occupied by the largest open air market in Berlin. Circuses and festivals that pass through the city often set up here. Directly on the historic Potsdamer Square is a Bungee Jump. For 100 marks you can “jump for joy” from a crane 60 meters in the air. Near the bungee jump is the Wall Cafe. While your friends are jumping, you can enjoy a beer at a table surrounded by pieces of the Berlin Wall, and from one of these, for a nominal fee, you can hammer off your own small chunk. The city plans to replace all this with a large housing development. In this same area sits an odd mound: the remains of Hitler’s war command bunker. Soon a “Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe” will be built here, docu- inenting the painful history of the Jewish populations of Berlin and the rest of Europe. The need for such a memorial is clear since violence and terror against immigrants and refugees is once again daily news in Germany. A few hundred meters away, and also on the border, is the famous Brandenburger Gate, another major tourist attraction. Closed to all traffic for the last 30 years, it was opened to bicyclists and pedestrians after the removal of the wall. Despite protests, politicians recently opened the gate to buses and taxis, creating new traffic problems here. After riding through the gate, avoiding collisions with tourists and taxis, I see the Reichstag, home to Germany’s past and future parliaments. Still showing scars from the war, it sits in a government district preparing for heavy construction as the capital moves from Bonn to Berlin. I follow the former wall to the Parliament of Trees, directly across the river from this national parliament building. Organized by the artist Ben Wargin, this powerful design combines hundreds of newly planted trees with tree stumps, earth mounds, and stone memorials. Last month I visited Ben in his huge factory studio. A fit, bald, older man, he came riding up on his bicycle wearing blue overalls and a leather cap. I shared coffee and plums with his assistants while listening to their discussions. Ben shared how he envisions the planting of these trees as part of a larger Peace Forest — millions of trees are being planted now in other projects between Berlin and Moscow. Ben and his friends plan to convert a nearby open-pit coal mine into a museum demonstrating how water, trees and human life are interconnected. I asked Ben if he considered trees symbols of the relationships between the elements. Ben responded excitedly that trees aren’t mere symbols, they “are even more important than you.” Ben summed up, “We can’t live without trees while they can live without us. At the same time we can live without a Reichstag and most of our so-called progress and culture, but not without trees and water.” Near the Tree Parliament is a former border guard tower. German artists occupied this small concrete structure after the opening of the wall. For the last few weeks the tower and adjacent fields have been home to Mutoid Airport 92, a powerful program of anti-war political art using transformed military equipment. This is a publicly supported exhibition organized by the Mutoid Waste Company and the Spiral Tribe traveling art groups. I would later return for the evening show. Leaving the guard tower and riding for 20 minutes along the border, I found the Wall Park in Prenzlauer Berg. East-side Berliners created this 20-acre park despite a battle with the Olympic planning committee. They succeeded Page 32 RAIN Spring 1993 Volume XIV, Number 3
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz