As one would walk across Bebelplatz, the square before Humboldt University in Berlin, it would not seem likely that an event of any historical significance could have occurred at such an unassuming space. At this time in the evening bicyclists cut their way across the square but apart from a few straggling pedestrians it is devoid of activity.
Perhaps it is the time of day, nearing sunset when most people have already settled in at home with their families or out for dinner with friends. This isn't East Coast America after all where life is work and work is life; where you could catch one of those interesting specimens just leaving the office, or god forbid going in.
Yet in some ways one cannot blame the typical east coaster for not knowing any better. For that is all they see around them; people hustling, rushing from one place to the next, putting in long hours at work whether to make money, or to gain favor at the workplace, or both. It becomes part of the culture. Anyone looking to succeed in such a setting would discover the path with the least amount of external resistance is by towing the line and donning the cultural attire surrounding them. This in turn reinforces the cultural myth, providing a potent meaning for most people on how to lead their lives.
In essence we are prone to following the dictates of the culture we grow up in or are surrounded by. Especially when there is no exchanging of ideas happening or there is a restriction of the free flow of different ideas. In a hyper-connected world as ours it might seem almost foolish to attempt to restrict the sharing and consumption of knowledge but it has never seemed to stop authoritarian governments from doing so. The intent being to stifle any opposing views and maintain the already existing status quo.
This is done even to this day. North Korea being the prime example of a police state that is ever watchful over what its citizens consume, China with its state authorized web search, Turkey with its Wikipedia ban, the Gulf states with their own web restrictions and so forth.
Almost 84 years ago the Nazi regime tried to achieve a similar effect at this very place, as well as at other universities in Germany. Twenty thousand books were burnt at Bebelplatz for the sole reason of being "un-German". They consisted of notable names such as Albert Einstein, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Ernest Hemingway, Heinrich Mann, Helen Keller, Rosa Luxemburg, August Bebel, Bertha von Suttner, Stefan Zweig, and many others.
Book burning at Bebelplatz on May 10, 1933.
Image: http://wartimespeeches.net/content_01.jpg
In many ways the Nazis succeeded in creating a common meaning for most of its population to rally under. By repressing dissenting voices, imprisoning political opponents, by demonizing them they were able to gain control of the public mindset and dictate their own terms and views.
Helen Keller's response to the Nazi book burning is powerful and is a vivid reminder that information cannot be stifled through repression:
But information can be drowned out... through propaganda and the latest phenomenon that threatens its veracity: information overload. The Huxleyian world is our reality. We are bombarded with so much information: from our social feeds about other people's lives to news from all over the world - sensationalized and trivialized - that it has become impossible to take it all in. Any attempt to do so is futile, only flustering us further and either reduces our attention span or burns us out to the point where we disengage entirely.
But with information readily available, it is equally true for misinformation. How does one discern between what is real and what is fake? Do we dare to take out the time to verify the information we receive? Or have we become so attuned to believing that we need to constantly be consuming (whether information or otherwise) that any slowdown in that process would result in us somehow losing out?
The only way to break out of our cultural molds is by engaging views that differ from our own with curiosity and critical evaluation. Through this method one can question their own cultural baggage and determine what is their meaning in life and how they wish to pursue it without becoming complacent and mindless. For nothing is more dangerous than an unquestioning mind.
The words of Heinrich Heine, whose books were among those burned, are immortalized on a plaque in the square. They are quite prescient and a dark reminder for things to come if left unchecked. For he stated as early as 1820:
Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen.
It was but a precursor; where they burn books they will end up burning people.
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