However, I should probably just start with a description of the day's happenings for me, and ignore what the other 2 million tourists are doing.
I decided on an early start, to make the most of the day, and also to try to beat some of the 2 million tourists to some of the spots. With that in mind, and knowing that the Brandenburg Gate is wall-to-wall packed during the day, I headed there first - and am so glad that I did, as it is a different place entirely first-thing in the morning, with nary a tourist in sight, allowing for relatively unhindered views (other than the occasional hearty, like-minded soul) - also, I think that the light is good at this time of day, added to the fact that the gate faces East, so it wasn't in shadow:
The figure on top of the gate, the quadriga, is really just a fancy way of saying four-horse chariot!
At the next block, taking up a full city block, is the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe - again, I am very glad that I got there early, while it was still quiet, and not many others around.
This stunning memorial is made up of 2,711 individual concrete blocks or "stelae" (apparently there's no reason for the specific number), arranged in lines. From the sides, they look fairly even in height, but then as you move into the middle, the ground drops away, leaving you between blocks that must be up to a couple of metres tall; the ground also undulates in various directions.
Opened in 2005, the site is some 19,000 m2 (4.7-acre); the stelae are 2.38 m long by 0.95 m wide and vary in height from 0.2 to 4.8 m. According to the architect's project text, the stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason - in my view, it achieves this admirably.
A 2005 copy of the Foundation for the Memorial's official English tourist pamphlet, however, states that the design represents a radical approach to the traditional concept of a memorial, partly because Eisenman did not use any symbolism; other observers have noted the memorial's resemblance to a cemetery.
Like many of the memorials in Berlin, this one is designed to make you think - so the answers to what is going on are not all obvious. Perhaps the illusion of similarity in the quite distinctly different blocks is to remind us of the folly of grouping people together as one, and drawing conclusions about the whole, when clearly we are all individuals - this may not be the intended message, but it is something that I took away.
Whatever the meaning/s, this is an interesting, and powerful, piece of work:
Described as "possibly the largest and longest-lasting open air gallery in the world", unfortunately graffiti now adorns almost every artwork, which is made all the more disappointing, because they could (and do) have the whole other side of the wall to "work" with.
However, there are clearly still many interesting and powerful tributes to freedom still visible, and here is just a selection:
Interestingly, the Checkpoint Charlie that everyone visits is not the original - that was torn down, and then when tourists kept asking where it was, they simply built a replica.
One building we went past is the old WWII Nazi Luftwaffe (air force) headquarters, which somehow survived; later, it was the parliament headquarters of the hated East German government, and is now the tax office - who says the Germans don't have a sense of humour?
There is a section of wall, which has been so severely damaged by souvenir-hunters and tourists that it ironically now has to be itself protected - by a small wall!
Rather than a full description of everywhere we went (suffice it to say it was worthwhile), I will simply line up some of the photos from the tour:
After WWII, the remains of an Unknown Soldier and of a nameless Nazi concentration camp victim were enshrined in the building.
Later, at the personal suggestion of Chancellor Helmut Kohl, an East-German era memorial piece was removed and replaced by an enlarged version of Käthe Kollwitz's sculpture "Mother with her Dead Son". The pietà-style scuplture is directly placed under the oculus, and so is exposed to the rain, snow and cold of the Berlin climate, symbolizing the suffering of civilians during World War II.
Bombed during WWII, rather than being either demolished or repaired, the badly damaged spire has been retained, to demonstrate the effects of war - quite brilliant I think. Unfortunately, most of it is currently under wraps and scaffolding as it undergoes work to ensure it remains upright; however, you still get the idea just from the top section.
The church has been rebuilt in a new style on either side of the remnants.
I'm sure that nobody will be surprised, but with something as photogenic as the Brandenburg Gate on offer, and with clear skies (and rain predicted for tomorrow), once I had something to eat, I headed back out to get a few shots of the gate under lights:
Back in the subway (U-bahn) at the main train station (hauptbahnhof), and with camera and tripod in-hand, I took the opportunity to get this shot of the transport that I've become so used to over the last few months of travelling in European cities: