A Short, Scattered Berlin History Lesson

May 12, 2012 

Berlin, Germany

“Berlin is an ugly city,” so starts the description of the city on my Wombat’s Hostel city map. While I see where the writers are coming from (there is a plethora of concrete, communist-era buildings), the city has a lot of character, and “ugly” isn’t the word that comes to mind when I think of it: paintings and monuments on each corner, people wearing all sorts of curious, vibrant fashion, and bright, artfully decorated bikes and TV satellite dishes create a bohemian atmosphere. 

I had several days on my own to explore Berlin. The first day somehow was swallowed by laundry and a trip to the post office, and maybe a bit of extra sleep, but the following day I went on a free tour of the city, which was entertaining and informative. Traveling has definitely both helped me understand history a little better, and perhaps more importantly, prompted a desire in me to learn more.

Our tour started at Pariser Platz at the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin’s cultural icon. (I actually think of the Wall when I think of the city, but the gate goes back a little further, is much more attractive, and represents a better point in history.) As a side note, the gate’s Quadriga was actually taken by Napolen after a Prussian defeat in 1806, and it was kept in the Louvre for a bit. When the Germans got it back, they decided to rename the square it overlooks Paris Square—and who says the Germans don’t have a sense of humor?) There are several embassies, including the US, and hotels near the gate, all of which have very plain architecture as the area used to be home to the Berlin Wall. Adjacent to the square is also the place where Michael Jackson notoriously held his child out of the window. (I actually didn’t know about this incident until the tour—see what I mean about learning things while traveling?)

And to my right is the Michael Jackson Hotel.
Oh, yes, the Brandenberg Gate is behind me.

Germany has a long history that I won’t go into here. In terms of its recent history, it’s hard to imagine how someone with the ideas of Hitler could rise to power and how something as atrocious as the Holocaust could happen.  But the tour I took was helpful. (And while I have learned not to believe everything I hear from tour guides, ours was actually in the process of getting his PhD in German history, so I hope most of what he said was reasonably factual.) I hadn’t realized (remembered?) much of what was going on in the country and world leading up to the Second World War. While I assume most people reading this know more about German history than I do, I’m going to share some oversimplified bits of our condensed German history lesson I found particularly interesting.

Okay, the Treaty of Versailles is familiar, but I hadn’t realized some of the details of the turmoil it caused in Germany. The Treaty of Versailles made the German people responsible for the WWI. It required them to pay for the war, which they did. (The last payment was made October 14, 2010—good old German reliability.) It also required the Germans to have a democracy. While it tried, it each government struggled, and the country had 14 governments in 10 years. In 1923 the country experienced hyperinflation: one dollar went from being equal to four marks to four trillion marks. By the time the Great Depression began in 1929 unemployment was at 50%. People were furious and felt democracy had failed them.

The Nazis were basically an angry street party while this was happening during the 1920s. In the 1932 election the party received 37.4% of the vote. (I hadn’t realized that Hitler was never elected by a majority.) Hitler and the party then capitalized on a fire in the parliament building claiming that the communists were trying to destroy democracy and Hitler received emergency powers. (It isn’t clear who actually started the fire—some people blame it on a guy named van der Lubbe while others think it might have actually been started by the Nazi party itself.)

The day I visited was the anniversary of the book burning
outside Humboldt University in the Nazi time.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

This sandbox is over Hitler's bunker

This parking is where Hitler committed suicide.

Ninety-two percent of Berlin was destroyed by the time WWII ended. Its control was divided up between various countries, most notably communist Russia and democratic US. In 1949 West and East Germany were formed, and West Berlin became an island of democracy in a sea of communism. When the country was divided, three million people (or one in five) left East Germany through Berlin.

As the East couldn’t have so many people leaving, the Berlin Wall was erected, basically overnight, in 1961. Only about 5000 people escaped in the 28 years it stood. (Those escapes primarily happened through tunnels dug by students from inside the wall to apartments in West Berlin or in Trombli cars in which the padding was taken out of the seats, a person was sewn inside, and then a West Berliner would drive the smuggled passenger across the border. Crazy!)

Clearly there were lots of things happening in the world leading up to the 1989 fall of the wall, but I hadn’t realized how sudden it happened and that David Hasslehoff takes credit for it.

Checkpoint Charlie

The Berlin Wall

Today Berlin is still getting on its feet.  While the overall unemployment rate in Germany is 6%, in Berlin, it’s 12%. The average salary is 800 Euros a month versus twice that in most other German cities.  There is infrastructure for five million people, but many apartments are empty. The main problem is lack of jobs and other Germans resent Berliners for not doing their part for the economy.

Tourism is the number one industry in Berlin. The upside of this for a tourist is that there is plenty to see and do. I visited several museums as well as parks and monuments in my remaining time in the city. Our tour guide also made a special effort of pointing out the fact that Berlin doesn’t try to gloss over its history. Rather, it makes a point of remembering what happened in order to not repeat it. 

Museum shots:

And, of course, I need to include a traditional German meal:

Schnitzel