OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2016
In Berlin, the past is with us
Travel in Germany is
an emotional experience
By STEVE FORRESTER
The Daily Astorian
A
trip to Germany is emotional. The past
is palpably present. My wife and I dis-
covered that in our recent visits to Ber-
lin, Dresden, Bayreuth, Nuremberg and other
cities.
People and places are the joy and insight
of travel. On our trip through Germany,
Budapest and Prague, we had the good for-
tune to meet an array of
provocative, interesting
guides. They included an
Astoria man who has spent
17 years in Berlin, a Dresden
native who bears scars of
the repressive Soviet GDR
(German Democratic Republic) and a young
Ph.D. candidate who brought the Nuremberg
Trials alive.
A world city
The images of Berlin in my head were of
the Wall, the Brandenburg Gate and ruins at
the end of World War II. It is much more than
that. Berlin is heavily forested, with abun-
dant park lands. Because some 65 percent of
Berlin was destroyed in the war, it is largely
a new city, but with many magniicent resto-
rations. It has a relatively low population den-
sity and excellent public transportation.
My wife noticed that Berlin resembles
Washington, D.C. Both are low-rise cit-
ies with extensive embassy footprints. It is a
world city.
Brenda Penner/For The Daily Astorian
This informational plaque explains Hitler’s bunker where he and Eva Braun committed suicide and were incinerated.
A confession
Most of all, Berlin is a sort of confes-
sional. Evidence of the war and of the Nazi
regime that started that war are all around.
Unlike Japan, postwar Germany is excep-
tionally open about the panoply of Nazi hor-
rors. Even the park around Richard Wagner’s
opera house in Bayreuth is akin to the Catho-
lic confession box.
At 41, Preston Meyer, is an experienced
Berlin travel guide. He is also a member of
the Astoria High School class of 1993. Pres-
ton showed us the site where physicians
decided whether disabled people would live
or be shipped away for experiments before a
death from neglect. In a park, he pointed out
a stark monument to the homosexuals who
were arrested by the Nazis.
One of the most startling moments was
seeing the vacant lot, under which was Hit-
ler’s bunker — where he and Eva Braun com-
mitted suicide and were incinerated. Today it
is a sort of parking lot, but with an interpreta-
tive plaque.
On our Sunday walk through Berlin, its
pending elections were apparent. Preston
pointed out the campaign posters of the far
right, racial purity party.
On the recommendation of an Astoria
friend, we visited the Berlin Museum. After
seeing rooms that cover the close of World
War I and the Weimar period, the rise of Hit-
ler (including a scale model of Auschwitz)
and World War II, and the allied occupation,
we left, emotionally exhausted.
Brenda Penner/For The Daily Astorian
Former Astorian Preston Meyer at the Jewish Memorial, Berlin. He is an experienced travel guide in the city.
Surrender
While we traveled, The New Yorker pub-
lished an article titled “Where Germans Make
Peace with their Dead.” It is about a sort of
therapy that is attracting people seeking emo-
tional answers. Describing the participants,
Burkhard Bilger wrote: “Most were middle
aged Germans … unaccustomed to self-pity
and allergic to national pride. … Theirs was
a country responsible for history’s bloodiest
war and most eficient mass murder … .”
Preston showed us the place where all
that ended — Karlshorst. In a former oficers
mess hall the German surrender was signed.
Outside the building, Soviet tanks are dis-
played. Inside is an exhibit about what hap-
pened in this building on May 8, 1945. In a
large hall are the tables and chairs where the
Allied powers sat and the small table at which
German Field Marshal Keitel and two others
were brought to sign the surrender document.
East Germany
was ‘the most
perfected
surveillance state
of all time.’
Brenda Penner/For The Daily Astorian
This portion of the Berlin Wall has been preserved against souvenir hunters.
Emotional baggage
If the Nazi past is emotional baggage,
so is the Soviet occupation of East Ger-
many. We heard about this from two guides.
Cosima, a woman in her late 40s, said: “I
wasted half my life under Communist rule.”
She described how she was singled out as
a Catholic in kindergarten and as a high
school graduate not recommended for college
because of her religion.
She added this poignant observation: “The
Communists created ruins with no weapons.”
Cosima recommended a book titled “Sta-
siland,” which describes the vestiges of the
notorious East German secret police, the
Stasi. Anna Funder writes that the Stasi’s ratio
of spies and informants to population was
higher than Hitler’s Germany or Stalin’s Rus-
sia. “After the Wall fell, the German media
called East Germany “the most perfected sur-
veillance state of all time.”
Opera history
Seeing Bayreuth and Wagner’s Festspiel-
haus was the big draw of this tour. With a
Scotsman from Edinburgh, we took the Ger-
man-language tour. Sitting in the auditorium
was being inside one of opera’s time capsules
— a space that has been illed by big, exqui-
site voices for 140 years. Like many outsized
icons, this one has modest proportions. Walls
are earth tones. It lacks the glitter that typi-
cally festoons opera houses. We were thrilled
to be shown into the orchestra pit and to stand
on the stage.
Outside the opera house is a panel with
a simple label, “Introduction.” Two exten-
sive paragraphs describe Wagner’s condem-
nation of Jews and how Nazis took inspi-
ration from his music. It also confessed his
heirs’ cooperation in Hitler’s appropriation of
the Festspielhaus. Next to this panel are some
Ω30 panels titled “Silenced Voices.” They
picture and describe singers and conduc-
tors who were not allowed to perform there
because they were Jewish or gay.
Curtain calls
Seeing live music theater abroad is an
adventure. In Budapest, we enjoyed Hungar-
ian operetta, speciically “The Gypsy Prin-
cess,” composed by Emmerich Kalman in
1915. Our seatmates included family groups,
sometimes of three generations. The woman
next to me hummed the tunes. A man behind
cued the words before they were spoken.
Rhythmic clapping led to some 15 minutes of
curtain calls.
Steve Forrester is the former editor and
publisher of The Daily Astorian. He is pres-
ident of the EO Media Group board of
directors.
Brenda Penner/For The Daily Astorian
Underneath this parking lot was the
Fuhrerbunker, where Adolf Hitler spent
his last weeks. Following Hitler’s suicide
and that of Eva Braun, their bodies were
incinerated in this space.
DAVID F. PERO, Editor & Publisher
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