Walking Around Berlin

I didn't think I'd get a post done today but I'm sitting at an airport between flights. These are a few things we saw walking around Berlin Sunday. From top to bottom:

There were regional elections in Berlin yesterday. A common type of poster had just a photo of the candidate, his or her name and the party. This one was modified.

A group had a demonstration in front of the Brandenburg Gate about saving elephants. Although my German is limited they seemed to claim that the animal will become extinct in 10 years without human intervention. I like the shoes on the man in the second pic.

A snack bar near the Tiergarten.

What not to do in the U Bahn subway.

Port-a-potty, German style.

Walking back into the fan at work tomorrow.      

I Am A Jelly Doughnut

In 1963, at the height of the cold war, John F. Kennedy went to this city and made a famous speech. Ich bin ein Berliner he proclaimed -  I am a Berliner.

However, some people said that wasn't proper German. He should have said Ich bin Berliner, the equivalent of saying I am American. Ein Berliner is form of jelly doughnut popular in Germany. So, people said, Kennedy announced that he was a jelly doughnut.

Well, according to Wikipedia, this is wrong. The article tells us:

There is a misconception that Kennedy made a risible error by saying Ich bin ein Berliner. By using the indefinite article "ein," he supposedly changed the meaning of the sentence from "I am a citizen of Berlin" to "I am a Berliner" (a Berliner being a type of German pastry, similar to a jelly doughnut).

The indefinite article is omitted in German when speaking of an individual's profession or residence but is still used when speaking in a figurative sense. Since the President was not literally from Berlin but declaring his solidarity with its citizens, "Ich bin ein Berliner" was the only way to express what he wanted to say.

Furthermore, although the word "Berliner" is used for a jelly doughnut in the north, west and southwest of Germany, it is not used in Berlin itself or the surrounding region, where the usual word is "Pfannkuchen."

What a downer. The photo above is of a Berliner, which we had with coffee at the top of the Berlin Tower this morning. American doughnuts are better.

That's it for now. On Monday we will be 19 hours from departure from Berlin to arrival in St. Louis with two connections. I've got a terrible week at work ahead. Many more pictures to edit, which we will get to when time permits.

The Fat Angel

We had dinner Saturday night at a restaurant called Der Dicker Engel, The Fat Angel. It was recommended by someone back home. We would never have found it on our own. It's a good neighborhood place serving well-made, traditional German food. What sets it apart is the name and theme. Wacky.

The big thing in the top picture soars over the dining room. The Raphael putti are not leaning on the bar waiting for a drink. They are painted onto a glass wall between the dining room and the bar. Everything was simple and good. The wine label translates as "nice dry red wine" and it was. A typical German meal involves pork and potatoes, and lots of it. That's how you get to be dicker.            

Icons

It's almost midnight in Berlin and we have to get up and out tomorrow for a day trip. So a quickie with two Berlin icons: the Brandenburg Gate and Lukas Cranach's portrait of Martin Luther from the German Historical Museum. 

Saturday it's all Luther, all day. Report to follow. 

Pilgrimage

My wife and I have been subscribers to the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for something close to forty years. My father's boss was on the board of directors of the New York Philharmonic and I had the privilege of attending a number of times as a child. When I got bored with rock and roll in my early 20s, this was the direction my interests took me.

We attended a performance of the Berlin Philharmonic Thursday evening, the stuff of legends in my head. The ghost of Herbert von Karajan stalks the halls. He would not have approved of the program: American Composer John Adams conducting his own work. The first half was from the 80s, Harmonielehere. We've heard him conduct it in St. Louis. A fair amount of the audience left at intermission. They missed the brilliant second half, a symphony - violin concerto called Scherezade.2.  

Attending this performance was a big deal to me.