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The Berlin Wall and the Kaiser Palace
On the 60th anniversary of the raising of the Berlin Wall, VICTOR GROSSMAN writes that the restoration of the once-socialist Palast of the Republik to a grim approximation of its pre-war Prussian style, complete with a museum full of stolen colonial loot, matches the the nation’s rapid return to imperialism
The Palace of the Republic, Berlin, 1970s
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For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE
THE ANNUAL heyday for German journalists is here again; another round anniversary reminds us, days in advance, how terrible life was for us poor souls in that awful old East German Democratic Republic (GDR). This year it’s the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Wall.
For me such previews were handy reminders to buy flowers or chocolates; August 13 was, since 1955, our wedding anniversary. But I was always aware that, for all its 28 years, a majority found nothing pleasant in the nasty barrier, with 100 to 150 people losing their lives trying to break through, under or over it.
But what is it that still warrants so much attention, year after year? Why (and I’ll borrow an analogy from my own book) keep kicking a horse who’s been dead for 32 years? Do some fear that the old stud may still have a kick or a bite left in him?
But if such fears were present when parts of the giant structure titled the Humboldt Forum were finally opened on a main square in Berlin, then triumphant expressions of satisfaction drowned them out; only a small group of protesters visibly expressed some of the bitter nostalgia.
It was here that the Hohenzollerns — the Prussian kings and after 1872, German kaisers — had their palace. This famous dynasty was expert in three activities: making war, seizing colonies in Africa and Oceania and amassing wealth and property.
In 1918 they lost out fully in the first two; they are still litigating about the third. The palace, no longer theirs, was wrecked and burnt out in WWII.
In 1950 the GDR leaders decided that rebuilding it in ruined Berlin was far out of reach. And was it worth it? As a symbol? One balcony was saved and built into a new government building — from it, on November 9 1918, Karl Liebknecht had vainly proclaimed a “Free Socialist Republic of Germany.” The rest was carted away as rubble, arousing the wrath of all the still very vocal monarchists in West Germany.
In its stead, in 1973-76, the Palast of the Republik was built, a sleek, long building in Bauhaus-type style, with transparent-from-the-inside windows. Some found it handsome; some didn’t.
More from this author
In part two of May’s Berlin Bulletin, VICTOR GROSSMAN, having assessed the policies of the new government, looks at how the opposition is faring
In part one of his Berlin bulletin, VICTOR GROSSMAN assesses the economic and political difficulties facing the new Merz government — and a regrettable ruling-class consensus on the solutions
VICTOR GROSSMAN believes peace in Ukraine needs to come before anything else and abhors the EU's insane drive to keep the war going on
VICTOR GROSSMAN reports, with a little chuckle, on how US readiness to work with Russia, not just on peace for Ukraine, has thrown a spanner into the German electoral machine
