Christmas in Germany: Berlin: Days 3 and 4

The day after Christmas, we took a “Third Reich” tour. Our guide, Nigel, was an amazing historian who had actually met half of the old Nazis he was talking about. However, it was BLOODY COLD outside. So not only did we not take as many pictures as we would have liked, he cut short several of his speeches to get us in and out of the cold.

The Fernsehturm Berlin (Television Tower of Berlin) was completed in 1969 when Eastern Berlin was governed by the Soviets. It is the 4th tallest building in Europe. The sphere is a tiled stainless steel dome, which had the unexpected (and unwelcome in the eyes of the atheistic, communist rulers), of reflecting the sun in the shape of a cross. For this reason the Fernsehturm was nicknamed Rache des Papstes (Pope's Revenge) by Christians in Berlin.

It was really, really cold!

WWII shrapnel & bullet holes

Left: original building. Right: Nazi architecture.

The Wall

These statues were beheaded by the Red Army

The courtyard at the Bendlerblock, where Stauffenberg, Olbricht and others were executed due to the failed plot to kill Hitler (Valkyrie)

Me at the Wall

The Berlin Wall and a huge Nazi complex that somehow emerged from the war unscathed, even though everything else around it was bombed to smithereens

Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate)

More bullet holes

This Nazi building has been in a lot of WWII movies

Forbidding Nazi architecture

Michael Jackson hung a kid out of that window

When we got to Hitler’s bunker (now a parking lot) where he committed suicide, we found a burning memorial to Hitler. Nigel picked it up. He carried it back to us, his face twisted with rage. “What kind of sick soul would memorialize Hitler?” he demanded. “Six million Jews. Let me say that again. Six million Jews. That’s not to mention 1.5 million Roma. That’s not to mention 15,000 homosexuals. That’s not to mention 2 million Polish people. That’s not to mention 80,000 freemasons. Hitler was an EVIL man.”

This speech made me forget the cold; my extremities warmed with anger.

“You know what we’re going to do with this memorial?” Nigel asked.

Michael piped up, “Toss it in the bin?”

“No,” Nigel said. “We’re going to re-appropriate it to something good. Follow me.”

We walked a few blocks, single file behind Nigel and the burning memorial. We arrived at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Nigel handed the memorial to a little girl in our midst, Katie. “Now, Katie, I want you to pick a stone and place this memorial on it. Do you understand what you’re doing?”

Katie nodded solemnly and accepted the memorial. When she placed the memorial on the stone, tears leapt to my eyes. It was such a powerful moment, my eyes are tearing up just writing about it.

The spot where Hitler committed suicide

After the Third Reich tour, we ducked into the closest restaurant we could find to warm up; after being outside in the frozen weather all day, neither of us could feel our fingers or toes. We split a Berliner boulette (a large meatball for which Berlin is famous) and fried potatoes at LebisArt Café near the Brandenburg Gate. We also enjoyed a glühwein. Then we went back to the hotel by train, catching a ride to the Gesundbrunnen stop.

The next day, we went to the Zoo Berlin. It was cold, and most of the animals were inside. One of the male lions was roaring his displeasure at being kept inside. (Literally, he roared nonstop for about thirty minutes or more.) Michael ran out of his camera battery after only a few minutes inside.

The Elephant Gate survived WWII

The famous polar bear, Knut, died since we saw him

The broken church is being restored but left in its broken state as a reminder of WWII

We ate a lunch/dinner at the Bavarium restaurant. I had turkey medallions, sautéed vegetables, and a baked potato with a chive cream cheese sauce. Michael had pork knuckle, sauerkraut, and bread dumplings. We retired to the hotel for about an hour and hit the sauna.

Then we went on the pub crawl. I didn’t want to seem touristy so I didn’t take any pictures here. We met up with three Australian guys and three German guys (I was the only female) and hit a bunch of bars. The first bar, OstZone, was decorated with paraphernalia from East Berlin. Ost means East. We got free shots all night and had nachos at one point. The snow was falling again, and we got soaking wet with it as we walked from bar to bar. Near the end of the night, a prostitute wearing a parka, a tank top, thongs, pantyhose, and spike heels, and carrying a bright pink umbrella, propositioned us. I laughed so hard I fell on my butt on a big patch of ice, and continued to sit on the ice and laugh.

Our last bar was Café Zapata. There, a German rock band played live music to the hot notes of fire shooting from the ceiling in angry bursts.

We took the subway for the first time, and then connected to a train to get off at the Gesundbrunnen stop. We staggered back to the hotel in the wee hours of the morning.