Berlin, Tuesday,
June 12
What a coincidence to be in Berlin today; 25 years ago the
following occurred:
(CBS
News) On June 12, 1987, in a dramatic speech set against the backdrop of
Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, President Ronald Reagan delivered a challenge to
Soviet leader Mikahil Gorbachev: "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek
peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you
seek liberalization: Come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr.
Gorbachev, tear down this wall."
We are staying one block off the primary retail street in
Berlin, named Kurfürstenstrasse. This district
is 3 km (1.8 miles) in length. Retail businesses
are typically on the street level with offices and apartments on the upper 4 or
5 levels of this strip of buildings. Two multi-story department stores, KaDeWe and
Kardst are a part of the retail mix.
Both include outstanding buffet style eating facilities (not a food
court with different vendors but probably managed directly by store). All the major European and some American
stores are represented along the corridor; the most surprising was a Harley
Davidson store. John Perschbacher did buy
a few (30) HD Berlin T-shirts for his bike buddies back home in Albert Lea. Not reporting what that bill came to.
One thing very clear is the number of people cycling as a
form of transportation. As a pedestrian,
we have to be quite careful to not only watch out for cars, but also to watch
out for cyclists. Cyclists are not
necessarily clothed in cycling racing attire which we see so often in the US—most
travel in their office work clothing, including women wearing dresses; few are
wearing helmets One comment made by our group went something
to the effect: “You just don’t see many overweight people around here. You would not expect that with all the consumption
of bread and beer. Maybe the walking and
cycling as transportation keeps them thin.”
We took a tour of Berlin via bus and received many tidbits
of the history of the city. There is
little evidence of World War II remaining but it has not been forgotten; many of the important buildings that were severely
damaged or destroyed during World War II including old Churches and museums, have
been restored or rebuilt to their original design and location. It has taken a long time and a lot of money
to restore the historical landmarks. The
mayor has recently said, “We have no money but we are sexy.”
What most people are curious about when think of this city
is “The Berlin Wall.” There is not much
remaining of the wall except one section that is about 3 or 4 city blocks long. It is surprisingly thin—maybe 1 foot in width. No, as far as we know, pieces of the wall are
NOT being distributed or sold. It is
surrounded by wire fences probably to prevent people from walking off with the remnants
of the same.
In the afternoon, many of the group took the bus to the nearby
town of Potsdam primarily to see the former, leisure get-away of the ruling
leaders of the Prussian empire. The Prussian
rulers for several hundred years were from the Hohenzollern family which has
interested several in our tour group.
Although in a noble family, one Heindrick Hollenzollern left with his
family from Germany to Minnesota to start a new life. With the onset of war in the 1870’s, Heindrick
did not want to have to send his sons into battle. What we have learned in our family history
(prior to our visit) is that to avoid
this challenge, he severed his ties with his extended family and home country, he
and his wife changed their surname to Klukow and emigrated with this family to
America. From nobility, the family lived
a relatively simple life in southern Minnesota.
They and many of their descendants are buried in the humble setting of
the Bear Lake Cemetery in Nunda Township of Freeborn County. It must have been seriously dreadful
conditions or Heindrick has great resolve to make the break from his
established heritage in Germany.
One of the Prussian rulers’ Potsdam residence has a British
Tudor motif. It was built between 1914 and 1917. Cecilienhof was the last palace built by the
Hohenzollern family. Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany had it erected for his son,
Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany, and the crown prince's wife Duchess Cecilie of
Mecklenburg-Schwerin. It was used in
latter times as the site of the Potsdam Conference where US, Russia and English
leaders came together near the end of
World War II to divide up Europe into what was the geo-political framework from
that time until 1987 when President Reagan challenged Gorbachev to “Tear down
that wall”.
The second site we visited was Sanssouci which was the
former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia. What a vast acreage reserved for the royal
family.
On a lighter note for the day,
it was very interesting to be part of the meandering group with John
Pershbacher on board. John mentioned that he “bought out” the Harley Davidson
store for T-shirts that highlighted Berlin for his motorcycle buddies back in
Minnesota. Well on this particular day,
John was wearing his Minnesota Gophers maroon T-shirt. As we strolled down the
walkways, the bicyclists were out in huge numbers, of interest to some but not
all. Then suddenly out of the quiet din
of the late afternoon / early evening, we heard a call from the roadway. It was a young coed on a bicycle riding by at
high speed and she screamed out “Go Minnesota – Go Gophers” in a very USA brand
of English. It happened so fast we did not know what to make of it. Everyone wondered how John pulled off this
exciting encounter, but amidst his various tales of adventure in Minnesota, we
now know that his influence has been expanded to a much wider universal audience.
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