On Saturday, April 24, we left Hamburg for Berlin, transported on the EuroCity long-distance fast train, whose final destination was the city of Prague, in the Czech Republic. With an average speed of 200 km / hour we reach our destination in a time of two hours. I had the opportunity to get to know Berlin, the city where my grandfather lived.
We disembarked at the central station of Berlin, which is the largest railway station in Europe, whose construction had an approximate value of 900 million euros, started in 2002 and finished in 2006, when the World Cup of Football.
We suggest: Hamburg, in the land of my elders
The first thing we visited was Alexanderplatz, located in the center of the city, which owes its name to the visit made by Tsar Alexander I of Russia in 1805. It is a huge square and around it are the monuments and symbolic sites of the city , such as the Berlin Television Tower (built in 1969), which is the headquarters of several radio and television stations, as well as having a bar with a restaurant at 203 meters above sea level. Also located in the square is the World Clock, which shows the time of various time zones.
After walking a long way, we arrived at the Rotes Rathaus, which is the headquarters of the Mayor’s Office and the Federal Government of Berlin. Its name is related to the red color of the bricks with which it was built between 1861 and 1869. After the Second World War, the building was occupied by Soviet troops and only in 1991, when the German reunification took place, the local government moved there. This building is adorned on the outside with the Fountain of Neptune. We also visited the cathedral of the evangelical church, built in 1895, and, near there, we saw the Old Museum from outside, as it was closed.
We finish our journey at the Brandenburg Gate, built between 1788 and 1791, during the reign of Frederick William II of Prussia. This place is full of stories because in 1806, after winning the battle of Jena, Napoleon Bonaparte had the quadriga (Roman chariot pushed by four horses), located at the top of the monument, taken to Paris. It was later returned to Berlin in 1884. Beneath its structure, in 1933, the troops of the National Socialist Party marched in a torchlight procession never seen before by Berliners.
Regarding the chronicles of Óscar Seidel’s trip to Germany, we suggest: The Red Light District of Hamburg
I have special affection for Berlin because in this city my grandfather, Max Seidel, worked in the early 1900s as rector of the College of Secondary Girls. It was from here that through the Colombian-German agreement he was contacted in 1911 to travel to Tumaco to create the Liceo de Bachillerato, and after the First World War, while he was here in this city, he undertook the second trip never to return. That is why with my eldest son we set about the task of looking for some memory of Max Seidel’s stay in Berlin, but everything was unsuccessful: there are countless schools of this type of institution in the city and, in addition, the bombings They left no memory.
Follow the news of El Espectador on Google NewsHowever, I have good news in the search for my seed. Taking advantage of virtual media, my son Helmut and his wife Crhistine, who live here in Germany, were able to find the family information of the family tree in Leobschütz / Głubczyce (Poland), in the state archives of Opole.
We returned to Hamburg in the evening on the ICE fast train, with the joy and nostalgia of having known Berlin, the city where my grandfather lived.
