A Much-Anticipated Arrival

The letter with my school placement for next year is finally here! I am officially going to Dessau! I’ve spent time in the last two summers in Dessau, so at least if many aspects of next year are still TBD, I can count on knowing and liking the city that will be my home for ten months. Not to mention the fact that it will be nice to the have help of my former host family, as well as the English teacher I know from the school where I will be working, in getting settled.

If you are curious about Dessau, you can take a look at their website (http://www.dessau.de/), but I’ll leave you with a few of my impressions about the city as well. Dessau (technically Dessau-Roßlau since 2007) is about an hour-and-a-half southwest of Berlin in state of Saxony-Anhalt, which was a part of former East Germany. Dessau is comparable in size and climate to the city where I am from, with the main difference being that the former is shrinking and the latter is growing. There are three main things for which Dessau is well-known:

1. It was the location of the Bauhaus (artistic/architectural style, which can be seen throughout certain areas of the town) school of architecture for some years, and Wassily Kandinsky had a master-house there.

2. Dessau was the location where Junkers (aircrafts most well-known for their use in World War II) were manufactured. Because of the city’s emphasis on the manufacturing industries and its importance to the war, most of the city was destroyed by bombs. Some of the structures in the city have been rebuilt since German reunification, but the structures built at the end of the war are the cement-block type buildings typical of the Soviet Union.

3. Wörlitz, a park with a castle and large grounds is located just outside of Dessau. This park is open to the public, and along with several other parks, castles and English gardens, it is now a part of the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz, a UNESCO world heritage site.

These are just a few examples of the cultural diversity and rich history of the city where I will be staying. Living there, I’m sure will allow me to discover even more. This is just a glimpse of the land and people I find so fascinating.

Deine,
N*