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Berlin: City of Culture; Place of Intrigue
A capital of culture; The Wall; a city of
East-West intrigue; a showcase of capitalism
in a socialist wasteland; a wide-open
homosexual scene; a bastion of the German
middle class; a landscape of rubble leveled by
bombs; divine decadence. Perhaps no other
city in the world brings to mind so many
images, creating a virtual kaleidoscope in the
mind as flakes of fantasy merge with bits of
fact.
Recently, we visited Berlin to sort things
out for ourselves. We found that Berlin is a
beautiful, modem, 40-year-old city with an
800-year history.. Of all the cities on the
continent, Berlin feels the least European. It
could be New York, Chicago, or Tokyo. This
is, of course, because Berlin was almost
totally destroyed by bombing during World
War II and had to be completely rebuilt.
Part of the rebuilding
included a subway
system that is nothing
less than wunderbar.
The trains are clean,
quiet, and frequent
Color-coded maps make
it easy for visitors to
find their way around.
Showcase of the West
Amid the modem
city of gleaming
skyscrapers is one
bombed-out monument
to the horrors of wan
the Kaiser Wilhelm
Memorial Church of the
Kurfurstendamm. This
street, often called
Ku'damm for short, is
West Berlin's main street It is lined with
shops, theaters, and at least 125 coffeehouses,
the most famous of which is Cafe Kranzler.
The Ku'damm goes day and night By day it
is a wonderful place to shop for just about
anything at any price. At night in good
weather it becomes an enormous sidewalk
cafe illuminated by neon signs that hang on
almost every building.
Shopping is a wonderful thing to do in
Showcase Berlin. In Berlin's west end, on a
major shopping street called
Tauentzienstrasse, we found perhaps the most
spectacular department store in the world,
Kaufhaus des Westens (or Ka-De-We), which
makes Bloomingdale's look like K-MarL We
have never seen so much quality merchandise
so beautifully displayed. But the centerpiece
of this store was its food. One whole floor
was devoted to more fish than we've seen in
any fish market; more sausages than in any
meat market; produce we'd only heard about,
but never seen, coupled with breads, cheeses,
and all sorts of confections. There were little
lunch counters where we could have some of
these goodies prepared and served to us. And
we returned several times just to gape.
Despite its modem look and feel, Berlin
carries deep within a sense of history. It has
been, after all, the site of a great European
capital since the 1400s, when the royal
Hohenzollem family-which was to dominate
Germany until after World War I-chose
Berlin as the capital of its province,
Brandenburg. Frederick the Great made
Berlin his capital after he crowned himself
King of Prussia in the 1700s. Then in 1871
Berlin became the capital of the German
Empire and home of the Kaiser.
Charlottenburg Palace
Some sense of Berlin’s past glory is
preserved in Charlottenburg Palace, one of the
few magnificent structures dating from the
reign of Frederick the Great to survive the
bombings of World Warll. Though it was
badly damaged, the rooms have been restored
to their original splendor.
The palace was built over a period of 100
years and was named for Sophie Charlotte,
the first Queen of Prussia and Frederick the
Great's female wife. (He was reputed to be
gay.) One wing of the palace houses the art
collection of Frederick the Great. His court
was exclusively male; something to think
about while admiring the paintings.
In the surrounding park stands the
Belvedere Tea House with a magnificent
collection of porcelain, not to be missed. You
will miss it if you visit on Friday, however,
because this is the day all museums in and
opposite the palace are closed.
Other Monuments to History
In the district of Krcutzberg, we found a
fairy-tale monument topped by slender spires
on a small hill. Down the hill flows a
charming waterfall. This is the national
monument commemorating the defeat of
Napoleon in 1812.
This district also
contains houses built
by wealthy merchants
in the
1800s, their ornate
facades being
faithfully restored.
The period of
greatest historical
interest to gay men
and lesbians centered
around the so-called
Weimar Republic
which followed the
fall of the
Hohenzollems and the
German Empire after
World War I. The
Weimar Republic
lasted from 1918 to 1933, and during this
period an impressive gay-rights movement
and openly gay culture flourished.
Unfortunately, so did inflation,
unemployment, and world-wide depression,
allowing Adolph Hitler’s Nazis to gain a
political foothold. In America, our
impression of those Weimar dys are
encapsulated in the film Cabaret. But
another film of much greater importance was
created in Germany during this time called
Different From Other People, the first known
gay-liberation film. It opened to the public in
1919, but was banned by the German
government in 1920. The Scientific
Humanitarian Committee was Berlin's major
gay rights organization for 36 years until
1933, when Nazis raided its headquarters and
destroyed all its books and other records.
Nazi storm troopers then crushed the gay
rights movement and sent countless
homosexuals along with millions of Jews and
other ethnic minorities to death camps.
The Sparatuo Guide listed a gay museum
which we hoped would commemorate some
of this history. We were disappointed to find
that the "museum" is little more than a room
of books with a few tables at which one can
drink coffee.
To Americans, the most powerful
historical images of Berlin are, no doubt, The
Wall and Checkpoint Charlie, immortalized
by countless spy films and novels as the spot
where the hero makes a mad dash for
freedom from the Soviet sector to the West
The division exists because after the Nazi
defeat, Berlin was carved up into four
sectors-Frcnch, British, and American (West
Berlin) and Russian (East Berlin). As such, it
was the main stage of the Cold War of East-
West propoganda from the late 1940s through
the 1960s. In 1961, the East Germans built
The Wall that divides East and West Berlin.
One of the most moving experiences for us
was a visit to the permanent exhibition at
Checkpoint Charlie, which is actually a
museum that chronicles the history of The
Wall and the people who tried to escape over it.
Lesbian & Gay Pride '88-BerIin Style
At Potzdamer Platz, once the busiest part
of Berlin, is a viewing platform where you
can see over The Wall into East Berlin. You
can also see a small hill, the site of the
underground bunker where Adolph Hitler
lived during the last days of the war and
finally committed suicide. The Wall extends
for about 28 miles and cuts off the
Brandenburg Gate, symbol of the city since
1791, when it formed the western gate to
Berlin.
Gay Activities
The gay scene in West Berlin is very
heavily leather. People should be forewarned
that some of the shows arc not for the faint
hearted. In fact, many Americans would be
shocked or even offended. Some of the most
popular leather bars are Knast at
Fuggerstrasse 34, Horst's Laden at
Rankestrasse 14, and Tom's Bar at
Motzstrasse 19. The oldest men's bar is Elli's
Bcirbar, a pre-war establishment at
Skalitzerstrasse 102. There are also several
high-tech discos, such as Querlelle, at Matin-
Lutherstrasse 19. For women, there is Pour
Elle, a dance bar at Kalkrcuthrasse 7.
Berlin has three gay guesthouses: Pension
Brenner, 15 rooms in a large house built in
1900; Petit Hotel, a classic German
establishment built in 1890; and Tom's
House, catering predominantly to a male
leather clientele.
Berlin also has several gay restaurants.
We recommend that gay/lesbian travelers to
Berlin purchase a Spartacus Guide. Like all
cities, Berlin has a changing gay scene, with
establishments opening and closing. But
Spartacus seems to provide the most up-to-
date information and at least some places
where a foreigner can begin investigating the
gay/lcsbian scene.
On our return, people asked if we had a
"good time." A totally fascinating experience
is a better way to describe our excursion to
this modem city with a buried past
From Envoy Travel Features
NO COVEI
$1.50 cocktails
Open 24 hours on weekends!
Only at
Atlanta's Premiere
Photo by John Williams