Not So Ancient History

So in rereading my old posts, I realize I have gone on an exorbinantly long time about cost and prices. Hopefully when I get used to the daily routines of life (eating, sleeping, cheep bear), those topics shall rather recede in my posts.

But not today!

Later today, I move from one neighborhood of Berlin to another. I`m headed from Prenzlauer Berg (on the north side) to Kreuzberg (on the south side). The hostel I have been staying at in Prenz since I got to Berlin is full for this weekend. Note to self: always make reservations for the weekend if you think you are going to be staying for the weekend.

The change of neighborhood is not altogether unwelcome though. I walked through Kreuzberg yesterday afternoon, and it seems quite lively and diverse. There are fewer playgrounds filled with babies, more flyers advertising live music, and more döner shops. And the Turkish quarter is contained in Kreuzberg. It is there that I shall find the best döner, I think.

Kreuzberg was in West Germany and Prenzlauer Berg was in East Germany. So it wasn`t until today that I really walked around West Germany at all. Completely unbeknownst to me, I had been walking around what used to be East Germany.

There are a few more trees, a bit less graffiti, and a bit less trash in West Germany. But other than that, it is quite indistinguishable to me. The two neighborhoods I have walked in (Prenz and Kreuz) are more similar to each other (in terms of the niceness of buildings, parks, etc.) than some neighborhoods of Portland. Like Sellwood versus 82nd and Foster.

The second day I was here I walked around the Mitte district, the center of the city. ("Mitte" = Middle in German). It is the big downtown area, but not so very long ago it was East German. There are lots of nice buildings now, and it is indistinguishable from any other major urban center.

Tammy mentioned that when she was in Berlin shortly after the wall fell, and the place was covered in cranes. Now it`s all built. I`ve only seen two cranes.

Last night I went out with a friend from the sprachschule (lit, speaking school, i.e., language school) and saw some Salsa dancing. Ut is a very impressive dance when done well, damn. And they all did it very well.

Out at the bar, I met an American from Nebraska. Which is noteworthy because of how seldom I meet another American. (English people, on the other hand, are dime a dozen.) None of the Europeans knew where Nebraska is, but I assured them not to worry: I have no idea where it is either. He too was studying German at the sprachschule. Which he desparately needs: he spoke in German quite a bit over the course of the night, but his German was so bad even I could understand it.

I also met a very nice Finnish guy, who will be studying the German language in Munich. He claimed his German was terrible, but I feel like all Europeans claim their language skills are "terrible" unless they are perfectly fluent. He said he has no problem listening and understanding, but has a hard time speaking. I have the opposite problem. I have little trouble speaking and making myself understood (at least in the limited context of restaurants and buying things and directions). But when it comes to listening, I am terrible. I think this may be my American roots coming out: terrible at understanding others, but great at giving commands.

So at a restaurant the word for the check is "die Rechnung." Which I suspect may have had a similar root as the English word "the Reckoning" long, long ago. From Answers.com: reckon comes from Middle English reknen, from Old English gerecenian, to recount, arrange. And "rechnung" is derived from the German verb "rechnen." But there I must stop, for I don`t think I could read a German version of the OED well enough to see if "rechnen" comes from something like "gerecenian" too.

At any event, whenever I am finished eating, I have an urge to stand up, throw back my (imaginary) cape, and declare in a loud, deep voice, "The reckoning is at hand!"

But I did not. Instead I asked for "die rechnung" with a hard k, like reck-nung. And then the waiter thought for a moment, and said ah, "die resh-nung." And then I said this later to a Belgian girl who is studying German at the sprachschule, and she said it in yet another way, like "die resch-nung." Then she asked if the guy who had told me it was "resh-nung" was Indian. Which he was. Apparently the Indians pronounce their "ch" like that. So I think I`m going to trust her. But still. German is hard enough, without people with different dialects pronouncing things in different ways!

But now let us speak of touristy stuff I have done. Three days ago, I went and saw the Mitte section of the city, which houses an opera house and the university and a Cathedral. And while there I saw that "Tristan and Isolde" is playing in Berlin at the end of August, so I will try to go to that. I hear the Wagner version is much better than the Hollywood production. I am quite excited. And the cheap seats are only 8 euro. Visibility is limited they say, but as I will not be really understanding what is going on anyway, I do not think that shall be too much of a problem.

Two days ago, I saw the Brandenburg Gate and the Tiergarten and the Reichstag. Well, not the inside of the Reichstag. The line was enormous. But I heard later from a guy who has friends who work there that it is deserted at 8 AM . . . like that`s gonna happen. Maybe I`ll try late in the night, shortly before closing time.

The Tiergarten (animal-garden) is the biggest park in Berlin, and the little plaque says it is one of the biggest urban parks in the world. It seems massive on the map. But I was suprised at how small it is. Forest Park could swallow two or three Tiergartens, easy. But then again, any urban park compared to Forest Park is probably going to seem small. I think it`s the largest urban park in the US? Something like that.

And yesterday I saw Checkpoint Charlie and the "Topography of Terror," which is like a Nazi Museum that sits on the site of the old Nazi SS headquarters. They were both quite moving. Checkpoint Charlie tells the story of the Wall in these floor-to-ceiling posters, filled with images and maps and text.

It is very hard to wrap my head around just how recently the wall fell, and how different this city was then. 1989 was so very recent. I look at every German with grey hair a bit differently now. Many of them were part of the massive peaceful protest that brought the wall down. I cannot even imagine the excitement and sense of danger of that moment.

JFK is well-remembered here, for his standoff with the Soviets over the rights of West Berlin, and his resistance to the Wall. I do not often think of this sort of thing. In general, I am inclined to remember the errors of the United States in pursuing the Cold War (Vietnam). But seeing Checkpoint Charlie, and the reverance with which it is treated by visitors from all over the world, one also remembers the many good things that America did in resisting the USSR.

The "Topography of Terrors" was also quite moving. It was mostly about the German secret police and its activities of censorship and taking Jews and other "undesirables" into "protective custody." There are descriptions of how the Nazis came to power and cemented it, and the gradually increasing program of persecution over the course of 1933-1945. There are also profiles of many of those who suffered at Nazi hands, both those who died during the war and those who survived and went on to do very cool things in West Germany after the war.

The /pièce de résistance/ comes at the end, with the description of the trials of the German SS officers. Their careers since 1933 are described throughout the exhibit. And then after the war? Nearly all of them get off, either not prosecuted at all or serving very short jail sentences.

The exhibit also talked about the desire by Germans to not talk or think about the war, right after it happened. And how that has been changing in recent years. Walking around West Berlin, I even saw a poster advertising a play that had "Adolf Hitler" in the name. (Not sure what exactly it was about beyond that.)

I went to an exhibit on "Democracy in Germany." It was free and very well-staffed and there were people outside directing tourists in (which is how I found out about it). Obviously, someone is paying a lot of money to build and run this thing. My German skills are limited, so I couldn`t pick up all of it. I might go back with my dictionary and use the English audio-tour that was offered.

But I did notice one thing: the 1848 revolution is talked about at extraordinary length. And I notice this is a general trend in the exhibits and monuments. The few who died in that short-lived (and dismally unsuccessful) revolution are treated as martyrs. I think this is part of a general desire to date the true birth of German democracy to 1848. Which is not how I have learned German history exactly. Among other problems: the nation of Germany did not yet exist in 1848, and probably never would have existed as a single nation had the 1848 revolutions been successful.

But perhaps this is a story that will work for the Germans of today.