Maryland students arrived on Tuesday, August 24th. We packed into one taxi van that brought us to FU-BEST. Although they are all tired, students paid attention to what Dr. Verheyen, the Director of the FU-BEST, had to say about the schedule of the next few days.
On Wednesday, six of the nine students gathered in Brandenburger Tor to join a short walk to explore the city, the main train station, and a big shopping store to buy what they needed.
Brandenburger Tor was the former city gate and became the important landmark of Berlin and Germany. In 1961, the Berlin Wall was erected just west of the gate, it cut off access to West Berlin until December 1989. When the wall fell, a symbol of freedom and unity, on November 9, 1989, thousands of people gathered at the Wall to celebrate the freedom and the unity of Berlin.
After an entire day of orientation on Thursday, where Dr. Verheyen asked all students to fill out necessary forms for residency, exemption of health insurance, etc., there was a boat tour along the river Spree on Friday. The Spree is equivalent of the Seine in Paris and the Thames in London. We cruised through the city of Berlin, passing famous sights such as the Reichstag (lower parliament), Museumsinsel (Museum Island), Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral), etc.. What impressed me the most are the variety of lavishly decorated bridges.
After the boat tour, we visited the Soviet War Memorial, where our first group picture was taken, as shown at the top of this post. It was built to commemorate 5,000 Soviet soldiers who fell in the Battle of Berlin in April-May 1945. It opened four years after the war ended on May 8, 1949, and served as the central war memorial of then East Germany.
The FU-BEST students are divided into two group on Saturday and Sunday to do a walk tour in the center of the city. We re-visited the sights that we saw the day before from a different view. Below are several pictures of these sights.
1. The Humboldt Universität-- There are three universities in Berlin: Humboldt University (founded in 1810), Technische Universität (TU, 1916) and Freie Universität (FU, 1948).
2. The Berliner Dom -- The predecessor of the cathedral was built in 1465. After the Reformation in 1539, the Domkirche became a Lutheran church. During the WWII, the building was bombed by the Allies and severely damaged. The reconstruction begun in 1984 and in 1993 the church reopened.
3. The Neue Wache-- The New Guard House is located on the north side of the Unter den Linden, a major landmark street about 1 Km long running through the center of the city. The building was designed in 1816 by the famous architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, a leading example of German neoclassicism. Originally built as a guardhouse for the troop of Prussia Crown Prince, the building has been used as a war memorial since 1931. In 1960 the repaired Neue Wache with a sculpture "Mother with her Dead Son" was reopened as a Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and Militarism.
Berlin is a city through many wars. The most devastated one was the WWII. The human cost of the Battle of Berlin, one of the most intense battles in human history, had been enormous. The scars from the war are still visible at every corner. (Millions of machine-gun volleys are virtually everywhere!!) Our students and myself are fortunate to be able to stay for a whole semester in this remarkable city that is full of histories, has many faces, and now celebrates its freedom everyday.
