Rostock Abenteuer

After 20 hours of traveling, we finally made it to Rostock! Our program director was so gracious to meet us at the train station at 11pm and bring us back to our hostel. It had only been a few days and a shower, clean towels, and comfy bed never felt so good. The breakfast the next morning was enormous, fantastic, AND FREE! Best combination you could ask for. Each morning, medical students picked up all 22 of us and brought us to the classroom for the day. For the most part, we have classes in the university library (Universität Rostock), but we've visited some other clinics to have class. We have been fortunate to take classes from visiting physicians who are all professionals in their field. From phytology to Parkinson's to the aging bladder, we've already covered a wide range of subjects about the elderly. It has been a great mix of didactics (which has been a great review) and clinical knowledge. Some of my favorites so far has been the discussion on deep brain stimulation to fix Parkinson's temporarily and some examples of eye surgeries. Another great lecture was a particularly violent PowerPoint slide show of forensics. By the end of the lecture we could look at a cadaver and decide whether it was a a hammer blow to the head or a fall. He said there are also sometimes maggots that crawl up your arms during the autopsy but it's ok because it makes for a lively experience. We went on a tour of Rostock which is about the size of Knoxville, TN. Seemingly a quaint town, I was very surprised to hear that it was this large. Unlike Knoxville, we were able to walk around city centre (181 km2 as opposed to Knoxville's 254 km2) and used a bus occasionally. The city was filled with older buildings, including the mayors office, churches, towers with unknown purposes, etc. The front of Rostock University bore the Latin phrase, doctrina mvltiplex veritas vna, meaning there is one truth yet many ways of teaching.

Ridiculously awesome clock that shows the date, time, etc.  Not sure how it works exactly but Ivnivs=June in latin and it is pointing on the 2. 

doctrina mvltiplex veritas vna

The German medical students have been incredibly nice so far, inviting us to go out with them, showing us their favorite places for dinner, and one night, a girl hosted a BBQ for all the medical students are her apartment. Today, they had organized a dragon boat activity. 20 of us piled into a dragon boat and after some technical instruction on how to use the paddles we began our adventure down the river. It must have been quite a sight: 20 uncoordinated Americans slowly making their way down the river barely keeping up with the swimming duck beside us as we are being told to paddle faster in German: EIN, ZWEI, DREI, VIER, FÜNF!

Photo cred: another student at our Rostock program

Our program leaders are fanstactic and they organized a weekend trip to Berlin for us. My favorite parts of Berlin were the Berlin fat tire bike tour and the German museum tour. As I have previously mentioned, the Fat Tire Bike Tours are absolutely wonderful tours.  They have funny tour guides and tell us the most interesting history.  You stay cool on the bike during the hot summer days and contrary to popular belief, have nothing to do with Fat Tire Beer.

Some history: In the 1860's, Otto von Bismark united the German speaking countries as Prussia and ruled as their leader. Then in 1871, he formed a German Empire, named himself first chancellor, and also kept control of Prussia. This German Empire is often thought of as the second reich (first reich being the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation before the Napoleonic Wars and the third reich being Nazi Germany).

I'd like to say that Berlin has the third most construction sites in the world right now.  After most of the buildings were completely bombed, Berlin is still in the process of reconstructing bombed buildings or making new ones.  It is almost impossible to get a picture in Berlin without a construction crane in the background.

Red City Hall.  It was damaged during WWII but rebuilt from the original plans

The glass government offices signify transparency

This is the Brandenburg Gate, the former city gate.  There is a lot of money in this area: embassies, banks, Starbucks, etc. A king of Prussia had the gate built in 1788 as a sign of peace.  After damage in WWII it was fully restored in 2002.  It has served as a symbol over the centuries for many ruling parties of Germany.  At one point only Prussian royals were allowed to pass under the gate and during the Nazi regime, the gate was used as a party symbol.

Brandenburg Gate

Patches over bullet holes of the Bradenburg Gate.  Google images

Much like the numerous construction sites, Berlin's history as the middle of East Germany can still be seen in the modern economy and city today.  Because there was no manufacturing during Soviet rule, there is still no manufacturing and thus still not many jobs.  Right now, there is a 15% unemployment rate in Berlin.  The low living costs attract many musicians so an upside to this bad economy is the rich culture of artists and musicians.

Site of the Nazi book burning: Square at the State Opera. Wiki pics

Nazi's burned any books that were thought to undermine or disagree with the National Socialists (Nazi Party).  There is an underground memorial in this square for the book burning.  There is a glass plate that is flush with the cobblestones around it, giving a view of empty bookshelves below.  The quote, "Where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people" is inscribed on a plaque in the square. Interestingly, this quote is from a play over 100 years before the Nazi book burning.  This square was originally built by a Prussian (ie a kingdom back in the day that spoke German).  The green topped building in the middle of the panoramic is important because it was the first Catholic Church built after the Protestant Reformation.

This is the site of the Führerbunker that housed Hitler and Magda Goebbels, the wife of Nazi Germany's Propoganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. While the Soviets were nearing in on the 36 room bunker located 15 meters below ground, Hitler gave his last testament before he shot himself.  Magda Goebbels gave her children as well as her and her husband cyanide because they could not see a future without the Nazi Party. The Soviets attempted to bomb the bunker but it wasn't until 1988 during some reconstruction of Berlin, that the bunker was taken apart.  In 2006 a small plaque is there to identify the spot.

Führerbunker. Google Images

12 million people were killed during the Holocaust, 6 million of them being Jews.  The other 6 million were gypsies, homosexuals, Eastern Europeans, Soviet POWs, communists, etc. In 2005 a memorial was installed in Berlin.  Created by Peter Eisenman, the meaning of the memorial is open to interpretation, yet it is for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.  Soon after installation, there was graffiti written on some of the blocks so they found a protective spray.  After all the blocks were sprayed, it was discovered that this was one of the same chemical companies that were involved with the gas chambers during WWII.  It is not as easy as you may think to learn this because many companies are obviously embarrassed by their previous work with the Nazis and have been renamed and taken measures to keep this secret.  The spray could not be removed by this point so it was decided that this company give a lifetime supply of the spray to the memorial.

Memorial

Memorial

As mentioned earlier, this memorial is up for interpretation.  It was an extremely interesting memorial to walk through as it reminded me of the ocean.  As I waded deeper and deeper into the memorial, the blocks became bigger, just as the ocean would become deeper.  Once you found yourself in the middle, they were lined up so you could only see the people in your own row.  You never knew who was around you and out of sight until you happened to take a specific turn.  People appeared and disappeared within the memorial as they moved between rows. 

Let's do a quick history: Post WWII, Germany was split up.  Since the Soviets were part of the Allied powers, the Soviets got control of East Germany as a reward post WWII. The US got the South, France got some, and the UK got the west.  Berlin was the capital, so it got divided four ways. The Soviets had East Berlin, while the UK, France and the US had West Berlin.  By 1953, the people in the east wanted to be democratic.  USSR didn't like that too much so started shooting people.  20% of people left the East and subsequently the Iron Curtain was built (a physical border that also represented an ideology). At one point, 2000 people/day were leaving East Berlin in order to get to West Berlin.  One night in 1961, the Berlin wall was built with no warning.  There were stories of people who had gone to west Berlin that night and couldn't return in the morning.  There were three checkpoints between east and west, one of them being Checkpoint Charlie.  They were strictly enforced as times and kilometers between one checkpoint and another were checked.  Many tried to get across via hang gliders, tunnels, etc. On one side of the wall was NATO officers and the other being soviets officers.

Remnants of the Berlin Wall

Checkpoint Charlie, previously between east and west Berlin

Stasi- secret police of East Germany (GDR) whose job it was to spy on the general population.  They often did so through undercover civilian informants. After Germany reunification in 1989, millions of files were open so individuals could review their personal record.  By some, they are regarded as one of the most effective intelligence agencies in the world. What did this mean for the people of East Berlin? Our tour guide explained that people lived in fear of doing anything wrong because any old civilian walking down the street could be an informant.

We went back and finished our last week of classes. We visited the ICU and heard some interesting lectures on biomechanics and how technical devices are used in healthcare. On one of the days, we visited an orthopedic clinic and they demonstrated this new mechanical hand used by those who have had a hand amputated. A classmate of ours was the example and after electrodes were placed on his arm, he controlled the hand by flexing certain muscles in his forearm. This is an amazing concept and I can see this improving even more in the future.

One day, some medical students brought us to the beach where we dipped a toe into the Baltic Sea and played some beach volleyball. We had gotten into our routine of class and had really started learning our way around the city. It was nice to be settled for two weeks and have the chance to really become acquainted. We found our favorite spots and favorite restaurants and by the end we could wander around without getting too lost. Our last day, they presented us with some congratulatory tshirts and certificates for our "successful participation" in the class. We even had a farewell BBQ that night where we had the chance to say goodbye to all our new friends.