This was my favorite day yet! I think I may say this everyday, but this truly was my favorite day. We went to Axel Springer today, which is a HUGE publishing house in Germany. It’s a very modern building, even though it was built in the 1950s. Axel Springer is also an acadamy, which takes in students. Many apply, but only 20 are accepted. They are of all age ranges and most have a degree coming in. He told us that they range from 18-33. All students are given the tools they need. They are given a Mac, an iPhone and an iPad. Axel Springer teaches them how to use those tools and then they have the freedom to create. After completing their coursework at Axel Springer, they re required to take a job there, which is nice because that means they are guaranteed a job. Five of the students came in for a question and answer with us before we were able to see their newsroom, where the work. I was surprised to see how modern it was. Mac Computers were everywhere. I also learned that they bought custom made iPads that were huge.
We also got to learn about one of the papers Axel Springer puts out: Die Welt. Die Welt is your average classic newspaper. However, I was surprised about some of the information we were given. For example, Die Welt sells more of their app than they do actual papers. I found this astonishing, because we previously learned that Germany is slow when it comes to internet and only 72% of the people use it. I also seldom see people on tablets and more often see people reading a paper book or using a traditional print paper.
Later that night we went to the Reichstag, which is the German Parliament building. We were able to go in. We went up to the roof and we were able to get some pretty breathtaking pictures. You could go up farther than the roof too. We climbed all the way up to the top of the dome and the view was even better. It was beautiful! This was an amazing experience.
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