Posted on 04/08/2005 10:40:23 PM PDT by jwalburg
A German court has ordered a private museum to tear down a controversial memorial to the Berlin Wall. The memorial - a rebuilt section of the wall - was erected last year at the site of Checkpoint Charlie, one of the border crossings into old East Berlin.
The Berlin state court upheld a demand by the bank which owns the land for the monument to be removed along with more than 1,000 crosses erected there.
They are supposed to represent those who died trying to cross the wall.
The head of the group that put up the memorial at the former crossing in central Berlin between east and west said she would be appealing against the judgment.
"We will not give up responsibility for this historic place," said Alexandra Hildebrandt, who heads the Checkpoint Charlie museum that was founded by her late husband.
"Checkpoint Charlie is a place where the Allies should be thanked for protecting the freedom of Berlin and where the victims should be commemorated."
The memorial has been criticised by some Berlin city leaders, who say it is in poor taste.
Some also argue that the new German capital already has two monuments to the wall, which was pulled down in November 1989.
If you've been to Berlin in the past year or two...the whole downtown...particularily around the Checkpoint charlie area...is now massive business interests (big boys)...banks, major headquarters for organizations, upscale, etc. No one would have dare thought that 20 years ago. I saw the little "home-made" memorial there...and kept thinking that some local real estate owner. The cost of living in Berlin has sky-rocketed...and the locals...those who lived there throughout the 1960s/70s/80s/90s....really can't afford the cost there anymore. Its becoming like a dog show...simply a place to look at and move on.
"The Berlin state court upheld a demand by the bank which owns the land for the monument to be removed along with more than 1,000 crosses erected there."
....Sounds like a German version of the ACLU, using eminent domain and capitalism as their excuse....
Or... is the ACLU actually the U.S. version of something that escaped from the East Berlin side of the old Iron Curtain? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
If these crosses were erected as an anti-war protest against the U.S. war in Iraq there probably wouldn't be any problem with it. The plaintiff might want to look at that as an explanation during the appeal.
"Its becoming like a dog show...simply a place to look at and move on."
Kind of like the rest of Europe.
It seems to me that the case centers on the people who run the museum having it on someone elses land - but clearly there is something unstated going on here too.
Does the bank "own" the land, or is it the holder of the mortgage?
Taking this story at face value, it's a no brainer.
"You see an emphatic parallel between these two memorials, and this connection is not correct," said Thorsten Wohlert, a spokesman for the Berlin City Council senator who deals with memorial sites. "You cannot compare the victims of the Holocaust with the victims of the Berlin Wall. - LINK
The Berlin Senate said it would present plans for a commemoration of its own, although the city's tortured history of delay and dissent over its other memorials does not suggest that any replacement will be set up quickly.
Hildebrandt, a combative Ukrainian emigre whose late husband Rainer set up his first exhibition dealing with the wall in 1962, said she was considering whether to appeal against Friday's court ruling.
She accused the city authorities of ingratitude to the U.S. troops who protected Berlin during the Cold War.
"Checkpoint Charlie is a place where the Allies should be thanked for protecting the freedom of Berlin and where the victims should be commemorated," Hildebrandt told Reuters.
"I think there's an element of anti-Americanism at work with the Senate." - LINK
I don't see why not. Victims of murderous totalitarian governments are just that, no matter the scale of the murder.
I guess Mr. Wohlert doesn't equate Nazi oppression with Communist oppression.
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