The Bridge of Spies

Have you seen "The Bridge of Spies" ?

Glienicker Brücke, today

I visited the bridge last weekend, as a tourist, in bleak grey end-of-January-weather. During the Cold War spies were exchanged here: in 1962 the Soviet spy Rudolf Abel in exchange for the US fighter pilot Gary Powers. This is the topic of the latest, immensely fascinating film directed by Steven Spielberg with Tom Hanks, one of my favourite actors, acting the lawyer who represented the spy and organized the exchange. The film has been nominated for six Oscars. It was filmed in the famous Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam; one of the nominations is for the production design. To recreate the original scenes and atmosphere, the studio's craftspeople even produced their own barbed wire to make it authentic...

in Filmpark Babelsberg

This is the view from the bridge across the Wannsee towards several old and disfunctional castles of the bygone era of Prussian kings. The area has been peacefully neglected over the past 70 years and is still in need of repair.

As it was an especially nasty and grey cold winter day, the rendering in Black&White seemed appropriate.  

Schloss Babelsberg in its large parkland area. 

Babelsberg studios are actually quite close to the original location of the exchange. 

out-buildings

 Another building with a gruesome history is the House of the Wannsee Conference, close-by. Nowadays it holds a museum with a chilling documentation of the path leading down towards the Holocaust and an extensive collection of written artifacts. 

the House of the Wannsee-Conference

Wannsee in winter