I've been to two German cities this week. I know, I know. That's not really enough to make an all-inclusive observation, but I'll say it anyway. Ulm is probably like the Cleveland of Germany in that it's relatively big, but not real famous for anything besides a tourist attraction (Ulm: tallest church in the world. Cleveland: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame). Munich, on the other hand, is more like the Chicago of Germany: not the biggest, not the capital, but still in the top three. And yes, I know that Houston is actually now bigger than Chicago, but I refuse to compare Houston to anything if it means Houston comes out looking good. Anyway, the two cities that I have been to both have definite town centers where the people congregate. And what are these town centers? Well, at their hearts, the both have at least one cathedral. And surrounding the cathedrals are vast, glitzy, exorbitant pedestrian malls. It's not just the US that has malls as cultural and social centers. It's Germany too. They like to buy things just as much as we do. I guess they are a little thinner on average (which is weird because German portions are HUGE), but that's probably because they all smoke like chimneys.
Well, there you have it. That's the extent of my theory. Take it for what it's worth: not much.
On to the real story. Last night, after the conference, we had a conference related dinner event. It was pretty cool. We all met at the Gluhweinstand at the entrance to the Christmas market downtown, had a little gluhwein, and then went on a brief walking tour of old Munich. It was pretty cool to see the "old" (more on that in a bit) buildings and hear the story of the founding of Munich. Basically, it's named after some monks that used to live there. It was originally called Monken, but eventually that turned into Muenchen. The city logo is still a monk. At one point, the monks had a wooden bridge over the river Isar and charged exorbitant tolls to cross it. The local Duke (or whatever) didn't like paying, so he had it burned down and built a stone bridge. Somehow, though, the monks got the money anyway. And that was that. After the tour, we went to Die Augustiner and had a pretty awesome dinner with some pretty awesome beer. Probably the coolest thing about dinner was that I was at a table with: two Dutch guys, one Belgian dude, one Spaniard, one Italian women, and one Indian-British guy. International conference indeed.
But back to the "old" buildings. Most of the buildings in Munich are no more than 60 years old, even the 650 year old cathedral. How is that, you ask? Well, apparently Munich was bombed all to hell during WWII. So after the war, they just decided to build everything back like it was. I'm not quite sure what to make of this. Yes, I understand the history, and the heritage etc. but to me, it seems almost like they are trying to cover up that tragic time in their history. It's almost like it never happened. Which is bad, in my opinion. If we cover it up, how will we remember it? How will we avoid the same fate next time? Rebuilding? Of course, you have to rebuild. But rebuilding so that things are exactly like they were before seems like a whitewash, a willful ignorance almost. I don't know.
The tragedy of the war really hits you when you walk into St. Michael's Cathedral and see the pictures of the bombed out church. This beautiful renaissance cathedral was burned down to the bare walls. I can imagine the art that was destroyed, the precious historical artifacts, the worshipful icons and statues. It just breaks my heart that this happened, makes me consider the point of war. But I know what the point of that war was. I can't say it shouldn't have happened. What else could the allies have done? I just think of all the hopeless citizens of Munich. The war was over, the Germans had lost, but Hitler wouldn't admit it. He kept the war going. He forced the US and the Brits to bomb the bejesus out of Dresden, and Munich, and Berlin, and Hamburg, and for what? Because he wanted to rule the world? It pisses me off, really. So here they were, getting bombed day in and day out for no reason at all. Their museums, their churches, the old king's palace, everything. Except the two weird steeples on die Frauenkirche. And they are weird. They are two magnificent completely gothic steeples topped with archetypical renaissance style domes. Something about the weird timing of the construction.
See? Aren't they weird?In the 35 years between when the master builder died and the steeples were put on, Euro-style changed from gothic to renaissance. Anyway, these steeples became a symbol of the crown jewel of Bavaria, Munich. It had been said that as long as those steeples were standing, there would be a Munich. And after the bombing, those two steeples (and only those two steeples. Seriously, the actual city of Munich was about 95% destroyed. The suburbs about 70%) were miraculously (yes I really believe that) untouched. I guess it just goes to show that even in mankind's darkest hours, God can still give hope to the hopeless and courage to the terrified. Even if we don't think they deserve it.
1 comment:
Good post, dude. I don't mean to be all, "Yeah, I've been there too, mememe," but you're really raising stuff I pondered a lot when I was there. It's nice to hear it from someone else.
Thank your lucky stars for the places that WERE rebuilt exactly the same. I lived in Darmstadt. Never heard of it? There's a reason for that. Apparently it means, "city of worms" or "Gut city" or something. Yep. That about covers it. It was rebuilt at a point when buildings were super ugly.
As one of my coworkers at the time joked, "The war was good for one thing -- they had an easy time making those underground parking lots with all the bombed-out holes in the ground." Ugh.
A lot of it DOES seem hush-hush (WWII). The Germans are such a curious people. I guess I'll save other comments for my own space instead of cluttering up yours.
Glad to hear you're having a good time.
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