Category Archives: History

History, Photos, Themes

Theme: The War

The War is ever-present here, which should come as no surprise to most people. From monuments to memorials to concentration camps to bullet holes in the walls, the scars of battle, death, and tyranny are everywhere. One of the most moving symbols of the war are the “Stolpersteine”, or “stumbling stones”. They are small brass plates placed in the sidewalks among the cobblestones in front of houses and buildings with the names of Jewish people who had lived there before before being murdered by the Nazis.

They are everywhere.

Once you start to notice them, the magnitude of the Holocaust begins to come into focus. Entire families. Everywhere you walk. Where you buy your groceries. At the pharmacy on the corner. At the tram stop. Everywhere.

However, one of the saddest things I have seen is a photo of a dead German soldier, laying in the street during the Battle of Berlin.

A German soldier lies dead in the street as troops rush forward. Taken from The Daily Mail, copyright Getty Images.
A German soldier lies dead in the street as troops rush forward. Taken from The Daily Mail, copyright Getty Images.

Being here during the 71st anniversary of the turning point of the war has been an exercise in empathy. Perhaps because while I had considered the millions of Jews, Russians, Roma, LGBT, and other groups murdered by the Nazis, I hadn’t really though of the German people as victims before. Understanding that we have turned “German” in to “Nazi” and “Nazi” into “disposable fictional enemy” has made me understand better how easily we marginalize people we know nothing about. Learning about the people who opposed the Nazis and paid for it with their lives was eye opening. I suppose I knew on some level this was the case, but when you realize that the entire nation paid for the deeds of a powerful few, it breaks your heart. With everything going on in America right now you get a sense of the helplessness and rage so many Germans must have felt as the monsters took over their homeland.

I look at that dead young man and I don’t see a Nazi. I see a boy who, at this point in the war, was in all likelihood conscripted into serving on the threat of death. And now he’s gone, giving his life in a lost cause to feed the horrible dreams of a megalomaniacal  fascist state. Making anyone a caricature makes it easy to dehumanize them, easy to kill them, and easy to lose your own humanity in the process.

Berlin, History, Photos, Themes

Theme: Ostalgie

“Ostalgie” is a term used to describe a nostalgic longing for the East German state and all of its trappings. Contrary to popular belief, while most East Germans were grateful to be intergrated into the West, it hasn’t been a smooth process and the struggle continues today. Former East Germans often feel that their culture and traditions were obliterated in favor of the capitalist West. Also, the East German states continue to be on average poorer and less prosperous than their Western counterparts. Symbols of the East are everywhere, from Trabant rental services to the growing presence of “Ampelmann”, the ubiquitous crosswalk guardian here in Berlin with his origins in the East.

Ampelmann, Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. AMPELMANN GmbH
Ampelmann, Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. AMPELMANN GmbH

As a child of the Cold War whose uncle was stationed in West Berlin for the better part of the late 70s-early 80s, I am intrigued by the fact that I am living in East Berlin. Our U-Bahn stop, Rosenthaler Platz, was a “ghost station”, where trains from the West would pass through but were unable to stop. The Wall is everywhere, and the meandering path was confusing for me until I remembered that West Berlin was a literal island. The prevalence of Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants in our neighborhood seems out of place, until I remember that these were allied nations with East German communist state. From the Soviet Brutalist architecture to the remnants of The Wall and the towering Fernsehturm, it has been exciting to finally be here and see the Forbidden City with my own eyes.

Art, Berlin, History, Photos

Gallery: Alter Garnisonsfriedhof, Berlin (Old Garrison Cemetery)

My flatmate, Elliott, and I went to have Vietnamese food, which sounds strange for Berlin, but because we are in the former East Berlin there are dozens of Vietnamese restaurants that have been here since the 60s. On the way back, we found this small cemetery around the corner from our apartment on Kleine Rosenthaler Straße. It was our first cemetery here, and was a good introduction to the beauty and natural serenity of the German model for a final resting place. Cemeteries are everywhere and are treated like parks and greenspace by they community. People picnic in them, have lunch, meet with friends, take walks, even go there on dates. The cemeteries are always filled with people tending the graves and planting flowers.

Berlin, History, Photos

Gallery: Nikolaiviertel

Nikolaiviertel (“Nicholas Quarter”) is the oldest part of Berlin, dating back to 1200. Like everything in the city, what we are seeing is not the original neighborhood, but a post-war reconstruction.

Berlin, History, Photos, Urban Nature

Gallery: Tiergarten