STUDY TRIP 2025
A Journey Through Memory and Migration
This July, the HCGES group moved to the streets of Berlin, Hamburg, and Potsdam. One week, 12 students, led by Dr Daniel Mahla and Ghaida Zoabi, embarked on an intensive study trip titled “Memory, Migration, and the Politics of Remembrance.” The goal was not just to observe history, but to confront it where it happened.
Students explored how Germany’s Erinnerungskultur (Culture of Remembrance) is evolving amid new narratives.
In Berlin, the group traced the scars of division at the Berlin Wall Memorial and the Stasi Museum, and stood in silence at the Holocaust Memorial.
In Potsdam, at the Wannsee House, students examined the systematic planning of the Shoah, contrasting it with the colonial imagination found in Schlosspark Sanssouci.
Then, in Hamburg, students discover the town and took an excursion about colonial past of German economy.
It was not a typical tour. Every student presented on topics ranging from museum restitution ethics to the revival and insecurity of Jewish life after 1945. It was an immersive week that brought history to life and deepened our understanding of the responsibilities of remembrance.
Berlin Study Trip 2022
In semester B 2022, we offered our students to participate in a study trip on East Germany and Memory in Berlin, which lasted from July 14th – 21st. The study trip was counted as a special course and offered the students 2 ECTS after handing in a term paper.
July 14th 2022: Arrival day
July 15th 2022: The group started the first day with a visit of the Humboldt Forum. During the tour ‘On the Traces of History’, they learned about the past of the place of the new building, which resembles the former Brandenburg castle. The participants found out about the ‘Palace of the Republic’ which was an important political but also cultural venue during the times of the GDR. Afterwards, the group went to the Notaufnahmelager Marienfelde. This refugee camp was set up by West Germany and West Berlin during the Cold War to deal with the large waves of immigration from East Germany and continues to function today. The day ended with a group dinner at the Café am Neuen See in the Tiergarten.
July 16th 2022: On the second day, the group went to the Stasi Museum which is located in the headquarters of the former Ministry of State Security in the morning. Afterwards, the group traveled to Nollendorfplatz together, where Dr. Alissa Belotti introduced the students to homosexuality in the GDR by giving a short lecture on this topic. To compare how homosexuality can be lived nowadays in Berlin, they visited the Berlin Lesbian-Gay City Festival at Nollendorfplatz.
July 17th 2022: Today the students had a research day. While some of them decided to stay in Berlin and and do some sightseeing, others traveled to different places. One student even went to Jena to get information on further study opportunities.
July 18th 2022: The group went to the GDR museum. After discussing with a contemporary witness at the GDR Museum, they visited the exhibition of everyday life in the GDR. After that, the students had an architectural and historical tour of the Karl-Marx-Allee and a debriefing with a discussion of all their impressions
July 19th 2022: The group had a walking tour through Kollwitzplatz to the Mauerpark. There, their tour guide reported about her experiences in early post-GDR federal politics. Subsequently, the group visited the exhibition “Everyday Life in the GDR” at the Kulturbrauerei. A visit of the Eastside Gallery formed the last stop of the day.
July 20th 2022: The last day started with a guided tour of the Palace of Tears at the Friedrichstraße border crossing. Then, the group went to the Berlin Wall Memorial at Bernauer Straße and saw the Ghost Station exhibit. In the afternoon, they had a tour in the Bundestag. In the evening, the study trip was concluded with a farewell dinner at the ‘Augustiner’ at the Gendarmenmarkt.
July 21st: 2022: Departure day
