Special Events

Once a month IWAH offers a special event for its members such as guided tours to places of interest or day trips to other cities.

Here you can read about some of our past special events: 

Berlin: From Fashion to Politics - Gianni Versace and Government District with Reichstag including Plenary Hall

 

by Barbara H.

 

Our nice group of 28 excited women started early in the morning from grey Hannover and reached sunny Berlin in time. The tour started with a short bus tour or a walk to Kronprinzenpalais, where we had an excellent guided tour through the exhibition “GIANNI VERSACE RETRO-SPECTIVE”.

 

Gianni Versace was born December 2nd in Reggio di Calabria und murdered July 15th 1997 in Miami Beach. Versace began to help at his mother's sewing business and was in charge of buying the silk from Messina in Sicily. Due to his enthusiasm and talent he had learned all abilities autodidactically without having a proper apprenticeship. In 1978 he founded Versace, an international fashion house. His philosophy was always quality, quality and again quality. All materials he used were from Italy, the silk came from Sicily, the wool form Sardegna. Versace was very creative, combined various high class materials (“Bondage Collection”) and created new fabrics such as metal mesh. Versace was strongly influenced by ancient Greek history, which dominates the historical landscape of his birthplace, especially the Greek key.

 

Following this fantastic exhibition our group could enjoy an excellent lunch for a very reasonable price at Hauptstadt restaurant at Gendarmenmarkt. After the break we continued our trip with a walk to Brandenburger Tor where our guided tour started. We learned a lot about the history of Brandenburger Tor, the Wall and the Reichstag. As a highlight we had a chance to visit the Plenarsaal, with its open and modern architecture and learn about the meetings. Especially the procedure of the votes, which still is done by show of hands, not in secret and not electronically was new for many of us. Interestingly, even though all meetings are recorded, there are still 4 steno typists who are working in 5 minutes intervals writing down the minutes including information about the atmosphere in the room. This procedure allows to document as much as possible and make the meetings transparent and comprehensible for everyone.

 

A bit tired and very happy, we all returned to the train, spending the time talking about that wonderful day and arrived save and sound in time in rainy Hannover. Thank you Sabine and Angelika for arranging that fantastic trip for us. Everything was so well planned, we were truly spoiled.

Trip to Fredelsloh

 

by Vibeke M.

 

“KULTURKIRCHE—CERAMIC—WILD ORCHIDS” was the headline for our trip to Fredelsloh which is located about an hour and a half from Hannover. We were a small group of 11 and we had our own little bus. We enjoyed the ride through the countryside chattering away and before long we arrived in the smallest village—around 900 inhabitants—with a huge church.

 

Basilika St. Blasii & Mariae is one of the Kulturkirchen in Germany and the priest and his wife have made it their mission to put Fredelsloh and the church on the map, and they are well on their way. It is a Roman basilica from the year 875. The church is built on unsteady grounds and the earth has moved and at some point covered the front entrance. This can be seen today as the path to the door is dug out and the difference in the level on each side is over one meter. Inside the church you can see that the columns are leaning and there is a difference of one meter between the top and the bottom. 

Photos by Sabine F.

Our next stop was a visit to Keramik.um—an exhibition of how clay is used in all kinds of products, not just pottery. We started with a small movie of how clay and pottery production had developed in and around Fredelsloh over the centuries. On our way through the exhibition, we saw examples of how clay was used since approx. 22,000 before Christ and until today. The Fredelsloh pottery was very sturdy because it was fired at very high temperatures, which made it suitable for transportation. You can therefore find it all over Europe.

 

For lunch, we went to one of the few cafés in the village: Kaffeelino. A mixture of antiques, coffee roast in house and a lovely garden filled with sculptures. As a surprise to all of us, we ended up getting a small presentation of coffee. We learned about the beans, tasted two very different coffees and were advised to grind our own beans and always use water at 96 degrees not 100, as it makes the coffee bitter.

After lunch, the sun had come out and we met our two guides and started our walk up Weper, where we would be able to see wild orchids. Because of the very warm May some of the orchids had withered, but we were able to see two-leaf orchids, two types of fragrant orchids and bird’s nest orchids.

 

To sum up, the day was filled with people proud of what they are doing and eager to show Fredelsloh with everything from church, ceramics, coffee roasting and brewing to the lovely nature. I can absolutely recommend a visit to Fredelsloh. We had a lovely day filled with culture, fresh air, sun and laughs. Thank you for a wonderful day and thank you to Sabine and Angelika for organizing all the special events

Bike Tour to Marienhagen

 

By Tia H.
 

On a fall weather day in September, nine of our members ventured out together on a bike tour through the countryside. Our tour started at the Neustadt am Rübenberge train stop which is right outside of Hannover.

 

From there, we rode our bikes to Mariensee and had a guided tour of the cloister and beautiful gardens with a variety of plants and flowers.

 

Next, we rode back and enjoyed a drink and piece of cake at a local café. Our final stop was a tour of a sparkling wine cellar, Duprès & Co. The tour was full of information, entertainment and of course sparkling wine! A special thanks to Mardi Graf for organizing! I look forward to the next adventure!
 

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