Berlín 2015 podruhé - cestovní report

Introduction




When we planned our first trip to Berlin at one of our spring meetings, I had no idea that a pleasant coincidence would allow me to repeat this trip again quite soon. But when I wrote that first trip report, I could have guessed that the Tolkienesque analogy of "going there and back again" would be lame - it was more reminiscent of The Fellowship of the Ring and our journey into the heart of dark Mordor than the journey of a lone Hobbit. And I could have saved that hobbit journey for this trip - because this time I was not accompanied by anyone, and could have made the most of every minute.


So hear the story of the second trip to Berlin from June 9 to June 14, 2015.



Tuesday - Wednesday 9 - 10 June - work




A pleasant business trip took me to Berlin, so I spent Tuesday - Thursday until lunchtime conferencing, gluttony and other pastimes of the hard-working. In between, however, there was time to visit the Berlin Zoo, which I was very pleasantly surprised by and can recommend to anyone going to Berlin. Unlike the one in Prague, you won't encounter any hills there, on the contrary, you will come across a number of species that you won't see here. And if you have time and some extra euros to spend, the aquarium is definitely worth it!


My joy was only tempered by the fact that the entrance to the centre of Berlin is only for cars with a green eco sticker, for cars under the year 2006, which my trusty Volkswagen Oktavia did not meet, and so I had to leave it outside the zone at the second hotel, which was to become my refuge after the end of my company activities.



Thursday 11 June




Gluttony and work obligations passed in the hot Berlin afternoon, and after deliberating whether it was time to move to the Turkish part of the city to a hotel or whether not to go somewhere else, I chose the latter option and set out to revisit the Bendler Block, now Stauffenbergstrasse. A place we had already visited during the first expedition, the place where von Stauffenberg and some others who tried to assassinate Hitler were executed. Two floors of this building are now designated as a Memorial to German Resistance to Fascism and Hitler. The museum is mainly "text" and photographic, and large panels in English and German tell many stories of heroism, but also of despair, betrayal and death. Executions of opponents of the regime continued right up to the very end of the war, as recalled by the temporary exhibition on the first floor, dedicated, among other things, to Plötzensee prison, the destination of my next journey.


I took a few last photos in the courtyard, but in my mind I still had the panel with dozens of photos of people who were not afraid to stand up to the Nazis. Somehow I also had similar panels in my head from our old exhibition about the resistance in the Protectorate, and I couldn't shake the feeling that those people who managed to stand up to Hitler and his executioners in Germany were desperately few.


I called a taxi, whose driver tried to rob me in exactly the same way as taxi drivers do in Prague (and probably anywhere else in the world), and chose a longer, all the more expensive route. At least we were able to talk a bit about how life is in Berlin these days, and how politicians are the same whores everywhere in the world and stealing is the same everywhere too, after all.


Reassured by these facts, I supported the local Turkish community by buying dinner and sleeping to support my body before another day, which was already going to be full of travelling to see the past.
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Friday 12. 6.




Friday promised to be a very warm and sunny day once again, I had a busy schedule ahead of me and so I headed off to Berlin traffic towards Plötzensee to be there for the start of opening hours.


Plötzensee prison and execution site was a place of repression and vengeance against all those who opposed the Nazi regime, but also those who were guilty in often very minor ways. The prison is partly functional, as a correctional facility for juvenile offenders, but part of it is reserved on the site where the execution ground stood, and where only two buildings commemorate the horrors of the war. One contains the gallows, the other a short and, for such a place, surprisingly poor textual exhibition, recalling the fate of quite a few of those who died here. With 677 death sentences carried out, our own, Czechs and Slovaks, are in an imaginary second place among the murdered Sad I read the death sentences on Czech fighters, their farewell letters, the precise German reports on how the condemned proceeded with the execution, how long it took to carry it out, and I feel sick. This is not some random confusion of the mind, the systematic murder and the cold-bloodedness with which it was approached is appalling.


The visit was short due to the small scale, and I recovered on the way to the Gatowa Air Museum, which we didn't get to see and photograph as expected on our first visit, and so the perpetrator returns to the scene. I was more lucky than sensible, arriving a day late I probably would have been tearing my hair out as there was a model aircraft day and a gathering of model aircraft fans at the remains of the airfield. So the museum was undergoing a change of layout, some of the planes were moved, planes were taken out of the last hangar and impromptu seating was created for visitors. So at least I was able to photograph some of the machines in daylight. I thoroughly explored the exhibition in the last hangar, dedicated in part to Germany's air defense, the various systems, then the missiles and finally the F-104 and F-4 machines in the service of the West German and unified German air forces. Again, I spent over three hours there, so my time recommendation for this museum comes in at some 5-6 hours if you want to take your time and explore all that this museum has to offer.


I happened to find a reference to a Soviet cemetery that was supposed to be nearby on the way to Potsdam, so when I ended up in Gatow, I decided to go there. After a bit of searching I found the cemetery on the busy road to Potsdam, as there was little indication that there was anything like it in the woods along the road. It wasn't until I looked at the gravestones that I realized that this was not a WWII cemetery as I had originally thought, but a post-war cemetery, especially from the 1950s. What must have cost so many Soviet soldiers their lives, at that time? I don't know myself, but the cemetery was quite large.


After the cemetery tour, it was barely 2:30, and my schedule for the day was pretty much exhausted, so I dug into my navigation to see where else I could go. And since the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp was still on my "did not see" list, I decided to head north, despite the baking sun, to a place about 140 km away.


I've seen many concentration and extermination camps in my lifetime, but a place like KZ Ravensbrück gets you, no matter how hardy you think you are. A place where the Nazi regime took revenge on women and children is truly horrific. There is little left of the camp itself, a few buildings that house a very large and well-crafted exhibition dedicated to the women prisoners, their lives and deaths, the guards, the "doctors" and representatives of the repressive apparatus of the Nazi Reich. Often people who volunteered for their "duty" to beat and kill women and children. In addition, the crematorium is preserved. A wall with the names of the countries whose women were imprisoned here leads to the grove where there are memorials to many of them. Behind, a tall pedestal with a statue towers over the lake. Back at the car park, I then look up at the large houses that stand outside the gates of the camp. I don't need to look at a map to know that these were the houses of the guards and troops guarding the camp. Like at Buchenwald, these buildings are now used as student dormitories. I probably wouldn't have slept there in peace.


On the way out of the camp, I take a picture of the Soviet autocannon, which commemorates the liberation of the camp by the Red Army, but then I take the unpopular B96 road back to Berlin. On the way I stop at the second anti-aircraft tower in Humboldthain Park. The park is right on the border of the eco-zone, so I look for parking for a while, but eventually run up the hill to the remains of the concrete tower, which now serves as a lookout and a place to lounge and drink alcohol. Well, so be it.


All that's left to do is drive to the hotel, shower, dinner and sleep.
Berlín 2015 podruhé - cestovní report - Rozsudek smrti ... jak stručné ...

Rozsudek smrti ... jak stručné ...
Berlín 2015 podruhé - cestovní report - 562 dětí se narodilo v tomto pekle

562 dětí se narodilo v tomto pekle
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Saturday 13.6.




It's hot. Again. I'm slowly getting sick of it (I wish I had known then that when I write this, it will be 39 degrees outside and I can only dream of June's thirties Smile ). The plan for today is simple - Berlin's Technical Museum and if there's time left, the nearby Jewish Museum ... We'll see.


This time it's a subway ride, the technical museum is a few hundred meters from the stop. The museum is gradually being expanded, I enter the spacious "new" museum building. I put down my luggage and, seeing a loom of some sort, I get a little depressed if I made the right choice. But the depression soon leaves me when I see the first computers made in Germany... They have a nice collection of them (several rooms, every room a computer... Very Happy ), I haven't seen that yet! And it gets even better - the rooms dedicated to TV technology arouse in me a gigantic enthusiasm. Not only do I remember my dad, almost a hero of Kralupy households, because his profession was repairing televisions, but I find here real gems from the early days of television broadcasting. And as a bonus, even a set of instruments for German rockets made in Tanvald. So they do exist, then. Famous. Similarly in the radio, telephone and telegraph departments. I'm thrilled. I leave knitting machines and various similar machinery pretty much unnoticed, not my cup of tea, although it is interesting to see machines for knitting copper wire and the like. I move on to the pavilion, which is pretentiously called Ships and Aircraft. Yeah, sure, where'd they put it... I enter, and I'm left hanging. They got the boats in here simply by building them as models. Dozens and dozens of model ships. And more. And more. From the first cats to trimasts, from fishing boats to submarines. Hats off! What's more, the exhibition is so interestingly arranged that even a simple landlubber must be fascinated.


Two floors of boats, all right. And what's next? What about the planes? This section didn't disappoint. It's logical that not too many aircraft will fit in the building, but all the more interesting specimens can be found here - from the first flying machines to Taube, He-162, Hs-117, Ju-88, Bf-110 and Ju-52. But the most interesting stuff, in my opinion, is hidden in the inconspicuous cabinets in the corner of the WWI section. Neil W. O'Connor donated his collection of photographs and decorations devoted to World War I aviation to the museum in 1998. I pull out drawer after drawer and can't help but wonder. Hundreds of photographs of the most famous pilots of the First World War, as well as those who did not live to see the glory. Dozens of decorations and other collectibles, all providing entertainment for the interested for hours.


I finish with the aviation section and cross the bridge to the two turntables, which feature locomotives and wagons for a change. Given the size of these machines and the limited space and lack of light, it's not much to photograph, but it is interesting. And again I bow to the artistry of the author of the 1:5 scale model cars, which are truly abundant here. The nearby model railway is just the icing on the cake, being a kid I'm probably just getting some kind of euphoric fit Smile But back down to earth, among the locomotives we find a wartime BR-52 and a car used to deport Jews to a concentration camp. The car is accessible, and even a short stay in this cattle car doesn't exactly make one feel good.


I can't even believe I spent over six hours in the museum, but it was worth it. Somehow I don't have the strength for the rest, and there is a storm coming, so I change my plans and instead of going to another museum, I go to the metro, buy food for Sunday and hurry to the hotel, where the first raindrops catch up with me.
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Sunday 14.6.




For the second time this year, I'm saying goodbye to Berlin and heading southwest to check out a few notable sites before turning back towards home.


First stop was Torgau on the Elbe. The place, which perhaps I don't even need to mention, is cited as the site where the spikes of the American and Soviet armies first met at the end of World War II. There are two memorials in Torgau commemorating this, one on each side of the river. Apart from the castle, there is also a remnant of the original bridge over the river, the new one stands just a few dozen metres away.


After a brief stop in Torgau, I made my way to another site where the spikes of the American and Soviet armies also met for the first time (there are about three such sites). On the way, however, I stopped at the site of the original Stalag IV B (Muhlberg) POW camp and the later Soviet NKVD Camp No. 1 near the village of Neuburxdorf. The remains of the camp are hidden in the woods, but the road, which is marked on the navigation, although it appears to be only a forest road, is easily passable by car and will take you to the centre of the camp. There it is a good idea to park the car and follow your own route to the cemetery where the victims of Soviet repression after the end of the war are buried. In the aforementioned Neuburxdorf, there is a military cemetery next to the civilian cemetery, where some 3000 victims of the harsh conditions of Stalag IV B are buried. Soldiers from all over Europe can be found here, from Belgium and France to Italy, Slovakia, Poland, Holland and Yugoslavia.


From here my path led to the Soviet cemetery in Zeithein, the final resting place of the victims of Stalag 304 IV H Zeithein, one of the 14 camps built in preparation for the invasion of the Soviet Union. The cemetery is intended to commemorate more than 30,000 soldiers of the Red Army.


The next short stop was to nearby Lozenkirch, where the spikes of the American and Soviet armies met for the first time, an event commemorated by a stone inscribed April 1945 and several documents on the notice board of the local church.


From there my path led me to another prison camp, this time for Allied officers at Colditz Castle. I toured the museum there, but was honestly very disappointed, other than two rooms containing artifacts of various escape attempts from this camp, a few remnants of the officers' rooms in the courtyard of the castle, and a few photographs, there is absolutely nothing of WWII and the story of the fortress and prison camp.


And since there was still plenty of time left, I decided to turn my back on home one last time and go to Leipzig, or rather to the battlefield of the memorable Battle of the Nations of October 1813. The cairn / memorial / lookout tower there is an absolutely colossal structure, in which you can walk or take the elevator up to the different floors, which offer a beautiful view of the surrounding area.


Napoleon was defeated, so was Nazi Germany, and so it was time for me to conclude my Berlin journey and return home filled with impressions. I will soon add the photos from this trip to my galleries so that you too can see what there is to see in such a short time, barely three or four hours drive from our border Smile
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