I have a confession to make. I am in love with the Ampelmann. It is so adorable! I even knew it existed before I came to Berlin, yet the first time I was on the east and saw it, it was so endearing! And I also find it a contrast to what I would have expected to find in the former Soviet Sector of Berlin. As an American, I grew up with the assumption that everything East and Communist was bad while the Democratic West was good--I'm going to suggest that I may not have been the only person to have made those assumptions as a child. And while I am aware that life in East Germany was not easy, little things like this adorable green light make it seem, to me, more real. It becomes less of a symbol, a foreign something behind a wall, a corrupt government. People lived here too.To expand past the adorable Ampelmann for a moment, I think that the most interesting thing about this city is the different layers of its past coexisting everywhere. Firstly, there are a few medieval remnants of the old city, before Frederich, Hitler and the Amplemann. An example of this is the Nikolaikirche.
This church dates back to 1250, was finished in 1470 and restored after being damaged in the war. It is in the middle of the city, a short walk from Alexanderplatz, which amazes me more then anything. A building as old as this can be a stone's throw from something as cliche 20th century as the TV tower in Alexanderplatz.
Also in this city are a number of war memorials, only a tiny percentage of which I have seen as of yet. We were at the large Soviet War Memorial, the largest of three, and I found it quite beautiful with the symbolic trees and the intense statues. However, while stumbling around Alexanderplatz with Elena and Allie on Wednesday, we found a bombed church from WWII that I found more moving in its simplicity. The church was left open, as a monument to the war and the destruction caused by it. Hidden by trees on an obscure street corner, this building is just a part of the city, just like the remaining bullet holes on the concrete banks of the Spree.
When I lived in NYC, even though I lived in Manhattan proper, I still feel as if I only really got to know the East Village and most of the city still has a sense of foreignness to it. I feel as if I could make a sweeping generalization about the feel of Berlin compared to other cities, it is closest to that of NYC. Steglitz is nothing like Mitte which is nothing like Kreuzberg which is nothing like Potsdamer Platz. Getting to know a city as diverse and layered as this one is like dating--frustrating, exciting, and, for a time, dissatisfying. Personally, I am overwhelmed in the best way, and hope that in four months I have something concrete to declare. At this moment, however, I have nothing but eagerness and a camera full of buildings I've already forgotten. :-) It should be a good semester.
