Sylvester is what Germans call New Years Eve. There are parties all over Germany and everybody counts down to midnight, toasts with champagne, and the parties start. They are rarely over before 3 or 4 in the morning (here it seems everybody waits for midnight and then goes home). Midnight is when it all starts. Kids of all ages go outside after they toasted each other with champagne and we light up fireworks. In front of houses, behind houses, on top of the buildings – fireworks everywhere. An entire city glowing, deafening sounds, and the smell of gunpowder. Yeah, that’s how New Years is supposed to be. You have to see it to believe it. It is midnight over there in twenty-some minutes. You may be able to get a glimpse of the fireworks at one of the web cams, not sure though. One is here:
Category: Germany
Germany, history, and fear of involvement in a war
Growing up in a country with a reputation as bad as Germany’s in regards to war is tough. You learn about WWI and WWII just about every other year in history class, you get to visit former concentration camps, and you go to any holocaust exhibition near where you live. You get it rammed into your head that Germans did bad things, that they killed millions of people for no real reason at all, and that you have to do all you can to make sure that history never repeats itself. I didn’t grow up being patriotic and even today I have a hard time saying or writing that I am proud to be German (or, now that I have the American citizenship, that I am proud to be from Germany. I have no problem to say that I am proud to be from Berlin – but the words pride and German together just don’t feel right – they always make a somewhat uncomfortable feeling creep up, because those two words together always bring up pictures of Germans in Nazi uniforms, of the mass graves in the former concentration camps that I saw, and of all the horror that has been shown on TV and in museums. Even waving a German flag during a game of the National soccer team felt wrong – a shame actually. So when Germany was asked to enter the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Germans were hesitant to do so, because there was a fear and believe that if anything goes wrong, other nations will find some way to blame Germany for it. Germans did not support Germany’s involvement in those wars — but it was expected.
During the last days I have followed news coverage of two German officials resigning because of air-strikes in September in Afghanistan.
BERLIN — The German military’s top official was removed Thursday for failing to properly pass on information to political leaders about a September air-strike in Afghanistan that killed civilians.
The new defense minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, told parliament that the military’s inspector general, Gen. Wolfgang Schneiderhan – the equivalent of chief of staff – had asked to be relieved of his duties.
That came after Germany’s top-selling Bild newspaper published what it said were still captures from confidential videos of the incident. Peter Wichert, a deputy defense minister who was in office at the time of the air-strike, also stepped down.
I was very ambivalent myself about Germany’s participation in the war. I still am. But I believe that Germany’s history makes it even more difficult. Germany is bound to lose support of their citizens if the reports are made available, because Germans don’t want to read about Germany military having conducted air-strikes that caused deaths – but not reporting about it is bound to backfire as well – as is the case here. German officials and the German military are caught between a rock and a hard place – no matter which way they turn, there is bound to be criticism from the citizens. But withdrawing and not participating in the war will lead to criticism from the other nations that are expecting Germany to share toe cost and manpower needed.
I believe that participation will force Germany to deal with the past in a new and different way – and to carve out its place in conflicts around the world. I look forward to seing the results of this inner struggle
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Almost 20 years later
Looking through then Newsweek this morning I came across an article about Russia. In the article they mentioned the fall of the Berlin Wall nearly 20 years ago. 20 YEARS!!!! Has it really been that long? Has it really been 20 years since I received a phone call from a friend telling me that the borders to East Berlin had been opened. Within 30 minutes we were in the car heading for the checkpoint at Bernauer Strasse. When we arrived there, the checkpoint had not opened yet but there were hundreds of people on both the west side and east side of the gates. The East German guards had holed themselves up in their little gate-house – even though they had rifles, they had no chance of doing anything — there were too many of us on each side. We yelled, screamed, and chanted for another 15 or so and kept pushing against the gate – and finally one of the guards just hit the button and the gate was opened. Within seconds people from both side of the wall started walking on streets that used to be off limits to them toward a part of our city that we had never been able to get to this easily. While West Berliners slowly walked and looked around and tried to take in the fact that we could get into East Berlin without a Visa, people from the East appeared to run toward the West – afraid that the gates may close again before they make it across. Some of the people passing me by had suitcases in their hands while others had strollers not with babies peacefully sleeping in them but personal goods and household items. They literally ran to freedom – not thinking twice and not looking back – but taking advantage of a situation that none of us understood.
20 years since that night. Sometimes it still feels like yesterday.
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