Senior School News & Events U6th German Study Visit to Berlin
U6th German Study Visit to Berlin
Seven members of the U6th German class spent five busy and enjoyable days in the German capital in mid-February in a visit organised by Mr Robeson and accompanied also by Mrs Denning. All 7 students who took part in the trip (Louie Kerlogue, Charlotte Mitchell, Emily George, Ryan Walker, Dan Burgin, Jonathan Harding and Giles Baggott) are fluent German speakers and so they were able to benefit to the maximum from opportunities to get to know this vibrant city and research their chosen A2 oral topics.
On the first evening, after arriving at our comfortable and friendly accommodation in the former East Berlin suburb of Prenzlauer Berg, we together made our first foray into the city and were pleased to discover that the whole district was full of good-value restaurants, pizzerias and kebab shops, so getting plenty to eat was never a problem during the stay. Our first full day was spent being shown the Prenzlauer Berg district and the centre of former East Berlin by a sympathetic local guide, who spoke German throughout. The guided tour had something for everyone: the historians were able to see some major landmarks of recent German history, including the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate and the Holocaust memorial, as well as hear about these events, the geographers learnt about the rapid transformation and gentrification of Kollwitzplatz since reunification and experienced the multicultural nature of Berlin with a visit to the Turkish market in Kreuzberg, and the boys were particularly interested to hear that Prenzlauer Berg was formerly the centre of the Berlin beer brewing industry. In the evening we set off by underground to West Berlin to be entranced by a fantastic performance of Mozart’s “Zauberflote” (Magic Flute) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the tickets helpfully provided by Mr Robeson’s brother-in-law who was also playing the timpani in the performance.
The second day was devoted to individual preparation for students’ A2 oral topics. After the whole group had looked around the fascinating “DDR-Museum” (Museum of former communist East Germany), Dan, Jon and Ryan headed off to the Jewish Museum to research into the history of the Jews in Berlin and the holocaust, whilst Mr Robeson took Giles, Louie and Charlotte out to the suburbs of East Berlin to visit the former “Stasi” (former communist secret police) prison of Hohenschonhausen, where we learnt about the horrors and psychological torture endured until 1989 by political prisoners here, and our guide was a former inmate of the prison! A visit to the cinema was organised for the evening. The American romantic comedy, dubbed into German, had a mixed reception!
Sunday’s activity was a bit more relaxed and involved travelling out to the city of Potsdam, just outside Berlin, to visit Frederick the Great’s summer palace of Schloss Sanssouci. The opulence of some of the rooms was breathtaking and the gardens were also appreciated, despite the extreme cold. After this we returned to Berlin and visited Mr Robeson’s sister and brother-in-law in the southern Berlin suburb of Kleinmachnow, where the group watched the excellent recent Oscar-winning film “das Leben der Anderen” (the lives of others), which tells the story of a secret “Stasi” policeman whose task was to spy on “the lives of others” in pre-unification East Germany.
On Monday we visited the “Haus am Checkpoint Charlie”, a museum that documents the history of the Berlin wall and the many escape attempts by East Berliners, and then we had a fascinating guided tour of the Reichstag building, which was redesigned by British architect Sir Norman Foster and now houses the German Federal Parliament. Perhaps most interesting and unexpected was the large amount of uncovered Russian graffiti left by invading Russian soldiers in 1945, which has been left as “art” on several interior walls, to remind members of parliament of the history of the building. The afternoon was spent shopping in West Berlin. The pool table and a table footy competition kept everyone busy in the evening until we all celebrated Ryan’s 18th birthday at midnight. Thank goodness an early start was not necessary for the return trip home the following day!
ERR