Achtung Berlin
My husband and I celebrated our first anniversary by drawing out a “Five Year Plan” — our travel plan. Four years down, we had pretty much followed it. But our plan for Year Five needed a change! The rock band AC/DC announced its Rock or Bust tour and as we tried to figure out the ideal city to attend the concert, having friends in Berlin and the impressive Olympic Stadium as the gig venue clinched it for us. Berlin it was!
We left our itinerary planning to our friends Nikhil and Marika (Nik & Rika), trusting them to show us Berlin like only locals can. We had heard about Berlin being a very “alternative” city and experiencing that side is what we wanted.
We reached Berlin on the morning of the AC/DC concert, and checked into our hostel. Rika suggested a stroll along the graffiti covered remains of the Berlin Wall. In the early 1980s, artists began painting the West Berlin wall. The “Wall of Shame” today bears testimony to those who have visited it over the years and created paintings and graffiti that transfix you for hours.
Soon, it was concert time, and we donned our AC/DC tees, picked up a few beers and caught the train to the Olympic Stadium. With a capacity of 80,000-90,000, the concert promised to be all that we had hoped for. From the first chords of Rock or Bust right up to the last chords of Those About to Rock — we were thoroughly Thunderstuck and ready to take the Highway To Hell! As we exited the stadium and walked to the station to catch our train back, I was amazed at the thousands of rock fans who had just screamed the stadium down with chants of “Angus” and “AC/DC”, now queuing up quietly to take trains back home.
We visited Potsdam the next day, on the outskirts of Berlin. Potsdam has Germany’s largest world heritage site — the Park and Palace of Sanssoucci, a Rococo style pleasure palace built by Frederick the Great. Restricted numbers of tourists are allowed to enter at a time, so you may want to reach early and purchase your ticket for a convenient time slot. Apart from Sanssoucci, you can also visit the Cecilienhof Palace, the Dutch Quarter, and the Glienicke Bridge (known as the “Bridge of Spies”).
We headed back to Berlin in the evening, as Nik had planned a tour to the Reichstag building, the seat of the German Bundestag (i.e. the Parliament). After it was damaged in a fire in 1930, it fell into disuse and was restored only in 1999. The glass dome of this building is now open to visitors. It provides a 360-degree view of the city skyline and you can also look at the main hall of the parliament from here.
Berlin’s nightlife is known to be intense and we just had to sample a slice of it! Abandoned factories and other commercial buildings have been converted into clubs. On weekends, clubs/pubs are not required to close at a fixed time — some of them remain open till the last patron leaves!
Nik had planned an underground bunker tour for us the next day; he explained that as the tours were underground, again, there were restrictions on the number of people allowed to enter. We had to reach well in time to ensure we were part of the tour — something we struggled with after our late night of partying!
Underground bunkers were built during the Nazi regime and served as shelters for civilians during air raids. However, not as many bunkers as had been planned could be built, so the space fell terribly short. The bunkers were cramped, the air insufficient for those seeking shelter.
Our guide took us down the subway station from where we could enter the underground bunker. As she led us through the bunkers, she recounted the history of Germany — the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler’s rapid rise to power, World War II and its aftermath.
We learnt that women were instrumental in keeping the industries going at this time as the men were sent to war. The bunkers were equipped with bunk beds so that women with children could catch up on sleep during air raids — to ensure they were productive at work the next day! She also explained that Berlin had been reduced to rubble (by the end of WWII) and showed us examples of the tenacity with which the surviving women used this rubble to bring some meaning back into their lives. Empty missile shells were used to make ovens, rubber waste was used to design shoes. A major part of the rubble and debris was piled up to create hills and gardens. Today, you can hike up one of these beautiful rubble-hills and get a picturesque view of Berlin from the top!
Soon after this, we headed to the Brandenburg Gate, one of the best-known landmarks of Berlin, from where we were to join a walking tour. The walking tour took us to places of significance like the Jewish Holocaust memorial, the innocuous parking lot under which lies Hitler’s (now inaccessible) bunker, the only crossing point between East and West Germany — Checkpoint Charlie, Museum Island, the Humboldt University and the Berlin Cathedral.
Berlin is a delight for the beer drinker and Berlin Hofbrau is a must-visit. Long wooden benches, waitresses in traditional clothes, live music, the best meatball and wurst dishes and 1-litre beer mugs — need I say more? As I bit into my food (succulent meatballs on mashed potato, topped with fried onion) all I could do was sigh! Berlin had snuck its way into my heart!
As we left the city, I wondered about Berlin through the ages — all that it had witnessed and all that it has come to be. Germany’s experiences have left an indelible mark on Berlin, from the times of its Prussian rulers, World War I, Hitler’s regime, World War II, the subsequent Cold War and the re-unification of Germany. However, Berlin and Berliners have taken history in their stride — the past not hidden or swept into obscurity, but held aloft, in the stories and anecdotes, in the solemn Holocaust memorial, in the graffiti of the Berlin wall — a city truly risen from ashes!
When not toiling at her corporate job, the writer loves to travel the world