Jax Stumpes: Elegant Elbe: Berlin 3b (6/2/2018)

Saturday, June 2, 2018 (continued)
After lunch, we continued walking.

An information board next to a parking lot is all that
indicates the location of Adolf Hitler's Bunker/Führerbunker,
which was constructed in phases in 1936 and 1944

Hitler moved into the bunker in January 1945, married Eva Braun on April 29th, and committed suicide on April 30th.

Statue (1857, by August Kiss, re-erected in 2005) of
Leopold von Anhalt-Dessau, general field marshal
in the Prussian army, and grandfather of Leopold III
who had the Wörlitz Palace and Park built

We have seen plenty of police presence in Berlin

Our next stop was Rausch Chocolatier/Rausch Schokoladenhaus (est 1918, acquired the Fassbender chocolate manufacturer in 1989 and took over the Gendarmenmarkt location) that is now managed by the 5th generation of the Rausch family. In 2015 the company stopped using Fassbender in their name. When it was said they have chocolate models of famous Berlin landmarks, we were not expecting this size and scope!

Friedrich Wilhelm Memorial Church

Reichstag

Kent & Tamiko with the TV Tower (KSS)

So many varieties of marzipan!

Tartlets

German Church/Deutscher Dom (1882-1883, by
Johann Wilhelm Schwedler in neo-Baroque style,
rebuilt 1977-1988) got its name from the German
language being used and the dome, rather than
from the German word Dom/cathedral

Similar angle, but without the roof of the structure in front
you can see the TV tower in this photo (10/3/1987)

Since Reunification the church has been de-consecrated and made into the Museum of Parliamentary History.

"The Man of All Protests"

"Tony Bennett holds a serpent" (KSS)

Concert Hall/Konzerthaus (1818-1821, by
Karl Friedrich Schinkel, rebuilt 1977-1984) sits in
Gendarmenmarkt between the German Church
and the French Church

In front of the concert hall is the Friedrich Schiller Monument/Denkmal (1869, by Reinhold Begas) of the German writer and historian, surrounded by the allegories of Poetry, Tragedy, History, and Philosophy.

Fewer people around in 1987 (10/3/1987)

Is that big guy the demonstrator, or just having fun?

French Church/Französischer Dom (1701-1705,
by Louis Cayart and Abraham Quesnay, rebuilt
1977-1981) had the dome added 1780-1785,
by Carl von Gontard and Georg Christian Unger,
who added the twin dome to the German Church

French Church (10/3/1987)

View of part of Gendarmenmarkt, named for the stables of a
French regiment, Gens d'Armes, which was here until 1773

Photo corresponding to the lower left quarter of the above picture,
where we saw a movie being filmed (10/3/1987)

And this photo corresponds to the right side of that picture,
again showing evidence of filming a movie (10/3/1987)

A bachelorette party group with the bride-to-be spontaneously
dancing to the music of a street musician on clarinet (on the right)

Academy of Sciences/Akademie der Wissenschaften
(1902 as an office building,
acquired by the academy in 1949)

Academy of Sciences (10/3/1987)

Academy of Sciences façade detail: Theoria cum Praxi/
theory with practical application

We left Gendarmenmarkt.

Moor Colonnades/Mohrenkolonnaden (1787, by Carl Gotthard
Langhans) originally stood on a bridge across the moat of the
Berlin fortress; after the moat was filled in, they became part of
the façades of new buildings, one on each side of the street

#38 Mohrenstrasse with an Einstein quote: "When it
comes to truth and justice, there is no distinction
between small and large problems" (KSS)

Hospital Colonnades/Spittelkolonnaden (circa 1776, by
Carl von Gontard as the edge of a bridge over the moat
of the Berlin fortress, southern colonnade rebuilt 1979),
with the obelisk/"mile zero" (1730) that marked the beginning
of measuring the distance to Potsdam

The next stop was the Currywurst Museum (2009), the first and only currywurst museum in the world! Currywurst is a fast food, slices of sausage with a curried ketchup sauce, that was invented in Berlin. The museum is very creatively arranged, but sadly they will close when their lease is up the end of December 2018.

Singing ketchup bottles play songs about currywurst

Sausage sofa where you can watch a video about currywurst production

All kinds of sausages are used

Tamiko is ready to serve up some currywurst

Herta Heuwer's "kitchen" where she reputedly invented currywurst in 1949;
it was post-World War II and food supplies were low, yet there was plenty of
ketchup (thanks to the American soldiers) and curry (thanks to the Brit
soldiers); she mixed them together as a sauce for sausage and sold it from a
street stand to workers rebuilding the city; it was a hit!

After the tour, you were given a sample. You could choose between skin or no skin on the sausage, and spicy or not spicy sauce. The sauce tasted exactly like curry powder mixed with ketchup.

In the next block from Checkpoint Charlie is Charlie's Beach,
smack in the middle of the city

Now it was time for the House at Checkpoint Charlie Museum, with a
collage of the types of passports that passed through the former checkpoint

After the Berlin Wall was built in 1961, resistance fighter Ranier Hildebrandt began recording the stories of people who escaped from East Berlin. Soon he opened a museum in his flat, and in 1963 he moved the museum to a building adjacent to Checkpoint Charlie. He also wanted to provide help to those needing assistance and was a proponent of non-violent protest. Because of his close relations with those who facilitated the escapes and with escapees, he was given original artifacts for the museum. The museum now has exhibits on the history of the Berlin Wall, artists interpretations of the Berlin Wall, international non-violent protests, and the NATO mission for freedom.

Kurt Wordel was able to smuggle out 55 persons
with three cars of this model of Volkswagen

Wordel himself altered a dozen vehicles, creating hiding places to smuggle people out of East Berlin and out of East Germany. He assisted about 400 escapes, but did have losses as well. He also provided false passports (from Monaco and Andorra), but was most successful with the cars.

Hope Memorial with the painting Hope by Princess Sibylle of Prussia/
Sibylle Prinzessin von Preußen, a bronze cast of Raoul Wallenberg's
briefcase, and cobblestones from the Budapest ghetto

Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat based in Hungary who assisted thousands of Jews by issuing protective (Swedish) passports and housing them in buildings he was able to rent and put up signs such as "Swedish Library," claiming diplomatic immunity. He was arrested by the Soviets for espionage, and disappeared. It is believed he died in a Soviet prison in 1947. The Swedish tax agency did not declare him dead until 2016 (he would have been 104 years old). Wallenberg received many humanitarian awards posthumously, including being designated one of the Righteous Among the Nations.