Trivializing the Wall

7/30/2019 Trivializing the Wall

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Trivializing the WallFIRES, FILMS AND FASHION

1 German-Turkish Film "Head-On" Wins Berlinale

2 "Tainted Art" Controversy Surrounds Berlin Exhibition

3 The Yearning for Kraut Art

4 The Party's Over -- Life after MoMA

5 Lagerfeld Causes Cheap Chic Craze

6 Can Berlin Save German Pop?

7 Germany's Cultural Legacy on Ice

8 Berlin Becomes Fashionista Capital

9 Just Don't Mention the War

10 Great ExpectationsUnfulfilled

11 Film Portrays Hitler in Human Light

12 Trivializing the Wall

As Germany celebrates Tourism Day on Wednesday, a row has erupted over controversial

plans to rebuild a part of the Berlin Wall near one of the countrys most famous tourist

attractions, Checkpoint Charlie.

"A little to the left."

The symbol of

communist

oppression returns

On a rainy October

afternoon, Rainer P.

stood clad in a

green raincoat of

the kind worn by

border guards of

former Communist East Germany (GDR) and allowed himself to be photographed by a

group of tourists.

Business is good, he told DW-WORLD, pointing to his wares of Russian fur hats,green GDR police caps, a pile of medals, coins and other Cold War insignia. You can

almost always count on that here.

Here is Checkpoint Charlie, the former border crossing between the American and

Soviet sector and Berlins most famous Cold War symbol. And its not hard to follow

Rainer P.s business logic.
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Every few minutes, huge busloads of tourists alight at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum

that documents the spectacular escape bids undertaken by GDR citizens, disappear into

the scores of souvenir shops and snack bars lining either side of the street and photograph

the formidable You are now leaving the American Sector sign and mock US army

checkpoint built in 2001.

A monument to peace

The goings-on are

viewed distastefully

by many Berliners

as a crass tourist

attraction. And, in

recent weeks the

citys politicians

have been up in

arms over a new

plan by Alexandra Hildebrandt, the Ukrainian-born head of the Checkpoint Charlie

Museum, to resurrect a 140-meter strip of the Berlin Wall a few steps from its original

location near the former US army checkpoint.

Covered by huge plastic sheets to keep away onlookers, work is already underway on

setting up the 120 concrete slabs, preserved by Alexandra Hildebrandts late husband and

founder of the museum, on vacant land leased from a bank.

This will be a monument to peace and the victims of the Berlin Wall, Hildebrandt told

DW-WORLD. But, also a protest against the city of Berlin for the trivialization of the

place.

Hildebrandt, whose museum already enjoys cult status with 3,500 visitors a day, said her

aim was not to maximize profits, but to build something worthy of the sites significance.

The city of Berlin ignored it and allowed the site to turn into a rubbish dump,

Hildebrandt said.She however, refused to say whether the rebuilding of the Wall was an art exhibit or

confirm rumors she was planning a replica watchtower complete with a barbed-wire

perimeter.

Disneyland project

There are few takers for Hildebrandts controversial plans. Walter Momper, president of


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the Berlin state parliament last week lashed at what he described as a Disneyland

project.

Its an obvious commercial trick that we dont consider appropriately remembering the

victims of the Wall, Manuela Damianakis, a spokeswoman for the city planning

department told DW-WORLD. She added that the city was examining legal steps should

Mrs. Hildebrandt renege on her promise to remove the installation by the new year.

Others have

questioned the

historical accuracy

of the undertaking.

The artist initiative

East Side Gallery,

which has painted

over the longest

standing stretch of

the Berlin Wall in Berlins Friedrichshain district, have distanced themselves from the

rebuilding plans, saying it distorts history by not even being resurrected on its original

location.

Maria Nooke, head of the documentation center at the official Berlin Wall Memorial at

the Bernauer Strasse, said Checkpoint Charlie was certainly spectacular with its

documentation of the Cold War espionage system and its display of nifty gadgets used by

GDR citizens to try and escape.

But not all memorials can be that way, Nooke told DW-WORLD. The problem with

Checkpoint Charlie is that it fails to convey the entire horror of the Wall. It offers just an

exciting easy-to-market landscape, but it doesnt make the tourist pause and think about

the Wall.

Coherent Wall concept needed

Even as the row over rebuilding a part of the Wall simmers, some say that the dispute hashelped underline the need to draw up a comprehensive Wall concept for the city in light

of its enduring magnetism for tourists.

Almost 15 years since it was almost completely pulled down, awareness is now

increasing among politicians and the general public that the remains should be preserved,

Nooke said.


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The Wall was a

symbol of

repression and

division for people

on both sides for so

long, Nooke said.

You can imagine

the zeal with which

they tore it down.

Its only much later that people realized it was still such a tourist attraction in the city and

thus legitimate to preserve.

Dominique Krssen of the Berlin Senate for Culture, which plans to initiate a public

debate over how to deal with Wall memorials and remnants, said that the department was

also working on an electronic audio guide which would lead tourists to the historic places

and provide detailed information.

There hasnt been a coherent Wall concept so far, just remains of the Wall scattered over

the city -- a double row of cobblestones in some places to mark the former border and a

few disparate signs on the Wall victims, Krssen told DW-WORLD. It probably was a

mistake to tear it down to such a large extent in the early 1990s.

The whole spectacle at Checkpoint Charlie, which is privately owned, had spurred the

city to come up with a more decent approach to the memory of the Wall, she added.

Conveying the full horror

Nooke, however, cautioned that any concept had to keep in mind that each Wall memorial

was a strong reminder of a certain facet of the GDR.

For instance, Checkpoint Charlie documents Allied War history while the Bernauer

Strasse memorial captures the destruction of everyday lives in the GDR," Nooke said.

"That cant be tampered with. She added that staying true to the facts was paramount.

We cant always be thinking of presenting the tourists with something interesting," shesaid. "The most important thing is to transport the whole complexity and horror of the

Wall -- including the system that was behind it.DW.DE


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reconstruct the 43.1 kilometer concrete structure that once ran through the German capital

and divided its people. However, no imagination is needed to recall the ways in which the

Wall had a devastating effect on the lives of East Germans. More than 75,000 people

were imprisoned for trying to escape, and a total of 239 people were killed trying to get

over the Wall during its 28-year history. Only 5,043 managed to escape.

In some parts of

Berlin, small stones

and plaques are the

only remaining

reminders of the

city's Cold War

history

All thats visible

today is a double

row of cobblestones

in some parts of downtown Berlin to mark the original route of the wall, a few memorials

and plaques and truncated scraps of graffiti-splattered wall.

Did you know?

Bernauerstrasse -- the street that marks the boundary between the Mitte district, which

was part of the Soviet-occupied sector, and the French-controlled Wedding neighborhood

-- was a closed and heavily guarded border as well as the scene of several escape attempts

from the east to the west. Today it houses the Memorial of Division, which includes a 70-

meter section of the original wall and a documentation center about its history.

A short distance away, the Invalidenfriedhof cemetery also houses some stretches of the

Wall as well as a guard post tower. A large number of graves in the cemetery were moved

during the Cold War to make way for watchtowers and a tarmac-covered strip.

The Topography of

Terror Memorial in

BerlinPeter Wess says that

another important

part of the original

Berlin Wall is the

200-meter-long


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stretch in the Niederkirchnerstrasse that once marked the border between the eastern

district of Mitte and the western district of Kreuzberg. This bit of the Wall has now been

preserved as the northern-most tip of an exhibition at the site of the former Gestapo

headquarters called the Topography of Terror. Both wall and exhibition serve to document

the inhumanity mankind is capable of.

Better known remnants of the wall

A popular destination for Cold War sleuths and one that finds mention in every available

city guide on Berlin is the Checkpoint Charlie Museum on Friedrichstrasse.

Der Schauspieler

Tom Luszeit steht

am Donnerstag

(27.05.2004) vor

dem Checkpoint

Charlie in Berlin. In

der Uniform eines

Volkspolizisten

posiert Luszeit

gegen ein Entgelt

von einem Euro fr Bilder mit Touristen und verdient sich damit ein Zubrot. Foto: Guido

Bergmann dpa/lbn

Once a pre-fabricated monitoring tower erected by the Allies in the American sector after

the erection of the Berlin Wall, it today houses a museum on the history of the wall and

exhibitions on human rights. The souvenir shop here also sells pieces of the Wall, a hot-

selling item among tourists.

To the west of the museum lies the East Side Gallery in the Mhlenstrasse, the largest

surviving chunk of the wall. It is a full 1,300 meters long and also a massive open-air art

gallery. After the Wall was opened in 1989, hundreds of artists from all over the world

transformed a plain eastern side stretch of it into a drawing-board for their art. The result

is a spectacular display of color and shapes on what was once gray concrete.07.05.2000, Berlin

/ Friedrichshain:

Das morsche

Mauerstck mit

114 Gemlden


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entlang der Mhlenstrae ist kein schner Anblick mehr: Die meisten Bilder sind

verwittert, von Mauerspechten zerhackt oder schlicht bermalt. Jetzt gibt es frische Farbe

fr die Mauer: Die East Side Gallery, Berlins lngste Bilder-Ausstellung, wird teilweise

saniert. Der Verband der Lackindustrie (Frankfurt/Main) spendiert zu seinem 100.

Grndungsjahr 300 000 Mark. Das reicht fr 300 der 1 300 Meter.

City wakes up to the potential of the Wall

Realizing the tourist magnet that the last bits of the Wall had become, city authorities put

them under the monument protection act and thus took responsibility for their

preservation and restoration.

Petra Rohland, spokeswoman for the Senate Administration for City Development told

DW-WORLD that "were trying to integrate the last remains of the Berlin Wall in the city

profile as an admonishment as well as proof of a living history.

She admits that the city's coffers are empty, so there can't be any "luxurious restoration"

of the Wall. But she says that the interest in the Berlin Wall world-wide is so

overwhelming that "there are always some takers for shouldering the costs."DW.DE

A Last Stretch of the Berlin Wall Fights Fate

The famous murals painted on the longest standing stretch of the Berlin Wall are

crumbling away with the weather and crowds of souvenir-hungry tourists. But nothing is

being done to save the East Side Gallery.

Berlin's East Side

Gallery is a major

tourist draw

Johnny picks up hispace as the first slab

of painted concrete

comes into view

along the

Mhlenstrasse in


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Berlin's Friedrichshain district. He's reached the start of the 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) of

murals painted on this once untouchable stretch of the Berlin Wall.

"It's such a great feeling just touching it," Johnny says, running his hands over the faded

mural, which is covered in graffiti and missing large chunks.

"I want to take a piece home with me," he adds, and starts picking away at a part of the

wall still flecked with green paint. His companions protest, but Johnny is resolute. After a

few seconds, he holds up a small chip of the Wall triumphantly, and then wraps it in a

handkerchief for safe-keeping.

Johnny's friend Ruth is not impressed. "I think it's crazy to have people just picking and

picking," she says, shaking her head. "I think they need to put some protective coating on

it, something needs to be done."

Johnny is hardly alone in his desire to take home a piece of the Cold War's most famous

symbol. But that desire, coupled with the damaging effects of Berlin's hot summers and

cold, wet winters, is causing the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall to crumble

away.

Unique artistic achievement

The "Bruderkuss"

mural at the East

Side Gallery

During the summer

of 1990, shortly

after the collapse of

the East German

regime, artists

covered a section of

the Wall along the

Spree River with murals re-telling German history and bearing slogans of peace. The East

Side Gallery was born. Some of the murals, such as Dmitri Vrubel's "Bruderkuss" (photo)between former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German Prime Minister Eric

Honecker, have become famous in their own right.

In 2000, the artists' initiative carried out a partial restoration of the East Side Gallery, as

the murals were already beginning to show signs of wear and tear.

Now, artist Kani Alavi is proposing a total restoration of the East Side Gallery. At a cost


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sponsored by the state, the federal government and private donors.

The other strategy -- one that's popular among many Berliners -- is to resist any attempts

at artifice, and just let time take its course.

"The way (the Wall) looks now reflects Berlin," said Michael B., a Berlin resident who

often strolls along the East Side Gallery, barely giving it a glance. "It's typical of the city.

Not everything looks perfect here. If they start preserving it too much, it starts to look

fake. But like this, it looks real."DW.DE

Germany's Cultural Legacy on IceFIRES, FILMS AND FASHION

1 German-Turkish Film "Head-On" Wins Berlinale2 "Tainted Art" Controversy Surrounds Berlin Exhibition

3 The Yearning for Kraut Art

4 The Party's Over -- Life after MoMA

5 Lagerfeld Causes Cheap Chic Craze

6 Can Berlin Save German Pop?

7 Germany's Cultural Legacy on Ice

8 Berlin Becomes Fashionista Capital

9 Just Don't Mention the War

10 Great ExpectationsUnfulfilled

11 Film Portrays Hitler in Human Light12 Trivializing the Wall

How much damage a fire at Weimar's Anna Amalia library did to Germany's cultural

legacy will only be clear after a team of bookbinders in Leipzig get done with their work

-- and that could take years.

Headed for the deep

freeze

The boxes began

arriving lateThursday night, as

the embers of the

fire that devastated

the upper floors of

Weimar's cherished
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Anna Amalia library continued wafting plumes of smoke into the sky above one of

Europe's cultural capitals.

The books, all from the 16th, 17th or 18th centuries were covered in ash, or soot-colored

water. Some looked like "charcoal briquettes," said Michael Knoche, the director of the

338-year-old library. Others, soaked in the water sprayed by firefighters, were several

pounds heavier than their original weight.

The damage done, it's up to a team of bookbinders at the privately-run Center for Book

Preservation in Leipzig to lessen its impact. As of Tuesday, a little more than 25,000

books were declared completely lost. Of the estimated 50,000 pulled from the burning

building by a human chain of library employees and volunteers Thursday night, more

than 35,000 have suffered water damage, some of it heavy. Most of those have already

arrived at the center.

Restoration begins at 20 below zero

"It's been intense," said Manuela Reikov-Ruchle, the head of the restoration department

at the preservation center, in an interview with DW-WORLD. "Sometimes, the books are

delivered, sometimes we've been driving back and forth."

Wrapped in foil, many are still dripping wet when they're unpacked. The race against

time -- and fungus -- begins immediately. After a quick cleaning with a brush, the books

are deep frozen at minus 20 degrees to prevent microbacteria from taking over.

For small books, the process is over in 24 hours. Larger ones are frozen for up to three

days. When they emerge from the freezer, they're put through a process that evaporates

the ice immediately into gas. The same thing is done to dried fruit.

Knoche has yet to release a list of works currently undergoing restoration. The

bookbinders say there is no way to estimate yet how many of the books will, in fact, be

restored to their original form. Money is definitely a factor.

Prohibitive prices

Restoration costs 10 euros per kilogram (2.2 pounds) when the book is wet, according to

the Center. Most of the small books weigh between 1.5 and 2 kg, and the amounts begin

skyrocketing when the larger books are factored in. Including transportation and storage,the State Cultural Minister in Thuringia, where Weimar is located, said Tuesday the costs

for each book would be between 500 and 1,000 ($600 and $1,200).

"There are several tons," said Reikov-Ruchle.

So far, the Federal Government has promised 4 million in emergency money, half of

which was transferred on Monday, according to Museum officials.


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An account set up for donations from the public has gotten a good reception and a series

of benefit concerts are being planned.

"The resonance (in the public) has been inspiring," said Helmut Seemann.

Electrical short is to blame

Police said Tuesday that an electrical short in the upper story of the three-floor building

was most likely

The fire devastated

two floors and

much of the roof

responsible for the

blaze. The two-

story 18th century

Rococo Hall, the

building's

extravagant

centerpiece, was

completely gutted by flames but will eventually be restored, according to Seemann.

It could take months, even years to determine whether it will hold the same collection.

Some good news came on Tuesday with the announcement that around 20,000 books

with only minor water damage can be restored by the library itself. The rest will be

handled by the Center, which is undertaking its biggest assignment since floods

devastated several libraries along the Elbe in 2002. It has had to put other projects, like

work for the US Library of Congress, on hold. Though the 2002 floods kept them busy,

this assignment is especially notable for the Center.

"These are world cultural treasures," said Reikov-Ruchle. "You know what you have in

your hands."DW.DE

Trivializing the Wall

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