Visiting Berlin

Laura Tanna, Contributor

Berlin, symbolised by its Brandenburg Gate, is a must-see for anyone interested in modern Europe. In this city of three and a half million people, you still find remnants of Soviet-style architecture from the years when Berlin was divided among the Allied forces of France, Britain, the United States, and the USSR, and you can find amazing 18th-century Prussian as well as 19th-century neoclassical palaces - many of which are now fabulous museums - but after all the bombing which brought Hitler's government to unconditional surrender in 1945, you also find ultra-modern architecture built after World War II mixed in with all of the above.

The effect can be disconcertingly chaotic at first, but since the wall between the communist German Democratic Republic of East Germany and democratic West Berlin fell in November 1989, Berlin has become a haven for young people flocking to this mecca of multi-ethnic, cutting-edge culture.

In a country which only reunited in 1990, and in a city which, once again, became the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1999, there is incredible vitality. London's Mayor Boris Johnson, who loves bicycling, famously called Berlin the best city in Europe, somewhat to his constituents' chagrin.

But the truth is, with 13.4 per cent of Berlin's population foreign, much of that percen-tage Turkish, and the German Reichstag or Parliament renovated with a glass dome designed by an English architect, you can see that things have certainly changed from the days of book burning in the mid-1930s.

BEAUTIFUL RIVER SPREE

On our first evening in Berlin, we walked to the banks of the River Spree to take an introductory boat ride. Admittedly, it was a bit difficult to find one in English, and even then, the commentary wasn't great, but just flowing through Berlin gave us a feel for the capital's contrasts. Most memorable was the mass of young couples seated skin-to-skin on the riverbank watching the passing river traffic!

Museum Island attracts the most visitors, with its five world-class museums on one tiny island. For this, you can obtain a three-day pass because you'll want time to wander through Greek and Roman antiquities in Altes Museum; Egyptian artefacts in Neues Museum; paintings in the Alte Nationalgalerie; magnificent archaeological finds from ancient, near-eastern and Islamic towns in the Pergamon Museum, including the huge 6th-century BC cobalt-blue-tiled Ishtar Gate from Babylon, which left me awestruck - all of this and the Bode Museum, curved in construction to fit the island's tip.

Tour guides will point out that just across from this cultural treasure trove lives Chancellor Angela Merkel in a very plain mustard yellow building with little
visible security.

There are more than 200 private
galleries in Berlin and scores of museums, so one really has to pick and
choose carefully.

In addition to those above, on
another morning, I took a taxi to Schloss Charlottenburg, built as the
summer palace of Elector Friedrich the Third's wife, Sophie Charlotte,
with construction beginning in 1695. Alas, German museums are very
strict about not allowing photographs for commercial use being taken
inside their museums, so I can only tell you that the opulence of the
interior rooms, restored after World War II, merit a visit. Japanese and
Chinese porcelain cover the walls from floor to ceiling in one mirrored
gallery, while private chambers are silks, brocades, exquisite
furniture, magnificent ceilings and
chandeliers.

Behind the palace is a French garden, and
to the side, in a separate building, a gallery of Romantic paintings of
a more modern era, with breathtaking scenes of German and Italian land
and seascapes.

Across the street from this vast palace
is the Sammlung Berggruen museum of modern art, where, in 1996,
Berggruen's private collection of Picassos opened to the world, along
with works by Klee, Van Gogh, Braque and Cézanne.

From
Museum Island's antiquities before the birth of Christ, to the 18th
century glories of Prussia, Berlin truly has it all, including reminders
of its warmongering near past. One can visit the Topographie des
Terrors on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, where the Third Reich's security
services, the head of the Gestapo and headquarters of the SS were all
housed. Those buildings were destroyed, but underground torture cells
now are used to exhibit documentation of Nazi war crimes. The site of
Hitler's bunker is well marked with a sign describing the underground
rooms.

Farther afield, in front of a well-guarded
Jewish Girls' School, is a miniature of the Holocaust statue which
stands at Sachsenhausen memorial northwest of Berlin, where 100,000 died
in a concentration camp. Even in the Tiergarten, once a Royal hunting
ground, now a stylish park with statues, fountains and greenery, there
stands the Soviet War Memorial to honour 80,000 Soviet soldiers who died
in April-May 1945 in the Battle of
Berlin.

TOLERANCE

Today, Berlin has
returned to the tolerance once shown to Protestants or Huguenots who
fled Catholic France. In the popular Gendarmenmarkt area, one can hear
carillon bells playing three times a day from the French Cathedral built
for them at the beginning of the 18th century.

Many
popular restaurants abound in this area. We dined at Aigner's one night
for German cuisine, but the place we had most fun was in Mitte Berlin at
an inexpensive Thai Restaurant, which looked like a simple outdoor
cafe, but inside revealed an elegant dining room with a pleasant
interior courtyard. We would never have found Goodtime if it hadn't been
recommended by our hotel, especially with a server by the name of
Girly! She charmingly laughed saying that she was from the Philippines
where people had "weird" names.

Although there are
more than 150 theatres in Berlin, if you don't speak German, you might
want to stick to the world-famous Berlin Philarmonic, or one of the
three opera houses with ballets, or the annual autumn Jazzfest Berlin,
but so many rock, reggae, and pop groups perform in Berlin, just check
what is happening at Waldbuhne or Junction Bar in Kreuzberg, a
multi-ethnic part of town.