Civil Servants Visit Germany
Experiencing Unification

At the HSF Berlin Office

In Dresden, the delegation visited the City Hall and two employees of the city administration explained the peaceful revolution and the following process of reunification.

The second station was the capital office of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, where Svea Burmester, research associate of HSF Berlin, gave a presentation about "The German unification and the role of the Hanns Seidel Foundation in the process of reunification". Other stations were the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial and the Marienfelde refugee transit camp memorial.

In Leipzig, at the Forum of Contemporary History, the group received an overview over the post-war period to the present. This includes the history of separation and reunification of Germany. After visiting the Forum Contemporary History the delegation shortly visited the St. Nicholas Church, which served as a base for the democratic movements of the 80s. Later, the delegation took part in a tour through the outpost of the Stasi Records Agency in Leipzig and learned how the Stasi had control over the citizens of the GDR.

The last part of the program was a visit of the German-German Museum in Mödlareuth. The separated village might be small, however because it was a separated village it is called "Little Berlin".

The delegation consisted of 23 mostly young administrators showing great interest in the topics of the study trip.