Ex Bibliotheca

The life and times of Zack Weinberg.

Monday, 17 November 2003

# 9 PM (GMT+1)

Today Dara and I tried to go to the various museums on "Museum Island", only to discover that they are all closed on Mondays. Instead we visited the Berliner Dom, a Lutheran cathedral commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm IV (but not actually built until the reign of Wilhelm II). A Lutheran cathedral sounds like a contradiction in terms, but there it is. Because there was renovation going on, we had to get in via the crypt, where all of the Hohenzollern kings are interred, in big freestanding stone coffins with crowns balanced on top. The interior looks not unlike a Catholic cathedral, except the statues are of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and other Protestant elders, instead of Catholic saints.

If you climb two hundred and sixty-seven steps you get to an observation platform on the outside of the dome. Since it was drizzling or raining all day, we had this to ourselves. The cathedral is not very far from Alexanderplatz and the TV tower. You can see most of the same things from the cathedral, only you are not so high up and therefore you can make out more detail.

After this we paid the obligatory visit to the preserved segment of the Berlin Wall. It is easy to see how this bleak slab of concrete became such a symbol of division. Even with the artwork and graffiti painted on it, roads cut through it, U-bahn lines running over it, and so on, what's left is still grim and daunting. It's got this black cylindrical cap, to make climbing harder, possibly once had razor wire on it; somehow that little touch makes the whole far harsher.

In places, the wall is disintegrating under the relentless force of erosion. Frost heaves have exposed the rebar, which is rusting and expanding and cracking the concrete further. Weeds and moss are growing in the cracks. In an hundred years, this wall will only exist in history books and old archives. Time conquers both our glorious achievements and our ignominous ones.

I shall link to a complete transcript of the late President Kennedy's speech on the occasion of his visit to Berlin in June, 1963. You've all heard the sound bite, but read the whole speech.

Dara was tired so I went on to the Bauhaus-Archiv by myself. This is a fairly small exhibit of artworks, furniture, and architectural models done by various Bauhaus residents. It is, unfortunately, not as interesting as the real thing must have been; it seemed only the shell of the movement.

# 3:40 AM (GMT+1)

I don't have as many photos from the Tiergarten as I'd like, because the batteries in my camera went dead somewhere in there. Fortunately I brought the charger along, and an adapter for the German 220V house current. This adapter is labeled "Use only with heat-producing appliances rated 50-1600W, not with electronic devices." I can think of no plausible reason for either restriction. Empirically, the charger is a 6W device and it only generates heat because it isn't 100% efficient (and because the charging reaction of NiMH cells appears to be mildly exothermic), but it worked fine. However, I freely admit I do not know from electrical engineering, maybe there is a good reason I shouldn't've done this.

I did get a chance to take pictures of the circle of "buddy bears", on the Ebertstraße. This is a fun local phenomenon. Since 2001 local artists have been painting ceramic bear statues and placing them in public places around Berlin; in 2002 the idea occurred to have artists from lots of different countries each paint one bear, and then put them all in a big circle. It's been very popular. The collection now goes on tour regularly to raise money for UNICEF, but I happened to catch it in between trips.

I also photographed the under-construction Holocaust memorial, also on the Ebertstraße. Rant follows: As a Jew, it offends me when memorials are erected to the Jews who died in the Holocaust, but the Catholics, Gypsies, Communists, homosexuals, and political dissidents who were also murdered are forgotten. Their deaths are no less significant. Nor were the Germans responsible for the sole government-orchestrated mass murder of the past century, or even the worst. Statistics.

# 3 AM (GMT+1)

I'd had enough of museums, and Dara and Nathan were tired and wanted to stay home, so I went for a nice long walk. I started at Potzdamer Platz, then walked up the Ebertstraße to the Brandenberg Gate and the Reichstag. I might have gone into the Reichstag (I wanted to go up in its glass dome and look out) but there was a line all the way down the steps and out onto the lawn. So instead I walked the long axis of the Tiergarten (Berlin's Central Park) which is a good 3km. The Tiergarten at this time of year is a riot of deciduous leaves turned yellow or red and in the process of falling off. There are huge piles of leaves on the ground, and when the wind blows it makes a constellation of them in the air. Soon they will be on the ground; the trees will be bare, with only the conifers still green. Just in time for the snow.

I climbed a tree somewhere, along the way, just for the fun of it. Not sure what kind. It was broad and had lots of handy forked branches to climb. Smooth, dark gray bark. [Upon returning home and discussing it with my housemates, we think it was a black walnut. —Ed.]

After I got to the other end, I came back to the flat, collected Dara and Nathan, and we all went round to a local pizza joint for dinner. Now I'm back in the flat again, writing this and listening to the rain.