May 14, 2012
This morning started out with a tour of the city with Jewish
historian from Munich. We started at the new synagogue that was built after
WWII, which was only about a block from our hotel. They had designed this
building so that half of it resembled the Wailing Wall from Israel and the top
half resembled a tent from the desert. In the same square there was a Jewish
school and the Jewish museum. The entire square could not be entered by
vehicles so that there was less chance of someone attempting a hate crime. The
guide then took us to several other places throughout the city that were
important during Hitler’s reign, however unless you had a guide to show you all
these places, you would have never known what had happened there. None of the
places had any plaques or signs, anything, showing what had happened at these
locations. One place, where everyone was supposed to salute as they passed a
statue, there was an artist’s rendition of a path that people would take to avoid
that statue and therefore avoid having to do the Hitler salute. Even at that
spot there was nothing indicating what the path through the alley was there
for.
We went all over the city seeing some of the memorials that
had been erected and some other important sites, like where the Nazi party was
founded and the memorial that was erected for those affected by WWII. That
memorial was one of my favorites despite, or perhaps because of, its
simplicity. The memorial was a large black square block with a cage at the top
of it and inside the cage was a flame that burned continuously. This was
supposed to symbolize those who had been imprisoned during WWII and yet they
lived on and the flame of resistance never died.
We ended the tour at the site of what was the first synagogue
built in Munich. Hitler destroyed that building during his reign and erected
where it once stood was a simple stone monument with Jewish carvings, indicting
what once had been there. They opted not to build the new synagogue there
because the Jews didn’t want it to appear as if WWII had never happened. They felt
that it wasn’t something that could be torn down and then simply re-erected in
the same place.
Once the tour was over we decide to head to the English
Gardens and explore that area, since the other girls hadn’t seen it yet and I
had only gone on that very short run in it. We eat our lunch next to this
gorgeous waterfall and it is very peaceful, despite there being a lot of people
in the garden. After lunch we decide to walk through the large green area and
once again we run into some police officers exercising their horses there
before they take them into the city. This time we get to meet a lovely young
gray and a beautiful chestnut, which could probably stand to lose a bit more
weight. We also learn from the officers that there is a riding academy near the
garden that might actually let us ride there. Definitely going to check that
out later in the week. Finishing up our
walk in the garden we head back to the hotel and arrive just in time to make it
to our next seminar, which we all thought wasn’t happening for another hour,
but the time had gotten changed without us knowing about it.
So off we go in a rush to catch the next train out of Munich
to the outskirts of the city. Here we meet with one of the editors of the
largest paper in Germany. She talks about the direction that news print is
going and what is happening with newspapers, in Germany and all over. She also
talks about the building where her newspaper is. This building is the most
environmentally conscious building in Germany and is a large part off
geothermal energy for heating and cooling. The building also is entirely
electronically controlled, including the elevators, which completely fascinated
me. The view from the top of the building
was absolutely gorgeous! You could see for miles in every direction and we
could actually find the plaza where our hotel was located as well, even though
we were a good half hour out of the city.
We went for a tour of the printing plant after our lecture
with the editor and it was amazing to see the machine where the papers came
from! The roles of paper that a newspaper is printed on are 12 miles long and
100% recycled. It amazes me how much greener Germans are than Americans,
everything here is recycled from bottles to paper to plastic. The printing
press was huge and had several different printing areas that would each print a
part of the paper. Typical paper printing happened from 6pm until 3am. Although
they do print other articles and magazines there, so printing is actually going
on all day. At the end of the tour we each got a paper for the following day,
which I seriously considered re-selling, but sadly the opportunity passed me
by.
Coming back from our unexpected workshop we all were tired,
worn-out, and STARVING! I decided to get some more wonton soup at the Thai
place next door, which was delicious but they wouldn’t let me order a side of
rice, which is what I really wanted, so I don’t think I’ll be going back there
again on this trip. Since I didn’t have any carbs with my soup I went on a hunt
for a pretzel, which is sold at every bakery in Germany, and eventually found
one a couple blocks from the hotel. After that dinner it left me with ,50 euro
left over from my food money for the week. Thank goodness we get more tomorrow;
otherwise I would probably be coming home a few pounds thinner. J
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen