Berlin is amazing! Part 1

(Alas I cannot make my blog posting looking nice and finished - Have I over loaded, or am I missing a step?  Advice welcome. )


I know I may be accused in some quarters of being, adjective wise, some what excessive.  But one must agree, what Berlin, and the people of Berlin experienced and overcame in the last 70 odd years is indeed amazing.  To make my point see this  link to a view of the Brandenburger Tor, Berlin June 1945 just after the end of World War II

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9gyM4Bwy5SC8e8fu2OrjiyrLG_cHT8luQZ0T7Yqjub8HfT5vLi3NQ233ddBLm77aR9bwicnIVSL3Y7lS9Zn_p26hDfALHbDc7r30yEh4jjdI8Fjk5CUMJ0WZLvc11iTbHwkhyphenhyphenB3TVrg/s1600/brtor1945.jpg


And now a  link to a view of the tower in June 1981 during the cold war.  - A time when no one could imagine the wall would come down just seven years later.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brandenburger_Tor_1981.jpg

And below, the Brandenburg Tower February 2014 as photographed by moi.

Not without irony this young girl was at the tower protesting Putin´s stance in the Ukraine.

A brief history lesson on how Berlin came to be divided.

In 1945 when World War II was clearly coming to an end, it was agreed the Allies - England, France, America and the U.S.S. R., would march into Berlin the German capital all at the one time. This was on the insistence of the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and against the advice of Winston Churchill, the English Prime Minister.  Churchill warned Joseph Stalin was not to be trusted, that letting the Russian Army march in on Berlin would be a disaster

He was right:  The Russians marched in and took control of the part of Berlin known as the Mitte, the center.  The boundary of this area of Berlin runs right in front of the Brandenburg Tower and not 20 feet behind the German Bundestag, the house of parliament.

After the World War II, as a result of rigged elections in several states in the eastern part of Germany, communist politicians ´won´ control in the local state elections.  These states came more and more under Russian control.  So after having lost the war, thank God, a great part of the western part of Germany now had to deal with the horrors of a communist regime.  

And don´t one of you readers give me biff on how there is lots to be said for communism and a lot not to said for Capitalism.  True.  But where in the world, are people forbidden under pain of death to leave capitalist countries.  On the other hand risking death, 1000´s try each year to sneak into countries with  capitalist driven economies.  

Whether we like it or not, for the most part, we humans work for money, not for the good of our fellow humans.

(Now I think I got that all right, but if my info. is not correct, I would welcome feedback on same.)

So, to back to my Berlin skite, check out parts 2 and 3.

 Auf Wiedersehen für jetzt!