capital city of spies: Berlin's Spy Museum

Today’s German capital, Berlin, was the Capital of Spies in the Cold War. The situation of the divided city, which developed after WW2, was unique. The historical heritage provided for excit­ing tours through the city, but many places said that Berlin was still a real esp­ionage hotspot today, due to the 150+ embassies from which espionage still takes place.

Front entrance to the Spy Museum Berlin

The Glienicker Bridge at the border between Potsdam and Berlin wit­nessed some spect­ac­ular spy swaps during the Cold War. Having given much thought to spying since his run-ins with the East Ger­man Stasi under Communism, tv journalist Franz-Michael Gün­ther wanted a museum dedicated to the history of espionage. Berlin is not only regarded as an important historical site during the Cold War, but also as the former  capital city of spies.  Curator Günther opened the museum after starting his coll­ect­ion in 2004, sourcing objects and information from former secret ser­­vice workers, double agents and contemporary wit­nesses. 

A number of locations for the Spy Museum Berlin were consid­er­ed. In 2014 the final choice was made for a site on Leip­­ziger Platz, the ideal loc­­ation for a museum foc­ussing on esp­ion­age. The site of the form­er death­-strip i.e no-man’s land between the inner and outer perim­eter of the Berlin Wall that separated East and West Berlin, was located in the city’s his­toric division. This site feat­ured one of the few openings in the Wall and was the scene of many dramatic spy swaps in the Cold War. It was also close to the important Brand­en­burg Gate, Pots­damer Platz, Bund­es­rat, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Topo­graphie des Terrors and Kultur­for­um with the Philharmonie and Neuer Nationalgalerie.

Spy Museum Berlin opened 10+ years after first Gunther had his idea because it required much work to transform it into a state-of-the-art mus­eum. Combining rare exhibits with high-tech multi­media install­ations, the exhibition welcomed its first vis­it­ors in Sept 2015, and was internat­ionally acclaimed. En­t­irely privately funded, the Spy Museum was an immediate hit but finan­cially problematic.

An improved financial concept was required to secure the long-term future of the museum, which was relaunched by a new operator. It re-opened in July 2016 as the German Spy Museum. With a fresh pub­lic relations strategy and reduced entry fees, the renewed museum con­centrated on its educational role and its exhibit­ions.

The Spy Museum is the only museum of its kind in Germany. The visitor can ex­pl­ore, using state-of-the-art technology, a multi-media jour­ney through the history of espionage. Walk through the Zeit­tunnel/time tunnel which leads into the 3,000m² museum. On entering, feel the sin­ister world of espionage as several cam­eras peer down. Begin with sec­ret scriptures from antiq­u­ity and ends in the present, with the recent National Security Agen­cy deb­ate. He/she gain insight into elaborate spy techniques, leg­en­dary cases and spectacular sec­ret op­erations. And hear former agents talk.

Museum gallery, in a darkish atmosphere

The collection has 1,000+ exhibits. 300 of these are on dis­play, in various themed areas with int­er­act­ive installations, inviting participation. The historic­al objects on dis­play include gloves hiding a pistol and shoes with bugging devices in the heel. There was also the poisoned umbrella used to assass­inate Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in 1978 and the infamous En­igma encryption machine.

The Museum actually linked thousands of years by displaying ob­jects like a cipher technique invented by Julius Caesar, still being used today. It depicted the fascinating secret service methods of: Oliver Cromwell and Napoleon.

The museum’s exhibition space showed many rare exhibits, as meticul­ously reproduced replicas which were presented using high-tech touchscreen displays to explain their us­age. Thanks for Mechtraveller's photos.

Camera hidden in a bra

 Cryptex from Da Vinci Code

 Enigma Machine

Pipe with bone conduction radio

 Bug in a shoe's heel

Ricky French exper­ien­ced the  romance and mystique con­jured by the apparently outdated world of espion­age. See the rows of cameras hidden in everyday household items, clunky con­trap­tions used for decoding messages, and cars with hidden smuggling comp­artments. It all seemed rather quaint since deception is lar­g­e­ly practised now online; it was difficult to imagine a museum ded­ic­ated to computer hacking having the same appeal. But the visitor can see what it took to become a top sec­ret agent and to crack codes. 

The laser maze room was just one of the many hands-on exhibits that helped spying. From encryption tech­niques to phone-bugging to code-cracking, the world of deceit and double-crossing was un­locked. The museum moved between entertain­ment and education, some of it really solemn, with commendable fin­esse. His forensic skills were tested in a laboratory where the quest was to compose and decipher secret mes­sages. And he was shown how documents that had been through a paper shredder could be painstakingly pieced together. One section was ded­­icated to the techniques used by the dreaded Stasi, who placed all East Germans under mass surveillance for years. Another explored the spying methods used in WW1, WW2 and throughout the Cold War. 

The spy museum was completed by a generous sect­ion devoted to the most famous spy in the world, 007. The chips and playing-cards used by James Bond/Daniel Craig in the 2006 adapt­at­ion of Casino Royale were on show, as was a car tyre with ice spikes from Die Another Day and M’s red telephone from Moonraker. 

The Costume Room shows a trench coat, top hat and sun-glasses where the visitor can become a dash­ing spy, posing for a photo against any back­drop eg opt for a street scene on a rainy night, the streetlight illum­inating the raindrops and the car’s head­lights giving the face a suspicious glow. 

Spies, Lies and Deception was a free exhibition at Imperial War Museum London about deception and espionage from WW1 on. Explore how deception plots have changed the course of conflict and the lives of those involved. The exhibition was showcasing objects, digitised film, photography and commissioned interviews until April 2024. Many thanks to Girl Gone London.

Honouring my late son, Israel & tourism.

Peter was the first child born to Helen & Joseph; first grandchild to Thelma & Les in Melbourne, and to Chaya & Yehuda in Sydney; and first great grandchild to Sarah and Peter. He was conceived in Israel, born in Brit­ain in 1972, went to pre-school in Perth and arrived in Melbourne ready for school. He had already been able to read by the time he was aged 3.5, so the biggest issue was to find the right way to st­im­ul­ate his intellect while quietening his excitement. 

Peter helping tourists

in his Tel Aviv office 

He later went to Mount Scopus College Melbourne with his brother Aron, the school that his mother, two uncles and all 5 of his maternal cousins had gone to. He loved English literature, Hebrew, history, pol­itics and ec­on­­om­ics, but less thrilled with physics, chemistry and biol­ogy. On Shabbat he went to a youth movement, and on Sun­d­ays he played sports and music. Carlton was his AFL football pass­ion, deb­ated in detail with his beloved Blues-supporting grand­father Les.

After school he couldn’t wait to do business studies at RMIT, graduating Bachelor of Business (Property) and maintaining his interest in politics by becoming the president of a Young Liberals branch. He was a brave rebel, considering his family had been devoted Labourites for 3 generations.

In 2001 Peter made Aliya to Israel because, he said, the girls were the prettiest in the world, half his family lived there and business opportunities for a young man were wond­erful. He married a beautiful, clever wife, improved his Hebrew from "accept­able" to "fluent", and had a precious son Ben.

He opened a travel agency called Peter Tours and became a tour operator centred in Tel Aviv. The agency provided land arr­an­g­e­ments in Israel, Jordan and Egypt, so Peter travelled yearly to plan tours for specialist groups eg Jewish travellers and Ch­ris­t­ian pil­grims from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Belgium, China and South Korea. Only when Covid caused tourists to stay in their own countr­ies did the travel industry suffer terribly.

Peter and his son lead a group to the Golan Heights

 

Here was one of Naftali’s favourite Israel Short Tours:

1. Go to Jerusalem hotel and visit the city. 
2. Explore the biblical and cultural high­lights of Old and New Jerus­al­em. Sights include Mount Zion, Old City and Western Wall, Stat­ions of the Cross and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. On Saturdays instead of Yad Vashem, go to Ein Karem, the birthplace of John the Baptist. Stroll in the narrow lanes of the picturesque neighbourhood, stop­ping by Mary’s spring and visit the remark­able Church of Saint John the Baptist.
3. Descend from Jerusalem to the lowest place on earth. Drive along the shores of the Dead Sea to the rock fortress of Masada. Visit Herod’s palace, 2000 years old. Discuss the zealots who defied the Roman Empire. Float in the Dead Sea; the water is rich in salts and miner­als! 
4. Leave north to Na­zar­eth, Joseph and Mary’s town. Visit Church of the An­nunciat­ion. Continue to Sea of Galilee via Canna to visit Capern­aum ruins & visit Tabgha re the Miracle of the Fishes and Loaves. Return via Yardenit baptisms. 
5. Caesarea and the Coastal Plain In Caesarea visit the Crusader Fortress, with its unique dry moat, and the Roman Theatre. Then go to the port city of Haifa to view the magnificent Bahai Gardens from atop Mount Carmel. Go north to Acre to explore the Knig­hts’ Halls and the secret escape tunnel dug by the Crusaders. Visit­ Rosh Hanikra, most northern coastal point & walk via beaut­iful grottos. 
6. Farewell group & guides. Visit Tel Aviv at your leisure

The best tour Peter organised for our family was Jordan:

1. Drive to Sheik Hussein Bridge to cross into Jordan. Explore Jerash, ancient Roman city of the Decapolis. Visit the Cit­adel and Roman Amphitheatre on an Amman city tour. 
2. Eat early, leave the hotel and travel along the Desert Highway on the road to Petra. Enjoy a spectacular full day tour in the rose-red city of Petra. Enjoy a short horse ride, and then travel on foot through the awesome SIQ valley. Visit the Treasury, and explore hundreds of buildings, tombs, temples and C1st AD 3,000-seat theatre.
3. See the complex ancient Mosaic map of the Holy Land at Madaba. Visit Mt Nebo where Moses viewed the Promised Land be­fore his passing. Explore remains of the Byzantine Church with a mo­saic floor, and from a platform in front of the church enjoy awesome views across Jordan Valley and Dead Sea. In the after­noon cross the border, to Tel Aviv. 
4. Farewell the group & guides. Visit Tel Aviv at your leisure

The Uri Geller Museum Tel Aviv was another of his much loved tours, feat­ur­ing Geller’s Peace Cadillac, 2000+ spoons, his 1963 Vespa, Sal­vador Dali sculptures, items from John Lennon, Picasso, Andy Warhol, Alb­ert Einstein and Sigmund Freud. The museum also features an incredible discovery found during the rest­oration of the 1000 year old building, a well preserved Ottoman era soap factory! A beaut­iful terrace under the gigantic arches over­looks the Mediterranean.

Leading a group around Old Jerusalem

He trained his tour operators and guides well. Toon Van Rompay wrote: Today, I lost my mentor, my boss, but most import­antly, my good friend Peter. I came to Israel for my wife. Peter gave me all the opportunities to make sure I could stay in the coun­try. He gave my job as a tour operator when I first arrived, and trained me. He let me do the tour guide course and I developed myself prof­es­sionally thanks to him. I will be forever in his debt. And he will be missed very hard. Peter, thank you for everything.

In all his travels, Peter never forgot Australia. In March 2017 in Euroa Victoria, the Israel Travel Centre hosted a luncheon to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Charge of Beersheba. The ev­ent was attended by notable dignitaries representing Ballarat, Sey­mour, Shepparton and Wangaratta RSL Sub-branches. Also there were MPs, senior committee members from Legacy Group, religious leaders and military historians. Attendees were privil­eg­ed to hear from Peter from the Israel Travel Centre. He recounted the miraculous and audacious Charge of Beersheba to commemorate the Charge. Then there was a dis­cussion on ways that the miraculous ANZAC legacy can be kept alive.

When my very fit son passed away at his gym class in April 2024 aged 51, it was a painful loss and a terrible shock. He was buried amongst the beautiful gum trees in Yarkon Cemetery Tel Aviv, a place where his heartbroken son can say mourner's Kaddish.

Titanic memorabilia

Noted businessman John Jacob Astor (1864-1912), who made his for­t­une in the fur trade, was 47 when the Titanic sank in April 1912. Acc­or­d­ing to survivor accounts, Astor didn’t believe the ship was in any kind of immed­iate danger. He helped his young wife Mad­eleine (1893-1940) board Lifeboat#4 and was last seen smoking and talk­ing with another passenger. Tragically 1,500+ victims drown­ed. 

John Jacob Astor

14-carat gold Waltham pocket watch

BBC

 

Astor was not only the richest passenger on the Titanic, but was one of the richest in the world, with a net worth of c$87 million. His body was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean 7 days later, with his valuable 14-carat gold Waltham pocket watch engraved with his initials. After its recovery, the watch was passed from Astor's son Vincent to the son of his father's ex­ec­utive secretary William Dob­byn. Recently this gold watch was sold at auction by Henry Ald­ridge & Son in Devizes UK for a record £1.175 mill, the highest am­ount ever paid for Titanic memorab­il­ia. 

bandmaster Wallace Hart­ley's violin & case

L.A Times

A violin was also part of Titanic memorabilia. The auct­ion house announced they’d authenticated the inst­rum­ent from an engraving: For Wallace on the occasion of our engagement from Ma­ria. And in the catalogue: As the Tit­anic sank, bandmaster Wallace Hart­ley (1878–1912) and his or­ch­es­tra stay­ed on deck and playing Near­­er My God to Thee. Played by Hart­ley in the ship’s fin­al mom­ents, he placed his violin in a leather case and famous­ly stayed aboard as the ship sank in the icy Northern waters.

Hartley's body and violin case were found by a ship that respond­ed to the disaster. The violin was also sold by Henry Aldridge & Son in the UK and fetched £360,000. The rotten instrument, totally unplay­ab­le, was sold for c3 times more than the suggested. The violin was given to Hartley's fiancé, Maria Robinson. It passed through some other hands before being rediscovered in 2006. The auctioneer said the price was $1.45 mill. But when the auction­eer's fee was added, the price paid by the buyer was $1.6 mill.

A rare menu from the Titanic’s first-class restaurant showed what the most well-to-do passengers ate for dinner on April 11, 1912; it sold for £84,0000 ($103,00) at Henry Aldridge & Son auction house. The dinner menu, which off­ered oysters, beef and mal­lard duck was sold, was decorated with a red White Star Line bur­­gee but the orig­inal gilt lettering is no longer visible. Clear­ly the menu had been subjected to the icy North Atlantic waters, having been re­c­overed in the clothes of one of those drowned. The menu was found in a ph­oto alb­um of  late Canadian amateur historian Len Stephenson.

One night's dinner menu

from the Titanic’s first-class restaurant

BBC

Memorabilia reflected 1] only the importance of the artefacts them­selves and their rarity and 2] they also show the enduring fas­cin­at­ion with the Titanic story. After its recovery, the gold watch was passed from Astor’s son Vincent to the son of his father’s ex­ec­ut­ive secretary William Dobbyn. 112 years later, people were still talking about the ship, passengers and cr­ew. So while the Titanic was effectively a large ship that hit an ice­berg with a tragic loss of life, more importantly there were still at least 2,200 items of memorabilia to tell the stories now.

I agree. All items related to the sinking of the Tit­­­anic should indeed go to the victims’ children or grandchildren. But auct­ioning them off to strangers at any high price destroys potential col­lect­ions of Titanic mem­or­ab­ilia, and doesn’t preserve them. So families who no longer want to main­tain their grand­par­ents’ treas­ures should give them to an off­icial Tit­anic Museum, with a donor’s plaque.

Sited beside the Titanic Slip­ways, the pl­ace where Titanic was des­igned, built and launched, Tit­­anic Belf­ast Museum tells the story of Tit­anic of her de­sign, cons­t­ruct­ion, launch, voyage and catastrophe. The Belfast Museum contains many other orig­inal artef­acts, along with other fascinating items of cultural and historical interest. In the US, Tit­an­ic Mu­seums are located in Branson Missouri and in Pigeon Forge TN. Owned by John Joslyn, the two U.S museums hold a great coll­ection of arte­facts in many galleries.

Titanic Belfast Museum

cabin furniture

NBC News

Medieval saints, pilgrims, souvenirs

In the Christian tradition, journeying was associated with conversion: all pil­g­rim roads potentially led to Damas­cus. All Christians were stained with sin in his life, but individuals’ motives for going on pilgrimage differed from person to person: to seek health care; ful­fil pil­grim­age vows made during crises; do penance for sins; give thanks for blessings received; as a court punishment for a crime; or for pleasure.

Apostle arm reliquary, German, c1190, silver gilt & enamel, 51cm, 

Cleveland Museum Art

The risks were great: infections, rugged climates, pirates and rape. Mus­lim pirates lurk­ed on the sea routes; other nat­ions’ war­s flared up; ocean storms and epid­emics threat­ened; pil­g­rims had to ob­tain food/shelter en route; and leaving one’s affairs at home was risky. Brigands meant pilgrims tr­a­velled in convoy; pro­tect­ion was needed along the roads and safe places for shel­t­er. Where mon­as­t­eries could not accom­m­odate the crowds, large guest halls were set up by the holy orders. Or hostels at the end of every day’s journey. There they would rec­eive beds of straw, food and alms, a chapel, minstrels and story tellers.

So every temptation that could fascinate the med­ieval mind was linked to pilgrim­age. A general in­dulgence was made by Pope Urban II in 1095 to pilgrims to Jerus­alem, and later to all pilgrims. The ceremony for bless­ing departing pil­grims was held in the local parish church; in his hab­it he lay pr­ostrate before the altar. Each pil­grim re­c­eived a staff and leather satch­el, and wore a grey tun­ic, scarf and large broad-rimmed hat. A red cross was sewn on his garment.

The natural world was seen by medievals as a chaos in which the perp­et­ual int­er­vent­ion of God was the only guiding law; the only rem­edies were prayer and the performance of pious acts. The sexually unchaste were shown as deformed, dis­torted human be­ings. Detailed de­sc­rip­tions of Hell, in­vol­ving fire, brimstone and venomous worms, were on the west fronts of Bour­g­es, Con­ques, Lourdes and Rocamadour. Ex­cep­t for the upper mobil­ity, clergy and wealthy merch­ants, the vast maj­ority could not read. So the church chose sculptural themes that were most likely to capture citizens’ att­ent­ion, elicit their em­otions and improve their morals.

The greatest relics were those associated with Christ, especially once the holy cross was ex­cav­ated in Jerusalem. Relics of the Passion were sent westwards, the crown of thorns going to St Louis of France in Ste Chapelle 1239.

In French pil­gr­images to the Virgin were the pr­inc­i­p­al means by which de­v­otion of uneduc­ated people was ex­press­ed. Virgin statues were placed on al­t­ars, carv­ed images, on shrines, column cap­itals and walls. Relics included: her empty tomb out­side Jer­us­alem; her cloak in the church of Const­an­t­in­­op­le; and her silk tunic in Chartres’ crypt.

If chur­ch­­es could not have relics from Christ or the Virgin, oth­er holy people were next best eg the head of St John the Baptist was preserv­ed at St Hilaire in Poitiers. This cult of saints led to an unpreced­ented demand for relics, given that relics were nec­essary for the consecration of chu­rch­es. There was a great demand for saints’ literature. Saints’ lives were read in the les­s­ons on their feast days; stories were repeated in sermons; and the themes were often ill­ustrated in wall art or stained glass. Teaching the lives and mir­acles of the saints greatly simplified doctrinal issues and encouraged un­educated people with the faith.

The relics were not venerated in them­selves; they were a link to holy martyrs whose lives were a model to humanity. So the more beautiful, the better. Soon precious re­l­iquar­ies were be­ing created to honour those divine persons to whom the relics had once belonged. Where possible, reliquaries were shaped as the cont­ents had app­eared in life.

Reliquary bust, Auvergne, c1160, copper-gilt, ivory & horn, 73cm, 

Mairie de Saint-Nectaire

Medieval people were vul­nera­ble to illness. Phys­ical dis­ease had to have spir­itual causes, brought on by sin; in­fect­ion was the phys­ical tran­s­fer of devils; and barren­ness was a sign of God’s displeasure. The clergy upheld the invocat­ion of the saints as the ONLY sure remedy for sick­ness. Epidemics led to mass pil­grimage to each of the Blessed Virgin’s sanctu­aries. When sick pil­grims came for the Virgin’s inter­vention, they were nur­sed in the crypt hos­pit­al. They slept IN the cath­edral: the nave was sloped for easy sluic­­ing. On saints' feast days, crowds of the sick fil­led the great basilicas. ­[The medical prof­ession did not inspire as much con­fid­ence as the inter­cession of St Thomas or St James]. Many of the great healing shrines cul­tiv­ated their own med­ical special­ities, and the cures were advertised in the saints’ books.

By the late C12th, four shrines vied with Rome & Jerus­alem in import­ance: Compos­tela, Cant­er­bury (imm­ed­ia­t­ely following the 1170 martyrdom of St Thomas Beck­et), Col­ogne and Chartres. Com­post­ela’s popularity reached its peak in the mid C12th, with c500,000 pil­g­rims a year. The best prot­ec­t­­ion for pilgrims in those decades was provided by military monkish orders.

Pilgrimage provided a wealth of memorable experiences: new friends, tourism in new lands, soar­ing gothic spires, physical pains, dazzling shrines and reliquaries, and ultimate relief at the end. Without photos, medieval pilgrim souvenir badges were the best and most evocat­ive memories available to returning pilgrims.

The badges were made to boost revenues at pilgrim sites and to limit damage to shrines that were nicked. Cheap lead alloys allowed thin casting and detailed low-relief imagery, allowing for the production of delicate, silver-bright objects, affordable for the majority of medieval pilgrims.

 St Thomas Becket badge, Canterbury

St Michael's Pilgrim brass badge

England 15th century

Between the C12th and the C16ths they were sold in their thous­ands at famous sites, as well more local sites. Smart badge makers would try and re­f­lect the relics relevant to each pilgrimage sites.

The souvenirs were bought for different reasons. 1] For religiously focused pilgrims, badges could serve an important devotional purp­ose. 2] Medieval artefacts were sparkling, colourful objects, att­ractive to wear. 3] They advertised the particular shrine that had been most important to that group of pilgrims. 4] They could protect the health of the pilgrims on the long trip home. And 5] for the rest of their lives, the souvenirs would remind the pilgrim of the best time in his entire life. Family and friends would be in awe of the one person in the village who had fulfilled his dream.

Most major pilgrim­age sites had at least one easily recognisable image that could be reprod­uced on a badge. Santiago de Compostela badges were shell-shaped; Amiens’ was John the Bap­tist's head on a plate; St Albans’ showed the saint's martyr­dom. The badge of Thomas Becket at Canterbury was his jewel-encrusted reliquary that housed a holy skull fragment.