Up one level antonipildid.net (nightclub & event photography by Anton Klink) » Berlin - The Museums, the Exhibitions and the Past, Aug 2006
Berlin - The Museums, the Exhibitions and the Past, Aug 2006
Bullet-ridden buildings and the Luftwaffe HQ vs buddy bears and model railways



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After the war, the Allies did their best to do away with these fortresses. The initial plans of blowing them up failed miserably. The strongholds were stuffed with tons of TNT and high explosives and the demolitions always resulted in spectacular exlposions, but when the dust settled - the fortresses were still standing. After yet another unsuccessful demolition attempt, someone even painted on the wall of one of the fortresses a victorious Another angle of the air defence fortress overlooking the city. At the end of the war, the air defence cannons were pointed away from the sky and towards the Red Army advancing from the east. The Red Army had a terrible time trying to cross the rivers and advancing towards the center of the city under a constant bombardmend from these flak towers, whereas their own cannons could hardly scratch the surface of these behemoths. Contrasts like this are quite common in Berlin, especially in the eastern part. A bullet-ridden building to the left and a freshly renovated building to the right. I was initially quite shocked to see so many remnants of the war still present everywhere in Berlin - after all, the war had ended more than 60 years ago. A close up of the facade of one such building, that survived the war but has not been touched up since. Underneath the bullet-holes you can even see a pre-war advertisement for rum cognac. Quite ghostly. Another side-by-side. Bullet-holes all over the facade to the left, shiny and new to the right. Even derelicts like this in the very heart of the city are not uncommon in Berlin. If I am not mistaken, this is the remnant of what used to be one of the most beautiful train stations in Europe. The Jewish Memorial, more precisely Underneath the memorial lies a small Museum of Rememberance. In this particular room one can see excerpts from diareis of jews, who later perished in concentractin camps. I walked into another room and saw a big arrow pointing towards Estonia. In curiousity, I stepped closer - and in shame, I stepped away. This room talks about the experiences of the Jews who survied the war and continued to live in Germany. How were they perceived? How was it like to grow up as a Jew in a post-war Germany? The jewish community in Berlin today is still very small. The turkish and arab communities far outnumber them, with the jewish community being numbered in the tens of thousands, while the turkish and arabs are in the hundreds of thousands. As a strange coincidence, the plaque marking the location of Hitler's bunker and the place where he committed suicide, is right next to the Jewish Memorial. The location of Hitler's bunker was rediscovered in the 1980's but was kept a secret from the general public up until 2005, when this plaque was erected. The bunker itself was unearthed at the beginning of the 1980s in connection with the construction of the buildings in the background. This was in fact the border zone of East Berlin. At the end of the 1970s the government of East Germany decided to erect buildings at the border that would demonstrate the superiority of the communist system over the capitalist one and would serve as a lure for West Berliners to move to the East. Although of superb quality by soviet standards (believe me, I know:), they failed impress or fool anyone in the west. However during the construction Hitler's bunker was rediscovered. When demolition attempts failed (they sure knew how to build bunkers and fortresses during WW II), it was simply stuffed with rubble and now accommodates a parking lot ontop of it. Erecting a plaqe to mark the spot can mainly be attributed to the German movie The Story of Berlin musem - highly recommended. This is what all museums should be like. The whole museum is a work of art, with 3D-sound all around, vibrating floors, plasma screens, projectors, recreated living-rooms from different eras, a mini cinema with clips from pre-war German movies and much more - a true multimedia experience, where you can truly feel transported back in time. The Story of Berlin Museum - the iron curtain and the atomic bomb. The Story of Berlin Museum - Erich Honecker's car. The Story of Berlin Museum. The Story of Berlin Museum - a typical living room in East Berlin in the 1960s. The Story of Berlin Museum - a typical living room in West Berlin in the 1960s. The Story of Berlin Museum - the traffic light guy from the pedestrian traffic lights in East Berlin has become one of the symbols of Berlin. We all know the internationally accepted pedestrian traffic light signs, but you'll notice this guy immediately when you walk around in eastern Berlin. One of the few remnants of the soviet era, that people in eastern Berlin love and embrace. A cold war era nuclear bunker (also suitable in case of chemical warfare) underneath the Story of Berlin Museum. This one is in western Berlin, is built in the 1970s and is supposed to hold 40 000 people for two weeks, provided they all lay still (walking would only have been allowed for going to the lavatory) and stay silent (since talking would waste precious oxygen). A question arises - so what happens when the two weeks are over, the place runs out of food, oxygen and electricity to cleanse the air? Is there a world you can live in after a nuclear explosion within two weeks? No, but according to calculations, the radiation from the explosion would go down sufficiently enough in two weeks for people to be able to leave the radiation zone without receiving a lethal dose. How comforting. So who would have been the 40 000 people to be accommodated here? According to official info, it would have been on a
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Event - I was sent to Berlin to take pictures of Love Parade but decided to stay a bit longer and endeb up staying for three weeks.

In this gallery you'll see: the luxurious Hotel Adlon, Hitler's peronal artifacts, the huge Luftwaffe building, the towering air defence fortress of Berlin, bullet-ridden facades, the cold war era nuclear bunker for 40 000 people, the set of of a submarine movie, United Buddy Bears, the biggest model railway in the world, the Berlin Zoo and highlights from the best museums of Berlin.