Viktoriapark walk with Annie, Melissa and Rachel

Our students Annie, Melissa and Rachel took us on a tour of Viktoriapark this week. As they explained, the park is home to the “Kreuzberg” (literally “Cross Mountain”) and gives its name to the surrounding neighborhood. The “Kreuz” – really a monument to the wars of liberation against Napoleon – was designed by this week’s featured 19th-century starchitect, Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

It’s a bit of a climb …

… but it’s worth it! There are beautiful views of the city, and of course, a lovely gothic monument to admire as well.

Schinkel isn’t the only artist to have left his mark (whether officially sanctioned or not) on the park. Our guides showed us an artwork commemorating a recent act of sexual violence in the park, another in honor of the uprising of Communist workers in 1953, and one (a spray-paint-covered statue of Heinrich von Kleist) that attests to one of Berlin’s biggest vandalism issues – graffiti. As in the rest of Berlin, Viktoriapark is packed with history, and our tour guides did a lovely job of uncovering some of that for us.

A walk through Schinkel’s Berlin with John Toews

On Wednesday John took us on a tour of Berlin’s historical district, known as Mitte. The focus of our walk was the city as it was in the 19th century, when its inhabitants included some of the leading intellectuals of the time, and the city styled itself as “Athens on the Spree.” We began at the Brandenburg Gate, designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans in the late 18th century as a kind of propylaea leading into Berlin. Karl Friedrich Schinkel had a hand in redesigning the staff held by the goddess of peace who crowns the monument.

We continued on to Schinkel’s Schauspielhaus (now called the Konzerthaus) on the Gendarmenmarkt, a somewhat early commission and an example of the architect’s turn toward neoclassicism.

On the Forum Fridericianum, a square built under Frederick the Great (whose monument you see on the right), there is now a memorial to the book burnings that took place there in the 1930s. The square is home to the former Royal Library, now housing Humboldt University’s law school. Interestingly, we learned that the book burnings were not carried out by Nazi officials, but rather by zealous student party members.

Next stop: the Neue Wache, a guardhouse designed by Schinkel along Unter den Linden. The building has been the site of numerous memorials over the course of the 20th century, including both East German and reunified German commemorations of World War II.

One of Schinkel’s masterpieces, not only of architecture but of urban planning, is the Altes Museum. Sitting across from the site of the royal Prussian palace (not currently extant), the building housed the first true modern museum in Europe. Schinkel designed it to integrate the viewer’s experience of art with that of the urban environment: he provided a viewing platform on the interior of the building, from which visitors could contemplate the royal gardens, palace, and the cityscape beyond.

The tour wrapped up near the site of Schinkel’s Bauakademie – his architectural and design academy. The building is also considered one of his masterworks, and was unfortunately torn down in the post-WWII period. This nylon-covered scaffolding has been here for years, but there’s no money to rebuild it. Its ghostly presence reminds us of the many memories and layers that reside amongst one another in Berlin’s cityscape.

A day on the Pfaueninsel

On Friday we took a trip about an hour outside of Berlin to a magical place called the Pfaueninsel – Peacock Island – for a class retreat. Our goal wasn’t to engage with official historical narratives so much as to relax and be together in a beautiful natural setting!

After riding the S-Bahn to Wannsee, we got to ride on a classic double-decker bus that took us through the woods to the entrance to the island.

Our first stop on the island was Schloss Pfaueninsel, erected for King Friedrich Wilhelm II and his mistress Wilhelmine Enke in the 1790s. Built from wood, it’s supposed to look like a white ruin on the island of Capri!

Of course, the first thing everyone looked for on the island were the eponymous peacocks – and the students found, and were chased aggressively by – a whole flock of them!

The island contains no end of sublime vistas and interesting architectural follies. It was formerly one of the many pleasure grounds of the Prussian royalty, replete with ridiculous attempts at the picturesque. For instance:

A “dairy” in the form of ruined Gothic church, where the king and his mistress could first play at milking the cows before going upstairs to drink milkshakes in an ornately decorated salon!

The island has some quirky modern works, too …

… and there are allusions to buildings that are no longer there, as well. A palm house designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel once stood on this site, but it burned down in the late 19th century. A pleasant little palm garden pays homage to the absent building.

Though it was sunny, the weather was quite cold and windy. By lunchtime, we were thankful to sit down in the cozy Wirtshaus zur Pfaueninsel and enjoy some delicious home-style German food. Schnitzel, wild boar, Klopse (meatballs), Flammkuchen and pumpkin soup were all on the menu, accompanied, of course, by generous helpings of potatoes!

As we headed home, I couldn’t help thinking about the royals who had once frequented the island. What were their lives like? How would they have experienced the space? We’ll be finding out more about how they lived this coming week, when we visit Park Sanssouci, home to several royal Prussian palaces.

photo courtesy of Ryna Chin

Movie Night: The Murderers Are Among Us

We had our first movie night this week, and as our theme for seminar was Trümmer – rubble – it seemed appropriate to screen The Murderers Are Among Us. Shot in 1945-46 on location in war-torn Berlin, it’s the story of love, loss and revenge, and a meditation on the ravages of WWII. Distributed by the Russians, the ending of the film (the main character was originally supposed to kill his former commanding officer) had to be changed because it was thought that it might instigate revenge killings.

Our evening began with an amazing potluck, courtesy of the students, including curry, crepes and other delicacies prepared in the kitchens of their Arwobau apartments. We then continued with a cozy screening in the living room of Rachel, Annie and Melissa’s apartment. (We have a teeny tiny projector and speakers provided by CHID — they work wonderfully!)

All agreed that the movie was pertinent, moving and beautiful, even if we did think that the couple fell in love a little too fast for our modern sensibilities … a highly recommended film about post-war Germany.

A walk through our Kiez with Manuela Mangold

Manuela Mangold, a long-time Kreuzberger, gave us a fantastic tour of the students’ “Kiez” in Berlin on Tuesday afternoon. Kiez is a local word meaning “neighborhood,” but it denotes not just a district of the city (in this case, Kreuzberg), but one’s immediate, local surroundings — the place where everyday life is lived.

We started our tour at the Heinrich-Heine-Strasse U-Bahn station, the stop where the students regularly get onto the subway. During the time when Berlin was divided, it was a border crossing used mainly for commercial traffic. Below, the subway station was a “ghost station” — because the wall ran in a zig-zag manner from roughly the southeast to the northwest, trains going from this part of West Berlin would pass under East Berlin on their way to other parts of West Berlin would pass through a completely darkened (and sometimes guarded) station.

Next on our tour was an example of Stolpersteine (“Stumble Stones”), an art project begun in Cologne, but which has left its mark all over Berlin. A form of Holocaust memorial, it marks where victims of the tragedy once lived. People are meant to “stumble” over these on their daily walks, a constant reminder of the importance of remembering the Holocaust, and its impact on life here.

We continued with a look at the path of the Berlin Wall and death strip. Manuela is sitting right between former East and West in the picture! As in most of Berlin, it’s been restored so nicely now that barely a trace of the division remains.

Oppositional culture has been a huge part of Kreuzberg’s identity since the 1970s. Here are two examples of “squatter” culture — both built right up against the Wall. One is a famous house squat, and the other a garden built right in the shadow of the wall, in what was technically East German territory!

We continued along the path of the wall, which is (in some places) marked by a strip of brick set into the ground. (Dominic represented East Germany, shaking hands with a West Berliner!)

Leaving our Kiez and crossing the Spree River, we continued on to talk about the politics of development along the river banks, another area where squatters and other oppositional movements have traditionally made their homes. Now big developers are buying up large swaths of property, driving up rents and bringing a whole new feel to the neighborhood, garnering vehement protest from locals. One glaring example of this is O2 World, a large concert venue whose undeniably corporate aura conflicts tangibly with its surroundings. Its VIP entrance along the river was heavily protested, but got built anyway.

We ended our tour at the Oberbaumbrücke, which was also divided by the Wall. Now, as you can see in the background, the U1 train line can run all the way across it again!

Our Kiez is in some ways the perfect spot for the students, sitting uncomfortably amidst the former East and West, scarred with layers of memory and history – and still transforming before our eyes.

the German conversation group gets going

Chance met with several of the students this past Friday for the first informal German conversation group. The point of the group is to provide a resource for the students on the program who either haven’t had German before, or who want to practice the basics. The hit this week: Chance’s impression of the Hausmeister’s Berliner Schnauze – his Berlin dialect!

getting to know our Beamtinnen

An important part of doing anything bureaucratic in Berlin (e.g. signing up for an internet plan, or registering at the university) is to get something called an Anmeldebestätigung: a “proof of registration” with the city. Because we’re such a big group, John, Eleanor, Chance and I handled the registration for everyone. This involved, first, going to the district registration office (basically the Berlin equivalent of the DMV, though they handle a lot more than just driver’s licenses!) and standing in a very long line. When we told the woman behind the counter that we had 24 people to register, she looked at us incredulously and said that it was absolutely impossible without an appointment — if she tried to get us in that afternoon, they’d have to shut the whole place down just to get our paperwork done!

She may have been slightly exaggerating, but in any case, she was very helpful in the end, because she sent us directly to the manager of the office, who quite gladly made us an appointment for 8am the next morning.

The next morning, we met these two lovely ladies – Frau Pierags and Frau Pfotenhauer – who got us all registered. It took about 2 1/2 hours, and we had a few hiccups along the way, but thanks to a very helpful student with a cell phone (who woke his colleagues up to ask them what cities they were born in – info that was missing on the forms), a visit from one other who had previously registered in Berlin, and one last trek back to the office in the afternoon to change a wrong date … we got it done!

In the mean time, I became acquainted with our Beamtinnen (civil servants) and learned quite a bit about Krezuberg-Friedrichshain (which now count as one district after a consolidation a few years ago), as well as what it takes to do their job (lots and lots of knowledge about different things, and an ability to work with people). We also chatted about why the German word for “Indian Summer” is Altweibersommer (the dewy cobwebs on the trees look like old women’s hair), various fun things to do in Berlin, and why it’s difficult to live far away from one’s family.

Speaking of being far away, the students have also told me this week that they’re experiencing some pretty hefty culture shock. It’s all part of the process, and hopefully having that Anmeldebestätigung will make it a tiny bit easier …

Welcome to Germany! Now fill out ten forms.

After a whirlwind beginning of the week, the students are all nicely settled into their apartments in Kreuzberg, where they tell me they have been getting to know each other through potlucks and group explorations of the neighborhood. They’ve also been great about helping each other adjust to new technological challenges (getting cell phones and internet).

As of yesterday, class has officially begun! Our first activity: introducing everyone (as slowly and gracefully as possible) to the idiosyncrasies of the German legal and school system. The result? Filling out a LOT of forms …

Hopefully by Tuesday we’ll have all the registration stuff taken care of, and we’ll be free to concentrate on the fun stuff: Berlin history and media theory!

snags

We discovered today that our students’ apartments do not come with linens. The reasons aren’t that interesting (miscommunications over the summer) … suffice it to say the solution involved an impromptu trip to IKEA to buy 21 sets of linens for the apartments! IKEA is awesome, and it ended up being quite affordable in the end. Here’s John driving the shopping cart full of sheets, duvet covers, towels and – I insisted! – shower mats …

warming up to Berlin

Chance and I met John and his lovely wife Eleanor today in their (and the students’) new Berlin neighborhood, Kreuzberg. It’s a beautiful part of the city, with a lively and diverse feel. Though we spent most of the day taking care of various administrative and technological tasks (it’s always a challenge to get settled into a whole new system of cell phones, internet and ATMs!), we got to enjoy the great fall weather and explore a little of our new surroundings too.

We started out with a walk through the park along the Engelbecken and Luisenstadt Canal.

Like the rest of Berlin, the architecture in this neighborhood is full of contrasts. We admired the Max-Taut-Haus on Oranienplatz, which fits so well into Berlin’s current aesthetic that you might never guess it was built between 1931-33. Max Taut, the architect, was Bruno Taut’s brother. The stately St. Thomas Kirche was constructed in the mid-1860s.

We finished up the evening at Hasir, a delicious Turkish restaurant on the corner of Orianienstrasse and Adalbertstrasse.

The students arrive on Monday, and we’re looking forward to commencing our explorations of this fantastic neighborhood – and the rest of the city – together!