For those interested in the relationship between Russia and Germany, Berlin offers many venues to explore this connection. Tour company Stadtreisen Berlin (www.StadtReisenBerlin.de) offers a “Stadtspaziergang zum russischen Leben im Berliner Westen,” a walking tour of Russian life in Berlin during the 20s. The tour explores a small slice of the Russian presence in Berlin during the first few years of the 1920s, when several writers and intellectuals immigrated to the city. Nabokov’s old apartment, for instance, is on Ansbacher Strasse 64. However, since most of the buildings referred no longer exist, the tour appeals to the imagination of the viewer.

The Martin-Gropius-Bau (www.gropiusbau.de) prominently features Russia in its exhibits this year. Macht und Freundschaft, Berlin St. Petersburg 1800-1860 (March 13-May 26 2008) focused on the relationship between the families of Prussian King Wilhelm III and Tsar Alexander I, and displays stunning portraits of the two families over the generations. The families initiated an intensive cultural dialogue, which promoted parallel developments in architecture, theater, and music in Berlin and St. Petersburg.

Jewgeni Chaldej – Der bedeutende Augenblick (May 9-May 29 July 2008) featured the photography of Jewgeni Chaldej, a Russian photographer who documented the Russian invasion of Germany after the Second World War. One wall in the exhibit displays multiple copies of Chaldej’s most famous photograph of a Russian solder holding the Soviet flag over a defeated Berlin on May 2, 1945. Most striking, however, is Chaldej’s documentation of the Nuremberg trials. The photograph titled “American prosecutor Jodd with the shrunken head of a Polish worker” is especially shocking in its brutal, blunt portrayal of the atrocities of the Holocaust.