Berlin Snowglobes
Berlin has some great buildings and monuments and these often appear in their globes.
Anatomy of a Berlin Snowglobe
The Fernsehturm (TV Tower) was completed in 1969 by the East German government for tv broadcasting and as an impressive symbol of Communism.
The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (Gedächtniskirche) built in the 1890s. It was badly damaged in a bombing raid in 1943. The rebuilding incorporated the old damaged tower.
The Reichstag was completed in 1894 and is the centre for the German federal parliament.
The Berlin Cathedral is actually a protestant church. It was built from 1894 to 1905 replacing earlier churches and was restored in 2022. The magnificent dome (Dom) is one of the main landmarks in Berlin
The Brandenburg Gate was constructed by 1791, It is Berlin’s only surviving historical city gate. It symbolised Berlin’s Cold War division into East and West
This globe contains similar buildings as above and also the bear emblem of Berlin.
The city’s name may mean ‘bear’ and actually bears did live in the area. However Albert the Bear (Albrecht der Bär, 1100 – 1170) ruled the area around today’s Berlin so it could be from him.
"lin" means "little" so Berlin might mean ‘Little Bear’.
The name could also originate from the Slavic word ‘Berl’ for swamp, Berlin was known to be built on swampy ground so‘little swamp’ might be the origin but its all conjecture.
The Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was built to prevent East German citizens from escaping to West Germany. It divided Berlin into two from 1961 to 1989. It included guard towers and large concrete walls, with an area area containing anti-vehicle trenches, beds of nails and other defenses. Only a few parts of the 86 mile wall remain and these have traditionally attracted grafitti, one artwork of which is commemorated in the globe below.
This globe shows the mural of a car – a Trabant – which is depicted crashing through the Berlin Wall to freedom.
The monstrous heads around the base of the globe represent Thierry Noir's cartoon heads painted on the western side of the wall.
West Berliners began painting on the 14-foot wall in the 1980’s. East Berliners could be shot for approaching the wall so that side remained originally untouched. This mural painted by Birgit Kinder is on a remaining segment of the Wall on the east bank of the Spree River and features an East German, Trabant car breaking through the symbollically oppressive and separatist Berlin Wall in 1989. Trabants were poorly made and hard to drive. They ceased to be manufactured after the fall of the wall.
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We do also collect other souveniers of our holidays including this (hopefully authentic) encased fragment of the Berlin Wall