Berlin: Week 1

Leaving Humboldt on our first meeting in our classroom, the beautiful weather made the decision to take an educational walk back to the apartments an easy decision for my room mates and I. By chance, I stumbled upon an adequite map before leaving the university and plotted a course that took us past many of the Mitte's main attractions. A pleasant walk "Unter den Linden" lead us to the famous Berliner Dom and Altes Museum, both buildings I had studied in prior architecture history courses. The top image, capturing the Berliner Dom dating back to the 15th century, followed by the TV tower, a symbol of Berlin under the GDR, and the information center for the renovation of the old Prussian palace is typical of the way the city of Berlin can, in itself, be a historical text. It shows it's resilience and evolution through monarchies, fascism, communism, and a renewed value of it's history.

On saturday, I was invited to experience a staple of German/European entertainment culture. My sister's boyfriend (a childhood product of the GDR, now living in west Berlin) welcomed me to town by taking me to a Bundesliga football match between Berlin's Hertha BSC and FC Köln. The match was played in the historic Olympiastadion (shown behind me in the second photo). The stadium, like Berlin, has an extensive and conveluted history with dark roots, yet it still stands as a treasured piece of Berlin and Germany. It was the site of the 1936 Summer Olympics, an event officially opened by Adolf Hitler, and one that made his goal of racial homogeny more clear than ever before. Only members of the "Aryan" race were allowed to compete for Germany. Preparations for the games also included the rounding up of "Romani" in Berlin into internment camps. The architecture is a perfect example of the daunting, minimalist stone buildings that became so common under the Third Reich. World War II Battles were fought here, though the building itself escaped almost untouched. During the Allied occupation, the stadium was the site of 1974 FIFA World Cup matches, which host nation West Germany won, beating out East Germany, among others.

More recently, though, the beautiful stadium hosted matches for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. This signifies it is clearly regarded as still one of premiere football venues in Germany, as it beat out Munich's brand new stadium to host the final of the 2006 tournament. The famous European football supporter culture is clearly evident on trains heading to the stadium, where nearly everyone is decked out in Hertha blue and white, while chanting and singing, as well as taunting the brave souls sporting the crest of FC Köln. The streets and stations were lined with riot police, and the stadium was not serving alcohol, as saturday's was deemed a "risk match". Surprisingly, though, the actual danger of hooliganism and violence seems slim, as I witnessed many drunk, scary looking supporters of one side, simply teasing and laughing with the opposition. There was, however, a great show of support during the game (one that made me even more sad than I was to not be attending Sounders home MLS match for the first time ever this upcoming week). The supporters are seen pogoing and chanting as a group in the below video.