Attitude is a little thing that makes a BIG difference.
— Sir Winston Churchill
That’s attitude! 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 the home page of http://www.walled-in-berlin.com
The Russian colony Alexandrowka is located in the northern part of the city of Potsdam, not far from Berlin. Karlo Rossi, a Russian architect of Italian origin, designed the village in the 19th century. It resembles Glosovo in appearance, a settlement near Petersburg in Russia. In 1996, Alexandrowka was included UNESCO’s Potsdam World Heritage Site.
One of 12 houses in Alexandrowka, a Russian Colony in Potsdam, near Berlin. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 1213. www.walled-in-berlin.com
Alexandrowka was built between 1826 and 1827. King Friedrich Wilhelm III who ruled Prussia during the Napoleonic Wars and the end of the Holy Roman Empire ordered construction of the colony. Historical and personal circumstances motivated him to create the colony.
In 1806 the French had invaded and defeated Prussia in the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt. In 1812 they had invaded Russia. This time, however, they were badly defeated themselves so that the great French dominion collapsed. Following the 1812 war, sixty-two Russian soldiers remained in Potsdam. From this group a choir was formed to entertain the Prussian troops. In 1825, Tsar Alexander I died, and King Friedrich Wilhelm III ordered the construction of Alexandrowka to memorialize his kinship and friendship with the Romanov family. He built the colony for the last twelve Russian singers of the former soldiers choir who were still living in Potsdam at the time. He named the village Alexandrowka after the Tsarina.
King Friedrich Wilhelm III had 12 one-and two-story wooden houses constructed on small homesteads. Military artisans, belonging to Prussian guard regiments, built the half-timbered houses (having walls with a timber frame and a brick or plaster filling) with semicircular logs, to make them look like log cabins. In Russia, the homes would have been covered with straw. In Prussia, a Holzverbretterung (timber cladding) was chosen, which was replaced with slate at the end of the 19th century. Each homestead consisted of a house with a balcony and a loggia. A loggia is a covered exterior corridor with an outer wall that is open to the elements and supported by a series of columns. Through a roofed gate the loggia was connected to a small stable building. Every house had a garden. Every household was given a cow. All houses were fully furnished.
Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia built the houses for twelve singers who belonged to a choir, made up of former Russian soldiers. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2013. www.walled-in-berlin.com
In 1827, the twelve singers and their families moved in. They neither purchased the properties, nor did they lease or mortgage them. Instead, each homestead was handed down to male descendants. In 1861, the last singer died. By 1927, only two families in Alexandrowka were direct descendants of the original Russian soldiers who had settled there. And in 2008, the last of these direct descendants died. His family name was Schischkoff.
Since the German reunification in 1990 most of the houses in the settlement are privately owned. Since 2005, the museum of Alexandrowka provides insight into the history and architecture of the log cabins and provides information on their construction method.
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.
Age appears to be best in three things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink and old friends to trust.
— Anonymous
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 the home page of http://www.walled-in-berlin.com
The Dutch Quarter (Hollaendisches Viertel) is a neighborhood in the city of Potsdam, about 15 miles southwest of Berlin. Its 134 three-story red brick houses with Dutch style gables were constructed between 1733 and 1740. Originally, all of the buildings had front yards, but the last garden gave way in 1928. Today, the Dutch Quarter in Potsdam is Europe’s greatest collection of Dutch-style houses outside of the Netherlands. Mittlestrasse no. 8, the Johann-Boumann-Haus, is open to the public and details the history of the Dutch Quarter.
The Dutch Quarter (Hollaendisches Viertel) in Potsdam near Berlin, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2013. www. walled-in-berlin.com
Construction of the Dutch Quarter began during the reign of Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, the “Soldier King.” To expand and upgrade the garrison town of Potsdam, Friedrich Wilhelm needed a large number of skilled craftsmen. Partial to the skillfulness of Dutch tradesman, he hoped to entice Dutch immigrants to Potsdam by offering them a home, freedom of conscience to follow their own beliefs in matters of religion and morality and the promise of plenty of work.
Eagerly, Friedrich Wilhelm asked the Dutch designer/builder, Jan Bouman, to construct four blocks of red brick houses, reminiscent of the Netherlands. Unfortunately, the Dutch tradesmen did not arrive in the anticipated numbers so that many soldiers and their families, French and Prussian artists and travelling salesmen moved into the settlement instead. At some point, one third of the inhabitants were French.
Until 1878, the second battalion of the Prussian first Foot Guard Regiment was stationed in the Dutch Quarter. In 1906, the Hauptmann von Koepenick http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/the-captain-from-koepenick-ruse/ purchased his uniform in Mittelstrasse no. 3. from second-hand dealer Bertold Remlinter.
The Dutch Quarter miraculously escaped major damage during World War II. Following the Second World War, the settlement became part of Soviet Occupation Zone. It was left to decay until the city council voted in the 1970s to begin restoration. Following German reunification in 1990, and with the help of the Dutch Monarchy, property owners, artists, conservationists and private investors, restoration took a major step forward and is completed by now.
Today, the Dutch Quarter’s picturesque mix of residential, small shops, galleries, artisan workshops, small backyard taverns, antique dealers, tempting restaurants and cozy cafés give it a unique charm that is popular with locals and tourists alike. The opportunity to Dutch Treat at the Dutch Quarter presents itself around every corner. Three times during the year, the Dutch Quarter celebrates: There is the tulip festival in April, the pottery market in September and the Dutch Christmas Market, called Sinterklaas.
The Dutch Quarter with its cozy taverns, small restaurants and cafes, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2013. www.walled-in-berlin.com
Locals and tourists enjoy the charm of the Dutch Quarter on a sunny afternoon, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2013. 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 and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic or current events, people, places or 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.
So goes the saying, but according to Tehyi Hsieh
“Life is partly what we make it and partly what is made by the friends whom we choose.”
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 or current events, people, places or 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.
There are many memorials in Berlin that hark back to the city’s long and colorful history. But none touched me more than the protestant Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (Kaiser Wilhelm Gedaechtniskirche) in the heart of the former West Berlin. Its damaged church tower is a reminder of the destructiveness of war.
Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Berlin, Germany, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2014. www.walled-in-berlin. com
The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was originally built between 1891 and 1895. The last German Emperor and King of Prussia, Kaiser Wilhelm II, named it in honor of his grandfather Kaiser Wilhelm I. The foundation stone was laid on 22 March 1891, Wilhelm I’s birthday. With its 371-foot spire, the church was the tallest building in Berlin at the time. Inside it was decorated with stained glass windows and a large mosaic portraying the history of Prussia up to Emperor Wilhelm.
In 1943, the Neo-Romanesque church was largely destroyed during a bombing attack and the resulting fire. The subsequent air raids of 1945 leveled it almost completely. By the end of World War II, only the heavily damaged west tower of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was left standing. Berliners dubbed it Hohler Zahn (hollow tooth).
Close-up view of the “Hohler Zahn”, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015. www.walled-in-berlin.com
However, when the West Berlin government wanted to demolish the hollow spire in the 1950s, the public protested. In the end, the tower was left standing in its crippled state while a new church was constructed around it. The first floor of the damaged tower of the old church is now home to a memorial hall.
The entire church stood heavily damaged until a new, octagonal church was built alongside the damaged tower between 1957 and 1963. A freestanding hexagonal bell tower was constructed next to the church, on the site of the former main nave of the destroyed church. Egon Eiermann designed the new construction.
The modern church bears little resemblance to its predecessor. Inside the octagonal nave of the new church, an enormous statue of Jesus, suspended above the altar, catches the eye. But the most striking feature of the new church is the intense blue light that pervades throughout the building, created by 21,000 colored blocks of glass. They were blown by hand in a French workshop. The predominant color is blue with small flecks of ruby red, emerald green and yellow.
21,000 blue glass blocks create an introspective atmosphere inside the reconstructed Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, photo © J. Elke Ertle. www.walled-in-berlin.com
Candles in memory of the victims of the 19 December 2016 terrorist attack in the Christmas Market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2017. 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 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.
The shortest words, like yes and no, require the most thought.
— Pythagoras
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 the home page of http://www.walled-in-berlin.com
Schloss Charlottenburg (Charlottenburg Palace) is one of the few remaining examples of the grand Hohenzollern palaces in the city of Berlin. The Hohenzollern ruled Prussia for nearly four centuries. During a British air raid in 1943, a bomb caused a fire, and the baroque and rococo palace burned to the ground. Demolition of Schloss Charlottenburg was planned, but after the East German government demolished the Berliner Stadtschloss, the city palace of the Hohenzollern in 1950, http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/berliner-stadtschloss-to-humboldt-forum/ West German authorities decided to rebuild Charlottenburg Palace. The project took more than sixty years to complete.
Schloss Charlottenburg (Charlottenburg Palace) in Berlin, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2014. www.walled-in-berlin.com
Construction of Schloss Charlottenburg started in 1695. At that time it was known as Lietzenburg. The palace was built as a summer residence for Sophie Charlotte, wife of the Elector of Brandenburg, Friedrich III. In 1701, after crowning himself Friedrich I, King of Prussia, the palace saw a significant expansion. After Sophie Charlotte’s death, the palace was renamed Schloss Charlottenburg. Architecture did not interest Friedrich’s son, Friedrich Wilhelm I, so that all construction stopped when he ascended the throne in 1713. In 1740 Friedrich II, also known as Friedrich the Great, commissioned an expansion of the New Wing (east wing) to complement the larger west wing.
At the entrance to the palace, a large equestrian statue of the Friedrich Wilhelm III, the Great Elector of Brandenburg, greets the visitor. The bronze was originally located on the Kurfuerstenbruecke, a bridge near the city palace. But during World War II, the statue was submerged in Tegeler See, a large lake in Berlin. Upon recovery in 1952, it was moved to the entrance of Schloss Charlottenburg. The four chained warriors at the base of the statue symbolize the four temperaments.
Statue of the Great Elector of Brandenburg, Friedrich Wilhelm III, at the entrance to Schloss Charlottenburg, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2014. www.walled-in-berlin.com
The central and oldest part of the palace is the domed Altes Schloss (Old Palace). It is topped with a statue of the goddess Fortuna. Among the treasures inside are the apartments of Friedrich I and Queen Sophie Charlotte, the Oak Gallery with family portraits of members of the House of Hohenzollern and the Porcelain Chamber with over two thousand pieces of Chinese porcelain.
The Neuer Fluegel contains the private living quarters of Friedrich the Great and the apartments of Friedrich Wilhelm II. The two most striking rooms in the New Wing are the Weisser Saal (White Hall), a magnificent dining room, and the Goldene Galerie (Golden Gallery). The latter is a 138 foot-long ballroom decorated with mirrors and gilded rococo ornaments.
The extensive park behind Schloss Charlottenburg was created between 1697 and 1701 and designed by Simeon Godeau who also created the gardens of Versailles.
Towards the northern end of the Schlossgarten, near the river Spree, is Belvedere, originally a teahouse. It was built between 1788 and 1790, destroyed during World War II, reconstructed in the late 1950s and now houses a collection of eighteenth-century porcelain produced by Berlin manufacturers.
Belvedere in the gardens of Schloss Charlottenburg, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2016. www.walled-in-berlin.com
The Mausoleum is on the western side of the Schlossgarten. It is a Doric temple that was built in 1810 as the burial place for Queen Luise. The mausoleum was later expanded to include the sarcophagi of other members of the royal family, including Frederick William II, Emperor William I and Queen Augusta.
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.
Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.
–Friedrich Nietzsche
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 the home page of http://www.walled-in-berlin.com
Ludwig Erhard was a West German statesman who is credited with West Germany’s spectacular economic recovery following World War II. The recover is often referred to as the “German economic miracle” http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/west-german-economic-miracle-secret. Erhard advocated a social market economy, combining open market competition with a strong central bank and a social safety net to protect the disadvantaged. He opposed planned economies with price controls and high taxes.
Ludwig Erhard came from modest circumstances. He attended school only to the junior secondary level, entered an apprenticeship program at age 16 and was drafted to serve in World War I. He was seriously wounded in 1918. Following the war, Ludwig Erhard attended college in Nuernberg and studied marketing, management, political economy and sociology at the University of Frankfurt/Main. After obtaining a doctorate, he became a consumer market researcher at the Institute of Restaurant Economics.
While the first German democracy collapsed in the aftermath of World War I and the Nazis established themselves, Ludwig Erhard maintained a low profile. But he also wrote a memo in 1944 on war financing and debt consolidation. That memo began with the assumption that Germany would lose the war. The document found its way to the Western Allies who saw in him a man who could help rebuild a democratic Germany. Erhard’s lack of compromising political ties and his reputation as an economic expert got him appointed as the Director of the Economic Council for the joint Anglo-American occupation zone.
At the same moment that the Allies introduced a new German currency, Ludwig Erhard abolished price controls. These were the darkest days of the postwar economic crisis. This decision became the foundation of Germany’s economic rebirth. The Black Market disappeared, shortages ended, and inflation halted.
Ludwig Erhard, “Father of the Economic Miracle”
When West Germany was established, Ludwig Erhard became Minister of Economics. The “Father of the Economic Miracle” held this post for 14 years and guided the West German economy through a recovery that outpaced the growth of the European countries that had won the war.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/prof_ludwigerhard.html In 1963, Ludwig Erhard became chancellor. He resigned in 1966 and died in Bonn, West Germany, in 1977.
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.
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