Maine Holocaust Education Network
Never Again: promoting Holocaust, genocide, and human rights awareness
Study Tour of Germany
During late June, I participated in a study tour of Germany with educators from across the US. The Goethe-Institut USA office organizes the tours for social studies educators to experience Germany. The trip included visits to schools, businesses, and historical sites. Six groups of 15-16 educators visited Germany this summer. Each group visited different cities, but most started in Berlin.
My journey started in Washington D.C. where I got to meet the people I would be spending two weeks with. The group included educators from California to Connecticut, grade 3 through high school. We departed late on a Saturday afternoon from Dulles Airport outside DC on Luftansia Airlines. It's a long flight from the US to Germany, 8+ hours. It's rather weird, however, as you leave late afternoon (3 PM for us) and arrive early the next day instead of in the middle of the night which is what your body is telling you. In fact, you only have an hour or two of night and you fly right into dawn. It is 6 hours later in Germany than Maine. Real cool! We landed in Munich and then onto Berlin.
Berlin is HUGE. Our hotel, the Park Inn, was located in the Alexanderplatz which used to be in East Berlin before the city was reunited. It is the tallest hotel in the city with 1012 rooms! So jet lag didn't put everyone to sleep, we immediately went for a walking tour of the city. First past the TV tower which can be seen from most anywhere (it has a restaurant at the top) and onto Museum Island, an island formed by the Spree River which runs through Berlin. There are four museums on the island including one with an Egyptian collection including a bust of Nefertiti, then onto Under de Linden, a main street which runs through the Brandenburg Gate and onto the Tiergarten, a huge park in Berlin. Hitler surveyed his troops as they marched down this street.
This area of Berlin is full of memorials to the events from the Nazi regime. I've included some photos in an album. You can learn more about each if you go online. If you have trouble, write me a post and I'll see if I can help!
The first memorial we visited was to the book burning in May 1933. It is a set of empty book shelves underground. Then we visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe which covers over 3.5 acres. It has over 1,000 concrete blocks of varying heights. As you walk between the blocks the ground goes up and down and you find yourself hidden among the towering stones. Across the street in the Tiergarten is the new memorial to the homosexuals persecuted during the Nazi regime. It is a large cement block with one window through which you view a TV screen which shows two men kissing. Just this act during the Nazi regime would lead to arrest. Not far away, near the Reichstag, Germany's parliament building, a new memorial is being built to the gypsies or Roma and Sinta. When you are walking around Berlin you come across gold "stones" in the sidewalks. These are Stolperstine or stumbling stones. They mark the location of the homes of Jews who were deported. Each contains the person's name, where they were deported and where they died. Once you know they are there you find them everywhere. A very different kind of memorial.
As you cross the street from the Memorial to the Murdered Jews to enter the park, you cross a line of bricks in the road which show where the Berlin Wall was located. There are pieces of the Wall still to be found around the city. The Wall placed the Brandenburg Gate in East Germany. As you pass the Brandenburg Gate you come to the Reichstag. It was burned in February 1933 and Hitler used this event to suspend basic civil rights in Germany. The building was restored and opened as Germany's new home to its government after Germany was reunited. On the wall inside you can find the signatures of Soviet soldiers who entered Berlin in January 1945. The dome is now glass and you can see the whole city from the top. It's quite a view.
After finally getting some rest, we spent the next few days visiting schools, businesses, and historical locations throughout Berlin. We used public transportation most of the time. There is an extensive commuter train system, the S-Bahn (above ground) and U-Bahn (below ground). You have to be careful when you are on the sidewalks that you don't get run over by a bicycle. There are designed bike lines and there are literally thousands of bicycles!!!!! People even bring them on the bus or train to a stop and then off they go. You see ladies all dressed up with heels and men in suits with briefcases! I've included a picture of a car I saw in Berlin (the very, very small one!) There are over 3.5 million people in Berlin and no traffic jams!
The schools in Germany don't all go on vacation at the same time so we were able to visit some schools. Germany's school system is very different from ours. You go through 4th grade and then a decision is made as to what type of education you'll receive. It might be the haupschule, grades 5-9 where you'll get vocational training, a realschule with more advanced vocational training (teachers get training here) or a gymnasium where you get a degree that allows you to go onto the university. You can't go onto the university unless you have a degree from a gymnasium! If you decide to change careers you have to go back to school to get a license. So a accountant who decides he/she wants to become a baker would have to go back to school to get training. You can't just work at a job because you feel like it!!
Teachers don't have a classroom. The classroom belongs to the students and the teachers travel from class to class, even in 1st grade. I can't imagine having to lug all the stuff I used when I was teaching from class to class!!!!
We also visited a vocational school where training for wait persons (we'd call them waitresses and waiters), beauticians, chefs takes place. To become a wait person you go to school for 4 years!!!!
Our tour included a visit to the state TV/Radio station. In Germany TV and radio stations are run by the lander or state. There are 16 lander in Germany. The programming has a very local focus. They even do live programming such as talk shows and live radio plays in the building.
Germany's political system is different from ours. The lower house of parliament is the Bunderstag which meets in the Reichstag. It reminds me of our House of Representatives. The upper house is the Bundesrat meets in another building. Each have representation from the states, but the individual members don't make independent decisions as our representatives and senators do, but rather, vote as their state indicates. (I think I've got that right)
We visited Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. I've been there before. Unfortunately, this time, part of the exhibit was closed and it was late in the day so the group didn't see much. I'm glad I'd been there as I've have been very disappointed with what they saw. We also visited the Wannsee Conference House where senior Nazi officials met to organized the "Final Solution to the Jewish Problem" in January 1942. Since I've been there I was able to just wander and think about what happened in this place and the consequences of the decisions made.
On a happier note we went to the Sanssouci Palace. It is one of several palaces in the area built by Frederick the Great. One palace, the New Palace, is huge. One room is decorated with sea shells even on the walls! We had to wear giant slippers over our shoes so as not to scratch the floors. It was fun trying to "ice skate" around!
We also went to Checkpoint Charlie. This was the location of one of the gates to travel between East and West Berlin when the wall was up. It's called Checkpoint Charlie because this was checkpoint C. C is read as Charlie so there won't be any confusion! The area is now a tourist spot with shops selling pieces of the wall and t-shirts.
Of course, a great part of our visit was trying out the food! We went to biergartens (beer gardens or out door restaurants), Thai and Turkish restaurants. Some of the time I had no idea what I was eating, but it was fun experimenting! I even ate some white asparagus! The Euro Soccer Games were taking place while we were there so the biergartens were crammed as people came to cheer on their team watching the game on huge projection TVs.
From Berlin we took the high speed train to Hannover. I mean high speed; over 150 mph and very quiet! We arrived in Hannover (get out the map). Between Berlin and Hannover I saw these giant windmills. There are windmill "farms" across the country.
A children's festival took place in the park next to our hotel while we were there. I've included a picture of some kids finger painting a car. Boy, it looked like fun! We visited local schools and went to the Herrenhausen Gardens created in the 17th and 19th centuries. These are formal gardens with fountains and beautiful flowers. We were there on a hot summer day and the gardens were full of families spending time together.
In Hannover we saw half-timbered houses. They seem to have criss-crossed logs on the outside. Many are reconstructed as they were damaged during the bombing during World War II. They look old on the outside, but I understand can be modern on the inside! Many had beautiful rose bushes growing up the side of the building. While in Hannover we traveled to Wolfsburg to visit the Volkswagen factory. It is huge. We couldn't take any pictures inside the factory. We rode in an open car around the factory and saw how the cars were designed and put together. Much of the work is done by robots. I kept thinking of a Stephen King novel with the robots coming alive during the night and roaming the factory. Scary stuff! The factory covers acres! There are cars on tracks over your head and sometimes they get flipped upside down or tipped sideways so the workmen can reach the parts easier. Next door is the Autostadt, a huge theme park where an auto museum of antique cars and new ones like the orange Lambongini in the photo album. There are two towers where the new cars are stored before they are picked up. They are 20 stores high and full!
From Hannover we again took the high speed train to Frankfurt au Main. There are two cities named Frankfurt in Germany. So to tell them apart they call one au Main as in the Main river! This time we didn't have much time to get on the train so it was quite a rush trying to pull our bags onto the train and get to our seats. There was no place to store the bags on the floor so we had to lift them into the overhead racks! Thank you to Eric for lifting mine. It weighed a ton!
Frankfurt is the banking center of Germany. All the large banks have head quarters here. We visited the Deutsch Bank, one of the sponsors of our tour. We also went to the opera. We saw Don Giovanni. It was in Italian which I don't understand. It was translated into German on a screen for the audience, but since I can't read German that didn't do me much good! So, I just listened to the singing which was very good. Frankfurt feels more like a large city than Berlin despite the fact Berlin is much larger. There are no sky scrapers in Berlin, Frankfurt business district is all sky scrapers, so I suspect that's why. We went to Heildelberg to see the castle. It is mostly ruins and doesn't look like what you'd think a castle would look like. Rather it looks like a huge mansion with some parts that look like a castle. It has a huge door like a castle and there is a moat (now grass) but otherwise it's not castleish. (Yes, I know that isn't a word, but it seems to work.)
Finally, after two busy weeks it was time to head home. I think we were all ready. We'd learned a lot and made some good friends, but I know I was ready for Maine! The flight home is a different experience than going to Europe. You travel during the day so the time change isn't as obvious.
It was good to be back home despite the rain. Maine is a very special place.
Please write me if you have any questions. I created an album of the places I've mentioned in an album in this blog.
My journey started in Washington D.C. where I got to meet the people I would be spending two weeks with. The group included educators from California to Connecticut, grade 3 through high school. We departed late on a Saturday afternoon from Dulles Airport outside DC on Luftansia Airlines. It's a long flight from the US to Germany, 8+ hours. It's rather weird, however, as you leave late afternoon (3 PM for us) and arrive early the next day instead of in the middle of the night which is what your body is telling you. In fact, you only have an hour or two of night and you fly right into dawn. It is 6 hours later in Germany than Maine. Real cool! We landed in Munich and then onto Berlin.
Berlin is HUGE. Our hotel, the Park Inn, was located in the Alexanderplatz which used to be in East Berlin before the city was reunited. It is the tallest hotel in the city with 1012 rooms! So jet lag didn't put everyone to sleep, we immediately went for a walking tour of the city. First past the TV tower which can be seen from most anywhere (it has a restaurant at the top) and onto Museum Island, an island formed by the Spree River which runs through Berlin. There are four museums on the island including one with an Egyptian collection including a bust of Nefertiti, then onto Under de Linden, a main street which runs through the Brandenburg Gate and onto the Tiergarten, a huge park in Berlin. Hitler surveyed his troops as they marched down this street.
This area of Berlin is full of memorials to the events from the Nazi regime. I've included some photos in an album. You can learn more about each if you go online. If you have trouble, write me a post and I'll see if I can help!
The first memorial we visited was to the book burning in May 1933. It is a set of empty book shelves underground. Then we visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe which covers over 3.5 acres. It has over 1,000 concrete blocks of varying heights. As you walk between the blocks the ground goes up and down and you find yourself hidden among the towering stones. Across the street in the Tiergarten is the new memorial to the homosexuals persecuted during the Nazi regime. It is a large cement block with one window through which you view a TV screen which shows two men kissing. Just this act during the Nazi regime would lead to arrest. Not far away, near the Reichstag, Germany's parliament building, a new memorial is being built to the gypsies or Roma and Sinta. When you are walking around Berlin you come across gold "stones" in the sidewalks. These are Stolperstine or stumbling stones. They mark the location of the homes of Jews who were deported. Each contains the person's name, where they were deported and where they died. Once you know they are there you find them everywhere. A very different kind of memorial.
As you cross the street from the Memorial to the Murdered Jews to enter the park, you cross a line of bricks in the road which show where the Berlin Wall was located. There are pieces of the Wall still to be found around the city. The Wall placed the Brandenburg Gate in East Germany. As you pass the Brandenburg Gate you come to the Reichstag. It was burned in February 1933 and Hitler used this event to suspend basic civil rights in Germany. The building was restored and opened as Germany's new home to its government after Germany was reunited. On the wall inside you can find the signatures of Soviet soldiers who entered Berlin in January 1945. The dome is now glass and you can see the whole city from the top. It's quite a view.
After finally getting some rest, we spent the next few days visiting schools, businesses, and historical locations throughout Berlin. We used public transportation most of the time. There is an extensive commuter train system, the S-Bahn (above ground) and U-Bahn (below ground). You have to be careful when you are on the sidewalks that you don't get run over by a bicycle. There are designed bike lines and there are literally thousands of bicycles!!!!! People even bring them on the bus or train to a stop and then off they go. You see ladies all dressed up with heels and men in suits with briefcases! I've included a picture of a car I saw in Berlin (the very, very small one!) There are over 3.5 million people in Berlin and no traffic jams!
The schools in Germany don't all go on vacation at the same time so we were able to visit some schools. Germany's school system is very different from ours. You go through 4th grade and then a decision is made as to what type of education you'll receive. It might be the haupschule, grades 5-9 where you'll get vocational training, a realschule with more advanced vocational training (teachers get training here) or a gymnasium where you get a degree that allows you to go onto the university. You can't go onto the university unless you have a degree from a gymnasium! If you decide to change careers you have to go back to school to get a license. So a accountant who decides he/she wants to become a baker would have to go back to school to get training. You can't just work at a job because you feel like it!!
Teachers don't have a classroom. The classroom belongs to the students and the teachers travel from class to class, even in 1st grade. I can't imagine having to lug all the stuff I used when I was teaching from class to class!!!!
We also visited a vocational school where training for wait persons (we'd call them waitresses and waiters), beauticians, chefs takes place. To become a wait person you go to school for 4 years!!!!
Our tour included a visit to the state TV/Radio station. In Germany TV and radio stations are run by the lander or state. There are 16 lander in Germany. The programming has a very local focus. They even do live programming such as talk shows and live radio plays in the building.
Germany's political system is different from ours. The lower house of parliament is the Bunderstag which meets in the Reichstag. It reminds me of our House of Representatives. The upper house is the Bundesrat meets in another building. Each have representation from the states, but the individual members don't make independent decisions as our representatives and senators do, but rather, vote as their state indicates. (I think I've got that right)
We visited Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. I've been there before. Unfortunately, this time, part of the exhibit was closed and it was late in the day so the group didn't see much. I'm glad I'd been there as I've have been very disappointed with what they saw. We also visited the Wannsee Conference House where senior Nazi officials met to organized the "Final Solution to the Jewish Problem" in January 1942. Since I've been there I was able to just wander and think about what happened in this place and the consequences of the decisions made.
On a happier note we went to the Sanssouci Palace. It is one of several palaces in the area built by Frederick the Great. One palace, the New Palace, is huge. One room is decorated with sea shells even on the walls! We had to wear giant slippers over our shoes so as not to scratch the floors. It was fun trying to "ice skate" around!
We also went to Checkpoint Charlie. This was the location of one of the gates to travel between East and West Berlin when the wall was up. It's called Checkpoint Charlie because this was checkpoint C. C is read as Charlie so there won't be any confusion! The area is now a tourist spot with shops selling pieces of the wall and t-shirts.
Of course, a great part of our visit was trying out the food! We went to biergartens (beer gardens or out door restaurants), Thai and Turkish restaurants. Some of the time I had no idea what I was eating, but it was fun experimenting! I even ate some white asparagus! The Euro Soccer Games were taking place while we were there so the biergartens were crammed as people came to cheer on their team watching the game on huge projection TVs.
From Berlin we took the high speed train to Hannover. I mean high speed; over 150 mph and very quiet! We arrived in Hannover (get out the map). Between Berlin and Hannover I saw these giant windmills. There are windmill "farms" across the country.
A children's festival took place in the park next to our hotel while we were there. I've included a picture of some kids finger painting a car. Boy, it looked like fun! We visited local schools and went to the Herrenhausen Gardens created in the 17th and 19th centuries. These are formal gardens with fountains and beautiful flowers. We were there on a hot summer day and the gardens were full of families spending time together.
In Hannover we saw half-timbered houses. They seem to have criss-crossed logs on the outside. Many are reconstructed as they were damaged during the bombing during World War II. They look old on the outside, but I understand can be modern on the inside! Many had beautiful rose bushes growing up the side of the building. While in Hannover we traveled to Wolfsburg to visit the Volkswagen factory. It is huge. We couldn't take any pictures inside the factory. We rode in an open car around the factory and saw how the cars were designed and put together. Much of the work is done by robots. I kept thinking of a Stephen King novel with the robots coming alive during the night and roaming the factory. Scary stuff! The factory covers acres! There are cars on tracks over your head and sometimes they get flipped upside down or tipped sideways so the workmen can reach the parts easier. Next door is the Autostadt, a huge theme park where an auto museum of antique cars and new ones like the orange Lambongini in the photo album. There are two towers where the new cars are stored before they are picked up. They are 20 stores high and full!
From Hannover we again took the high speed train to Frankfurt au Main. There are two cities named Frankfurt in Germany. So to tell them apart they call one au Main as in the Main river! This time we didn't have much time to get on the train so it was quite a rush trying to pull our bags onto the train and get to our seats. There was no place to store the bags on the floor so we had to lift them into the overhead racks! Thank you to Eric for lifting mine. It weighed a ton!
Frankfurt is the banking center of Germany. All the large banks have head quarters here. We visited the Deutsch Bank, one of the sponsors of our tour. We also went to the opera. We saw Don Giovanni. It was in Italian which I don't understand. It was translated into German on a screen for the audience, but since I can't read German that didn't do me much good! So, I just listened to the singing which was very good. Frankfurt feels more like a large city than Berlin despite the fact Berlin is much larger. There are no sky scrapers in Berlin, Frankfurt business district is all sky scrapers, so I suspect that's why. We went to Heildelberg to see the castle. It is mostly ruins and doesn't look like what you'd think a castle would look like. Rather it looks like a huge mansion with some parts that look like a castle. It has a huge door like a castle and there is a moat (now grass) but otherwise it's not castleish. (Yes, I know that isn't a word, but it seems to work.)
Finally, after two busy weeks it was time to head home. I think we were all ready. We'd learned a lot and made some good friends, but I know I was ready for Maine! The flight home is a different experience than going to Europe. You travel during the day so the time change isn't as obvious.
It was good to be back home despite the rain. Maine is a very special place.
Please write me if you have any questions. I created an album of the places I've mentioned in an album in this blog.
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1 Comment
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Comment by Ernie Easter on August 21, 2008 at 8:35pm - What a different perspective of Germany from just focusing on the Holocaust. It is important for our students to separate Nazi Germany from the Germany of today or before they took power.
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