Thursday, January 5

Depart Lexington for flight to Berlin (via Newark)

Friday, January 4

Arrival in Berlin, check into hotel (8 nights), brief rest period.  Guided exploration of the Mitte section of Berlin.  Sites include the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, the Potsdamer Platz, and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.  Visit either the Documentation Center of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe or the Reichstag for a guided tour (whether this day or the next depending on Reichstag schedule).  Group dinner.

Saturday, January 5

Visit and tour the Schloss Charlottenburg, the largest and most imposing of the Hohenzollern’s remaining palaces (including grounds).  Group lunch.  Continue exploration of the Mitte section, visiting either the Documentation Center of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe or the Reichstag for a guided tour (whichever not visited previous day).

Sunday, January 6

Visit the concentration camp Sachsenhausen, on the edge of Berlin.  Guided tour in English.  This camp, while not a death camp on the scale of those in today’s Poland, was an important model camp for the SS. Late group lunch in Oranienburg.  Late afternoon optional tour of sites of the former Berlin Wall (other remaining or displayed portions visited on other walking tours).

Monday, January 7

Visit the Scheunenviertel area of Berlin, formerly an area of concentrated Jewish settlement in Berlin.  Guided tour of the New Synagogue, which has been restored and serves today as a museum of Jewish life in the Scheunenviertel.  Group lunch.  Afternoon dedicated to visiting the Jewish Museum Berlin (partially guided), which presents a history of Jewish life in Germany in a provocative manner within a postmodern structure.

Tuesday, January 8

Guided exploration of the center of former East Berlin, including the Schlossplatz (until recently the site of the GDR’s Palace of the Republic and still today a site under considerable debate), Alexanderplatz (former vital city center), the Fernsehturm (TV tower, a symbol of East Berlin), the “Rotes Rathaus” (city hall), and the Nikolaiviertel, a partially reconstructed area around the late medieval St. Nicholas church.  Visit the German Historical Museum and the Humboldt University area.  Group lunch. 

Wednesday, January 9

FREE TIME: The best option available for train travel on this trip includes one extra day of travel in either Germany or Austria.  I will suggest a number of possible options within a day’s travel of Berlin for those who wish to explore Germany and other options for those who wish to preserve their day of travel for Austria and thus remain in Berlin (museums, cinemas, other sites, shopping).  Optional group dinner for those in Berlin.

Thursday, January 10

Visits to at least two of the National Museums in Berlin:  the Portrait Gallery, largely comprised of the former Hohenzollern royal collection and focusing on European art from the 13th to the 18th centuries; and the Hamburger Bahnhof, which concentrates on late 20th century and contemporary art (with an emphasis on German art).  Group lunch between visits to the two museums.  Entrance to the Portrait Gallery includes admission to the New National Gallery, another museum of modern art, which is open until 10:00 pm on Thursdays.  I will suggest that students visit this museum in the evening.

Friday, January 11

Students have options that include free time in Berlin.  Those who want a free afternoon spend the morning with me visiting the Pergamon Museum, one of the world’s premier museums of the ancient near east.  Those who want a free morning visit the Haus der Wannsee Konferenz with me in the afternoon.  This was the site of the January 1942 conference where the Nazi’s “Final Solution to the Jewish Problem” was officially launched.  It contains an interesting exhibit on the conference and the mechanisms of the Holocaust.  Group dinner.  Evening concert at the Berlin Philharmonic.

Saturday, January 12

Depart Berlin, take train to Prague, check into hotel (2 nights).  Explore Prague’s Old City, including the late medieval Charles Bridge with its baroque statuary, the medieval Old Town Hall (with its beautiful Astronomical Clock) and Old Town Square (with the gothic Týn Cathedral, the baroque St. Nicholas’s church, and the early 20th-century monument to Jan Hus), the House of the Black Madonna (Museum of Czech Cubism), and the Charles University area.  (Charles University was the first in German-speaking Europe, founded in 1348.)  Group dinner.

Sunday, January 13

Explore Prague’s Lesser Town (historically an area of concentrated German settlement) and the gothic Castle, including St. Vitus’s Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace, the romanesque St. George’s Basilica, and the Golden Lane, a narrow street that was once a center of alchemical and astrological study and later a temporarily home to Franz Kafka.  The castle served as the seat of government for the Kingdom of Bohemia, which was in the hands of German speakers from 1310-1918.  Bohemia was in the hands of the Habsburgs from 1526-1918, a period interrupted by the reign of the “Winter King,” the protestant Elector Frederick V of the Palatinate, from 1618-20.  1618, of course, is the year of the so-called second Defenestration of Prague, which began the Thirty Years’ War.  Group lunch.  Optional visit to the National Gallery’s Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, providing a remarkable glimpse into the Czech visual arts, which are truly outstanding but often overlooked.

Monday, January 14

Explore Josefov, Prague’s Jewish section (going back to the 10th century), focusing on the Jewish Museum in Prague.  Following a project of urban renewal in 1913 that saw the destruction of most of the former ghetto, the local Jewish community decided to preserve the several remaining synagogues and related sites in this area (including a late medieval cemetary) as a museum of Judaism.  The Nazis allowed the museums to continue to exist as a central site documenting the culture of what they saw as an “inferior race.”  Despite heavy damage during the floods of 2002, these museums have been restored.  Free time after late group lunch.  Recommendations of museums and other sites for free time.

Tuesday, January 15

Depart Prague, take train to Vienna, check into hotel (8 nights).  Explore the Ringstraße area, built around the Innenstadt (old, inner city) in the place of the old city walls during the 1860s, a high point in Vienna’s cultural, political, and economic importance.  An overview will be provided in streetcars, and various specific areas will be explored on foot.  Group dinner.

Wednesday, January 16

Guided exploration of the Innenstadt with special emphasis on St. Stephan’s Cathedral and Jewish Vienna.  Guided tour of the cathedral, including the catacombs.  Guided tour of the Jewish Museum Judenplatz, which focuses on the medieval Jewish settlement around this area of the city, including the excavations of a medieval synagogue.  This synagogue was discovered when construction began on the Viennese Holocaust memorial, also on the Judenplatz.  Guided tour of the city’s remaining historical synagogue, down the street from the Judenplatz, the Biedermeier Stadttempel.  Visits to see the the Plague Column, early-9th-century St. Ruprecht’s Church, and other important Innenstadt churches. Group dinner.

Thursday, January 17

Guided tours of the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, based on the Habsburg’s royal art collection, and the Leopold Museum, a collection of Austrian art, especially that of the turn of the 20th century.  Group dinner.

Friday, January 18

Visit the Hofburg (Imperial Palace) area, including the Augustinerkirche, the former Habsburg court church and an important site in music history.  Tour the Secular and Ecclesiastical Treasury, an incredible collection largely of the imperial crowns, gowns, and other trappings of the Habsburgs.  Among them is the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor (created about 962).  Group lunch.  Continue with a tour of the Neue Burg (another part of the palace), which includes small museums of armor, musical instruments, and a museum of excavations from the ancient city of Ephesus.

Saturday, January 19

Tour of the city emphasizing turn-of-the-century Vienna.  Visit the Naschmarkt, the city’s open-air market, which features a flea market on Saturday.  Visit the Imperial Furniture Collection, an intensive glimpse into the luxurious furnishings of the Habsburgs.  Group dinner.

Sunday, January 20

Guided tour of the Vienna City Museum for an overview of the city’s history.  Late group lunch.  Optional late afternoon viewing of The Third Man at the Burgkino, followed by a ride on the Riesenrad, the famous Ferris wheel featured in the film.

Monday, January 21

FREE TIME: The best option available for train travel on this trip includes one extra day of travel in either Germany or Austria.  I will suggest a number of possible options within a day’s travel of Vienna for those who wish to explore Austria and other options for those who have used their extra day of travel in Germany and thus will remain in Vienna (museums, cinemas, other sites, shopping).  I will also provide information about daytrips to Bratislava, Slovakia, and Sopron, Hungary, both of which are within an hour’s train ride of Vienna.  Optional group dinner for those in Vienna.

Tuesday, January 22

Tour the grounds of the Schloss Schönbrunn, the Habsburg’s summer palace.  Explore specifically the Tiergarten Schönbrunn, the world’s oldest continuously existing zoo and a prime site for understanding shifts in the worldview of emperors, the 19th and early 20th century viewing publics, and today’s visitors.  Group lunch.  Evening visit to the Viennese State Opera to see an opera.

Wednesday, January 23

Depart Vienna, take train to Berlin.  Check into hotel (1 night).  Final group dinner.

Thursday, January 24

Depart Berlin, travel by air to Lexington (via Newark).