Berlin: A Conflicting Past

After watching Matt Frei's BBC Documentary about Berlin, I have been able to further understand
the city's prominence in Germany's history. A theme I found very prevalent throughout the film was that Berlin was a battleground, torn by many notions that would lead the city to what it is today. Frei

A portrait of Frederick the Great of Prussia
whose life strongly represents
 the history of Berlin

introduced us to Frederick the Great of Prussia and how he firmly represented Berlin. He stated, “To understand Frederick, is to understand Berlin” (Part 1; 5:06). At first, this statement left me confused. How can one person represent the ideal and history of an entire city? However, the farther in depth Frei went, the more it made sense.

Growing up, Frederick was surrounded by his family’s military traditions and way of life. He did as much as he could to steer away from it by having his tutors teach him classical poetry and the flute (Part 1; 9:45) and as he got older it became more noticeable that he possessed two very conflicting ways of life, torn between something so delicate and something very harsh. After the loss of the first World War the Kaiser renounced his throne and from that two republics were declared. One by the Chancellor’s deputy and the other by the communists (Part 2; 5:15). This caused much confusion among the people and the argument about who actually ruled began. Here we see two different ideologies clashing head to head in one city, much like in Frederick the Great's own life. 

The Schloss that was located in Berlin.
Home to many of Berlin's rulers, the
building was very important to the city.
This was the "Heart of Berlin"

Something that intrigued me was when Frei mentioned that even after all of these years after WWII and the unification of East and West Berlin “The act of demolition is as politically charged as the act of construction” (Part 5; 7:20). Soon after the war ended and the Communist Authorities took control over East Berlin, they decided that the Schloss, a royal palace that was home to Berlin rulers for centuries, needed to be torn down because with its imperial past it represented the wrong kind of history despite the fact that it was the “Heart of Berlin” (Part 5; 10:30). In it's place, a new building known as the Palace of the Republic which East Berlin used as the seat of the Parliament and an open

The Palace of the Republic. Seat of the East
Berlin Parliament and stood from 1973 to 2006

house for the people (Part 6; 5:35). The building was loved by many of the East Berliners despite the disagreement from the West. After standing since 1973, the Palace was once torn down to nothing but a plot of dirt in 2006. "When the Berlin Wall finally fell in 1989, the Palace of the Republic, a symbol of the communist east was never likely to survive in the reunited city" (Part 6; 7:25).  However, this was far from the most impactful construction in Berlin's past. 

In 1961, on a day know as "barbed wire Sunday," East Berlin authorities began construction on the Berlin Wall officially separating East and West Berlin. "When the wall was built it instantly became the most infamous and emotionally charged structure, not just in Berlin, but in the whole world" (Part 6; 2:38). Without fail, the wall spilt

Part of the Berlin Wall around the time it was being deconstructed.

everything in half including neighborhoods, families and the dead. This brought on strife and more competition from East and West Berlin with each side trying to construct the tallest building and further separating the two, but after the unification of East and West Berlin, the destruction of the wall in 1989 and the Palace of the Republic in 2006, there has been talk about whether or not a new Schloss should be built in the Palace's place, but there is disagreement from people throughout Berlin. Frei gave us an example when he sat down to talk with Berliners Heinrich Wulf and Sonja Schröter-Haacker. While Wulf thought that more than anything Berlin needed the Schloss to be rebuilt, Hacker could not disagree more. While disagreement about what should be built continues, the country is erecting "new old" buildings that acknowledge rather than deny the country's history. This could be very beneficial to the city as each side of the story is represented in one way or another. 

Word Count: 681

Works Cited:

Part 1-15 Berlin: Frei, Matt. “Berlin History – Dangerous Ideas”. YouTube. BBC, 27 Jan. 2011. Web. 08 Sept. 2016.  

         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds12det7jZk&index=1&list=PLSPxFNE2hCII0xh-1ZfVhEM8DS_E20547

Image Sources

Berlin Wall: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/fall-of-the-berlin-wall-the-hertha-fans-caught-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-wall-9848043.html

Frederick the Great of Prussia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_the_Great

Palace of the Republic: http://www.dw.com/en/the-fall-of-berlins-palace-of-the-republic/a-18989016

Stadtschloss: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Palace,_Berlin

Martin Luther: An Unintentional Revolutionist

In 1517, Martin Luther unintentionally sparked one of the biggest political and religious revolutions know to-date in Germany by simply tacking his work “95 Theses” to the door of the Wittenberg church. In this document, Luther directly attacked the Pope and the Catholic church by spelling out 

Martin Luther wrote the "95 Theses" 
which sparked on the biggest religious 
revolutions in Germany's past. 

many of their faults. While priests in the Holy Roman Empire and other religious figures of the time despised his works, the secular people found Luther’s words to be prominent and they quickly gained popularity. Although Luther's main goal was to not become a revolutionist from this, it happened nonetheless. By simply introducing and arguing the fact that not just the clergy, but every person had a hand in the running of the church, Luther certainly made the flame ignited by his theses much larger. 

When it came to making a cultural impact on society, Luther was said to be one of the first propagandists to exploit the fairly new medium that was known as the printing press (10:58). When he utilized this it ultimately effected how written texts were mass produced and spread throughout the country, especially many of his own works. This made

A printing press similar to the one Luther
utilized for spreading his works to people
throughout the country.

Luther's words much harder for the Catholic church to silence because he could spread his thoughts with an ever growing amount of ease. When the printing press was introduced in our film as a new medium my mind automatically went straight to thinking about social media. Being an IMS major I spend a lot of time studying several types of mediums and social platforms. Each one varies on how it is used and what kind of material can be shared. In Luther's case, he is spreading mainly his ideas put into words and images and comparatively it is very similar to Facebook because on this platform people can share their thoughts, images, videos, links, and anything that you could possibly think of with the press of a button. While it wasn't so quick and easy with the printing press, it certainly made the spread of information much faster. 

Alister McGrath from Oxford University stated in our film, “…if the Christian life is being lived authentically, then you must expect to suffer” (5:45).  This is something that we can establish that Luther lived by as he received backlash from his work. However, Luther stood his ground, never once differing from or renouncing his words even after Luther received the excommunication order from Pope Leo X. In fact, the excommunication order meant very little to everyday people especially as the emissary carried it farther north (19:00).  

When Luther was in hiding he began to translate
the Bible into German. This aided the
everyday individual in understanding Luther's
 view point on the Word of God.

When it came to seeing Martin Luther as a religious revolutionist and someone who was important to the German-speaking lands, I couldn't quite grasp how he was until the 7 religious sacraments were discussed. When Luther had gone straight to scripture and only found 2 - The Lord's Supper and baptism - I began to understand why he was seen this way. Having something you believe for your whole life to be true suddenly proved false seems revolutionary in itself. To further the people's understanding Luther went above and beyond, translating the Bible into German so that the Word of God was accessible to the common man thus letting the people themselves see the truth of what he spoke (40:00). 

Word Count: 546

Images Sources:

German Bible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Bible

Martin Luther: http://www.biography.com/people/martin-luther-9389283

Printing Press: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press