Berlin: Day Three

A whole area of the Pergamon Museum was just closed – until 2019 – the area housing the famous Pergamon Altar, for which the museum is named. Thank goodness! Otherwise, we’d really be suffering from museum overload. There was enough jaw-dropping material remaining to keep us fully engaged. We’ve included a scant sampling with no real detail (because we’re not taking notes, sorry!).

King Nebuchadnezzar built a massive processional way and entrance gate for the city of Babylon, the Ishtar Gate, around 575 BC. Ishtar is a Babylonian goddess of some sort. This was one of eight gates. Impressive.
This mihrab or Islamic prayer niche is, we would guess, ten or twelve feet tall. It is, of course, the focal point for prayer and certainly creates an impression conducive to sublime meditation.
This is the earliest known example of writing that is not cuneiform. It is a Semitic writing that is the ancestor of Greek, Arabic, and Roman writing.
In the Neues Museum, next to the Pergamon, there are a few “must see” objects. One of them is a late Bronze Age (probably around 1000 to 800 BC) hammered gold cone shaped hat filled with power enhancing knowledge, like a 19 year calendar that successfully ties together the solar and lunar calendars. There are four such hats discovered to date, although cone shaped magical hats are apparently known in a number of cultures.

For a change of pace, we visited the East Side Gallery, an area of the Berlin Wall covered with street art. “The Kiss” between Gorbachev and Honecker is a classic. It was a little more difficult making the trip to see this than expected because one of the train systems was closed due to a strike. Oh, well.

After our daytime adventures, we headed to Gendarmenmarkt and Fassenbender & Rauch who bill themselves as the largest chocolatier in the world. Upstairs is a cafe where all of the menu items incorporate chocolate. Some menu items are more successful than others, but we thoroughly enjoyed our pre-concert dinner.

(Full room)

After dinner we walked over to the Konzerthaus to hear Ivan Fischer conducting the Konzerthausorchester Berlin in Schubert’s “Great” Symphony in C Major. Much to our surprise, this was a symphony in the round with audience members interspersed among the orchestra on the floor of the hall. We spoke with the violinist behind us and learned that this was, in fact, the first time they had ever done such a thing. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. We certainly did, although – as one might expect – the balance of instruments was tilted towards whoever sat closest to you. We got a lot of double bass and first violin. Of course, the antiphonal effect was amazing. Fischer gave a talk before each movement and responded to comments on social media at the conclusion. This was all lost on us since it was in German. Directly in front of us, in the press section, a woman was doing what – for want of a better term – we’d call automatic drawing. She had large sheets of paper on her lap and moved a pencil around the paper in response to the music. At times it was as if she were frenetically bowing a phantom instrument. Unfortunately, she didn’t know the score and would get caught up in something that didn’t shift in time with the music. A strange phenomenon to add to our entertainment. All in all, a lot of fun.