School started on Monday (8/30). Both students and myself all tried very hard to adjust to the serious semester routine. Students have 17.5 hours weekly course load, which is not easy to fiddle with after a long summer.
In the morning, students attend their German language classes. In the afternoon, they have three content courses in a week. Students all reined their tourist's mood and concentrated in the class rooms. Nonetheless, we were excited that on Friday (9/3), we would have a whole-day field trip to Potsdam.
Potsdam is a small town in the southwestern urban area of Berlin. Who would think such a peaceful place, with a traditional German palace, which was a former Prussian crown prince's resident, would become a historical place? The two "eyes" on the roof seem to remind us to WATCH OUT!
In 1945, Winston Chirchill, Harry Truman, and Joseph Stalin
met in Potsdam Conference to decide how to administer punishment to the defeated Nazi Germany.
credit to http://euroheritage.net/Potsdam_conference_1945-6.jpg
A totalitarian dictatorship of Nazi Germany left horrible memories to the German people. However, more and more Germans are willing to face the truth of the past. In the city center of Berlin, an outdoor museum was built on the ground of the former Gestapo and SS headquarters, the principal instruments of repression during the Nazi era. It is called the "Topographie des Terrors".
The street next to this museum happens to be a part of the Berlin Wall, which was never removed from the site. The cellar of the Gestapo headquarters, where many political prisoners were tortured and executed, were found, excavated and designed to be the underground memorial site.
The buildings behind the Wall were constructed during the Nazi time and were used by the East Germany after the war. However, although buildings in the western side were only damaged, they were demolished intentionally. The area was used as a bumper car site.
The design of the "Topographie des Terrors" reminds me of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. Both were chosen through architectural competitions. The construction was finished and the new building was opened to the public on May 7, 2010. I feel lucky to be able to visit the new memorial after only four months of its completion.
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