Old and new Divisions

We started the day today with the Belin Wall. There was an article in the Washington Post about said wall not too long ago. The idea was that Germans, being quite efficient, had nearly totally removed the wall so effectively that there is nearly no wall left in Berlin. There is one section very well preserved and we visited both it and the foundation responsible for preserving not only the wall but the stories and history of a divided Berlin.
After that, we had some well needed non-group time. I walked around (surprise) found a nice little stand for a beer and a currywurst.
The afternoon and evening was dedicated to the Islamic Federation down in the Turkish part of town. It was very interesting to get an Islamic perspective on the world, German foreign policy, and the US from a German with Turkish heritage. He made the point, which is not a new point, that it is not clear what it means to 'be German' since there is both a German people (die Deutsche Volk) and the German nation. Immigrants can become German citizens, but they never really become part of the German people. I think this is different at home. There are wackos in the US, naturally, but I don't think people really beleive that there is an 'American bloodline'. So whatever problems we have with the logistics of immigration and immigration policy, relative to Germany we seem to be very good at integrating people and having them truly become American.
So, Friday is more on the divided Germany including a visit to the Stasi (East German Secret Police) archives.