They never learn.. Berchtesgaden

[Maurice]

After many buildings have been demolished in the Berchtesgaden area, the hunger for destruction is not stilled. The Hotel Berchtesgadener Hof will now be demolished. Will they ever learn in Germany?

See for more detail:

http://www.thirdreichruins.com/bgaden.htm

Regards,

Maurice

[Jon Fish]

After many buildings have been demolished in the Berchtesgaden area, the hunger for destruction is not stilled. The Hotel Berchtesgadener Hof will now be demolished. Will they ever learn in Germany?

See for more detail:

http://www.thirdreichruins.com/bgaden.htm

Regards,

Maurice

I am so glad I have visited yearly for the past 10 years,because now it is very sad to visit. Every time more history gone.
i mamaged to get in there a couple of years ago through a broken window,the Hotel was very run down and would have needed completely gutting to save it as a hotal.I got up in to the rafters,just in case, but of course nothing interesting to find. Ended up legging it when I heard sirens

[TMurray]

After many buildings have been demolished in the Berchtesgaden area, the hunger for destruction is not stilled. The Hotel Berchtesgadener Hof will now be demolished. Will they ever learn in Germany?

See for more detail:

http://www.thirdreichruins.com/bgaden.htm

Regards,

Maurice

Looks like the Germans want to remove all trace of the Third Reich heritage in the area.

[Vadim K]

Well, its not much of a "heritage"...

[Sal Williams]

well we think of heritage as a positive thing but I don't think it has to be. All joking aside I do hate to see the history of this stuff disapear!

[TMurray]

Well, its not much of a "heritage"...

perhaps 'heritage' wasnt the right word, it is part of their past, demolishing it will not alter this fact.

[Chaser]

The Germans do not seem to recognize that forgetting a black mark in the past does not erase it, but means it is more likely to repeat itself. The German prime minister asked to go to the survivors reunion at Auschwitz...and was told he could if he remained in absolute silence...etc. I just don't understand how the destruction of history is good. It is like forgetting about the Civil War, just because we don't want to acknowledge that we had slavery.
Jon

[Seigfried]

.

[Vadim K]

See the entry from the Oxford English Dictionary Vadim K

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

[DonC]

I think in all fairness to Germany, they have done a much better job of dealing with their historical heritage/legacy/baggage than say the Japanese, who teach a very truncated and sanitized version of the events of 1931-45 in their schools.

Don

[Chaser]

Definitely!!! They do not even acknowledge Nanking officially, although they honor the soldiers involved in it....a very complicated problem, but ultimately a way of getting out of the problems with a military responsible of committing more war crimes than any other in the war.
Jon

[Maurice]

Usa...

This thread doesn't quite follow the subject, but that doesn't matter. Now that we have brought up the theme 'how to handle the past', I would like to ask our US citizens something.
How does the USA go on with the Indians? Is the slaughter remembered, are former villages reconstructed, do they have a kind of 'remembrance day', have hugh sums of money been paid to indians, etc?
I am asking this out of interest, not to start a political discussion.

Thanks in advance.

Maurice

[DonC]

Hi Maurice -

The only reconstructed or preserved Native American villages are not ones that were destroyed by the US Army, but usually older ones - cave dwellings, cliff dwellings, adobe villages, etc. The few "Indian villages" in the popular sense - tipis, drying buffalo hides, etc, are recreated more for tourism than as any sort of memorial. NA's have received government compensation in some cases. It is taught quite freely, especially in college. I teach modern American history and cover it in my lectures, and I do it warts and all - and there are a lot of them! Most profs I know do the same. Just like European colonialism, you have to put it in the context of the time.

Don

[Chaser]

The majority of the native americans have forgotten their own heritage unfortunately. However, the mistreatment of Native Americans is tought, although I have noticed that some teachers (but not all!) omit the more recent clashes with native americans, like an incident in South Dakota in which the US military in the 1950s loaded around 100 NAs into the church and then opened fire with two APCs sporting M2 50 caliber machine guns following a peaceful demonstration that began to draw too much attention to the mistreatment of native americans. Nevertheless, there are some teachers that mention that.

Japanese american internment camps are mentioned. I think the United States almost has the opposite problem. Rather than omitting discrimination against minorities, it attempts to counter the problems by exaggerating them. I'm not saying that the discrimination did not exist, but we all knew that slavery existed until 1860 (and later in deep southern states), but very few people knew about the Tuskegee Airmen until the movie came out, and almost NOBODY has heard of the 555th Parachute Infantry. We all know about the Japanese internment camps, but nobody talks about the nisei that fought with the 100th Infantry and one of the 400-series regiments (the number escapes me). We all know about the maltreatment of Indians, but few have heard of the Navajo code-talkers successes.

The government is attempting to compensate for past wrongs by creating new ones. Affirmative action says "every man is equal, but a black man should advance faster because we enslaved his great-great grandfather." The world has come a long way, and many employers do not focus on the color of the skin anymore except to appease the government. There are still some, but that is the approach that we seem to take, which in my book is just as shameful as forgetting it. We are teaching our minorities that they are victims, and as a result they behave like victims. Teach them that they are equal without exception, and watch how many of these blacks will start eventually cleaning their act up in an attempt to get a college degree.

Maurice, I apologize....I had mentioned the heritage, and that started the Japanese heritage discussion...etc. Not intending a political debate here either.
Jon

[Peter_Suciu]

Just to weigh in...what is so great or special about this hotel exactly? Was it the sight of any significant historical event or just another place a worthless dictator visited? I'm for preserving history, but in fairness every day that passes by is another day of history. We should carefully consider what is worth saving, and also realize that we can't save everything.

Buildings are torn down to make way for other buildings. If we tried to remember everything we'd never be able to build another thing. We can place monuments and memorials all we want but after time these mean less and less. And putting up memorials for recent events in some way diminishes previous happenings.

A good example is the Battle of Actium. The actual memorial I believe fell into the sea a LONG time before any of us were born. Likewise, cities like Troy and Babylon are ancient rules today. No modern city will ever fall to ruin...I think Dresden, Hiroshima and even New Orleans are proof of that...today we will rebuild.

I'm for history being remembered...but sometimes not every building can remain standing forever.