October 6

Ceiling of Gedächtnis Kirche

The Old and the New

After the war, from 1951 to 1961, a new church was built right next to the site of the old one according to the plans of Egon Eiermann. It features a cross made of nails from the old Coventry Cathedral, destroyed by German Luftwaffe bomb attacks in Britain, in what was called the Coventry Blitz. It was consecrated on May 25, 1962, the same day as the new Coventry Cathedral, which like the Gedächtniskirche, was built alongside the ruins of the old building

Berliner Dom and Tower

Of the things I saw that day, two stood out, one for it's magnificent aesthetic and cute counter culturalism, the other as a sobering view and reminder of the affects of intellectual repression.

The Ampelmännchen are the "Walk / Don't Walk" signs that are seen the world over.  The east German ones featured a man with his arms outstretched in red for "Don't Walk" and then the same man with a jaunty stride and a hat for "Walk".  These signs were so beloved by the Berliners, that when the city planners decided that they were going to replace all the signs with the androgenous / generic west German standard, petitions were signed and rallies held in defense of the eastern Ampelmännchen.  A good thing too, because I chuckle to this day when I see those signs.  The protests were so successful in fact, that they not only saved the eastern Ampelmännchen, but that design has spread now to other cities in Germany as well.

Don't Stride

Stride!

 At the Opernplatz (Opera House Plaza), across the street from the German National Musem, is a strange and haunting memorial.  An empty plaza, paved with cobblestones.  In the middle of the plaza is a sheet of glass, laid into the paving.  When you look inside, you see row upon row of empty bookshelves large enough to hold the 20,000 books that were burned in this square on May 10, 1933.  On the four borders of the plaza plaques are laid into the ground  The plaques translate as follows:

On the right: On May 10, 1933, in the middle of this square, National Socialist students burned the works of hundreds of free writers, journalists, philosophers and scientists

On the left: That was a prelude; that where man burns books, man will eventually burn other men -Heinriche Heine

Opernplatz Memorial