Waldschlosschen Bridge

Almost every major city in Germany....is built along the side of some river.  This was all fine and dandy a hundred years ago, when folks rarely crossed rivers.  Today?  Everything funnels into a line, and with only a couple of bridges to cross a river....folks now sit and discuss matters to an extreme.  Bridges.....have become a major topic.

Around a hundred years ago....along the Elbe River.....at Dresden....folks got this urge for another bridge.  Talk came and went.  Wars came and went.  City council members and political parties.....came and went.

So along the late 1990s.....in Dresden.....folks finally got serious about this one bridge that they wanted built.  It would fix traffic issues and bring sanity back to reason.

If the bridge had been built in the 1960s....I doubt if anyone would have said a word about it.  But, this one bridge was a problem.

The city and it's elite....had gone out and fixed up the old city, and about a decade ago....it was fixed back to the style of the 1800s, and had been put on some UN list of a world heritage site.  Now, for the common guy....this is a big deal where a bunch of UN folks come to your town....note how cultured you are, and how wonderful things are.  So you get a title, and you advertise this.  Some folks in Dresden came to note that tourism was wonderful since they had this UN-title stuck onto them.

Well....as the bridge got into the final details of planning....the city council got disturbed because of various threats made (verbal, not real physical threats).  The elite of Dresden said this plain-looking bridge just wasn't going to help it's image, and it must be stopped.  At some point, this gets on a ballot and around sixty-percent of the residents vote to continue.  Then the state gets involved and tries to offer millions of Euro.....to build an underground tunnel.  No one was ever sure about the cost, but it would have likely taken double the time and cost had to run at a very high level.

None of this stopped the construction of the bridge.  The local elite?  Well....they went to the UN folks and continued on with the threat to remove the UN-status of a world heritage location.

In the last month, the bridge has been completed, and the city has had it's UN-logo for a world heritage spot removed.  At the opening ceremony to allow folks to walk over the bridge....newspapers reported around 60,000 folks showing up and walking over it.  So far, local residents are extremely enthusiastic.
Loss of tourism?  It'll take two years for folks to figure the numbers and likely show a trend.  My humble guess is that ninety-five percent of the tourists who came to Dresden....probably didn't even know of the UN's elite status episode, and wouldn't care one way or the other.

The demonstration of the elites and their power struggle over one bridge?  It's hard for an American to judge what the intent was or just how absorbed these folks were in taking this episode to the extent that they did.  Typically.....it's hard to find intellectuals who argue over bridges.  They tend to argue over wine, cheesey-cheese sauce, Italian art of the 1840s, style of women's clothing, Spanish cathedrals, poems by dead Russians, fancy gold rings, and Shakespeare writings over dead Romans and their phony scandals.  Bridges?  Well....it's just not in the usual top 1,000 topics that you'd talk about.

So if you are traveling a bit, and happen to be in Dresden....you might want to walk over to the Waldschlosschen Bridge and admire its simplicity.  Somewhere around one end.....will be some coffee shop I suspect....where a dozen intellectual guys are whining over the terrible simplicity of the bridge.  If there had been statues attached....monuments to Chinese poets....perhaps a gladiator or two in mortal combat, but to have only a simplistic bridge?  Sadly, you will sit and ask for some whiskey to freshen up your coffee, and simply grin.

Life is terrible, when you've got woes like this.  Luckily for the rest of us.....we've got better problems to worry about, and need not to waste a moment of our lives....worrying about the lack of style or grace of some damn bridge.

Skip That Call

Sometimes, I'm amazed at judgement calls by German political figures.

Over the past day or two.....they decided over at the Ministry of Labor....that no matter where you stand within the labor department as a boss or manager or chief.....you just don't call or email anyone after business hours, unless it's a pure-out-and-out emergency.

You can imagine this....the chief of the statistics department calling up his secretary at 8:30PM.....noting that he needs such and such done first thing in the morning.  The secretary was in the midst of watching some murder-mystery and really didn't need that interruption on her own time.

The chief of the public relations department sending out an email to sixteen of his team-leads at 10:00PM.....noting a shift in the meeting for tomorrow.  The team-leads are all worried over why the change in the schedule....so they spend the next hour (10:00 to 11:00) calling each other up and trying to find out the reason.  In the end, they find that the boss has a bad tooth and simply out of the office.

Up until the late 1990s.....folks didn't worry much about this kind of stuff.  Laptops weren't generally issued out and Blackberries were just beginning to be a common thing for the office.  Now?  Folks are dragging home their laptops and spending at least an hour each evening....thinking about work, but not being paid for it.

Stressed-out?  Germans will always complain about the amount of stress in their life, and the necessity for more vacation (yeah, three weeks in the summer just isn't enough).

The belief?  Well.....the German media will likely note that this was merely one division of the German government, and means very little.  But.....it might be a trend.

As for evenings now?  Maybe these government folks will take some of this new time given.....and actually watch soccer games, murder mysteries, or argue more with the spouse.  It's hard to tell.  The real shocker?  A life without the Blackberry?  It's hard to imagine....just twenty years ago....we lived such a life.

German News on President Obama

I sat there last night watching the German news, and it started with this long piece on the US-Syrian war-build-up.

The start of the video episode?  It's a long slow motion piece of a tired and frustrated President Obama....with just a slight bit of music in the background.....turning and looking away from the camera.  It was dramatic in a way.....perhaps negative as well.

So the eight to ten minutes ran this way.  The US is pumped up and moving toward the next war, but there's all kinds of political folks who don't want the US into this episode.  Then the moderator brings on their doctor so-v-so expert, who kinda notes that there is no US strategy or long-term plan.......and probably hasn't been such for a long while.

A Slam against President Obama?  I'd say more likely an explanation to the German public that you might not want to expect this current episode to be planned in any fashion, and is more of a last-minute toss-together operation.

At some point, they note that there's no real appreciation in Europe or NATO of getting into some Middle Eastern war episode.  The British simply don't have public opinion in their favor.  The French aren't interested at all.  And the German elections probably limit any actions by Chancellor Merkel.

It was an odd feeling.  For eight years, there was continually anti-Bush chatter, and when President Obama finally arrived....there was this German media explanation to the public that things were now on the right path.  Four years later?  Well....I'm guessing that it's hard for the German news media to go out and do the anti-Obama chatter.

Yeah, I guess with 3.5 years to go.....the Germans might have to wait a while.....until the anti-Bush and the anti-Obama President finally arrives, and saves the day.

Kriegerdenkmal Statue

 Down on the western side of Wiesbaden is the Neoberg City Park, and at the entrance to the park....is the Kriegerdenkmal Monument.  It's a fairly big statue and can't be missed.

This was erected in 1909....a couple of years prior to WW I, and it's dedicated to the German soldiers, their victory, and efforts in German-French war of 1870/71.

You can figure it took almost thirty years for the political folks to generate up enough interest and capital to erect this.  My humble guess is that noting veterans of any war in a public ceremony like this....benefits some political party and some agenda.

Generally, I'd rate the Kriegerdenkmal as one of the top three monuments in Wiesbaden to check out.  About a hundred feet away from it is "Eden"....a coffee shop of sorts, that serves beer and wine.  If you had a couple of hours to waste and wanted to relax.....this might be worth the effort.

Wiesbaden City Parks

Over the years of traveling around the world, I've come to view city parks as an item of curiosity.  Some cities put a huge amount of effort and capital into them.  Parks like Central Park in New York City are fairly impressive.  There are various parks in London and Paris which I rate as one-of-a-kind.

Then you come to Wiesbaden.  I don't think they ever had a plan from the very beginning....they simply took what they had, and worked with it.  Eventually, they'd add another city park to the city, and another, and another.

Today, Wiesbaden has nine city parks.  If you took them as a whole.....they rate as high as Central Park, or any park in London.

First, there's the Neoberg Park, on top of the hill overlooking the northside of Wiesbaden.  There's the acreage which used to be the fancy hotel on the hill (burnt down in the 1980s), along with the Roman ruins, the Neoberg train, and a million-dollar view of the entire city.  Toss in the WWI  memorial, and you've got a enjoyable afternoon.

Second, is the Herbert and Reisinger Park, just across from the Bahnhof.  Large on acreage, and a couple of statues, it's basically an open field, with a few trees around the corners.  If you wanted a place to just lay out a blanket, have a sandwich and relax....this is it.  I would guess the size at thirty acres.

Third is Warmer Damm Park, near the Casino.  There's several historic statues, and I'd guess the size of this park to be near thirty acres.  It's supposed to have been around since 1805, and have a few hints of ancient Roman ruins.

Fourth is Kurpark.  It's behind the Casino, and the larger of all the parks.  I'd take a guess at a hundred-fifty acres, but it's winds itself around various neighborhoods.  If you were looking for a extra long walk or jog.....this would be the place to do it.  Plus there's an abundance of trees to cover the summer heat.

Fifth is Richard Wagner Park.  It's over by the wine cellars of the Henkel area.  It's been around for roughly a hundred years, and probably is around twenty to thirty acres in size.

Sixth is the Neotal Park.  It's on the northwestern side of town, near Neoberg.  This is probably closer to sixty to seventy acres.....with springs and streams in abundance.  Toss in at least twenty statues around the park, and the walking trail, and you've got a five-star city park.

Seventh is Albrecht Durer Park.....over by Aarstrasse.  This is another park which came in decade prior to WW I, and looks more like a London park than any of the others in town.

Eight is Biebrich Palace Park....way on the southside of town, and it starts about 500 feet from the Rhine River.  I'd take a guess that it's a minimum of 150 acres.  The old palace is there at the riverside entrance, with a older fortress-style building out in the center part.  If you were looking for an extra long walk and minimum people around.....this is the better of the parks in the city.

Finally, I come to Freudenberg Palace on the far western side of Wiesbaden.....basically at the city limits.  This is an odd piece of property that was a rundown palace....built a couple of years prior to WW I.  The city came to volunteer (my view of the status) to take over the house and property, and try to make something out of it (mid-1990's).  There isn't an abundance of park associated with this situation.....mostly just the small palace and the local grounds around it.  Generally, it's open for viewing, and it's chief attraction is the 'rental-property' deal.  Yes, if you were getting married, or wanted a big birthday bash....you can get a fair portion of the palace for your occasion, and bring in a catering service to serve everyone.  Of the nine parks, this one really isn't something that I'd associate as a city park.....but their management team runs the deal.

Take the nine parks as a whole, and they can probably compete with any city park on the face of the Earth.  The negative?  They are spread around town to a fair degree.  Everyone has a park within twenty minutes of where they live.  And in today's world, that means a good bit.

The Love of a Lock

It is a curious new tradition in Germany.

Basically, you have a couple and there's some romance in the air.  So they walk around to some bridge in the town, and put a lock onto the bridge....to "lock" their love.

The old bridge over the Rhein in Mainz....probably has ten thousand of these locks on the bridge.

So far, the authorities aren't saying anything and allow it.  I would imagine in five to ten years....there might be fifty thousand of these locks.  Eventually, some maintenance team will be formed and you can imagine a month or two spent.....cutting off these locks.

The positive?  Man, it's really helped to improve the lock business throughout Germany.  Although, let's face it.....they are all made in China these days.

Art and Berlin

The thing about walking around Berlin....is that you get to a corner where you just eyeball something, and want to spend several minutes analyzing style and art content.

Course, then you realize that being American....you really aren't much of an authority on art, and it's better not to be noticed as "you aren't from around here, are you?"

I'd take a guess that two guys spent the better part of an evening drawing this graffiti art.  It mostly says that they don't have much to do in life.....so this kinda occupies their time.

Berlin Ist Nicht Berlin

Translation: Berlin is not Berlin.

I spent a couple of days in Berlin.  My second visit (the last was about a decade ago).

There are likely five versions of Berlin.  Version one is the Berlin of 1750s to 1913.  Marble buildings were continually going up.  Old style houses were everywhere.  Fancy hotels were obvious.  And city parks were ranked at the same level as Paris or London.

Version two was the Berlin of the 1930s, where construction boomed, but it was not really the type of buildings or such that you'd brag about.  The Olympic Stadium might have been the bright spot, but there's little to say.

Version three was the Berlin of 1945, where the city lay in ruins.  No one would have said much to a recovery or how the city would ever rebuild itself.

Version four was this rebuilt German city of the 1970s and 1980s....surrounded by a wall.  Excitement brewed everywhere.  Bars were open around the clock.  Folks felt the city like no other.

Well....we've come to version five, and it's not the Berlin of the other four versions.  Construction is booming all over the city.  Most locals who grew up in Berlin would say that ten percent of the city.....are foreigners, and another thirty percent are non-Berliners who moved in and set up shop.  It's not the old-style Berlin that most are used to.

Just in a decade, even from my last trip.....I'd have to admit that it's a totally different city now.  Bike paths are everywhere.  The trains and subways are ultra modern.  The new train station is like nothing else in Europe.  There are hundreds of construction projects going on, and I seriously doubt that any real completion will be noted until 2025.

Walking around?  I think a guy could get off a bus in the middle of town, and find himself in a state of marvel at the look, style, and feel of the city.  You'd need at least two weeks of walking to get that feeling out of your system.

Food?  You could taste just about every style known to mankind.  Even American-style donuts are in town.

But somewhere in the heart of this rediscovery of Berlin....you just feel like it's not old Berlin.  Something is slipping, and it's just not the same.  You find yourself looking at modern buildings, and just not putting them in the same category as the buildings of mid-1800s.  Maybe it's the lack or marble....or just a loss of style.  I don't know.

So if you have a week or two....free on your calender.....and some cash, you just might want to come to Berlin and stand there in the midst of a dramatic change.  In a decade, I doubt if it resembles anything left from the 1970s.  And maybe that's a bigger story than anything else.

Graffiti-Proof?

When you travel around by subway in Germany....you often sit there and gaze at the various graffiti that punks draw on the seats.  It usually doesn't matter where you go....it's done.

Well....I did a Berlin trip in the last day or two, and came to sit on a subway seat...with a unique design.  I'm of the opinion that the design is such.....making it almost impossible to draw or paint some saying on it.

I sat there for at least a minute looking at it.  You just don't see this design anywhere much, and it dawned on me....it's graffiti-proof.  Well, maybe.

I admit, it does look awful bad.  But I think the intent is to stall the punks and make their life's work more difficult.

That Toilet Paper Situation

I have this thing about German public facility toilet paper....especially from the German Bahn (train) folks.

When you step into a train toilet.....you have to use their paper....and it's about two grades away from being sandpaper.  A guy typically takes a max of two or three sheets, and then starts to use it sparingly as he wipes.  Otherwise, you end up feeling kinda sore and 'woefully' in pain.

My humble impression is that the Bahn guys do this mostly to prevent overuse, or having tons of paper laying out on the tracks for weeks, months, or years.

So if you ever make a trip into Germany, and travel a fair bit.....you might want to have a roll of some nifty soft American toilet paper with you.....or learn the method of careful wipes.

Vehicles

Occasionally, as you turn a corner in Germany....you will note an odd vehicle of some type.

In front of one of the better Wiesbaden hotels from last week....I noted this Bangkok scooter 'bus'.  It's hard to say how often it's used, but I'd take a guess that people get a full view of the city.

The second picture?  From Mainz.

It's the Red Bull Mini.  I stood there for several minutes and analyzed the vehicle.

Frankly, it has to be a mess to drive on a big highway at 100 kph....with the wind display really screwing up the aerodynamics.

The catch is that everyone recognizes the vehicle.

It's a curious thing....what happens after a couple of years of use?  Do you sell it "as-is"?  Would a guy buy a used Red Bull Mini?  And if you did buy it....what the hell would you use it for?

Chuck Taylor Tennis Shoes

As a kid growing up in Bama, Chuck Taylor All-Star tennis shoes were dirt cheap.  At some point in the 1980s....I thought they'd just go out of business because they weren't in style anymore.

Today?  Down on the shopping district of Wiesbaden this past week....I kind of noted this display on the street.  Chuck Taylor All-Star tennis shoes....forty-nine Euro (roughly $70).  As a kid, mine were never more than ten bucks.

As you start to walk around, you tend to note that one teenage gal out of ten....is wearing some weird color-Chuck Taylor tennis shoes.  In fashion?  I'm just standing there in shock. Who would have guessed?

The comical side of this?  Some Chinese company is likely making these for less than $5, with another buck spent on shipping them to Europe.  The rest of this is all profit.

The Have-a-Beer Statue

A guy from Bama will tend to notice that German towns tend to have extra cash just laying around (all those massive taxes and such).  So, you need to find a way to spend that money before folks figure out you've got way too much money in your pocket.

Over in Mainz....about a block away from the train station....there's this four-foot tall statue.  My title for it?  The Have-a-Beer statue.

Mainz has a reputation as a party town, and folks tend to drink a fair amount.  I'm guessing they felt this statue would make sense with the locals.

You can put up statues over dead warriors, loser politicians, baseball players, cowboys and Indians, horses, and imaginary myths.....so why not a beer drinker?

The Laubenheim Stone (Stein)

Over the past year or two, with various readings....I've come to note that there are more Stonehenges out there, and of various shapes.  So I did my research, and found one site within ten miles of where I currently live.

The site?  The Laubenheim Stein (stone).  About 2km south of Laubenheim (a town east of Mainz).  The best that locals can say is that they know it was there in the 1700s, and noticed then.  The gut feeling by some experts is that it's been around for roughly 4,500 years.  What they tend to say, without much proof.....is that it was a 'marker', and used for something (just don't know what).

I came to the site yesterday.  The rock is firmly in the ground.....about five foot tall....with at least three additional feet in the Earth (maybe more).  I'd guess weight at 5,000 pounds.  As you stand there and take a 360 degree turn....it's prime farming territory.  The hillside to the south is about a mile away, and probably has supported grape crops for several thousand years.

How to get to it?  It's not exactly marked or noted much in tourist stuff.  The coordinates are Latitude: 49.948075N Longitude: 8.317752E.  My advice is to go by train and exit at the station.....on the river-side of the station, and  head south along what is a paved street.  About six hundred feet down, take a left turn and go another six hundred feet by a number of houses, then you come to a t-section walk path (over a creek), and turn right.  From here, it's a twenty minute walk, and it'll be on your left.  You'd best Google the coordinates and carry a map because it's not exactly in plain view.

As for purpose?  Well.....I'm of the mind that years and years ago (probably 4,000 years ago).....James the Elder was a farmer and having bad luck at picking the seasons and when to max out on growth.  His son, James the Younger.....sat around and did a bit of pondering.

Eventually, James the Younger came up with this idea of the moons, rotation of the Earth,  and understanding there are 365 days in a year.  He puts up this big chunk of rock with the help of his buddies and over a year or two.....proves all this science stuff.

James the Younger comes to dad, and says he can predict the exact day to plant and the precise day to harvest.  James the Elder is skeptical, but agrees to try the son's idea.  He is shocked at the results.

Word gets out about this season prediction stuff, and James the Younger is consulted almost weekly.

For years and years.....even as James the Elder passes on....James the Younger is a legend.  Then one day, a bull stomps James the Younger down, and he's buried.  Sadly, all this fancy technology stuff was never passed on, and within a week....everyone is kicking themselves because they've got no one smart enough to make this prediction business.

So the rock stands today.  It ought to be a monument to some smart kid who figured the seasons, but instead, it's for a guy who just didn't write down any notes or pass along knowledge.

Just my humble opinion.  So if you have an afternoon, Laubenheim Stein is worth maybe two hours of visiting.  There's a pub or two in town, and you might want to stop in and chill after a good one-hour walk in the country.

The Kiosk

In most significant German cities and towns....there are kiosks.   The basic description is a corner shop with a window....that sells candy, smokes, newspapers, sodas, beer, and snacks.

It is a German tradition that is slowly but surely dying off.  It might take another fifty years, but eventually, I doubt if any survive.

If you were to sit around on a corner and observe....what you tend to see is one or two folks stopping by and buying a newspaper....then standing there to talk for ten minutes with the kiosk operator.  Then they walk away.  To some degree, it's like a corner bar, where you stand to talk worldly topics with the bartender.

Most open around 6AM and close around 9PM.  It's long hours, and I doubt if any of the owners take home more than a thousand Euro a month after expenses are figured up.

For the old guys who hide out in the city park on a hot afternoon....a kiosk is absolutely necessary.  You stop by...pick up a chilled beer, and sit there on a bench in the park to admire nature.  You do this probably 365 days out of the year, and it becomes a part of your routine.  

The Toilet Guard Episode

There's a US firm that sells trendy clothing in Germany....Hollister.  At some point, management made a decision that employees of the store....could only go to the store toilet....if accompanied by a store guard.  They would be marched (I can only assume), while the guard waited outside the toilet door.

What Hollister would say in public was that they had noticed toilet doors broken, and decided increased security was required.

So you can imagine the hostile nature of employees, and this escort game.  It ended up going to the German Labor Court.  Usually, when some episode gets that bad....and you are in the Labor Court, it's rare that a company wins.  Yesterday, the Labor Court announced that the episode had been cancelled, and that the company was cooperating and changing their policy completely.

I would imagine that the public sensational news reached the HR folks in Hollister, and everyone was sitting there a bit nervous because if they were asked if management was ever escorted to toilets.....they'd have to admit they weren't.

I sat and pondered over this.  The sad part to this story is that some security company has this contract, and their guards had an essential part to their job....escorting folks to the toilet.  Personally, if I were a security guard....that's about the last thing that I'd want anyone to know what I do....during the course of a regular day.

You come home.....your wife asks "how was work"?  You stand there and note that you escorted fourteen people today to the toilet amongst the various tasks.  She might ask if they did mostly a number one or mostly a number two.  You will stand there for a second and admit that you didn't really notice.  Months into a job like this.....your security boss will determine that you are worthy of a promotion....mostly based on your toilet escort accomplishments.  This would likely be the point where you give up the job, and return to Red Bay to dig up septic tanks or do muffler repair.

The Prussian Explanation

On occasion, I will 'preach' a bit on German history, which is long, complicated, and difficult.

The best way to examine Germany, is to compare it to Microsoft.  There's version 1, version 1.2, version 2, version 3, etc.  So it is....with Germany.

Modern Germany really only existed from 1947 on, which means that it's not yet even 75 years old.

For Germans of another generation.....it was Prussia.  On the books, from 1919 to 1947.....they generally referred to the nation in some fashion as Prussia, but it was drifting strongly toward "Germany".  The Kaiser had been removed after World War I, and the political parties simply worked within the boundary that they had prior to 1919 restructure episode.

The map?  This is the Prussia of 1914.....a series of Kingdoms that were bound to the Kaiser, and the framework of Prussia.

Yeah, old Prussia had bits and pieces of Switzerland, Poland, Russia, Denmark, Belgium, Czech, and Lithuania.  It's a map that few Germans could recognize from today, and it draws various questions.

Prussia?  It existed in various forms and maps from 1525....until 1947 when the Bundestag finally rewrote the Constitution.  You could argue that it was dead from 1919 on.....but it's not worth the effort to engage on this subject.

A significant amount of Poland being Prussia?  Yes.

Konigsberg?  It doesn't exist anymore....it's now called Kaliningrad.  It's a major city of 430,000 residents.  It had historic stories going back to the 1500's, and was of a major German influence throughout the late 1800s.

Up until the 1860 period, the duchies (a nifty word for kingdom) of Holstein and Schleswig were not part of the Prussian empire.  They had more in relation to Denmark, than Prussia.  Some direct comments were made in the 1860 era, and a war of sorts ended up occurring....with Prussia and it's Hapsburg neighbor (the Austrian Kingdom) waging the confrontation against Denmark.  In the end....Holstein was signed over to the Hapsburgs, and Schleswig was signed over to Prussia.  Maps over Europe changed because of this episode.

Amusing enough....it only took a year or two....for Prussia to decide that the Hapsburgs weren't that great of a neighbor, and a war ensued with them.  The end result was Nassau, Frankfurt, Hanover, and Hessen being deeded over to Prussia.  Holstein became Prussian property.  In practical terms....Prussia was now Germany....they had roughly sixty percent of all the Germanic people in Europe under their umbrella.

What you can say....from the 1800s on....is that the map of Prussia/Germany....is often under revision.  Few Germans would say much about this today, but it's one of those odd facts about German history (things tend to change).

Crotch-killer

Up in Herne, Germany....north Germany.....they had an episode on a local S-Bahn train yesterday.

The conductor was doing his walk through the train, and came to this mid-thirties German gal.  Her ticket was invalid, or at least the conductor felt this way.  When things like this develop.....there's usually a fine that is launched against the rider....around forty Euro (roughly $50).

In this case, the lady felt her ticket was valid, and a heated discussion ensued.

The train pulls into a station, and the lady decides it's time to exit.  Whether she felt intimidated, or just tired of being jerked around by the conductor.....it doesn't matter.

But the conductor wasn't finished.  He exits the train, and continues to demand her passport, and wants to issue a fine.

Well.....she takes her knee, and gives the conductor a five-star crotch-killer.  It's so bad....that he falls to the ground, and the local folks have to call an ambulance.  Yep, he was toted off to the local German hospital with crotch damage.

The term "grievous bodily harm" has been brought up by the cops as they arrested the gal.  All the cops say at present?  They continue their investigation.  I'm guessing they are looking for witnesses and trying to determine if the conductor touched the lady in any fashion (if so, that invalidates the crotch-killer, and she gets off the hook).

A Bama guy would pause at this point and note that the conductor is a union guy, and likely to claim his career is finished, and ask for early retirement.  Even if he does return....there's the continual questions that he'll get.....are you OK, or did she permanently disable your functions?  An event like this would tear up most mortal men.

The Mainz Woes

Yesterday, I had intentions of traveling by train over to Mainz, getting on a local train, and doing a half-day tour.  Course, I got to the Mainz train station safely, but there.....my plan kind of fell apart.  The issues with the train station controllers continue.  Most of the local runs are cancelled.  It's just the major traffic that flows into the station and out.

Big meetings were held between the Bahn management guys and the union.  Monday is a critical point because school kids are going back into school locally, and this train system is critical for thousands of kids to go from one town to another.

What the Bahn management guys say....is that they will run a mostly complete schedule in the morning hours to get everyone where they need to be.  There's some agreement on the afternoon run, although it would appear it won't be the same one-hundred percent schedule as the morning.

I would say.....after a week....that the locals in Mainz are a bit disturbed over the mess, and can't understand why things can't be fixed after a week of "talks".

The Bahn management folks indicate that they might be willing to bring back some folks that they let go a year or two ago.....as the controllers.  Course, this takes union negotiation, and this typically adds up to weeks of talks over phrases, clauses, and money.  Some of these let-go folks probably have moved on and found new careers...so the idea of them coming back?  Well, it's be an interesting scenario.

The school system is tightly tied into this whole Bahn business now.  Over the past couple of decades....schools of a particular type.....like a four-star hardcore science-type school....would be built and kids from forty different communities would ride the bus and rail system......to get to a school forty-five minutes away.  It's a Lego-device....all interconnected, and each piece is critical for some kid to get to school by the right time.

As of this morning....the only positive thing that the Bahn will say....is that come 1 September.....the schedule goes back to 100-percent.  And for some folks.....that's a long time away.

Gladbeck

This is one of those oddball German stories that is fairly complex, serious, and takes a minute to tell.

Back in the middle of August of 1988.....in Gladbeck, Germany....these two guys show up at a local bank and attempt to rob it.  Things go wrong....the cops arrive....hostages in the bank are taken. The two guys negotiate to some degree....getting roughly $150,000 in cash and a car.

So begins this long tragic mess.

The boys end up driving through that day....followed by the cops....with a hostage or two in their car, and drove on through the night.

Day two arrives, and the guys pull over, and now take an entire bus, and thirty-two new hostages.  The cops?  I don't think they really expected this to get any worse....but it did.

At this point, the media gets involved, and in some curious and crazy way.....they actually come up to the bus, with the guys waving pistols, and do dozens of interviews.  The cops?  They don't stop the media.

This news reporter business starts to become a circus.  Day two goes through, and into the evening....they now start the bus moving toward the Dutch border.  They stop at some gas station along the way, and cops try a delay tactic....which results in one hostage....a teenage kid....being shot.

The bus eventually crosses the Dutch border into day three.  The Dutch cops are a bit more difficult on the guys, requiring some folks to be released before any talks take place.  The guys want a car.....they eventually get a car.  Then strangely enough.....they elect to cross the border back into Germany.

You might start to wonder at this point...if there was any real plan 'b'.  There wasn't.  And by this point in time.....both guys were going for three days without any real sleep.

So on the 4th day of this situation.....the guys are holding two young ladies in the car as hostage, and are moving toward Frankfurt.  It's hard to imagine what the intent is, and I doubt if they even knew.

Cops finally arrange for the car to be stopped, and a shoot-out occurs.  One of the young ladies is killed.  One of the two guys is killed.  The media circus?  For days, they told, retold, and re-retold the epic story that they covered.  Today, most of the public talks more about the news media circus, than the event itself.

Why does this come up this month.....over twenty years later?  Well....they couldn't sentence the remaining guy to life in prison, by German standards.  He's coming up for release this year.

Frankly, the cops are pretty insistent that they want this rarely-used German rule of permanent prison to be used.  You see....normally, you can't get a sentence beyond twenty-odd years.  However, the German court system years ago inserted a little rule into the system.  Certain people are beyond help, and should never be allowed to walk freely for the rest of their lives.  Few Germans fall into this rule.....for obvious reasons.  And it's awful tough to get a court to issue this rule.

Yet the cops are going full-board.....retelling this story, and trying to use the media to get attention and focus political power on the court.  This one guy.....as far as they are concerned.....should never walk out of any German prison.  He is considered a threat to society.

I suspect a defense attorney is working hard to downplay this, and offer up various reasons to show that the guy has recovered and is just not going to be a threat to anyone.  I would imagine some news journalists are trying hard to be the first in line to interview him as he is released.

Germans over the age of forty....all remember this episode....because it played out on TV for several days, and the newspapers kept it on page one for several weeks.

So, if you hear of some mention of Gladbeck in the German news....it relates to this robbery, the hostages, and a couple of murders.  And it relates to a guy who probably ought to be held for the rest of his life in some prison.

Political Poster Time

It is political season in Germany, and posters are everywhere.  The dog poster?  It's the Pirate Party.  Basically, it asks if you ever felt people were against you....if so, you ought to vote for the Pirates.  How the dog fits into this?  Well, it's best not to ask about that.

My humble guess is that someone owns this particular dog and just wanted him to appear nationally.

The cow poster?  It's the Green Party.  Maybe in some unusual sort of way, it gets the attention of farmers, and motivates them to vote Green.

 The third poster is the CDU poster.  Sunshine, a beach, a ball, and relaxation.  The economy is on automatic.  Jobs are plentiful.  Folks can afford to take a vacation.  Why spoil this by voting anything but CDU?  It just makes pure sense.

Yeah, it might be over-simplified, but if you are ahead, why pick any difficult subjects to get across the public.

A beach would make perfect sense, and life ought to this great.

 Finally, the fourth poster....the Communist Party getting peppy on supporting women.

How many women out of a hundred would vote this way?  Maybe one out of a hundred.

But this is thinly veiled message of the party.....they support women.

Graffiti in Germany

Years ago, you rarely ever saw graffiti around Germany.  It was mostly in Frankfurt or the more urban areas.

Today?  Every small town has it.  The locals don't like it, and usually get peppy with the mayor and city council over it.  But there's very little you can do....except paint over it.

Gangs?  No.  You just don't find youth gangs much in Germany.  It's mostly kids with little to do....except to get in trouble for stupid stuff.

This was in Eltville, along a scenic street going to the river.  It's the last place you'd expect someone to do a graffiti job.  

The Culture Clowns

Germans have this thing about culture.  Most Germans fall into the 'common man' situation, and culture doesn't really mean a damn thing to these Germans.  This group wouldn't admit to knowing much about wine, cheese, 500-year old operas, stone statues of Hercules, or poems concerning winged myths.  The other folks?  Well....their life is charged up and on turbo when it comes to culture.

Culture ends up coming in a dozen different schemes.  You've got the art business, which has a thousand years of stone or paintings.  You've got the gourmet world, where some mushroom sauce has been handed down since 1742.  You've got the wine world, where folks argue about aroma or dryness.  You've got the musical world, where a fancy-singing barber will belt out a tune about his mistress....all in Latin, and marches around the stage in circles for two hours.  You've even got the romantic writers who felt an urge to write up some love story over two hundred years ago.....that drives women of today insane with the amount of romance displayed.

This all brings Germans around to the poor American at times (sometimes the poor Brit, and the poor Russian as well), to let them know.....that their culture.....just isn't the same as what the German has.

I tend to refer to these German characters....as "culture-clowns".

Yeah, it is insulting to some minor degree.  But then, a clown wants to draw attention....to make himself seen in the light.....and to get noticed.

It takes a culture-clown about fifteen to twenty minutes to get the conversation around to culture.  Some Germans stick to soccer, the weather, their recent vacation, or the complexity of train scheduling business.  But culture-clowns tend to aim for the gut.  They harbor a grudge or necessity to flip the American as much as possible.

Insulting?  Yeah, it's probably the general agenda.

We don't have a thousand years of art or statue-making to fall back onto.

We haven't been building giant monumental cathedrals at expensive costs.

We don't usually build big opera houses....because most Americans would rather go to to a indoor football stadium.

We have developed vineyards across the US, and make tons of wines which do win European awards.....but we don't usually brag much about it because most Americans just aren't into drinking wine.

We do make hundreds of different cheeses.....but to the bulk of Americans.....there's only two or three versions of cheese that we tend to appreciate.

We can cook up gourmet meals, but we just aren't the French-type of people to sit for four hours at the table and discussing hearty talk over our passion for dance or the color orange, while waiting for each stage of meal to be brought out.

We did have a bunch of Germans over in the 1800s building up brewery after brewery, with the secret German recipes for the best brew.    But the demand was such....that the original German guys flipped from making long and drawn out quality beer....to making half-decent and cheap beer.  Yeah, we accepted a marginal taste for our beer because that was good enough.

An appreciation for Van Gogh-like American painters?  Well.....we have some guys who made it big, but we tended to toss our money toward other things.  Paintings and sculptures just didn't get that much attention.

Yeah, we are somewhat down the line for culture.

Typically, folks don't call Americans up for culture-clown meetings, or discussions over woeful operas, or the best way to make a tart.

When we get invited....it's usually because some idiot has triggered some mess to occur....put some Jews on a train to places unknown....fallen off the face of the earth because of a tsunami....or rigged up a nuke plant on a beachfront location.

We don't usually come to listen to a recital of Kurt Weill's music, or a demonstration of 1820's French art, or to get a glass of 70-year old Hessen wine.

We tote shovels, rifles, sandbags, and buckets.  We bring along tons of first aid equipment, and shiploads of tents and food.

We don't usually ask for anything in return.  You can appreciate our help or insult us.

When asked to do the near impossible.....we tend to deliver.  Few put up statues for us...except to remember the dead Americans who gave all.  Some will paint for us.  A few composers will write pieces that are remembered for decades....over what was accomplished by men who walked in the darkness to take on thugs and hooligans.

So for the sake of the culture-clown....just nod and say as little as possible.  You could spend an entire afternoon trying to reason with them.  But it's a waste.

Life is a bit short, and it's best to waste it on all things.....whether culturally magnificent, or culturally marginal.  A cup of spring water....a view of a sunflower field in full bloom.....a few dark storm clouds off on the horizon.....and a bit of wondrous Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama.....is enough to make a guy feel cultivated.

The Bahn Mess

It took several days, but German journalists finally started to dig into the Mainz train station episode.  What started ten days ago as a shutdown situation, because there just weren't enough controllers to operate the railyard and ensure the safety of trains passing through.....is turning into a management mess.  The union can probably safely say they weren't part of the planning of this, and just stand there shaking their head.

Apparently, several years ago....the idea of flipping various pieces of the Bahn over to private companies got into full turbo mode.  One of those operations involved the controllers....from across the country.  What management determined....was if they could cut enough manpower....the profit margin would increase, and make this little company very attractive for accusation.

It's an American management game....where you pretty-up the hog, fatten enough, and then get someone hyped to buy what looks very attractive.  The general issue is that as you hit absolute highs on profit.....you are simply in a waiting game for some problem to develop.  So you want this 'hog' sold as you hit the high spot, and avoid coming down into a mess later as the new owners figure out they really didn't buy into a very profitable operation.

Well, these management guys with the Bahn....guessed wrong.

Mainz's controller operation was set to absolute minimum, and one can only assume a retirement or a couple of sick-note guys....would suddenly turn this critical job into a major problem.  Since you can't go out and hire guys to fill the slots asap......it takes months to plan for your operation, it's manpower, and it's continued safe and effective mode during leave-periods.

Based on several newspapers and their commentary....the Bahn management folks are quietly meeting with the union, and 'solutions' are being discussed.

I doubt if anyone says the magic number of new employees for the controller shortfalls across the nation, but I'd take a humble guess that you will see 2,000 new controllers by late 2014.  Course, it will take a year to get them certified and accredited.......so the potential for more shortfalls over the rest of 2013.....still exists.  

As for a new buyer on the horizon?  Forget about it.  This recent episode will freeze out any new buyer for at least two or three years.  And the profit margin?  I don't think they will talk much over this for the next year or two.

Germany and the Common Man

I've threatened for several years to write this particular blog....knowing that some Germans would get all uppity about my comments, or they'd get riled up about the class that I put them into, or they'd talk up a bunch of frustrations about Americans as their way of getting 'even'.  So be it.

The common man of Germany....is not a very gifted political figure, or intellectual genius, or a university professor with four titles, or some soccer great from the 1960s, or want-to-be promi from the state-TV world.

The common man of Germany.....is a guy who works intensely at some company that is on the margin of profit, and absolute failure.  What he does in his thirty-six to forty hours a week....make something or build something....or produce something that is not screwed up when it leaves the building.  He takes that successful product to be a piece of his own signature and is actually shamed by any accusation of a badly built item.

The common man of Germany....is intent on obeying the laws.  He doesn't need various exemptions, or special attorneys, or corrupt cops that can be paid off.

The common man of Germany....would barely acknowledge by name a dozen-odd political figures on the German scene....unlike his American counter-part who likely knows sixty-six different political dimwits.

The common man of Germany can barely name all sixteen German states, and doesn't really get disturbed if he can't name them all.

The common man of Germany doesn't really want some idiot telling what he can or can't eat, or what beverage is legally OK or not.  If he wants to go vegan....he goes vegan.  If he prefers meat.....he doesn't want someone jerking him around to insist on the bad nutritional values of meat.

The common man of Germany reads Bild, and can cite the twelve brief bullet articles on the front page.  He'll tell you the four soccer games played last night and the winning scores.  He'll tell you about the weather for today.  He really knows little to nothing about some 700-word article that some Frankfurt fancied-up newspaper has published on fracking.  He won't touch a 1,000-word article on climate change.  And he will admit that a reading of Bild takes barely nine minutes, which is mostly what he gets for his break around mid-morning.

The common man of Germany gets political maybe once every four years.  To be honest, most of what any of the political parties say.....is intellectual garbage and not worth being remembered.

The common man of Germany enjoys Sunday night Tatort (the crime series)....mostly because the cops always figure out who the bad guy is, and justice gets served.  All of these special agenda topics taken on by the Tatort production team?  They really aren't appreciated by the common man of Germany.  It's a waste, in their opinion.

The common man of Germany isn't anti-American, and rarely ever invents some special way of insulting the US or Americans.  He might have a grudge against the Dutch because they drive badly, or the French because they are such fake snobs, or the Brits because they drank heavily, or the Turks because they just act awful foreign at times.  Generally, Americans don't get noted unless it's Paris Hilton, Bill Clinton, or some guy who got a Nobel Prize for something factual or imaginary.

The common man of Germany won't spend an ungodly amount of money on a vacation, a car, or renovation on the house.  What they do spend and get.....is value-added.  They don't buy trash or do a one-star renovation on their backyard.  They don't go cheaply on some vacation because they actually do have high expectations of food and shelter where they go and stay.

The common man of Germany isn't likely to give much status to anyone who goes off to college unless it was a real degree (engineering, chemistry, science, or medicine).  He'd look upon some idiot who got a degree in French literature as having wasted four years of his life.  The same would be said of some social science degree, or a degree in dance or music.  If you start to introduce yourself as doctor so-v-so, with a massive degree in Peruvian history.....you probably won't get much respect from the comman man of Germany.

The common man of Germany has a preference for a cool (not cold) beer on a hot afternoon. He seeks a shade in a local beergarten, and wants only one or two of his associates or friends in attendance.  Each of those.....will have earned the "du" that he uses in conversation.

The common man of Germany isn't really impressed by polls, winking journalists on some political chat show, or dimwited experts from some foundation or newspaper.  They will vote....the way they want to vote.

The common man of Germany has a simplified vision of culture.  He doesn't readily buy into opera, musicals, forty-ton fancy statues of Zeus, or some producer's version of a 1842 play by some German great.   Good music is simply good music.  A dancing nude mermaid statue isn't going to get them peppy, unless the sculpture guy put a 44dd boob set on the mermaid.  Given a choice of free tickets to some soccer game or some newly updated German opera.....the common man of Germany would take the soccer tickets.

The common man of Germany doesn't want some idiot reinventing the autobahn or rigging the speeds to be less.  They were built to get you from A to B, and safety was a secondary part of the plan....at least by the standards of the common man.

The common man of Germany isn't wealthy and he can accept taxation as it is.  But unfair taxation or spending the tax money on bogus priorities?  Oh, that gets the common man of Germany all upset and frustrated.  Then they start talking reform, and the political figures quickly lean on some imaginary change to get folks back to a friendly-status.

The common man of Germany watches the 8PM nightly news on ARD....mostly because it's tightly packaged and the whole news program is fifteen minutes long.  They can't emphasize anything of substance, and it's just enough to keep the guy barely informed, and absolutely precise on tomorrow's weather (hopefully).

The common man of Germany doesn't have much crime in his neighborhood and appreciates that.  To make that guy happy, the prosecutors use the full extent of the law, and prosecute to the letter of it.  Cops?  They can be as aggressive as they desire because only a fool would violate the law and expect to get off without any punishment.  The common man of Germany knows the system works, and doesn't really complain when the cops stop him on a Friday night and administer an alcohol test.  He won't fail because he knows the vast array of punishments involved.

The common man of Germany doesn't go and measure his various constitutional rights, or get into long-winded discussions over politics.  Given a choice, he'd chat on soccer, the weather, cars, recent vacations, or some funny joke he heard at work (which isn't that funny but you'd have to be a German to understand anyway).

The common man of Germany can't understand the gaming world of teenagers, NSA's passion to listen to his phonecalls with wife, or how the Nobel Prize committee goes to pick folks for awards.  Frankly, even if you simplified all these topics.....he still wouldn't want to sit there and listen to the discussion.

The common man of Germany doesn't care how electricity is created....either by coal, nuclear, hydroelectric, solar or wind.  He just wants it to work.....correctly....twenty-four hours a day.  If the explanation for carbon credits, climate change, or global warming take more than sixty-six words....it's best if you just skipped that talk.

Finally, the common man of Germany doesn't like complex lifestyles, complex operator's manuals, complex laws, complex tax rules, complex game-shows, or complex spouses.

Insulting?  No.  I think I just labeled most of German society in the correct fashion.  If you don't fit into this category.....you aren't the common man or woman of Germany.  And maybe you ought to think about that stance outside of the normalcy of life.

We might be appreciative of the common man of Germany.  He's developed a thousand things to make life easier.  He's got a passion for the perfect beer.  He won't back down from grilling the best pork products on this planet.  And he's really anti-intellectual....if you think about it.  

Three Stories

I have a thousand German stories that I can tell....some historical....some financial.....some dealing with government idiots....and some are just examples of German society.

My three best short stories on German society:

1.  A work associate of mine made close friends back in the 1990s with a German couple.  My associate decided decided to invite the German couple (professional couple from Wiesbaden in their 30's, a guy and a gal) on a summer vacation drive through America.  It was to be a two week drive through Arizona, Vegas and southern California.  Attending to Germans is often a pain, and in this case....by the third day, they were at Death Valley, in the midst of July.  To see what they needed to see....they needed six hours.  My associate tried in various ways to convince them to start early....around 5AM and be finished by the time it hit 112 degrees at noon.  No, absolutely not.....no day-trips ever started before 10AM.  As as 2PM rolled around and they were out to sight-see.....the heat was killing this German couple.  The misery of that afternoon took a tremendous toil.  By late evening.....an extreme argument of sorts occurred between all parties.  The rest of this trip continued on, but my associate learned that Germans won't be pushed or acknowledge the necessity of changing schedules.  Hostility brewed each and everyday, and my associated vowed never to invite a German on any trip ever again.

2.  Around the Kindsbach area of Kaiserslautern, there's an upscale neighborhood that was built in the early 1990s.  One guy made the deal to buy the property, and then turned around to build dozens of upscale houses.  There's a certain level of profit you can make off this type of operation.  Well....he wasn't happy with that margin.  So at various points of construction....he would let go of his German contractor crew, and silently bring in Poles and various other nationalities....as 'black-labor'.  No one ever said a word during this phase, and the house sold....with his profit margin a bit higher than you'd expect.  This would be a great business story....except he had a girlfriend in addition to his German wife.  The wife found out about the affair, and found the book which detailed the true financial dealings.  The wife turned everything over to the Finanzamt (Germany's IRS), and they took possession of the guy, his wealth, and the book.  He ended up with a deal where he did jail time, and lost a fair portion of his wealth.  What remained?  The wife took most of that.

3.  Germans used to all use heating oil to heat houses.  I worked with an American who had a German neighbor in a older house....which had converted the decade prior to natural gas.  The neighbor had preached to the American that he needed to convert over and this was all a wise and economical decision to make.  Somewhere in the weeks after this intense discussion over heating oil and natural gas.....some heating oil truck pulled up to the German neighbor's house, and made a mistake over the house number.  Strangely enough....the German had converted to natural gas, but had left this one oil connecting pipe in it's original position outside the back of the house.  The heating oil guy found the pipe.....hooked his truck to it, and pumped.....and pumped.....and pumped.  Somewhere in the thirty minutes of pumping.....some neighbor sees this truck and is confused.....they come over and ask if this guy had gotten rid of his natural gas heat.  The truck guy suddenly flipped out and realized the house number might be wrong.  Damage?  It's safe to say that the whole basement was screwed up for weeks, and the oil company had to pay to make things right.  After this episode....the German neighbor never brought up oil to my associate ever again.

Monday Chatter in Germany

There are three curious bits of German news today.

First, this episode with the Mainz train station controllers.....which is halting most of the traffic through Mainz?  Well...it's continuing through today, and there are some promises that it might come to a conclusion by Tuesday.  The management guys?  It would appear that they are in total fear of calling back from vacation....the union controller guys.  It's hard to say if it's a negotiation episode that they don't want to step into, or a cost-factor.  Creating problems?  Yes, and it draws questions to other major cities, and if their local controller population has declined enough that the union might grab ahold of them.  It's comical in a way...almost everyone interviewed by the national news folks are negative about how this could happen, and it's the stuff you see in third-world countries.

The CDU's cousin in politics....the CSU (out of Bavaria).....has stepped up to suggest that foreign cars passing through Germany....ought to pay a toll tax for use of the roads.  Most folks are in speculation over this being strictly a political chat topic for the fall elections.  Hostility brewing?  Well....several European countries either have a toll or some pass system in effect.  The issue is that Germany has a vast number of people from foreign countries who use their autobahn system to pass through to other countries.....like Italy, France, or Denmark.

Finally, over the weekend, the Greens came to say that their bold suggestion for a weekly meatless day.....was more of a suggestion....than an absolute thing.  They rattled some facts about the bad factors of meat, but tried to emphasize that they weren't of the idea of taking away meat from a company canteen.  My humble guess is that they've realized that independents won't dare slide to the Green polling candidates.....if this becomes a major topic.  But again, it just shows that politics in Germany.....really gets people to say really stupid things, and then regret those.

Michelsberg

 If you lived in Wiesbaden in 1932, and were Jewish....you were in a fairly limited group....roughly 2,000....out of a city population 170,000.

In 1932, you could have smelled trouble coming, and maybe made some wild plan to leave your job, your business, your family, your home.....and find safer surroundings.  Few did that though.  None saw the necessity of doing that.  In the history of Germany up until that point....no one had ever gone to an extreme over the Jews.

By the summer of 1945....the Jewish population of Wiesbaden had been wiped out.  Books can be read on the topic.  Politicians will talk at length on it.  Historians will do seminars on the era.

There is a memorial of sorts to the 1507 Jews remembered from this era near the downtown area of Wiesbaden.  It's rather new.....finished in 2011.  It is in public sight, and has the names of the 1507 Jews were led out and exterminated.

The name of the site?  Michelsberg.

If there were a list of ten places that you ought to visit when walking around Wiesbaden....I'd put it on the ten.  It is an impressive memorial.

I've been by the site on two occasions in the last month.  It's rare that you ever see anyone around it.  I think most simply pass it by without notice.  Course, you can say the same for the Kaiser statue in the main park, and the WWI memorial by the Luisenplatz.

So if you are around Karlstadt's department store one day....remember, this is barely five minutes away, and worth a short walk to see.

Germany and Prominent Folks

You can draw up a list of the top 1,000 most recognized Americans.....from Pete Rose to Joe Biden, from Bruce Springsteen to Terry Bradshaw.....and if you brought the 1,000 prominent Americans into Germany....my humble opinion is less than thirty of them would be recognized on any German street.

I read a comment recently how Oprah arrived in Europe and was shopping, and it came to pass that she just wasn't getting the normal notice or attention that she had expected.  The truth of the matter is that very few Germans probably would recognize her on the street.

The reverse is true as well.  If you drew up a list of the 1,000 most prominent Germans.....and flew them into the US, probably less than ten of them would recognized on some New York City street corner.

Here in.....lies the issue.  Localized media does their job....they put people and faces out on a daily basis.  There's limited interest in various American sports....except perhaps the NBA.  A German teen might rattle off ten of the NBA's top players.  Germans over fifty would easily recognize Larry Hagman from Dallas or William Shatner from Star Trek.

So, it's true.....an American of noted background could literally disappear into Germany and just be a regular character.  And someone like Chancellor Merkel could probably fly into Winslow, Arizona and no one from the local area would recognize her.

Vegetarian Propaganda

I sat and watched HR last night.  It's the public-run regional channel for Hessen.

The program of interest?  It was a piece on a family who did an experiment of sorts....with their three kids.  The topic?  Explaining the "real" way that food was delivered to your local grocery.  The family arrived at a local grocery, and this story unfolded as they walked around the store and viewed a video at each point.

They started with tomatoes....which was a sad story.  Most German-purchased tomatoes come from Spain and one particular region.  The water used for them?  Fairly contaminated.  The help?  Apparently there are a lot of African guys given low-wage jobs.  After five minutes, the clip on tomatoes ended, and the family had a brief discussion over buying the box of six tomatoes.  They decided not to buy it.

Onto carrots.  There were several points about the growth and delivery of carrots, but they couldn't really find nothing negative.  So they were acceptable to put into the cart.

Then came pork.  It was another sad story....mostly negative, on the way that pork got the shelf.  The family decided to not buy pork.

Then onto beef.  It was a terrible story about how cows create carbon, and it hinted of global warming.  The family decided to avoid beef.

At that point, I kinda had enough.  It was a propaganda piece of a mixed sort.  You basically scared up three kids (ranging from six to fifteen), and it's questionable if they ever eat pork or beef ever again.  In fact.....they might not even eat tomatoes ever again.

The show was designed as one of those food documentary pieces....but it ended up being a comical effort to make people anti-meat.  I'm guessing the folks who put this together....are mostly vegetarians and wanted the show to be seen as a 'lesson-learned' episode.

On the positive side.....few under the age of thirty watches HR.  It's like most of the regional channels....lacking in entertainment value, and is there mostly to serve the over-50 crowd.  Convincing a guy over the age of fifty to give up beef or pork?  It's physically impossible to talk a German guy into doing something that radical.

So it's all a wasted effort, if you ask me.  But you got to put something on HR that is long, dull and boring.....and not produced in the US.  This is the best that you can expect.

The Statue With Two Meanings

There are a handful of war memorials in the Wiesbaden area.  Most are not that noticeable.

The Monument of the Oranien is in a prominent position....at the Luisenplatz area.  It has a unqiue story tied to it.

As World War started up in 1914....a young cadet by the name Hermann Kaiser was attached to the local field artillery unit.  The unit....Regiment 27....the "Orange".

Kaiser went off to the war and did a number of brave things.  Along the way, he earned the Iron Cross II.

The war came to an eventual end, and he came back to Wiesbaden.  He took up teaching, and like most vets of the era....would eventually see some things within the Nationalist Socialist Party that he liked (the Nazi Party did talk up the frustrations of vets and how the war went badly because of bad politicians).

So by the early 1930s.....the vets in Wiesbaden, with Hermann Kaiser at the helm of the committee to recognize the efforts of German soldiers.....demanded a statue dedicated in the city to their efforts.  By late 1934, the statue was in place.  Kaiser?  He was the number one speaker at the ceremony.

Roughly five years later....Germany was back and war.  In 1939, Kaiser came back into the service, and eventually would rise up.  The problem however....is that Kaiser is not as firm on believing in Hitler or the leadership of the Nationalist Socialist Party.  In the early 1940s.....Kaiser has lost faith.

By late 1944....Kaiser has fallen into an effort to bring down Hitler.  The effort fails....Kaiser is arrested.  And on 17 January 1945....Kaiser is executed for treason.

The Monument of Oranien stands as two monuments today.....one in public view and one very subtle.  Men died for a cause, and some came home to find things not as they should be but died trying to fix it.

So if you are around the Luisenplatz area in Wiesbaden, in the center of town.....take a moment to check out the Monument of Orien.....at the end of the square.

More on Census

After yesterday's bit on the German census and the effect on city allowances....I read more on the history of the German census business.

The last real census that Germany did...was May 1987, when they declared that they had around 61 million residents.

As Germany combined both East Germany and West Germany into one.....they had some issues.  The East German government last did their census in 1981, and proclaimed around 16.7 million Germans.  Most folks anticipated in the mid-1990s.....that a census would be conducted of the 'new' Germany.  The census folks went though and developed their process, and then ran into a stonewall.

The issue?  The line of questions were a bit more than the usual, and got to be very personal in nature.  So Germans....ever frustrated over personal questions....hinted that they might not be cooperative.  The census for the 1990s?  Gone....never accomplished.

Over the past decade, the census folks went back and tried to find various ways to ask questions that would not provoke anyone.  So they reached this point by 2010, and the census was conducted in 2011.
If you looked over the old census, and consider that the birth rate is declining....with Germans leaving the country, but some new residents moving in.....the estimated population should not have been more than 78 million.  The census folks came to the end of 2011, and proclaimed the number to be roughly 80.2 million....around 1.5 million less than the accepted population prior to the census.

What complicates the general count?  Well, there is this simple German rule that when you move from one town to another....you de-register from the old town, and register at the new one.  It's done for identification purposes and to have a real count for the allowance that the town is supposed to receive for each resident.

Over these decades.....this method of going to de-register or newly-register.....was considered haphazard in nature.  There weren't computer databases in existence until the last decade.  So now, you can toss out duplicate issues where a guy didn't de-register and he's listed in two....maybe even three different towns.

Did the 2011 census answer the questions?  No.....it simply got political folks deeper into frustrated as they came to find fewer people in their city, town or village.  And less people....means less allowance of funding.

The German Beef Episode

This is one of those oddball German stories.

We are in the midst of election season, and political parties always do stupid public comments to draw attention.

Over the past couple of weeks....the Green Party has been active and working at company canteens.  If you are a sizable German operation....then you have a public cafe or restaurant that you operate for the benefit of the employees.  Most operate with a limited menu.  There's likely two dishes on the menu for each day.

If you asked most Germans who have the canteen at their business......they will admit that it's decent food for the price (usually a plate of hot food for five to seven Euro).  Most will agree.....it's usually dish A, which is loaded with extreme fat.....and dish B, which is loaded with less fat.  If you are lucky enough.....the canteen will offer up a salad bar which meets the general expectations of folks who'd like to eat light.

Well....the Green Party would like to force (I use the word, but they try to avoid saying it's actually force).....the canteens to go one day a week completely green (salads or fruit only).  They think it'd be better for everyone and would improve the overall health of the work-force.

Reactions?  It generated what you'd expect....a number of meat enthusiasts stood up and said 'no'.  They don't appreciate the push or the mandatory nature of this effort.

The Greens came right back and said we are on a maximum meat binge, and sustaining this effort (meaning the herds of cattle).....is simply not sustainable.

The comical side of this debate?  Most all canteens will offer up salads and fruits among their menu items.  People might want to have more options for their salads, but frankly.....this is a company-sponsored deal and just supposed to provide a hot or complete lunch for employees at a reasonable price.

So when you see this discussion laid out by the news folks.....remember, it's political motivational tool for the election, and it will quietly disappear in a couple of months.

The Missing German Residents

This is one of those German stories that takes a minute or two to explain.

In Germany....there's no individual state taxes or city sales tax.  So you as a city, depend on the state and federal government for an allocation.  And this allocation is based on a decades-old concept of statistical population numbers.  If you are a village of 1,000 residents.....you can pretty much get down to the planning process easily.....with the state check that's going to be issued to you.....and be fairly sure of it's amount.  It doesn't really go up....it doesn't really go down. No gimmicks, no getting companies to move into your state or city for more tax revenue just for you.  This is all pretty simple for city planners to work with.

Well.....it worked fine as a method, up until this 2011 census episode.  Strangely enough, Germany lost population.  Around 1.5 million Germans just plain disappeared from the statistical data.  So far, the census folks aren't willing, or able, to explain how this occurred.  Maybe their last census was lousy.  Maybe half of these 'lost' Germans just left the country because of high taxes or lost enthusiasm.  It's hard to say.  Adding to the mess.....a bunch of Germans moved, and that really screwed up the idea of simple planning.

So this all leads to a brand new problem, which the mayors and cities are frustrated with.  A great portion of cities of decent size.....lost populations.  This means their check from the state or federal government....will be less.  Trimming budgets.....you see....is not a friendly topic to discuss with German politicians.  Someone in the food chain has to lose funding, and this generally gets folks riled up.

Court action?  Yeah.  There's talk by various cities of going after the census folks and claiming it was all done wrong.  The courts?  I imagine that they really don't want to walk into this mess.  It means a review of the process, the collection, the data, and the intention of what was started decades ago.  No one ever imagined that they'd lose populations.

The truth?  Over the past two or three decades.....big cities have tended to become less attractive.  So when a guy gets into the better income level.....he'd look for a better house.....way out away from the bigger cities, and in smaller villages.  The schools were better.  Crime was less.  And the state folks were often fairly kind in building better roads and autobahns to transport you to the big city where your job was located.

I believe you could go state by state, and show how 100,000 residents here and there....moved around and found better locations to reside.  I'm also of the belief that half-a-million Germans have left the country quietly, and found somewhere else to reside.....with cheaper costs, less taxes, and more opportunities.  From the Canary Islands, to Ibiza.....they've discovered life can be cheaper.

As for the cities?  They've got a addiction problem.  They'd like to believe that they have 250,000 residents in their city, and the truth is.....they barely sustain 230,000.  So they keep chatting up the fake 20,000 residents and pretending they exist enough.....to get them the right payments.  All the while, they really can't figure out where the heck that 20,000 went, or if they went anywhere.  Maybe they didn't even exist in the first place.

Finally, I should add this odd comical note from the statistical folks.  On the spreadsheet that shows all current and past resident numbers.....they have a column to show the upswing or downswing.  Some towns actually went up 230-percent, and some towns went down by as much as 47-percent.  You can imagine a political figure standing there, and in disbelief that you could go up or down in such a manner.  God just didn't make Germans that mobile.....at least in their mind.

As I said in the beginning.....this story would take a while.  Thank God that US cities don't function this way, and they tax the heck out of you for sales tax.

Bio-Strategy?

After four weeks in Germany....I can vouch that the word bio is uttered at least three hundred times a day from the public-run TV networks.  When you walk into a grocery....even the smaller operations....bio-signs are actively posted and in full view.  Herr-doctor So-V-So will appear nightly to talk up the positive nature of bio foods and how we should adapt.

So I've come to analyze and ponder this 'mess'.

Bio foods tend to cost more than the regular items.  Doesn't matter what it is....it's at least ten to twenty percent more than the regular products.

Taste?  I'm told they taste different.....perhaps better.  Scientifically proven?  No.  People thinking it tastes different merely a perception?  Maybe.

It's an odd method of how products were normally marketed and sold in groceries in Germany.  Products were trucked in from various countries of Europe, and in some cases as far away as Africa, South America, or Asia.  The bio items?  They are all local produce.  Rarely do you see any bio products that travel more than a hour away from the grocery.

The bio producers?  Well.....they are all small farm operations.  I doubt if any of these farmers have more than two hundred acres of property.

All of this leads to an interesting scenario.  What the bio farmers hint is that their produce is pure and without any poisons or pesticide.  This is all true for the most part.  How long can they produce such pure items without some bug or fungus interrupting their cycle?  It's an interesting question.

Eventually, some fungus is going to enter the bio-system and disrupt the cycle.  So when the customer is now absolutely focused on only bio-products and can't buy anything else.....suddenly the supply dwindles, and the prices surge.  If you were paying one price today for a bio-watermelon.....the price could double or triple in just a few weeks because of some fungus.

How many people are absolutely focused on only bio-products?  The news media in Germany doesn't really say.  I'd take a guess that ten percent of society is now buying the products and believe the talk about purity.  Would they pay double the cost to stay bio-clean?  I'm guessing they would.

This all brings me to a vision of Germany in 2030....where the bulk of German society says bio is the only way to go, and their cost of staying bio-pure is on a upward spiral.

Finally, I sat and watched some piece on bio-beer this past Sunday.  Germany has a number of rules in place.....for almost four hundred years....about the purity of German beer.  Somehow, they've been able to convince the public that bio-beer is the next step in this strategy.....to stay bio-pure.  Yet, the stringent rules on the purity of German beer have been around for several centuries.

At the rate we are going.....I'll need some bio-toilet paper shortly.  And after that.....some bio-water.