Brägel

It is generally known that Europe imported potatoes from South America about 400 years ago and that Frederick the Great made enormous efforts to introduce this staple food to Prussia. Potatoes fed Prussia's growing population and made its food supply less dependent on harvesting cereal grains.

Frederick inspecting the harvesting of his favorite staple food
that the farmers subserviently present to the "potato king."

Rumors were frequently spread that Frederick's troops were superior to other armies solely fed on cereal grains because of the Prussian Grenadiers' potato (not spinach!) diet.

Frederick, on the eve of the Battle of Torgau (1760) that he, nearly lost.
Dreamily, he observes a country lass boiling potatoes on an open fire.
Did the miracle tuber save Frederick's upcoming day?

Potatoes are still popular in Europe. Here in Germany, kids, in particular, adore them in the form of Pommes Frites (French fries) called Pommes rot with ketchup, Pommes weiß with mayonnaise, or even Pommes rot-weiß. Another popular preparation is frying sliced potatoes in a pan.

Following the white asparagus season ending at Sankt Johannis (June 24), restaurants in the Freiburg region seamlessly continue with Brägel weeks at the beginning of July before the chanterelle season takes over. Brägel is not to be confused with Brägele, which are generally considered like Bratkartoffeln (home fries) as served in northern Germany. And then there are still the Rösti in Switzerland.

Let us work on the difference between all these delicious potato dishes and start with Brägel. Brägel are made from thinly grated boiled potatoes formed into a patty, seasoned with pepper and salt, and baked in a pan on both sides using Schmalz (lard).

Brägel (©Hochschwarzwälder Brägelwochen 2015)

This sounds like Rösti, but the Swiss specialty is made instead of raw potatoes.

Rösti (©Wikipedia/Musskelprozz)

Some people consider Brägele to be a diminutive of Brägel, but they are mistaken. Brägele served here in Freiburg are sliced potatoes. The slices are fried in a pan with bacon and onions and are called Bratkartoffeln (home fries) in High German.

Brägele with Wiener Schnitzel (©fudder)

Red Baron's experience is that Brägele are not as tasty as Bratkartoffeln served in the north of Germany. Why is it so? I can only guess. It seems to judge from the consistency of the fried potatoes that Brägele are generally made from boiled potatoes, whereas in the north, Bratkartoffeln are usually made from raw potatoes. This means Bratkartoffeln come out crustier and have more bite (al dente) than Brägele.

Here are Bratkartoffeln (home fries) I had in Hamburg last year
with gebratene Pfifferlinge (chanterelles sautées) served with Rührei (scrambled eggs).

I have never had Brägel, but tasting the difference from Rösti would be interesting.

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June 9

Red Baron just learned that June 9, indeed, is a memorable day not only for him. Two hundred years ago, the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna was signed, definitely ending Napoleonic rule in Europe.

Signing the Final Act in 1815

The Final Act also meant the end of 600 years of Austrian reign over the Breisgau; Freiburg was degraded to a provincial city in the Grand Duchy of Baden. Already from the start the Freiburgers had not liked the change from the milde Hand Österreichs (Austria's mild had) to the Baden rule that Napoleon had decreed in the Treaty of Pressburg in December 1805 when the winner of the Battle of Austerlitz decided: Sa Majesté l'empereur d'Autriche cède et abandonne à son Altesse l'électeur de Bade le Brisgau, l'Ortenau et leur dépendances (His Majesty the Austrian Kaiser yields and transfers the Breisgau, the Ortenau, and their dependences to his Highness the Prince-Elector of Baden).

In the run-up to the Vienna conference, the Freiburgers did everything to stem the tide. A delegation of Freiburg's city council visited the Austrian Emperor Franz when he paused in Basel on his way back from Paris to Vienna in June 1814. They subserviently begged "Him" to reunite the city and its surroundings with the Austrian Empire. In an audience, the emperor fed the men with hopes of restoration, although a decision would still take a couple of months. In the meantime, the Breisgauers should remain calm and obedient, refraining from public demonstrations.

Despite those warnings, the city council had a medal struck showing on one side the Minster church and bearing the following inscription: In remembrance of the reunification of the Breisgau with Austria, Freyburg 1814. Following the warning of the emperor about a possible delay, the year was later changed to 1815.

The other side of the medal shows a bust of Franz I on a pedestal with his people hailing him: To Franz I in loyalty and love. On the pedestal, you can barely read: Our wishes are fulfilled. This medal issued by the city, supposed to be loyal to the House of Baden, is known in Freiburg's history as the Hochverratsmedaille (high treason medal).

Eventually, the decision-makers at the Congress of Vienna put the final nail into the Freiburg coffin. Austria abandoned the far-away Breisgau for the nearby Salzburg territories. This also meant that Austrian Chancellor Klemenz von Metternich cleverly left the watch against the "arch-enemy" France on the Upper Rhine to the Prussians, happy to acquire new territories on the Lower Rhine. In fact, the carefully adjusted balance of power on the continent achieved in Vienna lasted 51 years until 1866, the year of the fraternal war between Austria and Prussia.

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80

Being 80!

Hätten anfangs soweit zu kommen nicht vermeint (Would not have thought in the beginning to come so far). This statement, attributed to the Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, I used previously when somewhat astonished I announced the publication of my 250th blog just one year ago on June 8, 2014.

Today I think back and particularly remember my friends and relatives who did not have the chance to go so far. In my contacts, I place all those deceased in a particular category, a list that is getting longer as time goes by. In my case, quite naturally, die Einschläge kommen näher (the blows strike even nearer), but so far, I have been lucky to have ridden them out.

Although, as you would expect, some physical problems haunt me, my brain still functions except for those names I tend to forget. In the meantime, telephone calls are coming in at a rapid rate, and I got several e-mails with good wishes.

What, no snail mail? Following the strikes of the Lufthansa pilots, the train drivers of the Deutsche Bahn, and the employees of the Kitas (Kindertagestätten = day care centers), the mail(wo)men walked out yesterday "indefinitely." Nevertheless, this morning I received the best wishes of our mayor and Freiburg's city council sent by private mail service not affected by the strike.

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What Do You Expect?

The next and 21st Climate Summit Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris won't take place in the City of Light until November. Still, already now columnists are writing articles about the meeting.

So far, these summits that started in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, uniting hundreds of heads of state and of governments as well as environmental and energy ministers, have produced many statements on climatic goals but no positive results. On the contrary, since 1992, global CO₂ emissions have increased by 56%, and Red Baron is convinced that COP21 will not turn the tide.

Change of CO₂ emissions for various countries and the globe
 between 1990 and 2013 (©Die Welt)

While between 1990 and 2013, the European Union and Russia* decreased their CO₂ output, all the other countries, particularly those in development, increased their greenhouse gas emissions considerably. The European Union has already invested billions of euros in renewable energies, but all those efforts compensate for the increase of greenhouse gases in China alone by only 8%.
*It was easy for the Russians to increase their energy efficiency. Red Baron had experienced the wasting of energy under the Communist regime. Overheating poorly insulated buildings using cheap coal-generated energy was the only luxury for the people in those times.

There are new ideas about how to invest in the limitation of CO₂ emissions more intelligently than up to now. It will be more cost-effective to re-afforest regions in Africa or Asia than to further insulate buildings in industrialized countries, but do you think the West will spend its money on such measures?

CO₂ output for the most important "emitters" between 1990 and 2013 (©Die Welt)

Another proposal is to make China not look so bad. So why not redefine the reference year, taking 2013 as the basis instead of 1990 for the upcoming negotiations on reducing greenhouse gas emissions? We may hope that the Middle Kingdom, due to badly felt air pollution and its limited reserves of coal, will not continue to increase its CO₂ output.

World reserves of fossil fuels and coal reserves of selected countries (©BP)

For me, these proposals are just eyewash. While our first chancellor after the war, Konrad Adenauer, always warned in his Rhenish accent about the Soffjetunion (the Soviet Union) one of his successors Kurt Georg Kiesinger later had a vision when he shouted while hammering his knuckles on the lectern: Ich sage nur China, China, China (I only say China, China, China). Indeed, who will predict China's line of approach to global warming?
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Fiat Lux

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light (Genesis 1:3)

and

Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, Let Newton be! and all was light, an epitaph Isaac Newton's admirer Alexander Pope had formulated, but the church authorities did not allow it to be put on Newton's monument in Westminster Abbey.

In 2013, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 2015 as the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies (IYL 2015). The aim is to raise awareness about how these technologies provide solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture, and health.

Red Baron had prepared a blog about the IYL at the beginning of the year, but then he felt a serious plug needed to be included.

The plug came in today's Badische Zeitung with an article about replacing incandescent halogen spotlights with LED spotlights in Freiburg's museums.

They are late in doing so, for Red Baron had already changed the halogen spotlights in his apartment one year ago. This exchange was not without problems concerning the light output and stability of the LED spotlights. Low-price LEDs tend to flicker when connected to high current 12 volts DC power supplies intended for halogen spotlights. Better and more expensive brands of LED spotlights cure this phenomenon with built-in electronic circuits.

Two LED spotlights and a smoke detector

Due to the different light emission angles, always opt for replacements with a higher light output. A warm white (2700 K) halogen spotlight of 35 watts has an output of 350 lumens and a lifetime of 1500 hours. The recommended LED replacement with a 15,000-hour lifetime consumes only 6.8 watts for the same light output. Red Baron, however, considers that physiologically a warm white LED spotlight of 8 watts and 420 lumens is required to make you forget a 35 watts halogen spotlight.

Do not think you will make an immediate economy when replacing your "heating" spotlights with "cool" LEDs. First, you must consider the electrical power consumption, where you only pay about 10 cents per kilowatt hour in the States compared with Germany, where the price is double. Secondly, you replace your halogen spotlight ten times more often than the LED counterpart, with the latter being up to twenty times more expensive than the halogen light.

From the article in the BZ, Red Baron learned that there are other advantages of LED over halogen spotlights: The former emit no UV light and no heat. Both characteristics are essential when sensitive objects of art are illuminated. The replacement of halogen spotlights in Freiburg's museums will cost more than half a million euros leading to a yearly economy in the electricity bill of 30,000 euros. This covers the energy aspects of the IYL 2015.


Here is some cultural information about light. Goethe's famous last words on March 22, 1832, were: More light, more light. For more than 150 years, literary scholars have claimed that he had asked that the shutters in his darkened Sterbezimmer (the room where he died) be opened.

A modern, less romantic interpretation is that Goethe's brain becoming deprived of oxygen, answered with a release of endorphins, and the poet's mind had entered - what people who have survived their NDE (near-death experience) often described - the tunnel of light.

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The Dino Is Alive

©Facebook

Red Baron is sure my American friends know soccer, although they prefer football. The resident director of the American students spending their Academic Year (AYF) in 2014/2015 in Freiburg was a fan of the SC Freiburg, the leading local soccer team. 

Until two weeks ago, SC Freiburg played in the Bundesliga (Federal Soccer League) but having lost too often and being in the next-to-last position of the standings at the end of the season, the team was relegated to the second league together with FC Paderborn who ended last. As usual, the Bayern of Munich were at the top of the Bundesliga and, subsequently, German soccer champion. No wonder they are the richest soccer club in Germany and can afford to buy the best players.

A Bundesliga of 18 soccer teams was founded in 1962, gathering the best teams in Germany at that time. Naturally, the HSV, the team from Hamburg, having dominated soccer in the northern part of Germany, was selected. 

In fact, the HSV as a founding member of the Bundesliga, is the only team that has played in the first league from its beginning without ever being relegated to the second league. The HSV displays a clock in its stadium. For nearly 52 years, the Dino, as the club is also called, has stayed in the Bundesliga.

©Axel Heimken/dpa

As I mentioned before, at the end of the soccer season, the bottom two teams of the Bundesliga are relegated to the second league, with the two first teams of the latter being promoted into the first league. In addition, the third but last team of the Bundesliga plays the third team of the second league for relegation from or promotion into the first league. 

It already happened last year and again this year that the Dino had to play the relegation. To make a long story short: Yesterday night, the HSV barely avoided its relegation into the second league this year, too, in beating the soccer team from Karlsruhe two to one. So the famous stadium clock in Hamburg will continue to run in its 53rd year.

I am biased because I attended secondary school in Hamburg and saw the legendary Uwe Seeler (about my age) playing for the HSV. Red Baron's only regret is that with the Dino surviving in the first league for another year, the famous local soccer matches* between the HSV and the Hamburg cult team St. Pauli now playing in the second league will not be scheduled, at least not during the coming season.
*Compare this to games between the NY Yankees and the Mets

©Facebook

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L'Être suprême

Leaving the south of France, our group visited Rodez and settled for the evening in Clermont-Ferrand, home of the famous Michelin tire company.


Rodez

When entering Rodez from the west, the view of the mighty Gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame is impressive.

Cathedral of Notre Dame in Rodez

As you would expect: Saint Mary is everywhere.

The Annunciation: Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: Blessed art thou among women.	This is Saint Elisabeth of Hungary lying to her husband by displaying roses instead of bread, she gave to the poor

The window in Elisabeth's chapel shows from bottom to top: The capture of French troops at Dunkerque 1940, as POWs sent to work in  STALAG VI C (Stammlager, i.e., main camp), liberation under the Tricolor with the dove, the Holy Ghost is the symbol of hope and faith on top.	This window called Genesis in water I regarded it as an attempt to reconcile creation with evolution. An audacious display in a Catholic church.

Tired of all the impressions, I settled in a cafe at Rodez's central square and marketplace for an aperitif. The yellow stuff guests were drinking at the other tables intrigued me. It was a local gentian schnapps. Following a lively conversation with people from Rodez and another gentian, I wanted to pay. Still, those friendly Ruthénois, as the inhabitants of Rodez are called, had paid the bill already. Vive l'hospitalité francaise!

A gentian schnapps

Red Baron's frugal but tasty lunch in one of the bistros at the marketplace

Clairmont-Ferrand

Clairmont-Ferrand is the city of Michelin, the famous inventor and maker of tires. From our hotel, we walked to the Cathedral Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption, passing on the way to the Romanesque Basilica Notre-Dame du Port.

Notre Dame du Port, seen from a courtyard

The interior of the Romanesque basilica is even more impressive than the outside.

The Cathedral Notre-Dame de l'Assomption, as seen from the roof of our hotel.

Pope Urban II started it all in Clermont in front of the cathedral
on November 27, 1095, when he called for the First Crusade.

The Gothic interior of Notre Dame de l'Assumption

A Poor Man's Bible in the form of stained-glass windows for the many illiterates in the Middle Ages. From bottom to top:
Annunciation, Visitation of Mary, Birth of Jesus, Angels announcing Christ's birth to the shepherds, Adoration of the child by the shepherds, The Three Magi contemplating the guiding star, The Magi before King Herod, Adoration of the Child by the Three Magi.

Aren't we back to icons and Emojis nowadays?

Stained-glass windows as Biblia pauperum

During the French Revolution: The proclamation of the Supreme Being at a side entrance of the cathedral: The French people recognize the Supreme Being and the soul's immortality.

Where did the poor souls of all those people guillotined end up?

Once more, French genius impressed me. I remember that the slogan: "We French have no oil, but ideas" was famous during the oil crisis. 

Here comes one of those strokes of genius: the tramway in Clermont-Ferrand. It is simple: Take a bus, guide it by a metallic rail and place the vehicle below one overhead line. No heavy rail construction is necessary, and no double catenary, as in the case of a trolley bus, is required since the guiding rail on the ground serves as the return conductor. In addition, the tramway smoothly and silently runs on tires; local Michelin oblige.

Clermont-Ferrand's tramway 

Chalon-sur-Saône

On our way back home, we made a stop at Chalon-sur-Saône. It was the time of the morning market, but two other items caught my attention instead:

Molière et la Ménagère at the Place du Théâtre by Philippe de Lanouvelle

Nicéphore Niépcy, the inventor of photography, was born in Chalon-sur-Saône

Red Baron wanted to visit Nicéphore Niépcy's Museum
but our tour coach in the back signaled me to hurry up.

This ends the tetralogy about my visit to the cathedrals down south:

Vienne, Montpellier, Béziers

L'Abbaye Sainte-Marie de Fontfroide, Narbonne, Carcassonne

Toulouse, Albi

Rodez, Clermont-Ferrand.

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