Of all of the places I'm wandering around this summer, the only one I honestly just wasn't too excited about was Berlin. Truth be told, the only reason I went at all was because there is a Guggenheim museum there, and I made that silly goal when I was 13, and so off to Berlin I went.
For the record, I have several absolutely lovely German friends, who I think are pretty much the most awesome thing since apple strudel... but to be completely honest, as a whole it has always been the one culture I just could never identify with, never find any sort of connection to, and I just flat out didn't get it. Once while I was still living in DC I had a long conversations with two Germans about the main differences they saw as they were living in the US. The thing they kept saying over and over again was that it was so weird to them that people would smile... on the street... to people they didn't know... for no reason... just to be nice. The whole concept that if you were seated next to someone on the train you might attempt to start up friendly conversation, just to pass the time, was completely foreign to them. They tried to explain to me that culturally, no matter how warm and friendly you might be personally, outside of your home you just didn't show it. Ever. And I thought, then and there... this is just not the country for me.
So here I was on a train to Berlin, with no real thoughts other than how much I just wasn't gonna like this town. Get in, see the museum, and head out again, was my plan.
And let me be the first to say how completely wrong I was.
Berlin was an absolutely fascinating, hauntingly beautiful, progressive, adventurous, complex, fluid, dramatic, even regal place. And I had no idea. I stayed at a fun little hostel in East Berlin, and some people I met convinced me to go on a free walking tour of Berlin. I thought, why not! It's not like I have any other plans here, other than a museum stop. And oh my, I'm so glad I did. It's hard to put into words in a silly blog post, but as I walked through this town that has seen so many layers of pain and upheavel, quite literally tearing them apart, and then really regally and nobally began to recreate and redefine their capitol... I don't really no how to explain how that effected me, but just to say I have such an overwhelming respect for this culture now.
And I'm really glad to to have been so wrong.
This is the absolutely haunting Jewish memorial stretching smack dab in the middle of East Berlin, just past Checkpoint Charlie, where the death rows had been set up, within eyesight of Hitler's bunker. It's striking and haunting and really undefinably beautiful. I was talking to a German man who said that while they can't be proud of their history, they can at least be proud of how they are choosing to confront and face their history. And I think that is a beautiful thing.
2 comments:
while they can't be proud of their history, they can at least be proud of how they are choosing to confront and face their history
And that's all we can really do, right? Acknowledge, learn from, and face our mistakes. Simple brilliance.
the outdoor Holocaust museum there. it's probably the most incredible one there is -- how do you capture it without ever allowing it to glorify the gore?
i'm jealous you've seen it in person... i gotta get out there.
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