Think About It

 

I knew the whole debate about ripping down part of East Side Gallery to build a luxury housing complex was a big deal here in Berlin, but I was pretty surprised to see it had made the front page of NY Times. Though I suppose when you think about it, it is a big deal to tear down the longest last remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall, and not just because it would be replacing history and art with a purely capitalistic endeavor- alone a deep insult for many Berliners. The word for monument is German is "Denkmal," a compound word that when separated, turns into the imperative statement "Think about it." Different monuments serve different purposes, but East Side Gallery serves many. It is the most important historical monument that exists from the BRD/GDR days- one of the city's most complicated and painful eras. It also serves as an open-air art gallery, where international artists come to paint messages of peace and hope along what before could not even be touched (remember the death strip on the East Side?). But when you think about it, this whole situation is quite symbolic in another way. Most of last week's protesters would have been the same ones championing tearing down the wall a mere 25 years ago when it still separated the city (some probably did), but now they are fighting to leave it standing. It's not only a symbol of the past, but of how far the city has come, and this reminder serves as great a purpose as the history of the wall itself.

 

Thai & Tempelhof

I'm pretty "with it" when it comes to Berlin tourist and hot spots. Not that I could ever know all of Berlin's secret, underground happenings, but the big sites I've most certainly got down. I could give a comprehensive tour of this city in my sleep. So even though I have long been aware of Tempelhof, I'm surprised that until this past weekend I had been pretty immune to its charms.

Sundays for me are generally reserved for one park and one park only: the Thai Park. Have I written about the Thai Park yet? If not, please excuse this egregious oversight on my part. The Thai Park is a wonderful, wonderful place where Thai women set up umbrellas and sell fresh, delicious goodies like papaya salad, pad thai, and mango with sticky rice that you eat while sprawled out on a blanket in a park that happens to be right outside of my apartment building. It's heaven wrapped in a spring roll! A spring roll stuffed with heaven! It's my happy place.

And just like that, she's off track because of food! Back to Tempelhof, which does not have Thai food. But in Tempelhof's defense, the place has pretty much everything else. It's a former airport turned massive park where you can find everything from carnivals to kite flying to soccer games to music festivals. After lounging about and indulging at the Thai Park last Sunday, I agreed to join a couple friends there for a long overdue visit.

 

The first thing that strikes you is just how massive the spot is. From one end it's tough to make out the other. There's just so much open space without trees or lakes or anything else that the other Berlin parks are full of. And being able to jog, rollerblade, or picnic on a former runway is pretty cool.

 

The history of the place is pretty interesting, too. Tempelhof has played a really signficant role in some of Berlin's darkest and most complicated eras- built in the 20s, it was re-constructed by the Nazis in the 30s and used to assemble Stuka dive bombers and Focke Wulf FW 190 fighter planes during World War II. Later it was the site of the famous Berlin airlift in 1948-1949. Its main building also used to be one of the 20 biggest buildings on EARTH (thanks, Wikipedia).

Tempelhof Airport was closed in 2008 and has since evolved into one of Berlin's most beloved parks. It's a nice alternative to the more stately Tiergarten and has a somewhat edgier feel (though let's not forget Tiergarten has its fair share of nude sunbathers). Coming up this week in Tempelhof is some kind of freestyle frisbee tournament where people "jam" together on frisbees to music. Or maybe they have to make music with frisbees. Either way, I am happy to have another Berlin staple in my repertoire.

Thai Park: U7 Fehrbelliner Platz/Preussen Park
Tempelhof Park: S41/42 Tempelhof or U6 Tempelhof

Mauerpark

The Mauerpark, or literally "Wall park" is known for a weekly flea market, a crazy karaoke tradition that I hope to take part in one day, and for being home to a remaining stretch of the Wall. It's not the longest remaining stretch, that's East Side Gallery, but what Mauerpark does have is a section of what used to be called the "death strip."

When many people think of the "Berlin Wall" they are just thinking of the more symbolic wall on the West side that's covered in graffiti. That is the "barrier wall" and only one part of the very intricate barrier that existed between East and West. To get to the barrier wall, attempting escapers first had to pass a slew of other barriers that become known as the death strip. These defenses included watch and control towers, barbed wire, sand so that footprints of attempting escapees would quickly be noticed, ferociously trained dogs, and surface barriers such as beds of nails.

The Wall was not originally constructed this way. It started off as a wire fence in 1961 and evolved into its most sophisticated and impenetrable form between 1975-1980.