Berlin Walking & Biking Excursion: April 26

Since the weather had improved, I decided to walk to the center and kill some time before the 2:00 pm three-hour bike tour. With its broad boulevards and landmarks, Berlin is pretty easy to navigate; nonetheless, it’s a huge city.

Notably, Berlin is a very green city. About 2 km in, I was in the vast Tiergarten, where I caught some glimpses of the Victory Column. Later, Anton, our bike tour guide, informed us that the original column was near the Reichstag, but Hitler moved it farther away to be a focal point on the new East-West Axis, which his court architect, Albert Speer, designed. He also built four buildings with tunnels to go under the boulevard to get to the column. Our guide pointed to the many bullet holes left over from the street fighting during the Battle of Berlin in April 1945 as the Soviet forces fought their way into central Berlin.

From the Victory Column I continued east towards the Brandenburg Gate, passing a heavily policed pro-Palestinian demonstration near the Reichstag. I also passed the Bellevue Palace, where the largely unknown Bundespräsident lives. It was formerly the palace of Frederick the Great’s younger brother Heinrich, who held sex parties there in the 18th c.

As I neared the Brandenburg Gate, I realized that the former DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) retained the monumental buildings of the old Germany. Although 70% of the city was destroyed by the Anglo-American air raids and the Red Army artillery in the Battle of Berlin, the Germans have managed to rebuild all of the lost buildings. The Berlin Wall encircled West Berlin and even the Brandenburg Gate was in East Berlin. The equestrian statue of Frederick the Great, Humboldt University, the State Opera and the Neue Wache are all situated along the Unter den Linden. During the DDR era, goose-stepping National People’s Army honor guards were a regular sight at the Neue Wache, which used to have an eternal flame to the memory of “victims of Fascism and militarism”. Videos are easily found on YouTube.

The bike tour was fun. Anton, a history graduate from Humboldt, spoke perfect English and had a great sense of humor. The group was small: an English woman, two guys from Boston, a couple from New Zealand living in Switzerland and me. It’s wonderful biking in such a bike-friendly city. Germany and Northern Europe are way ahead of us in bike safety and dedicated lanes.

Before joining the tour, I went through the DDR Museum. I’ve always had a fascination with the old East Germany, from my early philately days. I always found their stamps interesting. The DDR was a curious state, unrecognized by West Germany until 1972. They always pointed to West Germany as the Third Reich successor state, thereby absolving themselves of any guilt. They established the most totalitarian regime in the former Warsaw Pact, with the exception of the pre-Gorbachev USSR. A significant percentage of the population collaborated with the Ministry of State Security (Stasi). I recommend the films “The Lives of Others” and the satirical “Goodbye Lenin!” for perspectives of life in the final days of the DDR.

East Berlin city plan with the curious Masonic symbol of the SED (Communist Party)

During the bike tour, I took some pictures of the remaining parts of the Berlin Wall, of which only 3 km remain. We also passed one of the few remaining structures from the Third Reich era: the massive Luftwaffe (Air Force) headquarters building. Other interesting sites included the Rote Rathaus, the new City Hall, which was formerly in East Berlin. I mentioned this in the past post.