When I was in Washington DC, there was one building on my must-see list that left my companion wondering. Why do I really want to visit a hotel? The Watergate Hotel is not just any building, but perhaps the most famous hotel in American history.

In 1972, five years after the hotel opened, it suddenly became known to the whole nation. Five men broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters located in the hotel. A security guard walking through the hotel saw that a door lock had been ducktaped to prevent it from slamming shut. He alerted the police, who found and arrested all the burglars. One burglar was the head of security for the re-election of Republican President Richard M. Nixon, another was a former CIA agent. Their aim was to gather compromising information against the Democratic Party. To this end, they installed bugging devices and photographed private documents. The events were depicted in the movie "All the Presidents Men" (1976) and the series "White House Plumbers" (2023). Through hearings, court proceedings and tape recordings, it became increasingly clear how deeply involved President Nixon was in the events. With a majority of 410 votes to 4, the House of Representatives instructed the Judiciary Committee to initiate impeachment proceedings. He avoided impeachment by resigning on August 9, 1974, and to this day he is the only president to have resigned from office. In 1995, the film "Nixon" by Oliver Stone was released, in which Anthony Hopkins portrays Nixon. Nixon's life is a tragic story with the biggest American political scandal that ended his career and still shapes the public image of his presidency today. A movie worth seeing and an exciting story!

Arlington National Cemetery was established in 1864 during the Civil War, and today more than 5,400 burials take place here each year. After Calverton National Cemetery, Arlington is the second largest cemetery in the USA with 260,000 graves.

The following may be buried here:

• Any active member of the United States Armed Forces

• Any veteran who was honorably discharged from service

who was awarded at least one of the following medals during his military career:

Medal of Honor

Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross or Air Force Cross

Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Army Distinguished Service Medal, Navy Distinguished Service Medal, Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, Coast Guard Distinguished Service Medal

Silver Star

Purple Heart

• Any President of the United States

• Members who served actively in the armed forces and later held the following political offices:

an elected position in the United States government,

President and other high-ranking officials of the Supreme Court of the United States,

• former prisoners of war of the Army, Navy and Air Force who died after November 30, 1993 and who completed their regular term of service after their release completed,

• Widows/widowers of members of the armed forces who

were buried at sea or officially listed as missing,

found their final resting place in an American Battle Monuments Commission cemetery,

were buried in a group grave in Arlington National Cemetery,

• children of people buried in Arlington

Arlington National Cemetery is often shown in films because the sight of seemingly endless rows of white gravestones is very moving. The graves of many presidents, generals, astronauts and war heroes can also be found here. John F. Kennedy is also buried in the cemetery. An eternal flame commemorates the assassinated president. As a historian, I could have spent a whole day here.

My highlight was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was completed in 1932 and is intended to honor the deceased soldiers who could no longer be found or identified. An unknown soldier from the First World War, Second World War, Korean War and Vietnam War was buried there. Clinton had the unknown soldier from the Vietnam War identified using DNA analysis, and the family then brought him to Missouri. The tomb is guarded by the 3rd US Infantry Regiment, nicknamed "The Old Guard". Don't miss the changing of the guard!

The National Mall is the 4.8 km long and 500 m wide national promenade between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial. Many of the museums and monuments are located here, and the White House garden also borders the National Mall. The Tidal Basin is an artificial reservoir between the Potomac River and the Washington Channel. The basin is located near the National Mall and is a focal point of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which takes place every spring. The nearby Jefferson Memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial overlook the basin, which lies south of the Washington Monument. It is particularly beautiful here at night, as the many monuments illuminated at night are reflected in the basin. The Washington Monument is a 169 m high obelisk in honor of George Washington, the first US president. It stands on a hill on the National Mall, making it the central landmark in Washington DC. For a short time after its completion until the Eiffel Tower was completed in 1889, the monument was the world's tallest building, replacing Cologne Cathedral. To this day, it is the tallest building in the world whose supporting elements are made of stone.

Since 2018, I have been involved with the German Red Cross (Berlin regional association, Berlin-Zentrum district association, Berlin-Mitte Readiness Unit). At concerts and events, I am on call as a first responder for emergencies, accompany evacuations in the care service, lead a level 2 youth group (12-16 years) and train in exercises for possible disasters in which I would be alerted. A colleague from my emergency service had done an internship at the Red Cross in Washington, so I was very interested to stop by here.

The American Red Cross headquarters was built between 1915 and 1917 and serves both as a memorial to women who served in the American Civil War and as the headquarters of the American Red Cross. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965. The white marble building looks very noble. The American Red Cross was founded in 1881 after the American Civil War as a unique public-private partnership to provide disaster relief and medical support to armed forces. The American Red Cross has around a million volunteers and around 35,000 full-time employees. In comparison, the German Red Cross has 200,543 employees and 452,840 volunteers. Before I went to America, I had the idea of ​​getting involved with the Youth Red Cross in New York in my free time and initiating a partnership between the Berlin and New York youth groups. Unfortunately, I underestimated how much we work in triform (6-day week with working hours from 7:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.), so I unfortunately didn't have time to devote myself to additional volunteer work. Nevertheless, I would like to keep an eye on the possibility of a partnership, because I expect international networking to have many positive effects on the members of the youth groups.

The Capitol, built between 1793 and 1823, is the seat of Congress, where the sessions of the Senate and the House of Representatives take place. I took a guided tour and received an introduction to the work of Congress and the history of the building. You can also admire many works of art hanging in the Capitol Rotunda. The name "Capitol" refers to Capitol Hill in Rome and thus emphasizes the republican tradition in which the USA sees itself. On January 6, 2021, rioters stormed the Capitol during a session where the election of Biden and Harris was confirmed. Vice President Mike Pence was evacuated, the rioters stormed the Senate chamber and broke into staff offices, including Nancy Pelosi's office. Four rioters and a police officer died, and two pipe bombs were found and defused. Political groups have been protesting for their rights and goals in front of the Capitol for decades. However, this riot was a taboo break, and President Trump's role and his responsibility for the events is still discussed today.

The Lincoln Memorial was built between 1915 and 1922 in honor of Abraham Lincoln. He was elected president in 1860, modernized the US economy and led the Union into war against the southern states that seceded during his term. His great achievement is the abolition of slavery, which makes him one of the most popular presidents. Five days after the Confederacy surrendered, he attended a play at Ford's Theater in Washington DC on April 14, 1865. There he was shot by John Wilkes Booth, who sympathized with the Confederacy.

The 36 columns symbolize the 36 states that formed the United States during Lincoln's term. On the north side you can read Lincoln's second inaugural address from 1865, on the south side the Gettysburg Address:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal"

Now we are in the midst of a great civil war, a test of whether this or any other nation so conceived and so dedicated to such principles can endure. We are assembled upon a great battlefield of that war. We are come to dedicate a portion of that field as the final resting place of those who gave their lives here that this nation might live. It is only right and proper that we should do so.

But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate this ground, we cannot bless it, we cannot hallow it. The brave men, living and dead, who fought here have consecrated it far more than our feeble powers can add or take away from it. The world will take little notice, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, to be consecrated here to the unfinished work which those who fought here have so far and so nobly advanced. Rather, it is for us to be dedicated to the great task that lies before us - that the noble dead may fill us with increasing devotion to the cause to which they have given the highest degree of devotion - that we here solemnly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall experience a rebirth of liberty - and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Inside sits a 18-foot statue of Lincoln seated, each of his hands resting on a fascis, the symbol of state power originating from ancient Rome.

On the wall above the statue's head you can read the following text:

“IN THIS TEMPLE

AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE

FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION

THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

IS ENSHRINED FOREVER”

The memorial was built in 1997 and commemorates President Franklin D. Roosevelt. On 30,000 m2, visitors are guided through the 12 years of his term in office in four areas. Each room has a waterfall that gets larger with each area, symbolizing the increasing complexity of his term in office. The sculpture shows the president in a wheelchair with his dog Fala. The sculptures show, among other things, people listening to a radio address or standing in line at a soup kitchen during the Great Depression. His wife, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, is also honored for her commitment to the United Nations. During its construction, great importance was attached to making the memorial barrier-free so that wheelchair users and blind people could also visit the memorial. Roosevelt is known for his domestic policy reforms to combat the Great Depression under the slogan "New Deal". He introduced social security and a nationwide minimum wage. During his term in office, the attack on Pearl Harbor took place, which led to the declaration of war against Germany and Italy and the USA's entry into World War II. Under his leadership, the previously isolationist foreign policy was directed towards internationalism. He and his wife played a key role in the founding of the UN. He did not live to see the end of the war and died of a cerebral hemorrhage a few weeks before the Wehrmacht surrendered in April 1945. His Vice President, Harry S. Truman, took over.

The third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, has been honored with one of the most beautiful monuments since 1943. It is located in West Potomac Park on the Tidal Basin. Jefferson was the main author of the Declaration of Independence and the most influential political theorist in the United States. His private library was the basis for the reconstruction of the Library of Congress. On the walls are excerpts from Jefferson's speeches and writings.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men. We … solemnly publish and declare, that these colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states … And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor"

The Korean War was only mentioned in passing in history classes and, in contrast to the world wars and the Vietnam War, is hardly noticed today. It was the third largest proxy war of the 20th century after the Vietnam War (1955-75) and the Afghanistan War (1978-89). From 1950 to 1953, North Korea and China fought against South Korea and United Nations troops under the leadership of the USA and General McArthur. South Korea emerged from the US occupation zone, North Korea from the Soviet occupation zone in World War II. Both states saw themselves as the successors to the Empire of Korea, which had been annexed by Japan in 1910. After the North Koreans pushed the UN troops back to Busan, the UN soldiers advanced north, but were repelled by volunteer units from China to the 38th parallel. This is where the military demarcation line was drawn, which still separates North and South Korea today. To this day, US soldiers are stationed on the border to defend South Korea, including a relative of a volunteer who lives in my house in Triform. 940,000 soldiers and three million civilians were killed in the war, to this day no official peace treaty has been signed and North Korea continues to provoke with missile tests near South Korea.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial has honored the fallen and missing soldiers of the Vietnam War since 1982. The war followed the Indochina War between France and the Vietnamese independence movement. Vietnam was divided in half in 1954, and a civil war ensued between 1955 and 1964 between the communist north and the US-backed south. Due to the domino theory, the US feared that with Vietnam, all of Southeast Asia could gradually come under the control of communist governments. After the Tonkin incident in 1964, President Johnson had North Korea bombed directly and sent ground troops shortly afterwards. North Korea was then supported by the Soviet Union and China. After several years of war, the US withdrew its troops in 1973 and made peace with North Vietnam. In 1975, North Vietnam conquered the South Korean capital Saigon and South Vietnam collapsed. Saigon was now called "Ho Chi Minh City", named after the leader of the Viet Cong. 1.3 to 3 million Vietnamese died, 58,220 US soldiers and 5,264 of their allies. Due to the use of Agent Orange, up to a million Vietnamese suffered disabilities and health problems after the war.

The "Memorial Wall" lists the names of all soldiers killed. The statue "The Three Soldiers" consists of three young US soldiers from different ethnicities (white, African American, Latin American) who stare at the names of their comrades. The statue was one of the first depictions of an African American in a public sculpture in 1984. The statue "Women's Memorial" honored the eight women of the US armed forces killed in Vietnam. Three soldiers in combat fatigues care for a wounded soldier. One cares for the soldier, the other kneels in thought or prayer, and the third looks to the sky in anticipation of a helicopter or the help of a higher power.

The World War II Memorial has been commemorating the US soldiers who died in World War II since 2004. It consists of 56 columns arranged in a semicircle that frame the Rainbow Pool. Each column represents a state or US territory. There are 4048 stars on the Freedom Wall, each of which commemorates 100 Americans killed in the war in the two theaters of war on the Atlantic and Pacific.

Since 2011, the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial has commemorated the civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King, who was murdered in 1968, and the African-American civil rights movement. King is the first African-American to have a national memorial erected on the Mall. Around the statue is the Wall of Quotations, two 70-meter-long walls with 14 quotations from Martin Luther King's speeches and sermons, which provide an insight into his work and really got me thinking.

Statue

"Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope."

"I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness."

South side

"We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

"Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in."

"I oppose the war in Vietnam because I love America. I speak out against it not in anger but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart, and above all with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as a moral example of the world."

"If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective."

North side 

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

"I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits."

"It is not enough to say 'We must not wage war.' It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but the positive affirmation of peace."

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

"Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies."

"We are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs 'down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.'" "We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience."

"True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."

The Exorcist Staircase is a concrete staircase built in 1895. It is a bit out of the way, very steep and looks a bit spooky at night. That's why it was used in the 1973 film "The Exorcist" and padded with rubber to film the fall of the character Father Damien. On Halloween in 2015, director William Friedkin and screenwriter William Peter Blatty (who also wrote the novel) came together and celebrated the recognition of the staircase as a Washington DC landmark with the mayor of DC.

The J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building is the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI is known from many films such as "The Silence of the Lambs" and is the federal investigative agency as well as the domestic intelligence service. It also provides official assistance in investigations by individual states, especially when several states are involved. The FBI is also the largest civilian agency in the USA for combating terrorism.

The Pentagon is the headquarters of the US Department of Defense and is used as a synonym for the military leadership. With an office area of ​​344,280 square meters, it is the fourteenth largest building in the world and the largest administrative building. If you want to walk through all the corridors, you have to walk 28.2 km. However, thanks to the pentagon shape, you can reach every point within the building on foot in under seven minutes.

In 1994, renovation of the Pentagon, which was built in 1943, began, costing one billion US dollars. Shortly before completion, on September 11, 2001, a Boeing 757 struck the Pentagon, killing 184 people. 19 minutes after the impact of American Airlines Flight 77, the first floor collapsed. In 2008, a memorial was set up for the victims, which can be visited without registration. The name of a victim is engraved on each bench. The benches representing the victims who were inside the Pentagon are arranged so that those reading the names face the south facade of the Pentagon, where the plane struck; the benches dedicated to the victims aboard the plane are arranged so that those reading the engraved names face the sky, in the direction the plane was flying. Beneath each memorial bench is a shallow, lighted pool of running water.

Georgetown is a district of Washington D.C. Georgetown was founded in 1751, making it 40 years older than Washington itself. Georgetown, which many people will know from the series "House of Cards," is one of the most expensive residential areas in Washington due to its proximity to the city center and its beautiful historic architecture. Georgetown University is the oldest Roman Catholic university run by Jesuits in the USA. It is considered the leading university of its kind, particularly in the field of international relations.

The Naval Observatory on the edge of the embassy district is relatively unknown but an important site. Since 1974, Number One Observatory Circle has been the official residence of the Vice President of the United States. The house was built in 1893 for the head of the observatory. The Chief of Naval Operations, the highest-ranking officer in the US Navy, liked it so much that he moved into the house in 1923, which remained the residence of the Navy chief until 1974. Kamala Harris currently lives here. There are no public tours as it is an active scientific and military facility. It produces geopositioning, navigation and timing data for the United States Navy and the US Department of Defense. Important studies have been conducted here, such as measuring the speed of light, observing solar eclipses and discovering the moons of Mars.

The Supreme Court is the highest federal court. It deals with cases that concern the Constitution, federal law, federal treaties and maritime law. Cases involving the US government or foreign governments are also heard here. The nine judges are nominated by the President, confirmed by the Senate and then appointed for life. The appointment of the judges therefore has very far-reaching political consequences, especially when controversial issues such as abortion and gun laws are discussed in court.

The White House was built in 1800 but burned down by the British in the War of 1812. It was rebuilt in 1819 and today houses 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, 412 doors, 147 windows, 8 staircases, 3 elevators, a swimming pool, tennis court, cinema, bowling alley and basketball court. It is the official and government seat of the US President, who has his office in the famous Oval Office. Fun fact: the white paint comes from the "Keimfarben" company from Diedorf near Augsburg. If you don't just want to look at the White House from the fence, you're out of luck. Even if there are tours of the White House, these must be requested three months in advance through your own congressman. Foreign visitors are asked to contact their own embassy. The German embassy is currently unable to arrange visits for tourist purposes, so a tour of the White House is not possible. Instead, you are referred to the White House Visitor Center, which you can visit as a tourist. The exhibition includes 100 historical artifacts, photographic and archival materials, a 14-minute film and a touchscreen tour of the White House.