Written by Jordan
While Berlin has been Katie and I's least favorite city, reviewing our journey, we decided that so far we learned more in Berlin than anywhere else. While there, we went on a walking tour where we visited the Reichstag, old Nazi buildings that were turned into German government buildings, the Holocaust Memorial, the bunker that Hitler stayed in during his final days, the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall, and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. We also got to speak to a man who lived in East Berlin. Although we studied these places and the events that transpired there, we weren't prepared for the emotions we would experience while walking through the city.
We started at the Reichstag, the government building where the chancellor works. It's interesting to think about how Angela Merkel and Hitler held the same position and made us think about the implication of power and the importance of circumstance. Both were elected in a perfectly normal way and rose through the ranks to get to their position. During Hitler's rise, Germany was in shambles after WWI. People were incredibly poor and following a strong, passionate, articulate leader made Germans feel united for a purpose. Hitler also gave the Germans a scapegoat. Germans were never the problem; the Jews came in and ruined them. Such strong sentiments along with a leader who had a real plan to get Germany out of its desperate state resulted in the saddest event in German history. Merkel came into her position in a much more stable Germany. Obviously Merkel and Hitler had different intentions, but they do have equal power, and Merkel arguably has more because Germany's economy is stronger now which demonstrates the delicate nature of politics.
The Berlin Wall was deeply moving. It's hard to describe, but I can say that learning about it for so many years couldn't have prepared me for experiencing it. The Berlin Wall crept up on us and I don't think it's possible for us to really know how scary it was not so long ago. The lines of where the wall was were denoted all over the city with two lines of bricks, and real sections of the wall were displayed in different sections of the city. We expected it to be much larger, much more menacing, but learned that the terrifying part were the dogs that ran up and down the wall, attacking anyone who tried to escape, and the guards who would surely shoot you down if they saw you running. We spoke with a man who had really lived through this. Peter Keup was born in West Berlin to a communist father who moved his family to East Berlin when the communists took over. Peter grew up in East Berlin and told us about how he really believed all of the propaganda and until he had contact with his family still in West Berlin, he didn't really know anything was wrong. He made his opinions known at 18 and was seen as an enemy of the state, so he was given a job out of the public eye so he wouldn't influence anyone else. He tried to escape from Hungary to Austria, but he was caught and was placed in a political prison for ten months until West Germany paid for his release. He spoke about how he is still haunted by the communists to this day. He works in East Germany, but won't buy a house close to his work because he fears that one day he will wake up and the wall will be back up, and he would never want to be on the wrong side again.
Moving on to a different point in history, but just as overwhelming of a day, the Holocaust Memorial was in the middle of downtown and was lines and lines of black, coffin-looking stones. The ground was uneven and the stones were just kind of scattered, and were all different shapes and sizes. When we asked what it was supposed to convey, the tour guide surprised us by saying that the architect left it up to the viewer because the Holocaust was a different experience for everyone and he didn't want to tell people how they should feel about it.
Hitler's bunker, where he lived during his final days, is an interesting comparison to Winston Churchill's war rooms. Both had been bombed so badly that they were forced to take their war operations underground. The treatment of the two places says a lot about how history is written by the winner. Hitler's bunker was closed off and not clearly marked. Many people have tried to destroy it, fill it in and flood it, and now it sits below the parking lot of an apartment building. Churchill's war rooms are now a perfectly preserved museum, where the triumph and valor of Churchill and the British people are celebrated and commemorated. It left me thinking that if Hitler would have won the war, would we all be here, speaking German, and talking about the evils of that Churchill and how the Fuehrer vanquished the British and the Americans?
While Berlin has been Katie and I's least favorite city, reviewing our journey, we decided that so far we learned more in Berlin than anywhere else. While there, we went on a walking tour where we visited the Reichstag, old Nazi buildings that were turned into German government buildings, the Holocaust Memorial, the bunker that Hitler stayed in during his final days, the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall, and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. We also got to speak to a man who lived in East Berlin. Although we studied these places and the events that transpired there, we weren't prepared for the emotions we would experience while walking through the city.
We started at the Reichstag, the government building where the chancellor works. It's interesting to think about how Angela Merkel and Hitler held the same position and made us think about the implication of power and the importance of circumstance. Both were elected in a perfectly normal way and rose through the ranks to get to their position. During Hitler's rise, Germany was in shambles after WWI. People were incredibly poor and following a strong, passionate, articulate leader made Germans feel united for a purpose. Hitler also gave the Germans a scapegoat. Germans were never the problem; the Jews came in and ruined them. Such strong sentiments along with a leader who had a real plan to get Germany out of its desperate state resulted in the saddest event in German history. Merkel came into her position in a much more stable Germany. Obviously Merkel and Hitler had different intentions, but they do have equal power, and Merkel arguably has more because Germany's economy is stronger now which demonstrates the delicate nature of politics.
The Berlin Wall was deeply moving. It's hard to describe, but I can say that learning about it for so many years couldn't have prepared me for experiencing it. The Berlin Wall crept up on us and I don't think it's possible for us to really know how scary it was not so long ago. The lines of where the wall was were denoted all over the city with two lines of bricks, and real sections of the wall were displayed in different sections of the city. We expected it to be much larger, much more menacing, but learned that the terrifying part were the dogs that ran up and down the wall, attacking anyone who tried to escape, and the guards who would surely shoot you down if they saw you running. We spoke with a man who had really lived through this. Peter Keup was born in West Berlin to a communist father who moved his family to East Berlin when the communists took over. Peter grew up in East Berlin and told us about how he really believed all of the propaganda and until he had contact with his family still in West Berlin, he didn't really know anything was wrong. He made his opinions known at 18 and was seen as an enemy of the state, so he was given a job out of the public eye so he wouldn't influence anyone else. He tried to escape from Hungary to Austria, but he was caught and was placed in a political prison for ten months until West Germany paid for his release. He spoke about how he is still haunted by the communists to this day. He works in East Germany, but won't buy a house close to his work because he fears that one day he will wake up and the wall will be back up, and he would never want to be on the wrong side again.
Moving on to a different point in history, but just as overwhelming of a day, the Holocaust Memorial was in the middle of downtown and was lines and lines of black, coffin-looking stones. The ground was uneven and the stones were just kind of scattered, and were all different shapes and sizes. When we asked what it was supposed to convey, the tour guide surprised us by saying that the architect left it up to the viewer because the Holocaust was a different experience for everyone and he didn't want to tell people how they should feel about it.
Hitler's bunker, where he lived during his final days, is an interesting comparison to Winston Churchill's war rooms. Both had been bombed so badly that they were forced to take their war operations underground. The treatment of the two places says a lot about how history is written by the winner. Hitler's bunker was closed off and not clearly marked. Many people have tried to destroy it, fill it in and flood it, and now it sits below the parking lot of an apartment building. Churchill's war rooms are now a perfectly preserved museum, where the triumph and valor of Churchill and the British people are celebrated and commemorated. It left me thinking that if Hitler would have won the war, would we all be here, speaking German, and talking about the evils of that Churchill and how the Fuehrer vanquished the British and the Americans?