A wall in a public elementary school. (This was a holiday, so no students present.)
Landwehr canal.
Walk along the canal.
Ingrid and Peter were unable to find reference to this mural, but Kreuzberg is known for its street art.
October 3rd, German Unity Day. A large protest against increased rents. For decades the Berlin social housing system has benefited private owners but driven out renters, according to the poster.
Venus by Botticelli 1490
This museum has one of the world’s most important collections of paintings from the 13th to the 19th century.
Profile of a Young Woman by Piero del Pollaiuolo around 1465.
Portrait of a Young Woman by Sandro Botticelli (1445 - 1510)
The Virgin Mary in Prayer. Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528)
Rembrandt’s wife Saskia van Uylenburgh by Rembrandt.
The Man in the Golden Helmet 1665 Rembrandt. Peter and his college roommates had a large reproduction of this painting on the wall of their apartment.
Rembrandt self-portrait.
Rembrandt self-portrait. This etching measures about one-and-a-half square inches.
Portrait of a Merchant. 1532 Hans Holbein.
This is the site of both a cemetery. It was also the site of a former retirement home, through which, under inhuman conditions, Berlin’s 55,000 Jews were forced to pass on the way to concentration camps. The statue by Will and Mark Lammert was presented by East Germany (DDR) desperate for international support. It was originally meant for Ravensbrueck but placed here where more would see it.
Note the stones representing eternal memory. Contrast with flowers.
A mosaic depicting peace as suggested by children. Note the small tiles at the bottom, such as the following.
CITYarts, Inc. (NY city) asked children around the globe what peace would look like, incorporating the ideas into this mural.
The New Synagogue, consecrated in 1866) was destroyed during the war. It has been partially rebuilt as a museum. Note the barricade poles surrounding the building.
The museum exhibited the drawings of Gabriella Rosenthal from Once Upon a Time in Jerusalem. This is her commentary on the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Mainly Johann Sebastian Bach, but Peter and Ingrid particularly enjoyed a modern piece, Choralfantasie, “Da Pacem, Domine” Hans Studer (1911-1984) (Bern 1984)
Munich artist Karl Hemmeter’s sculpture.
Photos and video from kilometer 17, in the 42 kilometer race. The 47,000 marathoners ended by passing through the Brandenburg Gate from east to west. The Boston marathon is the world’s oldest annually run marathon, with around 30,000 participants.
Before the race. Hasenheide.
Bicycle marathoners with various disabilities, using their arms to peddle.
Discarded plastic cups. Assuming each runner uses 5 cups and each cup weighs 5 grams, the total weight would be 1,175 kilograms of plastic waste. (assumptions not verified) In any case it’s a hell of a lot of plastic.
Orange truck sweeping up the plastic shortly after the last runner had past kilometer 17.
In this re-do of a 1986 musical, Alice comes to the big city looking for her boyfriend and meets various Berlin characters on subway line 1.
Origami style crane painted on a building.
These stumble stones will need to have their inscriptions redone. Volunteers will do the work. (see earlier blog posts for stumble stones.)
In 2016 a terrorist drove a truck into a crowd at the Christmas Market, killing twelve. Their names are engraved on the steps.
The bronze line marks the route of the terrorist.
The first stone was laid in 1891.
It was bombed in 1943 but not rebuilt.
The New Church is an octagonal building with over twenty-two thousand blue glass windows. The colors resemble those found in church windows of the middle ages. The glass was a gift from France.
The ceiling in the original Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Hall.
After the terrorist attack, this barricade was constructed.
Walls often decorated.
In one of eight shopping courtyards with restored German Art Noveau (Jugendstil 1907)
A store specializing in leather belts made on the premises.
Ingrid couldn’t resist doing a few mounts and dismounts on the pommel horse, nor could Peter resist buying a pair of suspenders.
An intercultural undertaking, supported by the city of Berlin.
Parcels of land in the Perivoli (Greek for garden). In 1864 Dr. Shreber lead the movement to establish small garden plots within the city, given that so many people living in tenements had no access to fresh fruits and vegetables. The idea spread quickly to German speaking countries and to the Netherlands.
Aspects of the gardens: raising bees, a pond with frogs, a playground, kitchens for garden parties, fruit trees, a pizza oven, a place to relax.
A kitchen shed.
There is much to do in this garden, but not overnight stays.
The youngest member.
The victory column first celebrated victories at war but is now a symbol of Berlin.
Ingrid, Peter, and two friends climbed the 285 steps to the top.
Ingrid, Peter, and a new friend.
Ingrid, Peter, and a long time friend.
The day after the Climate demonstration. The TV tower (the Lange Lulatsch)) and the Brandenburger Gate in the distance.
Look carefully for the second goddess.
Imagine finding a Bellevue Castle in Berlin.
“Be a person of honor and save this earth”
This woman stayed up last night to create this poster because today was her daughter’s birthday. For the first time in her life she felt compelled to protest lack of action on climate change. “When the last tree is felled, the last river poisoned, the last fish caught, only then will you realize you can’t eat money.”
“Mr. President first. Miss Earth last.”
Mutti missed her chance. Youth must get on it.”
House Warming Party. The Last Snowman
On the way to Sans Souci, King Frederick the Great’s summer palace, rival of Versailles.
1712-1786
Rococo style room with columns carved from single pieces of marble.
Marble hall.
A country scene adorned the entrance of each of the four guest rooms.
The last image you see as you leave the palace is this portrait of Frederick the Great by Any Warhol.
The Chinese Pavilion on the grounds of Sans Souci. Frederick the great admired Chinese silk, porcelain and calligraphy. He encouraged the production of silk cloth in Prussia. Silk tapestries hung in his summer palace.
Park Charlottenhof.
Nikolai Church near the train station in Potsdam.
Typical Potsdamer architecture.
This is the site of Otto Weidt’s brush factory . He employed mainly blind and deaf Jewish workers, and protected them at the risk of his own life. This museum is supported by the Memorial Foundation of German Resistance.
Entrance to the museum.
Otto Weidt
Staff of the factory.Sadly many workers were arrested and deported in 1943/44.
Back at the Pergamon, we found out that the images were created by a combination of computer design, paintings, and photography and then printed on linen cloth.
The Mushkhushshu, the animal in the middle on the left, is a combination of a snake, eagle, dragon, and lion— a common pet in Berlin. The animal combination in the forefront has not yet been identified.
Note the resemblance.
This highly geometric prayer niche is from sometime in the 11th-13th century in Konya (present-day Turkey). These niches orient the devotees towards Mecca.
This carpet is from India. In order to date the carpets, the well known carpet detective Bode would look at paintings which included carpets in order to date the carpets themselves.
Mandarinfrischkaesetorte fuer Alice; Schwarzwaelderkirschtorte fuer Jesse, Walnusssahnetorte fuer Ingrid.
Team Mumpelpumpel. See Mumpel on left, setting Pumpel up for her patented Smash. They lost 21-11 to team Pommes.
Mutter. Tochter. Leder.
Mother. Daughter. Leather.
Two new arrivals from Seattle. On the street car to Kastenienallee.
Kreutzboerg Flowmarkt (the German spelling)
A “clevus multrum” at the flea market reminds us of Maine.
“Tempo-home”: temporary housing at Tempelhof airport for refugees.
The Berlin airlift lasted from June 26, 1948, to Sept. 30, 1949. Tempelhof is now a huge public park.
Many parks have concrete and steel ping-pong tables.
Passing the Sehitlik Camii mosque, and the oldest Turkish cemetery in Germany.
The orange-roofed building is the original Jewish museum, opened in 1933, six days before Hitler came to power. The Nazi’s closed in on Kristalnacht and confiscated its contents.
The zig-zag gray extension was created by Daniel Libeskind. Construction began in 1992.
Jews living in the countryside could not remain anonymous so were forced to move to the city. These signs from country villages all say, “Jews unwelcome here.”
As of 1933 Jewish dentists In the city could only treat Jewish patients. They could advertise themselves only as dental assistants. Like all Jewish professionals they had to add Israel as a middle name and put a yellow star on the left of their sign.
One of the “Void voids” in the museum. Unheated, lit only by a slit twenty-four meters above, it suggests great loss.
The E. T. A. Hoffman garden, built on tilted cobblestone ground, consists of a square, seven columns on a side. It is meant to be somewhat disorienting. The columns are filled with soil. Trees grow above.
Another void, unheated, lit only by natural light from above, is paved by more than 10,000 open-mouthed faces cut from heavy iron plates. Walking on them produces a sort of metalic agony. The artist is Menashe Kadishman who named it Fallen Leaves.
Alice Haarburger’s 1930 self-portrait. She was deported to the Riga ghetto in 1941 on her fiftieth birthday. She was shot a few months later.
LIbeskind designed the museum along three axes: The axis of exile, the axis of the Holocaust, and the axis of continuity, which this wedding photo represents.
One of our gracious hosts in the market place in Düren .
On Wednesday nights, once a month, a food fair is held, offering foods from various German federal states.
The man in the red hat previously owned a circus but when his daughter was killed in an accident, he left it, followed by some coworkers, and opened this salmon stand, in which salmon are baked by open fires of red beach logs.
A Jewish presence in Düren dates back to 1241. The first Jewish school was established in Düren in the 1500’s.
A synagogue ,opened in 1872 , once stood at this spot. On 9 November 1938 the Nazi’s burned it down. Of 385 Jews, 102 were transported to concentration camps and murdered. Thirty were unaccounted for. The marker does not explain the fate of the others.
Knechtsteden Monastery in Chorbusch
Braunkohle power plant on the way from Witteshoven to Düren.
Braunkohl is still being excavated and used. To allow mining in this area some villages had to be abandoned. Displaced people were given property elsewhere.
Our hosts took us out for curry wurst before our visit to Aachen.
Der Aachener Dom
1993 statue of Charlemagne by the Aachener Dom.
Inside the cathedral.
A statue about the circulation of money.
The upright pinky indicates Aachen.
With Jessica in Cologne
Old Man River ( the Rhein)
From Cologne to Widdeshoven in a Mercedes. Brown coal burning in the distance.
All brown coal power plants to be eliminated by 2038. ( But not all Mercedes) .
Widdeshoven in the distance.
Our hostess Vanessa
Fields surround the town.
Gray Panthers? In Noorderpark.
More friends in Noorderpark.
Taken from the free ferry, returning to the city from Noorderpark.
The three vertical Saint Andrew’s crosses represent Amsterdam.. This swing is at the top of the A’Dam Tower.
From our hotel room balcony, Central Station in the distance.
He’s happier than he looks.
De Oude Kerk (The Old Church), begun in 1218. As you may recall from our Amsterdam blog last year, the windows had then been covered with red paper to prevent exposure of photosensitive paper, which was being used to get direct copies of the stained glass.
Trembling with excitement, Ingrid’s hand shook, but you can still see the colors.
Saskia van Uylenburgh’s tomb in the floor of the Oude Kerk. Rembrandt’s first wife.
The monks had to sit in uncomfortable seats, whose undersides were carved with often profane images. Here a man defecates money. The seats were on hinges and when pulled down to be sat on, the images were invisible. They were meant to amuse.
This style vase was made for kings.
Ingrid took this picture of a flash downpour from the inside of the barbershop where Peter had a noteworthy haircut.
After Maatjes herring for lunch, there was only room for an apple tart and an apple crisp for dinner.