When I took a flight from the Wine Metropole Berlin to New York Wine City (NYWC) on this day three years ago I was definitely planning on beginning a new life, but dividing my time between two cities in the long term was not part of my plan. However, it only took a very short time before that was what I was doing, and now I’m not thinking about living any other way. If you scroll down to the postings below, then you will see what this life with one foot in Berlin and the other in NYWC has made possible for me. The motto of my latest writings, most importantly the series of short e-books ROCK STARS OF WINE AMERICA, is a three word phrase that sent a shiver of excitement through my teenage body when I first heard it: complete artistic freedom. And that’s why the Freedom Tower in New York is pictured at the top of this posting.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Berlin and it’s good to be back. However, many of the things that make modern Germany a great place were imported from the US during the immediate post-WWII years, most importantly of all the fundamental principals of the constitution, technically referred to as the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. The first words of the Basic Law (Article 1 – 1), Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority, represent a complete rejection of the disastrous situation in Germany during the Nazi period and the many atrocities committed by that state (and many German people, often with the assistance or collusion of non-Germans) during those 12 years. This is the foundation stone of the openness of Berlin, although much else has become allied to that principal that encourages that openness. Nowhere in Germany does the process by which positive thoughts and actions grow out of, and become associated with, this fundamental principal function better. That has a lot to do with the city’s division by the Berlin Wall from August 1961 thru November 1989 and the enormous efforts made since then to bring the two sides fully together, a process that has been extremely successful.
It’s a great place for me to live for these reasons, but it is a great place me to work because of another principal enshrined within the Basic Law (Article 5 – 1), Freedom of the press and freedom of reporting…shall be guaranteed. There shall be no censorship. This also represents a radical rejection of the situation during the Nazi period, and was no less inspired by an American example (the Bill of Rights of 1789). This principal has also put down deep roots in Germany, and nowhere does this function better than in Berlin, the seat of government, as the German media’s extensive and fearless reporting of the NSA affair clearly shows.
Germany wouldn’t be what it is today without the influence of America and Germany (including those Germans with anti-American sentiments – though they may not want to admit it) knows that. At some point soon I will write about the influence of Germany on America, which is less obvious, unknown to many Americans and seldom acknowledged. First, though it’s time for some serious reporting from the Wine Metropole Berlin!
