Three days in Berlin for a work conference, and a great chance to see Berlin in preparation to host the World Cup Final, as well as the normal interest in going there. There probably isn't anywhere else in the world with as much 20th Century history as Berlin - it is rammed full of places that are either iconic in history, or that commemorate important events, so a good chance to see them.
On the opening night of my stay, I had the chance to go to a drinks reception in the DZ Bank building. This has recently been redeveloped inside by Frank Gehry, and although quite an unspectacular building from the outside, the interior is amazing. A huge glass pyramid, under which lies a large floor where we were served food and drinks. Few people get to go into this place, so a special evening indeed (even if the place emptied when the Barcelona vs Milan game kicked off)!!
My hotel was in East Berlin (just), very close to the Brandenburg Gate, and Checkpoint Charlie. In between working, I had a good chance to walk around Berlin and check out some of the more interesting sights. Checkpoint Charlie in particular, and the former site of the Berlin Wall, was a great reminder that this has been one city, then two cities, then one city again, all in the not-too-distant past.
Close to the Brandenburg Gate is the holocaust memorial, a huge collection of concrete columns, of various heights, and with narrow "corridors" in between them. Close to my hotel was a memorial in the square where the Nazis burnt books they didn't agree with. There is a metal sculpture which is a huge stack of books; and, in the middle of the pedestrian square, is a hole in the ground, covered with a piece of glass. Underneath is a room, painted brilliant white, with just empty bookshelves.
Berlin has witnessed a number of horrific events, that one might expect memorials to be built for - but the imagination of these memorials, and the amount of thought they provoke in people visiting them, was the real surprise for me. Many of the places where the most horrific things happened have been removed, and the places that can serve as a lesson from history have been kept and commemorated. To me, they have the balance just right.
One final memory from the trip - the Bayern Munich football team were staying in my hotel, in preparation for the German Cup Final, the day after I left. I bumped into Michael Ballack, Owen Hargreaves, Oliver Kahn and Bixente Lizarazu whilst wandering around the hotel, as well as a bunch of others I didn't recognise. Lots of fans and press were therefore camped outside the hotel, a most amusing sight. If only I'd found myself in a hotel with the Arsenal team, but even then I doubt I'd have been able to get anywhere near as close....
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