Monument, 1949 - Part 1

Today we visited a monument worthy of the name: the massive memorial for the Soviet victory over the Nazi regime in 1945. This design was huge!

Monument, 1949 - Part 2

More pictures of the monument:

The Jewish Museum

Today we visited the Jewish Museum in Berlin. It chronicled the experiences of Jews in Europe from the time of the Roman empire to the present. The exhibit did a very good job of weaving together issues of class, culture, religion, nation, economics, and gender. The museum structure was designed by Daniel Libeskind, the same architect who designed the new addition to the ROM in Toronto. Libeskind dubbed the design 'Between the Lines,' a title which reflects the tensions of German-Jewish history. The building takes the shape of two zig-zagging lines, which intersect at various points in the form of wide, empty voids and criss-crossing pedestrian pathways. In taking this form, the design contributes to the history of Jews in Germany being told inside.

German History Museum

This museum was great and highly recommended if anyone comes to Berlin! But I spent too much time on the Reformation and we were chased out by staff at closing having only reached about 1935. Of course, a lot more happened in Germany after that... Jerome particularly liked the stuff on the German labour and communist movements. Below is a painting of a Marxist propagandist talking to the workers while some 'agents of the state' (police) look on in the background.

And here is one of a workers' strike, apparently an early example of 'socialist art':

Berlin

After some of the worst turbulence ever, and an aborted landing on an Easyjet flight, we thankfully arrived in Berlin on Tuesday. We are here for the next week, staying with our friends Mikiya and Anne. Yesterday we visited some of the tourist attractions pictured below, and sampled some local beer and sausages, including the 'currywurst,' a local delicacy consisting of sausage, curry powder, and ketchup!

The Reichstag

'The philosophers have interpreted the world; the point is to change it.'

-- Karl Marx, 11th Thesis on Feuerbach

This famous quote by Marx is located in the front hall of Humbolt University in downtown Berlin. The whole display is powerful: it is anti-fascist because the quote is written on marble taken from Hitler's bunker; and it suggests that the whole point of education is to change the world.

Jerome and Mikiya at the Concert Hall and one of many downtown squares.



The Brandenburg Gate