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25 June 2010

Berlin - Day 17 - 2010-6-17

The Berlin Crematorium. I didn't like it much at first. Just seemed like a rectangular concrete box.


But the the space it created was... well, amazing. The inside is filled with randomly spaced columns with subdued light coming from the capitals. Light from the exterior walls passes through a double louver system controllable by the user.


This is a detail from Egyptian temples. The sand is supposed to represent time and the fact that we return to sand/dust and the doorway created is for the deceased to pass through.


One of the nicest cemeteries I've ever visited. Just small and unkempt. A lot of the headstones are weathered and turned over.


Best strawberries ever.


When the Soviets took Berlin they lost 20,000 men in the battle, so the first thing they did once the war was over was build a huge memorial. The granite used to make these two flags comes from Hitler's Chancellery Building - quite the fuck you.



The statue is huge, it's just hard to get a proper photo of. It's a Soviet soldier with a baby in one arm and a sword in the other. All the mounds are mass graves of Soviet soldiers.


Each rectangle holds the bodies of 5,000 Soviet soldiers.



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