What did East Germany promise?

If things do not improve we will block West Berlin

We offer the hand of friendship to the West

No one intends to build a wall

Correct! Wrong!

On June 15th 1961 East German communist leader Walter Ulbricht made a statement at a press conference two months before the Wall was built. What did he say?

How many people defected from East Germany to West Germany before the Berlin Wall was completed?

0-1 million

1-5 million

>5 million

Correct! Wrong!

Before the wall was built, Berlin was one of the easiest places for defectors to move to West Germany. Many people - particularly skilled labourers and the well-educated - fled westwards. At its peak, as many a 5,000 people a day left East Germany for the West.

Which countries governed East and West Berlin’s different ‘Sectors’?

The Soviet Union, the UK, the USA and France

The Soviet Union, the USA and France

The UK, France and the USA

Correct! Wrong!

Both Germany and Berlin were divided into a number of separate zones after the end of World War II. Berlin was located deep within East Germany, which made travel between West Berlin and the West very difficult!

What was the Friedrichstrasse 'Checkpoint C' better known as?

Checkpoint Chase

Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Chevron

Correct! Wrong!

Only foreigners and representatives of the Allied forces could cross at this point, though some East German citizens made daring escapes hidden in diplomatic and military vehicles!

What unofficial name did Western media and propaganda give to the wall?

The Wall of Peace

The Wall of Shame

The Wall of Frustration

Correct! Wrong!

The East German authorities referred to the wall officially as the ‘Antifascist Protection Wall’, and was supposedly a safeguard against people and ideas which would undermine the communist regime.

The East German authorities defended the crossing with over 55,000…

Landmines

Border Guards

Attack Dogs

Correct! Wrong!

The no-man’s land between East and West Berlin was known as the ‘Death Strip’, where escapees risked being shot by border guards. Sadly, it is estimated that at least 140 people were killed while attempting to make the crossing.

How long was the Berlin Wall?

125km (78 miles)

155km (96 miles)

175km (109 miles)

Correct! Wrong!

The portion of the wall which separated East and West Berlin was only 27 miles long. However, the wall actually had to encircle all of West Berlin as it was surrounded by Soviet-controlled East Germany! You can even cycle this route, which is known as the Mauerweg (Wall Route)

The single ‘Looking for Freedom’ was #1 in the West German charts when the Berlin Wall was torn down in late 1989. But who sung it?

David Hasselhoff

Bruce Springsteen

David Bowie

Correct! Wrong!

All three of these artists sung concerts in Berlin, but only one had the gyrating hips necessary to take down the wall 🕺🙊

How many people successfully defected to West Berlin from the East whilst the wall was up?

5,000

10,000

50,000

Correct! Wrong!

Although millions defected before a physical barrier was built, the Wall stopped many more - though not everyone - from fleeing. Escape methods included tunnels, a tank, and hot air balloons!

What does ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ mean?

I am a Berliner

I am a Doughnut

I love Berlin

Correct! Wrong!

These words were spoken by John F. Kennedy on a 1963 visit to West Berlin in a speech where he expressed his solidarity with people both sides of the Wall.

What famous Olympic Athlete was gifted a 1.7 tonne piece of the Berlin Wall in 2009?

Michael Phelps (Swimmer, USA)

Javier Sotomayor (High Jumper, Cuba)

Usain Bolt (Sprinter, Jamaica)

Correct! Wrong!

What Do You Know About the Berlin Wall?

Thanks for playing!

No worries if you didn't get them all right, there's a lot of history about the Wall that isn't taught at school! We think you might enjoy our Communist Berlin and the Wall tour!

Thanks for playing!

Good knowledge! There are so many amazing stories about the Berlin Wall, and we think you'd love joining our Communist Berlin and the Wall Tour!

The post What Do You Know About The Berlin Wall? first appeared on SANDEMANs NEW Europe.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Walter Gropius a German Officer who served in the Great War (WWI) wanted to change the world. He thought that by designing small, but productive spaces for people he would solve economic problems and lack of dwelling in Germany. Thus, Bauhaus Collegewas founded in 1919 in Weimer, Germany.

Bauhaus was an art school and architecture was one of the disciplines taught there. The architectural style of the 1930s was known as International Style (not Bauhaus style). The most important feature of this new architectural approach is that FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION. Every element had to serve a purpose.

The school began to get a bit of a reputation and by 1924, Bauhaus students were considered to be quite notorious – loud Jazz music played on the campus (Jazz was illegal), women cut their hair short and wore trousers, and they spilled red paint on a statue! The school moved a few times and the founders were finally closed by the Nazi regime in 1932.

There were many Jewish architects who either learned in the Bauhaus school or were influenced heavily by the style. As the Nazi regime rose to power in Germany, these Jews fled the country to various parts of the world including England, the US, and British Mandate Palestine. Of these famous architects who came to Israel are Arieh Sharon, whose first commissioned work in Tel Aviv were four pavilions for the Levant Fair in 1932 which won first prize in an architectural competition and eventually paving the way to turn Tel Aviv into the “White City.”

Another key player – who actually was not from the Bauhaus school – who shaped the skyline of Tel Aviv was Erich Mendelsohn, a German-Jewish architect who incorporated local Arab elements such as domes and closed windows into his structures. The unique flowing shapes in his buildings give the feeling of movement

Due to Tel Aviv’s concentration of these International (Bauhaus) Style Buildings – more than 4,000 of them! – UNESCO proclaimed the City of Tel Aviv a World Heritage Site in 2003. You can see many of these bold, modern, white buildings throughout the city on our special Bauhaus Tour running during the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest!

The post A Bit About Bauhaus & the White-City of Tel Aviv first appeared on SANDEMANs NEW Europe.

1. Amsterdam – Hannie Schaft

Also known as “the girl with the red hair”, Hannie Schaft is well-known in the Netherlands but perhaps not so well-known in other countries. She was strongly opposed to the occupying Nazi’s anti-Jewish actions, and worked to sabotage and even assassinate strategic Nazi targets. After being arrested delivering communist newspapers, she was imprisoned, interrogated, and tragically, executed by the Nazis just three weeks before the end of the war. Apart from being a brave and impactful resistance fighter, her final words showed just how tough she was – when one of the Nazi soldiers sent to execute her merely wounded her, she apparently said “I shoot better than you do”, before she was finally killed by his colleague.

2. Copenhagen – Lili Elbe

One of the world’s first recipients of gender reassignment surgery, Lili Elbe was born Elnar Magnus Andreas Wegener in 1882. Gender reassignment surgery was still highly experimental in 1930, when she underwent the first of four surgeries, and in 1931, her body rejected a transplanted uterus and she died from infection. As her surgeries took place in Germany, many of the medical records relating to her story were burnt during the Nazi book burnings, however the best-selling book (and now film) The Danish Girl offers a fictionalized account of her life.

3. Dublin – Constance Markievicz

Constance Markievicz was born into a wealthy family in London, but bravely took part in the 1916 Easter Rising on the side of the Irish republicans. While many of the male republicans she fought alongside were sentenced to death, she was given a lesser sentence for being a female, and eventually went on to become the first woman elected to the UK House of Commons (although she didn’t take her seat), and later, the first woman in the world to hold a cabinet position. When she died aged 59 from appendicitis, she had given away the last of her wealth, and was in a public hospital ward among the poor, where she wanted to be.

4. Edinburgh – The Edinburgh Seven

We’ll give you more bang for your buck on this one, with not just one but seven kick-ass women. The Edinburgh Seven were the first group of females to be enrolled in a British university in 1869, and although they studied medicine, they were prevented from graduating and qualifying as doctors. While their campaign to be allowed to graduate attracted a large number of supporters (including Charles Darwin), they never did gain permission, with the argument given that they shouldn’t have been admitted in the first place (despite the fact that they all passed the entrance exams; four even passed with honors). These women weren’t quitters though, and eventually, five of the seven gained their MDs abroad.

5. Hamburg – Domenica Niehoff

Domenica Niehoff had a rough start in life – her mother fled her husband with young Domenica in arm before getting arrested for petty crimes, which meant Domenica was sent to an orphanage. When she was 17, she met her husband (a brothel owner), but she was widowed at age 27 when her husband committed suicide. She became a prostitute herself, eventually known as “the Queen of the Reeperbahn”, but rather than hide in the shadows, she campaigned for the legalization of prostitution, and founded a project to support young prostitutes and drug addicts. When she died in 2009, she was given a place in Hamburgs Garden of Women, the first prostitute to be buried in an area that has been reserved for distinguished women.

6. Lisbon – Carolina Beatriz Ângelo

Not only did Carolina Beatriz Ângelo defy the odds by becoming a doctor at the turn of the 20th Century, but she really cemented her place on our kick-ass women list by finding a loophole in the law that allowed her to become the first woman to vote in Portugal in 1911. As well as being a leader in feminist and suffragette circles, she noticed that the law around elections was ambiguously written, not specifically saying men had the right to vote, but rather, heads-of-households over the age of 21 did, and as she was a widow, she was the head of her household. While she did manage to get her vote in in 1911, sadly after she exploited that loophole, the Portuguese law was changed to specify that voters must be male – a ruling not overturned until 1976. Find out more about Carolina Beatriz Ângelo on the Lisbon International Women’s Day Tour.

7. Madrid – Clara Campoamor

Clara Campoamor was born in Madrid into a working class family, and started out as a seamstress at age 13, before earning a number of government jobs, and eventually getting into law school. As if that wasn’t impressive enough in the early 1900s, in 1931 she was elected into a government position, at a time when women weren’t even allowed to vote. She worked to make changes to the constitution, which included fighting against discrimination based on gender, the right to divorce, and for children born within and outside the marriage to have equal rights. When the Spanish Civil War broke out she was forced to flee the country, and was barred from returning under Franco, and she died in exile, in Switzerland, in 1972. Find out more about Clara Campoamor on the Madrid International Women’s Day Tour.

The post 7 Kick-Ass Women to Know About This International Women’s Day first appeared on SANDEMANs NEW Europe.

1. The Ghost of Covent Garden, London

William Terris was an actor known for heroic roles such as Robin Hood, as well as parts in classic dramas and comedies, and appearances in Shakespeare plays. He was murdered in 1897 in the Adelphi theatre by a deranged actor, Richard Archer Prince, who was found guilty and sent to Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Terris’ ghost is believed to haunt both the theatre and Covent Garden station and has been seen on many occasions…reportedly.

Whether you believe it or not, it’s a great story!

2. Spain’s First Recorded Poltergeist, Barcelona

The first officially recorded poltergeist attack in Spain occurred in Barcelona. A family began to hear and see strange things happening in their house. These included loud banging, lights flickering, and a rogue drawer flying out of the dresser and across the room. As the police arrived, the banging ceased and no other strange events occurred. However, the next day; the noises got louder, chairs rose and fell, the lights swung violently, and items disappeared and reappeared. A second investigation also found nothing, only the children claimed to have seen a white shadow moving around the house. It never happened again after that day.

Now, I may be a rational adult, but when I go home tonight, I will check under my bed and in my cupboard repeatedly, before going to sleep with the lights on.

3. The White Woman, Berlin

Anna Sydow was the lover of the King of Brandenburg, Joachim II, in the 16th century. They lived together happily in the Grunewald, just outside Berlin, until the King’s death. On his deathbed, the king asked his son, Johann Georg, to take care of Anna. Whilst he promised he would, Johann threw her into Berlin’s Spandau Citadel, where she remained until her death.

Anna is said to wander through the halls of the citadel, unable to leave and seeking a way out… Maybe a map could help her… or better yet, a guided tour?

4. The Hanging of Margaret Dickson, Edinburgh

Margaret Dickson was hanged in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket in 1724 but later awoke. She was set free under Scots law, but the words “until dead” were later added to the sentence of hanging.

Now that is one risky way of finding a loophole!

5. The Last Witch of Bavaria, Bavaria

Maria Renata Singer von Mossau was a nun who joined a Bavarian convent in the mid-18th century. Shortly after her arrival, other nuns became afflicted with convulsions and claimed to be possessed by the devil. When officials searched the convent, they found poisons and strange robes in von Mossau’s room, after which she confessed to being a Satanist and a witch who had sworn herself to Satan at a young age. Von Mossau was one of the last women to be convicted of witchcraft, and executed in Bavaria.

In a time when witchcraft was a major fear throughout Europe, maybe it would have been wiser for her to keep her satanic beliefs to herself…

6. The Hellfire Club, Dublin

The Hellfire Club, isolated on the outskirts of Dublin, was built in 1725 by William Connolly. The stories of debauchery and practices in the dark arts, including manifestations of a demonic nature, are staples of the local folkloric landscape. These days, the club is derelict and frequently visited by tourists… brave, brave tourists. You couldn’t pay me to visit…

7. The Scariest Night of the Year

The scariest night of the year is on the SANDEMANs Halloween Pub Crawl! Free drinks, face painting, goodies on arrival, and a prize for the best dressed are just a few of the perks of this fantastic night! Meet new people and enjoy some of most exciting bars on the scariest night of the year with SANDEMANs.

This story may have been a trick, but we guarantee that our Halloween Pub Crawl will be a treat!

Check out our Halloween Pub Crawls in: Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, Dublin, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Lisbon, London & Paris.

For those of you interested in the spooky history of Edinburgh or Paris, join our special Halloween Dark Side Tours!

The post 7 Scary Stories from All Over Europe to Get You Excited About Halloween! first appeared on SANDEMANs NEW Europe.

Then, overnight on 9 November 1989, it fell down!

Not literally of course, it stood for a while longer, and in some parts of Berlin, it stands to this day. But on the fateful evening of 9 November 1989, following months of peaceful protest throughout East Germany, floods of ecstatic East Berliners washed in to an equally excited West Berlin. East Germans had had enough of what many saw as the oppressive and outmoded East German Communist regime. They wanted freedom, Coca Cola, heck just some bananas would be nice (a fruit often hard to get in the East).

Exactly how this joyous event came about is a gripping story of the will of the people, blundering government spokesmen and confused border guards, and one of the best stories you will hear on the SANDEMANs Free Tour in Berlin.

Mark, a SANDEMANs guide in Berlin, delivering his Fall of the Wall story. Look at those hands!

But wait, I hear you say. What about David Hasselhoff? Didn’t the Hoff tear down this symbol of division and difference? If you ask David himself, yes. Yes, he did. The Hoff’s hit single ‘Looking for Freedom’ was at Number 1 in the German charts in the summer of 1989. According to him, the power of his lyrics and gyrating hips helped bring down the Wall. Sadly, this is not true, but the Hoff is still disappointed he is not recognised and included in the Checkpoint Charlie Museum (a stop on the Free Tour).

But, really, he wins. So many people associate the Wall and the Hoff that the truth really doesn’t matter!

An image on the East Side Gallery, the longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall. Photo Credit: Authors own

As mentioned, parts of the Wall still stand in Berlin today. The best way to see some of the remaining pieces of this so fearsome structure is to hop on SANDEMANs Red Berlin Tour. You’ll also get an insight in to life in East and West, the history of Communism, and learn about those who tragically lost their lives. You can also check out the longest stretch, the East Side Gallery, and its amazing art work on SANDEMANs Alternative Tour.

Photos commemorating those who died trying to cross the Wall at the Berlin Wall Memorial, north Mitte.

If you want even more Wall, here’s a list of some of the places in Berlin where you can still check it out (and how to get there!):

• East Side Gallery, Mühlenstraße 10243 (S Bahn Ostbahnhof)
• Next to the Topography of Terror, Niederkirchnerstraße, 10963 (U Bahn Kochstraße)
• Berlin Wall Memorial, Bernauerstraße, 13355 (S Bahn Nordbahnhof)
• Mauerpark, Bernauerstraße, 10437 (5-minute walk from U Bahn Eberswalderstraße)
• And small sections dotted all over the city! See how many you can spot

The post Did David Hasselhoff Bring Down the Berlin Wall? first appeared on SANDEMANs NEW Europe.

Even if you are not a deliberate Bowie fan, you are quite likely an accidental one – the artist who invented Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, the Thin White Duke and was in the Labyrinth – was chameleon-like in both looks and musical style. Who knew that ‘The Man Who Sold the World‘ was not by Nirvana? That the famous cover of ‘Dancing in the Street‘ was not just Mick Jagger? Or that the funky bassline of ‘Ice Ice Baby‘ was not written by Vanilla Ice, but taken from Bowie and Queen’s collaboration ‘Under Pressure‘? All of them great songs. All of them Bowie.

Bowie’s loss was felt particularly hard in Berlin. Bowie arrived in the city, still divided by the Berlin Wall, in 1976. The singer was attempting to escape a serious cocaine addiction that had led to such erratic behaviour as an attempted exorcism on a swimming pool. Bowie would stay, on and off, until the early 1980s and in Berlin would have one of his most productive artistic periods – in 1977 he released two albums, Low and Heroes, followed in 1979 by a third, Lodger. The three albums would become known as his Berlin Trilogy.

The trilogy was recorded at the now famous Hansa Studios in Berlin’s Mitte district – at the time, right up against the Berlin Wall. Bowie was inspired to write the song Heroes when he saw, from the studio window, a couple embracing in the shadow of the Wall. “I can remember/Standing by the wall/And the guns shot above our heads/And we kissed, as though nothing could fall.”

Sporting teams and motivational speakers have thanked him for his effort ever since.

There is even a theory that Bowie’s Heroes sparked the popular uprising in East Germany that would later lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Bowie returned to West Berlin in 1987, and performed the song near the Reichstag (houses of parliament) as a support act for US President Ronald Regan. It is said the East Berliners listening to the concert from the other side of the wall were emboldened by its lyrics (they were clearly those unique, English-speaking East Berliners). Indeed, on his death, Germany’s foreign ministry tweeted “Good-bye David Bowie. You are now among #Heroes. Thank you for helping to bring down the #wall.”

Even after he left, Bowie and Berlin remained indelibly linked. In 2013, Bowie released his 24th studio album, The Next Day. On it was the song Where are We Now, solely about Berlin. Its music video shows a disturbing conjoined twin puppet in front of images of the city in the 1970s, including of Bowie’s old apartment building in Schöneberg.

Within hours of the news of his death on January 10, the front entrance to this apartment at Hauptstrasse 155, lived in by Bowie and his mate Iggy Pop, had become a shrine; flowers, candles and heartfelt messages in English and German piling up. After a few days, an anonymous street artist replaced the original street sign with an altogether more appropriate one…

A spontaneous, musical memorial occurred that night in the nearby bar, Café Neues Ufer, once frequented by Bowie and Iggy. Using a customer’s phone to provide a Bowie playlist, the bar soon ran out of beer as it became crowded with fans intent to ease the loss by screaming out Rebel Rebel and Changes.

Bowie was surely a singular artist, an artist of many decades, incarnations and talents. If you are in Berlin, and wish to reminisce, you can make a pilgrimage of a kind through the city…

– Hansa Studios – Köthenerstrasse 38, 10963 Mitte
– Reichstag – Platz der Republik 1, 11011 Mitte
– Hauptstrasse 155, 10827 Schöneberg
– Cafe Neues Ufer – Hauptstrasse 157, 10827 Schöneberg

The post David Bowie in Berlin first appeared on SANDEMANs NEW Europe.

1. Although the whole world knows her as the Statue of Liberty, her original name is ‘Liberty Enlightening the World‘.

2. One of her many nicknames, the Green Goddess, only became fitting around 20 years after she was first constructed. She consists of over 300 sheets of copper, and in her younger years she was a copper coloured. She only faded to the green tone we know and love today after a couple of decades of oxidisation.

3. Like thousands of other New Yorkers, she is an immigrant. The brainchild of three Frenchmen, she was presented to New York as a present from France in 1886.

4. Her designer, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, may well have modelled her on his own mother, Charlotte.

5. When she was unveiled in 1886, she inspired New York’s first ever ticker-tape parade in the nearby financial district.

6. A less supportive welcome was offered to her by suffragettes, who rented a boat to protest alongside the statue at so few women being present at her unveiling, and to demand the vote for women.

7. True to her original name, she was so tall she was originally used as a lighthouse.

8. The seven spikes on her crown are actually part of a halo, and are meant to represent the seven seas.

9. The poem most connected to Lady Liberty, ‘The New Colossus‘, was originally written by Emma Lazarus as part of a fund-raising drive to raise money for the pedestal upon which Liberty currently stands. It was forgotten for many years until Lazarus’ death a year after the statue was unveiled, following which a friend of hers pushed to have the sonnet immortalised in a plaque, which contains the famous lines:

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”

10. Liberty Island, where the statue lives, has long been the scene of a tug-of-war between New York and the far closer neighbouring state of New Jersey. The island is currently controlled by New York, but falls under New Jersey’s control and tax administration.

11. BONUS FACT: Most people fail to notice what lies at the statue’s feet: broken chains, a symbol of the freedom she was built to represent.

To get to Liberty Island you can buy tickets to Statue Cruises, which will take you to both the statue and neighbouring Ellis Island, either at nearby Castle Clinton or, to beat the lines, online.

Our top money-saving tip is to hop on the Staten Island Ferry just a short walk to the east of Castle Clinton, which will take you alongside the statue and is completely free. Stand on the right-hand side on the way out for the best views!

If you want to learn more about the Statue, along with the early history of New York from the days when it was New Amsterdam, our guides will be waiting for you 7 days a week, 365 days a year, on the steps of the National Museum of the American Indian at 11am to give you a free guided tour of downtown Manhattan. Come and join us!

The post 10 Things You May Not Have Known About Lady Liberty first appeared on SANDEMANs NEW Europe.

Every day we offer tours to Nazi concentration camp memorial sites like Sachsenhausen just outside of Berlin, as well as Dachau outside Munich and Terezín outside Prague. The guides who lead these tours feel privileged to do so, as they are dedicated to the sites, meticulous about conveying their history, and passionate about encouraging remembrance of the people who lost their lives there.

Below is a list of questions we often get asked by people who are about to visit, or are thinking of visiting, sites like these. We’ve noticed some people feel uncomfortable asking these questions, so if you’re one of those people, we hope this will be helpful to you.

It’s true that sometimes, the memorial sites themselves issue reminders about conduct (in the past year, Sachsenhausen Memorial has issued reminders that it’s not appropriate to have picnics at the site, make anti-Semitic jokes, or play Pokémon Go…). Most of the time, we hope it’s down to a lack of understanding, rather than any kind of malicious intent. The following points are specifically for the Sachsenhausen Memorial, but are a good guideline for visiting these memorial sites in general.

1. Are photos appropriate?

This depends on the memorial site, but generally, there will be signs around telling you whether you can or not. At Sachsenhausen Memorial, photography is permitted, but not inside the museums. However, we always recommend that you think about what you’re taking photos of and how you compose your shots.

While many people feel uncomfortable taking photos at all, it’s a completely personal decision that’s entirely up to you. However, as many survivors (and families of those who didn’t survive) have told us that they were always concerned that the world would move on, forgetting about them and their experiences, perhaps taking photos is not as strange as it seems.

2. What about eating / drinking / smoking?

Again this depends on the site, but at Sachsenhausen Memorial, you can eat and smoke outside the information center, but not once you get into the memorial site. Showing up with alcohol is clearly a no-go.

 3. What should I wear?

We’ve seen a few poor souls who wore some of their trusty sloganed t-shirts, which took on unfortunate connotations when standing in a former concentration camp… If you don’t want to be the guy awkwardly standing with your arms folded all day, have a quick think before you put on that old favorite in the morning. Otherwise, the majority of the Sachsenhausen Memorial tour is outdoors, so dress in weather-appropriate clothes, bringing jackets, umbrellas, hats, sunscreen, plenty of water etcetera.

 4. Do you know of any ghosts or spirits?

Every guide has been asked this question at least once, and we know the memorial foundations get asked it too. We also know that not everyone is asking this insensitively; if you’re interested in paranormal activity, as many people are, we understand why you’d ask, however, on our tours we do not include stories of paranormal activity at the memorial site.

5. Which concentration camp was the “worst”?

Again, we know not all people are asking this insensitively, and we think we know what they mean; in which camps were conditions the harshest? How many people died in each camp? These are fair questions, and you should feel free to ask us them. Every now and then though, this can come across as a competition – “I visited X camp, which is way worse than Y camp, so there’s no point in me going to Y camp”. We think it’s really important to remember that all of these camps were atrocities against humanity, and that all of the victims deserve to be remembered appropriately, so while we definitely encourage you to ask us as many questions as you have about Sachsenhausen and other camps, it is best to avoid thinking about any kind of ranking.

 6. Which groups of people will you talk about?

Sometimes we are asked to focus on only one specific group of prisoners. If there is a group of people you want to hear more about, please feel free to walk with the guide between stops and ask them questions. The guide will be happy to give you further info, and also suggest specific sites at the memorial you might want to privately visit after the tour, as well as books you can purchase in the information center. Alternatively, we can also arrange a private tour for you, with this specific focus on the group you’re interested in. Please note though that on our publicly scheduled tour, we do endeavor to acknowledge the memory of all of the victims of Sachsenhausen.

 7. Can I make a donation to the memorial site?

Yes! Please feel free to! When you join our tour to Sachsenhausen Memorial, we contribute a part of your ticket price to the site, but if you’d like to make an additional donation, you can in the information center at the site itself. Donations go to projects such as maintenance of the memorial, restoring sites and exhibits, research, staff costs, training events and many more worthwhile causes.

8. Will there be a lot of other people there?

Various Nazi concentration camp memorials are experiencing high volumes of visitors. We think this is ultimately a great thing – the more people who are interested in learning about these sites and remembering those who suffered in them, the better.

However, this makes it even more important that visitors to the site – and the guides who accompany them – are quiet, solemn and respectful. If you’re taking your children, please keep them close by at all times, and if you see a group of people behaving loudly or disrespectfully, feel free to ask your guide to speak to them.

 9. Can I stand on the foundations of buildings that have been destroyed?

The answer here is a pretty firm no. At Sachsenhausen Memorial, weather damage, combined with varying degrees of care (or lack thereof) from changing governments, have resulted in some of these sites becoming fragile and requiring preservation. Sometimes people want to walk across these foundations to lay small memorials – candles, flowers etcetera.  While appreciating the sentiment here, the Sachsenhausen Memorial team do ask that, to preserve the site for future generations, you don’t not step on the foundations.

 10. Can I visit these memorial sites myself?

Absolutely you can. Many people choose to go to the site by themselves because they don’t speak a language the tours are regularly offered in, can’t go at the times the tours are offered, or because a guided tour doesn’t fit within their travel budget. However, as the Sachsenhausen Memorial site is quite large, with a lot of information in the museums and a lot of information on the audio guide, it’s unlikely you’ll get through everything in one visit without some help.

If you choose to go by yourself, our advice is to start by asking the receptionists at the information center which sites you should prioritize visiting, in case you run out of time. Many people choose to join a tour because it’s an easier way to get a succinct yet thorough overview of the site in a few hours (and because it’s easier to ask questions to a real-life guide rather than an audio guide).

Getting to the memorial can also be a little bit tricky if you don’t know the way, so even if you don’t want to go on the tour, feel free to meet us at our starting point by the Brandenburg Gate, 11am every day, and we will very happily take you with us to show you the way. With regards to the memorial site itself, whether you choose to go with a guide, or go by yourself, either option is completely fine – the important thing is that you see the site, remember the victims, and leave the hipflask, picnic basket and Pokémon Go at home.

The post Visiting Sachsenhausen: 10 Things to Know Before Visiting a Concentration Camp Memorial Site first appeared on SANDEMANs NEW Europe.

The Berlin Wall was built to stop East Germans from escaping into West Berlin, and was the enduring symbol of the Cold War. Every day it stood, Berliners were reminded of their city’s painful division and its (questionable) honor of being the “capital of the Cold War”. At least 140 people lost their lives at the Wall, shot by border guards, crossing the dangerous frontier, or guarding the Wall.

There were also stories of incredible bravery: tunnel diggers, aviators, and everyday people developed creative methods for breaching the border, and for helping friends and family to escape.

Walk around Berlin today and there are very few traces of the Berlin Wall besides designated memorials or various segments of the wall left here and there. Due to the astonishing amount of development happening through Berlin, there are less physical differences between the East and West as the years go on. This is remarkable given how recent the division was.

What is even more remarkable about this city is how reflective and educational it is when it comes to discussing the Cold War era. There are many museums, designated memorials and sites in the former East designed to help further educate those interested in learning more, and preserving the dark and tragic history of the Wall. There really isn’t a better time to learn about this era than right now: Berlin is full of living, breathing memories of the division.

The best way to get a view of the Berlin Wall, and to gain an insight into how it affected Berliners’ lives on either side, is to join us on one of the SANDEMANs Red Berlin Tours.

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1. ​The City of David may have Inspired “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark”

Legend has it that Montague Parker, a young British captain from a noble family, came to the Land of Israel in 1909 in search of King Solomon’s treasures in Jerusalem, and his subsequent excavations would become one of the strangest digs in the history of Jerusalem’s archaeology.

Parker decided to search for Solomon’s treasures after reading research by Henrik Valter Juvelius, a Finnish researcher who decoded ancient Jewish texts describing the location of the Ark of the Covenant and King Solomon’s Temple treasures. Parker worked with the Ottoman authorities, bribing them in order to allow this sensitive dig to take place, but eventually, word got out about this excavation and people became unhappy.

In 1911 Parker began to dig under the Temple Mount itself, simultaneously during the Jewish Passover, the Greek Orthodox Easter, and the Muslim Nabi Musa celebration. Consequently, a riot broke out and Parker was forced to flee for his life. In his journal, Parker wrote that, because of the quick escape, he had accidentally left behind his beloved pipe, excavation buckets, and other items, which you can still see today in the City of David.

2. Warren’s Shaft

Discovered in the 1860s by Charles Warren, one of the earliest European archaeologists of the Biblical Holy Land (and famous for being London’s police chief during the Jack the Ripper murders), this underground tunnel system has become known as “Warren’s Shaft”. The tunnels are made up of four parts: the stepped tunnel, the horizontal curved tunnel, the 14-meter vertical shaft, and the feeding tunnel. Though its intended function isn’t clear, it is obvious that it granted access to the water supply from the heavily-protected Gihon Spring.

3. Drainage Tunnel

The drainage tunnel in the City of David is the ancient sewer running from the Temple Mount. Today it follows the path that pilgrims took thousands of years ago to visit the Temple. During the Roman Revolt, rebels used this drainage tunnel to hide and maneuver around the city.

The City of David Tour is one of our most eagerly anticipated tours. Those who join us and brave this three-hour excursion can expect to be rewarded with some of the richest and holiest historical sites in the world!

The post 3 Things You’ll Only Learn on Our City of David Tour first appeared on SANDEMANs NEW Europe.