[Don’t say “Goodbye!” but rather “Until we see each other again!”]

Much to the chagrin of my parents, I have in fact decided that I must live in Germany. Not forever! But at least a year or so – I’ll make it happen. I have simply loved my time here, at work, in Berlin, and in each place I’ve had the pleasure of visiting. Along with this, I am staying in touch with my workplace, and not just because we want to keep each other updated on our movie lists. I’ve gathered quite a collection of German films to watch, and in return my coworkers have received a list of movies I consider classics that they had never heard of (like Back to the Future!). Anyway, because one of my coworkers is transitioning to a new job at some point in the next few months, there will be a position open in the future. The archive team at Ernst Busch said they would love to have me back in a more permanent way, which would be incredibly fortunate for my future plans. I would potentially be able to join them on their next project, since it will be starting after my graduation in the spring, so here’s to hoping! 

Before I get deeper into my professional development, I’ve got a few leisure activities left to cover. This was the week I decided to cram in all of my souvenir shopping. I got a good old-fashioned Stein [Bierkrug] for my dad, because when he visited he was so excited to drink out of one, only to find out that Berlin is just too modern for Steins; Bavaria was the place to go for that. My brother, on the other hand, requested a shirt from the Ampelmann store, which celebrates the little traffic light man we’ve all come to know and love in Berlin. For my mom, a lover of hand-crafted Christmas ornaments, Bürgelhaus was the perfect place. The rest of the gifts just found themselves, if I’m being honest. I must say, I was worried about fitting them all in my suitcase for the flight back, but with the world’s silliest game of Tetris, I made it work, and I’m happy to report that nothing was broken in transit.

The last museum I was able to get to in Berlin was the Alte Nationalgalerie [Old National Gallery], right in the middle of Museuminsel. I’m really glad I was able to go, because although it wasn’t my favorite to see in Germany (I do believe that honor falls to the Bode), it did have a whole room full of paintings from my favorite German painter, Caspar David Friedrich. I was familiar with such works as The Monk by the Sea and The Abbey in the Oakwood, and it was incredible to see them in person. A photo never really does a painting justice, I’ve come to believe. It was also fun to find a work of his I’d never heard of before, Cabin Covered in Snow, which was rather small and unassuming, but somehow managed to completely ensnare me. Art is strange. One of my favorite pieces to happen upon in the gallery was Liszt at the Piano (1840) by Josef Danhauser. It was partially fun because I recognized the piano player as Liszt before seeing the label, then felt how I imagine a Jeopardy contestant feels when they get an answer correct. In that fleeting moment, I think I understood the so-called Lisztomania that surrounded the musician, who was treated by some as a god amongst men. It was also fun because the label was twenty times more interesting than I had expected, articulating that the oil-painted audience included Liszt’s lover, Countess Marie d’Agout, the writers Alexandre Dumas the Elder, Victor Hugo, and George Sand (whom I greatly admire for both writing and gender-non-conforming behavior), the violinist Niccolo Paganini (who was so good some people thought he’d sold his soul to the devil), and the composer Gioacchino Rossini. The painting was made in Vienna, proving once again: that city was full of the most unbelievable assortment of historical figures at any given point in time. I am constantly blown away by who knew each other there.

There’s so many valuable things I’ve learned working in the archive at HfS Ernst Busch, first and foremost being how to work with people who come from a different background than me. Germany is quite similar to America in many ways, but they are not the same. The cultural divide became clearer the longer I stayed, from differing value systems, like what I discussed about the idea of success in my last post, to even the smallest behavioral expectations, like the fact that wishing someone a happy early birthday is apparently a cardinal sin in Germany (the more you know!). I was lucky enough to be in an environment that strongly encouraged inter-cultural learning from both sides, because my coworkers were just as interested to hear about my impressions of American culture as I was to hear about their impressions of German culture. One of the other most important things I learned was how to problem-solve in entirely unfamiliar circumstances. It happened often that project goals would shift, and I would have to figure out how to reroute our work towards a new destination. I have done this in jobs at home, but never in circumstances where not everyone I’m working with speaks the same language, or where the materials I’m working with are written in a script so archaic that no one present can read it, or where photographer identities become ambiguous due to the destruction of records and livelihoods during the second world war. These are all situations specific to the workplace I joined for the past two months, and because of which I now feel much more capable of facing similarly puzzling problems in whatever job I take on next, whether that be in America or Germany (or somewhere else entirely!). In any case, this comfortability in the workplace along with the new technical skills I’ve accrued have made this an invaluable experience for me.

As Vera Lynn sings, “Auf Wiedersehen – we’ll meet again!”