Bonn

University at Bonn

We woke up to another cloudy day with intermittent rain, now our fourth or fifth day. Bonn is not a tourist town, since it was completely bombed out during the war. It did serve as the home of the bishops and prince electors from 1597 to 1794. The University buildings are built from their palace. Bonn is the birthplace of Konrad Adenauer and served as the West German capital after 1946. St. Martin’s is the cathedral here, but it was undergoing major renovation. The Rathaus was the most interesting building. Here President Kennedy gave a speech to the Germans praising them for becoming a center of the free world. On the plaza in front are brass pieces with the name of books burned in this square by the Nazis.

Jorn, not Kennedy at Rathaus

We also toured Beethoven's house, which is now a museum. The highlights were listening to some of his works that I wasn't familiar with and seeing some of the original scores. I'm not sure how they figured out what notes he actually wrote with all the cross-outs in the music. 

That evening we were entertained by the "Mandolin Orchestra of Troisdorf" 

University Education Presentation

We heard from a female student from Jordan who had completed her Master’s degree at the University of Bonn in American studies. She was attracted here because of the low cost, free tuition and dorm costs of about 250 euros/month. All her courses were in English, but she also took classes to learn German. A foreign student can also work up to 20 hours/week for 700 Euros/month. The major restriction for studying in Germany was to have 10000 euros in a bank account to insure you could pay for rent and health insurance (100 euros per month). After graduation you can try to find a permanent job here for 18 months and if you find one after studying for German proficiency and 6 years you can gain citizenship.

Germany, a Nation of Immigrants Discussion

Since World War Two, Germany has accepted many immigrants. It began when the border with Poland was moved 300 km. Many German speakers ended up in Poland and moved to West Germany between 1947 and 1952. Because the Marshall plan was so successful, the German economy boomed in the 50s and ‘temporary' workers came from Turkey, Italy, and Spain. The original plan was they would return to their country after 10 or more years. But of course, they stayed but were never well integrated into Germany. In the 60s many Cubans and North Koreans came to East Germany for education. In the 70s the boat people from South Vietnam came. These were well integrated. In the 90s the European Union set a European policy about refugees that they should stay in the country of entry. This has placed a huge burden on Italy and Greece in recent years. In 2015 Merkle let in 700K asylum seekers. This resulted in quite a lot of controversy and the founding of the ADP, a right-wing, white supremacist organization. There is now a discussion around who are Germans? Legally you can be German if you were born here, or you can show that you came from German ancestors, or you have lived and worked here. For this latter method you must be fluent in German and pass an integration test (which 60% of Germans fail).

Our speaker ended with distinguishing the terms of integration, where we learn from each other, and assimilation where they must become like us. The German experience is that only integration works.