Following the Signs

Germans go to the polls today! Coming from a completely different political system, I don't really understand everything that is happening, but I am fascinated by the efficiency and the civility of the process. Political debates seem to stick to the issues, candidates let each other speak, and I didn't hear any personal attacks (or of I did, I didn't understand them!). Compared to what we have become used to in the US, the elections here seem, well, kind-of boring. I miss that.

In the US, we just have a two-party system. Here there are many, many parties; there is even one with pirates! 😊





Here no single party usually gets a majority of the votes, so parties have to form a coalition government (they have to work together?!). That's about as much as I have read about the German political system. So, this is not an in-depth report on German politics; most of my information comes from political signs.  (I'm still learning German, ok? Pictures help!)  Judging by the numbers of signs out there, it's easy to tell which parties are the major ones: the Christian Democrats (CDU), Chancellor Merkel's party; and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), whose candidate for the chancellorship is Martin Schulz.






The CDU is the center-right party. Americans will probably recognize the "Law and Order" slogan (top left), but the rest wouldn't fly in an American conservative party: making things easier for families? Quoting Obama to entice voters? Check out the sign about taxes (bottom right). Roughly translated, it says, "He who has a business here, must pay taxes here." NOWHERE does anyone suggest lowering taxes.











The SPD is center-left, but their signs look like the CDU's in some ways. The SPD is for keeping the EU, and it also mention families (see below). One difference is that the SPD campaigns on equal pay for women.



The SPD family policy is "loud and demanding"... looks like my kindergarten class! 





Political parties were only allowed to put up signs in early August for the September 24 election, which makes for a pretty short election cycle (yea!). You can't get too deep into a party's beliefs with their signs, but you can get feel for their focus, and children and families were a central theme. While the CDU and SPD mention families, the Green Party specifically mentions fighting child poverty.
The Freie Demokratie" Party--the pro-business party--focuses on education ("backpacks change the world, not briefcases.")





The AfD is concerned about children as well, but AfD wants those kids to be German (see below). I don't know much about German politics, but it was pretty easy to pick out AfD as the anti-immigrant party. Babies, bikinis, Dirndls...not exactly a platform. (You can see more AfD signs, including ones that are more crass, here.


Some of their signs in Berlin were vandalized last weekend ("Voting for AfD is so 1933").




Personally, I like the Green party's signs, though I dare say none of these slogans would get any traction in the U.S.



Some of my absolute favorites comes from Die Linke, the left, probably because they would be political suicide across the pond. Have you ever seen a political sign encouraging taxing millionaires to benefit children? Or asking for more workers in the healthcare industry?




There are even more smaller parties, too, though I don't know how many votes they'll get....

The Communist party: "Health as a commodity? That's sick!" 

...and if anyone has any idea what this one is about, please let me know.

Mom's Berlin and Mine

Last year I found some slides in an old, rusty metal box in the closet, and I had them turned into digital photos. To my surprise, there were many photos from my mom's first trip to Europe; several were from Berlin. 

Mom (right) on her European tour, 1966

Once I knew I was moving to Berlin, I thought it would be  fun to take the same pictures that Mom did and compare them. That might be simple in other European cities, but Mom was in Berlin in 1966, only a few years after the Wall was built. These photos are mostly from East Berlin (taken from a train or bus tour, judging from the noticeable glare in a few of them), which is an area that has gone through a lot of transformations since then. A few of the places were obvious, like the Brandenburg Gate:  

   

Brandenburg Gate (the east side)

Berlin Cathedral

The Berliner Dom has undergone a facelift since 1966, but it looks largely  the same. The domes of the Cathedral were bombed during WWII, and were restored after reunification. The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche (below) was almost completely destroyed in WWII, 


but rather than rebuild, officials chose to leave the tower standing as it was--a reminder of 


the war. Mom's picture is better, since you can see the light come through the tower. That is no longer possible; another modern building behind the church blocks the afternoon sun. 

 Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche 

            

Some buildings  weren't quite as obvious; I almost missed this one. This Humboldt University building in the Bebelplatz was just a facade in 1966. I think Mom took this picture for the square's historical significance; it was heavily bombed during WWII, but it is best known for being the site of the largest Nazi book burning in 1933. 

Humboldt University Law School

In the Nazi era, the building below housed Joseph Goebbels' Ministry of Propaganda. The building survived the war and was the site of the National People's Council ("Nationalrat") of the East German state. See those little trees on the right?

Those trees now block the view of the building. Before WWII, it was all on a square, Wilhelmplatz. During the time of the German Democratic Republic, the East German government renamed it "Thälmannplatz" after a German Communist leader. Well, the "Platz" is no more; it has government buildings and streets in its place. The former Goebbels office and "Nationalrat" building is now just another government building; it houses the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. 

 

I'd love to know the story behind this picture! These guys are long gone from Berlin. 

   The closest I could get was this fake memorabilia in Alexanderplatz.

 

Mom visited a small border crossing in what was an American section of Berlin (Kreuzberg). The wall was not very old, and was still crude in some places. This crossing is the current intersection of Bethaniendamm and Köpernickerstrasse. It's hard to imagine that the wall went down one of these streets.  

Mom in bottom right corner; guard behind her  

Border crossing spot, August 2017

There is no way to know what happened to the parts of the wall Mom visited, but it's good to know they are all used for a better purpose now. ❤️ 

The Berlin Wall, 1966 

 

   

The Berlin Wall, 2017

To Texas and Back Again

It's been nearly three years since I moved away from Germany. I did a lot in those last few months in the country, but I didn't feel much like writing. I moved back to Texas in June 2014 because I wanted to be near my mom; she had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer six months earlier. She was an excellent patient and had such determination, and I was so glad to be home with her. Though she outlived her prognosis by nearly a year, Mom succumbed to the disease in April 2015.

One thing I inherited from Mom at an early age was an appreciation for all things German. Mom loved Germany, and she loved visiting me when I lived in Germany. Neither one of us liked to have our picture taken, but thankfully, when you are on vacation, you have to take a few!

Mom in Würzburg, 2011

Mom and me in Rothenburg ob der Tauber 

Mom and me in Czesky Krumlov

This summer I'll be moving back to Germany to teach again, this time in Berlin. The countdown has begun...I leave in about 6 weeks! I've been to Berlin a couple of times as a tourist, including once with Mom, but the one picture we took together on the Spree was not flattering for either of us. So, I'll just post the photo that everyone who has ever visited the Reichstag has taken...

...and promise to have better pictures of Berlin and more adventures to write about soon. 

Bis bald!