Berlin - Day2
We started the day by visiting the Deutsches Historisches Museum (DHM) or German Historical Museum.  It is huge, we spent half a day in it, and didn't see it all.
   
Rick Steves calls it "the best look at German history under one roof, anywhere".
 
One of the first world globes -- at the time, they weren't really sure what was out there to the west.  They knew there was something but not two continents (North and South America).
   
"The permanent collection packs two huge rectangular floors of the old Prussian arsenal building with historical objects, photographs, and models -- all well-described in English."   We started on the upper floor and worked out way chronologically through the museum.  The top floor covered German history from 500 AD to 1918 with exhibits on early cultures, the Middle Ages, Reformation, Thirty Years' War, German Empire and World War I.
   
A painting of the Relief of Vienna on 12 September 1683.  Vienna had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months.   The battle marked the first time the Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire had cooperated militarily against the Ottomans, and it is often seen as a turning point in history, after which "the Ottoman Turks ceased to be a menace to the Christian world".
   
A captured Turkish tent from the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683.
   
Big German soldiers.
   
Napoleonic-era painting.  Probably some Prussians in there somewhere.
   
Napolean's hat?
   
The Prussian commander Blucher meeting the English commander Wellington after their great victory at Waterloo.
   
A Spinning Jenny, one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. It was invented in 1764 or so by James Hargreaves.  The device reduced the amount of work needed to produce cloth, with a worker able to work eight or more spools at once. This grew to 120 as technology advanced. The yarn produced by the jenny was not very strong until Richard Arkwright invented the water-powered water frame. The spinning jenny helped to start the factory system of cotton manufacturing.
   
Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898), the Prussian statesman who masterminded the unification of Germany in 1871 and served as its first chancellor until 1890.  He provoked three short, decisive wars against Denmark, Austria, and France.  Bismarck's diplomacy of Realpolitik and powerful rule at home gained him the nickname the "Iron Chancellor".   Bismarck created the first welfare state in the modern world, with the goal of gaining working class support that might otherwise go to his Socialist enemies.
   
British and French uniforms in World War I.
   
A display showing how a German WWI helmet was pressed out of steel sheet.
   
 This World War I poster gives you some idea of the people who took on the entire world twice.
   
The museum was also filled with art:  sculptures like this and big paintings.
   
 
   
 
   
I liked this painting because it shows the other side of the Industrial Revolution:  the workers who put in long hours for low pay and their families who were dependent on them.  Here, angry workers confront a factory owner.
   
We moved downstairs where there were impressive sculptures in the main lobby, then the World War II and Cold War sections.
   
 
   

A model of the huge domed hall Hitler had Albert Speer plan for the center of Berlin.  It would have been called the Volkshalle ("People's Hall") and would have been 950 feet tall with a capacity for 180,000 people.  It was never built.

The museum also had an all-white model like this of the crematorium at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp which I did not take a picture of.  It was very sobering.
   
A Soviet Union poster from World War II.
 
Did you know both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland in September 1939, but the Western Allies only chose to acknowledge Hitler’s transgression?  “My contention is that Hitler and Stalin bear equal responsibility for the outbreak of the Second World War and that their covert agreement to divide eastern Europe between themselves was the greatest criminal conspiracy of the 20th century, condemning millions to death or slavery.” -- Robert A Forczyk
   

Of course, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Poland was quickly forgotten, and Stalin demanded material help and a second front from the Americans and British.  He got it too, although the Russian people paid for it with their blood.  It took all three major powers -- the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union -- to defeat Nazi Germany.

I was curious how the museum would handle World War Two.  The museum did have a section but had very little on WWII military operations.  They did have this map showing the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 -- Operation Barbarossa.
   
Melted remnants from the city of Dresden which was firebombed in four Royal Air Force and US Army Air Force raids between 13 and 15 February 1945.
   
One of the few WWII artifacts:  an 88-mm anti-aircraft gun.
 
Overall, I thought the museum did a good job of handling the sensitive World War II topic.  They presented factual information and let the visitor come to their own conclusion.  They did not try to justify what happened or deflect blame.
   
Now in the Cold War section.  Here is the standard East German car:  the Trabant.  It was produced from 1957 to 1990 by former East German car manufacturer VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau.   It was the East German's version of the VW Beetle.
   
Leaving the German Historical Museum, we did an hour-long river cruise on the Spree.
   
Passing the Reichstag.
   
 
   
Approaching the west tip of Museum Island.  At the "prow" is Bode Museum, which contains Byzantine art, historic coins, art, sculptures and medals.  We did not have the time or energy to check it out.  Next time.
   
Cruising allong the northeast side of Museum Island.  The Berlin Cathedral is straight ahead.
   
A big apartment/mall complex on the north side.  The DDR Museum -- which presents life in the former East Germany -- is at lower left.  Next time.
   
River view of the Berlin Cathedral.
   
In this little square surrounded by beer restaurants on the northeast side, there is the statue of Saint George slaying the dragon.    The legend of Saint George and the Dragon tells of Saint George (died 303) taming and slaying a dragon that demanded human sacrifices; the saint thereby rescues the princess chosen as the next offering.
   
The cruise boat made a U-turn and now we are heading back west.
   
Contrasting architecture -- for the same building!  It is a corner of the new Humboldt-Forum Berliner Schloss which is on the site of what once was the Berlin Palace.  The Humboldt-Forum is a public venue filled with museums, shops, galleries, and concert halls behind a facade constructed in imitation of the original Hohenzollern palace.
   
River view of the Old National Gallery (Alte Nationalgalerie).  It was designed to look like a Greek temple.  It has mostly 19th century art:  romantic German paintings, French and German Impressionists and German Realists.  Next time.
   
A river view of the Reichstag.   You can just see the glass cupola sticking up in the center.
   
The very modern Paul Loebe Building.  Paul Löbe (14 December 1875 – 3 August 1967) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as President of the Reichstag.  This is one of the new parliamentary buildings which serves Bundestag members in Berlin
   

These buildings are on the north edge of the Berlin Tiergarten.  At center, obscured partly by that hanging tree, is the Haus der Kulturen der Welt or "House of the World's Cultures".  It presents art exhibitions, theater and dance performances, concerts, author readings, films and academic conferences on Visual Art and culture.

I believe the structure on the left is part of the German Chancellery, the hyper-modern government building housing the chancellor's executive offices.
   
The Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Central Station).
   
Leaving the river cruise, we headed over to the the Topography of Terror museum, located on the site of the Headquarters of the Reich Main Security Office -- the command center of the SS, the Gestapo, and the SD.   This memorial site focuses on the perpetrators rather than the victims.  The visitor's area is mostly written explanations and photos but it's a powerful experience at this place that was the nerve center.  To see a picture of Heinrich Himmler smiling over some joke from his staff was chilling.
   
Just out front of the museum is a remnant of the Berlin Wall.
   
 
A temporary exhibit was displayed outside in a trench.
   
A photograph of what the wall looked back in the day.  It was not just a single wall, there were multiple fences with cleared areas in between and watchtowers.
   
 
   
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