A trip to the allied museum

Today started off looking miserable weather wise so we decided to take Rod up on a suggestion to visit the Allied museum which is located fairly close by to Sundgauer Strasse (Where Rod and Jules live).

Shortly after leaving for the bus stop the heavens opened and we made a brisk walk instead to the train station and caught a train into Zehlendorf (the next station on) and found ourselves some lunch, before catching a more direct bus to the Alliierten Museum (Allied Museum).

The museum itself was setup in 1998 as a place for to reflect and commemorate the Allied occupation of Germany following WWII. The museum is built within the walls of the Outpost Theater and Major Arthur D. Nicholson Memorial Library which were both facilities built and used by the US forces after the war.

The museum was extremely interesting documenting the history behind the division of Germany after WWII between the four superpowers of the time, USA, Britain, France and the Soviet Union. It then documented the falling out between the Allied powers and the Soviets and the subsequent events leading to the coldwar and beyond the fall of the Berlin wall.

I was a very informative and fascinating look into a side Berlin most of us could never dream to know. Julia, herself lived here while the wall was still up and it is amazing to hear some first hand accounts of how people felt about and dealt with it. When we got home we heard of tales of Julia's great aunt who was born in 1915 and had some memorabilia from WWII. She had 2 books one of which was a German/English phrase book and the second was a map book of Berlin through the war which has names of streets after the leader of the time (he who shan't be named).

The kids enjoyed the tales of espionage and spying by both sides and also the tales of the food and lolly drops made by the Allied forces after the Soviets had cut off all access to Berlin from the ground. The Airlift lasted around 18 months and some days moved 7000+ tonnes of food into the west of the city. The rations were limited and consisted mainly dry food. The stories the pilots tell of the people of Berlin were heart warming and inspirational. Other stories like the fact the allies built a tunnel underground, past the border to tap the Easts phone lines and get away with it for a majority of the time were just great!!

The Allied Museum is in an old theater.

One of the planes from the airlifts.

The Berlin wall painted by the dude who has done some U2 paintings (Damien knows who he is)

The updated Checkpoint Charlie that served from the 70's to the 80's.