This last week has been a blur. Maybe it's the fact that the sun sets here at about 4:15 every day, but it always seems like I barely have time to walk out the door before it gets dark. It might also be the fact that I've only seen the sun once. But I've done a lot--almost every day I've been somewhere different.
This watch tower, located near the shopping center of Potsdamerplatz, used to overlook the so-called Death Strip that preceded the Berlin Wall (on the East Side). The Death Strip was the lethal obstacle one had to cross before attempting to scale the wall. This tower would have housed two guards at a time, both armed with Kalashnikov machine guns. Since surveillance and mistrust is such a part of modern-day life, I was drawn to this building and the history surrounding it. When I got there, the tower (which serves as a very small museum) was closed. There was a bike tour group there for five minutes or so, and I listened to them as I started to sketch. After a while, one of the people who operate the tower came over and opened up. Eventually he came over and wondered what I was doing. We ended up talking a fair bit about the history of the place, with him showing me pictures of the tower in the mid-70s. In the end, he invited me to climb the tower for free! I had to climb two iron ladders, which were freezing cold. I got some postcards from the tower as well. In the end, he took a picture of myself sketching the tower for their website and invited me to get kebabs with him. After we got dinner, he took he to a hardware store to buy stainless steel screws to replace on the tower. Apparently, he and a friend basically petitioned the city of Berlin to preserve the tower as long as it was kept in proper condition by the two history enthusiasts. I met the founder of this project as well, and we went together to his apartment, which was incredible. It was full of original and rare artifacts from the GDR period. Signs announcing leaving the "French Sector," American Sector," and "Russian Centre," decorated uniforms of GDR border guards and soldiers, a massive fibre-glass coat of arms, and an incredible collection of original photographs taken by a photo-correspondent who had worked for the French, British and American military. It was absolutely amazing--a total privelage to actually see the originals of this stuff. Only problem, I had decided earlier that day not to bring my camera with me, so that I could focus purely on sketching. I had no idea that I was gonna see that stuff. Oh well. :) If anyone is interested, the website for the GDR guard tower can be found here: http://berlinwallexpo.de/en/
And here's the drawing that resulted from my sketches:
And here's the drawing that resulted from my sketches:
I also visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum, with its famous sculptural installation piece by Peter Eisenmann, controversially titled the "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe" (controversial in the fact that, obviously, though Jews were one of the highest victim demographics under Nazi tyranny, there were many more targeted groups. There is actually a memorial to gay victims and a memorial to Roma/Sinti victims near the Reichstag. There is something odd and slightly unsettling about the fact that, even in the wake of the Holocaust, its victims are sorted and segregated into categories. What about the memorial to gay Sinti people who converted to Judaism and were also socio-communist, anti-fascist activists? Anyway, on my way to the memorial, I was shocked to actually find a neo-Nazi sticker slap-tagged on a nearby lamp post. It was a Waffen-SS Totenkopf (death's head). This sticker probably wouldn't have stayed up for long, because (and I Googled this to make sure) the Waffen-SS Totenkopf falls under section 86a of Germany's criminal code which prohibits public display of certain symbols associated with terrorist or otherwise hateful organizations. Basically, Nazi stuff, ISIS stuff, KKK stuff, etc. I ended up ripping the sticker down, but I also ended up keeping it as a sort of reminder that this kind of hatred didn't die with the Nazis, as depressing as that is to admit.
The memorial and museum itself was quite amazing. I'd been there before on my previous trips to Germany, but that was before I'd read all these books on the subject of the Third Reich and had full context. Not only that, but I had the opportunity to make up for the lost photos from my last Europe trips with the sculptural half of the museum. This part of the museum is above ground, while the actual informational exhibits were underground. I found the atmosphere of the sculpture ruined by other tourists, unfortunately. There were at least two big tour groups when I got there. Some of them were playing Marco-Polo inbetween the stones, some were clambering all over them and jumping from place to place. They were laughing and carrying on. I'm quickly learning that the worst thing about visiting places like this is the other tourists. Anyway, I still took a bunch of pictures of the area.
The memorial and museum itself was quite amazing. I'd been there before on my previous trips to Germany, but that was before I'd read all these books on the subject of the Third Reich and had full context. Not only that, but I had the opportunity to make up for the lost photos from my last Europe trips with the sculptural half of the museum. This part of the museum is above ground, while the actual informational exhibits were underground. I found the atmosphere of the sculpture ruined by other tourists, unfortunately. There were at least two big tour groups when I got there. Some of them were playing Marco-Polo inbetween the stones, some were clambering all over them and jumping from place to place. They were laughing and carrying on. I'm quickly learning that the worst thing about visiting places like this is the other tourists. Anyway, I still took a bunch of pictures of the area.
The underground museum was much better. There were still lots of people, but it was harder to be an asshole when you were surrounded by pictures of dead and dying children. With all the plaques, audio exhibitions, and other installations, I feel like I didn't even make a dent in getting through the place. I probably spent too much time in a room where names of individuals are projected in the room while a voice reads a brief biography of the individual, always culminating in their death. There's a room displaying re-prints of letters sent to loved ones just before an individual died, and their letters often show their frank understanding of what was about to happen to them. Some of the letter-writers are children writing to their parents about how they're afraid of being thrown "into the pit," etc. Some pretty depressing stuff in there. Glad it's a free museum, though--it allows this sorta information to be instantly accessible to the public, which I think is the way that most countries should approach their past and present ordeals (as opposed to the whitewashing of history that's applied to, say, the struggle for aboriginal recognition in Canada and the United States).
I also went to the area of Hohenschonhausen two days in a row. The area was located in the GDR or East Germany, so it's dominated by that sort of architecture--drab, depressing, monotonous. The above picture actually has its saturation cranked up 100%--it literally looked like a black and white photo otherwise. The buildings are all these cement block monsters. Some of them were repainted in bright colours after the Wall fell, but that doesn't help the area seem incredibly creepy. The area also surrounded what used to be an out-of-bounds facility, where Stasi guards lived in a sort of buffer zone that kept the locals from knowing about what is now the main attraction of the area--the Stasi reform prison. The English tours are cheap, and being that prisons like these were the iconic instrument of oppression used by the SED (East Germany's only political party, which was responsible for all the surveillance, unjust imprisonment, and cruelty), they really had me interested.
The first day I went to this area, I got lost. I had to get to the museum by 2:30 to make the last English tour of the day, and I missed that mark considerably. On top of the fact that I spent too long at the East-Side Gallery area, and the fact that one of my train lines was running late, the Lichtenburg train station that I got off at was so confusing to navigate that I ended up exiting the station in the wrong direction, adding almost 20 minutes to the walk without knowing it. I took a tram the rest of the way and then started ambling around looking for the former prison. On the way, I passed abandoned buildings with smashed windows and covered in graffiti, tons of GDR buildings, and almost no people. It also started raining, significantly adding to how creepy it was. Certainly an art-inspiring mood, but I was so cold that I didn't take many pictures.
The first day I went to this area, I got lost. I had to get to the museum by 2:30 to make the last English tour of the day, and I missed that mark considerably. On top of the fact that I spent too long at the East-Side Gallery area, and the fact that one of my train lines was running late, the Lichtenburg train station that I got off at was so confusing to navigate that I ended up exiting the station in the wrong direction, adding almost 20 minutes to the walk without knowing it. I took a tram the rest of the way and then started ambling around looking for the former prison. On the way, I passed abandoned buildings with smashed windows and covered in graffiti, tons of GDR buildings, and almost no people. It also started raining, significantly adding to how creepy it was. Certainly an art-inspiring mood, but I was so cold that I didn't take many pictures.
Every time I came across these buildings (like the big grey one in the background above), I thought "okay, this must be the prison." This happened at least three times. Basically, every building looked like it could have been some former prison or concentration camp or torture facility or something. I later learned that the buildings pictured above used to be part of the prison complex, occupied by wardens, guards, and administration. The prisoners never would have seen this building as long as they were kept locked up. Well, the next day I went out again and actually made the tour in time. Weirdly enough, the tour started with the group being crammed into a little projection room and sat down to watch a half-hour informational video on the prison's history. I thought that's what the tour guides were for? It felt as if they wanted us to buy a time-share there or something. The tour itself was pretty cool, but I was really dissapointed by the fact that visitors are not allowed to go anywhere in the museum without being on a tour, for security and insurance reasons. Definitely a lot less trust there than at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where I could roam around unchecked for hours after the sun had gone down without being bothered. I mentioned that I would have liked to sketch on my own, and my tour guide said I should contact their press association so I could move around the prison unhindered and work. I have since contacted them, and now I'm waiting for the reply. Even if I get declined, the surrounding area is probably good enough for artsy stuff. Other than that, the tour was pretty cool. We saw the way in which prison interrogators and wardens resorted to psychological (rather than physical) breakdown of prisoners. I was already well aware of almost all of these techniques, from the cold cell/hot cell thing, to location/information obfuscation (making it impossible to determine where the prisoner was, or telling them that family members had been either arrested or had died), to so-called U-boat cells, to the way chairs and tables are placed in interrogation rooms. Still, seeing the place for real was quite the experience. The padded black rooms were especially creepy. We were only allowed to peek our heads into those briefly, and I could see why--the pads in the room were easy to leave impressions on. It would be easy to tag them with scratched graffiti. I managed to crane my head around and look for nail marks of people who may have clawed at the cell, and sure enough, they were everywhere.
On the left, a hallway with the padded black cells, in which things would be pitch-black and sound-proofed. On the right is a door leading into the regular cells, with a drawer for food to go in and a peephole for guards.
Admittedly, I still feel like I'm struggling to produce artwork at a steady pace. Knowing that the city of Berlin is all over me is enough of a distraction that I'll realize at the end of each day that, though I've spent plenty of time wandering and going to museums, I barely have time to really crack down on the actual art.
I've gotten good starts on five larger drawings. Two of them were just super simplistic exercises. I did a diptych of sorts using the so-called "Ampelmenschen" that are famous in Berlin. They're a subtle carry-over from East Berlin, from when the wall was still in place. Due to popular demand, they survived the "Western" post-GDR assimilation and are still all over the place in Berlin. They certainly didn't survive the communist element, though--the Ampelmenschen motif is all over merchandise here, and just about every gift shop I've seen is crammed with Ampelmenschen stuff. Actually, there's a chain of stores that specifically sells that sorta merch.
These historical remains, both minor and major, are the things that are really drawing me to Berlin/Germany artistically. The day after I visited Sachsenhausen concentration camp, I made my way to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. I spent a few hours in that busy area sketching the church which was left standing in its post-war state, with its windows blown out, roof caved in and spires broken away. This was my first day in Germany where the sun actually broke through, which meant it was much easier to work outside. Any time I got cold I could just go into the huge mall just across the street from the memorial church.
Up until then I'd been feeling like I hadn't been doing nearly as much art as I should have been doing. I still often get waves of feeling like I'm not doing well enough or only making so-so art, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of this as my trip here goes on.
Up until then I'd been feeling like I hadn't been doing nearly as much art as I should have been doing. I still often get waves of feeling like I'm not doing well enough or only making so-so art, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of this as my trip here goes on.
The above will serve as a sort of diptych with the guard tower, showing the consequences of militarized borders, surveillance, suspicion, and nationalism that often follows in the wake of destruction (especially destruction caused by someone who happens to be foreign). I read on the German news that a West German town banned immigrants from certain countries from going to a public swimming pool because of complaints of sexual harassment from people of their nationality. There was also a huge outburst of sexual assaults in Cologne on New Year's Eve, resulting in well over 300 complaints of such assaults. Within a week, right-wing nationalists marched against any and all foreigners, getting into a scuffle with cops. Looking at the history of the museums I've been going to, this certainly isn't the first time in history this stuff has happened.
I'm definitely going to do something with the bombed-out remains above, which used to be part of the major Anhalter Bahnhof (train station) before being destroyed in the war.
I went to Checkpoint Charlie as well, thinking that it would seem like more than a tourist trap now that I had learned a lot about the history there. Nope. Not even worth posting pictures of the area. Its still a boring tourist trap with a reconstruction of the security checkpoint, featuring actors dressed as US checkpoint guards who you can take pictures with. Also an installation sign with a huge photo of an American soldier looking Eastward and a Russian soldier looking Westward, as would have been the case in the cold war days. And of course, the big sign reading ˇˇYou are now leaving the American Sector!ˇˇ I've now seen the real signs for this, so there's no need to get excited over fake ones. :)
Other than that, I've mostly just been picking favourite buildings of interest for my project. The former Luftwaffe HQ/SED administration building, where riots and protests were carried out and quashed in 1953, is a strong point of interest and I've done several sketches already. Other buildings with similar history interest me in the same way. Structures from the time of the Nazis and East German government, as well as buildings destroyed, damaged or abandoned during these times are also interesting. I think I'll soon be going underground for some bunker tours with guides. I'll try and do more actual drawn artwork, but with all this stuff to see and do, it's hard to keep focused. At least I'm able to take some photos along the way.
Here's some photos from my urban exploring to leave off on:
I went to Checkpoint Charlie as well, thinking that it would seem like more than a tourist trap now that I had learned a lot about the history there. Nope. Not even worth posting pictures of the area. Its still a boring tourist trap with a reconstruction of the security checkpoint, featuring actors dressed as US checkpoint guards who you can take pictures with. Also an installation sign with a huge photo of an American soldier looking Eastward and a Russian soldier looking Westward, as would have been the case in the cold war days. And of course, the big sign reading ˇˇYou are now leaving the American Sector!ˇˇ I've now seen the real signs for this, so there's no need to get excited over fake ones. :)
Other than that, I've mostly just been picking favourite buildings of interest for my project. The former Luftwaffe HQ/SED administration building, where riots and protests were carried out and quashed in 1953, is a strong point of interest and I've done several sketches already. Other buildings with similar history interest me in the same way. Structures from the time of the Nazis and East German government, as well as buildings destroyed, damaged or abandoned during these times are also interesting. I think I'll soon be going underground for some bunker tours with guides. I'll try and do more actual drawn artwork, but with all this stuff to see and do, it's hard to keep focused. At least I'm able to take some photos along the way.
Here's some photos from my urban exploring to leave off on: