My feet are aching from tromping around the Reichstag, where Germany’s Parliament (Bundestag) is housed.  We spent the day there talking with members of all the different political parties (there are currently five which hold seats in the Parliament) and sitting in on the Parliament in session.  It was definitely worth the aching feet.

What I enjoyed most is that each member of parliament (MP) that we met fully embodied the ideas of their party.  And I am not only talking about their political ideas.  For example, the member of Die Linke, the far left party which has its origins as the ruling party of the former East Germany, casually sat on top of a desk while he talked, wearing a wrinkled cotton jacket and a faded gray cotton sweater.  Clearly bucking the establishment.  Imagine that in the House of Representatives, why don’t you.  He  was also openly provocative in his statements, straight-out blaming Georgia for the crisis and absolved Russia of any responsibility, as well as stating the Germany should withdraw from NATO.  (Why don’t you tell me how you really feel?)

I guess, when you are a member of one of the opposition parties (currently the SPD and the CDU are in power), you have the luxury of being able to  speak your mind with being worried about losing votes.  It was actually kind of refreshing to listen to all of the MPs, whether I agreed with their parties stances or not.  I got the sense that what they said was genuine and not that they were trying to be as vague as possible to appeal to as many people as possible at the same time.  That is a blessing, I suppose, in multi-party politics.

Another highlight came mid-morning about 15 minutes into watching the parliament in session.  As one of the MPs was droning on to only a small crowd of other MPs, who walks in, but Angela Merkel — the Chancellor herself!  Our fellowship was created by the  Chancellor’s office and we will meet with Merkel at the end of our fellowship year, so we were all noticeably excited by her arrival.  (Hey, Angie!  We’re up here!)  I half-expected the MP to stop speaking or for there to be some announcement, but no one even batted an eyelash.  She simply maneuvered into a seat in one of the back rows and chatted with a colleague.  Such a casual arrival would never happen in the U.S. (nor in Russia, as our Russian colleagues confirmed), but somehow seems to fit Germany very well.

Check out pictures from today and earlier this week here.