Called Senamiestis in Lithuanian, Old Town Vilnius was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994. It is described as one of the largest medieval old towns in Northern Europe. Covering 887 acres, its cobblestone streets are lined with historic structures from as far back as the 16th century and feature some of Europe’s most classical architectural styles — gothic, renaissance, baroque, and neoclassical.
For our first full day in Vilnius, 20 June, we asked Vilius to give us a tour of Old Town, relying on his knowledge rather than a guidebook. It was a good choice. He was also able to convey some of his personal experiences and background as he had lived for 35 years under Soviet rule.
Vilnius University occupies a large part of Old Town. Founded in 1579 by Jesuits, the university enrolls more than 22,000 students. Its buildings feature 13 distinctive courtyards. On our walkabout, we came across what appeared to be a gathering of students and families either pre- or post-graduation from one of the university programs.
Prominent on campus is the university’s Church of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, also known as the Church of Saints Johns. Rolls off the tongue, eh? The church’s tower was built in the 16th century and is separate from the church itself. We climbed to the top of the 226-foot-tall tower and had some wonderful panoramic views of Old Town and the city beyond.
This video (2:49) covers the first part of the day’s tour.
Leaving the university, we strolled through narrow streets lined with restaurants, shops, and churches. This video (1:53) ends with a visit to a woodcarver’s shop, with many weird and wonderful works. I was attracted to a chair in the form of an eagle (duh) and wanted just to take a picture of it. A sign had said one euro for pictures. I paid the owner — the carver, I assume — but he insisted I don some garb, carry some menacing pieces of woodwork, and pose in the chair. Okay.
We exited Old Town for a brief spell, leaving through the Gates of Dawn (just a gate now and the only “gate” in or out of Old Town). Heading south for a bit, toward the railway station, we picked up some blueberries and strawberries from a farmers market. Then we came upon a pretty funky area, featuring a lot of street art. Perhaps the most prominent, at least lately, is a drawing of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump “shotgunning” a joint. (I believe that is the correct term for two people exchanging smoke with their mouths.) Originally, the drawing showed the two kissing, but it was vandalized. When the artist redrew it, he altered the exchange.
“Nobody knows where it is, but when you find it, it’s amazing”
Lithuania is, admittedly, not well-known. Julia recently ran across the rather cheeky ad for its capital above, so they’re working on it. Lithuania’s a small country with a population (2.8 million) smaller than that of San Diego County. In its history, it has had major ups-and-downs, including dominance by Poland, Russia, and the Soviet Union. Now a member of the European Union and NATO, Lithuania is classified by the World Bank as a “high-income, advanced economy.” Wi-fi in Lithuania is public, free, and among the fastest in the world.
Lietuva is the southernmost of the Baltic states, south of Latvia and Estonia. It is at about 55 degrees north latitude, placing it north of the entire contiguous United States (lower 48). It is bordered by Latvia, Belarus, Poland, and Kaliningrad.
Baltic tribes were united in the Kingdom of Lithuania in 1253. In the 14th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the largest country in Europe, extending from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, consisting of current Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, as well as parts of Poland and Russia. In 1569, Poland and Lithuania formed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which lasted for more than two centuries. Neighboring countries then encroached and dismantled the Commonwealth, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuania by 1795.
(My mother’s parents emigrated to the U.S. in the early 1900s. Their 1912 marriage license lists both of them as having been born in “Lithuania, Russia.”)
As World War I came to a close, Lithuania proclaimed its independence in 1918. In World War II, the Republic of Lithuania was first occupied by the Soviet Union, as part of its nonaggression pact with Nazi Germany, and then Nazi Germany. It was re-occupied by the Soviets as they drove the Nazis west and Lithuania became one of the Soviet “republics.” In March 1990, a year before the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union, Lithuania was the first Baltic state to declare its independence.
National flag of Lithuania. Yellow represents the sun, green the forests and land, and red the blood of patriots.
Not so fast, Soviets said. At the beginning of 1991, Moscow demanded that Lithuania relinquish its independence and restore its Soviet-drafted constitution. On January 13, 1991, pro-Soviet forces attempted to take power, seeking control of the Vilnius television station. Thousands of Lithuanians had gathered around the station. Using Soviet tanks, the pro-Soviet forces broke through the crowd, killing 14 and injuring more than 700, and took the station off the air. The situation in all the Baltic states was tense and unresolved until a failed coup in Moscow in August 1991 led Boris Yeltsin to accept their independence on September 7, 1991.
Lithuania was among the last European countries to be converted to Catholicism in the late 14th century. Soviet occupation after WWII closed churches and did not permit public exercise of religion. The most recent census showed more than three-quarters of the population identifying as Roman Catholic. Lithuania was an important center of Jewish scholarship and culture from the 18th century to WWII. Before the war, nearly 100,000 Jews lived in Vilnius, the capital, nearly half of the total population, and worshiped at more than 110 synagogues. Of the more than 220,000 Jews living in Lithuania in 1941, almost all were killed in the Holocaust. The current Jewish population is only a few thousand.
Perhaps the most frequent connection Americans might have with Lithuania is through basketball. It is Lithuania’s most popular sport and is considered the national sport. (I asked Vilius, our guide, where I might find a Lithuania soccer shirt as a gift. He looked at me askance and said Lithuania’s soccer teams were terrible. “You should get a basketball jersey!”) Lithuanian national teams are very successful and several Lithuanians have played in the NBA. (I still keep a memento of the Lithuanian Olympic team that won bronze in the 1992 Olympics.)
Eighty-four percent of those living in Lithuania, according to the 2011 census, are ethnic Lithuanians speaking Lithuania. About 6.6 percent are Polish and Russians 5.8 percent. Menus often were in Lithuanian, English, and Russian. Nearly all road and traffic signs were in Lithuanian and English. Lithuania is bordered on the northwest by Kaliningard, a Russian protectorate. We found Russian more common when we were near Kaliningrad.
Vilnius
Also sometimes referred to as Vilna, Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania and its largest city, with about 570,000 residents.
According to legend, Grand Duke Gediminas, after hunting in the area where Vilnius now is, had a dream of a huge iron wolf on a hilltop howling as loud as a hundred wolves. He asked a pagan priest the meaning of the dream and was told the wolf represented a castle and city that would be built on that site. The city that followed was at the confluence of two navigable rivers and surrounded by forests and wetlands that were difficult to penetrate, making it more defensible against Teutonic Knights.
The Soviets built up several “minor-districts” on the outskirts of Vilnius, featuring large, grey, rectangular, high-rise apartment complexes. Despite that, only one-fifth of Vilnius’s 153 square miles is developed, the rest being parks, public gardens, lakes, etc., making it one of the “greener” European capitals.
Except for trips to and from the airport, Julia and I spent all our time in Vilnius in Old Town and I will post soon about our Day 2 tour.
I remember my mother telling me that, when she was in Berlin in 1945-46, she realized she might never be closer to Lithuania, the country from which her parents emigrated. Getting there, at the time, however, was impossible. It was occupied by Soviet troops and would be for the next 45 years.
As Julia and I were planning our visit to Berlin, I realized we would likely never be closer to Lithuania. We thought perhaps we could, in some fashion, fulfill my mother’s hope.
We arrived at the Vilnius airport around 6 pm on 19 June. Vilius Vaseikis, from Lithuania Visits, met us at the airport and drove us to the apartment in Old Town we had secured through him. It was located on Pilies Gatvė (“Castle Street”), one of Old Town’s main drags. While it was early evening by the time we had settled in, sunset wasn’t until just before 10 pm local, so we went out to eat and took a quick tour of our surroundings.
At a nearby restaurant, offering traditional Lithuanian cuisine, we shared herring and what one might call a potato sampler. A variety of potato dishes, including potato-stuffed sausage. There’s also a shot of the beer menu in the gallery, including one option with hemp seeds.
Our last day in Berlin prior to leaving for Lithuania focused on churches and museums. The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was close enough to our hotel to walk to in the morning.
Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
Heavily damaged in WWII bombing, the church tower is a stark visual reminder of the kind of damage done to Berlin and Germany, and it has been left in the condition you see to be that reminder. There are also new church buildings surrounding the tower, so the congregation is active.
Original construction of the church began in 1891. Kaiser Wilhelm II built it to honor his father, Wilhelm I.
Here’s video (1:48).
Museum Island
Museum Island (Museuminsel) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with five museums and the Berlin Cathedral. It’s actually the north end of an island in the middle of the River Spree. Many of the museums were damaged in WWII and you’ll see examples in a couple of videos below. As the island had been in East Berlin postwar, restoration of the museums and collections did not really begin until the 1990s.
(With only a few hours available, our museum tour was relatively brief. It’s certainly worth at least a day.)
The first video focuses on the Neues Museum, built in 1843-55, but not reopened after reunification until 2009.
The building houses the Egyptian museum, including the famous bust of Queen Nefertiti. (Photography of the bust by museum visitors is not allowed. This is an “official” photo.) There are also portions of another major collection, artifacts from the Stone Age and later prehistoric eras from the Museum of Pre- and Early History.
The video (2:00) opens with the Lustgarten (Pleasure Garden) and Altes Museum.
Pergamon Museum
The Pergamon Museum houses an antiquity collection, the Middle East museum, and the museum of Islamic Art. It is notable for the monumental scale of several exhibits, including the Ishtar Gate of Babylon.
Ishtar Gate
Video (1:55).
Berlin Cathedral
“Berlin Cathedral” is much easier than the official name: Evangelical Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church. Construction of the current church began in 1893 and it was opened in 1905. The building was damaged in WWII, but East Germany permitted the start of reconstruction in 1975 due to the infusion of West German currency.
Not without taking some ideological revenge, however. East Germany destroyed the northern wing of the original building, compared by some to the Medici Chapel in Florence, Italy, because it had been a memorial to the Hohenzollern dynasty, which ruled Germany for many years. (There are four caskets of Hohenzollerns on the church’s main floor. Many more are in the lower level of the church. Fascinating stuff below, but conditions were not suitable for video.)
Restoration renewed after reunification, and efforts to restore the dome and surrounding cupolas continue today.
Julia and I visited around the time of the daily prayer service at 6 pm, which lasts about half an hour and requires visitors to be seated, with no photography allowed. The time features brief sermons and longer selections from the magnificent organ in the church.
Most of the video (2:34) is accompanied by music from that organ. I cheated a little and turned on the video camera, which simply sat on the pew and collected audio.
Bundespressekonferenz
Between visits to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and Museum Island, we joined two new friends, Michael and Cornelia Günther, at the Bundespressekonferenz (BPK) building for lunch. The BPK (Federal Press Conference) is a union of full-time journalists who report principally for German media. Also in the building, located near the Reichstag and other government buildings, are members of the Association of Foreign Press in Germany (VAP).
In contrast to the U.S. and many other countries, the BPK is the “host” of press conferences by German government officials. BPK “invites” officials and they come to the building. Only BPK and VAP members can participate and ask questions. I believe German Chancellor Angela Merkel makes an annual appearance.
Michael is an independent multimedia producer, director, etc. Among other projects, he is working with the Canaris family and Heiko Suhr on a documentary about Admiral Canaris. Cornelia (Connie) is a correspondent for The Economist.
BPK atrium/courtyard
We visited both of their offices and they treated us to lunch in the very nice courtyard of the BPK building. In The Economist office, we were introduced to Vendeline von Bredow, European business and finance correspondent. Ms. von Bredow had spent time in Chicago as the magazine’s Midwest correspondent. Michael pointed out that Ms. von Bredow was a direct descendent of Otto von Bismarck, first Chancellor of the German Empire in the late 19th century. :0
While short of the record set the day before, I was still quite active. Steps were 19,616 for 6.5 miles. Says I climbed 17 floors and I can’t quite figure out where that happened.
An earlier post had offered a teasing peek at the Hotel-Pension Funk, to which we moved on 16 June. This video will show the rest of the walk-in, as well as some video from my room.
One of the things we learned on this trip was that Julia was not going to get much, if any, sleep if we continued to share a room. My snoring (and likely sleep apnea) was nowhere close to being a sleeping aid. She stuck it out at the Hotel Haus Leopold, but after one night at the Funk we arranged for a separate room for me. Luckily, the hotel’s top room was available for a couple of nights (before we left for Lithuania) and at a reduced rate.
Here’s video (1:17).
The Funk had been the home of Asta Nielsen, a silent film star (1910s, 1920s) of Danish origin who made nearly all of her 74 films in Germany. The building had been built in the late 19th century and her home was the entire third floor, forming part of a circle around a central courtyard. Reconfiguring the layout for a hotel created 14 rooms, plus a breakfast area. As you’ll see, it retained at least some of the flavor of the time when Die Asta (The Asta), as many Germans called her, was the hostess.
Here’s a gallery of photos showing the entrance and hallways.
The Asta is not well known in the U.S., perhaps because her often erotic films were heavily censored here or just not offered. Here is a gallery of some of the posters in the hotel. (I’m kinda curious about the film “Das Eskimobaby,” featuring “lustspiel in 3 akten.”)
I did not discover the Funk. Indeed, I found it among Rick Steves’s recommendations for housing. Glad I did. Staff was also great. Very helpful.
There was a restaurant just down the street from the Funk that became a favorite. The Literaturhaus features readings and other literary events in a 19th century townhouse. It also features al fresco dining and the Cafe Wintergarten. We tried it one evening after much walking and we may not have eaten anywhere else in Berlin after that.
Our introduction to Berlin hotels was the Hotel Haus Leopold in Zehlendorf. As I mentioned previously, Isabel had made the arrangements for us and several other members of the Canaris extended family were staying there as well. Julia and I joined them each morning for breakfast in the very pleasant dining room.
The hotel was in a great location for the early part of our trip, as most of the sights in connection with my parents and events related to the Canaris photos were relatively nearby. Below is an album of some pictures of the exterior.
Below, some photos of the interior. Every shower we had in both Berlin and Lithuania offered the handheld shower head. Most flush mechanisms for toilets were a panel in the wall above the toilet. Some shut off automatically, some you had to push the panel back. (There were a couple where it took a while, for me at least, to figure out what button to push.)
Monday, 17 June, was our first huge tourism day in Berlin. We went to the Tiergarten District, which includes the famous zoological garden of the same name and many of the major historic sites of the city.
(To give a sense of scale, the Health app on my iPhone recorded me taking 24,839 steps to cover 8.8 miles and 10 floors that day. Personal record in steps/distance.)
Reichstag in 1945
The Reichstag
Our first main stop was the Reichstag, home of the present Bundestag, the German federal parliament. Originally built in 1894 to house the Imperial Diet of the German Empire, the structure was severely damaged in 1933, when it was set on fire in suspicious circumstances. Blaming Communists for the fire, the new Nazi government suspended rights granted the party and arrested members. It was also damaged by Allied bombing of Berlin in WWII.
During the Cold War, the government of West Germany was in Bonn, and the Reichstag went through only a partial restoration. When reunification of German took place in 1990, the official ceremony took place at the Reichstag. It was not until 1999, however, that full restoration of the building was completed. Architect Norman Foster replaced the original cupola with a glass dome that is a particular favorite with tourists.
(Julia and I had intended to visit the dome, but you need to make a reservation and our upcoming week-long trip to Lithuania prevented us from securing one.)
Here’s video (2:01) of the first part of the journey.
Brandenburg Gate
Those of us of a certain age are familiar with the name Brandenburg Gate, as it was a major symbol of the Cold War. It was originally built in 1791 on the order of Prussian King Frederick William II to celebrate the peaceful resolution of conflict with the Dutch.
Located just inside what was East Berlin, the gate was closed following the construction of the Berlin Wall. In 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan spoke at the gate (photo) and said, “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” The gate was the site of another official event on the day of German reunification. At midnight on 3 October 1990, the West German flag — now the flag of a reunified Germany — was raised over the gate.
There is no vehicle traffic through the gate. The adjacent large square — Pariser Platz — is a cobblestone pedestrian zone. The U.S. Embassy is located on the northern edge of Pariser Platz, next to the gate. And we found a little touch of the U.S. there.
Even in Berlin
The walk also brought us to the site of the “Memorial for the Uprising of 1953,” something I had not been aware of. The memorial is located in the forecourt of a massive building that had been Hermann Goring’s Ministry for Aviation in the Nazi era and is now the German Department of Finance.
For three days in June 1953, tens of thousands of East Germans took to the streets in East Berlin and in other parts of East Germany in protest against the East German regime. Soviet troops and East German police put down the uprising, at a cost of more than 500 persons killed, 1,800 wounded, and 5,000 arrested.
West Germany established the memorial. The broad avenue through Tiergarten, seen at the beginning of the Reichstag video above, is named “Straße des 17 Juni.”
East Germans had produced an art piece, a mural on the front of the building, entitled “Aufbau der Republik” (Build-up of the Republic). Made of Meissen porcelain tiles and described as an example of “socialist realism,” it depicts happy East Germans toiling in joy in service to the state.
Here is video (2:32) of that area.
Checkpoint Charlie
Another iconic name from post WWII, Checkpoint Charlie was the border crossing point between the Russian and American zones of occupied Berlin immediately after the war and later, following the building of the Berlin Wall, between East and West Germany.
Today, it is a tourist attraction with actors playing the roles of American or Soviet soldiers and shops offering bogus pieces of the Berlin Wall.
Here’s video (1:29).
The Trabant
If West Germany has been famous for the high quality of automobiles designed and built there, East Germany was maybe notorious for producing the Trabant, better known by a nickname, the Trabi.
Called “a spark plug with a roof,” the Trabi was built between 1957 and 1990 with few if any significant variations. It was the most common car in East Germany and, as it was produced by a state monopoly, it took 10 years to get one. Most agreed with the description of the cars as “loud, slow, poorly designed, and badly built.”
Trabis are now something of a retro item, used for displays, toys, etc. This is a toy I brought home for my granddaughters.
During our walkabout this day, I came across what I thought might be a Trabi used car lot. Indeed, it was connected to Trabi World, where one could rent a Trabi for a spin around Berlin. Don’t know what provisions were made for possible breakdowns. Here’s video (1:04).
Potsdamer Platz and The Wall
Potsdamer Platz is about a kilometer south of the Brandenburg Gate. The area was pretty much destroyed during WWII and then left desolate by the East Germans, bisected by the Berlin Wall. Since reunification, it has been transformed into a thriving commercial center.
Here’s video (3:19), including panoramic views of the city.
Holocaust Memorial
On a site covering more than 4.5 acres, located between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate, lie 2,711 slabs of concrete of varying height. They constitute the “Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe,” also known as the Holocaust Memorial.
Completed in 2005, the memorial’s design has been controversial. There are no plaques, inscriptions, religious symbols, or names. New York architect Peter Eisenman, who designed the memorial, said he wanted visitors to feel the loss and disorientation that Jews felt during the Holocaust. No stone is the exact same size as another, intended to reflect individuality along with sameness. I guess I appreciate representational art more than conceptual art. Personally, I found the memorial lacking . . . what, I’m not quite sure.
Here’s video (1:02).
Soviet War Memorial
Seemingly out of place, there is a large Soviet War Memorial in Tiergarten. It was erected in 1945, only months after Soviet troops took Berlin, using stones from the destroyed Reich Chancellery.
The site is also the burial place of about 2,000 Soviet soldiers, from among an estimated 80,000 killed in the Battle of Berlin. The memorial is still used for commemorative events, including VE (Victory in Europe) Day, 8 May.
On Sunday, 16 June, Julia and I went to church. We walked from the hotel to the Parish Church of the Sacred Heart (Herz-Jesu). It was somewhat close, but that’s not why we went there.
My parents were married on 11 November 1945 in that church. Using photos taken at the wedding, Julia had been able to locate the church because of the distinctive artwork behind the altar. Indeed, she and Sam visited the church on their December 2017 honeymoon.
Below is a combination of a picture from the wedding in 1945 and one taken on our visit. Not a perfect match, but we did a little better in the video.
Here then is a brief (1:26) video taken of the church. We waited to shoot the interior until after Mass and the parishioners had left.
After church, we took the long way back to the hotel so that we could see some more of Zehlendorf. In an earlier post, I mentioned some street names related to the American presence post-WWII. This one was a bit of a puzzle.
We then changed hotels and took a cab to Charlottenburg, another upscale neighborhood and much more urban. As we planned a few days of serious tourism, we wanted to be closer to the main sights. Our hotel was the Hotel Pension Funk, and it was all that the name implies . . . and more. You’ll get a slight preview in this video (1:43) of the hotel and area around it, but there will be a special post about it later.
This was also the first day of much walking . . . the first of several days of much walking. On this day, I took 12,128 steps and covered 4.2 miles. The next day, I crushed my previous PR.
We left Zehlendorf on Saturday, 15 June, and got a quick, condensed tour of the former U.S. section of occupied Berlin.
Before we went on the tour, however, I wandered down the street to an ATM to get some euros. Below are a couple of photos from the shopping area maybe a kilometer from the hotel.
The ice cream cone is pretty obvious, but I was a little surprised to see a store called “Schmuck.” I later learned, though, that however Yiddish might translate the word :), it means “jewelry, adornment” in German.
Throughout our visit to Berlin, I was disappointed to see the amount of “tagging.” Maybe not as much as in 1970s New York City, but a lot. Graffiti is technically illegal in Germany, but perhaps “street art” is forgiven. Whatever, I’m generally not a fan. Here’s a scene from my walk.
We met up with Christoph Krajewski, a friend of Isabel’s and a professional guide. He was kind enough to give us the tour free of charge. Chris had been born in Berlin in 1943, so he certainly had the local background and was very informative. We were also joined by Heiko Suhr, military historian, who is working on a book and documentary about Wilhelm Canaris.
As it was the American sector, some of the streets bear American names, presented in German style, such as the signage below. (One of my alma maters.)
Germany and the U.S. share the eagle as a national symbol. This representation was quite common in the area we toured.
The tour was conducted mostly by car, with few stops. We had a lot to cover. Some of the video below was shot from the moving car. Following the tour, we met Michael Günther at the Alliiertenmuseum (Allied Museum), which offers WWII historical items from American, English, and French forces. Michael interviewed me on camera for possible use in the documentary.
The video (2:09) ends with one of the first “buddy bears” I saw in Berlin. A standing bear has been part of the Berlin identity for centuries. (You’ll see it on the picture of the city hall in 1963, and on bottles of Berliner pilsner.) In 2001, two art students did a street art project, designing and building a bear with a friendly mien. Now they are almost ubiquitous, with different colors and designs to convey a message. Okay, this is street art I like. You’ll see more buddy bears in other videos, too. (I was very disappointed at not being able to find an option that one could inflate to real buddy bear size.)
Wannsee is in the southwestern Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf. Two lakes, the larger Großer Wannsee and the Kleiner Wannsee, are located on the River Havel. The area provides much scenic and recreational opportunities . . . and some history.
After visiting the former home of the Canaris family on June 14, the extended Canaris family invited Julia and me to join them on a boat tour of Wannsee. Prussian royalty of the late 18th century built “palaces” along the lakes, and on ‘Peacock Island.’ Those have been joined since by the homes or vacation homes of many of Germany’s notables. In this video (4:10), you’ll see homes and other buildings from a wide range of eras and in many different styles.
The ‘Wannsee House’
There is one particular villa of special note. It had been built in 1914-15 by a merchant and factory owner. The original owner sold it in 1923 to a firm owned by the industrialist Friedrich Minoux, an early ally of Adolf Hitler. Minoux sold the villa in 1940 to a foundation established by SS Obergrüppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich to build or acquire vacation resorts for the SS Security Service (SD).
On January 20, 1942, Heydrich and 14 other members of the SS hierarchy or senior government officials met at the villa to begin discussion of how to ensure that the elements of the German regime could bring about “the final solution of the Jewish question,” the systematic extermination of European Jews. The ‘Wannsee Conference’ lasted 90 minutes.
The building served as a school from 1952 until 1982, when it became a memorial. In 1992, on the 50th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference, the building was designated an official museum and educational center related to the Holocaust.
Michael Günther took Julia and me on a walking tour of the building the day after our boat tour of Wannsee. You’ll see segments of both days in this short (2:20) video.
‘Bridge of spies’
The Gleinicke Bridge crosses the Havel River in Wannsee, connecting Berlin with Potsdam. After WWII, the border between West Berlin and East Germany ran down the middle of the river, with Potsdam in East Germany. In 1952, East German officials closed the bridge to West Berliners. Following construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the bridge was closed to East Germans as well.
With such restricted access, the bridge became the site of several exchanges of captured spies during the Cold War. Reporters began to refer to it as the “bridge of spies.” (An American movie of the same name was released in 2015.) The first exchange was in 1962, when Americans released convicted Soviet spy Rudolf Abel and received captured U-2 pilot Gary Powers in return. In 1985, 23 captured American agents were exchanged for one Polish and three Soviet agents. In 1986, human rights campaigner and Soviet political prisoner Natan Sharansky was among those exchanged.
One day after the Berlin Wall opened in 1989, all Germans were able to walk across the bridge. Border fortifications and barricades were removed upon the reunification of Germany in 1990.
One feature of the bridge that points to its former status as a border point is the color of its paint. As you’ll see in this brief (1:01) video, the shades of green on each half of the bridge are different.
Leaving the university, we strolled through narrow streets lined with restaurants, shops, and churches. This video (1:53) ends with a visit to a woodcarver’s shop, with many weird and wonderful works. I was attracted to a chair in the form of an eagle (duh) and wanted just to take a picture of it. A sign had said one euro for pictures. I paid the owner — the carver, I assume — but he insisted I don some garb, carry some menacing pieces of woodwork, and pose in the chair. Okay.
We exited Old Town for a brief spell, leaving through the Gates of Dawn (just a gate now and the only “gate” in or out of Old Town). Heading south for a bit, toward the railway station, we picked up some blueberries and strawberries from a farmers market. Then we came upon a pretty funky area, featuring a lot of street art. Perhaps the most prominent, at least lately, is a drawing of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump “shotgunning” a joint. (I believe that is the correct term for two people exchanging smoke with their mouths.) Originally, the drawing showed the two kissing, but it was vandalized. When the artist redrew it, he altered the exchange.
