Berlin was the most interesting city we visited because it is heavily shaped by the effects of the war, more so than London or Paris.  Despite World War II having ended over seventy years ago, remnants Berlin’s past as the capital of Nazi Germany are still present throughout the city.  My preconceived ideas about Berlin were that it is a modern city with little remains from the Nazi era.  After visiting Berlin, I realized it was both a modern city with remnants from its Nazi past openly throughout the city.

It seemed as though on every street corner you could find a building or monument marked off to commemorate victims of the Nazi régime.  For instance, outside our hotel there are stone markers on the sidewalk to commemorate the Jews who lived at that address and were deported.  On the Berlin skyline you can see the building of the chemical company BASF – formerly known as IG Farben – who made the Zyklon B for the Nazi gas chambers.  Or even just the random building covered in bullet holes from the war remains as a constant reminder of Germany’s past.

Bullet holes in a building

The Bundestag – German Parliament – is a great example how the German people acknowledged their Nazi past but are looking forward towards the future.  The Bundestag was built in 1995 after the reunification of Germany and is proud monument for Germans as it represents their democratic ideals.  The design of the German parliament is very modern inside and made of all glass so that the people can have a transparent democracy and literally watch parliament in session.  The structure of the building is the original Reichstag building which has some association with the Nazis, although the Nazis never used it during their reign.  There was a major battle for the Reichstag and when the Soviet soldiers captured it they drew graffiti on the inner walls.  The graffiti can still be seen today and is a reminder of their past inside parliament.  It is almost as if they gutted out the Reichstag building, which represented the old Germany, and built their new democracy from within.  The idea of what the new Bundestag represents was important for the woman who gave us a tour of the Bundestag as she told us her grandfather was a member of parliament and ousted when the Nazis came to power.

Bundestag

In the end, Germany is a country that acknowledges the past that is present throughout the city, but looks towards the future.  It was really amazing to see how even though the war ended, it really would have been impossible to totally de-Nazify all the memories of the war throughout the city.  The new Bundestag acts as the piece of Germany that is looking towards the future as it is built within the remains of the past.

Our last stop on our European tour was Berlin, Germany. Germany has always been a country that I have wanted to visit. Many of my ancestors come from Germany. Not only that, but throughout my study of history Germany has always been a country that has shown up frequently, and after being in Berlin it’s easy to see why. There is history engrained everywhere into the city, just like every other city we visited in our tour across Europe. However, there was something different about the way history could be found in Berlin. In London and Paris the historical sites were more noticeable. It was easy to see the difference between the historical buildings and sites in these cities. The pieces of history found throughout Berlin were more embedded.

One of the most unexpected places where historical significance can be found is in the crosswalk lights. It’s a little man in a hat, referred to as ampelmann. He was originally from East Berlin back when the city was divided in two by the Berlin Wall. When the wall came down West Berlin also decided to adopt ampelmann as their crosswalk lights. Ampelmann has grown into such a phenomenon that stores can be found throughout the city selling ampelmann merchandise. It’s a simple reference to Berlin’s history but it is everywhere in the city and serves as a good reminder of the combining of East and West Berlin.

Graffiti found on the side of the Berlin Wall.

Another place where history is engrained into the city of Berlin is in the graffiti and street art the visitors and locals alike can see everyday when walking around. This first most obvious place where street art and graffiti can be found is on the Berlin Wall. Throughout our time in Berlin we saw several different sections of the Berlin Wall. The first was one of the largest pieces of the wall that was still standing. Located in front of the Topography of Terror Museum. There were large amounts of graffiti on this piece of the wall but one of the most prominent declared “Save our Planet.” The Berlin Wall is obviously a significant part of the city’s history but the art and the graffiti found on it shows how popular culture can be combined with places of historical significance.

Berlin is a city that doesn’t try and draw attention to its history. Instead, it integrates the history and makes sure to integrate it into the modern scene. This is why I loved stopping here. It didn’t take very long to begin exploring the rich history of Berlin.

Our first night in Bayeux, I had a conversation with Professor Davidson at our group dinner about how different cultures approach the arts. We discussed that Americans have a high-cultured approach to the arts. There is an idea that the arts are reserved for elites or someone “other.” It is as if only the ritzy couples in fur coats can go to the ballet or the eccentric enthusiasts can appreciate a modern art exhibition. There is a barrier between public life and artists. The arts seem above and disconnected from the quotidian rather than reflective of it.

Finances, availability, and exposure decrease American accessibility to the arts. Certainly, admission rates are enough to dissuade those on the fence. Yet, in the eyes of many American artists, reduced admissions fees devalue their work rather than promote it. It is notable that Berlin’s museums and performances are much less costly and offer ample discounts.

A portion of the Berlin Wall, currently displayed as the East Side Gallery.

Prof. Davidson explained that there is a “come as you are” approach to the arts throughout most of Europe, particularly Germany. In other words, the arts are meant for everybody, in every state, bringing whatever they have to offer. A night at the symphony elicits visions of dollar signs in the heads of Americans. In Berlin, these events are accessible to everyone, even college students. Art is affordable, recognizable, and advertised. It is available and appreciated.

When I arrived in Berlin, the streets colored in graffiti and murals suggested this same idea. In many ways, Berlin feels like a city-wide art exhibition. There is hardly a building left unmarked by the tags of gangs or the murals of street artists. Berliners not only appreciate art, they create it.

An artist paints the Wall in the East Side Gallery, coloring the history of Berlin.

I wondered what ignited such a strong sense of artistry in this city. Every corner seems to have been claimed by an artist, or at the very least someone with a can of spray paint and an idea. During the Third Reich, this spectrum of art was truncated. Hitler deemed many artists and their works, namely Jewish and Expressionist artists, as “degenerate.” He not only devalued their work, he rendered it meaningless. The National Socialist takeover erased freedom of creativity from the lives of German artists.

The abundance of art decorating the streets of Berlin depicts a reclamation of artistry. Abstraction, emotion, and expression are once again produced and appreciated. Artists can practice their work without inhibition. With the streets of Berlin as their canvas, Berliners put art in the spotlight and paint vibrancy over a void of creativity left by the Nazis.

Dancing To Freedom: another segment of the Berlin Wall.

I began thinking about my own place in the world as an artist. Moving and discovering, articulating a thought or a fragment of one, and honing strategies and techniques are catalysts for me as an artist. As I move and create, I am driven by a desire to find realities. I work to make sense and to connect to the world around me instead of leaving things—dance, theater, history, and current events—behind as if they are isolated.

The art of Berlin accomplishes much of the same. Every building tells a story of Germany through its architecture and an artist’s claim that overlaps it. Germany has not left its history behind, but displayed it throughout the streets.

Art is a life. Within it I find a reality laced with the intricacies of creating, being, and a work in progress. What a beautiful life to be preserved in time and space. What an amazing history etched into the walls of Berlin.

Graffiti near our hotel on Stresemannstrasse.

Berlin is one of the most historic sites in regards to World War II as well as one of the most well-known cities in Europe, so I was extremely excited about the opportunity to see it in person. Walking throughout Berlin was very interesting. Compared to places like London and Paris, it didn’t feel as city-like; it almost felt more like walking through suburbs. Sure there were subway stations, but there weren’t too many sky-scrapers and the streets were not nearly as crowded relatively speaking. As far as the food went though, I was more than pleased. There were bratwurst stands everywhere and the German doners were pretty amazing themselves.

But one of the other big parts of Berlin was its history from World War II and the Berlin Wall that was littered all over the city. There seemed to be signs with pictures and information at almost every historic site, regardless of what was left from it. There were numerous signs about the Berlin Wall and its history in certain areas. Some places had remnants of the Wall left, like by the Topography of Terror museum, while other areas had bricks laid down across the sidewalks and streets to show exactly where the wall ran across.

As far as World War II goes, there were some small plaques on the sidewalks to show where Jews were taken from their homes to be killed during the Nazi era. They also had a sign at what was formerly the Fuhrer Bunker, which laid out information about the Bunker and its history during World War II. It was very weird to see signs showing how the Bunker was right underneath what is now currently a parking lot and a hotel. Interestingly, the museums weren’t much different. Many of the other museums we have seen on the trip seemed to have a lot of artifacts from World War II and told a bit of a history about their involvement in the war, but you could always see a bit of the nationalism in their telling of the history as well. The French museums, for example, placed a strong emphasis on Charles de Gaulle trying to mobilize a resistance and seemed to downplay Petain and Vichy’s government as more of “a few bad apples.” Meanwhile we know that the French resistance wasn’t really big enough to make a strong impact on the war as a whole and the Vichy government garnered a lot more support than they made it seem like, and they collaborated with the Nazis much more than they needed to. Germany, meanwhile, seemed to at least try and take a much more objective approach at the war. Granted they definitely wanted you to believe what they were telling you, it was mostly just reading signs with statistics and facts from the war. We saw this in every museum we went to. They were mostly placed at historic sites, but their content was all presented the same way with just a different aspect of the war that they focused on.

Building in Berlin that is still riddled with bullet holes from World War II, showing how much of it’s history is still left in the city.

Seeing the way that Berlin, and all of these countries presented World War II differently definitely has made me begin to question my own views on it and we are presented history in the United States. In the U.S., we are taught that the U.S. played a very heroic part in the war and that we were definitely the good guys and essentially saviors of Europe. But perhaps we need to question how we present World War II and the Holocaust ourselves as after all, history is always written by the victors.

Final stop. Berlin, Germany.

Being from Cincinnati, it is well assumed that there is some German linage in me, about 50% actually. I’ve grown up with the Hofbrauhaus down the street and traditional German food my entire life so there was no one surprised when I was most excited to visit Berlin. The atmosphere from the beginning was much different than I expected. On the first night we had a meal that contained traditional German dishes. I was used to sauerkraut and pork but let me tell you this was far better than any food I could get at home. Surprisingly enough this would be the last “real” meal I ate in Germany. The rest of the time I spent eating bratwurst and currywurst from street vendors.

Enjoying some of the most delicious bratwursts.

After being in Poland, I knew how delicious street food could be but this was something completely different. The frites that came with them were some of the greatest French fries I have ever eaten. Everything about Germany seemed relatively simple. The building were all much newer than the previous cities and there didn’t seem to be a huge rush to get anywhere. The most interesting thing I found was that most businesses were closed on Mondays.

As we began to explore museums and historical sites, we were given an even newer perspective. We were seeing the war from the eyes of those responsible for it. Most of the museums were much more factual than any we had seen before. They contained no sense of nationalism or emotion. I was also surprised to learn that German school children must visit a certain number of holocaust informational or memorial cites in a certain period to enhance their curriculum. This might be the most powerful way that Germany is taking responsibility. This complete acceptance of responsibility for their part in the war is being turned into a learning tool to help Germany stay a part of the Western World.  I think putting Germany at the end of our trip increased my knowledge to let me see just how much responsibility they took for the war. A tour guide told us her Grandmother was a part of the war and when asked about it she always said she didn’t want to talk about it or that it was the Nazis and not the peoples fault. It’s surprising to me that the next generation had to be the ones to change the views and education to reflect the faults in the German past.

View from the top of the Bundestag.

The place I found most nationalistic was the Bundestag, the home of the German parliament. Here it was repeated over and over how much the city believes and supports democratic ideals. The architecture even led to the ideal of the people being the main voice in government decisions.

Berlin is known to be the site of division of the eastern and western worlds because of the Berlin Wall. Going into the city I had no idea the size or power of this wall. After visiting the eastern gallery, a small section of the wall dedicated to the art created on it, I began to gain a perspective of just how large the city was. This small part took around thirty to forty minutes to walk past. The gallery has dedicated their time and money to the upkeep of the wall. In 1990, a year after the wall fell, they had local artists use the remaining portions as a canvas. I found this incredibly inspiring as they took something that was so ugly and so destructive and made something incredibly beautiful. Most of the art encourages the viewers to look at their world and change what is wrong with it.

The 1936 Olympic stadium.

Overall, this city and the entire trip in general, gave me a new found appreciation for myself and the world around me. This journey has taught me not only that I am completely capable of navigating foreign countries but also that perspective is everything. Over time I have gained a certain beliefs or expectations of the world and this trip destroyed that. By immersing myself in so many different cultures I began to understand much more about the bubble I had been living in and how happy I was to change that. This journey will be one not soon forgotten and as I sit in the Orlando Airport I am desperately tempted to jump on a plane back to London. Over the last month I have been given so much more than I could’ve hoped and I couldn’t be more grateful.

The best people I have ever met.

żyje się tylko raz,

Catherine

Berlin, the heart of Germany. It was the heart of the Nazi Empire and it was a major component of the Cold War. Today the remnants of those dark times are clearly evident in the city. Unlike many of the places I’ve seen, Berlin doesn’t attempt to hide what they did during those times. From looking up at the buildings to looking down at the sidewalk and everything in between, I could see the lingering remains of what happened in Berlin during the 20^th century.

Train station that was bombed durring World War II. The front is all that remains.

Many of Berlin’s streets have some sort of relic of World War II. Only a few minutes’ walk from where I stayed, the remains of a major train station stand. The main entrance is all that remains, after significant bombing during the war left most of it in pieces. The place where it once stood has now since been turned into a park but there are still some remnants of what once was. Even the sidewalks have small plaques that represent where Jews were forced out of their homes and sent to ghettos and camps. These small reminders cover the city, almost forcing its inhabitants to relive the events of the city’s tragic past.

One of the most important reminders that one can find all over the city is the remains of the Berlin Wall. A line

A portion of the Berlin Wall that remains standing.

cuts through the city, showing the world where the wall had once stood. Even after 27 years, there is still a sense of a divide between the two sections of the city. Newly rebuilt areas of the city are still struggling to rejuvenate after being part of the no-man’s land that prevented people from going between East and West Berlin. What was once East Berlin seems to be lagging a bit behind West Berlin but despite the divide, Berlin is continuing on as it was meant to, as one city.

The biggest difference between Berlin and the rest of the world is how they have coped with what happened during World War II. Places like France and Poland seemed to glorify all the good they did during the war but completely disregarded anything that makes their nation look bad. Berlin is different.  Even the museums within Berlin show a significantly more objective point of view compared to any other place that I have been to in Europe. They are even teaching their children at a young age about what happened in this city and explaining how things got so bad.

Some buildings still have holes left by bullets during the Battle of Berlin.

Whether it be the Cold War or World War II, Berliners are constantly reminded of what had transpired there. I believe many cities should take note and follow Berlin’s example. You can’t change history no matter how hard one tries so instead of running from it, confront it and learn from the mistakes of the past. I think because Berlin doesn’t try to cover it up, the city has grown so much more than it would have otherwise. No city, that I can recall, has dealt with their complex history as Berlin and that is what separates this grand city from the rest.

The remains of Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof – still standing today as a symbol of German defeat in World War II

Berlin was the third of the great national capitals our group visited and the final stop on our journey through Europe.  After a seven-hour bus ride from Poland, our tired group arrived in the city.  Having experienced the greatness of both London and Paris, I had high expectations for Berlin.  Initially, I was somewhat disappointed

I was struck by the relative new-ness of everything, as well as how dingy it seemed.  Gone were the old buildings and grand architecture seen in London and Paris.  More than any other city I’d seen thus far, Berlin felt more like an American city than a European one.  Despite my relative disappointment, the city quickly grew on me.

The German Finance Ministry Building – an example of Nazi architecture – next to a remaining portion of the Berlin Wall. The bricks at the bottom of the frame are the remains of the old Gestapo headquarters

One of the aspects of Berlin that struck me were the many remnants of the city’s past I came across, despite the city’s “new” feel – specifically, remnants from the Nazi-era, as well as the Cold War.  The twentieth century was not kind to Berlin.  Much of the city was destroyed at the end of World War II in allied bombing raids and in the climactic Battle for Berlin, which resulted in the final defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the war in Europe.  Some of the remains of the old Gestapo Headquarters have been preserved, and today, a museum exists on top of the site, preserving the memory of terror, persecution, and genocide that defined the Nazi-era in Germany.  The former German Ministry of Aviation building (constructed in 1936) is one of the few buildings left from the Nazi-era.  I was surprised to learn that this building is still used by the German government today, housing the German Finance Ministry.  Smaller sites also remain, such as the Bendlerblock, which housed the General Army Offices during World War II.  Its courtyard served as the execution site of some of the July 20^th Plotters who attempted to assassinate Hitler in 1944, and today, the complex is a museum dedicated to the memory of German “resistance” against the Nazi regime.

The courtyard of the Bendlerblock – the execution site of some of the July 20th Plotters in 1944, including Claus von Stauffenberg. The final scenes of the 2008 film Valkyrie were filmed here

In other cities, these reminders of a hideous past might be swept under the rug, but in Berlin, they have instead been embraced as learning tools for future generations of Germans.  The city has made an effort to come to terms with its Nazi past.  Where direct sites of Nazi history are lacking, Berlin has attempted to create as many sites of remembrance as possible.  The Holocaust is the most shameful and embarrassing aspect of German history that, for decades, many Germans tried to ignore and move on from. Despite this fact, memorials of the genocide have been constructed all over the city.  The Tiergarten houses a number of memorials to the victims of Nazism (Roma, Sinti, the disabled and mentally handicapped, homosexuals, …).  Most impressive, however, is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.  Taking up an entire city block, the memorial is right at the heart of the city, next to the Brandenburg Gate, the American Embassy, and the Reichstag Building.  There could be no stronger effort to remember a humiliating past than a massive Holocaust memorial taking up such major real estate in the German capital.

A portion of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

This effort at coming to terms with the past is also reflected in the historical museum exhibits I went through in Berlin.  One of the most common excuses made by Germans ever since the end of the war is that the Nazis lacked popular support, and that the crimes committed under the Nazis (both before and during the war) were committed only by dedicated party members.  Such narratives make it all too easy for Germans to place the blame on a defined group (the Nazis) while glossing over their own complicity in the atrocities committed.  The museums in Berlin, however, tackle the matter of German complicity directly.  Time and again, when addressing the crimes of the Nazi-era, these museums address the perpetrators as “the Germans” rather than “the Nazis.”

One placard in particular at the German Historical Museum caught my attention, concerning the role of the German military in the Holocaust.  The “Final Solution” was primarily an operation conducted by the Waffen-SS, the military-wing of the Nazi Party.  Since the SS was separate from the German military (the Wehrmacht), many Germans have used this fact to argue that ordinary Germans in the Wehrmacht had no role in the Holocaust, and therefore, had no responsibility in the crimes of the Nazi-era.  Again, this narrative goes against reality; the Wehrmacht took part in a tremendous amount of war crimes, including the massacre of Poles, Jews, and Soviet POWs on the Eastern Front.  Avoiding the common excuse, the museum exhibit explicitly mentioned the role of the Wehrmacht in perpetuating the Holocaust, therefore wiping away any defense made for the general German population.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is located at the heart of the city. Next to the memorial in this photo is the United States Embassy

Unlike at the end of World War I, the German people truly felt defeat at the end of World War II.  Berlin was divided by the victorious powers at war’s end and was split into East and West by the Berlin Wall in 1961.  Despite the fall of the wall in 1989 and 1990, its remnants are everywhere throughout the city.  The standing sections of the wall today stand not only as a symbol of the Cold War, but, more importantly, as a symbol of defeat.  Germany bears a large responsibility for the suffering of the two World Wars in Europe.  The German people can’t ignore this, especially in a city like Berlin, where symbols of defeat (such as the Berlin Wall) remain.  Just a block away from our hotel was another symbol of German defeat – the remains of Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof – a great railway station destroyed by bombing during World War II.

Bricked paths run through the streets of Berlin, marking where the Berlin Wall once stood

Berlin is a city that has both accepted and learned from its past, precisely because of this defeat.  Unlike the victorious Allies, the Germans were forced to question their own past and their own sense of nationalism – to question their role in the widespread misery that accompanied the two World Wars and the Cold War.  I couldn’t help but compare Berlin with the other cities I have seen – London, Paris, and Kraków.  The British, the French, and the Poles were on the winning side of the war, and have never been forced to question their own national histories (history is written by the victors, right?).  As I mentioned in a previous post, the British still celebrate and glorify their former colonial empire, despite its legacy of oppression.  Likewise, the French, on the victorious side at the end of the war, were free to rewrite their own national history, lionizing Charles de Gaulle, the Free French, and the French resistance – all despite the fact that a majority of the French population accommodated their German occupiers and that thousands of Frenchmen actively aided in the Holocaust.

The glass dome of the newly renovated Reichstag Building, meant to symbolize democracy and political transparency

While London and Paris look back to a mythical national past, Berlin has tried to come to terms with its own harsh reality, and instead, looks forward to the future.  The Reichstag Building, renovated after German reunification in 1990, reflects this outlook: avoiding the grandiose architecture of other national capitals, the building embraces modernity and democracy.  Its glass dome stands as a symbol of political transparency.  This outlook is also reflected in present day politics.  In Britain, France, and Poland, nationalist movements are on the rise (UKIP in Britain, the National Front in France, the Law and Justice Party in Poland, …).  Germany, however, remains one of the few countries without a resurgent nationalist movement.  In the wake of the Syrian Refugee Crisis last year, Germany accepted hundreds of thousands of refugees into its borders, a move derided by nationalist movements in most other European countries.

Berlin is a city born of defeat, a defeat which, paradoxically I think, has made it stronger – prepared to accept its terrible past and to move forward.  On a section of the Wall in East Berlin is a quote from the Austrian Poet, Erich Fried: “he who wants the world to remain as it is doesn’t want it to remain at all.”

“He who wants the world to remain as it is doesn’t want it to remain at all.”

The glass dome that sits on top of the Bundestag. It allows any person 360 view of Berlin.

During one of our days here in Berlin, we got a tour of the Bundestag, the German parliament building. As our tour began, our guide pointed out how easy it was to see from one side of the Bundestag to the other and how the heavy usage of glass within the building made it possible for a person outside the building to see into the main chamber of the Bundestag. The tour guide made sure to emphasize that the Bundestag was created around the idea of visibility and that nothing was hidden from the public. (German citizens are actually free to sit in on government sessions if they really want to know what is going on in their government.) I feel that the concept of visibility can also be extended to how Berlin chooses to teach people about the Second World War. Out of all of the cities we have traveled through during this trip I feel that Berlin has the most comprehensive memory of the Second World War. There are monuments and museums for the villains and the victims, the well-known figures and the average people, for Germans and non-Germans.

Three small plaques situated in the sidewalk right outside of our hotel in Berlin mark the place where three people were deported from Berlin during the war.

On our first full day in Berlin, we headed for the German Historical Museum where we visited their modern warfare wing. I have to say that I felt a little overwhelmed with just how much information the museum was giving us. Everywhere I looked there were pictures, old propaganda posters, newspaper clippings, and a seemingly never-ending wall of text that worked to tell the tale of Germany through the twentieth century. I felt like all the information was presented to us in an unbiased fashion and that nothing was hidden. After the German Historical Museum we headed to the Topography of Terror museum which focused solely on the perpetrators of the war. Again, I felt overwhelmed by how much text there was in the museum, all of it focused on making sure the visitors knew the facts about the past.

The Memorial to the Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism, tucked away in a corner of the Tiergarten. This memorial, dedicated in 2008, is the third of only 3 memorials in all of Germany dedicated to the gay victims of the Holocaust.

Considering the fact that Germany was the main perpetrator, I wasn’t that surprised by how many statues, memorials, and museums there were dedicated to the victims of the war. I found that the memorials could be extremely vague sometimes and other times so specific that it was dedicated to one person. During our first day in Berlin, we briefly visited the Neue Wache which houses the National Memorial to the Victims of War and Tyranny. This memorial seemed too broad of dedication to actually mean anything but perhaps they created the memorial in case a specific victim group felt unrepresented. When it comes to more specific examples, I found small memorials around town dedicated to individual victims of deportation and the Holocaust. It was a little chilling to look down at the small plaques in the middle of a sidewalk and think of how someone had been taken from that very spot years before and sent to a ghetto or a camp. Other memorials I visited that were dedicated to the victims of the Nazi regime was the Memorial to the Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, also known just as the Holocaust Memorial. The Holocaust Memorial is a large and relatively well known memorial within Berlin- every time I passed it there were plenty of people visiting the site –but the memorial to the persecuted homosexuals seemed not only just out of the way but also a little underwhelming. I understand that the persecution of the Jewish people was much more extensive and well known but perhaps it would have been better if the monument to the homosexual victims of the Holocaust was not tucked away in some dark corner of the Tiergarten and instead somewhere more visible.

A section of original graffiti written by Soviet soldiers in 1945 still remains on the walls of the Bundestag.

Something that I was initially surprised about was how many memorials to the Soviets there were around town. However, after some thinking, it made sense. The Soviets were the first to reach Berlin and liberated the city. After the war half of Berlin was put under Soviet control; it’s understandable that they wanted to make sure their people’s efforts were known and praised. Perhaps the most interesting nod to the Soviets I saw during my tour of the Bundestag. In one of the halls in the Bundestag there was still Soviet graffiti on the walls from when the Soviets took over the Bundestag during the fight for Berlin at the end of WWII. I definitely was not expecting the graffiti inside such a modern and clean building but it just serves as another example of Berlin putting its history out into the open.

The Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park was one of the largest memorials I’ve ever seen. The memorial was completed in 1949 and served as the main war memorial for East Germany.

Although there is still some room for improvement, Berlin is a city that works hard at coming to terms with its past and I am so thankful that I got the chance to experience such a city because of this study abroad program.

Berlin was a very different city from what I was expecting. As far as my knowledge of the city goes, I’ve generally only ever associated Berlin with World War II and the Cold War because of what I’ve learned in school and the lack of depth at which the information was taught. Nonetheless, I expected Berlin to 100% fully-vibrant all the time. A large part of Berlin is vibrant and vastly expressive, but the place is definitely a large Eastern-European city filled with its ups and downs. I loved the program activities we did here in Berlin (things like touring the Reichstag, going to Potsdam and Wannsee, and Treptower Park), but I definitely leave this city not feeling like I got to everything that I wanted to and not having the most pleasant experiences here. Part of this was sheer exhaustion from the first three weeks of travel, while another reason was having a nasty cold that even resulted in a trip to the ER. Regardless, I’ve noticed a couple different things that in my mind make Berlin, Berlin. This city is highly expressive in the way its citizens display their emotions, political viewpoints – really anything – through public art. I’ve also noticed that many Berliners are very friendly and especially towards Americans. I really got the sense that inter-continental relations amongst Americans and Berliners is something the latter quite enjoys in 2016.

The expressiveness of Berlin street art was vast and in many different forms. The East Side Gallery was a really cool example of this. Situated along the longest stretch remaining of the inside part of the Berlin Wall, the wall serves as a gallery for different artists to express themselves through paint. Regardless of what they’re art is trying to express – styles, religion, or politics, etc. – the main point in my observation of having this gallery is to express wholly freedom from the divisiveness caused by splitting up Berlin and Germany after World War II.

I acquired a really rather awful cold while traveling in Poland and the cold got even worse as we went to Berlin. I became congested, non-stop coughing, runny nose – the typical nastiness that happens when germs spread. After being prescribed aspirin and another cough-type medicine, I thought I was feeling better. In reality, I was, but wasn’t. With aspirin being a blood-thinner and me constantly blowing my nose, I guess I should have realized that a nosebleed would have been worse than normal, but I guess the pharmacist should have as well. So, on cue, I got a nose bleed after dinner one night and it just flowed like a river. I was freaked out. We got the bleeding stopped eventually but I still went to the ER for some tests just to make sure I was okay. While in the process of leaving and on my way there, I talked to the German EMTs who had come to help me out. As it turns out, we have a lot of similar interests. The three of them loved looking at my passport. Comparing it to a German passport, they described the differences between the two, mainly the American one having a lot more color and the various watermarks throughout the pages. On the ride over, we talked a little more, mainly about how I was causing them to miss a big soccer match on television, at which I prompted the guys about what they thought of American football. Immediately, the first one to respond says “crazy” and playfully thumps his hand in a fist on his head to simulate the brunt force of a helmet to helmet hit experienced in American football.

What was important to me about the conversation wasn’t the content, but more or less the ability to have such conversations. Seventy-five years ago, when all this war and destruction was taking place, this conversation wouldn’t have happened. The experience I had with the Berlin EMTs made the process even smoother than it already was. It was nice for that to be able to happen, and to see how far our two nations have come since the Second World War, because we know it wasn’t always like that. The conversations had reminded me of an episode of the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. During the episode “Why We Fight”’ Shifty Powers spoke on the same situation he wishes he could’ve had that I was able to take advantage of because of the efforts of him and so many others during the war. A rifleman in Easy Company for the 101st Airborne during the European campaign, Darrell ‘Shifty’ Powers expressed a solemn idea about the enemy while interviewed for commentary used in the series during its production in the early 2000s. “We might have had a lot in common. He might’ve liked to fish, you know, he might’ve liked to hunt.” Shifty said. “But under different circumstances, we might have been good friends.” Shifty understood who the enemy was, but definitely had the ideas in his head that things could have been different. I’m glad that in 2016 I can now communicate with and admire the Germans and have the same mutual respect for Berlin and for Germany. Berlin was a fitting end to my time here in Europe. I will be grateful for the time I spent here for the rest of my life.

The final stop on my study abroad tour brought me to Berlin, Germany from May 26 to May 31. Serving as the culmination of our efforts to study the European theater of World War II, we visited German and Soviet memorials as well as museums like the German Resistance museum and the SS museum. In addition, we visited the Reichstag, the place where the German parliament operates and also the location of an intense battle between Nazi and Soviet forces in the closing days of World War II. During my time in Germany, I was able to pinpoint an interesting cultural difference that I was surprised to encounter. In the United States, we love security. We’re hesitant to trust and we are big on making sure everything is fair. This is not always the same as what I’ve seen in Germany.

On top of the German Reichstag in Berlin.

When I’m at school in Columbus, I work at a job downtown. I have to use the bus system to get to work every day. Every time I want to board the bus, I have to swipe my card. If I don’t have my card, I won’t be able to get on the bus. That’s the way it is. In Germany, we got a pass to use the rail and bus system in Berlin. After we had it activated on our first ride, we never had to show it again. We merely had to walk into a station and board the train we needed. There were no ticket machines. We were told that occasionally men would walk around and check for tickets. However, I never saw them. This was even different from Paris and London, where we had to swipe our passes every time we wanted to enter the metro.

One of the remaining sections of the Berlin Wall.

Restaurants in Berlin were a place where I also noticed a cultural divide. In the United States, it is not rare for people well older than the drinking age to be carded. In Europe, I was never carded. I don’t think I can pass as an 18 year old anymore (the drinking age in most European countries), but I think there is a point to this. The Germans seemed more willing to trust the word of others. When we were done with our meal, we would often just walk up to the register and tell them what we ordered before paying. They took my word for it every time. This is unlike the American way of bringing checks to tables already detailing each expense.

Almost all of my classmates and one of our professors on the last night.

The last three weeks have been the wildest adventure of my life. England, France, Poland and now Germany have each offered me insight into different ways of life. This trip has given me so much that I know I have not only learned a lot and had many incredible experiences, but I have also grown as a person. In both big and small ways, my perspective has changed. For example, I had never previously had to pay to go to the bathroom. Now, I pull out my wallet every time I approach a restroom (not a big fan of this cultural difference). Being abroad has made me appreciate my life in the United States even more. The simple pleasures that we never take the time to appreciate have made me feel so blessed to be an American. At the same time, there is so much more to be seen in the world that doesn’t include free wifi, four bedroom houses in the subdivisions and modern skyscrapers. If you search, you will find. I found out many simple things. There are still old-fashioned squares where people gather to sell artwork and other materials (Krakow). If you try hard enough, you can take a picture that includes both an 800 year old prison and a modern skyscraper (London). I would have never guessed it was so easy to actually get lost in a museum (Louvre – Paris). Study abroad has made me realize that the world is out there waiting for you. Waiting to transform, enlighten or amaze you. A broadened perspective awaits on the other side. My sense of place has come in to question, but only in the way that I now see myself as a piece in an interconnected, global puzzle instead of on an island. What I learned abroad isn’t something you can take notes on in class or watch a video about. It’s an experience that can’t be tested or graded. You have to live it.

Thank you for following my journey,

Ben

Eyssen.5@osu.edu