The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna displays a famous work of art. It is the painting in 1563 by the Flemish artist, Pieter Brueghel the elder, of the Tower of Babel. Although the Bible does not specifically refer to the Tower of Babel as such, Brueghel clearly draws his inspiration from the reference in the Book of Genesis to the enormous tower built in Babylon. God was displeased with its builders, because they had built for the glory of man rather than in worship and praise of God. Accordingly, He came down and confused their languages and scattered the people throughout the earth, which is said to explain the origin of nations and their many languages. Brueghel’s painting depicts the tower as unfinished. There is a present day version of the Tower of Babel. It is also unfinished and is filled with nations using many languages and certainly not on the same wavelength. It is the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, France, which bears a marked resemblance to Brueghel’s painting.
Pat and I visited Strasbourg in October 2009, because I particularly wanted to see the European Parliament building. The decision to locate it in Strasbourg was taken in 1952, right at the start of the move towards a European Union. Now that the Union includes 27 countries, with hundreds of millions of people not to mention its own currency, I anticipated that its Parliament building would be impressive and so it should be. A capital city is defined by its parliament building.
United States Capitol Building
Houses of Parliament and Big Ben London
One cannot look across Washington DC and see the mighty dome of the Capitol without being impressed.
In London, one has a similar sensation when the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben come into view.
Hungarian Parliament in Budapest
One of my favorites is Budapest, where the beautiful Hungarian parliament building sits on the bank of the River Danube in the center of the city.
Click this link Hungarian Parliament to see a fantastic slide show on the Parliament. You will need to click on each slide to move forward. I don't know who to credit this to, but I didn't make the slide show.
Yet, in this respect, Strasbourg disappoints. The parliament building there is undistinguished. They claim that the building has deliberately been left unfinished to signify that the European Union is a work in progress, but that’s a poor excuse.
Strasbourg Cathedral
Notwithstanding this disappointment, Strasbourg is an interesting city with a fine cathedral. It stands on the French bank of the River Rhine at a point where that river presently forms the border between France and Germany. Its rich history began over 2000 years ago. The Romans chose the city as the site for their military camp on the Rhine, although they referred to it by the Latin name of Argentoratum. In those days, it was on the very frontier of the Roman Empire and played an important part in resisting the Germanic tribes to the north.
Johannes Gutenberg’s movable type printing press
Between 1434 and 1444, Johannes Gutenberg was based in Strasbourg, while perfecting his printing press with moveable metal type. That event changed the world in the same way that the development of the internet has changed it in our own time. Then, in 1681, King Louis XIV of France marched his troops into Strasbourg and made it part of France, which it is today. However, in the interim, there have been two periods of occupation by Germany. It was a German city from 1870, as a consequence of the German victory in the Franco Prussian War, until 1918 when Germany was defeated in World War One. It was also occupied by Germany, during World War Two, from 1940 until 1944. Remarkably, the city was completely empty for nine months prior to that last occupation. When the British and French declared war on Germany on September 3rd 1939, the French immediately evacuated all civilians from the border city of Strasbourg and left just a few troops. However, the Germans did not march into Strasbourg until June 1940 when they invaded the whole of France. This history has given Strasbourg a combination of French and German architecture and it is interesting to see the two contrasting styles as one moves around the city.
This piece, written by Bob, was originally posted on our website on January 26, 2010.
It was May 22, 2010. Pat and I were spending the weekend in Munich, which is Germany’s third city after Berlin and Hamburg. Germans call the city “Munchen”, since it was founded by Benedictine monks and the word for monk in Old German was “monche”. Hence, the inhabitants of Munich are known as Munchner. On the day of our visit, the Munchner were in a state of high excitement. Many of them, dressed in red and white, were noisily roaming the city and consuming many of the splendid beers which are brewed here. After all, Munich is the home of Oktoberfest. The Munchner were so excited because, in the season just ending, the local soccer team (FC Bayern Munich) had not only established itself as easily the best team in Germany. It had also won its way to the final of the European Champions Cup and was, that very evening in the neutral venue of Madrid, facing Italian opposition in order to determine which city has the best soccer team in the whole world. Literally tens of thousands of the Munchner had traveled to Spain to watch the game.
Allianz Arena lights up in multiple colors
Meanwhile another 70,000 Munchner had gathered in The Allianz Arena to watch the match on giant TV screens. This beautiful Arena, designed to resemble by day a shiny white air cushion, changes color when illuminated at night and is where FC Bayern Munich plays its home fixtures. Meanwhile, many more Munchner still needed somewhere to see the game. Pat and I visited a large beer garden, which was showing the game live on TV. That seemed a good idea when we planned it, but hundreds of the Munchner had the same idea. The place was so packed that we could not even see the screen. That situation was replicated at beer gardens all over Munich. Defeated, we headed for the little sports bar opposite our hotel, only to find it overflowing with Munchner. Those who could not squeeze into the bar were standing six deep on the sidewalk, watching the game through the windows. We finally saw the game on the TV alone in our hotel bedroom. Yet Pat and I were not alone in defeat. FC Bayern Munich lost to the Italians by two goals to nil.
The events of that evening demonstrate the great pride which the Munchner take in their city. They have achieved so much since my last visit here in 1961, when damage from World War Two was still evident. Munich had been a prime target for allied bombing raids. Today, there is no sign of that damage. Restoration of the city is complete. With typical Munchner enthusiasm and ingenuity, they made a huge heap of all the rubble in what is now Olympic Park, site of the 1972 Olympic Games. Then they covered the debris with earth. Now it lies buries beneath a pleasant green hill, rising to a height of nearly two hundred feet. That makes the following story hard to believe.
When touring the sights in Munich, we noticed in Leopoldstrasse a gigantic sculpture known as The Walking Man. It was grotesque and, what is worse, it visually conflicted with gracious buildings nearby. Over fifty feet high, the sculpture has a steel inner structure and a fiberglass outer shell. It was made in California in 1995 and shipped over to Munich in sections. It was the work of the American sculptor, Jonathan Borofsky.
Walking Man sculpture by Borofsky in Munich
Male/Female sculpture by Borofsky in Baltimore
How could the proud Munchner have let their fine city be desecrated thus? But Pat and I have been through this before. What a sense of déjà vu we felt that day in Munich! From 2001 to 2005, our home was in Baltimore, Maryland about two hundred yards from its main railway station. Penn Station, Baltimore, was built in 1911 in a neo-classical architectural style. Its elegant façade has an abundance of columns recalling ancient Greece. In 2004, a small group of Baltimore “art enthusiasts” paid Borofsky $750,000 for his sculpture called “Male/Female” and persuaded the city to erect it in front of Penn Station. Male/Female has much in common with The Walking Man. It is over fifty feet in height. It is exceedingly ugly. It conflicts horribly with the architecture of the nearby building. Pat and I could not leave our Baltimore home without passing Male/Female every day and we hated it. Pity the poor Munchner, who are now suffering similarly. In a free society, wealthy patrons of the arts are entitled to spend their money on whatever they choose. One can only be grateful that Borofsky’s $750,000 did not come out of the Baltimore taxpayers’ pockets. Am I a philistine to believe that a traditional statue of a personality from Baltimore’s long and rich history would have been more appropriate for that prime location? Am I a philistine to believe that Baltimore, with its record levels of drugs and murder and with its many acres of boarded up housing, could have used that $750,000 so much more usefully - if only it had been donated to them? If so, I am thankful to be a philistine with the opportunity to condemn artistic garbage, when I see it. Three cheers for the internet!
Jonathon Borofsky
Criticism of Borofsky’s work in Baltimore, Munich and several other cities is widespread. He responds by telling us, in an interview reported in The Carnegie Mellon Magazine, that “if you can’t write something nice, don’t write anything at all.” Let us instead hope that critics throughout the world continue to publish their increasingly hostile reviews of this environmental vandalism posing as art. Perhaps the next step could be a citizen’s referendum on whether such “sculptures” should be removed from their present locations? Borofsky’s freedom to practice his art must be balanced against my freedom, and the freedom of millions like me, to avoid the forced viewing of gigantic ugly statues in public places.
This piece, written by Bob, was originally published on our website on June 4, 2010.
While driving all over Germany, Pat and I are always impressed by the excellence of the network of major roads. Today, there is no speed limit on autobahns unless otherwise indicated. Recommended maximum speed on an autobahn is 81 mph but, when we drive at that speed, other cars zip by us in the fast lane at speeds that make us feel we are crawling along. I had always assumed that autobahns were created by the Nazis in order to move their armies around quickly. However, the first autobahn was completed before that in 1932. It linked the cities of Cologne and Bonn. The then mayor of Cologne, Dr. Konrad Adenauer, was responsible for its creation. Dr. Adenauer always liked to keep the little city of Bonn in the picture. He was removed from office by the Nazis in 1933 and was in a concentration camp by the time the war ended. However, he became the first Chancellor of post war Germany, which found itself with a problem in 1949. It needed a new capital city, because it no longer had access to Berlin which was then cut off from the West by communism. Which West German city should be chosen as the new capital?
The answer to that question seems obvious from a quick glance at the map. The great city of Frankfurt would have been the natural choice. It is much more centrally located than Hamburg, Munich and Cologne – the only German cities, other than Berlin, with a larger population than Frankfurt. It was and is the largest financial center in continental Europe. It has one of the largest and busiest airports in the world. What more could a suitable capital offer? It seems natural to me, as a Londoner, to locate a country’s political, administrative and financial centers in the same city. That’s how Britain is organized and that’s just one more argument in favor of Frankfurt. The need to travel frequently on business between Washington DC and New York City must surely irritate many Americans.
Yet Frankfurt did not become the capital. The little city of Bonn, located on the River Rhine just a few miles to the south of Cologne, was selected and remained the capital, until Berlin resumed that role in 1990 at the time of German reunification. This illogical selection was the decision of Dr. Adenauer who, in those days, was a colossus towering over the German political scene. It looked as if he would be chancellor for ever and he did not resign until the age of 87. He always loved Bonn. A story, no doubt apocryphal but then in circulation, was that his infant grandson expressed a wish to be chancellor one day but that Dr. Adenauer replied that Germany could only have one chancellor at a time. Pat and I passed through Bonn in August 2010 and it is unremarkable. It was once the location of the largest US Embassy in the world. It was the Baghdad of its day. Bonn retains many of the administrative offices and jobs that it acquired during its years as capital. Many of the buildings, formerly used for parliamentary purposes, are now occupied by agencies of the United Nations. Once Government has a foothold somewhere, it does not readily return an area to the private sector.
Staedel Museum
Botticelli – Self portrait hidden in the Adoration of the Magi
We know Frankfurt, better than we know Bonn, and we sometimes use its airport. We visited Frankfurt in February 2010 for the express purpose of seeing an exhibition of the paintings of Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), which was being held at The Staedel Museum. For over two hours, we waited in a line outside the museum in the snow and ice in order to gain admission. It was well worth it.
Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi
Botticelli’s work embodies the beauty and grace of the Florentine school of the early Italian Renaissance. His most famous works include The Adoration of the Magi, Madonna and Child with an Angel, Primavera and The Birth of Venus. It is said that Botticelli’s model in the last named painting was a married noblewoman, for whom he carried an unrequited love. Botticelli never married and often said how much he hated the whole idea of marriage. He said it gave him nightmares, but he was no homosexual. At his request, he was on his death buried in The Church of Ognissanti in Florence, at the feet of the woman who was the object of his unrequited love.
Botticelli’s Madonna and child with angel
Botticelli’s Primavera
Botticelli’s Birth of Venus
Frankfurt skyline
The full name of the city is Frankfurt am Main. It stands on River Main and its name distinguishes it from a city of the same name in Eastern Germany, which stands on the River Oder. If any American living in Germany becomes homesick for the skyscrapers of Manhattan or some similar US city, he needs to visit Frankfurt because it’s the only place in Germany with an abundance of skyscrapers. Indeed, seeing Frankfurt on the horizon from a distance of thirty or forty miles, it looks just like a US city. That is unique in Germany. Let it not be said however that Frankfurt has taken an American concept and given nothing in return. Frankfurt is the home of the highly spiced sausage known as the “frankfurter”, which is sold in beer gardens throughout the city. In about 1900, the frankfurter crossed the Atlantic and has since become very popular in America, where it is known as the “hot dog”. Frankfurt may have missed out on becoming a temporary capital, but hot dogs will be eaten all over the world long after Bonn has been forgotten.
This piece, written by Bob, was originally posted on our website on August 23, 2010.
A young man, asking for advice on how to succeed in life, was told to “be born the eldest son of the Duke of Westminster”. The Duke is reputed to be Britain’s richest man. While this advice was obviously of no help to the young man, it must be rather pleasant to have the certainty of success by the time one arrives in this world. And as with people, so it is with buildings.
Wagner's Festspielhaus in Bayreuth
Pat and I saw last weekend a building, the success of which was assured before its first brick had ever been laid. It opened in 1876 but, even today, it very difficult to obtain tickets to watch a performance there. Demand for tickets outstrips supply by a factor of ten to one. Applicants must apply for tickets every year and eventually, after about ten years if one is fortunate, one reaches the top of the list. Miss an application one year and one has to start all over again. Traffic in tickets is forbidden and may result in the eventual buyer being refused admission.
Interior of the Festspielhaus
The building that we saw was the Festspielhaus in the Bavarian city of Bayreuth. This is the opera house that was specially built for the performance of the operas of Richard Wagner, then and now seen as one of Germany’s greatest composers. Every summer, tens of thousands of Wagner fans are attracted to the Festspielhaus and its annual music festival at which only operas by Wagner are performed. Wagner did not have a well ordered existence because of his political activities, his poverty and his hectic love life. He was always occupied in running away from his creditors. He was fortunate that Ludwig II of Bavaria became king in 1864.
King Ludwig and Wagner
We have already written elsewhere on this website about Ludwig and about our visits thirty years ago to his “fairy tale” castles at Neuschwanstein and Linderhof. In any event, Ludwig loved Wagner’s operas and became his patron. Wagner lived for a time in Ludwig’s capital city of Munich, but in 1870 was forced to move on for the usual reason and decided to settle in the relatively small city of Bayreuth, which lies 150 miles to the north of Munich.
Today the population of Bayreuth is only about 75,000. Wagner chose Bayreuth because its existing 18th century opera house, the Margrave which we also saw, had the very large stage essential for the performance of his works. However he must have been frustrated to discover, after relocating to Bayreuth, that the Margrave’s orchestra pit was too small to accommodate his large number of musicians. His solution was to build in Bayreuth a new opera house, the Festspielhaus, exactly to his specifications. The foundation stone was laid on May 22 1872, which was Wagner’s 59th birthday. He managed to have the project funded by Ludwig, who by this time was almost as short of money as Wagner.
Festspielhaus orchestra pit
Many of the ideas which Wagner incorporated into the design of the Festspielhaus were highly innovative. For example, the darkening of the auditorium during performances and the locating of the orchestra in a pit out of the view of the audience were unknown elsewhere at the time. The acoustics are generally considered to be superb. The premiere performance at the Festspielhaus took place on August 13 1876.
Just as a person with great advantages at the start of his life, such as the Duke of Westminster’s heir, has very superior godparents present at his baptism, so it was with this building destined for success. The opening of the Festspielhaus was attended by numerous royals and members of the nobility including the Kaiser, the King of Brazil and of course Ludwig of Bavaria. Many famous composers also attended, including Tchaikovsky from Russia who correctly predicted that “our children and grandchildren” would be around to see the Bayreuth festival. The 1876 festival was an artistic triumph, but a financial disaster. Yet, over the years, the Festspielhaus has survived this and other adversities. In particular, it survived the Second World War undamaged, even though a large part of the city of Bayreuth was destroyed by allied air raids.
Click on player below to see a video of the inside the Festspielehaus in Bayreuth.
One particular adversity that the Bayreuth festival could well have done without was the enthusiastic support of the Nazi regime during the 1930s. Wagner died in 1883 and is buried in Bayreuth but, during his lifetime, he publicized his anti-semitic views. Adolf Hitler, who was born after Wagner’s death, found these views very much to his taste. Hitler became a great lover of Wagner’s music and made frequent visits to Bayreuth, where he became friendly with members of the Wagner family. The family, then and now, is responsible for producing the festival each year and has inevitably been tarnished by this connection.
Katharina Wagner
To this day, there is an unofficial ban on the playing of Wagner’s work in Israel. It’s not illegal to play it. It’s just not done to play it. There is no suggestion that Wagner’s work is not of the highest quality or that he was personally responsible for activities of Nazis over 50 years after his death. It is simply that Wagner and his music are seen by many to be symbols of a regime under which they or their ancestors suffered. Wagner’s great-granddaughter Katherina, who presently manages the festival, has recently invited Israeli orchestras to play at the Festspielhaus, but this is probably a situation that only time can cure.
This piece, written by Bob, was originally posted on our website on November 2, 2010.
Earlier this week I was meeting Bob at the dining facility on base (USAG Bamberg, Germany) and, realizing I was going to have to wait a while, I asked if I could sit in an empty chair sitting behind at a table located near the door. The soldier collecting the money at the facility said, “No, Maam, that table is reserved for our fallen soldiers who never made it back.” It was only then that I noticed the tableware and a large standing card that explained the significance of the setting.
Today was Thanksgiving and we again went to the dining hall
to have a truly fantastic meal, surrounded by soldiers and officers in their
Dress Blues. This time I took my camera and asked permission of the soldier
collecting the money at the door to photograph the table. The staff sergeant in
charge of the facility happened to walk up at that very moment and heard my
request. He smiled and said, “Yes, of course, please do.”
It’s strange how things happen. As we moved down the
cafeteria-style line, I asked permission to take a picture of the five handsome
Commanding Officers all decked out in their finest uniforms, serving the food.
They all looked excited and lined up, but my camera batteries died at that very
moment. I never got the shot. The significance of which to me served as a
reminder to keep me focused on the spirit of Thanksgiving, and what we, who
live in peace and freedom, truly have to be thankful for.
I have done a little research and found out that at every
Army military ball and dining facility, a table like this is set up. At
the formal events, a toast is made, reciting the material noted on the card, to
which no one drinks, in honor of the fallen soldiers.
I copied the information from the card on the table that
relates the significance of the items placed thereon. I hope you find it as
poignant and moving as I did.
Table set in remembrance of fallen soldiers
This Table, It is Small – set for one, symbolizing the
frailty of one prisoner alone against his oppressors.
The Table Cloth is White – symbolizing the purity of their
intentions to respond to their country’s call to arms.
The Single Rose – displayed in the vase reminds us of the
families and friends of our mission brothers who keep faith while awaiting
their return.
The Red Ribbon – tied prominently on the vase reminds us of
the red ribbons worn on the lapels and brothers who are not among us tonight.
The Place Setting – single, alone no friends or family to
dine with.
A slice of Lemon – reminds us of their bitter fate.
Salt Sprinkled – on the plate reminds us of the countless
fallen tears of families as they wait.
The Glass is Inverted – they cannot toast with us this
night.
The Chair is Empty – they are not here.
The Candle – reminiscent of the light of hope which lives in
our hearts to light the way home: from their captors to the open arms of a
grateful nation.
The Bible – represents the strength gained through faith to
sustain those lost from us, from our country, founded as one nation under God.
Let us pray to the Supreme Commandant that all our brothers
will soon again be among our ranks.
This piece, written by Pat, was originally posted on our website on November 26, 2009.
This is a series of videos on how to buy a ticket and ride the bus in Bamberg, Germany. The entire system was revamped when the Stadtwerke-Bamberg bus company joined a larger regional bus company, VGN.
It can be confusing for people who are new to the area or tourists just trying to get around Bamberg and the greater Bavarian region in Germany. There was so much material to cover that we broke into three videos.
We want to thank Kenneth McCarthy from the Stadtwerke-Bamberg bus company for giving us so much of his time and explaining the details of the process of buying a ticket, riding the bus, the different kinds of tickets you might purchase and which machine you use on the bus to validate your ticket.
Thanks also to Astrid Rosenberger from Stadtwerke-Bamberg for following up on our chance meeting and making it possible for us to make these videos. We hope you enjoy it.
Revised 7/30/2010
Part 1 - We begin with getting breakfast at the bakery and then follow Bob walking in the snow from our apartment in the Gruner Markt to the bus station called the ZOB, highlighting places of interest along the way.
Part 2 - Bob interviews Kenneth McCarthy, a supervisor with the Stadtwerke-Bamberg bus company. He has been with the company for more than thirty years but is originally from Liverpool, England. Mr. McCarthy explains in detail the intricacies of buying a ticket and riding the bus in Bamberg.
Part 3 - Bob learns how to use the self-service ticket machine, where to buy discount tickets, and which of two machines on the bus to use to validate your ticket.
This piece, written by Pat, was originally posted on our website on January 14, 2010.