Ich bin ein Berliner!

Germany's history is fraught with many dark episodes but it has emerged as a peaceful, compassionate country that takes every opportunity to learn from its past.

The Riechstag, Germany's legislature building

In Berlin, everywhere you go there are well thought out educational installations that detail what happened with the Nazis, World War II, and the East/West division. I (Bill) was 13 when the wall fell and while I knew even then it was a significant event, it's really hard to understand at that age what it really meant for the people of Germany. I even visited Berlin briefly in 1999 but it really took this past visit to internalize what life was like from WWII until now. Here is what the wall looked like from the memorial on Bernauer Strasse:

The wall and bleak "Death Strip" that encircled West Berlin for 39 years. This re-creation is at the Berlin Wall Memorial. 

Dark Days

I'll give a quick summary here because I feel like my history classes on this either faded beyond recognition or weren't there to begin with. The winners of WWII (France, USA, Russia, Britain) divided Germany; both the capital of Berlin and the entire country were divvied up into four parts. It didn't take long for disagreements between the Soviets and the three Western countries to create an impasse in deciding how Germany would be governed. Fully 1/6 of the East population left the communist areas for the West, so under the guise of protecting the people from the western "aggressors", the Soviets built a wall and imposed strict travel restrictions to stem the tide of emigration. The line between East and West Germany ran through many rural areas and as such wasn't nearly as divisive as the division of the city of Berlin itself. France, Britain and the US consolidated their sectors into what became known as West Berlin, which was essentially an island, located deep within East Germany.

Being an island surrounded by what amounted to hostile territory isn't an enviable position. It also was a problem for the East German (Soviet) authorities. Initially in Berlin, people could just walk across the street and be under the Western umbrella and people did just that. So a wall was built around West Berlin that literally went through the middle of a bustling city and the Soviets subsequently tried to choke out the Westerners to force the West to abandon the city with a blockade among other things.

The West broke the blockade with the heroic (and now textbook example of how to do airlifts) Berlin Airlift. Later the Mayor of West Berlin made pleas to not abandon the city, and US President Kennedy made a speech in Berlin that redoubled the resolve of support for West Berlin ("Ich bin ein Berliner.")

Meanwhile in the East the incentives to work were breaking down, productivity faltered, and eventually the Soviet system of governance proved untenable and in 1989 the Berlin wall fell, and Germany quickly reunited.

Its worth mentioning that all over Berlin when reading about the Cold War you see hat tips the things the US did to support the City. It's quite nice.

*I'm skipping major bits here and this is my own spin. You can read up on your own but this is my take.

Reunification

With 39 years of crappy productivity, the East was far behind the west in many benchmarks; cars were obsolete, power plants polluted heavily and were inefficient, on and on and on. The cost to bring East Germany up to the Western standard has been estimated at somewhere around $500B. A very small few of the Easterners are salty about the reunification, and the overwhelming majority are much happier for it. There are little reminders here and there that come from the East such as these funny guys that are on the crosswalk signs and are now very popular:

The Ampelmann, the icons from the East German crosswalk signs

And substantial scarring on buildings:

Damage from WWII that never got fixed

Above ground pipes that channel water around giant construction projects that are underway probably still bringing the East up to the West's standards:

Kenzi liked the pink pipes running around the City

Darker Still

While the divided Germany chapters were dark, darker still are the Nazi chapters of German history where a bullying, fanatical leader was able to literally kill his opposition and unite the remaining people with a campaign of fear and hate against what he painted as a common enemy in Jewish people and other minorities. Horrible atrocities were committed against that common enemy. I just don't understand how this could happen but, to paraphrase Holocaust Survivor Primo Levi, it did happen and it could happen again. In essence, we can bring meaning to the deaths of 6 million Jewish people and the other 44 million who died in WWII by learning from it and preventing it from happening again.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

What it looks like inside the memorial, it feels as though there is no way out but up

After being demolished in WWII literally, morally, and figuratively, Berlin now is a vibrant, diverse city with fun loving people, many beautiful parks, river walks, and spectacular architecture.

Dancing along the riverfront

The Reichstag was in awful shape after the war. Now it's rebuilt and topped with a wonderful glass dome that has two spiral walkways that take you gradually up and then back down to the roof terrace while listening to an audio guide. There is also an elaborate system of mirrors and a moving sunshade the directs sunlight in to the legislative chamber below. The tour is all free!

Dome on top of the Reichstag

Mirrors directing sunlight into the legislature below

The enormous Victory Column celebrating victories in the Danish/Austro/Franco-Prussian wars of the 1860s and 1870s), rebuilt and relocated to the Tiergarten park:

Lady Victory, more properly the goddess of victory (the golden statue is nice too)

Crazy huge cathedral:

Huge cathedral... but this one is Protestant, not Catholic

Brandenburg Gate:

Back of the Brandenburg Gate, again, pretty well demolished in WWII but now looking pretty good.

In 2015 Germany accepted about 1 million Syrian refugees from the humanitarian disaster that Syria has become.

A car mechanic and computer scientist right out of Syria

We ran into several Syrians in Berlin, and these were the happiest people I've ever seen and by and large they are comprised of intelligent, grateful people that will be assets to Germany for decades to come. Bravo Germany.