Week Eight – Cultural

As we were off for our Easter break we decided to use this as an opportunity to go travelling.  After discussing about the different places that we could visit, our group all agreed that we would like to travel to Germany and see the capital of Berlin.

Map of the many wind farms across Germany

As I love to travel I was very excited that we would be getting to go and visit another country.  We set off on Thursday morning to the bus station where we would be getting on the first of many buses to Berlin.  I had no idea what to expect from Berlin but travelling with Darren and Sarah who are history nerds I got a brief history of Berlin during the 11 hours we travelled so I was well and truly educated by the time I arrived.  

The first thing I noticed when we entered Germany was the wind turbines.  According to Natural Geographic (1996) “Germany has the most installed wind energy capacity, followed by Spain, the United States, India, and Denmark”.   This was easy to see as every mile or so we would drive past a field that had around 10 wind turbines in it. It was incredible to see the amount of wind turbines across the landscape and it made me think about how some people back home would argue that it ruins the landscape but that in fact it is a great source of renewable energy.

Brandenburg gate

We arrived in Berlin late on Thursday night so we decided to have an early night to prepare for the adventure that would occur the next day.  We got up early on Friday morning and got the bus into the centre of Berlin, this is where the fun began.  We had to get hold of a map and figure out in what direction we would have to travel in to get to our first destination of the Brandenburg Gate.  It was when we arrived at the Brandenburg gate that it hit me that I was finally in Germany.   It was an amazing experience to stand at the gate and see the vast amount of people that crowded around it.  

Holocaust Memorial 

Dinosaurs at National History Museum

We then went on to visit the Reichstag, the Jewish Holocaust memorial, the contemporary art museum, the natural History museum, the Berlin Wall and the Berlin Wall museum. 

Memorial at the Berlin Wall

It was at the Berlin Wall that the history of Berlin really hit home for me.  There was a memorial of some of the people who had died at the wall and pictures of their faces.  It was seeing the faces of people who had died trying to get a better life that really made me think about the devastation that happened.  In the Berlin Wall museum we got to read about the history of the wall and about stories of people who had died trying to get over the wall including some children.  Some stories were very difficult to read about and also some of the videos that they were showing were hard to watch.  However it was an amazing experience and I learnt a lot from the stories and the different items that were on display.

"No man's land" between the East and the West

On Friday we visited a museum that showed 800 years of Berlin history from medieval times to the history of both world wars.  The amount of items from the different time periods that the museum had preserved was mind-blowing and it was incredible to see how Berlin had grown as a city.  Even though we spent two hours in the museum we didn't get to finish it as we also had to visit the Jewish museum, the Atle Nationalgalerie museum and Checkpoint Charlie that very same day.

Famous photograph

At Checkpoint Charlie I saw a famous photograph which I completely fell in love with.  It is a picture of an East German soldier leaning across a barrier talking to a small boy.  My first thoughts were what was the soldier doing and why was he talking to the young child.  I later found out that the history behind this picture was that young boy had spent the night with friends and found himself the next morning on the opposite side of the wall to his family.  The soldier is glancing around to see if it is safe to let the young boy pass through the barrier back to his family.  However the communist government had ordered the soldiers not to let anyone pass through the barriers so that explains the soldier’s apprehensive look.  The soldier was seen by his superior officer and was immediately detached from his unit.  The inscription beneath the photo reads that “No one knows what became of him” referring to the soldier.  Reed (2009) talks about the picture and states that “Only the most despicable tyrants could punish a man for letting a child get to his loved one but in the Evil Empire, that and much worse happened all the time” .

Berlin was an amazing experience for me and although we only got to stay there for four days I learned so much and got to experience so much of the German history and culture.  I would advise everyone if they had the opportunity to visit Berlin to take it as it is a breath taking and beautiful city. 

References

Natural Geographic (1996) Wind Power available at: http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/wind-power-profile/ (accessed 29/03/13)

Reed, L. (2009) Berlin, August 1961: An Anniversary We Should Never Forget available at: http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/berlin-august-1961-an-anniversary-we-should-never-forget (accessed 29/03/13)