Berlin and Hamburg

Fat Tire City Bike Tour

The first activity on the schedule was a bike tour through Berlin. I haven’t ridden a bike since I left College Station in the beginning of December so I was really excited for this excursion. Even though Berlin is a very large city, it is very bike friendly. Berlin drivers do a great job of sharing the road, most of the time. Our first stop on the tour was in front of the Berlin Cathedral (actually a Lutheran church) and the Altes Museum, which was used for Nazi propaganda and massive assemblies. The Nazis used this building for rallies and public gatherings. We also stopped at Babelplatz (formerly named Opernplatz), the site of the very first public book burning by Nazis. Nazis and other anti-sematic people would take books written by Jews and other groups considered lesser by the Nazis (including works by Einstein, Freud, and other famous intellectuals) and burn them publically in a square. This started a wave of book burnings across university campuses and libraries around Germany.

Of course you can’t come to Berlin and not see the Berlin Wall. There are still portions of the wall still standing today. We visited one of the few sections still remaining, situated next to a building originally used by the Nazis as the office for the German Air Force. As reparation for losing WWI and a condition under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was not allowed to have an air force. Of course, this did not stop the Nazis. During the Olympics of 1938 in Berlin, the building was said to be the ministry of passenger air transportation and cargo (a complete lie). The Nazis actually thought of this building as a symbol of power and strength due to its shear size. Being on the East Germany side during the Cold War, this building fell under the Soviet control. A famous escape was made to West Germany from this building. An employee in this building along with his wife and son escaped to West Germany by throwing a lead wire across the wall to their friends who then tied a steel cable, in which the employee and his family attached to the flag pole on top of the building. All three managed to “zip line” across the wall successfully and were free of communist rule.

We also stopped at the site of Hitler’s bunker and the site of his infamous suicide. The bunker is no longer there and apartments were built on top of the bunker site. There is no plaque commemorating this site so that no honor can be brought to this atrocious dictator. Next stop, the Memorial for Jews. This was an incredible memorial site that honors the Jews who lost their lives in the Holocaust. As you walk towards the center of the memorial site, the elevation dips and you find yourself in a massive depression surrounded by tall blocks very close to each other. This is supposed to represent the feelings of the Jews, as the Nazi regime rose in power and all of sudden they realized the gravity of the situation and the oppression that soon consumed the Jewish community. Take a look at the pictures of this monument below.

Before our last stop, we got to see the Reichstag, the capital building of Germany. After the original building was damaged during the bombing of Berlin, a glass dome was reconstructed, in which people can walk around the edge of this dome and look down into the legislation chamber, where the German politicians meet. This is a symbol for the Germany people representing the idea that Germans are keeping an eye on the politicians. Our tour ended at the famous Brandenburg Gate. This gate is a symbol of power and triumph for the country of Germany. When Napoleon conquered the city, the final part of his parade route through the city ended with a pass under this gate. Ironically, Hitler would take this same route when elected chancellor of Germany, ending his path through the gate. It is still a beautiful sight and a must see when you visit Berlin. Check out the pictures of the gate at night!

Day trip to Dresden

The next day, we all took a day trip to Dresden, a city about two hours South of Berlin in the state of Saxony in Germany. This city was known as the Florence of the North, with beautiful baroque architecture and a culture of music and art. Controversially, this city was devastated by a massive air raid, one of the last cities to be bombed during WWII. As a result, this city has a mix of a modern feel with a classic sense where many buildings have been restored to their original architecture. It is a beautiful city with some great history. One of my favorites was a wall along the King’s palace in which there is a mural of the royal lineage from the 1500’s to the late 1800’s. Being a Lutheran city, there is a massive sandstone church that is a very prominent figure of the Dresden skyline. This church was heavily damaged during the air raid so there is a mix of light and dark stones seen on the church, where they used the remaining stones and built on top of them.

We also toured the Hygiene Museum in Dresden. This wasn’t a whole museum about keeping your teeth clean (though that does sound like something I would go to), but about the human body. There were a variety of different rooms about different aspects of the human body including gestation in the womb, the process of aging, muscular movement, and human reproduction. I really enjoyed this museum and wish we had more time here, but we had a train to catch. Overall, it was a beautiful city and a great day trip!

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

I’ll have to say that this was my favorite thing this week. I have always wanted to visit a concentration camp since learning about the Holocaust in elementary school. There is no way to describe the feeling of visiting a site of such horrific atrocities, but to just say go and experience it yourself. Sachsenhausen was one of the first concentration camps in Germany built in 1936 (the first being Dachau outside of Munich) and served as a training facility and model for future concentration camps. It was mainly a male camp, but there were still a number of women to pass through it. Our tour guide explained that 1 in every 4 did not survive this camp. At the beginning of its existence, it was meant to be a work camp, temporarily holding inmates until either transferring them to an extermination camp or releasing them (which didn’t happen very often). Extermination did not begin here until 1941. At the gate are the famous words, “Arbeit Macht Frei” translated as, “work makes you free”.  This was an attempt to not only to give the inmates a reason to work (obviously this phrase was not true for the majority of people), but to engrain them with the Nazi idea that every person has to contribute to society and if they don’t, they do not deserve food or basic necessities. Many of the barracks are not there anymore but there are a few, in which you can walk in and see the interior of the barracks. It was an astonishing sight to see the animal like conditions, which existed. When looking at the pictures, keep in mind that each barrack housed anywhere from 150-200 people. The crematorium was destroyed by the Soviets but the foundation still exists. A small number of medical experiments were performed here and many human dissections (termed autopsies) were performed here. Take a look at the pictures below, but know that they cannot convey the magnitude of the despair and death that these camps represent. All I can say is make sure to visit a concentration camp at some point in your life. It is an extremely sobering and touching experience.

Topography of Terror Museum

That afternoon, we were given a free day to do whatever we want, so a group of us decided to go to the Topography of Terror Museum. This museum is located on the site of the Gestapo and SS headquarter buildings, which were destroyed during Allied bombing. Basically, this museum explains the rise of the National Socialist Party in Germany (the Nazi party) and exhibits the terrors they imposed. There was a large exhibit on the Jewish oppression, but also the oppression of Communists, homosexuals, gypsies, and many Eastern European countries like Poland, Hungary, and the Czechoslovakia. It was a really well done museum that we could have spent hours in. I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Berlin!

Berlin Wall Murals

On a large remaining section of the Berlin Wall, artists have painted a variety of different murals. There are some really well done murals with great detail. After walking the 1.5 kilometers, we decided to walk along the river and enjoy the beautiful view with the illuminated skyline in the background.

Charité Medical School

Charité is the oldest and best-known medical school in Berlin, along with being one of the largest universities in Europe. We first visited the History of Medicine Museum and the Virchow Anthropology Collection, where we got to hear about different medical practices performed in the early 1800’s and see a variety of different medical specimens from lungs with tuberculosis and Cyclops babies, to a megacolon and war wounded skulls.

We then got to visit the Charité skills lab where the medical students learn practical clinical skills like performing EKGs, newborn assessments, and differential diagnosis. This skill lab was started by medical students and is run by medical students. There are different demonstration dummies throughout the facility and a variety of different medical equipment. I really enjoyed learning from the two medical students who were able to explain European medical schools and how they differ from American medical schools. The older medical students like these two, mentor and tutor the younger medical students. I thought this program was such a great program and definitely needs to be implemented in medical schools in America.

Hohenschönhausen Prison

This was actually a Soviet prison, during the period following WWII when the Soviets controlled East Berlin and East Germany. The Soviet secret police, called the Stasi, built this prison to house those who opposed Stalin and did not cooperate and conform to communist ways. The Stasi were the Soviet equivalent of the Nazi Gestapo. This was also a really great tour. We often hear about the atrocities committed by the Nazis and the Gestapo but many times we do not hear of the oppression and acts of the Soviets during their occupation of East Germany.  In this prison, disgraced politicians had to endure months of agony in the tomb like cells here. Prisoners were often abducted in the middle of the day by disguised vans that brought them to this prison. Some people were even abducted from West Germany and smuggled across the border to be placed here. These vans would often drive around for hours, giving the prisoners the illusion that they had left Berlin and were in a prison far away. Once here, they would often endure hours of grueling interrogation, where they would then be transferred to a cell with a wooden bed and a bucket for a toilet. Almost all prisoners were forced to sign a document written in Russian (so they could not understand what they were signing) that were written proof of confessions, usually held against them in Soviet courts. I would also highly recommend this museum as it really conveyed the oppression of the Soviets in East Germany during this period.

Weekend in Hamburg

Since most of the other people on the program decided to go to Prague this past weekend (and I had already been there for Spring Break), a friend and I decided to visit another German city and go to Hamburg. Hamburg is a major port city for Germany, and is the fastest container terminal in the world. Also, Hamburg brews the highest amount of beer in all of Germany. To our surprise, Hamburg is the 3^rd largest city in the world for musicals (behind New York City #1 and London #2). We really enjoyed this very diverse and progressive city. We stayed in an area called St. Pauli that is well known for it’s left wing liberal views, but with that came some amazing street art and some really cool people. The first night, we ate at this restaurant called Taverna Romana, where a simple dinner turned into a 4 ½ hour conversation with the owners and their son. The older German lady and her Greek husband started the restaurant in 1977, not knowing this area would be an extremely popular spot in the city almost forty years later. They told us how the neighborhood used to be the worst part of the city, high in crime and homeless people. We heard about their life and we shared with them why we were in Germany, sharing with them a little bit about our lives. It was one of those places where they make you feel like a member of the family and treat you so well. If you are ever in Hamburg, you have to go to this restaurant and tell them the students from Texas sent you!

The next day, we took a walking tour of the city and learned a little bit about the history of the city and the facts I stated at the beginning. Another interesting fact about Hamburg is that the Beatles played the most shows in the city Hamburg (over 600 shows). After not being able to make it big in England, they came to Hamburg, playing at a variety of different bars and clubs, which eventually led to their discovery. After this, we toured an old Soviet U-Boat (U-434) that was used as a spy submarine. The maximum dive time with a full crew was about three and a half days. After this, the submarine had to return to at least snorkel depth to replenish the air supply. I had never been in a submarine before so it was incredible to see how small the living conditions were. There were times when I had to duck a good amount so I can’t imagine being a tall person cramped inside for weeks on end.