On November 8, day 2 of the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall, I did the unthinkable - took a break from Berlin Wall-related sightseeing! It wasn't by choice - my Cultural Orientation in Berlin course was meeting in the eastern part of the city to learn about Berlin's industrial past.
We learned that in the 19th century, Berlin was actually a heavily industrialized city, and was known for being an industrial center to an even greater extent than the famous Ruhr Valley. We set out to see some traces of this history.
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A sunny but cold day... good enough for a walk in the park
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| First up - ascending a huge hill in a park and being rewarded with a nice view. But the 'hill' on which we found ourselves was not natural - it is in fact a bunker constructed for World War II, and was deemed too large to destroy. Instead, it was simply covered in dirt and walking paths and became part of a park |
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| This is Wedding, one of Berlin's 12 different districts. It looks nice, but it has a poor reputation due to the relatively high poverty, unemployment, and crime rates |
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| In the 1800s, industrial workers lived in this area, which then was quite polluted. The park which we were in was built to provide the workers a place to unwind and relax |
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| The Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft was a major producer of German electrical equipment. It had three enormous plants in Berlin, and we visited the former site of one that once employed 50,000 people. This elaborate gate once marked its entrance, but was only used by the higher-ups - the workers had to go in a back entrance |
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| One of AEG's big manufacturing halls. Large products like smokestacks for ships were produced here, and then placed directly on rail cars for shipping - notice the rail lines in the ground |
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| AEG's former plant. Rail lines still crisscross this courtyard, though they are no longer used |
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| Different buildings were built in different styles and times. Here, at the edge of the plant, a building near Gelgenplatz |
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| Turns out it's pretty hard to take a break from the wall. We wound up ending our excursion right at the Berlin Wall's former path, which of course was still lined by the Lichtgrenze |
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| A remnant of the Berlin Wall lined with the Lichtgrenze |
That night, it was back to business as usual - I visited the Lichtgrenze again for more pictures! And once more the night after that, naturally. More to come!
