How have your experiences/visits – tours of Kreuzberg, Humboldt area, bunker tour, concentration camp, youth museum visit, school visit, the Stasi museum visit, Reichstag tour, Markus Heider's lecture, Rhissa's and Andre's talks, Janka's workshop, our class lectures and discussions & your own personal experiences and observations - so far made you re-think Berlin and/or German identities?
You can either focus on a few of the experiences listed above or talk about them more generally
a) compared to the Spring (before you came)
b) in relation to the historical and architectural landscape of Berlin (as represented by Ladd in his book)
c) in relation to the topics of globalization, borders, migration and the arts (from the Spring seminar)
You can either focus on a few of the experiences listed above or talk about them more generally
a) compared to the Spring (before you came)
b) in relation to the historical and architectural landscape of Berlin (as represented by Ladd in his book)
c) in relation to the topics of globalization, borders, migration and the arts (from the Spring seminar)
After going on these various tours, especially of the WWII bunker and Sachsenhausen concentration camp, I've realized that Germany is fairly good at confronting its Nazi past. The sheer number of memorials honoring those persecuted during the Third Reich is prime support for this. Back in the spring I was not aware of the degree of this confrontation. It's refreshing to see these victims recognized in such a way.
However, I found it particularly interesting to hear the way our guides talked about former Germany. Maybe this was just me but I felt like a lot of the language they used to describe the actions of others was slightly one-sided. For example, at Sachsenhausen, our guide was quick to group all guards as abusive and sadistic. Maybe she was just used to giving tours to younger groups of kids, but throughout my education I've found that history is rarely that one-sided.
Additionally, I thought that much of the language aims to distance Germans of today from the Germans of the past. For example at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews there is a timeline of events detailing key turning points, mass murders etc. The timeline wills things like "Heinrich Himmler, etc ordered the mass murder, extermination, concentration camp opening, etc." While obviously someone ordered these types of tragic events, to kill upwards of 6 million individuals you need more than an order, you need complaint people to carry out those orders. I suppose ultimately what these observations come down to is this fundamental question of how could a country have supported these actions. Perhaps that's why the events and guilt of WWII are still so engrained in the identity of Germans today.
However, I found it particularly interesting to hear the way our guides talked about former Germany. Maybe this was just me but I felt like a lot of the language they used to describe the actions of others was slightly one-sided. For example, at Sachsenhausen, our guide was quick to group all guards as abusive and sadistic. Maybe she was just used to giving tours to younger groups of kids, but throughout my education I've found that history is rarely that one-sided.
Additionally, I thought that much of the language aims to distance Germans of today from the Germans of the past. For example at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews there is a timeline of events detailing key turning points, mass murders etc. The timeline wills things like "Heinrich Himmler, etc ordered the mass murder, extermination, concentration camp opening, etc." While obviously someone ordered these types of tragic events, to kill upwards of 6 million individuals you need more than an order, you need complaint people to carry out those orders. I suppose ultimately what these observations come down to is this fundamental question of how could a country have supported these actions. Perhaps that's why the events and guilt of WWII are still so engrained in the identity of Germans today.
With regard to migration, I was quite surprised by the inherent hostility in the system that basically means anyone of a different background cannot be German. There is no room for racial differences in being German. While the readings in the spring made me realize that immigrants or individuals with migrant backgrounds are disadvantaged, hearing Rhissa's first hand account made me realize the serious reality of the situation. At one point in his visit he said, "I did not want to come to Europe because it's not my dream to sleep on the street." That was especially powerful. It appears that there is no room at all for racial differences if you want to be "German".