Berlin is a divided city. Pre-war Berlin on postcards from a hundred years ago Old Berlin
May 20th, 2016 , 02:18 pm
I am incredibly pleased to continue the series of selections about Berlin with another story. After all, this city is so diverse that no matter how much you talk about it, no matter how much you collect different topics, you still won’t be able to say about everything.
Quite recently we walked around Berlin, then we were interested, and now let’s turn to history. To the past, to the traditional, to what has already been written down in history books.
In Berlin, the combination of old and new is almost immediately striking; how harmoniously it could coexist, creating a completely unique image of the city. So, let’s ask ourselves the question “what happened before?” and let's try to highlight not the most obvious points on the route.
We start from Behrenstraße 37. I already talked a little about the Hotel de Rome located here, but showed almost nothing. And there is something to see, because the building itself is living history.
Built at the end of the 19th century, it faithfully served the Dresden Bank and was its headquarters until 1945.
Over time, three more floors were added to the three, and one of the best terraces overlooking the city appeared on the roof. But much has been preserved from the original project of Ludwig Heim: beautiful mosaics on the floor, a bank vault, with massive doors and safes... now there is a spa there, and the “gold” bars that can be found here and there are also reminiscent of the past, while you go to the pool.
Well, and the most important thing. Some of the interiors, for example the bar, are decorated in a modern style.
Previously, there were offices of bank executives, but now they have become historical suites, where history is there, in the high ceilings made of precious wood, in the preserved design of the doors and a million little details.
There are views here (the situation obliges) - to one of the most beautiful squares in Europe, Gendarmenmarkt, to Bebelplatz, infamous for book burning, and with it to the city’s signature square - Unter den Linden.
In addition, each room has its own name. Here are a couple of options: in honor of the founder of the bank, in honor of Alexander Humboldt (here it is appropriate to add an introduction to the university itself - it is located across the street from the hotel).
I will also say that in addition to the terrace upstairs, on the ground floor there is a restaurant called La Banca, where you can have a great breakfast and from there start conquering Berlin :)
And the first thing to do is walk or take a bus to the Reichstag.
I hope that there is no need to introduce the Reichstag separately. But in case you forget, an audio guide has been invented: it will tell you in detail about the construction, the Weimar Republic, the arson, and about the modern work of the Bundestag.
At the base of the new glass dome you can find interesting photographs, some of which are familiar to everyone - for example, the Victory Banner over the Reichstag. And some may not be familiar at all; they depict Berlin at the beginning of the last century.
In addition to information about the building itself, the audio guide tells about what can be seen from the windows, and this is really quite a lot: there are embassies, the government quarter, the Tiergarten, and much more.
Having moved to the western part of the city, let's turn off the Kurfürstendamm boulevard onto Fasanenstrasse.
It houses a winter garden and the Literary House (Fasanenstraße 23). The building itself takes us back to the 19th century. Even then, symposiums, literary evenings, conversations and exhibitions were held here.
In fact, nothing much has changed either in the setting or in the atmosphere. This is peace and quiet a step away from a busy boulevard, greenery and lilac bushes, exhibitions and meetings with writers.
A light flair of bohemia, which you can’t do without here. And of course it's a place to grab a bite to eat. A sandwich and a glass of white wine (good selection by the glass here) is a good combination for a warm evening in Berlin.
By the way, the restaurant boasts a solid cheese section, for which wine recommendations have already been compiled (France and Germany are held in high esteem).
Or another option: come here for breakfast. Opening hours and other details follow the link.
The museum itself is incredibly interactive - here you can literally touch, feel, climb into a wardrobe, sit behind the wheel of a Trabant, play football, put on headphones and listen to the radio..
Evaluate the latest hits as of 1972, read letters from the USSR and the like.
It was doubly interesting for me because it turned out to be an immersion into the world of my parents’ childhood and youth. What they listened to and watched when they were my age and younger, how they dressed. Here are the books on the shelf - some of them are still at home.
Naturally, a significant part of the exhibition is devoted to the wall and its fall.
I can't wait to show off to you. Recently we went to a flea market in one of the districts of Berlin, where, among the expensive and unnecessary junk, I was lucky enough to stumble upon the shop of an elderly German who was selling old postcards and photographs. I would be ready to buy everything from him, but I’m afraid my wife would not forgive me for such a squandering of the family budget. Therefore, I limited myself to buying five postcards with views of old Berlin. I chose photographs of Berlin, which now no longer exists - due to the destruction of World War II. Today I will show and comment a little on these postcards.
1. Panorama of Berlin at the beginning of the 20th century. On the right side of the photo, the Berlin Cathedral and part of the Museum Island are easily recognizable. However, many of the buildings from the photograph (especially those in the foreground) no longer exist today.
The postcard was sent, according to the stamp, in November 1915. The text on the back of the card is written in Gothic cursive - an old handwritten font that, unfortunately, is very difficult to read today. From what I could understand, the postcard was sent from Berlin to a certain girl, Ella, who lived in Landsberg an der Warth. Today this city is part of Poland and is called Gorzow Wielkopolski.
2. Reichstag building, ca. 1904 The construction of one of the main symbols of Berlin lasted 10 years and was completed by 1894. As can be seen on the postcard, the Reichstag building was decorated with a luxurious dome with a stone crown. In addition, the photograph shows that the entrance group at that time was not yet decorated with the inscription Dem deutschen Volke(“To the German People”), which appeared only in 1916.
After the destruction of World War II and large-scale reconstructions at the end of the 20th century, the shape of the dome was completely rethought. Now the dome is a transparent glass hemisphere. Today the Reichstag building looks like this:
Photo: Wikipedia
The back of the postcard contains only the addressee's details. It is interesting that, judging by the postal stamps, the postcard was sent from Berlin on June 19, and the very next day, June 20, it was delivered to Freiburg. The distance between the two cities, for a moment, is 800 kilometers! This is how the German post office worked more than a hundred years ago.
3. Potsdamer Platz. Unfortunately, I was unable to find out what year this postcard was sent. Judging by the fact that on the right side of the photograph we see the “beer palace” of Sichen, the image must have appeared after 1911. So, most likely, the postcard shows Potsdamer Platz from the 1910s or 1920s.
This square represents the changes in the architectural appearance of Berlin. The square was badly damaged during the Second World War, and during the division of Berlin it was completely empty, since the famous wall ran here. In the nineties, the square became the largest construction site in Europe - modern skyscrapers, shopping centers, cinemas, shops and restaurants were built here. Modern Potsdamer Platz has virtually nothing in common with what was in its place a hundred years ago.
Photo: Wikipedia
The inscription on the reverse side is in Czech. A certain Laurin informs his friend Jan, who lives in Vienna, that everything is fine with him and that he is vacationing in Berlin. The postage stamp had been peeled off - perhaps by some collector.
4. Victory Column, ca. 1938 Another very interesting image of pre-war Berlin. The Victory Column still stands in Berlin, although changes have also affected it. The postcard is dated June 1938; then the Column still stood in its old place - in front of the Reichstag building.
In 1938-1939 The monument is being supplemented with another section. Initially there were three of them - in honor of the victory of Prussia/Germany in the wars against Denmark, Austria and France in 1864-1871. Hitler ordered the addition of another section, and there were four of them. The updated tower was moved to a new location - in the center of the Tiergarten park, where it still stands.
Photo: Wikipedia
Surprisingly, this card is signed not with a pencil, but with a pen. It was also sent to Vienna, and the postage stamp features Reich President von Hindenburg.
5. City Palace and Palace Bridge. The building depicted on the postcard for a long time served as the main Berlin residence of the Prussian kings and, later, the German emperors. It stood directly opposite the Berlin Cathedral.
The building was heavily damaged during the Second World War. The new East Berlin authorities abandoned plans to reconstruct the palace and demolished its ruins in 1950. In the 1970s, the socialist Palace of the Republic was built on the empty site, which stood until recently.
The Palace of the Republic was finally demolished by 2008 - during the construction of the monumental structure in the GDR, a huge amount of asbestos, harmful to health, was used. Now, on the site where the City Palace and the Palace of the Republic once stood, a large construction project is underway - soon the so-called Humboldt Forum will open here, which will repeat the architecture of the original City Palace.
Photo: Wikipedia
But let's return to our postcard. She was sent in August 1941, that is, at the height of World War II. A young man says hi to his mother and talks about how he slept last night. The Hindenburg is on the postage stamp again.
I hope that next time at the flea market I will meet that old man again and buy more interesting postcards with old views of Berlin.
Berlin is the capital of united Germany; the highest legislative and executive bodies of the country are located here: the Bundestag, the Bundesrat and the federal government. It is the largest city in the country that has the status of a federal state. Administratively, it is divided into 12 districts.
Berlin is the largest industrial city in Germany, the largest transport hub. Air links with the outside world are provided by three Berlin airports.
In addition, Berlin is known as a venue for international exhibitions in a wide variety of industries (computer and information technology, construction, agriculture, etc.).
The city is located on the Spree River. Its area is more than 400 square kilometers.
Split in two for decades, the city is gradually merging again into a single powerful organism.
There were once 14 city gates in the fortress wall surrounding Berlin. To date, only one has survived - the Brandenburg Gate. They were built in 1791 by order of the King of Prussia, Frederick William II. During their construction, the Athenian propylaea was taken as a model. In 1806, Napoleon ordered the quadriga to be removed from the gate and sent to Paris as a war trophy. After 8 years, Field Marshal Blucher returned the sculpture back. After the construction of the Berlin Wall, the gates turned out to be on the GDR side, becoming a kind of symbol of the division of Germany. Now the Brandenburg Gate is once again decorated with a restored quadriga, an eagle and a Prussian iron cross.
The attractions of the eastern part of Berlin, which at one time ended up on the territory of the GDR, also include: the Crown Princes' Palace, the Palace Bridge, the German and French Cathedrals, St. Hedwigs Cathedral, the German State Opera, the Equestrian Monument to Frederick the Great, etc.
The main attractions of West Berlin: the Reichstag building, Potsdamer Platz, Bellevue Palace, Art Gallery, Berlin Zoo, etc.
Let's also look at some other Berlin attractions.
Berlin Cathedral was built between 1883 and 1905 in the Italian Renaissance style. The cathedral consists of a central part, topped with a large dome, and two wings with chapels. In the cathedral crypt there are 95 sarcophagi with the remains of kings and princes of the Hohenzollern dynasty. The cathedral was heavily damaged during World War II, but was restored by 1993.
One of the symbols of West Berlin is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, built in 1891 in memory of Emperor Wilhelm I, the founder of the empire. During an air raid in 1943, its bell tower was destroyed. Currently, the ruins of the Church of the Memory of Kaiser Wilhelm are included in the modern architectural ensemble, consisting of a new church in the shape of an octagon and a tower made of blue glass blocks brought from Chartres.
Gothic Church of St. Nicholas, patron of merchants and sailors, was built in the 13th century and is the oldest in Berlin.
The New Synagogue - one of the largest synagogues in the world - has a rather tragic history. On the night of November 9, 1938, it was looted and desecrated by the Nazis, and in 1945 it was bombed and destroyed. Subsequently, the Synagogue was restored in the neo-Byzantine-Moorish style.
A few words about the most interesting Berlin streets.
Unter den Linden Street - "under the linden trees" - was the most famous boulevard in Germany during the time of Frederick II.
The Kurfürstendamm avenue was very elegant in the 19th century. It is not for nothing that in 1871 it was conceived by Chancellor Bismarck as a street, in its beauty not inferior to the Champs Elysees in Paris.
There are more than 130 museums in Berlin! The largest museum centers are: Museum Island, Charlottenburg Palace and its surroundings, Pergamon Museum, museums in Dahlem, Cultural Center in Tiergarten, etc. There is even a Mausoleum (it was built in 1810 by Friedrich Wilhelm III).
The Pergamon Museum, built in 1912-1930, is very interesting. Its main exhibit is the Pergamon Altar, an altar of Zeus decorated with a sculpted frieze (2nd century BC), found in the vicinity of Smyrna at the end of the 19th century. The Pergamon Museum also houses the Ishtar Gate, covered with glazed tiles in dark blue and yellow. This gate was erected under the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 580 BC.
Charlottenburg Palace, a country palace built in 1695 for the German princess Sophia-Charlotte, houses a magnificent collection of porcelain.
Berlin has three opera houses, the Old and New National Gallery, eight symphony orchestras, and over 150 theaters and stage venues.
Both children and adults will be very curious to visit the Berlin Zoo.
The Berlin TV Tower, built in 1965-1969, has a height of 365 m.
Life in Berlin is in full swing and does not stop even late at night. More than 300 restaurants and cafes, 1,500 bars and a huge number of clubs and discos await their visitors.
In 1945, one of the largest metropolises in Europe, the brilliant “Weltstadt” Berlin, experienced a disaster, turning into a sea of ruins after endless carpet bombings and a fierce assault. A similar fate befell hundreds of other European cities from Stalingrad to Cologne, but Berlin was destined for a special fate - division into sectors of occupation turned into a rupture of a once single organism between two hostile worlds. The city found itself on the front line of the Cold War for many 45 years; the Berlin Wall, erected in 1961, became a symbol of an entire era.
I offer a short photo report with typical pictures of Berlin life in those years.
1963, John Kennedy inspects the wall:
1973, Berlin checkpoint: 
1971, section of the wall with a neutral strip: 
1973. Potsdamerplatz, once bustling with life, became a lifeless wasteland for decades: 
1973. "You are leaving the French sector": 
The Reichstag was not restored for a long time. I heard as a child that, according to some agreement, the Westerners did not have the right to remove our Victory Banner from the dome. However, then they allegedly cheated and abandoned the dome altogether during restoration. I wonder if this is a legend or a fact? 
1976, in the Western sector: 
1965, Eastern Sector, Schraussbergerplatz: 
1965, Brandenburg Gate area: 
Because of the wall (and its consequences), a huge part of the city center was not rebuilt until the late 1990s.
1965, looking through the wall: 
1969, Western sector: 
1965, Unter den Linden, the main center of old Berlin: 
1968, Friedrichsstrasse: 
The metro was also cut and walled up.
Gendarsme Square between 1967 and 1970: 
People began to get around to restoring architectural monuments only in the 1970s.
Main Berlin church in the same years, Eastern sector: 
1968, Easterners build a television tower, the future symbol of socialist Berlin: 
1969, West Berlin Double Decker: 
1965, Heinrich-Heine Strasse: 
There will be a continuation if interested.
Each European capital has its own old city - as a rule, a small part of it that can be seen in its original form. Well, or almost pristine. This is where the curtain usually lifts on the mystery of the birth of a particular city.
Alas, there is no need to look for a complete old center in Berlin, but it exists in fragments and inclusions, interspersed with buildings from various other times.
You just have to take a few steps away from the classic walking tour of the historical center and you can discover real Berlin treasures that create a true impression of this city. After all, the essence most often lies in the details.
It is logical to start the tour in the area of the Berlin local history museum - the Brandenburg Mark Museum or in German Märkisches Museum. It was here, from the metro with the same name, that the brave radio operator Kat made a phone call to a familiar Standartenführer.
The square in front of the museum itself, its shape and design will already become a prologue to getting acquainted with the history of the old city. There we will also visit a free exhibition of models, where it will be interesting to see Berlin of the past, present and future on different scales.
Having thus understood the structure of the city in theory, we will go to the preserved fragment of the old city wall.
Not far from it is one of the oldest Berlin restaurants - “At the Last Resort”, where Colonel Isaev loved to spend his free time. Napoleon and François Mitterrand once dined here (at different times). However, not only the Soviet intelligence officer and the French came here, but also other famous historical figures.
We will move on to the “last resort” - the building of the local district court, into which we will look inside to admire this Palace of Themis, as one of the main masterpieces of Berlin Art Nouveau or Art Nouveau. By the way, here you can have a cheap and tasty lunch if you wish.
We will see the ruins of the Franciscan monastery church and talk about the fate of the oldest Berlin gymnasium and its graduates. About the Parish Church - the oldest of the city's reformist churches, about its unique reconstruction, thanks to which the city acquired a new silhouette. We learn about the court intrigues of the times of Frederick the Great at the palaces of Ephraim and Schwerin. We will be able to go to the Knoblauch house - a former salon of the Berlin nobility and a cozy museum of the Biedermeier era.
Medieval legends and incidents from the times of the GDR will intertwine in the Nicholas Quarter and at the Church of St. Mary, on numerous bridges over the Spree River. Where two trading settlements, Berlin and Cologne, once connected, and now the historical center is being reconstructed and old Berlin is being created anew.
