Part of my orientation at Maastricht University is the faculty taking us on a trip to Berlin, Germany to explore German history and culture. A four day trip, we were meant to explore the historical impact of Berlin and its history dating back to World War 1 and 2 and the Cold War.
On Tuesday, all 100 plus of us boarded three buses to Berlin. The drive ended being around 9 to 10 hours long and we got there in the night. Some kids chose to go out, but I decided to explore the city around the hotel. I walked past a TV tower that you could go to the top of (more on that later) and found a restaurant that served falafel sandwiches. Being a vegetarian, you know I had to give it a try, and it was delicious. I did not really do much the rest of the night in preparation for the next day.
Day 2 was all about exploring the city. We were given a three hour walking tour of the city of Berlin and saw what it had to offer. We walked past memorials, the remains of the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Chapel, Lund University, and the famous “Museum Island.” After the walking tour, I took the time to further explore the Berlin Chapel and the TV tower. I started with the Berlin Chapel and was able to experience the beautiful; architecture of the building from the murals to the interior design. In addition, I was able to climb up inside the dome and experience an amazing view of the city of Berlin from atop the Chapel. Later that night, I went to the top of the Berlin TV tower. Speaking of that, I feel like every big city around the world has at least one TV tower of some sort that you can go to the top of. Anyway, I went to the top of the tower at night so I could see the city of Berlin at night. The views were spectacular; experiencing a city at night from above is an extreme beauty for me.
Day 3 we were split up into groups based on our specializations at Maastricht and given our own itineraries that fit our majors. For people studying international relations, we were given a tour of a political prison that held Socialists during the Cold War. There, we were taught what the day in a life was for a political prison and the various ways. For me, it was very impactful because I feel like this side of history during the Cold War is not presented in history classes in the US (through my experiences). Germany does a nice job of acknowledging their history good and bad and I feel like that is important for explaining what happened from their point of view. After the tour, I continued to walk the city exploring and at night, I went to this bar where I struck up a conversation with the bartender for about an hour. She was a very interesting person and it was nice to talk to someone since I was alone that night at the bar.
Day 4 was an emotional day. We visited a former concentration camp and it was a really sad sight. The overall atmosphere was eery and I kept having flash images of prisoners in the barracks and in the execution chambers. Visiting the concentration camp allowed us students to get a glimpse into the brutal history of Nazi Germany. It is important to understand all of history good and bad to know what went on and why it is important in today’s world. I cannot talk much more about the camp since everything was so sad and horrifying based on the information I read about what went on in the camp. Later in the evening, we all had a group dinner at an authentic German restaurant with liters of beer and everything. The late night part of this day was so much fun. We went to a bar called the Ice Bar and enjoyed ourselves in freezing cold temperatures and being surrounded by ice sculptures. After that, we went to a club that was underneath a highway and danced the night away to bass boosted electronic music.
Overall, this trip presented me with valuable insight into the Cold War in Germany (specifically West and East Berlin) and the fact history should be presented how it is, good and bad.
