Monday 16th October 2017 - a 'Greet' for the ages.

We had arranged a Greeter for our visit to Berlin and were assigned Michael Drutschmann who arrived at our apartment very promptly, in fact ten minutes early.

To say that our day with Michael was memorable would be the height of understatement. This was an amazing day and we saw and learnt so much about parts of Berlin we would never have otherwise seen that I cannot document it all here.

After a brief introduction we took the subway to the station close to the enormous department store called KaDeWe which is an acronym for Das Kaufhaus des Westens. This is a gigantic store, one of, if the not the largest in Europe. We did not go there to shop but decided to review one department, the food department on the 6th floor. This certainly makes food stores we have seen before. The arrays of foods are just breathtaking and the area seems to go on for miles!!

The rest of the store is huge on every floor and the displays of clothes and other goods are spectacular. It is worthwhile adding this extract from the KaDeWe website:

"What started out as an adventurous idea by the Berlin merchant Adolf Jandorf, surpassed all expectations when the KaDeWe was opened on the 27th of March 1907: The Kaufhaus des Westens, KaDeWe in short, presented customers with an array of desirable goods from around the world at the traffic junction Wittenbergplatz – including a multitude of products that was rare or entirely unknown to the German customers. The fashion assortment presented creations from the latest Paris fashion shows, and exotic south sea fruits could be admired in the food department. Moreover, the warehouse offered exclusive services, for example a library and almost two dozen elevators. Enthusiasts of architecture were impressed with the opulent window frontage, light-flooded halls and wood-panelled walls in the restrooms. 

The Tauentzien quickly evolved into one of the busiest boulevards in the city.
The Hertie-Group,which took over the KaDeWe in the 1920s was disowned in 1933 by the NS regime. 
During WW2 a US American airplane crashed into the roof and caused a major fire. The reconstruction took almost a year and a half. In 1956 the reconstruction of all even floors was completed.

In the 1960s the KaDeWe lost a majority of it’s employees and loyal customers after the Berlin Wall was built. Over time it returned to its former glory nonetheless. The sales area was expanded to 44.000 square meters during the reconstruction by 1978, and established the KaDeWe as one of the most prominent sites of Berlin. After the fall of the wall in November 1989 over 200.000 guests a day visited the department store regularly – the highest number of visitors in history.
Today, the KaDeWe is an international department store which offers international designer goods and exclusive brands on more than 60.000 square meters. Products and services represent the idea to turn a shopping day into an experience.

From 10 am when the original iron gate built in 1907 is sunk into the ground, the store welcomes over 50.000 customers daily. In the Christmas season the number can go up to 100.000. Since 2016 the interior is being reconstructed under the management of architect Rem Kohlhaas and his office OMA in a multi-year project. In the process it will be separated into four different quadrants, which will be furnished by renowned designers. Once again the KaDeWe meets the current demands to continue to satisfy it’s customers requirements and to stay as versatile as the city of Berlin."

MAC and Michael on the escalator in KaDeWa

The magnificent department store KaDeWa and the incredible food hall.

After our brief visit to KaDeWe, we walked down the Tauentzien past many high end stores and elegant building facades. We arrived at site of the ruined Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church which has some wonderful mosaics depicting various events in the Kaiser and his family's life. Adjacent to the old ruined church is a new church with some amazing stained glass. Noting that there will be a concert there the next evening we bought tickets.

A memorial to some of the terrorist attacks in Europe including one in Berlin

The Kaiser Wilhelm memorial Church, ruined but still with magnificent murals depicting episodes in the life of the Kaiser and his family

Inside the new church

The new church 'steeple'

The new church with its multiplicity of stained glass windows

Walking on towards the area of Charlottenburg a most elegant and beautiful area with older buildings admirably restored and maintained and interspersed with new buildings which fit into the city-scape perfectly. This is a charming area where there are restaurants and cafes and smart stores. the wide sidewalks make walking easy and comfortable.

A former theater which is now a store. The theater once featured a young Josephine Baker

The 'Literature Institute and its lovely garden and cafe.

Some of the elegant buildings in Charlottenburg

Venturing down side streets reveals all sorts of lovely buildings including the 'Literature Institute' which has a small cafe in the garden out of sight of the street.

Moving on we came to the Savigny Platz where there was a selection of restaurant and we decided to stop for lunch. The choice was between Viet-Nam, Spain, Italy and Germany. Although Michael thought that it was a 'tourist trap' we chose the German restaurant Dicke Wirtin. Here I had the Berlin meatballs in a white sauce and MAC had fried herring. I suppose 'when in Berlin.......' We can, after all eat food from other countries any time.

Dicke Wirtin, a tourist trap but serving quite good German food. The Katz's Deli of Berlin?

After lunch we took the subway again to the east part. Michael told us about the issues which the 'Wall' created with the subway and of the 'ghost' stations where the trains could not stop and of the wall actually in one of the stations which you had to pass through to get from one line to another.

Many of the stations are with original features, mosaics, photos, etc.

We disembarked the train at the Oranienburger Turin an area which had quite a different 'vibe' from the area we had left. There were many buildings with beautiful courtyards some covered with red and green ivy. Each one had its own character, some of the buildings contained offices and some contained residences. Some were better preserved than others. In one of the less pristine courtyards was a museum (Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt), dedicated to Otto Weidt who was nearly blind and during World War ll, employed about 30 blind and deaf Jews in his brush-making factory at Rosenthaler Strasse. 39, in this quarter of Berlin. Otto performed some remarkable rescues of Jews and I will write more about this in another post.

The alleyway in which the Otto Weidt museum is located.

The museum located in the brush workshop for the blind operated by Otto Weidt

Otto Weidt

The incredible story of one of the Jews rescued by Otto Weidt

The room, hidden behind an armoire, where the Jewish workers hid during inspections by the Gestapo

A photo of the workers and Otto Weidt who is seated thrid from right in the row above those seated on the floor.

The restored synagogue

The Sophiekirche where Martin Luther King spoke.

The marks on the wall of this building are from bullets from World War ll, a reminder of where we are.

We toured the area which was full of Jewish historical places including the old Jewish hospital which had been used by the Gestapo and the Jewish cemetery which had also been the site of the place where Jews who had been rounded up were loaded onto transport for the concentration camps.

A statue memorializing the Jews transported to the concentration camps

The old Jewish Cemetery

These brick marks on the ground show the place where the rooms existed which were used by the Gestapo to house those waiting for transportation to the camps.

We ended our tour at the Gypsy Bar and Von Clarachens Ballhaus, a strange bar where there is dancing on weekends and where the movie 'The Repo Men' was filmed although it was used in place of a Paris location for that film. Here I sampled Berliner Weisse 

The Gypsy Bar

Michael and his weisse beer

(German: Berliner Weiße) which is a cloudy, sour beer of around 3% alcohol by volume. It is a regional variation on the white beer style from Northern Germany, dating back to at least the 16th century. It can be made from combinations of malted barley and wheat, with the stipulation that the malts are kilned at very low temperatures to minimize color formation. The fermentation takes place with a mixture of yeast and lactic acid bacteria, a prerequisite that creates the lactic acid taste, a distinguishing feature of Berlin Weissbier.

By the late 19th century, Berliner Weisse was the most popular alcoholic drink in Berlin, with up to fifty breweries producing it. By the late 20th century, there were only two breweries left in Berlin producing the beer. The style has been given Protected Geographical Indication within the EU, where it may only be applied to beers brewed in Berlin. Although, there are many of American and Canadian brewers who make a beer of similar style and give their product the Berliner Weisse label. Berliner Weisse is often served in a bowl-shaped glass with flavoured syrups, such as raspberry (Himbeersirup), or artificial woodruff flavouring (Waldmeistersirup). The beer may also be mixed with other drinks, such as pale lager, in order to balance the sourness.

I sampled the version flavored with woodruff

"Galium odoratum, the sweetscented bedstraw, is a flowering perennial plant in the family Rubiaceae, native to much of Europe

A herbaceous plant, it grows to 30–50 cm (12–20 in) long, often lying flat on the ground or supported by other plants. Its vernacular names include woodruff, sweet woodruff, and wild baby's breath; master of the woods would be a literal translation of the German Waldmeister." 

The syrup gave the beer a sweet taste. 

After a short stroll through the area, we took the subway back to our AirBnB.
Dinner was at Lutter & Wegner another old-style German restuaramt in the Gendarmenmarkt area.

Tired but very satisfied with the day we walked home and went to bed.