GCSE Historians enjoy memorable trip to Berlin

In the Easter holidays, many of us currently doing GCSE History enjoyed a fascinating trip to Berlin.

We began by meeting our tour guide and exploring parts of the city on foot, visiting the Brandenburg Gate as well as harrowing memorials to those who lost their lives in the World Wars. The day ended with a delicious meal in a traditional German restaurant before we got some much-needed rest!

On day two we visited the gut-wrenching Sachsenhausen Concentration camp (1936-1945), which revealed in detail the profound horror of the Holocaust that we had learned so much about. Whilst it was difficult, I found the trip very informative and interesting, especially hearing about the 'shoe running detail' where internees had to march on different surfaces to test out shoe sole materials.

These difficult themes continued with a visit to the Wannsee conference villa, which had been repurposed as a museum, containing a wealth of saddening stories about the persecution of the Jews. The day then lightened up with a trip to the Olympic stadium in Berlin and, since I had never been to a stadium before, it looked huge, especially considering it was built in the 1930s! Then it was time for another traditional German meal, and this one was Currywurst, a delicious mix of sausage and curry accompanied by an interesting drink called Almdudler - a herbal lemonade.

On the third day, we made a trip to the Stasi prison, which was a place for the Soviet Secret Police in Germany to interrogate political prisoners. This was my favourite place of the trip because it really gave me an idea of the oppression of East Berlin, which was kept under wraps for so many years. We learned about the psychological tactics used against prisoners and the way they were transported - in a disguised food lorry which had room for a person inside and no windows. It would intentionally drive in zig-zags to the prison to prevent prisoners from finding out where they were going!

We then turned into your classic Berlin tourists, taking photos in front of Checkpoint Charlie - the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point - and then visiting the dome on top of the German parliament, from where we got to see the city at night.

Our last day brought us to the picturesque location of the Bridge of Spies, where famous trades of prisoners between the Soviets and the West were made. We learned about one trade of Francis Gary Powers, a spy pilot, and Rudolf Abel, a spy for the Soviet Union. You may know about this from the film with Tom Hanks! To conclude our trip, we made our way to the Cecilienhof palace in Potsdam, Brandenburg, where the three leaders of the Soviet Union, USA, and Britain divided Germany between them. It was fascinating to visit a place where such a big decision was made, with its far reaching consequences for global relations.

Finally, it was time to go home and having had such an amazing experience visiting Germany for the first time, I was sad to leave.

George R (PH, IV)