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| Europe |
| Haunted Berlin |
| 2010-06-01 |
| The door-handles of my old Berlin apartment are beautiful. Brass, art nouveau and engraved with flowers worn smooth by more than 100 years of hands - the hands of those who lived here before. There's a room with a blue carpet. It was the kitchen for about a century. Now, it holds the piano. But we've all stopped playing. None of us likes that blue room. In fact, we're a little scared of it. My daughter, Miranda (she's four), tells me about "the family of ghosts with big, dark eyes" who live there. She's petrified. When, feeling idiotic, I confide this to her kindergarten teacher, the response is straightforward. She gives me a business card. "Oh, you probably had Jews in your house. Here, use this guy. He's great." I look at the card, which promises, "Energy change in the home or workplace". I ask if it's a common problem? "Oh, yes," she replies, "happens all the time. Hardly surprising when you think of what went on here in the war." In the pavements of Berlin, there's brass. Here and there, small cobbles of it. They're a little worn - like the lovely door-handles in our home - but by wind and weather, rather than hands. And instead of flowers, each is engraved with a person's name, date of birth and their death. The word, "ermordet" - murdered - is almost always there. Or sometimes, "Flucht in den Tod" - "killed whilst trying to escape". Or "Freitod" - "Suicide". These brass cobbles are "Stolpersteine" - "stumbling blocks" - hand-made by sculptor Gunter Demnig....I had made an appointment with those "energy-change" people - the ones who deal with houses with troubled atmospheres. But I think I'll cancel it. |
| Posted by:Anguper Hupomosing9418 |