Altes Museum and Turkish Market

Friday, July 6.

Today in the morning, Mary, Meagan, Lisa, and I went to Museum Insel.  First we visited the Altes Museum, because I really wanted to see the Greek and Roman art.  The Greek art was interesting, though the Roman stuff is what I really wanted to see.  The museum was smaller than I expected, though they definitely saved the best room for last.  The viewer was lead through the museum in chronological order, moving through the Greek period, to Etruscan art, and finally on to the Romans.  Here is a cool architectural detail in the center, a rotunda with about 15 different statues of Greek/Roman gods and goddesses.

The last room dealt with the Roman Empire, my favorite period of history.  After taking multiple classes on Roman art history, it is fun to actually see some of the objects and images of people I had studied.

Here is Gaius Lucius, grandson to Emperor Augustus.  He was adopted by Augustus as his heir, though he died at a young age before he could ever be Emperor.

Emperor Marcus Aurelius as a young boy.

Wooden funerary tablets of Roman soldier in Northern Africa.  These were placed over the head of the coffin or sarcophagus.

Next I went to visit the Neues Museum again after the others went to the Alte National Gallery.  I wanted to see the third floor of stone age artifacts, but it was closed! So I ended up just wandering around, checking out the bust of Nefertiti again, and some of the other Egyptian work.

After the museums we tried to find the Turkish Market, which took a while, but eventually we made it. It was fun and busy and I got some linen scarves for 2 euro!

Hamburger Bahnhof

Thursday, July 5.


Today we had class at 8AM so I was up and at 'em early.  After class, homework, ice cream for Andrew's birthday, and lunch, we headed out to Hamburger Bahnhof, a contemporary art museum transformed from an old train station.

Inside, the museum was a little confusing, and we did a lot of back tracking when trying to figure out where to go.  I was hoping for more information about the space itself, since it was unique compared to other museums.  Instead we started to wander, as it seems is common amongst art museums.  We first moved into an architecture/installation exhibit, with each large room dedicated to a certain artist.  Each room started off with a text piece in English and German stating the artist’s name and a sort of artist statement discussing their past works and the current piece of display.  Some even contained sketches or sculptural models which pertained to the artwork, which added another layer of connections between artist and viewer.

Another unique feeling I got from this museum was a tension between wanting to touch and physically engage with the objects and not knowing if you are allowed to do so.  In most museums, paintings or display cases hang on walls, while sculptures or other pieces stand on pedestals.  Bahnhof reminded me of a clean, white, and organized version of Kunsthaus Tacheles, with installations and sculptures sitting right in the middle of the floor.  Viewers had to gauge what other viewers were doing, and what the guards were doing to decide whether it was okay to move into a space or engage physically with the works.  One piece allowed viewers to draw on pieces of paper to add to the artwork, which I was hesitant to do at first, but ended up doing so in the end because it is fun to draw.  Another piece had a small doorway, which I walked into since the guard didn’t say anything when I got close.

Hmmm should I venture inside?

A piece I enjoyed in particular was “Room with my Soul Left Out, Room that Does Not Care” a physical space inspired by a dream of the artist.

Our next stop was a temporary exhibit on sculpture, in this case, Light Sculpture.  The artist creates lights which project from the ceiling and from the walls, and using smoke machines, the lights create sculptural forms.  Here is Mary, having fun inside one of the light sculptures.  This was such a fun and interactive exhibit, it really made the museum worthwhile.

Lazy Day

Wednesday, July 4.

Today was a super lazy and relaxing day! I get a little worried that I'm wasting time if we're not running around all over the city, but it was nice to just chill for a day.  I shopped a bit with Lisa, Alex, and Rebecca in the morning, finding some really cute shops.  In the afternoon, Meaghan, Sara, Hayden and I went to the Volkspark Friedrichshain, a really huge and awesome park! I got a lot of journaling done, and a lot of people watching as well.

It was a lazy day, but this weekend is going to be very busy so I am okay with it. Happy Independence Day!

Naturkunde Museum and Bach Nacht

Tuesday, July 3.

In the morning, Mary, Marcy and I headed over to see the Naturkunde, Natural History, Museum.  This museum was a lot different from the other Natural History museums I have been to, the Field museum and the Smithsonian.  What impressed and surprised me the most was that two of the main exhibits dealt with what is usually strictly behind the scenes business.  Here we see over 1 million specimens of sea life, reptiles, and amphibians preserved in jars filled with ethanol.

It was strange to see, but so interesting to get a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes in museums dealing with natural history.  Another behind the scenes exhibit dealt with the history of taxidermy and model sculpture practices in museums, and how they have evolved over time, creating a narrative machinery from past to present.  It was as if this museum was not just on Natural history, but the HISTORY of Natural History and its study and how museums portrayed their findings to the viewer.

We of course looked at the dinosaur bones, which is always a must see.  This young man seemed to enjoy the dinosaurs very much.

Lastly, we walked into the evolution.  At first glance, you see what appears to be a cabinet of curiosity, filled with colorful birds, exquisite insects, and monstrous lions.  It is almost overwhelming to look at, fantastic and unbelievable.  An exhibit in front allows you to scroll over any animal and read it's name.  When you walk past this cabinet, you see the mission and actual information.  What I loved about this exhibit was that it provided specific examples of certain evolutionary practices or traits in the animals they chose, and then provided an interesting text describing why a certain animal looks a certain way, why there are so many different types of lady bugs, why mutations happen etc.  The animals and examples draw the viewers in, building their curiosity, and almost beckoning them to read the text.  I thought this was a very unique way to draw the viewer in, and still educate them at the same time.

In the evening, our group attended Bach Nacht at the Berlin Cathedral.  The inside of the cathedral was beautiful, and I am very grateful to have been able to have this experience.  Despite this, the music was surprisingly quiet, and I could not see the orchestra at all which caused me to get very fidgety.  While I think this is a great way to use this space, I think that improvements could be made so that all would enjoy the performance.  Adjusting the acoustics somehow will make it easier to hear, and be immersed in the music, while bringing in some sort of temporary stage would allow to audience to see their performers.  The Cathedral seems to hold onto traditional powers, where those with the most money can have good seats and hear and see the music, while the rest belong stuck in the back without sight or hearing.

Lanna and I in front of the Cathedral.

Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof and Kreuzberg

Monday, July 2.

Today in the morning I was feeling a little under the weather after all the get up and go of Munich, but I decided to check out the Dorotheenstadtischer Friedhof, an old cemetery in Berlin home to many famous faces, included the architect Schinkel, who built many buildings in Berlin.  It was very calming and relieving to get out on my own, without having to be with 30 other people (no offense to my lovely KIIS group).  Sometimes you just need to explore on your own and take your time on what you want to see.

I enjoyed seeing this cemetery, and I spent a lot of time working on my photos for class.

After grabbing a quick burrito for lunch and ice cream for Sara's birthday, I went to some thrift stores with Rebecca, Mary, and Alex before heading back to rest because I've been sick.  Our excursion this evening was to Kreuzberg for a quick tour, and light drawing in front of the East Side Gallery which got postponed due to rain.  As we see over and over again, there is a difference between street art and graffiti, though it is not black and white.  Here is an interesting guy we found, while not done by some "famous" street artist we have studied, still is a very interesting, fun, and colorful piece.

Here is a great example of the temporality of street art, a mural done just days before for the European Cup final which was last night.

For this tour, I was looking more at the decayed, graffiti side of what we see, because one of my words is verhall, or decay.  I particularly like this image.  I don't normally notice these types of things, but when you really look you see miniature still lifes all around.  Here are some bottle caps piled neatly together, as if someone had done it on purpose.  I couldn't resist the grayness of the whole image, and the peeling wall and graffiti.

Here we have another more famous image, quite opposite of what I had been concentrating on for this trip.

I'm sad we missed out on light drawing, but hopefully it works out next week!

Munich Weekend

Friday, June 29 to Sunday, July 1.

Happy July!

Friday: Left at 5:30am for our train to Munich.  The ride was long, but you do what you gotta do.  As soon as we got to Munich, you could tell it was a lot ritzier than Berlin.  We were in a downtown area when we got there, and you could just see the streets lined with designer stores.  We split for lunch, and met up again afterwards.  I can say that Munich is definitely more expensive than Berlin.  After reconvening we took a walking tour, first looking inside an old Catholic church.  It was absolutely stunning. I love the architectural details of old churches.

 We also saw the small “memorial” spot where German socialist writer, Kurt Eisner, was murdered.  This memorial is interesting, because most people, even residents of Munich, walk over it every day without even knowing what it is.  This inconspicuous memorial provides interesting questions.  Should memorials be obvious, like the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, or is it okay for them to be inconspicuous, making people seek them out instead, much like this one, or the book burning memorial at Humboldt University.

Beautiful Munich.

 Next, we stopped by a park area where Hitler spent much time, including a café.  We had to go through security to get into the park because their were anti-war demonstrators protesting the military memorial that was taking place in this area later.  More memorials and then we took some time to decompress in a nice park.  German ducks are strange!

More walking than Hofbrauhaus for dinner.  It was a crazy mess of tourists in there, I much prefer quieter local places.  The evening was fun, despite a mix up with our bill.  Luckily Pizzo was there to save the day.

Mmm Bavarian pretzel.

Saturday: Today’s morning and early afternoon was spent at the Dachau Concentration Camp museum and memorial.  The first place we walked through was the museum, which chronicled the history of the Holocaust and World War II and more specifically, the history of Dachau itself.  Again, much like at Sachsenhausen, I really appreciate the individualized stories that the museum portrays.  The viewer is lead through a series which included every type of prisoner in Dachau- political, Soviet, Jewish, homosexual, etc., but included stories and photographs of individual people as well.  These added details are always touching and sobering, giving actual stories and faces to the masses that were imprisoned at these camps.

A Ukrainian prisoner who escaped and was brought back multiple times.

The number of memorials in this camp surprised me, it seemed more of a memorial site than a museum.  There was a Jewish memorial, which reminded me a lot of the Tower memorial at the Jewish museum.  It was a dark, large space with only a small window of light leading the viewer in and entrancing them. 

There were more memorials back in the area of the gas chambers and crematoria, where the majority of the outright murders took place.  It is amazing that such a beautiful natural area could be the location where thousands of brutal murders took place.

The gas chambers and cremation ovens were haunting, you could see that every visitor felt the need to move through very quickly.

 After the camp, we ate at another bier garten. Mmm schnitzel and radler!  We had a break to go shopping at the many stores in Munich and I got a Bayern Munich shirt and things at H&M.  Wine and appetizers at a Greek restaurant were fun.

Sunday: We had a quick tour of Nazi structures in Munich, including the building where the Munich conference took place.  Lunch and then train ride home!  It's good to be back in Berlin!

Jewish History Museum

Thursday, June 28.

Today we had an excursion to the Jewish history museum.  The museum was a lot different than I expected, and a lot different from the more classical style museums at Museum Insel.  At this point though, I was very museum-ed out, having been to a lot of different museums in Berlin over the last week.  One similarity of the Jewish museum plus other museums was the importance of the architecture to the space.  We went on a guided tour, where the guide explained how the architecture of the building really correlated to the museum and subject itself.  The number of stairs related to important numbers in the Jewish culture.  The beginning of the museum had three pathways, one leading to the lighted museum above, one leading through a doorway, and one leading to a dead end, relating to the different endgames to the Holocaust.

The tour was really quick, only about an hour, but it was informative.  The tour was mostly concerned with Jewish culture, including information about the Sabbath and Bar Mitzvah.

 Lanna dressed as  Jewish boy at his Bar Mitzvah.

My favorite parts of the museum, by far, were the memorial structures.  Below is an image from the Holocaust Tower.  After walking through a dark doorway, we are in a large, cool, dark well-like room.  There is one slit of light coming from the very top of the room.  The room was haunting, everyone could not look away from the light at the top.  When the room finally emptied of loud tourists, the silence of the room consumed you, as everyone was still drawn to the light.

Next was the Garden of Exiles, which was a lot like Eisenmann's Holocaust Memorial.  The Garden had the same large, gray, rectangular structures, with small trees/plant growth sprouting from the top.  The floor was not just uneven and bumpy, like the Holocaust memorial, but completely tilted to one side, increasing the sense of disorientation.  The Garden of Exiles did on a small scale, what the Holocaust memorial did on a much larger scale, possibly even more successfully.  While the Holocaust memorial depicts the immensity of the Holocaust massacre, the Garden depicts the utter confusion and disorientation of the disaster, as it was literally hard to walk a straight line with out holding onto the structures for support.  In this way, the viewer is forced to touch the rectangles, while at the Holocaust Memorial the viewer has the choice whether they want to touch them or not.  Some of the pillars were worn down where people had placed their hands over and over again.  Here, touch is as important as sight.

After the museum I got packed for Munich and went to the Brandenburger Tor for the Germany vs. Italy semi-final.  Unfortunately, Germany lost, but it was fun to experience the crowd one last time.  The quarterfinal vs. Greece was by far the best sporting event I have attended, so good memories will always be there! Remind me to come back to Berlin for Euro 2016.