Yes, Dachau, the first major concentration camp opened by the Nazis.

As a futurist visiting Dachau, I had a similar viewpoint that I touched upon in the recent post on Berlin: how looking back at awful events can help us today and that the awful events of today, when taken in a historical perspective, are not as bad as we think they might be.  So many people I talk to are depressed and nervous about the direction of the world today.  While I think that there will most definitely be rough and turbulent times ahead, I am optimistic about the future when looking 10, 20 and 30 years out.

As I have written in  ‘Blog Origins’ and am writing in my book, I believe that humanity will have the opportunity to take our collective next step in the decades ahead.  To be able to do so we must fully come to terms with where we have failed in the past so that we can prepare ourselves for the opportunity that lies ahead.

Last week I visited Dachau, which is in a suburb of Munich.  Here are the facts:
-it opened in 1933 and remained a concentration camp until liberation in 1945
-during that 12 year period approximately 206,000 people entered the camp
-the camp was first set up as a place for political enemies of the state after Hitler had a law passed through the legislature allowing him to hold anyone in ‘protective custody’ without the due process of the courts
-from 1945 until 1964 it …

It is easy for us all to get caught up in our lives. It is also very easy to think that times have never been worse in the world, that the world problems of ‘our time’ are more serious than in the past. As a futurist, I try to look closely at the present, but from the perspective of the rhythms or waves of history and recent history to best get a clear view of the near future.

Leaving a U.S. full of news stories about Korean missiles, new killings in the Middle East [no real surprise there], civil war and terrorism in Iraq, fear of terrorism at home and a drifting and incompetent Presidency, I flew to Germany for a vacation trip with my son, starting with 6 days in Berlin.

Berlin is simply the most impressive city I have seen in a long time, but I will write about that in coming posts, as it truly feels like a city of the future. For now, let’s take a look at what I saw in one day within walking distance of my hotel.

First, an outdoor exhibit that has been up for 9 years called “The Topography of Terror” that is in a park-vacant lot that used to be the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS. In exact and chilling historical detail this exhibit told the history of the two darkest parts of the Third Reich, profiled a number of victims as examples and then told the story of the Nuremberg …