Der Kunst (Art)

We had the day off for shabbat yesterday. Eddie and I spent the morning together, walking down Oranienbergerstr. in the other direction (not towards the happening street called Friedrichstr.) for a change. There are plenty of lovely shops - no chains that I could see - around Rosenthalerstr. I found an eco store - Der Grüne Erde (The Green Earth) - full of organic cotton and linen. I was in heaven. Alas, as I have restrictions on both spending and on weight, I had to restrain myself when confronted with their excellent sale. I bought two very lightweight and moderately priced items, and put back the towel. Maybe I will get one in the branch in Cologne next week.
I spent the afternoon alone, near the most repellent part of Berlin I have thus far encountered: Potsdamer Platz. It's like Piccadilly Circus without the flashing signs. Very wide spaces, tall buildings, crass ads here and there, and very, very noisy. (I was too rattled to take an illustrative photo.)
Luckily, the art museum cluster called Kulturforum sat a few (quieter) blocks away. For the modest sum of 8 euros, I was able to enjoy three museums - and could have added a fourth (musical instrument museum)! I visited the old masters (e.g., Lucas Cranach the elder) in the Gemäldergalerie first, then saw an exhibit at the Kumpfstichkabinett - prints and drawings - and finally I went a short way across the plaza to the Neue nationalgallerie, which is full of post-war art.
I liked many of the old masters - though I admit when you've seen one Italian Renaissance Madonna and Child, you've pretty well seen them all. (Raphael and Botticelli perhaps being notable exceptions). I had already seen the Piranesi prints - a series called "Imaginary Prisons" - and the Goya "Caprichos" (including the famous "the sleep of reason brings forth monsters"). I was very disappointed to find out that the study room was closed because it was Saturday! I will have to make time to return on a weekday. What other chance will I ever have to see a Durer etching close up?

Here's one bizarre Madonna and Child: note the unbabylike Jesus.... 
The modern art made me slightly ill. Some paintings done in 1947 and later looked like the work of asylum patients, no offence to them. The anger, terror, confusion, and despair of the war became translated into erratic brushstrokes and incoherent imagery, often in black or muddy colors. Very disturbing - but perhaps that was the real message: I cannot paint properly because I barely survived hell.
Today we will be out late - at the Berlin Philharmonic!! - and up early tomorrow, so may have to post later than usual.

Heaven in a rage

Finally made it to the zoo yesterday.
I walked for almost three hours. Sometimes it was tough to look at some of the animals, even for a moment, let alone longer, contemplatively. I learned my lesson in Washington last year and avoided the gorillas. (Long story.) But the pacing panther made me think of Rilke (he wrote my favorite poem about that very beast).
I tried to take a photo of the giant panda early on in my walk, but he had his back to me. I took it anyway, and as I saw more animals with their backs to the onlookers, I saw that I had a photo essay in the making. I will make it available some time in the future.

Here are two of the cats I saw.

Sand cat

Jaguar

"A robin redbreast in a cage/puts all of heaven in a rage," said William Blake. I wonder what he would have thought of large or even small carnivores being cooped up like these are in Berlin - and in countless places around the so-called modern world.

Sand cat

Pathetic fallacy (2)

I had a very stressful morning yesterday. Too much to get into here but it involved trying to get to the Berlin Zoo on my own (while the group continued its tour with Naomi) and being confounded by language barriers and nonintuitive transportation systems. I went to Alexanderplatz instead (in the opposite direction) and shopped in a department store. I am ashamed, actually, that it came to that, but at some point one has to accept the road that throws itself ahead. Walk on it and see what happens! It wasn't all that bad for another gloomy day.
I managed to arrive at the meeting point at the designated time or a little ahead. This is an experience for the phone - if anyone is interested - or maybe an essay I can write after much reflection.
We went to a place called The topography of Terror, where we were given "a tour." That's the word, but it is clearly inadequate for what transpired.
The T of T is a modern grey building, kind of ugly actually. Where it is situated is far uglier: the former site of the Gestapo headquarters. Sebastian, our guide, an intense fellow in his mid- to late thirties, was a former mathematics and philosophy student. (He was sketchy about why he ended up, essentially, telling people horror stories for a living.) Day in and day out, he tries to show people how and why the Final Solution took place as a human enterprise, a project like building a bridge or eradicating smallpox (those are my comparisons, btw). It is the big question, isn't it" how can people systematically impose horrors on others?

For the next 60-70 min., Sebastian skimmed the surface of this terror as perpetrated by the SS. It was one of the most rivetting experiences I've ever had with a stranger. I would definitely say that his philosophy background was quite evident.

Eddie agreed that we could have stood there, looking at old photographs and documents, and listening to Sebastian for hours, sore legs or no sore legs. He was talking about things we don'tlike to hold in the mind for very long, but he did so very provocatively and engagingly (at least to us). I will never forget that hour, even if - inevitably - I will forget most of what he said.

As we were leaving, I took this picture of a small section of the wall that once divided East & West Germany. The previous photo shows the outdoor exhibit alongside a remaining length of it.

Pathetic fallacy (1)

Couldn’t post yesterday: internet problems!

Wed. was our first full day of touring Jewish sites.

We spent the entire morning at Sachsenhausen concentration camp, about an hour’s drive from the middle of Berlin. The weather was bleak, windy, and frankly chilly. If you remember high school English, you’ll know this could be called an instance of pathetic fallacy: weather matching or echoing emotional states.

No doubt about it, it was a dreary place. We walked through the museum and open areas with our incredibly well informed and personable guide, historian Dr. Robert Sommer. We took in the ruins of the execution areas (interior and exterior), the offices, barracks, and memorials to the hundreds of victims (of executions, but more often of hunger and disease). Wide fields separated everything. (I, of course, made note of the wild flowers growing there.) Pine forests surrounded it all. 

Dr. Sommer showed us how the East Germans took one point of view when they memorialized the victims, while the West Germans, after unification, took quite another. (The camp is in the former GDR.) It’s too much to get into here – and I have yet to process my notes – but this appeared to me to be something you would not likely learn elsewhere. This and many other things he said. Nothing quite like a well-informed guide to make the difference between a mere tour and a rivetting mini-seminar.

We drove back in various states of silence. Nobody had been surprised by Sachsenhausen – as in, not ready for the sight of a huge place for processing and eliminating human beings – yet “psyching” yourself up for it was one thing. Being there, walking among the one-time barracks, was quite another.

We drove to the large street nicknamed Ku’damm: very posh, with familiar stores and German boutiques. Much to my surprise, anyway, Naomi led us inside an extremely fancy restaurant that dated from at least the beginning of the last century. It’s called Kampinski’s and it’s part of a swanky hotel. We weren’t even dressed in our best! I ordered vegetarian lasagna – there was nothing much else to order without fish, beast, or bird in the starring role (the Germans do love “fleisch”). Here’s a photo of my dish before I devoured it. It was perhaps the most delicious lasagna I’d ever tasted. 

We met with another knowledgeable person, this time at the Jewish community center. She told us about the Jews returning to Berlin over the years, and how the community receives them. Many were Russians for a long time, but in recent years, the influx from the former soviet states has all but dried up. The old community center was all but destroyed years ago, but the new one has incoporated the remains of the former glory at the entrance.

Afterwards, we headed by bus to the Goethe Institute, the organization that is sponsoring this trip. We met a film maker named Nicola Gelliner, and watched a film from her recent festival – at least we did until technical difficulties stopped the DVD from functioning!

After that, supper at a lovely Thai restaurant, then back to the hotel for blog etc.

The first tour of Berlin

Yesterday, we had most of the day to ourselves, then met up with the group, let by our guide Naomi, at 4:00.
We spent the morning around Friedrichstrasse, also in Mitte. About 15 minutes of walking took us to the River Spree, and another 5 min. to the famous boulevard, Unter der linden - Under the Lindens. Unfortunately, thr weather was overcast, the crowds quite heavy (tourist trap), and the pavement and road under the lovely trees was being dug up for some kind of construction. Bad lighting, too many people, ugly signs and barricades: not the greatest conditions for photos! So I am not including the lousy ones I ended up taking.
And none of the Brandenburg Gate, either, the main reason for the tourists. We saw it, and turned right around.
In a large store, I bought some music and two mini nature guides: Blumen and Bäume (flowers and trees). I also got a CD of 75 bird songs. Alas, all the names are in German - not even Latin! - so I have some identification research ahead of me.
At 4:00, we met the rest of the group (just in from their flights). One Canadian and six U.S. people. We walked along Oranienburgstrasse and passed this enormous, ornate 19th-century synagogue.

 We continued further until the famous museum island (a UNESCO world heritage site). Everyone went to the Pergamon museum except me; I went to the Neue Museum, also full of antiquities. I saw Nefertiti - the one and only - lots of Egyptian animal sculptures (a favourite thing of mine) and the renown astronomical hat. The hat is pure gold and inscribed with calculations of planetary orbits, seasonal appearances of constellations, eclipses and so on. Truly amazing, even if it weren't centuries old!
The biggest treat of all remained: dinner at a swanky place. Kopps is an entirely vegan restaurant. We had beautifully presented and delicious meals, many containing asparagus, which is in season right now and beloved by Berliners. 

First day in Berlin!!!

I am here in Germany, the very place we planned to visit until health concerns put an end to those dreams for the rest of the year. Or so we thought! The big surprise came in mid-April when the German consulate in _____ invited my husband Eddie to visit Germany on behalf of the government. Of course, how could we refuse? Fortunately, the health problems abated in time and we had no other commitments. We arrived yesterday after a long journey.
The invitation is an expenses-paid trip to Berlin (with side-trip to Dresden) as part of Jewish Life in Germany, a program of reconcilation. I will be writing about the individual events as I attend them. (I will not go to each one, although I am welcome to do so.) I have paid my plane ticket and hotel upgrade.
Yesterday, stunned from being awake more than 25 hours, E. and I walked about Mitte, the middle part of the metropolis that is Berlin. Our charming hotel is in a centrally located street, Auguststrasse. It may be very convenient for reaching the U-bahn (subway) or the trams, and more than a few major sights are in walking distance if you are a walker (we are walkers on good days), but it is quiet and low-key.

Hotel Augustinehof, Berlin

After we crashed, almost literally after arriving at the hotel on Monday morning (thanks, Naomi, for picking us up at the airport!), we went for a walk in the neighborhood. We saw the trademark "odd Berlin" details, such as this cafe, which has interesting food and freaky toys for sale at the back. Some trendy-looking people were eating at tables made from polished logs. One bench was an old leather "horse" from a gym! 

Later in the evening, we walked along Friedrichstrasse and saw a bike go by, pedalled by 4 or 5 people! I was so stunned, I stood with my mouth open - a perfect tourist. I saw another one, alas, only with the minimal foot power of one.

A bike suitable for 5 (?) people.

We slept a lot after eating Italian food in a courtyard restaurant (quiet, except for fountain & birds). I was able to use my rusty Italian to order. Contrary to what I was told, English is not widely spoken. I will have to learn Deutsch, whether I like it or not!!