Biebrich Schloss

Down at the end of Wiesbaden, getting into Biebrich and the area along the river.....there's a hidden park of sorts.

Going east-west on Appelallee, there's a fancy fencing entrance....made out of stone....without any real signs.  If you walk in.....you discover Biebrich Schloss.  It was a stately palace of sorts in the 1700s, and today is mostly a city park of Biebrich.

The history?  Well....some decision was made around 1701 to build this 'presence' down in Wiesbaden (then referred to as Nausau-Biebrich in terms of the local area).  The Prince who was given the permission.....chose a nice area within ten minutes walking of the river, and built two initial houses (one for him and one for his wife).  Its probably best that we not ask why separate houses were necessary.....it's just part of the story.  Besides, they probably had pretty tough austerity-driven German women in those days too.

After a number of years, they decided to build this center hallway between the houses, and this became the Schloss (the manor or palace, as you might say).

Around a hundred years pass by, and then the royal owner of the palace decided to enhance the area by setting up a 'garden'.  This tended to be the big draw in France and England at the time.  So around 1801.....the garden project started.

About a hundred years ago....this royal business came to an end, and the city came to get stuck with the Schloss and the park.

So as you enter this city park, there's a gravel trail that runs the length of the Schloss on both sides.  It's a good half-mile walk to the end, and then you circle back.

As parks go?  I'd give this one four stars.  It's extremely safe.  It's easy to figure the trail system.  Plenty of chairs to sit on.  No real crowds.  No noise.  If you wanted a decent walking or jogging trail....this beats anything in Wiesbaden.

If you live around Wiesbaden.....take a half-day and find the entrance across from the Greek 'Athens' restaurant.  Parking?  Well....that's a problem and I'd recommend taking a bus to it.  On the other side of the manor......facing the river.....there are several pubs and restaurants.  I won't recommend any of them (tourist-type), but at the entrance where you started....this Greek place is fairly decent.  And the bus from downtown?  Number 47.  If you see Burger King.....you've already passed the entrance.  Go back a block or two, on the opposite side of the road.

The Pub Story

My village is fairly large...around 4,400 residents.  If you asked me (not the locals).....I'd say that it's way upscale and few of the population of today are of the working class.

A decade ago....they had one authentic German restaurant, an Italian restaurant, a take-pizza shop, and two pubs.

The pubs?  They both have shut down and are simply empty buildings today.  The picture?  The bigger of the two pubs.  It's in a great location, within eight minutes walking of any residence of the town.  There just wasn't enough business.

It's an odd thing to live in a German village of this size and character.....without a pub.   Twenty years ago....guys got off work, and at least one night a week.....breezed through two or three beers at the pub.  That habit of a night out with the guys?  Gone.  The rules on smoking?  They probably helped a little.  And the fact that there isn't a working class left in the town.....that helped as well.

So, tonight...if you wanted a simple wine or drink.....your choice is the German restaurant bar (barely big enough for six people), or the Italian restaurant bar which might be able seat eight people.  They get picky if you take a table and avoid ordering food (their profit margin with the tables only exists with food sales).

A place for younger Germans to hang out?  A guy could probably operate a pub in town and take in some profits....but a two-man or three-man operation will be tough to sustain.

The end of a German tradition.

Poster Time

The election in Germany has heated up a notch today with the more aggressive SPD posters being pumped out.

The SPD is showing lousy numbers, and have decided to use Chancellor Merkel as a direct-shot.

The poster?  Chancellor Merkel fumbling around in her purse.

It's not a typical poster subject for a campaign.....so I'll hold judgement on it until some folks respond.  My humble opinion is that it won't help much...infuriating female voters more than directing votes toward the SPD.

Usually, there's a picture of your own party candidate, and some flashy slogan, with flowers in the background, or steel-workers (don't ask why the two work in campaigns, but it's just that way).

The Business of Cars

This is one of those odd German business stories.

Right now in Europe.....most all European car companies are suffering.  While state-by-state economies are stumbling, there's basically only one country with a robust economy, and selling cars that they manufacture....Germany.  Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, and even Opel....are all doing well.

As part of the bigger picture....each of these companies sell across the border into various other European countries, and there in.....lies the essential problem.

France over the past couple of years is in a miserable economic stumble.  You could have predicted the stumble, but the government has taken several measures which simply delayed any real recovery.  So the French are sitting there....with a car market that is stalled.  If you owned a six-year old car and you were French....there's good odds that you might try to hold onto this car for a while, and delay a new car purchase.  What the French government doesn't want to see.....is you get this five-year urge to hold onto a car a lot longer than what they'd expect.

So the Germans are prepared to introduce some new Mercedes into France....on the high-scale end.  Normally, the French would just wave their hand, and it'd be allowed.  This time?  No.  They've cooked up a fairly legit excuse that the air conditioning system on-board these newer model Mercedes.....is terrible for the environment.

The German reaction?  Well...carefully, they've stepped around what is a legit complaint.  Yeah, this might be true, and maybe they should have put a lousy but friendly environmental AC unit in each car.  But they didn't.  And the bigger issue is that 95-percent (at least the Germans say this but it's open to debate) of French cars.....have the unfriendly AC unit in them.  The German feeling is that let's just keep moving forward.

The French want to lessen competition and give their two car companies a real chance to compete, so this is the trick-card that they've chosen to use.  For the Germans....sadly....the EU is now involved, and they've been the ones pushing the lousy new environmentally-friendly AC units.  It's hard to say if the Germans have a leg to stand on....once the EU does their fancy dancing over this topic.

The problem currently?  If you were a rich French guy and wanted to go upscale and drive a precision German-made car....you're screwed and you'd just sit with a order that may never get delivered.  I suspect the French government is expecting that.  And so, you'd make the simple decision....if you can't buy an upscale German car.....maybe you'd buy an upscale French car.

It's a comical way of managing an economy.  Limited car sales, forced car purchases, all in the name of environmental strategy.

Now, if the Germans could only think of some nifty environmental French wine violations.....they could twist this around and really make this an interesting economical policy.

The Old and New View

I originally arrived in Germany on 2 January 1977, and spent two years at Rhein Main Air Base....just outside of Frankfurt. I had a taste of travel for that two years, and repeated in 84/85, before doing a long-term deal in 1992.

Nothing much....is the same.

Businesses I remember in 1978...no longer exist.  Pubs, restaurants, and bars that were "in"....are gone.  Everything in Frankfurt related to the Army is mostly gone except the Abrams building.  Rhein Main?  Some of the major buildings from the base are around....but most were torn down for the Flughafen use. The air base in downtown Wiesbaden?  A few of the larger and historical buildings are there but the rest were torn down and new apartment buildings exist.

I think a guy gets mostly shocked over the prices for things....from beer to a bratwurst.  By the time you figure the exchange rate at the time, and what it all equals today.....you just shake your head.  Gas?  Off base.....it's almost $9 a gallon.

Every grocery pumps up bio foods now, and experts appear nightly on TV to speak on how poisons and preservatives are in the normal grocery items.....making everyone curious to buy good safe bio foods.

Beer?  Well....to be honest.....they haven't done much to beer over the past four decades....except improve the taste, and push up the pricing.  Well....yeah, there are bio beers, beers made with cherries, and a dozen non-alcoholic beers.....which you thought Germans would never sell.

Wine?  Same way.

A walk down in Heidelberg, Mannheim, or Mainz?  You'd likely notice a fair number of Muslims....trying to fit in....but it's hard to tell if it's working or not.

The cars?  Sporty and fast, more than a guy could imagine from the mid-1970s.  Then you notice almost everything is four-cyclinder and a stick-shift.

The fashion?  Sadly, there was good and bad fashion in the mid-70s, and there's still good and bad fashion today.  Oddly enough, you might actually bump into someone still dressed in 1978-attire, and wonder what the heck was wrong with them.  You turn a corner and bump into some Gothic look and wonder how this developed.

The music?  After a while, you start to become a fan of today's pop music in Germany.  It's stuff that will never play in the US, but tunes stick out in your mind.

The autobahn?  Probably twice as dangerous as one might have remembered from the 70s.

Trouble on the street?  None.  As safe as it was in 1975.....it's probably just as safe today.  There might be areas around the Frankfurt train station I'd avoid after dark, and there might be some odd areas of Stuttgart or Berlin that I'd be picky to avoid after dark.

The German perception of Americans or GI's?  Maybe it's shifted slightly.  There aren't that many GI's in Germany today.....so the typical German can admit he might only bump into one on rare occasions....unless they live near posts or bases.  You might hear some grumbling about NSA, or the war business, but the typical German has more important things to worry about.

Guys are sentimental.  They have these memories that are so vivid.  They can remember a 1966 Volkswagen Bug that they drove for two years around Germany like it was yesterday.  The taste of a German beer is permanently attached to their taste-buds.  Frankfurt is remembered like it was New York City.  And a plate overflowing with pork and fries was two bucks....and you swore that you never gained any weight from these 4,000 calorie dishes.

The Heat

The heat episode of the past two weeks has been kinda hard on Germans....they aren't used to that much much 'stress'.  For Friday and Saturday of last week....the temps were up into the low 90s.  When you consider that most of Germany operates without air conditioning.....you can guess the results.

So the national news (Channel One).....went onto have a 15-minute special last night after the regular news.  All weather related.  Ambulances were running constantly on Saturday.  Huge hail storms had damaged houses and cars because of the heat episode.  Old folks were having heat exhaustion in record numbers.

An American would walk around and note several things.  First, very few people ever waste money on buying an air conditioner unit.  They'd freak out just on the monthly electrical costs.  Then they'd have various neighbors comment or joke on the need for this (probably for a maximum of twenty days a year).

In the afternoons....if the temperature is around 90 degrees.....you ought to be consuming water on a frequent basis as you sweat.  Some Germans are still convinced over the value of beer or wine.  They are wrong, but you can't tell a German that.

Unlike the American attitude of just starting a hot-day project at 5AM and ending the project by 1PM.....Germans rarely get this idea.

Then you have the railway cars that have air conditioning.....but they were never made to sustain hour after hour of 90-degree plus temperatures.  So you step onto a car that is at maximum AC.....and you are sweating a fair amount while the temperature in the car is hovering around 90 degrees.  An hour of train travel with this situation....is about all that a reasonable guy can stand before jumping off in the middle of nowhere and just laying there on a platform with a breeze and shade as twice as comfortable as the train was.

Finally, as much as Germans complain about rainstorms.....in the middle of a heat crisis....a rainstorm is actually considered a miracle of sort, and generally appreciated.

Any American who has survived a decade or two in the south, and knows what 99-degree temperatures feel like.....has a fairly good understanding of heat and the damage it can do to the body.  Germans occasionally get a re-introduction to that feeling.  Luckily for most Germans....summer ends by late August....just thirty days away.

Sie und Du?

For a guy from Alabama, "you" is such a simple word.  You can be used with your brother, your cousin, your minister, your fishing buddy, your neighbor, some stranger at the gas station, a bank clerk, and even some honky-tonk bartender gal.

In Germany, there's sie and du.  There's some German rules on how they are supposed to be used.

Du is for your wife, husband, kids, your best friend, your close neighbor of thirty years, and just plain good buddies.  It's never to be over-used, but you can't get a German to note the point of use or non-use.

Sie?  It's for everyone else who isn't of a close or friendly nature with you.

A Bama guy will meet up with some stranger at local grill, and chat for sixteen minutes over NCAA football, the weather, some church social, the best beer for hot afternoons, and the best paint for fence posts.  By the end of the sixteen minutes....they've exchanged first names and are acquainted.  By German rules, in a miracle sort of way.....it's now a 'du' situation.  Normally, it would have taken dozens, if not hundreds, of meetings....for this relationship to reach 'du'.

I would imagine that Mark Twain, upon arrival in Germany, fell into a big ditch of issues when handling this sie or du problem.  He probably felt that simplicity ought to fall in favor of just one word, and the German reaction was that Germans are anything but simplistic.

So my general advice.....when you feel you've gotten fairly friendly with a neighbor or guy at work....even though it's only been two or three meetings or discussions.....toss in 'du' and they might look a bit shocked that you've elevated them to such a status in just a few meetings.  Your response?  Well....admit that you would have used 'du' at the end of the first meeting but were a bit slow.  Did you break any German protocols?  Well.....yeah.....but it's best not to admit that and just keep moving ahead.

Life is awful damn short, and you don't want to waste time on the right German version of 'you' to use.

My First Ever Stock-Holder Meeting

I went to my first ever stock-holders meeting yesterday.  For at least a decade, I've owned various stocks but never gone to a single meeting.  Most were too far off to consider.

The meeting?  In Mannheim.....with Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.  The company?  It's a printing company that once (30-40 years ago)....was a giant and making great money for the investors. Over the past decade....maybe even for twenty years...the company has been on the decline.  They will say that the 2008 economic stumble really hurt them (actually spoken at the meeting).....but the numbers show decline for a decade or so.

Right now....they trade at roughly two Euro....$2.50.  Investors, to say, aren't happy.

The meeting was held at the fancy of hotels in the center of town.....with free parking (usually never given).  Massive security.....at least a hundred folks to guarantee the safety and security of the event.  A number of guys with the red bags on the side.....I assume with pistols but it'd be impolite to ask.  You had to enter a detector and they searched every bag.  I'm guessing that some threats have been made in the past.....maybe anger and hostility over the decline of the stock in 2007 at 30 Euro to today's price of 2 Euro.

First, let me say.....they put on a fine food episode.  Breakfast was laid out.....various German coffee cakes, with lots of coffee and orange juice (the better brand).  Later?  Yes, they laid out your choice of pork steaks or 3-star pasta.

The "show"?  There was a thirty minute lead with the results of the last year.  They talked up China expansion and the cut of more employees.  They are down over four years from 19,000-odd employees to around 14,500-odd employees.  Their business model?  Kinda twisted and in a change period.  They have technology on their side and a good bit of package printing.....but the profits are there and the stock is suffering.

The CEO then got up and did his analysis.  Yeah, things were twisting a bit and the stock is suffering but the future is better.  It was nice talk but the guys who bought into the stock at 30 Euro in 2007.....aren't that happy.

So the company's period ended and they had to open it to the floor.  Guys with massive stock ownership or vote control.....got up from the crowd.  They just aren't happy.  The CEO ought to leave.  Things ought to change.  It just isn't right.

I kinda got the impression by the third such stockholder speaking.....they might want change, but the world market has changed.  The company is in a prime position to be sold off to some Chinese business.  It won't help the stockholders, but this company really can't compete and generate stock prices of a decade ago.

The highlight of the meeting?  Well....about fifteen minutes into the meeting....this older German couple came in....with the guy leading.  I was up in the balcony section with seats still open.  The old guy spots an open row.....eight seats fully open but it's a row off the center.  For a guy, it typically doesn't matter.  So he leads his German wife up the steps and is aiming for the off-center open area.

The German wife then sees two open seats on the opposite, in the center, and she desperately wants to sit in the center.

The old German guy moves onto his eight open seats and sits down.  The wife absolutely refuses to sit there.  You can see this hand movement from the wife.  The guy is eight feet away and is absolutely paying no attention to the hand signals.  The wife is a bit upset.....turns....and goes over to the two open seats in the center area.

I sat and watched the older gal glance every thirty seconds at the husband, in a huff mostly.  The guy was sitting happily and saying nothing.  This huff glance went on for twenty minutes at least.

My humble guess is that she has this thing about always been in the middle of a theater, where vision is everything.  The guy?  He has a thing about being around open seats.  It would have been interesting to hear their conversation that evening.  It was likely a bit heated.

As for stock-holder meetings?  Well....if you wanted a couple of hours of entertainment, free food, and lively talk.....you might want to buy a few shares and go to the yearly meeting.  As for the Heidelberger Druckmaschine crowd?  Well...better days have come and gone.  Other than putting on a fine show, there's not much to discuss.

Dwindling Spy Talk

If you've watched German news over the past week.....there was a peppy trend on the Channel One news reports over the terrible business of the German government being involved in the NSA spying business.  Various analysts came on.....talked up the terrible nature of spying on the German people.....and dumped as much as they could on the current CDU government (Chancellor Merkel).  They've tried to keep it in the number one position....with only the Greek episode beating them one or two nights.

As for the public?  I can sense that it's not much of a concern with the average German.  They haven't gotten around to thinking that it's an urgent issue for the average German to worry about.  Employment, economic stability, the summer weather, and vacations.....are mostly ranking ahead of this story.  The news media....I would suggest.....is firing blanks for the most part.  By mid-week, unless there is some new shift in the story, I think it will have burned out and the German news media will be forced to move on.

What would it take to focus Germans on the NSA episode?  If you could find some individual.....someone with a name....who was tortured by the NSA or CIA folks....then they might care more for the story.  Here?  We are just talking data and phone records.  It's hard to convince a German that the 32 phone-calls they made last week.....amount to something to worry about.

German companies?  They might have more concern, but they already know that the Chinese are trying hard to filter through their company business and get competition figures and information.  If they haven't taken precautions.....they are mostly in the we-don't-care category.

To blame the CDU or Chancellor Merkel?  Well....the BND folks have likely had a friendly relationship with the Americans for fifty years.  So dragging out this topic and blaming the current government....probably won't be a wise decision by the media.

So it's all talk and nothing gained.

The news media?  They'd like to find something to get everyone peppy and charged-up....for weeks and weeks.  But trying to do something like this in the middle of one of the best summers in a decade (mild-warm temperatures and almost no rain).....it just won't compete with the reality of a cool beer under a shaded tree, with a light breeze, and not a cloud in the sky.

Goth Stuff

The one curious thing about Wiesbaden....is the fair number of Gothic people that you run into....on an average afternoon.

Goths tend to stand out....mostly by dress and attire.  I normally would try not to gaze too intently, but a guy from Bama just hasn't seen many Goths in life, and it's something that kinda gets you focused.

The shoes are always the same....combat boots....almost always black.  After that, it's a pretty wide aspect of choices for shirts, blouses, pants, socks and such.  Hair?  Always a weird color, from pink to green.

For a long time....I kinda wondered how you could walk into the Goth fashion and get all dressed up.  Then yesterday, I walked across some side street in Wiesbaden and came across the Dome.  Basically, it's a Goth fashion center.  Being over fifty....I tried not to stop and gaze in the front door.  There was a gal there decked out in full Goth attire, with some kinda ring on her nose, and some steel lip stuff.  I didn't want to give her the idea that I might be flipping over to Goth.

The curious thing is that you come across too many Goths in their thirties or over.  I get the impression that you run through the Goth period, and then by age thirty....come to some new reality.

Who determines Goth fashion?  Well....I'd like to ask this question but I'm guessing there just isn't anyone that makes much of a living from this type of attire.  A transmission mechanic could probably throw some stuff together and start a Goth trend in just a week or two.

Stone Streets

As a kid growing up in Alabama, I was used to the employment of 'chirt', concrete, asphalt, and dirt for surface road material, and then I came to Germany to discover stones.

It's a fascinating art.  Stone streets can be simple and have been around since the Roman ages.  Stone streets can be complex with an artistic touch.

In my youth working here in Germany with some of the older German guys....I had one chance to work on a chapel approach area at Rhein Main, and there was a simple forty foot walkway that our crew had put up.  The old German that I worked with.....was fairly accomplished with this business, but as I discovered.....it takes a good bit of effort to prepare the ground, ensure everything is even, and then lay the bricks.  It's an intense job, if you take it serious.

The plus-side of stone streets?  There's virtually no maintenance ever required.  I've been on Rome streets that probably were laid in the mid 1800s.  I admit, they probably ought to be pulled up and have the ground prepared again....evened out, but the stones are in great condition and could last another hundred years.

So I'll find myself walking down through an area....when I should be admiring the buildings or the scenery, but instead.....I'm gazing at the ground in front of me.

It's art in a way, and you have to appreciate it.

The Bushido Story

About once a month.....you get this oddball German story which takes a minute to examine and explain to people.  This is one of those moments.

We have this rapper in German...Bushido.  One word name....don't ask for an explanation on that.  The guy is a Muslim of sorts, but progressive (don't ask how but it's just that way).

So he's had an interesting trail and made some money, and gotten a number of fans.....mostly all in the 15 to 25 year old range.

Bushido does things that most German entertainers would not do.....insult political figures....mostly on the left side of things.

So Bushido has made up a new rap that insults the gay mayor of Berlin, and the chief of the Green Party.  Both are angry about this.....there's talk of a court action to take down his song and video.

Last night, the Channel One news crowd did a walking interview of sorts with him, and they noted as he pulled into the parking lot.....he parked in a handicapped spot.  At least three different times.....this was noted in the video.  I'm guessing they hope that the video pushes the cops into some action to give out a ticket.  It's a waste of time, but this is how Germans tend to operate.

Bushido?  He's doing most of this to attract attention and get more listeners on his side.  The
German youth audience likes a guy who is anti-establishment, and Bushido is absolutely fitting into that area.

As for this being a page one story?  No.  I've noticed over the past three nights.....it's somewhere in the top three stories told and the political folks are all peppy in talking about this episode of a slam against gays.  But it's not much of a public interest story.  I would speculate that barely three million Germans could recognize this Bushido guy in public, and seventy million of the eighty million will admit they've never heard this music.

Political interest for Bushido?  This is a curious thing.  In ten years.....he might have five million Germans who might follow his trend, and he might forge a minor party action to drag down on the big parties.

Bottom line?  It's just not worth talking much about, except the Channel One guys think it's hot stuff.

German TV and the Summer Period

One of those odd things that  you begin to notice after a year or two in Germany and viewing German TV.....is that the summer period gets to being pretty slow.  From mid-June onto early August....almost all of the German networks go into summer mode.  This means a lot of reruns, interviews with political figures on vacation, and old movies from the 1960s and 1970s.

Quality-wise, it goes down a step or two....but it's explained by the lower number of people as viewers.  People have outdoor activities throughout the summer, and take extended vacations.

The positive side of this deal?  Well....you start to notice that Channel One and Two purchase up Italian, Danish, and Norwegian TV shows/movies.  Some of the better police movies end up coming out of this period.  Then you have the oddball reality TV shows.....like the cooking promi-type shows that pop up.

How many fewer viewers are there?  I've never seen any statistical comparison on this.  It might be ten percent less.....it might be fifty percent less.

The curious episodes that come out of this is the political interviews.  All the top parties are on holiday and you end up with balcony-like settings where some party chief talks for 45 minutes and says mostly nothing of significance.  A week later, another interview of similar value.  It's hard to say if any Germans ever watch these political interviews.  With the election in full-bloom this year.....it might be worth it.

You can also expect shows like Navy CIS to show three to four times a day on some channels.  Maybe some Germans are addicted to the show, but I kind of doubt it.

So it's best to act like a German.....enjoy what short summer you can get.....and dump the TV for a few weeks.  Just my humble advice.

"United Stasi" of America

Over the last month in Germany.....folks have gotten hyper over the US and its spy business.

This week, some German artist did up a photo with "United Stasi" and projected it onto the US embassy in Berlin.  Course, the cops are disturbed by that.....you can't go around projecting images onto buildings just willy-nilly.  As of yet, no cop has been able to define the law broken and I suspect that the Bundestag will discuss it for 3 minutes and just have a laugh.  They won't dare pass a law against projecting against buildings.

As for the US?  I'm sure if you were getting invitations to parties in Berlin as an employee of the US government.....this topic would be brought up and you'd be a bit unnerved by the comments made.  Germans aren't exactly happy.

The odds of the Germans spying on US bases in Germany?  Oh, it's likely 99-percent or better that they monitor things and catch phone-calls.....although it's best not to suggest such to the Americans or they'd get all hyper that it wasn't the Russians or Chinese.

I'll make a guess that someone is discussing the idea of a German TV movie by spring of 2014 about US surveillance against Germany, and just pump the pressure up another notch.

The problem here is that spying has been around thousands of years, and it's not likely to clean itself up for any reason.

There's this other point as well.....at the end of eighty thousand hours of spy effort.....the most you might dig up on Chancellor Merkel?  Shes got a secret stash of cheesecake recipes.....her cat had kittens.....her husband forgot to take out the trash last week....and she'd like to take dancing lessons.  Sadly, we'd pay millions to learn this valuable information.

If you ask me.....the real German Stasi of 1939....would be degrade the US to junk-information status and just laugh over the whole effort.