In and Around Berlin

In and Around Berlin, by
Minerva Brace Norton

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Title: In and Around Berlin
Author: Minerva Brace Norton
Release Date: June 1, 2007 [EBook #21654]
Language: English
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IN AND AROUND BERLIN

BY
MINERVA BRACE NORTON

CHICAGO A.C. MCCLURG AND COMPANY 1889

COPYRIGHT BY A.C. MCCLURG AND COMPANY A.D. 1889

TO MY HUSBAND,
WHOSE GENEROUS SYMPATHY MADE POSSIBLE THESE
PAGES;
To my Countrymen and Countrywomen
WHO HAVE VISITED BERLIN;
TO THOSE WHO HOPE TO GO THERE,
AND TO THE
LARGER NUMBER OF ARMCHAIR TRAVELLERS,
I Dedicate this Book.

M.B.N.

CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE I. FIRST IMPRESSIONS 9
II. FAMILY AND SOCIAL LIFE 20
III. EDUCATION 51
IV. CHURCHES 79
V. MUSEUMS 103
VI. THE GERMAN REICHSTAG AND THE PRUSSIAN
PARLIAMENT 125
VII. PROMINENT PERSONAGES 133
VIII. THE EMPEROR'S NINETIETH BIRTHDAY 159
IX. STREETS, PARKS, CEMETERIES, AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS
179
X. PALACES 195
XI. THE HOMES OF THE HUMBOLDTS 209
XII. PHILANTHROPIC WORK 221
XIII. AROUND BERLIN 249

IN AND AROUND BERLIN.
I.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS.
It was seven o'clock of a gray November morning when we arrived in
Berlin for our first residence abroad. The approach to the city reminded
us of the newer parts of New York, and we found that the population
was about the same. But here the resemblance ceases. New York is the
metropolis of a great nation,--the heart whence arterial supplies go forth,
and to which all returning channels converge; the cosmopolitan centre
of a New World. Berlin is the increasingly important capital of the
German Empire,--growing rapidly, but still the royal impersonation of
Prussia and the Hohenzollerns; seated in something of mediæval
costume and quiet beside the river Spree; as content to cast a satisfied
glance backward to Frederick the Great and the Electors of
Brandenburg as to look forward to imperial supremacy among the
Great Powers, and the championship of continental Protestant Europe.
There is one continuous thread woven through the old history and the
new, and this appeared in the first hour of our stay. Everywhere on the
streets the one thing most strange to our American eyes was the number
of striking military uniforms mingled with the more sober garb of
civilians. Officers of fine form and gentlemanly bearing, in uniforms of
dark blue with scarlet trimmings and long, dragging, rattling swords,
were commanding the evolutions of infantry in the main streets; while
frequent glimpses of gold-laced light blue or scarlet jackets or of
plumed and helmeted hussars animated the scene on the crowded
sidewalks. Germany is, as it has been from the beginning, a military
power.
We drove first to the home of an American friend. We were not
prepared for the four long flights of stairs up which we were directed
by the porter on the ground floor. "What reverses of fortune have come
to A.," thought we, "that she lives in an attic!" The tenement was a
good one, to be sure, when we found it,--large and lofty apartments
with many windows, commanding a fine view. But to one unused to
many stairs, and weakened by continuous illness in a long sea-voyage,
the exhaustion of that first ascent was something to be remembered. It
was, however, but the precursor of hundreds of similar feats, which our

residence involved, as nearly all families live up several flights of stairs.
Only once did we see an elevator in Germany. In the elegant hotel
known as the Kaiserhof, the sojourning-place of princes, diplomatists,
and statesmen, we took our seats in a commodious elevator, rejoiced at
the thought of such an American way of getting upstairs. It was fully
five minutes before we reached the moderate elevation of the corridor
on which our rooms opened; the liveried and intelligent official in
charge, evidently a personage of importance, meanwhile replying to our
queries and enjoying our evident surprise at the slow motion, until we
forgot our annoyance in the interest of the conversation