Historical berlin: 1237 first doc.

Fishing village settled by Slovakians on a trading route

it was part of the pans iatic league, berlin was trading in fish. Leipzig had trading fairs
and there was a direct route. In 1417 a prince comes up from Nuremburg and receives
the title margrave (military position) Brandenburg, so good that 10yrs later he
becomes the elector of Brandenburg, (gendarmenmarkt). An elector (there are 7) they
elect the holy roman emperor lives in Vienna. 4 are secular 3 are church related one
lives in berlin that means power (he can make or break the next emperor). That means
its a center of political and military power. 1685 the land is drained off (it was a
swamp) the king of France Louis the 14, said you are either catholic or you go many
protestants Eugenovs came to berlin, they were cleaver industrious and very very
wealthy, who were sought after all over Europe so he said come to berlin and gave
them a large area of land and money for a church to entice them to choose Berlin, they
accepted. But the Germans say why are the Eugenovs getting all of this we are Lutheran
and also want something. So they got an identical church, that meant in Prussia in
Brandenburg there was religious equality it was the land of freedom and unique in
Europe. The third building 1820s built in style of Greek (Athens democracy) by
Schinkel built a temple as a national theater it was about citizens in a democratic
society they used German language a big question at this time was what is a German
nation. This area was very heavily bombed 400,000 tons of bombs, these 3 are beautiful
rebuilds.ke In the 1820 there lived a judge indulged in sekt, Hoffmann, wrote crazy
stories while drunk, these stories were very influential on Edgar Ellen Poe Tchaikovsky
and Walt Disney he liked German literature and fairytales, the king of mice by Hoffman
inspired mickey mouse.

Unter den linden: under the lime trees 1652 land drained elector Brandenburg laid out
a modern city on a grid. But when he does this he makes sure the street leading to the
palace is the widest/largest street in the city, this tells you that you are enroute to the
palace, behave yourself, it was lined with linden trees, the tops were connected creating
an archway/tunnel creating a 3 dimensional perspective which ended with the palace
as the focus point/prince power. In the mid 1700 Friedrich the great remodeled much
of Unter den Linden. Humboldt university was build as the palace of his successor fat
Billy, a library and the Berliner Dom 1742 (no Catholics in berlin but he just want s to
make sure Europeans know in berlin there is religious freedom. and he built the opera
house. Typical berlin the Dom is classical the opera is stately and English the library is
very Austrian. If I have a palace I must have security the body guards (now the German
war memorial) to protect the king. The crown prince must have his own building, but I
also need weapons the pink German history museum, the helmets tell us this building is
the arsenal, the pink is oxidized iron, in the 1700 pink was a very masculine color. The
palace was destroyed in 1950 (there is a door with a golden balcony its all that
remains). Cathedral 1905 Kaiser Wilhelm the 2
nd
Lutherans will finally have a pretty
building. Church of St. Nikolas is where the Slovak fisherman created Berlin. The red
tower is the berlin city hall rathaus. The huge pink pipes all over the place are used
drain away the water.

Medieval berlin chapel of the holy blood builds as a pilgrim station, as it is now on a
new trading route extending across Europe. The first synagogue in berlin 1704 under
the king of Prussia, saw Vienna kicking out Jews invited them to berlin gave them land
and property as a refuge inside the city, many settled here, there were no ghettos this
area particularly after 1880 maintained a berlin Jewish heritage and today this area is
once again coming back to live hackeschermarkt. These new migrants traded in textiles
and the Eugenovs were expert silk weavers, suddenly we have traders and
manufacturers, launching berlins fashion industry. 1830s the berlin Jews we socially
economically, politically liberated so they built a new synagogue, survived the night of
the broken glass.

Kristallnacht 9. 11.1938: SA event: paramility organized even under NAZI party. They
go in and destroy all synagogues and German Jewish owned business in berlin and
throughout Germany. The synagogue survived because of the captain of the fire dept.
who said it was a landmark and was concerned about all the other people living nearby.
It was bombed during the course of WWII.

Charite world famous research hospital in 1800, first x-ray of a human body was there.
Mrs. Rundken was the first person as she lost two of her fingers from the radioactivity
and Mr. Robert isolates TB berlin as a center of scientific and medical research.



Yiddish influences Berlin dialect with the Jews and French form the Eugenovs.

Operation Valkyrie: wanted to kill Adolf Hitler 20.07.44 assassination attempt. It went
all wrong, it wuffstand, placed a bomb in a case in the conference room with Hitler, the
meeting was supposed to happen downstairs in a concrete room which would have
imploded on Hitler but it was moved at the last minute to upstairs where it was made
of wood which blew outwards one beam then hit Hitlers ear and nothing happened.
The count returns to berlin and takes control not realizing his plan has failed. He is
then arrested and then executed there is now the statue to remember his resistance
attempts.

1945: metro berlin is divided in 4 sectors one is based on population, 1/3 falls into
soviet, American, British sector. To maintain this the East German sector soviet, receive
an enormous amount of land than the two other sectors of berlin, the British then give a
small amount of their land to the French. Many of the famous landmarks of berlin like
brand tor. Etc. fell into soviet hands. They used it as propaganda, they said they had
culture and heritage and in the west was only shopping (communism vs. capitalism)
the west then responded by creating new buildings to prove they had culture, they
often rebuilt things on areas of importance. One example of this is the area that is now
the berlin philharmonic used to house the ministry of public health. They had a
program called euthanasia in their attempt to create a perfect German race, by the
coupling of those of German heritage who were seen as perfect (Aryan) and the
execution of those seen as imperfect these programs end (here) in 1940. They build on
these places creating memorials to remember their past all while creating new modern
structures to show their movement into the democratic and transparent future it is
now a place of joy happiness and music. Using architecture to create de NAZIfication.

Potsdamer platz/Sony center: Mary had some little lambs that she grazed in west berlin
in the American sectors, she now lives there for free in one of the apartments.

Berlin architecture differs from much of Europe as generally they have not used one
building material they are usual monochromatic and mono textile berlin can be
considered an experience of material color and spaces.

1980: cold war berlin. Post WWII berlin was in disarray, had a lot of destruction and
there was a lack of stability. Pieter Bohnhover German resistance movement. Lutheran
minister protested against ideas of Hitler. 476 air raids in berlin

Deutsches technik museum/ museum of transport:

1945 one country

1949 Germany splits Berlin airlift: DC-3 / C-47 (bigger propellers fewer engines used
by Americans in airlift) berlin divided 1945 when its split Germany is zoned into British
USA UK USSR. Berlin in in the USSR zone, BUT berlin itself was split so there was a
small pocket of western Germany in eastern Germany. There were also two different
currencies (1948) working as well the DM and the soviet currency so they blockaded
the transit routes that connected west berlin to west Germany this limited supplies,
they didnt want to starve them (west Berliners) they were hoping as the stores were
emptying they the west Berliners would need to go shopping in east berlin but they
would need the soviet currency to do so. So the western allies decided no way, well
airlift the goods in, (mostly coal electricity infrastructure 2
nd
was raisins believed
they were nutritious) it was very successful April 1949, the allies uk, usa, fr. then unify
create an independent sovereign country with cap. Econ. Dem. Govt. and create
western Germany the east then is separated and forms its own Eastern Germany
communist economy, government and society that is rather totalitarian called East
Germany (DDR / GDR).

Topographie des Terror

Berlin Wall: surrounded all of West Berlin 70miles long, what is it and why. Sunday 13
Aug. 1961 in response to
1949 2 Germanys created, ussr established communist society they immediately build a
wall on the east west border nearly impossible to escape over that border, west berlin
was a loophole though. They East Germans just needed to get into West Germany. 1/6
East Germans escaped from east to west generally young educated and ambitious. East
Germany is worried so they build a wall around all of West Berlin in East German
territory; it is an island of democracy and capitalism in a sea of communism
surrounding it. The 1
st
wall barbed wire & armed guards. Replaced my mortar and
brick. The wall itself is this and relatively short and then in the mid 70s it was replaced
again and had a smoothed round top placed on top. There was also extra protection, the
strip of land we would have immediately been shot and killed there were towers every
100 yards with order shoot to kill, then there was another wall that ran parallel it was
exactly the same the wall also had doors on it so the guards could quickly run and get
potential escapees who they would then incarcerate for a lengthy period of time. It was
very successful in stopping the population completion. The death strip is often called no
mans land that is incorrect it was east German land they chose to use it in this way
(death strip) in east Germany it was called anti fascist capitalist protection barrier.

1933 / 1880 state capital of berlin nearby school of decorative arts, nearby there was a
fancy hotel which Hitler confiscates and makes it the headquarters of the Gestapo with
the rights to arrest anyone and to spy and their own judicial system. Then Hitler places
the SS (halters bodyguards) in the former hotel 1923 in prison written mein kampf
carry on to operate post 1933 all the concentration camps and after 1942 to death
camps. They were very heavily damaged in WWII afterwards the city of west dig up
beneath this area in1987 and uncover the basement the prison and torture cells. They
have then created a memorial for the victims of the SS and the Gestapo and an
education center. Book Cristobel Bieleberg a past is myself, Brit living in berlin at the
time of the third Reich, describes her 9hr interrogation under the SS at this location.

Hitlers suicide: its May 1945 soviets are alone and they find a body that has been
badly charred, they use the teeth to identify the body as belonging to Hitler. That body
was found in a bunker, they then cremate it and in 1972 his ashes are placed in a tiny
little river just outside of berlin called the mauld. He had hoped to rule the world he
committed suicide by taking cyanide and shooting himself in the head, his colleagues
try to cremate but there was not enough fuel so they left him. Hitler had tried to create
a area called his chancellery running alongside it he had left space for a garden as
nature was very important to Hitler, this garden space has now become the space for
the Holocaust Memorial.

Brandenburger Tor: one of 17 gates within the walls of berlin 1790 fat Billy King of
Prussia ordered it be rebuilt and it must remind people of the entrance to the acropolis
in Athens. The center opening is larger than the others as it was reserved for the royal
family, dignitaries will always use that entranceway. Why is it so famous: its more than
just berlin its Europe, when its completed fat Billy gets a friend of his create a statue
which is of a horse (equestrian statues often identity points which create a sense of
community) napoleon then goes on to steal during his occupation of berlin in 1806. In
1815 the soldiers then go to Paris and get the statue back. Athens is the birthplace of
democracy; the gate was built as a symbol of democracy. One year earlier, in 1789 the
French revolution had broken out and fat Billy begins a bunch of social economic and
political reforms to make sure the revolution does no come to berlin he does this
through architecture. During the time of the berlin wall the Brandenburger tor is
trapped in amongst the death strip, this means its original function as a symbol of
democracy is taken away from it and becomes a symbol of authoritarian regimes usual
socialist or communist nations.

1945 sectoring of berlin
1949 2 Germanys
1961 berlin wall
1989 end of the berlin wall

It is a memorial of all the changes of over the past 200 years.


Holocaust Memorial opened 05.05.05: dedicated to the murdered Jews of Europe many
other discriminated groups are also getting memorials in other parts of berlin at the
moment. The memorial (by Peter Eisenmann he believes the holocaust is so horrific
and terror-ific that you can not show something like a burning body or a train, he says I
will create a memorial that is based upon a manipulation of space, through this
manipulation of space and how we experience it we will create a memory. Look at it,
vastness you can not see where it ends, the blocks are varying heights, the ground is
varying depths, you go deeper into the memorial the deeper you go the taller the blocks
become, at the very center you lose the horizon. The human body needs the horizon, it
is our reference to time and space, we literally lose our balance and our harmony, this
lack of harmony is magnified by the wobbliness of the paths, and this is intentional.
Some of the blocks are also on an incline, our body must cope with the space we are in,
we react physically to it, and it becomes in turn a memory that we wont forget, a
memory of the murdered Jews of Europe. The coloring is also grey to further add to the
solemnness. If you look over the memorial the lack of light the blocks become one as
soon as you come out people often look for others that is a common reaction. There is
no fence no shrubs, its very open, the memorial becomes part of the city its just there,
and you are confronted by this space and your own responses, you dont see words or
any explanations this is intentional, words direct our thoughts they tell us what to
think, without words we create our own associations and thoughts we create our own
memorial of our experience. The Reichstag dome that represents the new transparent
Germany can be seen over looking the holocaust memorial aware of their responsibility
to the past. The state representative building are also built on top of Hitlers proposed
chancellery area purposely built here to show todays federal Germany can not come to
a authoritarian or dictatorial regime again, berlin is built on many symbols.

Third Reich building big heavy windows checkpoint Charlie: the third Reich 1936
summer Olympics ministry of air force, lead by a very androgynous man called Gering
would occasionally turn up to work in a pink feather boa. It is where in 1949 where
East Germany approved and ratified their own constitution. It has now been
decommunised and denazified and it is now the ministry of finance/taxation.

Checkpoint Charlie 1945 Charlie harper, us soldier (sign) unresolved questions how
many people were killed on the death strip during the time of the berlin wall, there is a
brown column made of iron labeled Peter Fector 1944-1962 18yrs old 2
nd
person
murdered at the berlin wall, he runs across shot, collapses Aug. 1962 wall 1yr old 1pm
the building in west berlin were and are new paper offices, the journalists heard the
shots and there was nothing that they could do except record the slow and tragic death
which took 52mins to bleed to death. The guards then removed him, next day he was
interred in a cemetery in East Berlin, which was also well documented. Then the west
Berliners become very angry they respond with you know what he was nearly
murdered at checkpoint Charlie they should have helped him, they did not, so there
were strikes and protests by west Berliners in west berlin towards the western allies,
why were they not doing more, they were too complacent. The newspaper company
axel springer has their own private memorial to the berlin wall. We dont know how
many people were murdered trying to escape, most recent is 189, it depends on how
people interpret files, how the deaths were recorded, e.g. if they died in hospital, heart
attack, heart stopped but they were shot. Cremated 1945 they created 3 checkpoints an
alpha east West German border. Checkpoint B Bravo southwest. Checkpoint C Charlie,
its the intersection of two sectors USA/USSR becomes a symbol of the cold war which
is why Charlie becomes so famous. 1961 berlin wall goes up, east Germans ensure
Charlie remains open, that is why 4 days later Kennedy says we can not go to a heated
conflict on the matter of the berlin wall, there has been no closure on AB or C. in 1961 it
allows foreign civilians to move from the US USSR in the 1980 they allow tourism,
they must go by bus through Charlie, the east German police come aboard to check
passports, they get 25 west German marks, receive 25 east German marks and a visa, as
that happens other guards check the coach for people smuggling, they check bags glove
compartments, most importantly they must be out by midnight, remember all the old
cultural things are still in the east, if you are not out by midnight you get incarcerated
and this could be at a place like neueschoenhausen, and you may not be released for 4-
6 weeks. Lives in west once returned, your lives would not be the same; the East
Germans will believe you are spies etc.

Iconic building Jewish museum: dates 2001 houses worlds largest collection of judaica.
Artifacts that describe and communicate German Jewish heritage and culture.
Contemporary museum there will be no center position, a center window door
something that gives you balance, gives you symmetry, if you have symmetry you have
harmony and balance, it is a wonderful example of deconstruction in architecture:
space can be thought of as geographical or mathematically defines, but it doesnt tell us
what space is, is it finite does the universe end, deconstruction in architecture, we have
to have other experiences of space, we have to have space that doesnt have symmetry ,
we dont know if space is symmetrical we dont know if it has a center. If you go in you
will notice you will start to walk and suddenly there will be a space where you cant go
any further you will have to go around that blockade, which is very similar to the
Jewish experience in history, many people have argued that liebeskind may have
deconstructed the star of David, he doesnt argue this, he has said though when the
contest was declared to build this building, he got a map of berlin and he put
thumbtacks on it from important people of the Jewish community and from where they
were deported to extermination camps. Literally connected the dots, that created the
lines, the building itself is also a memorial/memory map to those murdered Jewish
community.

No symmetry, no central position, No harmony, no balance in this building the story
from medieval to contemporary, the building also has memory the blocks with trees
growing out of them are for those sent into exile during the 3
rd
Reich. The tower
building is the holocaust memorial. The windows look like they will slash through the
faade. Down the building it goes in out, day, night, good evil, light dark,

Conclusion: in berlin memorial is of the utmost importance. Lest we forget.

The German government buildings are all on an east west axis; the Reichstag is the
home of the German parliament. The buildings called the Reichstag, the parliament is
called the bundestag, tag is parliament. The soviet soldiers did not destroy the bridge
when they took Berlin single handedly in 1945. The soviet soldiers run across the
bridge hoist the flag on the Reichstag. 10m to midnight on the 21
st
April 1945. The
Swiss embassy painted a flag on top of their building during WWII. The glass is
symbolic of democracy and transparency in the new modern Germany.

The dome opened on 1999 Norman foster would only create the dome if it was
accessible to the people, he modeled the dome after the solar system, it is all symbolic
of democracy and transparency, he wanted to create an infinite space. As you go up the
ramps, it is almost like you are floating on air, it is like you are a planet in a building
from 1892.

Bell tower, 1987 donation from Mercedes Benz.

Pregnant Oyster building house of the culture of the world. This building is situated
on the grounds of the cold opera house in 1933 Hitler chosen chancellor, head of
parliament, (US speaker of the house). His party did not have a clear majority so he
called for new elections on 05.03.1933 one week before election a fire broke out in the
Reichstag. No body knows who set this fire, how, or even why, but then Hitler declared
an emergency situation, this would happen really anywhere, your parliamentary
building burns down, ooh whats happening, emergency! Being Chancellor albeit for
only 4 weeks Hitler received enormous emergency powers in his own hands, so he used
it, look it was the communists. Our major political opponents who set fire to the
Reichstag, this is just the beginning of a communist revolution so do not vote for them
in the upcoming March 5
th
elections. Despite his efforts 94 communist and socialist
politicians were re-elected into the parliament, so because he still had his emergency
powers he used them to arrest all these communist/socialist politicians and charge
them with treason owing to their allegiance to the soviet union all found guilty they
were removed and now Hitler has a Nazi party majority. On 23 march 19333 that Nazi
party majority party passes the enabling act it gives all the power of parliament to
Hitler, what does the parliament do? It writes laws, what can Hitler now do? Write his
own laws and to a certain extent, he does. That means again typical West Berlin they
will build a very modern building for denazification.

The German presidents lives in the Bellevue palace. Mr. Gaugh is from East Germany
after unification in 1990 became very well known for his research into human rights
violations in the former East Germany via the Stasi. The Gaugh office is where they kept
the files created by the East German offices.

The victory column, it is lined with gold plated canon muskets these were used in one
or all 3 the wars before the first German unifications which occurred in 1871, prior to
this Germany was divided into 39 small independent nations who commonality was the
German language. The unification was all due to Mr. Bismarck. 38 of 39 of these come
together to create the German empire the Prussian king goes to Versailles and is
proclaimed the German emperor Kaiser Wilhelm the first without Austria. How and
why does this happen? He went to war, 3 1 vs. Austria 1 against Denmark 1 vs. France,
(the famous Franco Prussian war) it is won by the Prussians and the French are force to
recognize this new central Europe power, to celebrate Bismarck builds the victory
column.