Before Leaving Berlin, A Half-Day Tour of Wannsee and Potsdam

It was our first Saturday together. After we had breakfast at the hotel, a private bus took us to Wannsee and Potsdam, located about an hour-and-a-half ride from Berlin.

It was quite embarrassing to admit, but I only learned about the historical significance of Wannsee when our bus pulled over by the entrance of an old house, known as the Wannsee Villa.

The Potsdam Conference took place at the Cecilienhof Palace

On January 20, 1942, senior officials of Nazi Germany held a meeting at the Villa, where they finalized their plan on how European Jews would be rounded up from west to east and sent to extermination camps, where they would be murdered.

It was heartbreaking to read the manuscripts at the museum.

Then, after about an hour, our bus drove us to the city of Potsdam, which was the residence of Prussian kings and the German Kaiser. The whole area was surrounded by parks, castles, lakes, palaces and windmills.

And, like Wannsee, another historically important meeting also happened in Potsdam, known as the Potsdam Conference.

With Miranda Dotson

 

From July 17 to August 1945, the presidents of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States gathered at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, and agreed to administer punishment to the defeated Nazi Germany.

It also was during the Potsdam Conference where the three presidents outlined the terms of surrender for Japan during World War II in Asia.

We came back to Berlin around 2:30 p.m. Some of us went directly to a shopping mall; others walked around the nearby botanical garden. I went back to the hotel and took a nap.

It was the last day that we were in Berlin.