I had only taken 2 tours prior to the tour I took in Berlin. I am largely opposed to the idea, and hate being part of the massive crowds that flock from one exhibit and historical site to the next like locusts descending on crops. Thankfully, the day I chose to take this tour it was rainy and miserable, and it kept the pseudo-enthusiasts at home apparently, as my tour had only 5 people, and the tour guide said that of all the tours he'd done in the previous 7 months, this was the smallest group. Luck was on my side.
The tour in Berlin I took was titled the Third Reich Tour - dealing purely with Nazi Germany's rise from the rubble of WWI until their demise during and following WWII and touched on a few small notes about the Cold War as well. It was an early Christmas present for me, as I love learning about these things. We visited, among other places, the old SS Headquarters - the SS
were Hitler's secret police who had almost no supervision and were allowed to accomplish tasks by any means necessary; Hitler's bunker - where he spent his last days and hours; the old Wehrmacht Headquarters - the head of all of Nazi military operations; the Reichstag - the ex-German parliamentary building which was burned down in 1933 as the beginning of the Nazi era took hold, this fire played a crucial role in Hitler assuming full power in a "legal" way, it has been since fully rebuilt and I was able to visit the top of the building and get a panoramic view of Berlin at night which was incredible; and also Brandenberg Gate - where the Nazi's used to march through and numerous processions took place here during the Nazi era.
The Berlin Wall was another stop I made while in Berlin, and it was far less imposing than what I expected it to be, although reading about it's history, and hearing information about it from the tour guide was really moving. More information I learned about it, was that not everyone was really happy when the wall came down. Furthermore, many of the East-Berliners were quite happy with their communist state and had a lot of trouble adjusting to the democratic system set up afterwards. As a result there are still plenty of homeless in Berlin and many of the older generation had trouble getting work after the wall came down.
Also pictured here, is the 1936 Berlin Olympic Stadium which I visited without really any intention on my final day in the city. It was on the same metro line I was taking, so I decided to take a trip out of town and visit it. It was quite impressive. The small building you might be able to see in the distance through the opening on the far side of the stadium used to be the Fuhrer's seat (Hitler's seat).So far, of all the history I've read about and encountered on this 10+ week excursion of mine, my time in Berlin has been the most interesting; even more so than my time in Greece and learning about my ancient heritage, which if you had said that would be the case a few months ago, I would likely have laughed it off as a farse.
A good way to tell how much I'm enjoying a city also, is by how infrequent the blog updates come. So, for example, I am writing and finishing my Berlin updates while in Amsterdam, because I was too busy in Berlin. And finally, I will note, this last picture is for my Mom, since I rave so much about my Greek heritage, I didn't want to leave out the fact that I do have French and Latvian heritage as well.