21-8
We were staying near the zoo and Tiergarten, which would be useful tomorrow morning. We arrived at 5ish and our mission, which we chose to accept, was to walk 49 mins to Momo's, an organic restaurant on the Chausseestraße (off Friedrichstraße) that specialises in vegetarian dumplings; in fact, you can choose to have them steamed or fried with two fillings and a couple of dips. We liked the concept and enjoyed the food. To get there, we went through Tiergarten, one of the largest urban parks int he world. This was one area where my grandma had spent time as a child - Bella Heuschober (1918-1983) left Berlin with her parents and sister Mellitta in 1933. Tragically, both her parents were murdered by the Nazis. Jenta Heuschober-Bach (22-2-1893) was born in Prsemysyl, Poland and died on 21-1-1943 in Auschwitz. Samuel Leopold Huschober, (23-6-1888 - when and which camp he died in is unknown) a chocolatier both lived in Schoneberg (we will visit the area on Monday 24th).
22-8
Berlin Zoo opens at 9am, which is exactly when we arrived. Within walking distance, this time we went in the other direction past Lützowplatz and it was raining. We headed straight to the pandas and relished the opportunity to see the 4 panda bears they have. The mischievous elephants kept us entertained as 1 threw sand over himself and the other had a shower by way of his trunk. We also liked the polar bear. Alas, the wild cats could not be seen just yet as they are rebuilding there enclosure. Next, we bought lunch at Kurfürstendamm, although we bought take-away wraps for a picnic in Tiergarten. Thankfully, the weather had considerably improved, so we could stick to the original plan and sat ourselves down surrounded by nature. After lunch, we moved on to National Gallery, which
is located in the Museumsingel via Unter den Linden. Here, you can gasp at some of the finest architecture the city has to offer. Humboldt University (1810) is where Einstein and the Brothers Grimm had taught. The Zaughaus (1695-1706) is a baroque masterpiece and it's a miracle that the neoclassical KronPrinzenPaleis (1857) is still in one piece. The Alte Nationalgalerie (1862-1876) is a listed UNESCO building and has three floors of exhibition space. We enjoyed the first floor the most with Europe's largest collection of 19th century paintings and sculpture. The 2nd floor was off limits, which was a shame, as the new exhibition including Monet impressionists is yet to open. We saw the spot where the Fuhrerbunker once stood and read the board. Only since 2006 has such a historical description existed because the authorities didn't want it to be a pilgrimage frequented by Neo Nazis. Here the Soviets blew the bunker to pieces. On 30 April 1945 Hitler and Eva Braun had escaped justice and took the easy way out. On 1 May Goebbels and his wife followed suit, only after she had killed her children first.
We went to Baraka for dinner, a Moroccan speciality restaurant quite far out. It is quite close to Warschauer straße, where we came for a drink later on. I had been to the dinner place once before with my mum after a German friend had recommended it to me. The heaven's opened and we were lucky to be under cover sitting at a terrace while the waiters ran with the food so they didn't get drenched.
23-8
See Potsdam
We got back to Berlin and, on the way to the Thai restaurant on Friedrichstraße, a drunk starting bothering us. He followed us and I gestured for him to walk first and he emulated me. Then, when I couldn't shake him off, I stopped at an Italian restaurant and when the waiter asked me if he could help me I said that this man was following us, so he and his colleague yelled at him and gave him a talking to, presumably they knew him as he hung around this area, and we left , and thank goodness, that was the last we saw of him. The Thai place also serves Vietnamese food. Babe had Thai soup and I had duck. Before we went back, we went to the organic supermarket opposite to get some fruit.
24-8
We walked to Schoneberg and followed a special walking tour I'd put together, which is a combo of the Lonely Planet walking tour plus some additions of my own. Here is what we saw:
- SportPalast (1910), Potsdamer Straße 172- only a plaque remains. This is the place where Goebbels gave his total war speech in 1943 and other speeches to huge crowds of like-minded, impressionable Germans. The building was badly damaged by the end of WWII and was used for rock concerts before it closed in 1973 and was demolished. See here for more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Sportpalast
2. Goltzstraße - where they have quite a few boutiques and funky buildings.
3. Viktoria Luise-Platz - where Billy Wilder, the Austrian-American Jewish academy award winning film director had lived. He left in
1933 : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Wilder
There are a number of intriguing buildings here. The U-Bahn station is a work of art, there are some sophisticated street lamps in
somebody's front garden and more to discover.
4. Haberlandstraße 5, formerly Albert Einstein's home from 1917-1932. He entertained such guests as Franz Kafka, Heinrich Mann
and Rabindranath Tagore. The building has changed - there is a board with info outside no 8. Some of the buildings on the street
remain that look as they did at the time.
5. Innsbrucker Straße 38, where my grandma had lived until 1933. As with Einstein's place, the building's changed and other
buildings in the street remain so you can get a sense of what they looked like then. Although painful for her, Bella returned to Berlin
in 1961 with people of her age and visited her old building when it still stood and recovered some old photographs from the
apartment.
6. Ruckert Gymnasium, Mettestraße 8, where my grandma had gone to school. Still exactly as it was - a massive building with a
sports field. Sadly, she did not finish her education in the Netherlands after the war as it was forbidden for Jewish people to go to
school then and she was in hiding. She had learnt to sew to help earn money to keep the family going. Later, she took courses
whenever she could and spoke a few languages.
7. Rathaus Schoneberg, Am Rathaus 2 is the town hall for the Berlin Templehof-Schoneberg area. best known for being the place
where JFK gave his 'Ich bin Eine Berliner' speech - see here for more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathaus_Sch%C3%B6neberg
They were doing COVID testing when we popped in to use their loo. The interior is fabulous with terracotta detail and impressively
grand soaring spaces.
8. Rathaus-Schoneberg Station - Art Nouveau architecture at its best. We turned up as it was being used to appear in a film or TV.
It's necessary to go down the steps to fully appreciate this gem.
9. Hauptstraße 155 - formerly home to David Bowie and Iggy Pop, the rock stars. Bowie lived here from 76-78 and he is
remembered for his outstanding achievements in music with a plaque that has been on display since his death in 2016.
10. Marlene Dietrich's birth house, Leberstraße 65 - with bronze plaque and double board including pictures and info about the
legendary singer & actress.
11. Cafe Berio, Maasenstraße 7 - we enjoyed the cake but found it to be overpriced here.
We had eaten the cake in order to stave off hunger and have time to visit the New Synagogue (1850 {which closes at 2pm} and ~
put lunch on hold for the time being. We also had some nuts and an apple to tide us over. The shul is most impressive from the
outside. It has been compared to the Alhambra in terms of its Moorish style. Now, there is no main prayer hall to visit (worshippers
can use one on the 2nd floor, though it is not visitable), but an exhibition space and some remnants of the architecture inside,
though it was a pity we could not experience the place in the way it used to be. Nevertheless, it is amazing that it is still here as
most synagogues were destroyed during Kristallnacht on 9-10 November 1938. The security is understandably strict and
omnipresent as you walk from in to out or vice-versa. After our visit, we had lunch sitting at a terrace at the back of a kosher
hummous place. We walked into an old Jewish cemetery, which are usually sombre places to visit, but this time, I felt overcome
by sadness as there were only 15 gravestones out of 1000 remaining, and one symbolic tombstone, a copy of that belonging to
Moses Mendelssohn (1729 -1786). He is actually buried in Weißensee cemetery. How could this be? Only because the Nazis had
desecrated most of the graves.
The last part of the day involved a smaller walking tour that centred around Art Nouveau architecture. The Jewish Museum, we
were disappointed to find out, was fully booked, as they had limited tickets on offer, one day after reopening during the CORONA
crisis.
* Nollendorfplatz - Neuez Schauspielhaus
** Bulowstraße and Wittenbergplatz stations. We had also photographed the Friedrichstadt-Palast on Friedrichstraße, which is
where we ended up again for dinner at Bombay, three guesses for which kind of cuisine.
25-8
We had 3 hrs to spend in the city and did the following; we walked through Tiergarten to Potsdamer Platz - on to the Altes
Stadthaus (1902), which, it turned out, cannot be visited by the public; it is used by parliament. We took a few pics here and of the
Rotes Rathaus (1861-69) and picked up some last minute souvenirs in the Berlin Store on Unter den Linden, where we saw a
rescue helicopter ascend (right in front of the Brandenberg Gate) and as Hotel Adlon (1907) didn't have their house in order as
cakes are only served from 12, we had a piece of meringue at Aux Merveilleux de Fred just off Kurfüstendamm. Our cab was
booked at 11.30 and we got our lunch, which consisted of salad and wraps, at Hauptbahnhof (central station) for the train ride back.