The Berlin Wall: Encountering a Memorial Site of Global Significance

Political and personal freedom are key pre-requisites to living a fulfilling and contributive life. In the aftermath of the Holocaust and Second World War, unleashed by the fascist Nazi regime, Germany became a divided country at the center of the Cold War, with its former capital Berlin physically divided in half for 28 years. This division ended in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin wall. Berlin was thus a site of unimaginable violence and terror in the first half of the 20th century before experiencing a unique division followed by a remarkably peaceful transition towards reunification and democratic freedom in 1990. It is safe to say that few cities have played a more fateful role in 20th century world affairs than Berlin. Encountering Berlin and its memorials means engaging deeply with humanity, human rights, the sanctity of life and peaceful solidarity and global struggles for democratic freedom.

This Learning Cluster Winter Block Seminar and Study Trip centered around the past, present, and future of the Berlin Wall and its memory and memorialization. The Berlin Wall was the most prominent physical symbol of the “Iron Curtain” that divided the world after the Allied forces defeated Nazi Germany in 1945. The East German regime constructed the wall on August 13, 1961 and it divided the country for 10,315 days. Its fall on November 9, 1989 proved to the world that repressive regimes can end by non-violent means. Yet ever since reunification, Germany has had to decide how to adequately remember and memorialize the terrors of the past while hoping to build towards a unified future, with Berlin once again becoming the capital for all of Germany.

While physical erasure of the wall was a necessary prerequisite for the reunification of the city, of the country, and of its people after decades of unleashed trauma, physically erasing the wall also risked erasing it from memory. So how can we adequately remember and memorialize a global symbol of repression and unfreedom, i.e. a border wall, in the hearts and minds of residents, citizens, and the global community while also recognizing that a united and peaceful future depended on the symbols’ physical disappearance from the built environment. What opportunities and challenges did its removal present? How much of the Berlin wall is still present, visible, experience-able and readable in the built environment? What other means of representation and memorialization do we have at our disposal to adequately honor the past? And: What are the possibilities of physical, intellectual, and sensual encounter with this symbol for a group of young global citizens who are curious but initially unfamiliar with this important historical place and physical space? Also, once we trace its history, how can we advance our own learning about freedom, democracy, and human rights in a dialogic fashion?

Our learning was organized into several distinct phases and sub-projects. We aim to document much of our journey here.