Berlin was my favorite city in Europe. When I think of Berlin I harbor the kind of affection that I have for my students. I could empathize, yet with the benefit of being an objective onlooker. Berlin is like a freshman in college. It's a nineteen year-old city, as our tour guide Summer was apt to say. Like a freshman embarking on the next phase of life, making a lot of dumb choices mixed with a few good ones. Finding what fits, sometimes wearing what doesn't. It's all part of growing up. I don't claim to be a grown up, neither does Berlin. That's why I liked it.
My journal entries from Berlin are the most copious of the trip, recording every minute detail in a feverish attempt to process all that I learned. Berlin courted my love of history and my fascination with subcultures. The guided walking tours unveiled communism, fascism, and counterculture so tangibly that it made me shutter and sometimes question or sometimes rejoice in the fundamental ideals of living. I didn't want to forget anything I learned. But as I left that unique and immature city here are a few thoughts I wrote down:
1. Political History - I do not understand how the leaders in the communist government justified it to themselves. Any system that has to build walls to keep the people in must recognize that something is going wrong. There is a huge Communist-propaganda mural still outside the Luftwaffe (now the Berlin tax office). It portrays the glory of the communist ideal with beaming workers and compassionate managers. The reality was that strikes in East Germany ended badly in 1953. Workers had to work longer hours with less pay. How could leaders be so blind? How do men become so corrupt? And yet, I saw the same theme in Versailles. Power leads to pride, pride leads to corruption. It is an inescapable spiral.
It makes me ponder the nature of man. I believe (like a good Calvinist) that people are born evil; but are we born as evil as we could possibly be? Do we start at the bottom with nowhere to go but up? If so, then it seems like most people end up climbing a few rungs on the ladder of morality. However, I am more inclined to believe that having a sinful nature doesn't necessarily require us to start at the bottom rung of the ladder. As humans we are still part of God's image and therefore even babies must harbor some shadow of goodness. However, people can make choices that lead them down to the very bottom where they fall down into utter greed and domination.
Regardless, when I look at Berlin I find it so disturbingly fascinating - the amount of expense and manpower that went into securing the border. It is scary. Depravity is scary. The only reason that democracy is worthwhile is that it forces accountability, it forces us to keep our total depravity in check through mutual self-interest. What a twisted world we live in.
2. The Culture: Berlin is not like any other city I experienced in Europe. In fact, when I first stepped out of the station I thought I would hate it. The buildings are newer and thus uglier. But when it sunk in that 90% of the city was destroyed I forgave Berlin for being ugly and modern. The West boasts bright contemporary architecture in contrast to the imposing and standardized feel of East Berlin. The West tries to make you feel empowered and comfortable, the East would rather leave you feeling puny and oppressed. Ok, perhaps that's a bit melodramatic, but trust me, there is a difference.
Today in Berlin the anarchist subculture is at war with the mainstream. Berlin is a changing city, a maturing city, but far from the mark of adulthood. It is like that teenager at the threshold. Berlin throws itself into parties, sex, and drugs like a unwise college freshman. The second a block of the city becomes "trendy" (meaning full of edgy, gritty, counter-cultural haunts) the rents go up, the tourists invade and its deemed "gentrified." Once the alternative becomes mainstream the counterculture crowd to flees its old haunts for new squats. They leave burning cars in their wake.
One of the walking tours was an "alternative city" tour led by a very charismatic twenty-something year-old named Summer. Tour guiding was her day job. She was also a stand-up comedian. (I'm actually serious, she had a gig that night) She held a degree in urban art from Yale and her focus was in street art (a.k.a. graffiti). Ok, I was in awe. I followed her around like an adoring puppy. She showed us the squats, opened my eyes to the graffiti-laden underground of Berlin, but quite honestly failed to sell me on the lifestyle. By the end of the day I was thankful to be an outsider looking in. A gawky, insecure yuppie from Northern Virginia. (Anyone truly meant for that subculture would certainly scoff at the idea of paying 10 euro for a tour. However, I did hear of an anti-capitalist group charging 6 euro to get into a party at their squat - although I guess it's ok if it just paid for the alcohol, as long as they didn't make a profit)
3. Protest Movements: Public protests are hugely fashionable in Berlin. I believe it is a reaction to years of stifling oppression. During the Saturday that I was there I observed a massive protest that started along East Side Gallery, the long, muraled relic of the wall. This sounds lame, but it nearly brought tears to my eyes to see this happening right in the heart of a place where fear silenced opposition a few years ago. And for all my cynicism about power and politics I found this experience purely gratifying.
The protest was part of a movement against multinational media companies seeking to establish offices along the River Spree. In Berlin, unlike other cities in Europe, the riverfront is actually the low rent district. It is the place where the starving artists and immigrants convene, where the grittiest clubs rage until dawn. So I observed the thousands upon thousands flooding the streets in their eclectic garb (and lack thereof). The music, the floats, the parade-like energy and swarming intensity of the crowd was overwhelming. They converged on the River Spree while the police watched from the sidelines. They disrupted transportation routes and took their message from East to West...literally.
It was beautiful.
But when it's all said and done there protests are worthless when the people do not go out and do what is most simple to the functioning of democratic society - vote. In Berlin voting takes place on Sunday. But by Sunday so many Berliners are completely inebriated and do not even bother. Fortunately, some astute bar owners noted that their patrons were the ones who would vote to keep the media companies from leveling eminent domain on the river. The bars and clubs needed the votes or they'd be bulldozed. Several bars kicked the patrons out at dawn and hired taxis or buses to take them to polling stations. The people voted to keep the neighborhoods free from corporate interests. Unfortunately, their referendum was not binding, so they continue to storm the River Spree in protest.
As I've noted, Berlin is an extremely immature city. Right now it is in the throws of a counterculture. It is releasing energy that repression quelled for so long. Hopefully in time it will fade a bit. I do hope that Berlin will find it's identity, but never lose a griping sense of its past.
In conclusion, it was in Berlin's lack of identity that I solidified my own. I'm independent and adventurous, but still anal and obsessive-compulsive. I can't really change that. I'm content to be an outsider on Berlin's party scene. I haven't the slightest desire to experience the nightlong raves and the clubs with the "sex bunkers." I don't believe I'm missing out if I don't pay 6 euro for a partying in an anti-capitalist squat. I'm a "gentrified yuppie" from a posh suburbia. A voyeur peering with fascination into the realm of anarchists, happy to return to West Berlin when the sun sets. Berlin has the opposite effect of Switzerland (see below). Berlin made me thankful for my life.
As Miriam Beard so aptly wrote: "travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent in the ideas of living." I think that sums it up.
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