'Trump Has Created A Huge Chasm' In U.S. Society: Capitol Siege Viewed From Berlin

Every day at noon, Berliners are reminded of the American ideals of freedom and democracy as the Freedom Bell rings out from a tower of the government building where U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in 1963.

Modeled on Philadelphia's Liberty Bell, the 10-ton bronze bell arrived in 1950 as a gift from the American Committee for a Free Europe to the people of what was then West Berlin.

At the beginning of the Cold War, it served as a symbol of U.S. solidarity, a sentiment already shown in the years following World War II with the Berlin airlift and the United States' Marshall Plan aid funds.

Even today, many of those who remember the Second World War and those born after hold an appreciation for the legacy of America's commitment to West Berlin. So last week's violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., has particularly shocked those who grew up in West Berlin's American sector.