STOP #3 — BERLIN
Our journey around Germany has come to an end, and I would love to reflect on our last stop of the trip — Berlin. This vibrant, chaotic, diverse, innovative, and culturally rich city reflects Germany’s complicated history, which has endured multiple challenging periods including WWII, the Cold War, and Reunification. It is a city that constantly reinvents itself, embracing its diverse cultural influences while remaining at the cutting edge of art, music, and social movements. Berlin is a place where one can speak about social sustainability because it unites so many different cultures. It is a prime example of cultural integration and a perfect place to study social sustainability.
One day of the trip was heavily devoted to the cultural history of the city and Germany as a whole. We began by visiting the DDR Museum, a hands-on portrayal of life in Germany prior to Reunification. This place is where I would recommend starting to understand the reasons for the country’s division into East and West. The mock apartment looks exactly like any other flat in the country; the selection of consumer goods is limited, and someone is constantly watching over you. It is not surprising why the eastern part of Berlin is so rebellious — people finally gained the freedom they had dreamed of for 30 years. “You have to be there to understand,” and the DDR Museum serves the purpose of providing this opportunity. That’s why the museum is very interactive and allows its visitors to touch every single exhibit. It highlights the most important theme: no one was poor, but not a single average GDR resident was wealthy. Everything had to be equal.
The second half of the day was devoted to a walking tour around the city. Something that caught my attention significantly was Checkpoint Charlie, the border crossing between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. Our tour guide, Federica, mentioned two things that I am still thinking about. She told us about people trying to escape by digging tunnels underneath the Berlin Wall, but due to its zigzagging shape, they would still end up in the East. Secondly, she spoke about the first two people to lose their lives trying to escape from East to West. One person tried to jump from the top floor attempting to land on the other side of the city, but unfortunately, they did not make it. The other was shot while trying to run. These stories keep me up at night because life in the GDR must have been so intolerable that people risked crossing the border knowing they could be killed. So, at the end of the tour, I saw the remaining part of the Berlin Wall, grey on one side and covered with graffiti on the other.
In Berlin, I also learned about the migrant mix. According to the history of Germany, the Western Bloc invited Turkish immigrants to help rebuild the country, while socialist states wanted people from Vietnam. Turkish greengrocers are most likely to be found in former West Berlin, while Vietnamese stores are a hallmark of the East. Finally, something I learned from my friend back home, I was able to see during the trip was the night in Berlin. To be more exact, the picture of Berlin taken at night from the satellite shows how streetlights in the former East Berlin appear more orange while those in the western part of the city are yellow. Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Berlin is still divided by light. Old sodium-vapor lamps were commonly used in the East, while the West used fluorescent lamps generating brighter light. Interestingly, they were also cheaper and better for the environment. My friend recently moved to the Eastern side and highlighted that it is certainly cheaper to get an apartment in East Berlin.
We lived in the eastern part of the city, meaning that 30 years ago, that part belonged to the GDR. With the whole group or independently, we explored the districts, streets, houses, and subway stations of ex-GDR Berlin, and my heart almost ached. I was miles away from home, but that infrastructure was so painfully familiar, as if I had never left my home country, yet I was in Germany, one of the leading European countries. “Everything had to be the same”. There is one difference I noticed, however: East Berlin’s infrastructure was breaking the shield of former socialism. In certain places, it was bold and eye-catching, as if those colorful and unusual spots were hiding the scars of its history. While eastern Berlin is recovering from its past, the differences between the eastern and western parts are obviously noticeable. This is the reason why East Berlin is more touristy: it offers more fun stuff to do. The west side was the quiet corporate world of the city. Thirty years ago, Westerners were covering the west side of the Berlin Wall with graffiti, but today, once a socialist district, East Berlin, is all covered in art.
I mentioned it already: I was the first or the second generation to grow up in the post-soviet country but back at home. So as a 2000s child, I have several questions left that I wish to find answers to when I come back to this beautiful and vibrant city! What are the perspectives of younger generations, who grew up after reunification, on the lingering divisions and disparities within Berlin? Are there generational differences in attitudes towards diversity, integration, and social cohesion among Berlin citizens? How do these vary across different communities or neighborhoods?
#Berlin
