Festival of Lights

This year marked the 15th Annual Festival of Lights in Berlin.

{“Let There Be Light”, Berliner Dom}

Each year in October, Berlin turns into a city full of light art. The colorful displays on the famous landmarks turn the FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS into one of the best known light art festivals in the world.

{Hackescher Markt}

National as well as international artists present their brilliant light installations and thus, transform the city into a huge stage. This year’s theme was FREEDOM in honor of the 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9.

{Freedom motif on the Hotel Roma in Bebelplatz}

Last year, the boys got tired pretty quickly and we only made it to Hackescher Markt and Monbijoupark.

{Alte Nationalgalerie in 2018}{Mickey Mouse in Montbijoupark in 2018}{A tired Ben riding home on the M1 after the 2018 Fest}

This year, with older boys and more ambition, we started at Hackesher Markt like last year, but covered more ground. And it was spectacular.

{Helium balloons adorned with lights}

We also bought the boys Luftballons with lights, which ratcheted up the excitement.

{Boys and their balloons crossing Friedrichsbrücke towards Museuminsel with the TV tower in the background}

Museuminsel was alive with people standing around the fountain in the Lustgarten watching the beautiful display on the Berliner Dom.

{Isaac and his balloon}{The many projections onto the Berlinerdom}

We continued across Unter den Linden towards Bebelplatz.*

This was the highlight of the night.

{Isaac and Dave in Bebelplatz in front of the Staatsoper}

{L to R. Staatsoper, St. Hedwigs-Kathedrale Berlin, Hotel Roma and Humboldt Universität}

{A sample of the spectacular multimedia display on Hotel Roma}

{Humboldt Universität}

{St. Hedwigs-Kathedrale Berlin}

{Isaac on top of the Memorial to the May 10, 1933 Nazi Book Burning}

Bebelplatz is remembered today as the venue for the Nazi’s first official book burning bonfire on May 10, 1933 just opposite Humboldt University, where Karl Marx had been a student of Hegel’s. The action, meant as a dire warning to Nazi opponents was instigated with the purposes of destroying the “Jewish mind and the whole rotten liberalist tendency”. Over 20,000 works including those of the so-called subversive writers including Karl Marx, Berthold Brecht and Thomas Mann were set alight and destroyed.

The memory of this event is symbolically kept alive by a memorial monument known as “Versunkene Bibliothek” (sunken library) by Mischa Ullmann – a 50sqm underground library with empty shelves.

The weight of the history of this spot was lightened as our sweet, little boy danced on top of the memorial not realizing the significance of his freedom to rejoice at a place that had repressed his people only a few generations ago.

{Staatsoper}

Having heard Gendarmenmarkt had an impressive display, we left Bebelplatz to travel a long city block to our final destination.

{Video Display of Sand Art depicting the history of Berlin on the Konzerthaus Berlin in Gendarmenmarkt}

By this time, the boys were getting tired and we decided to use our €5 taxi coupon to ride home and get our tired little ones to bed.

We look forward to exploring the Light Festival throughout more of Berlin, including the Brandenburg Gate, next year and perhaps subsequent years, while living here in Berlin.

* Planned in 1740 as a jewel of Prussian humanistic enlightenment, Bebelplatz – formerly Kaiser Franz Joseph Platz – takes its name from August Bebel, co-founder of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The square had its auspicious beginnings in Friedrich the Great’s visionary project for the square near the Royal Palace. As “Forum Fridericianum” it drew inspiration from the classical urban design of ancient Rome and was meant as a centre for intellectual and artistic endeavour. The Forum’s buildings included the Alte Königliche Bibliothek (Old Royal Library) the Staatsoper (Opera House) Unter den Linden, erected 1741-42 and St Hedwig’s Cathedral. It was the cost of war being waged at the time which prevented the project from being completed.