Berlin wall with art

Berlin Cold War bike ride

Cold War Berlin experienced from a bicycle and my memories of E Germany from 1990.  

On my last visit to Berlin (July 2014) I realised that biking the length of The Wall would be interesting. I then had a reality check when I realised it was 156 km long, so I booked myself on a Fat Tire Cold War Berlin ride after my holiday in Mecklenburg.

The sun was already shining when I got up. I had excellent breakfast of muesli and coffee al fresco in the haedke Markt. Fat Tire bike tours is located in Alexanderplatz at the base of the Berlin TV tower. I was on the Cold War bike tour lead by a young American, Kevin, who had lived in Berlin for 8 years and has friends whom he has quizzed for his talks. He took us on an excellent tour of DDR architecture, E. Berlin and The Wall, giving us anecdotes to illustrate his theme. He was very interested in the ideology and propaganda pushed out by both sides during the Cold War and comparing it with politics now and people’s feelings about the DDR. We started at the Department of Education with a Soviet realist mural illustrating aspects of E German education, I was pleased to see a girl looking down a microscope and a woman in a lab coat which counterbalanced the fertile Soviet woman producing children for the state. We saw a night club used to entertain foreign visitors with a mural depicting the activities of Communist countries around the globe and Soviet reindeers being the largest part. Sputnik twinkled in the sky.


The old guard towers are present and the guards in there were rotated every shift to prevent them plotting escapes. The decorated section of the wall where about 30 artists have done works is impressive and I could have spent a couple of hours there enjoying the art, but there was also graffiti defacing it despite notices prohibiting it. We walked around the huge Soviet memorial in South East Berlin, the main part of this memorial comprises two huge marble triangular shapes, depicting dipped flags, with statues of a young soldier and an old soldier. There were also stone slabs depicting the foundation of East Germany, these were rather horrific with depictions of war in soviet realist style, one with dead man and a woman tied up, in another there were endless soldiers heads. We lunched in a Turkish cafe in Kreuzberg, then biked on the route of the wall. We stopped at the vast new Axel Springer media headquarters which had previously pumped out propaganda to the E Germans. I was touched by seeing the memorial to the attempted escape of teenager Peter Fechter who was shot by guards and then bled to death in Aug 1962 in full views of journalists but nobody was able to rescue him, partly because the E German guards had tried to rescue a man a few days earlier who had then shot them, so after that all rescues were off. Actors as American soldiers now perform at Checkpoint Charlie, this is a strange transformation from something that felt frightening 25 years ago and now has a Disney like feel to it. I saw a line of Trabants being driven along on a “Trabants Safari” as a DDR experience. Twenty five years ago we had overtaken these cars on our bicycles. I had forgotten how small those cars were. In front of the new Berlin City government building and Kevin gave us his version of events in November 1989. The trip was a fascinating ride around the different architecture of Berlin and he used it to explore the social and political structures underneath. I described meeting medical friends from the DDR in Dresden who felt at sea without familiar social structures, their state provided child care had vanished and they said “We have waited 6 years for a Trabant and now there is no queue”. This lament has stayed with me. This ride brought back memories of my first visit to Berlin in August 1990, 9 months after The Wall came down and we biked from Berlin to Dresden to Prague and ended in Budapest. The roads were poor, little food in restaurants and endless Weiner schnitzel. One could not just turn up at a hotel but had to get permission from the local authorities to stay, camping was forbidden. The American Army was still there but soldiers were all selling their jeans to the Russians who were busy selling their insignia. This ride is a highlight of my visits to Berlin, and I appreciated the multiple layers of recent history that we were able to explore. I was reminded of Rory Maclean’s book about Berlin.(1) (A City Reimagined which I enjoyed reading last year. I also remembered Timothy Garton Ashs’s book (2) about his experience in the 1980’s being spied on and later confronting his accusers that I read in 1997.

1. Berlin, a City Reimagined 2014 Rory Maclean

2. The File, A Personal History 1997 Timothy Garton Ash.

Baltic overview

Beautiful landscapes, interesting cities and dark histories  

This is a brief overview to accompany the daily blogs that I wrote whilst biking in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. I wanted to go soon because I fear that this is a fragile region and the politics could change quickly. 

The three countries have interesting geographies. Lithuania has beautiful rolling countryside with forest that goes down to the sea. Visiting the Curonian spit where a huge, calm lagoon has been created by Baltic tides was a highpoint. Here I enjoyed the sea, the forest and sand deserts. Thomas Mann picked a good place for contemplation in having his summer home there. (July 15) Estonia is synonymous with lakes and I was surprised at the vast lake Pepsis (July 20) which is the border with Russia. 

The countries also felt different, Lithuania is palpable Catholic and Vilnius is packed with Baroque churches. (July 12) Latvia felt more prosperous with large estates and country gardens (July 18). Estonia, surprisingly, was the most modern despite a huge sparsely populated landscape, and is embracing Internet technology. 

The countries are small in scale; in Latvia and Estonia the capitals dominate the country. Estonia only has a population of one million and it is impressive that it has several universities, and Tartu university is long established (July 19). When I visited the Kunu art gallery in Tallinn I wondered how the population could support a major art gallery (July 22). The influence of outsiders is very visible, Vilnius feels Polish because its previous kings had close links with Polish nobles. Riga feels very cosmopolitan. Estonia feels Scandinavian and models itself on Finland. One also sees Scandinavian design in Estonia. 

Their cultures are Hanseatic with beautiful old cities such as Tallinn and Riga. Folk culture is important there with Baltic festivals of singing and dancing and we saw a local one in the forest in Munamagi Hill Estonia (July 19). The revolution in Estonia started with a singing festival where people could protest. There is also a strong forest culture with woodcarving of all types. 

Their location is important; because they are on the edge of mainland Europe they have all been invaded many times and had different rulers. Looking at a map from 1900 I saw that Lithuania was part of the German empire and Estonia and Latvia part of the Russian empire. They were all occupied thrice in the 2nd World War, first by Russia, then by Germany and then again by Russia and that lasted until 1990. These occupations have had a profound effect. The Lithuanians and Latvians took to the forest and had a prolonged guerilla war against the occupier and were hoping that the West would come and rescue them and were disappointed when this did not happen. 

They also have dark histories, Vilnius was a centre of Jewish learning and culture and 33% of the population were Jewish. The Jewish museum in Vilnius captures the impressive Jewish life and culture in Lithuania. A shockingly efficient genocide was then perpetrated by the Germans in 1941 with some help from the local Lithuanians. The museum of genocide in Vilnius is set in the former KGB headquarters and conveys the different types of torture and oppression that the Germans and then the Russians practiced against the local population. (July 12) One of the most chilling exhibits was an organogram for the KGB showing the different branches such as torture and spying.

I read “The Baltic Revolution” whilst I was there and found Anatol Lievens’ analysis very helpful, sadly he wrote his history in 1994 and there has been a lot of change since then. 

I fear that these states remain vulnerable. They are proud of their EU membership which has brought major benefits to them and the euro is the currency. My travels confirmed this feeling of fragility and Putin could easily decide that he wants to support the 30% Russian speakers who live in Estonia and I’m not sure that the EU would be able to stop him. 

Biking was a great way to see the countryside and experience the changing landscapes even though it rained every day. The northern summer light gave me many beautiful evenings notable the one exploring the art nouveau architecture in Riga. 

It was an interesting holiday, I enjoyed being in new countries and learning about their different histories.

The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Lativia , Lithiuania and the oath to independence.
Anatol Lieven
Yale 1994

Berlin day 1

Travelling to Berlin, Katherine Kolwitz mus, Haeckel Markt

There was heavy, heavy rain during the night. I had hoped for sunshine so that i could have a last walk by the lake. But it was grey and cloudy. Jorg, Tina and I drove over the flat German plain chatting about life. They detoured into Postdam to drop me at the station, and I picked up on the Berlin transport system. Checked into my hotel, a nice one close to Alexanderplatz. Spent the afternoon in the Kathe Kolwtiz museum, a beautiful if sad place. It has a small oeuvre. She trained as an artist and was a social and political campaigner, she became a committed peace activist after losing her son early the First World War. Her pictures are rather dark and like Goyas, with expressions of sad dark emotions.

She was influenced by Ernst Barlache whose work I had seen 2 days earlier. Afterwards I wandered along the street popping into the very smart shops there. I wandered into a second hand book shop, which had high end 18c books and a lovely leatherish aroma. I dipped into a modern jewellers and looked at the work. I had an excellent browse through a photo shop making v interesting high quality prints. Then had a coffee on Kusrtsendam which is more high end then when I first saw it in in 1990. Had open air supper in a haedke Markt where lots of people were siting eating and buskers played, very agreeable.

Plau an see and bike ride

Plau am see, bike ride, evening with Argentinian 

I started the day with a brisk walk beside the lake. Ingrid, Tina, Jorg and I went into Plau. It is an attractive small town with typical N German architecture, churches built of small red bricks, and a Rathaus on the main square, lots of buildings of different ages ranging from 17 c onwards. It is a German tourist spot. We rented bikes biked across the countryside towards Lutz, a brewing factory, we biked through small villages with a few houses and a church, all made of small red bricks. Many of the houses had been repainted, there were also large landowner farmsteads from two centuries ago. The forest was lovely with mixed trees and smelling of pine and other scents. Tine loved her first forest biking experience. If the weather had been better I would have biked beside the lake. It was very easy to hire bikes and the roads were well marked. 

I bought a blue mug with an interesting line running along it from the local female potter, it will remind me of the Baltic. In the evening we had an extraordinary supper cooked by an Argentinan who married a German 25 yrs ago and established a brass band and training for children here. He had built a huge barn in his garden for training sessions and camps for kids. He was exuberant and not good at managing the detail in his life. He had heard Miguel and concha speaking Spanish at a concert earlier in the week and clearly wanted an evening of speaking Spanish. He set up an Argentinan meat feast sardo with about 20 different types of meat and we eat these sitting at a canteen table in his harshly lit barn. He talked about his life and has enthused children to play in brass band in Mecklenberg prommen.  

I asked people about the highlights and the surprises of the holiday; we all enjoyed the northern German architecture and the clear northern light on the houses and villages and being in the group again. Tina’s highlight was swimming in Baltic and biking, she was surprised that Mecklenburg is part of Germany because it is so different to the industrial west and Bavaria she has previously visited. Jorg was surprised to see the posters supporting the local neo Nazi politician on the route to Rostock and Miguel by the evening with the Argentinian.

I enjoyed the friendship of the holiday; they are all nice people and have socialist and international perspectives and interest in culture. National stereotypes are definitely discernable in the group, the Spaniards Miguel and Concha are gentle, thoughtful. Jorg is kind and thoughtful but combined with German angst. He has been happier since buying his house in Sienna 3 years ago. Tina is warm and Italian and happily has no long -term effects from her cancer 15 yrs ago. Frances is half Welsh, half Ghanian and working in South London and with London interests. Ingrid is a solid reliable German and is keen on culture and has the burden of an elderly mother living close by. We are all still working in medicine, Miguel and Concha as consultants in infectious disease and oncology respectively in Madrid, myself in London and globally, the others are all GP’s with varying work-life balances.

Rostock

Art gallery, Rostock, swimming in the Baltic, conversations.

Drove through the forest to the art gallery of Ernst Barlach, In Heidberg, a 19c sculptor who lived and worked locally. His prices were smallish in bronze and clay and transmitted emotions well, fear, horror, he had been influenced by Goya. He died in 1938 so would have experienced the unpleasantness of the Nazis. His life was displayed on boards but unfortunately not translated. The gallery was a beautiful modern space, set in the forest with large open windows.

Our landlady had been dismissive of Rostock, “very badly bombed during the war” she said. But we enjoyed our walk and lunch there. We walked past the wonderful old university building spanning 6 centuries of learning, then walked along a street full of interesting buildings, all very Hanseatic, with narrow gaily coloured fronts and Art Deco style in other buildings. We had lunch of smoked fish brodchten in the square bought from a man with a van and endless patience for the different combinations that we all wanted. I had smoked mackerel and finished off Frances’ Dutch style herrings. The Spaniards are surprised by the German food vans, in Spain one buys good to take home to eat and there is not a culture of eating on the streets. I popped into the cathedral, quite plain with a very heavily decorated organ and altarpiece only, not as over decorated as the southern German churches. I could happily have spent more time in Rostock. We were determined to swim in the Baltic and we did at Borgerend. It was a lovely little resort with sand dunes that one walked through and then a narrow strip of beach. Lots of families were playing in the warm sun. We went down and plunged in, the water was cool and refreshing and it was more enjoyable if one swam around. The sea was barely salty and there was almost no tide. We had coffee watching the small harbour on a huge inlet, lots of people were taking boats out in the long summer evening. The port and beach had a lovely small scale. Had a lovely drive back seeing the countryside in the evening light, golden on the just harvested fields, mixed forest, small villages with houses and churches, small lakes. We had a Spanish style supper at home with a large tortilla and salad.

I was surprised by the beauty of Rostock, being on the beach was innocent fun and the evening light beautiful.