So on Wednesday we (from the University of Hamburg) visited the German capital. What a compelling city, which I absolutely have to visit again. I was not prepared for Berlin's strange charm and its effect on me.

Maybe it is the placing of the old and traditional right next to the new and contemporary. Maybe it is its history of a city divided and the still tangible and sometimes very visible differences between West and East Germany. Maybe I allowed myself to be totally taken in by the romanticism of the ruined Reichstag waiting silently for reunitification to be repaired. During the 2nd World War all the buildings around the Reichstag were destroyed and even after all the rubble had been cleared the land stayed devoid of any buildings until the German government decided to relocated from Bonn to Berlin after reunification. The trauma of the Cold War and of the 2nd World War is still so tangible in Berlin, which is amazing considering that Berlin wall fell 17 years ago.

But before I get too deeply into my impressions of Berlin, let me first elaborate on what we were doing there. We, the Erasmus Mundus and some German students, spent a day in and around the parliamentary quarter. We visited the parliamentary spin doctors (formally known as the press and information office of the federal government), the federal press conference (where the political journalists hang out) and the offices of chancellor Angela Merkel (which of course was a great privilege). For most of the day we found ourselves in buildings around the Reichstag - which houses the legislative arm of the Federal (read: national) Government (Bundestag).

The operations of the parliamentary spokespersons are impressive. I'm sure if the ANC were to organise their spin doctors as well as the Germans do then they wouldn't have all those embarassing stories about our deputy president and her overly expensive plane rides leaking out all over the place. At the Federal Press Conference (Bundespressekonferenz) we sat in on the regular briefing of journalists by the top parliamentary spokesperson (i.e. spin doctors). Boring for most part, but it was impressive to see Merkel's spokesperson smoothly handling difficult questions...an art within itself. What I particularly liked was the insistence by the chairman of the press briefing that they invited politicians or spokespersons to hold press conferences in their building...when in actual fact the politicians/spin doctors phone up and say they want to address the media, when can they come. Of course the guys at the Bundespressekonferenz can refuse a minister/parliamentarian/politician, but they hardly ever do, all they have to do is agree on a time with the minister/politician/spokesperson. This system (sham) was instituted to ensure the independence (it illustrates that journalists are not at the beck and call of politicians) of the media and was in reaction to the abuses of media freedom by the Nazis.

The offices of the chancellor was a highlight and my classmates even got to see her royal highness , ms. Merkel, in the flesh. Of course I had to be in the toilet just as the first female chancellor happened to walk past our group. Our tour guide at the offices of the chancellor was himself quite unique. He looked like Wally (from those Where is Wally? books) and spoke very slowly and very articulately. He had some very peculiar phrases, which weren't related to the fact that German is his first language. Most of the floors in the chancellor's office were closed to the public because there was actual political wheeling and dealing going on and we had our own set of security guys, which kept an eye on us while we were shown the place. We went inside the cabinet room and saw who sat where during cabinet meetings, that take place every Wednesday at 9:30. Wally (the tour guide, who's name I don't really remember) explained the architecture of the building as well the symbolism of it's location.

Afterwards we had about three hours to explore Berlin before our train left the evening. Our first stop: the Brandenburg Gate (above) as impressive as the last time I saw it ten years ago. We then walked up what I think was the main boulevard before the 2nd World War. Of course the Brandenburg Gate was behind the wall, so when one walked through it one was in what used to be East Berlin. One finds few traces of the former East Berlin other those external water pipes, which go over roads instead of under them...very perturbing. A few of us were keen to visit the relatively new Holocaust memorial - inaugurated in May 2005. In the end I was the only one who made it to the memorial in the dark. When one approaches it, it looks like a couple of concrete slabs of different heights arranged in rows. My first impression was that it looked like a grey graveyard like the white one Tom and I saw in Panama. Upon closer inspection one sees that although the structures around the edges are rectangular slabs(of different sizes), the ones towards the middle are really rectangular columns that are up to about 4 m high. One can walk between these slabs and columns and when you are right in the middle with these huge columns towering over you, you are filled with a sense of sombreness and solemness partly because these silent grey structures block out all other noise and partly because you are filled anew with the enormity and great tragedy of the holocaust. It quietly started to rain and as I was standing there in the dark, I thought it fitting that it should rain considering where I found myself.

After this sobering experience I sought out the some life and human activity at the Berliner Dom, which signifies the main cathedral and the carnival taking place across the road from the cathedral. I found the Berlin cathedral more spectacular than London's St. Paul's. It was more ornate and a green copper dome always beats a white dome in my book. The carnival didn't rival the Hamburger carnival in size, but the people there seemed to have a good time. On the way to the dome I walked past the opera house and the part of the city where most of the museums are situated. It was as if the visit to the memorial had put me in a trance and I wasn't able to really be part of the festivities (of course there was also a Christmas market), but it was nice just to watch the people and tap into the history of the place.

There is a completely different pulse in Berlin. In a sense it's more of a big city (the frenetic pace of London, New York springs to mind) than Hamburg. There's a real vitality there, which was absent from the cities I've visited in Germany so far. Maybe this vitality has to do with the renewal of the city after it's fractured past. All I know is that I absolutely have to go back and find out what exactly it is about this city that is so fascinating.

I must add I was very happy to return to the more serene Hamburg. Also, I was surprised by the fact that it is really starting to feel like home.

Enjoy the photos below.
Ciao