A few of the sights within Berlin's city limits.....
This is a memorial to the 1933 Nazi book burning just outside Humboldt University. It's a little hard to see in the photo but you're standing on the square looking down into an empty library. It is supposedly large enough to hold 20,000 books, the approximate number that were burned here. The plaque above the photo is all in German but includes an 1821 quote from Heinrich Heine, "Where they burn books, they will end in burning human beings." Of all the memorials in the city, I found this to be one of the more profound and moving in its simplicity.

Brandenburg Gate

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (completed in 2005)

What remains of the Berlin Wall
Checkpoint Charlie

The apparent remains of a movie set? In catching up on some hard news before we left on Friday, I read this on FoxNews.com.....


It rained on us for a bit and we ducked into this chocolate shop to kill some time. The sculptures are of the Brandenburg Gate, the Titanic, and the Reichstag among others that we did not photograph, made entirely of chocolate. I had not had a bit of chocolate in over 5 days (remember, we're SouthBeaching) and I wanted so badly to take a big bite out of the Brandenburg.
The actual Reichstag - not made of chocolate - and that line of people out the front is the line to get in. We passed, even though this is apparently a must-see. Steve's been there, done that (last summer) and I really didn't want to stand in line.
Memorial just outside the Reichstag to the politicians that opposed Hitler. They were among his first victims. Each plate contains a name and cause of death, many of which were in the concentration camps.
3,000 year old bust of Queen Nefertiti - the most prized piece in Berlin's Egyptian art collection. This was inside the Altes Museum.
On the lighter side....
"And Tom? While he makes "Valkyrie," a movie no one wants to see, in Berlin, he and Katie make regular visits to the Scientology center there, according to reports. Scientology is considered a cult by the Germans, and it’s because of Cruise’s affiliation that the government has forbidden him to shoot the movie in certain locales."
3 comments:
That is really, really neat! All of those memorials definitely produce emotion! I am so glad you guys are enjoying all of the sights.
the original writings of Homer??! wow..that is really amazing. well thanks for the pics, Berlin is now an official must-see. what is checkpoint charlie??
Ok, I added links that talk about Checkpoint Charlie as well as Humboldt University and the Brandenburg Gate. I guess I'm lazy about typing....and Wikipedia has already done the work for me. :)
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