Berlin is around 550km to the northeast of Cologne, towards the border with Poland. On the train, the trip is around 4 1/2 hours, so with travel time at each end, as well as checking in and getting some supplies, that didn't leave too much time for much else - but of course, I didn't let that totally stop me.
First documented in the 13th century, Berlin was devastated during the Thirty Years' War (1618 to 1648); one third of its houses were damaged or destroyed, and the city lost half of its population.
Berlin became the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918), the German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–33) and the Third Reich (1933–45).
After World War II, the city, along with the German state, was divided - into East Berlin — capital of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) — and West Berlin, a political exclave (surrounded by the Berlin Wall from 1961 to 1989) and a de facto state of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1949 to 1990.
After the end of WWII in Europe in 1945, Berlin received large numbers of refugees from the Eastern provinces. The victorious powers divided the city into four sectors, analogous to the occupation zones into which Germany was divided. The sectors of the Western Allies (the United States, the United Kingdom and France) formed West Berlin, while the Soviet sector formed East Berlin.
All four Allies shared administrative responsibilities for Berlin; however, in 1948, when the Western Allies extended the currency reform in the Western zones of Germany to the three western sectors of Berlin, the Soviet Union imposed a blockade on the access routes to and from West Berlin, which lay entirely inside Soviet-controlled territory; one might think that this was a fairly large planning error on the part of the Western Allies,
The Berlin airlift, conducted by the three western Allies, overcame this blockade by supplying food and other supplies to the city from 24 June 1948 to 11 May 1949. As a result of the political and economical tensions brought on by the Cold War, on 13 August 1961, East Germany began the building of the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin and similar barriers around West Berlin, and events escalated to a tank standoff at Checkpoint Charlie on 27 October 1961.
In 1989, with the end of the Cold War and pressure from the East German population, the Berlin Wall fell on 9 November and was subsequently mostly demolished, with little of its physical structure remaining today.
Following German reunification in 1990, the city was once more designated as the capital of all Germany.
Lots to explore, and I have four full days here; even with the Easter weekend, I'm sure that there will be plenty open - and probably overrun by tourists too!
After sorting out a travel card for the duration (I got one with discounts at various attractions - it will be interesting to see if I use it), I headed to the apartment - which meant an S-bahn (suburban train) from the hauptbahnhof, then a change to a U-bahn (underground train) for the last 3 stops. Once I'd settled my stuff, I headed towards the main city centre - about a 5km walk: something to stretch the legs after the train ride.
My path took me along the Spree River for a while, with plenty of blossoms out on the trees - a lovely sign of spring.
At a major intersection, with a significant round-about action, there is the Siegessäule (Victory Column).
Designed as a column to commemorate the 1864 Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War, by the time it was inaugurated on 2 September 1873, Prussia had also defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and France in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), giving the statue a new purpose. Different from the original plans, these later victories in the so-called unification wars inspired the addition of the bronze sculpture of Victoria, 8.3 metres high and weighing 35 tonnes; Berliners, with their fondness for giving nicknames to buildings, call the statue Goldelse, meaning something like "Golden Lizzy".
Victoria faces west, so it was interesting to look back as I headed east towards the Brandenburg Gate.
The Reichstag building, constructed to house the German Reichstag of the German Empire was opened in 1894 and housed the Diet until 1933, when it was severely damaged in a fire. After World War II, the building fell into disuse because the parliament of the German Democratic Republic (the Volkskammer) met in the Palast der Republik in East Berlin, while the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany (the Bundestag) met in the Bundeshaus in Bonn.
The ruined building was made safe against the elements and partially refurbished in the 1960s, but no attempt at full restoration was made until after German reunification on 3 October 1990, when it underwent reconstruction; after its completion in 1999, it once again became the meeting place of the German parliament: the modern Bundestag.
It's pretty impressive from the outside:
The Brandenburg Gate is a former city gate, rebuilt in the late 18th century as a triumphal arch in the neoclassical style. It was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of
peace and built from 1788 to 1791. Having suffered considerable damage in World War II, the Brandenburg Gate was fully restored from 2000 to 2002.
During the post-war Partition of Germany, the gate was isolated and
inaccessible immediately next to the Berlin Wall, and the area around the gate featured most prominently in the media coverage of the opening of the wall in 1989.
Also, as it faces east, I'll have to make sure that I get a shot in the morning, so that it's not in shade.
The pedestrian crossing men are really cute, at least on some of the traffic lights, so that's how I'll finish off today: