Obama, one million Germans, and history

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/20/10446/0072/95/554188

Obama, one million Germans, and history
by MBNYC
Sun Jul 20, 2008 at 10:57:56 AM PDT


Barack Obama's planned campaign rally and speech in Berlin on Thursday is roiling the German political class, reports Der Spiegel (article in German). Authorities in Berlin are preparing for a million spectators, which would instantly make Obama's speech the biggest political event in that country since unification in 1990. There are even plans to close down the street, a mile long, and replicate the setup during the World Cup with massive projection screens. Inevitably with a political earthquake of this magnitude, there's some controversy stoked by conservatives.

Obama will be speaking on the eastern side of the Victory Column - the Siegessäule - a monument to the Prussian victories in the wars of unification that preceded Bismarck's establishment of the Second Empire. The speech itself will be focused on the Trans-Atlantic relationship and give a preview of the foreign policy approaches of an Obama administration towards our NATO allies.



So what's the controversy?

Team Obama picked what is arguably one of the most historically evocative spots in Berlin for his speech, and that history is not uniformly benign. Conservative members of the German parliament, the Bundestag, are pointing out, correctly, that the Victory Column was built in triumph over countries Germany defeated in its quest for unification; Denmark in 1864, Austria in 1866, France in 1871. But, as is often the case in Berlin, this terrain carries far more associations than that, some inspiring, some evil.

snip//

Team Obama's decision to speak at this precise spot is not without symbolic peril; no place in Berlin is. The Victory Column is a complex spot in a complex city, layered with the bloody history of Europe over the last century and a half. Much of that bloody history originated within a few miles of where Obama will be speaking. In fact, if I were a betting man, I would wager that Shill O'Lielly will claim with as straight a face as he can manage that Obama will be speaking in front of a Nazi monument.

He'd be lying, of course, not that that's never stopped him before. Obama has chosen a location that speaks to a history we're well advised to understand and remember. In practical terms, he also picked the one spot in Berlin that can accommodate the huge crowds inspired by his candidacy and by the idea that America is turning over a new leaf. As to the larger symbolism, there are few places I can think of in Berlin better suited for a repudiation of America's own recent war of conquest and aggression than the German Empire's shattered monument to its own futile triumphs.

Where would it be considered "correct"? :eyes:

-- Expecting a million people? God, I would LOVE to see the turnout McCain -- or Bush -- would get.

but they'd all be protesters. :rofl:

Since it's so problematical? Otherwise, how is it that it just became problematical NOW, after it's been sitting in the same place all these years since the end of WWII?

:eyes:

sw

unsuspecting American audiences.

One million people is a helluva lot. Dear god, what a time to be alive in this country! What a wonderful punch in the nose to Republicans.

And thank god for Barack Obama!!!

Can't wait for the coverage of *that*.

Contrasted with Bush's "crowds" (protesters) at Bush's Farewell Tour.

got kicked out of Berlin a few years ago and now takes place in a different city each year.

Awesome photos, though.

sw

Love that 2nd pic of yours.

One of the comments on the Kos page -- cracked me up! :D

sw

1 million Germans projected, but you have all of Europe to contend with as well. Such as Italians, French, English who have admired what Obama has accompolished and what he stands for. If it's 1 million Germans add a couple million more for the rest of Europe.

and, as a matter of fact ALL Europeans, are about hosting Obama, their hope for a new era in relations with Amerika?

Obama didn't pick the site, it was Berlin's Mayor Klaus Wowereit who suggested it as an even more suitable venue for the candidate he loves and admires so much.

Please don't buy into the Spiegel's famously über-acerbic style of reporting. That's their hallmark: sounding like they're unassailable know-it-alls. I grew up in that country, and Germans don't fall for it themselves, 'kay?

big ..what can I say:D

When I think of a huge crowd in Germany ..I think of Green Day performing on a beautiful day at the Siegessäule in Berlin, Germany for Live 8 singing American Idiot and the crowd went wild!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_8_concert,_Berlin

Obama and Green Day:bounce: :patriot: :kick: :party: