...der Juden aus Regensburg
On Wednesday a work by Israeli Dani Karavan was revealed on Neupfarrplatz (New Parish Square) in Regensburg, about 100 km north of here. The initiative for this project came from the Regensburg Jewish community in 1997. Karavan was to 'entstehen lassen' (these, being the verbs, come at the end of the sentence [in this instance anyway], and collectively mean to 'let come into existence' a place, on the footprint of the former Gothic synagogue between the fountain and Neupfarrkirche on Neupfarrplatz, to 'Verweilen' (stay or dwell in a relaxed manner) and congregate--in order to chat, sing, recite poetry and meditate (and, I would imagine, occasionally deface public property).
'Es geht hier nicht um'...'It doesn't go about here' (the verb to go being used in the very non-English way to mean something besides to go: as when the eye doctor recently asked me 'Worum geht es?'--'what does it go about?'--which only produced a blank expression in response, when her meaning was in fact, 'What are you here for?'), meaning 'It's not about' loud complaints or striking avowals, but rather about contemplative and 'zurueckhaltende' or low-key (but also lukewarm, noncommittal or reluctant--literally zurueck [back] + halten [to hold or keep] + d [forms a gerund from the infinitive, know what a gerund is? That's why you don't teach English, same here...although many with less knowledge of English than I have would be quick to suggest I get a job teaching English...it really isn't that simple folks, you actually have to have studied English, in order to be able to teach it], 'holding back') reflection.
A few weeks after the death of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, under whose rule the Jews had been protected, Regensburg's 500 year old Jewish quarter was razed in 1519, along with the synagogue. It was eventually replaced with a stone structure which became the town's first Protestant church. Twenty feet below all this one can still see the remains of a Roman fortress founded by Marcus Aurelius in 179 A.D.
The synagogue will now be visible again within the floor plan of the city structure. Karavan does not define the area of the former synagogue as a ‘heiligen Bezirk’ (holy zone) opposed to the rest of Neupfarrplatz, but offers its use as a ‘natural possibility’ for life in the square. In this way the historically religious place will again be integrated into the cityscape, reminding the city of Regensburg of the Jewish community...which was destroyed all over again in the late 1930’s-early 1940’s. School children, housewives, salesmen, lawyers, livestock dealers, book handlers, etc.
'Es geht hier nicht um'...'It doesn't go about here' (the verb to go being used in the very non-English way to mean something besides to go: as when the eye doctor recently asked me 'Worum geht es?'--'what does it go about?'--which only produced a blank expression in response, when her meaning was in fact, 'What are you here for?'), meaning 'It's not about' loud complaints or striking avowals, but rather about contemplative and 'zurueckhaltende' or low-key (but also lukewarm, noncommittal or reluctant--literally zurueck [back] + halten [to hold or keep] + d [forms a gerund from the infinitive, know what a gerund is? That's why you don't teach English, same here...although many with less knowledge of English than I have would be quick to suggest I get a job teaching English...it really isn't that simple folks, you actually have to have studied English, in order to be able to teach it], 'holding back') reflection.
A few weeks after the death of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, under whose rule the Jews had been protected, Regensburg's 500 year old Jewish quarter was razed in 1519, along with the synagogue. It was eventually replaced with a stone structure which became the town's first Protestant church. Twenty feet below all this one can still see the remains of a Roman fortress founded by Marcus Aurelius in 179 A.D.
The synagogue will now be visible again within the floor plan of the city structure. Karavan does not define the area of the former synagogue as a ‘heiligen Bezirk’ (holy zone) opposed to the rest of Neupfarrplatz, but offers its use as a ‘natural possibility’ for life in the square. In this way the historically religious place will again be integrated into the cityscape, reminding the city of Regensburg of the Jewish community...which was destroyed all over again in the late 1930’s-early 1940’s. School children, housewives, salesmen, lawyers, livestock dealers, book handlers, etc.
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