Last week started just like every other week for the next few months will - a meeting with my tandem partner! Tandem partners are a great way to practice your speaking skills. You simply find someone whose mother language is the language you want to practice, and who wants to practice your mother language. Then you meet once a week and speak for an hour in one language and an hour in another. I successfully found a super nice German tandem partner, so I'm ready for my German skills to go through the roof! She already has perfect English, of course. Looks like the language help will be flowing in one direction in this relationship.
Last Friday, as Americans know, was Halloween. I almost forgot that was a holiday since it is not really celebrated here, at least to the extent in the U.S. One does not see Halloween decorations in the stores or on the facades of houses and apartments. Germans are actually somewhat skeptical of Halloween merchandise, since they see (probably correctly) any attempt to import holidays like Halloween as a way for companies to make more money of unwitting customers.
But nevertheless, turns out the young German generation here knows full well what Halloween is and is willing to celebrate. My younger host brother went off to a Halloween house party with friends, and I heard other Americans' host siblings went trick-or-treating in residential neighborhoods. Additionally, advertisements for Halloween-themed parties suddenly popped up. We Americans went bar-hopping with some other American program alumni who were in Berlin and saw a decent amount of other costumed party-goers. So to an extent, Halloween definitely has taken root here.
I started out that weekend by following a walking tour (mapped out by none other than Rick Steves, of course) that passed through some of the significant East German and Nazi historical sites in Berlin.
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| The weather was absolutely perfect, so I stopped to take some pictures in Viktoriapark first |
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| Neat view, with the victory column distinguishable way far out on the right |
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| Off to Potsdamer Platz to begin the tour. These things, located in the middle of the square, are a testament to Germany's dedication to being super environmentally friendly. Their sole purpose is to use those mirrors on top to reflect as much sunlight as possible into the subway station below and thereby save as much electricity as possible |
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| Rick Steves led us here first. This is one of just a few remaining East German watchtowers in Berlin. Two guards used to man it, ready to shoot any of their compatriots who tried clambering over the wall, which went through this area. The guards were forbidden from chatting and getting to know each other. This way, if one guard tried escaping, the other would have no qualms ratting him out |
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| Random building we thought looked cool. Turns out it's from 1877 |
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| This patch of land was once the nerve center of the Nazi government's most fearsome departments - the Gestapo and the SS. This building houses a museum that documents the development and operations of these notorious institutions |
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| One of the very few stretches of Berlin Wall left standing in its original position |
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| Original foundations of the Gestapo and SS buildings. Once here were dungeons where the Gestapo detained and tortured prisoners |
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| We headed into the museum next and learned a lot about the cruelty of the Reich. Germany directly confronts its ugly past - the many excesses of Hitler's regime were laid out in plain detail and documented by vivid photographs |
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| This is the Trabant, a small, inefficient, and smoky car that was produced en masse by an East German automaker. Once the most popular car in the GDR, these days it's regarded with "derisive affection" as a symbol of extinct Eastern Germany. You can pay a pretty penny to drive around the city in one, like these guys are doing |
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| Another Trabant. Interestingly, some Eastern Germans still are afflicted by "Ost-algia" - a yearning for some aspects of life in East Germany. My host dad (a lifelong resident of western Berlin) doesn't understand this - he visited the East when the city was still divided and found it to be "total deppressiv" - totally depressing |
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| Finally we wound up at Checkpoint Charlie, the famous border crossing. These days, it has a bit of a "Disney"-like atmosphere, as my German teacher said - everything is fake. The border crossing has long since been dismantled, but today there is a mockup in its place. The mockup has mock American soldiers posing for photos (for a price). This famous sign pictured here is a mockup. There are big portraits (see below) of an American and Soviet soldier, but the Soviet "soldier" is a Dutch model wearing a Russian uniform with a nonsensical pile of pins and ribbons |
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| Fake soldiers in front of the fake checkpoint. Here you can also witness the triumph of capitalism - a McDonald's lurks in the background |
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| Facing West (towards the camera, in this shot) is the Soviet soldier's portrait. The American soldier's portrait is on the reverse of that sign, facing East |
I think we did a pretty good job of learning about some interesting periods of German history. The next few days I delved even deeper into the Berlin Wall's history, and also took a look at a landmark from a wholly different time period - the 18th century. Stay tuned!
