Stasi Prison Complex

On Friday I visited a former top secret Stasi Prison complex. It gave me a very eerie feeling and made me think of the human rights abuses going on in the US today in Prisons such as Pelican Bay. The Stasi used to keep political prisoners in a damp and moldy basement here and use various means of torture to try and get them to confess, once they confessed of a crime (usually they were innocent anyway) they would be transferred to another prison to carry out their sentence.
Then the Stasi decided to use means of psychological torture instead of physical in the 1970's and 80's and built a slightly more humane prison, with cells that had windows and were not rank with mold. It was really intense going into the interrogation rooms they used to use. I thin it is important to remember this is not just some distant piece of the past but a very real experience that many Berliners had to face before 1989 and some of the people guiding the tours had been detained there in the 80's under political pretenses. This prison was kept so secret that even when the wall came down, there were no protests going on outside this prison because many people had no idea it existed, or were not sure where is really was since it did not appear on any official maps.

Berlin Festival of Lights

Here are some more pictures from the Berlin Festival of Lights.  It felt really magical.

 

Otto Weidt's workshop for the Blind

In September I went to see Otto Weidt's workshop for the blind which has now been turned into a museum. Otto Weidt helped rescue and shelter countless Jews and Social Democrats who were persecuted by the Nazis from 1933 to 1945. One of the people he employed and helped was Inge Deutschkron, a Jewish Berliner School girl during the war. I had the pleasure of reading some of her amazing memoir before I went to the museum.
Here you can see the tables where many of the blind workers made brushes and a view from the window of the workshop. I'm sure it looks very different now then it did back then with street art and a hipster bar down below.
All Jews were forced to work in very harsh conditions during this time, but since these men and women were blind, they would have almost definitely been sent to the death camps. Instead Otto Weidt ensured that they could find work and protection in his shop and also bribed the SS to keep them from deporting the blind Jewish workers here. He helped network with Social Democrats and Nazi resistors to help as many people as possible. This network was very important for brining people into hiding and forging documents, immigration papers and work permits.

Accordion and Trumpet

 

 

I heard some amazing music outside of my apartment yesterday on my walk home and I decided to grab my camera and see if I could record the musicians. I ended up finding these too men and they let me take a little video. Trumpet and accordion have to be two of my favorite instruments. I don't think they were asking for any money either, just walking the streets playing music for everyone.
For some reason I am not able to upload the video though......what a shame.
Last night I went out to see the festival of lights in Berlin, which goes on until Saturday. Famous buildings all over east and west berlin are illuminated with beautiful light shows until midnight. Really an awesome thing to see. It is a really special way to cheer up the nights as they start to get shorter and ease the oncoming of fall.

 

 

It may be a little difficult to tell from my photo, but the one above is a memorial outside Humboldt University to commemorate the lost knowledge of the approximately 20,000 books burned by the Nazis here on  May 10, 1933. I thought the image of empty bookshelves was very powerful.

 

Spazieren Gehen

Today was a peaceful fall day, mostly spent on trying to procrastinate from studying. I went to Martina's mother's house and had a delicious Pflaumenkuchen (plum cake). Yesterday I spent some time wandering the expansive Tiergarden and took a few pictures as the sun was starting to go down. This time of year is always difficult for me when it starts to get darker and darker, but I guess I will just have to get used to it since I will be here for the darkest day of the year and I am the same latitude as prince Edward Island in Canada approximately.
I always like to see the engraved locks that people put on bridges all over berlin to symbolize their love for eachother. A really cute thing to look at.

 

Fall Leaves

Here are some pictures of the fall leaves outside of the Berliner Dome. My friend and I sat here for a while under the trees people watching. After a few minutes this guy rolled up with a piano and strated playing cheesy pop song covers right next to us.

 

Here is an awesome Man I saw playing at the flea market near Frankfurter tour  back in August.

 

Vienna

Back on September 12th I took the night train from Berlin to go visit a friend in Wien. I have always wanted to visit this city, so famous for its art and culture. I spent some time with My friend Jacob's grandmother who was from Vienna, when I was in high school. She always told me I had to go to her home city and now I finallymade it was just as beautiful as she had described. I have to say the cake in Vienna has to be the most delicious I have ever tasted.
I spent some of my time in Wien by myself just wandering the streets in complete awe of the beautiful architecture.
I recorded this man in the video outside of the museum quarter playing bottles to a piece from the Nutcracker......complete insanity. Later that night I went to see Protestera, a kick ass female fronted Anarchopunk band from Sweden.
On the way back to Berlin I was really glad that I had decided to bring my passport with me on the train because I was awoken at about 6 in the morning during our stop in Dresden by the police, shouting at me "Passport, Passport!" I grogilly handed them my passport after I had accidentally handed them my ticket. They then proceeded to detain the two men in my car from Chechnya who did not have their passports. Rough way to wake up and I hope for the best for those two guys.

A little late....here starts the story of my stay in Berlin

Wow, after looking at previous Blogs I have done I realized how many details of the past simply fade out of my memory. I decided it is time again to record my experiences and share them because I know that I will regret not documenting my travels and relying purely on my flakey memory. I have already experienced so much while in Berlin and travels in Western Europe and already regret not Blogging for the first 7 weeks of my travels.

I am not quite sure where to begin, but I guess I will start by posting a video of some awesome street performers I saw at Alexanderplatz yesterday. The center of what used to be east Berlin. It is hard for me to really articulate my thoughts so maybe the best way for me to do this is to continue my project of recording street performers. This really is the most genuine form of music and I have never seen so many talented street musicians as in Berlin.