Here are excerpts of what some of the Dickinson-in-Bremen students said about our recent trip to Vienna.

Margaret:

A Fabergé egg as exhibited at the Kunsthistorisches Museum – only this one is entirely edible

What I enjoyed the most of the activities on my own was visiting the Kunsthistorisches Museum, or the Museum of Art History. By virtue of studying abroad for a full year, I’ve been to almost more museums than I can count throughout the past months. Yet the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna was one that definitely stood out in its singularity. My plans to only spend half the day there were quickly forgotten when I spent the entire morning in the single Kunstkammer wing, a twenty gallery-exhibition similar to a treasury, holding hundreds of years worth of Hapsburg possessions and collections where the unique diversity of the artifacts matches the depth of decades from which they span. I saw busts, paintings, porcelain figures, shimmering gems and jewelry, tapestries, clocks, carved ivory chests, oddities the likes of which I’ve never seen before (such as a giant drinking goblet made of an ostrich egg and carved jade), and countless more treasures I’ll likely never see an equal to. In addition, the museum houses the art collections of the House of Habsburg, filling almost

the entire second floor. As someone who likes to take their time through art museums and give attention to each piece, imagine my struggle upon walking into spacious galleries where almost every inch of the tall walls were covered with paintings. Despite the near impossibility of laying eyes on every single piece, the stunning collections still imparted a lasting impression of the country’s vast cultural heritage.

Devon:

One of the most surprising moments for me was the realization that one of my favorite parts of the trip was the opera. I am very uneducated in opera and have only ever been to one in my life. But our evening at the opera was by far the best experience I had in Vienna. The fact that the script was posted on screens that flanked the stage was extremely helpful, considering I know very little (read as: absolutely zero) Italian. Furthermore, the text did not seem extremely difficult, I certainly understood more than 75% of the words and I knew what was happening throughout. It was certainly a point of pride for me and I felt much more confident in my speaking and understanding of German following the opera.

At the National Library

My time in Austria was well-spent. I saw many sights, many museums, and many animals. But more than anything else, I think Austria strongly benefitted my German. I spoke more in those 4 and a half days than I had since my language-intensive course ended. By the end of the trip, I felt extremely confident in my language and some of my trepidation to speak in public was relieved. It certainly gave credit to the oft-given advice that the best way to improve your language speaking skills is to dive right in; try your best to ignore the voice in your head telling you how wrong you may be or how afraid you are and just speak. More often than not, you’ll do better than you expected of yourself and that is the easiest way to improve your confidence and furthermore, improve your speaking skills. Austria did a wonderful job and that, and the impression it left upon me, won’t soon be forgotten.

Lucia:

In my free time in Vienna I chose to visit two art museums: Hundertwasser Museum and the Belvedere. After taking interest in Hundertwasser’s style and life philosophy in a German course a few years ago, I was eager to see his architecture in person. The Hundertwasserhaus is a perfect example of the architect’s style– colorful and organic in design while maintaining functionality. Moving on to the Hundertwasser Museum just around the corner, I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of his works on display. The museum features Hundertwasser’s paintings coupled with architectural plans/models all scattered throughout quotes and information about the artist’s life. The building itself is also one of Hundertwasser’s own design. The floors are uneven and small nooks allow plants to grow up the sides of the walls. I was truly intrigued by the progression of his artistic style and different ideas for functional structures. In contrast, the Belvedere is a lavish museum/palace housing a great variety of art. I had chosen to visit the Belvedere with hopes of seeing some of the Viennese artist Gustav Klimt’s works. Stepping onto the grounds, I was first amazed by the size and grandeur of the museum. Seeing a few of Klimt’s pieces in person (and in such a grand setting) was certainly a memorable experience. Overall I quite enjoyed the differences between the museums and would have loved the chance to spend more time in both.

Joan:

We began Tuesday with a visit to Schönbrunn Palace, the former imperial palace in Vienna. It was a beautiful palace and quite interesting to wander around and learn about the different Kaisers who lived there, especially Kaiserin Maria Theresia. After the audio tour we went behind the palace, through the gardens, to the stunning gloriette where we ate at the café there and enjoyed the beautiful day. After that, Anna, Lucia, Paul, Sean, Shuwei, and I headed to the Hundertwasserhaus, an apartment building designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. I remembered learning about Hundertwasser in my 201 class, but I forgot that some of his buildings were in Vienna, so when I learned they were

Touring the State Hall of the National Library

nearby, I made sure to go see them. We then walked a few blocks to the KunstHausWien, another building designed by Hundertwasser that houses a lot of his artwork. Going through the museum, I never realized what an environmentalist Hundertwasser was. He reminded me of a 20^th century artist version of John Muir. The great thing about KunstHausWien is that the building was designed by the same artist whose artwork is on display, so there is a real continuity between the art and the building. The only thing that threw me off was on the top two floors were an exhibition of large, mostly black and white photographs. It was a nice exhibition, just the stark contrast with the rest of the building made it hard for me to get out of the Hundertwasser mindset while looking at very different art. On the first floor of the museum was a vegetarian restaurant (also designed by Hundertwasser) where we had dinner. Afterwards we went to the Wien Konzerthaus and were able to get student tickets to see Bach’s “Johannespassion.” Our seats were right in the front middle of the balcony, so we could see and hear really well. There was an orchestra, four main singers, and a boy’s chorus. All in all, the concert was great!

Paul:

Guided tour of Vienna

One thing that was immediately apparent to me during my visit to Vienna was how intentionally the city itself was structured. This intentionality was manifest in the regularity of the buildings, their almost overwhelming whiteness, and in the way they were honeycombed around the Habsburg edifices. The place really looked like the seat of an empire.
I think that these observations helped me to appreciate my favorite Vienna experience – my visit to Kunst Haus Wien, the Friedensreich Hundertwasser museum – even more. Don’t misunderstand me, the dominant rococo and baroque architecture was beautiful and impressive; but Kunst Haus Wien, which Hundertwasser himself designed, exhibited the same level of intentionality while preserving the organic beauty unique to Hundertwasser’s artistic and philosophical outlook. I had heard of Hundertwasser in classes at Dickinson, and I had also seen a number of his prints, all of which I thought were really beautiful and unique. It turned out that some of the other Dickinsonians had as well, so we decided to visit the museum. The building’s face is divided into irregularly shaped, colored blocks. Its pillars and entranceway are littered with varying mosaics. When one walks through the door, he is struck by the fact that the floor itself is not flat. Instead, its clay exhibits undulations and repeats the mosaic motif. A sign on the wall indicates that Hundertwasser made this choice because the earth’s unadorned crust actually presents us with the same sorts of rises and divvies, and further because they can serve as a source of excitement for the feet. So, even on the first step through the door, one sees (and feels) Hundertwasser’s back-to-nature, organic vision. Kunst Haus Wien often presents the organic world even more directly: the place is a veritable forest. And then there are all of Hundertwasser’s incredible paintings, woodcut prints, and architectural models. The models represent more ambitious imaginings of the themes expressed in the museum’s architecture. Hundertwasser had planned whole communities with his ideals in mind. In these communities, the line between artifice and nature is constantly blurred. Streams and roads take similarly meandering routes around homes constructed in hills. Trees abound. The windows and walls that one does see have the color and irregularity of all of Hundertwasser’s work. This might sounds like chaos, but I was really struck by how functional and logical these communities looked. Utopian ideals are often accused of impracticality, but I’d have a hard time lodging this complaint against Hundertwasser. His work didn’t look contrived or forced, but rather exhibited the same kind of beautiful regularity we find in the natural world, in tree rings or spider webs or even frog spawn. And I appreciate this kind of regularity and beauty much more than the silk, gold and marble of Schönbrunn.

Sean:

Two places I chose to visit in the allotted free time were the Kunst Haus Wien and Belvedere Palace. Both were important destinations for me because of my love for Friedensreich Hundertwasser und Gustav Klimt, whose works were displayed in the two locations respectively. Kunst Haus Wien had an incredible amount of work by Hundertwasser and a unique layout and floor plan that made the experience even more interesting. Most notably was the unevenness of the floor. Hundertwasser wrote that:

 “An uneven and animated floor is the recovery of man’s mental equilibrium, of the dignity of man which has been violated in our levelling [sic], unnatural and hostile urban grid system. The uneven floor becomes a symphony, a melody for the feet and brings back natural vibrations to man. Architecture should elevate and not subdue man. It is good to walk on uneven floors and regain our human balance.”       Hundertwasser, April, 1991

The second place I visited was Belvedere Palace. Belvedere Palace was a great experience for two reasons: the location was incredibly interesting and rich with history and the palace also housed several of my favorite paintings. After spending a considerable amount of time wandering the palace admiring the works of art from different eras, I ended in the Gustav Klimt room. I have been a fan of Klimt’s for some time, especially of his most famous work The Kiss (Lovers). Never before was I unable to look away from a painting for so long. Klimt managed to capture an amazing moment of intimacy in the painting, which elicited a response in me I haven’t experienced with a painting before. Overall, it was an extremely rewarding experience.

Shuwei:

Touring Stephansdom

Our trip to Vienna was amazing! We’ve been to many great places, including Stephansdom, Schönbrunn, Mozarthaus, National Bibliothek, etc. What interested me most is the music culture and history in Vienna. Before going, my impressions about Vienna were all about music. It is the city where many masters of classic music had worked – Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn… We visited Mozarthaus in which Mozart lived for three years, and two of his most famous musical operas, “Don Giovanni” and “The Marriage of Figaro” were written during this time. The museum displayed many original musical scores, documents and also furnitures about Mozart, trying to show Mozart’s personal life and musical compositions in Vienna. Although some details are vague today, I can still imagine how Mozart was enjoying his time in this house. There’s also many documents showing Mozart’s close friendships with other musical masters in Vienna. Reading through these documents, it’s not hard to imagine the prosperity of music in Vienna during that time. After visiting Mozarthaus, we went to the Theater an der Wien for his opera “Don Giovanni”. This is probably the best live opera I’ve ever seen. The music, the singers, the setting of the theater and even the audiences were gorgeous. No seats were empty, and thinking of the other two nights when we had concert and drama, the houses were also full. It surprised me how Vienna people enjoy going to concerts and theaters. Through these music activities and experiences, I felt really close to this city and learned more about its culture and history.

Joan Smedinghoff ’15

“I painted over the wall of shame so freedom is ashamed no more. Inferno ruled too many years, until the people chose the light. I put my faith in you, Berlin, and give to you my colors bright.”       – Fulvio Pinna

On our second day in Berlin we went to the East Side Gallery, which is a section of the Berlin wall that was left up and artists have painted murals on it’s eastern side. It’s spectacular and stretches on for a few blocks. There were many different kinds of murals — some with beautiful scenes, some with messages of peace and togetherness, and some about Germany’s past or future. They were so intriguing that I found myself stopping and taking pictures at almost every mural.

One of the things I found myself thinking a lot about was the difference between pictures take from the western and eastern sides of the wall. In pictures from West Berlin, the wall is covered top to bottom in graffiti. In East Berlin, though, people were not allowed to come near the wall, so it stayed barren. In West Berlin people graffitied everything from their initials to anti-communist slogans, but the people of East Berlin did not have that outlet to express their frustrations because it, like so much else, was cut off from them.

After reunification, the East Side Gallery finally became a place for people to paint their images of protest and peace. The Berlin Wall represents a difficult time of separation in German history, and those two very different pictures of the graffitied and barren sides of the wall represent the the free speech that was lost in East Germany. However, I think that the East Side Gallery now stands as a representation of that free speech being given back to the people of eastern Germany.

Janie Feldmann ‘15

The group in front of the Reichstag

To be honest, if you are going to a city for the beauty, you should not go to Berlin. This city is by no definition beautiful – it is grungy, grey, and graffiti-filled. But Berlin has some of the coolest history of any city, and it is just all around cool. There is something new around every corner, and the art scene is fantastic. It reminded me quite a lot of New York City.
Our schedule was quite packed, but we had the opportunity to see some really great sights. Among these were the Reichstag government building and East Side Gallery. We went up in the “Dom” of the Reichstag at night, so we had some spectacular views of lit-up Berlin. And at East Side Gallery, we had the amazing experience of seeing what remains of the wall which formerly divided this city and its people.
In our free time, my roommate and I decided to go to the Pergamon Museum, which is located in the heart of the city on the Museum Island. Unfortunately, tickets were sold out, so we decided to go to the DDR Museum instead. This museum displays various objects from daily life in East Berlin. It even showed a car and an example of a living room, which were both really interesting. With all that we had learned about apartment bugging and phone tapping, it was easy to forget that people just like us had to live their everyday lives during this time.
My favorite things we saw were the Holocaust Memorial, a performance of Spring Awakening, and Hohenschönhausen Stasi Prison. The memorial is incredibly hard to describe – you truly have to go there to get the full experience. At first glance, you can only see the tops of the grey stones as you walk in between the rows. But as the ground sinks slowly, the stones grow, and all of a sudden they completely surround you. They seem to stretch on endlessly – you could honestly lose someone in there. Because the aisle is only wide enough for one person, you often have to turn away when another person is coming from the opposite direction. The experience of this monument was unexpectedly unnerving, and it was probably the most well-done memorial I have ever seen.
The dance performance of Spring Awakening took place in a small theater called Ufa Fabrik, which was formerly used as a factory. I will not lie, I was not sure what to expect, but I was truly amazed by the level of skill that the dancers displayed. The performance was so emotional and beautiful, and we all left with goose bumps.

In front of the Berlin Wall

However, Hohenschönhausen Stasi Prison was by far one of the most affecting experiences I have ever had. We had the honor of taking a tour with a man who had been arrested three times by the Stasi, and placed in a prison in Potsdam. He told us calmly of the horrors he had endured, and explained that he only felt pity for the men who had done these awful things to him. I bought a copy of his book and he signed it “Nie wieder Diktatur” or “Never again a dictatorship.” I do not think I will ever forget him, or his experiences.
In the end, I truly believe that going to Berlin for the beauty would be overlooking what makes this city so special. Berlin has so much more to offer than just vain aestheticism – edginess, determination to never forget, or repeat, its past, and strength to move forward into the future.

In front of the green screen at the ARD TV studio…

… and the result “on TV”

Our excursion to Vienna was filled with exciting meetings and events:

by Gwyneth van Son

Take an overload of German culture, literature and history, add in a sprinkle of physical endurance and you have Dickinson-in-Bremen’s May excursion to Berlin and Weimar. The excursion was spread out over seven days, five in Berlin, Germany’s capital, and two in the smaller town of Weimar. We arrived in Berlin on Sunday night and began our adventures Monday morning.

Part I: Berlin

State Department (Auswärtiges Amt)

Steph + John G., like anyone, love to ride a “Paternoster” – the picture can’t be sharp.

We started the week off by going to a famous landmark in Berlin, the TV tower. From the tower we were able to see a 360 degree view of the city. We spent several hours looking out and identifying the many sights we would be seeing throughout the week. After gazing out at the city, we journeyed to the Auswärtiges Amt, The Federal Foreign Office. We were scheduled to meet with Harald Leibrecht, the Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation in the Field of Intersocietal Relations, Cultural and Information Policy, but sadly he had an important last minute engagement with people holding equally long titles. We received a tour and history lesson of the Auswärtiges Amt from Mrs. Stemmler, Mr. Leibrecht’s personal assistant. She took us through the building and explained to us its extraordinary history – it used to be the National Bank in the Third Reich and, after the war, housed first the Ministry of Finance of the GDR and later the Central Committee of the Socialist Union Party of the GDR (Zentralkomitee der SED), t.i. the de facto government. At the end of the tour, we enjoyed the view over the city from the terrace and had lunch in the cafeteria where the government officials eat.

Steph and John sealing a contract

Gwynnie, Verena, Mrs. Stemmler, John P., Steph, Emily, John G. (from left to right) on the terrace

John G., John P., Dr. Janine Ludwig, Gwynnie, Verena, Stephanie, Emily (from left to right).

After our tour we had the afternoon free. Verena and I met up with a former Dickinson German Teaching Assistant, Insa Kohler, as well as Dickinson Alumn and German major, Ian van Son, my brother, both of whom are currently living in Berlin. We visited the Bernauer Straße Wall Memorial, were parts of the wall separating East and West Berlin still stand in their original place. The Memorial tells the story of that part of the wall from it’s building, to the lives that were lost there, the stories of those separated by it and to its being torn down. The memorial is entirely outside, with sections of the concrete wall standing, one section of only steel reinforcement beams as well as a memorial for where a church once stood until it was demolished by the GDR. One part is exactly how the wall actually was, two walls with a guard tower and no-mans-land in between. Throughout the open space of the memorial there are steel pillars with information plaques in German and English, some of them even have little televisions allowing the viewer to see actual video footage of life along the Bernauer Straße Wall.  Afterwards it was back to the hotel to rest up for yet another full day ahead of us.

Sanssouci Castle – Frederick the Great

Tuesday morning was an early one; we were out of the hotel and on our way to Schloss Sanssouci at 8am, only to realize it was already very warm outside. The palace was built by Friedrich II. King of Prussia as his summer residence and is located slightly outside of Berlin, it is certainly something to be seen. The palace itself is not of an impressive size, but the rococo style, extensive gardens and smaller outlying buildings make it a worth while visit. The gardens are immaculately kept and a series of terraces lead up to the palace, making it seem more of an imposing building then it actually is. There is an orangery with apartments inside, a Chinese style house and a large windmill located on the palace’s property.

Sans souci – without worries in the former summer residence of Frederick the Great in Potsdam: Gwynnie, Verena, Steph, John

Selfie in front of the castle: John Gallagher

Exhibition poster

After our sunny visit to the palace we continued our Prussia day with a visit and tour of the German History Museum, which had a special exhibition on Friedrich II. a.k.a. Frederick the Great, also nicknamed The Old Fritz. On our guided tour we saw the shirt in which Friedrich died as well as his death mask and learned of his family history and his life story. Friedrich was an avid flute player, successful military leader, and had no children of his own. Friedrich’s strong German image was used by Hitler and Goebbels for propaganda purposes, internationally tarnishing his name for a certain period of time. Prof. Ludwig told us more about the peculiar biography of this emperor – who used to be a delicate, art-loving child and was beaten by his father into a grim belligerent emperor. “Hunde, wollt Ihr ewig leben?,” is what he supposedly said to his soldiers dying for him. Yet at the same time, he was known for his (religious) tolerance and for embracing enlightenment – at least to a certain point: “Räsonniert, soviel ihr wollt und worüber ihr wollt, aber gehorcht!” (Ponder as much as you want, on whatever you want, but obey!”) In Sanssouci, he gave exile to Voltaire who was expelled from France for his critical ideas. 2012 is the 300th birthday anniversary of this enigmatic king, and many institutions in Berlin deal with his life, such as the exhibition in the German Historic Museum (Deutsches Historisches Museum) which specifically examines his ambivalent legacy – of course, we had a tour there, too.

While in the museum we also discovered video footage of the War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania because they have a Friedrich II. statue on their property. No matter where we are in the world, somehow Carlisle manages to find us. After a day of filling our minds with Prussian history and burning our skin in the unrelenting sun we were unleashed into the humid evening, with about as much energy as a group of napping sloths.

Meeting with Wolfgang Thierse

As the hot Wednesday morning sun started beating down on Berlin we rose and donned our business clothes for a meeting with a very prominent German Politician, Wolfgang Thierse. Mr. Thierse grew up in the GDR and managed to be one of the few East German politicians who has been successful since the reunification of Germany. Mr. Thierse is also an incredibly friendly man, he is extremely busy, but still managed to spend an hour answering American students’ questions. After our meeting with Mr. Thierse we spent the afternoon in the GDR museum. The museum is very small and was crowded (mostly with noisy French teenagers), but is very interesting. The museum is interactive and you are allowed to touch just about everything. We spent several hours discovering just how different life was in communist Germany, from what people ate, to how they lived, or what they wore. There was a prison cell, a secret police interrogation room, information about those who tried to escape and those who lost their lives.

Janine Ludwig, Stephanie, Emily, John G., Wolfgang Thierse, John P., Jeff, Gwynnie (fr. l. to r.)

Literature days: GDR literature / Georg Büchner / Igor Kroitzsch / Heiner Müller

We continued our GDR education by visiting the Humboldt University, one of the most prestigious and well known universities in Germany, where we saw the Heiner Müller Archive / Transitraum and had a lecture on GDR literature. Müller was a famous, envelope-pushing, East German playwright and author. The archive was his private library, which was donated to the university after his death and is curated by Dr. Kristin Schulz.

Emily delving through Heiner Müller’s personal books – who would have thought the German playwright, often accused of depicting violent female pictures, has read feminist literature?!

After we meandered around Müller’s book collection for a while, we moved on to a two-hour lecture on GDR literature given to us by an expert on GDR poetry, Dr. Peter Geist. He vividly described the historical circumstances and developments of literature in East Germany and also the situation of writers and intellectuals around and after 1989. Thanks to the renowned Prof. Dr. Frank Hörnigk, we were able to hold this seminar in his office in the HU. Afterwards, we had dinner in a nearby restaurant in Friedrichstraße which serves traditional German cuisine. Wednesday evening found us in the German Theatre taking in Verkommenes Ufer, a play by Heiner Müller. The play consisted of three actors, two of which told the story of Medea and the Golden Fleece and the third recited Müller’s poem of why he would no longer write plays after the demise of socialism.

Emily, John G., Janine Ludwig, Dr. Peter Geist (middle), Jeff, John P., Gwynnie, Steph (fr. l. t. r.)

Thursday was a far more relaxing day as we had free time until our appointment at the Parliament building in the afternoon. Even the weather was slightly more relaxing with the hot sun taking a break and allowing for a cool breeze to accompany Verena, my brother and me on our trip to the East Side Gallery. This open air gallery is made up of several long sections of the original Wall, which are decorated by many different artists and change every few years. Some of the paintings are political, some are ridiculous and I don’t even know what some of them where supposed to be. That afternoon we went to the Parliament building to silently watch a plenary session. It was very interesting to see how the government works in Germany, even though we didn’t really know what they were talking about and voting on and there weren’t that many representatives there. After sitting in on the session meeting, we took an audio guided tour of the large glass dome that sits directly above where we had been sitting moments before. The glass dome is open at the top allowing fresh air to flow directly down into the session room below it. There is even a special vacuum contraption that sucks out rain water and keeps it from raining in doors. From the top of the glass dome, you can look over Berlin while the audio guide tells you what you are looking at and why it is important.

Gwynnie, Janine Ludwig, Verena Mertz, Emily, John P. in the German Reichstag / Bundestag (parliament session)

That night we returned to the Humboldt Uni rsp. the Heiner Müller Archive  for a special event organized for us by Prof. Ludwig, in the run-up to the big Büchner anniversary next year (200th birthday anniversary of the ingenious writer Georg Büchner): The German playwright Igor Kroitzsch presented an unpublished play of his, Thermidor, which is a perpetuation of Büchner’s Danton’s Death – read by an actor. Both plays are about the French revolution, a topic that Müller himself wrote about in his play Der Auftrag. The event was attended by other intellectuals, theater experts and practitioners interested in either Kroitzsch or Müller and proved to be very interesting and successful. The event was a cooperation of Dickinson College with the International Heiner Müller Society and the Transitraum.

Playwright Igor Kroitzsch (left) talking to Hannes Hametner, theater director.

Johannes Wenzel (theater director), Mirjam Meuser (literary scholar), Anja Quickert (Executive Secretary of the Müller Society), Janine Ludwig (Academic Director) at the reception afterwards

Stasi Archive and tunnel tour

Friday was our last day in Berlin and was of course packed with activities. We started the day by going to the Stasi Office Building and Archive. We had a guided tour of the old East German secret police’s headquarters which is now a museum. We saw the offices of the top officials with its communist decoration and technology. In the Archive, we were able to see all of the documents the secret police collected on East German citizens, from the identity cards to the bookcases full of files. We were even shown the different kinds of paper shredding the Stasi did in efforts to conceal the information they had collected. After our visit to the Stasi Museum, we made our way to a restaurant for lunch where we were met by Sarah McGaughey, a Dickinson Professor of German currently based in Tübingen during her year of sabbatical. Prof. McGaughey just happened to be in Berlin for a conference at the same time as our excursion and took some time to meet up with us. After lunch, we went on an underground tour of Berlin. This tour took us in tunnels connected to the metro system, tunnels created during the Third Reich and tunnels that were monitored by East German police in attempts to keep people from fleeing to the west. While under the streets of Berlin, we learned about tunnels that were dug by East Germans trying to make their way over to the west. Most of these escape tunnels were dug along the Bernauer Straße which is where the wall memorial is today. We also heard of people who attempted to escape through the metro tunnels until the Eastern police discovered it and placed metal spikes along the tracks. It was fascinating to be in the quiet and cool after being above ground in the relentless noise and heat of Berlin above ground. The tour ended at the Bernauer Straße where we were shown several buildings from which escape tunnels had been dug and the stories that went along with them. The end of the tour was also the end to our excursion in Berlin. We collected our luggage and made our way to the train station where the speed train took us to Weimar, a few hours south west of Berlin.

Part II: Weimar

First day: Goethe and Schiller

Saturday marked our first day of full program, and a full day it was. We were taken around Weimar by Christoph Schmälzle, an expert on Goethe, Schiller and former personal referent to the President of the Weimar Classic Foundation. He was kind enough to take us around the city he knows everything about and share a large amount of that knowledge with us. I truly believe there is not a question that man could not answer. We started our day at the Fürstengruft which is the crypt for the royals of Weimar. However, this crypt contains not only the remains of royals, but also that of Goethe. Schiller also has a coffin there, however, it is empty, because, much like Mozart, no one knows where the body of the famous writer is. Attached to the back of the crypt is a Russian Orthodox Chapel because one of the Duchesses was Russian, therefore meaning she had to be buried on both Russian soil and in a Russian Orthodox Chapel. Because she was married to the Duke of Weimar who had to be buried in that crypt, Russian soil was brought to Weimar and the chapel built so that husband and wife could be placed next to each other in death. After our morning dose of death and history we went on to Goethe’s House which is right in the center of Weimar. Goethe received this house as a gift from the Duke of Weimar and is quite large and was remodeled to be more like an Italian Palazzo, which Goethe saw during his journey through Italy. Goethe possessed a large quantity of Italian art which is displayed throughout the house. At the back of the house is Goethe’s study where he wrote some of the most famous works of German literature and also collected different kinds of rocks. The study looks out onto a large and luxurious garden. We took a short break for lunch and then meandered down the pedestrian zone to Schiller’s house. Schiller’s house is far less extravagant compared to Goethe’s house, with no area for horse and carriage to arrive, no large entry way with high ceilings and no beautiful garden in the back. Unlike Goethe, Schiller was not born into a rich family and was not a close friend of the Duke, who actually asked Goethe to move to Weimar. Schiller lived in many different houses throughout his life, but this was his final house where he and his family lived for several years before his death. The house is three floors with a large modern museum attached to it at the back. The house faces directly on to the walking and shopping street in Weimar, but some how manages to keep its old charm. Schiller tended to work late into the night and therefore had his study on the top floor of the house, complete with his own small bed.

The marathon day continued with, of course, a church. The church is quite small with a small grave yard containing the graves of Schiller and Goethe’s wives. There is a small mausoleum where many bodies, including Schiller’s, were placed, which is why there is the question of if the bones that are supposedly Schiller’s are actually his. After our church visit we made our way to the Ducal Castle. Because our tour guide, Mr. Schmälzle, had previously been the head of the castle museum and the castle itself, we were privy to a behind the scenes tour and a master key to the whole complex. We started in the basement, seeing the work being done to restore the castle after its years of neglect and alterations during communist rule in Germany. We toured the main rooms, the attics, the room dedicated to Schiller, the Duchess’s winter sunroom, current offices and many more. The castle is huge and in a large square with endless passage ways and rooms, making it the perfect place for an epic game of hide and seek. There had been many additions down to the castle over the years, with some of them not fitting architecturally with others, such as doors leading to nothing but a wall. There was no part of the castle that Mr. Schmälzle did not know about. We finished our tour sipping champagne on a balcony looking out onto the gardens and the regular tourists below us. It was quite a classy affair and the most in depth and amazing tour I have ever had of a castle. A master key truly makes quite a difference. Our night ended with dinner at a local restaurant watching the Eurovision song contest, which was sadly not won by Germany, but rather by Sweden. However, even if Germany had won the contest I don’t believe we had enough energy left to celebrate.

Second day: Glamour and gloom of the city of Weimar

Sunday marked the last day of our excursion. We started the day with a tour of a baroque library, the Anna-Amalia-Bibliothek. While not in the castle, the library was owned by the Duchy of Weimar. Despite suffering a severe fire, the library is still spectacular, full of old books, ornamentation and painted in a light blue color. The library is beautiful and full of light, making the idea of grabbing a book and sitting in a window seat all afternoon incredibly appealing. After the library, we made our way out into the sun and were given a tour of the castle gardens and Goethe’s garden home, located only a short walk from the castle. During the time of Goethe, the gardens were open to the public and where a place where every citizen of Weimar could go for an afternoon walk. Goethe’s garden house is a smaller house where he could go in the summer and write. The duke could walk from his castle to Goethe’s little house and speak with his close friend whenever he pleased. Goethe viewed this house and the gardens surrounding it to be his own little paradise in Weimar.

After our morning of beautiful ornamentation and beautiful nature, we had lunch and moved on to the ugly side of Weimar’s history. Not far outside of the city and on a hill is the concentration camp, Buchenwald. During the Second World War the citizen’s of Weimar were able to smell the crematoriums up on the hill making them aware of the horrors taking place outside of their culturally rich and idyllic town. There are only a few buildings left completely standing at the huge concentration camp, but those buildings are more then enough to make clear what life was like for those imprisoned there. For some of us this was the second concentration camp on which we had ended our excursion, but that didn’t make the tour any less difficult. We had spent the weekend learning of Weimar’s rich culture and enjoying its beauty, but it was important to see the stain of history that many wish to forget. Weimar truly is a city full of history and culture, both the good and the bad. After several hours touring the concentration camp we returned to our hotel, collected our luggage and made our way home by train. Our stepping on to the train home marked the end of Dickinson-in-Bremen’s final excursion of our junior year abroad. We had an amazing week of German history, culture and blazing sun, returning to the slightly chilly north with two more months of calling Bremen home.