Man of Labor, Wake up!

The memory of "175 years of the 1848/49 Revolution" commemorated last year is fading, but Heinz Siebold did it again. 

This time, he presented the Revolution and the Labor Movement.

The Revolution of 1848/49 was primarily a bourgeois revolution. Its ideas were supported by two population groups, the supporters of a limited monarchy and the liberals, who sought a democratic constitution without a crowned ruler at the head of a united Germany.

In 1850, 55% of the German population was rural and peasant, and workers (24%) only played a role in revolutionary events in large cities such as Berlin or Vienna.

Wilhelm Liebknecht was an active participant in the Baden Revolution,
Ferdinand Lassalle founded the General German Workers' Association, and
Georg Herwegh is regarded as the poet of the Revolution of 1846/49.

A workers' movement had already been organized in the 1830s. Ferdinand Lassalle founded the Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein (ADAV) in Leipzig on May 23, 1836, and is considered the father of social democracy in German-speaking countries. Note that Lassalle was far from being a proletarian; he died prematurely, shot in a duel over a woman. Red Baron visited Lassalle's grave in Wroclaw, formerly Breslau, in 2010.

The redecorated Tivoli (©A.Savin/Wikipedia)

From 1869, the ADAV competed with the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) until the two organizations met at the Tivoli at Gotha from May 22-27, 1875, and united at the Fusion Party Congress to form the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany, the immediate predecessor of Germany's modern Social Democratic Party (SPD). Red Baron visited Gotha in 2020.

The social question was an essential topic of the Revolution of 1848/49. As early as September 12, 1847, in Offenburg, in the 13 demands of the people in Baden, Article 10 stated: We demand equalization of the disproportion between labor and capital. Society is obliged to elevate and protect labor. 

Marx's and Engels's Communist Manifesto did not appear until February 21, 1948.

The question of social justice accompanied the Revolution from the beginning to its bitter end. On July 18, 1849, Ernst Elsenhans wrote in one of the last editions of the Festungs-Bote (fortress messenger) before the besieged revolutionaries entrenched in the Federal Fortress Rastatt - their last retreat - surrendered to the superior Prussian army on July 23: 

What is social democracy, and what does it want?

Democracy will give us neither work nor bread, it will not pay our due interest, and it will not free us from worries and suffering, for in solving its task of bringing the people to power, it always comes up against the disproportion of property of ownership. 

Socialism seeks to abolish this inequality, this disproportion, by establishing equality. It wants to put an end to the oppression and untruth that prevails everywhere and to the desolate misery that we see in the lower classes, i.e., in the vast majority of the population. It presses for the continuous improvement of the moral, spiritual, and physical existence of the most numerous and poorest class. It strives for the rule of labor, or at least its equality with capital, instead of the rule of capital. 

The distribution of property, according to the desire of the socialists, is to be made dependent on labor, and thus, the greatest possible equality among men is to be obtained; every industrious, orderly, and skillful man is to be given the opportunity of acquiring as much property as is necessary for the reasonable enjoyment of life. 

The equalization of labor with capital, in other words, the organization of labor, and consequently the abolition of the monstrous disproportion between the haves and have-nots, the so-called proletariat, is what socialism is concerned with.

Today, one would write: Men and Women of Labor, Wake up!

The phrase Alle Räder stehen still, wenn dein starker Arm es will is taken from the Union Song (Bundeslied) for the General German Workers' Association (Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein). The text is based on a poem written by Georg Herwegh in 1863.

Mann der Arbeit, aufgewacht! Und erkenne deine Macht! Alle Räder stehen still, Wenn dein starker Arm es will. […] Brecht das Doppeljoch entzwei! Brecht die Not der Sklaverei! Brecht die Sklaverei der Not! Brot ist Freiheit, Freiheit Brot!

Man of labor, wake up! And recognize your power! All wheels stand still, When your strong arm wants it. [...] Break the double yoke in two! Break the bondage of slavery! Break the slavery of bondage! Bread is freedom; freedom is bread!

The two protagonists of the evening strike up the Internationale.

We did not sing the Bundeslied, but to round off the evening, we sang the Internationale, the most widespread combat song of the socialist labor movement worldwide.

Its original French lyrics are from 1871, written by Eugène Pottier, a poet and active participant in the Paris Commune. This revolutionary city council formed spontaneously during the Franco-Prussian War. The Belgian Pierre De Geyter composed the song's melody in 1888.

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On the Future of Energy

Coincidence? The other day, Red Baron read an article about a new kind of energy storage.

You know that the critical path for transforming our society to renewable energy is its storage, i.e., bridging the times when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing.

The same day, a friend from Madison emailed me an article on Cold Fusion. But first things first.


A new energy-storage facility using carbon dioxide, the arch-culprit of climate change, is on its way toward becoming a reality in Wisconsin. The facility will use CO₂ as the medium to store sustainable power.

The Energy Dome

Energy Dome, as both the company and technology are called, is essentially a large domed storage facility used to house carbon dioxide. Its technology is based on a closed thermodynamic transformation of CO₂ between its gaseous and liquid states. It is withdrawn from the Dome, an atmospheric gasholder, and compressed. The heat generated from the compression is stored in a thermal energy storage system. The withdrawn CO₂ is liquefied and stored in vessels under pressure at ambient temperature with zero atmospheric emission.

When energy is needed, the CO₂ is heated, evaporated, and sent into an expander before it flows back into the Dome. The expander drives a turbine coupled to a generator, feeding climate-neutral electricity into the grid.

A pilot Energy Dome facility, rated at 20 MW, was built in Sardinia, Italy. It will be scaled up to 200 megawatts for the Wisconsin-based facility, called the Columbia Energy Storage Project, consisting of ten 20-megawatt units. They will boost grid stability and deliver enough electricity to power around 18,000 homes with a single charge.

If regulators approve the application, it will be North America's first zero-pollution Energy Dome facility. Construction should begin in 2026, and it is planned to be online by 2027.

The Energy Dome Company claims that the CO₂ Battery™ should be able to function without degradation of capacity or performance for over 30 years. By comparison, lithium-ion battery storage has a high degradation rate and only lasts around 12 years.

Using carbon dioxide to store energy is a unique solution to the overabundance of this planet-warming gas. It can be used alongside other storage mediums to support a balanced grid powered by sustainable solar and wind energy, further reducing the reliance on fossil fuel sources.

The Energy Dome Company said its patented technology is a zero-pollution storage source operating only on water, steel, and CO₂. Off-the-shelf equipment, standard components, modularity, and scalability make the CO₂ Battery™ more accessible than other typical battery facilities.

Energy storage is good, but having a cheap and reliable energy source would be much better.

Since I was an active physicist, colleagues have tried to reproduce the sun's conditions for generating energy on Earth by fusing atomic nuclei using increasingly sophisticated systems.

For example, in 2022, the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory issued a press release, which Red Baron reported on. Small advances in nuclear fusion are always celebrated, but it will be decades before a working "hot fusion" reactor is achieved, if ever.

In 2011, Italian inventor Andrea Rossi made a name for himself by presenting a reactor based on Cold Fusion. However, he could not obtain a patent for it, as experts argue that Rossi's cold reactor contradicts the generally accepted laws of physics.

Red Baron wrote a blog at the time. Then, things went quiet for Andreas Rossi.

However, in December 2021, he surprisingly announced his E-Cat SKLep power generator. This generator is designed to supply a constant 100 watts of electricity used to charge batteries and operate motors.

Photo of the E-Cat and the E-Cat control unit from the left-hand side of a Renault Twizy

The practical presentation took place on September 27, 2024. Watch for yourself here. 

What should I make of it? An energy generation from the zero. energy field? 

Here is Rossi's scientific publication is here. 

Will industry now pounce on the aggregate and make Rossi a billionaire?

We'll see.

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Do We Have a Good Constitution?

Last Monday, Prof. Rainer Wahl gave a lecture at the Museumsgesellschaft titled: 75 Jahre Bundesrepublik: Haben wir eine gute Verfassung? Sind wir in einer guten Verfassung? (75 years Federal Republic: Do we have a good constitution? Are we in a good constitution?)

On previous anniversaries of our Basic Law (Grundgesetz GG), it was said to be a success story, a stroke of luck, and the best constitution in Germany. In the meantime, judgments have become more restrained because a successful constitutional practice also determines a good overall assessment.

Professor Wahl began his talk by discussing the unique features of the creation of the Basic Law. The founding phase of the Federal Republic is an exceptional case of transforming a dictatorship into a democracy.

Our constitution was not created from nothing; the National Assembly in Frankfurt had already defined and written down fundamental rights in 1849. These texts were then adopted by the Weimar Constitution in 1919 and updated in the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The years 1947 and 48 saw dramatic changes in the world; the Iron Curtain fell, and the Soviets blocked the access routes to Berlin (Berlin Blockade). Meanwhile, the Western Allies helped their occupation zones develop into a constitutional state and a democracy under their control. On May 8, 1945, the day of defeat, there were no millions of democrats, nor were there any on May 23, 1949, when the Basic Law was passed.

How can a defeated people, after 12 years of Nazi dictatorship, suddenly vote on a democratic constitution?

The founding fathers and a few mothers were wise and made the newly founded federal states vote on the constitution, with Bavaria being the only state not to agree to the Basic Law.

In the discussion that followed the lecture, I said that this voting method was also a stroke of luck, as was the adoption of the Basic Law when the East German states were integrated into the Federal Republic. It had to happen quickly. A referendum, or, as many thought, a new version of the Basic Law, could have easily closed the window of opportunity for the reunification process.

The new beginning in West Germany after the war was boosted economically by the Marshall Plan and accelerated by the Korean War in 1950. Things were looking up. And suddenly, Germany served in the East-West conflict in the eyes of the Western Allies, not only as a buffer zone but Germans were in demand as soldiers.

In the second part of his lecture, Professor Wahl addressed the vitality of the Basic Law. A democracy needs democrats, i.e., citizens who support democracy and are committed to the common good.

The years up to 2022 were the best the Federal Republic of Germany has lived through. There was cheap energy from Russia and free access to the world market; for example, China and we Germans basked in the military protection of the United States at no significant cost.

Suddenly, everything came together. There is no longer any cheap energy, but the need for renewable energies due to the climate crisis is associated with enormous investments that cost money.

Markets are increasingly closing off. So trade with China, for example, is becoming increasingly difficult. On the other hand, if China does not produce and export enough and therefore cannot fully employ its population, this can lead to social tensions in the giant country, a development whose consequences no one can foresee.

The 2% of gross national product we have painstakingly scraped together for our defense is insufficient. If we must become more independent of the USA in the military sector, 3% is the minimum required to adequately equip the Bundeswehr.

Even now, the number of refugees in Germany is barely manageable. The trend towards further increases in refugee numbers is likely to continue.

Professor Wahl asked, "How can all this be achieved without sacrificing prosperity?"

In the past, under the Kohl administration, many problems in Europe were covered up with German money. The Federal Republic is in dire straits and so Prof. Wahl quoted from Schiller's Don Carlos: "Die schönen Tage in Aranjuez sind nun zu Ende. (The good days at Aranjuez have now ended."

But which party, which politician, says that more challenging times are coming? If the problems continue to be glossed over, this is just grist to the mill of populist right-wing or left-wing parties that have no solutions to offer.

Professor Wahl ended his lecture by proposing a realistic discussion about the status quo and possible future developments. Germany needs renewed confidence in its ability to perform.

The ensuing discussion escalated into assessing the world situation and what-if arguments. I suggested a return to the Basic Law, the original topic of the evening.

Click the table to see clear (©EU)

I asked why Germany, with around 60% national debt, has a Schuldenbremse (debt brake) in its constitution, while in other countries, such as France and Italy, national debts are well over 100% and rising. The USA also regularly reaches its debt ceiling.

Apart from the fact that we don't want to leave a mountain of debt to our grandchildren, what is the advantage of this debt brake?

The only answer from the audience was, "We get our loans cheaper." Yes, Germany's credit rating. Red Baron wasn't paying much attention; otherwise, he could have responded with the counter question, "If we don't incur debt, why do we need loans?"

Well, it's all more complex than it's being presented here. But aren't we walking like sleepwalkers into a major economic crisis?
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Carlo 90

On March 31, Carlo Rubbia, Noble Price winner and former CERN director general, celebrated his 90th birthday. On this occasion, CERN organized a scientific symposium on October 18, which Red Baron, only 14 months younger than Carlo, attended.

On that day, I took the southbound ICE 271* at 8:05 from Freiburg to Zürich, changed trains at Basel, and arrived in Geneva at 11:47.
*Intercity-Express

Some recollections of my encounters with Carlo flooded back during this train journey.

Professor Rubbia was my director general (DG) from 1989 to 1993, but I met him first in the late 1960s when he was already an ambitious physicist. At that time, CERN's high-energy workhorse was the 26 GeV Proton Synchrotron (PS), which spit its secondary particle beams into the East experimental hall.

Carlo had an experiment in that hall and insisted on having access to an area around his beamline. However, measurements of my radiation protection section showed that radiation levels were too high to allow access.

In those times, the radiation protection rules at CERN were as follows:

My section reported to the divisional radiation protection officer (RSO of the PS Division). The PS-RSO, Jack F., was a former British colonial officer with a stiff lip. His yellow fingers stuck out because he was a heavy smoker of unfiltered Navy Cut cigarettes. As a youngster at CERN, I liked and even admired Jack, for he spoke perfect Queen's English. We met over a cup of coffee several times during the week to discuss the radiation situation around the PS accelerator.

Suddenly, we three stood in the East Hall on top of concrete shielding blocs: Carlo requesting access to his beamline, the PS-RSO Jack F. denying and, in his perfect English, arguing with Carlo, and me, the physicist who had delivered the measured dose levels. They exchanged strong arguments, but Carlo accepted my interjections because I was a physicist.

Eventually, the two men agreed on a compromise I could accept as the radiation protection guardian. But the whole affair left a bitter aftertaste.

The second time I ran into Carlo was in a hallway in the spring of 1989. He stampeded out of his office and caught me, "Look what Fleischman and Pons do in the States, and we all are sleeping here," waving the paper of Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons in his hands titled "Electrochemically Induced Nuclear Fusion of Deuterium."

In the following days, I provided him and other teams at CERN with neutron detectors so that my RP-Group could hardly fulfill its radiation protection tasks. And, yes, even Cold Fusion, if it works, will produce radiation!

I remember that in the following days, my RP-Group ran out of neutron detectors because the emission of neutrons is a sign that cold fusion works.

To make the fusion story short, eventually, a CERN spokesman said that "essentially all" attempts in Western Europe to reproduce Fleischmann's and Pons's results had failed. This means that Cold Fusion did not, and I add that it will not work. Red Baron blogged on cold fusion in 2011.

My third encounter with Carlo was an indirect telephone contact in the early spring of 1990. I was on my way to a scientific meeting on radiation dosimetry at Gaussig near Dresden and had, exceptionally, taken my car. While on my way and following Germany's reunification, I wanted to see as much as possible of the now accessible parts of my home country that are regarded as Germany's heartland.

I was just climbing the Kyffhäuser monument when my mobile telephone rang. The DG's secretary called, "He wants to see you in his office at 2 o'clock."

I answered that I couldn't make it because I was traveling in Germany, but the DG could always contact my deputy at CERN. On my return, the latter told me he had discussed the query with the DG on the phone. Apparently, he had answered to Carlo's satisfaction so I could finish my travel to Gaussig without further disturbance.

My last physical encounter with Carlo was during a presentation* I gave to the CERN Directorate on the existence of radioactive waste at our premises. CERN's host countries, France and Switzerland, requested a report on the quantity concerned.
*My first PowerPoint presentation

When high-energy particles hit matter, radioactivity is created by spallation of nuclei and neutron interactions. However, unlike radioactive waste produced by nuclear fission in power reactors, radioactivity from accelerator operation has low specific activity and a short half-life.

Nevertheless, the specific and total radioactivity in tons of steel, aluminum, copper, and concrete kept on the CERN premises and waiting to be disposed of is too high to be released into the environment simply.
The discharge of CERN's low-level radioactive waste into the national depositories of France and Switzerland is costly, and the Directorate must decide how to spend the money.


Back to my trip.

I took the streetcar to CERN and wanted to book into the CERN hostel, but my room was not ready. So, at around 1 pm, I left my luggage in a locker and went to the Main Building.

The auditorium was prepared but still empty. I chose my seat in the middle of row four to have a clear view of the projection screen during the lectures, taking photos for this blog.

I left my coat on the seat and went to the cafeteria to get something to bite on. When I returned half an hour later, the lecture hall was already well-filled. Surprisingly, I noticed they had reserved a seat for Carlo in row three just before me.

I took my seat and suddenly found myself surrounded by Italians. I have always admired and still admire not only Italian culture and cuisine but also Italian physicists, who at CERN had the most brilliant ideas following the footsteps of Galileo Galilei's heritage. However, when it came to the realization, they needed the help of i tedeschi e i britannici.

Suddenly, the people in the row in front of me stood up. Carlo arrived and did lots of handshaking with his compatriots on his way to his seat, but he didn't catch my eye.

Carlo had headphones on, and I wore my hearing aid.

 I could barely see CERN's present Italian DG, Fabiola Gianotti. As chairwoman, she welcomed the participants of the symposium in English and opened the session.

Sir Christopher Llewellyn Smith, CERN's DG from 1994 to 1998, started the series of lectures.

Carlo greets his successor as CERN's DG by raising his hand.

Chris showed one very selective curriculum vitae of Carlo.

He and Carlo first met in October 1982 as founding members of the SPSC*. Chris recollects, "I was immediately impressed by the enormous breadth of his knowledge of physics, detectors, and accelerators, his quickness - he grasped points before anyone else - and his originality and deployment of English."

*Super Proton Synchrotron Committee

In early 1977, Carlo Rubbia wrote a report on the feasibility of proton-antiproton (p-pbar) collisions in the SPS and, on March 1, invited 30 physicists at CERN and in its Member States to a study week to discuss a possible detector.

Opposition to the project came from a number of people who argued that at a time of economic stringency, CERN should not do something which would otherwise be done by Fermilab (USA) and others ...

(John) Adams countered this by pointing out that in the SPS machine, not only were the magnets more reliable, but the greatly superior vacuum would give a beam lifetime of 18 hours, compared to 150 seconds at Fermilab.

On June 8, 1978, CERN's Executive Board officially decided to proceed with the p-pbar project and UA1 (Carlo's experiment)

At 5 am on July 10. 1981, collisions were observed in UA1.

Meanwhile, on July 1. 1983, the HEPAP* pushed for a 40 TeV Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) in the US to "regain US leadership."

*High Energy Physics Advisory Panel in the US.

CERN countered with the LHC, which has only 14 TeV but a higher luminosity, i.e., the number of possible collisions.

This luminosity/energy trade-off had to be understood, but it was questioned whether a luminosity of 10³³ cm² s^-1 could be used.

 At the BNL* 1983 Summer School, Carlo said of a luminosity as high as 10³³, "It is a matter of learning how to handle it."

*Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, NY.

Today, the LHC's luminosity is up to 2 x 10³⁴ cm² s^-1 and is expected to increase to 5 - 7.5 x 10³⁵ cm² s^-1 in the future.

After Carlo became DG on January 1, 1989, he stressed that compared to the SSC

- the higher luminosity would largely compensate for the lower energy

- LHC would also offer heavy ion collisions at unprecedented energy and ep collisions (the intention then being to leave LEP in place).

Noble Prize winner Gerard 't Hooft during his video presentation

In 1974, the situation in physics was summarized as scenario zero: there is nothing more than the particles we now have in our models, which we call the Standard Model.

Gerard's Standard Model

What was needed most urgently was a direct observation of the W^± and Z⁰ vector particles.

Some theorists warned that the predicted particles would be too heavy to ever be observed, but Carlo emphasized, "Theorists should not worry. If these particles exist, we experimentalists will find them."

In 1982 and 1983. these particles were observed in p-pbar collision at CERN.

Gerard added, "I wish theoreticians could say, 'Experimentalists should not worry; we'll make a theory that explains what you are finding.'"

But here we are not very successful.

Astronomy - Red Baron would say Astrophysics - is doing better.

Before the p-pbar collider became a reality, groundbreaking R&D work had to be done. Lyn Evans, former LHC project leader, centered his talk around the stochastic cooling of proton and antiproton beams. This "cooling" will narrow the transverse momentum distribution within a bunch of charged particles by detecting fluctuations in the momentum and applying a correction.

Here is a photo of the ICE* installation, the Initial Cooling Experiment at CERN.

* Another and different ICE

Beam cooling allows particle densities to be achieved sufficient to observe a high rate of proton-antiproton collisions. And cooling worked!

It follows a sequence of slides illustrating the discovery of the intermediate vector bosons.

The W bosons are named after the weak force. 

The Z boson is named after its electrical neutrality (zero charge).

Note the handwritten measurement protocol.

Carlo at the overhead projector

On January 20, 1983, Carlo announced the discovery of the W-Boson to the CERN community. The Main Auditorium was packed, and Red Baron was present.

Carlo's finger on the overhead foil points to the theoretically predicted value of the W-Boson.

Carlo said, "That is to be compared with the Weinberg Salam prediction, which is 82.1 ± 2.4 GeV/c², including all the higher corrections … So we would like to quote this number (m_W = 81 ± 5 GeV/c²) to be compared with that number (m_W = 82.1 ± 2.4 GeV/c²), which, by the way, is not so bad." Carlo followed his announcement with a relieved chuckle.

       

One day later.
In the middle, Herwig Schopper. He was my DG from 1981 to 1988.
On the photo on the left are Carlo and Simon van der Meer.
On the right, Erwin Gabathuler and Pierre Darriulat
of the competing UA2 experiment

Prof. Zoccoli garnished his presentation by quoting Rolling Stones' texts.

>

Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer

CERN's former DG, Luciano Maiani (1999 to 2003), expressed what everybody felt.

Prof Zoccoli awards Prof Carlo Rubbia the INFN Medal
for the Anniversary of the Discovery of the W and Z Bosons.

French President François Mitterrand awards Carlo the Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur.

Given the many other awards Carlo has received during his academic life, the INFN Medal seems like a trifle.

Ultimately, Carlo's former collaborators came forward to frame the Jubilarian.

A close-up

Carlo's closing remarks ended in rapturous applause.

The crowd surged through the exit door on the way out to the reception in the auditorium's vestibule. Suddenly, he stood in front of me. I stammered, "DG, I was your guardian angel during your aegis. I was responsible for radiation protection."

He looked at me and countered, "I was responsible for radiation protection." He was so right. At CERN, the DG is responsible for everything that happens in the Organization. So, I hastily added, "I was head of the radiation protection group." He briefly smiled at me and then turned to a more familiar face speaking Italian.

I have not forgotten Carlo's ideas on an energy amplifier and superconducting power lines. These topics were discussed at the symposium, but a presentation here would overload the blog. I will perhaps report on this later. Here is a short foretaste of the Rubbiatron presented in a blog in 2011.

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A Choir Concert

As my readers know, Red Baron is a Münsterpfleger (Caretaker of the Minster).

Shortly after the Duke of Zähringen Bertold V (1186-1218) ascended to the throne, he initiated an ambitious rebuilding of Freiburg's original parish church, which dated from the city's founding phase.

Since the new Minster Church's start date is unknown, the year 1200 is frequently quoted. Later, the Counts of Freiburg cared for the cathedral that was "finished "in 1513, although as early as the 14th century, the reins were in the hands of the citizens of Freiburg. Guilds and Freiburg families were among the generous donors, and a so-called cathedral factory fund maintained the building under the control of the city council.

Every year, the council appointed three Münsterpfleger, respected members of the city's society, who usually served for many years. These caretakers regulated the finances and were responsible for the building work. They managed the income of the cathedral factory, lent money and purchased interest, and supervised the expenditure, e.g., for building materials and wages, but also for the furnishings and the necessary "operating resources" inside the church building (candles, vestments, etc.). There was, and there is always something to repair.

The caretakers had to report to the city council on all construction and financial decisions concerning the cathedral. The end of the municipal caretakership of the cathedral came in the 19th century when the city of Freiburg fell to Baden. In 1890, the Münsterbauverein (Freiburg Minster Building Association) was founded. Private civic involvement to preserve the Minster is of the utmost importance.

So, instead of being just a Freiburg Minster Building Association member, you can become a Münsterpfleger for as little as 10 euros a month.

We, the caretakers, are especially spoiled by the Münsterbauverein with social events.

Last Tuesday, the Cathedral Choir gave a one-hour concert for us, the Minster Caretakers.

With the choir in her back, Martina Feierlig-Rombach, CEO of the Münsterbauverein, welcomed the assembled Münsterpfleger sitting in the pews.

The choir in action.

Occasionally, I looked furtively over at the Madonna in the candlelight.

In the end, as we left the church, we were offered a bedtime sweet that was too good to eat.

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The CFA-Franc

The CFA Franc!
Understanding the rejection by the African population:
A question of independence and sovereignty.

On December 25, 1945, President de Gaulle signed the decree of independence for the francophone African colonies.

This was also the birth of the money of the French colonies in Africa (CFA). Decree number 0305 was published in the Official Journal of the French Republic on December 26, 1945.

Here are the countries ...

... and here are their currencies

Originating from Kamerun, Dr. Robert Tchitnga gave an emotional lecture on this topic and showed a triangle with the requirements of a democracy.

A sovereign state has a constitution, must be able to decide on its defense, and has a national currency.

However, additional secret protocols restricted the independence of the former French colonies from the outset. The speaker presented eleven points.

1. The newly independent states must repay the costs of the infrastructure built by France during the colonial period as debt.

2. Automatic confiscation of national financial reserves. The African countries must deposit these with the Banque de France.

3. France has the right of first access to all raw materials or natural resources discovered in the country. The former colonies may only offer these to other countries if France is uninterested.

4. French interests and companies have priority in public contracts and tenders.

5. France has the exclusive right to supply military equipment and train military officers of the former colonies.

6. France may station troops and intervene militarily in the country to defend its interests.

7. The former colonies are obliged to make French the official language of the country and the language of education.

8. The CFA-Franc is the currency of the former colonies

9. The Banque de France requires an annual report from the central banks of the former colonies and a report on the available foreign exchange reserves.

10. France must authorize any military alliance with other countries.

11. In the event of war or international crisis, the former colonies must ally themselves with France.

Rarely has Red Baron been so upset during and after a lecture. I had not thought my beloved France capable of such gagging in particular as the British treated their former African colonies much better.

In January 2001, at the France-Africa summit in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the then French President Jacques Chirac surprisingly stated: "We bled Africa dry for four and a half centuries. Then we plundered its resources; then we said they (the Africans) were good for nothing. We destroyed their culture through religion,  and now that things have to be done more elegantly, we are stealing their brains with the help of scholarships. Then you realize that unhappy Africa is not in a brilliant state and is not producing elites. After we have enriched ourselves at their expense, we teach them lessons."

France's colonial trickery in Africa revolts African youth (©France Soir).

In the article A Cannibal France Eats Africa; A Horror Story, Dr. Gary K. Busch wrote, "France is estimated to hold roughly 500 billion in foreign exchange from African states, and would do anything to fight anyone who wants to shed light on this dark side of the old empire."

August 7, 1960. I solemnly declare you independent.

"African states do not have access to that money. France only allows them access to 15% of that money per year. They would have to borrow an extra amount from their own 65% of French Treasuries at commercial rates if they needed more. To make things worse, France imposes a noose on how much money countries can borrow from that reserve. The noose is 20% of the previous year's government revenues. France has veto power if countries want to lend more than 20% of their own money."

All trade of the former French colonies passes through the Banque de France.

In a video interview at the end of his term of office in 2008, President Jacques Chirac said, "... We only forget one thing. A large part of the money in our wallets comes from centuries of exploitation in Africa. Not only. But a lot comes from the exploitation of Africa. So, we should have a little common sense. I'm not saying generosity. Common sense and justice, to give back to Africans, I would say, is what has been taken from them. Especially as this is necessary if we want to avoid the worst convulsions or difficulties, with the political consequences that this will entail in the near future."

President Macron is touring Africa,
"You know, France has changed enormously."

What do the Africans realize?

• France enriches itself effortlessly at the expense of Africans.
• When African countries get into debt with other countries, France takes all this foreign currency and replaces it with useless CFAs.
•The CFA-Franc is an instrument for controlling the policies of African countries.
• France is indebting African countries with their own money.

So, Africans look for other ways to survive.

A picture says more than a thousand words.

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