The bits and bobs of Berlin - Wrap-up

So we haven't exactly followed the chronological series of our trip to Berlin thus far... due to long posts, and trying to keep some things in a more logical order, we've mashed up a couple of things together here and there.  This, the last Berlin post we have, will pick up the remaining pieces in no particular order.

Starting off, with Templehof

After we finished our various trespassing on Saturday, we heard that Templehof airport was still open.  The confusion around this came from reports we heard in the lead-up to the trip that the City of Berlin and Government of Germany was using the Templehof Airport as a temporary housing for some of the more than 1 million Syrian and middle eastern refugees that were welcomed to Germany over the last year.

This is the building being used to house refugees

What we realized, is that Templehof Airport is, as you would expect, HUGE; and that only a portion of it (the terminal building) was being used to house Syrian refugees, the remainder, the airfield, was still open to use as normal.

Three shots showing all the different activities happening on a lovely Saturday afternoon

So a bit of history on Templehof.  At the time it was inaugurated, the terminal building was listed as one of the 20 largest buildings in the world.  It also housed the world's smallest Duty Free shop.  It was designed to allow planes to pull up much closer to the terminal than most other airports, so the passengers would be partially sheltered while they moved between the terminal and the plane.

Originally planned in 1923, and opened in 1927, the main terminal underwent extensive reconstruction through the 30's by the Nazi's, anticipating a significant rise in air traffic.
Following WWII, it became a central part of the Berlin Airlift from June 1948 to May 1949.

More Cold War History Lessons!

Following the war, and the division of Berlin, each of the controlling powers (the Soviets, France, UK and the US) engaged in various attempts to wrest more control over their part of Germany than the others.  Due to some strange rules, each of the allies were printing their own money in their own part of Berlin.

In an attempt to standardize trade, prevent hyperinflation (and take ownership of the financial sector of Germany) the allies introduced the Deutsch Mark to West Germany, a replacement to the Reichsmark which had been in use since 1924.  Initially the new currency was only supposed to be introduced outside of Berlin.

Regardless, this really pissed off the Soviets, who responded the following day by blockading Berlin from all Allied supply routes, air, sea and land.

In response to the blockade, the UK and USA (assisted by Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) organized what is now known as the Berlin Airlift, to provide all of the daily supplies needed for the population of West Berlin.  It was easy for the Soviets to block the road, rail and sea routes, as there were no agreements to permit access.  There was an agreement for safe passage along the three main air-corridors, but at the outset it was unclear if the Soviets would honour this agreement or attack the incoming flights.

There were 3 agreed air corridors that the allies were able to use.  They set two as 'inbound' approaches, and one as 'outbound' to minimize the chance of collisions.

During the next year the allies targeted providing a minimum daily ration of 2000 calories of food to each person in West Berlin, which would require:
- 650 tons of flour and wheat
- 125 tons of cereal
- 64 tons of fat
- 110 tons of meat and fish
- 180 tons of potatoes
- 180 tons of sugar
- 11 tons of coffee
- 20 tons of powdered milk
- 5 tons of whole milk
- 3 tons of fresh yeast
- 145 tons of dehydrated vegetables
- 40 tons of salt
- 10 tons of cheese
DAILY!

oh yea, and also 3500 tons of coal and gasoline.

Within days of the blockade, hundreds of supply flights had begun.  In the first week, daily airlift of 90 tons were completed, but by the second week, this increased to 1000 tons daily.
Obviously the logistics of this were complicated, so to avoid aircraft crashes in the now congested airspace, each of the flights, scheduled to depart just 4 minutes apart, were assigned a cruising altitude 1000 feet higher than the flight in front of it.
At the peak of the airlift, flights were remaining on the ground only 30 minutes before heading back, and managed nearly 1 plane landing every minute into Templehof!

One of the more famous pilots was Gail Halvorsen, who began a tradition of dropping candy from his plane to the children of Berlin.  To signal it was he who was flying in, he told the children, "I'll wiggle my wings" so you'll know it's me.  This began  a major propaganda campaign that bolstered support for the airlift.  US companies actually started donating sweets to be airdropped to the children, and it is said that some American children, on hearing about this, mailed their own candy to the US military.

A plane, the same model used in the air lift, remains parked at Templehof.

One of the more amazing things that was 'airlifted' during the blockade was all of the materials needed to build a suitable runway at Templehof to support the onslaught of air traffic.  When Templehof was built, it had two runways, both comprised of Marston Mats.  Marston Mats are a quick way of making a medium capacity runway, essentially by connecting hundreds of metal U-channels, linked together and pounded into the ground.

As I said, these are great for low-frequency landings, of reasonably light aircraft, but Templehof was landing nearly 1 plane every minute, and they were fully loaded with more than 10 tons of supplies.  To 'maintain' the marston mat surface, crews were having to run onto the runway between landing flights, and pour sand onto the surface to prevent tires from popping when they landed and caught any edging.

So from July to September, all of the materials to build asphalt or concrete runways were flown in, and two asphalt runways at Templehof, and one concrete runway at Gatow were constructed before the winter set in.  They even managed to fly in the Ground Controlled Approach radar system needed to ensure all-weather landings.

This is the same radar tower which was flown into Berlin, and is still in use today by the German Military to monitor flights around Berlin.

The French contribution to the airlift was to build a third airport in their sector, again, by flying in all of the material, and heavy machinery needed to level the ground and build the structures.  This became the still operating Berlin-Tegel airport.

Proving that literally nothing couldn't be brought into Berlin by air, supply continued until May when the Soviet's indicated they were willing to end the blockade.   Not wanting to face such a situation again, flights continued as a means of building up a surplus until September. In total, more than 300 000 flights landed in Berlin during the blockade, and at the height of the operation, a plane reached West Berlin every 30 seconds.

OK, cool history lesson over

Templehof was closed as an airport in 2008. So what do you do with an airport near the centre of town, well connected to several of your main metro lines?  You make it a public park.  

This is the 'activities' map of Templehof Airport.  Each 'circle' is a different activity area.  The runways are more than 2 km long, and the 'ring road' probably 5-6 kms.  In the top left you can see the terminal building.

Today the airfield is used for an incredible number of outdoor sports and activities.  They have signs up dedicating various areas of the airfield to different activities, including kite flying, kite boarding, cycling, running, dog parks, a bird sanctuary, and baseball diamonds.

Kite boarding

These are some serious kite flyers, they have three lines, and can stall in place, or manoeuvre in ridiculous ways 

Picnics, running, cycling, roller-blading, kite flying, football, frisbee.

We managed to make our way down about 1/10th of the one runway.  We were otherwise too tired to explore around further.

Today, in addition to the recreation areas on the airfield, there is a memorial to the Berlin Airlift located on the north-west of the site.  The three pillars represent the three air corridors that were West Berlin's only link to the outside world during the blockade.

So we spent about 1.5 hrs of our Saturday evening wandering around the park, watching all the various activities and having a bit of a snack.

Clarchen's Ballroom

To repair the very fractured timeline of our Berlin experience, Day 2: Derelict buildings in the AM-mid afternoon, then Templehof Airfield, then Rooftop Patio (top floor of the carpark), now the last activity of the day... getting on our dancin' shoes.

Kristin found out about a dancehall in Berlin that has been running since 1913, and in it, the customers range from 18 or 19 years old, up to a spry 95 year old man, twisting his hips in ways I wouldn't be able to.  It wasn't an age range that you might be used to, with a bar catering to 19-25 year olds, or an 'old bar' for those in their 40's and 50's, this place had every age you can imagine, and everyone dancing together... a little strangely for us, they were all dancing to American songs, and most from the 1990's, played by a live band.  We saw young and old couples alike dancing, and even parents and (what I assume to be) their kids together.... in at least one instance I saw, with the mom telling the 20-something daughter it's not time to sit yet, keep dancing!

I think this was from my cell phone, inside the club.  Quite simple, a bit open space for lots of people to dance around.  I did like the 8 foot long silver tinsel / streamers lining the walls.

We spent about 3 hrs here dancing till around 1 A.M.  I can tell you that 150 year old buildings do not have great ventilation.  If you thought the clubs you're used to are hot, this was another thing.  When we finally left, the temperature in the vestibule was at least 10 degrees cooler!  I think I'm just harping on the temperature, b/c I was in long sleeves and pants from our building crawling earlier today.

Anyway, you can't have a 100+ year old building, without it developing some history and interesting tales, so here's what we were able to find out.

The dance hall, originally named Bühlers Ballhaus was opened on Spetember 13, 1913, but was renamed to Clärchens Ballhaus after Fritz, the original owner was killed in WWI and his wife Clara took it over.

Photo credit: http://www.spiegelsaal-berlin.de/history.html

There are actually three dance halls in this one property, the main hall we were in on the ground floor, and a mirrored ballroom upstairs (for fancier parties and the aristocrats), were part of the original business, with a bowling alley in the basement.

Photo credit: http://www.spiegelsaal-berlin.de/history.html

Photo credit: http://colourmeblind.blogspot.co.uk/2013_05_01_archive.html

The entrance as we saw it, through a lovely looking beer garden / patio.

Following WWII, the building in front of the dancehall, and fronting on the street was so badly damaged, it had to be torn down, and so the entrance became, as it is today, set-back a fair bit from the roadway.  The mirrored ballroom was closed, and the bowling alley was turned into a coal depot.

In 2005, the mirrored ballroom was opened again, mainly to private functions, but continues to be available to rent still today, as the now 103 year tradition of Clärchens Ballhaus continues.

Photo credit: http://www.eventinc.de/info/festsaal-mieten-berlin

Photo credit: http://www.spiegelsaal-berlin.de/history.html

What I was most impressed by here was how it remains a place where young and old can enjoy a dance and a party together.  Nobody allowed the young people to take it over, or the old people to make it uncool, everyone just continues to decide it's a good place to be, and a fun night of dancing with whoever shows up.

East Side Gallery 

One more stop on our trip across the history of the Cold War was to see the East Side Gallery.  This is one of three remaining sections of the Berlin Wall.  The first we saw on the first day, and the third is called the Berlin Wall Memorial, which is a much shorter section of wall, but which still has the 'kill strip' in tact between the two walls.  So the East Side Gallery is more than one kilometer in length, and features 105 paintings from artists around the world, who depicted some of the hope, promise and joy felt when the wall fell.

We walked the entire length of the wall, in what was a pretty somber mood, just taking in the art, pondering the history of what the wall itself, and the paintings now on it mean for the people of Berlin, and really, for modern history.  I won't say much more, just a few of our favourite murals.

More on this famous photo further below, and an explanation of the fence in front.

Much like Pont des Arts in Paris, many people have attached 'love locks' to this gate of the wall.

Because of the fence, many murals were hard to get good pictures of.

This is the east side of the wall (the less famous side)

Standing on the midline of the wall, seeing West (right) and East (left) side

Unfortunately, many of the original works have been badly damaged by graffiti and vandalism.  A project has been working since 2000 to restore the paintings to their original state, and where they have been restored, a fence has been erected to prevent further defacement.  It seems a bit ironic to have a fence, put up to protect a painting of euphoria and freedom, painted on a wall, erected to segregate people and oppress them.

An example of the series is shown below with one of the most famous works, the kiss between Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker.

Source: By Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F088809-0038 / Thurn, Joachim F. / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5473698

Source: By Victorgrigas at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2911472

Source By Don Ludwig - originally posted to Flickr as Painter Dmitri Vrubel in front of his Bruderkuss, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8559675

Liquidrom Spa

So, seeing as this took us 5 posts to wrap up 3 days of activities, you can imagine we were quite exhausted from the trip.  What better way to wrap up our visit to Germany than to do as the Germans do and get a little naked.  We found a spa in town that has a number of different temperature pools, and saunas to enjoy, all of them either clothing optional (the pools), or verboten (the saunas).  Hard to believe, but many Germans will actually suntan naked in the public parks.  

Photo credit: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/underwater-concert-bone-conduction

These are stock photos of their main salt pool.  It's supposed to be a silent area, where you can just sit, float and relax.   I found it very loud, and rather distracting because of some high intensity lights, so we spent the rest of our time in the hot tubs, and saunas.

Photo credit: http://www.michaelfranke.co.uk/hotels_spas_01.html

Photo credit: http://www.top10berlin.de/en/cat/wellness-262/day-spas-relaxing-1784/liquidrom-1612#1

Much like our experience in Sweden, it was surprising how quickly it became normal that we were walking around the spa naked.  There was an american couple who were there that were not quite willing to adopt the full German experience, and again, like in Sweden, they seemed the most out of place of anyone there.   Sorry (or maybe you're welcome) no pictures from this activity, but seriously, if you ever have the chance, it's a really enjoyable experience once you get over the initial shock of being in a room of naked people.

Ok, that's it for Berlin!  I swear.  We've managed to finally write about it all, just in time for our back to back trips to Paris and Rome.  Hard to believe but we're getting down to the home stretch now.  3 months tomorrow we'll be in Gatwick Airport waiting for our WestJet flight back over the pond to Canada.