Innovation & Resistance: Photography and History in Paris and Berlin

Augsburg University

May 15 – 30, 2024

Faculty leaders: Jacqueline deVries and Christopher Houltberg

CEPA welcomed the student group from Augsburg University, MN, who participated in one of the many programs we ran this spring. Some of these young students never left their home state before coming to Europe for the first time. The opportunities possible through your studies are truly endless.

“This course will immerse you in the rich histories of modern art, literary modernism, German Expressionism, and surrealism, while we keep a steady eye on the historical contexts that produced this creativity: rising class tensions and anti-American sentiments in Paris, and the emergence of fascist and extremist reactions to the perceived artistic decadence in Berlin.

Our immersion in this rich history will be enhanced by a two-week trip to Paris and Berlin. While traveling you will search out the art and architecture of the period, find the actual locations in which the writers and arts lived and worked, and immerse yourself in the contemporary Parisian and Berlin cultural milieu.” – Augsburg University

The students spent two weeks in the French and German capitals learning about digital photography and European history while visiting various museums and cultural attractions, exploring new places and eating local food.  A few students felt so inspired by their time in Paris, they expressed their interest in studying for their masters in France.

While a part of the group was less thrilled about staying in a more budget-friendly hostel in Berlin, the location made up for it by being situated in a lively pretty neighborhood with the art galleries in Auguststrasse and the Tacheles building closeby. Also, hosteling is an authentic European cultural experience in its own right with a rich tradition and a particularly edgy choice for art students.

Students got to enjoy drinks and dinner at the Café am Neuen See, a local German beer garden in the Berliner Tiergarten, which perhaps like no other in Berlin approximates the atmosphere and feel of Berlin conviviality in the 1920 and 30s, which is, coincidentally, the time period the students had been focusing on earlier that afternoon during their visit to the Temporary Bauhaus Archive. The tour of the Jewish Museum was also very well received, perhaps in no small measure because of the friendly guides.

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