Berlin Wall

Manuela led us toward the Berlin wall and along the way we walked on an uneven path with large and small pieces of stones cemented to the ground. We stopped at one point and I looked down to see two lines of bricks stretching along the sidewalk. Wedged in between the bricks is a small gold plate that said “Berliner Mauer 1961-1989”. This is the exact location where the Berlin wall once stood. An invisible wall lies before my feet and I can imagine bicycle wheels, shoes, paper, gum, and glass that this wall faces each day. It would have been very easy for me to miss this intangible wall, but once I discovered it, my surroundings became much more meaningful. As I try to think of myself as this wall, I look to my right and to my left becoming aware of the power I held as both the link and disconnect between East and West Berlin.

When we reached the first part of the actual remains of the wall and facing me was bright and colorful graffiti, I suddenly felt confused and surprised because I had expected the wall to be hundreds of feet high and very intimidating.

The image of the wall I had in my head was certainly too glorified and I realized that the wall was more of a symbolic barrier. Although artists have made the wall bright, full of life, and welcoming, I knew that the underlying message was there behind the maze of paint, writings, and pictures. The personal messages that the artists send out through the means of art are unique and many of them are helping preserve this important part of Berlin culture. From the various paintings that I saw I could see how the wall separated families, cut off cultural ties, instilled fear, and caused death. Although only small parts of this wall remained, its history is never gone.

The theme of lost and reestablished certainly connects with the experience I had watching the wall slowly be taken over by plain white paint and artists reconstructing it again. It is interesting to me that the wall can endure time, weather, dirt, and vandalism. Although the artwork slowly fades away, the wall still remains and artists are able to repaint their original artworks to continue their messages whether it is about reunification, freedom, human rights, or consumerism.