My experiences in Berlin, a diverse city with a magnificent legacy
This article is a reflection of my recent journey to Berlin, Germany’s capital to attend a party given by my company. I felt Berlin is warm to newcomers, and it has tons of history from world wars and, homes, people from different backgrounds and nationalities. In a few phrases, what I feel about Berlin:
Berlin is a human rights capital of Germany. It embraces a new inhabitant with both hands and Berlin always has room for someone: a tourist, an expat or a refugee. I find the culture is so open that for millennial, Berlin can be an ideal city to live and work.
Flashback (AWS Summit, First Berlin visit)
Unfortunately, that was not my opinion when I last visited Berlin 6 months back for attending AWS Summit, Berlin. On February 26–27, 2019, I participated in the summit or conference whatever you call it, and didn’t get much time to explore the city and its famous landmarks and attractions. I stayed in Ibis hotel, Postdamer Platz. We book it because it is close to the summit venue, Station Berlin. It was a sheer business trip in the mid of the week.
Station Berlin is one of the old railway stations in Germany that opened in 1875. Later, it is used by the German Postal office as a hub of packages and mails. Now the location is rented for conferences and events.
The whole area is an old city and looks more gloomy in winters. The first impression is the best. After seeing the modern, vibrant southern towns like Munich and Nürnberg, I found Berlin Postdamer Platz as a disappointment.
The Berlin Hauptbahnhof(Central Train Station) makes you think of an alien spaceship in terms of architecture, but when you come out, you find the old Berlin which is not so appealing in winter.
You can see the Station Berlin 3D tour here:
Wait, but now you like Berlin city?
The Berlin Hauptbahnhof(Central Train Station) makes you think of an alien spaceship in terms of architecture. But when you come out, you find the old Berlin which is not so appealing in winter.
Zalando Party, Second Berlin Visit
I got a chance to go to Berlin again, in the form of a summer party given by my company. My company, Zalando, annually throws a huge party(4000+ attendees) for employees working all over Germany. As part of it, we traveled from Tradebyte office in Ansbach, Bayern to Berlin’s Leipziger Straße by company-provided bus.
The company booked hotel rooms in Motel One, Leipziger straße for 30 plus of us. The plan was to go to the party on that evening, get back to the hotel, rest and travel back on the next day. People can also stay again and explore Berlin in a relaxed way, after-party and come back whenever they wish to return to Ansbach.
7:30 AM, Friday 16th August
It was slightly an overcast condition in Ansbach, in the early morning. I got ready by 6:45 AM and prepared my morning coffee. Then I left straight to the meeting point in Bahnhofstraße for boarding the bus to Berlin. The plan was to start from Ansbach, then detour Nürnberg and pick few employees living there.
Our bus rolled on Autobahn A9(Highway) via Bayreuth swiftly through the landscapes of many meadows where cattle and horses were feeding. Construction works are going on in many places to the highway. For frequent travelers, the bus trip could be annoying as you see a lot of cars zipping next to you and Ferrari and supercars are quite common. Trucks should take the last lane of a six-lane road.
The most eye-pleasing stint in the journey is the sight of gigantic windmills on A9. They rotate slowly and sometimes with moderate speeds when the wind is high.
You also spot beautiful meadows and green pastures right next to the road. The soil type varies as we travel from south to east.
My friend and I played a small guessing game on the autobahn. It is to see the number-plate of trucks pass by and guess the city/town/municipality of the vehicle registered in Germany. Like for example, Ansbach registration is AN XX-YYY. Below is a number plate from Wolfsburg, Germany home of Volkswagen. The blue color “D” is Deutschland(Germany) with an EU flag in the background.
We saw trucks from European union, and also from other countries like Great Britain and Switzerland who has different number-plate. I came to know that when you enter into a different Schengen state, you have to pay a toll. But within Germany, for using autobahns(fast-driving roads), you pay no fee.
We stopped near a gas station in midway because our driver has to take rest for 45 minutes. In Germany, driving laws are strict and transparent. A driver should compulsorily for halt 45 minutes after driving straight for 8 hours. We had our lunch at around 11:45 AM.
The bus equips an in-house bathroom and a fridge. The ride was comfortable, and 5–6 hours journey didn’t exhaust us at all. Now, after the break, we headed towards Berlin. Our bus driver, on some occasions, announced the exciting facts about the regions like “Ahoy! Now we are entering into East Germany” etc.
Near Leipzig, we spotted from the bus a cargo airport of some private company. My friend told me that the planes halted there are Russian by observing their body paints. I wondered what Russian planes are doing there. But I later recollected that the same region was under the soviets until 1990.
Finally, at 2:45 PM, we entered into the outskirts of Berlin and soon into the city. The bus went through the Ernst-Reuter-Platz into the famous Tiergarten(Botanical gardens).
Few German word hints: (Slight Deviation)
Since we are pouring in a lot of German words, here are some of the common words you see as a tourist and what they mean in English:
Nouns:
der Platz — the Square
die Straße — the Street
die Stadt — the City/Town
der Markt — the Market
die Garten — the Garden
die kirche — the Church
der Bahnhof — the Train Station
Adjectives:
Haupt — Central/Main (adj.)
Alt — Old
You can attach adjectives + nouns to form new words. Like:
Hauptplatz — Main square
Hauptgarten — Central garden
Hauptbahnhof — Central station
Altstadt — Old Town
Back to the trip:
Tiergarten is home for hundreds of huge trees in the heart of the Berlin city. There are many squares in the garden. Our bus passed by the famous Siegessäule(victory column) that is a remarkable piece of architecture which lifts the spirit of Berlin. The Prussian empire constructed it in 1873 as a memorial for its victory against the Danish forces. People in our bus stuck their noses to the window to see this marvelous figure.
After crossing a few traffic signals, we saw the Soviet war memorial, which is a statue remembered for the legacy of soviet soldiers in the Berlin city.
We then passed through the famous Brandenburg Tor(gate) from the west side of the city. FYI: The gate entrance faces East Berlin.
We will talk later more about this de-facto mascot of Berlin. Our bus took a right turn here onto Ebertstraße and faced few more traffic signals. Finally we reached hotel in Leipzigerstraße around 3:15 PM.
Within half an hour, everyone checked-in to Motel One. Many seem to be exhausted from the trip and want to have a nap before going to the party that starts at 6:00 PM and goes until 3:00 AM. But I have a different plan in my mind. I washed my face, locked my room 3:45 PM, and left the hotel for exploring the Berlin city. I have time until 5:30 PM when the bus starts from the hotel to the party venue.
Attempt 1: My lonely stroll in Berlin streets
I then checked the nearby attractions in Google and started walking towards a few of them. There are Germans, Chinese, Balkans, Turks, and tourists from many other nations walking in the streets. The good thing about my hotel location is every major attraction in Berlin is walk-able and under 2 KM distance. The only thing I am running against hard is the time.
People filled the Cafes and open restaurants who are enjoying the weekend atmosphere. I first took Friedrichstraße from Liepzigerstraße and walked onto Taubenstraße to reach Gendarmenmarkt. It is a square that has a concert hall and two churches Deutsche Kirche und französische Kirche (German church and French church). The architecture of all three is mind-boggling. I didn’t enter into them, but the vast square with cheering families, lovely couples, and, senior citizens made a lively atmosphere.
I then walked past the French church onto Markgrafenstraße and other streets just watching the architecture of buildings and observing people around. I also went to a few parks nearby where parents are playing with their kids and, few are biking. I sat there for sometimes and started to the next attraction, Berlin Gallery, which is 1.4 KM from that point.
While I am walking to the attraction, I received a call from my colleague saying office bus is ready to leave to the party venue and all are waiting for me at the hotel. Oh my god! I stared at my watch and found it was 5:30 PM already. Then I dumped my plan of going to Berlin gallery and walked back to Leipzigerstraße where my bus was standing on the road to take off. I didn’t even get time to change my clothes, and I jumped onto the bus coach, and it left after 7 minutes delay, curse me.
Berlin’s Tempelhofer Feld (Tempelhof airfield) hosts our party, which is an old airport where military airlines/cargo planes used to operate at the time of World War 2. Now it is a park, and like Station Berlin, the runway area is rented for parties and events to generate revenue. This place is famous for a cold war time event called “Berlin blockade and airlift.”
As a quick fact of history in the times of cold war from 1948–49, soviet occupied East Germany and cut down the entry for allies into west Berlin to provide the food supplies to its citizens. East Germany, which is under communist rule, surrounds West Berlin.
There is no other option for the US and its western allies(France, UK, Canada, New Zealand, etc.) than to fly supplies from West Germany to West Berlin. Tempelhofer Feld is used by Allied powers to receive the food supplies and then distribute them. It went for a year. I am lucky enough to stand on the same grounds where a lot of dramatic events took place 70 years back.
You can find more here:
The party was great. I can see thousands everywhere, met many new folks. For Ex: I met a Spanish guy named Alex, who come from Palam de Mallorca island of Spain. He told me that Germans are the majority of tourists to his island because it was once a German territory. He said he is currently learning German and likes the job he does in Berlin.
As our conversation progressed, I told him when I think about Spain, Rafael Nadal comes to my mind. To my surprise, he said to me that Nadal too lives in Mallorca and Nadal’s home is just 5 KM from away from his. Wow! How often do you hear that from a stranger? Like “Do you know? Sachin Tendulkar lives two blocks away from me”.
My colleagues and I played many games like fußball, Table Tennis, Basketball at the party. We spent almost four hours playing, eating, networking, dancing, and enjoying the music and environment.
At night, people had a high time with drinks and danced to playing songs by a DJ. My friend and I decided to say goodbye to our colleagues at the party around 10:00 PM and planned to go out for sightseeing Berlin after dusk. Hurray! This time, I don’t have to go alone.
Attempt 2: Exploring the Berlin night life
Now comes the exciting part! One of the friends and I took U-Bahn(Underground rail) from Tempelhof station to Hallesches Tor and planned to walk from there to Checkpoint Charlie. We don’t want to go till Französische straße, which is close to our hotel because we want to wander more on foot.
My friend is a history buff, and I was lucky that he is an unofficial tour guide for me. Apart from his mother tongue Turkmen, he speaks Russian, German, and also, Turkish. He was there in Berlin before, but he wants to explore the places again.
When we got out from Hallesches Tor station, we saw a water channel, a tributary of the Strengbach river right under the station. There is a small steamer boat drifting in the waters. It is like having a stream under the underground rail. In the station, you also find the historical pictures of the station lines damaged in WWII.
Then we walked around Mehringplatz, a circular residential square and steeped into Friedrichstraße. On the way, we have seen many buildings with graffiti and messages like “Make Art not War.” Many houses were silent and seemed like there is no activity at 11:00 PM.
Initially, I thought there were off to bed, but I came to know that Berlin people love nightlife and most of them will be hanging around bars and nightclubs along with friends drinking beer and eating sausages.
In the same street, we have reached a famous tourist spot called Checkpoint Charlie. It is an immigration checkpoint between East Berlin and West Berlin. East Berlin and West Berlin are divided by Berlin wall until 1990. The only road which you can take to cross the border is through this checkpoint. Here you have to prove who you are, show the permissions.
Before the Berlin wall was built in 1961, many people fled from East Germany to West Germany, which irked Soviet to construct a wall. Checkpoint Charlie is a very crucial point where sometimes soviet and the USA used to deploy tankers to show their power. I felt thrilled that the things from my history books are right in front of my eyes.
While we are at Checkpoint Charlie, a lovely young couple who are riding an e-scooter approached us and asked for help with directions. Their phones were dead, and they were confused about the location of their hotel. They are heading to Invalidenstraße. They noted the directions from Google maps on my phone and bade us goodbye.
From the Checkpoint Charlie, we headed towards Brandeburg Tor(gate) by taking the famous Wilhelmstraße. It was named after Friedrich Wilhelm I, a legendary Prussian king. Many government offices lie in this street, which gave it the name ”Government District.” It is one of the prominent streets in Germany before and even now. This street also has a museum that has Soviet TV Sets, landline phones etc.
We also walked past the Jew cemetery memorial, which is constructed by the German government and US embassy where you can see a bear idol, which is similar to the Statue of Liberty. Berlin’s coat of arms has a bear, so bears are very popular in Brandenburg, Berlin. Now comes the famous Brandeburg Tor(gate). We have reached the gate at around 11:45 PM. It was empty from tourists. It has a chariot on top with goddess Victoria riding it.
I stood at the East Germany side in front of the Brandenburg gate. Behind the gate is the Tiergarten where my bus took a right. East Germany entirely closed this gate in the communist regime. WWII conflicts destroyed the gate partially but then after restored.
I thought I have the whole night to explore this beautiful Berlin city and there were few to almost no tourists in the main attractions. Right next to the gate, I found there are US, France, and Russian consulate generals. My friend told me that every powerful nation tries to get the closest consulate near the Brandenburg gate. As I told you, he is my unofficial guide(chuckling)
From the gate, I can see a building that has round glass, Dom. I learned it is Bundestag(German Parliament office) in Platz der Republik(Republic square). They closed it already, so couldn’t explore it. I heard that people could attend the sessions but have to register online upfront.
By then I felt exhausted because of the long bus journey, afternoon walk, party games, and two and half hours long walk again. We started walking back to our hotel via Charlottenstraße, where we once again went past Gendarmenmarkt, and I had an opportunity to glance at the famous Humboldt University of Berlin.
The specialty of this university is it has won 50 Nobel prizes till now and has great alumni: Sociologists like Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Physicists like Max Planck and Heinrich Hertz. The legendary Albert Einstein taught at this university from 1915–1928. I also collected few invitation cards those spread on a sitting bench as souvenirs for myself.
With all the good memories, we reached our hotel at 1:20 AM. I dropped myself on the bed after changing clothes. I slept soundly until 7:30 AM next morning, had my breakfast at the hotel and traveled back to Ansbach with my colleagues.
That ends my Berlin visit!
Now you know why Berlin completely changed my earlier impressions! Because it offered so much in very less time which I can cherish for my lifetime!
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