Seeing Berlin again
Jul. 22nd, 2016 06:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vangoNow we will have had a chance to see Berlin again at a slower pace. Our first taste was a quick bus trip. It was a hurry up job and we just saw glimpses of this great city. I have several iconic places that I would like to visit and absorb the atmosphere. One of my favorite movies is “One, Two,Three” starring Jimmy Cagney. There are a lot of scenes shot at the Brandenburg gate or Tor.
To understand the city you have to know that Berlin was divided as part of the retribution for World War II. Germany was divided between the four countries of the winning alliance known as the Potsdam agreement. Berlin wasn't in the center but in the heart of the Russian sector. Berlin was also subdivided into four. In 1961 the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) built a massive wall not only dividing the city but surrounding it that stood until 1989. It wasn't a single wall but two walls with a no man's land in between it was officially the "Anti-Fascist Protective Wall" but was more often seen as "Wall of Shame"—a term coined by mayor Willy Brandt. The wall was 87 miles long surrounding west Berlin. Now there is about 1 kilometer left to remember this awful time. Remaining stretch of the Wall near Ostbahnhof in Friedrichshain is called East Side Gallery.
At some point the Germans just got fed up with the arrangements. Guards walked away from their posts allowing the locals to tear down the wall. Reunification happened quickly with the East and West being reunited and the seat of government moved from Bond back to Berlin
To understand the city you have to know that Berlin was divided as part of the retribution for World War II. Germany was divided between the four countries of the winning alliance known as the Potsdam agreement. Berlin wasn't in the center but in the heart of the Russian sector. Berlin was also subdivided into four. In 1961 the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) built a massive wall not only dividing the city but surrounding it that stood until 1989. It wasn't a single wall but two walls with a no man's land in between it was officially the "Anti-Fascist Protective Wall" but was more often seen as "Wall of Shame"—a term coined by mayor Willy Brandt. The wall was 87 miles long surrounding west Berlin. Now there is about 1 kilometer left to remember this awful time. Remaining stretch of the Wall near Ostbahnhof in Friedrichshain is called East Side Gallery.
At some point the Germans just got fed up with the arrangements. Guards walked away from their posts allowing the locals to tear down the wall. Reunification happened quickly with the East and West being reunited and the seat of government moved from Bond back to Berlin
