Three Weeks in Berlin

Auf Wiedersehen, Berlin

2008-08-02T17:25:00.000-07:00

Auf Wiedersehen, U-Bahn!

At 4:30am (Berlin time), most of our group boarded a chartered bus that took us to Tegel Airport. (Katie P. and Rose, who planned an additional week in Europe, slept in just a bit longer and then awoke to catch a train to Salzburg!)

A few hours later, we sat on a British Airways flight to London. And after a few harrowing hours at London's Heathrow Airport, we were on our Virgin Atlantic flight to Chicago.

The Illustrious Row 42: Amy, Lukas, Casey and John

Around seven hours later, we were on the ground in Chicago and boarding a hot school bus bound for Oshkosh.

"Mollz" on the bus ride to Oshkosh

Finally, after battling EAA traffic on Highway 41, we were home.

To all of our amazing students: thank you (you know, danke schoen). Thanks for embracing Berlin, for putting up with your (sometimes dorky but nearly always fabulous) leaders, for being (mostly) responsible and (always) a lot of fun, and for making the most out of three weeks in Berlin.

To the parents: thanks for sharing your kids with us! We loved every minute of it.

"Be unique. Be multi-faceted. Be Berlin."

Holocaust Memorial

2008-08-02T17:09:00.000-07:00

Our final full day in Berlin was, for some, a highly emotional one. Thursday we visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a huge site just a short distance from the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. The memorial consists of hundreds of concrete blocks of differing heights, set into a foundation that is not level. This means that, as you make your way through the blocks, you never really have a stable footing. Under the blocks is a very moving exhibition of the Holocaust, and, despite the fact that we'd seen many memorials to the Holocaust on this trip, this one touched the students the most. It was an appropriate ending point for the trip.

Above: the "blocks" at the memorial site; Katie P. walks through the memorial.

Staush and Stacy T. wait to be allowed into the memorial exhibition.

We finished our day with a trip to the Pegasus Hostel, the place where we were originally supposed to stay for our trip. The hostel offered to provide a cook-out for our group. Since many of the students were, by this time, really tired of spending money eating out, this was a welcome opportunity. We ended up having a great time. And some of us even opted to dress alike. (!)

Staush, John, Dr. Scribner, Dr. Slagter at the Pegasus dinner.

Pictures of Mom for Nathan

2008-07-30T14:04:00.000-07:00

Hi, Nathan!

These are some pictures of your Mom in Berlin. Be good for Dad and I'll see you soon!

Thinking of you and loving you always,
Mom

Near Alexanderplatz.

With our friends Claudia, Helmar and Jorma in Schwaebisch Gmuend.

On the grounds of Schloss Charlottenburg.

With Dru at the Obama rally in Berlin. (Wish you had been there, too!)

Biking in Potsdam

2008-07-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

We chose to spend our second-to-last day abroad in Potsdam, a city about 35 minutes outside of Berlin. We decided to take a bike tour of the city. Fat Tire Bike Tours has an office on Alexanderplatz, which has been our hub during our stay in Berlin. This morning we loaded 16 bikes and eager bikers (our group plus Wolf, our tour guide) onto the S-Bahn to begin a day that turned out to be exceptional.

Above: group in front of a Hohenzollern guest palace; Dru and Tracy (attractive and charming leaders) ready to ride.

Although some in our group hadn't been on a bike in awhile, everyone ended up having a great time and we rode through the city in relative comfort. Our tour guide was funny and knowledgeable, and took us through all of the main sites in the city. The most famous of those sites is Schloss Sans Souci (the Sans Souci Palace), which was built by the husband of Sophie Charlotte (who lived in Charlottenburg, the palace we visited last week) as a summer residence. We didn't tour the inside of the palace and this is probably because the palace grounds completely steal the show:

Above: Sans Souci Palace; the elaborate stepped palace grounds.

Stacy T., Amy, Casey, Ashley, Dr. Slagter, Staush, Lukas, & Dr. Scribner in the garden at Sans Souci.

We also toured the Cecilienhof Palace. This palace is known not so much for the royalty who lived there, but rather how the events that took place there shaped Germany and Berlin in particular. Cecilienhof was the site of the Potsdam Conference, where the Americans under Truman, the British under Atlee, and the Soviets under Stalin decided the fate of Germany after WWII. Inside the palace the meeting room is preserved and our group was able to take an audio tour of the lower level, where most of the key events took place. Since the palace was in the zone of Soviet occupation, the star in the palace courtyard is red.

After a leisurely ride back to the S-Bahn, we reluctantly turned in our comfy bikes and ended our day -- but not before Drs. Slagter and Scribner insisted on some cheesy (but oh-so-cute) photos of the group on our bikes.

Wannsee Conference and Grunewald park/beach

2008-07-30T13:21:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was spent in Wannsee, a forested district in southwestern Berlin. We all boarded the S-Bahn and made the trip in the morning, and found ourselves standing in front of the famous Haus der Wannsee Konferenz just a short while later. This is the house where Hitler's "Final Solution" was planned in grim detail. An exhibition on the Holocaust was inside -- an exhibition that many of us thought was better than that in the Jewish Museum we visited in our first week here. It was strange to think that such gruesome acts could have been planned in such a lovely setting; outside the windows of the conference rooms the waves lapped against the shore, the trees swayed in the summer breeze, and we could look out on Strandbad Wannsee (public swimming beach) across the bay.

After touring the house, we walked through the garden and sat on the (ant-infested) lawn to hold our class discussions. After that, we were off for bratwurst and beer from a little stand near the water.

Above: Rose and Stacy during class discussion at Wannsee.

Below: John contemplates class themes as he stares longingly at the water on a hot day.

After a long series of class meetings by the water, many in the group wanted to be IN the water. And so, after a short S-Bahn ride to the other side of the bay, we ended up at Strandbad Wannsee, a fairly large beach with nice facilities.

End of Week Two

2008-07-27T07:34:00.000-07:00

The weather is hot and sticky here in Berlin, and we've been out in it every single day, soaking in the city and the sights.

Last Thursday our group visited Sachsenhausen concentration camp, which is just outside Berlin. We arrived in the tiny town of Sachsenhausen early and most students were surprised by how close the buildings of the town are to the site of the camp. We had a long tour of the camp with our guide, Matthias, and were sometimes shocked and sometimes overwhelmed by the things we saw.

"Work will make you free" entrance sign

The day was hot and we were all tired and emotionally exhausted from walking around the camp all day, but we found new energy as we boarded the train back to Berlin. Once there, many of us decided to get off the train at Bellvue, a stop close to the Tiergarten. We knew Barack Obama was in Berlin and we hoped we hadn't missed his speech at the Victory Column. Tired as we were, we marched long the Strasse der 17. Juni and ended up relatively close to the site of the speech. It was a very neat experience to be present for what may turn out to be an important speech, perhaps comparable to Kennedy's and Reagan's speeches in this city.

Casey and Ashley in the crowd waiting for Obama's speech.

When I note that we were "relatively close," I mean it: in the picture below, you can barely make out the Brandenburg Gate in the background. People were stretched all the way to the Gate and beyond: about 200,000 people are estimated to have been in attendance.

Bunches O' Germans and the Brandenburg Gate

After the speech, the Tiergarten was abuzz with activity, criticism, praise, and speculation. T-shirts that spoke of the "Global Tsunami for Change" were seen all over (Dr. Scribner has photos). The German news magazine Der Spiegel has a nice photostream of the event here.

On Friday, several students left for Warsaw, Poland and Dr. Scribner took off to visit an old friend in Macedonia. It turned out to be a restful day for most of the students who remained in Berlin. Rose, Ashley, Molly and Dr. Slagter went out in the hot sun for a few hours to see the Neue Wache (photo below), the official German memorial to those victims of war and dictatorship. We then marched to Bebelplatz (site of one of the Nazi book-burnings) and the Gendarmenmarkt, perhaps the prettiest square in Berlin (and maybe in Europe?). Later that evening, Stacy T. and Dr. Slagter took in an amazing performance of Gershwin's folk opera Porgy and Bess at the Deutsche Oper (despite the teasing from John and Molly).

Kaethe Kollwitz sculpture in the Neue Wache

Saturday, Rose, Katie P., and Stacy T. headed to Winterfeldplatz to enjoy the huge open-air market held there every Saturday. This is a lovely way to spend a morning, and we all enjoyed the fresh fruit (including the largest blackberries imaginable) and Dr. Slagter introduced Stacy T. to the glories of Kaiserschmarrn, destroyer of waistlines everywhere.

Saturday afternoon most students were on their own, enjoying the city in their own ways. John took off on a long walk and "tried to get lost, but was unsuccessful." Ashley, Amy and Lukas went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, which opened in Berlin only very recently (7/5/08). See Ashley or Amy's blog for great photos (assuming they post them).

As for Dr. Slagter, she spent Saturday afternoon improving U.S.-German relations with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. A professor's work is truly NEVER done.

Out and about Berlin (week two)

2008-07-23T14:34:00.001-07:00

Hard at work (Staush, are you facebooking??); turning in essays ...

Topography of Terror... history exhibit of the site of the Gestapo offices in Berlin

Here is Stacy T., Casey, Amy and Lukas after the exhibit:

Molly walking through the exhibit:

John, Casey and Stacy T. starting the exhibit walk:

Rose and Vickie after the exhibit:
Then off to Checkpoint Charlie for a (long) museum visit of the entire cold war, the division of Berlin, and German reunification. This is Amy and Lukas on the way to the museum:

Dinner out on Tuesday night... (very good Schnitzel) Staush and Katie P; Ashley and Katie B.; Molly and Dr. Scribner; Drs Scribner and Slagter (Slagter is the good looking one)

Out and about at Schloss Charlottenburg (palace of the former monarchy and lovely gardens)

Schloss Charlottenburg

2008-07-23T14:16:00.000-07:00

Schloss Charlottenburg (Charlottenburg Palace) was our excursion today, and what a lovely day it was to be strolling around manicured gardens and touring slightly gaudy palace salons.

For Staush's Mom

2008-07-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

Yes, Polly: he IS studying. (Here's proof.)

Some People I Hang Out With in Berlin

2008-07-17T13:45:00.001-07:00

Dr. Druscilla Scribner, roommate extraordinaire.

Iron Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. (Of course.)

Photos from the first week

2008-07-17T13:31:00.003-07:00

Sharing a few shots of the group from the first week.

From our first outing and class meeting in front of the Berliner Dom.

Katie Pierce on the Subway...
Dr. Slagter and Rose in the Nikolaiviertel (very cool area with old church, shops and great Schnitzel).
Ashley and Dr. Slagter in front of the Kaiser Wilhelm Church.

Our very spacious accommodations in our Berlin hostel... (Stacy and Dr. Slagter checking train tickets for weekend excursions).

The men in the group on the top of the Bundestag (German Parliament Building)

The whole group with Dr. Slagter on the Bundestag dome.

Standing on the line of the former Berlin Wall, which runs east of the Bundestag...

Discussing the unification of East and West Germany below the Brandenburg Gate.

In front of the Brandenburg Gate...

Berliner Dom and Gedaechtniskirche

2008-07-16T13:34:00.000-07:00

We've had a busy few days! Yesterday we visited Berlin's largest cathedral, the Berliner Dom. It's a Protestant cathedral that was built to counter the Catholic St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It's a breathtaking piece of architecture, and we were able to view it literally from top to bottom. At the top: amazing views of the city. At the bottom: the sarcophagi of the Hohenzollern royal family.

After touring the cathedral, we all sat outside in the Lustgarten for a class meeting and ate our lunches, which most of us made at breakfast in the hostel.

Today was yet another church, this time the Kaiser-Wilhelms Gedaechtniskirche. The "memorial church" was originally built for the great Kaiser Wilhelm I and was nearly completely destroyed during the bombing of Berlin in WWII. Most of the church was demolished after the war, but this entrance hall remains.

The Big Blog of Berlin

2008-07-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

This is the "clearinghouse" for all of the blogs created by students on the first ever UWO study abroad trip to Berlin, Germany. This blog links to all of the student-created blogs (see right sidebar). I encourage all readers (this means other students on the trip, Dave, Mick, Angie... everyone!) to comment on other student blogs!

The very tired group (minus four) at the Alexanderplatz subway station on the evening we arrived in Berlin.

Dru and Tracy in front of the Reichstag.