For many of us, our day started at the historic Berliner Dom for a morning worship service – it turned out to also include the confirmation of about 12-15 new young members as well as a baptism. The church is absolutely beautiful on the inside and the folks tending to those of us needing translation are so kind, thoughtful, and helpful. A real ministry.

The main tour-themed event of the day was an afternoon visit to the Jewish Museum of Berlin. It generated a lot of post-visit discussion. Students were notably impressed with how well the architecture of the building integrated with the theme of our program and with one of the overall thrusts of the museum. Furthermore, many of the students commented that the exhibits and displays were often provocative and challenging to the visitor – installations that were striving more for dialog than monologue.

Afterward, students split up to follow their own interests for the evening. Some found a concert they wanted to attend, others a nice Asian restaurant, and a few just went back to the hotel and crashed (trying to fight off some fatigue and weariness). I went exploring. After learning the Weiβensee Cemetery was closed, I went on to other targets – like the Missing House Memorial and the Wasserturmgelände (Water Tower Grounds) Memorial (where, in 1933, resistance fighters were punished by the Nazis). In the process, I stumbled onto a beautiful and important church tucked into a courtyard in a neighborhood block in Hackescher Market, the Sophien Evangelical Congregation (Evangelishe Kirchengemeinde Sophien), the only surviving Baroque church in Berlin. In September of 1964, MLK appeared unexpectedly to preach during his one and only trip to Berlin. Just enough advanced notice was given to generated a capacity crowd to hear from the soon-to-be Nobel Prize winner.

Pictures are below.

Tomorrow we are going to try and visit Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and also the Wannsee Conference House – both in the same day.