May 29th

Today we went to Neues Museum and the Technik Museum. We had quite a bit of time to look around both. I very much enjoyed the Neues Museum, as I like to learn about ancient history. I really liked the design of the exhibits, they were very spacious and open, while still being effective. I particularly enjoyed looking at the exhibit on old metal work. My favorite, of course, was the bust of Nefertiti. The detail that was preserved is incredible to see, with the color that is so often lost over time. It makes you wonder what the art from ancient times actually looked like when it was first produced.  

Ancient board game complete with dice

Beaded necklace with magic symbols of health.

On the way to the Technic Museum, we saw a few other monuments of Berlin. One was the new guard tower. The room was massive and void except for a statue of a mother holding her dead child. It was chilling to see a depiction of the pain that is brought by violence. The emptiness of the room made the statue seem even more important. Another monument we saw was the location of the famous book burnings. It was a large courtyard with massive buildings on almost every side. In the center was a window down into an empty room. It was hard to see with all the glare but if you looked in through a shadow you could see the empty bookshelves.

The technic museum was amazing. I saw the changes in boats, planes, and trains through time. None of those topics have ever struck my interest in the past but it was very interesting to see. I wish that more of the information of the exhibits were in English so I could have learned more about a new topic rather than only seeing it. Luckily the person I was walking around with was semi-knowledgeable in all of the three so I learned a little here and there. I also visited the textile exhibit where they showed the history of cloth production.

  

Wool dress from the textile exhibit.

Heather Peterson

Class of 2021

Mechanical Engineering