26 May 2019, Sunday
And then we were done. It took longer than I anticipated but it’s hard to ignore the stories of the persecuted. It’s as if their souls are still restless and beckon you to hear their tales of sorrow and suffering. One of the prisoners here, Franz Balhourn, in his diary entry for 16 December 1940, wrote this heart-wrenching entry:
“Above the gaping gateway in the sinister grey building, thick black letters announce: Sachsenhausen Protective Custody Camp. White lettering in the iron gate proclaims: Work brings freedom. Behind us, somebody whispers: ‘Yes, in crematorium number three.’ “
To go back, we had to walk 1.7 km to the nearest train station. As if we didn’t do enough walking today, we decided to visit another town called Potsdam which is also outside Berlin. Potsdam is the capital of the state of Brandenburg, just next to Berlin. Not a single bomb fell into the city until April 1945, and then the whole place was wiped out with bombs in a single attack but fortunately, the 18th century palaces survived. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We walked through a beautiful, gorgeous park called Sanssouci Park which contained palace buildings, architectural structures and gardens from diverse epochs. It’s garden designs began in the 18th century and was continually developed until the end of the monarchy in 1918. First we saw the Kaiser Station, which was built for Wilhelm II (1859-1941), the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, and was opened in 1909.
Then to Neues Palais or New Palace. The building was begun in 1763, after the end of the Seven Years’ War under Frederick II and was completed in 1769. It is considered to be the last great Prussian Baroque palace. Then to a building called
Drachenhaus (Dragon House) which was built about 1770-1772 and is designed to imitate a Chinese pagoda. The Dragon House is named after the sixteen dragons on the corners of its concave roofs. It was built on an octagonal plan, with four floors not only to be decorative, but also as living quarters for the wine-growers who worked on the neighbouring Weinberg. However, they did not move into the pagoda. It is now a restaurant. Just beside it was another building called Belvedere auf dem Klausberg but this was covered by a wall so I had to do some minor climbing to take a picture.
Then to Chinesisches or Chinese House which is a pavilion, Orangerieschloss or Orangery Palace which was built on the behest of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia from 1851 to 1864, and to the New Chambers which had a windmill-like appearance.
Finally the Schloss Sanssouci or Sanssouci Palace with its trademark vineyard terraces - certainly a splendid and soothing sight for the eyes. It was built in 1744 as the summer residence of Frederick II. The entire park has beautiful flower gardens, lawns, flower beds, hedges and luscious trees. In the hedge quarter 3,000 fruit trees were planted. The greenhouses of the numerous nurseries contained oranges, melons, peaches and bananas. As we were leaving, we saw the goddesses Flora and Pomona who decorate the entrance obelisk (originally built in 1748). They were placed there to highlight the connection of a flower, fruit and vegetable garden.
And then we were finally done. It was 9 p.m. by the time we got back to the hostel but we still managed to buy some food and beer and were eating in the kitchen and I had a chat with the security guard at the hostel who is a refugee from Syria (Syria! A place I must visit - but not now) and who stayed in Malaysia for 6 months.
Our Colombian room mates moved out this morning so I shifted to the downstairs bed. We had a new room mate - a young boy from California. He asked for suggestions on where to go and I gave him our map which had all the important tourist locations marked out. Then shower and sleep.
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