A Brief History of Berlin

Going to Berlin is like taking a history lesson, but obviously much cooler. Being in a city that was nearly leveled in 1945 is a bit surreal. I mean, their government is younger than I am. This is where WWII started, and, for Europe, ended. Just trying to grasp that will take you all the time you have here. Then there is “The Wall.” That would require another week. We stayed in East Berlin, and after visiting the West side, I realize this is very much a city still divided. They call it “the wall in the head.” If going to Moscow is an education in communism, going to Berlin shows you how it was executed (iron curtain). But all of this history is shrouded in the modernism of a new city. The buildings are edgy and forward. Even their history museums manage to incorporate cutting edge art into their exhibitions. But all I kept wondering is Berlin a city stuck in the past because of its misdeeds or a city on the forefront of society?
Maybe Neither. Maybe it was my own conceptions of what happened here that kept me so attached to the past. Maybe it is my love of modern art that attracts me to the future of Berlin. I don’t know. When you look at the 1936 Olympic Stadium do you see swastikas and armies of Germans marching instep? Or do you see a modern stadium that recently held the World Cup full fans cheering excitedly for their teams? Maybe they are both. Berlin is a city that must accept their past in order to have a future. Where it seems the previous generations tried to forget the newer generations seems bent on remembering not to forget. When the government halted work on the museum, Topography of Terror, it was the youth here that protested to have it finished (it was reinstated and they are currently working on it). There are many examples of this, none more visible then the Memorial to the Murdered Jews, which lies in central Berlin as a reminder of what began in this city. When walking, if you look down, the double row of bricks that zig-zag through the city mark where the Berlin Wall once stood. Here, you don’t have to seek the history out, it finds you.
There are many stories I heard while I was here, of families and lovers being separated by the wall, of wild escape stories, secret bunkers, and tragic opposition to government. And I hope I get to tell many of them to you one day. But when I think of my experience here, and all this city has seen, I am reminded of a speech given on the top of the stairs at the Reichstag during a rally in 1954 West Berlin as a plea “People of the world, look at this city!”