An old water tap fountain in the town of Frankenberg, Germany
(by MaddinM26)
Flowers in Oberammergau.
Maren and I.
One of the hosts of ZDF's morning show.
Eagle in Bundestag meeting room.
Lunch guest.
Today was an early day. We were out of the hotel around 7:30 am in order to make a live broadcast of ZDF’s (one of Germany’s national public TV broadcasters) morning magazine.
It was an interesting experience. We were there for the cafe at the end of the program and the hosts moved around the audience — it was an interesting breakdown between that fourth wall.
Also there I ran into Maren Beuscher — a journalist at ZDF. I, along with Professor Mike Conway, hosted Maren and Matthias Veit when they took part in the German half of the RIAS program last fall. I did not know she was going to be there so it was a nice surprise.
After the broadcast we talked with Thomas Walde, deputy head of ZDF’s capital bureau. He worked as a correspondent in Washington, DC, for the broadcaster during the Bush administration and had a lot to say on the perception of the United States in Germany as well as the differences between German and American broadcasters.
Our meeting with him actually lasted an hour longer than it was meant to.
Afterward it was a tour of the Reichstag and then off to Tucher, near the Brandenbug Gate, for lunch with a journalist from Deutschland Radio. Deutschland Radio took over RIAS’s facility after there was no more need of radio in the American sector of Berlin.
Tonight we go to Gendarmenmarkt for music and dinner.
Yesterday was long, but really fun.
We took a train (3 actually) to Peenemüde, an old coastal city turned missile testing site.
It actually has a really intense history, which we learned all about in the Technological History Museum. The museum is an old power plant, which was bombed and reconstructed in 1991.
So how did this little fishing town with 300 people become the site for military missile testing?
Basically, around the time after WWI a bunch of scientists were really into space travel and liquid fuel They funded their research by themselves so they weren’t really going anywhere. At the same time, the treaty of Versailles limited Germany a lot in researching weapons technology, but it didn’t say anything about liquid fuel powered missiles because they didn’t exist yet.
So since no one was funding them and they wanted to pursue their dream, some of the scientist signed on with the military, which basically meant anything they needed they got. One such thing was Peenemünde. They needed more space and a place to test their research and Peenemünde was perfect because it was right on the coast and there was a stretch of relatively straight land on which they could set up measurement instruments. Btw, the people who were living there were kicked out and of course, they were pissed.
Fist ballistic missile, and first thing to touch space! When the missile was finally finished, the German government used it as propaganda, calling it the miracle weapon that would help them win WWII. In reality, it cost way too much to fire. The fuel was made from potatoes and at that point they hardly had enough food to feed people, so miracle weapon was kind of a dud.
The cit also has a very sad side. A lot of the labor and why the weapons could be built so fast was due to slave labor and concentration camp workers. It was a really split city; on the one side you had the scientist who were given everything they ever need to live and on the other were the slaves who were treated like dirt. The museum had a cool exhibit where you could listen to the different recounts of the people who were there at the time and how different the world of the scientists were from the slaves and concentration camp workers.
After Peenemünde, we went to the Baltic sea!
It was kind of a chilly day, but we made the most of it and played in the ocean anyway. Lots of beach things were done, including football americana with a deflated soccer ball and football regular. It was a great way to spend the day. Lovely.
Rummel ohne Rummel.
Trudged to the top of the Vِlkerschlachtdenkmal after school with my backpack full of books, camera bag full of cameras/lenses, and my water bottle. I’m completely worn out. I can’t even bear to look at stairs, and I felt like Liza Minnelli in Arrested Development, but it was definitely worth it. Leipzig is too pretty.
sixbagatelles: ok it says here if the household interviewing person does not find you twice
