German Government: Then and Now

                On Wednesday, June 13, we began our day by exploring the remnants of the Nazi regime. We went to the place where Hitler was found in his bunker, just behind the apartments where we are staying. They have put up a sign with information about what was there and what happened there. Now it is a parking lot. We also saw where the Chancellery was at that time. Hitler had an extremely long building built so that anyone who came to see him would have to approach him by way of a long intimidating hallway. We also saw the old Aviation Building of the Third Reich which still stands and has been put to slightly different uses today. Most of the Nazi architecture, designed by Speer, was destroyed quickly after in the war in an attempt to wipe away bad memories and move forward. The Aviation building still stands due to its usage before the Nazis took over. While a good example of the austere and powerful architecture of Hitler’s taste, it was still thought to embody the spirit of the Third Reich to a much lesser extent.

                But the idea of trying to wipe out all evidence of Hitler and his government has been a controversial one. Many feel that these horrors must be remembered and kept a part of the cultural consciousness. Remembering is associated with accepting the guilt and never letting such atrocities occur again. While Germany’s immediate reaction after the war was demolition of everything which reminded them of the Nazis. But after some time had gone by, preservation became more of a priority.  So when the underground cells of the SS were discovered on Wilhelmstrasse, a group got together to preserve the sight and make it open to the public. While some information is presented at the sight, a concerned effort was taken to keep the info straight forward and not attempt to make visitors feel a certain way and let them process the information in whichever way they will. Even the building, chosen like all architectural projects in Berlin by a competition, was designed to be unimposing and keep the focus simply on remembering what was. It was the sight of SS interrogation, torture, and killing and today plays host to signs which tell the story of the Nazi regime from its beginnings to the end of the War. It also does a good job of mentioning the persecution of homosexuals, mentally ill, Sinti and Roma, and political opponents. In conjunction with its inside exhibit it is one of the most informative Third Reich exhibit we’ve seen yet. Inside the information continues up through the trials of Nazi officials well after the War.

                We also passed by the Embassy of the Czech Republic which Mr. Caldwell describes as “brutalism” which I thought was a fascinating term. It does look somewhat harsh I suppose.

                Our afternoon was spent in the Jewish Museum, a place of both historical and architectural significance, due to the building’s design based around the history of the Jewish people. It is essentially shaped like a lightning bolt from above and sliced across with various lines all around. The zigzag is supposed to represent the winding history of the Jewish people and a straight line cut through the middle represents the holocaust. The lines around the while building are essentially places of significance to Jewish history mapped out and wrapped around the structure. There are also places inside which are cut out and open to the sky. These “negative spaces” are to represent the missing information and history that has been lost or destroyed.  Inside nothing is even, the floors slope in odd directions and the layout is baffling. The purposeful effect is to be disorienting.

                There is a “Garden of the Exiled” dedicated to Jews forced to leave their homes. It contains huge concrete pillars with plants growing from the top. The plants are growing in soil brought from Jerusalem. The sloped ground in the garden with the added tilt of the pillars is the most off-balancing area in the design. While you feel as if you should be walking on even ground, when you begin to move you feel pulled as if a weight were holding you in some way.

                Finally we were able to enter the exhibit itself which contains an incredible amount of Jewish historical information and some really awesome early manuscripts. In particular the medieval section was amazing, containing a medieval Torah, a desk for calculations, and some really fascinating and gruesome images of racist Christian misperceptions of Jews in the middle ages. There are two in particular: One is a drawing of Jews who sneak into churches pretending to be Christians in order to steal the host, or “body of Christ” and take it home to desecrate it.

                The second is an image of Jews who steal Christian babies in order to drain their blood and use it to make matzo.

                Medieval Christians were kind of insane.

                Later that night we met back up to go to the top of the Reichstag. The  dome is pretty awesome but had nothing on this sunset which appeared while through its glass walls….

                The EuroCup is happening right now and Germany is a major contender at the moment. So after the Reichstag it was immediately off to the Tiergarten to hang out with the Germans and watch their national team defeat the Netherlands 2:1! The match was good, Mario Gomez (current star of the German team) made both goals, and the atmosphere was incredible. The best part was after the game when cheering confetti, singing, dancing, and general celebration broke out. There were chants in German I didn’t understand, mixed with American dance music, and a few weird traditions that baffled me. Why did everyone kneel and then leap up and start jumping up and down and singing? Who knows. But it was a fantastic time. An experience I wouldn’t want to miss.

                Today we did some walking around and looking at interesting architecture. We got a tour of the CDU, the political party of Angela Merkel, current Chancellor of Germany. The building is fairly  new and modern, containing an inner and outer building with a sort of indoor garden in between. The man who gave us the tour was extremely nice and informative.

                Next up was the Bauhaus archives, an exhibit on a famous school of design in Germany. It had a lot of cool art and some neat architectural models. One was a red cube house which was amusing. We are planning on going to the real Bauhaus in Dessau Saturday on our way to Nuremburg. Our excursion to the south of Germany will continue from there.

                Then we went to the Nordic Embassies which are really cool. Apparently, since the embassies of the five countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, were going to be small and all of the countries felt a sense of unity, they designed a plan to connect them all together into one cohesive complex. Like most of the embassies and party headquarters we’ve seen, the Nordic Embassies are also new. While Germany was divided, Bonne was the capital and all of them were there. Once the capital was moved back to Berlin, they all came back and had to construct new buildings.

                After lunch there, we headed over to a memorial dedicated to the German Resistance to the Nazi Regime. It was probably informative but most of the info was in German so I was rather lost. But it’s an interesting subject none-the-less. It’s an aspect of those times that Germans like to focus on as a small point of national pride during the Nazi era.