Berlin, Historical Record in the Present

It was still early when I set foot in Berlin Hauptbahnhof, the main railway station in Berlin, the capital of Germany. My shadow on the old train station or the Roman Baroque architecture disappear, because the station is a modern structure with glass and metal fused together, let the sun go freely, so do not need much lighting. Stay beautiful.

I was pensive for a while on the platform, watched the people milling around. Perhaps they will meet with his family in another city. There are small children running around, then returned to his parents, waiting for the train to the end of Berlin. Whatever their destination, the train platform was a stopover.

Berlin region is massive in size. For comparison, a special area of ​​the capital Jakarta and even only 80% of the total area of ​​Berlin. Fortunately, the city is linked by an adequate mass transportation system, particularly rail and bus systems.

Senefelderplatz in the northern districts (bezirke) Mitte station is my goal.

Transit at Alexanderplatz, I drank a glass of warm milk and lunch sandwiches. No more than €5. “Public” is tiny, with a high chair without a backrest, a small table covered town green checkered tablecloths and white. All orders are carried out in the storefront, payment at the cashier and the food will be delivered. I sat near the window. The sun is very friendly. Some people sat outside. Tram down next to the station down the young, the father carrying a child, an old couple walked slowly with his cane. There are jackets, blazers and suits. There are children who are hungry later, and asked her father to stop by to where I stopped.

Alexanderplatz serves as an integrator mode of transportation that accommodates two types of modes, namely S-Bahn/U-Bahn (railway in the city, signaled the type S and U trains, on the road / strasse or underground / unter) and the tram. Here too there are many shops and attractions, located also in downtown.

System S / U-Bahn in Berlin using a tariff based on zones. The city is divided into three zones, and zones of the cheapest fare € 2.30. You buy a ticket at a machine, by selecting the zones / stations who wish to go. Do not forget, in Berlin, you must validate the ticket with a small engine. Remember the train conductor who membolongkan tickets? Just like that, this is only done on a machine. This ticket is valid two hours after a validated, only applies in the same zone and should not commute on the same line. Although I’ve stopped Alexanderplatz, I need not buy tickets anymore because it is within two hours.

I see U-Bahn uses a rather classic cars, still in Berlin feels like a decade of the 80s. Seen graffiti / vandalism at the station, car body and interior. Bradenburg Gate stencil bearing the image of the glass coating, as I confirmed it was in Berlin.

Senefelderplatz in Mitte. Mitte is the district which is quite central and trendy, store almost all of the attractions of Berlin are being promoted by travel agents: Bradenburg Gate, Berliner Dom, the Reichstag building, Weltzeituhr, Deutsche Guggenheim, Fernsehturm / TV Tower (television tower “asparagus”), and much more . Some point when Berlin’s historic locations separated by a wall also exists in this district.

It is not difficult to walk around Mitte and enjoy almost all the main attractions of Berlin in one day on foot. Neue Synagogue can be achieved in about 15 minutes, the Jewish place of worship built in the 18th century, Moorish architecture (remember the Alhambra). Bradenburg Gate can be achieved within 15 minutes of the Neue Synagogue. This gate was built as the entrance to the center of the royal government of Prussia. Previously, this location is part of the fortress berparit. Now, he became a monument to the pride of the Germans and Europeans, but its function is almost gone. At first glance I saw in the German production of euro coins, then there is Bradenburg Gate there. Walking into this gate, you will arrive at Unter den Linden, a long boulevard that connects pedestrians to Friedrichstrasse (the main shopping district) and Checkpoint Charlie, one of the important border checkpoint in the history of East and West Berlin.

In my opinion, the most interesting part of Berlin is the political history. After World War II, there are four-party agreement between the allies (U.S., France and Britain) and the Soviet Union who said that Germany will be managed by the four countries, where the territory is divided into sectors of the U.S., France sectors, and sectors of the UK sector of the Soviet Union. Parts of Germany are now entered into Polish territory declared independence. Berlin, as the de facto capital, also following the administration of this division, with four sectors as well. Ally in the western sector, and sectors of the Soviet Union in the east. Shared governance is temporary, and Germany is planned to be an independent one and in the end. However, because of the continued tension between the allies and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Berlin, in the end, split in half and the Soviet Union built the Berlin Wall separating the city. German state was split in two, into West Germany and East Germany.

The situation is more interesting is the whole of Berlin is situated in the territory of East Germany. Automatically, the region is an exclave of West Berlin, a caged area in the East German state, but became a separate part of the West German state. Legally there are some differences that regulate the rights / obligations and the status of citizens of West Berlin which distinguishes them from citizens of West Germany, but basically they are the citizens of West Germany. This situation lasted nearly three decades until the Berlin wall torn down near decade of the 90s. Complex, indeed.

The legacy of the Berlin wall is still visible in modern Berlin, but many are no longer intact. Some bulletin boards / marker border is still there, saying, “You are now leaving the American sector”. Parts have been torn down ditandari with bronze strip embedded in the sidewalk, reading: “Berliner Mauer 1961-1989″. “Mauer” means a wall.

Berlin Wall to witness how some people fled and took his own life. Many of those killed were shot for trying to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin. However, not all of them failed. There is a Soviet Union soldier named Conrad Schumann, a bold leap from East Germany to West Germany when the wall was built, and the restriction is still limited to barbed wire. Conrad survived and can watch the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. He died in 1998. A journalist takes a picture when he jumped and the image became an icon of the Cold War.

Seeing Berlin now, everything changed. He has become a modern city, massive size and prosperous. He became the center of the German government, where the legislators met here to decide the direction of the country.

I was amazed to see the Reichstag building, parliament buildings. Visitors can see the inside of the building, free of charge. The government decided to “open” public spaces around the parliament, where visitors are free to walk to see the office of civil servants, the congress and the old Reichstag building is equipped with a vast expanse of green field. In the middle of the river there are central government, which reportedly, been a witness to the bloodshed those who fled from East Germany to West Germany. I shuddered, but let it be a witness of history and a reminder to the German society will their past.

Taken from a record trip in ranselkecil.com by Sigit Adinugroho