Berlin ‘24

Last week saw our inaugural Sixth Form cultural visit to Berlin.  Having not been able to do our usual Year 10 visit to Berlin due to a global pandemic, we thought that it would be good to give students the opportunity to visit this culturally rich and diverse city, and to spread the content away from a purely history focus to reflect the fact that we had students from a wide range of subjects joining us.

A 4:30 departure from Balcarras saw us witness a beautiful sunrise along the Windrush valley.  The students were in great spirits, and this continued for the entirety of our visit.  We arrived at a very busy Terminal 5 at Heathrow, and the students remained calm and patient as we got through to departures.  Our British Airways flight got us in in good time, and we found ourselves in a balmy city, ready for a boat trip and a nourishing German meal.  Our Hostel had been spruced up a fair bit since my last visit five years ago – although with average temperatures of 26-30 each day, some air conditioning would have been nice.

The following day we took a 3 hour walking tour taking in many of the famous sights of the city.  Our tour guides were a lot of fun, and the students asked some terrific questions.  Our tour gave way to a stroll (some would argue it was more of a route march) to the Hamburger Bahnhof contemporary art gallery.  I was guarding the bags, so didn’t get to see the exhibitions, but from what I hear, they were certainly very conceptual and the students had myriad interpretations on their departure.  Our excellent student guide Loz, with his encyclopaedic knowledge of the public transport system, guided us home to the hostel safely, via a visit to Berlin Haubtbahnhof. With the heat of the afternoon sun, we took a cooling dip in one of the local open air swimming pools, and then got ready for dinner at an excellent Italian restaurant near the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall.  The pizza was perhaps the largest I’ve seen, and the students all ate very well in a super environment.

Wednesday we used a local coach company to tour some of the sights outside of the centre.  Our first stop was Platform 17 at the Grunewald train station.  This delightful, wealthy Berlin suburb was the departure destination for thousands of forcibly displaced Jewish Berliners who were taken to camps or ghettos in the East.  The students were able to see the memorial to these people and to have some time for reflection.  We then went on to Wannsee, a charming lake district still within the Berlin city limits.  It was here that senior Nazi officers gathered in a house on the lake in 1942 to discuss the logistics and implementation of the Final Solution to the Jewish Question – namely the mass genocide of the Jewish population of Nazi occupied Europe.  Mr Leatherbarrow expertly guided us through a greater understanding of the context and events leading up to this, and the students were struck by the juxtaposition of the beauty of the setting and the hideous hate crimes that went on within.  From here we went to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.

Our return to the city went smoothly, and we approached via the Western suburbs and the Mitte district to get back to the hostel.   We walked to dinner at Amrit restaurant, where students and staff dined on excellent food.  We were placed in an area of the restaurant with a large screen, as England were taking on the Netherlands in the Euro Semi-Finals.  First half at the restaurant, second half at the fan-zone in front of the Brandenburg gate ensured for an evening the students will not forget in a hurry.  Mr Boughton made the anticipation even greater by taking us on the scenic route to the fanzone.  This was a match that England won – thank goodness!

Thursday was a day of some more city sights, and a visit to the Stasi Prison in former East Berlin.  As an alumni of previous Berlin visits, I’d seen the previous sights, but this was a new one for me, and what an experience it was.  The group that I was with were toured around by an ex prisoner – incarcerated for posting literature which encouraged people to think for themselves.  His parting line will stay with me – “Those who sleep in a democracy wake up in a dictatorship”. 

We gave the students freedom to find dinner by themselves on our final night, and they went to a variety of different places within the Hackescher Market area of the city.  We did give the students the option of joining us for dinner, but surprisingly, none took us up on it.

Friday saw us depart the hostel at 11 for the journey back home.  Our steward said that the students were the best group she’d ever had on a flight.  This was the feeling of the staff throughout this extended visit.  The student’s behaviour was exemplary.  They grew in knowledge, resilience, team skills and friendship as the week went on.  It was a genuine privilege to be with them.

Huge thanks to the staff who came on this visit – shepherding 55 students around a capital city takes some work, but the staff made it look like a walk in the Tiergarden.  Their expertise and leadership helped to make the visit go smoothly.

Prost! And here’s to more Sixth Form culture in the future.

Mr Constance