14 October Tuesday
Today we took the bus south-west from Friedenau to Steglitz where we changed to reach the Botanischer Garten and Museum. Knowing that the Museum was closed for refurbishment, we walked a long distance along Altstein Strasse with the railings of the Botanical Garden, one of the largest in Europe, to our left. We finally gave up on finding an entrance and crossed the road to the Königliche Gartenakademie, established in the 19th century in the cause of horticulture. It was now really a massive garden centre and, as the weather was somewhat damp, we retired to the comfort of the café with its large windows, wooden chairs and hanging drapes in which children delighted to entangle themselves. It was so pleasant that coffee and cakes were followed by an aperolspritz and we lingered until we saw that the staff were clearing the tables and we returned home after a day that was enjoyable but where we had not really achieved much. The Botanical Garden will have to await a visit in a milder, more flowery season when the museum is once more open.
15 October Wednesday
This morning we went shopping in Steglitz in preparation for the arrival of Sieglinde's friends Uli and Ilse in the evening. In the afternoon Sieglinde had a pedicure appointment I seized the opportunity for a brisk walk around the streets of Friedenau, discovering red brick churches, peaceful squares and gardens as focal points along the quiet tree-lined streets. I ended up in Wild Caffè, a slightly alternative neighbourhood café in Südwestkorso which Sieglinde had not discovered.
At 19:00 Uli and Ilse arrived. Uli had worked with Sieglinde's husband Jurgen in the Charité Hospital and was a great support to him during his final illness and a loyal friend to Sieglinde ever since, in particular helping her out with computer problems. He was impressed by my loyalty to Hubert, and I explained that it was not the first time that I had completed the work of a friend or colleague who had died.He was interested in the sources I had used and was horrified at what had happened to the Westcountry Studies Library. He and Ilse arrived with champagne and wine and we sat for more than four hours at the table talking memories of post-war life with its rationing and hardship. Ilse had spent much time among the Maya, so that provided a very different topic of conversation. Another wonderful evening and new friends made.
16 October. Thursday
I am in another Italian café writing this blog. Sieglinde has an appointment in a nearby eye clinic with the rather tacky name of Smile Eyes, located in Drakestraße in the Lichterfeld district. She has just telephoned me to say that there are six people in front of her in the queue - memories for me of going to the eye clinic with Jill when they gathered patients together at the start of the session and worked their way through in apparently random order. Smile Eyes seems to own half of Drakestraße and much of the rest is taken up by health facilities of various kinds, testimony to a hypochondriac nation, made worse by cyberchondria. But newspaper reports suggest that Spain, France, Denmark and the other Scandinavian nations top the list. Although somewhat higher than Britain, Germany does not even make it into the top ten.
In the evening we went to a concert in the Philharmonie with Sieglinde's friend Corinna. They usually add a modern piece in each programme in an attempt to broaden the music-going public's taste and we looked forward to this evening's concert with the Berlin Philharmoniker conducted by Sir Simon Rattle with some trepidation. It started well enough with Percy Grainger's "Lincolnshire posy" a piece for the brass section based on folk songs and continued with Prokofiev's first violin concerto. It had echoes at times of his "Classical Symphony" and the soloist, Janine Jansen, managed to extract incredible tones out of her instrument in a virtuosic performance which was followed as an encore with a slow movement from a Bach violin sonata - quite a contrast. The second half was a baptism of fire in the world of minimalist music inhabited by John Adams. It is a work in three movements, lasting about forty minutes. The last movement named "Meister Eckardt and Quackie" claims to be inspired by a dream that the composer had about his infant daughter Emily, whom he and his wife had nicknamed "Quackie". If the unfortunate infant was supposed to be lulled to sleep by the cacophonous noise of the full orchestra, the father deserved to be summoned before the courts for child cruelty. One reviewer, Colin Anderson, summed it up: "the repetitions of not vey interesting material belted out create indifference, even hostility, very quickly, but the composer carries on regardless [...] forty unproductive minutes". I must have been missing something though, the orchestra received a standing ovation, perhaps for their heroic achievement at getting through it rather than what they actually played. I shall persist with minimalist music though. At least Arvo Pärt is more soothing.
17 October. Friday.
In the evening we were invited by Sieglinde's friend in the Jewish choir Angelika for a most enjoyable supper in the Aperitivo Italian restaurant in the Schillerplatz next to Sieglinde's apartment.
18 October. Saturday.
A note in my diary that today was Devon in the 1920s History Fayre, in Exeter, but we had other fish to fry in Berlin. At 11:30 Matthias and Magdalena, relatives of Sieglinde, arrived from Frankfurt an der Oder with bottles of wine and champagne to consume with cakes and nibbles.
They drove us to Potsdam, treating us to a tour of Sanssouci palace followed by a meal at a lakeside restaurant on the Templiner See. It is as well that, on our previous visit to Berlin with our camper van Modestine in July 2006, Jill had provided a full account with my photographs in Maxted Travels with Modestine 1: From Prussia with love and there is much on the internet about Schloss Sansouci. This time, instead of paper handouts we were provided with audio guides in a choice of languages.
While Chinese visitors were photographing every wall of every room and were clearly tickled by the elaborate chinoiserie decorations, the only interior photograph I took was of Frederick the Great's library through the door as we were not allowed in.
There were about 4,000 volumes, particularly French literature, and Der Alte Fritz was a friend of Voltaire and other Enlightenment figures. Voltaire stayed in Sanssouci in a room inappropriately decorated with monkeys, parrots and other assorted wildlife. He also had similar libraries in each of his palaces. Outside we walked down the terraces which were planted with vines and fig trees under glass to protect them from winter frosts. Der alte Fritz looked on Sanssouci as a summer retreat, both from the affairs of state and a loveless marriage where he could devote himself to music, literature, art and his garden. He wanted to be buried there quietly but against his wishes was given a full state funeral. Only in recent years was his body returned to a modest grave which is usually surrounded not by flowers but by potatoes which he was instrumental in bringing to Germany. He would have liked that.
We wandered through the park, talking of many things, and found our way to the extraordinary Chinese tea house before we were left, after coffee and cakes by the Neues Schloss while Matthias went in search of the car to take us on to the Anna Amalia Restaurant on the shore of the Templiner See. We missed the restaurant and found ourselves in a campsite which looked strangely familiar. I later discovered that it was the same campsite as the one we used in July 2006. We had not eaten in the restaurant, which was just outside the campsite, and this time we were treated to a delicious three-course meal with aperitif, wine and coffee served by friendly waiters before being driven home, after which Matthias and Magdalena drove the 100 Km back to Frankfurt an der Oder. Another full and wonderful day with more of the many people that cherish Sieglinde's friendship.
But nothing is ever completely perfect. On our return we discovered that the sink in the kitchen was half full of dirty water and the washing machine was overflowing onto the kitchen floor. I emptied several buckets of water down the toilet and worked vigorously with plunger, bleach and floorcloths, toiling like Aquarius into the early hours.
19 October. Sunday.
After unsuccessful attempts to unblock the sink outlet in the kitchen and seeing water rise into the sink, presumably when people in the apartment above did some washing up, Sieglinde called the person responsible for the maintenance of the property, saying she had an English guest and, although it was Sunday, the honour of Germany depended on this pipe being unblocked as soon as possible. About 17:00 when we were enjoying coffee and biscuits Herr Neumann appeared on the scene. He was a typical Berliner, open, direct and full of humour, so we offered him a coffee. He said he wanted to get the job done first and set about with a formidable array of pumps, tubes and probes. He said that Sieglinde should have warned him that she had been using bleach. Sieglinde refrained from telling him that he should be wearing gloves. The exchanges soon became less confrontational and over coffee took an extraordinary turn although I could not understand all that was said in his rapidly delivered thick Berlin dialect. I took my cue from Sieglinde and when she laughed I laughed knowingly as well. It eventually became clear that I was not fully in the picture and Sieglinde said that I was English. He turned to me and said in perfect English "Where are you from? I am German but I was brought up in Crawley". The conversation continued largely in German but at a slower pace and I realised that he was talking about his sexual problems in an open, matter-of-fact and humorous way. Aged 63, he had been taking viagra for twenty years and described the problem of obtaining supplies in Greece where a doctor's prescription was required. He was alarmed at the loss of sexual drive in older women. Knowing that we were in our eighties he knew that our relationship must be on a different level. We were non-committal on that point to him, as we are to you, dear readers! Neither of us could believe what we were hearing and should really have kicked him out the door but we were fascinated by this manifestation of Berliner character and he seemed to have done a quick and efficient job at short notice, but I did feel that I had to accompany them when he asked Sieglinde to show him the pipework in the cellar. As we cleared up and did the accumulation of washing up after he left, he was the main topic of conversation. As the blockage was in the main pipework we would not have to pay anything for the work he had done and for the cabaret we had enjoyed over our coffee and cakes.
20 October. Monday.
Freed from worries about overflowing sinks and encouraged by good weather we decided to make the most of the day. Our first stop was a friendly travel agent in Steglitz who had over several years sold Deutsche Bahn tickets between Berlin and Weimar for Sieglinde and Hubert. I had found a train leaving Berlin Hbf on 30 October at 09:46 with two changes, arriving in Paris at 18:05. Based on his experience of DB and my missed connections on the journey to Berlin, he recommended an earlier train with only one change, leaving at 08:29 and arriving at 16:52.
That achieved, we decided to visit the Liebermann-Villa on the Wannsee, the lakeside home of the Expressionist painter Max Liebermann (1847-1935) with its gallery and garden. We set out on the S-Bahn to Wannsee and caught the bus which should have passed in front of the museum only to find it had been diverted, requiring us to make a long walk along a road which was entirely dug up for new piping. Bing had assured us that the Museum closed at 18:00, giving us a good hour to look round, but on arrival we learned that winter hours had started in October, not November and we had arrived just 15 minutes before closing time. We asked whether there was a closer bus stop to return, and hopefully a nearby café, purchased an attractive mat for Sieglinde's front door from the museum shop, and set off.
After ten minutes we saw our bus turn round ahead of us and disappear, so looked for a watering hole. A large hotel and restaurant the Sans Souci was sans service, unlocked with chairs stacked up, bottles of wine accessible to light fingers and no sign of staff. We walked down to a big lion statue overlooking the lake and saw a flight of steps leading somewhat precariously down to the Restaurant Seehase for a coffee before the next bus home. Once inside the heated dining area we succumbed to Aperolspritz, asked for the menu for a light bite and decided on a hamburger with chips on the side and watched the sun set over the lake. Then, as there was still some daylight left, we added a coffee and shared a slice of cake. There were few other diners and the service was attentive and friendly. The bus and trains back arrived with only a couple of minutes wait so we salvaged something pleasant from the sorry saga of our inability to arrive at museums at the right time, or even on the right day.
21 October. Tuesday.
I was sent on a shopping expedition this morning to collect some laundry and buy some rolls from the bakers and some other shopping from the local Edeka. I was assured it was not far and I found and collected the laundry in the Laubacher Strasse with no problem. The bakers and Edeka were in the same street but I must have walked past them both. I turned back after the shops ran out and discovered the bakers on the other side of the road. I collected the rolls and asked where the Edeka was. They said it was on the right and then straight on, so I returned to the Wiesbadener Strasse and turned right. Soon the shops and then the houses ran out and I found myself walking beside allotments, bright with garden gnomes, then under a motorway bridge and finally, after a mile or more there was Edeka Center, a massive store that I was certain was not the one intended, but there was a friendly man to welcome me and I was able to gather everything we required. Once I had managed to locate the checkouts and exit I decided to catch the bus back and while I was waiting I received a frantic call from Sieglinde who, knowing my speed walking, had expected me back an hour ago.
Shopping completed we went into the town centre to buy some presents in James Simon Galerie shop and then went next door to the Bode Museum which we discovered closed at 17:00 so we contented ourselves with a coffee in very splendid surroundings.
22 October. Wednesday.
Today we went back to the Neue Nationalgalerie in the Kulturforum, hopeful for more treasures following the discovery of my "Hermès (Bag)" the tribute to my carrying case by Cosima von Bonin.
Unfortunately the rest of the collections of twentieth-century art in a divided Germany did not live up to this initial transcendant encounter. Many art movements were introduced, some far too way-out for this blinkered old bibliofool, with sound and video installations galore. The displays on feminism seemed particularly dated. What does wandering starkers round a corn field, in red high-heeled shoes, with a tall column strapped to your head say to anyone about anything? But even the reaction "Well if that's art, then I'm an artist" is catered for:
By standing on the positions on the floor and perceiving the new spatial juxtapositions of objects in the gallery we are apparently creating our own artworks. Nevertheless, despite realising that I was a budding conceptual artist, I was most disappointed in finding only two examples of socialist realism in the galleries - is it the new entartete Kunst?
Sieglinde becomes a conceptual artist
23 October. Thursday.
Today was largely taken up by a visit to the Bode Museum, which was Hubert's favourite museum on the Museumsinsel. Previously, we had only managed the rather splendid café which we had reached up a magnificent staircase.
Sieglinde climbs the main staircase in the Bode Museum
The entrance hall is dominated by an equestrian statue of Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg (ruled 1640-1688) which is a copy of the one outside Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin and was designed by Andreas Schluter. It stands guard what is probably the world's largest museum of European sculpture.
Bode Museum, statue of Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg
Bode Museum
Some of the choicest exhibits are displayed in the overpowering Basilika. The founding director, Wilhelm von Bode, believed in mixing art collections and it is now the home for a collection not only of sculptures but also Byzantine art, and more than 500,000 coins and medals. Many pictures from the Alte Galerie are being moved to accompany the sculptures of various stylistic periods. The Bode Museum was badly damaged during WWw2 and some items are probably still in Russia, We also visited the Neues Museum with its wonderful collection of Egyptian antiquities including the bust of Queen Nefertiti from Tell el-Amarna, (ÄM 21300)from the 18th Dynasty, (ca. 1351–1334 BCE).
When we emerged from the museums a rosy evening sunset lit up the buildings on the Museumsinsel.
Alte Nationalgalerie and Berliner Dom
24 October. Friday.
Today is national Library Day in Germany and Sieglinde had booked us in for talks and tours in the library of the Deutsches Historisches Museum Bibliothek found in the Museumsinsel beside the Zeughaus, originally the Prussian arsenal building which now houses the Museum. The address is, appropriately, Hinter dem Gießhaus, 3 (3, behind the Foundry). The talks were a double act by Klaudia Charlotte Lenz and Mattias Miller who in the first talk outlined the complex history of the library, founded as the Zeughausbibliothek in 1822. The library reading room and administration is in what was from1896 to 1945 the Prussian Central bank and on a tour of the stacks we learned about the hoists used for moving the heavy gold bars stored in the bank vaults. After 1945 the building was used by the GDR Foreign Ministry and for a while was the headquarters of VEB Minol, the state petroleum company before being transferred to the Museum around the time of the Wende in 1989.
Bibliophily: travel souvenirs
There was also a talk on book collecting with a display of examples of collectibles including the first edition of Im Westen nichts Neues (All quiet on the Western Front), the famous 1928 war novel by Erich Maria Remarque. I must check up to see whether my copy is a first edition. [It wasn't]
Bibliophily: translations and first editions
Later in the day there was a talk on the history of the book, considering the writing materials, scripts, and technological processes involved from clay tablets through papyrus scrolls to bound manuscripts on parchment to paper and print and digital media. As librarians they spoke about the evolution of the title page and the problems this posed for identifying and cataloguing a text. In some respects in recent times the situation had reverted to the time of the incunabula with much information on the verso of the title or even the back of the book. Copies of early items were handed round among them a particularly fine example:
Berlin, Haude und Spener, 1778
Johann Reinhold Forster's [...] Reise um die Welt während den Jahren 1772 bis 1775 in dem von Seiner itztregierenden Großbrittannischen Majestät auf Entdeckungen ausgeschickten und durch den Capitain Cook geführten Schiffe the Resolution unternommen / beschrieben und herausgegeben von dessen Sohn und Reisegefährten George Forster. [...] Vom Verfasser selbst aus dem Englischen übersetzt, mit dem Wesentlichsten aus des Capitain Cooks Tagebüchern und andern Zusätzen für den deutschen Leser vermehrt und durch Kupfer erläutert. Erster Band. Mit allergnädigsten Freyheiten. The author Georg Forster (1754-1794) was the subject of my friend Hubert's doctoral thesis at the Karl-Marx-University in 1989 and this account of his journey round the world with his father Johann Reinhold Forster (1729-1798) popped up again in the display in the historical division of the Staatsbibliothek this afternoon.
Entrance courtyard of the Staatsbibliothek, Unter den Linden, Berlin
IVth continuation of a journal of a voyage on board his Majesties ship Resolution Capt. Cook commander from the arrival in Otahaitee April ye 22d 1774 to the departure from Nallicoolo Sept. ye 1st 1774 / Johann Reinhold Forster.
Journal IIIrd continuation 15 March 1774 / Johann Reinhold Forster
Johann Reinhold Forster recorded the monumental basalt sculptures of Easter Island in a sketch and was the first European to investigate the names of these Moai. He writes:
These pillars intimate that these natives were formerly a more powerful people, more numerous & better civilized; & they are the only monuments of their former grandeur. These pillars all have names, & the whole range of pillars near the sea is commonly called a Hanga & they add allways a peculiar name to it, to particularise or distinguish the monument & division of the country.
Art installation between the Deutsches Historisches Museum and the Staatsbibliothek
We thought it looked like the ship of fools and so I was persuaded to pose as the bibliofool, the leading member of the crew.
The day started badly. We set out for Steglitz with the aim of buying tickets for Sieglinde's flight to Bristol on 1 December only to find that the travel agent did not open at weekends.
We decided to visit the Berlin Medical History Museum which is in the main city-centre campus of the Charité hospital. Following an order of King Frederick I of Prussia, the hospital was established north of the Berlin city walls in 1710 in anticipation of an outbreak of the bubonic plague. After the plague failed to materialise in Berlin, it came to be used as a charity hospital for the poor and in 1727 King Frederick William I of Prussia gave it the name "Charité". The construction of an anatomical theatre in 1713 marked the beginning of the medical school. The University of Berlin (today Humboldt University) was founded in 1810 and the dean of the medical college Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland integrated the Charité as a teaching hospital in 1828. It has become Europe's largest university hospital, affiliated with Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin. The complex is spread over four campuses and comprises around 3,000 beds, 15,500 staff, 8,000 students, and more than 60 operating theatres.
Sieglinde worked in the Campus Virchow Klinikum in Wedding, which grew out of the Institut für Pathologie, involved in seeing funding for research projects and it was there that she met her husband Jurgen who worked in the IT section. She was keen that I saw the museum of the institution she worked for and so was I, since Jill had worked in Exeter Medical Library and came into contact with researchers there.
Wedding campus of the Charité Hospital, Berlin
Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charité owes its origin to Rudolf Virchow – internationally known as "the father of modern pathology". He opened the Pathological Museum as part of the Charité in 1899 and made many of the exhibits in the collection himself. It re-opened in June 2023 in the heart of Berlin on the main Charité campus. It has a large space for temporary exhibitions on the first floor and the permanent exhibition on the second and third floors with the anatomical and pathological sections on the second floor and a display of equipment, including a massive iron lung, a birthing chair and a number of case studies. Through a window here we could see the ruin of the former Rudolf Virchow Lecture Hall.
Rudolf Virchow Lecture Hall, Medical History Museum, Berlin
With the lecture hall ruin of the former Rudolf Virchow Lecture Hall, the Berlin Medical History Museum owns a breathtaking unique venue that has already provided an unforgettable experience for many guests from all over the world. The lecture hall in the former Pathological Museum was destroyed by aerial bombing at the end of World War II. In the post-war years, it was provisionally restored and almost forgotten. Since the mid-1990s, the "preserved" lecture hall ruin has been a venue for festive events, social gatherings and scientific exchange.
26 October. Sunday.
As the weather was dreadful we decided on a day at home, catching up on blogs, preparing for my return this coming week and doing washing and cleaning. By 16:30 we felt the need for coffee and cakes so made our way across the Schillerplatz to the Aperitivo where Sieglinde was greeted with the usual hugs. We had almost finished when Sieglinde's friend Sabine rushed in and was also greeted by hugs. As usual she was between several jobs and ordered a take-away meal for herself while she visited a nearby patient. She said she would return soon so we ordered three aperolspritzes and nibbles. When she was back she announced that she had just heard that her daughter would be getting married on 16 January and Sieglinde, being almost one of the family would probably be invited. She also said that Monday her son would be celebrating his 30th birthday and that we were both invited - although Sieglinde has no idea whether he had been consulted. We have received no confirmation of place or time, so wonder whether it was another of her impulsive actions as she bustled her way through her chaotic life.
27 October. Monday.
This morning we went back to the friendly travel agent in the Schloßstrasse in Steglitz to book the flight to England for Sieglinde on 1 December. It starts from Berlin at 11:25 and arrives in Bristol at 12:35. As the distance is 700 miles this would mean the plane travels almost at the speed of sound. The return journey apparently takes three hours but the actual flight time is two hours at a more modest speed of 350 mph, to the relief of a nervous Sieglinde. I will meet her at the airport for the Falcon bus to Exeter, another two hours for about 80 miles and we will take a trip out to Berlin airport so that she will have some idea of where to go and what to do as she has not flown for some time.
That done, we decided to visit the Humboldt Forum again, this time to see the roof terraces on the fourth floor with their spectacular views and smart café and also to view the exhibition on the history of Berlin. The Humboldt Forum has much of interest bur we both find it very difficult to navigate. Different tickets are required for different exhibitions, some are free, others do not accept the Berlin museums card. We found we had to pay for access to the café on the terrace but found two luxurious seats facing out towards the Cathedral and over coffees and two very rich cakes watched the sun set in a magnificent sky of storm clouds while flocks of starlings put on an acrobatic flying display.
We had to deposit our bags to visit the Berlin display and then found we had to go down to the foyer to buy tickets as the Berlin museums card did not cover that display. Finally they relented as the exhibition was not open for much longer. We soon discovered that it was not the display of archaeological sites and short historical video on the history of Berlin we were hoping for but something much larger on Berlin and the world since the war, picking up on the important issues across the years in an overdesigned confusing display which was fitted awkwardly into a series of rooms and connecting corridors. We imagined the series of brainstorming sessions that must have gone on to hide such a mass of interesting information in such a rabbit warren of a display.
We finally discovered the lift down to the castle cellars where our exhibition was housed on our way out of the Humboldt Centre. It was in fact quite well signposted; we had simply come in the wrong entrance.
28 October. Tuesday.
We dedicated too much of today in an attempt to trailblaze Sieglinde's route out on 1 December to the Willi Brandt airport - the only one Berlin has since reunification - at the end of an S-Bahn line on the southern outskirts of the City. We had ascertained that taxis were very expensive and Sieglinde and I both had Deutscland-Tickets which gave us free railway travel. We discovered that both the S-Bahn lines were no longer running and it was necessary to use the regional train network or take a replacement bus service. We followed the in-train advice announcements and alighted from the train at the station suggested only to find no signs of any buses or any indication where to wait for them. We caught the next train on to Ostkreuz, a complicated interchange station and eventually found the platforms for the regional train to the airport, which was late because of an even later train to Cottbus holding it up. When it finally arrived it was a double-decker, crammed full of travellers with suitcases and baby buggies. We stood for the twenty minute journey with nothing to hold on to, as central poles had been removed to make a clear passageway for wheelchairs and people were tossed about alarmingly as the train lurched on its way. Once arrived and disgorged from the carriages, we had to find our way to the terminal, locate and familiarise ourselves with the flight displays, automatic luggage handling and check-ins as Sieglinde and I had never used an airport for some time. What should have been less than a one-hour journey had taken more than two but at least we had sussed out lifts and escalators to help with the luggage. We recovered over a coffee and croissant, and the return journey took less than half the time.
29 October. Wednesday.
Tpday was my last full day on this visit, and it was a sunny one but it turned out to be a mad day.
I was confronted by mad man on the U-Bahn, an individual other travellers had managed to ignore. made up for by two young men opposite, notices had bought clothes from same shop. Wished us good day.
Conned by two girls asking s to sign petition for Foundation for protection of orphaned and disabled children.
Greeted by people dressed up as skeletons and discovered that we had visited for the celebration of the Mexican Fiesta de Día de Muertos, presumably tying in with Halloween.
pic
Berlin Global
We wanted to discover more of the history of this part of Berlin, particularly on the site of the Schloss. The Berlin Global exhibition turned out to be something much larger, on Berlin and the wider world since the war, picking up on the important issues across the years in an overdesigned confusing display which was fitted awkwardly into a series of rooms and connecting corridors. I imagined the many brainstorming sessions that must have gone on to hide such a mass of interesting information in such a rabbit warren of a display.
We were also directed to a panorama-styled history of the site. Much information was dispensed in a format that must have resulted from an idea hatched in one of the brainstorming sessions for the Berlin Global display. The panorama was far too wide to be completely seen from any position. The idea of enormous hands putting into place documents to illustrate the sources used for the history seemed good but soon degenerated into an annoying gimmick when they were gathered up and swept away before we had a chance to look at them, and they had no captions anyway to place them in context.
Schloßkeller
We finally discovered the lift down to the castle cellars where our exhibition was housed on our way out of the Humboldt Centre. It was in fact quite well signposted; we had simply come in the wrong entrance of the massive site. A raised walkway led through the various excavated levels from medieval times to GDR days. There were excellent explanatory panels and interesting finds were also displayed.
Berlin. Dominican monastery. 1450/1536
In medieval times a Dominican foundation of Schwarze Brüder (Blackfriars) occupied part of the site of the castle and finds linked to books and writing were on display, metal clasps for holding the vellum codices flat and a stylus for writing on wax tablets for more ephemeral notes. Some manuscript books from the monastery are held by the Staatsbibliothek. Had also expected a video.
Directed to panorama styled history of site. Much information dispensed in a style that must have resulted from an idea hatched in one of the brainstorming sessions for the Berlin display that we had fleetingly visited on Monday. The panorama was far too wide to be completely seen from any position. The idea of enormous hands putting into place documents to illustrate the sources used for the history seemed good but soon degenerated into an annoying gimmick when they were gathered up and swept away before we had a chance to look at them, and they had no captions anyway to place them in context.
Main public library.
Gendarmenmarkt Café Einstein.
In U-Bahn Stadtmitte we got on the train promptly but soon wondered why it had become empty. It was the wrong train.
Changed trains and S. landed in lap of young man
30 October, Thursday
Today required an early start as I had to catch the train for Paris in the Hauptbahnhof at 8:29. The tale of woe for the journey really belongs to the next blog covering our family reunion in Paris.
