He will do it again

Today Red Baron discovered the following photo in the Badische Zeitung:

Four forerunners of a planned 400 Goethes
in front of Frankfurt's Johann Wolfgang Goethe University (©dpa)

On June 11, Ottmar Hörl will take the occasion of the centenary of Frankfurt's Johann Wolfgang Goethe University to decorate its entrance with 400 colored sculptures of our national poet. According to Hörl, corn-yellow stands for Goethe's intellect, night-blue for his phantasy, purple-red for his reasoning, and turquoise-green for his sensuality.

Already in 2010, Hörl had 800 Martin Luther sculptures populate the Reformer's city Wittenberg, and I blogged about the artist's projects of 2013: Wagner and Marx.

800 Martin Luthers in Wittenberg's marketplace (©dpa)

Usually, Hörl's sculptures come in various colors, but Marx only had several shades of red. Remember my blog about the color coding of political parties in Germany? What about making plastic doubles of Social Democrats in various reds according to their conviction? 

I can also imagine several shades of green for green politicians: From dark green: Shutting down all nuclear power immediately to light green: Switching to renewable energies according to our technical possibilities. I admit that I see difficulties with the black generally attributed to the Christian Democratic Party: Are not shades of black nothing else than shades of grey?

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Fritz Geiges

In 1835, he was christened Alois Sigmund Friedrich Geiges, but he insisted that they call him Fritz. He has influenced Freiburg's cultural heritage dramatically. A well-known example is his impressive painting of St. Georges at the Schwabentor (Swabian Gate).

©miJoergens/Wikipedia

 Another example is the stained-glassed windows of Sankt Johannes (St. Jean's Church) that Geiges created from 1898 to 1901.

Emperor Saint Heinrich II.  He was canonized for being the donor of Basel's cathedral.  Here, he carries a model of the Johanneskirche.

In Mediaeval style: Professor Fritz Geiges as   a donor figure in the corner of one of his stained-glass windows. In the bottom left, Geiges' coat of arms, the Freiburg raven.

Fritz Geiges was one of the founders of the still-existing Breisgau Geschichtsverein (historical society) Schau-ins-Land in his youth. The first edition of the society's annual book carries his handwriting, and he made nearly all of the drawings.

Page 77 of the first-year edition of the journal "Schau-ins-Land," written and drawn by Geiges.

During his life, Fritz was a workaholic and was known throughout the 2^nd Reich for his "historicizing art." At the invitation of Emperor Wilhelm II, he conceived the decoration of Berlin's Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche (memorial church). Wilhelm was impressed and attributed to Fritz the title of professor. He was so proud that he signed all of his future works with Professor Fritz Geiges.

The restored mosaic in the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche conceived by Fritz Geiges
showing some of the Prussian royals ©JoJan/Wikipedia

In 1890, Geiges restored the sculptures in Freiburg's Minster Church port. Before, he had made watercolor paintings of all the objects. Based on these paintings, a second restoration of the sculptures was started in 2001 and terminated in 2004, i.e., the Mediaeval figures were cleaned and restored to the state Geiges had documented in the late 19th century. The Münsterbauverein took the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the second restoration to honor Fritz Geiges with an exhibition, a series of lectures, and guided tours: Gothic in the Workshop.

Honoring Professor Fritz Geiges: Gotik im Atelier (©Münsterbauverein)

In the entrance hall of Freiburg's Minster church: Visitation of Our Lady.  Both Mary and her cousin Elisabeth  are bearing children.

The wall painting by Fritz Geiges of 1909 shows Dr. Faustus's end in Staufen.
When M. Hickel restored the painting in 1994, he forgot to add Geiges' title.

Following Geiges' success with restoring the statues of the Münster porch in 1917, the city council entrusted him, the expert on stained glass, with the restoration of the Mediaeval windows. Fritz worked according to his ideas, rarely observing the maxim of monument preservation: Niemals restaurieren, möglichst nur konservieren (Never restore, if possible only conserve). In the 1920s, Geiges was highly criticized for his "restoring vandalism."

Today, visitors of Freiburg's Münster enjoy the old and the new parts of the stained-glass windows and sometimes look with astonishment at the following example in the so-called baker's window:

©miJoergens/Wikipedia

The pretzel on the left looks bright; it must be one of Geiges' new additions. You are mistaken! Geiges had added missing glass windows and varnished them to fit the dirty originals. When the Münster windows were cleaned in 1980, the restoring scientists were fascinated by the blaze of the Medieval originals, as shown on the left-hand side.

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Sunday Election

Today Red Baron voted for the European Parliament and Freiburg's city council. Strasbourg is far away, but our Rathaus (city hall) is within walking distance.

Freiburg's city council has 48 members, meaning I had an equal number of votes to cast. This has historical reasons. Up to 1248, the city council only had 24 members, all of the noble families who were city councilors by birth and for a lifetime. Because they mismanaged public property, a small revolution occurred in May 1248. All citizens assembled in the Münster church square and demanded that an additional 24, mostly younger members of the nobility, merchants, and craftsmen, be added to the city council, helping the established 24 with the administration. These new members were elected every year. This timid "democratization" continued up to 1386.

The document of May 1248 enlarging Freiburg's city council

When in the Battle of Sempach in the same year, the Swiss slaughtered 656 earls, noblemen, and patricians, mostly from Freiburg, these people suddenly lost their majority in the city council. The Austrian Duke Leopold IV., Freiburg's new ruler, decided in 1392 that all 48 council members be elected yearly, composed of 12 patricians, 12 merchants, and 18 masters of the guilds plus 6 additional guild members.

Nowadays, our 48 city councilors are elected for a 5-year mandate. Thirteen parties would like to sit in Freiburg's town hall. The lists of candidates of the various parties are contained in a longish booklet where the voter has the agony of choice. Is this the reason why less than half of Freiburg's citizens cast their votes?

 

The title of the booklet. It contains 13 ballot sheets.
Only half the length is shown.
On the bottom, it reads: You, therefore, have 48 votes.

In fact, the voting system for city councils in Baden-Württemberg is rather complicated. The easiest way to vote is to tear one page for a particular party out of the booklet, place this ballot sheet in a prepared envelope, and then into the voting box. If you like to calculate, a party list for one seat in the city council must draw a minimum of 2.08% of the votes.

Red Baron likes to have it complicated. First, I never support my party's order of its 48 candidates on the ballot sheet. Here I can häufeln (cumulate) up to three votes on particular candidates, thus moving them up the list. A party getting 14% of the votes will have 7 seats in the city council. So the first 7 persons from their list are elected. You can (slightly) influence the order on the ballot sheet in cumulating your votes.

Second, I know several candidates from other parties personally and want to give them some of my votes. In this case, I panaschiere (mix) my choice in adding the names of the persons of other parties on my party list by hand. Then I attribute to them up to three votes. In these games, there is only one condition to fulfill: Your ballot sheet must not count more than 48 votes in total.

P.S: The voting results for Freiburg's city council were known only today (May 27) as the poll workers first had to count the votes for the European parliament. Whereas in Europe, the Eurosceptics increased their number of deputies by 50%, Freiburg's city council results show no surprises. Here are the seats for the various parties in the new assembly (in brackets is the distribution of seats in the previous council elected in 2009):

Green Party (Grüne)               11 (11)
Christian Democrats (CDU)    9 (10)
Social Democrats (SPD)          8  (9)
Leftist List (LiSSt)                  4  (4)
Free Voters (FW)                     3  (3)
Livable Freiburg (FL)             3  (0)
Free Democrats (FDP)            2  (4)
Culture List (KULT)               2  (2)
Young Freiburg (JF)               2  (1)
Alternative Greens (GAF)      1  (2)
Independent Women (UFF)    1  (0)
The Party (DIEPARTEI)         1  (0)
Christians for Freiburg (CFF)  1  (0)

Mayor Dieter Salomon commented: Freiburg bleibt regierbar, aber der Gemeinderat wird bunter (Freiburg remains "governable," but the city council is more colored). It will be challenging to attribute different and distinct colors to all thirteen parties presented in Freiburg's new city council, although some only with one seat.

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New York Food

Some people will argue that there is no particular New York food. They are right in so far as the melting pot of people has many restaurants serving international cuisine. Nevertheless, the various national specialties are always presented with an American touch.

One typical attribute of the food served in the States is that portions are huge. Another feature of American food is the many calories. I use to say, "It is sufficient to look at US food, and you will gain weight."

©Wikipedia

Katz's, where Harry and Sally had lunch.

While in the city that never sleeps, Red Baron revisited one of his favorite places: Katz's Delicatessen on Houston Street. I had what "most of the others are having": Pastrami on rye bread with a glass of Pilsner Urquell beer. You simply say in Yiddish: Me ken lecken di finger (You want to lick your fingers).

For photographic clarity, only half the portion is shown.

However, after the meal, I was uneasy about whether I had followed Katz's basic advice: Ess gesunt (Eat in good health).

Dumbo

Pizza is one of America's favorite foods, best in Brooklyn's Dumbo district (Down under Manhattan Bridge) at Ignazio's. When my son and I entered the pizzeria around noon, we had to wait for the oven to heat up, but it was worth it. 

We ordered The Pizza with tomato, garlic, basil & olive oil pie and the White Pie with ricotta & mozzarella. Simply delicious.

The Pizza and the White Pie

The Heartland Brewery premises (©Heartland Brewery)

One evening just around the corner from my son's apartment, we looked for a snack and a beer and landed at the Heartland Brewery on the lower floor of the Empire State Building. For the first time in my life, I had Pulled Pork made from house-smoked pork served on a sesame bun with coleslaw and fries that I downed with a glass of Farmer Jon's Oatmeal Stout.

Pulled pork

McDonald's MMMM on Time Square

Before I leave the Big Apple, I usually visit a place full of memories. A couple of years ago, Elisabeth and I stayed at a hotel near Times Square for a week doing lots of sightseeing. One day we saw people coming out of McDonald's eating French fries out of a cup, which caused an irresistible desire for pommes frites. 

We entered, stood in line, and drew strange looks from the vendors when we ordered the biggest portions of fries available without a Big Mac, sat down, and enjoyed our potatoes. Since then, Elisabeth and I have claimed that McDonald's at Time Square serves the best French fries in New York.

My meal

This time I sat alone with my French Fries and a McCafé Vanilla Shake that I had better not ordered for the drink was pure calories.

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World Without God

Recently the New Scientist's deputy editor Graham Lawton wrote an article about the World without God or people losing their religion.

People in various countries were asked in 2005 and seven years later in 2012: Are you religious?

The decrease in the number of "believers" over the seven years is dramatic. In Germany, their percentage fell from 60 to 51%, and in France, la fille ainée de l'Eglise (the adult daughter of the Roman Church), from 57 to 37%. Most Europeans regard the people in the States as very religious, i.e., a "people of God," but even in the US, although starting out at a high figure of 74% in 2005, the believers dropped to 57% in 2012.

Red Baron noticed with astonishment the numbers for Ireland. Irish monks brought Christianity to Central Europe, and Eire has remained a Catholic stronghold for nearly 2000 years. Within seven years, the percentage of religious people dropped from 69% to 46%. There are a few exceptions to the general downtrend. In the Netherlands, traditionally critical of religious issues, Dutch believers increased between 2005 and 2012 from 42 to 43%.

Nearly empty basilica of St. Blasien. Award-winning photo ©Sebastian Morlock, Wikipedia

Being non-religious is not the same as being an atheist. The fact is that people, in particular in the "Western" countries, simply no longer care about religion, so, as Lawton states, by now, the "nones" are holding the majority in the world.

For example, for people experiencing security and wealth, the Scandinavian countries no longer pray Aus tieffer not schrey ich zu dir, Herr Gott (Out of the depth I cry to you, o Lord), a text taken from Psalm 130 and set into a cantata by Bach. We, the 21st-century bourgeois, no longer feel the need to follow Christ's invitation: Come to me, all weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).

Modern over-consuming societies are no longer searching for God but rather adore golden calves and dance around as described in Exodus Chapter 32: And the people said to Aaron: Make us a god, which shall go before us ... And he received all their gold, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made it a molten calf; and the people said: "This is thy god, O Israel" ... And the LORD said unto Moses: "I have seen these people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people" ... And it came to pass, as soon as Moses came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing ...

I remember a classmate who said that in times of examination stress, he tended to become religious, a fact that Lawton describes as the Christchurch phenomenon where the natural disaster of the New Zealand earthquake in 2011 caused a resurgence of religion.

The argument remains that religions hold societies together, a statement that most people will buy. However, a survey has shown that on just about every measure of societal health, the more secular a country or a state, the better it does, including the States in the US. Lawton quotes Professor Zuckerman: I now believe there are aspects of the secular worldview that contribute to healthy societies. First, if you believe that this is the only world and there is no afterlife, that's going to motivate you to make it as good a place as possible. Number two is the emphasis on science, education, and rational problem-solving that seems to come with the secular orientation - for example, are we going to pray to end crime in our city, or are we going to look at the root causes?

However, dancing around golden calves is not sufficient for people in a secular society. The longing for some belief even drives enlightened people into all kinds of spiritualism, astrology, karma, voodoo, you name it, proving that there is a human need for religion or some sort of ersatz religion.

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NY Taxi Drivers

Red Baron likes to walk for miles, particularly in foreign cities, but given the distances, I took a cab a couple of times during my recent visit to New York. The drivers I had were undoubtedly international.

New New York taxicabs: higher, shorter, and made by Ford

The first one was a Russian Jew or, rather, a Jewish Russian. He told me his father is a Jew and his mother is a Russian. So when he - freshly married to a Byelorussian girl - emigrated to Israel, he, with his non-Jewish mother, was considered just being a Russian. The discriminated and frustrated couple went to the States when his wife, a programmer, got a job offer from a New York firm. Now she is satisfied, but the guy still feels discriminated against and is frustrated because his wife earns all the money, whereas he, an architect by education, drives a New York taxi.

The second guy driving me came from Yemen. He told me that he has three uncles in Germany living in Cologne, Hamburg, and Berlin he is going to visit this summer. By then, his Berlin uncle will have moved to Munich. I informed him that his uncles had chosen the four most significant cities in Germany to live in.

After stepping off the cab, I thought, why are those Yemenis in Germany, and what are they doing there? Had his uncles got political asylum, but was Yemen not one of those Schurkenstaaten (pariah countries)? Following some research on the Internet, I found out that the US regards Yemen as a Tier 3 country, i.e., the people there are trafficking persons with the Yemeniti government not caring at all. In fact, the sea around the Horn of Africa is infested with pirates capturing ships and whole crews demanding their liberation ransom from shipping companies and governments.

The third guy did not speak to me at all, but driving with only one hand, he was talking nonstop into his mobile phone. I recognized many French words and thought his language might be Creole. When leaving the cab, I asked him, but he said he was from Ghana.

The language he spoke made me curious. In the German Wikipedia, I read: English is Ghana's official language, but in Ghana, more than eighty different languages are used such that most Ghanaians speak several of them. The government pushes French as an additional language, so since 2006, Ghana has been associated with the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. Do they need a second lingua franca, or don't they like English? It was a pity that I could not ask my taxi driver those questions and, above all, test his personal language skills.

New York taxi drivers, indeed, are cosmopolitan.

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