Berlin Tour and German History Museum

Our tour of Berlin was filled with a great deal of interesting history, but before we get into that, let’s talk about probably the single most important thing that ever happened in Berlin right by the Brandenburg Gate: Michael Jackson dangled his son over the balcony of the Hotel Adlon.

Okay, I joke, but seriously folks… don’t take after him on this one. He may have been one heck of a performing artist, musician, and dancer, but he was not always the best when it came to children.

Anyway, I figured we would start with some older history, then WWII history, and finish with the separation and reunification of Germany.

 
Probably the single most recognizable image of Germany is the Brandenburg Gate, but what does it actually represent? I’m glad you asked. Originally, it was the location of the gate into the city. Many cities had walls of defense around them, and this was where you could enter and exit the city.

The sculpture was made in 1796 and originally was the goddess of peace (Eirene). However, in 1806, a young military general from France decided he wanted to conquer Germany (and basically the whole world). That’s right; it was none other than Napoleon Bonaparte. Upon capturing Berlin, he demanded (much like a young child) that the sculpture must be his. He took it back to France and put it in safe keeping under the Louvre where nobody could find it!

Unfortunately for him, the independent states that now make up the German republic decided to join forces to defeat the French and regain their territory (defining what is now known as the German nation). After defeating Napoleon and the Prussian occupation of Paris, the sculpture was taken back, but Eirene was replaced with Victoria, the goddess of victory. She was also given a staff with the Iron Cross (a Prussian symbol of power). The sculpture looks over a square that was renamed Pariser Platz (Paris Square). Thus, the Germans have a literal and figurative victory over Paris.

We skip ahead in our story to WWII. Let me tell you that Hitler was an awful person, but he also gave the world a beloved and wonderful tradition. Some of you are now entirely confused, but it was Adolf Hitler who instituted the first running of the Olympic Torch from Olympia, Greece to Berlin prior to the Berlin Olympic Games of 1936.

Unfortunately after that, he did a lot of really bad stuff. Thus we come to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe located in central Berlin. From the top dome of the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), the memorial can be seen, serving as a reminder of the dangers of an overpowering government.

The memorial has no writing and no official explanation. Architect Peter Eisenman said that he wants people to walk through and experience the monument on their own to come up with their own interpretation. There is a museum with facts and information located at the site to learn more about what this monument represents, but it is a separation of information from the experience.

In attempt to further control and brainwash the citizens of Germany, he outlawed many books that encouraged free thinking and held many book burnings where students would gladly burn these books thinking they were taking "Action against the Un-German spirit". Many books were burned in front of Humboldt University, the home of many great scholars, including Max Planck, Karl Marx, and even Albert Einstein. The commemoration at the site loosely reads, "It is only a prelude that where men burn books, they will also burn people." - Heinrich Heine, 1820, attendee of Humboldt University.

During the war, approximately 71% of the buildings in the city were destroyed beyond repair. Amazingly, one of the remaining buildings (the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus) is the former headquarters of the German Luftwaffe (Air Force), which now houses the Federal Ministry of Finance.

As the war approached the end, Hitler decided that he did not want to face the consequences of his actions or be paraded around as some sort of victory prize by Stalin or be tortured, so he committed suicide. Atop the bunker where he performed this action now stands a children’s playground. If you’re a little confused, you aren’t the only one. I was in total disbelief, but the reasoning seems to make sense. They wanted to make it an insignificant site. They didn’t want anyone coming there to “pay their respects” or even have a reason to visit the location.

Well, Hitler is dead, and Germany is in big trouble. What is going to happen, and who is going to make sure that it will happen? Germany and Berlin were divided evenly between the Western Allies (US, France, and the UK) and the Soviet Union. Each of these countries would play an equal part in the reconstruction of Germany. A process known as “denazification” consumed the country, but in the background, a something bigger was brewing. The Cold War began, and this formerly unified country was separated by the ideals of Communism and Democracy.

Loosely related to the Cold War is Kalter Krieg Eis ("Cold War Ice Cream")

In 1951, the border between East and West Germany were closed off. However, people in Berlin would still travel between the two divisions of Berlin for work almost every day with no problems. That is until the East German government and the Soviets noticed many people were applying for asylum in West Berlin and flying to the main territory to avoid any issues.

Knowing that the construction of a physical wall would cause great alarm and many would flee the country, construction of the Berlin wall began in the middle of the night on August 12^th, and in one night, 60km were built around West Berlin. The wall began as a simple barbwire fence, and all 155km were finished in 57 hours.

There was only one road from West Berlin to the rest of West Germany with many checkpoints and inspections along the way. There were also limited crossings between the Allied territories and East Berlin: the most famous of which is Checkpoint Charlie, the crossing between the American territory and East Berlin for non-Germans only. A man on our tour crossed between the two countries at the checkpoint and says that he still vividly remembers the experience.

Eventually, the wall developed into two walls that were separated by an area known as “no man’s land” or “the death strip” with guards standing watch on both sides. People in the West could climb up a set of stairs to look over into this area and what they could see of East Berlin. One famous incident involved a German bricklayer, Peter Fechter, and his friend Helmut Kuhlbeik. Kuhlbeik successfully climbed the wall to West Berlin while Fechter was shot in the pelvis in front of a large crowd. Soldiers on both sides were afraid to come to his aide, and after one hour of writhing in pain, he bled to death.

Finally, after 28 years, the tearingdown of the Berlin Wall began on November 10th, 1989 (the video of this is linked). On that day, in front of the Brandenburg Gate, thousands of people showed up to welcome East Germans into West Germany. Some would cross to East Berlin to see what it was like and return almost immediately. A majority of the traffic was coming into West Berlin.

The German Reunification took much time and is still somewhat of an ongoing process. German government implemented a “reunification tax” to account for the lack of economic competition that was present in communistic East Germany. However, despite all of the aide offered by the government, unemployment in the east was twice as high as in the west.

Berlin’s history is rich with dramatic tales. Yet, somehow the city maintain an appeal that draws many people from around the world to see this wonderful, resilient city.