Berlin Wall Trail 2019 - a novel Walk

[CaptJCool]

The other big event on the day was an open Grenzturm. Lucky for me it was open and just a couple of days before closing for the winter. This of course was shown from the outside in the youtube linked yesterday..... for me lucky to go inside....
first though two photos of this section around the Grenzturm and then and photo off a video depicting the canal border patrol operations

 

[CaptJCool]

And then the Grenzturm














I made conversation with the Grenzturm Museum volunteer for about an hour after perusing the tower and the adjacent signboards. It was fascinating to listen to someone who lived the behind the wall experience and how much the same yet how different life might be.

The lives of others: Ute Mahler's images of the real East Germany – in pictures

In 1974, the German photographer set out to convey the truth about how people really lived in the communist GDR – depicting her fellow citizens with a ‘timeless coolness’

www.theguardian.com

Bizarre Facts About East Germany, The Fallen State - Factinate

www.factinate.com

This is What Life was Like in Communist East Germany - History Collection

After being allies in World War II, the Soviet Union and the West soon resumed mutual hostilities. As part of the post-war agreement, the Soviets kept many former naz_ territories they’d won during the conflict. These agreements divided Europe between communist nations, part of the so-called...

historycollection.com

Where socialism meets capitalism - jeans but no hot showers for the plebs working in Western circuses
From elephant caretaker to private security guard | DW | 25.10.2019 We all got a hot shower

as every country has a “palace economy” life can be pretty comfortable as long as you don’t have a dispute with the ‘government’. In a democracy, different opinions and free speech are tolerated and contracts awarded to anyone but as today’s Gladys resignation shows mates rates can get you in trouble. but in places where there are no or rigged elections you don’t score a contract unless you’re a party member....and then you get the rubber-stamp seal of approval from the “palace”.....

No unemployment and equal pay sounds like utopia.... yet Even the former East Germans complained of low wages and what’s the point of working when there’s nothing on which to spend your money

 

[CaptJCool]

Both yesterday’s and today’s walk were LONG
STOCK UP before you begin cause there’s ZERO COFFEE STOPS along the way.

there were however stunning scenes and where one wall came down another went up
this you may say sounds strange but let’s consider the wall that kept people in unless you were over 60 in which case you were free to go live off the West German pension system not the Easts.... yet subsequently REPLACED with PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS that “KEEP EVERYBODY OUT”

a brief recall overnight from the Grenzturm volunteer conversation. This was to do with a shared style way of living. If you had a car, the community appreciated that you shared it with those who didn’t. Seems a bit like the circus story of the East, where everyone got a HOT shower, but in the West ONLY the circus bosses got a hot shower. This relative private property rights “Scrooge spiritedness“was less present in the East. However, I was under delusion the lake frontage was shared and yet nope, there was this great big mighty wall installed so no one in the East could walk along the lake, With the advent of the fall of the Wall, lake frontage was sold off and while many new owners permitted a public pathway along the lake, not all have done so and thus one of the backtrack stories of the day.

of course, i say this because of this absolute stunning view.....

 

[CaptJCool]

because yesterday ran well after dark, my first backtrack was to begin the days affairs in Alt Spandau


Spandau Ballet!?

into new Spandau
Definitely funk here. Innovative design In It’s time

even if a bit a special awareness is clumsier than a Spandau Ballet



because this section was two intertwined cities or towns there was very close proximity to The Wall



A very solid historical display here ! This I saw In The dark last night ....

Just another wall... the green grass is on the former border strip

and why is half a road cobble-stones?


well that’s the border strip so the left hand side is the post 1989 development....

a fallen church - often where these were on or adjacent the border, the East demolished them

and finally at Staaken regional station where today’s race begins.

 

[CaptJCool]

So today’s leg on 2 October 2019

Berlin Wall Trail - From Wannsee to Staaken - Berlin.de

www.berlin.de

Nature unfurled. The border pavers are on the right hand top side of this photo


I got lost around abouts this location, and walked way off track.,, sighs... a long walk going longer..

detours

checkpoint Bravo I believe...
today
and off into the next forest, past Fort Hanneburg.





terribly pointless. Not even a decent view although as far as seating goes, about the only ones provided on the entire trail ive walked so far!

 

[CaptJCool]

It’s all forest from here to the Ferry crossing...

What’s the mystery in the parking zone?




Answer; https://www.dw.com/en/cycling-without-age-mobility-german-unity-berlin-wall/a-50675050


which way Jose?






Ladder to Nowhere


and so the “Royal entrance” to the Lake Glienicke



the wall leading onto the Lake

 

[CaptJCool]

Hidden chairs...
and it’s soooo good, it’s an encore ...


Path to Nowhere - he came back for the path was fenced on two sides as it interesected the house and swimming precincts of the now private owned properties. It was worth a crack..





and then a simple fence to get over, and a second and finally the third wax a spiked top with no way over, so it was a turnback for me
Finding the other end


Some of the lake is open for private business

and then it was a street level lengthy detour before leaving the lake and heading into the final forest of the day

 

[CaptJCool]

Last push onto the Ferry
not without a tree block or three




Three way options. This was like oh gosh, in lookin at the map, it was a left turn skipping all the long walk down the far end to only have to come back or head further to another bridge so I took the shorter route to the ferry.



It’s definitely been a Boot and Fun. Particularly way outside what I had expected... and rottenly tired..

the dusk views were a real uplift


As much as I wished to linger longer, and not knowing the ferret departure time I fell onto it in a stroke of luck barely 5 minutes before the final departure for the evening. Phew


Pity I didn’t ride a bike! Ample parking

The ride was sweet reward but the walk was not at an end...

somehow managed to stumble to the 1927 station

Such an exquisite entrance....

 

[CaptJCool]

Wet or dry it’s still a slog!

 

[OATEK]

We spent a few days in a Hotel/Health Spa on the Wannsee - quite lovely, as was our visit to the the Max Lieberman Villa.

 

[CaptJCool]

We spent a few days in a Hotel/Health Spa on the Wannsee - quite lovely, as was our visit to the the Max Lieberman Villa.

Liebermann Villa - Berlin.de

www.berlin.de

 

[CaptJCool]

Today’s 3 October (2019 Thursday)

Berlin Wall Trail - From Griebnitzsee to Wannsee - Berlin.de

www.berlin.de

back in Wannsee

Bismarck and bank lookin like a film set !


bus thru the park and Peacock Island


across to the East side
that yacht had one hell of a beat box. The music was blaring chronically! Some top hits for the wprld to hear






The famous ‘Bridge of Spies”

 

[CaptJCool]

On the other side



some seriously luxurious icons on the Potsdam Side




Back on the Westside







coming Upto the Exclave

 

[CaptJCool]

Fortune favours the brave. An exhibition had been set up to remember the 30th anniversary of the Wall Fall, and opened just today.


timeless east



Number 6 on the map


In this next set of photos I haven’t strictly adhered to order because even tracing the wall on the map there were geographic terrain difficulties that meant two steps forward, one step back. Also I came in from the Jagdschlosspark not from the bridge in....


Number 5 on the map .... Apparently this was a Zoo, and the Dog agrees...



on the map above this was number 12 Again now and then


Now and then

on the RHS was woodlands and quite a steep gully.... which meant the gully was in West Berlin but the street frontage in the East number 15 but it also meant a real impossible task to follow the wall seeing it was at the backyard of the housing strip

 

[CaptJCool]

Because this was the opening day of the exhibition, the locals were out in force.

I conversed with a family whose daughter interpreted for us between German and English. They were from the west and They lived on ‘Am Waldrand‘ since early 1990. (It’s on the map top right hand corner) Rent was cheap and on day one, they lived with the Wall across the street. Eventually it was removed and they had enjoyed “cheap living” even to today.

the other big gathering
was because it was opening day Of the exhibition.
I spoke with a couple of guys. In English. The key message was “these photos are not representative of our current neighbourhood”. That that time was a generation ago and the world has changed so much since then.

then and now














This was the final exhibition installation
I did scan the QR code
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk9Zk4q7v6EfK0x4vO9OmCg/videos?view=0&sort=da&flow=grid here’s all the Audio in German !

 

[CaptJCool]

Also found this page which announces the exhibition and is translatable to English
Log into Facebook

the German audio for each of the 17 photos is in written form here Erinnerungsmarken
this can be read and probably translatable. Seeing i know ein bichen Deutsch, I get the gist of them.

and there was a history quiz (translated into English)

https://kleinglienicke.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/karte-ralley_stationen-englischeversion.pdf

and answers in English https://kleinglienicke.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/fragen_lc3b6sungen-englisch.pdf







one last look



West on the Left, East on the Right

The disputes about private property rights v public pathway ever present


So it’s some considerable backtracking ....

and this newer Griebnitzsee

 

[CaptJCool]

Public



in this section. You can see a large part of the public pathway has been locked off by private owners. Disappointing to say the least and meant plenty of backtracking up the hill and rabbit holes. There were several stairways down to the waterside but again owners had blocked off access to “their private property”.


And
well. Could say that reasonated seeing I was hoofing round with a hoodie with the Batman emblem on the front!

3 October is also my sisters birthday so birthday greetings to her!

but it’s time now to pack it in for the night, head for the station and rest up at the hotel (the legs are seriously sore and one of my little toes quite in severe distress (no pics)




for now, I’m contemplating how I might make it through the final legs when I’ve got “no legs left”, and the timeline is narrowing because I’m yet to see 4 of my favourite people who live in Berlin so that’ll take time off the schedule plus because of the return flight to Australia from Stockholm, and no transport booked for get from Berlin to Stockholm...

Gah, it’s one thing to ‘push your limits’ and actually so do it, and quite another to make prudential judgment about ones capacity to “keep going in the face of injury and physical hardship”. I’m not in the habit of walking 20kms a day so time May run out before I get finished. On the bright side, it leaves something to look forward to “next time”

 

[CaptJCool]

Go Forth October

Berlin Wall Trail - From Lichterfelde Süd to Griebnitzsee - Berlin.de

www.berlin.de

and this lil link... Mauerweg-Tour von Griebnitzsee bis Checkpoint Bravo


back At the station

twas closed because of the wall...

S-Bahn-Brücke, Wannsee [Brücke]

S-Bahn-Brücke. Die Brücke über den Teltowkanal ist Teil der Verbindung der Bahnhöfe S-Wannsee und S-Griebnitzsee. Der Teltowkanalweg, einer von 20

m.dein-plan.de

it’s a pretty daytime sight over the lake




Just your average front garden.....


cobbles = East, Bitumen = West

steinStücken.... eventually there was a land swap to provide a land corridor to this enclave of West Berlin inside East Germany... Exchanges of territory - Berlin.de

ir was just another dead end


Out of Steinstücken

along the Canal




Website : Landgut Eule – Cottage in Berlin

Cottage in Berlin · ★4.60 · 1 bedroom · 1 bed · 1 bath

Berlin Wannsee Eule

www.airbnb.com.au

Landgut Eule someone uploaded 72 photos here including of the Tetlow Canal and the old border control point at Drewitz which is just up the road...

 

[CaptJCool]

Editing is proving impossible

when steinstücken was land locked

 

[CaptJCool]

The defunct border crossing at Drewitz...








got lost round here. Border fence re-purposed

there’s was also an abandoned railway

and forest colour