Berlin: A City in Mourning

I get it. Germany committed the unforgivable TWICE. They were responsible for starting WW1, and then, they started WW2. During WW2, so many people were killed that if there ghosts haunted Berlin, it would explain the sense of oppressive gloom that seems to smother the city.

I visited...

- the memorial to murdered Jews

- the memorial to murdered gays

- the memorial to murdered gypsies

- the Gestapo museum (called the Topography of Terrors) which documents how and when the Gestapo murdered Jew, gays, gypsies. The Gestapo was the secret police of Nazi Germany

... all in one afternoon.

Berlin used to be the capital of Germany until it became divided into East Berlin (under Soviet control) and West Berlin (allied to the USA). At that time, Bonn became the capital. Berlin's city centre used to have large palaces and beautiful apartment blocks. Unfortunately, when the Berlin Wall went up, all these stately old accommodations were razed, because already bombed into ruins by the Allied Forces. To either side of the Berlin Wall, there was a no man's land. It was not possible to repair the old architecture without creating cross border tension. So all those historical buildings came down. Nothing is left.

So, today's Berlin city centre is given over to repentance, mourning, memories and an implicit promise that Germany will never again repeat its sins of the past.

One cannot write of Berlin, without mentioning Prussia. From character to culture, Prussia defined Germany’s history for centuries. The Prussian virtues of "discipline, punctuality, deference to hierarchy" still live on in modern Germans as cultural traits. The ghosts of Prussia tint our experience of today’s Germany. Yet, nothing is done to remember this influential empire.

Why?

It is historical DNA to be denied and rejected. It is like in some families, there are genes which express themselves as mental illness. Winston Churchill considered Prussia the source of "recurring pestilence" in Europe because land grabbing was so much in its character, and it often did it using military means. That was how Prussia started. It was how Prussia grew. After WW2, the Allied Forces stated, “The Prussian state, which from early days has been a bearer of militarism and reaction in Germany, has de facto ceased to exist.”

The Prussian Empire is there in history, but also not there. It exists as a spectre that hangs over today's Germany: mighty, great, glorious, powerful and shameful.

This is Pariser Platz today.

This is Pariser Platz during Nazi Germany. It gave me a chill to realise that I was standing in a square where Nazi soldiers gathered before they unleashed mayhem upon the rest of the world. The huge structure with columns is called the Brandenburg Gate.

This is Brandenburg Gate from the other side, today.

This is Brandenburg Gate from the other side, shortly after the Soviet Union put up barricades to separate East Berlin from West Berlin. The soldiers standing there are Soviets.

This is Checkpoint Charlie. The real thing has been moved to Dahlem for safe-keeping. So, this is a replica of the original Checkpoint Charlie. To know more, click HERE.

The original headquarters of the Gestapo was bombed to nothing by the Allied Forces. Today's Germany excavated the basement and turned it into a museum to document the terrible actions of the Gestapo. For this alone, the Germans deserve respect. The existence of this museum is a reminder to all Germans to never repeat the mistakes of the past.

Here is a wider angled view of the Gestapo basement. It was in this very basement that many were tortured to death.

Behind the Gestapo basement  museum, there is a stretch of the Berlin Wall that was not demolished.