Görlitz: October 2012

                                    September 27, 2012  Arrived in Görlitz!!!! 

27th of September we arrived in Görlitz, Germany.  It is the eastern most point of Germany!

What a great welcoming party--The Branch Members, Elder Gibson, Elder Bangerter, Elder Colton and Elder Goodsell worked all day decorating our apartment--except the kitchen which only had a microwave and a hot plate--no sink, no refrigerator--pretty empty!  President Kosak said we would be in our apartment on Thursday READY OR NOT!  We were so excited to arrive in Görlitz that we didn't care--as Elder Bauman said, "We are PROUD to be HUMBLE!"  Made us feel like real missionaries!

                                 Elder Gibson from Colorado      Elder Bangerter from American Fork

 Elder Colten from Boise, Idaho and Elder Goodsell from Virginia.

Wielandstrasse 19--we live directly over the Backerei on the 1st floor.  On the right side with the orange brick is the kitchen window.  The left side with the orange brick is a bedroom window.  One half of the patio by the bedroom belongs to our apartment.  We love the corner apartment and all of the windows.

                     Side view of the apartment--orange brick is kitchen window.

  View from bedroom window--across the street.  The buildings in Görlitz are architecturally beautiful.  Our apartment was built in the late 1800s.  Heating units are attached to the inside walls.

          Looking down our street--Wielandstrasse.  The first missionaries in Görlitz in 1910 lived on Wielandstrasse 5 which is across the street from us.  We have come full circle.

                  Out our window at the blossoming trees, our orchids, and our heating unit.

              Mormon Street in Görlitz: Carl-von-.Ossietzky  5 active apartments and 1 inactive!

                    View of trains from corner window.  We are just 2 blocks from the train station.

View from kitchen and dinning window.  Kinder riding park.  Always locked unless a school class is in session. Note policeman.  Bike riding is so important.  Everyone rides bikes including 80 year old Grandmas.  Bike take priority over pedestrians.

THE APARTMENT

          Luckily the first night we had a bed.  One week later the kitchen was installed!

Running water--yeah!

.........and our refrigerator!  Oh my, it was way too small!  Thanks to Brother Seidel for the Big    Refrigerator!

But one month later on October 24 Brothers Seidel and Abish arrived with a BIG refrigerator.  Same day as we finally had internet installed!  Great day!

Then there was shopping and furnishing the apartment on the train!  What fun trying to get every thing home.  This took lots of trips!

The Church in Berlin

 Our first Sunday in Germany at the Dahlam Ward. 

 Brother and Sister Williams--work hard in our Mission office. 

 Brother and Sister Grünewald graciously invited us for dinner on our 1st Sunday in Germany

 We served for the 1st month with Elder and Sister Johnson with the Young Adults in Berlin.

 Our first dinner guests for a Mexican dinner.  Elder and Sister Gibson and Elder and Sister Williams.  They all work in the Mission Office.

 LtoR:  Elder Kunzli (AP from Switzerland), Elder Cottrell (AP from Idaho) and Elder Cox a Mission office Elder.

 Elder Barnes and Elder Sniatynsky.  Elder Bauman consulted after his knee surgery.

 Sister Jessie Linford --we finally saw each other!!!!! 

 Elder Shepherd and Elder Hatfield--Zone leaders in Berlin.

Sister Linford was on an exchange and spent a day serving with Sister Young in Berlin

Touring Berlin

BERLINER DOM

We were encourage by President Kosak to learn the history of East Germany where we would be serving.  On preparation we went with Johnsons and 10 Elders and Sister to tour the Berliner Dom.  This is the largest Evangelisch (Protestant) Church in Berlin.  The church was started in 1451by Frederick II of Brandenberg.  The church has been altered and added to several times making it bigger and more spectacular.  It was heavily damaged in WWII and then rebuilt trying to use as many of the original stones as possible.  This gives it the blackish look outside because the stones were literally burned by bombs.  This is a reminder of the tragedy and horrors of war.  We liked the church.  It has a beautiful statue of Jesus preaching.  On His right it states, "Behold I am with you all the days until the end of the world" and on His left it states, "Our faith is the victory that has overcome the world.  Inside the Dom all of the Beatitudes are inscribed on the ceiling of the Dom.

View of Berlin from the Berliner Dom.

Brandenberg Tor

This magnificent gate is the most recognized landmark in Berlin.  It was built to look like a replica of the gate leading to the Parthenon in Athens.  It was build by Frederick Wilhelm II better known as Frederick the Great.  It was built as a symbol of peace commemorating the end of the 30 Year War i Europe between Catholic and Protestants.  Frederick the Great was the King of Prussia.  It is placed at the beginning of the most famous street in Berlin --Unter den Linden.  This street is about a mile long.  It is a very wide boulevard lined with Linden Trees.  This led from the gate to the Palace of the Prussian King.  The Palace was severely damaged in WWII and completely dismantled by the Communist rulers of East Germany because they didn't want any remembrance of a former monarchy.  There are plans now to rebuild this palace in Berlin. The Charlottenburg Castle that we will show later is miniature compared to the restoration of the Castle of the King of Prussia.

Tiergarten

If you look straight through the Brandenburg Gate you will see trees.  This is the beginning of the world famous Tiergarten in the center of Berlin.  This is a huge park heavily wooded with areas of grass and flowers.  Tiergarten means animal garden but it is not a zoo.  It was initially the the private hunting reserve of the Prussian Royal Family.  Most of the trees were destroyed in WWII but it has been restored and is a beautiful natural area.  The zoo is in the park but only a small portion of the park.

Friedrichswerder Kirche

This church was converted into a museum for statues.

Charlottenburg Castle

In order to understand the importance of Charlottenburg Castle one has to know a little of the history Fredrick Wilhelm II of Prussia known as Fredrick the Great.  Charlotte Sophia was his Grandmother and mentor. Her husband was Fredrick I, the first king of Prussia. She had a great love of music, art, and culture.  She build Charlottenburg Castle as a small summer residence on a river and with lavish gardens.  They only had one surviving son who became the 2nd King, Fredrick Wilhelm I. He did not love art and music but power and politics.  His son Fredrick Wilhelm II love all of the art, music, literature, philosophy and became a well-known flutist and composer. These characteristic alienated him from his father.  When he was 16 years old, he and a French confident were planing his escape to England.  His King father had them both imprisoned and Fredrick Wilhelm II was forced to watch the beheading of his friend.  Fredrick Wilhelm II later became Fredrick the Great--a great enlightened ruler who thought a king's duty was to take care of his people. He was also the greatest military conqueror that Prussia had ever known. He conquered a great part of Austria and Poland. He made Germany into a military power which lasted until 1945.

Fredrick the Great spend many summers living at this castle.  He had his own wing.

We went to a great Baroque Chamber Orchestra Concert (in the wing on the left) with music from Vivaldi, Mozart, Bach, and Fredrick the Great.  They were dressed in costumes of that time.  The flutist was spectacular!  Every night in Berlin you could attend a world class opera, ballet, symphony, or musical concerts. 

From the Old to the Ancient: Pergaomon Museum

The Pergamon Museum  is a fantastic museum in Berlin that consists of three submuseums: the Collection of Classical Antiquities, the Museum of the Ancient Near East and the Museum of Islamic Art.

Long lines to get into this museum.

This a full sized replica of an actual alter in ancient Pergamom.  This was an ancient Grecian City just across the sea in Turkey.  The art work surrounding the wall of this temple is made from the actual stone and sculptures salvaged in Turkey 1878 -1886.  German archaeologists found people smashing the sculptures to pieces to use it as lime.  They were able to save these sculptures and piece them together.  This depicts the gods fighting the giants. 

This is the actual mosaic on the floor of a temple in ancient Greece.

This is the entrance gate into ancient Babylon.  From this it is not apparent why Babylon was so wicked.  They were certainly rich.

WWII and the Nazis

There are museums in Berlin about the rise and fall of the Nazis prior to and during WWII.  We visited the Topography of Terror Museum but the camera was out of batteries.  The Nazi came to power after Germany went into a depression with the rest of the world when the stock market crashed.  Hitler and Joseph Goebbels were able to take power by promising better times, lying, murdering and terrorizing dissenters, and appealing to national pride.  They were able to focus hatred on Jews, Gypsies, and other non German groups.  There were many Germans who opposed the Nazis.

We had a wonderful Senior Missionary Conference.  On one day we went to the Resistance Museum. Many people resisted Hitler were put to death.  There was not enough organized protest.  The only successful protest in Germany happened when hundreds of German wives of Jewish men gathered daily outside the Rosen Street Prison and demanded the release of their husbands.  These men were saved from the Holocaust by their protesting wives. 

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Senior Couples October 2012  Berlin Mission

 Resistance Museum

Our guide at the museum look directly at all the American tourist and said that this type of tyranny could happen anywhere when people stay silent as their freedoms are taken away.  One of the main weapons of the Nazis happened when they declared a national emergency and took away freedom in favor of security.

 Trains of Life and Trains of Death

This is a small statue on the street by one of the train stations.  When the Nazis began arresting and deporting Jews out of Berlin, International groups paid for the passage of 10,000 children out of Germany.  These children were saved by getting on the train and never seeing their families again.  The other children went to the Holocaust with their families.  The children on the far side are heading towards life--these children are the ones facing death.

 
Berlin and World War II

As with many German cities, Berlin was heavily damaged with bombing in WWII.  After WWII, Germany was divided into four sections:  American, British, French, and Russian.  The city of Berlin was so important that it was divided into four sections even though geographically it was in the Russian section of Germany.  All of the Allies worked together to administer Germany until 1948.  After the war ended in 1945 the Russians closed off East Germany from the rest of Germany. There was road and train line that went across East Germany into Berlin.  There were no barriers within the city of Berlin.  In 1948 the Russians suddenly closed the roads and train line closing off the city of Berlin.  The choices for the Allies were to go to war with Russia, give in and give Berlin to the Russians, or try to supply the entire city of Berlin by airplane.  This is what they did.  From June 1948 to May 1949, everything including coal had to be flown into Berlin.  At the height of the airlift, 3 airplanes landed every 1 minute and were unloaded 24 hours a day.  One of the great stories of this airlift was about an LDS pilot, Gail Halvorsen.  One day he gave some gum to some children and was impressed at how they selflessly shared this gum with each other and were so thankful, not greedy, and so happy.  He told them he would drop some candy for them and they could identify his plane because he would "wiggle his wings."  He attached candy to little parachutes.  He became known as Uncle Wiggly Wings and the Candy Bomber!

 This bear honors the Candy Bomber.  The airplane is the actual airplane he flew.

Berlin remained an open city until August 13, 1961.  In response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Communists Russians and East German leaders suddenly without warning closed off their section of Berlin.  For days American and Russian tanks faced each other.  The Communist constructed the famous Berlin Wall.  The most famous passage from East to West Berlin was called "Check Point Charlie."

Gathering of tanks to close East Berlin.

Earliest Check Point Charlie

Check Point Charlie in the late 1980's just prior to the wall coming down.

This is the actual Guard House at Check Point Charlie which is now at the Allied Museum.  President Monson had to come through here many times to visit the Saints in East Germany.

 The wall was constructed of prefabricated sections of cement.  This would be the East German side of the wall which was just plain cement.  East Germans could not approach the wall.

This is how tall the guard towers were.  The West Germans could walk along the wall and most of the wall was painted with graffiti. 

This is a statue donated to Berlin by the USA and titled "The Day the Wall Came Down."

November 1989 Berlin became an open city.  By early 1990 the entire wall had been torn down by the people.  Germany was reunified on October 3, 1990--a national holiday!  

Neue Wache Memorial

In the center of Berlin is poignant memorial to all those who have died and suffered because of war.  The simple building with columns is always opened and walking inside one sees only the statue of a mother sitting on the floor holding the lifeless body of her son.  The plaque in German is a remembrance to everyone who suffered because of war including the 6 million Jews that died and to everyone in the future who might suffer due to intolerance and tyranny.

LEAVING ALL WARS BEHIND--BERLIN IS NOW FUN!

One of the main past times in Berlin is to sit for hours at an open air restaurant, drink some beer and watch everyone walk by.

Ampule Man is the little green man on the traffic signal.  They have stores dedicated to souvenirs with his picture.  We always have a good time with the Johnsons. 

There was a large light festival in Berlin. The trees are not normally lighted.  Many buildings were lighted.  We loved the picture of James Bond.