Three glimpses of a century

The Mark, as some still call it, is a traditionally poorer, lightly populated area bordering on Poland. Once part of Prussia, it belonged to East Germany until 1990. Many of its most interesting destinations have yet to be discovered by American tourists. Some are obviously tragic, like the concentration camp memorials at Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrueck. But this being Germany, even those that seem innocent tend in some way to reflect the complicated history of the 20th century.

The Hedwig Bollhagen Ceramics Studio

In a particularly turbulent century, Hedwig Bollhagen's life and work offer an unusual example of continuity. Bollhagen, a top ceramicist, was an East German treasure. From 1934 until her death in 2001 at age 93, she was the artistic spirit behind a ceramics studio in the village of Marwitz, right outside Berlin. Bollhagen tableware, with its unmistakable, brightly colored geometric patterns and distinctive forms and the HB monogram, figured prominently in many an East German's kitchen, though like anything well made and popular in the East Bloc, it was hard to come by. Unavailable in the West for decades, Bollhagen ceramics have had the chance to develop a wider following in recent years.

Hedwig Bollhagen's work carried on in a small way the creative spirit of the years between the wars that was mostly crushed by the Nazis. Influenced by the Bauhaus and Werkbund movements of the 1920's, when she came of age, Bollhagen believed in affordable, functional ceramic tableware that was also aesthetically pleasing.

"Art?" she once commented wryly on her own work. "Ah yes, some people call it that. I make plates, cups and teapots." She soon gained a nationwide reputation, and her workshop continued to supply an eager public through each 20th-century change of government, surviving the Nazi years; the East German communist regime, which nationalized it in 1972; and then the new unified Germany, where it has been held privately since 1993. Though carefully nonpolitical, during the Nazi period Bollhagen worked with artists labeled degenerate by the regime, and while the East German government praised her colorful and popular work, she faced official criticism when she dared to experiment with "pessimistic" colors like black. HB, as she was known, had no family and to the end was reticent about her private life; her work was her passion, and she remained a strong and beloved presence at the shop right up until her death.

Situated in a picturesque village in a complex of low wood and stone buildings, the Bollhagen studio has changed little over the years. All pieces are handmade and handpainted from Bollhagen's original designs, using a variety of techniques. Once a month, staff members lead tours of the studio. On a recent visit, several groups wandered the stone-walled rooms examining 1920s-era machines that mix clay and press out air and water. They watched in awe as painters decorated the finished products with tiny, precise brushstrokes, and admired a potter's ability to throw a complete vase in under 10 minutes. Only about 30 people are left of the pre-1989 staff of 90, but they are a well trained and loyal group. Many have worked for HB for 20 years or more; the atmosphere is casual and easygoing, and questions welcome. Visitors may buy examples of Bollhagen work, from popular blue and white striped tea services and engraved green and black jewel boxes to miniature Santa Claus tree decorations painted in typical green and blue polka-dot HB patterns.

Niederfinow Boat Lift

Towering 180 feet above the pastoral landscape of the Oderbruch region of Brandenburg, the boat lift at Niederfinow, northeast of Berlin, is a technological marvel.

The massive steel structure spans the Oder-Havel canal, a major freight artery from Berlin to Szczecin in Poland (formerly Stettin), and acts as a sort of megalock to overcome a 108-foot difference in height between the canal's high and low points. A hugely ambitious project, it is one of only about a dozen lifts of its kind in the world.

When it went into operation in 1934 (the same year Hedwig Bollhagen founded her studio), the boat lift was the largest in existence. It has operated continuously for the past 70 years, except in the winter months. Its very appearance exudes the technological confidence of the early 20th century, as engineers bent the landscape to their will, and successive German dictatorships were only too happy to claim the imposing structure as their own.

Though the Nazis had nothing to do with the lift's construction, its opening coincided conveniently with their accession to power. They trumpeted it as their own achievement, decorating it with an enormous eagle and swastika.

Freight travel on the canal reached an all-time high during the war years, as raw materials and weapons traveled back and forth between the occupied East and the Reich. The lift survived the war unscathed, and the East Germans soon took over its operation.

There's no mention of this history at the site just yet, though technical information abounds. The lift is 282 feet long and can move ships up to 255 feet and 1,300 tons.

Visitors can climb to the top of the lift, which looks out over a lovely panorama of fields and nature preserves. From there they watch as boats rise or descend through the steel latticework of the lift's frame - riding an enormous water-filled trough from one level to the next and pulled by huge metal pulleys with concrete counterweights and cables of steel. The entire process takes 20 minutes, though the actual lifting or lowering is completed in closer to five minutes.

Watching the pulleys whir, the heavy gates clang shut, and boats pull out onto the river above, it's hard not to feel both awed and a bit nervous. The safety record of the lift, though, is all but perfect; the turn-of-the-century engineers did their work well.

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

Somber as they may be as tourist destinations, the concentration camp memorials in Germany vividly commemorate the country's recent past and help explain much about its present. Sachsenhausen, established in 1936, lies 20 miles north of central Berlin in the town of Oranienburg. Intended as the model for other camps, Sachsenhausen also housed the central offices for all Nazi concentration camps. The gates, like those at Auschwitz, announce "Arbeit macht frei." At first a camp primarily for German political opponents of the regime - communists and socialists - Sachsenhausen later also held Jews and others considered "racially inferior." Though it was not officially an extermination camp, some 30,000 inmates died in Sachsenhausen, and thousands of Russian POWs were systematically liquidated there.

Sachsenhausen was a national memorial in East Germany, emphasizing the heroism of the communists while downplaying the camp's other victims. Following the fall of the wall, debate ensued on how to redesign such Communist-era memorials. At Sachsenhausen, this debate was spurred by the discovery in 1990 of mass graves outside the camp. Buried there were those who died between 1945 and 1950, when the Soviets continued to operate Sachsenhausen as a penal camp mainly for German prisoners. While many of those held there were former Nazis, others were arrested for politically opposing the Soviet occupiers or for more arbitrary reasons. An estimated 12,000 inmates died at this "special camp" from starvation and disease. The question of how to commemorate their deaths without detracting from the original horror of Sachsenhausen under the Nazis occupied memorial designers for years. An arson attack by neo-Nazis on the so-called Jewish barracks, which had held an exhibit on Jewish inmates since 1961, added to the urgency of creating a suitable memorial.

A memorial and exhibit now surround the postwar graves and some of the original barracks of the special camp, a short walk from the main camp. Other exhibits scattered throughout the site, most with English translation, illuminate its history from a variety of perspectives. The East German-era museum right outside the camp walls comprehensively traces the events leading up to Sachsenhausen's creation and the development of the site as a memorial after the war. The displays include information about, among many other things, the postwar use of the SS barracks by the East German military and police, and the pilgrimages to the concentration camp site by some East German newlyweds. Also included are details about the negotiations by Sachsenhausen survivors in Israel and East Germany that led the fervently anti-Israeli East German government to acknowledge the suffering of Jewish inmates.

In the two restored Jewish barracks, exhibits focus on Jewish artists, writers and others deported to Sachsenhausen and on the daily lives of camp inmates. Original and restored bunks, washing areas and toilets bring the horror of camp life home with distressing intimacy. Still another exhibit documents the sufferings of Gypsies in the camp. Simply walking across the Appellplatz, the main roll-call area, is itself disturbing at any time of year; the bare, exposed stretch of ground, baking hot in summer and lashed by winds in winter, makes it almost impossible not to think of the thousands who died here. This, perhaps, is why the government brings budding police and army officers to Sachsenhausen, where they learn to understand the meaning of unbridled state tyranny.

Windows onto the 20th-century history of Germany

GETTING THERE

Berlin's excellent transit system makes outlying areas easily accessible. The Berlin S-Bahn, the above-ground city train, is the best way to get to most places outside of Berlin. Destinations are divided into three zones; a ticket from central Berlin to Zone C, the farthest outside the city, costs $3.10 (at $1.20 to the euro) and is good for two hours. Day tickets are $7.20. Bicycles are popular and easy to rent and can be taken on trains with a bicycle ticket, which costs $3.10 for two hours, $7.20 for the day. For bike rentals, www.callabike.de. Berlin also has some inexpensive car rental agencies.

SIGHTSEEING

The Hedwig Bollhagen studio, Hedwig-Bollhagen-Strasse 4, 16727 Oberkrdmer/Marwitz, (49-3304) 39 800; www.hedwig-bollhagen.de, is a pleasant drive from Berlin on the A111 autobahn toward Hamburg. Take the Stolpe/Hennigsdorf-Ost exit and drive toward Velten, or take the S-25 city train from Friedrichstrasse station north to Hennigsdorf, then the No. 651, 811 or 824 bus to the Marwitz Kreuzung, where signs point to the HB-Werkstatt f5/8r Keramik. The workshop store, open Wednesday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., sells seconds at prices ranging from around $12 for a candleholder or egg cup to $120 and up for larger pieces. The workshop offers free tours (currently only in German) on the last Wednesday of each month at 1 p.m.

The Niederfinow boat lift is best reached by car; a road map with alternative routes can be found at www.schiffshebewerk.de/seiten/anreise.asp. Regular trains and buses run to Niederfinow, mainly through the larger nearby city of Eberswalde, but the lift is several miles from the station. It is open daily 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in summer and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in winter (last entry is a half-hour before closing), except when closed for repair, usually January through March. Admission, $1.20. An explanatory brochure in English is $1.20. Several companies offer inexpensive boat tours of the canal that include a trip up and down the lift; regularly scheduled trips are April to October, by request in March and November. Information, (49-33369) 461 or or (49-173) 202 8738 or www .schiffshebewerk.de/seiten/fahrplaene.asp (in German).

To reach Sachsenhausen by car, take the A111 autobahn to the Oranienburg junction, then the A10 toward Prenzlau. Exit at Birkenwerder to the B96 highway to Oranienburg, where signs lead to the memorial. Or take the north-south S-Bahn line (S-1) from Friedrichstrasse station to Oranienburg (about 50 minutes from central Berlin). The camp is a 20-minute walk from the station; the No. 804 bus (toward Malz) runs once an hour to the camp, and taxis are also available. A bookstore inside the gates offers a variety of Holocaust and concentration camp literature and free English language pamphlets. Admission is free and tours in English are available by prior arrangement; recorded tours are also provided. Open daily March 15 to Oct. 14 from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Oct. 15 to March 14 to 4:30 p.m. Museums and bookshop closed Monday; www.gedenkstaette-sachsenhausen.de (in German).