Auf Wiedersehen, Berlin

Today was my last day in Berlin :-( I'm pretty upset because I've started to become mildly obsessed with this city.

I had to fit in a bunch of stuff today that I've been meaning to do but never got around to. I woke up super early and went to the Topology of Terror museum, which is basically the museum that covers the various organizations of the Nazi police state - the Gestapo, the SS, the SA, etc. One thing I've definitely realized since being here and since going to Sachsenhausen is that in America, we REALLY put a lot of emphasis on the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. We absolutely should, don't get me wrong, but I think that a lot else about the Third Reich kind of gets lost in the shuffle. I think that we as Americans tend to believe that the Nazis' reason for existence was anti-Semitism and this huge, overwhelming desire to kill all the European Jews. The German perspective, however, is more that Hitler was above all else, a fascist who wanted to establish a totalitarian police state. He didn't care about the Jews so much BECAUSE they were Jewish, he just desperately needed a common enemy so he could rally most of the country around his cause. And what brings people together like a common enemy? Nothing. It is probably (sadly) the single-most effective way of uniting a ton of disparate groups of people. I don't think Hitler exactly had any great love for Jewish people, but I think that any large minority would have served his purpose equally well. What was convenient was that there was already this anti-Semitic strain running through German society, Jews were a pretty large minority, etc. I mean, the Nazis didn't even decide to kill the Jews until 1942. Until then they were humiliating them, taking their money, trying to force them to emigrate, however. It was only when they realized that losing the war was actually a possibility that they were like, "Crap. We have to cover our tracks now," and that's when they built the gas chambers, started the Final Solution, etc. Anyway. I don't know if this makes any sense, but it's definitely very interesting to get the German/European perspective.

So this Topology of Terror exhibit was basically an examination of the Nazi police state. This also might sound silly, but I never realized what a big deal public humiliation was for the Nazis. It was a hugely effective instrument of control. They humiliated Jews, women who slept with WWI POWs, Roma, intellectuals, etc. They had them wear signs that said stuff like, "I am a Jew-lover," or "I am a traitor to Aryan blood," and paraded them through the streets, shave their heads, etc. That was something I'd really never thought about, mostly because Americans (in my opinion) put most of the emphasis on the sheer killing of the Holocaust and the Nazis. We never really think or talk about the build up to that and how the Nazis consolidated their power by getting rid of their non-Jewish "enemies." Anyway.

So I also went to the Berlin Wall Memorial, which was fascinating. The Wall is only left standing in three areas of the city. Apparently the Germans were going to tear it all down, but there was this huge outcry from tourists that were like, "what are you doing? We want to see it!" The Germans were basically like, "Are you serious?" and the tourists were like, "yeah!" and the Germans were like, "Well, we're totally sick of it and we want it gone, but we'll leave up three very small sections to placate you." So I went to the official memorial, which was cool. It's kind of like a little park, but they have all these...posts, I guess, where they have audio from official speeches, including one from some GDR official who was recorded giving the East German border posts shoot to kill orders. I can't remember it verbatim, but it went something like this, "Do not hesitate to kill border crossers. These people are not your friends. They are not your brothers and sisters. No one who would betray the republic and refuse to believe in the power of the people has any right to life." It was so. effing. spooky. They also had this memorial to all the people who died trying to cross the Wall, and that was moving because people's relatives would come and leave flowers , so that was cool.

Last thing I did was I went on a street art tour. This started off absolutely fascinating and then it dragged on for five. and a half. hours. It went on FOREVER. Berlin is a huge graffiti city for a lot of reasons - the Wall provided a great canvas, there was a huge rise of both radical right and radical left groups in the 1970s who didn't have a lot of space to make their case so they took to public spaces, etc. So there's this huge graffiti scene in Berlin and it was extremely interesting to learn about. We covered different artists, styles, recurring characters and themes, etc.

My favorite story was about this sign that appeared one day in East Berlin that said something like, "Linda, I am so sad without you. My life has been a wreck since you left me. I will be at this bar every Tuesday until you come back to me. I love you. Please come find me."

So then ALL this stuff started popping up. Graffiti on the sidewalks, walls, etc, that urged Linda to go back to him, that urged Linda to stay away from the guy because he sounded like a stalker, messages that purported to be FROM Linda, etc. People started going to that bar every Tuesday to see if Linda would show up. This went on for close to a year, before a graffiti artist was like, "...okay, so I made that up. There is no Linda." But I thought it was an interesting way to show how people like to be engaged in public dialogue and get involved in stories, etc.

Anyway, the tour just dragged for a long time. But it started super interesting.

Tomorrow I'm off to Heidelberg to hang out with my cousin Jay and his wife and kids. I'm excited! Then it's on to Munich.

I will be sad to leave you, Berlin. You are awesome.