After traveling across Berlin for the past week, it was easy to get a feel for the city and its rich history. While walking through the different museums, it was startling to see the language used to articulate the atrocities of the past. In the previous countries we toured, such as France and Poland, they were less explicit in their language describing their involvement with the Third Reich. One example is the Topography of Terror Museum, where they had a photo of notorious SS Officers during a retreat with a caption explaining they were “Taking a break from mass murder.” The bluntness of the speech is shocking and I believe that is the intention. It is clear that the museum had written the passages to stay with the visitors and learn from the lessons of the past. This made me reflect on how Americans present our own history. It is unlikely to find text presented in museums that would describe our actions that bluntly in regards to our atrocities, such as slavery and the genocide of the Native Americans. It has made me reevaluate how Americans treat our own history and how we educate future generations.
To educate ourselves on the present, we visited the Reichstag building It was fascinating to see how the current government of Germany is run and designed on the principles of democracy. Our delightful tour guide explained the design of the Parliament chambers highlighting the focus on the democratic principle of putting the people first by allowing citizens to walk above the chamber in the large dome top. Our guide went on to explain the current distribution of power that has come from the aftermath of the Second World War. While our focus is in the past, it is important to see how the past can reverberate through time and still effect today. I could not help but draw ties between the German and American governments. In the United States, we pride ourselves on our democratic principles and serve as a model for other countries to follow. However, the presentation we received showed that Germany had taken the lessons of WWII and the Cold War and used those to create a democracy that actually works for the people and not to serve an elite.
Lastly, a common theme throughout this trip was that most people we encountered knew a basic level of English. When going to restaurants and museums, I was fearful that my lack of German skills would be an issue in communication. However, most people had enough English skills to make ordering easy. This got me thinking as to why it is that most people speak English and German in Germany. One possibility we discussed over breakfast was if Germany had won the war and successfully created a global superpower, then most people would have German as their first or second language, rather than English. Overall, the theme of our time in Berlin was that the actions of the past still affect us today and we can either learn from it or hide from it.
Inside the Reichstag building where the current Parliament meets.