Accommodations

In Vienna and Berlin, students will reside at centrally located hotels. In Munich the hotel is in a pleasant suburb with easy access to the city center. All housing is double occupancy.

UCLA Summer Sessions reserves the right to change housing location. Should this be necessary, we will arrange comparable accommodations elsewhere.

Meals

In Berlin, breakfast and lunch are provided daily. In Munich and Vienna, breakfast is provided daily.

If you have very strict dietary requirements, this program may not be able to accommodate your needs. Please let us know when you apply for this program if you have special dietary needs as well as any physical or medical conditions. We will advise you accordingly.

Tentative Program Excursions (Subject to Change)

Center of Vienna/Ringstrasse
The Hofburg, the Habsburg empire power center until 1918, is a conglomerate of 19 interior courtyards, 18 main and auxiliary buildings, portals, arches, hidden passages and more than 2,500 rooms. A visit of the Hofburg complex will be the starting point of our extensive tour of the center of Vienna, including the 19th-century Ringstrasse with its historicist architecture representing the aspirations of the bourgeoisie. Vienna is best explored on foot and rounded up by a visit to a typical Kaffeehaus.

Belvedere Museum
Home to some of Gustav Klimt's greatest paintings, including "The Kiss."

Austrian Heuriger
Outside of Vienna, wine-growers honor the tradition of opening their farms to guests and sharing the new harvest. We will join them and partake in home-made Austrian cuisine.

Neuschwanstein
This fairy tale castle build by Ludwig II is perhaps the most recognized site in all of Germany. This excursion is optional and students may independently make arrangements for a visit.

Lenbachhaus
This famous museum will re-open in spring 2013 after a multi-year renovation. It houses the world's greatest collection of works by the artists in the "Blue Rider" group which founded by several famous artists, including Wassily Kandinsky.

Kloster Andechs
This is an optional excursion which begins with a leisurely hike through the Bavarian countryside and finishes at the Benedictine Abbey with breathtaking views of the area. The traditional establishment makes its own cheeses, meats, and Bavarian beverages to fuel visiting hikers.

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
This concentration camp outside of Berlin was developed as a "model" for other camps. Over 200,000 people were imprisoned here between 1936 and 1945. Guided tours explain the history and function of the camp.

Reichstag in Berlin
This grandiose building has closely escaped destruction many times during its history and has undergone some major transformations over the years (not to mention the legendary "wrapping" of the building in the summer of 1995 by the artist Christo). One year after reunification in 1991 the parliament decided that Berlin should once again become the seat of German government. The building is once again home of the German Parliament (the Bundestag).

Jewish Museum in Berlin
The Jewish Museum houses an extensive collection of artifacts documenting the history of the German Jewish community. Various artworks including sculpture, painting and design offer an artistic impression of Jewish culture and religion.

Dresden City Center
The famous Baroque city center of Dresden suffered terrible damage toward the end of WWII. Now it has been restored at great expense and is listed as a World Heritage Site. A stop in Dresden on the way to Berlin offers an opportunity to experience the resurgent city and see Daniel Liebeskindâ??s new, controversial museum of military history.

Art Museums
Professor Tokofsky, who is the director of academic programs at the Getty Museum, will offer tours of art museums in all three cities.

Optional Excursions

Limited free time is built into this program for independent sightseeing. If you plan on traveling extensively, we recommend that you budget additional spending money.

On Location

The cities of Berlin and Vienna have experienced both the most glorious and the darkest moments of European history. Today they lead the way into the twenty-first century as centers for dazzling new architecture and a thriving counter-culture. Walk the streets of Berlin that were once divided by the politics of the Cold War, and where now the new politics of reunification and reconciliation is taking place.

Enjoy Munich, the Bavarian capital that is rich with history and intrigue. Munich is the birthplace of the Nazi movement as well as home to avant-garde art movements Hitler hoped to eliminate.

Experience what it feels like to live in Vienna, a city that inspired Mozart and Beethoven and shocked the world with the art of Egon Schiele and the thought of Sigmund Freud. Discover the lasting influence of Viennese arts and design, and follow in the footsteps of legendary filmmaker Orson Wells.

For more information about Berlin, please visit the Berlin Site.

For more information about Vienna, please visit the Vienna Site.