"Identity Signals the way a person understands her or his relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future."---Bonny Norton
0 Comments
Based on the readings from last week and for this upcoming week, what are your thoughts about the following four narratives of the city of Berlin:
1) Berlin as a city of wall 2) Berlin as a global city 3) Berlin as a city of the European union 4) Berlin as a city of immigrants b) How do you see these narratives as a reflection of German identity? How does this compare to an American identity? When talking about the wall in Berlin, the first thing people will think about is Berlin wall, which separate the Berlin city into East and West part from 1960s to 1990s. The wall not only gave spatial separation on the city but also split up families. Because of the wall, Berlin became the center stage of Cold War. Just like author mentioned in his the Ghost of Berlin:"The political rituals of Cold War leaders add important new connotations to the Wall's meaning." (Ladd 22) The wall is a symbol of division but surprisingly, it acted as a 'zipper' that actually promote the union of Berlin. Berliners viewed this wall as unnatural things happening to them and thought the wall was the only thing divided them. Germany should be a single nation. "The Wall, then, signified both division and unity."(Ladd 30) In this sense, the wall linked Germans together. In the ranking of Global city index 2014 by American Journal Foreign Policy, Berlin was ranked as 19th among the world, which is not as high as the ranking of New York, Paris or London. Berlin is still not enough a "global" city. The definition of global city is usually based on the political and economical effect on international community. In fact, Berlin still confront the economic problems due to the historical reason that Berlin was divided into two parts during Cold War. The poor decision making of East German government still have significant impacts on the economy in Berlin. However, from the perspective of politics, Berlin, as the capital plays a big role in German's influence on EU as well as on global society. According to the information from European Union official website, Germany became a member of EU since January 1st 1958. And Berlin has second large population in EU and seventh most populous urban areas. (http://europa.eu/about-eu/countries/member-countries/germany/index_en.htm) Due to the position of Berlin in European Union, the population of Berlin keep increasing from 1980s. (reference will be added). As stated in the Age of Migration, the process of immigration maybe due to multiple reasons such as economy, social and politics. This process resulted in different minority ethnics groups in Germany as well as in Berlin. The most exemplary case should be the turkish community in Germany. The influence of immigration will remain generations. Racism, multiculturalism and citizenship are concerns raised by the immigration. Still a large amount o white Germans are think about Germany as a monoracial country. Non-white Germans are still fighting to overcome exclusion from mainstream of society. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99189265) Before I started on the Ghost of Berlin, I briefly went over the content table and illustrations of this book. At first, I expected to see a large portion of the book about architecture and landscape. However, as soon as I started my reading, I found this book is far beyond that.
Author first presented his definition about Berlin: "Berlin is haunted city." The history of Berlin is heavy and sort of painful. And then he talked about that buildings or landscapes are the story teller of history, reminding people all the time about what was happening at one place. Building in Berlin therefore became the symbol of memories of history, full of political meaning. The author started from the most famous landscape Berlin wall in chapter one. About six months ago, when I started on my first German class, I surprisingly found out that west Berlin was like an island staying within the territory of east Germany. The history of Berlin is different from what I thought. The wall built at 1961 instead of immediately of second world war. Before 1961, people still had possibility to pass through the border but at the midnight August 13th 1961, the wall was put up. It was not only a physical barrier that separate streets and road but also split up families. The wall marked Berlin as a battlefield of Cold War. East Berliners died because trying to escape to West Berlin when cross the wall "illegally". What is ironic that east berliners were not only one felt being limited and so were west berliners. Berlin wall brought suffering and pain. But people kept different opinions about its preservation, which reflected their attitude about this heavy history. What experience made those people felt differently even though they suffered through the same period of time? |