#cucomm2017

Today’s experience was incredibly humbling. In the morning we had class, and then the students had time to work on their final projects. In the afternoon we met Marianne and traveled together on public transit out to Oranienburg, to visit the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. (Note: No Daniel Tiger photos today)

Having been to a couple of different Holocaust museums and to Dachau (outside of Nürnberg) I wasn’t sure what to expect - the Dachau tour was pretty open-ended, we had time to simply wander the grounds and read about what happened. At Sachsenhausen our tour guide was a graduate student whose studies focus on Jewish history & culture, which was interesting because she was obviously quite passionate about the topic and was able to offer wonderful insights to us about the place and its history. As has been the case every time I’ve visited a museum or memorial on this topic, I learned new things and was again humbled to know that the holocaust was able to have happened, and the extent to which people simply allowed it to happen. As populist movements begin to regain momentum and influence across the globe (AfD in Germany, the nationalist party in France who nearly won against Macron, the “alt-right” in the U.S.), it was troubling to see firsthand how quickly the type of system Hitler & the nazis established was able to take route and flourish. We’ve had (I think) some good conversations with our students about the history and perspectives of some of these groups. Hopefully they return home in June with a new outlook and an increased capacity to think critically about the messages, arguments, and perspectives that political leaders promote and advance. 

Here are some photos from our time there (the got out of order in the upload):

Soviet memorial to soviet citizens who worked/died here

Soviet museum on the grounds

“Work makes you free” - this sign was at most concentration camps, and was initially believed to be true... eventually prisoners realized that “freedom” only came through death. 

Tower A - entrance to the camp. Overlooks the compound and the roll-call parade ground. 

The approach to the camp. 

Today’s main event was a tour of Bosch in Stuttgart - like our parliament tour, it was an unexpected tour and was unplanned before we arrived. One of our students, @tayloraiken, had an internship with Bosch in Charlotte. Her supervisor there reached out to let her know that we could do a tour of the Bosch location here if we wanted to (yes, please!) - so thank you again Taylor! 

The tour was fascinating - it was a great look into the world of factory automation and into Bosch’s efforts to transition from a technology-centric organization to an IT-centric organization. Their current mission is to cultivate solutions for their customers that encompass the entire spectrum, from hardware to software, in one complete package. Our guide, Daniel, was a good tour guide and gave our students some excellent insights into a world we don’t usually get to see. 

The students had the rest of the day free to work, rest, and explore as they needed & had time. @drscottclemson, @liketheoceannotthetree, Madeline, and I got together in the evening for a really lovely final-night-in-Stuttgart dinner. We went to an authentic Schwäbisch restaurant called Och’s und Willi’s - I’ve really got to start remembering to do the annoying tourist thing and take more photos of my food. I had lamb with a small salad and fries, and it came with a homemade garlic & herb butter - let’s just say it wasn’t the healthiest meal I’d ever had... but it was super yummy-tastic. 

After dinner, Trav selfishly went to have dinner with a friend of his from college, so Sarah, Madeline, and I went and got gelato and watched the sun go down over Stuttgart. 

This weekend was a huge Abenteuer for @drscottclemson... because he left on Friday morning to fly to San Diego for ICA (International Communication Association conference). He was there Saturday all day, then flew back on Sunday/Monday. Needless to say... by the time he got back, he was fried. 

Friday morning we had class (back in the classroom at Aletto, our hotel we stayed in last year! Ah, memories....) - we had a discussion about PR ethics & dialogic communication in PR, then the students had time to work on their final projects. I took the video team ( @blaineeads, @sam-rochford, @marleygoestogermany, and @izzybelledavis ) to Neuersee (new lake) in the Tiergarten so that they could see it as a potential place for shooting spotlight videos. 

Blaine & DT checking out the petting zoo from the park overlook

Video team preparing to shoot Izzy’s spotlight video

The rest of the class stayed back at Aletto to get work done and prep their projects. Friday afternoon was free for travel and work, so we sent the students off to their respective planned & unplanned Abenteuer(s) .

Friday afternoon we reached out to see if the students wanted to go check out KaDeWe (http://www.kadewe.de/) - the biggest, fanciest store I think I’ve ever been in. It’s got 7 floors, and from bottom to top you’ve got luxury goods (perfume, makeup, etc), Men’s clothes, women’s clothes, entertainment, yummy nibbles (everything from food kiosks to tea/beer/wine/tobacco/chocolate kiosks to...... bakeries. So many bakeries). None of the students decided to go, so @liketheoceannotthetree and I went and wandered through the store, then we got yummy baked goods at one of the bakeries. 

Saw this and thought “H would love that!!” - but it’s 2000 euros. So DT took a photo with it.

Bee sting cake! (Bienenstich) - it’s sponge cake, custard, more sponge cake, then topped with an almond/honey praline.... it was one of the most delicious things I’ve had. I’m thinking about going back for another piece. 

At KaDeWe you can get Skippy & Jif! Every American student’s dream. 

Thinking about #GBBO, @smpyle! Sachertorte here and Prinsesstårta below!

Saturday was mostly a work day for me. Took a jaunt around Tiergarten with Sarah in the afternoon for some fresh air, but then came back to get more work done while she continued on for more exploring. 

Getting ahead of myself - went to a church service at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on Sunday evening. It was beautiful. Also, I was lost much of the time - all in German. But still a neat experience. Oh - the church pictured here is the ruin of the old church and is a memorial now, the new church is beside it... I didn’t capture a photo of it. See the it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_Wilhelm_Memorial_Church

Oh, and there was a Lamborghini. NBD. I think I saw six this weekend. It was a pretty weekend for driving your ultra luxurious sports car around, I guess. 

Sunday I went in the morning and rented a bike so that Luke and I could take a cycling tour around Berlin. It was a gorgeous day for it! Fortunately I had remembered to get sunscreen the day before.... because otherwise I’d have been red as a ripe tomato. We met in Potzdamer Platz, then rode through the city to Badeschiff, a manmade beach area on the edge of the Spree (river that goes through the middle of Berlin) with a swimming pool submerged in the river (not river water, normal pool that just happens to be submerged in the river). 

Construction near the MB Arena and East Side Gallery, bonkers how many cranes there are over here.

Panorama of the Spree

Duck-face selfie in front of the massive blue Badeschiff duck. I know, it’s epic.

Oh, and then we went past the Bald Eagle enclosure at the zoo on our way back to Europa Center to get lunch and drop off my rental bike. 

As I mentioned above, in the evening I went to a service at the Gedächtniskirche (memorial church). This is the 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation - Luther and his 95 theses and all that - so the topic of the service was about Luther and some of his contemporaries and lessons we can learn for today. It really was neat to be in a service there, but I think for our final Sunday I’ll go back to the International church I attended our first weekend in Berlin. 

Prompt 1: How can cultural stereotypes hinder cross-cultural or international public relations? How is culture a factor in managing international PR? Find a person not from the U.S. (on the street or at a restaurant... somewhere outside the hotel) and ask them for one stereotype about people from the U.S.; ask their permission to audio or video record them answering the question - post the audio/video here. Open by explaining you're students and it's a class project, people are usually okay with it. A script I've found effective: "Entschuldigung, sprechen Sie Englisch? I am a student from the U.S. trying to learn about how people view the U.S. May I record you answering a question for me?"

Prompt 2: Capture an advertisement that you think would be ineffective in the U.S. Tell me why it would be ineffective, and then describe how you might do it differently for a U.S. market. Post a photo of the advertisement so that your classmates and I can see what you're referring to.

Prompt 3 (extended): At Teufelsberg this week you will see a huge amount of graffiti. It's a cultural phenomenon here - highly skilled artists have been allowed to paint the walls of this defunct spy station. Some murals have lasted years, while others are painted over from one week to the next. As Ledingham tells us, “Public relations is best defined and practiced as the active attempt to restore and maintain a sense of community.” How is this graffiti a function of community building/maintenance? How might this space be different in the U.S.? Would the owners of this property or the federal government be likely to allow this long-term graffiti haven to continue untouched by anyone who isn't part of the community? Post a selection of murals to illustrate your post.

I ask you to employ quotes this week - make sure that the quotes you choose actually connect to both the prompt and the point you're trying to make.

Prompt 1:Capture an image from the portion of the BMW Motorcycle factory where we’re allowed to have photos – anything you like (something cool, obviously). Discuss the concept of communicating/connecting with internal & external stakeholders, and how this tour accomplishes both of those things (refer to the entire tour and to things we learn from the tour guide and the promo videos). Draw specific connections to the Zerfass reading - quotes w/ page numbers are a good way to do this.

Prompt 2: Luke Lalor from AlphaPool Content Marketing is coming to talk with us about his firm and what they do. For this post, you need to take careful notes during Luke's talk so that you can go out this week and find an example of something he discusses. Specifically, you need to identify a concept he discusses, then find an example of that practice (1) done well, and (2) done poorly.

Prompt 3 (extended): We visit Sachsenhausen this week. The holocaust undeniably was a crisis, and created a series of cascading crises for Germany, Europe, and the world over the following months and years. Thinking about the Guth reading, how does Sachsenhausen function as a response to that crisis? How does the organization utilize Sachsenhausen (and museums/memorials like it) to pursue healing, restoration, and a prospective vision for the future with the various publics affected by the holocaust? Make specific connections to both the Guth reading and the ECC (Effective Crisis Comm) reading - again, quotes are a good way to do this.