Berlin für Bibi 1 (by Tobias and Violeta)

... the wall! Today we looked for the wall which separated East-Berlin and West-Berlin between 1961 and 1989.
On the side of the GDR they called it “antifascist protective barrier” but it caused many biographic tragedies.
Of course it doesn´t exist any more - that´s the point - but there are some places in the city where parts of the wall are exposed or integrated in history museums. These places are attractions for the tourists and easy to find. There the history of Berlin is obvious.

We knew that there is a subtle form of memorial along the former route of the wall because we passed through it thousands of times.
But today, when we looked for it to take a picture, we couldn´t find the small cobblestone-line. It crosses sidewalks and streets and when you pass it by car it bounces the car, only a little bit of course. But sometimes the line is interrupted....

Where we assumed it to be, there was no mark. At least we couldn´t see one because we got into a labour unions demonstration! There was no chance neither to ask the people to make way for our investigation nor to ask them about the memorial because they where all busy with talking about union rates and things. We gave up.

Fortunately, on the way back to the car - near Potsdamer Platz - we found a part of the mark: voilà!
This wall-memorial, simple as it is, really “embodies” the heritage of history: we know where the wall took its route, we read plenty of fictional and non-fictional books about the times of the GDR, we saw and see films, we talk to people about that time and ... we live with it, such internalized that we “step on” the wall even when we are not aware of it.

Ps: on our walk we came by a huge militaristic moment for the defeat of Nazi-Germany. And, Tobias, that is not what monuments are for!