My take on Germany

I have spent a part of my time in Germany trying to make sense of the place, (as you could tell from my daily Blogs!). The last time I was here was in 1984 for Oktoberfest, so didn't really understand the history of the politics (too busy having a good time). It is one of the most complicated place I have visited, the other being Albania. The people on the whole are very friendly, the towns & countryside are beautiful, and the beer is fantastic. But yesterday I found some story boards which I think describes the more recent history of the place (since 1945) so I have summarised what they said and produced it below. To me, it explains why the country is so different to any other:

After the arrival of the Red Army in 1945, the Soviet secret police rounds up approximately 380,000 German civilians. Initially, they are held as forced labourers for the Soviet Union. From April 1945 onwards, they are kept in so-called 'special camps'. Arrests follow as a consequence of an order for "the Red Army to purge the country of hostile elements". Later, these arrests will be justified on the basis of agreements between the victorious powers to incarcerate influential Nazi supporters and other 'dangerous individuals'. In fact, most of those who find their way into the camps are low level Nazi functionaries, political activists and other suspects.

In June 1945, the Soviet People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) sets up a restricted area around Hohenschönhausen. Around 100,000 square metres are closed off with a four-metre-high wooden fence. Behind it is one of the Soviet secret police's most important centres of persecution, from where the ten Soviet special camps in Germany are administrated. Until 1950, a total of 189,000 people are detained in these camps under terrible conditions. A third of them die. Hohenschönhausen becomes a part of the Soviet system of internment camps.

The Soviet occupying power is determined to put the German communists into a key position. In 1946, they absorb the SPD and call their party from now on, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (German: SED). On 7 October 1949, they establish the German Democratic Republic (GDR), effectively founding their own state. In 1952, SED General Secretary Walter Ulbricht announces the "implementation of socialism", thus casting the GDR in the image of its Soviet role model. The state security service plays a key role in this. In 1951, it takes over the restricted area at Hohenschönhausen and the soviet cellar prison.

In East Germany they are no free elections. Its citizens vote with their feet: from the end of the war in 1945 to the summer of 1961, 3.5 million people flee to the West. (mostly the smart ones!) The border with the West is closed in 1952; the only checkpoints still open are between the different sectors in Berlin. At last, on 13th August 1961, this last avenue of escape is quite literally walled up. The future SED General Secretary Erich Honecker is in charge of the building of the Berlin Wall. Approaching the borders becomes risky, as potential escapees are shot at with live ammunition.

In 1962, the West German government begins to offer money to help secure the release of political prisoners. The GDR demands up to 100,000 deutschmarks per prisoner. The sale of around 34,000 prisoners by 1989 brings the state the equivalent of around 1.7 billion euros. The West German federal government does not pay money but instead delivers goods for the population - which are immediately resold on world markets by the GDR. The proceeds go into the pockets of the Stasi as well as the secret bank account of SED boss Honecker. The hushed-up negotiations are conducted by his close confidant Wolfgang Vogel, a lawyer and former Stasi informer.

The SED wants the recognition of its state, but fears the consequences of the detente policies. In order to provide complete surveillance of the population it doubles the number of full-time Stasi members - from 40,000 (1969) to more than 81,000 (1982). New service units are set up to spy on western journalists and diplomats or fight against émigrés and others who have fled to the West. The transit routes to West Berlin are placed under continuous surveillance. Erich Mielke, the master of this gigantic observation apparatus, is rewarded with his position at the highest level of SED officialdom, the Politburo in 1971. All these efforts lead to a ratio of one member of the secret police for every 180 GDR citizens - a worldwide record. People who want to escape the communist surveillance state risk their lives.

So you combine the East German's, with their modern history outlined above, with the West German's and their own not perfect record, blend it together in a process called unification and "bingo" you get what we see today. In Berlin, the reminders are everywhere of this "blender". In parks, railway stations, suburbs, and on the graffiti laden walls. But I think that's what makes the place so special to visit. Would be great to come back and spend more time here....