Sunday started with a visit to Checkpoint Charlie, the major diplomat crossing from West to East Berlin. Only a few meters away is the Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie (BWP). This was the most bizarre museum either Matt or I have ever visited. It was founded in 1962, only one year after the wall was constructed, just opposite Checkpoint Charlie and documented, in real time, the stories of the wall.
Those who had successfully escaped would donate their means of escape and story to the museum and it would be added to the collection. It has grown in an ad hoc fashion ever since with new information or stories tacked on or squished into any available space. The exhibits seem like they have never been revised and they are written in changing tenses, are badly translated, are often in the tiniest font and go from floor level to the ceiling making it a painful strain to read.
That said, there are many hidden gems to be found amongst the incoherent babble. Most of these revolve around the true stories of those who successfully escaped East Berlin, despite a towering wall and the threat of imprisonment or death. The creativity of some of the plans was ingenious, and it was amazing to see real pictures of the people involved and see in person their means of escape. These included:
- refitting an engine in a car so that a person could be hidden in the newly created gap
- cutting holes in two side by side suitcases so someone could lie inside them in a car
- building a tiny tunnel 12m under ground and 152m long (57 people escaped over two nights)
- creating harnesses for a family of four who then used a power line fixed in the West as a flying fox
- two men built Europe's biggest hot air balloon from what they learnt in books so that them, their two wives and 4 children could escape. It used over 2000sq m of fabric.
- a home made propelled hang glider
- a musician hid his fiancé in a speaker
That evening we went to a 6pm showing of The Blue Man Group (BWP), New York's well known trio that is now running simultaneously in several countries. The show is so popular that they perform 6 shows a week in their purpose built theatre in Berlin. We really had no idea what we were in for and, after having seen the show, still don't really know how to describe it. It was an electrifying mix of theatre, art, comedy, live music, technology and audience participation. You'd have to see it to know what I mean. Words just wouldn't do it justice. It was unlike any theatre performance I've seen and the energy was infectious. Definitely worth it!
Day 4: Monday
Our day started with a chilly walk along the East Side Gallery, 1.3km of the wall that was saved from destruction and painted by 103 artists from all over the world in 1990. The majority of the paintings were repainted by the original artists in 2009 during a major and controversial renovation project. The most well known painting is Russian Dmitri Wrubel's 'Mein Gott hilf mir, diese tödliche Liebe zu überleben' (My God, help me to survive this deadly love) depicting the kissing communist leaders Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker, inspired by the kiss they had in 1979 during the celebration of the 30 years of the German Democratic Republic's rule in East Germany. It became a leading symbol of the cold war.
We headed next to the LOXX Miniature Railway (BWP) much to the excitement of my man-child husband. Actually it was quite awesome. It was a miniature replica of Berlin with moving trains, trams, buses and trucks. Every 20 minutes night would descend on the city and it really did look like we were viewing Berlin from a tall tower. The attention to detail was amazing with every person and scene telling a story.
Our day ended with a visit to The Berlin Story, a museum detailing the last 800 years of Berlin history. It was superbly done and was essentially a walk through a history book with themed rooms, sound effects and video. There was almost no one there and I got rather creeped out in some of the rooms by the sound effects and creepy lighting. This peaked when, sometime in the 1950s, three guys wearing all black stormed into the room I was in on my own (Matt was one room behind me), kicked down one of the locked fake doors in an exhibit, went through it with a plastic bag, came out without it and stormed out after each having a go at smashing a fake bomb hanging from the ceiling that I was hiding behind. Matt and I, determined to get out as fast as we could, walked into the next room. The men stormed into this one, all eye balling us, then went out an emergency exit. It was one of the scariest things I've seen.
We skimmed over the next 60 years and safely made our way back to the foyer where I told an assistant at the front desk what I'd seen. He went down, came back with news that the emergency door had in fact been activated and thanked me for letting him know.
With nerves already at their wits end, we joined a group of people for a tour of a real Nuclear Bunker built in 1973 by the Americans right under the building we were in. In case of nuclear attack, the first 3792 people who made it to the entrance first would be let in. They would remain there for 14 days. The tour finished at the right time - the place was starting to give me the heebeejeebees.
Day 5: Tuesday
After four full on days in the city we spent Tuesday at home for some RnR. Ah it's a tough life.
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