There's a new exhibit at the German History Museum in Berlin, exploring the way that everyday Germans participated in National Socialism. Unfortunately, it's only running through February 6th.

From the New York Times story by Michael Slackman:



Nazi Kitch

"This show, “Hitler and the Germans: Nation (Volksgemeinschaft) and Crime,” opened Friday. It was billed as the first in Germany since the end of World War II to focus exclusively on Adolf Hitler. Germany outlaws public displays of some Nazi symbols, and the curators took care to avoid showing items that appeared to glorify Hitler. His uniforms, for example, remained in storage.

Instead, the show focuses on the society that nurtured and empowered him. It is not the first time historians have argued that Hitler did not corral the Germans as much as the Germans elevated Hitler. But one curator said the message was arguably more vital for Germany now than at any time in the past six decades, as rising nationalism, more open hostility to immigrants and a generational disconnect from the events of the Nazi era have older Germans concerned about repeating the past."

Multikulti is Dead--now that's depressing news

anti-mosque agitation

Now that Angela Merkel has declared German multiculturalism "dead" , Germans can begin to openly grapple with the issue currently facing all western European nations. For the Germans, the touchy subject of Muslims (particulary Turkish) integration is shadowed by the fate of the last major religious minority to find itself accused of living off the majority. A recent poll indicates that 30% of Germans believe their country is being "overrun by foreigners". In these times of fiscal belt-tightening, outsiders who appear to be a drain on the social state will be feeling increasing pressure. I worry about Turkish-Germans who have grown up in Germany--they will never be accepted as "German" they way they could embrace an American non-ethnic identity.

Back to Berlin

During the early 20th century, Berlin was home to a vibrant Jewish population. The Jerusalem Post reports that young Israelis are moving to Berlin "in droves". Read this in conjunction with my last post about young Germans who finally embrace "pride" and no longer feel so burdened by their grandparents' crimes. It's an exciting development, hinting at the real possibility of genuine reconciliation and a broader horizon for both peoples.
Of course, I'm a pessimist when it comes to issues of ethnic identity and the capacity of individuals to embrace violent ethnocentrism over rational co-existence. I would love to see this young generation of Germans and Israelis prove me wrong.

Deutscher Pride

This kind of Pride?

I read once that a favorite topic of parlor conversation during the nineteenth-century concerned the basic identity of Russia--were the Russians, at their core, European or Asiatic? I guess only the Russians can say. Since 1945, at least three generations of westerners have debated whether Germans have the right to express national pride. The rest of us get to do it, right? But those Teutons--there's something particularly unsettling about them. Do they get to ride down Berlin streets waving flags from the backs of their VW vans? This is from today's New York Times--"German Identity, Long Dormant, Reasserts Itself". To which identity is N. Kulish referring? The Prussian one? An anti-fascist identity?

Marx Engels Forum is Moving

Back in 1991, I wandered down Unten den Linden until I ran into the Marx-Engels Forum just west of Alexanderplatz and the famous Fernsehturm. In June, it was one of the first locations I sought out, and I was excited to see there was more to the monument than I originally thought--metal stelae that tell the story of socialism in a series of engraved images. I immediately asked a pair of tourists to take my photo with the great-grandfathers of communism. Only afterward did I notice that tourists love to sit on Karl's lap--the bronze of his hands is polished from so many bourgeois fannys.

Today I learned that the statues are getting moved to set up a staging area for a subway route. It seems that the move to the Karl-Liebknecht Bridge (50 meters south, facing to the west). Apparently, the plan is to return them in 2017.

Hopefully they won't be replaced with some long-gone historical reconstruction, though it would probably surprise nobody if (as in the case of the recently demolished Palast der Republik) wealthy westerners sought to do away with the DDR-relic.

Arguing About Another Third Reich Remnant

In July, I read Brian Ladd's Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape (1997). Ladd's book successfully combines historical background with contemporary debates concerning the ongoing evolution of the city and it's public spaces. Unlike Karen Till's The New Berlin: Memory, Politics, Place, Ladd's text is highly readable and never gets bogged down in jargon or discipline-specific language. Till, in contrast, has an approach she refers to as "geo-ethnography", wherein she seeks to better understand the intersections of "personal hauntings" and "social hauntologies"; she informs the reader that her text is "unconventional" because she didn't want to "create an artificial narrative coherence defined by an ethnographic present" and that it reflects her "shifting positionalities". Ugh.
These texts share a reoccurring postwar meme: Germans arguing about the historical and moral significance  of a particular geographical site. These arguments often expand into debates about the very essence of German national identity. In America, we see these kinds of arguments less frequently--and most vociferously when development threatens to encroach on former Civil War battlefields. Should we allow a casino to open its doors in Gettysburg? In Berlin there are multiple layers of ruins, each layer as fascinating and fraught with moral significance as the last. For my money, almost no site is as spectacular as that of the Reichstag, with its Italian Renaissance design, bullet-scarred facade, and ultra-modern dome. The fates of other structures/spaces have evoked greater passions, however, such as the now demolished East German Palace of the Republic (to be replaced by a reconstruction of the old Hohenzollern Royal Palace).

In today's New York Times, Nicholas Kulish describes another confrontation over the fate of a Berlin landmark. Kunsthaus Tacheles--a former department store and magnet for artists (and tourists)--faces development. While the Nazis used it to house prisoners of war,  the fate of this site is less about Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung than it is about the city's future identity. Will Berlin maintain it's "edginess", or will development transform it into a more bourgeois city like Hamburg.

Damage to Majdanek

AP reports that a fire burnt down half of one of the barracks buildings at Majdanek last night. Majdanek was one of six Vernichtungslager or "extermination camps" that the Nazis constructed in 1941. At this point, the cause of the fire is still under investigation, with the likely culprit a recent power outage. The most upsetting result of the fire was the loss of approximately 10,000 pairs of shoes belonging to former victims.
Earlier this year, flooding threatened Auschwitz-Birkenau as well. I suppose it's inevitable that these strucutures ultimately succumb to the elements. I wonder how long museums to Auschwitz and other death camps will stick around? Will they have the longevity of sites like the Dome of the Rock or Trajan's Column? Will future generations still want or need them around?

Above is the memorial to the victims of Majdanek. It also houses the ashes of the dead.