Fieldtrip: Pillnitz

This is Pillnitz.

It's a collection of palaces and grounds located on the east edge of Dresden dating back to the late 1600s, though it's seen its fair share of redecorations, remodels, and reconstructions since then.

Located pretty far from the bustling city center, Pillnitz served as summer residence for Saxony's royalty and also as home to at least two particularly beloved mistresses of Saxony's kings.

 

The Japanese and Chinese influence is unmistakable, but there's still some Baroque in there, in keeping with the royal family's go-to aesthetic.

 It's a quiet place located right on the Elbe River, and can be reached by ferry.

 And it has a hedge maze.

And on a summer weekday morning, you may there find a plentitude of gray-haired leisure-seekers in khaki jackets and sandals with socks, a photo-snapping gang of Japanese tourists, and these two — a woman and her child widowed and orphaned, respectively, by science.

In loving memory of my darling Jake who has been brainwashed by a doctoral thesis and dragged away by a grizzly band of academics. I guess we had a pretty good run.



JEM

The Human Chain

In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that while between 10 and 15,000 people peacefully protested the Nazi demonstration in the inner-city with their human chain, across the river, thousands of left-wing activists tackled the Nazis head on, at the location they had decided to move their march to. The lefties stood on train tracks, built barricades out of garbage, turned over cars, and attacked buses to block the arriving neo-Nazis. Their efforts are probably the real reason no neo-Nazi rally was held in Dresden this year. Check out this video for a little footage of the madness:



I, for one, question fighting violence, hatred, and extremism with violence, hatred, and extremism. I subscribe to the American freedom-of-speech ideal that allows anyone the chance to say anything, and assumes that what's right will float to the top. I'm finding many Europeans don't feel the same way about freedom of speech. The "bad" people and the "bad" ideas are often forcefully silenced here, sometimes by the law and sometimes by the other side, the "good" people and the "good" ideas. It's hard to disagree with people who want to force out neo-Nazism, a pretty obvious bad guy, but ultimately who's deciding what's good and what's bad? Of course, in a country where Nazism was once one of the ideas that floated to the top, maybe they've learned something here that we in America haven't yet — that trusting the open marketplace of ideas is a dangerous and flawed path.

At any rate, it appears that something like 20,000 Dresdners left the comfort of their homes on a frigid February day to defend their city's honor. And regardless of whether you agree with all the methods, I think anyone will have to admit that that's a pretty impressive statement.



JEM

An American President in Dresden

Guess who's coming to Dresden next week?

That's right, our president is coming to visit us. Presumably, he'll be wearing a shirt. Though all bets are off on the suitcoat.

The city of Dresden appears to be quite stoked about the whole (rather baffling) situation, as evidenced by this photo on the city website of our mayor smiling with her TEETH!!!

The enthusiasm is also made evident by the site's "craft corner", which offers several high resolution print-offs that can be turned into little flags so that we can all greet the American president in the manner to which he's accustomed (thanks for the tip, Adrienne):

Reports say he won't be here on state business and won't be stopping by Berlin to shake hands with Angela Merkel (much to her party's chagrin in this election year). This article in Der Spiegel says it's a "personal trip", in part to visit the Buchenwald concentration camp, which is not far from here. The president's great-uncle served as an American infantryman in this area during World War II and took part in the liberation of one of Buchenwald's smaller satellite work camps.

Other reports say that the President also plans to visit locations in Dresden particularly significant to the 1945 firebombing of the city, including the Frauenkirche. Some suggest he may make a statement in Dresden "acknowledging German suffering in World War II", which has apparently infuriated some Americans, who feel that doing so would not only be an apology, but would also somehow validate Nazism. (Take your pick from the raging blogosphere here.)

I'm far from an expert on WWII or the bombing of this city, but I know enough to know that tens of thousands of people died that night in a truly horrifying fashion. I'm not going to say that it was right or wrong. War is hell, as the saying goes, and we certainly know that the German Luftwaffe took scores of lives in the exact same manner in Great Britain prior to the bombing of Dresden. Military strategy aside, however, I know that most of the people who died on Feb. 13, 1945, in Dresden were civilians, including women and children, and many were refugees. I don't know how many of those were Nazi sympathizers, but I do know they were all human. And I can acknowledge that they and their families suffered. I don't think doing so diminishes the crimes Nazi Germany committed or my own American patriotism.

If the rumors are true about the statement Obama will make here, I'm glad. I think it's a nice gesture, and a good reminder that our enemies, no matter who or where they are, are all human. And they suffer, too. Just like Americans.

Herzlich willkommen in Dresden, Mr. President. I hope you enjoy your stay.



JEM

Dresden 2/13/2009

*** Note: The bombing of Dresden was 64 years ago, not 54 years ago, which I say in this video. Apologies for my pathetic math skills and a special thank you to my Uncle Dyle for being able to solve the simple subtraction problem that I apparently could not. ***





JEM

The Nazis Are Coming

Today once again marks the anniversary of the infamous 1945 Allied firebombing of Dresden that, in one night, leveled most of the city and killed somewhere between 24,000 and 40,000 of its inhabitants.

Neo-Nazis rally along the Elbe River in Dresden, across from the city's famous Frauenkirche.
(Photo from 2005 timesonline.co.uk article.)

And tomorrow, as they do every every year, the Neo-Nazis will descend on Dresden promoting their belief that the firebombing of Dresden was, in actuality, a racist holocaust enacted against Germans. Anywhere from 6,000 to 8,000 are expected to gather downtown tomorrow, prompting a massive police operation that will involve over 3,000 officers. There will also, of course, be a massive left-wing counter-protest, and I'm sure the police force will be kept busy. An e-mail was sent around the biotechnology institute where Jake works warning all foreigners either to be especially careful downtown or to avoid it altogether.

My initial reaction upon hearing news of the rally was, "Oh man. I am so there." Purely for curiosity and educational reasons, of course. But the more I think about spending my Valentine's Day with Neo-Nazis, the less appealing it sounds. Besides, it's probably not the best atmosphere to be bringing a baby into. Even if said baby is an Aryan.



JEM

P.S. Stay tuned for a video tour of a couple of sites particularly significant to the 1945 bombing of Dresden.

Nazism Not Good, Claim Protesters

We stumbled upon an anti-Nazi demonstration a couple of weeks ago.

We were headed to Dresden’s main train station at the heart of the city to buy me a new public transit month pass, when we noticed a number of law enforcement vans and SWAT teams decked out in body armor searching people. After getting off the tram, we had to pass through a row of police officers, who stopped us and asked if we were there for the rally. Turns out we’d arrived just in time for a major anti-Nazi march, which was convening at, and would shortly be embarking from, the train station.

These happen pretty frequently in Germany. Dresden’s last big anti-Nazi rally was about 8 months ago. They tend to draw out lots of liberal young adults, many of them punks with Kool-Aid hair, most of them dressed in black, a lot of them likely socialists. More or less the same people you’d see at a vegan march or an Iraq War protest. Rally kids.

As a foreigner, I find these anti-Nazi rallies particularly interesting. Considering that people generally rally to bring awareness to issues that the public is split on or undecided over, could there really be a need for a rally informing us that Nazism is bad? Haven’t we all pretty much been in agreement on that since — y’know — 1945?

For an American, sure, it’s that simple. Of course, for an American, Nazis have been considered enemies of the State from Day 1, or darn close to it. In Germany, it’s a little more complicated. For Germans, the Nazis of World War II aren’t simply the sadistic Aryan caricatures that they are to most Americans. For Germans, the connections are often personal, and the reasons are visible. The Nazis were the ones who temporarily brought Germany out of a devastating economic tailspin, creating jobs and slashing Germany’s whopping post-WWI unemployment rate. They’re the ones who built the Autobahn, for crying out loud.

Obviously Germans today are aware of the atrocities the Nazi party wreaked during WWII. They’re painfully aware. It’s a burden every German — whether they were alive during WWII or not — carries. (This fantastic piece from the German news magazine Der Spiegel goes into it more deeply than I could ever attempt to as a non-German — and it’s in English.)

But the point is, Germany’s relationship with Nazism is a complicated one, and nowhere in Germany is this complex relationship more apparent than it is in the former East Germany, particularly here in the state of Saxony. Thanks largely to high unemployment and a general sense of disappointment in Democracy’s promises of prosperity, a rising number of young East Germans are finding a sympathetic ear in thinly-veiled neo-fascism.

Germany’s far right political party, the Nationaldemokratische Partei or NPD, never overtly associates itself with neo-Nazism, but openly touts ideas such as making German citizenship impossible for any “African, Asian or Oriental”. By and large in Germany, the NPD is considered racist and extremist and not taken very seriously since it’s never gained the minimum 5 percent of votes required for the party to be able to send delegates to the German Parliament. But in the 2004 state election in Saxony, the NPD won 9.2 percent of the overall vote. The next state election will be next year, and the NPD is expected to retain its seats. They’re doing it with the help, primarily, of young, single, male, blue collar Saxons who feel the NPD is the only party that will listen to them. (You can read a little more about their history and recruitment methods, which focus on milking public fear and anger at vulnerable moments, here.)

So that’s why the left-wing rally kids feel the need to remind everyone that Nazism is a bad thing.

Though I suspect this fight won't be as simple as saving the sea otters.

JEM

German and Not German

Now presenting 11 things that are and aren't German:

1. German chocolate cake. Not German.

2. Gummy bears. German.

3. Adolf Hitler. Not German.


4. The Scorpions. German.

5. Albert Einstein. German.

6. German pancakes. Trick question. Based on a German dish but reinterpreted by Americans, such that it no longer resembles the German dish at all.


7. Mannheim Steamroller. Not German.

8. Almost every fairy tale you've ever heard. German.

9. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not German.


10. La Bouche. Another trick question. One-quarter German, three-quarters American, but established in Germany.

11. T-Mobile. German.

BONUS: David Hasselhoff. Not German. (Although I'm sure they'd grant him citizenship if he asked.)

A magazine in the waiting room of my OBGYN.

JEM

Happy German Unity Day!

On Nov. 9, 1989, buckling under the pressure of a collapsing regime, the communist government of the German Democratic Republic lifted all travel restrictions previously placed on East Germans.

From 1945, when the Soviets took control of Germany's five eastern states and the eastern half of the city-state of Berlin in the fallout of World War II, to 1961, the border between East and West Germany was relatively soft, resulting in many East Germans emigrating to the West in pursuit of better wages and fleeing political oppression. But on Aug. 13, 1961, East German troops sealed the border and construction began on the Berlin Wall. For the next 28 years, it was virtually impossible for ordinary East German citizens to travel west of the Iron Curtain. At least 136 people were killed attempting it.

So, when the announcement was made on Nov. 9, 1989, that East Germans could now cross the border at their whim and leisure, it was understandably epic. In Berlin Westerners and Easterners flooded to the wall that divided the city and tore it apart in their efforts to embrace each other.

Nearly one year later, on Oct. 3, 1990, the Federal Republic of Germany (a.k.a. West Germany) formally welcomed back their Eastern brothers and sisters, reuniting a nation that had been severed for 45 years.

Germans refer to those events as "die Wende", or "the turning point", and since that day have dubbed every Oct. 3 "der Tag der deutschen Einheit", or "the Day of German Unity".

And that, dear readers, is why we over here in Germany don't have to go to work today. So I don't want to hear any whining. You want a day off? Reunite a nation and peacefully play a major role in the fall of a massive, corrupt regime and then we'll talk.



JEM

One Night in Würzburg

This is Würzburg, Germany. It's located in the northernmost tip of Bavaria in a region called Franconia and is home to roughly 135,000 people. It was first described as a town in the year 762, and over the coming centuries was a front row seat to all manner of Medieval exploits. Between 1626 and 1631 it was the epicenter of one of the most massive witch trials in history, and in 1945, just a little over a month after the bombing of Dresden, the Royal Air Force pummeled it with 1,127 tons of bombs, including about 370,000 incendiaries, destroying about 90 percent of the city in 17 minutes.

It's also the birthplace of Jake's two older sisters, Laura, who visited us about a month ago, and Amy, who has been touring Germany and Austria with her husband Dave since Saturday.

Amy and her birthplace

Both women were born while their father, Paul Michaelson, was stationed at the U.S. Army Garrison Franconia, based in Würzburg, for several years during the 1970s. Both were toddlers when the family left Germany and have basically no recollection of their early childhood here, but both felt compelled to come back and explore their birthplace. So it was actually lucky that their baby brother took off for the Vaterland, since it gave them a valid excuse to return.

Jake and I also wanted to see the city his parents speak of with such fondness, and since we were unable to see it with Laura and John, we took the chance to hop in with Amy and Dave.

Unfortunately, the weather was rotten.

But Amy, in all her wisdom, said she liked it better that way because it all felt more (for lack of a better word) "German".

We visited the royal residence in the center of the city, which was lovely.

It had really cool grounds.

And then we crossed the Main River and hiked up to the fortress you can see behind us in this picture:


After which I went into labor.

Not really.


But we had a super view.

Then we found the military base where Amy spent her toddler years, which was all but abandoned, since it's being decommissioned this year and, according to the guy at our hotel, turned over for use by the University of Würzburg. But we were still able to locate the church where Amy was blessed as a baby ...

... and the hospital where she made her big debut.

We also found a traditional German clothing shop where Amy tried on dirndls and looked so adorable that my brain literally exploded.

Unfortunately they don't make maternity dirndls, so I couldn't join in the fun, and Dave and Jake weren't too keen on trying out the knee socks and lederhosen, though they would've undoubtedly looked dashing.

Then, sadly, Jake and I had to hop a train back to Dresden so that I could teach an English class that night. But Amy and Dave will head back this way tomorrow before they fly back to the States on Saturday, and we can't wait to hear about the adventures they had without us.

Thanks for coming out, guys! We had a blast with you.




JEM