Another beautiful day in Berlin. The three of us caught the train to Landsberger Allee. The public transport here in Berlin is very good, although we are surprised by people drinking alcohol on it. They also take their very well trained dogs on both trains and trams. Our destination Volkspark Friedrichshain. There was a bit of what I call scungy walking to get to where we wanted but in the end the park was lovely. We walked up a small hill – later found to be built of rubble from the war. Lovely views of the city.
Found a lovely park with a lake beside which was a restaurant where we had lovely soup for lunch. It was hot sitting in the sun!
I was pleased to see that white swan – she came up quite close to me.
The leaves on the trees are a spectacular colour. Joe took a picture of Clare and me in front of one. Tree and Clare look good, me not so much!
There was much close inspection of the park map searching for the Friedhof Der Märzgefallenen (Cemetery of the March Revolution – A Memorial Site) which was why we were here. To no avail. As we were walking out of the park who should we find? Friedrich the Great of course – the park is named after him.
They seem to have used one prototype for all these statues – his head always looks the same.
Walking further along we actually found the memorial site we were looking for. It was quite beautiful. This is actually a cemetery founded by the 1848 revolutionaries themselves. In March 1848 armed clashes between civilians calling for democratic reforms and soldiers resulted in around 280 revolutionaries killed. A funeral committee of city administrators and the assembly decided to bury them here – in Berlin’s first public park. Over time 255 people were buried here.
In the paths leading to and from the square are panels like this explaining the events which led to the original revolution and its aftermath. From the outset the site became a symbol of the struggle for political freedom.
By November 1848 the revolution was over with the Prussian National Assembly dissolved and the King back in charge. The cemetery was thereafter closed on the anniversary of the March revolution and finally closed completely to stop people gathering here. At the end of the First World War revolutionary unrest recurred resulting in Germany becoming a republic in November 1918. Around 15 of those who died in that uprising were also buried here.
This is a close up of the stone in the middle of the lawn. The inscription reads: To the dead of 1848/1918. You have erected this memorial yourselves. A grave warning issues from this stone. That our people should never forsake that for which you died – to be united and free.
In the course of all the changes that have been made to the site many of the original gravestones have been lost. However there are still a lot in the small strip of garden around square.
And memorial tablets like this – even I understand the ‘fallen hero’ at the last line!
The cemetery has been closed to prevent it being used as a site of protest from time to time for example during the Nazi period and the Stasi kept a close on it when East German youth started laying wreaths here in the nineteen eighties. It has been remodelled and reorganised resulting in the loss of graves and headstones but has stood the test of time. It is now being maintained by an independent association dedicated to developing it into a site of national and European significance. They want to build a visitor centre by the 175th anniversary in 2023. There’s a little exhibition centre there now that was closed when we were there. It was all quite moving. This is the Red Sailor Statue that is included in the park for reasons unknown to me but you can ask Joe all about him!
Very pleased to have seen all that we walked back up to Danziger Strasse where we caught a tram to Warschauer Strasse. After a toilet stop at the East Mall – a modern affair that could have been in any city in the world – we walked over the Spree next to the Oberbeumbrücke. This is the railway bridge that was part of the Wall that we had seen from the East Side Gallery. You can see where the tops of the towers have been repaired after the war.
It seems everywhere you look in Berlin these days there are symbols of reunification. See the statue in the middle of this picture.
Here am I on the pedestrian bridge beside the famous red one. If I’m looking tired and bedraggled it’s because I was feeling it!
But our day was not over yet. We were on our way to to Kreuzberg, Clare looking for street art, me looking forward to visiting the Trippen outlet store Clare had found on an earlier reconnoitre. So we walked along Köpenicker Strasse. We found the Trippen shop a little way along. An abundance of goodies to choose from.
Retail therapy always recharges my energy levels!
Following along the same street we saw various bits of street art but this was my favourite. The green painting on the left – includes a pertinent political message (says she carrying her Trippen bag!)
At this point along the street on the other side there was a whole block that looked as though it had been taken over by squatters with roughly boarded up bits and pieces and a painted sign saying NO PHOTOS NO TOURISTS. Then further along on the same side as us but in a car park off to the side we came upon a person being arrested, seemed like a lot of police dealing with one handcuffed fellow. They were preparing to put him in a paddy wagon. Our street walk was turning gritty indeed. Further down we came across the inimitable pipes carrying water away from some construction site. These are everywhere in Berlin.
Another familiar feature of the streets in Berlin was nearby. Stolperseteine – stumbling stones. I’ve explained these in this later blog. I think these are very affecting memorials.
We finally turned off this very long street to check out a church we could see in the distance. This was Michaelkirch Strasse, named for the church in question. Here it is from the back.
This is a Catholic Church built after Friedrich Wilhelm IV by royal command in 1845 gave the site to the Roman Catholic community. It was designed by a student of the famous Berlin architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel (of whom we’ve heard and seen a lot on our Berlin tours). The church was consecrated in October 1861. It’s built in the Italian-Romanesque style and faces onto the Luisenstadt Canal which was filled in and turned into ornamental pond, flower gardens and promenades in 1926-27. This area was mostly destroyed in WWII with only part of the church left standing – they’ve actually left the ruins of the original building in front of the rebuilt one. The area was split in two when the Wall went up with the area in the East taken up with border installations. After reunification it has been restored according to the original plans. Very pretty as you can see here behind me.
We were all pretty tired. It had been a big walking day, so back to Kottbusser Tor and onto a train back to Wedding. Where, after a short rest Clare departed for a meal at Ernst – at least she didn’t have far to go. It was great she was able to get a spot after missing out last week because of covid. Joe and I then took the train to the Pierre Boulez Saal, a small concert hall near the Titanic Hotel where we’d stayed while going to the opera. It’s a beautiful space, built at the initiative of Daniel Barenboim who is President of its board.
For the first half of the concert the piano was turned this way, for the second half it was turned around so that the other half of the hall could see the pianist’s face. She was Schaghajegh Nosrati, born in Bochum, studied at the Barenboim-Said Akademie and winner of the Leipzig Bach Competition in 2014. This is from the very informative programme which also included an interview with her – in English as well as German. She was wonderful.
She said in the interview: the music of Bach is timeless and universal. What I love in a good Bach performance is clarity, authenticity and sincerity couples with an evident respect for the work itself. I thought she was wonderful and so did the audience. This is what she played.
We felt like real Berliners. Certainly that’s the crowd we were with, including young children. It ended about 10.30. Here we are at the station ready to go back to Wedding.
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