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?
Schinders List: Scene in the Concentration Camp, "Today we make History" "Its a rumor, it never happened"
I am sorry if I offended you (I don't know if you are German), but when people get called a plague of locusts they tend to lash back. And no, I still can't imagine that the decision to demolish this museum just "happened" to fall on July 4. It is simply too much of a coincidence.
Insult? I found it insulting that no where in the museum was there a mention of President Reagen. Hey, I guess I am overestimating the importance of his work in bringing down the wall.
"In this case, they are exercising their right to be assholes."
That I can't disagree with but is it their option.
One thing I remember is that we had to be in uniform to "tour" East Berlin, and everyone we encountered pointedly ignored us. About a year after that, the Wall came down. I wish I could've been there for THAT! But I was already stateside by then.
The museum should stay to remind everyone of the evil that was the communist bloc; I saw it with my own eyes, and it was chilling.
I'm pretty sure the Stasi archives have a photo of my buttocks stashed away.
I got in trouble at Checkpoint Charlie too. Carrying too much crap back from the East.
Ah, those were the days.
Good luck!!
Plus, if they get rid of the history, it'll make it easier for them to repeat it. Looks like that's what they want to do.
If they get rid of their perceived Disneyland they will replace Schroeder's SPD with a perceived cuckoo clock.
"Those who forget the past..."
btt
I wonder if someone couldn't get those crosses and re-establish that memorial over here? It is beautiful, really.
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