History Trip to Munich

Mr Scott with the VI form trip report:

“It was a very early start for the history department on Tuesday morning as Mr Scott, Mr Cawley and Miss Memery met at the front gates at the ungodly time of 3:45am. Despite one student’s alarm not going off and two students unfortunately being unfit to fly, 24 staff and students arrived mid-morning in a very sunny Munich. The first day was spent getting their bearings in a beautiful city and sampling some of the local cuisine. The students mostly enjoyed playing a game of ‘guess the meat’, although it was quite clear that Bavaria isn’t used to catering for vegetarians! The evening entertainment rounded off a tiring day and was dominated by Mr Scott’s commanding performance in the local bowling alley. Nugent came close with 3 strikes in a row, Cawley was one ball away from defeating him, and even Memery got in on the strike action, but he posted an unbeaten score which he made sure half of Bavaria knew about.

Wednesday started with a trip to Dachau concentration camp, led by the excellent tour guide, Hans. He managed to give a fantastic overview of the entire A Level course, whilst also providing an in-depth account of the camp. The students got an awful lot out of it and dealt with a very sensitive subject with real class and maturity. It was certainly an experience which they would not forget and it stimulated much conversation on the way to Nuremburg. At Nuremburg the students were able to follow an audio tour at the former rally grounds. This provided another excellent overview of the period they studied, whilst also enabling them to view some of the remaining architecture. After a sombre day, the night finished in a more jovial mood with various table football, pool and card tournaments. Henry Howarth won the honour of being the person to choose what the ‘Luan absence fund’ would be spent on but unfortunately for Josh Porter, he just couldn’t get the hang of not potting the black!

The final day began with a visit to The Munich documentation centre, where the students were able to examine a range of primary sources related to their course, as well as reinforce their understanding of the period as a whole. The following search for the white rose monument was abandoned after demands for a ‘Maccy’s’ became too loud to ignore. Unfortunately, no students joined Mr Scott, Mr Cawley and Miss Memery in sampling some excellent currywurst, but their loss!!! Our final ‘Third Reich’ started after lunch with the superb American tour guide, Jake, bringing alive the importance of a range of sites in Munich, including the white rose monument. His personal story of grandparents who survived the holocaust was clearly well-received as you could hear a pin drop whilst he recalled conversations with his grandfather. The final hours in Munich were spent with the students buying gifts and Miss Memery being dragged around the FC Bayern Munich shop whilst Mr Cawley did his best impression of a single man catwalk, before finally buying a shirt.

As thoughts turned to the flight home, highlights of the trip were discussed. These ranged from Hans’ tour of Dachau, Jake’s enthusiasm, Nugent’s 3 strikes in a row, and of course, Mia’s one person escape room where she locked herself in the toilet. All in all, a fantastic trip and one where the credit must go to Mr Gerschler for organising it, despite the imminent arrival of a new addition to the Gerschler family meaning he was unable to attend.”