Hamburg (Day 3)

Our last day in Hamburg, Tracy and I woke up to an otherwise deserted hostel room around noon-- we had completely overslept! We recovered quickly though (more or less), and spent the rest of the day taking advantage of last minute photo opportunities on our way back to the St. Nikolai monument. My favorite was probably Otto Van Bismark here, the man who started it all. 

*footnote: If you ever find yourselves wondering, "What kind of a monument would Jess like built in her honor?" This is it. 

Finally, after getting a bit lost in the freezing, sleeting rain/snow, we managed to find St. Nikolai again (the cathedral bombed by the USA and Britain during the Gomorrah Operation of 1943 intended to crush any remaining German morale). I know the pictures can say more than I ever could, but I just have to emphasize how brilliant and powerful this monument is. War is hell, and the devastated ruins of this cathedral present this fact with a bold, simple honesty that I have never felt so keenly anywhere else except perhaps our own Vietnam War Memorial. St. Nikolai, especially for me as an American suddenly seeing the "other side" of it, struck me as expressing the depth of human suffering with a stirring beauty, and an utterly penetrating rawness.

Windows are left shattered. Stones are still burned black. The original majesty of the church has been bombed away, and what remains sits in skeletal shock, perhaps too numb to even be described as "haunting."

St. Nikolai and its surrounding statues form a true memorial, in the very purest sense of that word. We must not forget, not what we have done to others, nor what we have done to ourselves. It confronts the visitor with its refusal to lend justification, and though this unnerves us, it is also precisely what must realized and remembered.

"The Ordeal" -- A figure sitting on a pile of bricks remaining
from a Concentration Camp hides its face in its hands.

"For victims of war and persecution"

"Take my hand
I'll lead you back
to yourself"
-created by Edith Breckwoldt, 2003

We rode up the elevator to the highest possible point as well. It was a stunning view. In the 1800's for a few years, this was the tallest structure in the world, and even today it is the 2nd highest cathedral in Germany.

After riding up to the top of the remains, we went to the crypt next, located underneath the church. We entered by going down through the glass pyramid. The crypt acts a sort of basic facts museum extension for the cathedral remains.

A map of Hamburg. Where there is red, the city was bombed, often to the
point that everything was completely razed to the ground.

Restored fragments of the original altar.

The melted remains of wine bottles and other glass items- at many places in the city during the bombings, the fires burned so hot the sidewalks were literally melting. Anyone trying to escape above ground would have stood no chance.

An old portrait of the cathedral from when it was completed, surrounded by masses of people.