Moving North

Sunday June 11, 2006

ROSTOCK, GERMANY - I am now in the seaport town of Rostock, just off the Baltic in the northern part of Germany, about a hundred kilometers from Berlin. We are spending a short portion of our journey here before moving on to Schwerin tomorrow. Again, this is a part of the former East Germany, so some of our meetings in the morning will focus on the continuing transition from communist to capitalist economy.

The town is a gorgeous European tourist attraction. The architecture is quite unlike the other places I’ve seen, with a very distinctive look that may speak to its tie to the Nordic lands. We traveled by boat up to the actual Baltic port at Warnemunde. This is the place where President Bush will briefly meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on his way to meetings in Russia next month.

Rostock is a town that lost much of its structures during World War II. The German navy used this as a launching point, so Allied bombers struck hard here. Around 40% was lost during the war.

Final notes from Berlin…the museum at Checkpoint Charlie is an absolute must-see if you are here. The amount of photos and documents could easily take four hours to read and view. I managed it in just an hour, but there’s much more I’d like to go back and see. The lasting impression you get after visiting is that the U.S. did something unbelievably difficult and remarkable to preserve this island of democracy within East Germany. You also realize how close we probably were to another world war in that very spot. And you come away with a huge respect for the endurance of West Berliners.

When I wrote last, I was writing just before the World Cup opener for Germany. I was in downtown Berlin during the finish of the Germans’ opening round win. If you hadn’t watched the game, you’d have no problem figuring out they won. Essentially, the town was similar to Bloomington after a big IU win. Maybe not a national title, but something like a big NCAA tournament contest. Horns honked on cars, the subway was full of singing, and the Germans waved the national flag—something they would almost never do in any other time because of the fears of nationalism.

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