Berlin: Two worlds in one city

After I read the article "Glimpse into the East" written by my teammate F e d e r i c o I started to think about Berlin, the Cold War and the meaning of the Berlin Wall. The size of the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union was, in my opinion, the biggest in history. Not only because of the geographical coverage that was indeed global, from Latin America to Vietnam, from Eastern Europe to Zaire and from the planet earth into the outer space.

But the interesting thing is that during this conflict we had not only wars all over the world and an Space Race, we also had two ways of living, thinking and organizing societies that made life of common people, like you and me absolutely different depending in which half of the world you where living in.

So, the world was divided into two, a family from Canada or Spain had a way of life absolutely different from a family from China or Poland. But in all these examples and almost in every case your entire country and probably your countries region was all in the same "half" of the world, with this similar way of living, thinking, studying, working and dreaming about the future.

But Berlin was an exception, Berlin was the last border of this two worlds, Berlin was a city where this different societies had to live knowing that only a few streets away in any family apartment a different system was running.

This explanation is an introduction I wanted to make to a picture a took during my 2006 trip to Berlin. This photo was taken with my Konica Minolta Z6 camera using the full power of the 420mm build in zoom. The effect I wanted on the image was to show how close this two worlds were from each-other. You can see in the picture two different towers. The one on the left is the Berlin TV tower, the highest exponent of the socialism progress, it was built in 1969 as a present to the German Democratic Republic in its twentieth anniversary. The other one is the Berlin Victory column located in the heart of West Berlin, inaugurated in 1873.

This picture show us something clearly, citizens from both sides of the wall could actually see the other half of the planet, they could listen what was going on in the "rest of the world". I think this is why the Berlin Wall is an outstanding symbol of the conflict that divided the planet and as I said before, the outer space into two halves for four decades.

Glimpse into the East

Berlin was the gate to the East. Was the beggining of the trip into societies that had a past we could have never understood. The east was estrictly unrelated to us because of the political regimes that lead this countries pasts decades.

We were heading into territories once ruled by one of the two sovereigns of the world, the one we didnt get to know before, the one that we were used to unattend and disobey, the other half. Yes the unglorious and misterious URSS.

And Berlin indeed was an axis of division between this two opposites ways of living, the eastern and western political regimes. Long story, short: Comunism v. Capitalism.

As you walk around Berlin, you can tell everytime time, this is a place that had suffered this permanent segregation. Of course, the remains of the wall remind you of pasts events. But the city itself reminds you of that aswell , being a blend of histories that lived side by side during decades, histories that lead into extremly different outcomes.

All combined into one huge and overdeveloped center of capitalism, modern Berlin can show you the story of two contiguous bands by getting a tour into some sort of theatrical display where you can experience the urban comunist scenario enjoying a tall vanilla latte from Starbucks.

The best example you can find, as it follows:

Right outside the famous TV Tower in Alexanderplatz you'll see the very beggining of KARL MARX ALLEE. Such a name hah!. Wait to find out that the original name was Stalinallee. Get suck into it like in a huge funnel and dive into the east. You will find yourself surrounded by a symmetrical space composition. This is above all a composition, a political statement. Lead by Hermann Henselmann as chief architect of the project, this urban structure defines a message, a doctrine to be send to all those within the iron curtain. This project was indeed part of a city reconstruction program, but at the same time was the testimony of a nations reconstruction. Against (back in those days) current art and philosophy mainstream ideas, this project intended to creat an atmosphere of wealth, power, tradition and nostalgia. And the perfect way of achieving that was no other than the Stalinist architecture style. What's best than addopting founding father's good taste for neoclasical buildings that delivered that special message of progress and tradition all in one single piece. It would not be wrong to believe that this perception of nostalgia brings the people into the feeling of a nation with a rich past and culture; and that of course brings people together into one single dogma, influenced by a political propaganda that has no backdoor.

Karl Marx alle is a great place to walk by, feel the tradition and picture yourself in the post-war east Berlin, being a citizen of a great and undefeatable empire, with centuries of legacy and tradition and a revolutionary temperament. Though it was and can be nowadays perceived as a scenography; called by his author as a "childhood illness" for his historical revivalism; this great avenue shows you a glimpse of the unknown other half of the world.