Berlin: Selected Fieldtrips
No other capital lives and breathes history like Berlin…
- Stroll down Unter den Linden, Berlin’s elegant main throughfare. Visit Museum Island, wander through the attractive Gendarmenmarkt, and see the city’s “Red City Hall.”
- Enjoy a day at Potsdam, just outside Berlin, where the Prussian kings’ beautiful palaces are linked by magnificent gardens.
- Visit the Jewish Museum and the Hackescher Markt area to find out about the thriving German-Jewish culture of turn-of-the-century Berlin.
- See the Berlin Olympic Stadium, built to show off Hitler’s Third Reich to the world in 1936. Learn more about dictatorship and genocide at Topography of Terror, an open-air museum on the sinister site where the Gestapo and SS once had their headquarters.
- Walk where the Berlin Wall ran, dividing Berlin’s citizens, sometimes even members of the same family, for 28 years. At the Berlin Wall Memorial, get a bird’s eye view of what East Germany’s extensive border defences looked like before they were torn down in 1989
- Visit the Reichstag building, which housed the German parliament in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, burned in 1933, and was rebuilt after reunification in 1990. We’ll tour the building and climb the transparent roof dome, a symbol of democracy that lets you see right into the parliamentary chamber.
Yet, “Berlin is a new city; the newest I have ever seen” (Mark Twain in 1891)
- Enjoy the dramatic cityscape from a relaxing boat tour on the river Spree, beginning the tour in Charlottenburg and Castle Charlottenburg, built by Elector Frederick III as a summer residence for his wife Sophie Charlotte in 1699 - a living testimonial of courtly culture and life from baroque times.
- See modern and contemporary art in the city’s many galleries, often located in interesting redesigned locations such as a former train station or glass ware house. Continue visiting more superb and unusual museums, e.g. the “The Story of Berlin”, Deutsche Kinemathek, museum for film and television, Bröhan museum, State museum for Art Nouveau.
- Admire modern and postmodern architecture, and visit the New National Gallery, the famous "temple of light and glass" designed by Mies van der Rohe, the new government district, the Sony-centre at Potsdam Square.
- Explore Alexander Square, and ride up the television tower, an Eastern bloc Relic of the late sixties; tour the stylish House of the Teacher and Berlin Congress Centre.
- See the East-Side Gallery, a 1.3km-long section of the wall. Approximately 106 paintings by artists from all over the world cover this memorial for freedom and make it the largest open air gallery in the world.
- Discover trendy neighbourhoods and happening parts of town: shop at the Turkish market in Kreuzberg, and visit Friedrichshain and Prenzlauerberg for its nightlife. Learn about Jewish everyday life, yesterday and today in a walking tour in Berlin Mitte.
Cultural Outings
- Enjoy a cutting edge interpretation of a Mozart opera at the Komische Oper, known for its innovative and provocative stagings.
- See Berlin’s largest show “Yuma”: A spectacular mix of glitter, dance, acrobatics, and eroticism, performed in the Friedrichsstadtpalast, Europe’s Show Palace located in Berlin’s theatre district.
- Tour the Berlin Philharmonics, site of the world-renown Philharmonic orchestra.
Special opportunity for Encounters with Students at the University of Potsdam and Leipzig and Berliners at Research Centres.
Language is not a barrier – many Germans speak English, and will gladly help you. Also, an orientation session on location will enable you to communicate essential requests and phrases. Part of the excursion program are encounters with students in Potsdam and Leipzig through the Academic Service centres, a lunch in a University cafeteria, as well as a visit to the Academy of Arts in Berlin. Further, we will involve native doctoral students in selected tours. For your intercultural learning experience, we designed a questionnaire for you to record and reflect on your experiences in Berlin and with Berlin’s diverse population.
