As our last day of programming before our final presentations, we explored Berlin’s modern art scene at the Berlinische Galerie. Among our many discussions during the tour, we examined the parallels between governmental control of art during the early 1900s and during the World War II era. Because the government controls who is able to enter the Academy where artists can showcase their work and learn, the government also controls what is, and more importantly, what is not, German art. This governmental control of art continued through the 1930s and 40s where Hitler and Goebbels could closely control which type of art was accepted. As we discussed in class, Hitler did not accept any form of abstract art that could be interpreted in different ways
0 Comments
Today we had the opportunity to meet students from the Rutli School where a large portion of the students come from migration backgrounds. After breaking up into small groups, we had the opportunity to ask questions to the students about their experiences in Germany, and vice versa. Our conversations revolved around their identities, racial and religious, and how it affects them on a daily basis. As my group was mostly students who had only recently moved to Germany, they mentioned how the language barrier challenged them at first yet motivated them even more to work harder than their “German German” peers. Speaking with the students was one of the most helpful resources to understanding discrimination in Germany because their experiences were raw and unprocessed for many of them, unlike when we have academic talks with other university students from Berlin.
Addressing our third major section of the class, a Multicultural Germany, the group visited the Khadija Mosque and discussed topics such as Islamophobia in Berlin and mosque-state relations with the Imam. The discussion proved extremely useful for my research paper and had parallels with O’Brien’s (1988) “Continuity and Change in Germany’s Treatment of Non-Germans”. The Imam gave us information that supports my thesis that Islamophobia penetrates every major section of life, including the workplace, social sphere, and more. Furthermore, the mosque was created in spite of Islamophobia as amid the announcement that a mosque would be built in the early 2000s, some citizens expressed hesitation and even attempted to shut the project down. The Imam reminded us though, that “where there is a lot of hate, there is also a lot of support” and the community has proven rather supportive in the past years.
Today we split up into our research groups to go on excursions that apply specifically to our topics -- for my group, Islam and immigration in Berlin. Our excursions included a visit to Kreuzberg, in the southeastern section of Berlin, to a mosque, a restaurant, and a walk around the city. The street art around the city advocated for solidarity between the people in Berlin against racism, homophobia, islamophobia, and other issues. As part of the course during the semester, I presented on far-right grassroots and political organizations that practice Islamophobia rhetoric on a regular basis as well as reading literature, including O’Brien’s “The Muslim Question in Europe”, that examines Islamophobia. At the Umar Ibn Al-Khattab Mosque, our group had a conversation with the receptionist who confirmed that on occasion, non-Muslim individuals come into the mosque with the intention of expressing Islamophobic views. Our conversation with him, as well as evidence dispersed throughout the city will help me improve upon my research that I had begun in San Antonio.
On Thursday, we continued our visits to monuments that commemorate the Holocaust. The most emotion-evoking experience of the day for me was the “Memory Void” exhibit at the Jewish Museum, pictured below. When you walk across the metal plates to the other side and back, you hear the clang of metal as well as the echo in the room. I remembered conversations we had in class during the semester about how Germans claimed to have had no knowledge of what was happening to Jewish people during the Holocaust. This piece, however, reminded me that Germans had moved into old Jewish apartments, bought their items at auctions, and seen their neighbors taken away -- seeing and hearing their persecution as they walk through life.
As we begin to shift our focus from a post WWII divided Germany to the memorialization of the atrocities of Nazi Germany, we also shift our programming to consist of site visits where we test the very memorials we theoretically discussed over the semester. The first on our list was the Holocaust Memorial, accompanied by the Holocaust Museum. This was actually my second visit to the Holocaust Memorial, but having read Schneider’s chapter detailing the controversies of the Memorial, I noticed the distractions that stole focus from the memorial more this time, and it bothered me more. Public art takes a risk, especially when placed in the center of a city, and in my mind, this risk was too great for a memorial tasked with memorializing the Holocaust.
As part of our afternoon programming today, our group went to the Maeur Museum for a guided tour. We discussed the state of the Berlin Wall throughout the decades it was in place, as well as the additional obstacles set to prevent East German citizens from fleeing the country. The watchtower pictured here, for me, was a symbol of paranoia in East Germany during the GDR period. A connection that I made was the presence of two distinct, yet intertwining forms of surveillance in East Germany. The first, physical (or direct) surveillance by border guards or direct surveillance of citizens by the secret police led to the distrust and fear of East German government. We could see this shown in the film The Lives of Others where a Stasi official spied on a couple. The second, indirect surveillance of East German citizens through their peers who were cooperating with the Stasi, led to distrust between East German citizens. This culture of paranoia had implications for the reintegration of Berlin, and of Germany which arguably still affects German citizens to this day.
As our official first day in Berlin, we spent the day exploring by foot, by train, and for some of us, by bike. Our first destination: the East Side Gallery. I was part of the public transportation group (which was apparently a good choice since a few of the bikers had “issues” getting used to the bike traffic system here), and arrived first to take a look around. One of the pieces that stuck out to me the most was a mural of an East German car crashing through the wall, with the caption “Test the Rest.” I interpreted this to mean that one of the few things of value from East Germany were the cars -- not the political system, not the culture. This similarly came up in the film Goodbye Lenin where “Ostalgie”, or nostalgia for the old East Germany was prominent. The residents of former East Germany began to miss the products of East Germany, including pickles and coffee products. The mural I found at the East Side Gallery warns not to equate the nostalgia for these products with nostalgia for the old way of life in East Germany: Keep the cars, and throw the rest out.
|