Weekend in Weimar

This past weekend I took a little trip out to Weimar (most famous for Schiller, Goethe and being the city where the Germans wrote out how the new government would work after WWI) with four friends (Maria, Emma, Chris and Leah). We took advantage of a train special called the Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket, which is a ticket good on Saturday or Sunday for five people on as many regional trains (the slower trains) as you want to ride. If you aren't going terribly far it's a great deal. For example, although Weimar is only about 180 south and a little west of Berlin, our travel time was about four hours.

We arrived in Weimar around 2:30 pm and found our hostel. We were a little wary because it described itself as a place for "alternative living" but it turned out to be a good hostel. It was different from a typical hostel in that it was a big house, with rooms of up to 10 beds. The decor was pretty cool. We really were there just to sleep and for that it worked out perfectly.

Our hostel was the building covered in ivy.

Our adventures in Weimar began with the public tour that we went on later than afternoon. It was neat to walk around and see Weimar on foot, but to be honest we had trouble paying attention to the tour guide. Especially after Emma found a gentleman in our group was wearing an Notre Dame baseball cap! Emma, Maria and I approached him during the tour when we were walking from one stop to another, and told him we liked his hat. Sadly he did not go to Notre Dame. His son has t-shirts and hats from all over and had given him this one. Then he said, "So you girls study in Paris?" and we had to explain that our Notre Dame isn't any where near the Notre Dame Cathedral. He was still thrilled we were so interested in him though, and asked for a picture with us three "schöne Madels" before we could ask him!

Our almost-Notre Dame friend

Then he introduced us to someone else in the group and had us explain our story. I ended up talking to this women for a few stops and she asked how my German was so good if I'm from the US. She was from Munich and was thrilled to hear I will be visiting Munich in just two weeks (one week now, can't wait!).

On the tour, walking through the cemetery where Goethe's family is buried

Last Saturday just happened to be a special day in Weimar: it was their Lange Nacht der Museen (Long Night of Museums). It was too perfect. Not only where the museums, churches and castles open till midnight, but for the low price of five euros we could get into all of them! After finding some dinner we saw the Duchess's library, Schiller's house, Goethe's house and the Bauhaus Museum (an art museum showing works created by students in the late 19teens/early 1920s). Sadly we didn't have time to get out to the Schloss Belvedere but we definitely felt like this special event allowed us to make the most out of our time in Weimar!

Ending the night with an Ehringsdorfer Bier

Then on Sunday we checked out of our hostel and went to the Gedankstätte Buchenwald. Buchenwald was a concentration camp during WWII, and then it was used again immediately after the war by the Soviets as a place for people, mostly men, who had slight ties to the Nazi party. Buchenwald is only about 15 minutes by bus from Weimar.

The entrance to where the inmates were kept.
On the gate it reads "JEDEM DAS SEINE" or To each his own.

Overall it was definitely a humbling and saddening visit, but a visit that I felt like I had to make. Buchenwald was the first concentration camp I had ever seen. There's a small one just north of Berlin that I think I will try to get up to before I leave. It's hard to describe what it was like walking around the camp. Buchenwald was a work camp, not an extermination camp, and not a terribly big camp, though there were certainly many more people squeezed inside than could live comfortably in that space. For the most parts the buildings are gone now. The barracks are outlined in stone, so when you look across the main camp area you can see where the buildings where. There are many signs throughout the camp area with pictures of what the camp used to look like and a description of what used to stand where you are. Most of the buildings were kept intact after its liberation, but a section called the Kleines Lager (Little Camp) was destroyed. The Kleines Lager was the worst section of Buchenwald. Over 20,000 inmates were kept in an area with one row of bathrooms, and 2,000 of them were forced into an old stable that was built for only 50 fifty horses.

With the entrance to my back. This is looking out over where the barracks used to stand.

The whole trip was pretty mind blowing, on many levels. First you can see just how close it is to the city, which means the people knew what was going on there. Then of course there are the terrible things that went on in the camp, which just make you wonder how people can treat other people so horribly. And the icing on this tragic, thought-provoking cake is the camp's function after the war and how respectfully honor that time. The political inmates after the war were hardly treated better than the Jewish inmates, but they were also former Nazis. How do you most respectfully remember an atrocity, when the victims were the former perpetrators of another, even more terrible atrocity?

We took our time at Buchenwald, so we didn't get a chance to visit any of the churches in Weimar on Sunday. But I'm glad we didn't rush through the memorial, and walking through the camp area under the bright sun, looking out over the idyllic countryside and listening to what sounded like hundreds of birds chirping, gave me plenty of time for quiet reflection. We went straight from Buchenwald to the train station, and had time for a little bite in the station before heading home. We made it back just in time for Emma and I to drop our bags at home and go to Mass.

The weather has been a little bipolar here the past few days. It's warmish and sunny most of the time. An ND friend (who lives in Walsh) was in Berlin Sunday and Monday so I had her over for dinner on Monday. Emma's mom is visiting this week so I joined them yesterday and we visited the old Tempelhof Airport. Tempelhof is the location of the Berlin airlifts during the Soviet blockade in the late 1940s. It isn't used as an airport anymore but it's a big open park with wide, paved paths great for bike riding. Then we visited Ikea and had a delicious lunch before Emma and I had to head back for class. It's so fun to have visitors!

One last picture for today: I finally photographed myself in my Frauenlauf shirt with my number and finisher's medal. You can't really tell what my new haircut looks like here but I promise my hair looks exactly the same as always.

Woohoo! Running!