Berlin: A City of Vast History

Having been involved with art for most of my life and studio art being my minor, one of the facts that I found interesting about Berlin were artists George Grosz and Käthe Kollwitz. Each artist captured a different time and theme in their artwork, but both reflect an event or theme in Berlin history. Grosz focused on the corruption of society during the 1920s when the wealthy were the ones who held all the power and controlled all of the jobs while the poor consisted of the wounded soldiers from WWI and the general working class. In the documentary, it was stated that Grosz was painted the most accurate pictures of Berlin in the 1920s. It is a part of Berlin’s history that I believe most people do not here about. Grosz either used a simple contour drawing (using only the outline of images) or used paint to capture this corrupt and completely social spilt of society. Grosz did not try to capture any beauty, he wanted to show what Berlin was most like during this time. What I find really interesting about Grosz is he used his art as a way to record history. Instead of writing it down in a journal, he used his art to record it so generations from now can look back and visually see his representation of Berlin.

An image created by George Grosz that shows the greedy upper class with their money at the table while the poor working class and wounded soldier wander in the back, 

Käthe Kollwitz’ artwork focused on an entirely different theme from Grosz. Kollwitz lost her son during WWI; she was one of many mothers in Berlin that lost their sons to the war. After that lost she used art as a way to express her grief and the grief of many in Berlin. WWI left thousands of women without their sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers.  One of the most famous works created by her is the statute of a mother and her dead son.  What is interesting about this statute is that it shows the famous image of a mother and her child but in an absolutely new way. What I mean by this is the grouping of a mother and her child in art has been around for centuries; it’s a common theme that can be viewed in works by Mary Cassatt, Friedrich August von Kaulbach, and numerous religious paintings of Mary and Jesus (the main symbol behind many mother and child paintings). However, what makes Kollwitz interesting is she takes these two figures of mother and child but alter it to show Berlin’s aftermath of WWI. Most paintings show the mother and son alive. Kollwitz changes this historical image to show only the mother alive to represent the loss of her son and the loss of so many mothers in Berlin. It was a statue that represented the pain and struggle that followed any war and that any side, victor or defeated, can relate to.

The statue that showed the horrors that followed WWI. Käthe Kollwitz. Title: Pietá

As for East Berlin, what I found the most interesting about its history was how the Russians truly left their mark on East Berlin after WWII when they had power over it. For example the Russian power in East Berlin destroyed the Schloss, the royal palace of Germany, because it represented the old power and interfered with Russian’s new vision for East Berlin.  Also the Russians used the ruins and fallen stones of the buildings to build a monument to represent the fallen soldiers of WWII of the Russian army, not of the German army.  It was hard to believe that Russia left such a huge imprint on Berlin by destroying a German historical building such as the Schloss and then building a monument in honor of their dead. It was as if they were trying to create a new Russian communist country in East Berlin and try to remove some of Germany’s history from this place all together.  What is even more interesting was after the wall came down and East and West Berlin became one again, some people in East Berlin still struggle today with trying to decide to rebuild their history by rebuilding the Schloss while others rather have nothing to do with rebuilding it as if the Russian ideas still linger in their minds.

The Schloss before being destroyed during WWII.

The devastation of WWII represented in this image of the destroyed Schloss, just one of many buildings destroyed in Berlin due to the war. 

Word Count: 688 

To be honest, before I watched the documentary, Martin Luther: A Reluctant Revolutionary, I never really knew much about who Martin Luther was or what he accomplished during his lifetime.  After watching this documentary I believe I have a better understanding of who Martin Luther was as a man and what he accomplished for the German nation as a religious and cultural revolutionary man.

The biggest thing that made Luther be viewed as a revolutionary man was his 95 theses nailed to the church door and his defiance against the Pope and the way that religion was run in the Holy Roman Empire (which Germany was a part of during Luther’s time).

Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of the church. 

 He was attacking one of the biggest and most influential powers in the empire. He believed that the Pope was abusing his power over the people. For example the Pope would have many people working for him and be paraded around in the most marvelous of ways. Luther believed that this is where majority of the German people’s money was being spent towards, for the own personal gain of the Pope.  During this time, as what I can tell from the documentary, some people were questioning the church but no one wanted to speak out or if they did they were executed or excommunicated from the church. Luther however changed that for he was the first one to do so and actually live to tell the tale. The 95 thesis nailed to the church door was just one of his early acts of defiance against the church and a personal attack at the Pope He tried returning religion and its power to the people and make it more democratic type then a sole leader of the church.  It was as if he was stealing the religion from the Pope and returning it to the people, almost like a religious Robin Hood.

Besides being a revolutionary man in religion, he was also a cultural revolutionary. The believed date of the first printing press is around 1439 and created by a man named Johannes Gutenberg. So the printing press has been around long before Luther pegged his 95 theses to the door of the church. However he used the printing press as a tool to help further spread his ideas and views. Luther used the press to publish his writings to be shared among the political powers in the realm as well as the common folks. It was a way for everyone to be united and understand what was occurring during the time and learn the cause that Luther was fighting against. It was the early start of using the press as a way to argue. 

The printing press was a tool Luther used to print his ideas. 

Besides the press he also translated the Bible from Latin into German. This was a great change because it was an early start to creating a common language in Germany. It also was a way that the common folks can have their own copy of the Bible and to actually understand the text and learn from it as well instead of solely relying on the Pope for translation.

The Bible that Luther wrote after translating it into German.

Martin Luther was more than a man who nailed a piece of paper to a church door, he was a man who saw religion being corrupted and wanted to return it to the people and he used modern technology of the printing press and the translation of the Bible as one of the ways to help him accomplish his goals.

Word count: 574 

Out the entirety of chapter 2 the most intriguing part that stood out to me the most was the following passage: “Germany, on the other hand, was experiencing the longest peace time era of its whole history, from 1555 (the Peace of Augsburg) until 1618. It ended mainly because over the course of this time ambitious leaders had formed alliances along denominational lines and were only waiting for the right moment to strike,” (Schulze 62). Basically if you recall from the book, Schulze was talking about how during the latter part of the 16^th century much of Europe was broken out into numerous battles and wars, however Germany had a time of piece that lasted for about 63 years.  It may be a small passage from the text, but it was the passage that stuck with me the most. 

One thing that I found strange about this passage is how little time the author actually spent on it. Schulze wrote that this is the longest peace time the whole history of Germany, but he literally gives it a sentence and moves on. What came out of the 63 years of peace that Germany had? Did it further develop Germany as a nation or through works of art and literature; was it Germany’s form of a golden age? How did the peace manage to last for 63 years? These were the questions that ran through my mind when I came across the passage. However, instead of answering these questions and focusing on some events that may have occurred during this time instead of jumping straight back into vivid detail portraying the hard times and battles that followed soon after the piece broke. This passage made me realize how many nations’ histories, whether it is Germany’s or America’s, mainly focuses how it was shaped through wars, political uprisings, or hardships. No history spends time on the positives that helped form a nation.

 For example when I was in American history classes I remember mainly learning about all the wars that America fought in as well as the Depression and the labor strikes in the early 1900s. Sure we mentioned the Roaring 20s, but I remember our wars more than the “golden 20s.” 

http://www.soldierstudies.org/index.php?action=webquest_1

An example of the connection of how nations are usually associated purely on their war that they fought in. For example the Civil War dominates our American history yet not much else is learned from the 1800s. By Schulze skimming over the peace era, he is skimming over 63 years of German history. 

With Schulze leaving out the peace era I feel that I am missing a part of Germany’s history. I want to learn about the history that is not spoken much about, such as the longest peace time. It was still a part of Germany’s history and it was a part that shaped them to be the nation that they are today.

http://www.germanculture.com.ua/library/history/bl_30_years_war.htm

The Thirty Years; War that started in 1618; one of the reasons for the end to the longest peace time in German history.  

Word Count: 431