Lotta and I are clutch travel buddies. The
picnic-on-three-different-modes-of-transit affair alone could have proved that.
On Monday we headed to the DDR museum (English: GDR... I couldn't help but
think of Dance Dance Revolution! every time I heard about the
former DDR). Awesome, I'd totally recommend it - and Berlin is FULL of
museums... I am embarrassed to admit that when I've thought about modern German
psychology in the past I usually haven’t really considered the full
ramifications of forty years of East/West division. Perhaps in part because of
the US perspective on Germany and American connection to German history the
Holocaust and World War two were faaarrrr more highlighted in my education on
Germany. In general I’ve found that recent history gets left out – especially
in secondary education… most classes go up through World War two and then just
sorta give out.
Anyhow – East Germany. The museum was great but
Lotta and I felt we learned much more from her Finnish friend Oskar who lives
in Berlin and my friend from Humanity in Action, Ursula who lives in Berlin and
also spent a year in rural Eastern Germany as a high schooler. Oskar took us to
the East Wall Gallery – the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin wall that
is covered in art made by commissioned artists after the fall. What the HELL is
going on with us humans and putting up walls between people? I thought back to
being in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina this summer with HIA friends, visiting
Marija. This somewhat arbitrary line that didn’t mean anything and then all of
a sudden was continually showered in bullets. In Mostar we could see how the
division had caused two city centers to solidify… but of course Mostar is
nowhere near as large as Berlin. I found myself wishing I knew more about urban
planning and theories of urban anthropology because everywhere you look in
Berlin there’s probably something to be said about the way walls and history
have formed the place. It makes for a very neighborhoody place today – which I
always love. It freaks me out when cities don’t have discernibly different
areas. I think that probably has to do with the fact that Seattle will always
be my referent for “city” and Seattle has such sharp boundaries made by
waterways, hills, lakes, the ocean that it seems only normal to me that other
cities would as well. Along the wall and throughout the city you could find
quite many “Free Palestine” messages and similar. Made me curious to know more
about Palestine-Israel politics in Germany on a street level.
I met Ursula in Sarajevo this summer at the HIA
summer conference and then two weeks later met up with her in Belgrade where
she was visiting her Serbian roommate – HIA connect! But seriously… she’s one
freaking cool woman who had some fascinating insights to share. The masters
program that she’s doing now (her thesis is due in less than three weeks but
she still made time to meet me!) is on Turkish-German relations. The first year
was in Ankara and the next year and a half in Berlin – such a cool format!
She’s pretty fluent in German so I wanted to ask
her how Germans speak about their history. That’s something about which you can
read as many articles as you want and even talk to people. But the real nuance
of how people express their views in their native language will always say
something more. She said point-blank that Germans refer to the East-West
division on a daily basis – in so many conversations that she hardly notices it
anymore, which at first surprised me quite a bit. But then, come on, it was
less than my lifetime ago that Germany we reunified. And if I can start seeing
reminders of that past after a day in the city (the metro in former East Berlin
doesn’t say how long until the next train but it does in the West, it’s
noticeably grimmer when you go further from the center out East, and oh look,
there’s the wall) I’m guessing Germans can as well. They talk about the war
quite openly as well. However Ursula had some very specific qualifications
about how the war is discussed. They
don’t mention the Holocaust. At least in normal conversation. And they don’t
talk about specific actions they or people they know committed in the war. They
refer to it as (translated) “Nazitime”. Ursula told us a story of a visit to
her German boyfriend’s grandma’s house. His Grandma had photos of her husband
in Nazi uniform all over the photo albums, which, of course, struck Ursula. I
think if I’d have heard that before living in Europe I would have been
disturbed. It’s not, however, as if this woman celebrates the Nazis. She loves
and misses her deceased husband and will openly say – yes, that is a Nazi
uniform and that was a bad time.
There’s a lot more to say but I don’t want to bore
people! Lotta and I went to the Turkish market… so nice! Dad, it made me think
of the Spice Market in Istanbul J Not because it actually looked similar
or anything… but just because it was Turkish. Fabric, fabric, fabric. Lotta and
I got matching tiny pill boxes and necklaces with pendants that have working
watches :D Nothing like a good
market wander!
We then headed off to a not-so-typically-tourist
stop…. Gesundbrunnencenter. It’s a big shopping center with really good deals.
I love doing normal-ish things on vacations like going to a grocery store for
sure. We also live in one of the pinnacles of expensive living and needed
winter clothing so it was a pretty pragmatic trip… I got some awesome German
winter shoes and thankfully had my very own Scandi (Lotta) there to make sure
they were sturdy and warm enough. The first couple I looked at didn’t pass her
muster. I must confess…. we ended up there twice…. Lotta was kind enough to go
back with me the next day when I realized I needed a bigger size. I think we
were the funnest thing to ever walk into that shoe shop. The salespeople sure
had a field day with us. Not the hottest English on their part on only Lotta’s
elementary and secondary school German language classes between the two of us,
so it was a bit choppy… But they were practically giddy to have an American
shoe-shopper. Then I headed out of the shop (it was in a mall so it wasn’t the
craziest thing) to walk in front of it). They nearly had a FIT because
apparently that’s NOT DONE. They were laughing hysterically about it. Then one
lady was putting away shoes and put one pair in the wrong box. THAT sent them
into another fit of giggles. I think the joke was: “I was disorganized!”
