Walled In Berlin

Pickle barrel – pint-sized hotel room

July 30th, 2018

“A Pickle Barrel for Two” is the latest in adventures awaiting outdoor enthusiasts. How would you like to spend a vacation in a cozy pickle barrel? The only place I have ever seen these pickle barrel pint-sized hotel rooms is in Luebbenau, a town about 60 miles southeast of Berlin, Germany. Lodging runs in the neighborhood of 35 Euros per night plus a small fee for cleaning and the obligatory city tax.

Luebbenau – pickle barrel hotel hub

Where in the heck is Luebbenau you ask? Luebbenau has less than 18,000 residents and is located in the heart of the Spreewald (literally “the woods of the River Spree”) in the German State of Brandenburg. The settlement was first mentioned in 1315, but excavations indicate that it may already have existed in the 8^thor 9^thcentury. Its landscape was shaped during the ice age. The first settlers were Slavic tribes. Also known as “Little Venice” because of its dense network of small waterways, the Spreewald was designated a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1991.

Pickle barrel mini hotels

The Spreewald is known for its production of natural organic produce. Cucumbers have been grown here since the 17^thand 18^thcenturies, and the pickles from the region are renowned throughout Germany. Aside from agriculture and fishing, tourism is one of the main sources of income in Luebbenau. That prompted an enterprising soul to come up with the idea of pickle barrel hotel rooms. They are a cross between camping and a night in a hotel, but oodles more unique and romantic. During the day, you might want to boat, hike, fish or explore to your heart’s content, and at night …

pickle barrel pint-sized hotel rooms in Luebbenau, Spreewald, in Germany. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015. www.walled-in-berlin.com

With a length of just under 11 feet and a diameter of 7 feet, pickle barrel mini hotel rooms are obviously larger than the vats used for pickling cucumbers. In fact, these pickle barrel pint-sized hotels are large enough to sleep two adults. They are furnished with a double bed and room for some storage beneath the bed. Some barrels are divided into a small vestibule and a sleeping or sitting area. But that’s all! There isn’t room for a toilet or a shower, but that doesn’t mean you have to do without. Those amenities are usually provided just steps outside your barrel. Neither do you have to make due with nutrition bars for breakfast or dinner. Hearty meals await you in nearby restaurants. Ready to try a pickle barrel hotel on your next vacation? Let me know how you liked it.

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.

Tags: Germany, Luebbenau, pickle barrel, pickle barrel mini hotel room, small hotel, Spreewald, UNESCO biosphere reserve, vacation adventure
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War Guilt Clause in the Treaty of Versailles

July 23rd, 2018

The War Guilt Clause in Article 231 in Part 8 in the Treaty of Versailles, was by far the most controversial section of the peace agreement. The article demanded that Germany alone accept full responsibility for the losses and damages the Allied nations had sustained during World War I. In 1921, the total cost of the reparations was assessed at $33 billion (equivalent to about US $442 billion in 2018). Furthermore, the Allies insisted that the treaty permit them to take punitive actions if Germany fell behind in its payments.

German reaction to the War Guilt Clause

The harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles fostered deep resentment in Germany. In October 1918, when the German Government had asked U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to arrange a general armistice, it had also agreed to the Fourteen Points of the postwar peace settlement as formulated by Wilson. However, when the Treaty of Versailles was ready for signature, Germany was shocked to find that the terms of reparation were much harsher than Wilson’s Fourteen Points. In particular, Germans took offense to the provision that blamed their country for starting the war. They considered the latter an insult to their nation’s honor. German Chancellor Philipp Scheidemann even resigned rather than sign the Treaty of Versailles. After much consideration, German Foreign Minister Hermann Mueller and Colonial Minister Johannes Bell travelled to Versailles to sign the postwar agreement on behalf of Germany.

Historians on the Treaty of Versailles

British economist John Maynard Keynes referred to the Treaty of Versailles as a Carthaginian peace (a very brutal peace achieved by completely crushing the enemy) in an attempt to destroy Germany rather than to adhere to the more reasonable principles set out in U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points. Keynes believed the sums being asked for reparations were many times more than what Germany could pay. Other historians, chiefly German historian Detlev Peukert, French historian Raymond Cartier and British historian Richard J. Evans disagree with Keynes’ position.

Tags: Article 231, Detlef Peukert, Hermann Mueller, Johannes Bell, John Maynard Keynes, Philipp Scheidemann, Raymond Cartier, Richard J. Evans, Treaty of Versailles, War Guilt Clause, Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points
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Fire makes girl perfect match

July 19th, 2018

He was a boy who loved to play with fire, and she was his perfect match.

— Anonymous

He was a boy who loved to play with fire. She was his perfect match. Photo © Sonja Brzostowicz, 2016. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Tags: fire, match
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Treaty of Versailles ended World War I

July 16th, 2018

The Treaty of Versailles ended World War I. It took six months of Allied negotiations before the treaty was signed on 28 June 1919. The defeated nations (Germany, Austria and Hungary) were excluded from the negotiations. Russia, which had negotiated a separate peace with Germany the year before, was also excluded.

The conditions of the Treaty of Versailles were determined at meetings between the leaders of Great Britain (Prime Minister David Lloyd George), France (Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau), the United States (President Woodrow Wilson) and Italy (Prime Mister Vittorio Orlando). During the negotiations, French delegates sought to annex both the Saar Valley and the colonial German empire and to dismember Germany to prevent her from starting future wars. Although British and American negotiators also advocated stiff reparations, they did not want to totally cripple the German economy and thereby forego the possibility of a viable future trading partner.

The Treaty of Versailles was strictly enforced for five years, then modified mostly in Germany’s favor. In 1932, the depression led to the indefinite postponement of reparation payments, and by 1938 only the territorial settlement articles remained.

The Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, France, where the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Conditions of the Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles consisted of 15 parts and 440 articles.

Part 1 – Created a new League of Nations, which Germany was not allowed to join until 1926.
Part 2 – Specified Germany’s new boundaries with Eupen-Malmady going to Belgium, Alsace-Lorraine to France, West Prussia, Posen and Upper Silesia to Poland, Memel to Lithuania, and large portions of Schleswig Holstein to Denmark.
Part 3 – Stipulated a demilitarized zone and a separation of the Saarland from Germany for 15 years.
Part 4 – Stripped Germany of all its colonies.
Part 5 – Reduced Germany’s military forces to very low levels, prohibited Germany from possessing certain classes of weapons and committed the Allies to eventual disarmament.
Part 6 – Determined terms for the return of prisoners of war and for the treatment of the graves of fallen soldiers.
Part 7 – Created terms for the trials of those accused of war crimes against the Allied Powers.
Part 8 – Established Germany’s responsibility for reparations without stating a specific figure and forced Germany to accept full responsibility for World War I.
Part 9 – Imposed numerous other financial obligations on Germany.
Part 10 – Addressed shipping and unfair competition.
Part 11 – Gave Allied and Associated Powers full passage and landing rights over and in the territory and in the territorial waters of Germany.
Part 12 – Established terms regarding German ports, waterways and railroads.
Part 13 – Established terms regarding labor.
Part 14 – Established guarantees for Western and Eastern Europe regarding the evacuation of Allied Powers.
Part 15 – Miscellaneous provisions.

By far the most controversial section of the Treaty of Versailles was Article 231 in Part 8 of the agreement, known as the War Guilt Clause, which was partly responsible for the rise of the Nazis in Germany.

Tags: British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando, Treaty of Versailles, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, War Guilt Clause
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Millions saw the apple fall

July 12th, 2018

Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.

Bernard Baruch

Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.
www.walled-in-berlin.com

Tags: Sir Isaac Newton's three laws of motion
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Berlin’s former Nazi Prison Papestrasse

July 9th, 2018

The existence of Berlin’s former Nazi Prison Papestrasse is not well known, yet it is the only surviving historical site of early Nazi terror in the city. The former prison is located in General-Pape-Strasse in the Tempelhof district of the city. Between March 1933 and December 1933, shortly after Hitler had come to power, 100 such prisons were established throughout Germany. They were known as detention centers and were forerunners of the heinous Nazi concentration camps that followed.

Former Nazi Prison Papestrasse in Berlin – now a Memorial. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015. www.walled-in-berlin.com

In the Nazi Prison Papestrasse, the Field Police division of the Nazi Sturm Abteilung (Storm Troopers) – the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party – interrogated and tortured political opponents, Jews and other groups persecuted by the Nazi regime. Over the course of the nine months that the center was in operation, over 2000 people were imprisoned in its cellars. At least 30 lost their lives.

Following World War II, the role the building had played during the war fell into oblivion. It was not until 1981 that area residents began to recall its function during contemporary eyewitness interviews. Following much research, the building, which had largely been spared from the destruction of the war, became a Memorial site in 2003 and opened to the public in 2011.

Conditions in the Nazi Prison Papestrasse

The Field Police utilized the building’s gloomy basement rooms as prison cells and the upper floors as offices and interrogation rooms. Sanitary conditions in the prison were poor. The supply of food and water was inadequate and irregular. The cells were unheated. The floor was partly covered with straw. Prisoners either had to stand or sit on the floor because cots were reserved for seriously injured prisoners. Brutal interrogations were a regular part of detention. Detainees were beaten, tortured and raped. Detentions lasted anywhere from a few days to several weeks or months.

Prison cell in the former Nazi Prison Papestrasse, Berlin. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Use of the building prior to becoming the Nazi Prison Papestrasse

In the year 1841, the railway line between Berlin and Jueterbog, a small town south of Berlin, had opened. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 to 1871, railways became important to Prussian Railway Regiments because they could transport soldiers and supplies much faster and more efficiently. That prompted the Prussian military to build two new complexes of barracks along General-Pape-Strasse to be used as utility buildings. But because of Germany’s defeat in World War I and the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, the regiments were soon dissolved. Although the buildings remained in state hands, public and private tenants moved in. Then, in 1933, about 180 Field Police moved into one of the former barracks to transform the building into the Nazi Prison Papestrasse.

Papestrasse Memorial

The Papestrasse Memorial is open to the public free of charge. For the most part, the prison cells are still in their original condition. Panels on the walls of the Nazi Prison Papestrasse document the history of the Nazi party. Wall graffiti created by the prisoners is still visible today.

Tags: Adolf Hitler, Berlin, Nazi concentration camps, Nazi Prison Papestrasse Memorial, Nazi Storm Troopers, Treaty of Versailles
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Education turns mirrors into windows

July 5th, 2018

Most people are mirrors reflecting the moods and emotions of the times; few are windows, bringing light to bear on the dark corners where troubles fester. The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.

— Sydney J. Harris

Most people are mirrors. Few are windows. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2013. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Tags: education
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How Adolf Hitler came to power

July 2nd, 2018

Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Germany during the Nazi period, came to power by bullying his way into office. He intimidated his opponents and promised the populace to make Germany powerful and proud again. The key government leaders already in office were accustomed to the democratic procedures of the Weimar Republic and unable to stand up to Hitler’s confrontational style. They meekly acquiesced while the majority of the population chose to look past some of Hitler’s misguided policies because he also promised to turn around the country’s dismal economic conditions, a result of the harsh peace terms of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. They focused on Hitler’s immediate promises rather than his long-term agenda.

Adolf Hitler came to power by bullying his way into office. www.walled-in-berlin.com

How Adolf Hitler eliminated political opponents

The appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of the German Reich on 30 January 1933 marked the end of the Weimar Republic and of democracy in Germany. Since the Nazis had achieved only below average results in the 1932 elections in Berlin – the capital of Germany and center of German political power – it was of utmost importance to Adolf Hitler to gain full control in the city. While his people had pursued their aims primarily by means of rowdy propaganda and street violence prior to his appointment, as Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler took full advantage of all means of state power he had at his disposal. His aim was to eliminate political opponents and establish himself as a dictator.

Only two days after Adolf Hitler had been appointed Chancellor, the elderly Reich President Paul von Hindenburg was persuaded to dissolve the Reichstag (Parliament). In protest, the Communist Party called for a general strike. Upon Hitler’s urging, Hindenburg signed an emergency decree, which stipulated that demonstrations and pamphlets of political opponents would be forbidden. A rapid extension of the state police followed. Their purpose was to take action against “enemies of the state” with firearms.

With the Reichstag Fire Decree Adolf Hitler suspended civil liberties

On 27 February 1933, barely a month after Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor, the Reichstag chambers went up in flames. The Nazi government quickly blamed the fire on a communist coup and authorized another emergency law. It was called the Reichstag Fire Decree and was enacted the very next day for “the protection of the people and state.” The emergency decree suspended most of the civil liberties set forth in the Weimar Constitution, such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right of public assembly, the secrecy of the post and telephone service, and it removed all restraints on police investigations. https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007888 In other words, the decree provided the legal basis for the persecution of opponents of the regime. No warrant or judicial order was required, there was no right of appeal, and the arrests went into effect for an indefinite period of time. The number of people arrested rose abruptly after the Reichstag fire. Detention centers, such as the Nazi Prison Papestrasse were installed throughout the city and the country.

With the Enabling Act Adolf Hitler became a dictator

Less than a month later, on the heels of the Reichstag Fire Decree, Adolf Hitler passed another emergency law: the “Enabling Act” (Ermaechtigungsgesetz). It gave Hitler the power to enact laws without the involvement of the Reichstag. Together the two emergency laws abolished most civil liberties and transformed Hitler’s government into a legal dictatorship. The state of emergency remained in force until the end of the war in 1945. The climate of fear that spread throughout the country thwarted many potential attempts at resistance.

Tags: Adolf Hitler, Berlin, Enabling Act, Ermaechtigungsgesetz, Nazi Prison Papestrasse, Paul von Hindenburg, Reichstag, Reichstag Fire Decree, Treaty of Versailles, Weimar Republic
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New shoes changing lives – need proof?

June 28th, 2018

Cinderella is proof that a new pair of shoes can change your life.

–Anonymous

Cinderella is proof that a new pair of shoes can change your life. www.walled-in.berlin.com

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page.

Tags: Cinderella, new shoes
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