Reunification Day at IGS

“Freedom, more than just a word.” With a small portion of pathos and yet a lot of substance, the IGS day of action began last Monday as part of the celebrations for the Day of German Unity. Early in the morning, the eyewitness Holger Timmreck gave a lecture with the title mentioned at the beginning and knew how to inspire the students. Classes 8 to 12 listened spellbound to the story of his life in the GDR and his escape to the West. The students then took the opportunity to ask personal questions of Mr. Timmreck, who was extremely impressed by the interest of our students and the depth of their questions.

At the same time, Classes 5 to 7 were able to successfully demonstrate their background knowledge on the subject during a school rally. At several stations, small teams competed against each other and answered various questions about German Unity Day in order to find the greatest “reunification experts”. Congratulations to David, Jimmy, Leon and Niko from Class 6 who took first place.After the rally, the students had the opportunity to process their impressions in an art project. To do this, they graffitied replica parts of the Berlin Wall to create their own little “IGS East Side Gallery”.
The afternoon area then offered the programmatic highlight of the day for all students in Classes 5 to 12: the active exchange with real eyewitnesses! The IGS was able to welcome Ms. Spicher from the German Consulate General and Mr. Hilbert from Café Deutsch to our campus. Furthermore, Ms. Strohner, a contemporary witness from Berlin, took part online via Zoom. In small groups, the students conducted eyewitness interviews for 20 minutes each and asked the participants about their lives before and after reunification and their view of Germany today.
Later, the individual groups then had the opportunity to evaluate and work through the impressions and experiences of the day together with their teachers. Thanks to the work with the eyewitnesses, it became clear to the students that there is not just “one” reunification, but that different life experiences also lead to different perspectives on this important event. This is an important insight that applies to all areas of history.
Special thanks go to the eyewitnesses who were so committed to our day of action. In addition, the Humanities Department would like to thank the entire IGS team for the outstanding support on October 3, 2022!