“The history of our time is written in the life of Berlin.”

Somewhat frightening that I don’t think I could have said it better myself.

Today in class we had a discussion on what we’d done for the weekend and a discussion popped up on the relevance of The Wall and whether it will matter or not in 200 years. This class is actually an interesting group in that we range in age from 19-37. We have very different perspectives on world history, and two of the younger ones had no real memory of the Wall. I feel strongly that it will matter because the value in a united Europe via the EU (whether we’re talking about those currently in the Schengen area, the 27 current members or how the EU continues to evolve doesn’t matter) is lost if one doesn’t know/remember the fact that less than 20 years ago, freedom to travel was severely restricted.

While I know that history and time change people’s memories, I can’t imagine the legacy of communism fading. It already is though, one example being people’s reactions to Goodbye Lenin! I think you really have to remember a divided Berlin in order to ‘get’ the movie. I’m a history geek, I ‘get’ it (or suppose I would if I’d seen the movie), but I know not everyone sees things the same way. As a part of the class discussion we were talking about preservation v. moving on in the context of The Wall, 9/11 and even the Oklahoma City Bombing. That’s a subject for another post or five though.

Daniel Coats, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany hit on a lot of what I’ve been thinking since I first saw the Wall from the bus on Saturday afternoon:

That is why the lessons of the past are still so vitally important for our future and the future of our children. The Wall, the most prominent symbol of the Cold War and the division of Germany and Europe, has been torn down but it cannot be relegated to the past.

As a newcomer to Berlin, I myself often wonder where the Wall was exactly. Today it is hard to imagine the course of that gray concrete barrier and strip of barren no man’s land that once snaked its way 23 miles through the streets of one of Europe’s proudest cities.

When I was first at Brandenburg Gate, I completely missed the cobblestone path that marks the former path of the wall. It’s more visible on the steps to the Spree, but I wouldn’t say it’s hard to miss. As you draw closer to the Spree, it’s even marked with something I see as similar to a tombstone:

Here lies The Wall? But is it buried? Should it be?

It’s impossible to judge, as an outsider, what people should do with their own city. This is true especially since the people of Berlin had no say in it in the first place: their fate was controlled by the governing powers who ruled the city. In a sense, Berlin and Germany had lost their sovereignty following the defeat in WW II.

Pieces of the wall are still being removed, even officially. Yet the government felt that it had to be done as a “secretly engineered operation”, certainly that wouldn’t be the case if it were done with everyone’s best interests in mind. Even if it was something that was a governmental decision with no input from the public, it needn’t be done in secret. I don’t think anyone is claiming that the Wall needs to remain in its entirety, but I think the sections that have remained for 17 years should continue to serve as an education for locals and visitors.

Another area where this rears its head is in the context of ostalgia, which is a very real feeling among some people in Germany. Ampelmannchen are probably the most visible sign of Ostalgia, right down to a shop dedicated to them in Hackeschen Hofe. The author goes into much further detail about Ostalgia and its role in Berlin today but what struck me was the correlation to the author’s thoughts in Cafe Europa. In Cafe Europa she was speaking of the election of communist leaders in Romania and Serbia following the fall of Communism and the fact that it was what people knew, what they felt safe with. While traffic signals aren’t the same as a political leader, I think the roots are similar. People in East Germany grew up with the traffic signals. They lost so much in the political turmoil of the 80s and 90s that they wanted to cling to something familiar. At least that was how I understood it.

At the same time, I don’t think I can ever understand it. This was something else that Ute and I touched on. As someone born in America, I have no direct experience with communism. I read about it, I studied it, but it was always something that existed ‘over there’. It wasn’t a part of my world. While we were walking, Ute mentioned a discussion at university where she mentioned the falling of the Wall didn’t change her world drastically – the next day, for her in West Germany, nothing had changed in her day to day life. That struck me because learning about it, I’d always imagined the fall of the Wall was huge for Germans. I think I got a lot more out of Berlin visiting it with a German than I would have doing it alone, so thank you for that, Ute. Plus it was just great to see you again

On a lighter note, there was someone with the t-shirt that read “US Leaders on Berlin” – it included Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”, Bush Sr.’s “Hundreds of Berliners from East and West, standing atop the Wall, with chisels and hammers” and of course JFK’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” whether or not he actually called himself a doughnut. I so wish I’d gotten a photo.

156 photos taken, 19 posted.

This weekend’s trip to Berlin is one that’s going to stick with me for some time to come. I really felt like I was walking through history, albeit a mostly unknown history.

Friday night I was up in our lounge where I found a copy of an old edition of Time Out Berlin. I took it with me and although I didn’t read much of it – I’d gone to bed at 2 AM and the insides of my eyelids were pretty – it was an interesting overview of the city and its history. As I explained to Ute when we met up, the German history that’s taught in US schools consists of 20th century “Germany is evil”, so I had very little idea of what else Berlin and Germany was about.

But backtracking a bit… Train left Praha Hlavni Nadrazi at 8:15. First thoughts: yes! Deutsche Bahn train! Although Ute has explained to be that there can be lesser quality Deutsche Bahn trains, as a whole they’re a better quality than those operated by Ceske Drahy (aka Czech Railways). I’m pathetically excited that it looks like next Saturday’s train is Deutsche Bahn too I stayed awake long enough for the ticket checkers to come through, was woken at the border(s) and then basically slept the rest of the way to Berlin. I woke long enough to peer sleepily at Dresden, a city I’d never have heard of if not for Billy Pilgrim.

Berlin Hauptbahnhof reminded me a lot of Kyoto Station or Kansai Airport. Oddly futuristic in its construction but still visually appealing. I found it a bit difficult to navigate, not because of the language but rather its sheer size and signs that don’t differentiate between train and tourist information points. I finally found the Berlin Info store I was looking for and got the city circle tour tickets.

I’ve been fairly grumbly about tours in class-I *hate* guided tours-but these are different. I like the hop on/off because it gives an overview and then I can hop off and see what I want without someone in my ear telling me what I should be seeing and not let me think. I had a laugh with this tape recording. At one point it was talking about the ‘recent reunification’ and I thought ‘well, Berlin is 750+ years old so 1990 is quite recent in those terms’ until they talked about the parliament ‘someday’ moving back to Berlin. Nope, the tape for the English tour is just _that_ old. I laughed and then enjoyed the sights.

I got off at Checkpoint Charlie because I was so curious about it. There is the famous sign as well but the area itself doesn’t really have a historical feel. I think that’s partially due to changes like this and to a lesser degree, this. It’s not that I expect a city never to change and to stay frozen in time, but I think it should retain some of the feel as to (part of) why it’s famous. The museum was a lot better, but I didn’t do that until Sunday so more on that later. I did enjoy the ‘wall’ exhibit on the street, but felt that I couldn’t imagine this touristy area being the site of Soviet/American standoff and I am (barely) old enough to remember The Wall.

After that it was back on the bus to Brandenburger Tor aka the Brandenburg Gate. [NOTE: I realized that I forgot to mention I was using Ute's two posts from her March trip to Berlin as a sort of 'tour guide' as they were part of the reason why I wanted to go to Berlin]. The gate is what I’d consider to be one of the symbols of the city-made amusing by the fact that I couldn’t recognise it on the back of the Euro at dinner, but that’s another story o:). I didn’t have a lot of time there as I needed to get back to the station to meet Ute, and I wasn’t entirely sure how to get there.

I made it, and because I had some time to kill before our 6pm meeting, I stopped to look at some of the Sandsation Sculptures. They were nothing short of amazing, but I fear for their longevity in the next six weeks. I’d no sooner arrived at our meetig point when I heard a voice behind me ‘Welcome to Berlin’. It was so good to see Ute again nearly one year after one of our last get-togethers. (Note to self, must find that shirt-I loved it). We walked along the Spree to dinner at a restaurant where Ute had eaten before. Lots of interesting signs and history inside. I was brave, I had a sausage curry which was quite good.

After dinner we walked back toward the station along the river stopping to take this photo. It kind of goes along with my earlier sentiments, I can’t picture the wall there but I was standing in East and West Berlin. The Reichstag is behind me and because it was so nice out and the line was <30 min, we decided to go up. We did go all the way up the dome, but this photo, from the lower level, is one of my favourites. I also love how the flag is framed. The view from the top was beautiful and it gave me a good vanage point of the city I’d seen from ground level. I think history started to hit me here, German history usually started at school with the burning of the Reichstag so it was an odd feeling to be standing atop it. It was also refreshingly easy to access, with only a metal detector at the entrance.

After the Reichstag, it was time for two very tired people to go back to Ute’s apartment…

The next morning it was off to the Museum at Checkpoint Charlie. I learned so much from the Museum that I’m not sure where to start. I assumed that the museum’s origins would be in 1990 but rather they went back ~30 years to 1962 when it was started by Rainer Hildebrandt. I think the Wall and my thoughts on Berlin are going to be another post, they require too much processing. This museum really made me stop and think, there is so much more to the Wall than what we learn in history. And yes, Ute and I had a giggle when we ran into the obligatory loud (American) tour guide. I felt better when Ute said Germans abroad are just as bad, but this woman was LOUD.

From the Museum, it was off to the East Side Gallery, which I hadn’t heard of before the last month. The photo above is one of the paintings from the Wall and it’s wonderful to see the Wall serving a new function and educating new generations. It’s sad that it’s being defaced, and I wonder if the graffiti is part of the reason we missed the famed Brezhnev-Honecker kiss, since it has clearly deteriorated. As I mentioned abov, it’s hard to picture the wall near Brandenburg Gate, but I also didn’t realize part of it was still standing. I think it needs to remain. I don’t think visitors can understand Berlin without the Wall.

By this point, our feet were hungry and our stomachs tired. Or something like that Ute knew of a place that sold spaghetti ice cream, and I was intrigued. It was delicious! The cafe’s menu offered “Vitamin Spaghetti” and this was a vitamin I’d like to have more often. We still have ~3 hours before my train so we went to Hackesche Hofe where I was able to get a great photo of Berlin’s walk signals and some more understanding of the Ampelmannchen issue, which Ute had mentioned as a great idea for a blog post. It (and other Ostalgia mentions) actually made me think of some of the ideas put forward in Cafe Europa, but I think I need to stew on that for a bit longer.

We still had some time before the train and decided to go to see the Berliner Dom. I’ve seen a fair few churches this week, but this one was absolutely gorgeous. It was something to sit in the pews and think about the damage that the Cathedral sustained in WWII. To imagine sitting there then. We walked around and, in one of the small chapels, I lit a candle. Happy Father’s Day, Dad. Hit with a burst of inspiration (or insanity!) we decided to climb the 250+ stairs to the top of the dome and were rewarded with a gorgeous view over the city. It was a great last thing to do before heading back to the station and eventually, to Prague….

More on Berlin when I’ve ‘digested’ it more. In the mean time, here is Ute’s post on Day 1.