Perspectives

European reflections

Viewing freedom from a different perspective

By Robert Nathan Eberhart
From the September 2008 Print Edition

Well it’s good to be back. After 6 months of living in Europe, some small, quaint reflections are in order. Poet and philosopher Gilbert Chesterson once noted, “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” Or, in a more colloquial way, the great American songwriter Tom Waits once sang, “I never saw my hometown, until I stayed away too long.”

Indeed, the past year in Berlin has provided such an opportunity for reflection on my own identity as an American, and on America herself. A bit of historical background is necessary at this point. Much like America, but under very different historical circumstances, my adopted hometown of Berlin has a long tradition of home-grown, bottom-up, bourgeois freedom, with independence and rebellion often stifled under the autocratic boot of the State. Dating back to their incorporation as a member of the Hanseatic League in the 13th century, the Berliners have always been known as a rowdy and independent bunch.

The Hohenzollern dynasty, originally from Saxony, which ruled Prussia for 500 years until 1918 always feared and distrusted the pesky Berliners. They made sure to keep their royal residences well outside of the city walls and away from the troublesome and sometimes rebellious population. During the reign of Frederich II, Berlin became the center of the intellectual currents coursing through Germany and Europe during the time now known as the Enlightenment. Great philosophers like Immanuel Kant, Hegel, and Fichte all moved in the Prussian intellectual circles and influenced the intellectual life in Berlin.

After the abdication of the autocratic Hohenzollerns in 1918, Berlin became the hectic center of radical German culture during the Weimar Republic. German artists in Berlin made significant contributions to modern art, architecture, music, drama, and literature. The liberalization of the legal code along with the freedom felt from finally being freed from the boot of Hohenzollern autocracy and militarism influenced an explosion in culture that historian Ernst Bloch referred to as a Periclean Age. This of course came to an end with the ascent of the Nazis in 1933, but Berlin remained a center of resistance to the Nazi regime.

After the horrors of the Nazi regime and the near total destruction of World War II, Berlin found itself on the front line in the Cold War; torn between a Soviet-controlled eastern side, and a democratic western half. The East German government’s construction of a security wall in 1961 hermetically sealed the East from the West, tearing families and the nation apart. When The Wall finally fell in 1989, Berlin became a symbol of the international liberation from Communist tyranny, and the triumph of western democratic values.

It is said that only those who have been deprived of their liberty know its true value. Certainly culturally, the citizens of Berlin and the Germans in general have embraced a radical, progressive, cultural celebration of freedom from tyranny and oppression. The city is chocked full of art, music, poetry, fashion, and innumerable cultural expressions of the modern Zeitgeist. The Polizei have adopted a very non-aggressive, community-oriented style of police work, and the citizens in return respect the privacy and personal boundaries of their neighbors.

It all combines to create an electric cultural soup which makes San Francisco’s vibrant progressive cultural scene appear less urgent and relevant by comparison. As a self-proclaimed conservative (in the American sense of adherence to the fidelity of our Constitutional liberties, individual freedom and small government) the experience of Berlin as a city yearning to breathe free in a way which I believe that we Americans often take for granted, was a welcome reminder of the celebration of liberty that is a part of the everyday life of a citizen of a free country.

This notion of different varieties and historical understandings of freedom has put my own understanding of American liberty in perspective. This is a great country, with clearly protected liberties guaranteed by a supreme and inviolable Constitution. Our First Amendment guarantees of freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition are unique in their clarity and the radical broadness of the sphere to which they apply. This is a freedom which Europeans do not enjoy. Our traditions of freedom and rigid Constitutional architecture distinguish the United States amongst the community of democracies, and our global economic, cultural, and military power is unrivalled.

As our sacred liberty, enshrined in our constitutional system, is put under stress from Islamic radicalism abroad, as well as internally from the left and the right; it is important that we all remember who our friends really are, and indeed the Europeans are our friends and partners in the community of free peoples.

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