Berlin Trip 2024
Twenty-three L5 History pupils jetted off to Berlin accompanied by Miss Helen Rose, Mrs Sue Allaby and Miss Venetia Matthews, with the aim of further exploring both the years of the Nazi regime as well as the Cold War that followed.
Having arrived in the city and settled into the hostel, the group headed out for an evening walking tour of the oldest part of the city, enjoying the classical architecture of Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the evening sunshine.
Perhaps more than any city in the world, Berlin is a city of contrasts, at times the centre of liberalism, the arts and progressive voices and at other points extreme nationalism, intolerance and division.
To highlight how the city deals with its ghosts and marries its past with its future, the group walked through Bebelplatz, where an art installation beneath your feet marks the location of the Nazi book burnings. They then walked through the dramatic and sobering Holocaust Memorial. By sunset, the intrepid travellers were beneath the iconic Brandenburg Gate where they also caught a glimpse of the BBC and Gary Lineker’s Euros commentary box!
The Monday activities largely focused on the impact of the Cold War years and how the carving of Germany into two nations shaped people’s lives. The girls and teachers walked the length of Bernauer Strasse, once a quiet residential street which overnight in 1962 saw barbed wire, concrete blocks and security towers split one side from the other.
A boat cruise and a trip to the DDR museum followed, which aimed to recreate life in East Germany. Pupils were able to drive a Trabant car, wear some 1980s clothes and sit in a typical Berliners living room! We finished the evening with a trip to the roof of the Reichstag government building with spectacular panoramic views of the city.
The following day brought a guided tour of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, a highly emotive visit which gave pupils a chance to visualise the living and working conditions of the inmates and ask questions about the nature and scale of the Holocaust.
In the afternoon, the group explored the German spy museum, which highlights how Berlin was once a centre of all things espionage. The visit included trying out lie detector kits, crawling through extraction shafts and even a laser beam challenge!
As the sun set on the final evening, the historians strolled along the East Side Gallery, a mile-long preserved stretch of the Berlin Wall which was painted in murals by artists in 1989 to celebrate its collapse.
Mrs Helen Rose, Head of History, said: “We were blessed with incredible sunshine for our entire visit so had to finish by ‘doing as the Berliners do’ and visiting one of the nearby lakes for a morning dip. Indeed, after perfecting how to catch a tram and eating significant volumes of currywurst – the girls had truly become locals by the time we had to fly home.
It was a fantastic trip where the Headington students showed impeccable curiosity and compassion throughout.”
