Berlin

June 5, 2010

Berlin is an amazing city and one of my favorite places out of the whole trip! There is so much to see and do, and I never expected to learn as much history while staying here as I have. At the veterinary school our group split up, and I chose to join the group visiting the equine clinic. Our tour was a little confusing, but I enjoyed it. Our student guide took us to the equine surgical rounds, which was all in German, but the radiographs were pretty self-explanatory. Next, we toured the barns and watched a surgery—a bilateral neurectomy for a case of chronic incurable lameness. Their facilities looked like they were old but still in good working order. I was disturbed, though, when I observed several breaks in sterile technique during the surgical prep and procedure. We ate lunch with the students, and then instead of going on the bike tour I went with Kat to “Museum Island,” a group of several museums all together in one convenient location. We started with the Neues Museum and did not have time to see everything—the place was huge, and it was just one of the museums there! We saw most of their Egyptian collection, however, and the best part was the bust of Nefertiti. It is amazing that something so old is still in such good condition.
The tour of Sachsenhausen, a former concentration camp, was a very powerful experience for me. I had never visited a concentration camp before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect or how to react. During our tour, we learned that this camp was an early one that served as a model for later, bigger camps and was used mostly for political prisoners. After the war, it was used by the Soviets for their political prisoners. People were kept there for long periods of time and forced to work. There is a sign across the entrance that reads, “Arbeit Macht Frei” which in English means, “work will set you free.” Our guide told us that prisoners thought if they worked hard enough for long enough, they could actually earn their freedom. After seeing the conditions in which prisoners lived and the way they were treated, I left wondering how anyone could subject another human being to that kind of treatment.
I also learned more about the Berlin Wall and what life was like for people when the city was divided. For the first time, I stopped to really think about how long the Wall stood and how recently it was taken down. We went up inside one of the towers and saw a piece that has been left standing as a memorial, but I think what really moved me were all the stories we heard about people who tried to escape through it. People came up with all kinds of inventive schemes to get through the Wall from East Berlin to West Berlin, many of which were successful.
That afternoon we had some free time, so I went back to “Museum Island” to see some more museums. I went with Greg to the Pergamon Museum to see the Pergamon Alter and the Ishtar Gate. I was amazed to find these massive structures built into the rooms of the museum!
On the last day of the program we visited the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research. We toured their facilities where they showed us their amazing CT, which is incredibly fast and powerful, and taught us to use a blowgun dart. We also learned about one of their current projects, preserving Sumatran Rhinos. Later that afternoon we finally got to see the Berlin zoo! During our tour we saw the zoo’s veterinary facilities and Knut the world-famous polar bear, and we were even allowed to feed the hippos. That evening we all had a wonderful dinner together at a Moroccan restaurant. It was a great ending to a great program!