In Berlin, This Halloween, the Ghosts of Nazis Past Abound

Well I guess what else would you expect.    We in the States are the children and grandchildren of the Greatest Generation.   .   Here in Berlin, their parents and grandparents were Nazis.      I mean, think about it,  what if your father was a Nazi?   I think you can see it in the faces of the the people here.    Of course the war has been over for a long time now, and in the years after the war, they've had to deal with the utter destruction of their city, and then with the great inhumanity of the wall.    Put it this way,   Berlin seems a much more serious city than Paris.

When I arrived here yesterday morning, I took the subway (U bahn) to the nice little hotel (The Art Hotel-great value, friendly and an excellent breakfast) where I'm staying, near the Zoo (Zoologischer Garten--Germans have long words for everything).   I needed to change money, so the desk clerk directed  me down the street to  just beyond a big church.    Well he didn't tell me it was a bombed out church.    The incoming bomb had sliced though the steeple and destroyed the nave, but the entry has been preserved and the new church built adjacent.   The architect of the new church, in the late 50's, found stained glass makers who rediscovered formulas  for cobalt blue and red that had been known in the middle ages, and used for the great windows of the Cathedral of Chartres.    The walls of the new church are made entirely of this glass.   It's magnificent.  

When I got back to the hotel I did yesterday's post, and then said even God took a day of rest, and called it a day for sightseeing, took a long nap, and an early dinner, at an Indian restaurant down the block, really good, really reasonable--it's kind of funny to hear Indians speak German.    Went back to the hotel, straight to bed, woke wide awake at midnight and could hear music from the street below.  So I thought I might as well get up and check it out.  Down I went, the bar next door was hopping with ghouls of all sort, including military uniforms.  That's when I started thinking about Nazis.   I mean they weren't Nazi uniforms (that's of course illegal here now), but it just gave me the feeling of the past.   I had the same feeling in Munich a few days ago at the Bier Halle of the Hofbrau Haus in Munich.  You just know there was the day when the place was packed with the party faithful, swilling bier and carrying on as if tomorrow were there's alone.      By the way,  Happy Election Day, get out there and vote!  (I did before decamping).   Cheers,    Paul