| Berlin will be ready for whatever happens Thursday, with street traffic beginning to be blocked from the venue starting tomorrow. Seven hundred police officers will be on duty, and the city will be prepared for anywhere from ten thousand to a million onlookers. I don't expect a crowd of that size --- Obama's not going to compete with the size crowds European soccer championships receive --- but many will come out of curiousity. It's hard to know what to expect. There's a possibility for some death penalty protesters --- a hot topic in Europe, which covers American executions closely and where Obama's statement on the recent Supreme Court ruling was headline news. As for the choice of venue: The Victory Column, whose meaning shifted even while it was being built, ended up commemorating in 1873 a rapid series of three wars in which Prussia defeated each of its neighbors in turn --- Denmark, Austria, and then even more spectacularly, France --- in order to form, for the first time, a unified Germany. But this historical significance is easily exaggerated, and the association with Prussia isn't pressing for most German onlookers. As with most public monuments, the Column has remained open to reinterpretation by new generations, just as the Brandenburg Gate evolved into a symbol of German unity and American solidarity only centuries after being built. Most recently, the Column has served as the backdrop for Berlin's most popular mass festivals. The rave-music-themed "Love Parade" and celebrations following soccer championships are examples. And this is another reason the site is compelling. By far, this is the broadest, most accessible venue in Berlin, with the maximum ability to host crowds. The park surrounding the Column is comparable to Central Park in New York. In the end, it's not the venue I would have chosen, but there's a clear view of the Brandenburg Gate, allowing the minimum amount of re-packaging so shortly before the event. We'll see what happens. |
