Simpler Times

Recently purchased a December 9, 1961 copy of the unfortunately-now-defunct Munich based periodical Simplicissimus at the City Museum...and began the process of reconstructing an old political cartoon. The title is 'Over the Atlantic', and the caption says, "Wetten? Der Alte gibt die Zigarre glatt als die allerneueste Zeus-Nike aus!" ("What do you wanna bet, the old guy passes the cigar off as the latest Zeus-Nike!"). The reference is to a series of anti-ballistic missiles developed by Western Electric/McDonnell-Douglas in the late 50’s-early 60’s.


The smaller figures are (the famous Bavarian—so famous they named the Munich airport after him) then Minister of Defense, Franz Josef Strauss, and Foreign Minister, Gerhard Schröder (not to be confused with he of the recently deposed).


They are talking about Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, personified by a black eagle, and called 'der Alte' because he was 85 at the time (he had been mayor of Cologne from 1917-1933, was thrown in jail on suspicion of conspiring to murder the Führer [he was innocent], and became the first Chancellor of the newly formed Federal Republic of Germany in 1949). The three of them had recently returned from a trip to the United States where these toasts were proposed.


Of course that’s JFK on the cigar label, but the cigar itself...gotta be alluding to the Bay of Pigs invasion the previous April. Okay, that’s enough German humor for one day...my sides are hurting.

Just a routine meeting of Italian exorcists

Sandra Hüller just won the Bavarian Film Nachwuchsdarstellerpreis, weiblich (best new actress of the year―€ 5,000―although, of course you realize that that comma would be a period, € 5.000, were you to actually receive fünftausend euro here in the old country)...for her portrayal of Michaela Klingler in the film of the same name, it’s scheduled for release here in March. The English version of the film will be called, 'Requiem', it’s based on the story of a Bavarian woman named Anneliese Michel (as was The Exorcism of Emily Rose). Seems like it ought to be pretty good, but I still say Americans are probably better when it comes to things like this:

The local bishop, who hangs out at the cathedral around the corner, was also at the awards ceremony—no, not in case things got out of hand and someone had to invoke the Holy Mother—he was presenting the award for best documentary, Die Große Stille—The Great Silence (sounds almost too good to be true, eh?). Wanting to get to the bottom of all this possession stuff, I made an appointment at the Frauenkirche and asked a few questions:

Shortly after being named Pope, Benedict XVI met with a group of exorcists. Was that a signal?

No, it was just a routine meeting of Italian exorcists. The teachings of the Catholic church on evil have not changed in centuries...kind of like concrete.

What are those teachings?

They're based primarily on the Bible, according to which God created all beings: mankind as well as the pure spirits, in other words the angels and demons.

How could God permit evil in the first place?

For our freedom! Evil is linked implicitly to the gift of freedom.

Wow, where have I heard that before?

God made man free. In choosing whether to ban evil or give the gift of freedom, God opted for freedom. Without the possibility to choose between good or evil, there would be no freedom. That means that God values freedom more than all our sins.

Are there objective criteria that can be used to determine if a person has been possessed by a demon?

The new ordinance on exorcism summarizes the criteria for the event of possession very well. The clearest for me as a priest is the deep aversion to holy objects such as the cross, the rosary or the sign of the cross. Also an aversion to the word God – when it is spoken, such people get very nervous. Less significant indications are the supernatural capabilities that these people can suddenly develop. They can speak foreign languages that they've never learned.

Boy, that sure would come in handy.

Schmock

What’s a site about Germany without the occasional Jewish reference?

A city official recently took offense when a local Israeli restaurant (no, it’s not kosher strangely enough) took epicurean license with the old National Socialist adage, "Deutsche! Kauft nicht bei Juden!" (Germans! Do not buy from Jews!). Well okay, it wasn't an adage, it was a command...and as my German grammar book so helpfully relays: "A 'bare' imperative is very direct and can often sound curt, if not a little rude. It becomes much more polite through the use of bitte (please), suitable modal particles and, of course, friendly intonation or even smiling." Of course, since the first of the year, smiling for your passport photo is now illegal in Germany...and yet perfectly alright, should you be barking orders.


...They came up with the following


A series of very nice pictures (red and black against an olive wall) displaying the phrases:
Germans—Drink with Jews!
Germans—Eat with Jews!
Germans—Party with Jews!

The name of the restaurant, Schmock, can mean a wide variety of things...and was also a tagline of Steve Allen’s, you remember Steve Allen (aka, "the most prolific composer of modern times"...responsible for the theme song of Picnic, and the Ocean Spray jingle—among other things).

They had a big discussion about the whole issue this week (because they LOVE to discuss). It was portrayed as advertising, which doesn’t seem to technically apply as these pictures are inside their restaurant, and not on the street somewhere. And what about German advertising anyway?

What day is it?

Amsterdam, January 18, 1940

Ed [Murrow] and I here for a few days to discuss our European coverage, or at least that's our excuse. Actually, intoxicated by the lights at night and the fine food and the change in atmosphere, we have been cutting up like a couple of youngsters suddenly escaped from a stern old aunt or a reform school. Last night in sheer joy, as we were coming home from an enormous dinner with a fresh snow drifting down like confetti, we stopped under a bright street-light and fought a mighty snow-ball battle. I lost my glasses and my hat and we limped back to the hotel exhausted but happy. This morning we have been ice-skating on the canals with Mary Marvin Breckinridge, who has forsaken the soft and dull life of American society to represent us here. The Dutch still lead the good life. The food they consume as to both quantity and quality (oysters, fowl, meats, vegetables, oranges, bananas, coffee--the things the warring peoples never see) is fantastic. They dine and dance and go to church and skate on canals and tend their businesses. And they are blind--oh, so blind--to the dangers that confront them. Ed and I have tried to do a little missionary work, but to no avail, I fear. The Dutch, like everyone else, want it both ways. They want peace and the comfortable life, but they won't make the sacrifices or even the hard decisions which might ensure their way of life in the long run. The Queen, they say, stubbornly refuses to allow staff talks with the Allies or even with the Belgians. In the meantime, as I could observe when I crossed the border, the Germans pile up their forces and supplies on the Dutch frontier. If and when they move, there will be no time for staff talks with the Allies. The Dutch tell you that if they even whisper to the Allies about joint defence plans, Hitler will consider that an excuse to walk in. As though Hitler will ever want for an excuse if he really decides to walk in.

Ed a little alarming with his tales of British muddling and the comfortable belief in Britain that the Allies will win the war without losing many men or doing much fighting by merely maintaining the blockade and waiting until Germany cracks. We broadcast together tonight to America from Hilversum.

William L. Shirer

Putting things in perspective

Some of my curiosity is being sated by John T. Waterman’s 'History of the German Language'—you know, Sanskrit, spirants vs. stops, the German sound shift, human migration and a reverse engineered language called Indo-European. Seems Tacitus’ Suebi were composed of several distinct tribes, one of which—the Marcomanni—was defeated by the Romans in 9 B.C. They subsequently hung out in the Bohemian forests of the Czech Republic for awhile, before finally moving to southern Bavaria in the 6th century A.D. It is due to precisely this sort of thing that the vernacular changes drastically if you travel for half an hour in any direction.


In the late 17th century a group of Germans from around Frankfurt founded Germantown, Pennsylvania (immigrants continued to pass through here for years—if I had to take a wild guess, I would say both sides of my family were among them). They spoke a Rhenish Palatinate dialect, as incomprehensible to the average German today, as it is to the average American. The emergence of Yiddish, in the fourteenth century, can also be traced back to the Rhineland-Palatinate...this was slightly later than the New High German Diphthongization of 'u' into 'au' started spreading out from around the area that now contains Munich. This produced altered words, for example, the word Hus became Haus.


We saw this piece of amber at the local archaeological museum last week. The markings are in the ancient Greek language of Linear B, it’s 2,500 years old and it was found in Bernstorf about 20 miles north of here...the oldest town in Bavaria, which was an important trading post on a trade route connecting the Nile and the Ostsee (Baltic), as far back as 3,500 years ago. So it’s not like they haven’t seen their share of languages around here, who am I to complain about a little German. Besides, the locals tell me there are not only two more cases in Latin than there are in German, but that college prep here includes one of two lengths of Latin study...the shorter of the two being seven years.