Today we (my German class, 14 kids total) went on a field trip! It was fun for a few reasons: I really like the class; it was like the old days of taking fields trips-- they don't happen too often at a huge school like U of T; and our teacher took us on this totally on her own, it was not planned and no other class did it. She's great, big-hearted. Anyway, our field trip was to the Berlin Wall Museum, which is a small, but nice, museum a bit north of Mitte. It is one of two places where the wall still stands in its original place. It was very interesting, and the exhibit there is in both German and English. Across the street, you can peer through cracks in the wall to see what no-man's-land looked like. The place where you would stand for this is gravel, so it's pretty effective in making the visitor see how hopeless escaping East Berlin felt/was. There is also a chapel across the street, and every business day at 12 they commemorate someone who died trying to get over the wall. We stayed for that, and it was quite moving. I think it's a little too bad that it's only in German, because I'd recommend it widely.

My teacher also said that she would definitely recommend this museum over the one at Checkpoint Charlie because the Wall Museum is more objective. I haven't been to CC, but the information laid out at the WM was very objective, that was plain to see. The visuals are also more effective at the WM because there aren't tons of tourists around; you're allowed to think.