- I learned a lot of things about Berlin during this project that I didn’t know before. For starters, I learned that the Berlin wall was originally put up to keep western fascists out of east berlin. I also learned that Germany had been split into four parts at the time, each part being controlled by a major superpower (US, Soviet Union, France, and the United Kingdom).
- Two major connections that I can still see between Berlin in the 1980’s and modern day is the social/cultural aspect of things, and political aspects as well. Although German culture and US culture are very different, even in modern day, connections can still be seen in music, clothing, etc. Modern Talking (Which was the band that my group acted as in our video) was a major pop band that swept Berlin in the 80’s, and pop music like that could be seen all over the world, and can still be seen today. Political aspects can also be seen, although it’s not taken as much to an extreme as it was in Berlin in the 1980’s.
- I think the rap song that we made was my favorite artifact. I really liked this one in particular because of the fun that we had making it, and I think it turned out better than we even expected. We were originally planning on making the beat, but it was to time consuming so we decided to find a free one. I'm really glad we made this decision because it allowed us to focus more on the lyrics and the flow, and I think it turned out really good because of it.
- I think it was an even tie between cultural/social, and political. We did a lot with social/cultural, especially during the talk show, because Noah and I were Dieter and Thomas from Modern Talking, which was a popular band from Berlin at the time. We also looked at the political side of things in all of our other artifacts. The Diorama, the song, and the news show all talked about the Berlin wall and how its effecting all of Germany. I think both aspects can be seen in most of our artifacts.
- If I could change one thing about this project, I think that I would either get rid of the create your own adventure story, or lower the standards for it. It was kind of difficult to finish all four of our artifacts, and then have to worry about the create your own adventure as well. We got it all finished, but we barely had time to finish the create your own story and it was kind of stressful.
- We read 1984 by George Orwell. The book was basically about this totalitarianism government that brainwashes all of its citizens. The main character, Winston, believed that what the government was doing was wrong, and he attempts to rebel against them. He meets people along the way, and ends up getting in a lot of trouble for what he is trying to do. The book took place in a place called Oceana, so it wasn’t in Berlin, but the year that it took place was the same year as our decade, and it had a lot of similarities. I think that the book was like Berlin at the time, just taken to an extreme. Things were bad in Berlin, but it didn’t reach the extent that the book talked about.
My Presentation (with all of my artifacts)
My Create Your Own Adventure Stories
I brought in donuts for the potluck because there is a donut called "The Berliner", and even though the donut shop i went to didn't have it, I got donuts similar to it.