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Excavating Berlin’s HistoryThe story of Berlin is a story of perpetual change because the city is still relatively young and dynamic. Especially the last 150 years have been rather lively: Industrialization and the Wilhelminian period, the First World War, the emergence of Great-Berlin, the golden Twenties, the “Third Reich”, the destruction during the Second World War and post-war reconstruction, the division and reunification of the city, its reinstatement as Germany’s capital…. In spite of war’s extensive destruction there are still many outstanding features that illustrate the many layers of Berlin’s history. Prussia’s glory can still be glimpsed in Schinkel’s sumptuous architecture while strolling along “Unter den Linden”, or crossing the “Gendarmenmarkt” and the “Bebelsplatz” on the way to the Isle of Museums. Places evoking and commemorating the many political and social upheavals can be found everywhere. The “Platz des 18. März”, the “Alexanderplatz”, the “Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz”, the Landwehr canal and many more are visible proof that the “Berliner” cannot be subdued. From the battles on 1848th barricades, the tumultuous years of the Weimar republic, the revolt of June 17th in 1953, the demonstrations of the student movement to the Berlin squatting campaign - Berlin’s population could always be counted on to rebel against authority. In some of the city’s quarters like Kreuzberg, Moabit, and Wedding industrialization and the resulting workers’ oppression and miserable living conditions have left a clear imprint. The whole of Siemensstadt has become a monument to large-scale industry. In others like Prenzlauer Berg, Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf there are still large and virtually untouched areas built during the period of promoterism. Every-day-life under the reign of National Socialism as well as the resistance to it can also be vividly demonstrated at a number of locations. Examples of fascist architecture like the Ministry of Finance, the Tempelhof Airport and the East-West-Axis are witness to a megalomania that led to destruction. The resulting division of the world into eastern and the western power blocks can nowhere be demonstrated so clearly and hauntingly as in Berlin. Memories are still very much alive: of the Cold War, the Zones of Occupation, the Berlin Blockade, the building of The Wall and the resulting co-existence of the “Hauptstadt (capital) der DDR” with SED-dictatorship, oppression, persecution, rehabilitation, state care, the stealthy development of a subculture, the Wall’s death victims and political prisoners in the East and in the West of the Marshall Plan, the Economic Miracle, the island status of West Berlin, the many escapees from military service and the student riots. With all that baggage Berlin has still not completely come to terms with reunification. In Berlin all that can and should be encountered in a very “close to the bone” way. A walk along the former course of The Wall combined with a visit of Stasi-prison Hohenschönhausen and perhaps the chance to talk with victims and time witnesses are some of the possibilities to give even very young people an intensive experience of our most recent history. Or you could discuss and focus on the city’s commemorating culture. There are the central places of remembrance like the Memorial to the German Resistance, Plötzensee and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe but also the smaller memorials that are imbedded in the city’s very structure: on Bebelplatz in remembrance of the book burning, on Levetzowstraße the Deportation Memorial, the Bavarian Quarter and many more. |
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