This is a great essay, and it's interesting to see you bring in many things in the wider analysis you outline that I experience/see too as a "Wahlberliner". My favorite is getting yelled at for jaywalking and a bad example to children... Berlin is the one city in this country where children should be taught to believe their eyes as to reality/safety, and not just the Ampelmann.
... because screaming at a stranger on the street is definitely the Vorbild you want to make for children, right? These encounters with the Jedermann can be shrugged off, maybe, but when such impulses pervade society — into politics and the enforcement mechanisms of politics — we know from history where they lead.
This is a great essay, and it's interesting to see you bring in many things in the wider analysis you outline that I experience/see too as a "Wahlberliner". My favorite is getting yelled at for jaywalking and a bad example to children... Berlin is the one city in this country where children should be taught to believe their eyes as to reality/safety, and not just the Ampelmann.
... because screaming at a stranger on the street is definitely the Vorbild you want to make for children, right? These encounters with the Jedermann can be shrugged off, maybe, but when such impulses pervade society — into politics and the enforcement mechanisms of politics — we know from history where they lead.