Before and After World War II

On New Years of 1919, a bloody uprising of the communists occurred, and by January 5, 1919, the Communists had won over the Brandenburg gate and Berlin.

Friedrich Ebert, the Chancellor at the time, brought a volunteer army into the city to regain control of Berlin, and by January 11, Berlin had become a blood bath in battle. All of the buildings in central Berlin had become fortresses and the volunteer army, called Freikorps, regained control of the Brandenburg Gate and, essentially, Berlin.

Authorities began to put a poem in a poster campaign all over the city, reading “Berlin, your dancing partner is death” The prophecy would last almost a century.

The Chancellor’s army then went to look for the leaders of the Communist group, Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht, and after they get questioned, they are hit on the back of the head with a rifle butt, and then transported via car to the Landwehr Canal in Berlin. The army blew her brains out and tossed her over the bridge into the canal. She crashed through the thin ice, as it was January, and then she disappeared. As the century continued, the canal slowly became the bloodiest channel in Berlin. It flooded underground tunnels during the war and gathering dead bodies into the channel. It later got nicknamed the “death strip”, separating East and West Berlin. It had always been a dumping ground for the many killings and political assassinations. At the time, the deaths of Rosa and Karl named the end of the Communist uprising, but they have since become martyrs of Berlin.

After WWII, East and West Berlin raced to see who could build a better Berlin. But while they were building, they were also tearing down. The ruined royal palace of Berlin, the Schloss, was on East Berlin. The Communist authorities felt that it brought the wrong history to their side of Berlin. It was demolished in 1950. All of East Berlin were upset that it was destroyed, because to the rest of Berlin, the palace was a huge symbol of their past. The Schloss was Berlin’s most historic building, and the Communists destroyed it. Where the Schloss once stood, now sits a sandy pit, as nothing was ever put there, at the heart of the city. For 10 years after the demolition of the Schloss, East and West Germany became more divided.

On a Sunday in 1961, the Communists decided to start working on a structure that would affect the lives of all Berliners for nearly 3 decades. The day is known as “Barbed Wire Sunday” in English. The barbed wire would soon be replaced by reinforced concrete and guard towers. The wall cut everything in its path apart, including buildings, communities, and even cemeteries. The building of this wall was the most grotesque thing anyone had seen in the 20^th century. All new buildings were now based off of the wall, instead of the Schloss like they used to reflect on.

After the wall was built, East and West Germany now competed on who could build the taller building. West Berlin even built a political building right next to the wall. East Germany then built 4 apartment buildings that put the political building to shame. The East was also working on building a TV tower, which was over 360 meters tall. Nothing could compete with the replacement palace that East Berlin was building. It became the symbolic building of the people, as many parties were held there. East Berlin was separated on how to feel about the new palace, as it displayed a new beginning to East Berlin, but it also ground in the fact that the old palace was destroyed. When the Berlin Wall finally fell in 1989, the new Palace was viewed as something that would not stay in the unified city, and in 2006, demolition on the building began. It was claimed that the building had asbestos, but many of the East Berliners claim that it was because it did not belong in their history. Plans to rebuild the Schloss in the same location are in place, but not finalized due to disagreement among the people.

The Landwehr Canal, which now runs clear, used to be tinted red with all of the blood and dead bodies flowing through the water between World War I and II.

The Schloss Palace, which was the most symbolic building of Berlin, which ended up being torn down by the Communists. It is still undecided whether or not to rebuild the Palace.

The Brandenburg Gate is the primary building to have control of to have control of the city. During the time of war, whoever was in control of the Gate had control over Berlin.

After the building of the Berlin Wall, there was barbed wire which separated the two sides of Berlin from each other. This is the new view that East Berliners had of the Brandenburg Gate.

When the tearing down of the Berlin Wall occurred in 1989, both sides cheered, especially because many families were torn apart during the time it was built, and had not seen each other in 3 decades.

Martin Luther and Reformation

King Frederick the Wise agreed with the views of Martin Luther, as Frederick wanted to limit the rule of the Church, and Luther backed his ideas. Because King Frederick the Wise agreed with Luther, it created a big political backing to Luther’s ideas, and Frederick ended up saving Luther from convicted of heresy. Since Luther was not convicted of heresy, Luther was not burned at the stake for his ideas and writings, and was able to continue his work. King Frederick even nabbed Luther after this happened so that Luther could be moved to a safe place while the Pope got word of the information, as Frederick did not want Luther to be killed by the Pope in rage. King Frederick also wanted Luther to continue spreading his ideas.

Martin Luther believed he was dealing with the Anti-Christ, which was why he felt so strongly about his ideas, and never turned his back on them, even in the face of death. He felt that he was facing the start of an apocalypse, especially because he found that the Catholic Church and the Pope had been lying to the people. The bible stated nothing that dealt with the way the Church was teaching people to achieve salvation. Luther believed that the Church had too much corruption and the people can cut out the middle man and repent on their own instead of having to go through the church. He also believed that the people do not need to follow only the Catholic Church and they can follow the faith in their own way. While Luther was kept away safe from the Pope, he translated the Bible into German so the people can read it for themselves instead of relying on the Pope or Priests to tell them what the Bible reads.

Once Martin Luther’s German version of the Bible was published to the people, revolutions began. The people started to read the Bible and find out that the Pope and the Catholic Church were not telling the truth about what the Bible reads, and the people became upset about the corruption. Even the monks, nuns, and young priests started leaving the monasteries and convents, choosing to get married and live a conventional life once they learned that they will still be able to achieve salvation without living a life to only the church. Then the peasants began to revolt against their Lords as they took Luther’s words the wrong way. Luther had said that the people should be free, but he meant from the Church. In order to gain control back over the peasants, over 100,000 rebels were slaughtered.

Martin Luther was very important to the German-speaking lands as he had translated the first Bible into something other than Latin. He began the revolution to the creation of Protestantism, which then changed the religion of the world.

In the Wartburg Church basement is where Martin Luther was held while hiding from the Catholic Pope. Luther translated the first Bible at this location. After the revolution began, Martin Luther left the Church, as he was no longer a target causing problems. Martin Luther became angry with how everyone was responding to his new Bible, as he only wanted the people to be aware of the corruption; he was not wanting a revolution.

This is the German Bible that Martin Luther translated. It was written in a Church basement while Martin Luther was kept safe by King Frederick the Wise. This Bible led to the Empire-wide revolt and started the breaking off of the Catholic Church.

King Frederick the Wise protected Martin Luther from excommunication from the church and from being convicted of heresy. Frederick believed in Luther's writings and protected him from the Pope in the time of need and pushed him to continue writing. 

Word Count (minus annotations): 476 

Simply Wed

Germany had one family, the Habsburgs, which held the empire from Frederick III in 1440, all the way through the dissolution of the empire in 1806. The empire had started with Austria, and slowly gained Bohemia, Hungary, and Burgundy, at which point the empire was named the Holy Roman Empire. The major feat about the Holy Roman Empire is that all of the land was gained without the use of war; only marriage was used to expand the Holy Roman Empire. Schulze used a great quote about this feat, which read, "Others must fight wars; you, O fortunate Austria, simply wed" (Schulze 32). 

I find this very intriguing, as it is very rare for an empire to grow via any other means than war, and the Habsburgs use marriage. If the empire had grown that much via only marriage and inheritance, then the family must have been very large, and the wives must have borne many sons for the royal family. I also find it strange that many people notice how they are different than all other empires.

With the Habsburgs using marriage and inheritance to gain land, it most likely had a hand in the peaceful empire that was the Holy Roman Empire. As one that tries to avoid war, this use to grow the empire makes me wonder why more people have not tried to grow their empires in the peaceful way instead of jumping straight to war and fighting.

With the use of war, it destroys buildings and cities and things that may be useful in the future, but then the country that ends up on the winning side of the battle has to spend the extra money on rebuilding and repairing so the hurt or destroyed villages do not revolt against the new form of government.

The use of peaceful growth in the empire helped the country grow in pride and unity, and the people I know with a German heritage are proud to let people know that they are German. The peaceful growth also helped the empire grow in an inexpensive way, which then allowed the country spread the culture, language, architecture, religion, and more.

Germany seemed to have the correct path of growth in their empire, as the empire lasted from the early 900s through 1806, and left a huge impact on Europe.

This church, Karlkirche, was funded by Charles II as a remembrance for his namesake, who was a revered as a healer for plague sufferers. The church was built at the beginning of the 1700s, towards the end of the Holy Roman Empire and a few years after the plague raged through Europe.

The above map displays the land the Habsburg family had ruled at its greatest. The yellow are the possessions and countries within the influences of the Habsburgs. The red are the possessions and influences of Spain. This picture does a great job showing how much land the Holy Roman Empire covered, and how great of a feat it is to gain all of that via marriage or inheritance.

(Word Count, minus captions: 389)