the reunification of Germany, the building at Checkpoint Charlie became a tourist attraction. It is now located in the Allied Museum in the Dahlem neighborhood of Berlin.
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Jewish Museum, Berlin
Oct 2013
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, also known as the Holocaust Memorial is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold.
It consists of a 19,000 m2 (4.7-acre) site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. They are organized in rows, 54 of them going north–south, and 87 heading east–west at right angles but set slightly askew. An attached underground "Place of Information" (German: Ort der Information) holds the names of approximately 3 million Jewish Holocaust victims, obtained from the Israeli museum Yad Vashem.
It was inaugurated on May 10, 2005, sixty years after the end of World War II, and opened to the public two days later.
This is definitely not a very nice place to visit. Reading all the stories of the horrible masscares, looking at all the toturing photos, feeling the helplessness, sorrow and grief of the Jews who were being captured and murdered, nevertheless, this is a place which displays the standing stone of a piece of history which should not be forgotten.
East Side Gallery
Oct 2013
The East Side Gallery is an open-air gallery in Berlin. It consists of a series of murals painted directly on a 1316 m long remnant of the Berlin Wall, located near the centre of Berlin, on Mühlenstraße in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.
The gallery has official status as a Denkmal, or heritage-protected landmark.
I am very very impressed at the beautiful art or graffiti in this gallery. Absolutely stunning!! Must visit!!!
Berlin Cathedral
Oct 2013
Berlin Cathedral (German: Berliner Dom) is the short name for the Evangelical Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church in Berlin, Germany. It is located on Museum Island in the Mitte borough. The current building was finished in 1905 and is a main work of Historicist architecture of the "Kaiserzeit".
The Dom is the parish church of the congregation Gemeinde der Oberpfarr- und Domkirche zu Berlin, a member of the umbrella organisation Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. The Berlin Cathedral has never been a cathedral in the actual sense of that term since it has never been the seat of a bishop.
The Dom itself remarks a spelendid architectural design and the surroundings are a piece of relaxing and claming grassland. Great place for photos!!
Charlottenburg Palace
Oct 2013
Charlottenburg Palace is the largest palace in Berlin, Germany. It is in the Charlottenburg district of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough.
The palace was built at the end of the 17th century and was greatly expanded during the 18th century. It includes much lavish internal decoration in baroque and rococo styles. A large formal garden surrounded by woodland was added behind the palace, including a belvedere, a mausoleum, a theatre and a pavilion. During the Second World War, the palace was badly damaged but has since been reconstructed. The palace with its gardens are a major tourist attraction.
