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Germany - Austria Archive

Sept 15 | Oct 5 | Nov 2 | Dec 19

Berlin: The capital of the reunited Federal Republic of Germany, the city whose wall symbolized forty years of cold war between East and West, the thriving multicultural metropolis whose political leaders have been a driving the expansion of the European Union, and last but not least, our home for the past four weeks.

It's hard to believe that our program in Berlin is drawing to a close this Friday, but considering all that we have seen and done, it's easier to understand that English expression, "how time flies."

We have spent hundreds of hours devoted to the intensive learning of German vocabulary, grammar, and that difficult-to-translate idea of "Umgangsprache" -- the colloquial use of the German language.

And many of us have subsequently embarked on an enterprise that just two months ago we might have thought impossible: striking up a conversation with a native speaker of German.

What a crucial enterprise that is, now that we have started our ethnographies. In seeking out people who have a first-person, native perspectives on topics ranging from German zionism, German pacifist traditions, "Ostalgie" -- Nostalgia for the former East German state, and the booming art scene in Berlin, it has been not just a necessity to use and stretch our ability with the language, but it has also lead to the sharing of stories and the fruitful and insightful exchange of ideas.

In a true World City like Berlin, where different cultures, different ideas, different interests are constantly colliding, you can only imagine how many options we've had for cultural outings. Instead of trying to organize a series of events that would fit every single person's interests and schedules, our program leader wisely gave us a great deal of freedom in picking and choosing what exhibitions we saw, what plays and operas we attended, what concerts we went to, etc. "Multi-Kulti Berlin" (multicultural Berlin) was the theme for our culture course for these four weeks, and so of course we did have a series of common experiences that tied together our observations of this thoroughly modern city.

We first focused our attention on the present-day Jewish community in Germany and its historical contexts. As well as visiting the world-renowned and architecturally stunning Jewish Museum and the former concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, our group was given the treat of hearing a lecture by Sonat Hart, Barbara Jurasek's former student at Earlham and now the Chair of the Jewish Studies Department at Berlin's Humboldt University, and the co-editor (with Barbara) of the book, "Literary Heimat: German and Austrian Jewish writings after the Shoah." Her lecture did not focus purely on the history of anti-semitism in Germany and Austria, but also shone a light on the present-day culture of the Jewish community in these two countries -- an area of knowledge some of us knew little about. We were then able to attend Shabbat services at a synogogue in the heart of Berlin and Sonat hosted us for an amazing and delicious Shabbat dinner.

We then turned to Berlin's role as a home to immigrants from many lands, but especially the huge Turkish population. Our start was in the Kreuzberg Museum (Kreuzberg is a neighborhood in Berlin), where we discussed the various historical reasons that people have immigrated to this city: religious freedom for some, fleeing war and conflict for others, and still others came for a new life and for new economic opportunities. Kreuzberg has been welcoming different waves of immigrants for over three hundred years. During our subsequent tour of the neighborhood, we ate dinner in a traditional Turkish restaurant, visited a Turkish mosque, and also visited a "Maenner-Cafe," (a men's cafe) and had a subsequent discussion on gender roles. This Thursday we will conclude this portion of the program with a round-table discussion with German-Turkish students.

Although we couldn't possibly list everything we've done, this update would be incomplete if we didn't mention the seminar led by Albrecht Behmel on the history of the German language and on the variety of cultures present in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This seminar provided an invaluable cultural context for understanding some of the regional conflict that is present in Germany today. For so long, we have been thinking in terms of East/West, Communist/Capitalist political conflict, but this seminar reminded us that regional differences have to do with culture and language as well, and that these things have influences dating back to the Prussian Empire, in one region, to the Roman Empire in another region, to the Celtic tribes, to the influences of the Slavs and the Franks. Albrecht's knowledge and enthusiasm gave us a greater appreciation for the complexity and the paradoxes that are apparent in Germany today and reminded us that political borders might sometimes be more arbitrary than we think.

In just a few days, we have ten days of free time to travel. Some of us are so enchanted with Berlin that we're staying put. Others are traveling to France, to Italy, to Spain, to the Czech Republic and even so far as Kenya. But we'll all see each other on the 31st of October in Vienna, and we will then update you on our new adventures there.

Bis Bald!