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Taking the Kids: Zip Lining into Berlin

By Eileen Ogintz, Tribune Content Agency on

Could you have done it? One family zip-lined to freedom -- in a home-crafted zip line. A woman escaped hiding in a hollowed-out surfboard strapped atop her car. Two other families made it in an impossibly small hot-air balloon. There were escapes in hollowed-out machines, in repurposed cars, in a kayak and hang glider, through tunnels. Incredible!

From the time the Berlin Wall went up in August 1961 till it was torn down in November 1989, thousands of East Berliners made their escape the short distance to the West in the most ingenious ways. At least 2,000 died trying. Today, it's hard to believe this beautiful city was once divided by an ugly wall.

The Westin Grand Berlin, where we stayed, in historic downtown Berlin, was in East Berlin. Today, guests can take hand to chisel and take home a piece of the wall that stands in front of the hotel as a reminder of that dark period in history.

"Freedom was worth the risk, said Alexandra Hildebrandt, the director of the quirky Mauer Museum at Check Point Charlie, which sits at the original border crossing between Cold War America and the Soviet sector of Berlin. That's where you'll see some of these escape vehicles.

Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt, Alexandra Hildebrandt's late husband and a veteran of the resistance during World War II, chose the locale carefully -- so his team could help guide those trying to make it to the West. Journalists would watch the border from an upstairs window; grateful escapees donated their means of escape. Berlin was considered the epicenter of covert espionage during the Cold War, as the new Spy Museum details. (How fast can you make it through a laser maze?)

Hildebrandt guides us through the exhibits -- on Gandhi, on President Reagan, who so famously said in West Berlin, "Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" The vast majority of visitors are young people, at least half from oversees. A new exhibit soon will be devoted to Syrian refugees. This museum shows the lengths people will go to try to reach freedom, Hildebrandt said.

 

That, of course, was true during the Holocaust as well. Of course, you can't visit Berlin without considering the plight of the Jews and others during World War II who couldn't escape. Germany’s capital city now confronts the horror head-on at places large and small. We were fortunate to take a tour of Jewish Berlin with Milk and Honey Tours. (Read my trip diary about our experience.) You'll notice the 'stumble stones," small brass plaques by artist Gunter Demnig embedded in the cobblestone walks memorializing those who had lived there before being deported. You will find these in other German cities too.

There is, of course, the haunting Holocaust Memorial at the Brandenburg Gate constructed of concrete pillars of various heights and, if you are traveling with teens or grown kids, the much visited Topography of Terror Documentation Center sits on the historic site where the institutions of Nazi persecution were headquartered -- today the site focuses on their rise to power and their crimes.

But I don't want to give the impression that Berlin is one sober site after another. In fact, it's a terrifically vibrant city that enables you to teach the kids some history while you explore a city where technology, tolerance and the arts, including fashion and modern design, have all come together. Teens especially will love the hip vibe.

Consider that there are 440 galleries and 180 museums in Berlin, including Museum Island with five museums on Spree Island in the historic city center -- the entire complex has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (Check out the App "Going Local Berlin.") Since reunification, historic buildings have been restored and new ones built.

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