Berlin Seminar – weeks 28 & 29

Volunteers with the YMCA like me get to enjoy 4 seminars every year (with the same group of about 25 other volunteers), totalling 25 days. I may have mentioned a seminar in October – I’ve since had another in January (both 5 days) and just recently our 10-day seminar took place in Berlin, with a relatively large amount of things to say about it, and Berlin. (More will follow this post I expect!)

Our group of 25 volunteers (from all over Germany) was joined by two others, one from a region in western Germany, the other made up mostly of volunteers in Berlin.

We all take the train to get to our seminars, usually 4/5 hours for me, so it was nice to only have to travel just over an hour to get to the one in Berlin. We stayed in a hotel-like youth hostel belonging to the Berlin City Mission, who give a warm evening meal, clothes, hygiene products, medical care, and a mattress for the night to those that need. (I assume they are partly funded by the hotel.) At one point during the seminar, we visited the basement where these guests come and food is served, and the rooms in part of the hotel/hostel where they can sleep.

After arriving on Monday 7th March, we played a few games to get to know each other. The following day, we were taken on tours of Berlin in groups by the leaders of the seminar. On the Wednesday, we visited an old section of the Berlin wall, which divided the city during the last decades of the GDR (German Democratic Republic/East Germany), and a museum about the Berlin Wall. We also attended a devotion at the ‚Versöhnungskapelle‘ – reconciliation chapel – which included remembering one of the victims of the socialist regime who died on the 9th March years ago, Herbert Mende.

There was a morning devotion at 8:00 every morning, a Bible study time after breakfast, and a devotion again at the end of the day. Mainly the participants did the devotions, which always included some singing.

We had the rest of the day on Wednesday free to do what we want – I lingered about the museum a bit longer, looking at a few things I’d missed, and then headed back to the ho(s)tel where I think I wrote a postcard home, and relaxed. Some people were out ‚on the town‘ til 2am every morning, but I preferred to rest and relax quite a lot, and save my strength for being back in Frankfurt (Oder).

On Thursday 10th, I was part of a group that visited a Stasi (the secret police of the GDR) museum, on the site of the old Stasi headquarters in Berlin – another group visited an old Stasi prison. The main focuses of the museum visit were Erich Mielke, head of the Stasi for decades, Stasi gadgets used for collecting information (cameras, microphones, hidden in everyday objects, such as satchels and watering cans) and the end of the Stasi, including the HQ being stormed. There was also a talk about education in the GDR, showing how children were taught to think that the evil ‚West‘ wanted to invade peace-loving East Germany, which was quite shocking. But I also found it quite surprising how/how much the Germans (including those who had lived through the GDR) laughed about the story books children had to read, for instance, as part of a state which aimed to ‚know everything‘ about its citizens and keep them doing exactly what the state wanted. I wondered whether they laugh as a way of distracting themselves from the reality of it all, or something like that...?

On Friday 11th, we visited the (most visited government building in the world,) the Reichstag, near the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg gate), for which we needed to be security checked before going. We heard a very good talk about the proceedings of the German parliament/government, and then went onto the roof, where there were very good views of most of Berlin’s attractions and sights.

On Saturday 12th, we played a virtual game (but in the real world) to help us to better understand how politics works, or the difficulties there can be. The game took place in a pretend town with a high proportion of immigrants, with a proposal of introducing books in the language of the immigrants to the library in vast quantity. We chose roles as members of the political parties (following their policies as closely as possible), or as members of certain commitees that were for or against the proposal, and common citizens. I felt I could’ve made more of an effort to try and convince people during the game, but didn’t (and I also found the language of persuasion in German a bit difficult at times, I haven’t argued something in German in a long time!). At the end, there was a meeting of all citizens in the town hall, with speeches and counterarguments, and a vote at the end, which was slightly more in favour of the books, but there were lots of varying proposals from different groups with their particular interests.
     Many people found it quite hard coming back out of the role they had been in during the game, and being their ‚normal self‘ again, which made us think what everyday life must be like for people that really work in politics. We also found a particular person with a particular character can have a lot of influence on how the game develops.

On Sunday 13th, we had the day free, with instructions to visit one of many possible church services in Berlin. Along with quite a few others, I went to a church service in a cinema (the seats couldn’t have been better), which was quite normal, apart from pieces of piano music being played at the start and end of the service, and part-way through, which I certainly wasn’t used to, but it didn’t especially bother me.

On Monday 14th, we prepared for talks with politicians or their staff, which took place that evening and the whole of Tuesday. They were really quite interactive, with lots of opportunities for individuals to ask questions and discuss things. And they were all very good, I found. The six I attended were: Data protection/saving for security reasons, Child poverty in Germany, and then on the Tuesday Islamism in Germany, Criminal Law for young offenders, Christians and(/in) politics, and finally Germany’s involvement in Afghanistan. I very much enjoyed translating for a girl from Swaziland who struggles with such fast German – though I’ve noticed my English is not as good as my German in these cases, some words I have to think about a lot to retrieve.

For part of the day on Tuesday (15th), we prepared ‚acts‘ which we then presented in the evening, as a kind of evaluation of the seminar – our group looked at the accomodation and food, and did a sort of circus-like act with several parts; mine was juggling, but it went quite wrong as it was quite dark on the stage, and I couldn’t see the balls properly. There were lots of other (more) entertaining acts, such as a musical, as an overview of the whole seminar, songs, drama, a picture story, video in the form of an interview with the leaders, which twisted their words, also a do-it-yourself game where everyone together illustrated trying to escape from inside a wall (a human chain), which was fun, reviewing what we’d learnt about the GDR.

Needless to say, despite some problems, food and accomodation were excellent, with yoghurt and fruit cocktail on offer alongside the usual bread, jam, cheese and sandwich meat, and for lunch and dinner many foodstuffs to mix and match from, and lots of salad on the side.

On Wednesday 16th, the tenth day, there was a service followed by lunch, and then it was off back to Frankfurt (Oder), and a restful afternoon before continuing with work the following day.

Berlin, Socialism, GDR, Stasi, Reichstag, German culture, Language,