I wrote my prior post on an early Wednesday morning, instinctively guarding the mental space of the day before. I don't have an absolute political affiliation. I vote for the Greens in Australia because they are the left-of-centre party with the most influence over Labour, in what is a relatively centrist country. Sometimes socialism makes sense to me, particularly in the light of potential global collaboration over climate change mitigation. But I know for sure that democratic socialism is alive and well in the Nordic countries, and that is a system I can rely on to work for most people, most of the time. Socialism (with free elections) in a rich country like Spain or Australia is as yet an unknown.
Anyway, I finished my post and descended to the reception area before any other customer. The two workers on the night shift were both women, and were enjoying a cigarette break outside the hotel in the pitch dark of 5am. I worried about their safety, unsure whether the relative isolation of the hotel made things better of worse, but eventually they came back in and started playing the dance music I had been hoping they would.
Breakfast was of the high standard I'd come to expect from an Ibis. I would be taking the S-bahn into Alexanderplatz and changing for Potsdamer Platz a couple of hours later. I was glad I took a stroll along the River Spree the day before, while the weather had been good, for today's forecast was mostly rain. Indeed: I found the café I was after, not far from the station, just as the drops made their appearance.
Maxim's was a glitzy, modernist affair decked out in bright orange and more subdued browns. I had found a space I could simply 'be' in, in this busy, upmarket suburb, and while the people-watching was disappointing due to umbrellas blocking people's faces outside, and the more businessperson vibe of the place, I did enjoy a slice of Red Velvet cake while I waited for my designated time to enter the Deutschland Museum.
Eventually I walked a block to the site, and found Berlin's Korean Cultural Centre almost right beside it. (In Vienna, too, I spotted the Austrian version: it was as if the Sydney site had alerted the European ones to my presence and made sure they would stand out to me. Something relatable and at the same time posing a new question: what sort of identity is forged between German-speaking Europe and Korea?)
Anyway, the museum involved fun and educational moments. I thought I knew plenty about Germany's history, but there was a lot of new information to absorb, sometimes presented with humour, always with interactive elements, and the many rooms we passed through were works of art in themselves. From cavernous, wooden, floor-to-ceiling décor evoking the Middle Ages, to the inside of an U-bahn carriage (the trains that connect Berlin proper) replete with videos playing where the windows should be, the Deutschland Museum earned the right to call itself immersive.
I learnt the following:
- The earliest form of German writing was in the form of runes
- In addition to being the root language of Dutch, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian, it also provided the root for Frisian
- The Protestant ideas of Martin Luther coincided with the popularisation of the printing press - perhaps the first form of mass media. This allowed his work to be influential without precedent
- In and around the Thirty Years' War between Catholics and Protestants, people belonging to what is today Sweden, Denmark and France entered the conflict. France fought for the Catholics, and the Nordic countries for the Protestants
- There was a lot of opposition, for a long time, to Germany becoming a distinct nation, as opposed to a collection of independent communities
- The three colours of the German flag, black, yellow and red, have no meaning
- Hitler's soldiers used crystal meth while fighting
- The average wait time for a new Trabant car in the DDR was 12 years
- In Medieval times, Jews were invited into the lands that comprise modern Germany only to be severely restricted in what jobs they could undertake. One of those jobs was moneylending, and the majority developed a hatred of them over a perception of their high interest rates. There was antisemitic violence in those days, too.
Perhaps the most fun moment was when I constructed a song with lyrics chosen by multiple choice on their interactive computer. Apparently I was successful enough at thinking like a white, heterosexual man trying to woo a lady, for '[I did] not get a basket' - i.e. I was not rejected. Instead, a woman, high in a tower, pulled 'me' up through a basket attached to a rope, evidently swayed by my poetic efforts. Her animated hair was long and blonde.
In a quiz on the Enlightenment period, though, I scored 2 out of 8, and the program told me 'the fire of the Enlightenment does not burn bright with you' - a bit harsh, perhaps, but at I appreciated the humour of its metaphor.
I'm glad I had this time to enjoy a carefully thought through and meticulously designed museum, even if my time in Berlin felt rushed for the most part.
I would gladly return to this city, where people watching is rewarding, and I'll never run out of things to do.
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