Klassenfahrt nach Berlin!

     My class took an extended field trip to Berlin on Wednesday.  We went to learn a bit more about how the government works, as well as some history of Germany.  The trip there, thanks to the great German public transportation system, took only a bit less than two hours.  The whole way, the pictures of what I expected ran through my mind.  My expectations were based on a few different factors.

      First, Berlin is (as everyone knows) the capital of Germany.  Alright, so it's gonna be like Washington, DC, right?  Okay, that's cool.  Second, it's also the main city of Germany, and where most tourists feel they need to go (well, maybe a few people would try to argue that they would rather go to Munich for the Oktoberfest, but we're talking in general here).  Alright, so what's a city in the US that all foreigners want to go to?  Uhhhh... That's a no-brainer.  New York City.  Alright, so now we cross NYC with DC....  And third, all German towns/cities/anything have a super-duper old history and are proud to show it off.  So now add a touch of Middle Age/19th century flair, and viola!  Berlin!  Right?

At Dunkin Donuts they're always glad to see you.

     Nope.  Not at all.  As soon as I stepped off the train and looked out of the train station, I knew I had made a mistake somewhere in my magic city-profiling formula.  If you've ever been to NYC, the first things you notice (you kinda can't miss them) are the skyscrapers.  All over.  You feel a bit like a mouse scrambling between trees.  Berlin, with the exception of the Fernsehturm, is relatively short.  Well, in comparison with NYC.  Average building height was 10 stories. Max.  A few were up around 40 or so, but there were a whole lot that only stretched up to 6 levels.  And the traffic was nothing compared to what I had seen in the Big Apple.  Seriously, my friends were so impressed when they were counting taxis and got up to 30!  And that was after an hour of walking around!  That was my first hint that Berlin was going to be something different than I had bargained for.  Whether it would be better or worse I couldn't guess right away.  But it was definately different.


The Brandenburger Tor (from the back)

       Alright, so it's not NYC.  So I assured myself that, although one-third of my guess-timating was wrong, the other two-thirds would surely be right on.  If not, then really close.  So, as to the last part, about Berlin having a sector of the city that was frozen in time around 1815 or so....  I must have somehow forgotten about a very important part of history that happened in the last two hundred years.  Namely, the Second World War.  Berlin suffered over 350 air raids between 1939 and 1945, from the British, Americans, and Soviets.  The result?  Many of the buildings were destroyed or damaged.  And when you're rebuilding a city, why would you build anything other than the most modern?  So, that was strike two.




 Der Deutsche Bundestag

     My last hope was that it would somehow remind me of DC.  Government buildings would be designed to look old, but yet impressive.  Even that was only halfways true.  Although the facades of the buildings sort of resembled my memories of DC, there was definately a modern twist on it.  For instance, when you stand up close in front of the Bundestag (picture at left), all you see are the columns that so often are found on governmental buildings.  But if you back up a bit, you can see the Kuppel (dome) on top of it.  And as soon as you see that, you know it's a modern building.  How?  The dome is completely built out of glass.  And there is not a single part about it that suggests that it is old.

     So, all of my predictions about Berlin were false.  What should I do then?  I really didn't have much of a choice, did I?  I had to keep my mind open and allow Berlin to build its own profile and paint its own picture itself.  Which is what I did.  And let me tell you, I sure am glad I decided to do that!

      Wednesday afternoon and evening we toured a prison that was used by the Staatssicherheit (Stasi) to contain enemies of the state.  A man who had been a prisoner there gave us a tour personally.  Walking around there, looking into the cells, and hearing a firsthand explanation of what life there was like was.... overwhelming.  To think of the ways that the Stasi used to coerce people into admitting to crimes they never comitted...  One thing that really struck me was the solarity in the prison.  You would be kept in your cell for nearly all the time, and when they took you out to shower or exercise, they made sure that there were no other prisoners in the hallways at that same time.  People would literally be there for months and years and never- never - talk with one of the other prisoners.  Just sitting alone that long would be enough to make you go insane!

     After that, we went back to the Jugendherberge, where we had rooms to sleep in.  A Jugendherberge is similar to a hotel crossed with a dorm room.  Rooms had two bunkbeds, a sink, and a shower that was shared with the neighboring room.  Toilets were shared with everyone on the same floor.  I ate some supper, and then my class got together and chatted, played cards, and just laughed with each other until everyone went to bed.

Listening to Herr Miersch.  Notice how much the
American sticks out among all the Germans?

      Thursday morning we met up with Mathias Miersch, the representative in the Bundestag (similar to Congress) from the Hannover area.  He explained a bit to us about how the Bundestag works, what the job of a representative is, and answered questions we had.  Herr Miersch is the representative who is my "sponser" for my scholarship through YFU.  For every exchange student, there is one representative who (you could say) agrees to support the student.  Basically, he supports the YFU exchange program and that there is a scholarship availible to help students get involved.  I also have a representative from the House of Representatives, with whom I met before I left the US.

      After that, we had a few hours of free time to go around Berlin in small groups.  I went with some friends on a city bus tour to all the important things.  For example, part of the Berlin Wall.  Or, the Brandenburger Tor.  There was commentary along with it, and I listened to it in German.  There was the option to listen to it in English, but it was a British style.  That kinda made me figure that I'd understand just as much of it in German (or maybe even more!).  Besides, the commentary was a conversation between two people, and I just thought it would sound better in the original German than in the translation.



Checkpoint Charlie



      When the whole group met up again, we went back to the Bundestag.  There, we listened to a debate about a proposed law.  I didn't understand a whole lot of that.  I think it was a combination of my tiredness, the way that the people talked (seriously, couldn't you sound excited to represent your people?), and the words they used.  Imke told me later on that even she couldn't understand some of the words that they threw around!  Once we stopped listening to the discussion, we all went up into the dome.  From there (because it was all out of glass, as I said earlier) you could see the Berlin skyline.  It was night when we were there, and so there were the lights from the traffic and buildings.  But not near as much as there is in DC or NYC at night!  That's German efficiency for ya.



Me in front of the Brandenburger Tor



     Friday we went to the Stasi Museum.  A lady talked with us for more than an hour about her life living in the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik, more commonly known as East Germany).  I found that very interesting.  Again, it was scary to think of how the Stasi could get information and how much they knew.  At one point she told us about how the Stasi would sometimes go into people's homes and photograph everything or search for phone numbers the person should not have.  How did they know that the homeowner wouldn't come home while they were inside, you ask?  I asked that, too.  The Stasi had such an extensive system to know everything about a person--sometimes even 6 people on a "team" gathering information about one citizen!  They found out when the person was at work, and when he/she was expected to come home.  And in case he/she did come home early, they had a fireman stand in front of the house and intercept the person.  He would explain that there was a suspected gas leak in the house, and the person was not allowed to go in until it was solved.  Scary how they managed to do all that, huh?

     After that, we had some more free time.  I went with friends to a Ritter Sport store.  In case you don't know, Ritter Sport is a chocolate company.  Someone had heard that there you could make your own chocolate bar, and we decided that sounded like a lot of fun!  When we got there, it reminded me a bit of being at Subway, actually.  You pick out what type of chocolate you want (dark or milk), and then choose 3 from about 30 different ingredents.  I went for a cereal chocolate Tafel (bar) :  Corn Flakes, Honey Smacks, and Cocoa Crispies.  All wrapped up into rich milk chocolate... mmmmm!

     Unfortunately, all good things must end.  Before long, it was time to board the ICE train headed back towards Lehrte.  During the ride I played Ligretto, a card game, with Imke, Inga, and Anna.  Suddenly, we were home.  That night, even though I was dead tired from all the excitement, I still somehow managed to stay awake long enough to tell my family a basic outline of what I did and saw.

     All in all, Berlin was AMAZING!!  I'm already excited for next June, when I'll go with YFU there again.  And now I know the things that are definately worth seeing again.  Which is... everything!  : )