berlin in a few hours; with a bit of architecture

When I told him I was going to be in the city on an 8 hour stopover type thing, my german friend made an itinerary. Like walk ten steps and look right, you will see an orange tree before a grey concrete building. Enter the red door behind.

It's one of the sweetest things anyone's ever done for me, as I had the best, most educational, architecturally, urban-design-ly inspirational by myself day trip ever. But, my flatmate (with german girlfriend) says, that's what Germans are like. Very good at being methodical, very organised, very plannerly. Thanks Rene!

Another thing Germans do, is to never sit on grass. After passing a couple of parks with perfectly lovely black forest like shade happening on a hot Berlin day, where people insisted on sitting only on benches, I decided in the piece of the Tiergarten right in front of the Reichstag that I needed a nap now. So risking security men and deportation (possibly!) I lay supine against a tree and dozed off. When I awoke, a lot of people had decided to follow my inert lead and apporpriate the grass for their tired bodies. These were mostly tourists; I think Berliners have a cultural bias against grass-sitting. Perhaps it's poor? Perhaps it was Jewish once? Of course, it could partly have to do with the red ants that crawl up your pants sometimes.

There were many things Jewish, or Holocaustish. A friend expresses irritation at the fact that you come upon a holocaust memorial every 5 minutes in Berlin. Perhps she finds it tasteless? I dunno. I think Ahmedabad, Delhi, Bombay could do with a few more modern regret memorials - something to show that there is a vein of sorrow, of hurt, of shame in our people and our government that we let communal riots happen. Anyway.

Peter Eisenmann's memorial to the murdered jews of europe (rather bland name I thought; my tasteful friend would agree) was marvellous. At first sight, on my way from Brandenburg gate to Potsdamerplatz (small rant coming up) it seemed like some sort of gridlike simulation of a graveyard. All right.. dead jews, we get it, I thought. Closer still, it was a necropolis, climbing away from viewer in 3 perspecives with a small tree now and again. It's when you walk through it that you get what he was trying to say. It's theatrical! - each narrow lane between the ominous concrete cuboids is wide enough for one curious visitor. The ground is cleverly contoured; you can't see from street level, but the ground climbs steeply down and up again. So the cuboids rise higher as you go in. They do something to the sound as well; it's actually quieter in there. It becomes like a well made film when you catch a flash of someone crossing your path, or on a path parallel to yours, just a flash, maybe sound, and then greyness till you pass your current concrete cuboid. Some clever tourists had the idea of running through gigglingly. I thought it was like flashes of pre-holocaust memory in some sad concentration camp resident's mind. In the maze of their mind, old fun echoed, while new nazis appeared on their rounds in their close grey cells, close by. Of course I'm utilising fully my license to 'interpret the architecture in any way I please', which actually Daniel Liebeskind, in a somewhat disclaimery fashion said about his Jewish Museum. I found the suggestion more useful at Eisenmann's MMJE.

What else? Bebelplatz on Unter den Linden had a hole in the ground with an optical illusion of rows and rows of empty bookshelves, to commemorate the massive nazi book burnings that happened here.

Berlin is interesting.... duh... I mean because it has so much History, but comparitively little building stock to show for it, because it was so very bombed in 1944. New stuff keeps coming up in old districts, and has to bear the burden of reminding people of old stuff. Sometimes it completely shrugs off this burden. Potsdamerplatz was quite crap. Just your standard Canary Wharf or More London with big brands and massive steel. The fountains in Marlene-Dietrich square were rather cheesy, and nothing about the whole place suggested that this was planned to celebrate the unification of East and West. I'm not asking for more Checkpoint Charlies (which was predictable but so cute!), but I could have avoided the completetely hard paved paths, the completely prettified lawns and the very colourful new housing complexes that overlooked them, and not felt as if I've not seen something Berlinny. Perhaps I'm too harsh... Comments welcome.

The treatment of the river/canal, as far as I saw it, was rather strange. Either there were highly overdesigned banks before office buildings, or sompletely left alone ravines next to motorways. No South Bank, only Little Venice or Nizammuddin Bridge. (Well maybe less dirty and frothy and less full of idols and dead and alive bodies.)

I can tell you now what is being left out of this post: Stansted Express, Schonefeld airport, my new duty free office office bag, S Bahn, U bahn, bockwurst, the National Socialists' victims memorial (?) on U de Linden with the hole in the roof, I M Pei's extension to the National Art Gallery (again ?), Marksgrafenstrasse, Freidrichstrasse, Kochstrasse, Taubenstrasse and an ice-cream. But I'm very sleepy and have work tomorrow and a tender to write off by end of play, big day. Maybe I'll do another Berlin post, at least with the photos, but with my track record.. well you know.

Aufwiedersehen!