Bronze Statues of Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Bradley Manning unveiled in Berlin--Powerful!

[Divernan]

12. Love Berlin -on the cutting edge socially, politically & culturally, as ever.

- which is why Hitler hated it and had plans to rebuild it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welthauptstadt Germania. This sculpture is a perfect example of public art, or what public art should be. It invites people to take part in the discussion about freedom of speech and the incredible courage of these three men in exposing the lies and crimes of governments.

I highly recommend starting out a visit to Berlin with taking one of the boat/canal tours of the city - Berlin has such a rich and dramatic history - the tour takes you through modern and old parts of the area - orients you to the geography and throws in lots of history. My daughters stayed in Berlin to see some World Cup games, and the canal boat tour was their number one tour recommendation. My concierge provided me with directions to a boarding spot just a few blocks from my hotel. My tour had an English language tape, which was invaluable. I was particularly moved and got a chill down my spine when the canal boat passed under one of the bridges on the Landwehr Canal and the tape noted that this was the bridge from which Rosa Luxemburg's body was thrown by the Freikorps (who eventually became the Brown Shirts) after they shot her on January 15, 1919. She was an extremely courageous woman & leading labor union organizer. She is revered in Berlin - one of the stops on the U-Bahn is "Bahnhof Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz."