Lichtgrenze - Day 2

It's already December, and holiday season is in full swing! That is particularly impossible to miss here in Germany given the innumerable outdoor Weinachtsmärkte (Christmas markets) across the country. I visited one, my first, just this past Sunday! It was huge, amazing, and also bitterly cold. 

But, as is typical with me, I still have photos to post from a month ago. I am on day 2 of 3 of the Lichtgrenze (border of light) celebration, a 3-night art project that marked the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. On Day 1, I walked along the former border in the center of town and coincidentally met Berlin's mayor. This time, the night of Saturday, November 8, I joined up with some friends and started at the southern tip of the Lichtgrenze and walked a few hours until we passed Checkpoint Charlie and almost hit the center of town. 

The Oberbaumbrücke was the southern end of the Lichtgrenze art project, though of course the actual wall stretched way farther south and wrapped around the actual edge of the city

A colorfully lit boat streaming by lent this photo a splash of color

The lights ran along the East Side Gallery, which is one of three locations in Berlin where a part of the original wall stands in its original place. Seeing the gallery that night meant I had successfully visited all three! I had already visited the other sections here and here

The East Side Gallery consists of 105 paintings by artists from all over the world painted in 1990 (so after the fall of the wall, of course). The art decorates the east side of a 1.3 kilometer section of the Berlin Wall - that's .8 miles for you imperial units users

You may have seen a picture of this famous piece somewhere or another. Titled My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love (Mein Gott, hilf mir, diese tödliche Liebe zu überleben), it depicts Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker in a fraternal embrace as they greet each other with a friendly kiss. It's based on a real photograph taken in 1979. What's funny is that this piece is super faithful to the real photo - which means the German and Soviet leaders really were kissing like that 

With my American and Greek friend. Please try to ignore the old man who chose to randomly accessorize our photo

The Spree River is on the other side of this wall, and during the East Germany days, the river was actually East German territory. This led to some tragic situations. For instance, in 1973, a 5 year old boy playing on the Spree's western banks fell into the river. When the West Berlin fire department showed up, they could only helplessly watch the struggling child. Rescuing him would have meant infringing on East German territory and sparking an international military dispute. When East German troops finally arrived in a lifeboat, the boy was dead. He was the 5th victim of such accidents in the river. Only in the 1970s did the two German governments agree that it was acceptable for either side to rescue drowning people from the river

A giant version of the thousands of balloons lining the wall's old path

Another one of the East Side Gallery's most famous pieces

Woo, USA!

Since I hate strangers getting in my photo when I don't want them there, my shots make the Lichtgrenze look deserted. But don't let them fool you - that night the entire route was teeming with people

Heading away from the East Side Gallery and north into the center of the city

We made it all the way to Checkpoint Charlie

Hours later, it was time to go home. Day 2 of seeing the Lichtgrenze was a success!

In other recent developments, I just finished my final oral presentation in German at the Freie Universität! The first time I introduced material to a class in German came three weeks ago, when I worked with a small group of German students from my public policy class to put a presentation together about Elterngeld (both mothers and fathers here in Germany get money from the government to take time off of work and care for children) and the Altersvermögensergänzungsgesetz, which is a ridiculously long name for a law that reformed Germany's pension system in 2001. I had to read a 60-page academic article on the pension system reforms, all in German, which will probably be one of the most strenuous and complicated German readings I will have read by the end of this program. On the big day of our group presentation, we gave a short introduction and then split our classmates into 4 groups to talk about the different topics. I had one such group all to myself, and managed to lead a discussion and overview of the many different factors behind and facets of the 2001 reforms. The German students I was talking with successfully understood me as I spoke in German about the complicated reforms - point for Chris! 

My second presentation in German came the week after, when I gave a verbal summary of a political science reading about Außenpolitischer Wandel, or change in foreign policy, to my German foreign policy class. And finally, the last verbal presentation was just yesterday, when a partner and I talked for an hour in a German language course about the significance of the classic German film Menschen am Sonntag, or People on Sunday. 

So what a few weeks it has been! Did I mention that I also traveled to the Czech Republic? I took tons of pictures in Prague and a small town we visited in the Czech countryside. Those photos, as well as shots from Day 3 of the fall of the wall celebration, are coming right up!