In Germany, signs point to history, politics and whimsy

Sonneberg, GERMANY – As a Taiwanese person, my visit to Germany over the summer was filled with interesting discoveries. World history classes have given me sufficient knowledge of Germany’s turbulent history in the 20th century, but visiting the actual places where the events happened was an entirely different experience.  Since a lot of Germany was destroyed in WWII, I had to use my imagination to visualize what the Berlin Wall area or the Nuremberg Rally Grounds would have looked like. But there were still small physical remains that could be seen: including memorials, signs, and graffiti. Aside from history, they also reflect more modern culture and events. Graffiti on construction walls and railings at Warschauer Straße station. (Yuhan Tsai/YJI) My host family kindly took me on a weekend trip to Berlin during my stay. My first impressions? Graffiti, and a lot of it. On buildings, handrails, street signs, and even the remaining parts of the original Berlin Wall. Despite the growing graffiti art community in Taiwan, most people in my country still consider graffiti an annoyance to property owners and think of graffiti artists as delinquents. But in Germany, graffiti on the Berlin Wall first started as an act of...