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Published: July 28th 2013
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Confronting the "Third Reich"'s atrocities has to be the highest and most confronting level. The next is the Wall and the GDR's attempts to subvert its citizens by means of "dirty" surveillance methods, pitching person against person by the use of "unofficial Informants" and of course, some citizens of the GDR trying to escape to the West and in the process forfeiting their lives.
Terrible visuals and explanatory text of the horrific Nazi rule are contained all over the city in memorials, museums and special exhibits. This year the German History Museum has set up various exhibits around the city entitled "Diversity Destroyed". One of these exhibits consists of a series of large information pillars upon which are large photos and biographies commemorating the lives of over 200 individuals who contributed to the cultural and social diversity of the early 1930's Berlin society. These people's lives were destroyed by the Nazi regime - some killed in concentration camps, some by suicide, some through having to emigrate.
There are also, of course, the permanent exhibitions! All excellently displayed exhibitions and some housed in purposefully designed buildings like the Jewish Museum designed by Daniel Libeskind. It is an astonishing zig-zag-shape and
7 days of walking
Greg and I walked the neighborhoods of Berlin - we traced our walking on this map. We didn't catch any public transport. the design is how the designer interprets the German Jew's path through history. The Museum chronicles the trials and triumphs in 2000 years of Jewish history in Germany. There is also the amazing German History Museum - we spent 4 or 5 hours here. I recalled studying Bismark and reunification of Germany in Modern History many moons ago! The displays were arranged so logically and the English text under the German was so informative - just loved it. The top floor was devoted to German history up until end of fist World War. Floor below from end of WW1 to today. The Topography of Terrors and documentation centre, on the site of of the SS and Gestapo command centres, plunged us deeper into the atrocities carried out by the SS and the police during the Third Reich as well as the crimes they committed across Europe. The final and most confronting exhibit was in the Information Centre attached to the Holocaust Memorial which contained personal histories and photos of persecuted Jewish families and hand written notes.
Then, of course, there is the Cold War and the Wall, evidence of which is displayed around the city. The East Side Gallery
is a 1.3 kilometre long (the longest surviving section) stretch of wall which is an art canvas containing over 100 murals painted on the East side from artists from many different countries. Some of the murals carry a political message, some a memorial to victims of the Berlin Wall. Unfortunately many have been vandalized or eroded. Check Point Charlie is a bit of a joke with a couple of blokes dressed in US Army uniform holding "guns". Tourists stand next to them having a photo taken. The MacDonalds store next to the old checkpoint is inevitably going to appear in every photo! We hurried past this and headed for the Stasi Museum where we were confronted with some amazing Stasi statistics. In 1990 there were 189,000 "unofficial Informants" listed - 1 for every 90 people! These "unofficial Informants" were the Stasi's key weapon of subversion. Some other stats - 111 shelf kilometres of documents, 1.8 million photos, film negatives and slides and 30,000 film, video and audio recordings.
We also visited the DDR Museum where the exhibits were supposed to give us an idea of what life in the GDR was like. Chronic shortages of consumer goods. In many
"Diversity Destroyed" exhibit
Large pillars displaying large photos and biographies of vibrantly diverse and talented native Berliners whose lives were destroyed by the Nazi regime. Berliner Dom in background.
cases careers were decided for you according to where there were shortages of labour, travel was limited to within the country and the little "luxuries" that were available took years to be able to afford - like the Trabi, the GDR's answer to the VW beetle (people's car). But this one had a 2-stroke engine, like a motor mower! Even so, it meant many years of saving to afford one of these little beauties! There was enough work for all and housing, albeit very plain and small.
Between visits to all these confronting exhibits and memorials. Greg and I walked and walked around the very distinctive neighborhoods of Berlin. We explored the ever present Berlin with it's wonderful street art and saw some amazing new architecture, especially around the Potsdamer Platz, Berlin's newest quarter, born in the 90s from terrain which was bisected by the Wall. We saw evidence of a Berlin acknowledging its past but being proud of its present and future. There are so many huge building projects all over the city and plans for even more museums. There are already 175 of them and 600 galleries! There is only so much you can do in 7
East Side Gallery
On East side with famous Brezhnev - Honecker kiss days. Yes, Berlin has had a dark past but now there is a spirit of tolerance and experimentation and creativity.
ps don't expect lots of fountains and flowers - the gardens are somewhat unkempt but Berlin has a lot of other things going for it!!
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