MY HISTORY CLASS IN BERLIN NEELABHO GIRI

m o D r e l i n r e B

s d u s a s u T m a d M a

t k a r M d l n i i s t k r h C

f o n h e i l i c C e

K I D O S P H E R E | T R A V E L O G U E

My history class in Berlin

A trip to Berlin is like visiting the pages of history. Neelabho Giri writes

Last winter, right after Christmas day, we caught a train to Berlin. I was very excited because I had never been to Berlin before. Our train was at 12:15pm, so we arrived at Munich Hauptbahnhof at around 12pm. The train ride was uneventful except that there was an hour’s delay because of some technical problems. We finally reached the Berlin Hauptbahnhof at 6:30pm. We downloaded a new app for the Berlin public transport and loaded our tickets there. Then we took the S-bahn to Teltow Stadt. I noticed that in Berlin the S-Bahn colors are yellow while they are mostly red in Munich. When we reached Teltow we met Kuntal-uncle who was waiting there with his car. Then we drove to their house and was delighted to meet Sonu-dada and Mahua-mashi after a long time. Teltow is on the southern outskirts of Berlin and their huge apartment was on the topfloor. The first thing that caught my eye was the view of a beautiful church, and its lighting, in contrast of the night.

Once we settled and had a great mutton for dinner, people were fresh and raring to go. Hence, even though it was quite late in the night we still made a quick plan to the iconic Brandenburger Tor. It was way bigger than I thought it was. It was also very cold and our hands were freezing at minus seven temperature. Since it was almost midnight not many people were around, which gave us enough chance to click photos with the backdrop of the shining landmark. Once we crossed the gate we saw - the road behind had marks of the Berlin wall that once stood there. The metal writing on the road said Berliner Mauer 1861-1990 - marking the first piece of history I will see in that trip .

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We woke up late on the second day. Once we got ready we took the S Bahn to Potsdamer Platz. We had brunch at the well-known South Indian restaurant, Saravanaa Bhavan. We had some tasty dosa and loads of other food from the menu. We walked around Potsdamer Platz and clicked the Berlin Wall standing there as a memorial. Potsdamer Platz has huge skyscrapers which we don’t see in Munich. One of those high buildings was of Deutsche Bahn. On our way to the Brandenberger Tor from there, we walked past the memorial of the Jews who were massacred in World War II. Then we visited the Madam Tussauds museum close to that place. There are wax models of famous people like Angela Merkel, Leonardo Di Caprio, Manuel Neuer etc. This was on Berlin’s famous central road “Under den Linden” , which my father explained - this was once a boulevard supposedly full of lime trees. From there we went to a Christmas Market in front of the Rotes Rathaus near Alexanderplatz. We did not go for any rides but we cosied up inside a tent to have some roasted nuts and Kinderpunch. After reaching home and having dinner I played some rounds of Forza Horizon with Sonu-dada and then went to sleep.

On the third day we went quite near but not a very touristy place. It was the infamous mansion where the Wannsee conference took place. I learnt, it was in this beautiful villa on the lake that the massacre of the Jews were planned by the Nazis. We saw the people who were the brain behind it and heard about Hollywood movie Operation Daybreak and Netflix movie Operation Finale on two main characters from this conference, Heydrich and Eichmann. From there we went to Sonudada’s school in Dreilinden. That building too has a history with the Nazis and later with the American soldiers. We, the three kids then went back home while the parents went for a movie.

On the fourth day we planned to go to the Museuminsel to look at the Berliner Dom and the Altes Museum. We walked around the Spree beside the museum and we saw the magnificent structures. After that we went to Hitlers Bunker right beside the Anhalter Bahnhof. This is called Berlin Story Bunker and not the one where Hitler took his life. But it was recreated with all details about Hitlers life. We spent a lot of time in the bunker and by the time we were finished it was already dark outside. After that we went to Saravanaa Bhavan to have dinner.

On the fifth day we planned on going to Potsdam which is kind of a sister city of Berlin. We went to an iconic castle, Cecilienhof, where America, UK, Russia and others met in July 1945, after the surrender of Germany to negotiate the fate of the world. It was here the American President gave his order to drop the atom bomb on Japan. After lunch in a Vietnamese restaurant we went to the huge Sanssoucci Palace compound. After that we went to a shopping street nearby. Interestingly, it was here I saw Potsdam also has a Brandenberger Tor right at the heart of the town.

On our last day in Berlin we went to the famous Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie was the crossing between the East and the West. From there we went to the other side of the city to visit the the largest section of the Berlin Wall at the Eastside Gallery. After lunch we went to the newly opened Espionage Museum in Potsdamer Platz that wrapped up our Berlin trip. This was New Years eve so we watched the fireworks too in the evening through to the night.

With this trip to Berlin, I learnt so much history over six days which otherwise would have taken many years.

Neelabho is a grade eight student at the Erasmus Grasser Gymnasium. He was born and brought up in Munich but the best vacations he enjoys are the ones with his big group of cousins in India. He loves timing the cube and playing games like Flight Simulator.

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