Review and Forward, Berlin Part 2

 So I finally read through all the previous posts to see how often I repeated myself. A little too often. You wanted proof I'm much closer to 60 than 50? There you go. No doubt the few people that look at the whole Blog will mind too terribly much. I am half hoping Lisa and Anna will read through before we finish our trip, so they will have a better understanding of why we're going to Germany. False hope?

So I mentioned a few things about the Wall (prob should capitalize it) already and orientation to the city. I should say we didn't get very close up to some of the World War II sites like the Soviet War Memorial in West Berlin, the Reichstag or the Brandenburg Gate. I looked at some of those photos and they're blurry, mostly because I took them out the window of our moving bus. At the time, I wanted to get closer to the Soviet Memorial in the Tiergarten. I remember thinking, I guess we are not permitted to get close to these sites. Apparently it wasn't on our itinerary to get closer. I had seen photos (pre-internet...you couldn't just find photos instantly) of the Soviet Memorial and I wanted to examine it up close. Sorry, not that trip.

Sign in front of the Brandenburg Gate, which sat just inside the Soviet Sector of the Berlin, and later in East Berlin. The sign in front says, "Attention, you're leaving West Berlin", although you couldn't legally travel through the gate in either direction.

I'll spare you the high school level history lecture on the history of Berlin. At some point we also motored by the Hungergabel at Templehof Airport, now decommissioned and a popular park. The 'hunger fork' is in reference to the Berlin Airlift. A week or so ago, the original "Candy Bomber" died, Gail Halvorson. A shining U.S./British moment in a very dark period.

One sobering place we did stop, perhaps during that same whirlwind look at the city, was the Plötzensee Memorial, dedicated to those who were executed on the site, some 3,000, at the hands of the Nazis. This is one of the early Berlin memorials to the human costs of the Hitler dictatorship. My guess is that it has been overshadowed by the newer Holocaust Memorial completed in 2005. It's easy to quickly be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the Nazi misery, suffering and murder.

Here is a photo from Plötzensee:

It would be wrong if I said I'm "looking forward" to seeing Berlin's Holocaust Memorial. It forever astounds me how far so many in Germany have come toward "truth and reconciliation" in a relatively short period. Compare that with the U.S. and lynching, and all the monuments to the Confederacy that are only now beginning to come down. I've visited Atlanta a couple of times, and it's remarkable how commonplace it is to visit Stone Mountain's memorial. I would never go there, but five MILLION people trek there each year. Chilling. Meanwhile, there are all of those Americans who are moving backwards and not towards an honest reckoning with the Nation's ugly past. Anyway, I've never been close to Auschwitz, and I passed up my opportunity to go to Dachau years ago. The last time I was in D.C. it was only for a few hours with Lisa on our way to the Baltimore airport. When I was there for more time than that, the Holocaust Museum hadn't been completed. So this is my chance to see the memorial dedicated to the family connections I will never have the chance to know. Less personally, of course, I have read, seen and felt so much about the topic that visiting will be chance to physically inhabit the collective grief that haunts humanity.

Seated from left: Me, Barb Washa, Ann Buller, Diana Fleming Mackie, Brenda Lansing Alexander, Stacy Soderholm Davidsaver, tour guide (not sure why he's here). Second row, standing, Lindy Kaye Anderson, Kathy Grzenia Pierce, John Fredrickson, Dave Dedie, Brian Hischke, Tami ?, Curt Herwig, East Teacher Marie Nelson. Third row, Karen Hegge, Ann Conklin, Kathy Brockman Lewis, Clint Miller, Lisa Page, ?, Chris Bradle, Mike Niemann, Peter Reinhardt, Liz ?, Dennis Bergren

The above photo is way out of order, but I thought I ought to include it somewhere. Good photo of everyone!

Berlin, Part 1 of ?

 Our biggest and most memorable trip within our trip was our visit to Berlin. Technically, it was our visit to West and East Berlin, for at the time, the city was still divided. There are so many reasons why those few days have stuck with me.

I'm sort of embarrassed to say, but I think the fact that we were more on our own, away from both our families and our host families, made Berlin more fun for most of us. For me, that was a first at age 16. Granted, we had our teachers' supervision, but we could certainly relax more. It was a little unnerving for the first couple of weeks in Germany to be on our best behavior in someone else's home, while being unsure of pretty much everything. Dare I ask for another ice cube? Is it ok to have a 2nd Brötchen? In the case of my host family, the boys ate like (no exaggeration) ravenous animals. Clearly they were growing, but WTF? I remember one of them grabbing the serving dish and rapidly shoving the remains into his mouth. I was dumbstruck. In Berlin we could act like the sixteen and seventeen year old's we were. I recall taking full advantage.

Peter, me, Dave, and John in the 1936 Olympic Stadium. I won the gold for the worst looking sweatshirt imaginable. Check Peter's jeans and note his rock and roll buttons - yes, the 80s, nor should you overlook John's Member's Only Jacket.

The other reason it was a highlight is because the history and politics of Berlin were fascinating. West Berlin, the part still connected to Western Europe, was an island surrounded by East Germany. The Berlin Wall, for example, surrounded West Berlin, to keep others out, namely East German citizens. 

Trains were not quite so speedy in those days. I remember it was a long ride, and we were nervous about the "passing through East Germany" part. The teachers had prepared us to try not to act like idiots in a way that could get us into trouble. I can't imagine a trip like this would even be possible with some of today's teens, since many of them figure they can get away with (and often do) anything. Along the way through East Germany we made a few stops, which I think were border and security checks, and I guess I couldn't resist pointing my camera out the window.

DDR flag, Deutsche Demokratische Republic, taken out the train window in 1982.

I'm not sure my next move was the smartest, even in my sixteen year old brain, but when the East German border police came on the train to ask who had taken photos, I pretended I hadn't. Hopefully I wasn't in any real danger of being pulled off the train. Perhaps they would have taken my film. I'm glad neither of those happened, but it's probably also a good thing that I didn't try that ten or twenty years prior. It might have had a different ending.

I don't remember much else from the train ride, but when we arrived in Berlin we checked into a youth hostel, although I have no idea where in the city we stayed. By no means is Berlin any sort of a grid city, and we mostly traveled around by subway, which doesn't really lend itself to getting your bearings. At that time, the heart of the city was the Kurfürstendamm, the busy boulevard in the west. With the end of the wall, the heart has moved to the historical center, Mitte and Alexanderplatz. I'm looking forward to seeing that change. In the K-damm area, I recall visiting the memorial church and it's more modern replacement, and perhaps we went to Ka De We? Pretty sure that was a big tourist hit in its day. Here's a photo from the Ku-Damm:

The "U" is for underground (subway) and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is in the background next to the modern bell tower. 

I remember seeing what appeared to be hardcore punk rockers in the city, which we didn't really see in Madison in the early 80s. Seems as though the city had a sizable population of drug addicts then, and perhaps we'll see both when we return this summer. Thanks to U2, I now know that Zoo Station is a hangout for those who are addicted. Actually, I read a bit online and see that now the subway stations are frequented by addicts, especially along the U8 line.

Also troubling is that I see the U.S. State Department has a "Do Not Travel" to Germany and all other European nations. Looks like COVID is still the primary reason. We'll see if that is updated to a caution in the coming weeks.

What we remember

I tend to remember the parts of this trip that, obviously, I have thought about at different times over the past 39+ years. For some of it, I have no photos. I remember a few moments of our night to the local winery, owned by a host family. I remember drinking, for my age, quite a bit of wine and laughing a lot with Peter Reinhardt. Sadly, my camera must have been back at the house. 

I received a message back yesterday from one of the German exchange students. I had asked her if she had any connections to her classmates from so long ago and she said she didn't. She doesn't even recall many of their names. I sent a photo (shown earlier in the blog) of all of the German students on the last night in the States, because it has all their names. She said that she remembered very little of a few of her classmates. 

I've got to say, even though I haven't seen some of the American students over the years, I remember quite a bit about them, except for a few that came along from East High. But for one of the East students, I haven't seen them since our trip. Certainly a few of my classmates I'd love to see more often, particularly one of the kindest fellows I know, Chris Bradle. He's out in Pittsburgh. Here's a photo of him from our travels:

Here's Chris with his (probably) 60s era viewfinder camera. I believe this is from our afternoon in Heidelberg.

With Chris I have the advantage of having known him since middle school, or perhaps even grade school. For a few years in high school, he was my ride to LaFollette each day. After college, however, I don't think I saw him until I had a German Exchange reunion in 2012 and he came over to the house for a couple of hours. So do I really know him much anymore?

When I look at the faces and names from the group of Germans in our exchange, I'm not sure I even had an extended conversation with much more than half of them. With those I did spend more time with, I feel like I had some understanding of who they are, or at least who they were. I'm of the belief that people don't fundamentally change much once they're that old. I run into people I haven't seen for decades and their personalities are pretty much the same. Perhaps they have calmed down a bit, or they're a little more introspective. That's just age, though. 

Here are Mike, Lindy (aka Linda), Chris, and Brian from September of 2012.

Nevertheless, it would be a joy to see any and all of them again. I had the pleasure of spending an evening with Claudia when she visited Kathy Grzenia Pierce a few years ago. I spent a little time with Funda when I stayed with Rudiger in 1987. I have seen some of Thorsten on Facebook. The others, however, who knows where they are or even if they're all still living? Unfortunately we have lost many classmates since graduation. To my knowledge, none of those from the exchange have passed, but we also don't know where everyone is.

Some people aren't fond of reunions and sometimes it's because of haunting memories from high school. No doubt, if things had been awful for me, I would have likely stayed away. For most of us, however, I think you should try a reunion before you dismiss the idea altogether. Our recollections can not only connect us with one another, they can also help us make sense of ourselves. I have a strong suspicion that some of my exchange mates can't believe I haven't 'moved on' from this time. Believe me, I have moved "on", or at least moved beyond it. I also know that time informed some of my beliefs, and some of my attitudes. It can be a powerful thing to, once you have view of your own culture in the context of another, question why we live the way we do. So, yes, I really enjoyed that brief time in Germany, but I also value it for how it opened me up to new possibilities and different points of view.

Dinner with Claudia and her husband at Kathy's house, 2018.

Day Trips, Germany Style Part 2

 Besides Heidelberg, we made day trips around the area, with one that just barely put us in Bavaria. I remember visiting some Roman ruins in Bad Durkheim, but that excursion was otherwise unremarkable. Other than Heidelberg, the best of these was Wurzburg, the city at the northern edge of Bavaria, mostly because it has the ornate Residenz palace. I don't think any of us had seen such a decorative building before. I do remember my German family puzzled as to why we went to Wurzburg(actually spelled with an umlaut above the u), but these days I do see it come up in guidebooks for the very reason we visited.

Locally, we spent some time poking around Mainz. We had a tour of the Dom, the Mainz Romanesque cathedral. Back in the states, our teacher Herr Begren gave us lessons about common architectural styles, so we could identify a gothic period building from a baroque era one. We had few enough opportunities to feel smart our first time in another country, so at least we could parse a few things about our surroundings. Mainz also has Marc Chagall windows in one of its churches, so we had a look at those, which is one site I'm planning to visit again. I missed the day our class went to the Gutenberg museum, but from what I read, it's not particularly well done. (more on WHY I missed later)

 At the moment, I am trying to figure out a workable itinerary for our trip this June. It sounds more likely than not that Lindy Anderson and her family will meet us in Mainz. I have a list of worthwhile activities in Berlin. Our other stops, I'm less certain about. I did find out that Anna rides free on German trains! (Actually, while pricing tickets, I found that she does NOT ride free - 4.20 edit)

Above photo: Dave, John, Ann, and Peter in Bad Durkheim, sitting in a Roman something or other. I'm guessing today, they probably don't permit you to climb in and sit on them.

Ann and I on the same daytrip. Looks like I was still trying to look like a tennis player, even though I stopped playing at school the year before. My hair is nearing the style of Bjorn Borg.

On one of the bus trips, perhaps on the above one, we sat down with several other students, German ones, and created two lists. One list, the English one, contained the obscene words we wished the Germans would translate into German. Naturally, some terms didn't translate well. All the naughty body parts did, of course, but some terms, like the German word Bocker, which Google Translate says means 'Bucks', the students said means "Fucker". One who fucks? Is this something you would use on someone in an attempt to be hurtful? In English it doesn't work so well. Naturally, we threw in some absurd terms for our own amusement. I think it was from Steve Martin that I heard the term "Golden Bozos", referring to breasts. All of us, the Germans included, got a big kick out of hearing them say that one. You could count on uproarious teenaged laughter when the Germans used this in the company of their parents.