柏林札记——从伤疤说起 the Berlin Wall

         In the glass arcade, one can find information about the pre-war, wartime and post-war Berlin. Behind the arcade is the "remaining wall", which is about a-hundred-meter long. Like a scar, it has been preserved as a piece of memory about the unforgettable history of the city. 

 

Diese Fotos zeigen die Information über den schwierigen Leben der Frauen in Berlin auf.  Die Schwierigkeiten wie z.B. Instabilität,Versorgungsmangel, und Vergewaltigung, hatten ihr Leben traurig gemacht. 

  柏林墙的历史是我大学里有关德国文化的第一课。

  刚入大学的时候，正值柏林墙倒塌20周年纪念，德文老师就借此机会为了我们讲述了当时的政局和柏林墙简史。对于这件美苏冷战期间的产物，德国人，尤其是柏林人，自然是怀着极其复杂的感情；两大势力对峙的结果使本来就被四分的首都被生生割开，好比一颗被4只利爪钳住的心脏，现在还被切段了中间的血脉。一堵不断加固的灰墙，是硬生生横在柏林人眼前的一道绝望——切断了东西亲人友人间沟通，还又在士兵平民之间燃起一团憎恨的怒火。于是，这道“封锁线“ 成了东柏林士兵迫于军令把守的魔网，被迫分离的家人望眼欲穿的无望，逃逸者的荆棘地乃至坟场，丧生者亲人日夜对其落泪的哭墙。

   在柏林墙纪念馆里，我惊心于墙间地下各项隐密机关的布设的严密血腥，又惊叹于设法逃逸的百姓设计出的种种“翻墙“高招：简单至挖地道藏车厢，复杂至升空热气球滑行小索道：一边感叹于 “德国人家家都有工程师”，又一边感慨于一个民族的聪明才智竟落到用于加害自己同胞，或者躲避同胞的迫害之中，实为真正的灾难与不幸。

   曾经的柏林墙如今只有一小段作为见证被较为完整地保留。但整座墙所经之处，都留下砖砌的地标，紧贴着土地蜿蜒在城市之中，好像一条无法癒合的伤疤，在提醒偶尔低头驻足的人，这座城市所不能被忘记的挣扎和痛苦。

My first day in Germany

       After 12 hours’ flight, the airplane finally landed at Frankfurt international airport.  I got up from my seat, on which I spent most of the 12 hours sleeping (too bad that there was no mini TV on the back of each seat), took my carry-on luggage and got off the plane with the flow of the crowd.

      Finally I’m in Germany, yes, after who-knows-how-many years of being a huge fan of her (or his, if you consider Germany masculine, as “ der Vaterland”).  Perhaps I shall not call myself a “huge fan”, for a fan is supposed to know a lot about his or her admirer while I know almost nothing about this country----I might be a little bit exaggerating here, but I mean it.  Before I learnt German, all I knew about German culture were based on some eye-catching pictures on travel magazines, a little basic stuff about world modern history, fairy tales from Brother Green, and a handful of anecdotes about an Austrian Empress (you may argue that she’s not even Deutsche, but she’s from Bavaria, I guess that counts.) Since I started my German lesson, I haven been introduced to a great world of literature, history, philosophy, art…ect. And the more I learn, the more strongly I feel that I know little about everything…

       Right now I’m on this “dream-land”, everything in front of my eyes are new, and I want to know and understand them well.  I passed the Customs security check quite quickly, surprised that the Custom official (Zollbeamten the first German word I learnt) let me pass without bringing up any inquiry.  I got all my luggage, purchased a new cell phone SIM card, hanged out a little bit in the airport, before I set off to the train station.

       I could have taken a flight directly from Frankfurt am Main to Berlin, but I decided to take the longer trip on the train, and to take the chance to have a look at it.  

       As the ICE left Frankfurt main station and started running on the green plain, I was surprised by the scene outside of my window: not those “beautiful little houses with pretty flowers on the windowsill” I have expected, nor the forest where little wood cottages locate, but graffiti on the walls along the train track: patterns or letters in exaggerating shapes and noisy colors—I would expect  such graffiti in New York City,  or on the top floor of my high school teaching building, but not here!

     “ When we think of Germany, what often comes into our mind is really only the landscape in Bavaria.”  My friend reminded me of this common stereotype toward Germany held by many Chinese. 

      What shall I expect? What is real Germany?  What in the following months will change my perspective? Questions crowded my mind, yet I had no energy to think them through.  I fell asleep on the coach.  When I woke up, I was welcomed by even more grand and sophisticated graffiti on every wall facing the train track. I arrived in Berlin.