Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Munich- The Home Team and the Third Reicht

-Thanks for all the people who cared so much, and who sent messages and emails to check how I was feeling. I'm ok now, back to the same (good, I hope) footing. Thank you all very much. You are very appreciated. Iloveyouall.

Got back from Munich on Saturday, and it was an experience of a lifetime. Spent Saturday (cut Falkenberg's class) and Sunday there. The 2 days couldn't have been more different from one another. One was full of colour, noise and celebration. The other was a walk down the past, and my old history textbooks coming to life right before my eyes. Spectacular.

We arrived on Saturday to a Munchen Bahnhof that was bursting at the seams with people. The Home team Bayern Munich was playing the final match of the season against Nurnberg. The'd already won the championship for a couple of weeks, but the concluding bang is always a must-see, I guess. was a riot. The local Polizei, clad in green, had to patrol the arriving platforms. Especially the ones carrying fans from the Away team, cos there was a fair bit of squabbling and shoving between the fans. People were holding beer mugs at noontime, and getting a little woozy already.

We took their equivalent of the MRT to the stadium where the match was being played. Every station it stopped at, the train got more cramped, noisier and happier. People would burst out in sudden song and cheer, and suddenly the whole cabin would echo after them. There was so much pride in the air, it's something I've never seen or experienced before. Total strangers bonding because of the pride they have over their Home team.

We got to the stadium in time for the match. But didn't get to enter (much to Weiming's chagrin) because it was a total sell-out. Outside the stadium, Adidas set up a carnival. There were mini-soccer pitches, 1-on-1 games, caged games, and even this goalnet set up in the middle of the water for guys to take aim and shoot. I've learnt 4 names in the Home Team! Haha I know Oliver Kahn, Makaay, Hargreaves and Ballack. Not bad for a clueless soccer idiot right? Haha.

So you can imagine how crazy the crowd went when Bayern finally won 6-3. There was a huge procession down Marienplatz after that. And a stage was set up for the team to receive the trophy. Not that we managed to see it upclose cos it was just so so crowded. The streets were swollen with people. Meng tried hoisting me up so I could get a picture of the team onstage, but it was a futile attempt :( Managed to get a very minute picture of them from some obscure corner, but you have to squint to see it.

We had a great dinner after that. I had the best potato salad I have ever had and cornbread. Kenneth had pork cutlet, and Meng (in true gluttony fashion) had pork knuckle. The layer of crisp skin and thick fat never even fazed him one bit as he chowed down. And the bier gartens were full of screaming, singing, drunk fans decked out in the season's jerseys. I've realized one thing about Germany.. The ladies who serve beer are not the quintessential young women in garters, nylon stockings and little black dresses with slits-up-to-there. There, brisk old women with bad perms and wrinkly necks dish up the booze and complementary bratwurst. They wear traditional garb, green and white frocks and black stockings. Not your average beer poster girl. And get this, there was free beer for all Bayern fans (I mean, who wouldn't claim to be a Bayern fan under such a proposition?) Frei bier fur alle Bayernfans. Meng and Kenneth drank 2 or 3 mugs each, on top of the half-litre they downed before that. And I was a happy camper with my pineapple (ananas!) gelato scoop! Wish they had lychee martini or vodka though haha

The next day we went for Hitler's Third Reicht Tour in the morning. Buildings and structures which would have had no significance at all to us suddenly became so rich and full of history that it took a while for me to fully comprehend everything that was happening in front of me. And Hitler's reign in terror was opened up to us through a very experienced guide whom I think has studied Hitler's regime and personal life to no end. Bear with me while I journal all this down.

Hitler was not German by birth. He was born in Austria, in the town next to the place the current Pope was born and raised in. Strange that such paradoxes occur- one of such overwhelming evil and one that would come to stand for peace and catholicism. We even learnt that Hitler didn't make it to the Viennese Academy of Art because of his inability to depict animate objects. I guess this says alot about him being inhuman, and having no qualms about taking away human lives.

We visited the BierHalle where he made his first public speech, as well as the avenue through which he staged his march and the BierHalle Putsch at. The German people did not want to resurrect the Gestapo (secret police) headquarters after it was destroyed simply because it held too many bad memories and nightmares so they simply put up a signage there. It now houses a Deutsch Bank branch, a very insignificant structure in place of the bad past it once held. I've realized that many of the memorials and historical structures that date back to Hitler's reign of terror have not been restored to their former glory. They have been replaced by simple plaques and memorials have been put in areas inconvenient to visit. It's almost as if they know about their past, but it's not something they want to glorify and see again. It's quite different from the Japanese. The Japanese have distorted history, and even changed information in the textbooks they use for their children, to erase the horrific role the Japs played in WW2. The Germans openly keep these bits of history with them, there's no denying it ever happened, and they don't attempt to hide anything either. Neither do they wish for such a horror to ever happen once more. Never Again is something I heard quite a bit of that day - Nie Weider

We saw the statue of a sleeping soldier, it's called the Unknown Bavarian Soldier. It was built in honour of all the Bavarian sons lost in all the wars; the numbers exceed the populations of some countries. There was a carving done on one side of the wall, which depicted soldiers running. This was done after WW1, when the desire for power and an occupationistic quest for the rise of the German race was still the dricing force in the country's leadership. On the opposite side was another wall with a carving of 12 tombstones with crosses over them. This signifies the death of the running soldiers, the death of war, and the death of such bloodshed and pain. This was done after WW2. I thought it was a beautiful way of expressing the fact that Germany never wanted to have anything to do with war and pain ever again, and the resurrection of such a regime would never be seen again. On the same site there was a black block that was a memorial to 5 young students who called themselves the White Rose- Die Weisse Rose. They died for their beliefs and their efforts to spread peace and individualism, concepts that Germany never knew during the Nazi reign of terror.

We also saw the Nazi headquarters. Today it is used by the local university as a theatre and a place for the Arts. Very different from the time when Hitler used to walk up the stairs to his office, just a straight route from the front doors. I don't quite know how to describe this feeling. We were looking at structures that serve a very different purpose today. Many of these are now used as banks, schools, theatres, ordinary junctions and streets. But they were so much more in the past, they held so much history and so much presence in the time of their being. Maybe the best fitting way to describe this is that I felt small. I felt so overwhelmed by the wealth of rich history and information behind these ordinary looking buildings and structures, and the information and lessons they now give to people of today looking back in retrospect.

It was a powerful lesson, and reminder. And I'm glad I got to experience it.


Laid bare at 9:46 am
|