Today was a new day, as most days are, and equally filled with the promise of learning.
To start off our day, the group headed to the East Side Galley this morning to look at the remains of the Berlin Wall. It was a surreal experience to say the least. I don’t know if it was my mindset and immersion into the history that made it feel so real to me or the fact that this area was steeped in so much hatred, but I felt the difference between East and West, which I will try my best to explain.
The West side of the wall sits right in front of a major road. It is loud and bustling and feels lively as well as populated. The East side, on the other hand, backs up to a sparse and empty field. It was quiet other than the wind which was blocked on the other side. Eerie because I was colder on the East side, much as it was when the wall was erect. It was odd to think that if this was the Cold War, I would’ve been standing in a place that would have found me shot by guards in a heartbeat. The hatred was still palpable to me, as was the angst with the idea that a government could actually inflict such atrocities on its people. Not to say I’m naive, I understand that this type of thing happens all the time, but my idealistic brain has trouble comprehending how people do horrible things to each other.
For our media visit today, we met with Fabian von der Mark at Deutsche Welle who told us all about the publicly run broadcasting station. The most interesting he mentioned was that Deutsche Welle, at it’s inception, was comparable to the Voice of America at the time. It was not meant to be a PR arm for the government to fix the reputation issue post World War II, but a way to show the rest of the world what German culture is and reach people with little access to information. That seemed like a very noble and objective cause that I could identify with. Mr. von der Mark was such a warmhearted man who seemed quite excited that we were visiting, not burdened at all, which made the visit all that much more enjoyable. He even took us to the roof for a panoramic view of Berlin. Another amazing experience, in an amazing place.
I decided to stay in tonight. Honestly in real life, I’m kind of boring. My 90-year-old-woman-stuck-in-a-19-year-old’s-body self has not reacted well to all this activity and I was ready for a nap and some alone time to reflect. All-in-all a good day.
Until next time.
Michelle
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