Phil Goes Abroad

My Journeys in Germany

I’ve just returned to Denmark from a week-long study tour in Deutchland (Germany)!  It was a trip organized by my study abroad program here, with a one-credit class about the Memory & Identity of Germany leading up to the trip.  All of our travels were in what was once East Germany, except for the former enclave of West Berlin.  The tour was led by two of my professors who both have German backgrounds, and I was with two dozen other students.

You’re probably curious about what I did in all my time here, so here’s a basic outline of my adventures:

Sunday, March 22: Dresden

1. Visited a museum called the New Green Vault, which holds the treasures of the old kings of Saxony, the part of Germany with Dresden as the capital.  They have the largest green diamond in the world—41 carats!
2. Attended a Bach concert at the Frauenkirche, a big church in the center of Dresden that was destroyed during World War II.  It was recently restored between 1994 and 2005.
3. Had dinner at an Indian restaurant and then followed it up with a drink at a place called the Wunderbar.

Notes on Dresden: Knowing that my country firebombed this city with so much history gave me an uneasy feeling.  It was entirely unexpected for them because Dresden wasn’t home to much (if any) Nazi military activity.  The people surprisingly don’t show any ill feelings towards us.  However, one sad story was that even though the church I visited was amazingly spared by all of the bombing, giving the people a feeling of hope, it collapsed the next day.

Monday, March 23: Weimar

1. Listened to a lecture about the memory and identity of Weimar.  Many great minds lived in this historical city, but the lecture was very disorganized and extremely hard to follow.
2. Made a walking tour, where I saw how well the city has been restored to original condition.  Apparently it does pretty well in attracting visitors for cultural tourism.

Note on Weimar: this city was the home of Germany’s short-lived democratic government between the World Wars.

Tuesday, March 24: Buchenwald, Eisenach, Wittenburg, Berlin

1. Attempted to take in the Buchenwald Memorial at the former concentration camp.  It was an incredibly moving and emotive experience.  I walked through the gates where 50,000 people went in and did not leave alive.  I saw the train tracks that brought in Jews, communists, homosexuals, and gypsies, ruins of the quarters, the ovens where dead bodies were burned.  The most disturbing part was walking into a room disguised as a medical room where people were shot by the SS.  The people were told to stand up to the wall where their height would be measured and then an SS soldier shot them in the neck through a slit in the wall.
2. Visited the Wartburg Castle, a beautiful site on the top of a mountain.  Martin Luther, founder of Protestantism, hid here after the Church excommunicated him and made him an outlaw. Here he also made the first translation of the New Testament into the peoples’ common language.
3. Visited the Shlosskirche (Castle Church) where Martin Luther posted his famous 95 Theses against the pope and the Catholic Church.
4. Went on a pub crawl after checking into our hotel in Berlin.  I saw some pretty far-out bars, with one that is hard to describe as anything but very East German-like.

Wednesday, March 25: Berlin

1. Listened to a much better lecture than the last, this time about the memory and identity of Berlin.  What a rich history the city has!  We got a short tour of some of the city, seeing Checkpoint Charlie, a still-standing part of the Wall, and the site where the SS orchestrated their reign of terror.
2. Ate lunch on the top of the Reichstag, an incredible structure rebuilt in 1999 and now used as parliament.  The restaurant had an excellent view of the city, but the glass dome had an even better panorama!
3. Visited the Holocaust Memorial, made of 2,711 gray stone slabs with no markings.  I didn’t think the memorial was very successful.  While it was a little disorienting, it didn’t do much to bring feelings about the tragedy of the holocaust.
4. Visited the Jewish Museum, designed by American architect Daniel Liebeskind.  The part that hit me the hardest was a room called the Memory Void.  It was tall and narrow with concrete walls and a floor covered with 10,000 faces made of iron.
5. Observed some modern art at the Berlinsche Gallerie.  My favorite work consisted of a large empty room with a projection of the moon on the far wall.  The moon zig-zaged around the wall, which I found interesting because we’re so used to the moon moving slowly in an arc across the sky.  My friends didn’t appreciate it at all.

Thursday, March 26: Berlin (cont.)

1. Went to Museum Island, site of some of Berlin’s finest cultural institutions.  I visited the National Gallery, where I enjoyed some German pieces from the late 18th century that romanticize nature in a spiritual way.
2. Experienced the DDR (East Germany) Museum.  I spent a couple of hours learning about the lives of normal people in East Germany during the Cold War period.  I learned that work was actually plentiful (but pay was low), the state sponsored popular vacations to other communist countries, Levi’s were rare and cost one month’s pay, and that nudism became a way for the people to rebel against the authoritarian government.
3. Ate a currywurst with french fries, a favorite among Berliners.  I think I waited 20 minutes in line at the place, but it was worth it!  My sisters would be jealous of the french fries drowning in ketchup, but not so much the sausage flavored with curry powder.
4. Met up at a café with a friend from Brandeis studying in Berlin for the semester, swapping stories about our experiences abroad.
5. Went out to a restaurant called the Unsicht-Bar, where you eat dinner in total darkness!  An once-in-a-lifetime experience.  Today I was still arguing with other students on the trip about what we ate!

Friday, March 27: Berlin (cont.)

1. Got a tour of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, home of the 1936 Olympic Summer Games.  The stadium was reconstructed in 2000, but many pieces no longer remain.  There are no swastikas or eagles on the columns, no names of Hitler or National Socialist party members, and no mention of the Nazi regime.  Our tour guide looked uncomfortable when my professor asked where Hitler sat for the games.  She explained that his conspicuous balcony no longer exists.
2. Ate some delicious perogies at a Russian restaurant in the city and said goodbye to friends leaving directly from Berlin for other adventures.

If you have any questions or want to know more about a certain experience, post a comment and I’ll do my best to reply back.

I have the weekend at the folk high school and then leave for Sweden on Monday!