Day 4 - Joy is for...the Augustinian Cloister & Karnival Parade! (Katie Hill)

Today was a day to be joyful, and we were! Our Sunday began with a visit to the Augustinian Cloister where Martin Luther lived from 1505 to 1511 and lead his first worship ever. While many of us where tired yet excited by Saturday evening’s (well…early Sunday morning’s) game versus Duke, the worship we had with the small congregation at the cloister is one we shall never forget! The language barrier (which even stood tall and intimidating to me, one of the “German speakers”) was easily broken down by the welcoming atmosphere, hymns with familiar tunes and most movingly, the Lord’s Prayer. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that two tongues spoken simultaneously have never sounded so much like one. Thanks to Pastor Scott, a fellow American, we were all able to get through the service! We were also blessed with a little Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake) from the active female pastor and a few congregation members as we got to hear how Pastor Scott came to be a pastor, married his German wife Claudia, and moved to Eisleben, then Erfurt. Pastor Scott also showed us a cool little museum of articles from the cloister’s past and set-ups of what life looked like during Luther’s time in the cloister.

The second activity of the day consisted of…a Karnival parade!! All around the world the time just before Lent begins is a huge deal, and this includes Germany. Thousands of people lined the roads winding through Erfurt for a 5(?) – hour– long parade consisting of many people dressed up in costume. Everybody, young and old, took part in the festivities by eating, dancing, drinking and walking around in some outrageous outfits. Many of the parade participants danced on floats or in the street as they tossed candy, flowers and other goodies to the crowds. I’ve never seen so much color, candy or…beer. Yes, beer. German culture is certainly different, and certainly entertaining. Many pictures to come! We all found that it’s not hard to be so filled with joy when everyone around you is having fun and loving life.

The day closed with dinner in different groups and coincidentally…everybody ended up getting delicious icecream at the same Eis shop! It’s about the third night they’ve seen a lot of us and they were sad to hear we are leaving for Eisleben tomorrow L Erfurt, you rock! But Eisleben, here we come!

-Katie Hill, sophomore

Day 4: The last day in Erfurt (Katie Weinel)

To Margrethe and our dearest friends and family,

Today, we worshiped at the Augustinian cloister in Erfurt--the church where Martin Luther took his monastic vows.  We stood on the same floor that Luther paced during church council meetings and saw the original stone where he laid flat on the floor when he promised to dedicate his life in service to the lord.  It is an amazing space full of rich history, beautiful breath-takingly tall stained glass windows, and a certain holiness, a quietness and peacefulness that seems to permeate the surroundings.

The service was not held in the huge cathedral (it would be too expensive to heat in the cold German winter).  Instead, the 50 American Lutherans were welcomed into the tiny "winter church", a smaller room less than half the size of Holy Trinity in Chapel Hill -- but there was heat! Despite the language barrier, I wasn't lost.  We sang the songs in German, mispronouncing a few words here and there.  We might have said the Lord's prayer in the wrong place, we caught on quickly.  Our fellow congregation members were welcoming, understanding, and gracious hosts.

We were also blessed to have Pastor Scott, an American Lutheran pastor working on his doctorate in theology at the University of Erfurt, leading us through the service and providing English translations of the gospel and sermon.  He also gave us a tour of the church and told us many interesting stories.  (The Augustinians who first built the church were actually kicked out of town for a year before being allowed to come back by the people of Erfurt).

The summary of the sermon was enlightening -- a nun from a nearby convent gave her views on the passage -- the story of Mary and Martha.  A quick summary: Jesus is invited into Martha's home and Mary sits at Jesus' feet and listens to his teachings.  Martha rebukes her sister and asks Jesus to tell Mary to help her with the chores.  Jesus actually tells Martha that Mary is right to just stop and listen, to not be so worried about everything that needs to get done.  Sister Dominica told us that we must find a balance between listening and doing what needs to be done.  We must discern which is the time to listen, and when is the time to take action.  That is true wisdom.

I definitely struggle with this -- oh, how often do I jump into things without fully listening, blinded by my haste, and listen to something (like an injustice in the world) but don't do anything to stop it. I think today, I learned that I need to slow down, listen to God speaking, enjoy the journey of life that I'm living and not just look to the destination/get bogged down by worry and stress.  I need to put some more God time in my day -- a time where I'm actually listening. Sometimes I feel like God has to hit me with a brick wall or some seemingly insurmountable object just so I'll slow down because I run on turbo speed all of the time. 

The most touching aspect of today was saying the Lord's Prayer in English (at the right time!) with the congregation members saying the prayer in German.  It sounded so dissonant with the German words being longer than the English ones, but each line had a pause, a collective breath, after it.  We were able to stay together until the very end when both sides of the church said 'Amen' together in perfect unison.  It was amazing.  God transcends language, culture, and location.  We were not just Americans and Germans.  We were Christians -- Lutherans, celebrating God's grace and affirming our faith together.  God was there and I'm sure he was smiling.

A woman came up to our group after the service and told us how much she appreciated our laughter -- in the old times, laughter was seen as a sign of sin.  Church was serious and laughter was disrespectful.  She was so glad that we had brought joy with us today, and that we had found happiness in the service.  Our laughter was a blessing -- and certainly a product of the congregation's open arms and patience with us.

This will be our last day in Erfurt, and honestly, I'm sad to go!  This is a fantastic place with gorgeous architecture, delicious food, and kind people.  I've greatly enjoyed getting to know my fellow LCMers better -- I'm so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful people who share so much love!  I can't wait to see what the next few days bring!

Talk to ya'll soon!
Auf Wiedersehen!

-Katie Weinel

March 5, 2011 (from 8 am to 4 am -- a wild 20 hours) (Hannah Peterson)

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO UNC WON! (now that we’ve gotten that out of way, we can begin with the stories of our adventurous day)

We awoke with our German wake-up calls, “Gutenmorgan”, and made our tired way to breakfast. The food was delicious, consisting of fresh chocolate croissants, lox, cheese, melt-in-your-mouth bread, sausage, eggs, juice, coffee, yogurt, granola, fruit, hard-boiled eggs, baked tomato, and so much food that you just wanted to eat as much as possible in one sitting. Good thing we have three days of that breakfast! We had quick devotions about having “God-chills” and then boarded the bus for Weimar, a town 23 km away from Erfurt.

The town is cute, clean, and friendly, just like Erfurt and is the home of Bach, Goethe, Cranach the Elder, and Hotel Elephant, where Hitler held a speech and rally. He spoke from the balcony of the hotel, which now has a mannequin in his place. After a few hours and lunch in Weimar, we re-boarded the bus for Buchenwald Concentration Camp. The long stretch of road into the camp was really eerie as the trees and forests were barren and somber. It was weird imaging if we were being driven into the camp in cattle cars with hundreds of other prisoners, instead of on a nice roomy modern bus. We each got iPod audio tour guides and a map so that we could explore and understand the camp at our own pace. The front gate said “Jedem Das Seine” or “to each his own”. Connected to the gate were bunkers where prisoners stayed. It was just a long hallway, with doors every few feet opening to small rooms with just a wooden bed inside. The doors were closed, with just a square opening to see into. It was eerie and somewhat scary to look inside each room, scared of what to expect on the other side of the door. A sign in the entrance explained that in room number 1, which was closest to the entrance, was where many of them spent the night before they were executed; in essence, that room was the last place they slept in their lives, that was their last experience of life, all taking place in that room. To see into this room, there was only a peephole, like one you would find on a hotel door. Looking with one eye into that room was the most eerie, and you really did not know what would be waiting on the other side of the door. It felt as if there was something else other than Kelsey and I inside that building, like other people were still inhabiting the place. 

The camp was pretty barren, with most of the buildings burned down, either because of bombs, the removal of evidence, or just the destruction of it to erase the horrors that occurred. The camp is now, essentially, a field, filled with emotions. The weather and landscape added to the mood, even though it was sunny, it was not a happy sunny, it was cold, and there was no plant-life, green-ness, or blooming trees. The dorms that were once there were now outlined rectangular areas made of burnt rocks, bricks, and the structure’s remains. Most of the dorms were divided based on the people within, such as the children’s dorm and the Roma/Gypsy dorm. There was not enough time in our 2 hours to see everything, to experience everything, or to understand everything. And there are not enough words or time here to explain and relay it all back. We were able to see a replica of a crematorium with the ovens that dead bodies would be sent into it, the zoo that the SS created for families of the officers, and the train depot where the prisoners would arrive, amongst other scaring things. We reunited with the whole group at a memorial near the gate, a metal sheet on the ground constantly held at 98.6 degrees, the temperature of life. Pastor Mark prayed about love and hatred while we linked arms and hands as a sign of brotherhood and care. 

After the moving experience at the camp, we returned to our hotel before going out to dinner. We all split in different directions getting a variety of food from pizza to bratwurst to snitzel to Turkish pitas.  We returned to the hotel for devotions and then went out again as a way to kill time until the 2am game start. 

The game: What a crazy, hysterical, wild, and once-in-a-life-time experience…with such an incredible outcome. A genius idea was to skype the game in. Upon winning, we got to “rush” our version of Franklin street, “Franklinstrasse”. 

Well after a 20 hour non-stop, fun, crazy, exciting, thought-provoking, and happy day, it was good to finally get in bed and have a nice three hour sleep before our next adventures began…

-Hannah Peterson

Day 3: Buchenwald and Weimar (Danielle Istock)

I’ve never been out of the country before, so being here has been such a culture shock for me. Starting this morning, when I was working out on the treadmill, I was measuring my speed in kilometers per hour! I am loving both the complete differences, and the similarities I am finding here in Germany. 

So we went to Weimar this morning, and it was a completely beautiful town! I love the many colors and the architecture of the different buildings. There was a large square with vendors selling crafts and food, where our lunch group got bratwursts for lunch. It was what I considered a very German experience, and I loved every minute of it! We spent about three hours touring around Weimar, though we could have looked around the town for days. One thing I thought was particularly striking was this large bridge over a river and connected to a large park. Our travel group went down the stairs on the bridge and walked through the park, where we saw many German families playing with their children and throwing sticks to their dogs. Another neat thing we saw was the Church of Peter and Paul, where we were able to closely observe one of Cranach’s paintings. All the churches here are so beautiful, and we tried to see as many as we can.

 After seeing as much as we could of Weimar, we boarded the bus on the way to Buchenwald. Upon arriving, we were shown a video, and then broke into pairs to go on an audio tour. We were given a map and an ipod, and given an hour or so to see whatever we wanted. It was a sobering experience from the very moment we walked onto the grounds, but very much so when we walked through the gates. Seeing where the barracks used to be, the depot and museum, and the site of the “little camp”, was very moving. We ended this tour by gathering around the memorial and praying, and boarding the bus back to Erfurt.

 Back in Erfurt, we were able to rest for a while (I took a nap, and it felt amazing!) before going to dinner. I went to a restaurant called Steinhaus, where I got a yummy sandwich and beer. I am having a good time trying the different food and drinks, often choosing something off the menu at random. We enjoyed a leisurely dinner and made our way back for devotions, where we talked about “God chills” we were experiencing.

 Immediately after devotions, a small group of us decided to go out on the town, and headed to a local bar. Despite the language differences, we all managed to have an amazing time. We had some great beer, drank at a place Martin Luther probably went to, and even listened to Katy Perry in the last place! However, we definitely made sure to be back by 2 am, so we could watch the UNC/Duke game. Though we had some technical difficulties, and ended up just watching game tracker at the end, it was a great experience to be able to know what was going on. AND WE WON!! However, staying up until 4 in the morning would prove to be not as much fun the next day.

-Danielle Istock

Day 3: Weimar and Buchenwald Concentration Camp (Emily Miller)

“Society is only concerned with its protection and it does not care for damaged life; it looks to the future, at best preventing such things from happening again.”

                        -Jean Amery, born 1912, imprisoned at Auschwitz and Buchenwald

(quote displayed in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp Memorial Permanent Collection)

Today our group went to Buchenwald Concentration Camp, outside of Weimar, Germany (famously known as the home to the failed Weimar Republic and the Hotel Elephant). Concentration camps, different than work camps and death camps, were typically reserved for prisoners-of-war and political prisoners. As the war continued, many of the concentration camps built crematoria and took in Jews, Gypsies, and other groups that were marked as “undesirable” by the Nazi Government. This was evidenced in Buchenwald by the crematorium that was built roughly five years after the establishment of the camp.

The experience for everyone could most easily be described as “hard.” Standing in the “delousing station” or the “hanging room” with knowledge that thousands were there before you and died as a result, could never be described as “easy.” I think for many people it was a really wonderful learning experience; people were exposed to things they had never before learned. As for me, I’m a history major at Carolina. I’ve taken three classes that have dealt closely with the Holocaust (namely, “The History of the Holocaust: The Destruction of the European Jewry” last semester). I hadn’t, obviously, ever been to a concentration camp.

Whenever we talk about the Holocaust, especially as Americans who consider themselves removed from it all, we talk about how we will prevent it in the future, making promises that it will never happen again. We recognize that it was a horrible event, where over 6 million Jews and undesirables were systematically murdered. I wonder, though, who we have left behind. As Christians, Jesus teaches us in the Bible that we are all brothers and sisters and should make sure no one is left behind…Christians across Europe left behind Jews before and during World War II. We continue to leave many behind, as Amery – a victim himself – points out: when we look to the future to prevent another holocaust, we need to pause and remember the men, women, children, husbands, wives, friends, brothers, and sisters. Otherwise, they too are left behind.

So what can we learn from this? How do we apply this to us, as students at UNC, as average citizens in the US? Maybe we should pause and look around to make sure we are not leaving anyone behind – in our every day lives or our quest for progress. I’m sure we can all look back and point to individuals we left behind us. 

There was murder and sadness in the Holocaust, but wasn’t that the tragedy: that more average citizens didn’t stop to make sure no one was left behind?

Day 1/2: Chapel Hill to Charlotte to Frankfurt to Erfurt

By Kristen Long

Let me first start this post of by saying WE’RE ALIVE! Our apologies to any parents out there looking for confirmation of our safe arrival! Our flight went well, and we all arrived in Frankfurt in one piece.

We were on the way to the main downtown of Frankfurt when our bus driver stopped and told us we couldn’t go in the city—apparently Frankfurt has some air quality rules that say when it’s a red-zone day—which this day apparently was—diesel buses can’t enter the center of the city. So we modified our plan and skipped Frankfurt.

We ended up stopping at a travel stop and having our first experience with German food. Lots of people got bratwurst and potatoes, and others got cold cuts.

Then we made our way to Erfurt, where we checked into our surprising swanky hotel, the Radisson. We settled into our rooms and then went out to dinner in downtown Erfurt in our travel groups. We saw the Kramerbruke—a medieval bridge that is Europe’s longest bridge with buildings built on it.

My group and several others had dinner at a place called the Ratskeller, which we were all immediately attracted to because of its similar title to the Rathskeller in Chapel Hill. The food was amazing, and although the waitress really didn’t know English, we survived and ordered our food by pointing at things on the menu we couldn’t pronounce.

We ended the night with our nightly devotions and then most went to bed.

Day 1: THURSDAY (Ruth Smith)

Dear Diary,

Today I'm full of jitters!  My heart is 'all a flutter'.

I really hope I packed enough underwear...

I ate Quiznos and Cinnabon in the airport anticipating that there wouldn't be much food for my kind in Germany.

The flight was so longggg but luckily I sat with Sam and did palindromes to stimulate my brain.  The TV didn't work which was a real bummer (I really wanted to watch monsters Inc.) Since my TV didn't work i busied myself by dreaming of Martin Luther as I slept for 3 hours of the 9 hour trip.  When I woke up it wasn't Thursday anymore so I don't have anything else to say about that.

-Ruth Smith

P.S. Sam came up with a really great joke that she felt was important enough to wake me up from my peaceful slumber.  What did the squirrel say to the acorn?




A; You're a nut!