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The ferocity of the reaction in the German media to the fortress-like new U.S. embassy in Berlin, which former U.S. President George Bush will inaugurate on July 4th, strikes me as a reflection of the strains in German-U.S. relations since 2003’s Iraq conflict.
It underlines just how long gone the days of the Cold War really are. Then, when Berlin was the front line in the Cold War, America was West Germany’s best friend and U.S. soldiers were welcome across the country.
Architectural critics in Germany have slammed the boxy building with narrow windows as being reminiscent of Baghdad’s Green Zone.
The embassy is a picture of a country traumatised by 9/11 and by the consequences of globalisation, of a nation with such heavy armour that it can no longer see the world,” wrote conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung earlier this year.
Other critics have been just as hostile, deriding it as a discount supermarket, a prison, a bunker and like Fort Knox.
Once upon a time, the United States was a nation of courage and confidence. Now, led by greedy and arrogant Oil Patch Boys, no one even remembers how our nation survived the burning of the White House and the Capitol by British invaders during the war of 1812. Americans must think the Pearl Harbor Memorial just grew out of the tidal waters of Honolulu.
Perhaps, there is a mote of subconscious guilt below the scum of neocon brains? Perhaps, they simply are the cowards I think they all are?
Whatever the case and cause, our Fearless Leaders rely nowadays on structures of state better suited to Stalin than Jefferson.
They are afraid but then people do want to kill them. Any American embassy is a likely target for car bomb.
I wouldn’t want to live or work next to an embassy.
Of course they look seriously scared. Not a good thing.
It’s almost comical people are bitching about tiny windows and boxy edges. Yes, I agree with the Eideard, the design of the building is born out of weakness. Not because of some skewed foreign policy based on fear mongering. I see absentmindedness. A willingness to appease the post-deco citizenry at the cost of their safety. Open eaves above public sidewalks. Pylons that wouldn’t stop a corny Euro bus. Drive-in loading dock. I say the architects should be fired and sent to mop the floors of Emerald City.
It ain’t as bad as the Federal Building in downtown San Fran. That looks like a half finished prison.
BORING! An article about,… eh, snore, oh… an article about architecture,… snore…
If your’re going to pull a David Vincent here at least talk about aliens or something more interesting. Besides, the cold war is over.
Excellently put. The US government is way apart from the sentiment and way of thinking of the country population. I perceive because I travel many times a year to the US, generally a much more open population to the global culture in recent years, which the tubes have helped a lot, then you have the surge in immigrants which is heavily felt, and that’s an excellent thing now that the world is so connected, and that will work in USAs favor in the future, as it did in the past. The government in turn is so much a target for hate, because their absolutely nonsensical policies which make everyone in poor AND RICH countries to hate them. I only hope that the administration handover to the democrats may cause a tipping point so the world may not at least hate the USA (because of their policies I insist).
Governments are accountable for their spending, superficialities like “aesthetics” are attacked by media and politicians alike, as a waste of the taxpayer’s dollar. “Now I believe architecture to be the humanizing of building” (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1954). I think that Wright mean’t that we get the architecture we deserve.
The surrounding buildings don’t look like large windows either. Are those US too?
The Germans are complaining about boring architecture? Pot; kettle; black.
Here’s some much nicer looking German architecture:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSrfp_uJiik
Who would have thunk that forcefully spreading “democracy” and “freedom” would piss so many people off. Someones hasn’t been telling its citizens the entire, gruesome, terrorizing story.
Millions die now so thousands can smile later.
Waa Waa! Boxy Building! Waa Waa!
Boxy building. Narrow windows. As compared to what, all those OTHER just as ugly buildings in the background?
I do believe that the US should dramatically reduce it’s presence in Germany and Japan. Let those suckers pony up the entire bill for their defense.
We live in an era where the common police officer looks more like a military special commando, and any time that police knock on the door it is accompanied by a SWAT team. The smallest move during an arrest is responded to with brutal force, if not deadly force.
This is just another sign of the times, where government is not “of the people, for the people” but “of the government, for the government”.
Can anyone tell me why, in this age of instant communications, multinational corporations, post-cold war era, we need such a humongous monster of an Embassy? Do embassies serve ANY purpose anymore?
Can’t they just paint a giant American flag on both sides – that would make everyone happy.
Forces stationed in Japan and Germany are for the benefit of the US as much as the host countries. And Japan pays the US for the forces stationed there.
As for the ugly building, IMO this is more an indication of a lack of faith in German security forces.
“The embassy is a picture of a country traumatised by 9/11 and by the consequences of globalisation, of a nation with such heavy armour that it can no longer see the world,”
Ummm, maybe it’s because Germany is only a couple of years away from being a radical Muslim theocracy?
#15, Just curious, but what benefit does the US receive today from those bases?
I understand the desire for a quick deployment forward base in Europe, but isn’t that what NATO is for? After all, the Germans don’t want us there anymore since we are not needed for their defense.
Japan really doesn’t need us there either, but it sure makes their neighbors happy. There have also been protest against the American there also.
The only reason these countries have not kicked us out already is because they make money off of leasing the property and providing services.
>>Waa Waa! Boxy Building! Waa Waa!
Yeah, Ah_yeah. Christ. If building ugly architecture were a crime, Toll Bros Inc. and Pulte would be doing 25-to-life for their Godforsaken housing developments.
#17,It isn’t just about their defense. It is about having forward bases near the enemy (whoever that is at the moment). The Germans haven’t been tested as far as their defensive capabilities. A known fact is there have been arguments within NATO about commitments from member nations in operations. In those discussions, complaints about German cutbacks in spending plus a near 40% obesity rate amongst defense personnel was brought to light. The big picture, however, is the US commitment to NATO’s mutual defense which includes stationing troops there. As for Japan, they want us there (despite what protests you’ve seen) and they are offsetting the costs for those operations. China and Russia are still major players to worry about. I agree that a streamlining of forces is necessary, but that should be in the way of withdrawing from Iraq.
Musty – Same thing with all those ugly Tyvek homes! 🙂
Eideard–just how many embassies need to be bombed before making them bomb resistant is just common sense?
I do note the Berlin Chancellory has lots of glass, more like an art museum than a fortress? But what is Germany to the Muslim world except a staging area against the USA?
Comes from being the worlds only superpower and having really inept foreign policies as in wars of choice without exit plans?
I say it has too many windows. It should just be a big square reinforced concrete block with tv cameras to view the world. That would show “we mean business!”
Hunker down me bucko’s!!
Willkommen zu unserem bunker.
#21 – bobbo – That would show “we mean business!”
Hmmm… if you say so… 😀 I’m sure the rest of the world thinks that way… 😉
Fuggin’ relax. It’s just a building. Who cares if they made it pink with a bow on it?
People seem to be using any excuse to bash on the administration.
I’m against both the war and the administration but trying to bring up that argument in an article about an ugly building just makes you look like a lunatic.
I was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany from 1980-83. While the older Germans were nearly always friendly, there was a growing number of younger people who HATED Reagan. Remember that Reagan deployed cruise missiles to Europe and 108 Pershing 2’s to Germany. They had good reason to hate our being there. To them OUR being there made THEM a target. It was still easy to get past that in a conversation by bringing up heavy metal in general or the Scorpions in particular. Nothing is better than rhyming “you” with “you.” “There’s no one like you…”
Looks better than most government buildings on this side of the pond. I’d say at this point no one is going to like what we build just because it is American.
#25
> To them OUR being there made THEM a target.
They *were* a target by the very nature of their geography and the fact that the opponent was the Soviet Union. Reagan simply stepped up the pressure. The fact that the Soviets simply took Poland and never gave it back should have scared the hell out of the Germans.
The US embassy in South Korea is even uglier. It has some the most prime real estate in Seoul and is next to some historic and beautiful buildings but yet stands out like a sore thumb. Plus all the Korean police guarding the outside leaves for a reminder that the war still goes on.
I don’t like this push of spending more money for architecture. SO the building is boring. That’s what I want government buildings to look like. Too many times, architects take this money and build monsters, which are then lauded as ‘art’.
My guess is the new World Trade Center will look worse than the old one.
I do think George Bush pretty much alienated us from the entire world! Its hard to believe one administration could do so much damage!
#29
>>Its hard to believe one administration
>>could do so much damage!
Yes, that’s the one thing that Dumbya has finally succeeded at after a lifetime of failure: Making the US one of the most derided laughingstocks in the world.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!
199 days to go until January 9. Can we survive?