The Berlin Wall is significant
because it was at the centre of the Cold War for the entirety of its
lifespan. It was the symbol of the Iron
Curtain, because it was in many ways a literal curtain. The documentation centre portrays the wall as
a sad reality, something that was very negative for the people of Berlin. Inside the museum Willy Brandt is quoted as
calling the wall, “ a historical monstrosity” and that description is perfectly
at home in this museum.
What I mean is that the documentation
centre perhaps paints a slightly overly rosy picture of the whole era. I don not mean to say it is filled with pink
polka dots and sugar, just that it seems slightly less weighty an issue. I feel three factors help cause this. First of all it is a compressed experience,
it spends most of its time on inspirational and light hearted bits of the
era. Secondly it focuses a lot on the
early and pre-wall years and the late years of the wall. The early years are spoken of by people recalling
their childhood. The years approach the
tearing down of the wall are seen in celebratory moment. Thirdly the entire complex is brightly lit
white walls the parts of the museum that
do speak of the darker moments are just as brightly lighted and white as the
heartwarming parts. Little of what they
do is wholly or even mostly wrong, but as a whole it bothers me slightly with
its overall levity.
5 comments:
Interesting. I came out of the centre with a very different impression. It did show a decent amount of the happy or inspirational bits. But personally, when I read stories of people successfully escaping to the west I thought, "wow they must really have wanted to leave if they risked their live to do so". And seeing the streets so full of people celebrating the walls end and how happy they were showed how much of a burden it was.
I found going into the documentation center really gave me a feel of how it impacted the people of Berlin. And this is something I did not get earlier this week by viewing the remaining section in the East Side Gallery.
I agree with Taya. The documentation center was able to fully open my eyes to how bad life was for those in East Germany. They had no freedom and in many cases no escape. I couldn't believe that 138 people died at the wall. The Wall literally ripped people's lives apart and I was finally able to see the extent to which it affected people in the documentation center.
I think it could have used a third level, about the 1970's that would have helped.
Perhaps what you were looking for is in; or covered better in the DDR Museum?
I'd have to agree with the others about the tone of the centre. Perhaps the gruesome spiked Berlin Wall trap at the beginning gave me a grim mood.
I have a bit of a different opinion than all of you. I agree that the centre had some powerful and dark moments about the wall, the escape attempts and all the dangers that implied, the forced seperation of families and even the blockade. However, because I had learned about all of this before, I was more surpised by the video clips where people talked about the day to day almost 'regularity' of their lives and the wall. Mostly by West-Berliners, but still I think when you study the Wall for a semster or even a couple of years you don't really grasp some of the feelings of normalcy that can occur over time.
As for the DDR museum, definetly worth going to but again at least half of it is more upbeat/ everyday type thing. Yes they talk about the politics and lack of freedom but there is also a lot about daily life, which in general was not depressing or tough in comparision to lots of other places (Africa, Cuba, even other Eastern countries)
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