Now, as you know I live in Salzburg, Austria. It's funny that, though they share the same language and a common culture, some Austrians are not exactly crazy about Germany. Must come from the whole WWII trauma (some Germans say 'Hey, Hitler was Austrian', then Austrians say 'Hey, you put him in power, we just tagged along for the ride'); as well as from a complex of inferiority, since Austria is 10 times smaller than Germany. I have a student who's going to live abroad for 2 years, the 1st in London, the 2nd one he hasn't decided yet where -- I innocently suggested Berlin. He gave me a look as if I had just suggested Harare. I told him it is a very interesting city, something always happening, why wouldn't he enjoy living there? 'It's full of Germans' he said, and I though he was smiling I think he was only half-kidding.
Nonetheless, I was amazed to discover that Germans are the 2nd largest group of foreigners living in Austria -- there are more Germans in Austria than Turkish people. The thing is you don't realize it because they don't stand out at all. I guess Germany and Austria are kind of like a couple that is now separated: they may still be close friends, but there's always a grumpy hangover from the period of unsuccessful intimacy.
Getting back to the trip: I took off early, and after 2 hours by train I got there still mid-morning. I had been a couple of times before in Munich and seen the main sights, so I just wandered aimless north from the station to get to some of the less central areas I hadn't seen before. And I bumped into this:
According to a detailed sign from City Hall this was the nerve center of the Nazi Party in Munich. Munich was a very important city for the Nazis, because it was where the party was born. Hitler lived there for a long time, from the time he moved to Germany from Austria to 1933, when he became chancellor of Germany and had to move to the capital Berlin. It was in Munich that he launched the failed coup in 1923 to gain power, the so-called 'putsch'.
Even after Hitler moved to Berlin, the Nazi party had impressive headquarters in the area pictured above -- they had over 50 buildings concentrated in a 6 block radius around Konigsplatz. A lot of the buildings were destroyed by US forces once they occupied Germany to de-nazify the city. Some are still left though: the building in the background of the picture on top, which is the same as the building on the far right of the picture on the bottom, was Hitler's office building, where he would work everyday. He also made speeches from the central balcony.
Even the Americans dynamite sometimes didn't do the whole job: in the top picture you see the strong stone base for what used to be a Nazi memorial temple for the Nazi 'martyrs' that were killed in the failed putsch. The explosives apparently didn't blow up the base as well. The Americans didn't know what to do what with it, so they just let plants grow on top. And 60 years later because it's such a symbolicly sensitive site, and people argue endlessly about what to do with it, or what to build there, it is still exactly the same. Amazing. (for more on Munich's Nazi past have a look here.)
Now on that square pictured on the bottom, where they used to have Nazi parades and rallies, there are now some neo-classical buildings that house anthropological museums.
As I strolled through the square on a warm sunny day and looked around I thought: the people here on this square are already saying a big fuck you to the Nazi ideology just by being themselves -- in front of me a busload of German highschool students were entering the museum; among the blond hair and blue eyes were a few black and asian students, seeming totally integrated with their schoolmates. So much for the pure Aryan Germany Hitler dreamed of. And they were going into a museum on anthropology, with exhibits on cultures from around the world -- not just an exhibition on Bavarian folk dancing and lederhosen as Hitler would have liked (not that I have anything against lederhosen, they can look quite fetching on the right chap). On the other side of the square, on the marble steps of the other museum, there was a young gay couple talking and getting lovey-dovy.
And I thought to myself -- it's a wonderful world -- at least in this particular time and place. A goose-stepping moron's worst nightmare come true.
No comments:
Post a Comment