Author: Ben Brouwer

Today we visited a massive Mercedez-Benz plant in Bremen. To give you an idea of its size, it produces about 1,150 cars per day and employs 12,500 people. We got to see a minimal part of the complex, but it was extremely interesting.

The tour started off with a short video about the plant, and a little bit about their production process. Our tour guide then brought us into a building where the cars were at their simplest states. We witnessed countless automated arms putting together the frames of the cars. These arms would apply strong adhesives or do spot welding extremely efficiently on one frame, then quickly move on to the next.

The next building housed the later stages of the production process. The car frames were much more fleshed out, being painted and finished on the outside. This building featured human workers installing features in the cars, one after another. They would be installing the dashboard in one station, putting in seats in another, and so on. The chassis of the car, including the engine, axels, brakes, and such was then brought from another building and then the frame was placed onto the chassis. It was incredibly smooth and efficient.

I was very impressed by the visit. So much was going on in the plant, but it all ran smoothly and in the end produced a beautiful car. I might just have to look into buying a Mercedes someday in the (far away) future.

One of the biggest things I was apprehensive about on this trip was the things I had heard about the unfriendliness of Europeans. I had seen that this usually was not true in Germany when I had been there before, but I was apprehensive about the people in the other countries.

Europeans generally don’t smile to strangers on the street, but if you have a reason to interact with them, they can be very friendly and good natured. I have had many encounters with people here like that, where their seemingly cold attitude is peeled back and I am reminded just how much we have in common.

A great example of this just happened on Sunday when we worshipped in the Church of Our Lady in Dresden. I had empty room next to me in my pew, so before long, an older lady sat down next to me. I imagined that I was maybe in her seat, maybe in her eyes we were annoying tourists that actually didn’t care about the meaning behind the service, or any other situation that would cause her to dislike me. However, she treated me completely the opposite of how I expected. She looked over at me and gave a warm smile, and started to make small talk. Now I took a semester of German at Calvin, but one semester does you no good when a native speaker speaks quickly and quietly to you. I tried to explain in German that I didn’t understand her, but she didn’t mind. She just kept smiling and trying to treat me as an equal, not as the abrasive tourist that I probably was.

This was not only a great act of grace and an amazing friendly gesture, it gave a lot of food for thought. Sometimes in America, we forget just how much we have in common with the world. We are separated from most of the world by great oceans. The places we read about in the news feel very foreign, and even visiting those places doesn’t always give the feeling of familiarity or similarity. All it took for me was a simple interaction to realize just how much we have in common.

Sometimes I think we forget just how important it is to make contact with people. I surely forget the weight of it sometimes. Even small interactions with others can mean the world, and are essential to building community and reaching out to those who might be lonely or down.

So next time you think about the coldness of Europeans, just remeber the eldery lady in Dresden. Remember how they are warm and friendly when they have a reason to interact with you. Remember how much weight one friendly interaction can have.

This morning was a somber one, as we visited the concentration camp at Dachau. It was a humbling, deeply personal experince for the group. The camp was covered in snow and more was falling, giving it a deathly silence.

The biggest thing that struck me about the camp was the terrible living conditions endured by the prisoners. The camp was designed and built to house about 6,000 prisoners, but up to 30,000 were housed there throughout the war. The Nazis forced horrific living conditions on these already extremely overcrowded prisoners. Sickness spread like wildfire, and those terribly sick were separated into unheated barracks where they suffered through winters, robbed of all clothing but their undergarments.

Hearing about the torment others went through really makes you think about how blessed you are. It is still difficult to realise and understand the true scope of the evils that were committed, but this visit was an important step in confronting the problem of evil that resides in all of us. It is only through Jesus’ love and grace that our lives can be changed.