We all know the phrases “time flies when you’re having fun” or “work doesn’t seem like work if you enjoy it.” So when Professor Amos said “this is not a vacation” when speaking of our time in Berlin and subtly reminding us of the goal to report and collect information for our sources, I was almost scared. Scared I was not doing enough, did not have enough interviews lined up, etc. However after conducting my first interview this morning, and throughout our eventful day, I am reflecting that our work can be fun.
My first full day in Berlin began on foot. Our spontaneous tour of the neighborhood (Mitte?) led us through the side streets toward Hackescher Markt. Between the cafés and graffiti-covered courtyards, I kept noticing small brass plaques set into the sidewalk. These are Stolpersteine, or “stumbling stones,” each engraved with the name of a person deported or killed by the Nazis, placed in front of their last chosen home. Several were clustered outside a single doorway on one block. It struck me that in Berlin, remembrance isn’t confined to museums; it is literally underfoot, something you trip over on the way to get coffee. I am a history nerd, so that idea stayed with me as we headed to Bayer’s pharmaceutical campus for lunch.
Over a surprisingly elegant spread, Thore, the company’s historian and archivist, walked us through Bayer’s history, from aspirin to its place in today’s global market. When he reached the Nazi era, though, his account grew noticeably vague. He acknowledged that Bayer was folded into IG Farben, the chemical conglomerate that collaborated with the regime, but the details stayed abstract. What he did not dwell on is that IG Farben was among the largest corporate donors to the Nazi party, or that Degesch, a firm IG Farben subsidiary albeit through many other subsidiaries, produced the gas used in the gas chambers at the Auschwitz concentration camp. The web of subsidiaries made it easy to keep Bayer at arm’s length from the worst of it, but I kept waiting for a direct and short: this is our history, we messed up, it was not that long ago but here is what we’ve done in those years to attempt to regain the trust of the public and those we’ve hurt, and, this is our business strategy now to ensure the strongest ethical standards today. But after seeing those stumbling stones that morning, the contrast felt sharp: the city names individual victims on its sidewalks, while the company’s own archivist seemed most comfortable speaking in terms of corporate structure.
I don’t think Thore was hiding anything outright. But I left wondering whether a company can truly reckon with its past when the person telling that history is also on its payroll.
The walk back to the train was bitterly cold, the kind of damp October wind that cuts straight through a jacket (and I thought I was prepared). Back near our hotel, I thawed out over coffee and a delectable vegan lemon couture with Marisa and Frances before we wandered the boutiques along Alte Schönhauser Straße. “Shopping” is generous; mostly we tried on coats we had no business buying. Still, the difference in quality from the fast fashion I’m used to back home was obvious. The wool was thicker, the seams cleaner, and everything seemed made to last more than a season, which perhaps explains the price tags.
Dinner was the highlight of the day. We took the S-Bahn, Berlin’s above-ground commuter rail, to a neighborhood in West Berlin, where we ate at a small Palestinian restaurant. The walls were covered in photos of activists and personal trinkets, my favorite the dinnerware with colorful patterns hung above Devonne’s head. Our server, the owner’s son, was the kind of person who makes a whole table feel like regulars. He kept bringing dishes, encouraging us to save space for the seemingly infinite courses that still remained, and told us a bit about how his family started and now maintains the restaurant and the original recipes that came from his Grandma (or aunt?). Between plates of hummus, musakhan, and lemonade, he made it clear that this place was as much a community gathering spot as a business.
I look forward to speaking with him again. After a day spent thinking about how Berlin remembers the people it lost, it felt meaningful to end it with someone actively shaping the city’s present.
