Living History in Berlin (Updated)

 

Blogging has been sparse here in the last week or so: We were in Berlin. I had some thoughts of posting notes on the spot, so I did not announce a blog hiatus,  but the city was busy and engrossing enough to divert me from even opening my laptop.  

Berlin is a great place for thinking about history. In particular, it is rich in material for contemplating all the worst aspects of the twentieth century.  For the first couple of days I was overwhelmed by: the Nazi legacy; the relentless murder of the Jews and countless other target peoples; with thoughts of living in a city subjected to relentless day and night bombing for many months on end; or of flying in the bombers sent to do that work.  And then there was the postwar division of the city and the bleak experience of  the Germans compelled to live in east Berlin from 1945 to 1989, or, for that matter, to be walled in in West Berlin.  Reminders of all these things commanded my attention 

All this made rich food for sleepless pondering during the jetlag insomnia of the first few nights. Even in the liveliness of the city of 2025, it seemed we could not escape reminders of all those things -- and the sense they gave toward what is happening today.  Fun city it did not seem.

Fortunately balance was restored as the jet lag diminished.  

And one thing that helped was the very high quality of the historical commemoration that Berlin does, everywhere. 

I was not sure how grim our visit to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, just north of Berlin, would be.  But I actually found it calming to walk around its carefully minimalist presentation.  Much of the camp is now open space, green and quiet. Skillfully prepared texts and presentation made absolutely clear the horrors that had been practised there, with great sympathy and respect for all those who suffered and died there but without sensation or editorializing. Far from feeling traumatized, I felt almost cheered by the opportunity to witness and consider.

I gradually got the same reassurance from memorials large and small all over Berlin, from the epic Memorial to the Murdered Jews to the Berlin Wall preservation on Bernauer Strasse.  Equally impressive was the Museum of German History.  Currently most of it is closed for renovation, but I was impressed by the quality of Roads Not Taken, a special exhibition being presented during the general closure.

Roads Not Taken suggests the contingent and unpredictable nature of German history by presenting fourteen "what if" scenarios:  

• what if the East German authorities had reacted with force (as China had just done at Tienanmen Square) in the civil unrest that brought down the Berlin Wall and re-united Germany in 1989-90?  
• What if Willy Brant's 1972 Ostpolitik of detente with the East had not been (narrowly) supported by the German parliament? 
• what if Chancellor Bismarck's military unification of Germany in the 1860s had failed, and a more democratic and decentralized federation had taken hold?  

This kind of counterfactual history can go crazy very fast, but the DHM curators have avoided the pitfalls, and created a very clever and thought provoking version of German historical development.  There's an excellent museum of the DDR ("East Germany") in a preserved brewery complex, and the Berlin Wall preservations are remarkable, and....  

All these historical presentation and sites left me impressed with how Germany deals with its history, and opened me up to enjoying Berlin enormously over the week we spent there. Grateful that the historical presenters are very good about providing English translations of most of their texts, audiotapes, and such! Ich spreche kein Deutsch. 

You should go.

Update, October 21: Helen Webberley comments:

Christopher, the irony of not wanting to visit Berlin since 1933 is that important cultural and historical treasures from pre-WW1 are well worth visiting eg the Pergamon Altar, the Reichstag building and the Kunstgewerbemuseum, are stunning. The Moorish style of New Synagogue is amazing!

Finally we decided to drive around Europe in c1975, not avoiding Germany altogether, but by driving cautiously into Berlin. It was a beautiful city.

Helen, thanks for adding that! I could not agree with you more. The monumental architecture (often in reconstructed form), the spectacular collections, the unique locales like Unter den Linden, the East Gallery, and Prenzler Berg; Berlin has so much to appreciate. My mood lifted after the first couple of days, and we saw much not to be matched anywhere else. 

Sad to say, the Pergamon Museum has been closed for renovation for several years. But in other museums we did commune with Nefertiti, and Caspar David Friedrich, and the Neandertal boy. We walked past the New Synagogue in the old Jewish Quarter just blocks from our accommodations near Hackescher Markt. Wonderful things.

(left: Stolpersteine in the Old Jewish Quarter.)

Not knowing the Cold War geography of Berlin well before we arrived, I was surprised to see how much of what one wants to see in Berlin lies in what had been East Berlin, which covered the Brandenberg Gate, most of the great museums, the Statsoper, the state buildings, the walks along the Spree, and many other Berlin landmarks. Today many of the hottest neighbourhoods in the city, like Prenzler Berg, are places once in the heart of the East.