PORTADOWN
COLLEGE
GERMAN TRIP
A group of Portadown College students recently enjoyed an educational visit to Berlin. On arrival, they were accompanied by their guide, Angelika, to places which were of particular interest to students of German politics: Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag, the former seat of German Government.
On the second day, the students experienced the U-Bahn on their way to the Olympic Stadium, built for the famous Games of 1936. The students’ appreciation of the history of Berlin was further augmented by a trip to one of the main museums where they saw, amongst other items, a bunker built to withstand an atomic bomb. One of the main testimonies to the darkest aspect of German history in the twentieth century, the former Nazi labour camp at Sachsenhausen, was the main focus of the third day. This gave students an invaluable insight into misery inflicted by humans on each other and the danger of political ideologies.
The College students also visited a ‘living history’ museum where they experienced a sense of how life was under Communist surveillance before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The pupils, accompanied by their teachers Mr Andrews and Mrs Nelson, were fortunate to experience a visit to places which brought to life the broad sweep of European twentieth century history. The distorted ideals demonstrated in the Olympic Stadium in 1936 were just one factor which led to the Nazi labour camps and, ultimately, the division of Berlin exemplified by Checkpoint Charlie. The remnants of the former regime meant that they could also freely enjoy the city as tourists and experience the shops and restaurants in their free time.
