Not much to say today – but I’ll let the Autumn twilight photography speak for itself….
Alexanderplatz Fountains, with Berliner Dom in the background
The Statue of Neptune Fountain
Alexanderplatz, Tram & TV tower
Saturn (electronics) Store at Alexanderplatz
Oktoberfest Tent (rides and kiosks) at Alexanderplatz
While out walking between Jannowitzbrueke from seeing the puppets (see previous post), Jade, Paul, and I decided to cut across through the “old city” and came across a lovely park – that was filled with ruins – now used for various “artistic” displays. After wandering around the edge, I found out that it’s an old Franciscan Cloister Church. Just some history on this church – it was originally built in about 1250. It’s where the Franciscan monks of Berlin were housed, and sat right on the original city walls. It was here, that in 1380, a huge fire burned through. Parts of the cloister were rebuilt. In 1539, the monestry was then closed during the reformation, and the last “serving” brother died in 1571. At that time, the building was converted into a high school, where it remained as such – educating such famous Germans as Otto Von Bismark. In 1926, the building was remodeled to be used as a school / church. During WW2, the building was badly bombed and between 1959-1961 determined that it could not be saved. So, the area was cleaned up and stabelized as much as possible and turned into a park. Today, the building hosts art projects that change monthy, and in the summer months, it hosts open air theater performances.
Anyhow, It seems it was fate for us – because the particular “art” display of the day was a bunch of metal lines strung up between the empty windows – with some kind of pulley system on them – attached to jackets. On that very blustery of fall days, not only did the leaves fall from the trees through the open window frames, but also, the jackets danced – as if they were filled with a life of their own.
Thing is that sometimes – color photographs aren’t the best. You see, sometimes, effects are much better seen in Black and white:
See what I mean about sometimes – black and white is just SO much better?!?
Oh and if that wasn’t proof enough, check out this “columnade” from the outside….
Stone Spiral
* This is part of a series on the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall – and my attempt to document the events of the weekend, where 20 years before, a peaceful revolution brought about a big change which helped to end the cold war, and bring about a new Europe. Many more of the events are in the full flickr set here. *
Back in October, between the 2nd and the 4th, there was a huge event known as Unity Day. Beginning at Berlin’s city hall and moving throughout the city, celebrations were designed to celebrate the re-unification of Germany (19 years ago) as it related to the beginning steps taken 20 years ago (with the fall of the Berlin Wall). As a part of the celebrations, the city hired a group from France – the “Royal de Luxe” – to bring over to giant Marionettes (some 50 meters high) to walk through the Brandenburg gate, along Unter Den Linden, and then back again – climbing on board a ship to head back to France. It was a “modernized” tale about a young girl from East Germany, who is seeking her Uncle who was in West Germany – and finds him after years of separation. As the Giant Puppets search for each other, they passed lots of landmarks (and hundreds of thousands of parents and children) along the way.
I saw them on the last day, after they’d “discovered” each other, climbed (ok were attached to a crane and gently lowered down) to an awaiting barge – where they could promptly float off into the “sunset”, to live happily ever after.
You can find more on the puppets themselves and the newspaper article at: The Local
For even better pictures – I have to point to my friend, Andie’s blog -“the Giants are Coming” where he actually got photographs of these giant beasts “walking” through the city, handlers “on swings” in tow.