The film that inspired The Sound of Music was made in 1956, in German. It is surprising how similar the remake is to the original, who knew? The differences were mildly amusing also. The Baroness is the housekeeper, not the girlfriend...she’s the Prinzessin. The eldest child is named Rupert, and the other boy Werner. The gazebo is where the Kapitän works on his model ships. There is no Rolfe, but the butler turns out to have been an illegal party member for three years prior to the invasion of Austria...he’s still a nice guy though, and helps them escape.
Anyway, remember...
Wenn Gott uns eine Tür zuschlägt, dann öffnet er uns ein Fenster.

VUN T’ING ISS SURE

Rudolph Dirks was born in 1877 in Heinde, Schleswig-Holstein (the northernmost German state). He was the son of a wood carver, who moved the family to Chicago when Dirks was seven. At 20 he created ‘The Katzenjammer Kids’ for the American Humorist, Sunday supplement of William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal (which owned the title even after Dirks continued the strip for the New York World, as ‘The Captain and the Kids’). Hans and Fritz were inspired by the 'Max und Moritz' series (Eine Bubengeschichte in sieben Streichen...A Boys' Story in Seven Strokes) by Wilhelm Busch (1832-1908), first published in 1865.


Katzenjammer is 17th century German slang for a hangover, commonly shortened these days to Kater (‘einen Kater haben’...to have a hangover, Kater also means tomcat). Current English definitions are as follows:

1. A loud, discordant noise.
2. A hangover.
3. A state of depression or bewilderment.

Evidently the original meaning was confused with Katzenmusik, 17th century German slang for discordant sound (i.e., caterwaul). However, the term Katzenjammer was initially derived from the verb kotzen (to throw up), and the noun Jammer (misery...Jammertal is the German translation of ‘vale of tears’--Tal meaning ‘valley’).

What is this?

Sambucus nigra

The Holunderbusch, elderberry bush, is named after the goddess Holla (the name comes from an archaic word for graceful) who is known as Flieder in the north, a protective house spirit also found as Frau Holle in Grimms Fairytales. Holla was thought to inhabit the plant and there were songs and incantations for use (on bended knee) to placate her, should you find yourself in the position of having to prune. Holla, or Holle, is connected with everything from Thor to spinning, and was of course demonized in early Christian times, but is most commonly known as a healer. Holunder bushes, members of the honeysuckle family, are still found throughout Southern Germany at the edge of wooded areas, and near old farmhouses and barns...even the poorest soils create the necessary conditions for their lush growth. They can reach a height of six meters, and have a light gray, cracked bark with raised nodules surrounding a cork-like core. At the end of May, beginning of June, small yellow-white blossoms emerge in five-stemmed umbels (clusters). The blue-black berries, often already ripe at the beginning of August, consist of two or three seeds and a violet pulp. The berries are rich in vitamin C and contain flavonoids (a powerful antioxidant), as do the blossoms. The seeds, leaves and stems contain the toxin sambunigrin. However, blossoms (Holunderblüten) and ripe berries are often used safely in beverages, The Italian liqueur Sambuca, for example, is a licorice root product infused with elderberry. If you really want your elderberry wine to do damage, you should put arsenic in it.


...and if you're wondering about that old Elton John song, it's on Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player. Sambucus canadensis, the American elder, is a large shrub native to North America. Presumably American settlers knew of the European elder, believed to have magical healing powers, and used the American native in similar ways. One of the most common usages is as a tea made from dried blossoms to produce a sweat and break a fever, but the Holunderbusch is used for everything from pies to jelly. Holunderküchle, often found in rural areas here, is made by dipping blossom clusters in batter before deep frying and dusting them with sugar and cinnamon.

Germania Inferior

“Before his downfall in 44 B.C., Julius Caesar conquered Gaul and invaded Britain. Then came Augustus Caesar, whose legions pushed as far as the Elbe, establishing the provinces of Germania Inferior, Germania Superior and Rhaetia. The Romans then settled along the Rhine and Danube and erected the Limes (līmĕs), a nearly 500-kilometer-long system of fortifications to ward off hostile Germanic tribes (they’re just kind of cranky these days). Augsburg was founded in 15 B.C. as Augusta Vindelicorum, and grew to be the capital of the province of Rhaetia. Its city symbol, the Zirbelnuß, or pine cone, was Augustus' royal symbol, and serves as an ubiquitous reminder of the town's imperial past. Kempten, just an hour southwest of Munich, was a Celtic settlement named Cambodonum when the Romans conquered it in 15 B.C. Soon thereafter it became an important trade center.“ –Munich Found


The Upper German-Raetian Limes ("Obergermanisch–Raetischer Limes") extends from the Rhine in the northwest to the Danube in the southeast, across four German states: Rheinland-Pfalz, Hessen, Baden-Württemberg and Bayern (Bavaria). The Limes functioned until the end of the Roman occupation east of the Rhine and north of the Danube (approximately 270 A.D.), and was not built to act as a line of defense, but rather a line of demarcation. This border, consisted partly of a fence of pales behind a ditch and partly of stone walls, and included 1,000 watchtowers and 200 forts.


It wasn’t all fun and games though, the most famous Roman battle in Germany took place in 9 A.D. It’s called die Varusschlacht, or the Varus Battle, after the defeated Roman general. There is now a museum at the site in Kalkriese, as seen above. Unfortunately for the rather heavy-handed Varus, a member of his Germanic escort turned on him and Legions 17, 18 and 19 were slaughtered in the process (their numbers were retired). The attack was led by Arminius, a Cheruscan prince, who took the liberty of sending the head of the former Roman commander round to some of his countrymen in hopes of garnering more support for the cause. Eventually it was seen fit to send it on to Augustus in Rome. One of the exhibits this year is a model of the battle featuring thousands of playmobil soldiers, complete with painstakingly made accoutrements.


Still have this lingering desire to know where the word Limes comes from? Knock yourself out.

Corporate Identity

Peter Behrens designed everything. Born in Hamburg in 1868, he spent his twenties in Munich involved with the Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) movement. It was here that he was one of the founding members of the Deutscher Werkbund in 1907 (DWB, the German Association of Craftsmen), following the success of the third Deutsche Kunstgewerbeaustellung (applied arts exhibit) in Dresden.

He was probably most influential as the former employer of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Charles Edouard Jeanneret-Gris (Le Corbusier), and Walter Gropius (founder of the Bauhaus)...but he is best known for his turbine factory in Berlin.


In 1907, Behrens was hired by AEG (Allgemeine Elektricitäts Gesellschaft--that means General Electric Company, more or less) as an artistic consultant. He not only created their logo and advertising, but buildings and products as well. He is considered to be the first industrial designer, if not the first—as the Germans would say—
‘Hett ahff Mahketting’...


AEG (initially called DEG, der Deutschen Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität...the German Edison company for applied electricity--in a long, involved and litigious international attempt to protect Edison's original patents) was founded in 1883 by Emil Rathenau, who had obtained the patent for producing incandescent lamps in Germany. In 1915 he was succeeded by his son Walther, who organized labor and raw materials for the German War machine in the early stages of WWI. Walter Rathenau never stood a chance. He was extremely wealthy, somewhat socialist, involved in negotiations over reparations after the war, secretary of state for the Weimar Republic...but most galling to many in Germany at the time, a Jew. In June of 1922 he was ambushed by several fanatic anti-Semites on his way to work, and killed with a submachine gun. London’s Spectator said it was, ‘as little a surprise as a murder can well be.'


He was painted by Edvard Munch, had a street named after him in Berlin, and graces an U-Bahn (subway) station--in the form of a tile mosaic--at Rathenauplatz in Nuremberg.

Engineers of the Final Solution

There is currently an exhibit at the Jewish Museum in Berlin on J.A. Topf & Söhne. One of the things that never seems to get mentioned in all of the “when and how individuals involved in crimes of society take responsibility for their own actions” discussions is simply this, when fascist thugs takeover you don’t stand up and object without being killed. I’m not talking about the people who manufactured (and profited from) implements of destruction, or the people who worked for them (although, in a really creepy way, you’d have to cut the employees more slack...one couldn’t exactly fill in ‘Reason for leaving last job’ with, ‘They were making Continuous Operation Corpse-Incineration Furnaces for Mass Use’)...but rather, Joe Blow, or Joe-not particularly hateful, ignorant or vile-Blow (to be exact). If people with discriminatory ideas are allowed to gain power, it’s too late for the average citizen to do anything. It's heroic to become a martyr (if it is done for a truly humane and, hello, non-discriminatory cause), but it’s not the path most people will choose when it comes to beliefs vs. survival.

You don’t even want to know when Americans got around to outlawing lynchings. Where was the Christian right, guardians of life, at the time...surely not in the South.

Bavarian Court

The Bayerischer Hof (‘Bavarian Court’...no, no one really calls it that except some woman who asked us directions to it one winter’s night at Marienplatz), a five star hotel a couple of blocks away, opened in 1841...at the request of King Ludwig I, who wanted a nice place for guests to stay (and a place to take a bath, since he didn’t have one).

The rooftop (8th floor) swimming pool and, you know, wellness centre (it’s called the Blue Spa, ‘an oasis of relaxation’) have just been renovated by the fourth generation Hotelchefin (‘female Hotel boss’—Managing Partner, if you will), as seen above. Parisian designer, Andrée Putman on the left, cathedral on the right, Herrmann Volkhardt’s great-granddaughter in the middle with the microphone.


The hotel was bombed on the night of April 24th - 25th, 1944. The Spiegelsaal (Mirror Hall) was found practically untouched, and became the first restaurant to reopen in the center of Munich later that year. It's now called falk's Bar, in memory of the father of the current proprietress.

In 1969 the Palais Montgelas next door was purchased and added to the hotel, some of the nicest rooms are here. Since April 25th the Montgelas Denkmal (a Denkmal is a monument, but literally translates as a friendly request to ‘think’) has stood, among the trees, benches, flowers, and other statues, in Promenadeplatz.


Maximilian Joseph Graf von Montgelas, known as the father of the modern Bavarian state, set the policy by which the electorate of Bavaria (i.e., a territory of one of the German princes of the Holy Roman Empire entitled to elect the emperor) was turned into a kingdom in 1805. He was also a member of the Bavarian Illuminati, a splinter group of the Enlightenment. This group was co-founded by Adolph von Knigge, sort of the Emily Post of Germany, but I digress as usual. Like many proponents of secularization at the time, Montgelas lived a life overshadowed by the whole secret society thing (pyramids and eyeballs on the backs of dollar bills, enemies of “marriage” and “the family”--but not of Thomas Jefferson...blah, blah, blah). For the tidy sum of 1,200,000 € his likeness was milled by computer, and though he is made of aluminum, he’s still fairly heavy (ten and a half tons). Now he stands in front of the Bayerischer Hof, all 20+ feet of him, ready to greet guests...had he been there longer he would have seen the Dalai Lama, the Aga Kahn, Franz Kafka, Mies van der Rohe, Neil Armstrong (not the guy who blogs from Stuttgart), the Beatles, Richard Wagner, Robert Wagner (no relation), Cameron Diaz, and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

People believe what they want to believe

Don’t kid yourself, nobody’s gloating over the recent ‘Non’ to the European Union constitution (although it was kind of funny to watch Chirac squirm)--the U.S. and Europe are as tied together as the rest of the world, most people feel there is an undeniable need in Germany (and France...well, the need exists in France--they just don't feel it) to pare down the social welfare system and make the labor laws more flexible...as Tony Blair (who becomes EU President on July 1st, they rotate...sort of like Volleyball) delicately put it this week, after admonishing the Continent with a Time Out. According to the L.A. Times, "In Britain, people hate the EU because it's too socialist; in France because it's too capitalist. In Eastern Europe, they're upset that the EU isn't doing more to facilitate labor mobility; in Western Europe they think it's already done too much." It all boils down to scapegoats, and around here it’s the Euro...or the ‘Teuro’ as some call it, teuer (toy+uh) means expensive in German. Ask almost any native, and they will swear on whatever you offer that the price of absolutely everything doubled with the demise of the Deutschmark (perhaps they were just getting confused with the conversion rate of 1.95583). Hard to get a handle on for a foreigner who wasn’t around at the time, but also pretty hard to believe.

Turns out the local newspaper ‘tz’ (short for die Tageszeitung, or ‘the daily newspaper’) has undertaken a scientific study. It mostly revolves around the cost of pancake soup, liver loaf with potato salad, rye beer goulash, and Schweinsbraten in dark beer sauce (what, no Saures Lüngerl?...minced, pickled calves’ lungs). Bottom line is, a comparison of menus showed that prices had barely risen at all, and in some cases had gone down (supposedly due to cheaper suppliers)...and all this before adjusting for inflation. Market analysts admit that perceived inflation is much higher than the actuality (see for yourself), while asserting that only schwarze Schafe (black sheep) drastically raised their prices...and that guests voted with their feet, and no longer patronized such establishments (some bankruptcies were the result at the time).

Der Strandkorb

They say the wind belongs to the coast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany’s most northeasterly state, like waves belong to the Baltic. It was here that Wilhelm Bartelmann (Hofkorbmachermeister, court+basket+maker+master) produced his first ‘Strandkorb’ (beach basket), at the request of a woman suffering from rheumatism over 120 years ago. They became extremely popular in the twenties, and haven’t lost ground since. The Bartelmann family did not become rich as a result of this however, because Bartelmann never registered a patent for them.

You can get your own, but they’re not cheap, even inflatable versions go for around 200 bucks. I hope to sit in one someday, fully clothed.

Do I look like I’m from Steubenville?

You hear a lot about American soldiers here in Germany, and not just in connection with Iraq. Southern Germany currently hosts approximately 57,000 U.S. military personnel (roughly the number of Americans who died in the Vietnam War). So who’s responsible for getting this army off the ground in the first place? Well, as the Germans have a sticky reputation for being militaristic, perhaps you wouldn’t be too surprised to find out that it was Baron von Steuben.


Formerly in the service of the King of Prussia, Frederick II (Frederick the Great), Steuben fought in the Seven Years War (1756-1763)...a little idea greatly advanced when Louis XV’s mistress suggested turning the rival Hapsburgs and their Holy Roman Empire into an ally. He was discharged in 1763 for reasons that ‘are only speculative’...and after some years of trying to find work as a mercenary in a Europe that was every bit as international as it is now, he zeroed in on Benjamin Franklin (in Paris at the time) who gave him an introductory letter to George Washington. By the end of February, 1778 he had reported for duty at Valley Forge, and by the end of March his training program was accepted by the Commander-in-Chief.


Although Steuben (pronounced ‘shtoy-ben here) spoke German, French and Russian, he did not speak English...so, he got his French speaking aid to curse at the trainees for him. Much of the military drills one sees today were instigated by Steuben, and stem from the need to load and fire as quickly as possible without getting in your neighbor’s way. The rest was just common sense, like ‘put your kitchen on the opposite side of the camp from your latrine’ (oh, and by the way, put the latrines on the downhill side).