This past week, I had to give an oral presentation on the "Amerikabild", or image of America from Germany's perspective, during and after the Vietnam War. As a part of this presentation, I had to define anti-Americanism and identify its roots. One author that I read, namely Gert Raiethel, argued that the anti-Americanism present in Europe is a result of America and Europe’s different mentalities. America, a philobat, knows no limits in fulfilling its wishes. It is a capitalist nation to a T. Europe, on the other hand, is an oknophile that shies away from risks and takes pleasure in that which makes him comfortable. Europe, for example, is perfectly fine reading Goethe and Schiller, because it identifies with and has its roots in these authors. Europe is not tempted to expand its horizons when it comes to culture.
I, myself, identify more with the oknophile rather than the philobat. Although I do like to try new things, I am a person of habit that likes to have the things that I know I like, whether that be in reference to movies, food, music, or literature. This, however, has little to nothing to do with the fact that I have spent nearly ten months in Europe. I have always had this personality: buying a different watch band each time one breaks so I can still use the same watch that I've had since I was 12, ordering black raspberry virtually every time I go out for ice cream back in the states, and watching repeats of Seinfeld every night out of dislike for contemporary television all point to my oknophile mentality.
It should be no surprise, then, that Monday, while out shopping with Hannah, who returned for a reunion tour last week thanks to the beauty of frequent flyer miles and 21st birthday presents, I succumbed to the longing for familiarity when browsing through old VHS cassettes in a thrift store in the Altstadt. It should be no surprise that, when scanning the titles of said VHS cassettes, one in particular caught my attention and identified itself immediately in my brain as the most excellent of films made in the 1990's and dare I say the 20th century. It should be no surprise that, upon recognizing the blue and red font on the white background so infamously known to belong to this 6-Oscar winning film, I snatched it up and ran to the register right away to purchase my own VHS cassette of Forrest Gump in German. It should be absolutely no surprise at all.
What should be a surprise, however, is the disappointing difference in technology between the United States and Europe, who each make DVDs and VHS cassettes that don't fit with the other's DVD or VCR player. Luckily, the German House in Middlebury, where I will be setting up camp for my final two semesters next year, owns a German VHS player, which will allow all the German House students to watch not only Forrest Gump, but also Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin "auf Deutsch." Turns out that the +$45,000 tuition does go towards something worthwhile.
In addition to shopping at Oxfam and giving ironic oral presentations about European prejudices against my own country, Hannah and I also got to do a bit of exploring this week during her visit in Mainz. We finally got to visit Cologne, or Köln, which lies about 2 hours north of Mainz in Rheinland-Westfalia. This was the fourth Bundesland that I had visited in that week, including Rheinland-Pfalz (where I live), Hessen (home of Frankfurt), and finally Thüringen, where my History of the Stasi class took a field trip (some grown up people might say “excursion”) to Erfurt, where old Stasi files are kept and a Stasi prison is located. The Stasi were the secret police for East Germany until the Wall fell in 1989, and essentially spied on the citizens of East Germany as to key in on and eliminate any opposition to the Party or State itself. The Stasi would set up hidden microphones in people's houses, would sabotage people's chances of finding work if they were considered to be "suspicious", and interrogate and torture individuals who were believed to have information of other suspicious figures. There is one case of an individual, Jürgen Fuchs, who had hundreds of condoms delivered to him with his falsified signature in order to sully his reputation, and thereby devalue him in the eyes of other Germans, who might listen to his “conspiring” words against the state. The Stasi were a very extensive force, and kept thousands of files on thousands of individuals and organizations in the GDR. When the Wall fell in 1989, the Stasi tried to destroy as many of these files as possible. Some were shredded, and there are now “puzzle women” who are paid by the state to piece these files back together—at the rate at which they are going, it may take some +325 years to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Former residents of East Germany are allowed to fill out applications to see their own files, which are kept in the capitals of each Kreis, or region, that was mapped out by the Stasi during the GDR. Erfurt was the center of one of these regions. We got to see an example of a file, namely that of Joachim Heise. Heise’s family filled out an application to move out of East Germany. This was seen by the Stasi as “suspicious” activity, and, when Heise later decided to go on a hunger strike to protest the East German government, he was arrested and brought to Erfurt Prison, which we also visited on during excursion. We actually got to meet Heise, who told us his story and showed us the cell in which he stayed during his incarceration. Being inside the prison cell was rather unnerving, but hearing Heise’s own story after reading his file (which he decided to make available to the public) was definitely worth the while.
As most of you probably know by now, I have had the unfortunate luck known as the “black screen of death”, or a broken computer monitor, during the past month or two. In addition to leaving me stranded and without human contact made available by the world wide web, I am currently unable to upload the lovely pictures taken in Köln and Erfurt, and even other pictures taken around Mainz during this past semester. Therefore, I end this entry short with a “to be continued” clause, and ask you all to stay tuned next for next Saturday, when I will finally reach that haven known as Antrim, NH, after flying into Boston on Wednesday and then spending two nights in Wells, Maine with my mother, aunts, uncles, cousins, and very, very cold ocean water. Hopefully by Saturday I will have the ability to upload photos (let’s be honest, they are the best part), where you will see (among other wonders) beer bicycles, a room filled with bones and skulls claimed to be the remains of 11,000 virgins, and machines that make that glorious concoction known here in Germany as “Schokolade” (which, among other powers, is apparently known to help coughing fits. Too bad I didn’t like chocolate that much as a child. I could have saved my sisters and parents some frustrating nights of hacking away like a pack-a-day smoker).
So I bid thee Auf Wiederschreiben und -lesen, with the implication that you will, indeed, get to read this blog another day—this time with illustration.
Peace, love, and bring your own bags when grocery shopping,
Amanda
No comments:
Post a Comment