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Archive for the ‘Walled In Berlin’ Category

Friends – Growing Separately without Growing Apart

Thursday, May 3rd, 2018

Why do we have a variety of friends who are all so different in character? Each one helps to bring out a “different” part of us. With one we are polite. With another one we joke. We can sit down and talk about serious matters with one. With another one we laugh a lot. We listen to one friend’s problems. Then we listen to another one’s advice.

Friends are like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. When completed, they form a treasure box of friends! Friends often understand us better than we understand ourselves. Friends support us through good and bad days.

Doctors tell us that friends are good for our health. Dr. Oz calls them Vitamin F (for Friends) and says friends are essential to our wellbeing. Research shows that people in strong social circles have less risk of depression and terminal strokes. The warmth of friendship stops stress and even in your most intense moments, it decreases the chance of a cardiac arrest or stroke by 50%. It is even said that if you enjoy Vitamin F frequently, you can look and feel up to 20 years younger than your real age.

Value your friends and stay in touch. The most gratifying thing about friendship is that we can grow separately without growing apart.

— Anonymous

Friends – Growing separately without growing apart. www.walled-in-berlin.com

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.

Tags: bosom buddy, friends, soul mate, treasure
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Berlin’s integrated public transportation system

Monday, April 30th, 2018

Berlin, the capital and largest city in Germany, has a very efficient, well-integrated public transportation system. When, after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the city’s Eastern and Western sections were reunited and turned into one big metropolis again, the newly reunified city was left without a shared public transportation system.

After East and West had experienced decades of conflicting political, economic and cultural approaches to urban development, it was difficult for Berliners to travel between the former eastern and western parts of the city.

City planners went to work, and 12 years later the revamped S-Bahn network (elevated rail) was completed. Together with the U-Bahn (underground rail) the two systems form a ring around and crisscross the city center and provide the backbone of Berlin’s integrated public transportation system. The two systems share the same fare structure but have different operators. The S-Bahn is operated by the S-Bahn Berlin GmbH, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, and the U-Bahn is run by Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe, the city’s public transit company. Trains, trams, buses and ferries connect to these two main public transportation systems and, of course, private cars, ferries, small cruise boats and bicycles co-exist.

Berlin’s Public Transportation System is frequent and affordable

The system is so comprehensive that private cars often become dispensable because car ownership and operation are expensive, parking opportunities scarce, and the use of private cars is restricted in the low-emission zone of central Berlin. Public transportation, on the other hand, is often the cheaper, quicker and more carbon-friendly alternative. Automobile-owning friends of mine often prefer to take public transportation to work and leave their car parked at the curb when they were lucky enough to find a parking spot close to home.

In contrast, the elevated rail runs every five minutes during peak hours and every ten minutes between peaks. The underground rail runs every two to five minutes during peak hours, every five minutes during the rest of the day and every ten minutes during evenings and on Sundays.

Berlin’s U-Bahn (underground rail) Buelowstrasse Station (elevated at this point) is part of the public transportation system. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2017. www.walled-in-berlin.com

The biking alternative

The city’s flat terrain is ideal for cycling. According to recent studies, there are 7 bikes for every 10 Berliners. Men, women, children and seniors seem to be equally comfortable riding bikes in the downtown. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/berlin-a-bikers-paradise/ Bike racks are everywhere making bike-parking a snap. Bikes are considered a mode of transportation more or less on par with cars and subject to most of the same traffic regulations. Cycling in the wrong direction, running a red light, hurting a pedestrian in the pedestrian zone, talking on a cell phone while cycling, and cycling while under the influence of alcohol are all fined.

Tags: Berlin, Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe, biking alternative, public transportation system, S-Bahn (elevated rail), S-Bahn Berlin GmbH, U-Bahn (underground rail)
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Empty Bookshelves – Book-Burning Memorial

Monday, April 23rd, 2018

The most unusual monument I have ever seen is the Book-Burning Memorial, called “Empty Bookshelves.” It is located in the Bebelplatz (formerly Opernplatz), a public square on the south side of the Unter den Linden boulevard in the center of Berlin, Germany. A glass plate, set into the cobblestones of the square, allows passers-by to peer into a sunken library. There are enough shelves in this underground library to hold 20,000 books, but the shelves are empty. https://www.visitberlin.de/en/book-burning-memorial-bebelplatz/.

“Empty Bookshelves” is the work of Micha Ullman and serves as a reminder that on 10 May 1933 twenty thousand so-called “un-German” books went up in flames in this spot under the direction of the Nazis. The inscription quotes 19^th century German-Jewish poet Heinrich Heine’s words from his 1820 play “Almansor”: “Das war ein Vorspiel nur; dort wo man Buecher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen.” (That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people.)

“Empty Bookshelves” Book-Burning Memorial in the Bebelplatz in Berlin’s city center. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2017. www.walled-in-berlin.com

How did the Berlin book-burning come about?

After World War I, many university students opposed the Weimar Republic http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/weimar-republic-can-democracy-be-too-democratic/ and found in National Socialism a way to express their political and social discontent. On 10 May 1933, the Nazi German Student Association and their professors hosted a book-burning in a nationwide “Action against the Un-German Spirit.” Students in as many as 34 other German university towns initiated book-burning ceremonies or marched in torchlight parades. They burnt the works of hundreds of independent authors, journalists, philosophers and academics. The books to be burnt were chosen according to blacklists and focused primarily on books written by Jewish, religious, anarchist, communist or pacifist authors, who were viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to Nazism. With the words, “No to decadence and moral corruption! Yes to decency and morality in family and state! I consign to the flames the writings of Heinrich Mann, Ernst Glaeser, Erich Kaestner…” Germany’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, tossed the first books into the fire. https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005852. Other blacklisted authors included Berthold Brecht, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Heinrich Heine, Ernest Hemingway, Aldous Huxley, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Helen Keller, Karl Marx, Leo Tolstoy and Kurt Tucholsky.

Other book-burnings

The 10 May 1933 book-burning under the Nazi regime is perhaps the most infamous one in history, but it was by no means the only book-burning during that time period. Years later, after having defeated Germany in 1945, the Allied occupation authorities in Germany drew up a list of over 30,000 titles. As part of the denazification program, they had millions of books confiscated and destroyed the following year. The books burnt ranged from simple school textbooks to poetry.

In the United States, German-Americans came under severe scrutiny when the US entered World War I in 1917. The American Defense Society urged Americans to burn German books and literature, and for a time, book-burning ceremonies became the rage in the United States. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/where-have-german-americans-gone/

Tags: Bebelplatz, Berlin, Book-burning, Empty Bookshelves, Heinrich Heine, Micha Ullmann, Nazi German Student Association, Nazism, Unter den Linden, Weimar Republic
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The Light Bulb – Invention with 1,000 Steps

Thursday, April 19th, 2018

Thomas Edison, who gave us the gift of the electric bulb, was called “too stupid to learn anything.” He was fired from his first two jobs and failed a thousand times before inventing the light bulb. During an interview, a reporter jokingly asked him, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” To which Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” However counterintuitive it may seem, having the courage to fail and be laughed upon is required to be successful.

— Sandeep Kashyap, founder of ProofHub

Thomas Edison didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Tags: courage to fail, invention, light bulb, perseverance, success, Thomas Edison
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Hyphenated Americans with German Roots

Monday, April 16th, 2018

During World War I, the term hyphenated Americans was popular. It referred to the hyphen between people with another ethnicity and “American.” One example would be German-Americans. “Hyphenated Americans” was a term that was used in a derogatory manner and was frequently directed at Americans with German roots. It was presumed that German-Americans fostered continued allegiance to Germany during the war. Allegations included spying for Germany and endorsing the German war effort. Thousands were forced to buy war bonds to show their loyalty; hundreds were interned or beaten, tarred and feathered. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/where-have-german-americans-gone/ Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were outspoken “anti-hyphenates” and insisted that dual loyalties were impossible in wartime.

When and Why Germans immigrated to America

Since Germany did not have colonies in America, the first German immigrants arrived in the British colonies. That was in the 1670s, long before the United States became independent. They settled primarily in areas we now know as Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia and had left Germany because of shortages of land, religious or political oppression. German immigrants who arrived prior to 1850 were mostly farmers; thereafter many came to cities. The largest flow of German immigration to America occurred between 1820 and World War I. During that time, nearly six million Germans immigrated to the United States.

Between 1931 and 1940, 114,000 Germans moved to the United States, many of whom were Jewish Germans. Germans who immigrated after World War II were mostly professionals and academics. By 2010, the population of hyphenated Americans with German roots had grown to 49.8 million, which includes 6 million people who had immigrated since 2000.

World, this was the moment of departure. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2013. www.walled-in-berlin.com

For more than seven million emigrants, who left from Bremerhaven between 1830-1974 on their journey to the New World, this was the moment of departure. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2013. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Where did Hyphenated Americans with German roots settle?

There is a “German belt” that extends from eastern Pennsylvania to the Oregon coast. The first permanent German settlement was Germantown in Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1683. Today, the states with the highest proportion of German Americans are in the upper Midwest, including Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin and the Dakotas, where over one-third of the population has German roots.

Hyphenated Americans with German roots who made their mark

American industrialists and businessmen with German roots include Eberhard Anheuser, William Boeing, Adolphus Busch, Walter Chrysler, Adolph Coors, Walt Disney, Bill Gates, Conrad Hilton, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Steinway, Levi Strauss, the Studebaker brothers, and many others. Walter Gropius, Albert Einstein, Neil Armstrong and Wernher von Braun contributed to American technology and culture. Politicians include John Boehner, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Herbert Hoover, Henry Kissinger and Henry Morgenthau, Jr. Barack Obama, too, has ancestors with German roots on his maternal side. They came from the town of Besigheim in southern Germany.

Hyphenated Americans with German roots established the first kindergartens, introduced the Christmas tree The Christmas Tree Tradition is German and the Easter Bunny Our Easter Bunny (Osterhase) is German and popularized the Oktoberfest. They also brought hot dogs and hamburgers to America.

A discussion about Germans in America would be incomplete without addressing a false belief, known as the Muhlenberg Legend. The lore claims that German almost became the official language of the U.S. Not true. Did German almost become America’s Official Language?

Tags: anti-hyphenates, German belt, German-Americans, hyphenated Americans, Muhlenberg Legend, President Theodore Roosevelt, President Woodrow Wilson, World War I
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Zimmermann Telegram – WWI Saga of Intrigue

Monday, April 9th, 2018

The Zimmermann Telegram was a coded cable sent by German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann to the German ambassador to Mexico, Heinrich von Eckhardt, in the midst of World War I. In the dispatch, Germany promised to help Mexico regain its lost territories of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico in exchange for support of Germany against that country’s enemies: Britain, France, Russia and Italy. The Zimmermann Telegram helped push the United States into entering into World War I.

Arthur Zimmermann, German diplomat in the United States. Photo courtesy of The Daily Star. www.walled-in-berlin.com

What the Zimmermann Telegram proposed

The cable instructed German ambassador to Mexico, Heinrich Von Eckardt, to approach Mexico’s president and propose a military wartime alliance between Germany and Mexico in the case that the United States entered the war on the side of the Allies against Germany. In exchange for a Mexican attack on the United States, Germany would provide military and financial support for the assault, and Mexico would be free to regain its lost territories.

Purpose behind the Zimmermann Telegram

Germany had long toyed with the idea of inciting a war between Mexico and the United States to keep the American forces busy at home and to slow the export of American arms to the Allies against Germany. The United States spent the first two-and-a-half years of the war watching from the sidelines. But the sinking of the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania in 1915 had helped to rally some pro-war factions. Still, isolationist sentiment in the United States remained high. In 1917, Germany gave the Zimmermann Telegram in coded form to U.S Ambassador to Germany, James W. Gerard, for transmission to Mexico. On 16 January 1917 the missive was sent via Berlin, Copenhagen, London and Washington, D.C. to Mexico City. http://www.history.com/news/the-secret-history-of-the-zimmermann-telegram Shortly thereafter, Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic.

The Plot surrounding the Zimmermann Telegram thickens

British intelligence had been secretly tapping into the U.S. state department’s transatlantic cables since early in the war. On 17 January 1917 – two days before the Zimmermann Telegram arrived in Washington – a British crypto analyst encrypted the dispatch and passed the information on to Admiral Sir William Reginald Hall, Director of British Intelligence. For several weeks, the admiral kept the telegram under wraps without informing his superiors or the United States. The reason was twofold: (1) Hall did not want Germany to know that the Brits had broken their codes and (2) Hall did not want the United States to know that the Brits were eavesdropping on their communications.

When it became clear that the US would not enter the war despite the sinking of the RMS Lusitania and the declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare, Britain passed on the contents of the telegram to the United States but concealed its source. Instead, England claimed that it had intercepted the Zimmermann Telegram in Mexico and passed the information on to the U.S. Embassy in London. Still unaware of the British espionage involved, the U.S. agreed to pass off the information as something that had been intercepted by its own intelligence service.

Result of the Zimmermann Telegram

By 1 March 1917, the contents of the Zimmermann Telegram were splashed all over the front pages of newspapers throughout the nation. The telegram served as evidence of German aggression, and the American public was outraged. Public opinion turned against Germany and against German-Americans living in the United States. Where have all the German-Americans Gone? On 2 April 1917, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson abandoned his policy of neutrality and asked Congress to declare war against Germany. In the meantime, both Mexico and Japan had already dismissed as infeasible Germany’ offer of a military partnership.

Tags: Admiral Sir William Reginald Hall, Arthur Zimmermann, British Intelligence, diplomatic intrigue, Germany, Heinrich von Eckhardt, Mexican war to regain lost territories, RMS Lusitania, U.S. intelligence, unrestricted submarine warfare, World War I, Zimmermann telegram
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Don’t Try to Move Mountains

Thursday, April 5th, 2018

Don’t try to move mountains for people who won’t bother to lift a stone for you.

— Anonymous

Don’t try to move mountains for people who won’t bother to lift a stone for you. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Tags: arrogant, cater to, dote on, pamper, self-centered, spoil, ungrateful
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Where have all the German-Americans gone?

Monday, April 2nd, 2018

According to census information, almost 50 million German-Americans lived in the United States in 2010. That number represents 16% of the total U.S. population. Not surprisingly therefore, German-Americans are the largest ethnic group living in the United States. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/hyphenated-americans-german-roots/ At the turn of the last century, New York ranked third in cities being home to the world’s largest German-speaking populations, trailed only by Berlin and Vienna. Entire communities from Wisconsin to Texas consisted almost exclusively of German immigrants and their children. These immigrants founded churches, they established German language newspapers and cultural societies, and they entered politics. But unlike Spanish-Americans, very few German-Americans still master the German language today, and few schools list German as part of their curriculum. Only 1.7% of all German-Americans over the age of 5 even speak the language. Why is that?

Emigrant Memorial (Auswandererdenkmal), Bremerhaven, Germany. The father of these four soon to be German-Americans looks toward the New World. The mother looks back as she leaves the Old Country. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2013, www.walled-in-berlin.com

Word War I changed everything for German-Americans

The large number of German-Americans living in the United States lobbied against intervening on the Allies’ side and helped to keep the United States out of World War I for a long time. When the United States finally did enter the war in 1917, German-Americans came under severe, and often violent, scrutiny. Their loyalty was questioned. People with German roots were indiscriminately accused of being spies and double agents. When the Zimmermann telegram was unearthed, a crackpot German plan that proposed Mexico invade the United States, extreme anti-German sentiments took hold and caused lasting damage to German culture in the United States. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/zimmermann-telegram-wwi-saga-intrigue/

During the 19 month that followed, the German language, German books, newspapers, music, churches, communities, and even German-Americans themselves came under violent attack. Hundreds of German-Americans were interned. More than 30 were killed by vigilantes and anti-German mobs. Hundreds more were beaten or tarred and feathered. The works of Goethe http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/goethe-writes-faust-a-closet-drama/, Schiller http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/friedrich-schiller-champion-of-freedom/, Bach, Mozart and Beethoven http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/ludwig-van-beethoven-lonely-giant/either perished in the flames of public book-burning ceremonies or were relegated to back shelves or basements. Some of the burnings were performed by mobs, others by administrators or officials. For a time, these ceremonies were all the rage in the US, and many German-Americans hid their German roots or changed their names. For book-burning ceremonies in Germany, see http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/empty-bookshelves-book-burning-memorial/

The Immigrants Memorial near Clinton Castle in Battery Park, New York. Clinton Castle served as a processing facility for newly arrived immigrants. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2017. www.walled-in-berlin.com

What was left of German-Americans after World War I

In 1910 there were 488 German-language newspapers in the United States with a combined circulation of 3,391,000. Ten years later, there were only 152 publications left with a circulation of 1,311,000. In contrast to the decline of German-language publications, the number of many other ethnic publications increased. Between 1910 and 1920, the number of Spanish-language publications increased from 21 with 74,000 readers to 33 with 256,000 readers. Yiddish publications increased from 8 with 321,000 readers to 23 with 808,000 readers. Italian newspapers went from 28 with 245,00 readers to 40 with 584,000 readers.

My own two cents on the vanishing German-Americans

I am a German-American and speak German, although rarely. The reason is not that I have forgotten how to speak German or that I want to hide my German background, but that few of my friends have German roots. I came to the United States much later than discussed in this article. I came as a young woman during the Cold War and intended to stay for only one year. Born just after WWII, I came from the then walled-in city of Berlin. It was just over twenty years since WWII had ended, and there still was plenty of anti-German sentiment in the United States. But I had expected that. Post-WWII anti-German attitudes were common throughout Europe. There was shame in being German, and we were taught that in German schools.

Born after World War II, my understanding of the war was limited to book knowledge. To avoid detailed discussions on a subject I knew little more about than the rest of the population, I sometimes pretended to be Norwegian. And since I had come to the United States for the purpose of improving my English, I preferred exposure to native English speakers and avoided Germans. Besides, having visited German American clubs occasionally, I found that I had little in common with its members. The non-German members seemed to be in it for the beer, the bratwurst and the polka, and the expatriates, decades my seniors, remembered a Germany that no longer existed. By the time I decided to make the United States my home, most of my friends were non-Germans.

The information presented in this article, aside from “my own two cents,” is based on Erik Kirschbaum’s 2015 book, “Burning Beethoven: The Eradication of German Culture in the United States During World War I.” Eric is a correspondent for the Reuters International News Agency and lives in Berlin, Germany.

Tags: anti-German sentiment, Auswandererdenkmal, Bremerhaven, Burning Beethoven: The Eradication of German Culture in the United States During World War I, Emigrant Memorial, Erik Kirschbaum, Friedrich Schiller, German-Americans, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, public book burnings of German books, The Immigrants Memorial, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wolfgang von Goethe, World War I, Zimmermann telegram
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The Essence of Romance is Uncertainty

Thursday, March 29th, 2018

The essence of romance is uncertainty.

— Oscar Wilde

The essence of romance is uncertainty. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Tags: changeable, courtship, doubt, mystique, romance, unpredictable
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Our Easter Bunny (Osterhase) is German

Monday, March 26th, 2018

Did you know that the Easter Bunny is German? Along with St. Nikolaus http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/dont-forget-st-nikolaus-day-december-6/, Santa Claus and the Christkind (Christ child), the Easter Bunny brought gifts to the children on the night before the respective holiday. The Easter Bunny stems from the German tradition of the Osterhase (Easter hare). Only good children received colored eggs in nests, which they had made from their caps and bonnets before Easter.

The Easter Bunny, as a symbol for Easter, is first mentioned in writings in 16^th century Germany. The first edible Easter Bunnies were produced in Germany in the early 1800s. When Germans began emigrating to America, and especially to Pennsylvania, in the 18^th century, they brought the tradition of the Osterhase with them. The tradition spread across the country, until it the Easter Bunny also became a part of American Traditions.

The Easter Bunny (before immigrating to the United States 😃). Handmade in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) and available through Mueller Smokerman. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Why would a hare bring eggs?

A hare doesn’t lay eggs. Why would he be associated with eggs during Easter? There are numerous legends tying the hare to eggs. Most likely, the connection originated in farming communities. In the Middle Ages, Green Thursday – the Thursday before Easter – typically marked the end of the business year and the time when tenant farmers had to pay their taxes to the owners of the land they worked. Because these farmers had fasted throughout Lent, the period just before Easter, they frequently had accumulated a surplus of eggs. Often, these eggs became the currency of choice, and many farmers paid their taxes with cooked eggs and with hares they had killed in their fields.

Another legend has it that the hare was the sacred beast of Eostre, the Saxon goddess of Spring and Dawn. However according to the Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore there is no evidence that hares were sacred to Eostre.

Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny

After the Lenten fast had ended, peasants prepared special dishes with decorated eggs as part of the celebration. Later, German Protestants retained the custom of eating colored eggs for Easter. By the end of the Second World War, the Easter Bunny had become mainstream.

The oldest surviving decorated egg dates back to the fourth century A.D. and was discovered in a Romano-Germanic sarcophagus near Worms in Rhineland-Palatinate. https://www.thelocal.de/20170410/made-in-germany-the-very-deutsch-origins-of-the-easter-bunny

The Easter Bunny (after immigrating to the United States). Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2018. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Tags: Easter, Easter Bunny, Easter eggs, Easter hare, German immigrants, Lenten fast, Osterhase
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