BERLIN VISIT 27-31 MAY 2003
by June Robinson

A group of LeDFAS members visited Berlin in May and, in true LeDFAS fashion wasted not a minute. As soon as we had checked into our hotel, we were off out again for the short walk to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche Memorial Church, originally consecrated in 1895 but, following bombing in World War II, only the massive front tower remained. The monument houses a modest cross, fashioned from nails found in the ashes of Coventry Cathedral after 1940, together with some of the original magnificent ceiling mosaics. Egon Eiermann’s new octagonal church in blue glass with its magnificent stained glass windows, stands proudly next door.

The second day was spent at Potsdam. We started with a tour of the Sanssoucci Palace built by Frederick the Great as a place he could be “without a care”. His friend Voltaire often visited him there and the schloss became a centre of the European Enlightenment.

Behind the palace, the Sanssouci Park cascades down the hill in terraces of vines to meet the formal gardens. Of the elegant buildings in the gardens, the newly-gilded Rococo-style Chinese Teahouse was especially noteworthy – unfortunately not open for tea, it houses an exhibition of porcelain from East Asia.

In the afternoon, we took advantage of the beautiful weather to walk along the line of the demolished Berlin Wall across the meadow from the Glienicker Brücke, where the exchange of spies took place during the Cold War. Walking towards Schloss Cecilienhof, the site of the Potsdam conference in 1945, with the sun shining on the Havel river on either side, it all seemed far removed from the chill description of the bridge in le Carré’s novels.

The next day we toured the principal sites of central Berlin and had time to walk and appreciate some of the wonderful modern architecture. This was Ascension Day and a public holiday, in addition to the influx of 20,000 Christians attending a conference in the centre. The Brandenberg Gate was as never imagined, thronged with people and crowned with a huge orange inflated halo.
In the afternoon, we had the Gemäldegalerie’s world-famous European paintings practically to ourselves. The centre of the gallery contains a water-filled pool and the collection, with wonderful examples of the work of Dürer, Holbein, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Titian, Brueghel, is lit by diffused daylight from above.

The following morning we arrived at the Berliner Dom, just in time for a recital on the giant Sauer organ, which dominates the cathedral.

Then a short walk to the Pergamon Museum to view the Pergamon Altar dating from around 160BC and the Processional Way and Gate of Ishtar from Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon and other exhibits of Greek, Roman and Babylonian art and architecture, many of them vast temples and palace rooms in their original size.

That evening, most of us went to the ballet at the Staatsoper in Unter den Linden for a superb performance of La Bayadère.
Our final day began in a sombre mood; our guide was obviously very affected by having lived through the division of Berlin and the impact it had made on his family. He took us to an area, which has not been ‘monumentalised’. Although the wall has been removed and replaced by a row of trees, it was not difficult to imagine what it must have been like in that area of no-man’s land between the starkly divided buildings; the realisation was very moving.

Then, a change of direction and mood and on to Schloss Charlottenburg. Originally built for Queen Sophie Charlotte, it contains the apartments of Frederick the Great and his private art collection, including Watteau’s “Gersaint’s Shop Sign”.
Just time to visit the Ägyptisches Museum to admire the delicate, beautifully painted bust of Nefertiti, and across the road to the Bröhan, the state museum for Art Nouveau and Art Deco. Then we were happy to relax over a long lunch before a gentle wander in the gardens of the Charlottenburg.

We all agreed that it had been a visit of many contrasts and that Berlin truly was a rapidly evolving city, which has arisen from the ashes.