Touring the Reichstag

Hallo Ohio!
From visiting the Reichstag to trying new things, I have had tremendous amounts of fun while also discovering some of the history about Berlin and learning about the culture.
Ever since learning about the German government in political science, I have come to greatly appreciate the differences in the German voting system and ours. I have done research about the Reichstag, which is where the German parliament meets, for my German class and was elated when I learned we would get a tour of the building in Berlin. The Reichstag is enormous; it has beautiful carvings all over it as well as a beautiful glass dome on the top which represents the concept of transparency. This dome signifies the ability of the German people to see what their government is doing and the words carved out into the front of the building read “to the German people”. The tour we took inside of the building was just as impressive as the architecture on the outside. There is modern artwork, remnants from the ruins after WW2, and the guide gave a thorough history of the building and its importance.

Besides being able to physically see something I’ve been researching and have been interested in for a while, I have been eating lots of delicious food, building closer relationships with the students I traveled here with and buying as much chocolate as I can possibly transport back to the United States.
Auf wiedersehen!

Text and images by Abigail