Sick Sense of Humor

One of the things I like best about Berlin is its dark sense of humor.
Souvenir gas mask or kitschy Russian hat, anyone? C'mon, Comrade. You know you want one.

Yesterday I wandered into the Berlin Altes Museum (or the museum of antiquities) and the DDR (GDR in English) museum.

Statue at the entrance to the Altes Museum

The Altes Museum was interesting; lots and LOTS of Greek/Roman/Etruscan artifacts, like statues sculpted to show every sinew and bronze helmets that turned green with age long ago. There was one exhibit called, "Love in the Ancient World." I wandered in and was swiftly reminded of how kinky the ancient Greeks really were.

And then I headed to the DDR museum. The DDR Museum exhibits all deal with life in East Germany before the end of the Cold War. DDR stands for Deutche Demokratische Republik -- or German Democratic Republic, the official name for East Germany. My favorite part of the exhibit was the chance to hang out in one of the government-issued apartments. It was a replica, of course, but they had government-controlled TV airing and the world's ugliest wallpaper.

The bathroom -- the apartment was more or less all one room. The bathroom was an open closet with a curtain for privacy.


The Kitchen -- I will never complain about my small kitchen again.

And on a much darker note, a Geiger counter. When Chernobyl happened, all of Europe went into panic mode; vegetables grown in radioactive soil were completely unavailable, prices soared because everything had to be imported to avoid radiation poisoning, etc. Well, all of Europe except the DDR -- the government said, "What meltdown?" And East Germans enjoyed lettuce and sprouts and local milk when the rest the continent couldn't. Now, all that lettuce and sprouts and milk came with a suspiciously high dose of dangerous radiation, but who's counting? Not the DDR government...

A "surveillance" kit, for government spying on citizens (sounds like that other thing... what was it called? Starts with a "p" and ends with an "atriot act?" Hmm. I'm sure I'll remember eventually...)

I found the whole place fascinating, needless to say. It had the aforementioned sick sense of humor: parts of it were darkly funny, like hanging out in the apartment (you could also sit in a government-issue car, read a government-approved fashion magazine, etc.), and parts of it (like the Geiger counter, the surveillance kit, and an interrogation room) were much more sobering.

On a lighter note, Erika and I capped off the day with some hilarious friends of hers in a beer garden. Beer gardens should be a thing everywhere, I feel. Beer! Sausage! Outdoors! Great company! What's not to love?

Today is my last full day in Berlin -- and what a time I've had. I head home early, early early tomorrow morning. The plan today is to see the wall itself. In a city so full of history, I look forward to seeing such an important piece of it. What a marvelous (and oddly funny) city this is.