Internship at the Heiner Müller Society

Posted on February 28, 2015 by

Rachel (left) and Madison

For the month of February I was an intern along with Madison Alley at the Internationale Heiner-Müller-Gesellschaft, or the International Heiner Müller Society, of which our Academic Director, Dr. Janine Ludwig, is the Chair of the Board of Directors. The IHMG is a non-profit literary society that constantly works to preserve and further the works of Heiner Müller and the discussions surrounding his life and plays. The society focuses on a wide range of work related to Müller including the spreading of his work internationally, initiating translations, following the conversations about his work, initiating projects and documentations, as well as hosting colloquiums and workshops about Müller. Recently, the IHMG organized and hosted a conference in Berlin about Müller’s continued relevance in contemporary society which the full year Dickinson in Bremen students attended, (http://blogs.dickinson.edu/bremen/2014/10/06/berlin-excursion-and-transatlantic-conference/) including myself. Heiner Müller is considered one of the most important German playwrights of the second half of the 20^th century.

image[1] For the first three weeks of the internship Madison and I worked together on the composition of IHMG’s first newsletter of the year and then completed a multitude of translations including the newsletter, biographies of the members of IHMG and the descriptions of the past Müller Monday events, an event that IHMG hosts each month in cooperation with the Literaturforum at the Brechthaus. As we completed these translations we got a better idea of both the work that IHMG does and the members of the society. Finally, at the end of the month, we put this information to use when we traveled to Berlin for a week to work alongside the Chief Executive of the IHMG, Anja Quickert. For this week we worked on more translations, assisted with the preparation and running of February’s Müller Monday panel discussion, and discovered the city of Berlin as we handed out hundreds of flyers about IHMG’s events and the society in general.

This internship was great for me simply because it helped improve both my knowledge of German and even English through the work with translation. Working with IHMG was, however, most rewarding, because of the opportunity it gave me to work closely with the head of a non-profit organization. After Dickinson I hope to go into the non-profit sector and work to advance literacy around the world. So the short introduction I got in the inner workings of IHMG as well as receiving practice both networking for the society and thanking the donors are invaluable moments for me. I look forward to taking my experience at IHMG and applying it to my work post Dickinson. >Rachel Schilling<

Sampling a World Heritage with the SIRF grant

Posted on August 18, 2013 by

by Geo Nikolov, Class of 2014

I am a major of Earth Sciences with a Major Concentration on Geoscience and have just completed a full year of study at the University of Bremen. This summer, I was able to participate in a research project funded by Dickinson’s SIRF grant. Here, I will give a brief description of this project:

Background

Marine Geochemical research is conducted by several prestigious institutes in Bremen and Bremerhaven, including The Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, MARUM (Center for Marine Environmental Sciences), and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Ocean Research. The research group “The Ocean in the Earth System” at the MARUM institute at the University of Bremen has been officially recognized as a “Cluster of Excellence” by the German Research Foundation and German Council of Science and Humanities.

This semester, I sought out a collaborative research opportunity with a marine geochemist to gain experience in sampling methods, data collection and data analysis within the framework of an environmentally relevant project that would provide the basis for a senior thesis in my major of Geoscience.

Professor Michael Schlüter, geochemist at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar- and Ocean Research, Bremerhaven, and teacher of the course “Geochemical cycles and processes,” offered me the chance to assist in a research project quantifying flow rates of Submarine Groundwater Discharge (SGD) and sampling pore water in the Sahlenburg intertidal mudflats near Cuxhaven, Germany. The sampling, data collection and transport modelling conducted in association with this project provided the basis for further analytical work to be completed for my senior thesis in 2013/2014. In addition, Marine Geochemistry is a field in which I am strongly considering pursuing a graduate degree.

Specific Tasks and Responsibilities

My responsibilities at the research site covered pore water sampling, data analysis, and transport modelling. Pore water sampling was conducted with rhizones and suction cups at the field site Sahlenburger Watt in the Lower Saxon Wadden Sea National Park, Germany. In the field, I also assisted with the determination of pressure surfaces and in-situ measurements of submarine groundwater discharge. Laboratory work centered on chemical analysis, specifically, the determination of nutrient pore water profiles. Chloride concentration data was used to model flow rates of submarine groundwater.

Connection to Dickinson Classes and Experiences

The Dickinson course “Chemistry of Earth Systems” introduced me to the foundations of marine sediment pore water chemistry, including an overview of transport processes and depth profiles of nutrients. At the University of Bremen, I have deepened my knowledge in the areas of pore water composition and early diagenesis through the geochemistry course “Element Cycles and Processes,” which included an overview of redox reactions, reaction kinetics and the use of tracers.

Environmental Relevance

The working area, the Sahlenburg intertidal mudflats, lies in the Lower Saxon Wadden Sea National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2009. This nature reserve, covering an area of approximately 1.300 sq. mi, is home to over 4,000 plant and animal species. It is also a resting place for 10-12 million birds arriving every winter from Northern countries to prepare for breeding. Thus, the ecosystem’s productivity is essential to global biodiversity. The ecosystem is highly sensitive to fluxes of nutrients such as nitrate and phosphate, which are heavily supplied by fertilizer runoff. The OSPAR Commission for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic identified the German Bight and Wadden Sea as “Eutrophication Problem Areas” in 1994.

Submarine Groundwater Discharge can contribute a major fraction of nutrients to the water column; in some areas, as much as 70 percent of the total nitrate. This project, conducted over several weeks, with similar measurements to be repeated in the future, constitutes basic research that will better monitor nutrient fluxes stemming from an essential individual component of this fragile ecosystem’s water budget.

International Relevance

Submarine Groundwater Discharge is a topic in Marine Geochemistry that is of global geochemical relevance. SGD has only been quantified for small portions of the world’s coastlines, most investigations having taken place on the East coast of the United States, in the Mediterranean, in the Baltic Sea, in the North Sea, and on the coasts of Japan. Estimates of SGD as a component of the global water cycle are thus still somewhat unreliable.

This research experience represented the opportunity to learn directly from an expert, with whom I could communicate in German. International scientific cooperation will be necessary to more fully understand the global impact of this essential component of the hydrological cycle.

Different….

Posted on December 9, 2011 by

by Gwyneth van Son ’13

What?! We have to feed ourselves?!

Nope, no three meals a day at the cafeteria, no maintenance staff, and no campus life living. This, my friends, is as close to the real world as I ever care to get. Here at the Bremen program we have no host families, but rather live in apartments owned by the university and receive a stipend (due to the lack of an all you can eat buffet). However, because I so love to be different, I live in a private apartment with Verena, a German TA in 2010-2011. Verena and I live in the Neustadt, which is about a 30-minute tram ride away from the University of Bremen (a very long way away by Dickinson standards). There are, however, many advantages to where we live; we are not very far from the inner city and we walk one minute to both the grocery store and the tram stop. Our building is very much the typical old single family Bremen townhouse renovated into apartments. It has three stories, a basement, balconies, a garden in the back and very high ceilings. The one thing that makes our building standout is that it is bright pink with a mural of water lilies painted on the front.

Because I decided to live in a private apartment that meant I needed to purchase a few things, such as a bed. Two highly successful trips to Ikea were made, one with Verena and one with Jens. I now feel I can truthfully say I know my way quite well around the Ikea store, if a guided tour is requested I am more then happy to oblige. I managed to find a great bed on Bremen’s much less creepy version of Craig’s list, and due to Jens it was speedily dismantled, transported, and rebuilt.

My living situation in Bremen may be completely different from that at Dickinson, but the one thing they have in common is that there is always something to be done in terms of decoration. Even after I move out of a room I think of how I could have decorated it differently, and I know with my apartment here it will be just the same. After living in a dorm for the last two years I enjoy cooking for myself, cleaning the apartment and knowing no one except Verena or I will come in and leave dirty dishes in the sink, as well as the lack of constant loud music. Our landlords, who live above us, are thankfully not into blasting music so loud that I worry for their future ability to hear. I am sure, however, that after eleven months of real life living I will welcome back dorm life and the caf with wide open arms, but until then I am perfectly content to live the life of a big kid.

Tschüss…

Posted on July 18, 2011 by

by Gaven Trinidad, ’12

“Touch is very important in life. It’s all we have in trying to reach out to another person.” Tennessee Williams

What people from home had forgotten to tell me is that there is an end to a study abroad experience. Without a doubt, I knew that I would have to return to Dickinson College and reunite with my family after graduation while I search for work in my intended career, but never had I expected that saying goodbye to Germany would be so difficult. I even had to say goodbye to Harry Potter, and that was depressing enough (coincidentally, the last film in the franchise was released this past weekend, which also meant an end to my childhood).

Last week was the final week of formal classes at Universität Bremen, and the Dickinson family had already started to return back to the United States; the week before starting with Ethan’s departure. By next week more than half of the Dickinson students would have returned home (Becky, Anne, Sam, and Mel). The last person to return home would be me on August 9^th. Then I guess I’m the most fitting person to write this “goodbye” blog entry.

The experience of studying abroad in Germany was more than what I had anticipated. Not only did I study, work, and immerse myself blindly into this beautiful culture through its art and history, but also I made life-long friends along the way. The first was my study buddy, Cara, who helped me practice my conversational skills. We’ve partied and studied together. We would relish in our love for theater and joke about our futures as actors. Another good friend was Lisa, who was always around for good advice and a beautiful model pose for every picture we had taken together. Maria and Katalina, who always there for a good laugh, were two other good friends I had from the university. I called these four girls my “Ruhrgebiet Girls” because they all came from either Essen or Dortmund. And the person who I would miss probably the most would be my now ex-boyfriend, Sebastian, who will begin his studies in theater and psychology at a university.

What made our goodbyes tragic seemed to be the unspoken question: When will be the next time we will physically see each other? Hug each other? Laugh with/at each other? And in a weird way, I felt a bit like Harry Potter, standing on a platform wat-ching the Hogwarts Express leave Kings Cross Station. It was another lesson about being an adult. I had to learn to say goodbye and continue on with life armed with the joyous me-mories I had gained. Hugging them and saying goodbye was not as painful as I had feared.

Germany, you are a beautiful country with a rich history, art, and language. The people were beautiful, inside and out, and I’m happy to have lived in the beautiful city of Bremen. Now I just need some time to clean my apartment, pack my bags, finish my Hausarbeiten, and return to life as a student at Dickinson College.

UTAMTSI: “A Story of Encounters” / “Eine Geschichte des Begegnens”

Posted on June 24, 2011 by

by Julie King ’12

Wednesday afternoon Prof. Antje Pfannkuchen, Jens, and I hopped in the car that Dickinson occasionally borrows through a car sharing company in order to drive to Lilienthal, a suburb of Bremen in Niedersachsen, where we had an appointment with a representative of UTAMTSI. As Dickinson-in-Bremen’s “Sustainability Intern” I got to come along to visit the fair-trade coffee company. When we arrived, I realized my expectations were all wrong – in the good way. Perhaps because of the giant building near the central train station with the giant Jacobs (Coffee) sign, I had expected something bigger, more urban and definitely more stereotypically corporate. In actuality, the UTAMTSI office and roasting house in a wooded area of Lilienthal is a small part of a complex that appeared to have some other offices as well housing for handicapped individuals.

To my surprise, our appointment was not just with a representative of UTAMTSI, but the founder himself, Mr. Morin Fobissie Kamga. The three of us sat down at a table with Mr. Kamga and another visitor who appeared to be a student. Before I get started on the fascinating story of UTAMTSI I need to explain its pre-existing relationship to Dickinson. In February Brian Brubaker, the director of Dickinson’s Office of Global Education, visited UTAMTSI to find more about the sustainable company that is coincidentally based in Bremen, Germany, and Yaoundé, Cameroon, both of which are the locations of Dickinson Study Abroad Programs. After hearing the “UTAMTSI Story,” Brian Brubaker must have spread the word, because the students in Yaoundé visited the Cameroon location where Mr. Kamga, who annually returns for the coffee harvest, shared his story and showed the girls where coffee beans are grown and then sorted. Therefore, it shouldn’t have a surprise, but it was still surreal to sit down with a man I had just met in Bremen to look at pictures of girls I know from Dickinson visiting the same man in Cameroon.

While showing us pictures of coffee trade and his home in Cameroon, Mr, Kamga began the fascinating story about how UTAMTSI originated. The son of coffee farmers in a village outside of Yaoundé, Mr, Kamga, persevered and worked hard in school to pass standardized tests in a land variable teaching skills and curriculums. Having learned English, French, and German he applied to a private university in Koblenz, Germany. After a short time he transferred to the University of Bremen where he studied economics. In his student-housing complex, he met another student named Stephan Frost. Having told Stephan all about his home and the coffee industry, where farmers only received 3% of the final sale-price for their coffee beans, Mr. Kamga rejected a job offer from the World Bank and decided to start his own coffee company with Stephan. With fewer middlemen he could offer better profits for the farmers near his home and better quality for his customers.

Spreading the word to farmers that he would pay 1.30€ instead of 0.30€ Mr. Kamga initially faced threats from a few crooked competitors, but now successfully has contracts with over 1000 farmers, who use peer-to-peer quality control and natural farming techniques. UTAMSI is also unique in that women and slightly handicapped workers are welcomed workers. There is even an employee to watch after the children while their mothers sort out good beans. Once harvested the beans are shipped to Bremen, where they are roasted, packaged and sold. The smaller location in Bremen also employs handicapped individuals who weigh, grind and package the roasted beans.

Additional UTAMTSI projects include the funding for a local health center outside of Yaoundé and contributions to rural schools that are always in need of supplies and adequate teachers. Student interns from Germany have gone to Cameroon to teach German and to help with the coffee bean harvest. And lastly, loyal customers have had the opportunity to travel to Cameroon for weeklong home stays with coffee-bean farming families. Future plans include a trip to a business fair in September in Baltimore and hopefully a visit to Dickinson. Mr. Kamga also shared his ambition to open another location somewhere in Germany.

To fulfill the goal of our visit, we presented the idea that a professor and student from Dickinson’s International Business and Management department write a case study about UTAMTSI. The company fits perfectly with Dickinson’s mission to „engage the world sustainably,“ and as a former economics student himself, Mr. Kamga, happily accepted the offer, understanding the benefits of a case study about his company.

While we enjoyed a cup of fresh pressed UTAMTSI coffee and some cake, Mr. Kamga explained the meaning of the name UTAMTSI. In his native language Nafi “U” means “we” or “a collective group” (“Wir/Gemeinsam”); “TAM” translates to “meet” or “encounter” (“Begegnen”) and means the “the story of humanity is characterized by constant encounters” (“Die Geschichte der Menschheit ist von ständiger Begegnung geprägt”); and “TSI” translates to “water” (“Wasser”) and means “ancient cure that gives power” (“Uraltes Heilmittel, das Kraft schenkt”). Leaving UTAMTSI and smelling like coffee, I couldn’t help but think how accurate and fitting the name UTAMTSI is for the triangular relationship between the coffee company and Dickinson. Dickinsonians helped sort coffee beans in Yaoundé, we saw the roasting process in Bremen, and when Antje returns to Carlisle, the German professors will drink coffee that completes the circle.

Discussion about sustainability

Posted on April 7, 2011 by

by Julie King ’12

On the evening of March 30^th I hopped on my bicycle and ventured into town to the Haus der Wissenschaft, or simply, the House of Science, in order to go to an event that is part of a series of environmentally themed lectures throughout the spring and summer. The translated title of the event was “The University in the city: Are we running out of juice?” The two-hour event consisted of three lecturers, with slightly different themes relating to the shortage of resources and the development of renewable energy in Bremen, and a question-and-answer based discussion at the end.

The first lecturer and chairman of BUND Bremen (BUND= the German Association for the Environment and Nature Conservation), Klaus Prietzel, talked about “peak oil” and its implications on the environment, but mainly its implications on the energy industry. The term “peak oil” refers to the point at which global oil extraction reaches its maximum. Scientists disagree on the when peak oil will happen; the conventional consensus is for the year 2020, whereas more radically optimistic scientists predict 2035. Some scientists maintain that we have already passed the tipping point, which occurred in 2006. Because of the number of environmentally related events and sciences classes I have attended in high school and at Dickinson, Herr Prietzel’s presentation did not contain much that I hadn’t heard before. Some of his interesting points included the inefficiency and risks of oil dependence. For example, automobiles lose 80% of oil-produced energy through heat-loss and most houses lose around 95%. I found Herr Prietzel’s analogy of oil as a drug as particularly accurate: it’s dangerous, addictive and an expensive habit. Dangerous both environmentally and politically, especially consider 97% of the oil consumed in Germany is imported. In his conclusion, Herr Prietzel admitted that oil is important to the economy of Bremen, considering the economic roles of Mercedes-Benz and Daimler and the shipping harbors in Bremen and Bremerhaven. Peak oil is a kind of crisis, but also an opportunity for positive change. Herr Prietzel asserted the importance of finding a substitution for oil, but admitted that the answer does not lie in biomass renewable energies or natural gas, but in renewable energies from sun and wind. More importantly, though, is the transition to lifestyles of lower energy consumption.

The second lecturer, Dr. Torsten Köhne, provided an interesting perspective as a board member of SWB, the energy company in Bremen. His lecture, titled “Sind nicht knappe Ressourcen vielleicht auch eigentlich knapp?” which translates roughly to “Are not scarce Resources actually in short supply?” Dr. Köhne’s presentation was a little harder for me to follow because of the speed at which he talked and the density of information on his slides. He started by talking about the importance of coal in the energy industry, its high costs and its damage to the environment. He then moved on to the prospect of renewable energies and I loved his quote “Die Sonne schickt uns keine Rechnung” – “The sun doesn’t send us a bill.” In order to power the city of Bremen sustainability, we would need 900 wind turbines, 60 square kilometers of solar panels, or 325 square kilometers of corn or turnips for biomass fuels. The problem is that we lack the surface area, capital, and public power supply infrastructure to achieve any of those options, and even more crucial is the public will for and acceptance of such an idea. He ended with the reality of the energy industry: decisions and initiatives are based on politics and money more so than what is best for the environment.

The last lecturer, Michael Flitner, was a Professor from ARTEC the Sustainable Research Center of the University of Bremen. His presentation was “Wege zu 100% erneubarem Strom” or “The Way to 100% Renewable Energy.” His basic point was just that our greatest need at the moment is more research, but by combining the energy production of on- and off-shore wind turbines, solar panels, hydroelectric means, and gas-forming bio masses Germany could be powered by only renewable energy by 2050. It could be possible that I missed the means to Professor Flitner’s “end” because of language problems, but I’m pretty sure his presentation only really argued for the need for research and public support to realize his plan – which seems fantastic, but ambitious.

The question and answer session at the end was interesting. The old man next to me brought up a great question – What about all of the energy consumption that can’t be plugged in? The consumption that for now can’t use renewable energy, like planes for example. The answer to his question was just that we need more research and more changes in technology. Another highlight of the discussion was a man who was getting rather heated in his “Why can’t we be more like Denmark?”- speech. Apparently the smaller country to the north already has succeeded in the transition to substantial energy production from wind power. Needless to say, even if Germany is not quite up to par with Denmark, the event at the House of Science was worth attending and I feel quite accomplished for having understood such topics. My dream job would be to work for a German-based renewable energy company, so now at least I know there may be a job for me out there somewhere.

Christmas and New Years in Deutschland: the holidays from northern, to southern, to central Germany

Posted on January 19, 2011 by

by Samantha Claussen ’12

(WARNING: this post spends a lot of time talking about food. Read on an empty stomach at your own risk.)

Technically, although Uni Bremen didn’t start break until the end of classes December 21st, I started my break December 18th, as my professors cancelled classes for the rest of my time there. I spent the weekend getting last-minute presents for my host families, cleaning, packing, and wandering around the Weihnachtsmarkt (or Christmas market) in Bremen. I have seen the Weihnachtsmärkte in Berlin, Bremen, Hannover, Freiburg, and a little bit just outside the Hamburg train station, but I think Bremen’s is my favorite. (No, I’m not biased at all. Really.) I took a few pictures of the market, which can be seen at the bottom of the entry, and must apologize for the picture quality. My camera gets cranky at night. There are also pictures of the view from my apartment window and the walk to the tram stop, though there is no longer snow everywhere.

On the 21st, I packed up and got a train to Freiburg, where my host family there picked me up and brought me back to Gundelfingen, a small village just north of Freiburg (side note: this family is one of a number of families I am acquainted with in Germany, as we have acted as host families for a number of German students). It was really, really nice to be in a family environment again. Normally at Dickinson I get a break from college life every couple of months or so, but this had been several months of living in a single apartment. I enjoy my solitude, but being somewhere with parents and children again was really nice.

The 23rd I went into the city to visit some of my friends from the language course I took in Freiburg in September. I went to the Weihnachtsmarkt in Freiburg with one of them, and I found it was quite adorable (although my bias for Bremen won) and had Glühwein, Currywurst, and something called a Dampfnudel, which was this massive dumpling that we shared. It was filled with cherries and drizzled with vanilla sauce and more cherries. I spent the rest of the day seeing old familiar faces. Overall, an excellent day.

The next day was the 24th, or Heilige Abend. The family I was with has a pretty structured set of traditions for Heilige Abend. First of all, they go up to a mountaintop in the Black Forest and meet with a bunch of old friends and have a bonfire, with homemade Glühwein. Then they eat at a little restaurant up there. The one hitch in the plan this year: it started snowing like crazy that morning. We actually had to go switch cars, since the first one we were driving didn’t have good enough handling in the snow. I remember thinking while in the car on the way up, “I’m driving up a mountain in the Black Forest on Christmas Eve in the middle of a snowstorm to go drink wine at 11 AM. I’m kind of in love with Germany.” <3

After a delicious lunch, we went back home to rest a bit before the church service that evening. This family is Catholic, and I am Lutheran, so it was my first time in Mass for a while. The service was quite beautiful, and I enjoyed singing the Christmas songs in German.

Once Mass was done, we went back home and the children (including me) were not allowed into the living room while the parents set up for Christmas. When we finally were allowed in, the presents were under the tree, and my family was on webcam, along with the son of my host family who is currently living in America with my family (long story). But they watched us open up presents and sing Christmas songs, and it was really nice. The host family really was too generous to me, and it was a beautiful Christmas Eve. It felt strange to know that I had opened all of my presents before it was even Christmas day in America, though. We had a dinner of lots of little delicacies, like salmon and special meats and so on, I went to bed that night feeling surprisingly at home.

Christmas day we drove three hours to Wetzlar to visit the paternal grandparents of the family. Right after we got there in the late afternoon, we had tea and cakes, and then that evening we had fondue, and talked with one another until after midnight. The next morning I got up and met with the son and the mother of one of my mom’s friends– another one of our random connections to Germany. We talked for perhaps an hour, and the son took me on a driving tour of Wetzlar before returning me to my host family. Wetzlar is an adorable little town with interesting history– Goethe lived there when he wrote Werther, for instance– and I’d love to go back.

The host family and I then drove to Usingen, where the maternal grandparents live. We had the traditional Christmas dinner with them: goose, potato dumplings, and red cabbage. After sitting and chatting a bit, the parents and I said goodbye to the kids, who stayed with their grandparents, and we drove all the way back to Gundelfingen, a drive made longer than necessary by the fact that it had been snowing on and off since Christmas Eve.

I left Gundelfingen on the 29th to visit my other host family, who lives in Dörnberg, a small village not far from Kassel. It was nice to be with them, too– the family dynamic is different. The family in Gundelfingen has children who are younger than me, The oldest is 16, the middle 15, and the youngest 10. With the family in Dörnberg, the daughter (who was an exchange student with my family in high school) is about my age and is also in college. We commiserated, because we both had a load of work to do over the break and it was No Fun. Most of the time I spent with this family was spent doing homework, so I don’t have as many exciting adventure stories about Kassel, unfortunately.

New Year’s Eve, however, was spent at the daughter’s boyfriend’s house. We mostly played video games and chatted until midnight, when all of a sudden EVERYONE went out into the streets to set off fireworks. Children were running around with sparklers, church bells everywhere were tolling, and you could see fireworks and smell smoke everyhere. It was one of the most awe-inspiring, beautiful things I’d ever seen, because I felt like everyone was celebrating the new year… But all I could think was, “I really wish my friends and family were here so they could see this.”

I’m looking forward to 2011. I turn 21, though that doesn’t mean much in Germany. It’s the year when three of my friends are coming to study in three different countries in Europe, giving me new visiting opportunities, and when a few more friends might drop by good ol’ Germany to visit me. My mom and my aunt are coming at the end of February, my sister might visit in May or June, and my brother and dad might come together in the summer. I will be going to Vienna, Rome, Paris, Utrecht, Amsterdam, and possibly London, Venice, and Salzburg if all goes well. I go home in 2011, and it is also the year I become a senior, which is mildly terrifying. I’m going to try to make 2011 the best year I’ve ever had so far, and I hope it treats you all well too.

German Emigration Center Bremerhaven

Posted on November 30, 2010 by

by Douglas Murray ’12

This past Thursday, the 18^th of November, our “Dickinson” (German 340) class here in Bremen went to the Deutsches Auswandererhaus Bremerhaven or the German Emigration Center in Bremerhaven, Germany. Along with Professor Ludwig and a few other German students, we traveled by train from Bremen to Bremen’s port, Bremerhaven. In 1827 the city of Bremen purchased the land that is today Bremerhaven because the Weser River in Bremen was too shallow for large trade ships. Therefore, Bremerhaven has since been an integral part of both Bremen’s trade-oriented economy and emigration.

Upon arrival at the museum in Bremerhaven, we waited a few minutes before starting the tour. The tour assigns each person an actual emigrant from the past who left Germany or Central Europe for the New World. It was very interesting to follow this person’s progression through Bremerhaven’s port and eventually their arrival in the New World. Once the tour started, I was impressed to find that it wasn’t a stereotypical museum. This museum was based upon interaction and had numerous stations and displays set up throughout the exhibitions. Each different room featured a scene that actually emigrants experienced years ago. Whether it was the harbor with a life-size transport ship anchored waiting for you to board or the internal compartments of the ship that showed where the emigrants lived during the journey across the Atlantic, this museum really set up a realistic experience.

My favorite part of the tour was the room we entered immediately before boarding the model transport ship. This room was fashioned after an old library or a room used to hold various files and records. Decorated with various maps and diagrams depicting the 18^th and 19^th centuries, you really felt like you were several centuries back in time. Many of the drawers on the walls slid open and revealed interesting facts about the emigrants. The most interesting immigrant to the US that I found was Levi Strauss who left Bremerhaven a few years before 1850 for better economic opportunities in the states. The fact that you could actually relate well-known historical figures like Strauss to the some 7 million emigrants who left Bremerhaven, really fascinated me.

At the end of the tour our group was guided to a bright room filled with computers and other displays. Here you could search through various databases to find ancestors who left Europe for the New World. Since various nationalities traveled through Bremerhaven for the New World, one did not need German ancestry to find distant relatives. However, I was not able to find any of my family’s ancestors in the databases because I did not bring the proper information.

Overall I would say visiting the museum was a really good experience. Being an American, one always hears about all of the immigration and diversity that makes our country what it is today. This museum really highlighted the sheer number of emigrants who left Europe for the New World, mainly the United States, and put into perspective how difficult their struggle was.

Impressions of Bremen

Posted on November 15, 2010 by

by Samantha Claussen ’12

Whenever I talk to people back home about what it’s like in Bremen, I always find myself talking about the big, general impressions. They’re easy to talk about: the University, my classes, the old city and the landmarks there, the various markets and celebrations they have, how dark and cold it’s starting to become… These are all important things to get a general picture of Bremen, but they’re not the reason I find myself growing more and more attached to this city. No, it’s the little things that I’ve noticed that really make me adore the city and its uniqueness, the ones that I forget to tell my friends and family about when I’m Skyping and chatting, because the little things don’t pop out at me unless they’re right in front of me. So I guess this entry is a list of tiny things in Bremen, things that you might not pick up on just by going to the big tourist attractions. And this isn’t even all of them, because like I said, these things don’t occur to me unless they’re right there.

There are strange quirks that the city has, like the odd sculpture of monkeys in front of the central train station, or the disquieting statues of three bikers and two joggers on the main walkway at the University. There’s the Bleikeller, the Lead Cellar, tucked away in the basement of the Cathedral, with an eerie display of bodies that were naturally mummified. And I’ve seen a few statues in a number of places that remind me of variations of the Cow Parade, the statues of cows that are painted with different themes. The Bremen take on this, however, is done with a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster, after the Bremen Musicians.

And then there are the tiny details that you don’t pick up on unless you’re paying close attention. The sewer covers have tiny keys stamped into them, the symbol of Bremen, and bottles of Beck’s also share the key as a symbol. There is a mouse in the Cathedral, though I can’t tell you the story about that one—you have to be a true Bremer to be privy to that information. 😉 There’s the reason the Roland faces the Cathedral—he was built as a symbolic balance of the power of the city and personal rights versus the power of the Church. The whole city is steeped in history, and it seems like around every corner there’s a story hidden, waiting to be discovered. The details snowball together until all of a sudden you have a picture of the city that could never be imagined just by reading up on the landmarks and snapping pictures on a tour.

You can fit right into Bremen by doing something small, like wearing a Werder Bremen scarf. I went out into the city yesterday, a game day, wearing one, even though I didn’t go to watch the game myself—I had other things to take care of. But I heard the results of the game on the radio as I stopped at a kiosk for a snack (0-0, unfortunately), and watched streams of people wearing green and white returning from the stadium. Because I ended up walking back in the same direction as the people who were at the game and had identified myself as a Werder fan, I got stopped several times by people who wanted to know what the score was. I was even stopped by a couple women who asked for directions to the central station.

When it comes down to it, however, it’s people that really bring everything together. While chatting with a classmate as we waited for the bus, an old woman picked up on the fact that I was from the US, as we were comparing Uni Bremen and Dickinson. She told me in English, with a perfect British accent, that she had studied in the US in 1951 and later returned on a Fulbright scholarship, and that she understood that it was hard to go to a new country and learn in a completely different language. She told me, with a very warm smile, that she was confident that I would overcome challenges presented to me and succeed at the University of Bremen, and then serenely bid me farewell as her tram arrived. A brief, five-minute conversation like that would never have happened if I were just a tourist. I’m happy to be here, and I love all the little details that make up my Bremen experience.

Everything is more extreme in Hamburg

Posted on November 8, 2010 by

by Julie King ’12

Saturday October 23rd we had our first Dickinson excursion outside of Bremen. With our semester tickets we can take regional trains to a good number of cities within Niedersachsen, the state surrounding Bremen, and we can go to Hamburg, which, like Bremen, is one of the three city-states in Germany, the third being Berlin.

We left our apartment at 7:10am to meet at the central station at 8:00am. As awesome as German public transportation is, the street trams don’t start at our stop until 8:00am on the weekends, so we had to walk part of the way at what we college students consider an ungodly hour – especially considering that here at 54 degrees North, the sun doesn’t rise until close to 8:00.

We pulled into the Hamburg central station around 9:30am for what was actually my second visit to Hamburg. Earlier in the month Insa, Bill, Doug and I went to Hamburg for an evening. My first visit we walked around Speicherstadt, which is a canal-filled warehouse district built in the late 1800′s. It’s a beautiful district, and later I was surprised to learn that Hamburg actually has more bridges than Venice. Later in the evening we got a taste of the Redlight District along the famous Reeperbahn (street) before catching heading home at a reasonable 11:00pm. (In reference to the title, I must say that Hamburg’s Redlight area is a District, whereas in Bremen it is only a short street).

Our official Dickinson visit to Bremen was a more wholesomely educational trip.

Hamburg Rathaus

It started out with a tour of the city hall, which in my opinion was a little excessive. (I prefer the older, smaller, more approachable Bremer Rathaus). The current Hamburg Rathaus is actually the “new” city hall, built between 1886 to 1897 ; the original burned down in the great fire of 1848. The new city hall has hundreds of rooms, each of which are lavishly decorated, to house the Hamburg senate and parliament, as well as two mayors. Some of the rooms have leather covered walls bedazzled with Hanseatic or Hamburg related designs.

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and the Dickinsonians

The most massive hall even had chandeliers so large that they weigh 1.5 tons each. My favorite fact from the tour, is that on New Year’s day city hall is open to the public so that you can personally wish the mayor “Happy New Year,” just be prepared to wait a long time in line. After the Rathaus tour we took a slight detour to have a group photo in front of Lessing, one of Germany’s most famous writers. The only ones I can think of are the ones I have read, “Emilia Galotti”, Nathan der Weise, and a fable “Der Rabe und der Fuchs” (the raven and the fox).

Our next activity was a boat tour of the Hamburg harbor.

Hamburg Habor

Germany’s biggest port and the second biggest/busiest port in Europe after Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Despite the cold and the wind, we (or at least I) enjoyed more than an hour of sightseeing and information from our humorous tour guide who used to be sailor on one of the massive container ships. Also hidden in port amongst all of the commercial ships was the world’s largest and most expensive personal yacht, owned by Roman Abramovich (the 4th richest man in Russia who also owns FC Chelsea). Overall, my favorite part of the boat tour was just seeing the Hamburg shoreline because of the variety of the ages and styles of all the different buildings.

By time we were done with our boat tour, we were all quite hungry and ready for lunch at Joh. Albrecht Brauhaus, right along one of the canals. We each got a delicious house draught beer. I had a delicious bowl of pumpkin soup for an appetizer and a vegetable “Flammkuchen,” which is sort of like a flatbread pizza.

After our leisurely lunch we took the subway to the St. Michaelis church. Supposedly it is one of the more famous churches in Germany, which it must be considering Loki Schmidt’s funeral was held there earlier this week. (She’s the German equivalent of Nancy Reagan). To work off our generous lunch, we climbed 400 steps to the top of the tower for a beautiful view of Hamburg.

The weather worsened and just as we arrived in Sternschanze, the artsy, liberal, young area of Hamburg, which is…surprise… a bigger, dirtier version of Bremen’s Viertel. The rain was a good excuse to pop into to a coffee shop where we enjoyed a hot beverage and lively discourse. After that we decided it was time to head home, and had an uneventful, sleepy ride back to Bremen.

Crests of Hamburg (left) and Bremen (right)

Overall, I really like Hamburg, and I’m pretty sure I’ll go back, especially considering it’s free with our semester ticket. It’s even been recommended a few times that we go to Hamburg to go to the clubs and then stay out so late that we go to fish market when it opens and take the first train back to Bremen. I’m not sure I’m up to European party stamina yet, but perhaps before the end of the year I will try it. But for those of you who don’t know, Hamburg is called the “das Tor zur Welt” the gate to the world because of its port and its crest, but the joke in Bremen is: Hamburg may be the gate to the world, but Bremen has the key (because the Bremen crest is a key).