Berlin: A (Recent) History

There was so much about Berlin's history that I learned on this trip - things I felt like I should have known already or heard mentioned, but didn't REALLY know or understand.  I was planning on writing something about Berlin's sordid past for people like me who thought they knew but really didn't, but then I figured I'd let my best pal and brother, the history major, the German-speaker, the former Berlin resident, write it.    So here's a guest post from my bruder, John!
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When Lauren asked me to write a ‘short, sweet, funny’ guest post about Berlin’s history, my initial reaction was, well, Berlin’s history is neither short, sweet, nor funny, so this will be a short post indeed! I mean, Berlin was founded back in the 12th century; established as the capital of a small militarized European country known Prussia during the 18^th and 19^th centuries; later served as the capital of the still militant German Empire that culminated in the tragedy of World War I and as the capital of Hitler’s yet again remilitarized Nazi Germany; and for another quarter of a century was bizarrely divided by into two halves by a 12-ft high, 96-mile concrete wall that came to symbolize the Cold War. But never one to pass up a challenge, here’s my best effort to give you a concise and entertaining primer on the Berlin history you received during those last two frantic weeks of high school but never really learned.

Recent European history has been dominated by the German Question: how would you like your Schnitzel? Or, what to do about a country that is, as Henry Kissinger once lamented, too big for Europe but too small for the world? Because Germany in general and Berlin in particular has been central to Europe’s most devastating wars, and because it was commonly believed that he who controls Berlin controls Europe, the four victors of World War II – the US, Russia/Soviet Union, Britain, and France – had what seemed a brilliant idea after a major war. Let’s just divide up Germany among us and we won’t have that pesky German problem any more. Perhaps like this:

But wait, what about Berlin, stuck way out there in the Soviet section? If those Americans/Commies control Berlin, they’ll control Europe! Which leads to another brilliant idea: we’ll just divide Berlin among us much like we did Germany. Like this:

But where one problem is solved, another one is created. What should the new Germany look like? Obviously democratic and capitalist and freedom-loving like us, said the Americans, British, and French. Obviously a communist utopia like us, said the Soviets. So in the end the Americans, British, and French simply merged their sectors and created democratic, capitalist West Germany, while the Soviet sector became communist East Germany. The American, British, and French sectors of Berlin became West Berlin, belonging to West Germany, and the Soviet half of Berlin was merged with East Germany. And the two lived side-by-side happily ever after!

Not so fast. Hundreds of thousands were fleeing East Germany for the West. So the East closed and secured the border. But having a little West German oasis in the heart of East Germany was still rather awkward, since people could escape simply by crossing into West Berlin. Kinda like locking your little sister in her room but leaving the back door escape unsecured. The solution? If you guessed “build a wall around West Berlin in the middle of the night when no one would expect it,” you’re basically correct. That’s what happened on 13 August 1961. In a matter of hours a fence closed off an entire city. Hope you weren’t visiting family or friends or a club on the East side that night! Because you’re now stuck.

And there you have it. Soon a barrier of chain fences, barbed wire and concrete walls, complete with land mines, tank traps, electric trip wires, and search lights, divided West and East Berlin for 28 years. Families and friends physically cut off from each other for decades. Many thousands tried to escape, several hundred died trying. There are two good picture slideshows of the Wall’s history, here and here.  But flash forward several decades, and thanks to the slow fracturing of the Soviet Union, growing political demonstrations against the government, a David Hasselhoff song, and a bureaucratic miscommunication, the Wall was finally opened on 9 November 1989. The city was reunited, the East German government collapsed, and the two Germanys were reunified within a year.

So why is this relevant for Lauren and Drew’s visit, or anyone’s visit to Berlin, you may be asking? It’s because Berlin isn’t some idyllic Bavarian town like Munich, it’s rough and gritty and under permanent construction. It bears the destruction of two world wars and the scarring of the Cold War division that ended a mere twenty years ago. On the surface, it’s ugly and harsh. But just scratch the surface and you’ll find the Berlin worth exploring. Touristy things that we dragged Lauren and Drew to see like the Brandenburg Gate, Alexanderplatz, East Side Gallery, and the Reichstag are only really interesting in this historical context. Hitler’s Germany, communist Germany, and hip, modern, multi-culti Germany collide here unavoidably: cozy biergartens sit (un)comfortably in the shadows of the barbed-wire death strips of the former Wall and hip neighborhoods display all manner of communist-era decor. This is what we tried to show Lauren and Drew during their visit (well, when they weren’t obsessing over our daughter!). And this is what I hope you remember when you plan your next visit here.

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John is a perpetual student who enjoys debating whether his doctoral work qualifies as a real job. He’s a lover of all things German. He and his wife once kept a blog, Life with Umlauts, detailing their exploits around Berlin. Maybe one day they’ll dust it off and add a new chapter.