Support Group Reunion in Weimar!

The past five days were a fantastic blur spent in Weimar with 46 of my fellow CBYXers who I originally met in August. It also felt a bit like an Aachen Support Group ("language camp") reunion, especially when we broke into smaller groups to discuss how our exchanges have been going. On top of reuniting with my countrymen, we got to check out Weimar, which is a whimsical little German city bubbling with history and culture.

We may be in Thüringen, but we're still Saxons.

Our first full day consisted of artistic culture. We checked out the renowned German writers Goethe's and Schiller's houses. Goethe's house was more architecturally interesting and I got the feeling he probably had some awesome (yet refined) parties at his pad. Still, they couldn't have been too rowdy, or else dear ol' von Goethe would've had to pester his guests to watch out for the expensive-looking statues and artwork displayed all over the place. 

Catching up on some classics and trying not to hit my head in Goethe's house.

Schiller's house was also very representative of the era, just minus the beautifully unique layout and not as much priceless artwork. His house was more homey, though, with its colorful, printed wallpaper that I'd put up in my own house if it was one of the Painted Ladies in San Francisco or a little cottage on the coast in New England. 

Sharing some classic literature with the youths.

That afternoon we learned about the Bauhaus, which was a progressive art school established in Weimar by an architect named Walter Gropius. The craftsmen and women there ended up influencing the design world in major ways that I didn't even have a clue about. Turns out all my favorite typographies are Bauhaus creations. Danke Herr Gropius! 

Hey, look!  Legoland A neighborhood built thanks to Bauhaus!

Apparently the Bauhaus students were considered a bit odd by the Weimar community circa the 1920s. I mean, they had very creative parties in the local parks, dressed and acted like hippies, and were very supportive of women attending college. Some of the stuff the Bauhaus produced in Weimar wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but I definitely appreciate their goal of creating artful designs that are ridiculously practical and making them available for everyone. Due to the core ideals of the Bauhaus, however, it was totally shutdown during the Nazi-led government. 

The remains of the Buchenwald concentration camp are today a memorial and museum.

We were exposed to that darker side of German history our third day in Weimar. About eight miles from Goethe's doorstep is the concentration camp Buchenwald. In school we've read memoirs and textbooks about the victims of the Nazis during WWII, but nothing paints the picture quite as vividly as entering the scene of the gut-wrenching crimes. There is a stone on the ground in the camp that you can stoop down and touch. It's always 98.2 degrees, which symbolizes the human lives lost in the facility. Feeling the heartbeat under Buchenwald is a grisly reminder.

Most of the camp infrastructure was removed or destroyed following liberation.

Walking across the large, main yard area where the prisoners lined up for attendance every day, the view further in the distance caught me off guard. Beyond the camp you could see the rolling green and blue Thürigen hills and dozens of wind turbines. It was an astonishingly similar view to what I saw in Oberreifferscheid back in September, which was one of the most wonderful and peaceful places I've been. It's unbelievable that such horrifying things happened in a place surrounded by such vast, natural beauty. 

Elie Wiesel, the author of Night, was at Buchenwald the last four months of the war. 

After visiting the camp, it took me a bit of time to really process everything. We had a group discussion that evening and our group leaders answered our questions. This part of German history will always be disturbing, but I do agree it's important to maintain an awareness and understanding amongst all generations. It's also important to transfer that understanding and defiance to never let such an event happen again into the wider global community. Whether in Germany, Syria, Africa, or who knows, maybe even Mars someday, humanity is humanity. Terrible things can happen in beautiful places.

Sitting by the river right in town, it's easy to see how Schiller got inspired.

After the intense historical immersion, we got quite a bit of time to explore Weimar on our own the last two days. From searching for a cave system that ran under the local park to playing a healthy amount of card games, Weimar failed to disappoint.

Checking out the local caves, which were used as a bomb shelter.

Of course, a good amount of our free time simply meant hanging out in a Wes Anderson-esque/Bauhaus-infused community with 46 other kids who had endless stories of their time abroad, which was fascinating. As one of my Aachen support group buddies said when we were asked what we've learned while in Germany so far, "Truth is way more unbelievable than fiction." The more I learn in general, the more I learn how much I have to learn, the more people I connect with, and the longer I'm here, I continue to think that exact same phrase. Real life is unbelievable in a million different ways.