Next Stop Berlin!

Then after an exciting 3 days it was off to Berlin, the capital of Germany. Spending 3 days in the capital city was hardly enough to go over the history of the Berlin. But we started on day one and kept learning until the end of day 3. We got the extraordinary chance to meet with the Department of Defense of Germany and discussed the Afghanistan war, and Germany's history with war. Then shortly after we took a three and half hour walking tour of Berlin. Seeing Brandenburg Gate, Holucost Memorial, The Reichstag, The Berlin Wall reminants, Tiergarten, Telivision Tower, etc. etc.

We then went to the Stasi museum. The Stasi's were agents for the The Ministry for State Security. Also known as the secrect police of Eastern Germany.

The MfS was headquartered in East Berlin, and was widely regarded as one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies in the world. The MfS motto was "Schild und Schwert der Partei" (Shield and Sword of the Party), showing its connections to the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), the equivenlent to the USSR communist party. With 1 in every 5 Eastern Germans being a memeber or informant of the Stasi hundreds of thousands of files were kept on members of the state that were negativly discussing Eastern Germany or trying to escape. Our tour guide was a 81 year old woman who was living in Eastern Germany at hte time of hte Stasi. She herself had a file of about 30 pages and was watched and followed very closely.

Then the next day was used to learn about Baden-Wertemburger, or region-state that Freiburg is located in. WE went to the headquarters of Baden- Wertemburger and learned about Freiburg and its neighboring cities and the pros and cons of each and the culture that lies within each city. Then it was off to go site seeing again...

My favorite part of the whole trip was seeing the Berlin wall. With strands of it still up and other portions put around the city with art on it. The whole Berlin wall is outlined on the streets with coble stone and still plays a huge role in Berlin's society today.

Next was a 7 hour train ride back to Freiburg...