Today I went with Anitha and Mixaela to explore some of the historical elements in Berlin. Of course, Berlin has an incredibly rich history, particularly involving the division between East and West Berlin, which was kind of the theme for the day. The first thing we went to see was the Oberbaumbrücke, which is a bridge built in the 1700s and connected two districts of Berlin-- one from the East and one from the West. The bridge is now a symbol of unity, and one of the landmarks of Berlin. One of the coolest aspects of the bridge was pointed out to me by Hector, our Spanish exchange brother: there are neon signs which play rock, paper, scissors with each other at night (you can see the circles where the hands go on either side of the arch on the bottom of the bridge).
Next, we went to see the East Side Gallery, which is where portions of the Berlin Wall remain. It's very chilling to see the wall, although now there are no guards, mines or dogs guarding it. Some of the famous graffiti remains, although tons of tourists have written their names on the wall, covering up some of the nicest parts.
After that, we went to the former Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit-- Ministry of State Security) headquarters, which is now a museum. The Stasi gathered information about citizens who were deemed a threat to the state, which basically meant anyone who might be speaking out against the government, who listened to Western radio, who smuggled Western products into the East, etc. They bugged their fellow citizens, took photographs, had secret microphones, would arrest and interrogate people suspected of threatening the security of the East German state. Basically, they were snitches, and not at all well liked. After the wall came down, the headquarters were pillaged and many documents were destroyed. They had files on everyone they had been watching-- extensive files. After a lot of protests from the German people, the documents were made available and you could go read your own file, detailing every activity made during the time they were watching you.
For a really great movie which involves the Stasi and this time in East Germany, I highly recommend The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen). It's a fantastic movie and really accurately chronicles life in East Germany, and specifically the Stasi.
*me and anitha in erich mielke's former office-- mielke was the head of the stasi*
*"we are everywhere"-- the stasi were secret police and many citizens were their informants-- it was speak openly to anyone, anywhere*
*hidden microphone in a fake rock-- the stasi had a lot of unique spy ideas*
*"thoughts are free," "that's what you think"*
*"freedom for my documents," graffiti on the former security checkpoint at the Stasi headquarters*
