Stasi Museum

I visited the Stasi Museum on Sunday, and I thought it was a very informative and rewarding experience. It's a 5 minute walk from Magdalenenstrasse u-bahn station, and costs 6 euros for admission.  The museum is in the building that formerly had the offices of Erich Mielke, head of the Stasi, which are still preserved.

Here are some photos I took of the museum:

Entrance to the Stasi Museum. 

Bust of Karl Marx. 

Piece of artwork lionising the Stasi as the protectors of the GDR

Mielke's Secretary's office

Paternoster: a type of elevator that has no doors and doesn't stop. Upside is that it's more convenient, since you don't have to wait long for a platform. Downside is that it is more dangerous than the typical elevator.

Stasi Building 1

Just one of many buildings in the Stasi complex. 

Abandoned building that had services exclusive to Stasi employees. Services include a supermarket, cafeteria and a travel office. This is the front entrance.

Another picture I took of the same building. 

I find the architecture of this building oppressive, or brutal. 

Protest

 May 18, 2015

On our way back from the Mall of Berlin today, Amanda, Robert and I came across a large group of very slow moving police cars & motorbikes. They also had the roads lined with police men. Since we were curious, we waited to see what was going on. It turns out there was a protest! A group of people were protesting against the immigration of Islamic people into Germany. We don't typically see this in Regina!

A Brief Look into Student Housing In Berlin

Today we visited an area near Tiergarten, in which there was an area consisting of almost entirely student housing for the nearby Technische Universität Berlin, a technical school that is located just east of Ernst-Reuter-Platz. I found it interesting in that it differed, but also had some striking similarities to what we consider the off campus student residences, mainly the Boardwalk apartments located just off of Kramer Boulevard in Regina. In this neighborhood I found a poster for a campus event, which I do not ever recall seeing outside of the University Campus in Regina( seen below).
 

  

This area was similar to the Boardwalk area in that the apartment buildings were nothing special to look at, with very plain exteriors and had not seen a lot of renovations, not recently. 

The largest differences I noticed is that it did not seem to contain a variety of different living situations. By this I mean, that the apartments in the boardwalk complexes are different depending on where you are. Boardwalk has the standard 4-floor buildings but also has some town house type units, such as the ones that line the south side of Kramer Boulevard, that are ideal for student but can also house small families.  This area contained almost entirely high rise apartment buildings(seen below), that are generally more attractive to students and no so much for small families. I supposed that would be the point of a student housing area. I just simply found this area and the idea of student living in Berlin to be intriguing.

The Belin Conference Reflection

Reflect on the impacts the Berlin Conference (held in the Old Chancellery) is having on Africa and its nations to this day.

The Berlin Conference reflects, in my opinion, the two greatest problems with people: a lack of communication and ignorance. In addition, the Berlin Conference also contains the selfishness of those in power. After reading Michalopoulos and Papaioannou’s article "The Long-Run Effects of the Scamble for Africa", I can understand how the problems of Africa can be trace back to the Berlin Conference. One of the results of the Berlin Conference that cause the most trouble in Africa was the splitting up of ethnic groups and putting them with different ethnic groups. The borders drawn by the European powers invited to the Berlin Conference were made to suit their best interested and stop fighting between them. In doing so, the borders gave rise to civil war within African countries as the borders did not reflect the actuality of the African continent. Even after gaining independent, the borders remain the same. It is important to note that not a single African was present at the conference. As a result, there was no mediation or even information given to the European powers making the decisions that would change the lives of the Africans. In summary, I belief that the Berlin Conference is the cause of many conflicts within African as the European power divided the continent without proper knowledge and did so without any communication with the African people due to their own interests.   

 

 

Bibliography:

Michalopoulos, S. & Papaioannou, E. (2011) "The Long-Run Effects of the Scamble for Africa"

May 18^th Field Question

            Today we visited the site of the November 15^th, 1884 Berlin Conference on Wilhelmstraße. The Berlin conference was a gathering of European powers to discuss the boundaries of Africa and determine ways to divide the continent (Michalopoulos and Papaionnou, 2011, p.3). African voices were not considered in the conference; basically the goal was to avoid conflict between Europeans powers (Michalopoulos and Papaionnou, 2011, p.3).

            The sign on the site recognizes the event as one that degraded African people of their rights and destroyed foreign cultures. It has been argued that this is not simply due to the colonization of Africa, but the way in which the European powers split up the continent (Michalopoulos and Papaionnou, 2011). At the Berlin Conference they neglected to consider relevant ethnic composition (Michalopoulos and Papaionnou, 2011, p.3).  The vast occurrence of civil conflict in Africa is well known to all of us and Michalopoulos and Papaionnou (2011) have shown in Africa that ethnicities, which have been partitioned have experienced more and more destructive civil war incidents compared to tribes that have not been directly affected by the improper border design (p.25). It is largely the detachment of ethnicities in different countries that has caused civil conflict, which also impacts the economic conditions in Africa to this day (Michalopoulos and Papaionnou, 2011, p.25).

Source:
Michalopoulos, S., Papaioannou. E. (2011) The Long-run Effects of the Scramble for Africa.        Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research. 

Ethnic Diversity

          Ethnic Diversity in Berlin

        When we first arrived in Moabit looking for clues of ethnic diversity our instant reaction was to look to the types of ethnic foods available. Although this can be a good indication of population, it can easily be misconstrued as we soon learned. It seems there has been an increase in Indian restaurants all across the city and as such likely has little to do with the diversity in the area.

        According to a report published by berlin.de in 2010, Turkish nationals account for 22.66% of the Moabit population, with a significant percentage of Arab and former Yugoslavia nationals as well. However, even if a person did not know the ethnic statistics of the area, a general sense of it could be felt by just looking around.

          Some of the things that I noticed that alluded to the ethnic diversity in the area were the dual language signs (including both German and Arabic script), the frequent mention of halal offerings and also the general population in the area. There were also many Turkish restaurants and doner kebab booths, however these are all over Berlin so they are not a great indication of neighbourhood diversity.

http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/wohnen/quartiersmanagement/download/qm_broschuere_en.pdf

The DDR museum is worth the trip

The Trunk of a Trabi Car that has an interactive driving simulation.

A mock Berlin Wall that you can electronically spray paint, to put your personal touch on the wall.

A mini cinema within the Museum showing socialist movies.

And these were just some of the interesting things found in this museum, it cost 7 Euro for anyone interested and takes about 2 hours to get through.

Sunday Afternoon in the Park

On Sunday Alyssa, Robert B and myself went on a trek to look at different gardens throughout the city. We went to the flea market at Tiergarten which was near the Charlottenburg Gate. From here we headed towards the Victory Column, along the way we also stopped to see the Emperor-Friedrich Memorial Church and the Bismark Monument. My goal for this trip was to see an allotment garden and some community gardens so we made our way to the Bellevue U-bahn station. We got to see the Bellevue Palace on the way. When we got to an allotment garden near Tempelhof (there was no name for it that I saw) we walked around this area for a bit and talked with a gardener with some difficulty about how long he had his garden and where he lived. Once at Tempelhof we walked the longest runway from one end to the other. At the one end was a dog park and a community garden. This community garden was very interesting as they tried to re purpose anything they could, this includes old shoes, purses and pants. From Tempelhof we went to Prinzessinnengarten which is also a community garden. This is the one that I briefly mentioned in class that has the cafe within. It was very different from the community garden at Tempelhof.

 

Mini Task: Ethnic and Social Composition

Ethnic and Social Composition

After walking through the Moabit area, it provided some clues as to what population lived there. The signs above are examples of non-german population as the sign in the right is a Vietnamese restaurant and the salon on the left looks to be Turkish. Both located on Gotzkowskystrasse.

Another common image in this area are the Halal symbol, as seen on the left in the image above. Halal meaning is related to the preparation of meat by Muslim law which also indicates the international population of this area. This can be seen on a number of restaurants and grocery stores in the area. Located at Turmstrasse 43.

With the clues above as well as a restaurant such as this it seems likely that a large portion of this population would be either Muslim, Lebanese or of other middle eastern descent. Falafel Humbaba was located on Turmstrasse.

This is an example of a Muslim butcher also found on the corner of Turmstrasse.This is another example of the non-German population in this neighbourhood.

Field Question: Berlin Conference 1884-85

In 1884-85, the Berlin Conference took place and its results will affect the entire continent of Africa, having repercussions that still continue. The Berlin Conference, held in the old Chancellery, decided how the continent would be shared amongst the European powers. With little knowledge of the geography of the place and without input by African or African opposition came to an agreement on the borders of their countries.

The borders of Africa is widely believed to be the primary cause, not the colonization itself, which imbued the continent with systemic economic and political issues. The design of the borders in 1884-85 by the colonial powers, “led to ethnic struggles, patronage politics, and spurred civil conflict, leading to poverty and under development”, says Michalopoulos and Papaioannou in “The Long-Run Effects of the Scramble for Africa.”

                Due to the arbitrary and artificial nature of the borders, African ethnic groups or tribes would be partitioned. A relationship has been found where partitioned ethnicities experience longer and more intense periods of civil war compared to those that are not. 

An indicator of a society’s development is its proliferation of electricity, of which a byproduct is light pollution. By measuring the light intensity from remote sensing data of partitioned and non-partitioned ethnic groups a relationship is found. Partitioned ethnic groups have a negative relationship with light intensity, implying lower development levels to groups that are not partitioned.

To contrast, prior to colonization and the declaration of independence both non-partitioned and partitioned African groups were similar economically.  

Works Cited

Michalopoulos, Stelios, and Elias Papaioannou. The Long-run Effects of the Scramble for Africa. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2011.

Two Aesthetic Aspects of the Reichstag

The Reichstag is a government building in which new and old aesthetics are incorporated into one functioning and aesthetically pleasing building. Two examples of this incorporation are the original writings from Russian soldiers found in the Reichstag, and Fosters Dome. These two pieces emphasize the history of the Reichstag by drawing viewers in visually as well as historically. The piece is aesthetically interesting and therefore draws viewers of any race, age, or gender into the history of the Reichstag.

The graffiti written on the wall of the inside of the Reichstag draws viewers in firstly, because it is graffiti in a government building, which is usually a place where graffiti is not found. The graffiti is written in Cyrillic, and also contains dates on which the graffiti is written. The dates put the graffiti into the context, even to those who are not literate in Cyrillic. The graffiti was written onto original parts of the Reichstag by Red Army Soldiers who had recently conquered Berlin. The graffiti emphasizes victory over the people of Berlin, as well as Germany. This graffiti is also lined with derogatory slurs from the Red Army about Germany women and the sexual acts they would like to do/did to German women following the end of World War II. Most of the salvaged graffiti is located in the Reichstag, but some of it can be found on the roof of the building.
 

 

 

Fosters Dome is an extraordinary piece of architecture found on top of the Reichstag. This dome was started in 1995, which was shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The dome was completed and open to the public in 1999. Fosters Dome is a rendition of the original dome that sat atop the Reichstag prior to the Reichstag Burning of 1933. The original dome was built by Paul Wallot under the discretion of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and was destroyed in the Reichstag Fire of 1933. The original dome was meant to symbolize German national history in addition to emphasizing the parliament. today the glass dome serves unite the public and parliament together in creating a post-war Germany. This is represented by the glass structure of the dome itself. Members of parliament can look up into the dome see the sun representing the dawn of a new era. Viewers can scale the staircase of the dome, or look up, and also get this sense of a bright fresh new start. 

Kopenick, Lutz. "Redeeming History? Foster's Dome and the Political Aesthetic of the Berlin Republic."German Studies Review,24.  No. 2 (2001), : 303-323 accessed May 16, 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1433478

Hertha Berlin vs. Eintracht Frankfurt Today

As a huge soccer fan, the moment I knew I was going to Berlin I wanted to go see a game.  I hoped that the home team, Hertha BSC, was playing my team Bayern Munich, but I wasn't lucky enough.  I still wanted to experience a game, and so Kyle and I got tickets for this game for our weekend off.

Come 13:00, Kyle and I met at Alexanderplatz under the World Clock.  We had lunch and then started our trek to the stadium.  From Alexanderplatz, all we need to take is the S7 or the U2.  We elected to take the S-Bahn, and so off we went.  Turns out we took the S5 by mistake, and had to backtrack one station after we realized the error.  Once we got on the right train, it was a simple matter of following the fans to the stadium.

It could have been a better day, for sure.  It was windy and rainy through much of the game.  That didn't make it any less enjoyable though as the atmosphere was amazing.  Two hours later, the whistle blew and the game was over.  Of course it happened to be the only game this week that ended in a scoreless draw.

(Note that fireworks and flares are not allowed in Olympiastadion)

The "First" Traffic Light in Europe

The first traffic light in Europe was supposedly located at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany. However, the there are other speculations that Berlin is not the home of the first traffic light in Europe. This being said, a replica of this traffic light sits in Potsdamer Platz in modern Berlin. Below is 2 pictures of the replicated traffic light which still functions today. 

Field Question - Neues Museum

Field Question #2

Kerstin Barndt identifies many moments in the Neue Museum’s history that illustrate the building’s connections with ruin discourse. Firstly, the rediscovery of Pompeii’s ruins and its excavation was a key moment in the museum’s history. After the rediscovery, the Neues Museum hired Hermann Shievelbein to construct a thematic frieze on the walls of the Greek Courtyard which represented “the destruction of the ancient city” (Barndt, 2011, 298). This obviously illustrates a connection with ruin discourse, as it is a scene of destruction.

     

Barndt identifies World War II as a key moment in the Museum’s history as the Museum was heavily damaged during the bombing raids during the final years of the war. Instead of a complete restoration, the damage on the exterior and interior of the the building was not repaired and now the museum is identified as a frozen ruin. Barndt states that the restoration “followed aesthetic principles that preserve and render visible the traces of ruination throughout” (2011, 299).

The final key moment was the reunification of East and West Berlin. Shortly after reunification, the government revised earlier plans to restore the museum. It was decided that David Chipperfield would be the architect in charge of the project.  According to Barndt, Chipperfield, the project “achieved a delicate balance between respect for the old building and contemporary museum architecture” as demonstrated though his design of the main staircase. (2011, 300).

These three moments in time illustrate the museum’s connection to ruin discourse. The rediscovery of Pompeii’s ruins, World War II and the reunification of East and West Berlin are the reasons that the museum is considered a frozen ruin.

Bibliography:

Barndt, Kerstin. “Working through Ruins: Berlin's Neues Museum,” The

Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory, Vol. 86 No. 4 (2011): 294-307.