On Thursday 6th November, some of the students and staff in the German section of the Department of Modern Languages and European Studies at the University of Reading went to the British Museum to visit the exhibit “Germany: Memories of a Nation,” an exhibition that the museum is holding in honour of the 25th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The trip was organised by one of our fabulous Lektorinnen, Sandra Beer. We’ve asked one of the students who participated, Kathryn McLaren, to share her thoughts on the exhibition:

The exhibition is really great. When you first enter through the doors, you can see a video of the night the Berlin Wall was pulled down playing continuously; it gives you an insight of what it must have been like to have been there that day. A bonus for us was that our lecturer, Dr Ute Wolfel, is from Berlin so she shared her experience of the wall coming down. The exhibit then takes you through early German empires and traditions taking you through to modern Germany. It’s not just words on a wall; there are paintings, clocks, videos, maps and even a replica gate from Buchenwald to look at and learn from. Two of my personal highlights were the map of 1500 Augsburg (where I did my Year Abroad!) and an optical illusion of 3 major German leaders. It was such a lovely day and it was nice to actually apply some of my degree knowledge to the museum’s exhibits, plus a mixed group of us went so there was always something to talk about! For those of you interested, check out the British Museum website. Just make sure you go before 25th January!!

For more information about German Studies, as well as the other degree programmes in languages at Reading, please visit the website of the Department of Modern Languages and European Studies. To keep up with all of the Department’s students, staff, and alumni, you should also make sure to follow this blog, like us on Facebook, and subscribe to our Twitter feed.

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