Pergamon Museum from 3/26/09

(Old MySpace Import, so not all links may work!)

Ahh I’m so behind.  I had a week off on holidays – and still have
pictures from my birthday trip to process.  However, due to a request
from the photo group – I’m trying to get the ones from the photo group
processed and up first.   So, thus the reason for multiple back-dated
blog posts on the same day.  (no, it’s not your eyes – I really did
enter these in May… but out of my diary from April.)

Let’s
start with Just after the birthday trip.  I got back home on March 18th
and started back to work.  The weekend after I got back, a friend of
mine, Tony was in town. No time off from life for me!  This always
results in alot of running around Berlin, dinners, and so on.  Anyhow,
as a team event, we went to the Pergamon Museum.  Most of the photos I
don’t like – but since he didn’t have a camera, I thought I’d take a
few just to try and show the size and scale of the place.

They’re up at on Flickr in My Pergamon Museum Set.

Just for the sheer size comparison, these are the ones I picked as “the
best”. Seriously – if you ever get to Berlin, this is one place you
just can’t miss because it is what it is – the rape of the treasures of
several countries, dismantled and rebuilt in a specially designed
museum.

Temple of Athena
Tony with the goddess Athena (greek)

Ishtar gate (babylon)
Again,
Tony – in front of the Ishtar Gate (of Babylon. Yes, this was an entire
dismantle and move into this specially built museum building. (Iraqi)

Temple of Pergamon

The Temple of Pergamon – (greek) yes, those are people on the steps,
and yes, again this was an entire dismantle and move into this
specially built museum building.

Roman Walls
3 story high outside of a Roman house – with tile mosiac (around which you have to walk) and speaking platform – below:

Roman Speaking Platform

Notice the mosiac at the bottom…of this picture.

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Treptower Park, Molecule Man, Bridge at Sunset

(Please note that these are old imported blogs from My Space.  The links may not work correctly.)

Ahh I’m so behind.  I had a week off on holidays – and still have
pictures from my birtdhay trip to process.  However, due to a request
from the photo group – I’m trying to get the ones from the photo group
processed and up first.   So, thus the reason for multiple back-dated
blog posts on the same day.  (no, it’s not your eyes – I really did
enter these in May… but out of my diary from April.)

After the trip to the Pergamon on Thursday, I wound up out with the photo
group.  Initially the weather wasn’t very good – and it looked like it
was going to rain.  A stiff breeze continued, but as the day wore on,
blue skies and sun decided to make an appearance and set us up for a
great sunset.  Yeah, I’m loving the ToytownGermany Photography group –
we’re a good bunch of people, I’m learning alot, and well,
opportunities abound.

The photos are in the following sets:

Treptower Park & Communist Memorial

Molecule Man (Random Art statue)

Oberbaumbrücke & East side Graffiti

Highlights from them include the following:

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Soviet Soldier Kneeling (notice the other through his boot)

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Treptower Park, Monument and Memorial (at the far end, center)

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Tilted Communist Flags (with kneeling soldiers – notice the hammer & sickle at the top of flag)

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The Soviet Soldier – caring enough to stop in the middle of battle, pick up a (his?) lost child, and fighting.

You can actually go up the stairs to view inside the above monument –
it’s Russian, and says something about dedicated to those who fought
facism and died.

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Inside the memorial

From there, we walked along the river Spree and up to the Molecule Man
statue. It’s 30 meters tall (4 stories), weighing 45 tons, and made of
aluminum. This statue is the brain child of American artist Jonathan
Borofsky and has been in the Spree River since 1999. With 3 aluminum
“men” that unite to make a whole, the artist reminds us “that both
people and molecules exhist in a world of probability and that the aim
of all creative and intellectual traditions is to find wholeness and
unity within the world”.

Molecule Man Tryptic

Molecule Man x3 Composition

There’s more in that set including an abandoned ship and a few other highlights but that’s the main thing in there.

After a few minutes, we continued along the East side where there is
lots of Urban art (when does graffiti turn to urban art? When it looks
like this!!)

I Love You
I Love You, earflaps

The Rave
The Ravers

Flying Fish Right
Flying Fish – (airplane with fish?)

Solyent Green Is Humans (full)
Solyent Green Is Humans (full building)

Soylent Green Is Humans
Solyent
Green is Humans (close) This is some famous graffiti artist – and it
was a statement on how People cannibalize each other in more ways than
one. Kinda creepy but cool. It’s visible from the Ubahn as you go by.

Not long after, the sun started to set, I decided to take photographs
of a beautiful bridge known as Oberbaumbrücke. There’s lots in this set
worth viewing! Anyhow, This was destroyed in WW2, but built back up to
resemble how it looked before…. with a series of towers based on an
ancient one in a town north of Berlin – Prenslau. A Ubahn runs across
the top of the bridge, and cars on the bottom.

Oberbaumbrücke Sunset
Sunset behind Oberbaumbruecke Silhouette(notice the train on top)

Arched walkway for Pedestrians
Arched walkway for pedestrians

TV tower & bikers
View of the TV tower at Alexanderplatz from Oberbaumbrücke

From there, I headed over to have a Doener with Paul and then home,
knowing that the Next weekend would be yet more photography – because
it’s a 3 day weekend.

** Several of these are available as prints for sale in my store!**

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Stahnsdorf Cemetery – Won’t You Join Me In Death

It’s been a few days since I have posted anything I know. I’ve been sort of busy processing photos and getting ready for this evening’s trip to Ireland for the weekend. I have a bunch I still need to get done from election night, but I thought I would share a the pictures that I have from the trip on Nov 1 (day of the dead) to Stahnsdorf Cemetery.

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To say the least, Autumn is my favorite season – and since Cemeteries are one of my passions as well – sometimes Mother Nature blesses you with the perfect light, the perfect scenery, and a little bit of luck and inspiration. I hope you enjoy – and if you want to see more photos from the set (this place is going to take me weeks to go through- yeay) they’re here.

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A bit of history –

On March 28, 1909 the South-Western Cemetery officially opened.
Given its size and the vast park/forest-like layout, the South-Western Cemetery developed into one of the largest and best known burial sites in Germany already a few decades later.

Several personalities found their final resting place here, such as, among others,
Heinrich Zille, Rudolf Breitscheid, Lovis Corinth, Edmund Rumpler, Louis Ullstein, and the Siemens family.

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The overall impression is definitely influenced by the combination of garden
and cemetery art, architecture and sculptures.

Architects and artists such as Franz Seeck, Alfred Grenander, Max Taut, Hugo Lederer, Hermann Hosaeus and Emil Cauer worked here, to mention but a few.

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Apart from 19th and 20th century tombstone art, the wooden chapel in the style of the Norwegian Stave churches is the core of the Cemetery.

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Gustav Werner, royal building surveyor, found his inspiration in Scandinavia and between 1908 and 1911 implemented the chapel building plans. The cemetery achieved thus fame and popularity as a cultural monument, far beyond the boundaries of Berlin.

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For more information please see:
www.suedwestkirchhof.de/index_2.htm

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