Berlin Part One - Through World War Two

LOCATION:

Berlin, Germany

 

Berlin has been near the top of my bucket list for a long time, and all of the history reading I have been doing lately heightened the excitement I had for the visit. I admittedly still don't know that much about world history through the last hundred years, but after just a few hours in Berlin I was able to start filling in some knowledge gaps. What little history I do remember from school was learned as separate events - there was WWI, and then WWII, and then the Cold War, and then the Vietnam War, and so on. Before coming to Berlin I never really thought about them as events that occurred because of each other, as silly as that might sound. Hitler and the Berlin Wall were also lumped in the same German history chapter in my head but I now know that although they are certainly related, they are very different which is why I've decided to break my Berlin blog posts into pre and post-WWII as opposed to the order Erin and I experienced things as tourists.

 

One of the museums we went to first was called the Typography of Terror, which did an excellent job of describing how Hitler came to power. Interestingly enough, Hitler also came up a few times in my business school courses on leadership - he was definitely a charismatic leader and had the ability to raise the morale and cultivate a spirit of unity among many Germans after their defeat in WWI. Despite the fact that he only won roughly thirty percent of the popular vote, he was able to assume ultimate power and use this power for some of the worst evil the world has ever known. Many people - German and otherwise - were captivated by his presence and willingly followed him. The museum was located on the grounds of the former offices of the Gestapo, and as the exhibit progressed from the 1930s to the 1940s there were graphic depictions of how Hitler created a sense of terror among many Europeans. His goal was to eliminate anyone he saw as useless to the progression of a pure and perfect Germany, including homosexuals, the elderly, mentally ill, gypsies, Jews, and anyone who opposed his totalitarian ideals. Throughout WWII, millions of innocent people lost their lives in battle, in concentration and forced labor camps, through disease, malnutrition, abuse, and targeted murder.

 

Another museum we went to was the German Resistance Museum. Erin summarized it well when she said it was a good reminder that not all of Germany was under the spell of Hitler during WWII. The museum was located in a complex of government buildings called the Bendlerblock, which was the offices where an assassination attempt on Hitler was planned by several Germans in July of 1944. Though many Gestapo and SS were killed in the bomb blast, Hitler ultimately survived by hiding under a table and the same night the central planners of the attack were executed in the Bendlerblock courtyard.

The monument, with pictures of the executed assassination planners in the background.

 

The museum also did an excellent job at highlighting the difference between propaganda imagery and real life in Germany under Hitler's reign. The following pictures show propaganda on the top, contrasted on the bottom with real (and graphic) images of what really happened for many Europeans. I also enjoyed the exhibit on those individuals who did all they could to protect Germans they knew were in danger. The most famous - because of Spielberg's movie - was Oskar Schindler who saved nearly 1000 from certain death by hiring them to work in his factory so they would not be sent to concentration camps. Schindler was only one of many, however, who risked their own lives to save those targeted by Hitler.

 

 

Just before the end of the war, Hitler committed suicide in his compound in 1945, along with his wife and several of his top in command. His bunker was destroyed shortly thereafter. Today all that remains is a somewhat hard to find sign on the former site.

Another interesting piece of the puzzle was filled in during a day trip to Potsdam. While Potsdam is also known for its ornate Versailles-like palaces and gardens, I was most excited to see the location of the Potsdam Conference were Churchill, Truman, and Stalin met in 1945 to decide the fate of the newly surrendered Germany.

The round table sat just beyond the windows.

 

It was impossible to walk through Berlin and not notice all of the memorials to those lost in the war. One of the largest is the Holocaust Memorial, which features 2711 stone columns of different heights on undulating ground, encouraging viewers to wander through and get lost in the confusion. The 2711 pillars represent the different sections of the Talmud.

The memorial, with the US Embassy in the background.

 

The memorial from inside some of the taller columns.

 

Another powerful memorial was to the Soviet Soldiers, accompanied by a plaque highlighting the over 200 memorials located all around Berlin to honor the victims of the war and socialist rule. Though they were an ally in WWII, they quickly became the enemy in the following Cold War.

Memorial to the fallen Soviet soldiers.

 

The most powerful memorial I saw was a somber statue of a mother holding her dead son. The monument was alone in a brick building, set back off the street so it was quiet and serene. The accompanying plaque summarizes the overall feeling of loss and remembrance found throughout much of Berlin.

 

 

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