By Bixyl Shuftan
Originally published in Second Life Newspaper on Nov 2008
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On
Veterans Day/Rememberance Day, I heard about a replica of part of the
Berlin Wall set up here in Second Life. IMing the man I heard built it,
Christo Larsen, we chatted for a couple minutes, then he invited me to
his sim Ciel. So I went over.
“A lot of foreign people don’t
know much about about the Berlin Wall,” Christo, whom is German, told
me, “even th e younger ones. He explained that the New Berlin area also
had a replica of the Wall, “It’s very good, sophisticated, but they
don’t have any information, ... no displays.”
Christo explained
he was aware of the Berlin Wall as a kid, but he lived far away from it,
“This whole business didn’t touch me, no connection. I never went to it
while it was up. ... But still, I remember the day (when it came down).
... friends and family who couldn’t see each other ... “ His thoughts
turned again to how people forgot, “You know how people ... all the
things have been better, they don’t understand. ... inside, they didn’t
let yo u meet them ... they arrested, they even shot. ... It’s been
nineteen years now. Of course people born under a united Germany they
don’t know what it was like.”
“I’ve even have someone ask when
Hitler built it,” Christo remarked of how little some people knew about
it, “I don’t see them as stupid. For instance, North American History,
the Civil War, I don’t know what it was about. ... Second Life ... we
have plenty of malls and clubs ... we need more educational areas ...
debates ... it’s one thing to read a %bout it, but if you see a movie or
docudrama ... “ Second Life was in turn a better media, he told, “gives
you a chance to walk along it.”
The exhibit itself consisted of
the Wall with bare dirt, wire fence, sections of old brick wall
(presumably buildings caught in the path of the Wall) and tank barriers
on the eastern side. With the western side marked by graffiti, the
eastern has information signs and pictures for visitors. In the middle
of the Wall Section was a replica of the American Checkpoint -
Checkpoint Charlie, “The most famous one, being in the movies.” He
mentioned as the entire Berlin Wall was constructed on East German
territory, the American soldiers at the checkpoint were technically on
the other side of the border, “but no one shot for that.”
On the
East German side were & a couple cars, East German Trabbi, “symbol
of the inferiority of the East German economy. ... plastic, not steel,
body was a hard plastic shell.” An East German worker often had to wait
ten to fifteen years to get one of the “stinky and noisy” vehicles, “But
people still love them,” Christo saying they were now a rare collectors
item.
We walked along the displays to those of escape attempts
across the Wall. One was a picture of the East German soldier who made a
break for it, and safely made it without being fired at from either
side. Another picture was of a woman who dropped from a high window in a
building straddling the Wall zone to reach freedom, later dying from
her injuries. Christo talked about what he felt was the most famous
death at the Wall, a teenager trying to make a break for it , getting
through no-mans-land, and getting shot just before he could get up the
West side of the Wall. He bled to death in front of everyone, Christo
saying the soldiers on both sides were afraid of starting a fight.
Then
there was the fall of the Berlin Wall, “The border all around was
armed, but Berlin was the symbol ... divided streets ... finally people
were able to sit on the Wall. No one knew about the soldiers, who still
were under orders to secure the border. But none of them fired ... we
were very lucky. In 1953, East Germans protested ... Soviets sent troops
in, smashed the uprising down violently.” Christo felt the Perestroika
movement under Soviet leader Gorbachev helped pave the way for the fall
of the Wall, but that it would not have been possible without the
lessening tensions between Russia and the West.
Pictures showed
the wall coming down, Christo giving Dec 22 as the date. He also put up
comparison pictures of how bare places looked just after the wall was
torn down, and years later when they were covered with buildings, “Look
how it is fifteen years later, it’s amazing. ... Wounds can heal, but
scars never go away.”
At the end was a streaming video, pictures
related to the wall, with Pink Floyd music, and Regan’s famous phrase,
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Christo says the Berlin
Wall will not be permanent, but will be keeping it up for a week or two,
depending on how many people visit, “Sometimes you get tired of all the
shopping. I’m not saying one should go to a vitural museum every day,
but once in a while.”
The Berlin Wall exhibit is at Ciel (60. 50, 24).
“Thank you so much.”
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The Berlin Wall exhibit (I later found out the Communists called it the "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart") would go up one more time the following year in 2009. When I went to the location in 2010, it wasn't there. Sad as it was a fitting reminder of the most visible location where Europe was split in two by the Iron Curtain, The Wall dividing not just a city, but people, friends and family whom felt they would never see one another again.
Bixyl Shuftan
