Berlin Day 3

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned how the Berlin Wall continues to be a literal and figurative scar across the city. The have come up with a number of ways to memorialize its impact, most of which focus on the historical implications and the morose divisions created by the structure. However, the longest standing section of the wall, over 4000 feet, takes a different approach. Named the “East Side Gallery”, the section of the wall contains over 100 works of art from artists from across the globe (including one from Denver!), in an attempt to make something beautiful out of the ugliness.

There’s really not much else to say on this, other than I deeply enjoyed the experience, even though it is the only place on my trip so far I was approached by more than one grifter - including a bad attempt to lure me into falling for the three card monte. Although, since I knew what was happening, this was more amusing than anything. I’m going to dump a whole bunch of pictures of the gallery below - unfortunately for most of them there is little to no context given at the site, so your interpretation is as good as mine.

After taking in the East Side Gallery, I headed back into town to explore Tiergarten, a large park in the interior of Berlin. I had been on the outskirts of Tiergarten a few time earlier in my stay in Berlin, notably, for the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag, however I hadn’t had the opportunity to venture into the park and see some of the monuments within. My first stop was Bellevue Palace, which is akin to the White House in the States - Angela Merkel lives here, and there are other administrative buildings on the campus. I was a bit surprised to see that there were not a lot of tourists in the vicinity, in fact, the only other person close by other than security personnel was someone waiting for a bus. The building itself was not particularly impressive, but it was just surprising there were not more people at least swinging by as I was.

Further into the park, and perhaps the centerpiece of the park is the Berlin Victory Column (Siegessäule). The column was originally intended to celebrate the Prussian victory over the Danes in the Danish-Prussian War, but by the time it had been built, Prussia had also achieved victories over Austria and France, so the column became a symbol of Prussian victory in the German unification wars, and the golden figure on top was added. Surrounding the column is a large traffic circle, and statues of multiple German historical figures, including Otto von Bismarck. Just up the main stretch of road in the park is the Soviet War Memorial. Constructed by the Soviets in the Soviet (obviously) section of Berlin after the end of WWII, the monument is to commemorate the Soviet soldiers that fell during WWII, especially the large number of Soviet soldiers that died in the Battle of Berlin. In Soviet fashion, the memorial is flanked by large artillery guns and tanks. This is a neat piece of the intricate puzzle of Berlin’s history, and still an active memorial site, although control of the site was handed over to the German government in 1990.