Berlin: Eine Schöne Stadt

             Berlin, the capital of Germany, is a beautiful city full of history, culture and life.  Berlin is a relatively large city with a population of 3,387,404 people (“The City of Berlin“). The once divided Berlin is now the tourist and political central of Germany.  For years Berlin has suffered devastation and controversy.  Now it is known as one of the strongest cities in Europe. Now untied, Berlin offers its intense history, its culturally inclined Jewish museum, and its prosperous economy.

         Berlin’s history has always been extremely intense.  After the hardship Berlin had to endure during the Nazi regime, Berlin then had to endure the grueling separation of the east and west.  On August 13th 1961, the East German Army, which was run by the Soviet Union, began to put up a wall, separating East Germany from West Germany.  The Soviets first started out with barbed wire barricade, and then on August 1961 moved on to build a 29-mile wall, leaving the families of the East and West devastated knowing their loved ones were trapped on the other side.  The reasoning for the wall was the Soviets were embarrassed that refugees were running to West Berlin, and therefore wanted to keep their people from leaving.  The west protested fiercely, but despite their efforts they were ineffective.  The guards on the East Berlin border killed dozens of people who attempted to try and break through the wall (“Berlin“).  On December 1963, an agreement between the East and West made which allowed the West to visit their loved ones in the East.  The Berlin Wall was taken down in November 1989, and in October 1990 East Berlin and West Berlin were officially joined together.  Then in June 1991, Berlin was voted to become Germany’s new capital, and official city for government business.  Although Berliners have been through harsh times, they stand strongly united today with the ghost of the past locked away. Today small parts of the wall remain to remind Berliners how far they have come since post World War Two (“Berlin“).

         Since the Holocaust, the Jewish population of Berlin has tried to honor their loved ones who were lost during the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. Today, Berlin has built a Jewish Museum in memory of those lost during the Holocaust.  The Jewish Museum was designed by the American architect

Daniel Libeskind.  The museum is designed to include German-Jewish history from the Roman times to present day Germany.  The decision to build the museum caused political conflicts, and internal conflicts amongst the non-Jewish Berliners due to the inclusion of the Holocaust in the museum.  The museum uses symbolism of co-joining the new building and the old building to represent the new and old Jewish History.  The underground of the museum has three streets.  One street leads to a free standing tower called the “Holocaust Void”.  The Holocaust Void is designed to provoke a disconcerting disorientation, and emotional mood to it. The other street leads to the E.T.A. Hoffmann Garden.  The garden represents the exile and emigration of the Jewish community in Germany. Despite the two Holocaust structures in the museum, that is not the main focus of the museum.  The main focus is to portray the past and promising future of the German-Jewish community.  The third street leads to a stairway that alludes to Jacob’s ladder, and climbs up to the exhibition stairway.  The exhibition rooms surround voids that are crisscrossed by sixty bridges, which connect the rooms.  The first exhibit was opened in September 2001.  Before the building was even open it already had 150,000 visitors (Lazere). The tourists that come to the museum help Berlin’s economy greatly.  However it is not the only part of the economy.

         Berlin’s economy is mostly based on industry.  Two of the major industries are electronics and garments. The other industries in Berlin are textiles, metals, porcelain/china, bicycles, and machinery.  Berlin holds Europe’s largest technology parks called the Science and Business Technology Center, which is located in southeastern Berlin.  Berlin offers many technological type fields such as transportation technology, biotechnology, medical technology, and environmental technology.  Berlin also offers approximately 70,000 jobs in the field of multimedia.  However, tourism by itself brings 2,5 billion Euros into the economy, and helps keep 50,000 people in Berlin employed. (Unknown Author).

         Berlin is a rather intriguing city with a dark past.  Despite the bad, Berlin still has a lot of wonderful things to offer the world.  Berlin will remain an intriguing city with its intense history, the building of the Jewish Museum, and the prosperous economy it has to offer.

References

Lazere,Arthur. “Judisches Museum Berlin/Jewish Museum          Berlin“. CultureVulture.net. September 1999.          CultureVulture. 18 July 2007. <http://www.cultureVulture.net/ArtandArch/JewishMuseumBerlin.htm>.



Unknown Author. “Berlin”. Infoplease.com. 2007. The Columbia

         Electronic Encyclopedia,6th ed. 18 July 2007. <http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0807195.html>.



Unknown Author. “The City of Berlin”. 2004. Berlin.de. 18

         July 2007. <http://www.berlin.de/english/politics/Index.html>.



Unknown Author. “The New Berlin”.  2001. German Embassy.

         18 July 2007. <http://www.germany.info/relaunch/Welcome/berlin/new_berlin2/html>.