The Ministry of Finance building
Formerly the Nazi Air Force Ministry. It was the the first large Nazi building to be built, and then one of the only ones to survive. It is particularly infamous because of the number of high profile political events happened next to the building. The underground Third Reich head quarters entrance is right next to it, and Colonel Schauffenberg, the man who tried to assassinate Hitler was tortured and executed there in 1943. On June 17 1953, East Germans protesting against Soviet rule and suppression gathered outside the building (then the Soviet´s
main Ministry) and in the course of the next few days the Russian military killed over 200 protesters and arrested countless others (many of whom probably died under custody and possibly out in Sachsenhaussen). A large death strip was set up right there next to the Berlin Wall during the Cold War, and countless people attempting to cross it has been shot there. Now accountants work here.
To the left is the monument which now is situated at the book burning square where in May 1933 Hitler Youth burnt a list of 20,000 books which are considered against Nazism and Fascism. A quote written in 1823 by Heinrichy Heine reads : When you start to burn books, you will eventually end up burning people. The installation is extremely powerful in the sense that it is entirely underground with a glass frame looking into an empty shelf that could store up to 20,000 books, right in the middle of the square.
Brandonberg Gate
many notorious armies has marched through these gates, including Napoleon's, the various Kaisers, the Russian Red Army upon liberating Berlin in 1945 (then proceeded to rape approx 100,000 Berlin women - again, an eye for an eye makes the whole ). Then during the Berlin Wall years the wall ran right next to the gate, and countless speeches by various politicians were made in front of the gates as the symbolic flash point between the two sides. Then the wall came down in front of those gates and in front of the world in 1989.
Formerly the Nazi Air Force Ministry. It was the the first large Nazi building to be built, and then one of the only ones to survive. It is particularly infamous because of the number of high profile political events happened next to the building. The underground Third Reich head quarters entrance is right next to it, and Colonel Schauffenberg, the man who tried to assassinate Hitler was tortured and executed there in 1943. On June 17 1953, East Germans protesting against Soviet rule and suppression gathered outside the building (then the Soviet´s
main Ministry) and in the course of the next few days the Russian military killed over 200 protesters and arrested countless others (many of whom probably died under custody and possibly out in Sachsenhaussen). A large death strip was set up right there next to the Berlin Wall during the Cold War, and countless people attempting to cross it has been shot there. Now accountants work here.To the left is the monument which now is situated at the book burning square where in May 1933 Hitler Youth burnt a list of 20,000 books which are considered against Nazism and Fascism. A quote written in 1823 by Heinrichy Heine reads : When you start to burn books, you will eventually end up burning people. The installation is extremely powerful in the sense that it is entirely underground with a glass frame looking into an empty shelf that could store up to 20,000 books, right in the middle of the square.
many notorious armies has marched through these gates, including Napoleon's, the various Kaisers, the Russian Red Army upon liberating Berlin in 1945 (then proceeded to rape approx 100,000 Berlin women - again, an eye for an eye makes the whole ). Then during the Berlin Wall years the wall ran right next to the gate, and countless speeches by various politicians were made in front of the gates as the symbolic flash point between the two sides. Then the wall came down in front of those gates and in front of the world in 1989.
I remember 1989 like no other year. I was in my third year in Primary school but the world around me was going off. Taiwan was going through an absolutely exciting period of democratic reforms, having the first opposition party being set up in 1986 after marshal law imposed by the KMT government had been lifted. Chiang Jing-Kuo, who was Chiang Kai-Shek's son and succeeded him as President (we're talking empire here, of course) died in January that year, and Lee Deng Hui became the first Taiwan born person become president. Central Taipei where we lived was abuzz with democracy fever, free and democratic elections at all levels of government was taking place, even at my own primary school, the children even voted in the raccoon as the animal to represent Taipei. Dad was (and obviously still is) the political junkie type that would take his kids to election rallies and volunteered us to fold propaganda for his fav candidate that set up shop just across the road from our apartment. So there we were, after homework and dinner, at election rallies listening to passionate people talking about their dreams and visions, but also their anger and their hurt. I was young but I felt it running in my blood. In June, across the strait in China an estimated 7000 people were killed during the few weeks of demonstrations. The Taiwanese was obsessed with what was happening over there, cos the same thing could well happen to us, if it was say ten year before under KMT (and did in February 1947) or in thirty years time if we were unlucky enough to be bulldozed over by the CCP. But its not. We were sitting there watching. Bearing witness. It sent shudders down my spine because those students were not much older than I was, and they were doing the same things my parents were just last night -saying what they felt was right. We traveled to Singapore and New Zealand in July, my first overseas trip. Full of fantastic memories of sheep on the hill and feeding black swans in Lake Rotorua. My parents even decided to move there, and of course that changed the rest of our lives. Then on 9 November 1989, the same television screen beamed the pictures of German people, many of them as young as the Tienanmen Square students, in front of those giant gates, jumping across this giant wall and breaking out champagne and dancing all night, crying, laughing, as if they've never done it before. They yelled 'Wir sind das volk! Wir sind das volk! Die mauer muss weg, die mauer muss weg! ' (WE ARE THE PEOPLE!!! WE ARE THE PEOPLE!!! THE WALL MUST COME DOWN!!! THE WALL MUST COME DOWN!!!). The passion in their voices and their joy of experiencing freedom shook the lounge room and the entire family was clapping for them. And here I am again after all these years, this time really standing here!
The Reichtag
The German Parliament is actually called the Bundestag, and only started sitting back in the original Berlin Reichtag in 1999. The Parliament Buildings is still affectionately known as the Reichtag after it was commissioned to be built to house the Second Reicht in 1894 ie. the Kaiserreicht (after Kaiser Wilhem II united Prussia, Bravaria and Saxony into Germany) and they did in fact have democratic elections, women even voted. But after Hitler came on the scene, the building mysteriously caught fire in 1933 and the
whole building was abandoned as Hitler sacked the Weimer Republic parliament and began his war against the world. Hitler was completely uninterested in democracy so he in fact NEVER sat foot into the building. The burnt building itself didn't get fixed for many years through out WWII and the early 1960s as the Germans were preoccupied and also underfunded. It was then slowly refurbished and after reunification Sir Norman Foster (who did the giant cucumber in London) won the competition to reconstruct the dome destroyed in 1933. The Reichtag reopened in 1999 and the Bundestag sat in the building again after 66 years. It is now the beautiful building and dome that I climbed earlier this week. It sits right above the debating chamber so that the pollies know that the PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS WATCHING!!
The German Parliament is actually called the Bundestag, and only started sitting back in the original Berlin Reichtag in 1999. The Parliament Buildings is still affectionately known as the Reichtag after it was commissioned to be built to house the Second Reicht in 1894 ie. the Kaiserreicht (after Kaiser Wilhem II united Prussia, Bravaria and Saxony into Germany) and they did in fact have democratic elections, women even voted. But after Hitler came on the scene, the building mysteriously caught fire in 1933 and the
whole building was abandoned as Hitler sacked the Weimer Republic parliament and began his war against the world. Hitler was completely uninterested in democracy so he in fact NEVER sat foot into the building. The burnt building itself didn't get fixed for many years through out WWII and the early 1960s as the Germans were preoccupied and also underfunded. It was then slowly refurbished and after reunification Sir Norman Foster (who did the giant cucumber in London) won the competition to reconstruct the dome destroyed in 1933. The Reichtag reopened in 1999 and the Bundestag sat in the building again after 66 years. It is now the beautiful building and dome that I climbed earlier this week. It sits right above the debating chamber so that the pollies know that the PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS WATCHING!!What you may find interesting is that the New Zealand electoral system, ie Mixed Members Proportional, is actually mirrored against the German Bundastag system. In the early 1990s, the NZ gov commissioned a group of experts including my lecturer Professor Richard Mulgan to search the world for a better system to enable New Zealand"s tiny, but fledging democracy which is rapidly changing in terms of party composition and voting behaviour. For example, there were few minor parties gaining significant and fairly legitimate percentages of votes but never able to be represented in parliament due to the first past the post system, which favoured the two major parties, while minorities such as Maori, women, immigrants, and non heterosexuals were not having enough voice in Parliament. The Royal Commission traveled all over the world sampling electoral systems, including considering the Irish, Japanese and Israeli systems of preferential etc before recommending MMP, as its done in Germany to NZ. You can read more about how it works here. Once you get into it, its actually quite an interesting subject. I personally think its a pretty wonderful system where everybody gets a fair chance of being represented rather than an outright majority by the most powerful and resourceful party, whom often are fuckers anyway.
Democracy is not always perfect, and so many people are still perfecting it as we speak. But don't you think that this big beautiful building housing a forum where everybody can supposedly have a place, have a voice, have a share of the sky is a wonderful thing that the German people and ultimately Berlin really really deserve after all these years and the blood and the tears? You go for it, Dem Deutschen Volke!!
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