I finally made it to Berlin! And here I am at the Brandenburg Gate on the side of the Berlin Wall that used to be East Berlin.

I was 10 years old when the Berlin Wall went up and 38 when it was torn down. This wall was a strange and difficult thing to understand. Why would the Soviets want to divide a city that was under their "protection"? What went into this decision, and how did it affect the people who lived there? This trip to Bohemia helped explain some these and other questions about what was going on not only in Berlin but in this region during the war that my father fought, and afterward when the Soviets created and then lost the Eastern bloc.

As the daughter of a World War II veteran, stories of the war pervaded my young life. The war ended just five years before I was born. Books, magazines, television programs provided background information about the war. I saw war relics my father had taken home with him: a sword, a helmet, his dress uniform and hat. But these were just stories. Going to Berlin and seeing the capitol of the Nazi regime first hand was an experience I couldn't resist.

This blog shows some of the places I visited in Berlin and their significance in the history of the war. It illustrates the Germans' efforts to live beyond the terror and shame of the war to becoming a people who promote peace, unity, and freedom. They know the costs of war and specifically the grip of Nazism--and they are trying to do something about it for their own psychological health and for the world's. We would be wise to take note, especially now as the world turns to favor dictators and authoritarianism.

Brandenburg Gate

Throughout its existence, the Brandenburg Gate was often a site for major historical events. Frederick William II built the gate in 1788 to honor the military achievements of his uncle, Frederick the Great of Prussia, and to establish his capital in Berlin as a cultural center and rival to Paris, London, and Vienna. Unexpectedly, Napoleon was the first to walk through the gate after his victory in 1806 against Frederick William III of Prussia. In 1871, the Prussians celebrated at the Gate their victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War.

The impressive quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses, sits atop the Brandenburg Gate where it is lit up at night. The image comes from antiquity where the Greeks and Romans held chariot races. Quadrigas were also emblems of triumph usually with a woman driving the chariot. In classical mythology, Apollo drives his quadriga across the heavens, delivering daylight and dispersing the night.

The Brandenburg Gate in June 1945 after the fall of Berlin.

During the Cold War (1947-91), the Berlin Wall was built around the Gate and served as a marker of the city's division by the Allies. The Wall stood from 1961-89.

President Ronald Reagan stood behind the Gate in the Allies sector and implored Soviet Prime Minister Gorbachev to "tear down this wall." June 1987

The fall of the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate. This picture was part of a digital display for the November 9 celebration that commemorated the 35th anniversary of the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.

Today, Berlin marks the Wall's path with a double set of bricks.

Since German reunification in 1990, the Brandenburg Gate is no longer considered a symbol of power during the tumultuous histories of Germany and Europe. It is now a symbol of European unity, peace, and freedom.

One small historical tidbit about this area near the eastern side of the Brandenburg Gate is the Avalon Hotel. It was here that Michael Jackson showed off his infant son, Blanket, by dangling him outside a balcony window.

Berlin Wall (1961-89)

When people are denied their freedom, they seek ways to liberate themselves. Such was the effort of the East Berliners who were restricted from crossing into West Berlin, Allied territory in the conquered city after World War II. Laws didn't stop the East Berliners, neither did barbed wire, as the East German soldier (below) demonstrates in this iconic photo . So the East German Republic (GDR) constructed a large concrete wall on August 13, 1961, with guard towers and a wide area next to the wall (later known as the "death strip"), anti-vehicle trenches, beds of nails, and other defenses to prevent East German citizens from fleeing to the West. You could get shot trying to cross the wall.

East Berlin police officer Conrad Schumann, 19, leaped to freedom when he realized he would would be spending the rest of his life keeping himself and his fellow citizens imprisoned. Click here for his dramatic story.

Before the Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans defected from the GDR, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin. From there they traveled to West Germany and other free European countries. Between 1961-1989 over 100,000 people attempted to escape over the wall, and over 5,000 people succeeded. East German authorities estimate that 136-200 in and around Berlin were murdered for crossing the border.

Toni Fisher sang about the Wall in the 1962 American hit song "West of the Wall". The video illustrates some of the puzzlement about the building of the Wall. I remember this song, which felt like a rallying cry for freedom against the Soviets' actions and an developing empathy for those living behind "the Iron Curtain".

Our traveling group arrived in Berlin on November 11, two days and 35 years after the fall of the Wall. We had just missed a big celebration for this anniversary with thousands of people, music, speeches, and posters. Some of the equipment that had been used was still there.

Parts of the wall have been preserved for history's sake. Once a symbol of the oppression of ideas, now it is now used as a cultural exchange on the meaning of freedom. The Eastside Gallery, the longest remaining section of the wall, is an open-air gallery with 105 murals by 118 artists from 21 different countries. It is considered an international memorial as well as a reminder of Berlin's remarkable resilience in the face of horrendous adversity. Here are some samples.

"The Kiss" shows Erich Honecker, leader of the GDR (right), with ‘Big Brother’ Leonid Brezhnev (left), the long serving Soviet leader in 1979. The kiss is a socialist tradition where it was acceptable for men to kiss each other on the lips. This mural is the most popular one at the Eastside Gallery as crowds routinely gather around it and take photos.

Checkpoint Charlie and a Near Miss of World War III -- 1961

The wall included a series of checkpoints where people could cross to borders between East and West. The Berlin border crossings were created as a result of the post-World War II division of Germany. (The Soviets reputedly took the best parts of the city.) Below is a map of the checkpoints.

Map of the Berlin Wall, showing checkpoints.

Key: Solid line: the Berlin Wall;

Dotted line: edges of East Berlin;

Blue dots: Checkpoints open to Germans only;

Red dots: Checkpoints open to Germans and non-Germans

The Wall was heavily guarded and a representation of the city's tension where the epicenter of the Cold War was in obvious view. One of the most dangerous episodes was standoff at "Checkpoint Charlie" in October 1961, the scene of a volatile confrontation that could have set off World War III, our guide explained.

"Checkpoint Charlie" was the third crossing point of the Berlin Wall. "C" in aviation language is distinguished as "Charlie".

The Russians rolled out tanks on their side of the checkpoint, and the Americans followed with tanks on their side. Both sides had their gun barrels pointed at each other. Commanders called their leaders back home to advise them. Neither President Kennedy nor Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev wanted an escalation. The Soviets began de-escalation by backing up their tanks 15 meters. The Americans responded by doing the same. This backing up and backing off went on for a while. No one lost face. And a war was averted. Here is a close-up of the stand-off.

On the Russian side of the checkpoint are sandbags that "protect" the guardhouse. Lots of people like to have their picture taken on this more dramatic side of the checkpoint.

The Americans, British, and French controlled West Berlin while the Russians controlled East Berlin. The city had been carved up after World War II. (Ironically, today the American sector features a KFC restaurant, a staple of American culture and capitalism known throughout the world.)

A museum of the divided city features memorabilia. Flags, posters, photos, insignia, and historical information are among its contents. Here are some examples of displays of the last items that once stood over the checkpoint over 35 years ago.

The wall's 28-year history was fraught with tension. Tearing down the wall symbolized both the city's reunification and the country's move toward freedom.

Events Leading to World War II

Cultural Mecca of Europe -- 1920s

Berlin was the center of an era of great creative productivity, experimentation, and open-mindedness during the 1920s. Its people made significant contributions in the fields of literature, art, music, dance, drama and cinema. Political discussions were freely conducted in the Lustgarten (central Berlin) where civilians could express their beliefs. Jews were prominent in many of these endeavors, which later made them a target for discrimination and persecution.

The Nazis, however, didn't like what was happening in Berlin. They called Berlin "the reddest city in Europe after Moscow", so things began to change in the city when Hitler and the Nazi Party took power in 1933. Berlin's vibrant underground culture, experimental artistic endeavors, and liberal ideals came to an end. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Minister for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda, instituted programs and policies that brought the arts in line with the Nazi anti-Semitic goals.

The open-minded German capital was also a liberal hotbed where people indulged their sexual and hedonistic appetites through Berlin's nightlife and party culture, which was unmatched in Europe. The 1972 Broadway film, "Cabaret", illustrates this culture starring Liza Minelli and Joel Grey.

Part of the reason for this sexual excess were the consequences of the ravages of World War I where Germany suffered economic collapse and hyperinflation; people paid for bread with a wheelbarrow full of marks. Prostitution also became a means of survival for both men and women. As it was normalized, it became a part of the city's underground culture and economy. Berlin also became a hub for drug dealing in substances such as cocaine, heroin and tranquilizers.

In response to this freewheeling culture, the Nazis implemented policies that attempted to change sexual practices for the nation. They encouraged the birth of Aryan children, prohibited sexual relations between Germans and foreigners, banned gay organizations and scholarly books about homosexuality and sexuality in general. These books were among those burned on May 10,1933. LGBTQ people became targets for the concentration camps and even those in the Nazi Party itself.

As a result of the Nazis' threats and persecution, many Germans fled the Fatherland to take up residence in the USA and England such as:

Physicists Albert Einstein and Max Born as well as hundreds of German scholars and intellectuals left.

Artists from the movie industry also left including: Marlene Dietrich, actress; Bela Lugosi, Hungarian actor; Peter Lorre, Hungarian actor; Billy Wilder, filmmaker; Fritz Lang, film director, screenwriter, and producer; and Bertolt Brecht, poet, playwright, and theatre director.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler decreed that classical Greek and Roman art would be the model for German art because its exterior form embodied an inner racial ideal of the Aryanization of German culture. He also prohibited "degenerate art" expressed in atonal Jewish music, the blues, surrealism, cubism, and Dadaism. Among the artists who fled were: Wassily Kandinsky and Marc Chagall.

Book Burning -- May 10, 1933

On April 8, 1933, the Main Office for Press and Propaganda of the German Student Union (DSt) proclaimed a nationwide "Action against the Un-German Spirit". This proclamation resulted in a literary purge or "cleansing" by fire with almost 20,000 books "unfit to read" to be burned on May 10 by Nazi youth groups.

Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Propaganda Minister, stated, “The future German man will not just be a man of books, but a man of character” (quoted in “May 10, 1933”). The Nazis were pleased by the success of the burning while other countries around the world were shocked.

The Empty Library memorializes the Book Burning incident at Bebelplatz. Saint Hedwig's Cathedral lies in the background.

Book burning is the deliberate and public destruction by fire of books or other written materials--and other forms of media (CDs, videotapes, etc.). It is considered a form of censorship because of a group's cultural, religious, or political opposition to the materials in question. Book burning is intended to draw wider public attention to this opposition and can can become a significant component of "cultural genocide".

There are many historical instances of book burning besides that of the Nazis including the burning of books and burying of scholars under China's Qin dynasty (213–210 BCE), the destruction of the House of Wisdom during the Mongol siege of Baghdad (1258), the destruction of Aztec codices by Itzcoatl (1430s), the burning of Maya codices on the order of bishop Diego de Landa (1562), and the burning of Jaffna Public Library in Sri Lanka (1981).

Fall of the Reichstag

Its stark, dark exterior gives it an ominous presence. The Reichstag sits like a hulking beast constantly trying to revive and assert itself. The Neo-Renaissance building was completed in 1894 but not without controversy.

The end of the 19th century began to see the end of the monarchs and emperors all over Europe. Democracies were emerging as an alternative form of government, however, Germany struggled to establish it. Wilhelm II, the last German emperor and king of Prussia, didn't believe in it. He dismissed the new parliament as a "chatting house for monkeys". The people persisted, however, and at the end of World War I, the German Republic (Weimar Republic--1918-33) was proclaimed.

In 1933, a mysterious fire attributed to no one gutted the building. Chancellor Hitler blamed the communists and thus was able to consolidate his own power. The Bundestag (lower legislative chamber) was disbanded. But Hitler and the Nazis wouldn't endure. Ironically, the fall of Berlin in May 1945 ended at the Reichstag with the Soviets planting their flag on top of the building so they could show the world they were victorious over Hitler and Germany.

For the next 40 years the building fell into disuse but remained standing. On October 4, 1990, the Bundestag met in the building for the first time since Hitler disbanded it. With German reunification, the capital moved back to Berlin from Bonn. The reconstructed building now had an iconic glass dome designed to bathe the Bundestag chamber in natural light so that citizens could see what was going on in the legislature and keep an eye on their government.

The glass dome that allows citizens to watch the action below taking place in the German legislature. This is the government's attempt to promote transparency through architecture.

The Bundestag under the glass dome

The Fall of Berlin (April 23 – May 2, 1945)

The war drew to a close when the Russians took Berlin after 9 days of fighting. A Soviet soldier waved a victory flag on top of the Reichstag building as a symbol of victory. A photo of this event became one of the most iconic photos of World War II. However, this photo was staged and later airbrushed for propaganda purposes. For example, the soldier supporting the flag waver was wearing stolen Nazi watches that he intended to sell. This was not the image the Russians wanted so they airbrushed the watch on his right wrist out of the photo (below). Smoke and a couple more soldiers were also added for dramatic effect (right).

Hitler's Bunker

A short walk from the Brandenburg Gate lies "the most famous parking lot" in Berlin: it covers the above-ground site of Hitler's bunker. It's unrecognizable because the government wanted to remove any traces of the bunker or memories of Hitler. Because the bunker was located in East Berlin, Soviet authorities also wanted it destroyed because they were concerned that East Berliners might try to escape to West Berlin through the bunker's labyrinth of hallways and rooms.

In 1987, Robert Conrad, a journalist, risked his life by taking photos of the bunker's contents before demolition. He got onto the site by disguising himself as a construction worker. Click here to see his photos.

Topography of Terror

This modern building, a museum, sits on the grounds of the former headquarters of the Nazi regime's (1933-45) institutions of persecution and terror including the secret police (Gestapo), Reich SS leadership and Reich Security Main Office. This area is called the "Topography of the Terrors".

The museum focuses on the central institutions of the SS and police in the Third Reich and the crimes they committed across Europe. It is one of the premier museums of the Nazis' history and includes the desks of Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, and other key figures of the SS state. The “Topography of Terror” traces the crimes initiated here and committed in Germany and the European countries occupied by the Third Reich.

Gestapo headquarters in ruins (left) before it was imploded and removed from the site. The building in 1936 (right).

The excavation trench exposes remains of the Gestapo headquarters' basement wall. Posters cover Berlin's history 1933–1945 and addresses National-Socialist politics and its consequences for the city and its people. It shows how the National Socialists managed to get a foothold in “red” Berlin and transform the city into their center of political power. Below, the old Berlin Wall runs next to the trench.

Museum Island

This museum complex in the historic heart of Berlin, Germany is one of the most important museum sites in Europe. Originally built between 1830-1930 by order of the Prussian Kings, Museum Island was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999 because of its testimony to the architectural and cultural development of museums in the 19th and 20th centuries. It consists of the Altes Museum, the Neues Museum, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Bode-Museum and the Pergamonmuseum. So although construction was done in the 19th century, the architecture was all made to look older in order to resemble other great European cities' old buildings.

Although we did not enter any of the museums, the exteriors told a story of the German desire to exhibit its own cultural identity and history.

In the early nineteenth century, Germany's growing bourgeoisie class had become increasingly self-aware and self-confident. It began to embrace new ideas regarding the relationship between itself and art, and the concepts that art should be open and accessible to the public. King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia charged architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel with planning a public museum for the royal art collection, particularly for Classical antiquity.

Schinkel was also responsible for the renovation of the Berliner Dom, originally a Baroque cathedral, in the Neoclassical style.

During the Nazi era, the Altes Museum was used as the backdrop for propaganda. At the close of World War II, the building was badly damaged when a tank truck exploded in front of it. It was the first museum to undergo reconstruction and restoration from 1951 to 1966.

Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom) is the largest German Protestant church. It also serves as the dynastic tomb for the House of Hohenzollern. It was built in Renaissance and Baroque Revival styles 1894-1905 by order of Emperor William II. In addition to church services, the cathedral is used for state ceremonies, concerts and other events.

The cathedral features an organ from the 1800s that has 7,000 pipes. Click here to listen to Xaver Varnus play it. The video also shows the interior of this magnificent cathedral.

Damaged during the Allies' bombing in April-May 1945, the cathedral's interior was restored by 2002. Currently there is discussion about restoring the historical exterior as well.

Altes Museum was built between 1825 and 1830 by order of King Frederick William III of Prussia. It is considered a major work of German Neoclassical architecture. The museum was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, in recognition of its testimony to the development of the museum as a social and architectural phenomenon.

The Altes Museum was originally constructed to house all of the city's collections of fine arts, including Old Master paintings, and prints and drawings. However, since 1904, the museum has solely housed the Collection of Classical Antiquities.

During the Battle of Berlin in 1945, the buildings on Museum Island were riddled with bullets. The Germans decided after the war not to cover up the holes. The bullet holes remain in order to remember the havoc the war and the Nazis heaped upon the nation and the world--so that future generations would never allow such a thing to happen again.

This dry fountain sits in the middle of Museum Island and presents structure all its own and a testament to German creativity and imagination. The Humboldt Forum lies in the background. Below is a summer view of the fountain.

The Humboldt Forum is a museum dedicated to human history, art and culture. It is named in honor of the Prussian scholars Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt. It houses the non-European collections of the Berlin State Museums, temporary exhibitions and presents public events. The Humboldt Forum incorporates two former museums, the Ethnological Museum of Berlin (1886) and the Museum of Asian Art (1904).

In 2018, the Forum was challenged on the legality of displaying the cultural heritage of former German colonies without presenting objects originating from indigenous groups. In the 2020's the Humboldt Forum came under criticism over the museum's ownership of stolen art and other artifacts acquired in Africa and Asia during European colonial empires. (This is an issue for other European countries as well.)

War Memorials

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is located one block from the Brandenburg Gate and on the former "death strip" of the Berlin Wall. During the Third Reich a part of this area was the location of Joseph Goebbels' urban villa near the Reich Chancellery and the Führerbunker (Hitler's bunker) in the south. Berlin had been home to the largest population of Jews in Europe.

The memorial consists of 2,711 concrete slabs set into a grid over 4.7 acres. The slabs are 2.38 meters long and 0.95 meters wide; they vary in height from 0.2 to 4.7 metres. The artists, Peter Eisenman and Buro Happold, who are both architects, did not attach any particular meaning to the memorial but rather invited viewers to walk through it, experience it, and allow each person to derive meaning from it. An attached underground "Place of Information" holds the names of approximately 3 million Jewish Holocaust victims obtained from the Israeli museum Yad Vashem.

The memorial was inaugurated on May 10, 2005, sixty years after the end of World War II in Europe. It was opened to the public two days later.

For me, the memorial made me numb. The slabs represented numerous Jews buried together in graves all over Europe. The walk through the memorial illustrated the non-stop murder of what turned out to be 6 million Jews. The orderly arrangement of the slabs illustrated the systematic killing of innocent people that had been instituted and viciously normalized by the Nazi government. Learning of what this land formerly housed made the memorial even more poignant; it is a kind of justice for the Nazis' incomprehensible misdeeds that caused tumult and disorder in Europe for a senseless cause. I felt alone as I walked through the memorial and imagined what it must have been like for those who died in the death camps. This same numbness descended on me when I visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland a few days later. Over 1 million people were murdered there.

The memorial had received much criticism during its conception, planning, and completion in 2005. Some people objected to singling out a Jewish memorial. Thus, other memorials were conceived and erected, as noted below.

The Reichstag Memorial sits near the Reichstag. It is dedicated to the 96 members of the Reichstag during the Weimar Republic (1918-33) who were murdered by the Nazis. The memorial was erected in 1992. It is designed so that more cast iron plates can be added as more names of those killed are discovered.

A Memorial to the Sinti and Roma People recognizes the 250,000-500,000 Sinti and Roma people who were persecuted and then killed by the Nazis in concentration camps during 1939-45. Viewed as racially inferior and social outsiders and pejoratively called "gypsies", the Nazis shot tens of thousands of Romani people in occupied eastern Poland, the Soviet Union, and Serbia. They murdered thousands more from western and central Europe in the concentration camps.

A small cement pond is accompanied by odd-shaped stones with names of concentration camps on them where the Romani people were executed. Someone often places flowers at the pond. Soft low-toned music pervades the space. It is a somber experience and frankly, a surprise that this group of people are recognized.

The Memorial to Homosexuals persecuted under Nazism in Berlin was opened on May 27, 2008. Looking through the window viewers can see two men kissing. Although there are no records of lesbians being murdered by the Nazis, criticism of the memorial was such that the decision was made that every two years a video of two women kissing would be available. The memorial is located near the Tiergarten (public park) and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Memorial in Nollendorfplatz, Berlin, which reads:

"Struck Dead
Hushed Up
[dedicated to] The homosexual victims of National Socialism"

The Nazis assigned the 'pink triangle' to homosexuals in the concentration camps. From January 1933 almost all homosexual locales in and around Nollendorfplatz were closed or raided by the Nazis.

Before 1933, male homosexual acts were illegal in Germany, however, the law was not consistently enforced. A thriving gay culture emerged and flourished in major German cities as a result. After the Nazi takeover in 1933, the homosexual movement's clubs, organizations, and publications was shut down. Soon after persecuting homosexuals became a priority of the Nazi police state and led to a large increase in arrests and convictions. Persecution peaked in the years prior to World War II and was extended to areas annexed by Germany, including Austria, the Czech lands, and Alsace–Lorraine.

Between 1933-1945, about 100,000 men were arrested as homosexuals with 50,000 sentenced by civilian courts, 6,400-7,000 by military courts, and an unknown number by special courts. Most of these men served time in regular prisons, and between 5,000 and 6,000 were imprisoned in concentration camps. The death rate of these prisoners was about 60 percent, higher than those of other prisoner groups. Nazi Germany's persecution of homosexuals is considered to be the most severe episode in a long history of discrimination and violence targeting sexual minorities.

Modern Berlin

We passed by but unfortunately did not stop at Tempelhofer Feld, the small airport that was turned into a public park on May 8, 2010 (the 65th anniversary of VE Day). Architecturally, the former airfield illustrates an innovative re-use of space. Socially, it is a symbol of freedom and recreation for city residents.

Tempelhofer Feld goes back more than 700 years where its primary uses were military. The name "Tempelhof" refers to a seat of the "Knights Templar". In the 18th century it served as a parade ground. On May 1, 1933, the Nazis held a big propaganda rally here and used the northern part of the field, Columbiadamm, as the only official SS concentration camp in Berlin. Prisoners worked for war production in a barracks camp. After World War II until the 1990s it was a landing site under the control of the Allied powers protecting West Berlin. During the Berlin Blockade of 1948/49, the Western Allies supplied the population here with everything they needed to survive via the legendary "Airlift".

Today, Berliners use the field for picnics, cycling, skateboarding, and other recreation. An information trail with 20 places of remembrance and memorials provide a history of Tempelhofer Feld in text and pictures.

It is important to note that throughout the time that Tempelhofer Feld has functioned as a public park, there have been many attempts to develop and privatize it. Each time there has been significant citizen pushback.

Alexanderplatz in Berlin Mitte is one of the biggest and best-known public squares in Berlin. It was named after Russian Tsar Alexander I, who visited the Prussian capital in 1805. During World War II this area was pretty much leveled. Afterward, the Soviets rebuilt it and made it the hub of East Berlin.

The square is one of the busiest transport hubs in the Berlin area. The TV tower (Fernsehturm) was built by the Soviets. The 24-hour World Clock used to focus on communist cities; now it includes many others.

Here are more photos of modern Berlin. Even though the war destroyed most of the city, rebuilding provided a renewed sense of energy, vitality, and liberalism.

Potsdamer Platz (of the former East Berlin) provides a look at the city's modern architectural advancements after being a desolate wasteland during the Cold War, which is Berlin's second regeneration.

Some other interesting modern buildings of the new and resurrected Berlin.

Ampelmännchen (Ampelmann)

The beloved Ampelmännchen (Ampelmann) is the popular traffic signal for Germany. It was adopted after German reunification in 1990, and it serves as a sign of unity.

Ampelmännchen, which literally means 'little traffic light man' is the symbol shown on pedestrian signals throughout the country. Prior to reunification, the two German states each had different forms for the Ampelmännchen. The West had a generic human figure, and the East had this "male" figure wearing a hat.

The Ampelmännchen is one of the few items of East Germany to survive. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Ampelmännchen acquired cult status and became a popular souvenir item in the tourism business.

One distinctive German pedestrian crossing is the diagonal crossing. In America, we call it jay-walking. In Germany, lines in the street indicate that such a crossing is OK--you just need to make sure the lines are there before you cross. Keep your eye on the Ampelmännchen to know when you cross!

Berlin became one of my favorite cities on this tour. Its history and influence on the world is monumental. Its rise from the ashes of defeat into one of the most modern countries in the world is inspirational. And its handling of its sins of the past is an inspiration to what a society can do to make amends for its acts against humanity. Germany is yet another model for public atonement and education like the Truth and Reconciliation Committees that operated after the Apartheid of South Africa and the genocide of Rwanda. Given that stronger countries still commit atrocities against other weaker countries, such admissions of guilt are a way out those human attributes that eventual cause humiliation and debasement in the eyes of the world. It is a way of taking responsibility for actions against humanity, which are destructive to the human spirit of liberty, freedom, and justice. All nations should be well-advised by the example of Germany both in its fall into sin and injustice and its resurrection to new life.

Sources

Quadriga -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadriga

Brandenburg Gate -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_Gate

Book burning -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_book_burnings

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/c/lest-we-forget-art-in-the-open

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_burning

Templehof Field -- https://www.visitberlin.de

Visit Berlin -- https://www.visitberlin.de/en/sightseeing-in-berlin

Sneaking into Hitler's Bunker -- https://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/photo-gallery-sneaking-into-hitler-s-bunker-fotostrecke-97539.html

Genocide of the Romani people -- https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/genocide-of-european-roma-gypsies-1939-1945

Persecution of Homosexuals -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_Homosexuals_Persecuted_Under_Nazism and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_homosexuals_in_Nazi_Germany

Berlin before the Nazis -- https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7300631/Berlin-Nazis-German-capital-liberal-hub-thriving-gay-scene-1920s.html