On the last week of September 2024, South African members of the Women’s Perception and Place Dynamics (WoPedyP) Research Project attended a Mini‐conference/Workshop that was held in Hochschule Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences in Germany. On the 26th of September while other team members were busy working on transformative pathways for our study area, Prof Gertrud Schaab afforded me an opportunity of a short tour around the university surroundings. The tour started with a visit to the department’s map library (Figure 01). After the map library we proceeded to the main campus of the university. On our way we passed the city prison that may appear to be part of the university. I was impressed by the mechanical engineering section that involves students in research about the design of F1 race car engines (Figure 02); and some interesting historical landmarks and streets close to the university. The highlight of my tour was a walk along the street named after Otto von Bismarck, one of the iconic German leaders. The walk ended with a visit to the awe-inspiring memorial statue of Bismarck. I refer to this as awe-inspiring because Otto von Bismarck was my favourite historical figure in my study of European History during my early high school years. It was easy to identify the statue even after I learnt about the role of von Bismarck 45 years ago (Figure 03 is my photo standing under von Bismarck’s statue).
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