East meets West
October 3, 2010We started celebrating just under a year ago with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (Nov. 2009) and today the celebration continues with 20 years of reunification in Germany.
We talk about reunification, but it would probably be more accurate to say that East Germany (the GDR- German Democratic Republic) ceased to exist while West Germany (the FRG- Federal Republic of Germany) became much larger than it had been. As a result, reunified Germany has been criticized repeatedly for having dedicated the last 20 years to systematically erasing all signs and symbols of the German Democratic Republic (the Palast der Republik comes to mind, which disappeared completely just a few years ago).
There is no denying that some remnants of the former East are here to stay in Berlin, whether we like it or not. It is difficult to imagine the city without the 368-meter Television Tower, which dominates the skyline and has become a symbol for the whole of Berlin. Directly across from the TV tower at Alexanderplatz there is a little-known square known as “Marx-Engels Platz”. Many Berliners are not familiar with the square or the large sculptures of Karl Marx and his good friend Friedrich Engels that stand in the middle of it. Tourists know the location well, however, and many seek it out, especially those coming from China.
In the ongoing attempt to reunify Berlin both literally and figuratively, a new subway is being built which will extend from Alexanderplatz to the main train station, passing under the Brandenburg Gate, the Unter den Linden boulevard and Marx-Engels Platz. In preparation for the construction, Marx and Engels were relegated to the northwest corner of the square for the construction period. They were moved carefully and placed at the river’s edge, this time facing West. The last I saw, Engels still had a hood covering his head. It looks as if he cannot stand the site of what he sees in the West. Marx on the other hand, will surely be watching the fireworks over the Reichstag this evening.
