Class visit to The Story of Berlin museum

On Friday I went with my students to the Story of Berlin Museum.  The museum is deep in the heart of former West Berlin and covers the history of Berlin from its origins in the middle ages, to the present day.  Included was a tour of a cold war bunker put in place in the event of a nuclear attack.  The likelihood of an attack ever taking place in Berlin was very small, especially because the Soviets would have been attacking their own ally along with attacking the West, but it was interesting to see.

Students standing on the outline of the area of present day Berlin.

Class tour of the German Historical Museum

For our first class excursion we went to the German Historical Museum.  The museum covers German history from 500AD to the present day.  We were mostly only concerned with the last portion of the exhibit, since our class is on Berlin since the war.  The museum only displays actual historical artifacts, rather than replicas, and some of the items they have are really quite interesting.  From clothing to technology, they have a little bit of everything. The museum is located in the old city arsenal.  Over time it has been a museum for military artifacts, a East German history museum and now the more comprehensive museum that exists today. Because of its former collection of war trophies they do have some interesting artifacts, though, including the hat, scabbard, and spurs worn by Napoleon during his defeat at Waterloo.  

Students looking at what remains of a V2 Missle