Monday 14^th February

The group of 17 students took off from Dublin early on Monday 14^th February. Despite the 6am check in, we were delayed by mobs of victorious Frenchmen heading home after their Six Nations match.  “How nice for the French to have some victories”, some wag commented as we headed for the Berlin departure gate.

After a slight mishap involving  a suitcase left in the Berlin underground, which was everyone else’s fault except Mr McCaffrey’s, we arrived at the splendidly appointed Sylter Hof Hotel on the exclusive Kurfursten Strasse.  After a short  rest, in which, with typical German efficiency, the small suitcase, lost in the entire Berlin transport network, turned up, we headed off for the main sites of the city centre.

We had a photo call at the Brandenburg Gate and then made our way to the Russian War Memorial.  With a childlike enthusiasm, our students had soon climbed all over the Russian T36 tanks on display.  Ruaridhri Groom struck a pose which left us in no doubt that he would not have survived long at Kursk.

From there we headed down Unter den Linden, stopping off to visit the Deutsche Guggenheim gallery of modern art, making our way to Alexanderplatz, the main square of the old East Berlin.  The main feature of Alexanderplatz is the Fernsehturm TV tower, a massive spike of 1200 ft.  Built in the socialist realist style, it was an attempt by the Communist East German government to block the TV signals coming from the capitalist West Berlin. Despite the controversial history of the building, our main goal was to get to the viewing platform to see the glorious views over the Berlin skyline on a fine, crisp and cloudless night.

Tuesday 15^th February

Despite our exhaustion from the previous day’s travelling and walking, we set off from the hotel at 9.30am. Continuing our History theme, we visited “Checkpoint Point Charlie”, the official crossing point during the Berlin Wall days between the Russian and American sectors of the city.  Our students got a full insight into the impact of the Wall from visiting the Checkpoint Charlie Museum.  It was fascinating to see and read about the ingenious escape accounts of desperate citizens wishing to leave the old East Berlin.  Particularly interesting  was the man who smuggled his girlfriend across by hollowing out the front seat of his car.

Around the corner on Niederkirchnerstraße , we stopped at the “Topography of Terror”. This site is the ruined remains of the Nazi Gestapo headquarters.

Nazi history is, unfortunately, a topic that our students are familiar with. Hoping to see that there was so much more to Berlin, in the afternoon we had a tour of “alternative” Berlin.

Our guide, Penny, met us at our hotel and told us that the first thing we would do  would be to leave the gentrified surroundings of Kurfurstendamm. Heading for the Kreuzberg district of the city, we were in for a three hour tour of the edges of the thriving counter culture. I was particularly impressed that this was the home of David Bowie during his Krautrock period of albums like “Low” and “Heroes” (others were less impressed by this!).

The street art and graffiti was amazing. One building was home to “50 Faces” by Graco, huge portraits on a block of run down flats that had remained untouched by vandals and graffiti tags since 1999. We also visited “Tommy Weisbecker Huas” a political activist centre named after a member of the RAF (Baader Meinhof) terror group who had been active in West Berlin in the 70s.

Penny seemed to live this lifestyle rather than being just a tourist guide. We got a tour of camps, squats and alternative lifestyles that we certainly would not have got sticking to the tourist guidebooks and we were very grateful to her for giving us a behind the scenes look.

In the evening we had an appointment in the Reichstag, home of the German Government. We had arranged this weeks’ before and were extremely fortunate to be granted a guided tour, now that the building is closed to the public due to security. It certainly was a highlight of the trip.

Our guide was Nicole, who was particularly impressed with St Paul’s students’ answers concerning the history of the building. She admitted that not even German people knew that Kroll Opera House was the replacement parliament after the Reichstag burnt down in 1933.

Sitting in the parliament chamber Nicole easily answered our questions, including one on how much money Angela Merkel was paid as German Chancellor.  The building is a real blend of the old with the ultra modern. From the graffiti of Soviet soldiers during the Battle for Berlin in 1945 to the glass and steel dome designed by British architect Sir Norman Foster, our students were suitably impressed with the access we were accorded, and we all appreciated the opportunity to stroll around the rooftop and take in the sites of the busy city below.

Wednesday 16^th February

And all too soon it was our last full day in Berlin.

Our destination in the morning was Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg  Concentration Camp. There was a notably subdued mood in the group as we travelled the 35miles north in the knowledge that this camp was the model for so many more camps during the Final Solution.  Although not a death camp but primarily for political prisoners of the Nazi regime, this gave us little comfort as we walked about its enclosures. Evidence of the crimes committed there are still evident with huts preserved as they were. Particularly harrowing was the visit to the execution trench, gas chamber and crematoria. For students who have for so long studied the National Socialists, it was an opportunity to put into context why exactly the topic has remained a central part of history teaching.

After an interminable train ride to the city centre, our students were given free time to explore and shop in the Kurfurstendamm area. Hoping to find somewhere showing the Barcelona- Arsenal match we retired to the hotel lobby and an early night for our flight home in the morning. Our transfer to Schonefeld Airport on Thursday morning went very smoothly after it was pointed out to Mr. McCaffrey that the train we had been travelling on for half an hour was in actual fact going to Dusseldorf and not the airport.