Die Mauer/ The Wall Poem

             

The Wall 

             Reflection on October 3, 1990

              Reiner Kunze

When we took it down, we had no idea

how high it is

inside us

We had become accustomed

to its horizon.

And to the calm

in its shadow

no one cast a shadow

Now we stand stripped

of every excuse                                                                      (trans. David Caldwell)

     Die mauer

              Zum 3. Oktober1990

                     Reiner Kunze

Als wir sie schleiften, ahnten wir nicht,

wie hoch sie ist

in uns

Wir hatten uns gewöhnt

An ihren horizont

Und an die windstille

In ihrem schatten warfen

alle keinen schatten

Nun stehen wir entblößt

jeder entschuldigung

Berlin, mit deinen frechen Feuern. 100 Berlin-Gedichte. Ed. Michael Speier. Reclam, 1997, p. 100.

Color

“Lightroomed”

Due to the generosity of the LINC Library, Greeley, CO, I have begun to learn how to edit digital images. I was tutored on one of the library’s computers. LINC is one of the few libraries in the US with free access to both LIGHTROOM and PHOTOSHOP photography editing software.

A Berlin Country Winter Sky

Lichtenrade

The whole southern edge of the Berlin Wall runs along the boundary between City and County: Berlin and Brandenburg. In the dead of winter, one can quietly contemplate the distant horizon. In the summers, one can meditate on the fertile fields growing right up to the historic and current borderline.

Rolling over the Wall

Potsdamer Platz, Berlin

 Throughout the Mitte, Central Berlin, the former Berlin Wall is marked by hand carved sandstone bricks. The double line crosses streets, sidewalks and across buildings’ lobbies.

 How long does it take for humans to no longer recognize the significance of these bricks and allow them to simply fade into the urban landscape?

Smack Down the Middle of the Havel River

Heilandskirche, Sacrow

 People from the West had to be careful not to swim or boat to close to the border. Otherwise, a simple summer’s outing would turn into a multiday imprisonment followed by deportation back to the West.

Why Art?

Eastside Gallery, Berlin

Along the longest remaining piece of the Wall is art. Facing the street are global commissioned pieces and facing the river, free style graffiti.

 What is the place of art in creating a Memorial Space?

First You Whitewash…

Mauerpark, Berlin

What are the unwritten rules concerning when one can whitewash over another artist’s work?

Souvenirs

Berlin Wall Memorial Park, Berlin

Souvenir hunters soon descended on the Berlin Wall to collect evidence. Along the Berlin Wall Museum are examples of the remains of the reinforced concrete after people have chipped away samples.

 An infamous object transformed into a collectable.

Together in Freedom

Bornholmer Strasse Border Crossing, Berlin

 This spray-painted message is just outside the first gate to be crossed on November 8, 1989. Is it a statement or a question? (Note the anarchy symbol below it.)

Low Populated Messed Fencing

Teltow

 Deep in the rural central southern walled section, is a rare example of metal messed fencing. Nature has taken over the role of destroying its purpose of creating isolation.

B/W

#329 Looking towards the Mitte from the First Crack

Bornholmerstr’s Bösebrücke

On 9 November, 1989 @ 9:30 pm at the Bornholmer Strasse Border Crossing, the floodgates were unofficially opened. The Berlin Wall only continued to crack open from then and there.

#13 Bearing Witness

Liesenstr and Gartenstr

Between 1961 and 1989, cross-town Berlin transportation routes were a tangled maze. Some abandoned stations were passed through at a steady speed. The S-Bahn line operated throughout Berlin, although in West Berlin it was boycotted until the Wall began tumbling down. This tiny section is left standing in its original location to bear witness to the ever-changing surrounding landscape.

#15 I Spy with my Little Eye

Berlin Wall Memorial

corner of Bernauerstr. and Brunnerstr.

 This photograph records an apartment building’s external wall historically repurposed as a portion of the Outer Border Wall. Note the poignant sticker of an imposing person’s eye “spying” on the area. Although the vast majority of the physical walls and fences have been removed, making the Berlin Wall nearly invisible, many Berliners still sense its emotional shadow.

#30 Can You Give Me A Leg Up?

Berlin Wall Memorial, Bernauerstr

This portion of the remnants of the Berlin Wall are in Mitte, central Berlin, easily accessible to tourists and local people. This couple could not resist the temptation to reenact an escape attempt; although they would have ended up in the former East Berlin.

#34 Where Did All the Guards Go?

Nordhafen Shipping Channel

This former border tower, one of only five left intact, is centrally located in Mitte/downtown Berlin, along the narrow banks of the Nordhafen shipping channel. The first Maueropfer/Wall Victim died by drowning, within sight of this tower. After the Berlin Wall was dismantled, this neighborhood was the epicenter for the first wave of new residential construction.

#77 Reversal of Fortune

Checkpoint Charlie

Seeking a new photographic angle at this popular tourist attraction, the main official border crossing station, I ventured into McDonald’s. Knowing that most McDonald’s have a second floor, I entered and climbed the stairs. Out the window, was an unobstructed view of the “Soviet” soldier, Ohne Titel/Untitled, Frank Thiel, 1998. Now communism has been replaced by American consumerism. With this new perspective, I reframed the Cold War political ideologies.

#110 Surprised by Silence

Rudower Höhe, southwest industrial niche

From my apartment, I descended four flights of stairs, walked 600 meters, rode to the very end of the U-Bahn route, and then took the bus #371. After more than an hour’s journey, I finally arrived. No one was around. That 2023/24 winter, Berlin experienced 15 snow days – some only snowflakes to accumulations of 2 cms, as on that day. As I disembarked the bus, I was surrounded by silence; the fresh snow muffling any speech or movement. Right in front of me were long unmarred and unattended sections of the former Berlin Wall. How can such violence be beautifully hidden in plain view?

#184 Land Pockets Surrounded by the Other

near entrance to the Steinstücken subdivision, Wannsee

The borderline between East and West Berlin was not always logical geometrically shaped. Sometimes, streets were bisected straight down the middle but at other times, the dividing line between the two territories was more organic. There were neighborhood enclaves – in both East and West Berlin - which stuck out or into enemy territory. One land parcel was Steinstücken, in the southwest corner of Berlin. Enough fear of a possible invasion was generated to supply the 200+ residents with their own helicopter and flying team, should a emergency evacuation be needed.

#222 This is Different!

Alexander Haus, Groß Glienicke

On the last day of my walking pilgrimage, I spotted this building on the banks of the Groß Glienicker Sea. Its architecture was different than any other domestic dwelling. Months later, I began to learn the identity of this house: the Alexander Haus and its occupants. The original owners, bought the land and built a summer home in 1935. They were Jewish. Not many years later they evacuated to London and had to abandon the cottage. In the next decades, reflecting the trends of the day, numerous families “legally” occupied the house. In the foreground, can be seen pieces of rebar left from the Berlin Wall construction.

#223 In Situ

Groß Glienicker

Along the northwest edge of the Groß Glienicker Sea, are several untampered sections of various fortifications from the original Berlin Wall that still line the lakeside. Being left in situ, is a powerful multi-layered statement by the villagers. What does the monument mean to you? And to others?

#234 Sheep Grazing Among the Piled Remains of the Berlin Wall

on the slopes of Hahneberg

Except for the multitude of domesticated dogs, animal sightings are a rarity, in both city and rural areas, Germany. Unexpectedly, the wild animals I have seen most frequently were the wild foxes of Berlin Mitte. Along the Berliner Mauer Walk, I hiked for days without seeing any creatures, on the ground or in treetops. Then one day, a small flock of sheep came into view, an urban educational demonstration farm. They were accompanied by the only wild rabbits I observed. I have heard rumors of furious wild boar sightings in select wildernesses of the numerous green areas of Berlin.

#252 Repurposed Bench

Schönwalde-Glien

At the end of one of my longest walks, I spotted a discarded bench in the forest. My first reaction was to assume it was a church pew. Why? How? What? I knew I was in the former East, aka, “Atheist” Germany. Then a Berliner challenged my opinion, asking me, “Is that a breakfast nook bench?” Either way, why was it set up for sitting in a forest.

 That day I also learned the importance of reading bus timetables. I was, so far out of the city that I had to wait 1 1/2 hours for the next Saturday bus. Luckily, it is a beautiful Springlike day, but I still got a deep chill waiting.

#283 Fresh Flowers for Micki

northernmost tip of the Berlin Wall

Near the Invalidensiedlung, the injured soldiers’ housing complex, is an outlier memorial. The only memorial flowers - at any of the 125+ deadly unsuccessful escape routes - were laid at Marienetta "Micki" Jirkowsky’s (25 August 1962 – 22 November 1980) death site. She was one of the youngest, still a teenager, and one of the few women, one of eight, to die from “friendly fire” from one of her own countrymen.

#295 Themes and Variations of Pavement Stones

Veltheimstr. and Schildowerstr. Glienicke/Nordbahn

Near the northern tip of the Berlin Wall, a neighborhood was sliced in half. Note the remaining echo of the past through the different patterned street pavements of the same street.

Artist’s Statement

A Photography Exploration

Berlin’s Wound: a Coverup, an Open Sore, or a Healing Scar

Every human entity leaves behind a vestige of its history. This exhibition is about one piece of Germany’s past, the Berlin Wall.

 The Berlin Wall was constructed to divide; to separate people on geographic, political, military, social, economic, religious, and cultural grounds. The imposing boundary isolated half of Berlin into becoming an island. Then late one evening its purpose vanished. The barbed wire was rolled up. The land mines deactivated. The cement slabs were shipped around the world, as artistic trophies. 

 What happened to the strip of land under the former Berlin Wall?

 Thirty-five years after its demise, Laura Krauss set out to discover what happened to this earth-bound landmark. Would it be hidden, paved over, and reforested; evident only in history books. Or would it be treated as an open wound, still painful for those who lived through that infamous period of time? Or would it be honored as a healing scar for the present and future generations?

 During the four months of Berlin’s 2023-24 winter, Laura Krauss traced, on foot, the former defensive fences of the Berlin Wall (12-13 August 1961 until 9 November, 1989). Over 37 days, she traversed the city by public transport (S- Bahn, U-Bahn, and bus) to reach each day’s starting point. Using the circular Berliner Mauerweg, the developed foot/bike path, she entered a walking meditation space (aka, a pilgrimage). Collecting her emotions rather than trying to document every trace of evidence of the historic series of guard towers, cement walls, and barbed fences. The slow wondering pace allowed for a deep reflection on the lasting impacts of the one-time barrier.

 Along the 100-mile journey, Laura Krauss captured 815 images - with her Nikon N80 camera utilizing analogue black/white film and colored images with my iPhone 11. The collection has been curated down with twenty enlargements in black and white and in color with small images to reenact the long journey.

 In this sampler of the photographs, do you see evidence of a Coverup or an Open Wound or a Healing Scar?

 ***

The artist would like to express her gratitude to the LINC Library for their support, Steelock for the loan of the fencing, and Greeley friendships. This exhibition of photographs is part of the artist’s interest in documenting cultural items precious to a community. Laura Krauss’ homebase is Pasadena, California.