Friday, June 6, 2008

Berlin Final Thoughts

Berlin is all at once a contradiction of itself. capitalist and anti-establishment. Nature and City. Historic and Modern. It is the new Germany. From the Reichstadt that is a shell of a historic building with the transparent guts of a brand new building, Berlin does not forget its past. It doesnt mention it much either.

Berliners left an impression on me as well. Strict and drab on the surface, Berliners enjoy life to the fullest. They dont seem to care that their building is littered with graffiti, if it means rent is cheaper, so be it. Im sure those that can remember worse times feel that is the least of their worries. I wonder what the new generation will expect, the one that grew up in a reunified Germany free of war and enlightened on the perils of starting one. I hope they dont take the hard lessons their past generation had to learn for granted.

The city itself is an odd duck. On the one hand it wants to be this new clean modern city with historic elements to it, but on the other it still has rough edges, or at least what I as an American would perceive to be hard edges. The streets are designed for pedestrians and bike. Narrow vehicular pathways and wide strolling sidewalks in rebuilt areas are a great amenity to the city. But it's things like the unfinished parks and litter and the crazy parking situations that make it seem still a bit wild and rebellious.

Lets talk Nazis, shall we? Visiting Templhoff today, the Nazi-designed airport, I am reminded at how great the architecture was for it's time. But today, it is half its worth in design. The Berlin government announced this week that they will be closing Templhoff, the site of the Berlin Airlifts, the symbol for the New World Order when it comes to technology, what I remember most about germany as a kid in the Indiana Jones Movies. Today the airport sits without it's original ornamentation, a sacrifice that had to be done. It has been augmented, stripped, revamped and repainted on the interior too, attempts to modernize a historical building that went wrong.

To me it isnt the fact that i love what the Nazis stood for but I can appreciate the buildings they build. The exude national pride and dominance. Giving their people something to be proud of to should their grandchildren. They embody what was the new German government, even though it was the wrong government, it was a very powerful one and you can still see that through the layers of dirt and bad paint jobs. I find their style of architecture to be very modern even to this day. It is a shame a lot of it was lost in bombing raids and destruction post defeat, it would of been interesting to see some of that today. Even East Germany's heritage is going away, they are in the process of tearing down the parliment for the GDR, a building that saw 70 million visitors in only the 40 years of its existance, pretty impressive numbers!

Point being, Berlin is a proud city. They are a rebellious city. From tagging of buildings to protesting milk prices their people are involved, engaged and alive, loving or loathing what their government is doing and not afraid to speak their opinion about it. The buildings themselves show their pride and new found transparency. It's a city worth visiting, should be on everyone's list and a place to revisit for sure.

No comments: