The Imperial Cities Day 10 & 11

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.

**Memorial Church and the newer church is currently under renovation.**

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.

Stalin’s room on left then beside it Russian delegation entered. Stalin arrived one day late

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.

The Book Burning Memorial at Bebelplatz.

The plaque on the top left has a quote from Heinrich Heine’s play Almansor (play, written 1821–1822). “Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings”

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!

Berlin TV Tower and the Marienkirche Church

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!

At the Berlin Brandenburg International Airport

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!

The Imperial Cities Day 9

Tuesday, March 19th, 2024

This morning we said goodbye to Prague and headed to Berlin!

On our way out of town we saw the Operation Anthropoid Memorial. This memorial was installed on the actual site of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich that occurred on May 27th, 1942 at 10:35 AM. Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated by the Czech resistance. He was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. He was in charge of Hitler’s “Final Solution” (Holocaust) of the Jews in Europe.

For a short time we followed along the Elbe River. We were in the Central Bohemian Highlands and the mountains in the background were of volcanic origin. The motorway we were driving on was very controversial when it was being built. This was because these Highlands were protected and the motorway cut through it but of course it was built and finished in 2016.

After we crossed the border into Germany we had a bus tour through Dresden.

Our tour director, Karolina, did an excellent job pointing out the highlights of Dresden and we enjoyed seeing the city that was almost entirely destroyed during WWII!

We also saw individual gardens like our community gardens. They had their own plot and a small building or shed.

Around Dresden and in Berlin we saw above-ground pipes. These pipes were used to drain ground water from building sites and then emptied into the rivers.

As we arrived into Berlin we crossed its main river, Spree.

The Treptower Park was the second largest public park in Berlin. It’s size was over 200 acres!

The Red Town Hall was the seat of the Governing Mayor and the Berlin Senate. The building got its name from being made of bright red bricks and was built in the mid 19th century.

When we arrived at our hotel we met our step-on guide who took us around Berlin. Our hotel is very near the iconic landmark, the Berlin TV Tower, which began operation in 1969. Its location was once in East Germany. It also was the tallest building in Germany.

St. Mary’s Church (before 13th century) was located next door to the TV Tower.

The statue to Martin Luther was dedicated in September of 1884. He was a key figure in the Protestant Reformation. This monument was located in front of St. Mary’s Church.

As we walked and also rode around Berlin we saw remnants of the Berlin Wall. The wall separated East and West Berlin from 1961-1989. It was 7 1/2 miles long and was up to 15 feet high. Double rows of cobblestones marked where the wall once stood around the city.

At the Berlin Wall Memorial (or Gedenkstätte Berliner) we saw the open air exhibits which included a portion of the Berlin Wall and an exhibition on the division of the city. Neighbors across the street from each other were separated by the wall over night.

The iron poles marked the wall’s location that divided East and West Berlin. Sections of the Berlin Wall were still erect.

**These iron poles mark the route of the wall.**

We also saw part of the wall that became the East Side open-air art gallery on the banks of the Spree River.

The Reconciliation Chapel replaced the Community Church that was dynamited by the Communists in 1985. The Community church was walled into the “Death Strip”. The “Death Strip” was the space between the concrete wall and another fence. Neither East nor West Berlin people could attend the church. It became an embarrassment to the Communist government.

The Reconciliation Chapel was erected as a spiritual place and was dedicated to the victims who lost their lives at the Berlin Wall.

The Reconciliation Sculpture by Josefina de Vasconcellos was also placed here.

The bells of the original Protestant Church were salvaged and were housed in a wooden structure.

This was another memorial to those who died attempting to cross from Communist Germany to the freedom of the West.

The Brandenburg Gate was one of the most visited landmarks. From 1961-1989 when East and West Berlin were divided the gate was closed. It reopened during the reunification of East and West Berlin and became a symbol of the division and reunification of Germany.

The Brandenburg Gate was designed to be a symbol of peace and it was based on the Greek Propylaea at the Acropolis in Athens. It was built between 1789-1791 and it had 12 Doric columns, six on each side, which created entrances into Berlin. The gate was the only one of 18 gates that were entrances to Berlin that remained.

The Quadriga sculpture on top of the Brandenburg Gate

The quadriga on the top of the Brandenburg Gate was with the Goddess of Peace and she was driving a four horse chariot. In 1814 when it was returned from when Napoleon and taken the quadriga she was renamed the Goddess of Victory.

The Stelenfeld Memorial was located in the middle of Berlin. This memorial was to the murdered Jews of Europe. It opened in 2005. It was made up of 2,711 Stele (concrete slabs) of various heights and placed on a slight slope. It created a wave-like effect. This memorial was a place of contemplation and remembrance!

Another stop was Checkpoint Charlie. It was a reminder of the border crossing between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. There were three different checkpoints and the names were based on NATO’s phonetic alphabet. One was Alpha, two was Bravo, and three was Charlie.

The checkpoint booth was removed in June, 1990 and can be found in Berlin’s Allied Museum. This replica was based on the original site. Checkpoint Charlie became famous because of a combat-ready tank standoff between the Soviets and the Americans.

Photo Credit: Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie 1961, M48 “Patton” tanks facing Soviet T-54 tanks. Public Domain, Source: http://www.army.mil/article/46993/standoff-in-berlin-october-1961/. (Modified in GIMP)

The Topography of Terror was an area where the headquarters of the Gestabo, high command, and the security service of the SS was located from 1933-1945. It was terror because of the torture and beatings of prisoners that the Nazis carried out. The buildings were mostly destroyed during WWII and what was left was then demolished. It opened as an open air exhibit in 2010.

Some of the Berlin Wall was still standing at the Topography of Terror site.

We passed the statue of Otto von Bismarck that was erected in 1901. He was the first Chancellor of the German Empire from 1871-1890.

The Victory Column took eight years to make and was erected in 1873. Victoria, Goddess of Victory adorns the top of the column. This Victory column was to commemorate Germany’s victories over Denmark, Austria, and France between 1864 and 1871.

If you climbed the steps to the lookout observatory, you would see the Bellevue Palace. It was originally built 1786 to be the private residence of Frederick the Great’s youngest brother Prince Ferdinand of Prussia. It was reconstructed in 1959 and was the official residence of the President of Germany.

The statue of Albrecht von Roon was erected in 1904. Albrecht von Roon was a Prussian soldier and statesman. He was important because in the 1860s he had a key role in the wars that led to the German unification under Prussia’s leadership.

The Reichstag was the Assembly hall for Parliament. Its construction was completed in 1894. In 1933 shortly after Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor, the Reichstag was burned. It was almost completely destroyed in WWII. It was eventually reconstructed and the German lower house of Parliament moved into the Reichstag in 1999.

A memorial to the murdered members of the Reichstag was located in front of the building. Each slab was engraved with the name, political party, birth and death dates of each of the 96 members of Parliament that were expelled for their political or religious beliefs after the Nazis came into power in 1933.

There were several memorials to the Soviet soldiers who lost their lives during the battle of Berlin. This memorial was erected in 1945 by the Soviet Union at Tiergarten.

We also saw the memorial to the homosexuals persecuted by the Nazis. This concrete memorial has a small window where a visitor can look through and see a short movie of two men kissing.

Memorial to the Homosexuals persecuted by Nazism.

The trabant car was produced from 1957-1991 by a former East German manufacturer. The cars were made of plastic that was reinforced with recycled cotton waste. This came from the former Soviet Union. Now these cars were used by a tour company giving guided tours of Berlin.

We checked into our hotel room that was on the 32nd floor. We had a wonderful view of Berlin.