Saturday April 14, 2018--day 4

Today we went to the Bundestag, which is kind of like Germany’s version of the House of Representatives. It was a very interesting visit for several reasons. One thing that I heard several people comment on was how old fashioned the outside of the building looked, especially in comparison to how modern the inside was. We were split up into two groups and taken on a tour of the building. Our tour guide talked about how the building represented freedom and democracy in the country because Hitler never spent his time there while ruling.

One of the coolest parts of the tour was the walls where Russian soldiers who invaded Berlin had signed their names and wrote various messages when they were taking Berlin. They decided to keep most of the messages up after their second post-War renovation as a way of remembering the past. We ended the tour by getting to look through the glass dome on top of the building, from which one can look down on the legislature making decisions as a way of the government being transparent. All in all, it was a very interesting experience.

--Owen
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