Sunday was the final day of Robin’s seminar so I was on my own to explore again in the morning. I chose to start at the Museum Fur Fotografie which featured the works of Helmut Newton, a Berlin born fashion photographer. The collection is housed in a decommissioned Prussian officer’s club. The first installation was a collection of Newton’s Polaroids which he used as quick preliminary shots to check his lighting and composition before capturing the image on regular film. Polariod negatives can be enlarged and printed, however the transfer process doesn’t capture the true colors. This gave Newton’s photographs in the exhibit a more painterly quality. The museum also contained many of Newton’s personal effects arranged to recreate his living and working space. I am happy to report that some of my favorite photography books from my own small library were also part of Newton’s repertoire, namely Edward Weston’s Day Books and Alfred Stieglitz’s letters. I guess I’m reading the right stuff. The final exhibit was a collection of post war photographs taken by Japanese photographers beginning with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
I also wanted to see the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church which, according to the map, was nearby. The church was heavily bombed in World War II and only the Memorial Hall and steeple remain. I thought it would be easy to locate a church but I found myself aimlessly wandering around until I realized that the exterior was undergoing renovations and was wrapped in tarps. It was a welcome relief to walk into a religious structure and be able to not only appreciate its aesthetic beauty but also understand the religious imagery. We’ve toured quite a number of eastern temples but unfortunately, I’ve only been able to appreciate them on a superficial level. The newly constructed portions of the church are made up of walls containing 11,000 little, blue, square stain-glass windows. The glass was a reconciliation gift from the French. Sitting inside the church, bathed in soft blue light, created a very serine feeling.
When Robin’s conference was finished, we took a taxi over to the eastern side of Berlin to our hotel for the remainder of the week, the Pension Gallarie. This is a quaint and very charming bed and breakfast. Our room is spacious, bright and cheery. Our taxi cab driver noted that the architecture of the building, which is strikingly different from the remainder of the buildings on the block, indicates that it is original, whereas everything else was reconstructed after the war.
Once we were checked in, we made our way to Prenzlauer Berg on the outskirts of East Germany, or the DDR as it was called here. Prenzlauer Berg was heavily bombed in World War II and then literally spit in half overnight by the wall. After reunification, it was quickly redeveloped and is now one of Berlin’s most attractive neighborhoods. We made the trek out here to go to Flohmartk am Mauerpark, the city’s best flea market. Robin and I have both been amazed at how empty and quite the city has been. That’s because on a beautiful weekend, everyone is at the flea market and adjoining park.
The flea market is an eclectic mix of used, yard sale like items, barging deals on new merchandise and hand crafted wares. Unlike in Asia, you can actually stop at a booth and look at an item without being bombarded by “missy, missy… you like?” The neighboring park was full of people out enjoying the sunshine. Many had brought charcoal grills with them and were busy barbequing. It’s important to note that the wall used to run right down the road where the flea market now stands making the park itself a former death strip.
One of the things I like about Berlin as a city is most of the buildings are no taller than five to six stories and the streets are very wide. This allows abundant sunlight to reach the ground making the city a pleasure to walk. We wandered around Prenzlauer taking full advantage of the unseasonably warm weather. We stumbled upon another smaller market, Flohmarkt am Arkonaplatz, found a beautiful church that now looks largely unused and stopped for some essential frozen yogurt.
Before leaving Prenzauler Berg, we stopped at a Wall memorial where they have erected two rows of iron rods to show the thickness of the wall and the path it took through the neighborhood. There were also markers to indicate where tunnels had been dug and bronze plaques on the ground with the name of an individual who had been killed trying to cross at that location.
From there, we caught the subway back to Potsdamer Platz, Berlin’s business district. Building began in 1991 when it was announced that Berlin would resume its position as the capital of Germany. The architecture in this area of Berlin is very modern and contains the only buildings even close to sky skyscrapers.
We arrived at the observation deck at a good time. When we started, it was still daylight so we were able to pick out all of Berlin’s main attractions, but we were also able to see the sun set and watch the city lights start to come on. While we were at the top of Kollhoff Tower, we noticed a shopping mall below so we decided to stop in to find a restaurant for dinner. After dinner, we decided to call it an early night and made the walk back to the Pension.
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