Galleries | Der Deutscher Wald

Before coming on this trip, I developed an unrelated obsession with Verdi’s “Va, Pensiero”. I had it on perpetual loop once we got here, and then later learned that it had been adopted as a sort of anthem in East Germany about how they yearned to be reunited with their homeland. My computer finally blew up and I couldn’t do any work until I got a new power supply, so my flatmate and I went to the Tiergarten to bum around nature since it was a holiday and nothing was open. On the way back, I saw that the Mall of Berlin was busy and decided to stop and see if the Saturn was open (Saturn is like the German “Best Buy”.) It turned out they were having a “symphonic mob”… and the second they started playing I recognized it. I almost cried. Literally one of the most unreal and beautiful moments of my entire life.

The only thing more pervasive than cemeteries in Germany are the churches, and they usually go hand in hand. In the north the traces of Lutheranism persist, but to the south Catholicism become more common. Christianity has a strange role in modern Germany, as much of the population identifies as non-religious yet religious holidays are often considered federal holidays.