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When History Didn't End in Germany
Townhall.com ^ | October 31, 2014 | Suzanne Fields

Posted on 10/31/2014 2:52:08 PM PDT by Kaslin

RUGEN, Germany. Americans groove on the exhilaration of argument and accusation as the midterm elections finally approach, but here in Germany there's the bitter remembrance of what it was like to have none of the above. Trading barbs and insults is the American way of campaigning, but East Germans recall fear, not free speech, as reams of barbed wire and blocks of cement turned into a wall and lookouts with guards who were ordered to shoot any of their own people trying to flee their encircled prison of a country.

An American visitor quickly becomes aware of sharp contrasts in the memory of Germans. The audacities of free speech, vigorous debate and the excesses are the heartbeat and heartburn of our politics, but many Germans who grew up in the East remember hidden tapes, tapped phones and government surveillance of anyone in the communist German Democratic Republic who questioned or criticized the state. They continue to mourn those who died in flight, who were shot or drowned in canals, trapped in tunnels or taken from their apartments, betrayed by neighbors and "friends." (The snooping through Angela Merkel's telephone conversations by the U.S. National Security Agency sounded particularly ominous and frightful in German ears.)

The Germans celebrate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9. Technically, it's a celebration of the collapse of the fortress that kept the Soviet section of Berlin walled-off from freedom in the American, British and French sectors. Visitors were allowed in, but those who lived there couldn't leave. The observance is a study of the deeper meaning of freedom, the achievements of German unification, German success in the European Union and the exposure of the failures and cruelties of communism.

Germany is eager to move beyond its guilty past, which runs from the atrocities of the Third Reich through the abuses of communist rule. But the past is not dead, as William Faulkner famously observed, because the past is not even past. Memory keeps it alive.

The other night I rode in a bicycle taxi in Berlin to tour the "Festival of Lights," to see historic buildings illuminated with beautiful projections of light in spectacular colors. One building was bathed in the colors of dancing flames, and it pulled from memory, albeit unintentionally, the burning of the Reichstag in 1933, set by the Nazis to blame on the Jews, an early warning of the Holocaust to come.

Rugen, an island in the Baltic Sea, recalls quieter but no less sad days. Binz, the chief town, is a resort the burghers describe as "Brighton for Berliners" or "Nice of the North." Such exaggeration would have stretched the nose of Pinocchio, but it was once one of the few seaside resorts accessible to East Germans. The communist commissars flew to Cuba to frolic in the sun and sip rum from coconuts, but others had to satisfy themselves with Binz.

Innkeepers were denounced as enemies of the state, convicted in kangaroo courts of the crime of owning property, as "agents" of the West. Their property was confiscated. Many were imprisoned. How different today.

Now streets are lined with shops with crowded shelves, and customers are eager to buy pottery, jewelry, clothes and paintings by local artists. Families crowd the cobbled boardwalk or take a stroll on the beach, where children in trendy down jackets and boots build castles in the fine white sand. They're on the lookout for amber washing ashore. Amber is made into expensive jewelry, on sale in a shop called "Bernstein" (a nice irony, that).

The October sea temperature is much too cold for swimming, but in the summer there's a nude beach where one dog lover boasts of swimming naked with her dachshund and the swans. The island once more resembles the picturesque seaside visited in the 1930s by Albert Einstein and Christopher Isherwood, author of "Berlin Stories," featuring Sally Bowles, the eccentric cafe singer of satirical songs.

German culture notoriously mixes the lightness of being with the dark side of the soul, plumbed by Goethe and Beethoven. A short bus ride to Prora takes a visitor to a holiday camp built by Hitler to change the attitudes of the workers whose trade unions he destroyed. Three miles of hideous buildings constructed of reinforced concrete recall the indoctrination of workers required to sup on Nazi propaganda of "Strength through Joy." There wasn't much joy. The resort was abandoned, unfinished, in 1939 when Germany went to war against the West. The East German government used it later for military barracks.

Developers, lured by tax breaks, are busy renovating the buildings into something more joyful, and modern condominiums with saunas, swimming pools and sea views go for 700,000 euros, or about $900,000. The development is called "The Colossus of Prora." That's advertising hyperbole, but private property is back, testimony to the power of a free market. As the narrator of the old black-and-white newsreel use to say, "Time marches on."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Germany
KEYWORDS: berlin; berlinwall; germanpolitics

1 posted on 10/31/2014 2:52:08 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The Nazis blamed the Reichstag fire on the Communists. The fire allowed Hitler as chancellor to institute a clause in the Weimar Constitution called the ‘’Enabling Act’’ which effectively put the country under a state of martial law.


2 posted on 10/31/2014 3:06:26 PM PDT by jmacusa (Liberalism defined: When mom and dad go away for the weekend and the kids are in charge.)
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To: Kaslin

East Germany mostly votes for the leftist scum. Reunification was a mistake for the West.


3 posted on 10/31/2014 6:57:30 PM PDT by Impy (Voting democrat out of spite? Then you are America's enemy, like every other rat voter.)
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To: Impy

The 2.5 million Turks imported by the West Germans also vote 90% Socialist.

Is there any country in the world where “Conservative” politicians are not aggressively working to destroy their own political party?


4 posted on 10/31/2014 9:58:45 PM PDT by zeestephen
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To: zeestephen

Over the past ten years, the SPD gets fewer and fewer votes each election...with the losses going to smaller and lesser parties. Germany has six minor parties which likely get 40-percent of the national vote these days. Everyone can find something out there, which they tend to agree with. As for the Turks? I think they are mostly split up among the SPD and four of the minor parties.


5 posted on 10/31/2014 11:47:55 PM PDT by pepsionice
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To: pepsionice

I didn’t mean to imply that 90% voted for SPD, just that Turks vote for Socialist parties, the SPD and Greens in particular, and the Muslim Party (BIG).

I don’t think the CDU/CSU have ever even sponsored a Turkish candidate, have they?

I can only find one English language exit poll that mentions the Turks, and it claims 20% voted for CDU, which is a shock to me, if true.

And, I found another shock while researching - just 700,000 Turks are registered to vote in Germany. In contrast, there are 1.5 million German Turks who are registered to vote in Turkey!


6 posted on 11/01/2014 2:23:54 AM PDT by zeestephen
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To: zeestephen

At some point last year, I remember some story of a Turkish business owner, who picked up an endorsement from the CDU for a mayors job (small town though).

The Greens pick a topic or two to influence Islamic votes....the SPD does practically nothing, and the Linke Party would never get into the discussion. BIG is an urban party that picks up some votes in major Islamic neighborhoods in central Germany.

Presently, I just don’t see enough influence in Germany over any election and trying to get Turk voters. The hooligans/right wing would wind up in the mix, and you’d just get negative public sentiment. As for the 700,000 registered Turk voters? It’s mostly a statement that they don’t care about German politics....they are strictly here for the jobs, stability, and lifestyle. That’s it.


7 posted on 11/01/2014 2:52:10 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: Kaslin

I was stationed in West Berlin from 84-88 and crossed into East Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie many times. The rapidity in which the Berlin Wall, and the rest of the Communist empire, collapsed was nothing short of stunning.


8 posted on 11/01/2014 6:27:19 AM PDT by ops33 (Senior Master Sergeant, USAF (Retired))
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To: pepsionice
I'm going to look in on your websites this afternoon, when I have more time.

Re: pepsi-on-ice

When I grew up, a kid's family was either a “Coke family” or a “Pepsi family,” and I'm not kidding when I say that serious confrontational arguments were common.

Interestingly, the grandfather of the kids who lived across the street from us owned a Pepsi distributorship in Ohio.

But, my Dad was in the hotel business, and we sold Cokes exclusively.

Of course, my Mom was in charge of everything, and we only got to drink one Coke a week, on Sunday, after church and Sunday School, when my Dad stopped in to check on things at the hotel.

9 posted on 11/01/2014 9:55:27 AM PDT by zeestephen
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To: zeestephen

In the early 1980’s at a very popular restaurant a high level Cocoa Cola executive ordered a coke with his lunch. He was served a Pepsi, this was a fountain soda so there was no can or bottle and the exec noticed the difference and made a really big stink to the management. Shortly thereafter, the restaurant had all their menus, drink napkins and coasters reprinted to say “WE DO NOT SERVE COCOA COLA PRODUCTS”


10 posted on 11/01/2014 10:05:38 AM PDT by Zeneta (Thoughts in time and out of season.)
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To: Zeneta

Quite a few years back, the wife of an employee at a Coke bottler brought him lunch from a fast food restaurant that served just Pepsi.

A Coke senior manager was also in the lunch room and told the employee he could not drink the Pepsi unless he went off property.

The employee refused, drank the Pepsi inside the Coke lunch room, and they fired him.

The case went on for years in court, and last time I heard all the judges involved had upheld the original firing.

The fired employee claimed the judges were biased Coke drinkers!


11 posted on 11/01/2014 10:22:22 AM PDT by zeestephen
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bump


12 posted on 11/02/2014 6:09:26 AM PST by foreverfree
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To: ops33

I was there after you left. 1990. We took the UBahn to Alexander Platz when it finally opened. This was the subway station the trains went past because it was in the East. Armed guards could be seen when the train rushed thru....

Anyway, we (I was TDY at Templehoff—staying upstairs right by the bowling alley) got off on this newly opened station and went upstairs/outside to see the glory that was communism... And the first and only store there was named “International Sex Shop”.


13 posted on 11/02/2014 6:32:27 AM PST by Alas Babylon!
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To: Alas Babylon!

Two little stories.

In the seventies when the Soviets allowed Jews to emigrate our design-engineering hired one of these refugees. He came over with his wife and 3 kids. After the first two weeks he was telling us of the amazing American movies he and wife had seen...on NYC 42nd street, porn theater alley at the time.

When I flew into West Berlin in Aug ‘68, the demarcation between East and West was stark viewed from the air. Red tile roofs, visible window flower boxes blooming, bright green trees in the West and an ashen dull gray colorless cast over the East.

Took the walk along the wall at various points. At one spot across from an Eastern watch tower some AH on the western side picked up a sizeable rock and bounced in his hand. Immediately the Russian(?) Pulled back the bolt on his mg. I boogied out fast. Some people just weren’t paying attention that the Ivans and Vopos were still shooting people along the border at the time.


14 posted on 11/02/2014 6:59:46 AM PST by Covenantor ("Men are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern." Chesterton)
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To: Zeneta
Check out the movie: "One, Two, Three" (1961) with James Cagney and directed by Billy Wilder.

Cagney portrays the Coca-Cola distributor in West Berlin.

15 posted on 11/02/2014 3:24:53 PM PST by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Implementing class warfare by having no class.)
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To: Covenantor
Some people just weren’t paying attention that the Ivans and Vopos were still shooting people along the border at the time.

Even at people on the other side? I thought they only shot at escapees (real and potential)?

ff

16 posted on 11/04/2014 4:39:22 AM PST by foreverfree
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To: foreverfree

You know, I can’t remember a specific instance, but when I can see and hear the bolt of a heavy russian machine being pulled back and swung in the direction of my group, it was a case of feets get moving.

Back then, believe it or not, I couldn’t google “East German border killings” on my smartphone before snapping a selfie with the wall and MG in the bakground.


17 posted on 11/04/2014 6:27:36 AM PST by Covenantor ("Men are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern." Chesterton)
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To: Kaslin
The failure of the DDR always reminds me of the photo of this East German soldier escaping to the West:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mTaarJ7PJLU/SvadTPQ52BI/AAAAAAAABlY/x5ojWFFKVO4/s1600/berlin%2Bwall%2Beast%2Bgerman%2Bsoldier%2Bescapes.jpg

18 posted on 11/04/2014 4:13:45 PM PST by Does so (SCOTUS Newbies Imperil USA...)
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