On our first day in Berlin, I found myself engaging in much more personal reflection than I expected. With a train ride from Nuremberg, a bus tour, and a group dinner being all that was on the schedule, I had prepared myself for a comparatively calm and restorative day. Upon arrival in Berlin, I found myself in awe of the German metropolis. As we walked through streets flanked with pride flags and restaurant windows into various cultures, the city began to feel something like my personal utopia: accessible public transportation, a melting pot of cultures, human-centered infrastructure, etc.
But the part that struck me the most was the juxtaposition of the nation’s history and contemporary identity. During our visit to the Berlin wall, I found myself looking less at the rusty pillars that mark where the divider used to be, and more at what currently existed around it. As I stood in the former “death zone” where countless German civilians had died for their or another’s freedom, I began to consider the rebuilding of the nation more deeply than I had before. In Munich and Nuremberg, I was too infatuated with the beauty and interested in the history to think about all that had taken place to bring Germany from the events I was learning about to the present.
At the moment, the United States is experiencing its own socio-political reckoning. As I continue to draw parallels between Nazi Germany and American current events, I frequently find myself feeling hopeless and jaded with the country I call home. But Berlin has taught me something: out of darkness can come great light. Have I always known this in theory? Of course. But recently, I seem to have forgotten. Germany went from a racist society that committed one of the greatest atrocities in history to a tolerant, welcoming, and liberal society in which people are well-taken care of and free to be themselves.
Is Germany perfect? Of course not. Are there still issues of racism and bigotry? Most certainly. But when compared to the country it was in the 1930s (and even the 1980s), it does not feel like the same nation. It was less than forty years ago that Berlin was divided by the Iron Curtain, but today, it thrives.
Germany Close Up has given me a renewed sense of hope. Learning about Germany’s rise from the ashes of Nazism to become the nation it is today has reminded me that one should never give up on their nation – because, just maybe, out of the rubble, something beautiful can grow.