20 years ago, the Berlin wall came crashing down and East Berlin was for the first time open to the West. A country divided since their humiliating and horrifying defeat in the second World War was faced with the opportunity to become a unified land with the hope of becoming a modern nation.
Last night, Berlin celebrated this monumental event with a huge gathering at the Brandenburger Tör. It was a cold, rainy, typical Berlin November evening, and people turned out in droves to the once abandoned area that has become so symbolic as a meeting of East and West Germany and Berlin. The plaza and its surrounding streets in both directions--leading into the sprawling parks of the Tiergarten and the historical and monumental Unter den Linden--were closed and prepared days in advance for the evening of remembrance and celebration. I turned up with a friend around 18:00 with no umbrella and insufficient footware. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised by the police presence or by the tight security, but this celebration seemed to be an ironic presentation of the symbol and ideals it stood for. I passed through more than one gate to get to my unimpressive spot to the side of the main presentation area. Not only was I not able to see the grounds in front of the gate, I was positioned behind a giant screen that eventually would show images of what was happening only a few hundred feet away.
After a couple hours in the rain with anxious and eager Germans and many, many tourists, I decided to go home to strip off my socks and watch from my own screen in my living room--albeit smaller than the screen offered at the Brandenburg Gate.
In German class we talked about November 9. In Germany, not only is this day remembered for its significance in 1989, but for its first appearance in the history of the country: 1938. Known as Kristallnacht, or "the night of broken glass," this was a huge night of violation against German Jews under National Socialism. 99 Jews were killed, at least 25,000 were arrested and taken to concentration camps, and Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues were ransacked and destroyed. The earlier recognition of this date obviously does not stand for the ideals upheld by most Germans of today, but these problems do still exist. The tension between Germans and the much smaller Jewish population of the unified Germany of today exists in massive doses, and I have been witness to the confrontation, avoidance, and even bitterness of this strained relationship on more than one occasion.
How was it that the country managed to produce an event 51 years after such an evening that today almost covers up this catastrophe completely? If this country is so determined to focus their efforts on their coming together as a people and breaking down barriers, how can they hide the fact that 71 years ago their government made an official effort to destroy an entire people--within their own border?
Watching the Mauerfall ("wall-fall") celebration from my television, I noticed something peculiar about the positioning of the spectator. Almost the entire plaza was left empty so that government leaders (including German Chancellor Angela Murkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and US Representative Hillary Clinton) could speak from the middle of a sprawling landscape filled with moving colored lights in front of the Brandenburg Gate. Immediately surrounding them were other government officials. Behind them were the people lucky (or rich) enough to have third row seats to the show packed with speeches and fireworks. The people of Berlin--those who chose to turn out--were stuck behind metal gates to the sides and back of the "performance space." They came to celebrate their walls coming down and found themselves where? Behind walls.
The whole ceremony was impressive, but it resembled little of the images or emotion expressed in photos or footage of the events that passed on November 9, 1989. Then a repressed people yearning for freedom were ecstatic to face the coming of a new age. Today, some Germans and many tourists came together to watch their leaders speak on a screen.
I don't know what the general consensus is about the events that occurred last night, but I know that the country still has a lot to do to come together, and I'm not so sure that the majority of the people living in this city really care about a celebration of event that has less and less to do with them.
Maybe Germans need a new reason to recognize November 9th as a historical day. It seemed a bit sugar coated to me.
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