How nice it was to wake up this morning to a sunny day in Berlin! Our first stop today was the East Side Gallery, the longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall. Artists from all over the world were invited to paint murals on the east side of this 1.3km wall segment, the most famous of which is the painting by Russian artist Dmitri Vrubel showing the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev smooching with East German leader Erich Honecker. Prior to the fall of the wall, only the West side had graffiti (no one on the East side was allowed to approach the wall), so the murals were meant to be both a celebration of the fall of the wall and a reflection on the earlier division of the city. We then enjoyed lunch at Markthalle IX, a nicely restored market hall in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin. Later in the afternoon we visited the observation deck of the TV tower on the Alexanderplatz, where we had a bit of coffee and cake while enjoying panoramic views of the city. Soon after, it was time to head to the GRIPS theater for a performance of the play “Die Welle” (The Wave), which is about a group of high school students who learn firsthand how totalitarian systems manipulate people into silence. It’s hard to believe that we have already reached the end of our stay in Berlin, but at the same time, we are looking forward to our arrival in Oberurusel tomorrow and the start of the homestay phase of our trip.
Viele liebe Grüße aus Berlin!
~Frau Greene