my department retreat

Back on January 10-11th was my department retreat. Not the whole institute retreat (that'll be in June), but just my group, to talk about future research directions, and to encourage more interaction between people who don't always talk together as much as they should. The retreat was held at the Augustinerkloster, an old Augustinian monastery, in Erfurt, the capital of our fair Bundesland. Erfurt is only about 50 km away from Jena, and is well connected by train, so getting there was quite easy.

The retreat was really good, a nice chance to talk to people about work without so many day-to-day distractions (among other things, there was no internet there, nor phones nor TV). The rooms were really simple but comfortable, and were well stocked with bibles and books about the history of the monastery and its most famous former resident, Martin Luther.

Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera along, so the only pictures I have are from the website of the monastery, and don't actually feature any of my group members. Still, it was such a beautiful place, I thought I should include a few. Here's the main entrance:

And here is one of the courtyards, known as the Renaissancehof because the wooden structure in the background, where many of my coworkers were staying, was only added during the Renaissance, unlike the main structure which dates back to the 12th century. The room where our talks were held each day were just to the right off this courtyard. This was the dining hall, which was a former small courtyard that had been glassed in. The meals were all served family-style, with a few big platters of food at each table from which you could serve yourself. The meals were simple, but good and hearty (and thankfully didn't involve sausage).
This is a view from one of the other gardens, where you can see the still-standing wall of the library, which was bombed in February of 1945. Luckily, the priceless collection of religious books and manuscripts, many predating Luther, had been removed for safekeeping, and can be visited there today. There are some 60,000 publications in total, 13,000 of which are hand-written, and predate 1850. Tragically, at the time of the bombing, the library was being used as a bomb shelter, and 300 people were killed.

This is a view in the cloister, across the courtyard. Even today, people are asked not to speak while walking through the cloisters.
If any of you saw the 2003 movie starring Joseph Fiennes about the life of Martin Luther, some of this may look familiar, as parts of the film were made there.
One of these notable scenes was in the monastery's church, where Luther laid himself prostrate before the altar, asking for guidance (this is a still from the film). That stone square in front of him is a tombstone of sorts, to commemorate someone who is buried below. (The guide explained the story in more detail, but it escapes me now. Yet another reason why one shouldn't wait two weeks before finally getting around to blogging about something.) The stained glass windows were quite impressive as well, some of which you can see in this picture. The oldest date back to the 12th century, though some panes have had to be replaced over the years. They're quite complicated, with one further to the left (not shown) which tells the story of the life of St. Augustine in something like 27 scenes.

All in all, the retreat was quite a success. Among the outcomes was our new group policy to have a semi-mandatory coffee break every day at 3:00, to encourage informal collaboration and discussion. Personally, I think this is great, as it's far too easy, even for a relatively social and extroverted researcher such as myself, to spend the day glued to the computer, wasting time on things that one of your colleagues has probably done before anyhow, and could easily help you with. So far the coffee break is going pretty well, but only time will tell if it'll be a long-term success. It's hard to make people social, if their personality tends to the other extreme...