Berlin Trip 2023!

Two weeks ago it was time for the annual Berlin trip of the HHP. On Friday the 10th of November the train to Berlin left at the early hour of 7 O’clock. At half past one our train arrived and we soon went to the “Three Little Pigs Hostel”, close to Checkpoint Charlie. Since the room was not ready yet we started walking towards the Museuminsel, during the walk we already saw some of the sights that we were going to visit next day, like the Französischer and the Deutscher Kirche.

At the Museum Island, located next to the Spree river with important museums like the Alte National Gallerie. Dirkje and Nils gave us a wonderful tour, in the Bode Museum, about looted art and the ethical questions that both the visitors and the museum can ask themselves. The museum seemed to be transparent, both in the media in in the museum. Some pieces like the Flora bust that Willem von Bode saw as a work of Da Vinci, but turned out to be a fake 19th century English bust. The name-giver of the museum never acknowledged his mistake and the museum still finds it hard to set it right. It was soon noted that the track record which the Bode museum had was not necessarily present in other museums on the insel. Objects within the Neues Museum, where the bust of Nefertiti can be seen, still had texts about how the Prussians rightfully got their hands on these objects.

Within an hour it was dark and the went to eat at the Cube, close to the central station, a food court where everyone could get something which they liked. Later in the night Frans Willem Lantink joined us, who was going to give the second part of our East Berlin tour tomorrow.

On Saturday, we woke up early and after a quick breakfast we started our city walk organised by Jan and Mees. We learned many things, something that was hammered in was that someone lost their notes! That didn’t affect the tour however, and we learned many things about the history of Berlin and how it affected the war and vice versa. At Bebelplatz we saw how much importance the city of Berlin gives to the remembrance of their Nazi past. While the Christmas market was in full construction at the square, a memorial to the book-burning that happened here on the 10th of May 1933 was guarded off to allow visitors to commemorate.

Once we arrived at the Museuminsel, again, it was decided to turn things around and since we still had some time it was decided that Frans Willem Lantink would already start his talk about the Berliner Stadtschloss and Humboldtforum. He raised questions about the construction of the Berliner Stadtschloss, a palace that only started to be rebuilt in 2010. It combines the old façade with a modern interior where museums and the library of the Humboldt University are located. After having given this tour multiple time Frans Willem could round it off with a finished building.

We took the train to the Stasi museum, in which vicinity we got our lunch. The Stasi museum gave us an insight into the East German past, with impactful personal stories, jarring information, and with the old furniture in place it felt like we moved back in time. A tour was planned, but a group of older people were too quick and they claimed the guide. The time planned for this museum was perfect, most of us were able to go from the personal stories on the lower floor to the time capsule on the top ones.

It was starting to get cold and we went to the Christmas market to warm up with some Glühwein and after conquering our fears we went in the footsteps of brave 8-year olds and we slid down the enormous, icy slide with our rubber sledges. Soon after we went to get dinner after which we ended our nights with some drinks.

With the smell of smoke from the Berlin bar still in our clothes, we packed our stuff and started the tour of West Berlin. Since no one saw the wonderful opportunity to use this for their portfolio activity, each of us picked one sight to talk about. While training our backs with our heavy backpacks we came across sights like the Reichstag and Unter den Linden, we took our time at the Holocaust monument, and at the end of the walk Mees did a cover of the popular song “over de muur” by Klein Orkest which got us all singing.

We rounded the trip off by a quiz organised by, you guessed it, the organisers of the trip. With questions about quotes or occurrences of our peers during the trip. With the ultimate price of a sack of potatoes going to Pim. A wonderful end of a wonderful trip.