Fayetteville German GAPP

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Fayetteville High School
Germany Trip 2014

Our school’s 31
st
trip to our
partner school in Berlin through:


The German American Partnership Program (GAPP) is
a non-profit high school exchange program between
schools in Germany and the United States, created by
the German Foreign Office and by the United States
Department of State. The main objective of the Program
is the integration of students into the everyday life of
host families and into the classroom activities of host
schools to provide them with a coherent intercultural
experience.

Off to Berlin! June 1, 2014

The 12 FHS students and their German teachers,
Ms. Stassen and Ms. Bunton, left for their 3-week trip.
Many of the students had never left the country before.
Most of the 12 had taken 3-4 years of German classes
at this point, hosted a German, and all were ready
to practice their Deutsch! This is a photo of
several of the Germans who are
hosting us. They stayed
with our 12 last fall.




Willkommen! June 2, 2014

Reuniting with our exchange partners at the airport in
Berlin! See everyone at 8:00am for our first home room
at the Goethe Oberschule!







Host Families June 2, 2014
Flynn shows Frau Bunton how the water pump works on
their our way back from the neighborhood grocery store.
Flynn’s parents Björn and Julianne Beling are hosting Ms.
Bunton. Mr. Behling is
an English teacher at
our partner school and
brought students to
Fayetteville last fall.
Can’t wait to see
pictures of the students’
host families!

Our Partner School June 3, 2014
The Goethe Oberschule is a college prep high school
(1 of the 3 types of high schools in the German school
system) named after the country’s most famous poet and
author, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. We always receive
such a warm
welcome by the staff
and students. Frau
Porzelt, the
principal, takes time
out of her 1st period
class to greet us
and challenge the
students to learn as
much German as
they can. German
principals are
required to teach
one class, being both a teacher and principal‒ imagine
the benefits of this daily classroom contact!
Biking to School
Many students come via
public transport to school,
but biking is the most
practical way. Ian is shown
here parking his bike before
school.

Fahrkarten
Thank you Goethe Schule
for finding funding for our
public transportation
tickets! Memo, Ian, and
Tanner show their city
transportation tickets
during a lesson on navigating the tram, streetcar,
subway, bus, and train systems of Berlin. During
homeroom, students plan our route for day trips in and
around the city.

Homeroom!
Every weekday we start our day at our partner school
with homeroom, where we have lessons on language,
cultural differences, and using public transportation.
Students are also
given homework
assignments, such as
interviewing their host
family about the next
day’s field trip topic/
and location, or
helping with our blog.

Mathematik auf Deutsch!
On the days that we aren’t going on field trips, students
go to class with their partners after homeroom. Here
Memo and his host partner discuss how to find the
maximum of a function
in math class. Thanks
Herr Behling for letting
us take part in pair
work!


Presentations from the Americans
Presentations are an important part of the exchange
students’ time in the school. In Fayetteville, the Germans
share with students about their ‘home town’ of Berlin, their
school, and about youth culture in Germany. We visit
English classes and present to the Germans on Arkansas,
Fayetteville, and FHS. After the students present, the
Americans hand out taffy and nerds candy and sit with 1 or
2 students who get to try out their English on real-life
Americans.



Culture Lesson on Berlin

Herr Behling, an English and math teacher at the school,
provided us with a documentary about Berlin’s
subcultures. We
watched interviews
with starving artists,
street musicians,
basketball players,
and others. The
students were
surprised to find out
that Berlin is home
to so many different
types of people.

Field Trip #1: June 4, 2014
Tour of Berlin-West
Eliane and Josie, two students from the Goethe
Schule, led us on our tour through sites of West Berlin.
They provided us with historical and cultural
information at each stop. FHS and RJHS/WJHS
German teachers prepare their students for these
historical and cultural tours as part of their German
Level I-AP curriculum.




‘The Story of Berlin’
In this museum, students browsed through 800 years of
Berlin history and culture. Here they’re posing next to
the East German ‘Trabant’ car. The tour included a visit
and guide to a Cold War UNDERGROUND BUNKER!
Very cool, very creepy.






The Kaiser
Hey, it’s the church from the
cover of our textbook, The
Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial
Church! The original section
of the church has been left
as it was after Allied
bombings in WWII as a
reminder of the destruction
that comes with any war.
Services are now held in
the ‘Lipstick and
Powderbox’ buidlings on
either side of the original.
Inside the Wilhelm Memorial Church, students were
amazed by the remaining ceiling mosaics. We also
learned about the royal families of Berlin here.

Symbols remain
throughout the
city of the
former division
of East and
West, such as
these
intertwined, but
incomplete
chains.

At KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens/ Department
Store of the West), the largest department store in
continental Europe, students got a taste of luxury.
Pastries are flown in fresh every morning from Paris.






Jewish Museum: June 5, 2014
German-American Connections
We toured the famous Jewish Museum in Berlin today.
Students were excited to learn about the German-
American connections of the museum architect and
museum director. The architect, Daniel Liebeskind, also
designed the 9-11 Memorial Tower in New York. The
director of the museum, Michael Blumenthal, also
worked in both the Kennedy and Carter administrations
after his family fled Germany.

Symbolism through Architecture
We had a fantastic guide who spoke to us through his
Italian/German/Jewish roots. Throughout our tour we saw
symbols of the Jewish experience in Germany and Europe.
See below: Do you see what looks like a Star of David made
from what looks like barbed wire?







An ariel view of Daniel Liebeskind’s architecture, see
the zig-zagged path the building follows?











Ella Claire looks back at the faces of the survivors,an
art piece that symbolizes the survivor’s experience.
exhibits showing the fates and paths of Holocaust
Survivors.






Jewish German Life & Culture
In the main exhibit, we
learned about the many,
many contributions Jewish-
Germans (Ashkenazi Jews)
made to the German
culture and history since
arriving in the Rhine River
area in 4th century. It was a
very hands-on tour, rich
with Jewish-German art
and artifacts.











June 6, 2014 Berlin’s Main Train Station

Endlich, der Hauptbahnhof! We went to Berlin’s main
train station today to validate our rail passes, make
train reservations, and purchase Anschlusskarten.
From there
we traveled
through the
main parts of
Berlin so the
students
could get get
a preview of
all the sites
they’ll visit.
They’re
getting pretty
good at navigating from subways to trams to city
busses. Their homework tonight is to write down how
to get from the city center to their host family’s street in
German using the transportation maps and their new
route-planning vocabulary. Below is an arial view of
the station.







Welcome Picnic June 6, 2014
After school, our
hosts treated us to
yummy homemade
pasta salads, water
melon, and
desserts. It was a
perfect day for
frisbee, badminton,
and soaking up the
sun!

Visit to Potsdam: June 7, 2014
Prussian Palaces
Sans-Souci was the summer palace of the Pussian King
Friedrich der Große (Frederick the Great). We toured
the rococo-style palace and oohed and awed at the
marble, gold, and silk decor.








Friedrich der Große:
‘Der Kartoffel König’

Freidrich the Great was
known as ‘the potato king’
for convincing his people
to eat potatoes. Legend
has it that the people in
Prussia feared the new
plant from South America
because eating the vines
could be fatal. Friedrich
new the potential of the new food and set out to trick
them into eating it. He sent soldiers to guard the potato
fields during the day, piquing the towns people’s
curiosity. He had a cart full of potatoes sent to the town
square and left it unguarded at night. The hungry
townspeople began stealing potatoes, and discovered
they weren’t poisonous after all. Still today people lay
potatoes on the grave of Friedrich der Große which is
next to Sans-Souci.

Warhol Surprise
At the end of our tour of the
rococo palace, we exited
through a room with an
original Andy Warhol’s
painting of the king!

Palace Grounds in Potsdam
Das neue Palais or New Palace was the last palace
Friedrich der Große had built. It was one of the last
baroque-style palaces built in the region.







Dutch craftsmen who were invited to come to Potsdam
by King Frederick Wilhelm I. Here are the Dutch windmill
and the Orangerie..








Das chinesisches Haus: oriental-style art can be found
in and around the palaces due to the fascination with
new trade with the East. The architect attempted to
make the statues around The Chinese House look
Asian, however, they look more like Europeans in
costume. Still a beautiful little tea house! The palace
grounds were simply wunderbar! Statues of
mythological figures and blooming plants around.














Dutch Quarter in Potsdam:
Holländisches Viertel
Das holländische Viertel, the Dutch Quarter, are four city
blocks with about 150 houses built in the Dutch style:
unplastered, shuttered windows, and gables. The
Holländisches Viertel was built from 1734 to 1742 for
Dutch craftsmen who were invited to come to Potsdam
by King Frederick Wilhelm I, the Soldier King.







Danke Mama!
Thank you Host Moms for the lunches! The students
save lots of money by bringing lunch from home every
day. We eat most of our meals with our host families.
It’s a great opportunity to hear and speak German with
family members and experience life in a typical
German family.


Dresden June 11, 2014
First train ride in Germany!








Dresden is the capital of Sachsen (Saxony), which was
first an electorate and later a kingdom. This is ‘Der
goldene Reiter’ (the golden rider), a statue of Friedrich I,
Elector of Saxony who was also Friedrich II, King of
Poland.








A City Rebuilt

Crossing the Elbe (Elb River) into the Alt Stadt (Old
City). In 2006 the river rose to the top of the bridge,
causing a natural disaster for the city and surrounding
communities. We began in the Neu Stadt (New City)
side of the bridge to point out which historical buildings
they would see that day.












After the 1945 fire bombing of Dresden, the city lay in
ruins and tens of thousands of civilians were dead.
Every building we toured in Dresden had been rebuilt
to scale, often using some of the original bricks.
The Frauen Kirche
The Church of our Lady was the last of these
monuments to be rebuilt. It was finished in 2006.
Funding came from lottery tickets and the British, who
aided in the fire bombing of the city during WWII as a
retaliation for the bombing of London. In front of the
Frauen Kirche is a statue of Martin Luther, Father of the
Protestant Movement.


















Das Schloss und Prinzenzug, the castle and the
procession of Saxony’s Princes, one of the largest
mosaics in Europe:




























‘Der Zwinger’ houses the Porzellan Museum und ‘Die
alte Meister Gallarie’. The Old Master’s Gallery is one of
Europe’s most famous museums.








In the Old Masters Gallery students saw Raffael (Sistine
Madonna) as well as many paintings from the German
painters Lukas Cranach (Martin Luther) and Albrecht
Dürer. Rembrandt van Rijn and Jan Vermeer (Girl with
Pearl Earring) were among the many Dutch artists we
saw there. An amazing collection of European artists!




Neue Freunde: Statues were fun
to pose with and wonder about.
Any of this damaged during WWII?
Yes, the light sand stone is the
new, the dark sandstone are
original pieces that were used in
the reconstruction.





Memo Tellez, Prince of
Saxony for a day,
proudly wearing his
German National
Soccer Jersey.


We also toured the exhibit on treasures of the rulers of
Saxony, where we saw amazing artistry like the 41
carat Dresden Green Diamond. Here Grace and Kaylin
admire sculptures within sculptures made of ivory.










German Parliament: June 11, 2014
Der Reichstag
Our long awaited tour of the Reichstag, the German
parliament building! We registered our passport
numbers for the tour while still in the U.S. The words,
‘Dem Deutschen Volk’ means ‘To The German People’.



























Our guide in the Reichstag led us first to the plenary
hall to explain how the German government passes
legislation. There are 631 members representing
several different political parties, such as the Social
Democrats, the Christian Democratic Union, the Green
Party, the Leftists, etc.

Voting is still done by the showing of hands. However,
hands are not counted!! If the chairmen/women don’t
see a clear majority, all members are sent out into the
hall we were standing. See the ‘Ja’ and ‘Nein’ signs
above the glass doors? The 631 members must now
reenter through one of three doors: ‘Ja’, ‘Nein’ oder
‘Enthaltung’ (abstention). This is called
‘Hammelsprung’ or in English ‘Jump of the Mutton’,
referring to how Ulysses and his friends escaped from
Poyphemus.


















We later went in and sat in the VIP section normally
reserved for special visitors such as the military, Queen of
England, or President Obama. Our guide then let us know
that there is no filibustering aloud in the German system
(wow!)and that Reichstag members are fined €50 when
they are counted absent. Sounds impressive, but
apparently the fine is collected quite often.













The Deutscher Adler (German Eagle) faces left, which is
an international symbol for peace. Useless trivia: The
‘Reichstag Blau’ (Parliament Blue) color of the seats is
copyright protected.

Reichstag 1918:
The German monarchy ended
with WWI and the abdication of
Kaiser Wilhelm. Germany’s first
republic was announced from a
window by Philipp Scheidemann.
The Communists were 20
minutes too late in calling out a
socialist state from a window a
block away.

Reichstag 1933:
Fire breaks out in the Reichstag in 1933, allowing party
leader Adolf Hitler the opportunity to blame the
communists for the fire and enter into office. However,
Hitler never spoke in the
Reichstag building! During
WWII, the basement was used
as a temporary hospital due to
heavy bombing of the city from
the Allies. 120 babies were
born in the basement of the
Reichstag! Many have traveled
back since then to show their
family members the place they
were born.
Reichstag 1945:
Russian soldiers enter
Berlin as WWII ends. Like
the US photo at Iwo Jima,
the Soviets staged this
photo days after their
arrival. The Soviet with his
hand steadying the flag
bearer wears a watch on
both wrists. Soviet villagers
were lured into service by
promises that they could
rape and pillage once
arriving in Berlin. German soldiers ran to American GIs
to surrender once they arrived in Berlin. Better to end up
as a P.O.W. in Texas working with Frau Bunton’s
grandfather on a ranch than in a Siberian concentration
camp!
Russians Were Here

Russian graffiti and bullet holes have been preserved
over the decades inside the Reichstag.













Galina and Anatol

Historians found the Russian soldier who drew this heart
after his granddaughter came for a tour and told the tour
guide that her grandparents have a photo of the graffiti
heart in their living room. Anatol and Galina are now 93
and 94 years old and still married!












East-West

From this window we saw
where the Berlin Wall once ran
along the outside of the
Reichstag.

Seven East German citizens
were shot from the roof of the
facing building after they swam
across the Spree River to
escape into the West.




German-American Friendship

From the rooftop, it’s visible how close the American
embassy is to the Reichstag and Brandenburger Tor
(Brandenburg Gate). The U.S. and Germany are the
close allies!












Reichstag
Dome

Looking down, you
can watch the
parliamentarians in
session, a symbol of
transparency of
government.









An audio guide describes the buildings and sights you
see in the city while walking around the glass dome.













Eco-Architecture
The top of the dome is designed to collect rain water.
This water is used throughout the Reichstag in
restrooms and to
cool the building.














Hiding from the approaching storm: we made it
through our tour just before the rain hit!












Tour of Berlin-East! June 11, 2014
Der Brandenburger Tor! The Brandenburg Gate was the
historic city gate leading to the famous Unter den Linden
Avenue lined with Linden trees. It is a symbol of Berlin,
Germany, and Germany’s tumultuous history. During the
Cold War the gate was inaccessible due to the Berlin
Wall. In 1989 with the reopen inch of the gate it became
a symbol of the reunification of East and West Germany.

















Atop the gate is the ‘quadriga’, the Roman Goddess
Victoria’s carriage which is pulled by four horses.
Napoleon Bonaparte stole the quadriga upon
conquering Prussia in 1806 and took it to Paris.
Prussian troops later conquered Napoleon’s army, found
the quadriga still packed in crates, and took it back to
Berlin.

Checkpoint Charlie
John F. Kennedy ordered three checkpoints to be
installed around West Berlin. After the Berlin Wall was
built in 1961, Checkpoints Alpha and Brava were
closed and Checkpoint Charlie remained the only
passage for foreigner visitors to Berlin to pass back
and forth between
East and West
Berlin. This sign
was a must for spy
films and novels
during the Cold
War.





For some reason,
American students
always feel
compelled to eat
at the McDonald’s
across the street
after passing
through Checkpoint Charlie. In a German McDonald’s
one can taste ‘real’ Coca Cola that’s made with sugar
instead of corn syrup and try a McDonald’s hamburger
made with 100% real beef with no additives. Food
regulations in the European Union actually protect the
consumer, though it’s still counts as sugary and fried.



Our Guides for the Day
Pauline, Vicki, and Ina, three of the exchange partners
from our partner school, showed us around the former
East Berlin on this day. Here Vicki and Ina are standing
in front of the Konzerthaus at the beautiful and historical
Gendarmenmarkt.











Next to the Konzerthaus is the Französischer Dom, or
French Dome Church, built for the Huguenot community
in Berlin. Elector of Prussia Friedrich Wilhelm welcomed
the highly skilled French Protestant refugees. The
Französischer Dom faces the Deutscher Dom on the
other side of the Gendarmenmakt.











Schokolade und Fußball…
Around the corner from the Gendarmen Square is the
Berlin’s beloved chocolatier, Fassbender und Rausch.
















Schoko-Reichstag
Wait a minute, I was just in the German parliament
building this morning!











Rittersport
Mehr Schokolade bitte!
The Rittersport store was
just a block away…and we
can always walk off the
calories tomorrow, right?








Bücherverbrennung:
Book Burning Memorial






Our last stop for the
afternoon was the square
where the National
Socialists (Nazis) burned
‘the best works of German
and world literature’ on the
10th of May 1933. In the
ground is an art project as
memorial to the book
burning: empty bookcases.
Sachsenhausen: June 12, 2014
Concentration Camp

Part of our tour in the Berlin area includes visiting the
town of Sachsenhausen just north of Berlin. The
Sachsenhausen concentration camp was at the edge of
a neighborhood in the small town. Like many of the
concentration camps and extermination camps, on the
front gate are the words, “Arbeit macht frei”, or work will
set you free. Part of
every German’s 10
th

grade curriculum
includes the study of
the Holocaust and
often a visit to a Nazi
concentration camp.



Before our tour began, our tour guide instructed us in the
history and layout of the camp. The first thing she
pointed out was that Sachsenhausen imprisoned many
types of people, and a relatively small number of these
were Jewish
Germans when
compared to the
other types of
prisoners in this
camp.


Sachsenhausen was originally designed in the form of a
‘panopticon’. This triangular shaped allowed for the main
guards to look out over the whole camp, however the
camp quickly outgrew this shape.
1938: Germany’s so-called ‘Asozialen’ or anti-socials
were rounded up by the SA and SS and sent to various
concentration camps. Among them were the homeless,
homosexuals, disabled peoples, and the Sinti and the
Roma(Gypsies). Political dissidents also made up a large
percent of those imprisoned at Sachsenhausen.

1939: The Kristallnacht Progroms against Jewish-
German citizens began. Several hundred of these citizens
were housed in Sachsenhausen. The students toured one
of the barracks that housed Jewish prisoners:















The peeling on the walls and ceiling is the result of a fire
set by neo-nazi youth after a visit to the concentration
camp by Former Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin. The
museum decided to not to repair the damage, but let it
serve as a reminder that Jewish people are still
persecuted today.



Franz Bobzien
In these barracks we also listened to
the story of a Hamburg teacher
imprisoned for resistance against the
Nazis. Bobzien secretly gave lessons
to the foreign adolescents in the
camp, especially Polish and Czechs.
Not being able to understand German,
these adolescents could not
understand the orders from the
guards, which could be fatal. Bobzien gave them lessons
in German, art and mathematics. Once found out,
Bobzien was sentenced to a bomb searching squad and
died during an explosion in 1941.
Military Testing
Around the role-call area was the
track the arm
y used for shoe testing. This was
a brutal and often fatal type of
work for prisoners. Loaded down
with army duffle bags, prisoners
were forced to run around the
track for hours each day testing
the rubber shoe material. Many
died this way.
The Counterfeiters
Nazis began a counterfeiting
operation in the camp. The plan was
to mass produce the pound and the
dollar and to flood the British and
American markets economies. A film
was made to tell this part of the
Sachsenhausen story.
Soviet prisoners of war
Over 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war were brought to
Sachsenhausen. Most of them were executed here.
Loud music was played to drown out the sounds from
reaching the other inmates.






1945-1950
Following WWII, the camp
came under control of the
Soviets, who used it to
intern their political
prisoners- the Nazis. They
erected a monument in the
center in remembrance of
the thousands of Soviets
who lost their lives at
Sachsenhausen.

At the end of our tour, our guide encouraged us to not
dwell on the atrocities that happened here, but rather to
remember the humanity of those who helped each other
here, such as the teacher from Hamburg.
Berliner Dom June 15, 2014
Frau Nubbemeyer, a teacher from our partner school,
invited our group to attend the Sunday service at the
Berliner Dom. She translates the service for
international visitors several Sundays during the year.
Like all buildings in Berlin, the Dom has a fascinating
history. It has burned down a few times and it’s most
recent reconstruction began in 1990. It sure doesn’t
look like it was built in the 1990s though, does it? Frau
Nubbemeyer told us that she remembers the church
as it lay in ruins with pigeons flying throughout. When
she began working in the church, she remembers the
Italian man on his ladder hammering in the little tiles in
the mosaic ceiling.




















We were lucky to be there for the cantata Sunday and see
a baptism. One thing that would surprise a typical
American churchgoer is that this is a Protestant church.
Atop each main pedestal is a Protestant reformer, among
them Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli. Aside from those
images, this service seemed little different from a Catholic
service. Here is a look inside, accompanied by Johann
Sebastian Bach’s, “Es ist ein trotzig und verzagt Ding”
which the orchestra and choir were playing and singing.
https://fayettevillegerman.edublogs.org/files/2014/06/2014
0616-100905-1xrf4jf.mov
After the service we went up to the top for a spectacular
view of the city.
https://fayettevillegerman.edublogs.org/files/2014/06/2014
0616-102138-1xtdxs2.mov
The rooftop was followed by a visit to the crypt! There we
saw the coffins of the Hohenzollern the ruling family of
Prussia, including Friedrich der Große.













Several of the coffins were damaged when the massive
copper dome fell through the floor after the church burned
down for the second time. The high child mortality rate is
evident by the many children’s coffins of the Hohenzollern
family crypt.
Weekends with Host Families

Rachel and Alex’s hosts,
Eliane and Benedict,
took them to Berlin’s
Natural Science
Museum, rawwr!














Going to the lake is always a popular weekend outing.
Along with the Spree River that runs through the city,
Berlin has two lakes, the Schlachten See and the
Wannsee.










World Cup Fußball! June 14, 2014

Students went with their hosts to the “Fan Meile” to
watch Germany beat Portugal 4-0. The Fan Meile
begins at the Brandenburger Gate and extends to the
victory column. The street is filled with enthusiastic
German fans ready to watch the game. Along the street
there are places to buy drinks and food and huge
screens to watch the soccer match. A giant stage is set
up for bands and music is a part of the experience. The
Americans enjoyed singing along!













Deutschland 2014 Weltmeister!
Germany 2014 World Soccer Champs!




Partner Field Trip June 17, 2014

The Spree River runs
through Berlin and the
surrounding area. The
Spreewald (Spree
Forest) is know for its
saure Gurken (pickles),
which we all tried and
gondola rides through the woods.


The community
that lives on little
islands on the
river in this area
are the Sorbs.
Fun fact: During
winter, people
iceskate on the
river through the
forest!


Herr Behling planned this
joint excursion for the
exchange partners and
teachers. Danke Herr
Behling! Es hat uns alle sehr
viel Spaß gemacht!




Antiquities Museums June 18, 2014
In the Neues Museum, students discovered an original
fragment from the Story of Gilgamesh. They immediately
sent this
picture to their
history
teacher!









Think your backpack is too
heavy? This is a piece of a
school ‘textbook’ known as
‘Kemit’. The writing is in
cursive hieroglyphs, ca.
1200 B.C.

The Neues Museum also had
Roman finds: Matt completes
a statue of an unidentified
Roman general.



The Egyptians

Egypt’s most beautiful queen,
Nefertiti. Some believe her left
eye remained white because
she had cataracts. Wondering
why in the world these objects
are in Germany? 19
th
century
German archaeologists! Egypt
has been trying to get the bust of
Nefertiti back for years now.

Students picked out
recognizable scenes from
the ‘Instructions for the
Afterlife’, such as taking
the ferry led by Aken
(inspiration for the Greek
Charon) into the afterlife.


Germanic finds
from Berlin:
Excavations in Berlin show
daily life in Berlin. Pictured
include weights from a loom
and an imported Roman
goddess statue of Jupiter.



The Pergamon Altar
Tanner and Aziza study a guide to the altar in front of a
model of the ancient city of Pergamon. Gracie looks up
at a section of the altar depicting a story with Athena











Market gate of Miletus
This structure was from the city of Miletus, which like
Pergamon, was located in modern-day Turkey. It dates
from about 120AD. Theodor Wiegand excavated the
gate around the turn of the century and reconstructed it
under the support of Kaiser Wilhelm II.












The Gates of Babylon!
”From Babylon to Berlin: The rebirth of the Ishtar Gate”
“Travelers to ancient
Babylon were met with
an astonishing sight: a
gate nearly 50 feet high
and 100 feet wide made
of jewel-like blue glazed
bricks and adorned with
bas-relief dragons and
young bulls. Dedicated to
Ishtar, goddess of
fertility, love, and war, the
main entrance to the city
was constructed for King
Nebuchadnezzar II circa
575 BCE. Inevitably,
Babylon’s power declined
Graceand eventually the structures collapsed and vanished
under hundreds of years of desert storms. But colorful
fragments of the lion figures would one day lead to the
unearthing and rebirth of the Ishtar Gate. In his account of
the excavations, German archaeologist Robert Koldewey
wrote, “The discovery of these enameled bricks formed one
of the motives for choosing Babylon as a site for
excavation. As early as June 1887 I came across brightly
colored fragments lying on the ground on the east side of
the Kasr. In December 1897 I collected some of these and
brought them to Berlin, where the then Director of the
Royal Museums, Richard Schöne, recognized their
significance. The digging commenced March 26, 1899…”
Frau Bunton gets chills every year when entering into this
level of the museum.
Writing Systems & Mythology
in Ancient Assyria and Babylon

Cuneiform writing and Nisroch, the
Assyrian god of agriculture.








Alex studying Aramaic,
the language from which
Arabic and Hebrew
originated.


Looking for a protective diety to place in front of your
palace? The Assyrians used an Iamassu for this
purpose. S/he has the body of a lion, wings of an eagle,
and a human
head with a
pretty rockin’
goatee.
Below Ian
and Matt give
jazz hands
with two
Iamassu and
a Kaylin.

Auf
Wiedersehen June 19, 2014

There’s barely a dry eye on the platform when we
boarded the train in Berlin on our way to Munich for
our final days. After
spending two and a half
weeks living together in
Fayetteville and
another two and a half
in Berlin, these
exchange partners
formed such
meaningful
relationships.



Waiting for the train,
Grace’s host mom was
busy making Grace put on
her jacket and giving her
hugs. She told me, “I cried
for joy when Grace
arrived and now I’m crying
to see her go.” Host
parents are such an
integral part of the
transatlantic partnership,
we so appreciate our host
moms and dads!




Visit to München!

Munich is an absolute must, so we spend our last few
days in the state of Bavaria to get a taste of Germany’s
southern culture.
Students arrive in
Munich with frowns
after being torn from
their host families in
Berlin, but they soon
find there is still so
much to explore
before returning to
Fayetteville.

Bicycle Tour w/ History of Munich
Ionna, out tour guide
from Melbourne studied
art history in Munich.
Here is what she told us
about the background:
München/Munich=
‘monks’. Benedictine
Monks first inhabited
Munich, establishing the
first breweries in
Bavaria. In 1158 Henry the lion comes to rule in Munich.
He burns the Bishop of Friesing’s bridge and builds his
own bridge after signing the Augsburg Agreement with
Emperor Bararossa. The bridge accommodated the salt
trade from the Austrian Alps. In the 16th century the
Swedes warned the Müncheners that they were on their
way to invade Munich…in 2 years time. The Bavarian
construction workers, famous for being notoriously slow,
limited only to 7 LITERS of beer on the job per day got to
work on building a defense against the Swedes. A year
passes and the Swedes decided to enter the city early.
They were met with a 60cm wall around Munich. They
manage to step over the 60cm barrier after which the fell
in love with the beer culture and decided not to destroy
the city. When it came time to leave they demanded
money. Having no money, the Müncheners loaded the
Swedes with 30,0000 liters of beer and off they merrily
went. City saved!








Above is the Max-Joseph-Platz (square), with the
National Theater of Munich. The theater has burned
down three times, once due to a fancy sprinkler system
that was unfortunately filled with frozen water, and
another occasion when the human chain drank much the
beer being sent hand-by-hand from the Hofbräuhaus
around the block.

Students pause in ‘Shirkers Alley’,
where citizens opposed to Hitler’s
political party avoided giving the
Hitler greeting to city officials on
their way through the city. Once the
Nazi party found out, some were
shot or arrested for opposing the
new local leader and his party.
Hitler, who was from Austria, got
his political training and beginnings
in Munich.
Biking through Munich’s English Gardens

The Englischer Garten is
one of the largest public
parks in the world.







Within the gardens is the
‘Chinese Tower’ marking
one the largest beer
gardens in Germany. It’s a
great place to listen to
Bavarian polka and grab a
giant pretzel.

Surfer’s Paradise: Surprise! Some of the world’s best
surfers come to Munich’s English Gardens to surf the
Isar River current. So cool to see them practice, several
women surfers this year.









Munich Historical Buildings

This was the first building
constructed under the
National Socialists or
‘Nazis’, the former
headquarters of the
‘Luftwaffe’, Germany’s air
force during the 3rd
Reich/Empire. Notice the
door made of interwoven
swastikas.




The building behind the trees below was the site of an
elaborate assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. Had
Hitler finished his speech at 9:20pm instead of 9:07pm,
Johann Elser’s explosives would have killed Hitler. In
the foreground, you can see a shallow area of the Isar
River that runs through Munich. Although ‘verboten’,
Münchners use this as their beach.











Day Trip to the Fairy Tale Castles
in Füssen, Bavaria

Frau Bunton’s favorite train ride in Germany- our way to
Füssen in the foothills of
the Alps. We pass by
idealic farms where the
cows wear bells and
flowers dangle over the
window boxes of the
farm houses.
SOLAR PANELS?! Yes,
Oma and Opa get their
electricity from solar panels on their homes and barns. The
U.S. just surpassed Germany in solar panel production,
but we have the Germans to thank for their innovations in
solar technology.
Arriving in Füssen we
start at Castle
Hohenschwangau. This
yellow castle was
where König Ludwig II
(crazy King Louis)
spent summers with his
brother and parents. He
assumed the thrown
when he was 16, at
which time he began
building castles, frivolously spending the people’s money
on his extravagant taste for medieval art and architecture.
After emptying the coffers, Ludwig II was found face down
in shallow water in the lake one day. Within days of his
death, the town began selling tours of the fairytale castle,
Neuschwanstein. See the white ‘New-swan-stone’ castle
on the hill behind us?
Castle Hohenschwangau

This castle introduced us to the
family’s love of medieval castles and
legends. The walls were covered in
murals depicting stories from
German Arthurian literature. Each
room was richly decorated with all
original furniture and decor-
everything is in great condition as
the castles weren’t built until the end
of the 19th century.

See the swan behind
Jennifer, Grace and Rachel?
The town around the castles
is called Schwangau or Place
of Swans. The swan is a
motif throughout König
Ludwig’s castles- engraved in
furniture, crystal drink ware,
and ceilings.




Ella Claire and Aziza enjoy
the view after our tour of
Neuschwanstein Photos
inside the castle are verboten,
so you’ll just have to come
see it for yourself!



Last Stop for GAPP 2014,
Salzburg, Austria!

Our last day trip before returning to Fayetteville was over
the border to Salzburg. Salz-Burg means ‘Salt Fortress’
and is very navigable in one day. This was our last day to
walk approximately 11 miles through a city. Gracie used
her app while we were in Berlin to find the average
distance of our almost daily walking treks. Calves of Steel.
Mirabellen
Gardens!
Salzburg is famous to
Americans for the sites
from the film ‘The
Sound of Music’, a film
that Austrians and
Germans have never
seen (unless they give
‘The Sound of Music’
tour). See the fortress
at the top of the hill?
We made our way
through the city and
then climbed the hill to
look out over the city.

Frau Bunton & Frau Stassen riding unicorns, as they do.








View from the top of the
fortress. Much of what you
see, including the beautiful
Dome Cathedral, where
we stopped to hear choir
rehearsal and visit the
catacombs, had to be
rebuilt after heavy bombing
by the Allies. What the
Allies were they targeting
here, salt?
Before there was lunch detention, there
was medieval torture. Students read
about the prisoners who were kept in the
dungeons -one of them an archbishop-
and examined the devices used to inflict
‘justice’ upon the prisoners and keep the
townspeople in line during the Middle
Ages.



On our way back down
from the fortress, we
stopped at the Salzburg
Catacombs and climbed up
inside a secret church in
the side of the hill. This
church was consecrated in
1178, though legend has it
that Christians met their
secretly, long before,
during the time of the
Romans. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s sister, Maria
Anna Mozart, is buried in the St. Peter Cemetery below
the cave church.
Join in the FHS GAPP Trip!

Frau Bunton is currently organizing hosts for the 12
Berliners who will come to Fayetteville High School for 3
weeks in the fall. We are looking for 12 Americans who
are interested in hosting a German and going on the
Germany trip next June.

Step 1: Take German
Step 2: Host a German
Step 3: Go to Germany!


Contact: [email protected]




















Supporting FHS GAPP Students

Secret: GAPP is only possible through community
support! Every year we look for opportunities to fund
our trip. Students do their part by raising money for
their costs by babysitting, mowing lawns, working part
time, begging Oma and Opa, etc.

Here’s how you can help:

$100 Sponsor our day trip to Sachsenhausen, former
concentration camp (train ticket & guided tour).

$100 Sponsor our day trip to Dresden, Germany
(museums, lunch, & local transportation).

$75 Sponsor our day trip to the Bavarian castles
(castle entry fees & local transportation)

$50 Sponsor our day trip to Salzburg, Austria
(fortress entrance fee & exhibit)

Sponsor a Student:

Would you like to help make this trip possible for an
FHS German student who would not be able to afford
the trip without outside help?

$1,600 Sponsor a student’s plane ticket.
$400 Sponsor a student’s spending money (meals
outside of the home, weekend outings, etc.)
$250 Sponsor a student’s train ticket (5 days of
travel within Germany).
$250 Sponsor a student’s hotel stay in Bavaria.

Sponsor Documents

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