Our checkout from the hotel is at noon and we still have some time after exploring the East Side Gallery. So we decide to find at least one cache here and for that we have to cross the Spree into the Kreuzberg area. We have no idea that it is one of the more iffy areas of Berlin and enjoy crossing the Spree with some great views over the city and the Alexanderplatz TV tower towards a large church we see in the distance. What we don’t know, but will soon learn, is that we are following the contour of the Berlin Wall, in fact this is where the Berlin Wall passed also to the other side of the river.
Saint Thomas Church is the guiding landmark for us while in the area. Once the largest church in Berlin, before the Dom was built, it was partially destroyed during an aerial bombardment in World War 2. Afterwards, as we will learn, it sat just near the Berlin Wall on the Western side and the whole area become less desirable which is how it remained for some time even after reunification.
We can see remnants of that as we walk through the Mariannenplatz Park behind the church. There are many homeless encampments and it is one of the places in Berlin where we wouldn’t feel safe at night. However we find our cache and enjoy the great view of Kunstquartier Bethanien a former hospital now turned into a cultural center and art hub.
Returning we decide to enter St Thomas Church and take a look at the many pamphlets on the street, this area seems to be quite libertarian and against government surveillance which can be both a curse and a blessing.
Surprisingly the church is open to enter and it has quite an interesting exhibit showing how close it was to the wall and how the wall passed the river, this is where we learn that the wall was on this side of the Spree also, somehow we assumed that the river was the border throughouut.
The church itself is not that special inside, it is a Lutheran church which makes it less fancy than Catholic ones. It also might be due to the fact that it was reconstructed and that this style was chosen at that point, who knows?
Part of the exhibit also shows how Kreuzberg was quite progressive and that it was cordoned off during Reagan’s visit so they cannot go and protest, not surprising really.
Returning we now pass a park that we immediately recognise as the former location of the wall. It seems that the area, at least here was transformed into a park after the wall was destroyed, it is interesting to see it and imagine how it ran dividing the two sides of the city. There are also a few exhibits here showing how people were trying to smuggle people from the East to the West and how some were killed went doing that. And then we are back at the hotel, which has no running water for the day due to repairs, and take our luggage and then it is time to use a Bolt to go to our next hotel, much fancier in the Postdamer Platz.
