History and the Underbelly of Berlin

Berlin is an amazing city, one filled with a visible history that actually embodies all of the senses and an artistic underbelly that may be shaded from the public view, but gives clues to its existence for those who look.

The first day I was in Berlin I took a full day history tour with a bloke who worked in British intellegence during the war and lived in Berlin before, during and after the Berlin wall. He even claims he rode a bicycle down a section of the wall right before it came down. It is alarming how obvious Berlin has been marked by its past. There is a double cobblestone line that marks where the wall was that still demonstrates the divide between East and West Berlin. As scary as it is, one of the cabbies I hired to help find my way back into my Eastern Berlin hostel spoke of Berlin as if the wall was still up. That East Berlin is full of communists and the fare differences between staying in West Berlin or driving over into the East. Scary stuff. For so many of us, it is difficult to imagine how a war can shape the physical landscape of a country or city so permanently. Berlin has blocks of recently built structures that are only new because there was nothing left after WWII, but these structures so how Berlin is trying to heal and rebuild. Then, there are also permanent scars, such as the monuments and maintained WWII structures that show how somethings will never heal, will never build new flesh.

Through the clearly evident healing gashes and remaining scars that make up this city, there is also a shaded alternative part that reveals itself through the street art that fills the underpasses and alleys of Berlin. If you keep an eye out, you can find the multitude of 6's and internet lingo that fills any space that needs to be reconstructed or painted over, and the little girl killing her cat in creative ways; both are trademarks of well-known street artists. This is the side of Berlin that has thrown up its hands and demands attention for the Berlin that was and still may be, the side that really doesn't give a f--- (yes, family and coworkers, this is really the only way to put it). Berlin may fall under the EU's indoor smoking ban, but that doesn't stop bars from providing ashtrays or people from smoking isnide. Illegality also doesn't stop artists from pasting up their artwork, painting their crew's symbol on the city's walls and roofs or from squatting abandoned department stores to provide a free space for any artist to produce any type of art. Berlin is in many ways daring and unashamed.

Both sides are incredibly compelling, but also unnerving. To have someone point out Hitler's bunker or where Hitler made a bunch of his fateful decisions winds you in a way that only standing where you know for a fact a dictator had is able to. The same thing happened when Katie Johnson and I went to this art show in a historically protected (and graffiti saturated) alleyway. It is named Monsters in the Basement or Monster Basement, or some combination of "monster" and "basement" that I can't quite remember. These animated structures used to line streets in Paris but then were moved to Berlin and now function as part of an art exhibit that is led by a professional actor. I can't even say what it was exactly, but it left us with the weirdest feeling that is still fading from my memory. We left the basement with this odd sense of foreboding, which wasn't helped by seeing a car drive backwards up a street soon after we emerged from the basement, or when we got lost later that evening trying to find Katie's study abroad hotel somewhere in West Berlin.

Although thsi doesn't really fit with the post, I had to show a picture of the ping pong bar!

For me, Berlin serves as a reminder that giving yourself too fully into anything is dangerous. Art is a beautiful thing that can inspire and give meaning to someone's life, but falling too deeply into art as a lifestyle can leave you broke, living in an abandoned building that is facing foreclosure. The same goes for power--power, when handled correctly, has the possibility to accomplish much in terms of progress and can vastly improve the conditions of living. I don't even have to go into what happens when power is welded by hands that are irresponsibile and too hungry. Such a fine line, but this line isn't always marked by double cobblestones. Actually, let's keep it that way.