
On 9 November 2023, Democracy Day, BOS 2 visited the exhibition at the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn.
Visit the exhibition
The exhibition began with the Second World War. From there, we went through the decades from the post-war period to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The images of the mass graves from the Second World War were particularly depressing.
We were able to get to know the personalities of the victims. Letters, diaries and posters brought us closer to the individual fates of the victims.
In the former plenary chamber of the old Bundestag in Bonn, we were able to use small tablets to cast our own votes for former party contributions. This was followed by a photo shoot in front of a tank from the former Soviet Union.
We attended the screening of “The Damned Village” in a replica movie theater from the 1950s. The movie showed a village that was to be demolished for the construction of a US airfield. However, this was prevented by the resistance of the citizens.

In the 60s, we were able to see a replica ice cream parlor as well as old billboards and cars. In keeping with the moon landing in 1969, there was a stone from the moon in a display case.
We particularly noticed the VW Transporter from the T1 series, which was very popular in the flower power era and looked accordingly. Various flowers and peace symbols adorned the car.
In the 80s, tube televisions awaited us in rows. Various 80s classics were shown, such as Tatort, Die Maus and The A-Team.
The show ended with the 90s, or more precisely with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Elements of the Berlin Wall surrounded a green Trabbi.
We were able to listen to the lyrics of David Hasselhoff’s song “I’ve been looking for freedom” through small wall-mounted headphones. We watched clips of the fall of the Berlin Wall through small monitors.

Visit to the old Federal Council:
The listed building was erected in 1933 and was originally used as a teacher training college. It was later converted into the Bundesrat. Our Basic Law was adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly in the large plenary chamber in 1949.
Our class was able to experience a legislative process at first hand by slipping into the role of the 16 federal states (there used to be 11). The states had the task of answering the following questions
“Should gambling be abolished? ” to present their views.
Our happy ending was a class photo in front of the car of the former German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, the Adenauer 300.
And by the way, the undemocratically elected chancellor had done a better job than all the previous ones.