On the steps of Rathaus Schöneberg which was used as the City Hall for the West Berlin government is where the US President John F. Kennedy held his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in June 1963. In this defiant stance aimed at the Soviet Union who had 22 months earlier erected a wall around West Berlin he said “Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was civis Romanus sum [I am a Roman citizen]. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’… All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner”.
Now there is a myth and this really is a myth after conferring with some of the grand masters of German grammar that JFK that Ich bin ein Berliner actually translates to I am a jelly-filled doughnut. Yes it is true that that people everywhere else in Germany called jelly filled doughnuts Berliners but in Berlin they are called Pfannkuchen, not that makes a difference, it’s still a myth. The square in front of the Rathaus changed its name to John F. Kennedy Platz after the great man 3 days after he was assassinated in Dallas Texas, and there is a large plaque by the entrance of the building commemorating his visit (see pic).
The Rathaus bell tower contains the liberty bell which was a gift from the American people to Berlin in 1950 and was supposed to be a symbol of the fight for freedom and against communism in Europe. The communists were none to impressed with this nice piece of propaganda and organized a demonstration and denounced it as the war/hunger/death bell, take your pick. Inscribed on the bell is “That this world under God shall have a new birth of freedom”.
On the 10th and 11th September 2010 the former airport at Tempelhof, right in the heart of Berlin, will be host to a 2-day music festival with ever-so-simple title: Berlin Festival. Not only is the location pretty cool, but there are some great bands and performers taking to the stage over the two days, including Hot Chip, the Editors, Fatboy Slim, Gonzales, Atari Teenage Riot and, for those of you who were not only alive in 1989 but can remember it, the Wedding Present will be on stage to perform their “Bizarro” album.
The Weißensee cemetery is the second largest Jewish cemetery in Europe and contains approximately 115.000 graves. It miraculously survived the Second War World and the Nazis relatively unscathed, and was only actually partially damaged during an allied air raid. During the next 44 years the place was pretty much neglected as basically the entire Jewish communiity had been murdered or exiled, and also for the fact that it was encouraged in the communist East Germany that only Marx and Engels would be worshipped.
On my way home, taking some loops, sometimes travelling sideways, and just enjoying for the last time the serenity of deserted landscapes before heading back to busy Europe. I spent the last two days in the Namib desert, a radical and existential natural environment of golden-orange masses of sands, sometimes towering up into majestic dunes. There are no sounds. It is dry and hot.
It all started off on Wednesday afternoon as Andrew and Jared set off for Pankow. The mission was a pub crawl through Pankow. There are many pub crawls in Berlin, but a Pub Crawl through suburban Pankow must be something that not too many people have ventured out to.
