Although I have chosen to reflect specifically on my time in Germany, my STEP project was a transformative excursion throughout Europe. In London, Normandy, Paris, Krakow, and Berlin, I studied World War II where it happened. My STEP funds enabled me to see the world and learn about myself before graduation.
My month long journey throughout Europe was my first real trip abroad. It forced me to learn how to travel, both on my own and in a group. It was challenging to see five countries in fewer than four weeks, and the rigorous schedule certainly pushed me to my limits. Nonetheless, it was incredible to interact with foreign cultures and histories. The trip helped me discover how much I value encountering and engaging with different perspectives. It certainly made me want to travel more in the future.
I discovered my interest in traveling more often because of my desire to explore Europe in greater depth on my own. One of the sites that stoked my intellectual curiosity was the Churchill War Rooms in London. These immersive exhibits brought a British perspective of World War II to life. However, the Churchillian perspective might not be the same as an Irish one. In essence, I discovered my appreciation for travel because of my love for history.
I developed an appreciation for new foods and drinks while abroad, which also fostered a desire to travel more often. In Paris, I enjoyed Alsatian pizza and Bordeaux wines. In Krakow, I ate perogies that reminded me of my Polish great-grandparents. In Berlin, I drank hefewizen and sampled weisswurst. I would not have had the opportunity to try these authentic cuisines without STEP funds. Furthermore, I got to try these new things among a group of my peers, which was really special.
The trip leaders, Drs. Steigerwald and Breyfogle, also inspired me to become more cultured and better traveled. Although I could have graduated before May 2020 when I embarked on my STEP project, I am glad that I stayed to travel with Steigerwald and Breyfogle. They were excellent, insightful guides that I could not have spent so much time with otherwise. Their mentorship showed me the type of person I wanted to be after graduation, and they were very encouraging even when the trip itself was strenuous. It was a privilege to receive course credit from them while seeing the world in a completely different light.
It is unique to be able to look back on this trip with the perspective of a college graduate. I believe that my STEP project – while not always easy – prepared me for the rigors of life after graduation. Travel taught me self-reliance. Grappling with history made me thankful for the sacrifices of the past and optimistic about the prospects of the future. Just looking back on photos of the sites prompts me to think, “Wow! I was really there.” Without STEP funds, my experience might not have been possible, and it certainly would not have been cheap enough to dissuade me from graduating in Spring 2019.
I now work at the Ohio Statehouse, where history surrounds and captivates me everyday. My new role is exciting and meaningful, but I doubt that I would appreciate it as much without the perspective that my STEP project offered me. Had I graduated before the trip, I might not have my current position. I definitely would not have as much to think about and reflect on after six months. An understanding of history has always been indispensable for public service. My time abroad enhanced my knowledge of history while building up my desire to help others. I am grateful to Ohio State for creating and funding the STEP program, and I look forward to sharing my experience with others.
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Germany does not shirk from its collective responsibility for World War II and the Holocaust. The German Historical Museum, for example, does not sugarcoat popular support for the Nazi Party during the interwar period. Instead, historians ask how the Nazis obtained power and why they were able to keep it. By answering these difficult questions, the Federal Republic of Germany acknowledges and wrestles with its dark past, which proves that democracy is never guaranteed in our turbulent world but it can rise out of our darkest experiences.
The Topography of Terror Museum documents the rise and ruthlessness of the Nazi Party through propaganda, intimidation, and violence. The steel building stands where the Gestapo Headquarters and Reich Main Security Office once stood. It was here at Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse that Gleichschaltung (i.e. the totalitarian process of subjugating every element of society to Adolf Hitler) became a reality. To solidify their grip on power, Nazi brownshirts arrested political opponents in the Reichstag, paraded elected officials through the streets, terrorized German-Jews, and persecuted the professional classes. Under Heinrich Himmler and Reinhart Heydrich, the Reich Main Security Office fused police forces into the ranks of the SS. The Museum includes pictures of Nazi officials alongside walls of text that explain the roles of individuals in Nazi terrorism. The Nazis targeted the upper echelons of German civil society and removed safeguards that should prevent the acceptance of evil regimes and boundless war.
The Bendlerblock Memorial to German Resistance remembers the few with the courage to oppose the Nazi regime in its atmosphere of terror, especially those who sacrificed their lives in the July 20, 1944 attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. One could easily miss the unassuming courtyard where firings squads executed Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators. The Memorial consists of a stone slab, two copper plaques, and a statue of a naked and bound man. It does not make excuses for the plot’s failure or conjecture about what might have been. In Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt noted that key leaders of Operation Valkyrie planned to ask for a separate peace as well as other terms to which the Allies would never have agreed. Instead, the Memorial humbly and factually reminds visitors that some paid the ultimate price in defiance of Hitler’s Germany. The Bendlerblock also contains a series of exhibits on resistance from individuals in many segments of German society, including the army, churches, schools, and governments. While resistance to Nazi Germany was anything but widespread, the Bendlerblock Memorial shows that the Nazis failed to eradicate civil society.
After World War II, Germany was realistic about its culpability for the Nazi regime. Unlike postwar France, there were no myths of a vast and powerful resistance. It was undeniable that many contributed to the collapse of the young Weimar Republic into the Third Reich. The Reich Chancellery and Reichstag lay in ruins, and rubble filled the streets of Berlin until 1950. The Führer Bunker where Hitler took his own life is now a parking lot. From ground zero, Germans participated in de-Nazification and formed a new government. After its reunification in 1990, the Federal Republic of Germany was – arguably – the most modern democracy in the world. The Bundestag, formerly the Reichstag, reflects postwar Germany’s dark history and impressive progress through its design. I interpreted its open glass top as indicative of the transparency necessary for parliamentary representation. There is preserved graffiti from Soviet soldiers on the walls. Germany is a product of its experiences, and it does not intend for the suffering of its people (esp. victims and resistors) to be in vain. With democracy in crisis across the West, perhaps the future lies in remembering the darkness of Germany’s past alongside the mirrors and light of the Bundestag spire.
Giving a presentation at the Bendlerblock where the July 20 conspirators against Adolf Hitler were executed by the state.