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Learning by doing - the ASA team’s visit to Berlin

When you want to learn something new, it often helps to not only read or hear about it, but to also see and experience it in person. This works even better in groups: You can exchange your ideas with each other and benefit from hearing other thoughts and opinions. Thus we took a very early train on the 5th of July to travel more than 600 km from Mannheim to Berlin. We were invited to see an exhibition on catchpenny prints in Wustrau and reflect upon the power structures underneath visual storytelling. After a night in Berlin we used the opportunity to visit the landmarks and talk about the history of Germany during sightseeing.

Ten participants sitting on a wall.
Team ASA (from right to left: Gildas, Ann Kristin, Bella, Dylan, Ella, Marie) together with Euphrosine from PLACE for Africa and their coordinator Nicole from Meine Welt e. V. in front of the Brandenburg Preußen Museum in Wustrau. Photo: Marie Oster

Exhibition visit

The special exhibition “Weltbilder - Bilderwelt” at the Brandenburg Preussen Museum in Wustrau presents the history of so-called Bilderbögen (catchpenny prints in English).With the invention of lithography in 1798 these prints soon became very popular for two reasons: They were cheap in production and thus affordable for the wider public. A total of 50 million prints were produced and spread throughout the whole world until the middle of the 20th century. In the exhibition there were examples of a volcanic eruption in Martinique, weddings of royals, the German-French war but also violent disputes in the colonies such as the Boer War in nowadays South Africa or the uprising in Delhi, India. However, there was also another side to it: They could easily be used to influence (political) opinions and spread e.g. anti-semitic or racist views. The exhibited examples illustrated the dehumanisation in the illustrations on some of the prints. Because Nicole Amoussou, founder of MeineWelt e. V. in Mannheim and our contact for the ASA team, had helped to create the section on the display of Black people, she offered a space for reflection for us, was able to give us more input on the topic and shared her interpretations.

Group photo of ASA participants. Three of them in front of a frame with the words Bild.Macht.Meinung.
The whole team with some colleagues in the museum in front of an installation labelled “Bild.Macht.Meinung. Photo: Mickael Houngbedji
Prints at the exhibition
Examples of catchpenny prints in the exhibition “Weltbilder - Bilderwelt”. Photo: Ann Kristin Gildhoff

Food for Thought: Pictures are Powerful

Within the team, we discussed the depiction of Black people in the past but also today. During this reflection, we talked about colonial continuities and the power structures that still play a role today when we use images to communicate. Pictures are powerful tools, but they are always just one piece of a story, a reduction of reality by someone for someone. What one understands and how one interprets them depends on whether they are affected by it or not. We talked about emotions and what role they play when we are looking at images. Often the problem is that they are simple, minimalistic and do not reflect the complexity of a person or topic. Therefore, they are not empowering and sometimes even hypocritical. They victimise and reduce one side to being in need of help from the other. The question is: Who dominates and oppresses who resists and fights against the dominance? What do we do with this input now, which duties derive from it? When we are telling stories today, whether by intention in a conversation with another person or by just sharing a photo on social media, we should always try to see the context of it. The following questions can help us to think critically about the power of pictures and the way they form opinions:

  • Which stories are we telling in the first place?
  • What images are we using to illustrate our stories?
  • Is it clear if we share an opinion or verified facts?
  • In what way are we reducing reality?
  • Are we sensitive about the reproduction of power structures?

We concluded our day with a team dinner and many new thoughts that will be helpful for the continuation of our internship and ASA programme learning journey.

Group pictures in front of the Brandenburger Tor
The group in front of the Brandenburger Tor. Photo: Bella Hounsougan

Capital discoveries: Teambuilding Berlin Style

The second day of our trip was all about sightseeing. We took a train to the main station and then sat next to the river Spree to have breakfast. Afterwards we started our discoveries in the government district: Walking by the Bundestag (Parliament) and all associated buildings with the offices from the deputies. The next stop was the famous Brandenburg Gate, which was built at the end of the 18th century and is a national symbol, as well as one of the main landmarks in Berlin. As all the other tourists, we used the chance for a little photo session before we continued our tour to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This monument was built about 10 years ago to remember the Jewish victims of the Holocaust during the Third Reich. Between 1939 and 1945 an estimated number of 6 million Jews were killed in the genocide by the Nazi Regime. At the memorial site we felt the heaviness and oppressive silence between the blocks of stone which resemble a graveyard. It was an opportunity to address the history of Germany and expand our knowledge by exchanging our thoughts. We also visited the East Side Gallery. This is an open air memorial with a length of one kilometre that consists of about hundred paintings from artists from all over the world on the east side of what used to be the Berlin Wall. This wall was built to separate West Berlin from East Berlin and often referred to as the "Wall of Shame". It was built in 1961 and demolished in 1989. At the time, Germany was divided into two parts: the German Democratic Republic (German: DDR) in the East and the Federal Republic of Germany (German: BRD) in the West. The wall divided the whole city of Berlin in two parts on a length of 155 kilometres and constituted a strict border, which was intended to prevent people from the East from entering the West.

The last stop of the day was Alexanderplatz, a public square and lively place with lots of department stores around. More than 360,000 people visit the square every day. On the day of our visit, there was an international food market where we could taste fresh juice, tacos, fried bananas and Zuckerwatte. After this long day, we all left Berlin with a lot of new impressions and food for thought but most of all with shared memories of a great trip as a team that we will never forget.

ASA team Black Academy 2023: Ann Kristin, Bella, Dylan, Ella, Gildas & Marie