Study Trip about German Reunification with Civil Servants from Gyeonggi Province

The participants visited numerous historical places, e.g. Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig, Memorial Museum in the "Runde Ecke" in Leipzig, The Point Alpha Memorial at the former intra-German border and present Hesse-Thuringia federal state boundary, and the Memorium Nuremberg Trials.

Furthermore, they visited plenty institutions related to historical research about the German past, for instance “Federal agency for Civic Education”, “Federal Foundation for the Study of Communist Dictatorship in East Germany”, “Leipzig Forum of Contemporary History”, and "Political Education Authority of the State Thuringia". The group of participants had the opportunity to participate in lectures as well as to ask question and to discuss.

The trip to the City Hall of Coburg was of particular interest to the Korean civil servants. Moreover, Coburg was part of the border region just as the Gyeonggi province is today. The change of the former intra-German border region could be a model for a Korean unification in the future.

An introduction to the Bavarian self-government was given in the municipality of Seefeld which is part of the administrative district of Starnberg nearby Munich. Even Seefeld's Mayor, Wolfram Gum, greeted his Korean guests and showed them around the community facilities. The visitors were enthusiastic about the Mayor's hospitality and the well-kept Bavarian municipality.

In Munich the Korean study group visited the headquarters of Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF). Dr. Susanne Luther, head of the Institute for International Relations of HSF, Willi Lange, head of the Northeast Asia department, and Veronika Eichinger from the Korea desk gave a view about the variety of national and international activities of Hanns Seidel Foundation.