Bev and I are struck by how beautiful, clean and modern Berlin is. The Berlin of today belies its history since the 1930s.
We visited the DDR Museum to see an interesting if not sometimes amusing re-telling of life behind the wall in East Germany after the wall was put up in 1961 to stop the mass emigration of East Germans to the West. The museum showed the fundamental yearning of people to be free, despite efforts to restrict freedom of thought and movement. From there we drove around Berlin in our car, with Holger showing us various famous sites and buildings in the city. It was eerie to drive in what was formerly East Berlin, seeing how similar it now is to West Berlin, but knowing that barely 20 years ago, it was a city of two very different worlds.
We went on to visit “Checkpoint Charlie” and the museum that is there, that walks the visitor through the history of the aftermath of World War II, the airlift of supplies from the United States and its allies to trump the Soviet blockade of West Berlin, and the heroic efforts, some successful and others tragically not, of Germans to flee to West Berlin to be reunited with their families, and/or to otherwise be free. It was a somber but intriguing experience being there at Checkpoint Charlie.
After a quick pizza lunch, we left Berlin by way of the stadium where Hitler tried to showcase Germany's prowess during the 1936 Olympics. I had to be back at Rehyns' home to get on my laptop so that I could “attend” a meeting of the South Dakota Bar Commissioners by Skype. It wasn't as good as actually being at the meeting, but it worked very well, and it was amazing that I could attend a 3-hour meeting half a world away, at no cost!
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