|
FEBRUARY / MARCH 2004 - excerpts from the editorial
Munich’s Hofbräuhaus – More Than Just Beer!
by Jeffrey S. Gaab
Munich’s number one tourist attraction is flavored with a history as robust as the beer it serves patrons.
Every year, tourists from America and around the world visit Munich, the capital of Bavaria. The Hofbräuhaus am Platzl is Munich’s most popular tourist attraction and bills itself as “the
most famous beer hall in the world.” Few know the historical events associated with this important Bavarian institution.
Prior to 1589, Bavarian Dukes imported their beer from Zschopau, near Chemnitz, and Einbeck, near Hannover – Lutheran territories. Protestant beer was in the mugs of Catholic royalty!
Moreover, with over six hundred members of the Bavarian Court, imported beer cost too much. Therefore, in 1589, Duke Wilhelm V commanded that a court brewery be erected on the Platzl, a little square not far
from the Hof (court), hence the name “Hofbräuhaus.”
The beer’s fame spread rapidly. When the Lutheran King, Gustavus Adolfus of Sweden, occupied Munich in May 1632, Müncheners expected a terrible revenge to be taken upon the city. Instead, as
part of a deal to leave the city a month later, the Swedes demanded 220 hectoliters of Hofbräuhaus special brown beer. The fact that it was “Catholic beer” did not seem to bother them at all.
Prior to the 1820s, only personally invited guests of the King could visit the brewery. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 to 1791) lived briefly in Munich and often visited the Hofbräuhaus where
he “restored” himself with beer and “amused” himself with the other guests. In 1828, King Ludwig I (1825 to 1848) decreed that anyone could come drink in the Hofbräuhaus. Chairs, benches, and tables were added
so that guests could come and enjoy the royal brew right from the barrel. They came by the thousands until there was standing room only. When King Ludwig himself appeared to share a beer with his subjects, a
roar of “God save the King” erupted loud enough to make the beer barrels in the cellar shake.
Revolution and famine marked the 1840s all across Europe. On 1 October 1848, King Ludwig I reduced the price of a liter of beer to “enable the working classes and the military to enjoy a
healthy and inexpensive drink.” Beer sales in the Hofbräuhaus then rose so quickly that the brewing staff could not keep pace with demand. In July, beer riots broke out in Munich and in the countryside that
resulted in several deaths and many wounded.
Visiting the Hofbräuhaus was always a raucous affair. Clients came in, found an empty mug and washed it, queued up at the barrel to get filled up, then found a table to sit and drink.
Ulysses S. Grant visited the Hofbräuhaus in 1878. He reportedly liked the place so much he stole out secretly one night to return and sit at a table and pay the extra sum to be served, something in which few
locals or even tourists indulged…
For more, subscribe today!
Touring and Tasting in Baden
by Leah Larkin
Gourmet food and fine wine complete a memorable visit to southern Germany.
There were long, long lines of trucks – block after block of huge monsters with flat beds, beat-up pickups, even tractors tugging heavy loads. None were moving. Drivers hopped out and chatted with
one another.
This was neither a traffic jam on the Autobahn, nor a wait to cross a border. It was harvest time in Baden, one of Germany’s 13 wine regions, and the drivers were waiting patiently for their
turn to deliver cargo – huge steel drums of precious grapes – to the wine cooperative in Breisach (Badishe Winzerkeller) in southern Germany. When a truck finally moved up into position at the winery, Europe’s
second largest wine co-op, the gargantuan containers of grapes were hoisted up over a deep canal where the grapes were dumped, crushed and ground into a purple pulp.
Although it was 9:00 p.m., grape pressing would continue all night. After all, when the grapes are ripe, they must be quickly picked and processed.
During last fall’s harvest season, I joined a tour of wine areas in Baden, specifically the Kaiserstuhl and Ortenau districts in the southern Black Forest. During six days of fine wining and
dining we tasted 49 wines. Our visit to the large Breisach co-op, where we toured the cellars and tasted nine different wines, was a highlight.
Grauer Burgunder (Pinot Gris), Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir), Müller-Thurgau, Riesling, and Chardonnay are among the popular grapes grown on some 15,000 hectares of vineyards in Baden,
Germany’s sunniest wine region. The co-op in Breisach was founded in 1952, and, by 1954, it was the central cellar for all of the smaller wine co-ops throughout the region. Today the winery receives 40 million
kilograms of grapes every year from 90 different local co-ops and produces 40 million liters of wine yearly. Only three percent of the 500 to 600 different varieties of wine produced are exported.
In Baden, the average vineyard size is just .5 hectares, but it is the smaller vineyards of .2 hectares which predominate. Georg Kaufmann, an oenology engineer with the co-op in Breisach,
explained that vineyards are passed on from generation to generation. If a vintner has two hectares but four children, for example, each child inherits .5 hectare. Due to the small size of individual vineyards
and the costs involved in producing wine, most growers haul their grapes, 95 percent of which are picked by hand, to a local cooperative.
Today, tending the grapes is a labor of love, a hobby, for most Baden vintners who have full-time jobs outside of the wine business. However, wine is deeply imbedded in the culture in this
part of Germany, which borders Alsace in neighboring France. Wine, not beer, is served with most meals and wine festivals fill the social calendar. Locals are very proud of the fruits of the harvest and quickly
point out that red wines from Baden can compete with the best from Burgundy, and its Grauer Burgunders have won international prizes.
We began our wine trip in the 1,200-year-old town of Endigen where we got off to a delicious start with a four-course gourmet meal at Dutters Stube, one of the region’s fine restaurants. The
state of Baden-Württemberg (Baden is the western part of the state) has 80 of the 160 Michelin star restaurants in Germany, our hosts pointed out…
For more, subscribe today!
Switzerland’s Sweet Success
by Leah Larkin
Exquisite chocolate from the Alpine country – and its classy company, Sprüngli
Chocolate – it is sensuous, decadent, and sinfully delicious. It makes you feel good, gives you a lift, provides energy – and it is good for you.
The great botanist Linnaeus named the plant that produces the cocoa bean “Theobroma Cacao L.” “Theobroma” means “food of the gods.” Among the Toltecs, Mayas, and Aztecs, it was the food of princes
and the wealthy. In seventeenth century France, the wealthy aristocracy drank hot chocolate, and the custom spread among the upper echelons of society throughout all of Europe. The delicious sweet was still a
luxury indulgence reserved for the upper classes in the beginning of the twentieth century. Today, however, everyone enjoys chocolate, especially the Swiss, who are said to produce the world’s finest. They
consume 13.6 kg (almost thirty pounds) per person per year, more than any other nationality.
No Swiss chocolate can be called shabby, but perhaps the best comes from Confiserie Sprüngli, the country’s most famous producer of exclusive, handcrafted chocolates. This small family-owned
company, which has been making fine chocolates for one hundred sixty-seven years, has fourteen shops in Zurich, and recently opened a shop in Basel and in Zug.
“We are a small company producing handcrafted luxury chocolate, one of the most important brands,” Sprüngli CEO Tomas Prenosil explains. “We don't export. You can't buy our products in department
stores. We're the only company with its own plant, shops, and direct logistics. We have one hundred percent control of the products, from the raw materials till the customer. We have very strict quality control
which is why we can produce such a lovely product."
Prenosil waxes poetically on his company’s coveted “truffes du jour,” today’s truffles that are never more than twenty-four hours old and should be consumed within twenty-four hours.
“It’s such a pure, lovely, innocent product. I’m very proud of it,” he says of this prized confection. It’s his favorite, made with only fresh cream and chocolate, and he eats “one or two” every
day.
“Eats” is too bourgeois. Prenosil savors chocolate, and he describes the way it should be consumed as if he were talking about a fine wine….
For more, subscribe today!
Chef Mario Pattis
Re-creating Saxonian Taste Treats
by Victor Tigron
A Saxon chef breathes new life into historic recipes from the Saxon Court.
Born a half-century after the fall of the Saxonian monarchy’s collapse, Mario Pattis is single-handedly re-creating the culinary delights that elevated the House of Wettin’s renowned cuisine to be
preeminent among fine tables of Germany’s royal houses prior to World War I. Pattis is the son of cook-hotelier parents, who are the restorers and operators of the five-star Romantik Hotel Pattis, located on a
former hunting preserve in a unique edge-of-town setting in Dresden. Just thirty-six, Pattis is the Michael Schumacher of Germany’s young chef scene. He is a hot item, fast and famous.
Dresden-born, he is a “Saxist,” as the saying goes, and proud of it. A two-year basic course at his hometown’s technical university launched his career at sixteen. Of course, his first
kitchen duties began much earlier.
From the age of ten, he earned his weekly allowance doing chores assisting his parents. It was anything but fun and games in the 1970s and 1980s. He points out that being in the food trade
during the DDR years was tough.
Diet was restricted and shortages were the norm. Beef was rarely seen, no lamb, fish was hard to get. and seafood was all but unknown. When there was meat, pork prevailed. Quality was poor.
Spices and anything other than homegrown herbs were mediocre at best. Whatever you grew in the garden was what you got and it was inevitably better than what was for sale. Today, Mario Pattis is a firm believer
in absolutely fresh garden-grown produce.
Six apprenticeships, beginning at his parents’ Weisser Hirsch Hotel’s “Erhlung Restaurant” accounted for his time during the exciting years of the “Wende” as the DDR disappeared; then, off
to the West to the Obere Linde in the Black Forest. Then came the Hotel Colombi in Freiburg. “Frankly, I was a bit in over my head,” he confesses. “But I did learn a lot.”
Next over the Swiss border to Petermann’s Kunststube in Kuessnacht/Zurich and then yet another apprentice year – this time in Bavaria at the celebrated Fuerstenhof in Landshut. Given another
shot at the Colombi, he did well, and in 1994, at its inception, was chosen one of the thirty starred Young Chefs of Germany by the Jeunes Restaurateurs d’Europe. The JRE is a galaxy of the most accomplished
young chefs under forty living and working throughout Western Europe. They are chosen by a committee of current world-famous culinary masters of the continent’s greatest restaurants.
A year later, in 1995, Pattis was the first ever Michelin Star chef in the new provinces of reunited Germany. In 1996, his first cookbook appeared.
By 1997, after years of struggle, his parents succeeded in re-creating the landmark hotel on a medieval millstream that bears their name. Mario Pattis’ culinary magic and his now famous
creations were and are the prime drawing card for this thoroughly modern-yet-traditional hotel surrounded by ancient woods…
For more, subscribe today!
Killepitsch – Gingerbread in a Bottle
by Sharon Hudgins
A blend of fruits, berries, and herbs give this delectable liquor a taste as unique as its history.
Okay, so these two guys – Willi and Hans – are hunkering down in an air-raid shelter in Düsseldorf during World War II, as bombs from Allied planes are dropping all around them outside.
"If it continues like this, then they're going to kill us, too," says Willi.
"I don't think so," answers Hans, "as long as we have two more shots left to pitsch (drink)."
"Where are we going to get a shot to pitsch, if we're out of booze?" asks Willi.
Hans points out that Willi could make it himself. After all, his family has been in the distillery business since 1858.
And Willi replies, "Hans, if we survive this, if they don't kill us, then I'm going to make some booze like you never had before. Then we'll have our shot, and we're gonna call it
'Killepitsch.'"
That is how the story goes, anyway.
Ten years after the war ended, Killepitsch hit the market. Willi Busch – the same guy who was sitting in the air-raid shelter – was a professional distiller who spent several of those
postwar years experimenting with blends of fruits, berries, and herbs until he came up with just the right mixture of ingredients. In 1955, the Busch Distillery in Düsseldorf sold its first bottles of Willi's
concoction – and the rest, as they say, is history.
Killepitsch is one of those strong, herb-based liquors that Europeans seem to like so much. Weighing in at a hefty eighty-four proof (forth-two percent alcohol), this heady liquor is deep
mahogany in color and very distinctive in taste. Describing its effect on the tongue, a taster at the Beverage Testing Institute in Chicago noted that "A velvety entry leads to a bittersweet medium- to
full-bodied palate with great treacle, molasses, and spice notes followed by a wave of menthol-like herbs. Excellent balance and depth of flavor…”
For more, subscribe today!
Potsdamer Platz Thrives Again
by Tom Bross
After the ravages of World War II, Berlin’s “city-within-a city” comes back to life more vibrant than ever.
Back in the bygone 1990s, a weird red contraption became one of Berlin's top visitor attractions. Called the "Info Box," it was perched atop stilts above Leipziger Platz and provided
medium-high panoramas of a vast construction site. Bulldozers swarmed over upturned earth while cranes by the dozens swiveled overhead. Pumps drained water from deep foundation excavations. Girders hinted at the
shapes of future buildings.
Now the future is here. Forget about the discarded Info Box. Instead, gawk at Potsdamer Platz, a 17-acre city-within-a-city in the middle – the zentrale Bereich – of big, spread-out Berlin. You
can get there by walking a short distance south from the Brandenburg Gate, with Tiergarten parkland on your right. Or go via U-Bahn subway from just about any other part of town. Underground station stop
(easy!): Potsdamer Platz.
Upon reaching street level, two slender office high-rises – one angular and clad in brick, the other curved and glassy – are immediate attention-getters. They flank the slick European headquarters
of Sony and DaimlerChrysler, separated by Potsdamer Strasse, a six-lane, tree-lined boulevard.
Sony Center, occupying a major chunk of the project, combines corporate necessities with the Forum, public open space similar in height and far-flung length and width to cavernous indoor domed
sports stadiums in the United States and Canada.
As conceived by Munich-trained, Chicago-based architect Helmut Jahn, translucent panels – radiating like sails from the peak of a steel-mesh tent – filter daylight onto "Sony City."
People can always be seen sitting alongside a marble reflecting pool at the Forum's midpoint, while steady throngs of Berliners and out-of-towners crisscross the plaza. Linked with a three-level shopping arcade,
it is surrounded by casual dining and drinking places, some augmented by upper-deck terraces for views of the goings-on down below.
Here, too, is the Film Museum, focused primarily on German moviemaking from the silent era (The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Metropolis) to postwar stardom (Romy Schneider, Curt Jurgens, Berliners
Hildegard Knef, Hardy Krüger, and Elke Sommer). The in-between period includes clips from Leni Riefenstahl's 1936 to 1938 Olympics documentaries, along with retrospectives of Goebbels-approved propaganda stuff
churned out to glorify Third Reich mania.
However, it is the world's most famous Berlin-born actress who steals the show. Three museum rooms are devoted to Marlene Dietrich's sixty-year career in Germany and Hollywood. On display are
items acquired from her estate – cinema and stage wardrobes, props, glamour photographs, correspondence, scripts and song sheets, "MD" personalized luggage, and screenings of films from her private
collection. In the same Filmhaus building on Potsdamer Strasse, movie memorabilia adorns Billy Wilder's, a café-bar named for the Hollywood director, another notable Berliner.
Entertainment venues include Musical Theater Berlin, at Marlene-Dietrich-Platz, where Disney's adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame world-premiered in 1999 (followed by Cats three years
later), at the giant-screen Imax-Kino, a 3,500-seat cineplex, and a Spielbank casino. Berlin's International Film Festival is Sony Center's glitziest event, held annually in February…
For more, subscribe today!
Would the Real Sankt Valentin Please Stand Up?
by Robert A. Selig
Which of the many “Saints Valentine” (including two German representatives) is the true symbol of love?
February 14 is Valentine's Day – the day of lovers, sweets, turtledoves, and flowers. Is it more a marketing invention by greeting card companies, candy manufacturers, and the local flower shop to
drum up some business in the dull days between Christmas and Easter? Tempting as this explanation may be for some of our readers, there really was a Saint Valentine, whose feast day is celebrated fervently,
albeit usually without the "Saint" before his name, in staunchly Protestant America, and more recently again in Germany as well. Who was the man and what does he have to do with Valentine's Day?
The answer to this question is not as simple as it may seem, for even a cursory look in any of the current dictionaries of Catholic saints reveals at least half a dozen Saints Valentine, and the
earliest histories of the church dating the fourth century AD already list three of them under the date of 14 February. Two of them, who most likely are identical in the person of Saint Valentine of Terni, lived
in Italy; the third suffered his martyrdom in North Africa and was buried there.
A fourth Italian Saint Valentine is Saint Valentine of Viterbo who, together with his fellow priest Hilarius, was executed either under Emperor Maximian (286 to 305) or Diokletian (307 to 308) and
was buried along the Via Cassia near Viterbo. He is first mentioned in a text of 788. His relics were transferred from the church built over his tomb to the monastery of Farfa early in the ninth century, where
he was venerated on his feast day, 3 November, well into the fifteenth century. Some historians think he may be identical to Valentine of Terni.
By the middle of the eighth century, we also find the first Saint Valentine in Germany, venerated particularly in Bavaria south of the Danube and in the Alpine regions of Austria and the South
Tyrol. Saint Valentine of Raetia, named after a province of the Roman Empire that covered most of the Bavarian and Austrian Alps, became bishop of Passau around 435 AD. Driven out repeatedly by the local
heathens, he worked as a missionary in the area and died around 475 in Meran in the South Tyrol. In 739, his remains were transferred to Trient. Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria then had them brought to Passau in
761. Together with Saint Maximilian, Saint Valentine became the Patron Saint of the bishopric of Passau.
Through the popular identification of his name with the verb fallen, to fall, Saint Valentin (Falle Nicht Hin) of Raetia, Valtl in the dialects of southern Germany, is called upon to help against
epilepsy, muscle cramps, and gout, and is often portrayed with a crippled child at his feet. The similarity of his name with Saint Veit or Veitl, another helper against epilepsy, reinforced his cult, which also
includes protection against cattle pests. Swallowing small pieces of wood from the altar of Saint Valentin in the cathedral of Meran was said to help against toothaches; in Würzburg, relics of Saint Valentin
were placed on the heads of children afflicted with gout. His feast day, 7 January, is still celebrated in the Catholic dioceses of Bozen-Brixen, Linz, Passau, and St. Pölten…
For more, subscribe today!
Saxon Switzerland: Eastern Germany’s Best Hiking
by Joe Browne
Do not be confused by the name – this part of eastern Germany provides phenomenal views and wonderful hiking.
East of Dresden, the Elbe River begins wide loops around dramatic explosions of vertical, stone outcroppings. In riverside villages, some of the large vacation houses designed in the exuberant
styles of Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany sag in various stages of decay. Others, newly restored with orange tiled roofs and shiny copper gutters, herald the revival of Saxon Switzerland, one of Germany’s premier
hiking regions and national parks.
A popular vacation destination in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, hard times followed World War II and the Iron Curtain’s division of Germany. Three of us, occasional hikers at best,
set off by train for two days of hiking in Saxon Switzerland, lured by pictures of its fractured landscape and stories of the revival of its old towns.
Arriving in Dresden, we hurriedly bought a hiking map and rushed to catch the next local S-Bahn train. It snakes its way along the Elbe River stopping twice every hour in every town from
Dresden to the Czech border.
We stayed in Stadt Wehlen, only thirty minutes from Dresden. Leaving the train, we walked the short distance to the ferry crossing. On the opposite shore, the town hugged the narrow flat
land between the river and the mountain, and stretched up the mountain on terraces. Built mostly in the early twentieth century as a refuge for Dresden’s upper class, some of the large stuccoed houses, now
divided into apartments and pensions, needed new plaster and paint. Others showed signs of recent renovation. Walking through the main square of the town, Greta said she felt like she was stepping back fifty
years in time. “Or maybe seventy or eighty years,” Carolyn added. Though the owner of our pension offered to meet us at the ferry, we chose to walk along the river road, admiring the old houses and their neat
geometric gardens.
That afternoon we walked up to the Bastei, the most accessible and spectacular rock outcroppings, cliffs and pillars. From Stadt Wehlen we followed clearly marked trails up through a dark,
manicured beech forest, its fallen branches and dead trees somehow magically removed. We congratulated each other as we reached the top of the rock platform that spreads out along the Elbe River…
For more, subscribe today!
Literary Leipzig – City of “The Black Art”
by Lucy Gordan
Stroll the streets and experience a history of the printed word amid memories of literary greats.
On September 28, 1481, an itinerant typographer named Marcus Brandis from Delitzsch, a little town north of Leipzig, printed Leipzig’s first printed book: Johannes Annius Viterbiensis’s De futuris
Christianorum triumphis in Saracenos, seu glossa super Apocalypsin. The number of copies Brandis printed of this commentary on the Apocalypse is not known, but there are thirty-three surviving copies – in
Belgium, Denmark, Czech Republic, Germany (three in Leipzig), Great Britain, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, and the United States (Library of Congress, Harvard and Brown Universities, and the Huntington Library).
Other early typographers in Leipzig include Martin Landsberg and Konrad Kachelofen who opened workshops in 1485 to 1486. Moritz Brandis (probably a brother of Marcus), Gregor Boettigers, and
Arnold von Köln did the same in the late 1480s, but Brandis went bankrupt and left Leipzig in 1490; Köln died in 1496 and Boettigers the next year.
In 1498, Jakob Thanner from Würzburg started a printing business and around the same time Melchior Lotter, probably from Aue in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains), south of Leipzig, took over from his
father-in-law, Kachelofen, and became very successful.
Around the turn of the century there were four printing workshops in Leipzig: Lotter, Landsberg, Stöckel (who had married Köln’s widow and took over the business), and Thanner. They were joined by
Valentin Schumann in 1513. By 1530, about 1300 titles – ordered by the church or the university – had been printed here; these included liturgical items, theological, philosophical, legal, and mathematical
works, as well as first editions of ancient classics and works on the Reformation.
In fact, Leipzig, the second-largest city in former East Germany, with a population of about 560,000, has been a center of printing and bookselling since its first book fair in 1493, except for a
hiatus during Communist domination from 1945 to 1989. Actually, from the eighteenth century through World War II, it was the headquarters of German book publishing. Around 1900, there were as many as one hundred
forty-four book publishers in the well-known “Graphic Quarter” (east of the city center).
Since the 1989 democratic revolution, every March – March 25 to 28, 2004 – during the Leipzig International Book Fair, the world’s biggest literature festival called “Leipzig Reads” with its
readings and discussions with authors at the city’s numerous bookshops, libraries, and restaurants, is a special attraction for all literature-lovers. Of similar appeal during “Literary Autumn” are readings by
famous German and foreign authors, discussion forums with publishers, and theater performances with a literary connection, all held at the Kuratorium “Haus des Buches.”
In Goethe’s Faust, a character named Frosch calls Leipzig, “a little Paris,” thanks to its importance in a classical literary movement during the eighteenth century under the leadership of German
scholar and writer Johann Christoph Gottsched. Two literary two-hour walking tours can be booked in English through the partner company of Leipzig Tourist Service: Gaestefuehrungen Leipzig und Umland…
For more, subscribe today!
Gallery:
Mississippi Hosts The Glory of Baroque Dresden
by Jessica Sankey
In May of 1994, the Mississippi Commission for International Cultural Exchange Inc. (MCICE) was founded to organize fine arts exhibitions and related performance and educational activities. Since
that time, such exhibitions as Palaces of St.Petersberg: Russian Imperial Style, Splendors of Versailles and The Majesty of Spain: Royal Collections from the Museo del Prado and Patrimonio Nacional, have been
showcased in Mississippi. The latest exhibition – The Glory of Baroque Dresden – will be shown exclusively in Jackson, Mississippi, from March 1 through September 6, 2004. This collection, featuring over 400
major artworks, is the first major exhibition from Dresden in the United States in twenty-five years and the first since the reunification of East and West Germany.
The artwork reflects baroque art during the time of Poland’s King August the Strong (1670 to 1733) and his son, King August III (1696 to 1763), and is drawn from eight of the State Art
Collections, Dresden, Germany. The collection began in 1567 when Elector Augustus, who helped Dresden flourish with culture under his reign, ordered the first inventory of the collection. Included among the
items are magnificent examples of German, Italian, French, Spanish, and Flemish Renaissance period artworks, all purchased by Elector Augustus.
The Glory of Baroque Dresden exhibition features a pricey collection of jewels from the famous Green Vault of the Dresden Castle, including the forty-one carat Dresden Green Diamond, the only
large diamond with a naturally green color, surrounded by white diamonds. The Rose-Diamond Garniture and the Moor with Emerald Tray sculpture by Balthazar Permoser and Johann Melchior Dinglinger are also
included in this collection…
For more, subscribe today!
Profile:
Heinz Beck – Rome’s Best Chef
by Lucy Gordan
As the saying goes, "All roads lead to Rome," but who could ever have imagined that the "Eternal City's” best chef is not Roman and not even Italian. Since 1998, when he won
three forks in the Gambero Rosso guide, this honor has belonged continuously to dynamic and scrupulously meticulous Heinz Beck, who was born on November 3, 1963, in Friedrichschafen, also the birthplace of the
airbus zeppelin, on Lake Constance in Bavaria.
A blond, wiry, left-handed elf straight out of a Grimm fairy tale, Beck grew up and was trained as a chef in Altötting, halfway between Passau and Munich. "I didn't want to become a
chef," Beck told me in the lounge of La Pergola, the elegant roof-top restaurant of Rome's Cavalieri Hilton, where he has been Executive Chef since 1994. "I wanted to become an artist, a painter. My
father, who was a jeweler, wouldn't let me because, unless I turned out to be extremely talented or lucky, I could not count on a steady income. My identical twin Hermann wanted to become a chef, so I said: ‘OK,
I will too.’ ‘God forbid,’ my father thundered again, 'with two chefs in the family, the dinner conversation will only be about cooking.’”
So they flipped a coin and Hermann went off immediately to hotel management school and then to the Holiday Inn management program. He became Manager of a Holiday Inn and eventually the
Holiday Inn Food and Beverage Development Manger for Asia, Africa, and Europe. Then he left the hotel business, moved to Dublin, and became the Development Manager for United Distilleries. "However,"
said Beck, "Hermann missed the personal contact he'd had with his 'guests,' so, in 2000, he bought the Holiday Inn Royal Victoria in Sheffield, England."
Unlike his twin, Beck's professional training was almost exclusively in Michelin-starred restaurants in Germany: Commis de Cuisine at Feinkost Kaefer in Munich, 1985 to 1986; Chef de Partie
at the Colombi Hotel in Freiburg, 1986 to 1989; Chef de Partie at Heinz Winkler's "Tantris" in Munich, 1989 to 1991; and Sous Chef at the Residenz Heinz Winkler in Aschau, 1991 to 1993…
For more, subscribe today!
Language:
Norbert Krapf, German-American Author
by Gert Niers
Like no other contemporary author, Norbert Krapf has used the tools of literature to articulate his German-American identity. His artistic approach, especially in poetry, often sets out from the
autobiographic level, that is his personal history and that of his family, and arrives at a universal observation or statement.
The language of his poems is simple and without pretense. Krapf once referred to his lyric texts as narrative poetry which explains the easy legibility of his ongoing lines and strophes.
The author, who was born in Jasper (southern Indiana) in 1943, spent most of his adult life on Long Island (New York) as a professor of English. In this capacity, he has been director of the C.W.
Post Poetry Center, Long Island University. Recently, he made definite plans to return with his family to Indiana.
During his long professional career, Norbert Krapf has distinguished himself as an editor, translator, author of prose, and, most remarkably, as a poet. Several of his short poetry collections
have later been combined into larger and more accessible editions. Of the more recently published volumes, the following must be mentioned: Somewhere in Southern Indiana: Poems of Midwestern Origins (St. Louis,
Missouri: Time Being Books, 1993), Blue-Eyed Grass: Poems of Germany (same publisher, 1997), Bittersweet Along the Expressway: Poems of Long Island (Hardwick, Massachusetts: Waterline Books, 2000), and The
Country I Come From (Santa Maria, California: Archer Books, 2002).
One can accurately define the artistic concept of this author as an extensive search for self-identification. The volume Somewhere in Southern Indiana presents a poetic family chronicle, an
ancestral gallery including a self-portrait, whose title also serves as the title of the whole book. We find in this collection relatively long poems that tell a story or describe an episode. It is important to
point out that the German-American experience is viewed as a generally human experience: this approach overcomes any naïve, self-centered perspective…
For more, subscribe today!
Calendar
Leavenworth, WA
February 6-7: Fasching. A pre-Lenten celebration in the German tradition with a costume party for children, a costume ball for adults, processions and games. For more
information call (509) 548-5807 or visit www.leavenworth.org.
Charlotte, NC
February 7: Fasching. Sponsored by the Austrian Culture Society of the Carolinas, the Alemannia Society, the German-American Club, the Swiss Society, the Charlotte Sister Cities
and the World Affairs Council. An evening full of fine dining, music and a silent auction. For information visit www.austrianculturesociety.com.
Batavia, IL
February 7: DANK Fox Valley Fasching Dance. Theme: Lumpen Ball (Hobo’s Ball) complete with traditional and German polka music by the Polkaholics. For more information call (630)
232-0099 or visit www.germanfun.org.
Lancaster, PA
February 7: Fasching with Heimat Klaenge. Sponsored by the Lancaster Liederkranz. For information visit www.lancasterliederkranz.com.
New York, NY
February 7: Kölsche Funke rut wieß New York Grand Masquerade Ball. Celebrating Karneval, Fasching and Mardi Gras. Located at Plattdütsche Park in Franklin Square. For information
call (718) 478-4049 or (718) 428-2296 or visit www.kfny1961.org.
Reading, PA
February 7: 43rd First Fasching. Sponsored by the Reading Liederkranz. For information visit www.readingliederkranz.com.
Johnsonville, WI
February 7-8, 14-15, 21-22: Fasching. Sponsored by Dorf Kapelle (Village Band). Enjoy three fun-filled weekends of food, spirits and entertainment. Reservations required. For
information call (920) 893-3054 or visit www.dorfkapelle.com or email dorfman@cybrzn.com.
Reading, PA
February 14: Second Fasching. Sponsored by the Reading Liederkranz. For information visit www.readingliederkranz.com.
Cape Coral, FL
February 15: Garten Fest. Celebrate German-American culture and heritage with authentic German food and beer from noon to 5:00 pm (Fee). For information call (239) 283-1400 or
visit www.gasc-capecoral.com.
Baltimore, MD
February 21: Karneval Ball. Sponsored by the Zion Church. Arrive in formal attire or costume, mingle on the dance floor and enjoy delicious foot catered by Old World Delicatessen.
For information call (410) 727-3939, visit www.zionbaltimore.org or email zionbaltimore@aol.com.
Cincinnati, OH
February 21: Fasching. Sponsored by the Donauschwaben Society. For information visit www.donauschwaben.com.
Lancaster, PA
February 21: Lumpen Ball. Sponsored by the Lancaster Liederkranz. For information visit www.lancasteliederkranz.com.
New Ulm, MN
February 21: Fasching. Sponsored by The Concord Singers. Featuring German food, music, dancing, crafts and an parade of costumes. For information call (507) 354-8850.
New Ulm, MN
February 21: Bock Fest. An all-outdoor event featuring music, food, medallion hunts, bonfires, brewery tours and beer. For information call (800) 770-5020 or visit www.schellsbrewery.com.
Washington, DC
February 21: Fasching Ball. Located in Fairfax. Homemade German food and beverages, costume prizes and dancing to two great bands. For information call (202) 310-4691 or visit www.saengerbund.org.
Gretna, LA
February 22: Mystic Knights of Adonis Parade. Located in downtown Gretna. For information call 1-888-4GRETNA or (504) 363-1580.
Gretna, LA
February 23: Lundi Gras Celebration. Located in Gretna Market. For information call 1-888-4GRETNA or (504) 363-1580.
Grand Forks, ND
February 28- April 11: Snow County Prison Exhibit. This public program contains observations and remembrances on the German internment camp at Fort Lincoln during World War II.
Features photographs from the camp, videos and stories of events that took place at the internment camp. For information call the North Dakota Museum of Art at (701) 777-4195.
Jackson, MS
March 1 – September 6, 2004: The Glory of Baroque Dresden exhibition (see “Gallery” of this issue). For information call (601) 960-9900 or visit www.gloryofdresden.com.
Cape Coral, FL
March 7: Garten Fest. Celebrate German-American culture and heritage with authentic German food and beer. From noon to 5:00 pm. Fee. For information visit www.gasc-capecoral.com.
St. Louis, MO
March 8: Rosenball. Sponsored by the German Cultural Society. Featuring the Trachtengruppe at the DKV-Hall. For information contact Maria Thalheimer at (314) 842-0332 or Ursula
Fox at (314) 843-4073.
LeGrange, TX
March 13: Texas German Society 20th State Convention. Featuring an exhibition of German Texans and the Houston Liederkranz Shantychor in costume singing songs of the sea. For
information call Mannie Fritsch-Schmid at (979) 968-3382 or email mannief@cmaacess.com.
Reading, PA
March 13: 53rd Bock Bier Fest. Sponsored by the Reading Liederkranz. For information visit www.readingliederkranz.com.
St. Paul, MN
March 19: Rites of Spring. Benefits the German American Heritage Foundation. A celebration of German music and the cultural elements that define the community. For information call
(651) 489-4656 or visit www. gahf.org.
Benton Harbor, MI
March 20: DANK #13 (German Club) 40th Anniversary Celebration. For information call (269) 926-6652.
Lancaster, PA
March 20: Bock Bier Fest with Heimat Echo. Sponsored by the Lancaster Liederkranz. For information visit www.lancasterliederkranz.com.
Cincinnati, OH
March 26: Spring Tour of Anton aus Tirol, Bettina Stark, Die Abtalstreuner and Kristen Rempt. Located at the Donauschwaben Club. For information contact Helmut Wolfram at (513)
451-6452.
Akron, OH
March 27: Spring Tour of Anton aus Tirol, Bettina Stark, Die Abtalstreuner and Kristen Rempt. Located at the Donauschwaben Club. For information contact Hermine at (330) 336-7127.
Pittsburgh, PA
March 27: Annual Debutante Viennese Ball of Pittsburgh. Presented by the Austrian Cultural Society, Inc. at the Grand Hall of the Priory. For information call (412) 366-8980.
Tomball, TX
March 27: Tomball German Heritage Festival. Presented by the Tomball Sister City Organization. Featuring German and Bavarian food, music and entertainment. For information visit www.ci.tomball.tx.us or email Grady Martin at grandsand@yahoo.com.
Hermann, MO
March 27-28: 25th Annual Wurstfest. Featuring a “Weiner Dog Derby”, sausage-making demonstrations and German music and folk dancing. For information call (800) 932-8687 or visit www.hermanmo.com.
Toledo, OH
March 28: Spring Tour of Anton aus Tirol, Bettina Stark, Die Abtalstreuner and Kristen Rempt. Presented by the Schwaben Verein. For more information contact Herman Schmalzried at
(419) 867-1008.
Buffalo, NY
March 30: Spring Tour of Anton aus Tirol, Bettina Stark, Die Abtalstreuner and Kristen Rempt. Located at Club Lorelei. For more information contact Christel Wende at (716) 875-1065.
St. Louis, MO
March 30: Wurstmarkt. Sponsored by the German Cultural Society at the DKV-Hall. Proceeds benefit Donau-Park. For information visit www.germanstl.org.
Toronto, Canada
March 31: Spring Tour of Anton aus Tirol, Bettina Stark, Die Abtalstreuner and Kristen Rempt. Sponsored by the Donauschwaben Society. For information call (416) 290-6186.
|
