|
April May 2003 - excerpts from the editorial
Büsingen am Hochrhein
A German “Island” in Switzerland
By Frank Edmondson
They pay their taxes in Euros to Germany but use Swiss francs for their restaurant tabs. They are German citizens but speak Swiss German. They have German plates on
their cars but ride Swiss buses. They can school their children in Germany or Switzerland. They have two addresses – the same street number, but different countries and mail codes. In front of the town hall,
they can use the Deutsche Telekom phone booth or the Swisscom booth next to it.
They are the Büsingerdeutsche – some 800 residents living in Büsingen, a German “island” in Switzerland, an exclave of Germany and enclave of Switzerland,
where two countries overlap.
This unique community sits on a bend in the picturesque Hochrhein (“high” or upper Rhine River), a flowing ribbon of emerald green snowmelt that cuts through
rolling hills along the Swiss-German frontier. After leaving the Bodensee (Lake Constance), the river wends between the medieval Swiss towns of Stein am Rhein and Schaffhausen, then tumbles over Europe’s
largest waterfall. It is a stretch of beauty that may be one of Switzerland’s (and Germany’s) best-kept secrets.
Hamburg, Gateway to America
By Anika Scott
They spoke German, Russian, Yiddish, and Rumanian. Knotted blankets held what few possessions they could carry. Some of them were young men alone, their mission to
scout out land and jobs in the New World. Others were families, grim-faced in photographs, their clothes drab and dirty. They fled from war, poverty, unemployment, and hunger. They were Central and Eastern
Europe’s emigrants.
For four million of them, the journey to America began in Hamburg.
More than a century ago, Hamburg on the Elbe River enjoyed the status as one of Europe’s key ports of emigration to North America. Between roughly 1850 and 1930,
five million people from the lands of Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary caught ships to North and South America in Hamburg. The emigrants traveled to Hamburg on foot, in carts, by riverboat, or by train,
leaving their villages, language, and culture behind. The emigrants sought a new life on the other side of an ocean most had never seen.
"I am a Berliner"
An Insider's Guide to the Brand-new Old Capital of Germany
by Valerie Kreutzer
Most Berliners were born elsewhere. When President John F. Kennedy proclaimed "Ich bin ein Berliner (I am a Berliner)," he meant to reassure the walled-in
Berliners in Cold War times of the free world's steadfast support. He did not talk about native rights. But I can--I was born in Berlin shortly before the outbreak of World War II. As a five-year-old, I
remember touring the Imperial Castle in felt slippers. Soon after my visit, Allied bombing destroyed the castle.
I was 12 years old when the Soviet-imposed Berlin blockade ended. For almost a year we had survived isolation with the help of American and British pilots who
supplied us with more than two million tons of food and fuel. In the summer of 1961, taking a break from graduate studies in the United States, I watched with heartbreak the communist government's desperate
attempt to stem the flight of its citizens by building a 102-mile wall. Twenty-eight years later I wept with joy when it came tumbling down.
Let us start at the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedaechtniskirche (Emperor Wilhelm Memorial Church) near the Zoo station. It is probably one monument that improved with Allied
bombing. The klutzy neo-Romanesque tower, nicknamed "Hollow Tooth," is flanked by a modern church with bluer than blue stained glass windows. The church is surrounded by the screaming commercialism of
Kurfuerstendamm. During the Cold War, this avenue served as a most elegant and tempting window on western capitalism.
Innsbruck’s White Cross Inn:
At The Crossroads of History
By Marilyn and Paul Nejelski
“In the past, inns had distinct identities. Ours supported the monarchy and, later, opposed the Nazis,” remarked Josef Ortner, third generation owner of Weisses
Kreuz (White Cross) Inn in the center of Innsbruck’s medieval Old Town. The Inn was built in the 12th or 13th century on Roman ruins that are visible today in the ground floor restaurant. It was first registered as an inn in 1465. Since 1665, the Inn’s wrought iron sign has hung over the entrance. Its white Maltese cross symbolizes the hospitality given by the Knights of Malta to pilgrims. The grapevine leaves that frame the cross commemorate the wedding of Maria of Burgundy to Emperor Maximilian I of Austria in 1477.
Innsbruck is at the crossroads of Europe. The north-south axis links Germany to Italy at the Brenner Pass, and the east-west route connects Hungary and Switzerland
through the Arlberg Mountain Pass. Before trains and cars, visitors would leave the White Cross before dawn to allow their carriages to attempt the dangerous Alpine passes during daylight.
“We are in good health, thank God. We are staying at the Weisses Kreuz,” wrote Leopold Mozart to his wife when he and his 13-year-old son, Wolfgang, stayed here
in 1769 on their way from Salzburg to Italy for concerts. The mayor of Innsbruck owned the Inn, and Mozart performed at the mayor’s home to enthusiastic audiences. Ortner is proud that the Inn’s long history
includes Tyrolean patriots, Italian nationalists, anti-Nazi refugees, and American Army officers. In 1809, Andreas Hofer headquartered in the White Cross during the fight against Napoleon for Tyrolean
independence. After Hofer’s forces defeated the combined French and Bavarian armies, deputies of the new Tyrolean Civil Guard met at the Inn for the next year. Later betrayed by the Habsburgs, Hofer was
captured, taken to Italy and executed in 1810. Now, his grave and monument are around the corner, ironically in the Habsburg royal church.
Lübeck
Hanseatic Eminence, Marzipan Sweets, Fiction's Famous Buddenbrook Family
By Tom Bross
When Lübeck reached its eighth-century mark in 1943, municipal authorities had no thoughts about anything resembling a joyful birthday party. A devastating war
engulfed most of Europe. Locally, citizens were still clambering over rubble and wreckage, reminders of British aerial bombardment that had hit hard the year before, on Palm Sunday. What began as a crude
settlement in 1143, ultimately evolved into a thriving mercantile center. With that came cultural attributes and redbrick architectural flamboyance, both still very much in evidence today. Frequently evident,
too – leaden skies and gusty winds blowing in from the sea, enough of both to make the populace a serious-minded bunch – to be expected up here in coastal Germany, a far cry from southerly Bavaria's sunny
alpine vistas and beer-hall sing-alongs.
Across the way, at 4 Mengstrasse, visitors tour the white neo-baroque house where authors Thomas and Heinrich Mann's grandparents lived, appropriately called the Buddenbrookhaus since publication
of the younger brother's acclaimed novel in 1902. Severely damaged by air raids, the restored structure had an unceremonious postwar tenure as a bank. For the past decade, however, it has functioned as a museum
and educational facility focused on the Manns' literary accomplishments. Thomas became a Nobel Prize recipient in 1929, as did another Lübecker, Willy Brandt, in 1971. Close by – the Innenstadt core, an
egg-shaped island formed by the River Trave, interconnected canals, and deep-water shipping channels. Views from just about every angle include that preponderance of dark brickwork. Wider panoramas reveal a
skyline punctuated by seven tall pointy church spires – the two atop the Marienkirche plus five others.
However, Lübeck's best-known landmark is neither ecclesiastical nor literary. The Holstentor ranks right up there among the most familiar structures in all of Germany. Completed in the mid-15th
century and bristling with cannons during the era of walled-in fortified continental communities, the gate's engraved image appeared on 50-mark banknotes, currency made suddenly outdated when Euros went into
general circulation.
Splash With Class in Baden-Baden
By Leah Larkin
Visitors stroll along the waters of the River Oos, which gurgle ever so gently over pebbles and stones. Warm mineral-rich waters at the Friedrichsbad soothe naked
bodies. At the Caracalla Spa, bathers are swept along by swift waters in its man-made outdoor stream. Baden-Baden is indeed THE place to take the waters. This Black Forest town of 50,000, the most elegant and
famous of German spas, has 23 springs spewing 800,000 liters of healing waters each day.
These days anyone can soak and sweat, rest and relax in the town’s bathing complexes, but Baden-Baden continues to attract high rollers as it did in the past when
it was the stomping ground primarily for Europe’s royal and wealthy, the likes of Queen Victoria, Napoleon III, and Brahms. Even Mark Twain was a Baden-Baden fan. “I fully believe I left my rheumatism in
Baden-Baden,” he wrote in A Tramp Abroad. “Baden-Baden is welcome to it.”
The springs that feed the spas were discovered in Roman times and are two kilometers under Baden-Baden’s Florentine Hill where the ground never freezes. The water,
whose temperature is a constant 156 degrees F, contains elements which are absorbed by the body and skin, and are said to stimulate blood flow, increase the efficiency of internal organs, and ease congestion,
muscular tightness, and stiff joints. If that is not enough, bathing in the soothing waters is also said to benefit the immune system and healing powers of the body.
The Sinking of the General Slocum
By Therese Lanigan-Schmidt
June 15, 1904, was a sunny day, ideal for a church outing. Congregants of St. Mark’s Church, in what is now known as Alphabet City (then Little Germany) in New
York City, had purchased 1,358 tickets for their yearly voyage up the East River on the General Slocum. Virtually all were German mothers and their children.
The General Slocum was one of the most famous of all the excursion boats that worked the waters of New York Harbor. In the 13 years she was in the “Rockaway Service,” the General Slocum had carried the number of passengers equivalent to the population of New York City at that time. Launched to great fanfare in 1891, she was said to be a “boat builder’s dream,” according to a 1904 article in the New York Times. Equipped with three watertight compartments, an innovative idea in a vessel of this kind, she was, ironically, like the Titanic,
which was said later to be unsinkable.
She was also considered an unlucky craft, or “hoodoo ship.” No other ship at that time in New York Harbor had as many mishaps as she did. Her first significant
accident took place in 1894 when she was on a home run from Rockaway with 400 aboard. She ran aground, disabling her electrical devices. Hysteria ensued and bedlam ruled for half an hour until order was
reinstated. Hundreds were injured including women who fainted and were trampled.
April/May 2003 Calendar
APRIL 2003
Texas Hill Country
February – June: Texas Wildflower Trail. Bardy, Burnet, Early, Fredericksburg, Goldthwaite, Lampasas, Llano, Mason, and San Saba. For more info call 866-TEX-FEST
(866-839-3378).
Covington, KY
April 12-13: Spring Fete. Main Strasse Village. For info call 859-491-0458 or 513-357-MAIN.
Fredericksburg, TX
April 19: Easter Fires Pageant.Gillespie County Faorgrounds. For info call Fredericksburg Convention & Visitor’s Bureau 888-997-3600.
San Antonio, TX
April 23-25: Fiesta Gartenfest. Beethoven Halle und Garden. Beethoven Maennerchor. For info call 210-222-1521.
Chicago, IL
April 27: 125th Anniversary Banquet of the Schwaben Verein von Chicago in Buffalo Grove. For info call 630-653-1716 or see www.schwabenverein.org
MAY 2003
Jessup, MD
May 4: 34th Annual German-American Festival. Blob’s Park, A.G.A.S. For info call 202-554-2664 or see www.geocities.com/agas_dc
Fredericksburg, TX
May 4: Maifest. St. Joseph’s Hall. For more info call Fredericksburg Convention & Visitor’s Bureau 888-997-3600.
San Antonio, TX
May 16: Maifest. Beetheoven Halle und Garten. Beethoven Maennerchor. For info call 210-222-1521.
Covington, KY
May 16-18: 24th Annual Maifest. For info call 513-357-MAIN, call 859-491-0458, or fax 859-655-7932.
Hermann, MO
May 17-18: Maifest. For info call 800-932-8687 or see www.hermannmo.com
Pittsburgh, PA
May 28-31: National Genealogical Society Conference. For information see www.ngsgenealogy.org
|
