Short and Sweetened (with Aspartame)
Today was our last full day in Berlin. Tomorrow morning a train will carry us, luggage and all, to Kraków, Poland. Over the course of the last week we have seen an experienced so much! (Some students were commenting that it seems like we’ve been here for a month.)
For about half of us, the day started out by catching a regional train up to Neubrandenburg, a city in the state of Mecklenburg that sits more than halfway up from Berlin to the Baltic Sea. On the northwest shores of the Lake Tollen sits a medical training center the Nazis set up to teach medical doctors how to implement basic racial hygiene and eugenic principles. The little idyllic community in which it is situated is called Alt Rehse, and the buildings there mark their construction with the calendar of the 1000-year Reich (Jahre 3, Jahre 4…). There is much to say about what happened there during the time of the National Socialists, what is happening there now, and how influential this Führer training school was and aspired to be, but that will need to be unpacked in some future post. Our visit of the facility was guided by historian Dr. Fabian Schwanzer, a wonderful person who, with kindness, expertise, and generosity walked us through about a 4-hour program, complete with an interactive exercise, the showing of a recently discovered home movie from the 1930’s which offered an authentic inside look at one of the training sessions, and a walking tour of a bit of the vast grounds that make up the facility – including a walk out on the pier of this tranquil lake.
Other students took me up on the offer to have a free day in Berlin. Some explored the Olympic stadium, others went to the botanical gardens, and still others explored some of the nice places to eat that Berlin has to offer. One group decided this would be the perfect day to go rock climbing!
In the evening, we all gathered for a team meal at a nice steak house near our hotel. Here is where my demonstrated weakness for Coke Zero, a particularity which drew some attention throughout the past week, was fully exposed to hilarious effect by a coordinated gesture by the students. As I was preparing to have my meal, one-by-one they each made their way to my table and “gifted” me a Coke Zero – and I think some must have gifted me two! Anyway…now, what am I going to do with all this Coke Zero?!?! (see pictures below) It was too funny!
Hopefully I’ll have the wherewithal to post again tomorrow night. If not, I might need to combine two days into one on Friday.
Enjoy the pictures from the day below.
