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Berlin is united.
We have been walking and driving around the city the whole day long and I haven't seen signs of the past, when the town was separated.
Hartmut lives on the outskirts of the city in Friedrichshagen. Although it belongs to Berlin, Friedrichshagen has got the look of a small town in the country, manageable, homely, being on the lakeside it's a coveted place for living, not least for its nearness to the city. Hartmut has arranged a soup trip during the next days to his relations and friends in Thüringen. But today we move to Woltersdorf, a small village nearby Friedrichshagen, where Daniela, Hartmuts Daughter will prepare the soup.
On the way, we stop for a swim in the idyllically situated lake named Kalksee. A most welcome refreshment on a hot summer day.
Daniela and her Mother Andrea live in a comfortable house, surrounded by a rampant garden. At the moment the house is a building site. Walls are being knocked down and rebuilt, plasted and plugged up and openings are chiseled out. That's why the soup is being cooked in the garden on open fire. Daniela and Michaela cut the vegetable, Hartmut and I chop the wood and Andrea cares for all the other things. At nightfall, the fire has burned down to glowing embers and the soup is slightly simmering until Daniela considers it for ready to serve.
I tell Daniela about my slight irritation about the selective deconstruction of the Republikspalast. She says, that she was not yearning for the ugly monster. She's been there at events for several times and had always felt uncomfortable. The building doesn't cause nostalgic feelings to her.
I always thought, the Republikspalast had been built on waste land after war. Now I am told, that the old castle indeed was partly destroyed, but had been demolished as a symbol of absolutism, only at 1950 by the decision of the SED. 1976 the Palast der Republik had been built, intended to be a symolic Counterbalance to the formerly imperialistic architecture.
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