Herzlich Willkommen

Beginning Reformation Sunday with a German Lutheran service was definitely special.  It's not very often Martin Luther's Ein Feste Burg (A Mighty Fortress) is sung in German and accompanied by a brass choir.  But that was just the morning.  The rest of my day was even cooler.

The first time I went to church in Lüneburg, I was welcomed warmly by everyone, but especially by Herr und Frau Wilkens.  They invited me to sit with them, and helped me find the liturgy and psalms (that everyone else has memorized of course) in the hymnal.  Because of both of our travel schedules, yesterday was the next time we were all together at church, and I was invited to spend the afternoon with them!

They took my to their house in Adendorf, a smaller town just north of Lüneburg (there really is no separation between the two).  I talked with Herr Wilkens about traveling, history, and other things while Frau Wilkens prepared the afternoon meal.  I was served home-cooked beef roast, with steamed potatoes and garden-fresh vegetables, and citrus yogurt for desert!

After the meal, Herr Wilkens took me to the Schiffhebewerk Lüneburg in Scharnebeck, a short drive through the beautiful fall-colored countryside.  Lüneburg lies on the canal that connects the River Elbe to the larger Mittelland Canal, offering ships passage thanks to the largest ship lift in Germany.  The lift works similar to a lock (like those found in Sault Ste. Marie, MI).  Instead of raising or lowering a ship over the terrain by changing water level in the chamber, this ship lift hoists the entire trough, which weighs almost 6,000 tons.  The Lüneburg ship lift has two troughs that operate independently, and move a ship through the lift in around 20 minutes.  The 38-meter vertical journey takes 3 minutes.

http://www.schiffshebewerk-scharnebeck.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=30

While the ship lift is most-certainly worth seeing by itself, especially if you are mechanically inclined, the exhibition hall is definitely a must-see.  The hall features working models (with incredible detail) of the various types of ship lifts and locks found across Europe.  It was amazing how many different methods are used to traverse elevation changes in a cargo ship: locks, single and double lifts, escalator-like slides, and an apparatus like a Ferris wheel.

The Wilkens were surprised (I think pleasantly) by how much of Lüneburg's historic inner city I have already seen and experienced.  They were glad to show me some "out of the way" sights, like the ship lift and the Kloster Lüne (Lüneburg Abbey), our next stop.

The Kloster Lüne is only opened for guided tours, which are only given during the warmer seasons.  Normally, the tours would have ended a couple weeks ago.  However, this fall has been unusually warm, and so the tour season was extended (just for me!).  The abbey buildings, most of which were built in the 14th Century, are still in use, with a few rooms set aside for preservation and tours.  Some of the furniture inside dates from the 1100s!  We toured the dining hall, the kitchen, the cemetery completely enclosed by the abbey buildings, and of course the sanctuary.

After the Kloster Lüne tour finished, our guide (a school friend of Frau Wilkens) showed us the Textile Museum as well.  Built in 1995, the museum houses tapestries and rugs sewn in the abbey.  Completely naturally died and stitched with fishing hooks, many of the tapestries depict the life story of saints.  One piece featured a three-dimensional relief of the the crucified Christ; His body was made out of stale bread sewn to the backing fabric!  We finished our visit to the Klöster Lüne with coffee and cake with our guide at the cafe in the courtyard.

Photography was not allowed on the Kloster Lüne tour, but Herr Wilkens gifted me with a guide to the abbey's history complete with color photo illustrations.  The Wilkens also gave me two books about Lüneburg: one is a self-guided tour, mainly of the historic inner city, and the other is a collection of newspaper articles, published locally, each describing a different district of Lüneburg.  I cannot say enough how wonderful it was to be so personally welcomed!  I was able to converse in German with the Wilkens all afternoon, and got to see great things I would otherwise have missed.  A big thank you to Herr und Frau Wilkens for a wonderful Sunday!

Between the Lines

My Introduction to German Literature course is my favorite and least-favorite class at the same time.  On the one hand, most of my homework time and effort are spent on Literature.  On the other hand, almost all my USAC excursion opportunities are through my Literature course.  We aren't studying just the texts; we are also looking at the authors and what life experiences could have inspired their reading.

On Monday (October 24), we visited BallinStadt, the emigration Museum in Hamburg.  Housed in the boarding houses/barracks where thousands of Europeans (mainly Germans, but also Polish, Czech, and some Russian people) waited for their chance to board a ship bound for the new world and new life the United States offered.  Many people who entered Ellis Island had come from BallinStadt.

Divided in to sections following the stages of a journey to a new country (Reasons to Leave, On Board, Arrival, Adjusting, etc.), the museum was very interactive, and offered many exhibits to read or listen to (in German and in English), as well as a number of hands-on activities.  One such activity, directed mainly toward younger kids, allowed a visitor take their own journey, making decisions about how to travel (take a train or car to the harbor, what to pack/leave behind, etc.).

Because we were there on a class excursion, we were given a worksheet/scavenger hunt to guide us through the museum.  The worksheet definitely pointed me to the most-important parts of the museum, and gave the visit some structure.  But because we were there as a group, and traveling on group train tickets, our time wasn't entirely our own, so we couldn't linger too long on a particular exhibit.  Though I spent most of my time searching for the answers to to the scavenger hunt, I definitely took quite a bit away from my visit.

The second excursion of this past week was a reading by Jenny Erpenbeck, author of Heimsuchung (the novel we are reading at the end of the Literature course), and by Karl-Heinz Ott.  I got to meet Ms. Erpenbeck, got my copy of her book signed, and talked with her a very little bit.  A lot of what was said and read was hard to understand, because it was very fast.  I could understand Ms. Erpenbeck best, and recognized the excerpts she read from her weekly newspaper column as pieces of inspiration for characters and events in Heimsuchung.  I'm halfway through Ms. Erpenbeck's book already, working ahead so I'm not overwhelmed when it's actually assigned for class.  Working my way through the new vocabulary and reading the flow of the text has been among the most-educational things I've done this semester.

After basketball last night (thanks to a care package from home!), a final exam this morning, and a long-overdue haircut this afternoon, I'm ready for the weekend.  The plan is to stay in Lüneburg, mainly to write the next essay/paper for Literature.

Borders

"Germany and Europe were divided here until 10 am on December 7, 1989."

Yesterday was the USAC excursion to the former Inner-German Border.  After an hour-long train ride from Lüneburg to Hitzacker, we boarded our coach bus.  Driving through the countryside and the little villages, we saw many traditional Niedersachsenhäuser (Lower Saxony houses): half-timbered, red brick buildings (pictured below).  Many roofs were decorated with horse heads, the symbol of Lower Saxony.  Also, many of the houses had very large glass doors or windows, filling what used to be a gate into the house.  Before modern heating, animals were brought inside to supplement the ever-present fire in warming the house.

 
Another common feature along our rural route were yellow "X"s, the symbol of protest against the transport and storage of nuclear waste in the area (pictured above).  We were told that the train tracks we used are frequently blocked or sabotaged by protestors, especially when the waste is being transported to the storage facility (below).  Police forces are brought from all of Germany to protect the train and the facility from likely sabotage.  When we drove past the facility, even though nothing was going on, there was still a significant police presence.

Our first stop was in Dömitz, a small town on the east side of the River Elbe (in former East Germany) and the home of a fortress dating from the early 1500s.  The fortress (German: Festung) was used in the Thirty Years' War and again during the Napoleonic Era.  We were able to walk around inside and on top of the walls, which offered a good view of the town and the river.  On one of the battlements there is an apple tree, which a couple guys climbed to pick fruit for everyone.

We didn't stay at the fortress for very long before we were off to lunch near the Dömitz harbor.  Over schnitzel and locally-brewed raspberry sparkling lemonade, those at my table heard about our bus driver's service in the East German army.  We even got to see his military identification card.  I definitely didn't understand everything he told us, but I'm picking up on more and more as my German improves.

From Dömitz, we took the bus through the countryside (which, as I've said before, looks very much like the United States' Midwest) to Schnackenburg.  There we visited the Grezlandmuseum (Border Region Museum), a small collection of military items from both sides of the once-divided Germany.

After some skillful driving to get our bus through road construction, we arrived at the memorial site for Stresow.  First mentioned in the early 1300s, the town of Stresow was almost entirely destroyed by a fire in 1922, and completely rebuilt starting that same year.  Unfortunately, the town was situated directly on the inner-German border.  For a time, the residents could stay, but only with a special permit; they needed different permission to leave the town.  Then, one night, the East German government decided that everyone needed to leave, and took everyone in Stresow from their beds into the East.  All the buildings were then razed.  Today, 16 oak trees grow at the memorial site, commemorating the 16 families who used to live in Stresow.

To avoid the construction on our way out, we took our bus along the East German patrol path, which was just as adventurous.  Our final stop was a West German watch tower, evidence of the differences between the two sides.  East German guards were in place to prevent people from crossing the border into the West.  West German guards patrolled to watch for fugitives and help them reach safety.  West Germany also posted watch towers along the border to keep an eye on the East's activities.

The patrol path wasn't designed for buses, but we made it work.

Arriving at the train station right on time, we said a big thank you to our bus driver and boarded the train back to Lüneburg.  The former border, though officially gone, still divides the two sides of Germany.  Germany's division left an impression on the two societies that can seen even today, in the architecture and even the personalities of those who grew up on a certain side of the line.

Welcome to the Weekend!

I was quite glad when this weekend finally arrived.  I had two exams on Thursday, one of which was the midterm for my Intro to German Literature course.  Studying was encouraging though, because I can see major improvements in my German (especially my writing) from September until now, apparent in my answers on the Literature quizzes.

Wednesday I visited the Lüneburg water tower, to take in the view from the top.  It was really cool to see the city from that perspective (picture below), and to see the inside of the tower as well.  The stairway to the top passed through a couple service and machinery rooms, now used for receptions and exhibitions, as well as through the old bowl that actually held the water.

Friday (yesterday), I returned to Lübeck.  My first stop was the Jakobikirche (St. Jacob's Church).  While the building is certainly noteworthy for its beauty, the Jakobikirche also houses an international memorial to ships and their crews lost at sea.  Under the north tower sits the remains of Lifeboat 2 from the Pamir, which sank with all hands in 1957.  Banners are hung from its bow in memory of ships and their crews, sometimes in connection with a memorial service.  The memorial goes beyond religious or cultural boundaries; one commemoration was for an Arabian ship and led in Arabic by a Muslim imam (and translated into German).  The coolest part of my visit to the Jakobikirche was that the organist was practicing while I was there!  I definitely enjoyed the free mid-afternoon concert.

Right across the street is the Heiligen-Geist-Hospital (Holy Ghost Hospital). Built in 1286 as a charity hospital, the complex is made up of a chapel and long hall of tiny rooms for patients' quarters.  The building was later used as a senior care facility before being converted into a museum.

A few blocks north is the Burgtor, built to defend the only land entrance to Lübeck (which is almost entire surrounded by the River Trave.  Not quite as massively impressive as the Holstentor, the Burgtor still sees regular traffic pass through it, especially in the warmer months as people travel to the beach at Travemünde.

One of the main reasons I returned to Lüneburg was to visit the Buddenbrooks Haus, which today is a museum chronicling the lives of Heinrich and Thomas Mann (well-known German authors who spent their childhood in Lübeck) as well as Buddenbrooks, Thomas' famous novel set in Lübeck.  The house, which belonged to the Mann's grandfather, was destroyed in World War II so that only the historic facade remained, and was rebuilt and renovated several times before it transformed into the muesum of today.

I took quite a bit away from my visit there, after reading up on Thomas Mann and Buddenbrooks before attending the play last week.  My favorite part of the exhibition on the novel was the "text rooms."  Two rooms were recreated as scenes from the novel.  In each, items were labeled with page numbers corresponding to excerpts from Buddenbrooks where the item (family letters, Hanno's puppet theater, the couch, etc.) are described.  The museum provided copies of the novel in multiple languages so visitors from all over could enjoy the experience.

The other museum I visited was the Holstentor Museum.  Located inside the massive gate, the museum documents various aspects from the city's history (maritime trade, military events, local government, even medieval torture) as well as explaining the gate's construction.  The Holstentor never was of any military use.  By the time construction finished, it was already obsolete.  Furthermore, Napoleon attacked from the north, where the defenses were weaker.  Nevertheless, the Holstentor still stands a prominent symbol of Lübeck's status as a "Free and Hanseatic City."

A trip to Lübeck is never complete without sampling I.G. Niederegger marzipan, world-famous since 1806.  Niederegger offers marzipan in every imaginable form, and displays models of prominent Lübeck buildings made entirely of the delicious treat.  I sampled both the classic chocolate-covered marzipan and the marzipan ice cream.  Naturally, both were delicious.

The other headline event of my visit was the "After Work Konzert" at the Marienkirche.  The half-hour organ concert featured works from C.P.E. Bach, Haydn, and Mozart, played on the church's smaller Führer-Orgel.  The Marienkirche boasts a very impressive program of year-round organ and choir concerts, a small part of which are their weekly Friday evening "After Work Konzerts."  It was definitely a blessing to be able to hear more amazing music played in a beautiful building on an incredible instrument.

Relaxed and Refreshed

This past week has been pretty low-key, but that was a good thing.

Wednesday night, I went with my Intro to German Literature class to the Theater Lüneburg production of Buddenbrooks, a play adapted from the novel by Thomas Mann.  Buddenbrooks is the story of a declining middle-class family in Lübeck (only an hour north of Lüneburg) in the late 19th century.  Mann's novel, around 800 pages long, was shortened into a 2-hour, 45-minute play in two acts.  I followed some of it, but mainly because I researched the plot content before attending the performance.

After a Track II exam Thursday morning, I played two hours of basketball in the evening.  I'm definitely rusty, but it felt really good to play again in a competitive, but not extremely intense environment.  It was fun to listen to the German on-court communication, too.

I stayed in Lüneburg over the three-day weekend, and spent it catching up on sleep, homework, and with friends and family back home.  Most of my research for my presentation on Martin Luther has been done in German, which has been really cool!  I'm learning a lot, and in the original language, too.

The next few weeks are looking like they will be busier, so I'm glad I took this weekend to take it easy and get ahead.  It was also really great to talk with people back home and hear about all the cool stuff they've been doing, too.  Time is flying by!  My flight home leaves two months from tomorrow!  That seems like it's really soon, but at the same time I know those two months are going to be filled with many more new adventures.

A Little Bit of Berlin

Berlin: the capital of Germany, the former site of the famous (or infamous) Wall, and the destination of my travels this past weekend.  Leuphana University’s International Office organized a three-day, two-night excursion to Berlin, giving me the opportunity to visit such a cool place.

We took a bus from Lüneburg to Berlin, which meant we had to depart bright and early at 7 am.  Most people slept on the four-hour ride; I instead started planning what I wanted to see when, and enjoyed watching the north-German countryside.  After arriving (a little late), we moved our luggage into the Sunflower Hostel, located in former East Berlin near the River Spree.

Our first organized event was a guided tour of the city.  We rode in the bus throughout Berlin, as our tour guide narrated the sights in both German and English.  We drove through Kreuzberg (the developing “modern/hip” district), saw various embassies, and passed Alexanderplatz before stopping briefly at the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate) for the classic group photo.

Our tour then continued through the parliamentary district, down Kurfurstendamm (the upscale shopping district), and back into the city center.  We continued on foot to Gendarmenmarkt, a square surrounded by the Schauspielhaus (built in 1821 as a notable theater; a major concert hall since 1984) and two similarly-constructed churches.  The Französische Dom (French Cathedral) was constructed as a Protestant (Heguenot) sanctuary, and was supposed to be identical to the Catholic cathedral on the opposite side of the square.  The two churches on the same square were designed to be a grand demonstration that Catholics and Protestants could live, work, and worship with each other.  Having said all of that, the two churches were not identically made, and the differences live on.

The Schauspielhaus

Statue: Friedrich Schiller, a notable German poet and playwright.

Similar, not the same, but very beautiful nonetheless.

We then walked to Bebelplatz (also known as Opernplatz, because the Staatoper's normal venue is here), the site of the May 11th, 1933, Nazi book burning.  Today, visitors to the square can look down into an empty, white library, with enough shelf space to contain all the books thought to have been burned on the spot.  Humboldt University surrounds the rest of Bebelplatz.

Just down the street was the Berliner Dom (pictured below), flanked by the Old and New Museums.  In the background you can see the Fernsehturm (Television Tower).  Possibly the most-well-known landmark of Berlin's skyline, the Fernsehturm's globe houses an observation platform and a restaurant.  The sun's cross-shaped reflection, visible throughout the city, is affectionately called "the Pope's Revenge:" a Christian symbol above what was a secular communist state (the former East Berlin).  We took the city train (I think I’m getting addicted to public transportation) back to the hostel for a short break.

I say “a short break” because we basically turned right around to go the opera.  I did, however, have time to try my first (and definitely not my last) currywurst.  We saw The Barber of Seville, composed by Gioachino Rossini, and performed by the Berlin Staatoper (State Opera).  The opera was performed in Italian, but translations were displayed in German on a screen above the stage.  Between the displayed German and my English explanation of the plot, I actually followed most of the production.

The Barber of Seville's cast and the Staatskapelle Berlin (Berlin State Orchestra),

conducted by Daniel Barenboim

The next morning, after the hostel’s breakfast, I visited the East Side Gallery.  A portion of the Berlin Wall in its original location, the East Side Gallery features murals painted by artists from around the world. I spent the early afternoon with a friend from high school, going to church and getting lunch at a Mexican restaurant near Alexanderplatz.

Our next organized tour was through the Reichstag, the building where the German parliament (known as the Bundestag) meets.  We had to pass through a couple security checkpoints to get in.  Once inside, our tour showed us everything from the basement tunnels (possibly used by the Nazis to set fire to the building prior to World War II, according to one theory) to the plenary chamber.  We got to sit in one of the public galleries, in which seats can be booked for parliament sessions.  Our tour ended on the roof, dominated by the glass dome added when the building was renovated in the late 1990s, designed by Sir Norman Foster.

The view from the roof, and especially from the top of the dome (ascended via spiral ramps), was spectacular: the entire city of Berlin laid out in front of you.  Thankfully, the weather was clear enough that you could see quite a bit of the city.   In the center of the dome is a mirror cone, which serves to direct natural light down into the parliamentary chamber.  The dome also ventilates the chamber, thus serving a practical as well as aesthetic purpose.

From the Reichstag Building, I walked through the Tiergarten to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.  Designed to provoke reflection as visitors wander through the labyrinthine field of 2711 concrete blocks and visit the information center below it, the Memorial was sobering indeed.  The ground undulates, the blocks loom higher overhead, slanting obliquely from the uneven pavement, and you do reflect.

After eating dinner with the whole group at Amrit, a nice Indian restaurant, I returned to the Brandenburger Tor to see it illuminated at night.  As soon as you reach the street level from the subway station, your vision is filled with the gate, lit in yellow-white against the black night sky.  Really cool.

In the morning, after another freezing cold shower (everything about the hostel was great, except the scarcity of hot water.  At least I woke up quickly...), we checked out of the hostel, and toured the German Historical Museum.  Although the museum contains exhibits from Germany's history "from the beginning" until 1994, our tour covered material after World War II.  After our tour, I started over "at the beginning," and got through the beginning of World War I.

 Once a military arsenal, now the German Historical Musesum's courtyard.

Leaving the museum, I walked through the rain to Alexanderplatz, where parts of the Bourne film trilogy were filmed.  On the way there, I sampled a Berlin Döner (and they really do taste different!).  I then, like a good tourist, got my passport stamped at Checkpoint Charlie and did some souvenir shopping downtown.

Spending three days in Berlin was amazing, to be sure, but it wasn't enough.  There is so much to do and see there.  I thoroughly enjoyed my little taste.  The International Office's program had a good balance of organized events and free time to explore on your own.  Awesome way to spend a weekend: see a little of Berlin.