Berlin!

ulrikft

I'm in Berlin at the moment, so true to tradition I'm trying to take some pictures while I'm running around. These are the pics from my first day of this great journey! I have walked about the better parts of Berlin and visited the Jewish museum. The Jewish museum is a must for everyone when visiting Berlin, a very moving and powerfull experience, and I only visited for two hours today, I'll come back again during my week here




Reichstag!



Reichstag two..


Architecture details at the jewish museum.



Part of an exhibition at the jewish museum!



Street portrait of a student. (or the reincernated young Stalin, he looks it)



Holocaust Denkmal! (memorial stones for holocaust)



Sad fact...



More architecture details at the Jewish museum.



Even more architecture details! At the jewish museum.



The silent garden outside the jewish museum.



The Berliner Dome! Amazing building..



Signing out of the Jewish museum!

C&C as always welcome.. I'll update more later! Thanks for watching!
:thumb

swintonphoto

Wow I love these. Absolutely fabulous.

Tango

thanks, great shots!

i hope to see more coming!

Jet

Wow. I really like some of the pictures. Great set!

Dogdots

Thank you for sharing these

They were wonderful. Doing them in BW added to the story.

ulrikft

Thanks a bunch guys! I don't have the time to get today's up before bedtime, but I'll make a large contribution tomorrow

Thanks again! Appreciate it

Eia

The photographs are very solemn and captivating and needed to be shared.

Thank you,

~Eia~

ulrikft

Thanks again all of you!

Some more pictures from day two, we were at the main prison for political prisoners for STASI in Eastern Berlin.

Locks were an important part of the facility..




Chains too!




In this thing they forced people inbetween the poles and tied their head very, very tight to one spot.. and let water drip down from the bucket above. Chinese water torture! The room was totally dark and they were claustrophobically tightly tied. Most people did not last as much as 5 minutes..



The first part of the stay, prisoners often got to stay in the "submarine"... Basically a cold, unheated cellar with a lot of cells. No air conditioning and generally bad conditions.




Having good (s)mugshots is important, this is the STASI studio, where they among other things took mugshots and recorded information about political prisoners. The interesting bit is that they also had an x-ray machine continously on, to poison the prisoner, a very large percentage of political prisoners died (and are dying) of leukemi.




This were their life.. no contact (at all) with other prisoners, no direct sunlight, nothing to read..Nothing to do but wait for the next interrigation or round with the water torture.




Not surprisingly, a lot of people lost their senses due to this treatment and got temporarily mad. They did not get a warm, fuzzy and gently lit cell or anything in that area. They got a black, pitch dark and ice cold padded cell where they could rave on, scream their lungs out and exhaust themselves.

I tried to get the nailmarks and bitemarks in on the picture, but it was harder than I thought.. Ghastly room.



Both a brick wall and a tall fence was securing the area. Noone were supposed to get out unnoticed. This was a restricted are for everyone, noone knew that it was a prison here, prisoners were taken here in rebuilt vegetable trucks, pizza trucks etc.




More exterior:




This trip to germany makes me lose faith in the human race for good. I guess we have to learn from our mistakes.. But they seem all too numerous and repetitive.

davemj98

Moving.

ulrikft

Some more pictures!


Grandma and granddaughter crossing the street:




Simulating a subway trip in Eastern Berlin anno 1987:



Portrait of fellow student:



Visited the STASI headquarters, they had a big collection of creative cameras:

ulrikft

Went to Ravensbrück today! Very moving and special experience.



This small narrow path was where they shot the female prisoners. They made them walk into there alone or in numbers, and shot them. If the guards were bored, they made them zig-zag and run... If they came to the end, they were left alive (for another day atleast..).



More of the Ravensbrück camp, this was the industrial area, where they produced uniforms and weapon stuff. The entire camp is now a memorial site, very nice one too! Highly recommended.



A book with a list over all the known inmates of the camp.



Beauty and nature is regaining control over the area again!

socialcrawl

I love the black and white pictures

Ann McRae

Well done Ulrikft. Thanks for sharing these moving photos and for including the commentary.

ann

ulrikft

Thank you for your comments! I'm glad you liked it!

pyry

This was a quite striking, intimidating and sad set. Well done.

Dogdots

Your photos have left me speechless.

ulrikft

Thanks again for your kind comments!

On my last day in Berlin, I decided to do something different, do some exploring of the urban areas of eastern Berlin. The following pictures are a result of this expedition!

grimace

Great shots. I like the feel of the the B&W pics

Dogdots

Wonderful photos

Were you able to get any photos inside some of the buildings? It would have been something to get a photo looking out.

Rhinotherunt

Wonderful indeed... Very well done.

ulrikft

Thank you all, again, for your comments! Very kind of you

I would have tried to get a photo from the inside, but I didn't know what condition the floors where in (wooden floors inside), so I did not dare to do that when I didn't have my phone with me and noone knew where I was. I'll have to do that the next time I'm in berlin

schmoo

Thank you for such a great collection of photos! I have wanted to go to Berlin for a long time now, partially because of the culture and partially because of its urban nature. I have never seen or heard much from this museum and I'm glad you gave us a bit of a tour. Very harrowing and moving.

Also, great photography

Swartzy

What a spectacular photo journey you've taken. Moving, haunting, sorrowing. It's amazing the evil man does to his brother. Excellent photos and thank you very much for the documentary. So much most of us haven't seen in this world. Bravo.