Afghanistan

End of November, a virtual donor conference for Afghanistan collected another 10 billion dollars to assist the country in its democratization efforts. How did we arrive here? The answer is rooted in the country’s turbulent past.

Afghanistan‘s Recent History

In the 19th century, Afghanistan became the plaything between the colonial powers Russia and Great Britain. British intervention in a war for the succession to the throne instead led to a succession of Anglo-Afghan wars. The British attempt to occupy Afghanistan failed.

When in the beginning of the 1979s conservative Islamic forces pushed the Afghan governments into an increasingly defensive position the Soviet government marched troops into Afghanistan on December 25, 1979. Suddenly the country became the scene of a "proxy war," in the conflict between the power blocs dominated by the Soviet Union and the United States. 

Although the Soviets had a superiority in terms of weapons technology, they failed to break the resistance of the various Islamic groups (Mujahideen). The Afghan resistance fighters ultimately won the conflict with the help of the same guerrilla tactics (avoidance of open field battles) as in the Afghan-British wars; they could also rely on support from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States, which, for example, bought and supplied Chinese weapons for the mujahidin. The last Soviet troops left the country on February 15, 1989. Especially mercenaries recruited in orthodox Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia settled in the fragmented country after the end of the war. Local Taliban regimes ruled the land since 1969.

Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States began Operation Enduring Freedom on October 7, 2001, to overthrow the Taliban system. In particular they aimed to smash the Taliban supported terrorist organization Al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, with massive attacks from the air. While there was agreement among the NATO countries that the military strike was justified, there were demonstrations against the war in Islamic countries, for example in neighboring Pakistan.

On November 13, 2001, the capital Kabul fell. A few weeks after the first attacks, Afghanistan’s Northern anti-Taliban Alliance, which until then had controlled about 10 percent of the territory, managed to take almost the entire country. After the first international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, Hamid Karzai was appointed interim president in 2002.

ISAF

From the beginning the US had asked their NATO allies for support. An international protection force named ISAF* was set up.

*International Security Assistance Force

Former Minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen visiting her ISAF troops.
Von der Leyen now is president of the European Commission (©RT.com).

The West had big plans. The USA, the Germans, the French, the Australians, the British and many other countries sent soldiers, weapons, equipment. The reactions to ISAF were typical. Opponents against the deployment of German troops abroad were muzzled by the argument, “Germany is defended at the Hindu Kush.“ The French modified a slogan dating back to the beginning of the Second World War, “Mourir pour Dantzig?” into “Die for Kabul?”

After the allies had pushed back the Taliban and fumigated the al-Qaeda terrorists, they wanted to bring democracy to the Afghans. So they built local parliaments, schools - for girls too - , hospitals and military camps, trained locals to become soldiers and policemen, and transferred many billions of dollars to the Hindu Kush. This is how they believed they would win the war after the war.

Is there a Future?

How far have we come? Almost 20  years have passed since the fall of the Taliban, and a deeply insecure Afghanistan is still dependent on foreign aid. The news remain the same: fighting, attacks, hardship, suffering, and lawlessness. Only slowly do Washington, Berlin and the other capitals begin to realize that the prophecy those who knew the country had already expressed at the beginning of the mission could possibly be true: Afghanistan cannot be conquered, and the local tribes cannot be bought, no matter how much money is involved. They want to be their own masters, and they want to settle their business, their conflicts and even their peace with each other, without having the rules explained to them by haughty democracy missionaries with assault rifles in their hands. 

Eventually the Americans bit the bullet, entered into peace talks with their mortal enemies and withdrew more and more troops embarrassing their allies.

The fact that POTUS now wants to complete the curfew quickly before his closing time is causing unrest among the allies, but when looking at the broad lines of world history, it can hardly be surprising.

What remains is an oppressed country, bombed by terrorists, shot by soldiers from all over the world, humiliated by corrupt politicians, abused by religious hypocrites of virtue. The West finds it difficult to come to terms with this. To make sure that its years of adventure were not completely wasted, it is pumping even more money into official and less official channels in the Hindu Kush.

While the money of the recent donor conference is being collected fine words full of wishful thinking are spoken about peace. There is no question that every cent for the suffering people is helpful and highly welcome. But the chaos on the ground will remain. It will probably be some time before the West admits to itself that it has experienced in Afghanistan what has happened to all conquerors there for centuries: It has failed.

Died a hero’s death for western values (©content.time.com)

Reha

In Germany, following major surgery people are sent to a Reha - short for rehabilitation clinic - where physiotherapists try hard to get you moving again.

The view from my window

Following the replacement of my worn-out hip and remaining one week at the Lorettokrankenhaus I was transported directly to Freiburg‘s Mooswaldklinik thus avoiding any contact with the Corona-infested outside world. During my three weeks at the Reha, absolutely no visits are allowed. The clinic takes no risk with risk patients.

My high walker

At my arrival I was greeted by fellow sufferers on crutches except that I experiencing balance attacks had a high walker with arm rests supporting me.

Red Baron immediately became known like a bunter Hund (colored dog), i.e., being known all over the place. 

The second day a physiotherapist took me secretly aside and showed me how to walk safely with crutches only revealing that all their walking aids were too short. With those Red Baron already being bent bent over even more. 

The next day the longer crutches arrived. It was the talk of the hospital. All the various specialists treating various aspects of my hip replacement hailed my new walking aids.

Screenshot taken at 1557 hours on December 2, 
for treatment on Thursday December 3.

Here is the list of treatments I suffer from morning to afternoon during a normal day and that for a duration of three weeks. 

My pharmacy

I am still on a full hand of painkiller pills four times a day (those cryptic numbers following the meals in the schedule shown above refer to the various kinds of pills).

This overdosed? medication makes me sleepy during the day when I am not exercising but sleepless during the night.

My wet cell (Nasszelle)

My workstation

I am missing my desktop PC. Neither can I modify a Webpage nor dress up my photos.


Success. One full week of treatment have me walk short distances with less pain than before surgery. Most important, I now can fetch my food being no longer dependent being served at the table. 

We sit all alone each one at a separate table and must eat fast for food is served in three shifts, Corona oblige.

Christian Drosten about Friedrich Schiller

Many people regard Christian Drosten, a virologist at Berlin's famous Charité where Robert Koch discovered the tuberculosis bacterium in 1882, as Germany's Anthony Fauci. Drosten is probably the most well-known German scientist at present due to his research into coronaviruses.

He had the PCR test for the coronavirus ready by the beginning of March and completed it recently by a parameter on viral load. This parameter will allow medical people to judge the risk that a positively tested person presents to spread the infection further.

In March, Christian became known and famous to a greater public for his podcasts. There he explained the pandemic to laypeople in a most descriptive and nevertheless scientifically accurate way.

Every year, on the occasion of Friedrich Schiller's birthday - the poet and studied physician was born in Marbach on November 10, 1759 - prominent public figures give a Schiller speech at the German Literature Archive ibid.

Speakers so far included artists, authors, economists, and politicians. This year, Professor Drosten held the discourse, and due to the corona pandemic, the event took place virtually. Here is a video recording of Christian Drosten's speech. What follows is a translation of his most remarkable statements:

”Of all people, you invited me - a virologist - to give the traditional speech on Friedrich Schiller's birthday. In doing so, you have made an extremely unusual choice - one that is undoubtedly one that demonstrates openness and genuine courage to take risks.”

”I can also see the curiosity behind this invitation. Curiosity to leave familiar territory. And curiosity about something new, unknown, and perhaps even uncomfortable. I find this appealing, also because curiosity is precisely what has always driven other researchers and me anyway.”

”Schiller and I have one thing in common: we both studied medicine. We also left practicing medicine behind - albeit with different motivations and different goals. He was drawn to literature, I to medical research.”

”My interest as a researcher is directed towards the gain of useful scientific knowledge. I want to come to conclusions based on experiments, observations, and studies that everyone can verify. I do not pursue any political intentions in my work. It is up to the authorities to cast scientific recommendations into executive orders or laws.”

”Neither do I want to explain Friedrich Schiller to you that legions of literati and historians have done since long thoroughly and convincingly, nor do I want to win over him for myself or put him in front of my cart. But I do want to deal with him.”

Schiller‘s Freedom

”In the core question of what Schiller means to me personally and to what extent his life and work are relevant to us today, we will not be able to ignore the leitmotif of his work: freedom. But we will also have to talk about responsibility because, for me, both elements are complementary.”

Three Dimensions of Freedom

Continuing, Drosten distinguished three dimensions of freedom. First, there is the freedom of science itself. Nobody gives Drosten a direction or demands that he should not pursue specific questions or topics, whereas Schiller had to fight hard for the freedom of his word. He was threatened with a writing ban and forced to flee.

For Drosten, the second essential element of freedom concerns the method by which he gains scientific knowledge. A researcher is exclusively committed to the facts - the scientific experiment, observations, and conclusions. What counts is the own intellect, the collegial exchange, the constant struggle for resilient progress in knowledge. At the same time, a researcher must always face the challenging scientific debate about his work. This way of working makes him independent of possible expectations and interests of third parties. This process takes place worldwide according to established rules and the same high standards. 

For the philosopher of Enlightenment, Schiller, freedom also meant using one's intellect. He was certainly not someone who has simply passed on the ideas of others. The freedom of thought was a pleasurable challenge and obligation for Schiller. In return, he was personally prepared to accept hardships, to flee, and to start all over again, the latter scientists are often obliged to do.
                                                                            
Finally and thirdly, Drosten enjoys the freedom to share his research results with others without hindrance. Only when findings are shared, discussed, and reviewed, disproved, or further developed in the process do we shall make progress in research. For society to benefit, researchers must communicate their results understandably and transparently.

Information and Guidance

”In the pandemic, I, like many other scientists, see it as my duty to provide information and guidance. The better we all understand the virus and the pandemic, the sooner we will make the right decisions for our behavior. How do we stop the rapid spread of the virus? How do we manage not to overload our health care system? How can we avoid infections and severe disease progression up to death?”

”The pandemic is not an inevitable fate. We determine through our behavior whether the situation worsens or improves. Either way, each of us makes his or her contribution. That's why I believe that science-based information of the public is as important a strategy in the fight against the virus as the development of a drug or vaccine.”

Freedom and Society

”This brings us to the second central point, ’What do we do with all the freedom that we value so highly? What do we derive from it for our dealings with other people and society as a whole?’”

”In answering these questions, Schiller seems to me to be particularly topical. For Schiller, personal freedom cannot succeed in isolation from society. For the freedom of all to be created and maintained, people must stand up for one another and take responsibility for one another. The better this works, the less need there is for intervention from above.”

”The pandemic has shown how relevant this principle still is. The more I behave as an individual of my own free will responsibly, the less reason I give the authorities to intervene in social life. But the more thoughtless and selfishly I act, the more the authorities must restrict my freedom to effectively protect the community, i.e., the well-being of other people.”

A Pandemic Imperative

”But what does responsible action mean? Is it enough - according to Schiller - to make people aware of their free decision to do the right thing only out of inclination and without external pressure? Will they participate voluntarily?”

“Or do we - freely according to Immanuel Kant - need a rather strict reference to duty and responsibility? A kind of pandemic imperative: ‘Always act in a pandemic as if you had been tested positive and your counterpart belonged to a risk group’”

“My role and my contribution as a scientist consists of explaining the methods of my field of expertise, showing the limits of scientific studies, classifying what is fact and what is fiction. And of course I feel obliged to take corrective action and to call a spade a spade. In doing so, I must translate the language of science into vivid but still coherent images and analogies that are catchy for everyone.”

Scientists and Public Opinion

“If you, as a scientist, get involved, you are immediately in the middle of the broad public opinion battle of the coronavirus pandemic. Scientific results are not objectively and coolly dissected like in the circle of experts. They are discussed in terms of their political, social and personal impact and evaluated with a high degree of emotion. This takes place around the clock at high temperatures in the spin cycle of social media.”

“As a scientist I have the job of communicating unpleasant truths regarding the coronavirus. The virus is there. It does not negotiate and does not compromise. It is the task of us virologists to make this truth, which is supported by scientific knowledge, heard again and again in public. It is the responsibility of the scientist to draw a realistic picture and not the desired one.”

“How we can deal with this uncompromising opponent. We must take responsibility for ourselves and others in the spirit of Schiller’s spirit. In practical terms, we observe rules of distance and limit our mobility and contacts as far as possible.”

“Currently, the restrictive measures enacted by policymakers are still too often judged on the basis of the status quo. The exponential growth potential of the virus is only taken into account by parts of society. Accordingly, the measures are all too often branded as excessive or premature, the occurrence of infection appears less threatening. Accordingly, many people are skeptical about further restrictive measures.”

The Gain of Scientific Knowledge

“Another challenge arises from the limited public understanding of the logic behind the gain of scientific knowledge. Original theories and assumptions can prove to be wrong. For people who are not used to this, it is sometimes difficult to understand, especially if - as is now the case with the pandemic - they hope to obtain valid information on which to base their actions.”

“For political decision-makers in particular, our scientific activities are a real imposition. Political action follows a fundamentally different logic. It is aimed at creating framework conditions that are sustainable in the long term. The fact that political decision-makers had to constantly improve or correct the measures based on new scientific findings - just think of mouth-and-nose protection - was not always well received. But such course corrections were foreseeable and obvious. If there is something new, you have to adapt your assessment accordingly. This is the way science works.”

Scientists, Politics, and Society

“We as responsible scientists must actively explain this development process to politics and society if we want them to trust and support us. This is what drives me in my communication efforts. I want people to be informed. Recourse to this information puts them in a position to participate in the discussion about what is necessary and required in each case actively and thus to help shape the fight against the pandemic. The opportunity to participate will hopefully ensure broad social acceptance.”

“The same applies to all major global challenges of our time: If we want to preserve our freedom and well-being, we must take the trouble to take the entire society with us. We must also prepare complex issues for the general public and provide them with appropriate information.”

Take a Stand with Facts

“At the same time, we must not stand by and watch when facts are ignored, twisted or shortened. If science is politicized, instrumentalized or its standards violated, we must take a stand with verifiable facts.”

“And this by no means only applies to infection research in a pandemic. It applies to all fields of science that address urgent problems with decision-making pressure and far-reaching consequences, such as climate research, which deals with another treacherous development on a global scale.”

“Therfore, for free science, responsible communication is a social obligation. It is the duty that arises from freedom, which Friedrich Schiller reminds us of today on his birthday.”

“Let me conclude my speech by returning to Friedrich Schiller, because he has another important piece of advice for us scientists and our work. It is about how we raise our voice and in what attitude we make our contribution.”

“Each of us is called upon to act not only out of duty and responsibility. The inclination and the desire belong inseparably to it. And even if Kant admonishes us that man should not obey his reason out of joy alone: He may well do so. The joy of knowledge may therefore also drive our responsible actions in the present situation. From this, I am quite sure: Friedrich Schiller would also wear a mask.”

“I will leave it at that.”

“Preserve the freedom and joy of thinking. Show responsibility. And above all: Stay healthy.”

Trouble started when Bettina Schulte, cultural editor of Freiburg’s Badische Zeitung, wrote a review titled:

 Why Drosten hasn’t understood anything on Schiller.

“In what times we are living when virologists are allowed to talk about the poet Friedrich Schiller? Sure: The son of an officer from Marbach studied medicine and worked as a military doctor for two years before he fled to Thuringia to escape from his sovereign, Duke Karl Eugen, and exchanged the scalpel for the pen forever.”

“Christian Drosten did not address this issue in his twenty-minute Schiller speech. Instead, he, who has become ‘virtually’ famous overnight with his Corona podcast, picked the topics ‘freedom’ and ‘responsibility.’

“Drosten is less interested in Schiller’s intellectual freedom than in his own concept, i.e., freedom of research. The virologist repeats his credo in a downright prayerful manner. As a researcher, he is obliged only to his own interest in knowledge and to nobody else. That is beautiful and also very reassuring to hear. Drosten, who has repeatedly complained about being misunderstood, also wants nothing to do with politics. The researcher researches, the politician acts.”

“It is as simple as that. As simple as that?”

“The virologist is convinced that Schiller would have worn a mask. What else! Don Carlos can mumble the famous sentence "Sire, geben Sie Gedankenfreiiiuheit!” well with mouth-nose protection. Christian Drosten didn't understand a thing about Friedrich Schiller - and the German Literature Archive threw itself at the bosom of the zeitgeist with this speaker.”
*Sorry, Frau Schulte: In Goethe’s drama Don Carlos, it was not the eponymous hero but Marquis Posa who demanded King Phillip II of Spain, “Sire, give freedom of thought!”

“And then Drosten moves smoothly from the ‘freedom of thought’ to the (ethical) ‘duty to give orientation’ and to the (political-moral) appeal to ‘stand up for one another.‘ Keyword: responsibility. In a stricter interpretation, this finally leads to the ‘pandemic imperative’: ‘Act as if you were Covid-19 positive.’ Does Mr. Drosten mean to say that we should all put ourselves in permanent voluntary quarantine?”

Bravo Bettina. Did you aim to be funny? There were several letters to the editor. Here is the one I wrote:

When I read the title of Bettina‘s review, I had expected a lot and was disappointed by its superficiality and attempted satire. Question: Did the author read Christian Drosten's lecture at all and, if so, did she understand it? Even Goethe had his difficulties with the concept of freedom: "Freiheit ein schönes Wort; wer's recht verstände.” That's why I was impressed by the surprising statements of a medical doctor about Schiller, both in content and form.

*Freedom a beautiful word. Who understands it right? Duke Alba, Spanish Governor of the occupied Netherlands, on Egmont’s question, “Who guarantees freedom?

Our federal president awarded Christian Drosten the Federal Cross of Merit.

Hip Surgery

Talking about diseases is annoying and a killer of any good conversation. So, you are welcome to ignore this blog about my hip surgery at Loretto Hospital in Freiburg last Monday afternoon.

At my age, I didn‘t want to have done anything anymore to my body, but the operation became unavoidable. I have been struggling with my joint since 2007.

On October 23, a Friday afternoon – bad things always happen on the weekend - on my way home, the pain in my right leg suddenly became unbearable so that I could barely make it to my apartment. Over the following long weekend, moving around in my apartment, supported by a walking stick, I completed my medical record, prepared my patient file, informed my orthopedist, and contacted my health insurance.

The following Monday at 8 a.m., I took a taxi to the nearby Loretto hospital. Still, when I announced my desire to be taken in charge, the lady at the reception of the orthopedics department told me, ”If you have pain, you must go to the outpatient clinic.”

When I insisted, a doctor came from behind, “This week there are school holidays in Baden-Württemberg. I am alone in the department. Let the receptionist give you an appointment.” She offered me to come to a first examination on October 28, at 2 p.m. This was early.

The x-ray showed the devastated condition of my right hip that I discussed with Dr. Rütschi, the specialist who is not only well known in Freiburg as the master of artificial hips. People come to the Lorettokrankenhaus from all over Germany to get defective joints replaced.

Rütschi, the *real stable genius looked at his schedule hanging from the wall, found a slot that had become free due to the Corona pandemic, and said, „I’ll fit you in.“ He then determined the date of my surgery for Monday, November 16. This was late but the earliest date that I could get.

On the one hand, many people being afraid of going to a hospital in times of Corona have their surgery canceled or postponed thus opening slots for other suffering people like me. On the other hand, during the following two weeks, Red Baron lived in a mounting feeling of angst that the replacement of his right hip might be postponed due to hospitalisations of Corona patients. Their number was and still is steadily increasing as new cases surge in Germany.

Eventually, my tension dropped when I underwent my entrance examination at the Lorettokrankenhaus on November 12. They wouldn’t let me suffer four long hours for nothing? And so it was.

I entered the hospital on November 15, a lazy Sunday afternoon, but suddenly on Monday morning Dr. Rütschi entered my room with the shocking message, „We have to postpone your operation. Your blood value is not good enough yet. Maybe in the afternoon.“ At home I had brought down my haemodilution-value to 1.4 on Saturday morning assuming that the INR would have decreased to 1.0 valid for a normal person by Monday morning. The medical poeple administered me vitamin K to accelerate the degradation of the blood thinner.

Eventually, at 1 p.m. - my hair covered by a thin net - the anestaesists rolled me into the vestibule of the operating room … around 4 p.m. I awoke at the recovery room. 

My new hip

I could move my torso. Around me in the dim light I distinguished four other people on stretchers and waved to them. I could not sens my lower-body though and had the feel of bended legs with my soles firmly posed on the srtretcher. I reality my legs were fully stretched as I saw for myself.

Me and my walking buck

After the first night with my new hip I had a good feeling, for the pain was quite bearable. Now five days after surgery I only notice postoperative pains in my leg when I am walking leaning heavily on a Gehbock (walking buck). This support is safer than a walker with wheels. The annoying part is that one has to carry the buck in front of the body displacing it when advancing.

The coming Monday I shall be transferred to a REHA, a rehabilitation clinic in a Freiburg suburb, for three weeks. For re-learning walking the method of choice are crutches but suffering from balance problems Red Baron has ordered a Hochrollator, i e., a high walker with arm supports. Placing the forearms into them while walking will relief weight from the body on my legs.

Borderlines

During the recent election campaign, Red Baron learned about PoC and the Thin Blue Line flag. Until recently, I only knew about a red line that should not be transgressed. 

Kellyanne Conway,
„The Thin Blue Line flag is flying HIGH at President Trump’s rally in Wisconsin!“

Looking for an explanation of the blue color, I found that the thin blue line stands for the borderline between chaos and order reflecting the blue uniforms of law enforcement.

In ”Letters from an American,” Heather Cox Richardson reported, ”On October 24 in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Trump held a rally, not in front of an American flag, but in front of the Thin Blue Line flag, a black and white American flag, with a blue stripe running across its middle. The creator of the new flag, Andrew Jacob insists, “the flag has no association with racism, hatred, bigotry…. It’s a flag to show support for law enforcement—no politics involved.”

”But white supremacists waved the flag at the 2017 ‘Unite the Right' Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and it has come to symbolize opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement. Its adherents talk about ’socialism’ and ‘law & order’ and ‘illegals.’ According to Jacob, ‘The black above represents citizens… and the black below represents criminals.’”

”Flags matter. They are the tangible symbol of a people united for a cause.” 

Here are two other examples of flags that matter:

Why is he carrying an assault rifle? Isn’t a six-shooter sufficient for self-defense?

And God said to Noah (Genesis 9:14-16), "Whenever I bring a cloud over the earth, then the rainbow will appear in the cloud. And I will certainly remember my covenant that I made between me and you [Noah] and every living creature of every kind, and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the rainbow will occur in the cloud, and I will certainly see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind on the earth."

Due to our past, we Germans have an ambivalent relationship with flags. Initially, already the order of the colors on the bunting posed a problem, then the use of flags in wars became predominant, and eventually, a break with tradition was not successful.

During a sleepless night in 1900, the Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a masterpiece about a flag.

 The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke von Langnau 

In the battles fighting the Turks on the Balkan, the eighteen-year-old Cornet should be carrying the flag in front of his comrades. But one day, he is late at the roll call.

And with sly breath stammer horns in the yard:

Gather, gather!
And trembling drums.
But the flag is not there.

But the flag is not there. 
Calls: Cornet!
Raging horses, prayers, shouting,
Curses: Cornet!
Iron to iron, command, and signal;
Silence: Cornet!
And once more: Cornet!

And out with the roaring cavalry.
But the flag is not there ... 

Eventually, Christopher Rilke von Langnau finds a horse but not his helmet ...

... and it is like a cry: he rides over everything and pasts everything, even his comrades. And also the flag revives, never was it so royal; now they all see it, far ahead, and recognize the bright man without a helmet and recognize the flag ...

And then the flag starts to shine, stands out, becomes big and red... their flag burns in the middle of the enemy, while they chase after it.

Christopher Rilke von Langnau is deep in the enemy, all alone. Horror has made a circular space around him, and he is holding, in the middle of it, below his flag that is slowly blazing.

Slowly, almost thoughtfully, he looks around him. There are a lot of strange, colorful things in front of him. Gardens - he thinks and smiles. But he feels that eyes hold him, and he recognizes men and knows that they are the pagan dogs - and throws his horse right into them.

But, as the men behind him are closing up, there are gardens again, and the sixteen round sabers that leap at him, beam after beam, are a fest, a laughing water art …

So misled, so sad. Just saber fodder.

Red Baron learned that PoC stands for a "Person of Color"; sometimes BPoC (Blacks and People of Color) is used, more rarely BIPoC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color), emphasizing blacks and indigenous people. Here in Germany, we don’t know these abbreviations although, swashing over from the States, racist topics are currently discussed.

Still one has to distinguish between two debates in Germany. The dispute over whether Berlin's Mohrenstrasse should be renamed is a debate about ”racism.”. Mohr is a deeply colonialist and racist term, say its proponents, while the opponents of a renaming consider it nonsensical and oblivious to history. Read more background information in my previous blog.

The other debate in Germany is devoted to "race," which is to be removed as a term from legal texts because its concept is contaminated by National Socialism and is unscientific too.

In the debate on the elimination of the term "race" from Article 3 of Germany’s Basic Law, the Hamburger Senat, i. a., the government of the state of Hamburg, proposes a solution: "Race" is to be replaced by the word "racist." The Senat wants to introduce this proposal to the Bundesrat, Germany's upper house (corresponding to the US Senate). The wording of Article 3 would then read, “No one may be discriminated against or favored because of his or her gender, ancestry, language, home, and origin, faith, religious or political beliefs or racial bias.

Isn’t ”No one may be discriminated against or favored because of his or her race, gender, etc." less verschwurbelt (convoluted) than the new text?

These developments don’t surprise the emeritus linguist Rudi Keller. He considers it hopeless to solve the deeply rooted problem of racism linguistically, "Racism does not disappear by introducing new words. After all, this does not invent a new category, but merely a new term for one and the same attitude. Anti-Semitism can’t be eradicated by ‘fiddling with language’.”

Racism will always exist, but there is an important aspect when racism becomes salonfähig*, i.e., you can openly talk about and live your racism, being made socially acceptable.
*as in Nazi Germany

Remember Remember the 9th of November

Of all those blogs out, there is only one I follow. The blogger is a professor emeritus from Chicago, Jerry Coyne. He has thousands of followers, while my blog only has 19. Jerry, the cat and duck lover, is extremely prolific, for he sometimes writes up to five blogs a day. 

The daily top runner is named Hilly Dialogue, presenting a photo of a cat called Hilly somewhere in Poland who always has something to say or kvetch about. In his daily blog, Jerry also presents a chronological list of events for the specific day. Read what he has noted down for November 9. 

Click the picture to start the video

Red Baron wrote a synopsis of the November history and lately elaborated on one of the darkest moments in German history.

November 9 truly is a historic date for Germany.

Blue Cheeseheads

Early in Germany at 6 a.m.

The German people shared the excitement of watching the outcome of the presidential election and were deprived of their nights of sleep. The "Is he gone?" felt like the Groundhog Day movie in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania (sic!).

Now on Saturday, November 7, at 5:25 p. m. CET CNN made the call with Joe Biden leading in four battle states and counting. 

This means that POTUS should start packing although there is some fear that the National Guard must be called in to escort him out of the White House. Let that nightmare be fake.  A Biden spokesman confirmed that if Biden wins and Trump refuses to concede, “The United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”

 

For me, the real winners of the election campaign are the people of Dane County, a square dark blue island in a reddish sea. The result for the State of Wisconsin was close, but the votes of Madison and its surroundings flipped it. This is why Stephen Colbert "nobled" the people of Wisconsin as blue Cheeseheads.

When one of my correspondents in Madison, former AYF resident director professor James Steakley sent me the above graphic on Thursday morning I immediately posted it on the Freiburg-Madison-Gesellschaft Facebook site. It went viral with more than 300 visits by Friday morning. 

And even better, the local newspaper Badische Zeitung (BZ) took up the post the same morning:

On Saturday, Florian Kech titled his weekly satirical column in the BZ," Biden ist uns was schuldig (Biden Owes Us Something).” 

"As we know by now: last not least Joe Biden won the important swing-state Wisconsin due to the votes (75%) in our partner city Madison. Unbiased election observers from Martin Horn's Oval Office at Freiburg’s townhall claim that this result is clearly linked to our city’s positive influence. Hence, it would be neither surprising nor too much to ask that in one of his first official acts, our man in the White House moves the U.S. Embassy from Berlin's Brandenburg Gate to Freiburg's St. Martin's Gate." 

 While in the States the words healing and bridging trenches dominate the news here in Germany, commentators keep harping on the theme of how the Good-Bye president has damaged democracy in the US. 

The people of Wisconsin have shown that the rule by and of the people still works in their State. Just look at the voter turnout. Judging from the depth of the color. Who is the first MN or WI?

Breaking the Wave?

©ntv

This morning the number of daily Corona infections in Germany reached the 20,000 mark. This means that intensive care units are approaching their limits, not for hospital beds or ventilators but for experienced medical personnel. 

During the last days, still an orange isle in a read sea.
Today Germany's Corona case incidence passed 100 cases
per week and 100,000 inhabitants, i.e., it became deep red, too (©ntv).

Last Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel video conferenced with the governors of the 16 states. “It is clear that we must act, and act now to prevent a national health crisis,” she said. The measures agreed upon rather rapidly aim to ease the country’s health system strain, where hospitals have seen the number of patients double in the past 10 days.

New restrictions in Germany will be valid throughout November. The primary goal is to reduce the number of contacts by a calculated 75%, thereby flattening the curve again. The temporary restrictions limit the number of people allowed to meet up in public areas to ten provided they belong to two families only. The measures are regarded as a breaker for the second Corona wave.

While hotels are off-limits for private stays (no holidays) and restaurants and bars are closed, supermarkets, stores, schools, and daycare centers will remain open. The German media labeled the restrictions, which are less comprehensive than those imposed in the spring, when schools and most businesses were forced to close too as “lockdown light.”

The virus's rapid spread should be brought to a halt before the coming Christmas holidays without bringing the economy to a complete standstill. Therefore, the government will compensate small- and mid-sized businesses affected by the monthlong closures with up to 75% of losses, i.e., the financial aid for affected businesses will be worth up to 10 billion taken out of a fund of 25 billion euros.

The Corona situation in southern Baden.
New infection on October 29 (red) and
seven-day incidence per 100,000 (yellow) (©BZ).

The restrictions also mean that we can no longer meet at our monthly Freiburg-Madison Stammtisch. Red Baron will miss the  Kieser Training in particular.

©The governement of Baden-Württemberg

In the meantime, the fourfold AHAL developed into a fivefold AHAAL. The additional "A" stands for "app," Germany's Corona tracing application.

20,3 million Corona apps working on mobile phones (iOS and Android) had been downloaded by October 23, representing 24,4% of the German population. According to a study at Oxford University, the "app" is already useful at a 15% penetration; at 60%, the pandemic could be stopped.

The cryptic green message on my iPhone possibly means that I had come near to a person that had been tested negative on Corona.

Tomorrow, I shall visit the Minster market and eat my last Bretzel and drink my ultimate small Weizenbier vom Fass (wheat beer on tap) to the health of all my readers before Toni‘s place will be closed on Monday.

P.S.: Promises made, promises kept. On Halloween morning at Toni's on Münsterplatz at 11h30. But when I had finished ...

... an old Frank Sinatra tune came to my mind, "The tables are empty, the floor is deserted ..." and taking the lyrics further, "It wasn't my first lesson in learning the blues."

Too sad ...

We Shall Become a Jewish Nest

In my blog following a guided tour on “Jewish life in Freiburg" on March 11, I gave my readers an overview of the history of the local Jewish community up to the year 1424 when Emperor Sigismund confirmed the city council decree of 1411, Daz dekein Jude ze Friburg niemmerme sin sol (That no Jew should ever be in Freiburg again) with an Eternal Expulsion. 

The talk Red Baron listened to on the evening of October 20, 2020

The date of my second blog about Jewish life in Freiburg coincides with the date of the Wagner-Bürckel-Aktion on October 22, 1940, when the Jews in Baden were deported to Gurs.

The 19th Century

In 1807, thanks to Napoleon‘s rule, Jews in Baden were recognized as citizens, and their religion was tolerated. They “enjoyed” protected citizenship but were denied local rights. Besides, they were allowed to settle only in communities where Jews were already residents. Within Freiburg‘s city boundaries, only temporary daily stays were permitted.

With the advent of a constitutional monarchy in Baden in 1818, the state parliament's two chambers again discussed the Jews' emancipation. During the “Jewish debates” in the Second Chamber in 1821, resistance was stirring. Freiburg's Karl von Rotteck made himself the spokesman for the members of parliament who demanded of Jews to earn their civil rights through increased integration.

Freiburg put up fierce resistance against freedom of movement. For fear of competition, the merchants wanted to retain the prohibition on Jews, the ban that had existed since 1424, and the city council had once more confirmed in 1809. A petition addressed to the Baden parliament stated, “Wir werden zum Judennest (We shall become a Jewish nest.”) 

With such hospitality, it is not unsurprising that the first Jewish family settled in Freiburg as late as 1850, and in 1861 only 37 Jews were counted within the city boundaries. 

           35 Jewish families and a preliminary synagogue
Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums of September 6, 1864.
(©Jewish Communities)

Initially, the Jewish community had only a small prayer room on Münsterplatz that the Catholic Freiburgers regarded with suspicion.

Looking for a kosher butcher,
Ad in the journal Der Israelit on July 11, 1877.
(©Jewish Communities)

At the time of the formation of the Second Reich in 1871, 1.3% or 330 of Freiburg‘s citizens were Jews. This number increased to a maximum of 1399 or 1.6% in 1925. 

 On September 23, 1870, the new synagogue on Werthmannplatz was solemnly consecrated.

©Stadtarchiv Freiburg 

The Freiburger Zeitung of September 25, 1870, wrote, "The festive consecration of the new Israelite temple on the Rempart was celebrated last night. Like the small congregation, the beautiful Jewish house of worship, boldly rising in Moorish-Byzantine style, is a living example of how God is mighty even in miniature. Delayed many times by the disfavor of the time, the synagogue has lost nothing ... The colorfulness of the walls and ceiling is softened by the reflections of darkly painted windows ... Rabbi Reiß's sermon was dignified, and Cantor Sommer's beautiful and sonorous tenor filled the room of the small house of worship accordingly ... The auditorium, consisting of the members of the congregation, several guests of honor, including the heads of the authorities of the state, and the Protestant clergy, etc., followed the uplifting service with devotion ... ”

The Third Reich

With the advent of the Third Reich in January 1933, Jews started to leave the city so that in June, the census gave their number as 1138. In May 1940, at the beginning of the Second World War, only 600 Jews still resided in Freiburg. Following the Wagner-Bürckel Aktion in October 1940 (see below), their number dropped to 41; most of the remaining were living in mixed Jewish-Christian marriages.

Already in late March 1933, Freiburg’s Nazi newspaper Der Alemanne called for a national boycott of Jewish businesses, which was officially organized on a national scale for April 1. 

In the future, no German will buy from Jews! 
Remember well! Judah wanted to annihilate Germany!

The Freiburg Catholic St. Konradsblatt explained this measure as a reaction to the spread of atrocity reports about the massacre of thousands of Jews in the Anglo-American press, "As a punishment for these rumors from abroad, a movement has now formed in Germany with the aim of carrying out a general boycott of Jewish shops and at the same time limit the number of Jewish lawyers and doctors. This came into effect under the leadership of the NSDAP on Saturday, April 1, at 10:00 a.m. Reich Chancellor Hitler emphasized that this defense reaction had to be organized because otherwise, it would have come from and by the people and have taken undesirable forms! 

The Freiburgers only moderately followed the boycott of Jewish shops.

Other measures against Jewish citizens hurt more. On April 7, the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service came into force. The Arierparagraph stated: “Civil servants who are not of Aryan descent are to be retired.” The Nuremberg Race Laws of September 1935, i.e., the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, as well as the Reich Citizenship Law, followed the primitive logic of 1920 NSDAP's party program: ”Citizens can only be those who are Volksgenossen (comrades of the people). A Volksgenosse is of German blood, without regard to creed or denomination. No Jew can, therefore, be a Volkgenosse.”

The German Jews now fell under the Aliens Act. Thus all civil service was closed to them.

The persecution of Jews reached its spectacular climax on November 9, 1938, in the so-called Reich Pogrom Night, also known as Reichskristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass). 

SS-Standartenführer Walter Gunst was identified as the arsonist of the Freiburg synagogue. On the night of November 9-10, 1938, Gunst ordered gasoline, smashed the door of the building, and with his helpers, emptied the canisters in the synagogue, while at the same time the Gestapo searched the basement for documents. 

When the fire broke out between three and four in the morning, it came to a violent verbal exchange between the unsuspecting Gestapo men and the kindling SS men. In a perfidious impulse, the SS had Rabbi Siegfried Scheuermann, Cantor David Ziegler, and teacher Loeb David Maier got out of bed and forced them to watch the synagogue fire.

After the war, Wolf Middendorff, a student of law at the time, wrote about the arrival of the fire brigade accompanied by an agent because of the suspicion of arson, "At the scene of the fire, the accompanying detective recognized two high-ranking SS officers, who harshly rejected him, so he could not take up his work. A colleague who passed the scene between five and six observed that the fire brigade restricted itself to protecting the neighboring buildings. He is also chased away, but he announced the fire to the Freiburg public prosecutor's office. When the office, in turn, reported the obvious arson to the Attorney General in Karlsruhe, the latter said that the fire in the Freiburg synagogue is no news. Synagogues all over Germany are burning, and he added, ‘Leave the paragraphs at home, this is a political issue.’”

Middendorff reported as an eyewitness and took a photo too, "When I was on my way to the university on the morning of November 10, 1938, I saw the synagogue half-destroyed. Obviously, it had burned down. The partially blackened outer walls were still standing, the square around the synagogue was cordoned off by SS men who denied all access and took strict care that no one took photographs.”

Freiburg's Synagogue on November 10, 1938, around noon.
Parts of the collapsed ceiling are clearly visible in the large window.
A police officer guards the staircase but does not disturb the photograph. 
(©Stadtarchiv Freiburg). 

Under the command of the city building inspector, SS-Untersturmbannführer, and demolition expert Wilhelm Kunzmann, the synagogue was "laid down" the following day. During the next months, the foundations of the synagogue were razed to the ground. 

During the same night and the following day, the Freiburg authorities arrested 137 male Jews over 18 years of age who were taken by train to the Dachau concentration camp north of Munich.

Schüblinge in Baden-Baden (©C. Kreutzmüller). 
Note that the Jewish men were forced to march bareheaded.
In the 1930s, even for a Christian,
walking hatless in the street was socially unacceptable. 

Above all, these deportations* were intended to force the Jews to emigrate. In Dachau alone, 185 people died in the first weeks of internment. After a few months, these Schüblinge (shifted people) were released, but only 60 Freiburgers returned home, starved, sick, and with severe frostbites. 
*about 30,000 Jews throughout the Reich

Stolpersteine (stumbling blocks)

Among the returnees was prisoner number 23221, Professor (ret.) Sigmund Fleischmann from Sternwaldstraße. At his address, I have a stumbling block set to his memory. Sigmund died at Freiburg in 1939 as a result of his internment in Dachau. His wife Lina was deported to Theresienstadt on August 22, 1942, and murdered in Auschwitz in May 1944. 

Following November 15, 1938, Jews were no longer allowed to attend German schools and universities, and since January 1, 1939, they were prohibited from conducting businesses. 

Freiburg was well ahead of this, for as early as April 1, 1937, the K.G. Fritz Richter operated the department stores of the Kaufhausjude (department store Jew) Sally Knopf.

Memorial in the form of a road sign at the Square of the Old Synagogue

As already mentioned, in 1940, about 600 Jews were still living in Freiburg. On October 22, 1940, in the framework of the Wagner-Bürckel Aktion, they were deported, together with other Jews from Baden, the Palatinate, and Saarland, to the Camp de Gurs in the Pyrenees. 

           

The secret instruction leaflet of the Wagner-Bürckel-Aktion  
(©C. Kreutzmüller).

Gurs was located in the part of France unoccupied by the Germans and ruled from Vichy.

The Warner-Brückle Aktion at Lörrach  (©C. Kreutzmüller).

The order of deportation took the Jews of Freiburg by complete surprise and took place, perfidiously, on a high Jewish holiday, the merry Feast of Tabernacles. Within hours, those affected had to pack up a few belongings and transfer their remaining possessions by signature to the Reich. In the following months, household contents and real estates were auctioned or sold to the Freiburg population - usually clearly undervalue.

A memorial plaque set up on the initiative of my friend Andreas Meckel at the Annakirchlein (St. Anna Church) in my part of town, the Wiehre.
 Jewish citizens who had to assemble here and
to wait for their transport to Freiburg's train station.

Citizens of the Jewish faith and those who were declared Jews according to the inhuman racial ideology were deported from Baden, the Palatinate, and Saarland on October 22, 1949, under the Nazi rule of terror.

From this place in the Wiehre, the deportation of the women, men, and children began in full view of everyone to Gurs concentration camp in southern France.

Most of the deportees succumbed at Gurs to the inhuman camp conditions or were later murdered.;

A Freiburg eyewitness writes, “Throughout October 22, Jewish citizens were driven out of their apartments. They had to wait at assembly points such as the Hebel School's courtyard in the Stühlinger quarter for hours and sometimes the whole night before they were eventually put on trains to Gurs. Seven trains brought 6538 women, men, and children from all over Baden and the Palatinate to the camp in southern France. Could such an event go unnoticed in Freiburg? Probably only by those who did not want to see. The Freiburg platforms were black with people ... “ 

To protect the “Catholic” Jews, Freiburg’s Archbishop Conrad Gröber asked the papal nuncio in Berlin for the pope's intervention. In vain, since in the Third Reich, being a Jew was not a question of religion but of race. 

Numbers of deportees furnished by Dr. Heinrich Schwendemann,
 the known expert in the field (©BZ)

Already on October 23, 1940, Gauleiter (governor) Robert Wagner proudly announced to his Führer: “The Upper Rhine is the first region of the Reich being free of Jews,” while the Freiburg journalist Karl Willy Straub applied his knowledge of history: "Freiburg is once again free of Jews”(read above).

The cruel transport by train through occupied and Vichy France to Gurs (©BZ)

Many people did not survive the stress of the three days and four nights of rail transport to Gurs. Those who managed were transported to the Auschwitz and Majdanek extermination camps in 1942.

Here are the links to two articles in German about the shameful anniversary published in the Badische Zeitung on October 21, "Territoriale Endlösung" and 22, "Ort des Schreckens."

The Post War Period

After the end of the Second World War, just ten Jews married "in mixed marriages" had survived in the city, and only five Jews born in Freiburg returned home. 

In September 1945, a Jewish service was held in Freiburg for the first time after the war. At the end of the same year, a new Jewish congregation was constituted, which was initially called the "Israelitische Landesgemeinde Südbaden" (Israelite community in the state of South-Baden). In the early 1950s, the Freiburg congregation had about 60 members who used a prayer room at Holbeinstraße. 

Due to the immigration of Russian Jews, the community's structure changed considerably. In 2007, more than 700 people belonged to the religious community.  

In November 1987, a new community center with a synagogue was inaugurated on the corner of Nussmann-/Engelstraße close to the cathedral. In the building, designed by Karlsruhe architects, the two oak wings from the synagogue's main portal, which was destroyed in 1938, were inserted. The community center comprises a community hall with 120 seats, a ritual bath, an exhibition room, the synagogue itself with 150 seats, rooms for the young people, and a kosher kitchen.

Red Baron participated in some of the activities of Freiburg’s Jewish community as there were the commemoration of the burning of the Synagogue and the Kippa Day.

Square of the Old Synagogue

So far, so good. But trouble started in 2016 when Freiburg shaped its new center creating the Square of the Old Synagogue. Red Baron blogged about the remains of the Old Synagogue and what happened to its memorial.

P.S. For this blog, I borrowed some information from the website „On the History of Jewish Communities in the German Language Area.“