This is one of the many courtyards in the longest “Berg,” or “castle,” in the world! Burghausen is located directly on the border with Austria.
We ate lunch on the shore of the Königssee.
We had an amazing view when we took a quick break from our mini-hike.
Hitler’s “Eagle’s Nest” is located at the peak of this mountain.
Just this month a new memorial was unveiled in Munich’s Königsplatz. "Die schwarze Liste," or “The Black List,” by artist Arnold Dreyblatt, depicts a spiraling list of titles of the books banned by the Nazi Regime. The monument is especially poignant considering that the Königsplatz was the location of Munich’s first book burnings on May 10th, 1933.
With the falling number of Covid cases in Munich, the 10:00 P.M. curfew has been lifted, which gave me and a floormate the opportunity to take a lovely walk and see the historic city at night. On Tuesday I had an appointment to work in the State Library and when I returned to the dorn, a big group of us went for a run through our neighborhood. On Wednesday I had a productive morning and relaxed in the afternoon when I went on another walk and ate ice cream with a friend. I returned to the State Library on Thursday morning, ran again in the afternoon, had a floor meeting to discuss adjusted Covid protocols for the dorm in the evening, and did Zoom-yoga with Fulbrighters at night. 

As per usual, the really exciting adventures happened at the end of the week. On Friday I had another appointment to work in the State Library, this time to read original Nazi publications about “die Kunst im Dritten Reich,” or “The Art in Third Reich.” I looked through the issues from 1937 and 1938 seeking out the images and articles pertaining to the architect I am researching. In the afternoon I got a Covid test, both out of precaution for the following adventures and because residents of Munich can get one free rapid Covid test per day. After testing negative, a floormate and I went to the “NS-Dokumentationszentrum,” or in layman’s terms, Munich’s Nazi museum. I actually visited the museum a few years ago when I was in Munich for a week thanks to a research grant from Notre Dame’s Nanovic Institute.

While viewing the exhibits we took the opportunity to compare and contrast the American and German education system’s perspective on the war. Afterward we returned to Roncalli, cooked dinner together, played a game with some other floormates, and then watched a movie. 

Saturday was another big adventure! One of my floormates temporarily has his family’s car with him in Munich, and he took the opportunity to plan a day trip through Bavaria. I was lucky enough to be invited to join. We started by heading West to Burghausen, a town on the border of Austria that has the world’s longest castle. The Medieval castle is 1,051 meters along the crest of a narrow hill. We walked through the many courtyards, over some bridges, and to some lookout points before walking through a museum in what used to be the castle’s main living quarters. 

From there we drove south to the Königssee and Berchtesgaden, where we ate lunch and went on a mini-hike. As we departed for the journey back to Munich, we took a small detour and drove by the Eagle’s Nest and Berghof, which were part of Hitler’s Bavarian Alpine Retreat that served him both in both personal and representative functions. 

Sunday was a nice relaxing end to a busy week!

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