Paris-Berlin Exchange: Part II (Berlin)

For this to make the most sense, I’d recommend reading my post about the first half of my conference. But if not just know I’m part of a group in Paris that our twin in Berlin hosted us for a week of educational/cultural/social exchange.

The last weekend of May is the chosen date of the German half of our twinning. This was, expectedly, the part I most enjoyed. I’ve never been to Berlin and I’ve only ever heard good things about it. Especially after meeting our comrades from Berlin in Paris, I was ecstatic to see the amazing capitol!

This was also (kind of) a holiday weekend for Germany so it was a bit difficult to organize workshops but I think as a tourist, it’s the absolute best weekend to visit Berlin for the first time. So first of all, there’s an annual festival something churchy in Germany. This is a weekend of concerts, activities and celebration. This weekend was also the game? for the German football (soccer) cup which meant rowdy, drunken Germans throughout the city. It was also the most gorgeous weekend in the history of existence.

The day I arrived, there was an interview at the Brandenburger tor with Barack Obama and Angela Merkel. To make it to this, I came straight from the airport and made it just in time. Obama is no longer president (or in any real position of power) so I didn't think it was exceptionally productive to ask him questions about the future. His role was mostly to talk about the past. I thought it was much more interesting to hear Merkel talk about the future, since she’s actually in a position of being able to affect change. Anyway, it was really cool.

Our first order of business was breaking down the different German political parties and the electoral system in Germany. We spent actually a lot of time talking about how the Germans do government and comparing the parties to French system. It was an awesome way to scaffold the weekend to be honest.

Another workshop was about populism of the extreme right and a discussion with Stefan Kunath about how the far right will effect the construction of the EU. As an American, I have only a novice level of French political knowledge that I’ve been developing this past year and as far as German politics is concerned, I’m basically useless. My real value in this group is talking about foreign relations and the role of American relations to all of this. And unfortunately, extreme right populism is almost the American way.

Anyway, next we made our way to Auswärtiges Amt. This is the ministry of foreign affairs. We got to talk to the franco-german liaison about the French election and its effect on Germany. Later on we had a speed debating session. We talked about the impact of the media on elections, the status of democracy throughout the EU, and a role of non-EU members on the functionality of the EU.

Next, we had the opportunity to learn about the current campaigns going on in Germany right now and their implications. We also took the time to launch our own campaign! We spent the morning making a plan of action to add to The European Movement website to help promote our franco-german message. In just two hours, we created a brochure, poster and facebook post. For our facebook post, we actually decided to do some “street action” and walk around Berlin talking to people about Europe in a Humans of New York style. It was incredible.

The amazing people of the Berlin planning committee did the best job planning the next activity. It was a combination of sightseeing and election simulation. We were given scavenger hunt-type clues about famous places in Berlin. We had to solve the clues, make our way to these places, take a selfie with the landmark, read a blurb about where we were and then “simulate an election.” This just meant asking random people how they would vote. We did this in smaller groups (2 Germans + 2 French) and went on our way. It was a really great activity. There were 13 places given out but our group managed to make it to four… We stopped for a beer, ice cream, and a nap, which definitely cut, into our productivity.

Next, we had a “training” workshop with Moritz Kirchner about how to discuss and debate with populists and eurosceptics . He is the German national debating champion. Didn’t know that was a thing but I’d say that qualifies him to train people to have productive debates.

Our last event might be the most anticipated for all of us. A member of the Berlin group is currently doing an internship at the Bundestag and our last workshop was meeting with his boss, Neils Annen! He’s a member of parliament and an expert of foreign affairs. We also met with Elvira Drobbinski-Weiss, another member of parliament who is the president of the franco-german parliament.

We packed so much into this weekend that it’s hard to believe that we also made time to enjoy the city. But we did. The way we made it happen was by neglecting sleep. Seriously, none of us slept more than 6 hours a night for our entire trip.

But I love this city. It’s seriously so unlike any other because it’s a city you have to experience. It’s not that pretty, to be completely honest. Berlin has so much age and history but because of it’s complicated history, a lot of the buildings are modern which actually creates a really strange vibe. Again, it’s something to experience, not to see. We had a really unique opportunity of being able to stay with people who live in Berlin and experience it the way they do.

Needless to say, I had a blast in Berlin.

If you want to see the photos and see more of Berlin, check out my Touristy Side of Berlin Post!