Berlin: Museums and Mauerfall

Berlin, Germany: 5-10 November 2009

Part IV

We had returned late from our jaunts at Charlottenburg and the Art Nouveau museum on Sunday and scrounged some more cheap dinner from a grocery sort of store before heading back to the hostel where the rest of our travelling friends were waiting. Even though we thought we had sorted out the rooms before, apparently there has still been some confusion. Basically the hostel owner had managed to over-book himself. So Keavy, Anna, Kelsey, and Joanne ended up in a room across the street above the Green Eggs and Ham place, which was owned by friends of our hostel and didn't have as many people staying in it. They had a kitchen as well, so we all ganged up there to fix our strange dinner assortments. Their room was old and lovely with real beds, low to the ground (they had to share, though, there only being two beds). The building was tall and narrow so the stairs took up one side, their room was at the front, a parlor room was in the middle, and the kitchen was at the back. We had some trouble figuring out the stove (it was gas and had to be lit with a match), but in the end we made some food and ate and talked the exhausted talk of travellers who have had a long day.

We shared that we had apparently missed a great show on the night of our arrival – the U2 show – and that Richard (from the Chaplaincy) had shown us pictures from the light show when we ran into him on our city tour. We encourage the others to take the tour at some point during the rest of their time in Berlin, but we were all too tired to make plans. Hence when we got up in the morning and had our breakfast, we were still figuring our what we would all do for the day. Beverly, Ellen, and I ended up going to the Pergamonmuseum, mostly I think because I was very insistent that I would not be leaving Berlin without going there since Ben had told us the Ishtar Gate was in there on our tour on Friday.

Impressive? I think so.

So we went to the museum and I spent all day there. I read very nearly everything in the exhibits I saw and it was by far one of the best museum experiences I have ever had, even though some of the signs were only in German. First thing you see once inside the main museum? West side of the Pergamon altar reconstructed (see picture to the right). 164-156 B.C. Filling the entire room – 9.66m (32.7 ft) high. The stairs at 20m (65.6 ft) wide. Marble. 120m of carved marble frieze depicting the battle between the gods and giants. Over 100 life-size figure of gods, goddesses, and giants engaged in combat. What could possibly top this amazing re-construction?

Try their entire Collection of Classical Antiquities. Or perhaps their Museum of Western Asiatic Antiquity. Full of masterpieces from Hellenistic Greece, Classical Greece, Rome, Babylonia, Assyria, and Sumer. Pieces dating as far back as the 6th millennium B.C. Mosaics, sculptures, pottery, tombs, votive figures, and of course, buildings. And gates. You want to know what was seriously more impressive than this temple? The Market Gate of Miletus from 120 A.D., one of the greatest examples of  Roman façade architecture ever. Again reconstructed right there in the museum in all its 16.68m (54.7 ft) glory.

Now both of these impressive constructions were made of marble. Not the most colourful material unless you paint it. Let's turn now to the best feature of the museum. A gate made from brick. Glazed brick. In fact, it is primarily made from blue-glazed brick. Let me repeat that. This gate's base colour is a bright, beautiful royal blue. And it gets better. Depicted on this gate, in bricks made in 3-D moulds and glazed yellow ochre, white, etc., are bulls and dragons. On the walls of the Processional Way leading to the gate were lions. This is the Ishtar Gate. Built in the 6th century B.C. on the orders of Nebuchadnezzer II, this gate stands at 14.73m (48.3 ft) tall and 15.7m (51.5 ft) wide. It was set in the northwest section of the city wall surrounding Babylon and its official name was 'Ishtar [is] the conqueror of her enemies'. The goddess Ishtar, 'the embodiment of warlike and unrestrained female sexuality' was one of the most important deities of the Babylonian pantheon. In the epic of Gilgamesh, Ishtar proposes to the hero, but he turns her down on the grounds that he would end up like any of her numerous previous lovers who all  ended up being killed, severely abused, or turned into an animal by Ishtar herself. Clearly a goddess to be feared and worshipped to prevent damage to oneself and inflict lots of damage on the enemy. Okay, so let's get down to a proper...

I couldn't fit it all in one shot.

History Time!

(Paraphrased/quoted from Short Guide: Pergamon Museum and signs accompanying the artwork in the museum)

This gate was actually the smaller of two gates, the larger one being behind this. So you had to walk down the 250 m. Processional Way then pass through 48 m. of Gate structure before you got into the city proper. There were rooms for gaurds and access to a subterranean well to insure an independent water supply within the gate complex. The doors themselves were made of bronze-plated cedar. All of this is an indication of how seriously the Babylonians took security arrangements for their capital. Not only is this the smaller gate of two, but this whole gate was only one of at least seven gates in the double wall surrounding the city. This was certainly the most impressive gate, however, as it was added to with the enlargement of the palace precinct which started with Nabopolassar (625-605 B.C.) and was carried on by Nebuchadnezzer II (604-562 B.C.). Nebuchadnezzer II's improvements, especially the Processional Way and the splendid decoration, were made specifically for 'the 11-day new year's festival [that] began in Babylon. Statues of the gods from all the temples of the land were brought to the precinct of Marduk in the city. The festival concluded with a great procession of the gods as manifest in their statues, starting from the "new year festival house" outside the city wall and proceeding along the Processional Way through the Ishtar Gate' (59).

On the other hand, 'in comparison with the truly gigantic complexes in Babylon, such as the principal temple of the city god Marduk or the royal palaces, the gate and the Processional Way were comparatively modest' (54, italics mine).

This is a re-construction of what it probably looked like. Only the smaller gate in front is the one in the museum.

'The origins of Babylon can be traced back to the Kingdom of Akkad, but didn't rise to political and cultural importance until the early 2nd millenium BC' (49). And then it was grand and then it sort of fell and then it was ruled by Kassites and then it kind of fell again and then was ruled by Assyrians. Nebuchadnezzar II was after the end of Assyrian rule and it was he who 'undertook an immense programme of building in the city' (50). Nebuchadnezzar's work on the palace complex ended up depositing a lot of debris 'on the terrain surrounding the Gate, thereby raising the ground level and covering the lower courses. In this manner, successive phases of the Gate's decoration were preserved for posterity already in Babylonian times. Bulls and dragons composed of unglazed, moulded bricks decorated the earliest, lowest courses of the walls' (sign). The second phase of construction (after a change of plans) constituted the same motifs, but this time done in coloured glazed bricks that were flat. 'At the height of about 15m (49 ft) above the original level, there was another change of plan,' and both of the previous designs were combined to give us the glazed relief bricks we see reconstructed in the gate in the museum (57).

Two building inscriptions from Nebuchadnezzer himself were found, one complete one carved in limestone and one in fragments of glazed brick that were once incorporated into the gate itself somewhere. In these inscriptions, the instructions for the gate are laid out and he says, 'I laid the foundation of the gates down to the ground water level and had them built of pure blue stone. Upon the walls in the inner room of the gate are bulls and dragons and thus I magnificently adorned them with luxurious splendor for all mankind to behold in awe' (sign). The bulls were sacred to the weather god Adad and the dragons to the god of the city Marduk. The lions on the Processional Way were sacred to Ishtar. Babylonian dragons (called 'Mushhushshu' in Babylonian!) were composed thus: snake head and body, lion front legs, bird hind legs, and a scorpion sting in the tail.

The rest of the Asiatic antiquities were equally as interesting (to me, anyway) and I was only just starting in here when Bev and Ellen were finishing. So the left to do I'm not sure what while I spent the rest of my afternoon absorbing ancient art. A couple of other things I found particularly impressive were the Assyrian relief carvings of heroes and such found in the palace of Assurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.) at Nimrud. They were usually huge alabaster slabs put up to decorate the interior rooms of palaces. Later, when I went to the Louvre the following spring, I would see more of these as well more of the other impressive thing:

These guys are also Assyrian and made of alabaster. Winged human-headed bulls, called Iamassus. They ended up being popular all over the near east, including Persia, but started more or less here with Assurnasirpal II. You can see the detail that goes into their carving is amazing. That's one thing that I found so impressive about these guys and the flat relief carvings – the details, especially in muscular structure were just so precise. Exaggerated for manliness, but precise. Possibly the most intriguing figures were humans with wings (and sometimes bird heads) holding a bucket in one hand and a pine cone in the other. I later figured out at the Louvre or at the Walters in Baltimore, I can remember, that the bucket held a holy liquid and the pine cone was used to to sprinkle said liquid on people or things to bless them.

~~~

In the end, I had to leave the museum even though I hadn't seen the temporary exhibit upstairs on Muslim art – textiles, perhaps? I don't remember anymore. I met up with Bev and Ellen again and grabbed a quick bite of pizza to eat on our way to meet up with everyone else at the hostel. We changed, grabbed umbrellas and headed to the Brandenburg Gate. I had hoped to meet up with a friend from high school who had come over from his semester in Prague to enjoy the festivities of Mauerfall (that is, the Fall of the Wall), but with only minimal internet access and no phone on his part, we couldn't coordinate well enough to make it happen. The crowds were so overwhelming anyway that our own group ended up splitting up as we got closer to the gate itself.

We actually started our walk to the Gate from the Reichstag direction so that we could see as much of the domino set-up as possible. There were supposed to be 1,000 painted dominoes lined up from Potsdamer Platz to the Reichstag where the Berlin Wall used to be. They were probably about 7 feet high. Hard to miss. But at the Reichstag, we couldn't find them.  It turned out we were on the wrong side of it, but it was proving too difficult to get around to the other side, so we went to try to get to the Brandenburg Gate instead. The crowds were already thick, though and the way from one side of the Gate to the other was now blocked off. So down the streets we went until we could cross over to the street that led from Potsdamer Platz to the Gate and the Reichstag. As we approached Potsdamer Platz, we came upon a gigantic constructed sledding hill. Keavy really wanted to get in line to slide down it, but we wanted to make sure we had enough time to get through the crowds to get as close as we could to the Gate. The rain that had apparently been off and on all day started up again, but stopped as we got to the dominoes. We stopped now and then to take pictures of ones we liked and to catch these guys on film:

I think that all the kids in the silver jackets were artists of the dominoes and so got the privilege (and responsibility) of patrolling the line, keeping people out, making sure the dominoes were up, and (apparently) banging on drums. They got kids from all around the world, I think, to work on these. There was a huge variety of styles and messages (or lack thereof), though all on a positive and often freedom-bent train of thought.

As we pressed closer to the Gate, the crowds were getting hard to push through. We got to a point where we could see one of the huge video screens set up so everyone could see the performances and speeches at the Gate and decided to stop there. But then we thought, we can do better than this! So some of us pushed on, willing to give up our decent spot in the hopes of an even better one. We pushed and shoved as nicely as we could until we could see the top of the Gate over the heads and the screen next to it. We tried to get closer to the dominoes, but by now the crowds were unrelenting. As the night wore on, we would work our way a few few closer, but for now we were content with the screen and the tops of the dominoes and Gate in our view. For a while before it started, there were lights shining on the Gate and spotlights piercing the darkness from its top. The rain started in earnest again and the crowd began putting up umbrellas.

If you have ever been in a closely packed crowd in the rain, you will know what it was like, but for those who have not, let me make an attempt at description. The atmosphere is tense and excited. Everyone wants to be nice because this is a festive occasion, a time to remember the fall of the Wall and the changes it meant for a divided Germany, but at the same time no one is willing to budge from their good spot and they won't mind using their elbows to get a better one. They will put up their umbrellas to keep the rain off and may even be kind enough to hold it up enough to cover those nearby, but they won't worry about whether or not said umbrella blocks the view of those behind them. Nor will the notice when the rain spills off the edges of their umbrella directly onto the shoulder of another person. It is a very difficult situation in which to stay dry. Or warm.

So when things finally get under way with an orchestra (situated somewhere dry...) playing some Wagner and Beethoven, etc., we had to peek through the umbrellas to see them on the screen. People started putting umbrellas down fairly soon, though, in spite of the drizzle, as they were realizing how useless and obnoxious they were. I have to say, though, that whoever was in charge of sound did an excellent job. For one of the pieces, a guy read a piece in German to accompany the orchestra. Anna couldn't follow it well enough to translate, so who knows what it was about. After the music came the speeches. Anna tried to give us an idea of what they were saying sometimes, but it's hard to listen and translate in a crowd, so mostly we just watched the screen in happy ignorance. Thankfully Hillary Clinton, who presented the recorded message from Obama, spoke in English, as did our dear President himself. They were very nice speeches from both – short and to the point – which was probably about freedom and tearing down the walls of today.

Eventually they finished up talking and started to knock down the dominoes. But they were spaced such that they didn't all fall down at once. So when the first section had fallen and everyone cheered, a male vocal quartet came out to sing. I felt bad for everyone who was talking or singing because they had to do it in the space that was clear in front of the Gate with no roof. The politicians got an umbrella-bearing person to walk them out and back, but the singers were on their own. Again, props to the sound folks, because the rain didn't interfere with the sound at all as far as I could tell. The quartet sang a lovely song in a romance language and there was a bit on the screen about the making of the wall, I think.

All while everything was going on, there were lights shining on the Gate and it would change colours to suit the music or speech. Most of the speeches got a nice golden-yellow light, Obama got blue light, and the quartet got a white light that looked like it had snowflake patterns in it. At last they got to knocking down the wall again! But then it stopped again! This time they talked to Gorbachev, another politician, and let Bon Jovi sing 'We Weren't Born to Follow' with a variety of light changes behind him on the Gate. The rain had pretty much stopped by now, thank goodness, and we got a pretty clear view of Bon Jovi on the screen. We had also wormed our way forward enough that we could almost see through to where he was actually performing on the ground in front of the Gate. We all rocked out and then we got some more dominoes falling. And then they paused again to show a talk with a German kid who had painted a domino, a Korean kid who did one, and to a Nobel Peace Laureate. And then, finally, the rest of the dominoes came tumbling down in front of us to meet the dominoes falling from the other end and the fireworks started going off from the top of the Gate, the orchestra swelled in dramatic music and everyone was screaming and clapping and cheering and pushing to take pictures and videos.

The best shot I managed of the 'Wall', Gate, and screen all night. Most of the rest were blurry or obscured by umbrellas. Bon Jovi was performing at this point.

Eventually the frenzied fireworks from the Gate stopped and a regular fireworks display started behind us. Eventually the crowds started to thin and we made our way back along the fallen dominoes, passing where the two ends had met and leaned against the one left standing, presumably marking the middle of the 'Wall'. We made our way slowly back to the hostel and I wrote a few postcards before we turned in for the night. Ellen and I had a flight to catch in the morning and the rest of the crew had another two or three days of touristing to pack in.


In the morning, Ellen and I packed up and said goodbye to everyone and made our way back to the airport. We found a post office in the airport and I mailed my finished postcards with German stamps and then we headed to our departure gate. At pretty much every step of the way, we had to show ID, so we kept our passports in our pockets. The German security was much stricter than Irish (no surprises there!), as we had to show our passports just to get into the waiting area for our plane. When we got back into Cork at last, I was starving, but it was only just lunchtime due to the one hour difference. I probably even could have made it to my Medieval and Renaissance Drama class, but I'm pretty sure that I skipped it that day and just waited until my 3pm Spenser class to head into school.