Last week, once again, the nightingales returned to Berlin for their annual stopover that typically lasts six weeks. This year their arrival signaled the end of an exceptionally long and miserable winter that had plagued the city, and Berliners were delighted to greet their musical, feathered friends.
Every year, these small, brown migratory songbirds spend the winter in southwest Africa and fly to Central Europe to mate. Following their brief stay, they continue their flight to breeding grounds in forests and scrub in Northern Europe. Nightingales have reddish tails and do not naturally occur in the Americas. With up to 300 different songs they have the largest repertoire of any bird. Although their name implies that they sing only at night, they actually sing day and night. However, their song tends to be much more noticeable at night because few other birds compete during those hours.
Last week, the returning nightingales were spotted not far from Schloss Bellevue (castle Bellevue) in the Tiergarten, Berlin’s two-square-mile urban park. As an interesting side note–this neoclassical castle, first erected in 1786, severely damaged during World War II, and refurbished in the 50s, is now the official residence of the German president. But because it does not include living quarters, he doesn’t actually live there. The president lives in a villa in the southwestern district of Dahlem instead.
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.
