This was shared on FB. Thoughy it was too good not to reshare. At 1.40 the rare humour for instance. https://youtu.be/R5i9k7s9X_A

recommended reading:

Just how the hell do you repair a whole city?

Just how the hell do you repair a whole city country?

If you walk around Budapest you can still see the odd building that bears scars and bullet holes but that’s from the 1956 revolution, not WW11. The city is being repaired and gentrified fast so there’s not much of that left but when I first went about 20 years ago the majority of buildings were still filthy and damaged.

You can still see some scars on Londons old buildings from the war too- sort of ‘filled in’ on the stonework.

I remember being in Earls Court tube station looking up and remembering reading about the two twin girls that had to be slowly picked out/lowered from the roof where they’d been blown from the platform by bombing.

Just how the hell do you repair a whole city?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tr%C3%BCmmerfrau

I remember walking down the Eastern side of Unter Den Linden, past the Brandenburg Gate. Once off the main drag the buildings carried lots of reminders of the war, you could see old bullet & shrapnel marks on the stone & brickwork and where the damaged buildings had been patched up.
That was 1992.

You can still see some scars on Londons old buildings from the war too- sort of ‘filled in’ on the stonework.

Yeah the V&A Museum still bears shrapnel scars.

I loved that it was genuinely depressing and awesome at the same time. Thanks Hora.

In London on the embankment there are two Sphinxes by Cleopatra’s needle with large shrapnel scars from a WW1 bomb.

And I think it was in Leamington Spa we saw a statue (Queen Victoria, I think) where it no longer sat square to the base because a bomb blew it off centre!

There’s probably loads of examples of this type of damage, I guess.

A good quote from Goebbels there with the Images from the Sportpalast:
Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg?

Fascinating, thanks!

Would love to go to Berlin – preferably by road. Another holiday idea.

Would especially like to go to the villa at Wansee.

That was very interesting.
Lots of women, few men aside from soldiers.
People looked largely, and surprisingly, relaxed/relieved in the summer sun- things would have been a lot bleaker six months later.
Was a bit surprised how little the destruction in the aerial shot registered with me at first- presumably a diet of Hollywood blockbusters has desensitised me to large scale devastation. 🙁

Roadtrip? When we were in Koln I said ‘lets drive to Berlin’ (a quick look at the map ….6hours+ each way)

Brilliant stuff.

hora – Member
Roadtrip? When we were in Koln I said ‘lets drive to Berlin’ (a quick look at the map ….6hours+ each way)

Yes – we’ve driven back from the Harz Mountains in pretty much one hit with a dinner stop on the way. It’s not much further to Berlin!

Aye, when I was inter-railing I went from Munich to Berlin. Made me realise how large Germany is & how far East Berlin actually is.