Lead Review (Secret Berlin)
- Book: Secret Berlin
- Location:
- Author: Manuel Roy, Roberto Sassi, Tom Wolf
We took “Secret Berlin” with us on a trip to the city and we were spoilt for choice, so we decided to choose which parts of the city we wanted to explore and then see what we might usefully discover in the book to enhance our visit.
On that particular visit we were based in Friedrichshain, so we set off down Karl Marx Allee to visit the columns of the Weberwiese. These columns, built into the base of the apartment tower under Communist governance, were taken from Carinhall, Göring’s country estate in north east Berlin. Oh, the irony of using items from a polar opposite political system. Having said that, the East still liked the solidity of the Neo-Classical style espoused by the Nazis, so a bit of mix-and-match seemed perfectly acceptable.
Walking further down towards Alexanderplatz, I spotted Honi’s window, highlighted on a block of flats in the North Mitte section, that is a single window in an otherwise blank building wall, reputedly in the apartment of Erich Honecker’s daughter. It was a window for the bathroom, from where Honecker could reputedly monitor the comings and goings of the people below – a very vital part of the clandestine operations in the GDR, overseen by the Chairman of the State Council. I then almost missed the Liftaßsäule in Münzstraße just a little further along – it commemorates the inventor of once ubiquitous advertising roundels that were e everywhere across Europe in the second half of the 20th century.
We discovered the Museum of Letters on another visit, which is a tiny museum, still being set up, that continues to 
bring together the large letters (often illuminated in neon) that adorned many of the big buildings in Berlin. A fascinating, ramshackle place.
And each time we return, we can find something new to search out. Coming soon is Secret Potsdam and I am looking forward to discovering more unusual places and sights.
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