Motorwerk

Today there was a day trip for the course participants and lecturers. I chose VW over Tesla, and took the train with 60 other folk at 08:30 from the main station in Berlin. 

In Wolfsburg, we crossed over the river to the vast car factory - said to be the largest single factory building in the world. First of all, we saw the production line, sitting in open carts towed by an electric VW. Unfortunately, most of the many robots were idle, but later we heard of parts being short due to flooding in an unnamed location. Some of the things that I saw were amazing, but at times it was rather dull or bewildering. There was a strict "no photographs" rule. In telling the story of the plant, they skipped the late-30's political situation in which it was built, but did credit the British for helping to restore what had been damaged in the war.

Afterwards, I toured the display pavilions with another lecturer and a student. There was one for each major manufacturer in the VW group, and much the most impressive was that of Porsche. Lunch was the largest currywurst I've ever had, although not as good as in Berlin. 

In the afternoon we attended a meeting specific to recruiting masters and PhD graduates, led by three VW employees. Although not relevant to my work, there was an interesting Q&A with them. To get to the meeting, for security reasons we'd had to leave our bags, cross back across the river, walk past the railway station, walk through a tunnel under the river, and show our passports - all to get to the same building we'd visited earlier!

After the presentation, we were told that the railway line back to Berlin was blocked, so we had to return via Braunschweig - after crossing the river twice to get our bags from the lockers, and once to return to the railway station. In all this wandering, the massive (redundant) coal power station and its four chimneys dominated the view. Unfortunately I couldn't get a photo of all the chimneys and the vast VW sign on it that overlooks the river.