Wednesday, March 20th, 2024
This morning we were with the same local guide as yesterday. We were on our way to Potsdam. We passed by Nicholas’ Quarter, the oldest area in Berlin, which was founded in 1200, although the homes and streets were rebuilt after WWII.
The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church ( from the 1890s) was badly damaged in 1943 by the bombings. The top of the main spire was broken off and the roof collapsed. Eventually the church was going to be demolished but the people were so upset that a compromise was reached. Instead of razing the old church, they hired an architect who combined the ruin church into the design of the new church.
The Funkturm Berlin (finished 1926) looked like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. Heinrich Straumer designed Funkturm and was used as a radio tower. During WWII it served as a warning and observation post. In 1973 all transmissions ended. It still had a restaurant and observation tower.
We drove through Wannsee which was located in the southwest quarter of Berlin. This town had two lakes along the Havel river and some beautiful homes!
Potsdam suffered severe damage in WWII but many of its monuments survived or were restored. UNESCO named Potsdam’s palaces and landscaped parks a World Heritage site in 1990. Below were a few photos from our arrival in Potsdam: the obelisk in Potsdam, cobbled side streets, and one of the many beautiful parks.
Our first stop in Potsdam was the Sanssouci Palace. The palace was built for Frederick the Great as his summer palace and was finished in 1747. It had formal gardens, terraces, fruit trees, fountains and other additions. Frederick the Great was reburied here in 1991 which was where he wanted to be. The palace was one story, had 12 rooms and it still had much of the original designs and furnishings. Amazingly the palace was not damaged during WWII! Sanssouci Palace was opened by Wilhelm I as a museum in 1873. The self-guided audio tour was very informative. Check out the slideshow below to see pictures inside the castle, the castle grounds, and the Norman Tower on the Ruinenberg.
The Cecilienhof Palace was where the Potsdam conference took place. The Cecilienhof was built between 1913-1917. It was built to resemble an English Country manor with brick and wood. Until 1945 it was the residence of the crown prince and princess, William and Cecilie of Prussia. It had 176 rooms with several courtyards.
We visited here because of its historical significance. From July 17 to August 2, 1945 a summit meeting of the “Big Three” was held here. They were Harry S. Truman, the American president, Winston Churchill, the British prime minister, and Joseph Stalin, the Soviet head of state. Each leader and his staff had their own entrance into the Cecilienhof. The agreement reached did not have Churchill’s signature because he was replaced by Clement Attlee after a general election in the U.K.! The Potsdam Agreement laid the groundwork for Germany, Europe and the world after WWII.
We passed the Garde Ulanen Kaserne in Potsdam that was built in 1868. The Red Army, which was the Soviet forces, used it as barracks.
The Jägertor was one of the oldest entrances to Potsdam from the north. It was built in 1733 and was part of Potsdam’s wall. In 1869 the city wall was demolished but the Jägertor was left to stand alone. It was restored in 2013.
We also saw the Nauen Gate. It was an 18th century gate in the historic center of Potsdam.
Bablesberg Palace was located along the Havel river in Potsdam. It was built in 1833 for Prince Wilhelmof Prussia (later he became Emperor William I and King of Prussia) and his wife Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar (she became German Empress and Queen of Prussia). It was their summer residence for more than 50 years. In 1990 it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We saw the Glienicke Palace on our way to the Glienicke Bridge. The palace looked like an Italian villa but located in Germany. It originally was a cottage but was turned into a summer palace for Prince Carl of Prussia in the early 1800s.
The Glienicke palace was now used as an open-air museum, gave special tours, lectures, and events. Also, it was a World Heritage site.
The Glienicke Bridge was built in the 1900s and goes across the Havel River. The bridge connects Berlin to Potsdam. It was also called the “Bridge of Spies” because the bridge served several times as the site where Warsaw Pact agents would be exchanged for Western spies. At this time the bridge was closed to civilians.
In 2015, “The Bridge of Spies” movie starring Tom Hanks and directed by Steven Spielberg was released. It was about one of the most famous exchanges that happened on this bridge. It was the exchange of US spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers (USA) who was shot down and Rudolf Abel (USSR spy) in 1962. This exchange also included an American doctoral student, Frederic L. Pryor who was studying in Berlin and was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Berlin wall had been up for a few days when he crossed into East Berlin to hear a speech, give a copy of his dissertation to an East German professor who had been advising him and visit the sister of a friend to see if she had any communication since it had been cut off between the East and the West. It was when he went to her apartment that he was arrested. Pryor didn’t know that the sister had fled to West Berlin and the police were watching her apartment. When the police found his dissertation they thought it was intel for the US and sent him to prison. He was detained for six months. The movie changed some details but actually filmed the exchange on the bridge.
We walked the bridge and the exchange took place where you see the two different colors of green and on the bridge sidewalk it was also marked with a sign that said German division until 1989. Also that was the division between east and west.
After our time in Potsdam, we were back in Berlin. A group of us wanted to visit the Book Burning Memorial that was unveiled in 1995. It commemorated the book burning that took place at Bebelplatz. There was a glass plate set in the pavers that looked down at an underground room with empty bookshelves. It had space for 20,000 books which was the number the Nazi’s had burnt! This happened on May 10, 1933.
As we walked back to our hotel we passed the Berlin Cathedral that was a Protestant church and its dome lined the Berlin cityscape.
We had to take this picture with the Marienkirche, the oldest parish church in Berlin that was lined up directly with the Berlin TV Tower!
At our hotel we visited the Sky Terrace which was located 394 feet high. Unfortunately by the time we arrived the clouds started to roll in but we still had incredible views.
From the last two days we gained a better understanding of Berlin before and after WWII.
Thursday, March 21st, 2024
This morning we left for the airport and it was pouring outside. It was our only day of rain so it was tolerable!
Our first flight was Berlin to Amsterdam.
Our flight was on time and we had to go to the gate to get our boarding passes. The nine of us traveling together had to wait as the gate agents tried to get us seats on the plane because our next two Delta flights were canceled by the Delta partner that we flew on from Berlin! The agents got us seats but we weren’t in the seats that we had selected but you learn that you have to “go with the flow” when you travel. We were on the flight so that was good, but the bad thing was that the gluten free meal that we had preordered wasn’t on the plane! This was our long flight from Amsterdam to Detroit! Luckily we always had protein bars in our carry on bag.
Our plane arrived in Detroit on time and we quickly went through customs because we had Global Entry. We had several hours before our flight to Columbus and we spent most of that time getting a boarding pass for the flight. We all eventually had seats and we were ready for takeoff or so we thought. As we pushed back by the pushback tug the towbar shear pin broke when the plane went over a bump. So the pilot pulled back up and maintenance had to fix the towbar pin and then do another safety check. That took a while and we tried again. The towbar shear pin broke again when the plane went over the bump. The pilot left the plane past the bump this time. We were lucky, the last pushback tug and towbar was able to push us back and we finally proceeded to takeoff.
Thank goodness our luggage arrived with us, we met our Uber driver and headed home. It had been a very long day!
We have lasting memories from our trip. We look forward to more adventures!
This bunker complex was started in 1943. It was an underground Fuehrer Headquarters in case the buildings above ground were destroyed or if the Obersalzberg should be taken over by the enemy. The subsystems were connected by long corridors or staircases. All of the important buildings were reachable. The bunkers contained living, work, office, storage and technical space. When the air raid by the British occurred in April, 1945 over Obersalzberg the bunkers were filled with many workers but no Third Reich officials.
Before getting in the smaller bus to visit Eagle’s Nest we had lunch in Obersalzberg.
In the dining room is a marble fireplace given to Hitler as a gift from Mussolini.
The second is the Protestant Church of Reconciliation and is set into the ground.
The third was the Jewish Memorial.
