Posted on 06/26/2005 1:37:09 PM PDT by americanbychoice2
Berlin Outrage: Checkpoint Charlie Monument to be Bulldozed July 4th We didn't think it could get much worse in Germany...well, it just did. Davids Medienkritik recently learned that the Berlin city government, made up of a coalition between the SPD (Gerhard Schroeder's Social-Democrats) and the PDS (former SED party that ran Communist East Germany), has decided to allow the razing of the Checkpoint Charlie monument by court order.
And get this: The monument, which consists of over 1,000 crosses adorned with the names of those murdered attempting to escape Communist East Germany for freedom, will be bulldozed on the 4th of July!
The Checkpoint Charlie monument scheduled for destruction July 4th in Berlin: Each cross has the name, and in some cases, photo of a victim of Communism murdered attempting to escape East Germany during the Cold War.
Berlin's Socialist-Communist City Government: Massive Conflict of Interest
What makes this story all the more disturbing is the obvious conflict of interest involved. As we indicated above, the Communist PDS is currently a member of the coalition that governs the city of Berlin. But prior to 1990, the PDS was known as the SED, the party that ruled East Germany with an absolutist iron fist. It was the SED dictatorship that was directly responsible for the hundreds of murders that the crosses at Checkpoint Charlie memorialize. And guess what? The PDS wants the monument torn down!
To justify their decision, both members of the SPD and PDS have described the Checkpoint Charlie monument as an eye-sore or as something that trivializes the Cold War by turning the city into a Disneyland-style theme park. (How solemn rows of crosses with the names and faces of those murdered by the SED government could possibly make any place seem like Disneyland is something that perhaps only members of Germany's Left can truly comprehend.) According to Deutsche Welle:
"The Berlin Senate for Urban Planning, one of the project's main detractors, fears that the capital is fast becoming a "Disneyland" version of its former self and insists the wall monument is too reminiscent of the Holocaust project at the Brandenburg Gate. The authority stresses that the East German dictatorship cannot be equated with the atrocities of the Third Reich."
In other words, the Communists in Berlin's city government don't want to be constantly reminded of the murders that the SED dictatorship committed during the Cold War. How unpleasant that would be for them! So they would rather bulldoze the entire thing on July 4th and associate the monument with Disneyland, a place that many Germans see as a symbol of trivial American commercialization.
President Bush Ought to Ask Schroeder About the Monument's Destruction
Certainly, we feel that the outrageous timing of the monument's destruction is incredibly insensitive not only to the families of those killed at the wall, but also to all those Americans and their families who served in Berlin and around Germany during the Cold War. To bulldoze this monument on a date that symbolizes liberty to millions of Americans around the world is an incredibly insulting gesture. We hope that President Bush brings the matter up with Chancellor Schroeder tomorrow during their White House meeting. Hopefully the media present at the meeting will also quiz Mr. Schroeder on the matter.
Need Another Reason to Demonstrate?
This much we can say: Davids Medienkritik will absolutely, positively bring the matter up tomorrow during our demonstration at Lafayette park in Washington, DC. We will also be supporting plans already underway to demonstrate in Berlin on July 4th should the plans to raze the monument go ahead unchanged.
Like Disneyland? How can Schroeder's SPD Support the Monument's Destruction on July 4th of all Days?
I don't know if it makes a difference, but they are not going to bulldoze the museum.
The museum is open and in business as recently as two weeks ago when I drove by it, and nothing is happening to it. The headline is lying for effect, which is too bad, because it is so unnecessary.
What they are bulldozing is a monument that was build on land a block away from the museum which is decorated with crosses to memorialize the people who died trying to escape East Germany and Communism.
I guess when the museum is no more it will mean that those of us who were assigned to Germany during the Cold War were never there. I had four tours in Germany: one in the sixties, one in the seventies, and two in the eighties, and did my share of getting cold, wet, and muddy at "garden spots" like Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels. I was there when the Berlin Wall fell. Hey, Germany and the rest of Europe! Next time you need somebody to save your rear ends, call on somebody else!
Berlin has innumerable official monuments and reminders to communicate the horror of the holocaust, including a very haunting memorial just opened one block from the Brandenburg Gate. The Germans are absolutely committed never to forget what can happen when a civilized society surrenders itself to racial hatred, and they are absolutely not sweeping their history under a rug.
Of course they're not, they're just bulldozing Checkpoint Charlie because they'll remember their post-war sins better that way.
They've got a LOT to remember. I guess killing their own for wanting freedom doesn't fit so well these days, when they'd probably like a more...uh, "progressive" society.
Well, the story is not as bad as it seems upon further research.
The (private) monument of crosses has been there since october of 2004 (for 8 months) on leased property. The lease has expired and the bank from which the property was leased wants its land cleared. A court has ruled, the the organizers of the monument must clear the land.
agree, not as bad as thought
The article is vastly misleading. The "checkpoint charlie
museum" is an initiative by a private person and was
installed on leased property, the leasing contract expired
2004-12-31 and the bank, who owns the property, didnt want
crosses and graves any more (or, they speculated that they
could actually sell the property for a hefty profit)
The parties went to court, and the judge decided in favor
of the property owner. Four out of five experts rated the
whole thing more a tourist attraction laden with historical inaccuracies than a piece of art or a memorial.
The date (4th july) set for razing the whole shebang is
totally coincidental. Its not that checkpoint charlie
is flattened after all.
The whole episode, of course, went ballistic with the
private initiator, the bank, the ruling political parties
and the opposition parties all slinging large amounts of
mud at each other.
We have many things to be disappointed with the current German politicians about, but this "closing" seems to be blown up out of proportion.
I think that the excellent museum is staying open, this is some other monument. The Checkpoint Charlie museum is excellent. I went for the third time earlier this year-- it is always impressive to see the creativity of the people trying to flee totalitarian rule.
And, the Germans and Austrians have kept a number of the Concentration camps open as a vivid reminder of the Holocaust. I just visited one in Austria- Mauthausen-- that was the last to be liberated by the Americans. They have kept most of the buildings and the Stairs of Death untouched, including the ovens and the gas chamber.
Dachau, Auschwitz, and many more are still there as reminders.
My personal favorite exhibit at Haus am Checkpoint Charlie was the mini-sub designed by an East German engineer. After he used it to escape, he marketed his device in the west to divers.
Does Germany celebrate America's Independence Day? If so, why? In my international dealings (daily) most countries do not "celebrate" the USA's national holidays.
Except for this history...
No, they don't celebrate it.
I don't see why people are upset about Schröder's New Germany. After all, we taught them a lesson in 1918 and they've scarecly troubled us since then.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Ping and notice of a Washington demonstration.
It's the crosses that are the problem. They want to use ones that are equal length and have these kinda crossbars on the end... it's an ancient good luck symbol, at least if you're inclined to be authoritarian.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
If the museum is staying open, that's good. But I still remember all the "Ami Go Home!" signs that appeared at the end of the Cold War, when the Germans felt like they didn't need us any more. Well, we DID go home, and we took our money with us. I understand that the little German towns that used to make money gouging the Americans would love to have the nasty old Amis (and their money) back. I will really enjoy watching American troops leave Germany for Romania and Bulgaria.
It is not Checkpoint Charlie nor any official memorial
that is going, its a private installation of crosses and
graves.
Imagine Smarty Greedo leasing property 2 blocks away from
ground zero, erecting 3.000 crosses and putting up a sign
that reads "All you ever wanted to know about 9/11" because
the city council was too slow and had no concept.
Dont think the mayor would like that one a bit.
Me too, and I look forward to having a bunch of them move back to the States. We can deploy them most places from here faster than from overseas, esp. when you factor in diplomatic niceties...
Note to future victorious governments: write a permanent museum requirement into every armistice with mandatory resumption of hostilities if the vanquished tries to erase the evidence of their crimes.
Yes, we can't have people erecting memorials to those killed by communism. That'd be terrible. Only The State can choose who to memorialize. Cough.
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