Die Auswanderer Museum

We began our day with a traditional northern European breakfast at our sweet boarding house--a variety of warm rolls, cheeses, and cold cuts, jams, soft butter, a hard boiled egg, and a big pot of freshly brewed coffee. We ate heartedly.












We were delighted to find that Bremerhaven has an entire museum devoted to the history of people immigrating to ports in America, Canada, Argentina and beyond. Die Auswanderer (Emigrant) Museum is a modern, theme museum that opened just a few years ago. This place was powerful--upon entering, you are given a passport of an actual passenger that left from Bremerhaven. The museum takes you through your journey step-by-step, from "your" hometown, to the docks, on the boats, through arrival, and living in your new home. While walking through the museum, tears would well up unexpectedly. It was rich.

The museum, located along the pier where passengers left from. This place received "best european museum 2007" award.









Photograph of the old port, late 19th century. The Ausewanderer museum would be located in the top right corner of the photograph.









Model ships showing the different eras---the little boat in the left foreground is early-mid 19th century, there is an early steamship from the late 19th century in the back, and an ocean liner from the 20th century takes up most of the photograph. 44 million Europeans immigrated to countries overseas between 1821 and 1914, accounting for one of the biggest migratory movements ever recorded in history. Sadly, all Bremerhaven passenger lists were lost but a few from the 1920's and 30's, either from lack of storage space in the archives or during WWII bombing.













Video:
On board a 19th century steamship, with auswanderer folk music ("Amerika") playing in the background.



Behind Lesley is where the old dock was, in between her and the museum in the distance. It is now being used for small pleasure boats.









A nice promenade a short walk from the museum.









Bremerhaven's harbor light

Berlin to Bremen to Bremerhaven

Headed west to Bremen on a midday train. Berlin Hauptbahnhof, the main train station, is an awesome, huge, efficient, modern, glass facility, with multiple levels of platforms and a shopping mall inside. Berlin is "arm, aber sexy" (poor, but sexy; their motto, not ours) because of their investment in facilities like these.

Easy travel.









En route to Bremen we passed massive wind turbines amidst small scale agriculture. These are the biggest wind turbines currently being made. The tower stands 120 meters. To get a sense of scale, look at the high tension wire tower in the foreground. (technical information provided by stephane eisen, dong energy)

Video:
What a scene. these turbines, unlike most turbines we are familiar with, are direct drive (i.e. no gearbox) which explains their dreamy, slow rotation.

We head to Bremen because it is from where some of our family emigrated to the States, including Joe's maternal great great great grandfather Robert Ganz (from Hesse, Germany) in the late 1850's and Joe's paternal great grandfather, Josef Safranek (from Pisek, Bohemia) in the early 1900's. It is believed that Josef's wife Agnes came over at the same time as well, perhaps on the same boat. There is a good chance that other family members left from Bremen as well given that over 7 million people emigrated from there between the 1830's and 1970's.

We arrived at the information office in the Bremen train station to learn that when it is recorded that a passenger sailed from Bremen, they in fact sailed from the port of Bremerhaven located 70 km north of the city.

Ticket, coffee, pastry, back on the train.

*We just want to give a shout out to the German train system here. When plans change, and your German language skills are limited, it is easy to switch gears using their automatic ticket kiosks and online schedules. We think the DB is BA. And check out these sweet luggage/bike conveyer belts besides the stairs, come on!*









We found a lovely boarding house in the center of Bremerhaven that was inexpensive and run by one amazing, older woman who has been accommodating workers and tourists alike for decades. The place seemed unchanged from the '50's and fit our requirements perfectly.












We spent too much time in an internet cafe and were stuck trying to find dinner at 10:30 in very sleepy Bremerhaven. It was between McDonald's and La Bodegas (think Chili's meets TGIFriday's meets McDonald's in sleepy port town). We opted for Bodegas because they serve beer and ordered nachos and a burger and fries. This was by far the worst food we've had thus far.

"Guacamole" sauce under cheese












That's a big burger












Les here---silver lining? Our waitress was lovely, having just returned from visiting her sister and brother-in-law in Baltimore. We swapped stories about the U.S. and learned more about Bremerhaven. The town is trying to revitalize itself after the U.S. military base closed down 10-15 years ago. They are building a modern hotel conference center and in 2007 opened the award-winning Die Auslander Museum...

A three hour walking tour

We started our second day with a walking tour of Berlin's historical sights. This free tour is offered twice a day by New Berlin and we highly recommend it for anyone visiting the city--you learn a ton, its in your language, and they only ask that you tip your guide. Our guide Paul, a friendly Australian guy who has been living in Berlin for the last 18 months, was awesome and brought the city and its history to life.

This is a photo of a photo of a photo of Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). We took our own photos of the gate, but in this one, you see what the square looked like after the WWII bombing of Berlin.

The cobblestone line in the street marks where the Berlin Wall stood less than 20 years ago. It is hard to imagine there being a barrier in this vibrant part of the center city (this photo was taken just behind Brandenburger Tor).

Nearby, a section of the wall.

Berlin's Holocaust Memorial covers an entire city block in the middle of town. Each column is approximately 1 meter by 2 meters, with the tallest column at 4 meters. The ground plane undulates and as you walk between the columns, it is quiet, disorienting, maze-like...it is easy to lose sight of the other people around you that you know are there but you cannot see.

There are two large public art pieces outside the old Luftwafa headquarters. Our guide stands in front of the first piece: a large Americanesque Regionalist mural that the DDR commissioned to show the state of the nation as they preferred to see it-wheat harvesting, industry, doctors, children smiling, dancing. The second piece is a large glass photo mural placed in the courtyard to look like a reflecting pool. The photo shows a mass of people behind a barricade, linking arms in solidarity. It's an archival photo of one of the first popular revolts against the DDR, taken at the same time the more optimistic mural was commissioned.

The infamous book burning square, where early in the rise of the Nazi party, the adjacent university library was purged of all books that contradicted Nazi ideology.









A Kathe Kollwitz sculpture at the Memorial for all Victims of War and Tyranny. From the outside, it looks like a greek temple, inside is bare except for the sculpture and a large occulus in the ceiling (letting in the rain on this day).









This church was built @100 years ago, styled to look older. On the right is the famous Berlin radio tower. We ended our tour huddled underneath one of the church porticos (it was pouring), listening to Paul share the sequence of events that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was an amazing story of organizing at churches in Leipzig, leading to larger gatherings there and around other East German cities, a press conference gaff, and people, people, people. It was powerful. Check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSnkJXBq_dk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnYXbJ_bcLc

The Reichstag. It's hard to see but there is a modern glass dome atop the center of the building which is open to the public late into the evening. The dome symbolizes the transparency of the new unified German government--it is where the people can watch over parliament, and parliament is reminded of who holds the power.










Writing this blog, we are filled with love for humanity, peace, and the power of people. We were amazed by Berlin.

Berlin

We arrived in Berlin early Saturday morning to find out that it was unification holiday weekend (October 3, 1990 to be precise).  Berlin was packed with people from all over Germany coming to visit the city for the holiday.  Amazing to find ourselves here for this event; however, it translated into very very few hotel rooms left within the city.  After we passed on the first hotel room offered because of price, we took the next, described as not too far from the center and on a metro line.  Still...119 euros...but we were ready to start exploring and worried about not finding a room at all (after spending the previous night in Amsterdam's airport, albeit on some very comfortable plush armchairs).  A little tired and feeling foolish, the lovely tourist information agent handed us the confirmation sheet for our hotel room.  And where do you suppose the hotel was? Burgemeisterstrasse...which we read as Burmeister Street, and were reminded that yes, everything does happen for a reason (says Lesley).  

A bombed out cathedral by Zoogarden station. Not restored but left as a memorial, with the forms (volumes) of the belfry and the baptistry recreated in plain black brick.  

Graffiti is everywhere, particularly in East Berlin. Some of it is quite beautiful.

poetry in motion

way to seize the opportunity (click on this one to enlarge)

A few years after the wall fell, artists were invited from around the world to make a piece on the longest remaining section (1.3 kilometers).  This section of the wall is across the street from a huge modern convention center (glass, stainless steel, LED lights) called O2 world.  It is quite the contrast.

Irving Magic Johnson

Cafe Hofbackerin: this little coffee shop in East Berlin sells killer coffee and lovely bite size cookies. They also run workshops on how to live your dream---berliner traumjobs.  The owner explained that having this cafe was his dream and he now wants to help other people do the same. 

Enjoyed wieners and mixed salads at Sowohlalsach kafeehaus, a precious cafe in the Prenzlauer neighborhood in northeastern Berlin.  Topped it off with apple kuchen and sitting outside with fleece blankets and espressos--the blankets are a nice trend that we've seen in several cities thus far, another perk of traveling in the fall).  For those who dream of opening a cafe, this place is a model.   

Back to our hotel for the evening, on where? Burmeister Street!

Delfshaven

Delfshaven is the old neighborhood in Rotterdam, annexed from Delft in the late 1880's. Early immigrants to America in the 1600's left from here, including Henry Hudson of NY river fame. Located west of town, along the river Maas, it is hard not to fall in love with this little island.








































Tapas one night at "Apricots" (note: we attempted to order seafood tapas in the dutch only menu. alas, kip is chicken, not kippered fish, and ooster is oyster sauce, not oysters. nonetheless, it was delicious)


















Look, there's a lovely place overlooking the canal to have a pint...










































and then they pulled down the screen to project the local football match. This pub is perfect.