Bonn Voyage - Week 6

On Monday morning, we had our last history of medicine lecture. We discussed a few prominent figures in the more recent history of medicine. Specifically, we learned about Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow and his mentors. Virchow was taught by Müller, the man who discovered “the Law of Specific Energies.” The law explains why when you press on your closed eyes, you see light spots. The perception of sensory input does not depend on the input itself, but rather, on the sensory organ that perceives the input. Virchow researched physiology and different disease outbreaks. His research on disease made him an advocate for freedom from Prussian rule, which was ironic since he was sent to research the outbreaks by the Prussian king. He became a social reformer, as he realized that if people were autonomous and better educated, they could better take care of themselves and prevent disease.

After class on Monday, we walked around Bonn. We enjoyed stopping in little shops and enjoying the atmosphere of the city. I even walked out to the Botanical Gardens. I had a very peaceful and enjoyable afternoon.

In the evening, the class ate at an Ethiopian restaurant. It is traditional at the restaurant to eat with your hands. We dipped teff bread, which is quite a lot like a thin, soft tortilla, in different toppings. I am not entirely sure what all of the toppings were. I know that one of them was made of lentils. I also know that they were delicious! It was a really fun way to spend one of our last evenings in Bonn, especially since Henning, our program coordinator, didn’t come with us to Berlin.

On Tuesday, we met as a class to go over the itinerary for our trip to Berlin. Then, we dispersed for the rest of the day. I returned to Drachenfels. It was at Drachenfels nearly five weeks earlier that I felt like I was really in Germany. I felt like I was really in a new world. So, I decided that I wanted to return there before I left. I am so glad that I did. It was peaceful and beautiful. I hiked to the top of the hill this time, instead of stopping at the castle. The view was magnificent. I sat in the shadow of the castle ruins and wrote my host mother a thank you card. I cannot think of a better way to say goodbye to the romantic Rhineland. Only, it's not goodbye. Not really. It’s just a bittersweet bis später.

I found the dragon of Drachenfels

I got to have dinner with Josefine in the evening. We talked about everything from my favorite German word to the pros and cons of public transportation. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to live with her this summer. I had expected to stay with a family, but I think that staying with Josefine was just what I needed. She helped me learn German words and watched the news with me. She didn’t mind that I occasionally disappeared into my room when I was tired. She always ate dinner with me and was so pleased that I liked to try everything she cooked. She didn’t even mind when I broke a kitchen drawer or when I didn’t know how to use the washing machine. I don’t think I would have changed anything about my time staying with her in 202 Meßdorfer Str.

On Wednesday, we rode a train to Berlin. I was amazed that we managed to fit all of our luggage in our train car! Once we got to Berlin, we went on a bus tour of the city. We saw prefabricated apartments that were built in East Berlin. These apartments were made off site and then put together like legos. They were good housing because they had elevators, but they only had elevators on every other floor to save money on elevator doors. We saw the Reichstag building and talked about how Hitler came to power. We saw the site of the book burnings and the plaza where Hitler gave speeches in Berlin. Seeing all of these places was really impactful for me. It really made the events of WWII seem real and immediate. We also saw the holocaust memorial. The memorial has blocks of stone of various sizes organized in a grid. It is abstract. I think thinks fitting because visiting it impacts everyone in a different way. The memorial has had its share of controversy. For one, it was very expensive. Also, the chemicals used on the stones to prevent graffiti were made by the company that made the gas used in gas chambers. This just goes to show how everything in Berlin has been influenced by WWII. We saw a statue of Friedrich the Great. Apparently, he said that “crowns were just hats that let the rain in” and that “the more people he met, the more he liked his dog.” He sounds like he was a funny guy. We learned the history of the statue on the top of the Brandenburg Gate. It was stolen by Napoleon and then taken back by the Kaiser. The statue overlooks a square. The square is called the “Pariser Platz” as a jibe toward the French. Finally, we stopped at the longest remaining segment of the Berlin Wall. The segment has been painted by many street artists. Street art is a really big deal in Berlin. It also has piping on the top. Apparently, East Berlin had such a bad sewage system that the American West Berlin smelled terrible, so the US gave the Soviets piping to repair their sewage system. The Soviets used the piping to prevent people from escaping to West Berlin. We learned about many ways that people escaped to West Berlin including riding a homemade hot air balloon into the West and zip lining over the wall. There were even professional tunnel builders who could be hired to build a tunnel from West Berlin to East Berlin. These tunnels would be used to transport as many people as possible to the West in one night. Other escapes involved impersonations and stolen passports. One woman escaped through Checkpoint Charlie by hiding in a hollowed-out space between two surfboards.

The longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall

Art on the Berlin Wall

        On Thursday, we had a really amazing opportunity. We got to tour Berlin in a few different groups to see the city from our guides’ experiences. One group was with a Syrian refugee, another with a beekeeper, and the third with a professor in meditation. My group was with Edgar Guzman Ruiz. He is an architect and artist from Colombia. He researched and build a model of Germania, and he showed us how WWII and Hitler's plans for Germania influence Berlin today. Germania was the city Hitler planned to build in place of Berlin after he won the war. The capitol building of Germania, the Großehalle or the Volkshalle (grand hall or people’s hall) would have been 300 meters tall and big enough to hold 180,000 people. To put this in perspective, the hall would have been almost big enough to fit the Eiffel Tower inside of it. We visited the Holocaust Memorial. We saw the parking lot above Hitler's bunker and buildings that were used by the Nazis. We also visited a panoramic picture of the Berlin Wall. This was all a really moving experience for me. It made the events or World War II seem real and immediate. I realized that I can't even imagine what it was like to live during those times. I discovered just how blessed I am to live where and when I do. This was an important day for me, and I am so very glad that I got to experience it. I really can't put into words how moved I was by this experience. All I can say is, it truly changed my perspective.

Holocaust memorial

Holocaust memorial

Berlin Wall panorama

We talked a lot about the significance of architecture during our tour. Hitler used architecture strategically to intimidate his opponents and to make himself seem powerful. His office building was very long. Any foreign diplomat who had a meeting with Hitler would have had to walk over 150 meters down a hallway with finely polished and slippery stone flooring to get to Hitler's office. By the time they arrived, they would have been physically fatigued and off balance only to see Hitler's grand and intimidating desk. The architecture on the exterior of Nazi buildings was also symbolic. Their buildings were made of stone instead of concrete with vertical windows. The vertical windows reminded people that there was a strict hierarchy of power in Nazi Germany. Stone was used instead of concrete, which would have been cheaper and easier to work with, because Hitler was obsessed with being greater than the Romans. The Großehalle was also Romanesque in design. It was modelled after the Pantheon, and it had an eagle at the front. The Großehalle had a platform for the speaker that was raised above where the people would have been. The platform looked eerily like Hitler's face from far away. Here, he was once again making himself appear powerful. Architecture in Germany today is equally symbolic. All of the Government buildings have huge glass windows. The Reichstag even has a glass ceiling so that that public can see the Government employees at work. The glass shows the German people that the Government wants to be transparent, open, and honest with the people. The government buildings are even oriented on an East-West axis because the government wants to show a complete break from Nazism and Germania was meant to be oriented on a North-South axis.

Nazi style building

New government building

In the evening on Thursday, we presented our experiences to all of the other groups. I really enjoyed seeing what the others got to do, but I wouldn't have traded with any of them. I learned and experienced so much today. I am so thankful for this opportunity. I am especially thankful because even though my asthma was really bad, I was able to continue with the tour.

We ate dinner at a small Thai and Vietnamese restaurant. The goldfish in the fish tank were really funny. One of them was spitting rocks at the others:

After the presentations, we went to the Fairy Tale Bar. At the bar, all of the drinks were named after fairy tale characters. The menu looked like a story book, and we were given little “eat me” and “drink me” cookies when we arrived. I really enjoyed the environment in the bar. It was so much fun. I got a pineapple-based non-alcoholic drink named after Kaa from Jungle Book. This was really the first bar I visited on their trip where I didn't feel pressured to drink, and I really appreciated that. It was just a lot of fun to dress up and go out for a couple of hours with a small group of girls.

On Friday, we visited the Charité museum of medical history. Our tour guide was charismatic and energetic (and actually not Dr. Wasser)! He told us stories and explained different historical medical procedures. The Charité was built to be a plague hospital in the 1700s. When Berlin was spared from the plague epidemic, the hospital became a training institute for military physicians and a hospital for the poor and unmarried pregnant women. Now, it is associated with the Humbolt University Medical School. The museum houses Virchow’s specimen collection. The collection includes preparations from many different diseases and conditions. They were very interesting, but truth be told, they made me kind of nauseous. Instead of looking at the preparations during our free time, I returned to the museum exhibit about individual patients. That exhibit was very interesting! They had one display about a man who had nose reconstruction surgery and another about early glaucoma treatment.

On Friday afternoon, we visited the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. We saw barracks and an extermination facility. We learned about all of the different groups of people, besides Jews, who might have been sent to the camp. We also learned about the medical experimentation that took place at the camp. This was a really powerful experience for me. I didn't really learn new information, but I came to understand the information in a new way. The atrocities of World War II became more real to me. Interestingly, the museum at the camp was actually opened by the Soviets. It was used as propaganda to promote communism.

In the evening, we had our farewell dinner. It was bittersweet. On the one hand, I have had a great trip and I am ready to see my family. And my dog. I'm ready to play fetch with my dog for hours and hours. On the other, I am sad to leave what has been such an amazing experience. I was glad to remember that all of us attend the same school, so my friends and I are all returning to the same place! But for right now, traveling with my parents and brother will be the next adventure!

Mile count for the week: 45.9 miles