Karl-Marx Allee

 

I've now run up, down, across and under Karl Marx Allee countless times. No surprise given it is an enormous boulevard stretching nearly 2km to connect Friedrichshain with Mitte. I now love the  grandeur of the huge Stalinist apartments which run up both sides of the street to the Frankfurter Tors at the eastern end, all of which provide one of the best frames in Berlin for the TV tower that rises up from the western end.

The apartments were built in the 1950s as palaces for workers to celebrate the importance of the ordinary labourer. After Stalin's death, Khrushchev favoured less majestic surroundings for East Berlin citizens, believing everyone should live more basically, and ordered the construction of large, pre-fabricated buildings in the city's outskirts. But the wedding cake style of the boulevard remained, although it had its name changed from Stalin Allee to Karl Marx Allee.

Karl Marx Allee always reminds me of my first day in Berlin, when traipsing its full 2km in the rain and ending up in Alexander Platz, I did actually think we had come on holiday to Khrushchev era Berlin. But luckily that only lasted a day, and when I opened my eyes a bit more, saw all the amazing things Berlin had to offer.

The traffic light man

All but a smidgen of my running so far has been in what was East Berlin (and the former GDR). So its not too much of a surprise that I have come across plenty of Ampelmännchen. These are the recognisable and much loved green and red be-hatted traffic light men that normally indicate you are in the east of the city. They were designed in the late 50s by Karl Peglau who thought not all motorists could distinguish between the red, amber and green colours of traffic lights. During the GDR, they became characters in cartoon books and TV programmes (red man for dangerous situations, green man for advisable situations). So it is no wonder that they were retained after reunification and that they have become a mainstay of "Ostalgie" (nostalgia for East Germany).

 

What is more endearing is that they have been picked up as a symbol for wider Berlin tourism (the tourist shops around Museum Island are packed out with Ampelmännchen mugs, tea towels, ashtrays etc etc) and that other Germany citys (including in the former West Germany) have also adopted them. And, better still, there is an Ampelfrau. Traffic light feminism!

Traffic lights have frustrated me a bit today. Dutifully stopped and waited at what seemed like loads during my run, and then apparently (according to a policeman) jumped one later in the day on my bike and got a 100 euro fine!

Where am I?

In a bar on Broadway Market in London there is a brilliant artwork which consists of loads and loads of pictures of red front doors in (I assume) London. Like a book shelf, a front door is a bit of statement - are you traditional (red, racing green, navy blue with brass door knob), slick and modern (duck egg blue or other pastel colour and (at the time of writing) frosted stencils for numbers), or do you not care what others think of you (same colour and style as when you moved in 8 years ago). In central Berlin, practically everyone lives in apartments behind a communal door so you don't have the ability to project something about yourself to the people passing at street level (window boxes I can come onto in time). But that has not prevented me from finding doorways and street signs interesting!

In Berlin street numbers are either illuminated cubes attached to the wall or hanging down from the porch ceiling, or more old-fashioned tin plaques which (if you're lucky) point in the direction that the numbers go in down the street. Sometimes numbers are odd on one side and even on the other, and other times they go up one side of the street and come down the other. Helpfully, signs on street corners tell you what numbers are along the next block and sometimes an explanation about the name of the street. So Sonntagstraße is not so-called because it is a nice place to hang out on Sundays, but after Johann Sonntag, who was a late 18th century landowner and leased out the fields round today's Boxhagener Straße to farming families. And Ede-und-Unku Weg is named after a 1931 book which was included in those burned as part of the 1933 book burning, as part of the city's remembrance of victims of the Nazi era.

 

Walpurgisnacht and May Day

While back in the UK events were being organised for the Royal Wedding, over in Berlin more and more posters were appearing for two events over the same weekend. My short route yesterday took me past lots of posters advertising them. The first - Walpurgisnacht - is a bit like Halloween. Originally it was a Christian festival celebrating St Walpurga who was born in England in 710 and travelled to Heidenheim in southern Germany where she became a nun, and following her death, a saint. Now its celebrated across central Europe in different ways; some Christian, some pagan. A potential landlord of mine (fingers crossed) came from Heidenheim. There, he said, people would keep up tradition by playing tricks on their neighbours, although this would sometimes end up in violence.

In Berlin, as well as being an excuse for a good club night, it is also merged with the May Day protests that have been happening since 1968. These were relatively peaceful until 1988 after the use of teargas by the police provoked violence that has endured every year. My new friend, who grew up in Kreuzberg, said that the local Bezirksamt (municipal body) now organises a festival every year to detract from the violence. But apparently the police also use kettling over here, so think will head for home tomorrow about 7pm.




Finally, not a brilliant photo, but just to prove that Friday's events did not pass Berlin by.

Stone pavements and concrete walls

Getting into some decent distances now. Part of this morning's route took me 1.3km alongside a construction that has come to symbolise both division and reunion. The East Side Gallery is the longest remaining stretch of the wall, and although it is far from its original form (barbed wire and watch towers replaced by wall paintings by 100 artists), it still feels as though the weight of history surrounds you as you run past it. You can see those paintings here.

The wall is marked elsewhere in the city, most famously at Checkpoint Charlie, but also as a cobblestone line understatedly snaking over the streets in the residential district of Treptow and and other areas (I'm sure I'll get a photo of these in a later blog). The gallery was first painted in 1990 and has had to be repainted to cover up the graffiti and erosion. However, some of the original artists did not approve of this 'repair' work and have organised against it.

Early morning runs have also taken me past workmen repairing the pavements (which everyone presumably does approve of), sections of which are made up of lots of small stone squares rather than big pavement slabs. They use large rubber mallets - maybe to keep the noise down for those still sleeping! This looks pretty as it is, but has also formed part of another unassuming but emotive memorial to another chapter in Germany's history (again, will get photos for later).