Waldbühne, Berlin

One of the most beautiful spots in Berlin, and basically an appendix to the Olympic Stadium, this open-air amphitheater has been serving people in this country since 1936. And yes, it is a piece of Nazi history - something I didn’t know when I went there just a week ago, to see Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra perform Beethoven’s 8th and 9th Symphony.
(To make it easier to understand, count that: a location that was built by a Nazi during the 3rd Reich hosts a concert by a Jew, who conducts an Israeli-Palestinian-Arab Youth Orchestra.)
Anywho. I arrived there, and got in from one of the entrances that is located right by a bell tower which belongs to the Stadium. The bell tower basically screams “totalitarian regime” at first sight, so I got curious. Funny enough, I never knew that whole complex was built by the same architect, Werner March that is. So when they startet letting people in, I felt myself grunting inside. For some reason, it made me angry that everything was still standing there, people were praising this place for being one of the greatest spots in West Berlin, and there I was, feeling nothing but uncomfortable. Had I not found out, I would’ve had been enjoying myself by then. When the concert started, I started thinking. Daniel Barenboim is one of my heroes, politically and musically. He is one of those allround prodigies, he can talk, write, play the piano, conduct an orchestra. He has lived in a dozen countries, speaks a dozen languages, belongs to a dozen nations, families, communities, tribes, religions, is critical and yet at peace with all of them. Barenboim, in 2001, was the first person to ever hold a Wagner Concert in Jerusalem, Israel in public. So I figured, if he can overcome blurs of the past, I should at least try to as well.

I could continue recollecting my thoughts step-by-step, but I wanna make it short(er). As much as I disdain Werner March and all that comes with his story, I have to admit that Waldbühne is not a show-off of typical Nazi Architecture. Its surrounding bits and pieces might be, but as soon as you enter that sloped, stoney semi-circle, you enter a vast space, and it gives you the feeling you can breathe. Sometimes, on rare occasions, you have to take a building for what it is. You might just end up with one of those “solid gaps” I am looking for.