A Prussian Germany

It soon became obvious that we cannot reach any agreement for now, not least because of the need of further advice from home. Although not explicitly told, this was floating out into the air and was on everybody’s’ lips, so there was no point of going on with the monologues. The business day was soon over. It was time to discover the Prussian capital.

Remnants of past glories scattered all around the Tier Garten, testimonies of a late 19th Prussia striving to shape the present and embellish its provincial capital with buildings and monuments of a scale proper to its ambitions and vanity.

Large scale bronze statues representing mythological scenes of a Wagner-type gothic past are bordering a bland monumental column on a granite plinth (Siegessaule or Victory Column).

Designed to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish – Prussian war, by the time it was inaugurated Prussia had also defeated Austria and France in the so-called “unification wars”, giving the column a new purpose: an 8m high 35 tonnes in weight bronze sculpture of Victoria has been added on top of the column.

The column was originally erected to a smaller height and was located opposite the Reichstag building, in the Konigplatz (Platz der Republik), and subsequently moved by the Nazis as part of their preparation of the monumental plans to redesign Berlin into Welthauptstadt Germania.




Straße des 17. Juni, the 3 mile long avenue running through the Tiergarten was designed to be the great city axis of Welthauptstadt Germania, part of Hitlers’ vision for the future capital after the planned victory in WW II. This avenue would have served as a parade ground, and have been closed off to traffic. Vehicles would have instead been diverted into an underground highway running directly underneath the parade route; sections of this highway's tunnel structure were built, and still exist today.

A newly born large and powerful Germany, whose Reichstag allegedly dates back to the times of the Holy Roman Empire, needed a house of parliament to beat any other European parliaments in size and grandeur.

The iconic words "DEM DEUTSCHEN VOLKE" ("For the German people") were carved above the main facade of the building in 1916, much to the displeasure of the Kaiser who had tried to block the adding of the inscription due to its democratic significance.
Burnt down in a Nazi 1933, the Reichstag followed the faith of entire downtown Berlin and became a virtual ruin after WWII. Moreover, due to the provisions set forth for Berlin by the Allies, the Bundestag (German parliament) was not allowed to assemble formally in Berlin (even though DDR was in violation of this provision since it had declared East Berlin its capital city anyway). After unification, the building has been reopened in 1999 to house the German MPs again.

Although tired after a full day of useless discussions and endless negotiations, I was feeling a better mood started to develop as soon as I went out of the conference.

And since the end of January means the last sales….the answer on “what to do” was simple….needless to say that for these activities Berlin offers a widest selection money can buy. The large shops, malls and grands magazins and around Tauentzienstrasse and Wittenberplatz were so many and so large, that an outsider finds himself lost within the first hour.

Endless displays of couture clothing, shoes and fashion accessories, sports, electronics, perfumes, home design, etc…..then restaurants and cafes….everybody was happily carrying at least a shopping bag, some were struggling with many many more.
Time passes quickly when 50-70% sales, so after a few hours in KaDeWe and a couple of hundred euros less, I was beginning to feel tired, hungry and annoyed.

During a short coffee break to stretch legs and watching the happy shoppers’ crowds, i remembered a recent BBC study, that although people today have the world at their feet because of cheap flights, have more money to spend and more time for holidays, they are not happier than 50 years ago, when they used to have less money and space for themselves, but they used to spend much more time with their large families or with their friends at the buffet around the corner.

Since then, we have been caught into the matrix: try to complement our solitude with objects and nowadays we’re selling our years for huge mortgages in the desire to make the space (and hence solitude) around us even larger.

Second time in Berlin (?!)

Another week on the road, this time on business trip to Berlin. Although this may be called my second visit here, I’m not sure whether the first one can be counted as such. It happened in March 1997, few hours between trains in early March 1997, which I spent around the Berlin Zoo area with little remembrance other than how I was trying to keep warm.

This time, as the conflicting interests would anticipate long and hard bearing conference days, I managed to substitute working days at home…. with flying days. On the other hand, this also meant that I had some time to splurge.
Immediately after hotel check in and with no idea in which part of Berlin I was, except for the fact that “you’re in the city centre”, I started to walk around with no precise purpose. Large boulevards bordered with steel and glass office buildings, glitzy restaurants and cafes, formally dressed people rushed in all directions. They were looking at me as if I were an obstacle to be avoided, rather than another human being. I guess I should’ve found it normal, since I live in Bucharest, a city whose inhabitants give you the same look in the streets.

From the business area around Ernst Reuter platz I arrived in the students’ area around T.U. Berlin, more relaxed and pleasant, and further on towards the Zoo and the Kaiser Wilhelm platz. I still cannot imagine why a colleague from work said the day before “Berlin is my favourite city, it doesn’t compare with anything you’ve seen until now”. Maybe it was me in a bad mood, for which nothing seemed particularly interesting, not even as per the standards of a western globalised city. And so I interpreted the cold rain which started to poor immediately after dusk as a heavens sign I should return to my cocoon. Hence, I voted for a smooth end of the day with a massage by the pool.

winter in park

sunset over a nice holiday

...in Colombo, a capital under siege

Elephant Orphanage at Pinnewalla