A City Divided by Walls…

When I was born, the Berlin Wall had already been up for 15 years. The main city of Germany – the one with the largest population after the war was literally split in two by a wall which surrounded nearly 130 miles around the city – a wall which went through 3 phases – between 1961 and 1989 until it wound up being two meters high. The final phase of the wall was a foot thick, steel reinforced concrete, topped by barbed wire, and built in massive slabs that could only be moved in place by cranes or bulldozers. And it wasn’t just one wall. It was two of these masses – divided by a 40 meter (~25 foot) death strip which was divided by lookout points and patrolled by guns. Scary.

One of the first things I remember growing up – was hearing a few family stories about my uncle Jeff who had been stationed in Germany – not in Berlin – but close enough to where for several years of being here – he wasn’t able to travel and could judge the cold war tension between the west and eastern (former soviet) sides of Germany. Famiies had been divided, a city’s industry and resources cut in two, and militaries had once again faced off tank against tank – across the border near checkpoint charlie. To say the least, it was an uneasy time for all whether you were inside or out of the barricade. And thus, my second memory of the city, was the speech in 1987 – I was 11 – where Regan asked “Mr Gorbachev – Tear down this wall!”. I wasn’t here, and I didn’t understand why the wall was there – or about communism or republicanism or why our governments were engaged in the cold war. What I thought at the time was “why?”.

Then, my freshman year in high school (1989), I was lucky. My school had gotten a grant from several industries including IBM, CNN, Southwire, and Phillips – to be ‘upgraded’. This meant that our school got hard wired for TVs and VCRs in every classroom, as well as 7 computers hooked to the internet, education software, and a few other “bonus” things. At the time, we all thought it was cool but didn’t really understand how much this visionary update would change our lives in the coming years (if it wasn’t for this, I’m not sure I would be doing what I am today). Out of this grant, we were required to watch 15 minutes of “in the school news” combined with world news provided by CNN especially for schools. Sounds boring – and most of the time it was. Only one day (November 9, 1989), when we came into school – our homeroom teacher turned on the tv to CNN and said, class, I am not teaching you a lesson today. I want you to watch the news for the next half hour. Some of us were relieved, others studied – and some of us went well, it must be important if we’re not being taught. Little did we know…

At any rate, I remember thinking she was slightly strange (the tv was showing scenes from Germany where people had been protesting for months)- but in the next hours, we saw all we needed to see. Students, protesters, chanting, yelling “”Wir wollen raus!“” (we want out) or “Wir bleiben hier“, (“We’re staying here!”) – carrying banners and signs on both sides of the wall – removing the barbed wire in the darkness – swarming the death strip – to no gunfire (the guards superiors didn’t want to be the ones to order lethal force on crowds). And then it happened. The first people started to climb on the top of the wall…. and the school bell rang. We were rushed on to the next class. As students, we were talking about it – and the next teacher in there agreed to turn on her TV as well. It was my French class – and we were supposed to have a Test…. which after seeing the news, she postponed to the next day. It was as she turned on the tv, and we insisted it was important that suddenly a guy in a black leather jacket was standing on the wall, reaching down, and taking a sledge hammer from someone in the crowd – and the rest was history.

The first few hits of that sledge hammer must have sent hard sharp shards of concrete shrapnel into the crowd. I can’t imagine how much those little pellets must have hurt – but maybe it wasn’t so bad – it was for reunification, after all. As we watched, suddenly a roar went up – Success! The barriers were chipped away – moved gradually piece by piece until there was a hole in the wall. A hole through which East and West Berliners reached out and shook hands for the first time in 38 years. All this happened pre social networking sites like twitter or myspace (which are leading Iran protests now as I type this), pre-web 2.o, pre cell phones or texting. And somehow, it happened. People knew where to gather – when – and what to do – Peacefully – to reunite their city and their country.

17 years later, I moved to Germany. To Berlin

The city was reunited and my first impressions of it were that of the 2006 World Cup Match being held here. I heard from all my colleagues how this was the first time they had really realized that this was Germany – One Germany – Really Really One Germany. They had never seen German flags fly over anything but government buildings. Patriotism just didn’t exist – only – suddenly during the World Cup, German flags were everywhere. On buildings, on cars, on balconies. They were on hats and tshirts, pins, buttons, windows and anything else you could possibly think of. It was a resurgence of national pride.

I’ve lived here for 3 and a half years. It’s been good, bad, and well, at times, very different from my own native USA. This year it’s the 20th anniversary of the “fall” of the Berlin wall. There’s events everywhere – Alexanderplatz, Checkpoint Charlie, Potsdamer Platz. Theyve even published bicycling maps so you can take your bicycle and cycle the entire “path” of the wall around the city and see where it was, where it is, and how things are being “put back together” (Progress). Thing is – there’s events and memories that I’m seeing happen here – but he biggest one that I’ve seen isn’t so public.

You see, in the last year, the street that I live off of – used to end just after the apartment complex. The wall was less than 1/4 mile away. It was there – overgrown in the woods along the canal (I walked the dog by it – he peed on it). This Spring, road construction made the road longer – and connected it to Berlin. It’s now a major town thoroughfare. The by-product? That wall that I had walked the dog by – well, it’s gone. Bulldozers took all the pieces of it pushed them into bunches on the old death strip – and they’re being “recycled”. They’ve been pretty inaccessible because of the road construction and fences. Much like everything in Germany, though – eventually if you watch, someone puts a hole in the fence – or removes one side of the fence alltogether. With a little initiative – no one says anything – and you can go in and break off your own piece of the Berlin wall – or…

In my case – take pictures. Of History. Before it’s gone. So, here’s my impression of “my” wall – 1/4 a mile from the house – in Teltow. 20 years later.

Mental &Physical Walls

Holes and Cracks

Undermined by Erosion

Chains on My Heart, but the Walls are falling….

So, last but not least, I just want to show that there is Life on the Death Strip – and there there is still hope. In my eyes, I am watching Iran, North Korea, and China – hoping for an outcome like the one I witnessed on TV in 1989. Time will Tell, but where there is only gray, sometimes all you need is the colored glasses of youth.

As always, you can find more on My Flickr Site in the photo set “Berlin Wall in Teltow”

…Old Ideas, New Uses…

** As always, please click on the photos to be taken to a larger version on my flickr site**

June 1 dawned cool and lovely, but very humid – which was to lead to thunderstorms later in the day (and make for dramatic photos). For weeks, Michael had bugged me (in a good way) about the fact that Brandenburg was going to open all it’s old flour mills and you could go through and see them. These aren’t the huge electricity producing ones – but instead, are amazing throwbacks to a simpler time – where the earth and people were more in harmony – where farmers grew grain, horses plowed fields and pulled carts, and granite stones turned by wind and water ground the wheat, rye, and barley kernels into a white powdery flour. Not an easy life – but one that allowed for a good day’s work from sunup until sundown. It was back in that time when the flour was made into bread – and Bread was the main staple of everyday life. It may seem like forever ago that each town actually needed a mill – but truly, it wasn’t so long ago – only about 150 years. Our Goal was to drive all over rural Brandenburg through lots of small towns and see ~20 mills. Did we make it? Well… the answer is Maybe.

You see, we saw this mill – near Saalow – Wieseckes Mill first. The mill was closed to tours, but sat in the middle of a wheat field with a nice dirt track leading up to it and some beautiful fruit trees on either side. From there, we headed up the road maybe a mile, to Saalow itself, where they have the world’s only Internal turbine mill. It does work, and was built in the 1700’s. The reason for this ingenious invention was to keep from having to pay taxes – which, at the time, were based on the length and width of the building.

The little town had really put on a show – including old motorcycles, tractors, and washing. (pictures in another blog). From there, we wandered a bit and saw some barracks (I’ll post about that later) several churches and one of the UNESCO world heritage Cloisters that is so over the top Rococco (it’s almost obscene to the eye) and had lunch (yes, I’ll post this later too). After Lunch (and some of the best black beer I’ve ever tasted), we were back on the road and decided on the Schwerzkoer Mill – a water mill:

Which was complete with its pond and …..

UGLY Ducklings!!!

Now late afternoon, we headed past a mill ruin where the sun came out long enough to get a couple great pictures and, I met an old woman as I went to go behind the mill….

Now, remember, this was the old communist side of Brandenburg. She’d obviously not had an easy life, let me tell you, but she was very kind and really just happy for a chat. She had to be about 80 years old, and was missing several of her front teeth. As I walked down the dirt path to get a shot of the ruin, she popped out from behind the house wearing a polyester house coat, dark trousers and white worn leather shoes. I think what sticks out is the crazy house coat – because it was as bright as per personality – the coat had this dark violet background with large neon pink and orange flowers, and white piping – and reminded me totally of something I would have seen my great grandmother in. She had green gardening gloves, was hatless – with white hair blowing in the wind, and was carrying a ancient rusted hoe that had a three pronged “rake” on the opposite end. She asked me how come she had had so many people stopping, and I remarked on the mill and the fact that hers was on the list. She was pleasantly surprised – as she explained to myself and Micha that the mill we were looking at had been out of order since her husband’s boyhood. Apparently, it was closed up around the turn of the century, she said, by his grandfather. His great great grandfather had built it (and if my guess is right that would be in the late 1700 or early 1800’s) and operated it for most of his life. She explained that it was a classic “hollandesch muelle” and that the family had owned the land around it for years. It was an interesting chat, and after it she let me walk around the mill for some photos – where I noticed that someone was still growing wheat.

Anyhow, after a couple more mills and with the weather turning dark, we hit the freeway – to see several “modern windmills” – well over 80 of them were passed by on the way back toward Teltow. By far, it was a successful day – 7 “old style” mills, and lots of new ones. (did we make 20? You decide). The best picture of the day, however, goes to the storm clouds – which parted long enough to give me this:

So, here’s to those who built the mills – that are now a throwback to a time none of us alive remembers – and here’s to those who see the technology of yesteryear as a “GREEN” energy – (but without acknowledging the dams that are needed for the watermills, or that not every place is perfect for windmills) and are trying to make use of it today.

PS – Thanks Micha for driving… I’ll get more pictures up soon.

PPS – if you want to see more, the flickr set is here.

Update: Explosions in Teltow

Update to my previous blog – Explosions in Teltow

As the day has continued, more information has come out. First off, the building that exploded is part of an old industrial complex built in the 1960’s – 1970’s. Most of the buildings from this era are gone now, and this was one of the last – and also located on the busiest street corner. It belongs to the Biomalz (bio malt beer brewery) and also had a wire making business on a floor along with a tire (vehicle) storage/sales company inside on one of the floors as well. Damage is expected to be several million euros.

The fire investigators have thus far not determined the cause of the 6 alarm fire. They are stating that it wasn’t Arson, nor was it a lightening strike (we had some serious thunderstorms here a few hours before the explosion), but haven’t been able to get in to do investigations. Luckily, no one was killed. Fire Inspectors / Police have yet to determine the structural stability of the building and firefighters were still on site battling “flare ups” at 18:30PM when I left from taking the pictures below. That makes well over 19 hours that this has been going on – and I would suspect it will go on well into the rest of the night.

As you can see from the pictures, the building is about 5 stories high. One side of the building had an old loading dock that was steel beamed and had a concrete awning (which partially collapsed). Between the 3rd and 4th floor, you can see that part of the concrete facaad is missing – there are several dangling window frames (and many non existant) where you can see straight into the concrete and steel construction work. This side is where the blast occurred – it was so powerful that not only did it take out part of the concrete on the awning below – but blew out windows on the jaguar dealership (and some of the cars inside the showroom) across the street. And – when I walked around the back of the Jaguar Dealership – I noticed that the Land Rover dealership had lost several of its back (it blasted through the Jaguar into the Land Rover) windows as well.

From what I was hearing from the gathering of gawkers who were about today – they said that apparently when the fire broke out there was enough time to evacuate the employees. However, by the time the fire department arrived, the building was pretty well set on. The explosion was caused due to a pair of propane tanks (maybe for cooking the beer? or for the copper wire making? not sure) that were inside. Subsequently, the windows blew out on the floors (the pops I kept hearing) and then a couple cars burnt up (and exploded as well (the later loud booms I heard). Apparently residents in the area were told to keep their windows shut due to the potentially caustic smoke – but I wasn’t one of them – maybe I was too far away. I figured out today its somewhere between 500 and 800 meters (about 1/4 to 1/3 mile) from my apartment – and yes, I managed to “sleep” quite disturbed through the entire thing – AND not be wondering too much about the helicopters that were darting about as I walked the dog…..

On to the photos. As always, click the photo to bring you to flickr, where you can see a larger size.

Five Floors Gutted

Notice the Bowed side – and the hole in between the 3rd and 4th floor – this is where the main part of the blast (propane tanks?) pushed out, dropping the concrete siding chunks onto …

the Formerly Concrete & Steel Awning over the loading dock.

The titled stuff on the left is the former concrete siding facaad between the 3rd/4th floor windows.

That material apparently then set the vehicles on fire —

and the shockwave Busted out the windows on both the Jaguar and Land Rover Dealerships (I heard it even blasted out some of the showroom car windows but didn’t see any cars with broken glass…).As that continued, the fire started to