Berlin is one of the keys to understanding the twentieth century, so we were naturally keen to delve into its history. We hoped, for example, to find the few remaining remnants of the Berlin Wall, denounced as the “Wall of Shame” by the contemptuous and horrified West. At the same time, it was promoted as the “Anti-Fascist Protection Wall” by the Eastern propagandists in an attempt to justify this cruel imposition on the hapless citizens of East Berlin. Some of us were also eager to discover how the National Socialists had established their power here and subjugated the city to their evil will. For these reasons, we began our day with a visit to “The Story of Berlin” and ended it with a harrowing exploration of a museum called the “Topography of Terror”.
On the way to these educational experiences, we watched some of the participants in the Berlin Marathon, several in bizarre and amusing costumes, as they ran along the Kurfürstendamm, doing their best not to trip over the plastic cups that lined the route and being cheered on in a friendly fashion by the spectators, including us. Even in the drizzling rain, there was a party atmosphere. The city may lack the architectural cohesion and beauty of Barcelona, not to mention the sunlight, but it brims with life, diversity and spirit.
Despite all of these informative and entertaining experiences, the incident that amused and captivated us most occurred during our numerous journeys in the U-Bahn. When you travel with a group of people for some time, living in each other’s pockets and observing each other’s foibles, you begin to use a set of words that only makes sense to the group, to notice certain repetitive (and irritating) patterns in each other’s behaviour, and to cherish particular moments that provoke laughter, embarrassment or ridicule. We managed to create several of these moments in five minutes of folly and hilarity on the Berlin Underground. If anyone had videotaped us, the resulting film would have gone viral under the heading “Dopey Australians in Europe”. Thank heavens that nobody did.
Davey was leading us to our next location when he realized that we had gone one stop too far for our connecting train. So we leapt off that train, saw the train going in the opposite direction on the other platform, and ran across to jump in. At that instant, the doors began closing, with Shannon and Courtney still on the platform. We yelled, we held the door open despite its stubborn desire to separate us, and we hauled the girls in, not without curses, criticisms and attributions of blame. Once we were all in, we tried to act cool and unfazed, but it was clear that the other people in the train carriage were wondering if we were simply unusually clueless tourists or something more sinister.
Our absurd behaviour continued at the next stop, where Davey led us up a set of stairs, from which we turned right, climbed into a lift and descended to exactly the same platform. At this point, the spatially gifted members of the party (as they would consider themselves), Dwayne and David, asserted that in fact we had crossed to a different platform in order to catch a train on a different line. A long, intense discussion ensued and continued as we climbed into the following train. The females of the group, especially Shannon and Courtney, advanced their arguments so convincingly that both Dwayne and David, initially unwilling to accept dissent, ultimately admitted that we had indeed returned to the same platform that we had just left. This admission was a victory of reason and femininity over obstinacy and masculinity; the women of the party touched fists and gloried over our triumph.
Of course, Berlin is rich in memorable moments: John F. Kennedy stating that he was a Berliner; Ronald Reagan’s exhortation, “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this Wall”; perhaps most memorable of all, that night in 1989 when the citizens of the divided city were permitted to encounter each other at last and celebrate after 28 years of inhumanity and separation. There have been deplorable moments too, such as Walter Ulbricht’s infamous lie: “No one has any intention of building a wall.” For us, however, those crazy five minutes, in which all our travelling fatigue and confusion were played out in a kind of spatial farce, will also represent Berlin.
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| Courtney looks at the iconic picture of the Trabi bursting through the Wall at the Eastside Gallery. | Shannon wanders through the haunting Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe. |
Final Notes:
Talking Rubbish Bins: The orange rubbish bins of Berlin are not just pieces of metal, but rather friendly and witty exhortations to cleanliness. They have funny, pithy comments printed on them, like “Gib’s mir!” (Give it to me) or “Bitte füttern” (Please feed me). Here are a couple more examples, with explanations:
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| This is a play on the word “Potsdamer” – the verb “putzen” means “to clean” in German. | A “Würstchen” is a little sausage, but here the word alludes to what dogs do, while a “Bude” is a stall. | “Kaugummi” is chewing gum in German. “Gib Gummi” means “Give me your gum” or “Put your gum here!” |
More Spatial Difficulties: Linda and Dwayne went for a run this morning and managed to get lost. They found their way home in the end by catching a train, making it back just in time for breakfast in the homely breakfast room of Christian’s hotel. At least this small mishap ensured plenty of exercise: by the end of the day they had completed over 25,000 steps.
My Steps: A mere 17,881