2nd Day in Berlin (Thurs June 19th)

The second day of our trip in Berlin was by far the busiest day of the entire trip. We had 6 different appointments. First, we meet with the director for Security and Arms Control, Dr. Geyr at the Federal Chancellery where we discussed the European Union and Germany's role in it. Next we meet with Dr. Klausa the director of the "German Resistance Memorial". I took a total of 4oo pictures on my trip to Germany, and so it is impossible to post them all to this blog.

(1st picture and 2nd picture) We took a guided tour of the German Resistance Memorial. This is the site of the famous assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20th, 1944. I am standing in the courtyard of the building where the assassination attempt took place. This building is now a memorial and museum to the small resistance movement against Hitler's reich.

Our third meeting was with Dr. Joachim Pfeiffer a discussion about Germany's energy policy which focused around Germany's two of Germany's political party's view of the topic. We meet at the Bundestag for this meeting. This would be equivalent to the capitol building in Washington DC where our Congress meets. Germany actually has 5 major political parties unlike the United States which has only 2.

(3rd picture and 4th picture) Each time we meet a German dignitary or tour guide we presented them with a gift. Dr. Pfeiffer is about to receive his gift from us in this picture. The 3rd picture is taken just after we are brought to the conference room for the meeting. On the left you see, Ellen, Nolan, Carrie, Mark, and Thais. On the right side you see Scott, Fern, Kathleen, and Bill. These are some of the California teachers that went on the trip with us. In the back of the room you can just make out Jurgen Pinnow, our tour guide and sponsor with Atlantik-Brucke.

(5th picture) Our last meeting of the day was a dinner meeting at 7:30pm with Sascha Steuer. He is a member of the Senate of Berlin and a member of the Christian Democratic Party. (This is the conservative party in Germany, but I would describe it as moderate.) We generally discussed the politics around the German education system and the major changes coming to their education system soon. This is a picture of us walking up to the restaurant where we were meet him. It was in a quiet little Berlin neighborhood. Unfortunately I did not take a picture of Mr. Steuer.