Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
bombing in November 1943 and left as a reminder. It's a strangely effective memorial,
the crumbling tower providing a hint of the old city. You can go inside what remains
of the nave: a small exhibit shows wartime destruction and a “before and after” model
of the city centre. Adjacent, a modern
chapel
contains a sad charcoal sketch by Kurt
Reubers,
Stalingrad Madonna
, dedicated to those that died - on both sides - during the
Battle of Stalingrad. he blue-glass campanile on the opposite side of the ruined church
to the chapel has gained the nicknames the “Lipstick” or the “Soul-Silo” because of its
tubular shape; in its base is a shop selling fair-trade goods.
6
Tauentzienstrasse
East of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, the Ku'damm becomes the rather bland
chain-store shopping street
Tauentzienstrasse
, which is also arranged around a wide
boulevard. At its eastern end is the largest department store in Europe,
KaDeWe
. An
abbreviation of Kaufhaus Des Westens (“Department Store of the West”), it opened in
1907 and quickly became a temple of luxury in a rapidly modernizing city. Decades
later the Nazis seized it from its Jewish owners, and in 1943 an American fighter plane
crashed into it, igniting a fire that gutted the building. Almost 180,000 Berliners
attended its reopening in 1950, and during the Cold War it became a symbol of West
Berlin's capitalist prosperity. Some days it averages fifty thousand visitors, many of
whom head to the superb sixth-floor food hall with its mouthwatering snacks.
Outside KaDeWe,
Wittenbergplatz U-Bahn station
has been likeably restored to its
prewar condition both inside (1920s kitsch) and out (Neoclassical pavilion). Near the
entrance, a tall sign reminds passers-by of the wartime concentration camps: it states
that the German people must never be allowed to forget the atrocities that were
carried out there, and lists the names of some of the camps. It's an odd memorial,
neither terribly poignant nor at a significant site, and one that goes largely unnoticed
by shoppers.
Käthe-Kollwitz-Museum
Fasanenstr. 24 • Daily 11am-6pm • €6 •
T
030 882 52 10,
W
kaethe-kollwitz.de • U-Uhlandstrasse
he
Käthe-Kollwitz-Museum
, just south of the Ku'damm, near Uhlandstrasse U-Bahn
station, is devoted to the work of Kollwitz, who created some of the most moving
works of the first half of the twentieth century. Born in 1867, the artist lived almost all
her life in Prenzlauer Berg, in the eastern part of the city (see p.132), where her work
developed a radical left-wing perspective. Following the death of her son in World War
I, her woodcuts, lithographs and prints became explicitly pacifist, often dwelling on the
theme of mother and child - her most famous print,
No More War
, a stark, furious
work depicting a protesting mother, is a perfect example. Her sculptures, too, often
deal with this subject: two of her bronzes,
Tower of Women
and the pietà
Mother with
Dead Son
, can be seen here. When her grandson was killed in World War II her work
became even sadder and more poignant. As she was a staunch pacifist and committed
socialist, the Nazis watched her carefully and forced her resignation from a prestigious
post at the Faculty of Arts, while at the same time using some of her work for their
own propaganda purposes. She died in 1945, shortly before the end of the war.
The Story of Berlin
Kurfürstendamm 207-208 • Daily 10am-8pm, last admission 6pm • €12 •
T
030 88 72 01 00,
W
story-of-berlin.de • U-Uhlandstrasse
Just west of the Uhlandstrasse U-Bahn on Ku'damm lies
The Story of Berlin
, an
excellent multimedia exhibition and an ideal first step in unravelling Berlin's history.
Tucked away in the back of a mall, the museum uses its odd layout to its advantage,
with each subsection extensively labelled in English. On the way round you'll be
confronted with life-size dioramas, film clips, noises, flashing lights, smoke and smells,
which illustrate the trawl through the highs and lows of the city's turbulent past. he
end result will entertain all ages and will take at least two hours to complete, not
