WJU Students, Berlin, & its History: An Appraisal, Part VI

Gardens in Potsdam

The outgoing President of the History Club, Kayla Mason, class of '14, offers these observations on Germany and its engagement with its history.


Traveling offers visitors the opportunity to learn about the history and culture of other regions. For me, one of the most interesting aspects of this experience is examining how these countries choose to remember their past – including the good and the bad. German history is unique and through the exploration of the city of Berlin, visitors are directly confronted with every aspect of this nation’s past.

Schloss Charlottenburg

The imperial era is clearly celebrated by Berlin: statues of famous monarchs as well as the Charlottenberg Palace offer tourists a glimpse into the city’s royal past. Berlin, however, emphasizes the dark areas of the city’s history as well. Countless museums and memorials can be found throughout Berlin that relate to the Holocaust as well as the Cold War, illustrating Berlin’s attempt to atone for the atrocities of the Second World War and to publicly acknowledge the corruption of the East
German Government.

Movie Poster for the anti-Semitic film The Eternal Jew

This emphasis on Berlin’s role in Holocaust can be seen in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Located in the middle of the city, visitors are met with numerous concrete steles that are staggered at different heights. Walking through this maze of gray I was overwhelmed and I felt oppressed by their size. The actual museum, located under the memorial, provides visitors with first hand accounts from victims of the Holocaust, making this a truly sobering and emotional experience. This theme continued in the German Historical Museum. The exhibits, located in the old armory, tell the story of Germany and the section on the Second World War details the evolution of German anti-Semitism at the time. While this is obviously a dark period in German history, the city openly displays the horrors of the past, forcing each visitor to come face to face with this horrific moment in history.

The Course of the Berlin Wall at Bernauer Strasse

Finally, while walking around the city, tourists stumble across pieces of the Berlin Wall that once divided the Berlin in half. At the Berlin Wall Memorial, tourists can follow the evolution of this wall and commemorate the deaths of those who attempted to cross its borders. Initially constructed by East Germans to protect the city from the “fascist” west, this wall separated families and symbolized the oppressive nature of the GDR.

East German Secret Police Files at the Stasi Museum and Archives

This division was further explained through a tour of the Stasi Museum and Archives. Located in the former Stasi headquarters, the archives hold millions of documents related to this intelligence agency, showing how closely the former East German government surveyed its citizens.

Berlin’s unique history and the city’s willingness to share these events from its past make it an intriguing center of German culture and history, as well as one of the most interesting cities I have ever visited.