Programs : Brochure

Monday 23 March: Arrivals into Munich International Airport; travel to hotel. 

• Walk to Marienplatz and Viktualienmarkt for initial exploration and lunch (many vendors selling street food on Marienplatz and in the open-air market)
• Group up for themed orientation walking tour of Munich. The theme: Architecture, Memory, and Resistance in the Heart of Munich (walking tour will last approximately two hours)
• Group dinner at Hofbrauhaus (You’ll discover that this is more than just a fun, and rather touristy, beer hall; it is also the place where Hitler created the Nazi party).

Tuesday 24 March

• Morning seminar: From Republic to Reich: How Germany Built a Police State.
• Lunch on your own at Marienplatz or Viktualienmarkt
• Afternoon tour and seminar at NS-Dokumentationszentrum München (Munich Documentation Center)
• On our walk back to the hotel we will stop briefly at the Square for the Victims of National Socialism, located on Brienner Straße. Here, we will see the eternal flame and talk about how Munich engages in remembrance.

Wednesday 25 March

• Morning seminar: Policing the Enemy Within: Dachau and the Making of a Terror State.
• Lunch on the go
• Noon train to Dachau Memorial Site (former concentration camp). Students will engage in a structured self-guided tour of the memorial. (note: the train ride only takes about 25 minutes).
• While at Dachau, I will host a 10-minute check-in individually with each student to discuss their plan for their Thematic Analysis Project and any travel issues that may have come up. We’ll meet in the cafeteria of the Dachau Memorial.
• Late-afternoon debrief at the memorial.
• Train back to Munich. Final debrief. 

Thursday 26 March

• Late-morning departure from hotel to Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich for seminar on Leaflets and Loyalty: How the White Rose Defied the Nazi State.
• Early afternoon break/ lunch on your own
• Late-afternoon visit to the Bavarian State Police Headquarters for a seminar on modern policing in Germany.

Friday 27 March

• Morning train from Munich HBF to Nuremberg (usually a 90-min train). Upon arriving Nuremberg, we’ll check into the hotel and eat a quick lunch
• Early afternoon tram to the Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds for structured tour.
• Walking tour of the rally grounds; self-guided tour inside the Documentation Center, collecting information related to themes.
• Evening return to hotel; debrief.

Saturday 28 March

• Breakfast seminar at hotel: From Resistance to Reckoning Justice After Atrocity
• 10AM visit to Memorium Nuremberg Trials and Courtroom 600 at Nuremberg’s Palace of Justice. This was the site of the Nuremberg Trials. We’ll do a self-guided tour of Courtroom 600 and the museum exhibit.
• Early-afternoon return to central Nuremberg for quick Lunch.
• 2PM train to Berlin, Early evening: Arrive Berlin and check into hotel.
• Metro to Pariser Platz for a casual dinner (students can break into groups as they wish to find suitable restaurants around Pariser Platz / Unter den Linden areas)
• Reconvene on Pariser Platz for a short orientation walking tour. Theme: From Reich to Republic: Berlin’s Landscape of Dictatorship and Remembrance. We’ll begin the tour at Brandenburg Gate and walk a relatively short loop: Gate → Reichstag → Soviet War Memorial → Holocaust Memorial → Führerbunker site → optional return via Unter den Linden, then catch the U-Bahn back to hotel.

Sunday 29 March

• Breakfast at hotel and then walk to the U-Bahn, heading toward Potsdamer Platz.
• Full-day workshop at the Topography of Terror museum/documentation center. The workshop is titled: Topography of Terror: the historic site of the Nazi Terror System (SS and Police) and the perpetrators. It will consist of a guided tour of the exhibition, a faculty-led seminar, and students working together in breakout groups to conduct research on themes of common interest.
  • This will be a roughly 6-hour experience, during which we will use the Topography of Terror museum/documentation center as our “campus.” Over the course of the day, students can take breaks as needed, get lunch around Potsdamer Platz, and see the preserved section of the Berlin Wall (and exhibition) right across the street from the Topopgraphy of Terror building.

• 4:30pm: Group check-in and debrief at the museum.

Monday 30 March

• Final morning Check-ins: 15-minute individual meetings with each student during the morning hours. Meetings will take place in the lobby-level of the hotel.
• Breakfast at hotel; followed by morning seminar titled: From Dictatorship to Defiance: The Enabling Act and the German Resistance about the infamous Reichstag file of 1933 and how Hitler and the Nazi party used the fire to exploit fears of a “communist uprising,” resulting in Reichstag Fire Decree, and the Enabling Act. Then we’ll discuss the German resistance movement in Berlin and the failed assassination attempt of Hitler.
• Following the seminar, depart hotel on the U-Bahn and head to Pariser Platz.Lunch on own.
• Early-afternoon tour of the Reichstag and Reichstag Dome
• Late-afternoon visit to the Bendlerblock and the German Resistance Memorial Center. Debrief outside Bendlerblock.

Tuesday 31 March: Today we transition from Nazi-era to East German-era authoritarianism and police control.

• Morning seminar: From State Terror to Silent Control that addresses how the GDR replaced visible violence with psychological repression. While Nazi rule relied on public brutality and spectacle, the Stasi state thrived on fear, silence, and mistrust—a different but no less dangerous form of authoritarianism.
• Late-morning visit to the Stasi Museum housed in the former Stasi HQ in Lichtenberg. We’ll focus on everyday surveillance, files, and the psychology of control, while keeping in mind the question: What comes after the fall of fascism?
• Afternoon break / lunch nearby
• Late-afternoon, travel to Stasi Detention Center: Hohenschoenhausen for guided tour and discussion.
• Early evening: back to hotel. Closing dinner.