Part 4
Another curiosity: near the Brandenburg Gate is a nostalgic enclave – a museum dedicated to the very East German car Trabant, lovingly called by the East Germans “Trabi”. It was a piece of junk but the only car available and affordable to the average East German citizen.
The bodies of the first models were made of certain type of plastic that was eaten by mice! …
The famous Hotel Adlon served as a meeting place for the Nazi leadership with Adolf Hitler.
The Brandenburg Gate stood at the border between the West and East Berlin during the cold war.
All around the former Berlin Wall are historical photographs depicting how it then was. We remember!
The top photo shows the view across the Check Point Charlie to the Eastern Sector, and the bottom photo shows the American soldiers on guardingthe Western Sector.
This picture shows West Berliners on scaffolds looking over the Wall into East Berlin. Behind the wall is a wide and bare sand strip of land that separated the city from the wall.This “no-ones-land” was heavily guarded by gun towers, military vehicles and barbed wire barriers. These measures prevented citizens from escaping to the Western Sector of Berlin.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 the tourists look on the results of the collapse ofEast Berlin.
Both the East and West Berliners celebrate the fall of the Wall – a huge symbol of freedom, victory!
This history must not be forgotten. The model of Check Point Charlie still stands on the original spot, and serves as both, a tourist attraction and a reminder of past travails…
Some sections of the Wall still stands and is a little worst for wear because visitors chip away pieces for souvenirs. On the right of this sidewalk is a long subterranean museum with pictures, stories and documents describing those times…
Nearby the Brandenburg Gate is a Holocaust Victims Monument. Large field is covered by rows of concrete blocks. There are 2,711 of them, and each has identical length and width but each has a different height: from 0.2 to 4.7 meters.
We stroll among these rows of monuments and reflect. It is permissible to sit on these blocks but not to stand on them…
Neptune Fountain with the Berlin City Hall in the background.
The iconic Oberbaum Bridge spans over the Spree river.