Category: Berlin

Current tunes: Pigeon Flying Over Berlin Zoo – Ian Anderson
Current location: Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung und Umwelt

6.4.16 – City Office of Development

THE morning started out as well as could have been expected, and by that I mean multiple people having trouble with transit. It’s something that is normal when changing places, feeling excited, and when transit just. does. not. work. But for our second outing we all managed to make it.

Upon arrival to Jannowitzbrücke, the station which nearly kills me every time I go there (seriously the way from the U-Bahn to the S-Bahn IS NOT FLUFFY PERSON FRIENDLY); I slugged my way up from the U8 to the S-Bahn tracks above to meet everyone who was there with a… well, not a smile, more of a sweaty grimace. We waited for the Berlin transit system to deliver our other members to us, no more than 15 minutes, before we trekked downstairs and across the river to our destination.
(At this point I would like to make a quick aside that GOING UP ALL THOSE STAIRS ONLY TO GO BACK DOWN, was -eugh.)

We walked along the Chinese embassy, turned the corner, and came to a door that I would not have looked twice at had I been passing it. This is something that seems to happen a lot in Berlin. Curiosities and wonderful tidbits of information hidden in the most nondescript places. It’s a unintentional treasure hunt every day. But there we were, at the City Office of Development, staring at several huge displays of Berlin, in a room (converted courtyard), probably bigger than one of Evergreen’s normal classrooms.

Our tour guide was a lovely older lady whose name escapes me at the moment, but she was obviously knowledgeable about the Urban Development, Berlin, and was eager to share. We were slowly lead around the room, all of us looking curiously at the models and amazed at the sheer size of them. Our guide talked to us and a discussed things with us for nearly 2 hours, so I can’t even begin to give you anything close to enough information.

(The above is not the main model, it did take up a whole wall though.)

The blue and brown and green and white of the immense city model that dominated the room would have kept my attention if it were not for the smaller, more colorful (to me at least) model, pushed to the side under a less lit area to the main model’s right. A relic of Soviet ideals, the “Stadtplan” for the GDR’s Berlin, the future that could have been. I don’t know why I liked it so much, it was showing less than half of Berlin, and in that less than half there was more space that I would have thought the GDR wanted. It also had more modern looking buildings in it’s design. I just really liked it for some reason.

Looking at these maps made me realize that Berlin is city I know  I can never see all of and that saddens me a bit. But, because of it’s dynamic nature, I’m sure this city will keep me coming back for more.

I do have one important note for you all though:

DO NOT TRUST BERLIN PALM TREES.