The Reichstag, Day 9

Class began at 10 am at Humboldt University and we had a special guest who led us in a discussion about minority representation in film. Dr. Markus Heide HU is a professor in the American Studies program at Humboldt and his research is analyzing migration in American film, though for our class he talked about German migration and film. With the first film clip that he showed of an older American Film called “Giant”, he led us to discover that although the film was supposed to be anti-racist, the representation of the minority group in question was still underrepresented. Both the protagonist and antagonist were white Americans, and the protagonist was fighting for the rights of a Latino family to eat at a white diner. The minority group wasn’t standing up for themselves, they were being defended by a white man who sympathized with the unjust treatment of the family. The movie was not morally wrong with its message that everyone should have equal opportunities in life, but it did so in a way that suggests that the minority group needed help from the majority group to gain recognition. Professor Heide then showed us clips from Turkish produced German films and explained how these films can either hurt or hinder the perception of minority groups by the majority. There are actually quite a few successful Turkish producers in Germany, the interesting part is that not all Turkish people appreciate the content of the films. For example, there is a Turkish produced German movie that is focused around sexuality, which is not very popular among muslim turks in Germany. The professor thought that representation of turks in film and media has shown improvement, especially since there are comedians and comic shows which are quite popular and play up the stereotypes around life as a German of Turkish origin. I am excited to see what further conclusions Mira is able to make in her research, which is focused on the portrayal of Turkish people in film.

After lunch we had a short break before we had to meet as a group at the Brandenburg Gate. During this time Mira, Natalie, and I all got lunch and walked to the Brandenburg Gate and around the Tier Garten, which is very nearby to the Gate. Once we had all gathered together at the gate we walked to the Reichstag and did a tour of the building. The Reichstag is quite large and there is a lot of interesting history that can be seen in the building. Some of the building is original work from before the Second World War, but there are also newer parts of the building that had to be rebuilt. An interesting example of this is in the hallways where there is a mix of both new and old wall, but the old wall was preserved and not remodeled because there are signatures from soviet soldiers who wrote on the walls after the soviets bombarded the Reichstag. The signatures were covered with drywall after the war, but when they remodeled the Reichstag and rediscovered the signatures, the German government decided to preserve the signatures as a part of a memorial to the soviet soldiers and a token of the history of the building. At the end of the tour, we all went up in the dome about the Parliament room, and from there we got to see the details of the dome and also an incredible view of Berlin. Our tour guide reminded us though that the only reason that the Reichstag is the most visited parliament building in Europe is because it was once destroyed and had to be rebuilt.

After the tour, Mira, Natalie, and I met up with Natalie’s German friend Leonie. We stopped to get dinner at an Italian place then took our food to a park where we sat and ate in the sunshine and had wonderful conversations. When we were ready to head back we went to an ice cream shop that made the ice cream on the cone look like a rose. I got a scoop of dark chocolate sorbet that was surprisingly good, in addition to coffee ice cream, and vanilla ice cream with chocolate chunks. We ate our ice cream on our way back to the subway station and the hostel, and once we got back I did some writing for this blog and went to bed!