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In Go, Went, Gone, Oranienplatz symbolizes the power of community and human connection to offer support and stability in times of struggle and uncertainty. At the beginning of the novel, Richard learns about a group of African refugees who for a year have been living in tents at Oranienplatz, a public square in the city of Berlin. Although the conditions of the camp are lacking, Oranienplatz offers the men who camp there the invaluable asset of an empathetic community, something they have struggled to find elsewhere since migrating to Europe, whose widespread hostility toward refugees and complicated, unyielding policy toward asylum seekers leaves them feeling confused, alienated, and unwanted. Several of the refugees Richard later interviews speak of their arrival at Oranienplatz with great reverence, reporting the renewed sense of hope they felt upon hearing voices speaking their native dialect. As Awad explains in one of his conversations with Richard, “Oranienplatz provided for him, as his father had provided for him in Libya.”
Oranienplatz also represents how context and perspective shape a person’s sense of reality and how they engage with the wider world. Before Richard gets to know the refugees, he thinks of the space only within the context of German history and culture. He knows that the architect Lenné designed the square in the nineteenth century, and he knows that Huguenot refugees were the first people to settle on the streets surrounding the square. But listening to the refugees’ stories changes his perception of Oranienplatz, as when Apollo compares the process of packing up the tents and moving on to the facility on the outskirts of the city to his nomadic lifestyle in the deserts of Niger.
Oranienplatz Quotes in Go, Went, Gone
The Go, Went, Gone quotes below all refer to the symbol of Oranienplatz . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 8 Quotes
Once again Richard thinks—as so often in recent years—that the effects of a person’s actions are almost always impossible to predict and often prove to be the exact opposite of what the person originally intended. And if the same principle holds true in this case, he thinks, it’s possibly because the Berlin Senate’s negotiations with the refugees all have to do with borders, and a border is a place where, at least in mathematics, signs often change their value. No wonder, he thinks, the word dealings refers not just to actions but also business and trade.
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Chapter 10 Quotes
On one of the days Richard spends at his desk and in his reading chair, the tents and shacks on Oranienplatz are torn down and the refugees divided among facilities run by various charitable organizations throughout the city and on the outskirts, facilities that have declared themselves willing—now that the temperatures have started to drop below fifty degrees at night—to take in refugees. Richard doesn’t hear about this, since he’s spending the day reading about the acquisition of territory on the southwest coast of Africa by a trader named Lüderitz.
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Chapter 13 Quotes
Now, too, he is experiencing such a moment; he is reminded that one person’s vantage point is just as valid as another’s, and in seeing, there is no right, no wrong.
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Chapter 14 Quotes
Then he saw the tents.
I stood alone. The man went away. Never in my life had I slept in a tent.
That’s where he was supposed to live?
In a tent?
He stood in the middle of the tents, crying.
But then he heard someone speaking Arabic, a Libyan dialect.
At Oranienplatz, they gave him something to eat and a place to sleep.
Oranienplatz provided for him, as his father had provided for him in Libya.
He will never forget his father, he will always revere his memory.
And in just this way he will never forget Oranienplatz. He will always revere its memory.
This is what Awad says in conclusion, and after that there is truly nothing left to say.
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Chapter 46 Quotes
Richard knows he’s one of very few people in this world who are in a position to take their pick of realities.
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Oranienplatz Symbol Timeline in Go, Went, Gone
The timeline below shows where the symbol Oranienplatz appears in Go, Went, Gone. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
...the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, or the refugees who have been living in tents at Oranienplatz for a year. He reads that there are 54 African countries and realizes he doesn’t...
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Chapter 8
...what he felt at the auditorium yesterday was fear, and he reasons that walking across Oranienplatz during the day will be far less scary than his nighttime visit to the old...
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...work, “we organize a demonstration.” It’s then that Richard finally understands why he sat on Oranienplatz today, and why he can’t stop thinking about the hunger strikers he first heard about...
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Chapter 10
When Richard finally arrives at Oranienplatz to start interviewing the refugees, he finds that the camp is gone. A bulldozer is...
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Chapter 11
...working on a research project. He asks the director if the refugees wanted to leave Oranienplatz, and the director replies, “That’s a difficult question.” Then he invites Richard to follow him...
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Chapter 14
Someone told Awad about Oranienplatz and bought him a ticket there. When Awad arrived and saw the sea of tents,...
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Chapter 21
...to study the “agreement” signed between the Berlin Senate and the African refugees about “reclaim[ing] Oranienplatz for the use of all Berliners.” He’s shocked, though, to find that the document is...
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Chapter 46
That evening, Richard watches the news and learns that the Oranienplatz refugees housed in Friedrichshain have been occupying the top floor of their residence to protest...
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Chapter 49
...telling him he’s staying with a friend from the Ivory Coast, someone he met at Oranienplatz who has papers. Osarobo asks if Richard has work for him, and Richard says no.
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Chapter 51
...aloud the declaration, which states that granting residency to participants in the protest movement at Oranienplatz would not be in the country’s best interest. The lawyer tells Richard that the more...
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Chapter 54
In February, the men from the Oranienplatz group who haven’t applied for asylum receive their letters from the Foreigners Office: all of...
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