It’s hard to believe that today was our next-to-last day of tours and sightseeing here in Berlin! I’ve been here over a week now, and it still only feels like a few days; beyond that, our group has gotten to be quite close over the last few days, and I am not looking forward to everyone leaving on Friday. This morning, after eating breakfast, we set out on a mini-quest for the first part of Rebecca’s project, which centered around the 2nd June Movement, a left-wing group allied with the more famous Red Army Faction (RAF) during the violent years of the 1970s in West Germany. One of the initial leaders of this group was Fritz Teufel, who was generally a more “comical” radical, planning to throw a pudding-like mixture at US Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Despite this less-violent approach to political activism, Teufel was arrested and tried on the charges of having aided in the kidnapping of Peter Lorenz, a candidate for mayor of West Berlin, although he denied having been present, claiming he was working under an assumed name at a factory in the Ruhr at the time of the kidnapping. Later in life, Teufel renounced many of his earlier political beliefs before his death in 2010, after which he was buried in a cemetery in Berlin, on Chauseestrasse, which was our first stop of the day. The entire group searched through the cemetery to find Teufel’s grave before Chelsea was finally successful in locating it; along the way, however, I found the grave of Bertolt Brecht, which none of us realized was located in this cemetery.
After finding Fritz Teufel, we proceeded to the Deutsches Historisches Museum, which is located on Unter den Linden just across the Spree from the Museumsinsel, in order to determine how that museum presented the history of the RAF, 2nd June Movement, and other associated radical groups from the 1960s and 1970s. Unfortunately, the museum had a special exhibit specifically devoted to the RAF earlier in the year, but it has since moved on, so we had to content ourselves with the permanent exhibition. Skipping ahead through hundreds of years of German history, we soon found ourselves in front of one medium-sized display case, all that the Deutsches Historisches Museum has devoted to the radical and terrorist groups of the 1960s and 1970s. Not surprisingly – but disappointingly – the display made no mention of the 2nd June Movement, or any group other than the RAF, which seems to have most captured the public imagination with their violent methods and dramatic mass suicide in prison; indeed, a recent German film, The Baader-Meinhof Complex, dramatized the leaders of the RAF and their journey from beginning to end, contributing to the focus on the RAF alone. Although this exhibit did not have what we were looking for in terms of Rebecca’s project, it did have some interesting artifacts, including the wanted posters that were hung up throughout West Germany with the names and photos of RAF members and a baby carriage used in the kidnapping of Hanns-Martin Schleyer in the “German Autumn” of 1977. During the abduction, female RAF members blocked the path of Schleyer’s car with the baby carriage, pretending to cross the street, before pulling weapons out the carriage and assisting in the kidnapping of Schleyer. However, despite artifacts such as these, which were quite interesting to me, especially because I greatly enjoyed The Baader-Meinhof Complex, I was somewhat surprised at the overall terseness of the exhibit, which was likely one reason why I decided not to look at the rest of the permanent exhibition when Dr. Stehle gave us time to explore the museum on our own. Instead, I headed to the special exhibition area for an exhibit on 1945, which is exactly what I would like to write about for my history senior thesis next year.
The exhibit on 1945 focused on the aftereffects of World War II in twelve European countries – the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Britain, Denmark, and Norway – including physical and economic devastation, dealing with the Nazi past and collaborators, and issues of refugees and displaced persons. One aspect of the exhibit that greatly impressed me was its physical arrangement. Entering a circular space at the beginning of the exhibit, a visitor notices that the specific displays about each country radiate out, like a star; furthermore, there are “boundaries” between each country printed on the floor, as if to emphasize that each country had to deal with the aftermath of war in its own way. However, the exhibit also stressed the continuity between the struggles of the twelve countries, as one could freely walk between the displays relating to each country. With regard to the artifacts, I felt as though the exhibit’s curators did a wonderful job choosing an interesting array of objects, from political posters, to personal items, to clothing, and government documents; although there was a lot of information presented, it never felt overwhelming, as one did not have to look at every single object in order to get the sense of what the exhibit was trying to convey. While I found the entire exhibit incredibly interesting, one of my favorite artifacts was a board game from the Netherlands, in which the winner of the game was the Allied power that made it to Berlin first, showing how much the war dominated the lives of people in Nazi-occupied Europe. My one criticism of the exhibit would be that I felt the Germany display section could have been expanded and made less general. For instance, the only reference to the Soviet rapes of German women in Berlin and throughout eastern Germany in the early postwar period was a throwaway reference to the physical violence committed by Red Army soldiers in Germany. Having just written a research paper on the trauma experienced by German women in Berlin, including rape, this seemed to support several of my points, including that about the culture of silence surrounding the rapes, as there has been little public discussion of the Soviet rapes of German women. Overall, though, I thought that the 1945 exhibit was really amazing, and it inspired me so much to move forward on my senior thesis!
Following the Deutsches Historisches Museum, we stopped for a lunch break; I had a new taste thrill for Germany, a wrap, which was actually quite good, followed up by lemon ice cream (my personal favorite). After lunch, we went to the DDR museum, which is located on the other side of Museumsinsel from the Deutsches Historisches Museum; although this was an optional visit, the entire group chose to explore the museum. However, despite my interest in East Germany and life in socialist/communist countries, I must say that I was deeply disappointed by the DDR Museum, which seemed to be more of a socialist kitsch playground than an actual museum that conveys information. Every single exhibit, even those critical of life in East Germany, seemed to give off the feeling of Ostalgie, or nostalgia for life in East Germany, which completely took away from any enjoyment I might have had of the museum. For instance, the DDR Museum had an exhibit on prisons in the DDR, with a recreated prison cell; however, after having visited Hohenschönhausen, the actual Stasi prison, this exhibit felt extremely derivative and not truly representative of true life in East Germany.
Leaving behind the disappointing DDR Museum, Cheyanne and I set off for some individual explorations of historical sites in Berlin. Riding the S-Bahn from the Hackescher Markt to Potsdamer Platz, we walked down Tiergartenstrasse past the Berliner Philharmonie to the former site of the Tiergartenstrasse 4 villa. During the Nazi period, this villa was the site of the euthanasia program, which targeted people who the Nazis considered to be “unworthy of life,” including so-called “antisocial” elements and people with mental illnesses. In a preview of methods that would later be used in the mass murder of Jews in the extermination camps in Poland, the Aktion T4 executed hundreds of thousands of people through carbon monoxide poisoning, starvation, and drug execution. Today, after being passed over for many years, partially due to the continuing stigma surrounding mental illness, a memorial has been established at Tiergartenstrasse 4, which Cheyanne and I went to visit. The memorial itself I did not actually understand, as it is simply a long wall of transparent blue glass, but the informational tablet that went along with the memorial, presented in logically-arranged sections, was excellent, in my opinion. The only thing that it lacked was an explanation for the big blue wall, which I believe is supposed to be a countermemorial, but I’m not sure what emotion it is trying to provoke; in a way, this gives me a new perspective on countermemorials, by demonstrating how some information is always necessary at a memorial. From Tiergartenstrasse 4, we walked down Tiergartenstrasse, continuing after it changed names, until we reached the Landwehrkanal, at which point we turned to walk along the canal to find the memorial to Rosa Luxemburg, the famous female German communist and co-leader of the Spartacist revolt in January 1919. After being murdered by right-wing troops crushing the rebellion, Luxemburg’s body was dumped into the Landwehrkanal at the site now memorialized by a plaque bearing her name. Beyond Rosa Luxemburg, the Landwehrkanal, which is on the edge of the Tiergarten, was actually quite beautiful and peaceful; once again, I got the feeling that I was not in the middle of a major metropolis. At the edge of the Tiergarten, we turned north-ish again to reach the Tiergarten S-Bahn stop, from where we made our way back to the hostel. Since then, we have just been relaxing at the hostel, preparing for our final day of sightseeing tomorrow!
Making the Past Present 