Freiburg- Dresden Tues, June 24th

Our first full day in the Freiburg-Dresden area was a busy one. We spent the day in the city of Dresden. This city was 80% destroyed by Allied bombing during WWII, but many of the buildings have been rebuilt. We first meet with Mr. Buttolo, the minister of Interior Affairs for the Free State of Saxony (the state where the cities of Freiburg and Dresden are located). Next, we had a lunch meeting with Mr. Heinz Lehmann a member of the Free State of Saxony's parliament. The afternoon was filled with a tour of the "Residenzschloss-Neues Grunes Gewolbe" which was a museum dedicated to the history of Augustus the Strong well known ruler of this part of Germany. Last, we did a walking tour of the "Zwinger" and the city of Dresden. We ate at the "Kartoffelhaus" (potato) restaurant for dinner.

(1st picture and 2nd picture) We ate at restaurant "Chiaveri" with Mr. Lehmann which is a rooftop restaurant along the banks of the Elbe river in Dresden. Our lunch conversation revolved around a recent local politics, politics in the US, the changing German society and education system, etc. Mr. Lehmann is to the left in the 1st picture with two from my team, Scott and Nolan, sitting next to him.
(3rd and 4th pictures) Myself standing on the baloncy of the "Zwinger". The Zwinger was an entertainment complex of sorts used by Augustus the strong to entertain heads of state, weddings, etc. At one point in more recent times it was flooded and had to be extensively repaired. After we walked around the Zwinger we walked over toward the center of town. The 3rd picture is of me standing in front of the person who started the Protestant Refromation, and my distant relative, Martin Luther, which is located in the center of town. In the background is the Frauenkirche. The Frauenkirche is built in baroque style like much of the city of Dresden. It was built in the 18th century, and survived the bombing of city during WWII only to catch fire and burn to the ground the next day as a result of that bombing.

Final Day in Berlin (Sun June 22nd)

On our last day in Berlin we ate our last breakfast at the Albrechtshof hotel (where we stayed while in Berlin) and traveled by train outside Berlin to visit the Sachsenhausen Concentration camp. After World War II this same camp was used by the Communist East German government as a forced labor camp. We spent several hours here touring the grounds of this site. It was ironic to me as I walked around the camp that day on a Sunday that around the world many people were going to church to worship God. Yet, here I was seeing for the first time with my own eyes one location where thousands of people were killed simply because of who they were. It turned in to a sort of rememberance day for me as I thought about the atrocities that went on here.

After we left the concentration camp we took a train to the city of Dresden where we then tranferred by bus to our next stop, Freiburg Germany and surrounding area.

(picture 1 and 2) A picture of me standing outside the gate to the concentration camp. The second picture is of the gas chamber at the camp.

(picture 3) A few of the California teachers having a little crazy fun that evening in Freiburg at the Obermarkt in the center of town. This fountain is a monument to Otto the Strong, the founder of the city. He allowed citizens to mine in the silver mines in the community, but they had to pay a large portion of what they mined to him in taxes.

4th day in Berlin (Sat, June 21)

Ok so it seems I never finished updating my blog about Germany.

On the 4th day of our time in Berlin we had a tour of the Deutscher Bundestag (German federal parliament building) as well as visited the Holocaust memorial, and the Jewish museum. It was a day of mixed emotions for me as I thought about what happened to the Jewish people right here in the city I was visiting.

(1st Picture and 2nd picture) This is a picture from inside the Bundestag where the German federal parliament meets to govern the country. This building was practically burned to the ground in 1933. It was blamed on a communist who was beheaded for the crime. However, it is also is suggested that the Nazis's themselves burned it with the purpose of blaming the communists for the crime so that communism would be hated by the people. The Nazis party used the fire as an excuse to purge Germany of communists supporters.

(3rd picture and 4th picture) The holocaust memorial is a series of concreate slabs of varing sizes from the very small to the very large. Its hard to get the scope of how big of a memorial it is here, but below are 2 pictures from facing two different directions. You can see Ellen's head poking up above one of the slabs. Underneath the memorial is a museum honoring the lives of those killed by the Nazis party from 1930's-1945 for being a Jew, homosexual, Gypsy, or having a mental illness. It was a very through and thought provoking experience to say the least. Pictures were not permitted inside the museum.

(5th and 6th picture) Our last stop for the day was at the Jewish Museum. The purpose of this museum is to tell the story of the entire history (2,000 years) of the Jewish people from ancient times to modern times. It was opened in 1933 but closed by the Nazis party in 1938. The current museum was finally reopened in 1999. The architecture itself is intended to be symbolic of the history of the Jewish people, but was impossible for me to capture with my pathetic camera skills. The 6th picture is a few members of my team standing in a sort of memorial garden that is intended to be a smaller representation of the Holocaust memorial shown above.

Day 3 in Berlin, June 20th

The third day in Berlin was filled with a discussion with the "Federal Foreign Office" about German education in America, a discussion with the "Federal Ministry for Family..." about the German family policy, and a visit to the old STASI records building. The STASI was the East German verion of the KGB during the Cold War. Last, we went on a walking tour around Berlin with our Atlantik Brucke guide Jurgen Pinnow who is very helpful and knowledgeable about all the locations we visited.

(1st picture and 2nd picture) Kevin, Todd, and myself standing in the Gendarmenmarkt. A beautiful open area. The 2nd picture is in the same open area and is the location of the Nazis book burning. Under the glass covering you can just barely make out the rows of empty book shelves that symbolize the event.

(3rd Picture) The third picture is inside the old STASI records building. We were not allowed to take close up pictures of any of the materials inside the building. This is Mr. Blum, the coordinator of the Records of former German Democratic Republic (Communist East Germany), otherwise known as STASI. The communists used to keep detailed records of everything their citizens did. There was no privacy. They would hire neigbors, friends, family, to spy on a person's daily activities to make sure no one was plotting against the communist government. Mr. Blum is describing the process. You can see in the back ground some of the records kept here. Also in this picture you can see Scott, Mr. Blum's assistant, our guide Jurgon, and Kathleen our California Education Department Rep.