Response to Ghosts of Berlin

I've been to Berlin twice, both with my sixth grade class and with my parents for a weekend, specifically to visit Christmas markets and become quickly fatter (to insulate ourselves for winter. It was simply the only option.) Therefore, I never really got to know Berlin's history, seeing as a sixth grader I was paying more attention to whether or not the boy I liked was looking at me rather than listening to the tour guide. Because of this, I really enjoyed The Ghosts of Berlin, mostly because much of it was new information. 

I was aware of some parts already though, including the death strip and the speed at which the wall emerged. It was interesting to read about Ladd's opinion, but of course kept my own. One thing that he said that made me question him, was that the German public wanted badly to forget the wall. Yes, granted, it was a terrible time in history. Why then, would the German public keep up a stretch of the wall? Yes, they want to forget the terror, but today, it has become beautiful. It has become representative of a triumph, of a community now unified, and of the artists who painted it so mockingly and powerfully. 

And if we assume that the Germans in fact are trying to forget the wall, or what the wall represented, we must acknowledge that this is impossible for them. Can Americans forget 9/11? Surely not. The Germans are bombarded by tourists ever drawing attention to the facade. and flooded with little "pieces of the wall" post cards that were surely just pieces of gravel from someone's driveway that had been slyly spray painted. It seems then, that while Ladd understood the German hurt, he did not understand the inevitability of the wall's infinite presence, both physically and metaphorically.