Trips, Visits and Events
Berlin Trip 2011
By Betty Lau
The Première Trip to Berlin was blessed this year with sunshine and 24 ever-eager students who were on the go for a full five-day regime of walking tours, museum visits, and cultural activities in and around the city.
The focus of this year’s trip was ‘Modernism’, a topic that is part of the OIB literature syllabus. Berlin was one of the capitals of the ‘avant-garde’ in the early 20th century; its cosmopolitan energy and openness ushered in new expressions in art, architecture, cinema, theatre, music, and literature. At the Berlinische Galerie and the Deutsche Kinemathek we were introduced to some of the German protagonists of Modernism, such as Max Liebermann, the painter who introduced Impressionist painting to Germany and whose villa we visited in Wannsee, and Fritz Lang the director of Metropolis. Students paid homage to the ‘golden age’ of the Weimar Republic on one of our evenings out together at Clarchen’s Ballhaus, a vintage dance hall from the 20s in the Mitte quarter of Berlin. I would say that this was certainly a highlight of the trip as our entire group was up and dancing the entire evening!
Another theme of the trip was Jewish Berlin. Our guided visit of the Jewish Museum made an important connection to Modernism in the way that a great number of Jewish individuals and personalities contributed to the flourishing of the arts through the Cabaret, Theatre, Cinema, and Sciences. All of this intense creative energy came to a violent halt with the rise of National Socialism. Later in the week we traced the political instrumentalisation of anti-semitism and the institutionalised dispossession of Jewish Germans at the Memorial of the Wannsee Conference. As part of our tour of Jewish Berlin, students discovered some of the city’s two architectural treasures, the Neue Synagogue with its beautiful gilt dome that graces the Mitte quarter and Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum, a post-modern building designed with two axes of ‘broken lines’ which offered an experience that was both destabilising and contemplative at once.
Our programme certainly left us breathless with long days of sightseeing and walking tours through the Berlin of Friederich the Great, Berlin of the Kaiser Reich, Berlin of the Weimar Republic, Berlin under the Nazis, the Berlin of the Cold War (we were in constant confusion as to whether we were walking in the west or east part of the old divided city), and the contemporary Berlin as exemplified by Potsdamer Platz and the new Bundestag building designed by Norman Foster. Students were treated to a balanced diet of ‘Alternative’ and ‘High’ culture: a concert at the Berlin Philharmoniker headlined by the virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell, graffiti and street art during an Alternative Tour of the city, and an entertaining and colourful production of ‘Rigoletto’ at the Comische Oper.
I think what made this trip particularly rewarding was the diversity that makes up life in Berlin. Our city guides who gave us insider views during our walking tours are all Berliners but also from elsewhere: Ben from the U.S., Tamar from Israel, Mike from New Zealand, Brendan from Scotland, all passionate about Germany’s history and culture.
I hope our students will be inspired by this experience.
Many thanks to Ben See for accompanying the group on the trip and especially for his instincts for finding bus routes and to Monika in the office for intervening for me in German from time to time while coordinating my programme.
For Further Photos and Comments
Thanks to Justine Lippens, a Facebook page has been created for sharing photos. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Berli...
The following PDF file contains an album created by the group, with photos and reflection on the trip.
- Berlin Album
Dernière modification le 01-12-11 par
