My daughter has been studying the German language on her own since she was 14. Her interest began with political and cultural online forums. Her admiration of German film was one of the major inspirations that led her to these forums. Over the years, she became fluent by her own study. Eventually, she took college courses and ended up majoring in German Cultural Studies.

She came close to doing a year of study there when Covid hit and the program was canceled. All these years, she’s imagined exploring and using her language skills there. At last, today, we bought her ticket to Berlin. She goes in January, in just over a month.

She’s picked Die Fabrik Hostel, converted from an old factory, to begin her stay (all the photos in this post).

One aspect of Berlin that interests her about Berlin is that there have been important movements there that people know little about. She feels like she might be able to become part of something progressive there. She wrote a long thesis paper for her degree on early environmentalist, eco-feminist and socialist movements there, even right around the time before and after the wall between east and west Germany came down..

Film and art movements there have always been intertwined with the social cultural movements. The expressionist movement, particularly strong in Berlin, as early as the 1920s, made the feeling world important. Examples are The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis, Nosteratu and the Man Who Laughs. Like the Romantics were focused on deeper meaning rather than just representing what’s on the surface. What will she do there? She wants to look into types of therapy that would align with her interests in eco-psychology, feminist, art, movement and somatic therapires.