A lesson in socialist history

Yesterday, I got up early, took my shower, and put on a denim skirt and a polo shirt. It was warm and I was ready to greet the day! I had my breakfast of toast with raspberry jam and visited with Petra about our trip to Salzburg on our way in to town. I arrived at the library a bit early and had a chance to visit with Ursula a bit. She shared with me the success of their children’s festival on Sunday, despite the rain, and said that they had almost 400 people in attendance. I’m hoping to get some pictures from the staff to share. (Pictured here is Johahn; I mention him later in the post.)

I spent the morning working on my paper, taking occasional breaks to check email and look up websites and other resources to add to my bibliography. I managed to get the bulk of the social studies unit written into my paper before lunch. For lunch yesterday, we had fish with a creamy mustardy dill sauce served with mashed potatoes. It was pretty enough that we could sit outside, so we enjoyed the weather and the ducks on the water. Amanda got an iced coffee for dessert, that was served with fresh whipped cream, which she shared with me… delicious! After lunch, we went back to work.

For the rest of the afternoon, I worked on an outline for the science unit and finished up the social studies portion of my unit. When we finished our work, we had a short meeting about some upcoming events, and then a few of us went to Pasing to do a little shopping and pick up a snack. We left Pasing around 5:00 and took the S-bahn and the U-bahn to go to Odienzplatz, where we were meeting Johahn, who had offered to give us a tour of some of the Socialist Party historical sites.

We met Johahan at the yellow church just outside the U-bahn exit and visited for a few minutes while we waited for the others to join us. Carolina, the editor studying at the library from Columbia, and Junko, the professor from Chicago, both joined us for this excursion, so it was nice to visit with them some too. What struck me the most about Johahn’s tour was the German perspective he presented of the period leading up to the war and the war itself. He gave us some prehistory on the rise of the party and the political climate that enabled this party to come to power. The building pictured here is in the center of the old part of the city of Munich and was the area of the city where the party first met and where the Nazi flag was flown in the middle of the square in front of this building. After the party’s rise to power, anyone who passed this place was required to salute the flag. As a form of passive resistance, there was a path behind the building where people chose to walk who did not want to salute the flag. The path is marked today only by the presence of the copper cobble stones, which stay shiny whenever someone walks over them. As an aside, he said that his mother, who was very young during this time, actually liked what the party did for the young people, because they organized camps and swimming classes and the like for children. The goal of the party was to provide these kinds of programs for kids so that they would have them hooked from a young age, so that when they were old enough to “think for themselves” they would not have cause to question the actions of the party.

Johahn then took us to a memorial site for the White Rose resistance group, which began on the campus of the university with a group of students and professors. This memorial site is outside of one of the old buildings that was bombed, which you can see here. We also saw a piece of the Berlin wall, which is outside the US Consulate in Munich. The question that Johahn posed to us at the end of the tour, after visiting a few other sites, was the question that the German people ask themselves now, which is what would we have done in the same situation? I don’t know that I can answer that question, given the times and the stress of the economy prior to WWII. I’d like to think that I’d be a part of some form of resistance, but it’s so difficult to say that not living during those times. But then we can look around us today; around the world, there are similar situations, and so often, we are content to turn our heads and look the other way. So, I’m beginning to ask myself, what can I do with a group of students to bring this question to the forefront and perhaps give them a forum to do something.

After leaving our tour with Johahn, I went back home, hoping that I could pick up a bratwurst or something for dinner. I got back to Grafelfing at 8:30, only to realize that all of the grocery stores and cafes closed at 8:00. Only the restaurants were open, but I didn’t want to wait that long, so I ended up eating a few cookies and some bread with jam for dinner. After dinner, I did a bit of research online, and then went to bed.