Berliners

Monday, September 1, 2025

Berlin, Germany

The iconic Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. It was badly damaged during the war. After the Berlin Wall came down, the gate was rebuilt and restored in 1957.

Today started bright and early (ugh), as we had to meet at 6:45am to get to the train for our 7:20 departure to Berlin. It was a beautiful day - no rain and not too hot. Turns out Viking had chartered a separate train for the very large group going to Berlin for the day, and provided water and food (berliner pastry on the way in, and pretzels on the way back) for the trip.

Berliner

Fun Facts about Berlin:

• In 2011, Berlin was voted as Germany’s most dog-friendly city, you can take your furry friend almost everywhere! There are more than 200,000 dogs in Berlin.

• Berlin has the largest department store in continental Europe.  Founded in 1907, Berlin's Kaufhaus des Westens, or KaDeWe, has a sales area of over 60,000 square meters - the equivalent of eight football (soccer) pitches. (We saw it - it is huge!)

• In 1963, an extraordinary event unfolded when an East German acrobat named Horst Klein made a daring crossing over the Berlin Wall. Employing his high-level acrobatic skills, Klein utilized a high-tension cable as a tightrope to traverse the imposing barrier.

• The pathway of the Berlin wall is still marked on the street with dark colored paving stones showing where it previously stood,

• When in Berlin, don’t miss out on trying a Berliner: a delightful donut filled with jam or custard. Although the locals are known as Berliners, this name is also commonly used for these sweet treats across Germany. The term gained international fame when US President John F. Kennedy used it in his 1963 speech on solidarity, proclaiming, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” This declaration understandably raised some eyebrows, as it could also be interpreted as “I am a donut.” (Our guide explained that this legend isn't true - the Berliner wasn't invented until after the speech.)

We had a wonderful tour guide today (thanks Jaime) and we learned so much during our time with him.  We will only hit the highlights in this blog.

Berlin is strategically important because it sits on the banks of a navigable river.  This allows easy access for trade and commerce.  The city was officially founded in 1237. In 1820, the population was 200,000.  When Hitler took over in 1933, the population was 4.2 million.  Today the population is less at around 3.8 million.  The devastation from the war forced many people to leave the city and the recovery has been slow. Berlin believes in the importance of all citizens understanding their culture and the history of their country which helps to explain the fact that there are over 3,000 museums in the city.

Here are some highlights from our tour:

Humboldt University

Humboldt University in Berlin (not California) was built by the two Humboldt brothers, who also built a large library.  One brother is considered the father of modern geography, and they both believed strongly in the importance of education.  The also believed the government should not meddle in the teachings of the university.  So it is sad, and also ironic, that Hitler chose the plaza in front of the library to burn banned books.  Books that were collected to be burned were those that did not align with the Nazi beliefs and philosophy.  These included science books such as writings by Albert Einstein  (a two-time Noble Prize winner), and books that showed an "un-German" spirit, such as those by Jewish authors, or those by social-political authors that did not align with Nazi philosophies. The book burning was led by Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda, and the act was repeated across Germany.

Art installation at the site of book burning. Look carefully and you will see empty book shelves.

This subterranean exhibition is dedicated to the remembrance of the Nazi book burning. It is a collection of subterranean empty bookcases that would hold approximately 20,000 books, the approximate number of books that were burned at that event.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was designed to honor Jewish victims of the Holocaust (6,000,000 people).

Completion date: December 2004

Approval for this art installation was contentious, but ultimately the German government decided to acknowledge the crimes against humanity that occurred in Germany. Confronting the uncomfortable parts of their past is seen as a way of moving forward honestly, and honoring those who suffered and were killed in the Holocaust massacre.

Check point Charlie - one of the main crossing points between east and west Germany after the wall was built. It was called Charlie because it was check point #3 and "Charlie" is the third letter in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie).

The Berlin Wall was a fortified barrier built around the East German part of Berlin in 1961. There were actually two walls with guards and dogs and a fence between them. The wall divided East Berlin from West Berlin and was an effort to keep Germans from escaping to the west. Now the pathway of the wall is shown on the ground by a line of cobblestones. The wall fell on November 9, 1989, which led to the city's reunification.

One of our final stops on the tour was the Tempelhof Airport, which is best known as the center for Berlin Airlift of 1948-49. In June of 1948, Soviet authorities halted all traffic into western controlled sectors or Berlin. This included supplies of food and other essential items. The western powers began Operation Airlift to bring those supplies to the people. The U.S. Navy, along with England and other allies began flying supplies into the country in 1948 and continued for more than a year, loading supplies and dropping them to people needing groceries and other items in Western Berlin. At its height, airlines departed every 3 minutes from Tempelhof under dangerous conditions. Over 100 pilots and support personnel died in this operation and they are honored here at the memorial.

People who lived in West Berlin during those times say that the time, effort and funding that USA , France, and England put into the Berlin Airlift contributed greatly to the growing pro-American feelings and led the way to a stronger relationship with Germany in the long term.

Tempelhof Memorial

The past experiences of the people in Berlin have led to a big push for openness in government. The public can attend any parliament meeting and people are always welcomed on the roof of the parliament building to represent that the people are always above the government.

During the tour, we stopped for lunch in a German restaurant (duh) and ate typical, family-style German fare - pork, sausage, potatoes, sauerkraut, and beer.

After taking the train back to the port we were greeted by the awesome Viking staff welcoming us home.

Tomorrow we will be in Copenhagen, home to the famous Little Mermaid statue....and of course home to Danish danish. Yum!