Hallo, allerseits!
We started our second full day in Berlin with a visit to the DDR Museum, where students had a chance to learn a little about life in East Germany during the Cold War. Sticking with the Cold War theme, our next stop was a tour of an underground air raid shelter that was repurposed as a nuclear fallout shelter in the wake of the building of the Berlin Wall. We then decided to lighten things up a bit with lunch in the winter garden at the KaDeWe, the second largest department store in Europe (after Harrod’s in London). From there we headed to one of the most famous avenues in Berlin, the Kurfürstendamm. This beautiful boulevard–lined with shops, luxury boutiques, hotels, cafes and residences–was the leading commercial street in West Berlin during the Cold War period. While on the Ku’damm, the group took some time to visit the ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which was badly bombed during World War II and now stands as a tribute to peace and reconciliation. Our evening plans took us to the GRIPS-Theater, where we saw a performance of the play Die Welle (The Wave), which is about a group of high school students who learn firsthand how totalitarian systems manipulate people into silence. Then it was back to the hotel for one final evening in the Nikolaiviertel before we move on to Frankfurt for the start of the homestay phase of our trip in Oberursel.
Liebe Grüße,
Frau Greene