Today was the fourth and final day of the Fulbright Conference, and it was a fairly laid-back one.  Like every day this week, I started off with a free breakfast in the hotel lobby, then went off with another Fulbrighter (engineer working with Deutsche Bahn in Munich) to go see the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.  The monument itself is very simple - 2,711 granite slabs of varying heights arranged in a grid.  It's not symbolic of anything and was designed to let the visitor wander through, get disoriented (navigation is easy, but the grid is small enough and the steles high enough that you'll get lost from traveling companions quickly and run into them when you least expect it), and ponder the tragedy of the holocaust.  It was very moving, especially the museum below it, but I did not like that it focused only on the Jewish victims of the holocaust.  Don't get me wrong, they should have a monument - as should the other major ethnic groups that were victims - but I think that it is unfair to the memory of the other groups that also suffered to be excluded from Berlin's main memorial. 

From there I walked along the western side of what used to be the Berlin Wall (and is now a major street) to the Reichstag, where I met Erica and her family (after stopping to get coffee on the way).  From here we walked through the Tiergarten (the major park in the center of Berlin, which has more green space as a percentage of area than any other European capital), also known as Berlin's green lung (more brown this time of year, but meh) to the Museum of Musical Instruments - which was surprisingly fascinating.  They had a nice collection of pianos, harpsichords, and organs, some with incredible levels of detail and artistry.  We spent about an hour there, then walked under Potsdamer Platz, the central square of West Berlin, and the difference with the East was amazing.  The former east is still full of Soviet-era pre-fab, and the main square, Alexander Platz (where my hotel is) is surrounded by low-slung cement monsters.  In the west, Potsdamer Platz is now home to an airy covered park surrounded (fairly closely) by shopping malls of steel and glass.  Continuing the walk, we went past Gendarmenmarkt, a very nice square with two cathedrals and a theatre house.  From here I went back to the hotel alone to attend a seminar put on by Fulbright.

The seminar was (nominally) about the effect of Obama on the German political landscape, and Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller, the former editor of Die Welt (think The Economist in Germany), was one of the highlights.  Her opinions were very pragmatic - attempt to encourage democracy in Eastern Europe while keeping Russia at bay, work with the US but not for the US, and to take a cautious tone with Obama from the start.  She did anticipate better relations and more productive foreign policy, but also expressed the idea that in the current financial crisis, economic policy will become foreign policy.  This talk was easily the best one that Fulbright put on this week - questions asked by the audience were actually answered directly - and without political juggling.

After the talk I was worn out, so I went up to my room to relax for a bit and read, enjoying the view at sunset out over Berlin from my hotel window.  The Fulbright Committee put on a nice farewell dinner for us in the hotel, and I got to talk with other Fulbrighters about their projects.  Thankfully, I'm not the only one whose project isn't moving as quickly as they had planned, so it was good to commiserate about the same frustrations.  After dinner I went over to meet Erica and her family again and hung out with them for a while.  From there I walked back to my hotel so that I could enjoy Berlin at night one final time. 

The Fulbright Conference continued on Tuesday, kicking off with some project presentations by other Fulbrighters from around Europe.  These projects ran from the extremely fuzzy (teaching middle school German children ethnic dance to combat racial stereotypes - but only 6 times) to the very technical (Photoionization of Highly Charged Ions in an Electron Beam Trap utilizing Advanced Synchrotron Radiation Sources) and everything in between (Renewable Energy Policy).  In general, they were pretty interesting, and the 5-minute was a nice balance.  Following these talks, we had a short break and then were welcomed by Barbara Kisseler, the Head of the Senate Chancellery of Berlin (President of Berlin Senate, Berlin is a city-state) where we learned about why Berlin is such a great city.  Although 60 billion dollars in debt, they plan to spend 400 million of their 640 million share of the bailout package on culture, as they think that culture is what draws people to Berlin and they hope to make more money off of it.  For a politician, she gave a nice speech, but the highlight of these events was the location - inside Berlin's town hall and in the very room where the Berlin Congress took place. 

After the speech we got a quick lunch, and from there I went to go meet Erica's family for a walking tour through the old part of the city.  The walking tour was much better than the bus tour, and the sunny weather (I forgot that they were allowed to have such weather in Germany) was a nice change.  We spent most of our time inside the Berlin Cathedral, originally built in 1902 to show off the wealth of the German Kaisers.  Surprisingly, the cathedral was protestant, and it had a nice outdoor balcony that you could walk around to get some good views of the city. 

After the cathedral we took a walk up to Prenzlauer Berg, a formerly up-and-coming neighborhood that has now arrived.  It was a little bit too self-consciously trendy for my tastes, but like the rest of Berlin the streets were nice and wide - for such a huge city, it's fairly walkable.  A lot of this walkability stems from the fact that until the Prussians moved their capital here, Berlin was mostly a grouping of small towns.  With the arrival of the Prussian court, the towns just kept expanding until they all touched.  Unlike LA, each district maintains a unique feel and a sense of identity, and the cultural scene will shift from one district to another.  Anyways, after a short trip through there, we reached a nice neighborhood restaurant, where we had some good schnitzel and a few locally-brewed beers. 

From there we took the U-Bahn (subway) back to their apartment and talked for a bit.  I left around 9:15 and made my way to the Reichstag, the roof of which remains open to the public until 10:00, but once you get up they don't make you leave until midnight.  After about 10:15 I had the dome and roof pretty much to myself, and got to enjoy it at my leisure.  The design is quite striking - a glass dome overlooking the floor of the German Bundestag (House of Representatives), which serves three functions:  providing light (through 360 mirrors on a central column), climate control (cools in summer, warms in winter through heat transfer and insulation), and finally as a symbol for the new transparency of the German government following the war.  The Reichstag was never used during the Nazi administration, so it's one of the few buildings free of the associative guilt.

For me, the dome symbolizes a more modern Germany.  It's open, has a forward-thinking and beautiful design, is a little bit sterile but has some unique character, and helps promote ecological stability.  Being up alone on the roof was an amazing experience:  I had been up there before, but only during the day, and it was just too crowded for my tastes.  At night it was a completely different feeling:  the solitude makes it much easier to reflect on the history and symbolism of the glass cupola, and Berlin looks great at night.  It's a nice flat city, with only a few skyscrapers.  The rest of the towers belong to churches, palaces, and other historic buildings, while it spreads far enough out that there's still a significant big-city feel.  Needless to say, should you find yourself in Berlin, go at night.

After the Reichstag I walked back to the Brandenburg Gate (also deserted), passing over the site of the former Berlin Wall, marked by cobblestones in the street and now crossed daily by hundreds of cars and pedestrians.  Along the way are memorials to those killed trying to cross.  Again, this experience was very Berlin; no other city I've been too keeps modernity and tragic history in such close proximity to each other, managing to embrace both, taking hope in the former and reflecting on the latter.  Sometimes the rebuilding goes a bit too far and the history can get lost, but all things considered, Berlin manages to pull off both. 

The day started off with a panel discussion about the future of Germany and how it has coped with the challenges of the reunion.  I was looking forward to it, as the Fulbright Commission had managed to get a former head of the German Green Party, the political editor of Die Welt, a respected German newspaper, and the director of the American Institute for Contemporary German studies.  Sadly, the former head of the Green Party destroyed my hopes - he was a giant windbag, and everything he said sounded like it came straight out of a (bad) political speech.  Most of his answers focused on why his decisions were the right ones, and after a 5 minute introduction got lost in a sea of conclusions and mixed metaphors.  He even said that "We didn't want [The US] to think that we were trying to start the 4th Reich" at some point, and then went on to claim the Neo-Nazi party, NPD, is not really a problem.  Well and good, but they won 25% of the vote in some districts (thankfully not many, but it's still enough to be a problem).  He's running for the European Parliament, so I hope that he loses.  The other speakers were much better - brief, insightful, and funny, but they often didn't even get the chance to speak.

After that nonsense I need a break, and went to the Pergamon Museum with Samuel, another Fulbrighter also studying in Marburg.  This museum was simply astounding - each new room had a facade of a ruined temple, an altar (like a reconstruction of the Pergamon Altar), or, my favorite, the Ishtar Gate.  This gate might not sound all that exciting to you, but I've been reading about it since I was 8 - and every picture I saw of it was captioned with "Courtesy of the Vorderasiatische Museum, Berlin" so I've been looking forward to seeing this for a while.  Originally the main entrance off the Processional Way coming into the city of Babylon, it was one of the main reasons why the walls of Babylon, and not it's Hanging Gardens, were considered to be a Wonder of the World (back in the day and such).  The reconstruction is gorgeous, and it's hard not to be awestruck. 

After the museum I tagged back to the hotel quick, then it was off to the Haus der Kulturen der Welt for speeches (including an excellent one on the different geopolitical goals of Europe and the US by Dr. Klaus von Dohnanyi), music, and free food (and an adult beverage or two).  Following this nice opening ceremony (we'll pretend and forget that we all didn't arrive yesterday) I met up with Erica and her family, and we took a short walk through Berlin at night to finish the day off. 

So I should probably explain what I'm doing in Berlin, as a starter.  The German Fulbright Commission puts on a conference for all German Fulbrighters here every year, but since this year is the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the German state, they went all out and invited all Fulbrighters in Europe and all Germans going to America.  So in total, there's about 600 of us, and they put us up in a nice hotel (well, large and clean) looking over the city - especially the historic center and the west. 

Picking up from where the London post left off...  after leaving the hotel, I walked around Alexander Platz for a bit before heading off to my tour, which was "Berlin Mitte - Architecture and Churches." Normally this would be right up my alley, but when I showed up I saw a bus.  I hoped that the bus would take us to a more central location before dropping us off to do a walking tour, but sadly it did not, and we just drove around the city looking out the window.  This tour confirmed why I hated this approach to sightseeing - you miss a lot of the detail and at the end of the day you have no real idea of where you've been or where anything is in relation to the other attractions.  Other than that, the tour was fine - general tourist information punctuated by an interesting visit to Germany's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (I use this term, but concentration camp victims and victims of totalinarian regimes are honored equally) with a haunting interpretation of the Pieta by Kathe Kolwitz.  After this stop we headed over to the new synagouge, which I loved - the style is very moorish and it almost looks out of place next to the staid Wilhemine buildings surrounding it. 

The tour also opened my eyes to the extreme war damage that Berlin suffered - over 65% of the old city was destroyed, and since people needed housing, concrete pre-fab (especially in the East, which contained most of the historic buildings) still dominate the landscape.  But recently the modern has begun to mix with tradition, usually to great effect - IM Pei designed the addition to the German History museum, and this wing adds a refreshing touch to the city's architecture (the new governmental offices are strikingly modern, full of glass and metal, resulting in a very open feeling).  After this bus tour we headed over to a restaurant/pub where we had our introductory dinner and a reception.  We stayed here for a bit (with free beer, how could you not?) and then walked our way back to the hotel.  Thankfully, the weather was nice, and it gave me a great chance to see some parts of Berlin by night.