Via Dolorosa

As I had promised for Passion Week, the blog about the Via Crucis is here. My memory of my trip to the Holy Land is slowly fading, so I decided to limit my writing to two more blogs about Fort Masada and Yad Vashem. With new topics coming up all the time, I shall skip my reports about the annexed Golan Heights, the mystical Kabala, the crusader stronghold Akko, and Haifa, the city of the German Templars and the Bahal.


Before Jesus walked his Way of the Cross, he had the last supper with his twelve disciples in the so-called Upper Room. The place near the Jaffa Gate is now called Mount Zion. It is crowned by a church, the Basilica of the Assumption.

Our guide, Jonathan, is explaining the situation of the Jerusalem quarters.
The Jaffa Gate to the old city is in the Armenian quarter (white)
near the Christian quarter (rose)

The religious density around Mount Sion is high as Jews venerate King David's Tomb on the ground floor.

Entrance to King David's Tomb

King David's coffin

Orthodox Jews are studying the Talmud in an adjacent room.

For Christians, the vaulting Basilica commemorates the death of the Virgin and the place where she was taken to heaven with body and soul.

Basilica of Assumption

Somewhere in this labyrinth on an upper floor, there is the place where, according to tradition, Jesus broke the bread and offered the cup to his disciples: On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?" He replied, "Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, 'The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.'" So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover. When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve (Matthew 26:17-20).

The Upper Room was one of the few overcrowded places on our trip. The air was sticky, and the place was noisy, with guides babbling in many languages. We simply walked through.

People visiting the Upper Room looked bored and tired.

The Via Dolorosa and the Way of the Cross start about 200 meters down the street from the Lions' Gate into the city. There are two churches on the right-hand side: The Church of the Flagellation and the Church of the Condemnation and Imposition of the Cross.

Entrance to the Church of Flagellation

Then Pilatus released Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, then he delivered him to be crucified (Matthew 27:26)

Station I: Jesus is condemned to death.

And after that [the soldiers] had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify him (Matthew 27:31).

Station II: Jesus receives His Cross

Another 200 meters down the street, we stopped for a snack at the Austrian Hospice of the Holy Family. Red Baron paid a fortune for a small piece of Sachertorte and an espresso.

This place, founded in 1863, is worth visiting. It indeed smells like the Habsburg monarchy.

We felt well protected by Israeli soldiers all along the Way of the Cross.

Station III: Jesus falls for the first time under His Cross

And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his Cross (Matthew 27:32).

The Station V: Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry His Cross

Station VII: Jesus falls a second time

The last 200 meters of the Way of the Cross to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher were fully commercialized.

As it was time for lunch, Red Baron was looking for a frugal meal and enjoyed an Arabic salad with pita bread and a glass of Israeli beer.

After lunch, our group entered the church complex of the Holy Sepulcher, built over the last three stations of the Way of the Cross.

Entrance to the church complex of the Holy Sepulcher

Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many (Matthew 27:50-53)

The Station XII: Jesus dies on the Cross

When the even was come, a rich man of Arimathaea came, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple. He went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered (Matthew 27:57-58)

Station XIII: Jesus is taken down from the Cross

And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed (Matthew 27:60).

Station XIV: Jesus is laid in the tomb

All the people around us were not calm but rather in a hurry, standing in a long line to enter the Aedicula Sacra (Holy Shrine). We decided not to wait but to look at similar caves in the building complex.

And suddenly, all was quiet. I was alone in the tastefully decorated Catholic chapel.

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Wikipedia 15

A birthday cake

On March 16, 2016, the German Wikipedia celebrated its 15th anniversary. In 2011, Red Baron reported 

on the 10th birthday of the English Wikipedia, which got its first articles uploaded on January 15, 2001. Germany's free encyclopedia was second, following only two months later.

Here, I would like to reiterate my first article on the German Wikipedia, published three years later, on March 6, 2004, about Karl von Rotteck, a professor at the University of Freiburg. When I started my Wiki activities, the German Wikipedia had about 100,000 articles; now, there are more than 1.9 million entries, and we are still growing.

©Wikipedia

The Wikipedia Foundation authorized, i.e., financed, this particular monthly Stammtisch, numbered 111, as a seminar in the library of the Institut für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie (Otto-Krayer-Haus) at Freiburg University.

In his welcoming introduction, Professor Klaus Starke, former chairholder, Wiki author, and host of the seminar, introduced Otto Krayer, the building's namesake. 

Krayer was born in Köndringen near Freiburg in 1899, studied medicine with a focus on pharmacology, and obeyed his conscience when, in 1933, he was offered the chair of pharmacology at the University of Düsseldorf. Following the Nazi takeover, the position was opened up by removing the Jewish professor. Krayer wrote to the Prussian Minister of Education: I consider the elimination of Jewish scientists an injustice ... I prefer to renounce a position corresponding to my inclination and ability rather than to decide against my conviction ... Needless to say, as a result of his letter, Krayer lost his job. He went abroad and, after serving in various appointments in other countries, became head of the Department of Pharmacology at Harvard University in 1939.

In his talk on Virtuelle Mediävistik und Wissen im Prozess, Professor Bent Gebert mentioned that 79% of the students use Wikipedia. However, one of his colleagues once told his students that Wikipedia is fantastic as the first source of information, but you cannot rely on anything.

Gebert, for his part, deplored the frequently outdated information on Wikipedia, particularly on topics about the Middle Ages. He had noticed how frustrating it was for students to see their written seminar papers graded and then filed vertically.

With these two premises in mind, he asked his students to write new articles on medieval subjects in a collaborative effort using MediaWiki. This resulted in a boost of motivation. His students collect, interpret, edit, and stylistically improve contributions to the articles. Instead of living by the atavistic attitude of "my knowledge is mine," teams of two to five people work together successfully and are rewarded for their texts, which will be used and continually improved.

The second speaker, Matthias Frank, introduced the Semantic MediaWiki (SMW), which turns "a wiki into a powerful and flexible knowledge management system." Frank gave the following example, starting with a

MediaWiki: In the west, the city of Karlsruhe touches the river [[Rhine]].

The MW becomes a Semantic MW:

In the west, the city of Karlsruhe touches the river [[touches::Rhine]].

This is like a Subject (Karlsruhe), Verb (touches), and Object (Rhine) construct.

Red Baron has some experience with relational databases, e.g., Oracle, where information is retrieved using sometimes complex queries. With SMW, it becomes possible to store information in wiki pages that can be queried and published semantically.

Kai Woodfin reported in his talk, "Translating Wikipedia," on the challenge for students of English to translate German texts into English. In the exercise, he had previously used articles of about 300 words from the German press. As in Professor Gebert's case, the result of all those translations ended up in the paper bin. Recently, Kai asked his students to translate articles from the German Wikipedia into English. Here again, many students participate in the translation of - what else?

An example is the Freiburg Bächle, where the German version is classified as lesenswerter Artikel (good article). As a side effect of their translation efforts, students become familiar with Wikipedia techniques, e.g., creating individual user pages and reading existing articles critically. 

So they considered parts of the German article about Theater Freiburg incomprehensible. That raises the question of whether their translation in the English Wikipedia is better than the German original.

The seminar ended by slicing and eating the birthday cake.

Admire the skillful hands of our colleague, who organized everything so well.
Thank you, Ireas.

**

Parkinson's Law Reloaded

In Freiburg, we are reinventing not the wheel but the bicycle stand. The state elections barely checked off, and our municipal council entered a more serious debate about the Freiburger Bügel. This Freiburg bracket was successfully used for parking and fixing bicycles.

Freiburger Bügel are "delicately" bent in Freiburg's prison by inmates (©Bamberger/BZ)

Red Baron still remembers the famous bicycle shed extensively discussed in C. Northcote Parkinson's book of 1958 on the Pursuit of Progress. While a board of directors simply rubber-stamped the construction of a £ 10,000,000 atomic reactor (hear, hear, but in 1958 such a project was still politically correct), it debated for hours the installation of a bicycle shed for £ 350. The crux was not the amount of money involved but that each director had an expert opinion on the bicycle shed and wanted to put in his two cents' worth.

Parkinson's Law in Freiburg? The debate on how the city's bicycle stands should look in the future has just started. Here is one most symbolic proposition: Place 10 bicycles in the space for one car.

©Cyclehoop

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Göttinnendämmerung?

Alea iacta est. Yesterday on Super Sunday, Germany moved to the right in three state elections. The ruling parties in Berlin, the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD), are the losers, while the populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is the winner. Does this mean twilight for goddess Angela?

©BZ

In Baden-Württemberg's state election, the CDU lost 12% of their previous votes and the SPD more than 10%. A winner in the Ländle is Ministerpräsident (governor) Winfried Kretschmann and his Green Party, gaining 6%. They passed the Christian Democrats and became the strongest party in our state parliament with 30.3% of the votes. What is worrying is that starting from scratch, the right-leaning AfD got 15.1% right away.

Neither made last-minute efforts in Freiburg by left-wingers, and Christian movements combined helped to stop the Alternative for Germany ...

Rather solidaryan than solid Aryan (©Freiburger Wochenbericht)

... nor did law-and-order slogans by the CDU help turn the tide:

Enforce the police. End Green and Red mistrust against our cobs.
Therefore vote for CDU.

More than 15% of the voters in Baden-Württemberg punished Merkel's policy of opening the German borders to refugees. Refugees came too many, too rapidly, and, what a German citizen will never tolerate, uncontrolled. It is even estimated that up to 20% of those who entered Germany last summer and fall never registered or disappeared following their registrations. On the other hand, some people registered several times; hence a correct count is impossible. Only slowly did our authorities get the situation under control.

European solidarity? Nope. According to many a head of government in the European Union, those refugees are a German problem, for it was Angela who lured an increasing number of refugees to flee the Middle East with her Wir schaffen das (We will make it). Will the lost state elections be Angela's twilight in Berlin?

The Greens lost more than 2/3 of their previous votes in the state elections of Rhineland-Palatinate and about 1/3 in Saxony-Anhalt. Nowadays, all parties in Germany have a green touch. Why bother still with the Greens, whose peak values were following the Fukushima nuclear disaster? On the other hand, personality plays a decisive role in local elections, and many voters in the Ländle like Winfried. The Green father of the state now has to look for another, more, and other coalition partner(s) supporting a government led by him.

With all established parties stating not to enter into a coalition with the AfD, it will become difficult to form stable state governments in all three states. Now the great fiddling of coalitions will start. They are easily named after countries referring to the colors of their flag. I wrote about the Jamaica coalition (black, green, yellow, i.e., Christian Democrats, the Greens, and the Liberals will govern together).

Presently excluding light blue other color coalitions are possible, e.g., a Kenia coalition (black, red, green). The most perfidious combination not respecting the will of the voters (Wählerwillen) in Baden-Württemberg will be a Deutschland-Koalition (black, red, yellow) proposed by loser Guido Wolf (CDU) banning winner Kretschmann to the opposition benches. These days nothing is excluded.

Let us hope that the many votes for the AfD are "protest votes" and, therefore, ephemeral. A good example is the populist Party of Law and Order Offensive, shorter named after its founder Schill Party, in the state of Hamburg. In 2001 the right-wing party entered the city parliament with 19,4% of the votes, but four years later, it was reduced to a mere 0.4%.

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Stumbling Stones

Last December, the Badische Zeitung (BZ) reported a quarrel regarding the pavement in front of the new university library. The city had ordered basalt stones that had been imported from Vietnam. The lobbyists of the Industrieverband Steine und Erden (Industrial Association Stones and Earth) started a shitstorm suggesting that the acquired material resulted from child labor. The news was spread that in the Far East, children are exploited in quarries working for starvation wages. Besides, the transport of stones from Vietnam to Freiburg is not climate-friendly.

The city answered that they had requested gray basalt in large quantities for covering the surfaces in front of the new university and of the Square of the Old Synagogue and not the usual black or blue basalt from the German Eifel region.

Gray basalt in front
of the new university library (©Michael Bamberger/BZ)

The story boiled up again this March when an expert from Zürich (As you know, a prophet has no honor in his own country) declared: For this project, only the basalt from Vietnam is suited. It has the required quality for heavy use. During a press conference, Matthias Pliefke of Freiburg's garden and civil engineering department and project manager of the Umgestaltung des Rotteck-Rings (Transformation of the Rotteck-Ring) presented samples of the two basalts in question. 

The basalt lava from the Eifel does not have the same quality as the basalt from Vietnam. The selected Vietnamese material is certified with the label Fairstone signifying that child labor is excluded. However, no foreigner can access the quarries located in prohibited military areas. Working conditions are checked by communist trade unions that, in turn, are controlled by the Vietnam government. Indeed it is instead a blue than a grey area, or as the Bavarians say: Nichts Genaues weiß man nicht (One does not know anything precisely).

Matthias Pliefke showing samples of Vietnam basalt (left) and
Eifel basalt lava (©Michael Bamberger/BZ)

Starting at the end of the 19th century, blue basalt became the material of choice for stable roadways in Germany. However, the abrasion-resistant surface showed its drawbacks with the increasing car traffic after the war. In 1950 Der Spiegel wrote: Road surfaces made from blue basalt are covered by a layer of dust and dripped-off oil that becomes slippery in rain or fog. Drivers experience this floating layer as a fun toboggan run.

A typical road strip in Germany covered with blue basalt (©Panoramio)

As a high school graduate in Hamburg, Red Baron did not read Der Spiegel, my driver's license dated February 1954, and I had little driving experience. So I was unaware of the danger when driving in Hamburg's notorious drizzle in April of the same year when I had to brake my father's brand-new car on a downslope covered with blue basalt. I slid into the vehicle of a driving school (sic!). That was no fun toboggan run at all.

It is no excuse that in the '50s, neither the treads of tires were covered with today's intelligent rubber compounds nor was there ABS. Luckily the car had only body damage, with the left fender being crushed. When I arrived at my father's office, he ordered me to return the vehicle immediately to the workshop from where I just had come. I shall never forget the smirking looks of the people pointing to the crushed fender and the headlight in pieces. It felt like running the gauntlet. The order was that I had to stay at the workshop until a new unpainted fender had been installed. My father taught me a lesson but had confidence in me, for three days later, he asked me to drive my mother to a funeral in far Westphalia, the new fender still unpainted.

Coming back to the basalt quarrel. In Wikipedia, I learned about another much older one that has to do with creation. In the late 18th century, two groups in Europe, the Plutonists and the Neptunists, disputed the origin of basalt. The latter defended the Urozean (primeval ocean) as the origin of basalt: In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. The earth was void and empty, darkness was upon the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the water (Moses 1,1-2). Therefore water was at the origin of everything and naturally of rock formation. Water contains minerals that settle out of suspension in the sedimentation process to form the core of the planet and the continents as a series of layers. The Plutonists, however, noted that basalt does not include any fossils, and hence the stone should be of volcanic origin. The dispute was on: Neptunists and Plutonists quarreled fiercely for decades.

Why do I write this? Our national genius Goethe, Neptunist, and a geology specialist, actively participated in the debate. When, following Alexander von Humboldt's opinion in the basalt quarrel, Johann Wolfgang saw his position dashed, he did what he knew best, writing a poem, an ode dedicated to the States:

Den Vereinigten Staaten Amerika, du hast es besser Als unser Continent, das alte, Hast keine verfallene Schlösser Und keine Basalte. Dich stört nicht im Innern, Zu lebendiger Zeit, Unnützes Erinnern Und vergeblicher Streit.

To the United States America, you're better off than our continent, the old. Neither do you sport decaying castles nor basalt rocks. Your heart is not troubled these days by useless reminiscing and empty disputes.

Well, is it still like this? The firm reference of the Neptunists to the bible reminded me of the ongoing dispute between creationists and evolutionists in the States. On our continent, the old, this is no issue. So it seems that we in Europe are nowadays better off than the US, at least in this kind of quarrel.

*

Women's Day

Today, on March 8, the world celebrates International Women's Day. Red Baron was reminded by an article in Freiburg's Amtsblatt (Official Journal) showing a poster of March 1914. The Frauentag was already celebrated on the evening of the Great War, demanding the right to vote.

Women's right to vote in Germany was granted in 1918, following total defeat in World War I and the transition from the 2nd Empire to the Weimar Republic. Somehow, we are proud that the USA introduced universal suffrage only in 1920 and the UK in 1928. France eventually followed in 1944 after the shock of World War II. In Germany, the other side of the coin was that the percentages of women voting for Hitler and his party, NSDAP, were consistently higher than those for men in the Weimar Republic.

Today, there is still inequality between men and women, e.g., in wages, with women being paid less for the same job. While in the European Union, the percentage of women in leading positions is only 33%, this figure is even lower in Germany at 28%.

But let us not grumble; instead, let us write about real women's power. In 2012, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were the world's most powerful women, according to Forbes magazine's annual survey.

I think the two ladies first met on a talk show in Berlin in 2003. Angela was chairwoman of Germany's strongest party, the Christian Democrats (CDU), and Hillary Clinton was Senator from New York. At that time. Hillary was impressed by how Angela managed the Boy's Club and predicted a great future for her.

Hillary and Angela are following the appearance on German television
 in Sabine Christiansen's political talk show (©dpa)

Ten Years later, in 2013, when Angela was Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, and Hillary was US Secretary of State, they met again in Washington.

Shaking hands like men (©ap)

Both ladies were wearing trousers suits. In front of the microphone, Hillary seems to pray
while Angela is trying to form her favorite rhombus (©Reuters)

Women in power and power women. What makes them different from men? Red Baron had two female bosses during his professional life, and both were excellent leaders, though I always felt a certain stubbornness in their leadership. Didn't Angela Merkel say, regarding the stream of refugees flooding Germany: "Wir schaffen das" (We will make it), and should we stay with her statement despite all the opposition? Wasn't Margaret Thatcher always insisting: I want my money back, referring to the European Union? Wasn't Indira Gandhi prolonging the state of emergency in India several times from 1971 to 1975, defending her quasi-dictatorship: Not a dog barked?

It will be interesting to watch Forbes magazine's annual survey about the most powerful women in 2017: Will Hillary be the unchallenged number one, and will Angela still figure on that list? Another lady is already in her starting blocks to change the guard in Germany: Ursula von der Leyen.

**

Pork Obligation

With all those Muslim refugees arriving, German society gets polarized and nervous, or should I say hysteric? While most of my fellow "countrypersons" try hard to be politically correct, they get frustrated when they find out that some of the refugees are not reacting alike. Reactions range from incomprehension via frustration to anger, even giving rise to conspiracy theories.

There is a general tendency to serve healthy food in German school cafeterias, i.e., offering less sugar, fat, and meat and more vegetables. This, however, did not please Schleswig-Holstein's pig farmers. So the parliamentary group of the Christian Democrats asked in their motion 13/3947 the government in Germany's most northern state to stand up for pork. Pork should remain in the range of foodstuff offered in cafeterias and canteens of Kitas (day nurseries) and schools. The CDU continued their motion: No Muslim shall be forced to eat pork, and we do not demand the introduction of a "Pork Day" (in English in the German text). Tolerance in a pluralistic society means recognizing and condoning other food cultures and lifestyles.

Already the Romans knew: Si tacuisses philosophus mansisses. The supporting phrases were simply too much, and although they were seemingly politically correct, they backfired. When the press took up the subject, most papers were eager to shorten the news by coining a new German word Schweinefleischpflicht or, in modern orthography, Schweinefleisch-Pflicht (pork obligation). The CDU motion caused a "pigstorm" on social media. It just proves that my countrypersons' nerves are on edge regarding refugees.

While deliberating whether to honor the story with a blog, I read a comic strip, The Atheist Pig. The author drew it as a tribute to one of his favorite comics, Jesus and Mo, and wrote about the latter: If you're not reading it, you may receive 30 lashes with bacon strips.

Here is a typical Jesus and Mo comic ...

©jesusandmo

...  and what Winston, the Atheist Pig, made out of it in a blanket:

©Winston/theatheistpig
FYI means, for your information, haram is Arabic for forbidden, e.g., particular food

For my non-American friends, "pigs in blankets" possibly need some explanation. Here is a photo:

These are not hot dogs but pigs in blankets (©stef yau/Wikipedia)

P.S.:During the debate on the Christian Democrat pork initiative Deputy Martin Habersaat of the Social Democrats ironically responded in Schleswig-Holstein's state parliament: "We are experiencing a new climax of the millennial kulturkampf of orient versus occident. As it is well known, today, Muslim refugees come to Central Europe solely to put us off pork, together with vegetarians, vegans, and rheumatics. Here it is to nip early signs in the bud and to defend our freedom of barbecuing" (Wir stehen auf einem neuen Höhepunkt des jahrtausendealten Kulturkampfes zwischen Orient und Okzident. Heute kommen die muslimischen Flüchtlinge bekanntlich zu keinem anderen Zweck nach Mitteleuropa, als uns, Seite an Seite mit Vegetariern, Veganern und Rheumatikern, das Schwein madig zu machen. Hier gilt es, den Anfängen zu wehren und unsere Freiheit am Schwenkgrill zu verteidigen).

*

Sexuality in the Middle Ages

Obviously, a conference on sexuality in the Middle Ages would draw the crowds, so Red Baron went early to get a seat in the small library of Freiburg's Alemannisches Institut in a position near the projector. Mind you, I did not feel like a voyeur; instead, I wanted to take readable photos of slides containing old German texts. In fact, the following pictures, except for the colored one on the Church Council of Constance, I took with my iPhone and later processed. They are copyrighted by Professor Gerhard Fritz of Schwäbisch-Gmünd. As predicted, when he started his scientific lecture, the library was crushed full.

From the beginning, Professor Fritz made it clear that he would limit his talk to examples from the Upper Rhine region. At the same time, he circulated the table of contents of a book on the topic that he is currently finishing, which covers a broader range.

The sexuality of people in the Middle Ages was characterized by their relationship with the Catholic Church. Although many a marriage was arranged, it was essential that the bride and bridegroom were not forced to marry but gave their mutual consent in front of a priest, till death do us part. To avoid later claims that marriage had not been consummated - being a valid ground for an annulment - often a third person had to tenir la chandelle, i.e., observe and witness the first sexual embrace.

A bishop holding a candle (French: tenir la chandelle) for a newly married noble couple
 or is it an aspergillum?

Professor Fritz explained that medieval society distinguished three classes. The nobility got away with many a sin, profiting from its good contacts with the Church authorities. Most farmers and citizens suffered from the Church's commandments of chastity. The lower class of vagabonds and beggars could not care less about sexual rules. There was even some tension between clergymen and physicians when the latter claimed that both genders needed regular sexual intercourse ... for health reasons.

And indeed, despite the strict Church chastity rules, even for married couples, bathhouses and brothels where men were looking for Kurzweil (amusement, i.e., orgasms) were common in the Middle Ages. 

The best known example is the Council of Constance, when offene Frauen (open women) satisfied the needs of domestic and foreign men in den hurenhüsern, also die, die selb hüser gemietet hattend und in den stälen lagen und was sy mochten. Seien gegen 700 da gewesen, ohne die haimlichen, die lass ich bleiben (in whore houses, i.e., those who had rented houses, lay in stables, or elsewhere. About 700 should have been present, without the clandestine women, I do not count those).

In houses and stables

In fact, it is said that when Constance's housewives saw how easy it was to earn money, they did this with pleasure and for a lower price. The whores who had come to Constance from all over Europe organized a protest march against unfair competition. Eventually, a delegation of whores saw the German King Sigismund, who gave them justice.

Wellness in Middle Age Constance

Jan Hus wrote home to Prague: Ich habe die Schwaben öfters sagen hören, dass ihre Stadt Konstanz in dreißig Jahren die Sünden nicht los wird, die während des Konzils in ihren Mauern verübt wurden; viel haben ausgespuckt, weil sie gar zu schändliche Sachen gesehen (I often heard the Swabians say that their town Constance will not get rid of its sins in thirty years, sins that were committed within its walls; many people spit out for they saw too shameful things). Hus's remarks clearly reflect the stricter views of Protestantism on sexuality, which I shall come back to.

For "noble" men trying to get rid of their wives, the Church nearly always kept an escape route open, although there is the notable exception of King Henry VIII in the Reformation. A good argument for giving his wife the boot was the sudden discovery that the couple was related, whereas at the time of marriage the only argument that counted had been the bride's dowry. Being related was a valid argument for the pope to annul a marriage.

Here is a story about a dowry with a different ending. The bankrupt Polish King Sigismund knew that Kaiser Maximilian had once consolidated his finances by marrying rich Bianca Maria Sforza. Sigismund wanted to emulate the emperor and proposed to Bona Sforza, Bianca's niece. The marriage was arranged, and Bona was sent on the long journey from Bari to Kraków. 

The days were long, but the nights were even longer, so she amused herself with one or more (?) of the accompanying noble knights. When, after three months, Bona eventually arrived in Poland's capital, the king soon noticed and noted in Latin, "Regina Bona attulit nobis tria dona: faciem pictam, dotem fictam et vulvam non strictam (Queen Bona brought us three gifts: a picture of her face, a fictitious dowry, and a vulva not being tight)." 

Sigismund's remark was not fair, for in Wikipedia you may read: Bona's dowry was substantial – 100,000 ducats and personal items worth 50,000 ducats, in addition to Bari and Rossano, which she would inherit after her mother's death.

Cuckold Sigismund of Poland and Bona Sforza's picture, her first gift. Indeed, no money is seen; in particular, the worn-out vulva is not shown.

Polish King Sigismund suffered from the so-called Nachtschaden (nightly damage). 

When a man from Erstein in Alsace went to see a capitular in Strasbourg demanding a divorce because the wife he had married was no virgin, the high-ranking dignitary simply told him, "Auch mechtig könig und fürsten müssten solches erleiden (Even mighty kings and princes have to suffer this)."

Nightmare about a Nachtschaden

With the advent of Protestantism, sexuality became significantly suppressed. Protestants introduced parish books to register marriages, births, and deaths, meaning that many illegitimate children were assigned a father. But other factors were causing the decline of extramarital sex activities.

In 1494, syphilis broke out in Naples that, apparently, Columbus's men had contracted in the Americas. The French King Charles VIII's soldiers brought the sexual scourge to France, so that other nations later called it the French disease. Already in 1498, at the time of the Reichstag (Imperial Diet) in Freiburg, the böse Blattern (named evil or great pox to distinguish the new plague from ordinary smallpox) had reached the city. The most prominent victim in Freiburg was Berthold von Henneberg, Archbishop of Mainz, elector, chancellor, and in this capacity, chairman of the Imperial Diet. When all the other participants of the Reichstag were leaving the city, he had to stay behind and in bed. Berthold died in Mainz in 1504 of his protracted illness.

Professor Fritz mentioned witch-hunting as a third reason for the oppression of sexuality. In their witch mania, decent people concluded that women who fornicate with men will whore with devils too. Whores became outlawed. Even today, prostitution is illegal in many countries, and where it is tolerated, working girls have a terrible reputation.

Witches in action

A divorce, being possible with trickery for people belonging to the true Catholic Church, was evil for early and fundamental Protestants. While Protestant princes had confiscated Catholic Church property with pleasure, they now were bound to their wives in "unpleasure" till death do them part.

Schenk Philipp Albrecht von Limpurg

Schenk Philipp Albrecht von Limpurg (1648-1682) was a known womanizer. Married to Dorothea Maria, born von Hohenlohe-Waldenburg, he was taken to court in 1676 about his relationship with Sophia Dorothea von Limpurg-Speckfeld, born Wild- und Rheingräfin zu Daun. 

However, this was just a prelude, or should I write foreplay, to his situation in 1678 when, still being married to Dorothea Maria, he no longer just wanted to live but to legalize another relation, this time with a commoner, Maria Barbara, born Gratianus. Philipp Albrecht asked the University of Strasburg for help in his divorce proceeding.

Eventually, in 1679, the theological and the legal faculties of Strasburg furnished expert opinions presenting facti species (facts of the case) of the marriage between Titus (Philipp Albrecht) and Xantippe (Dorothea Maria). To make a long story short, Philipp Albrecht had no other way to get his divorce than to convert to Catholicism. 

In doing so, Henry IV of France and Augustus II the Strong of Saxony gained kingdoms, but Philipp Albrecht only got a new wife and many problems. Even his brother Schenk Wilhelm Heinrich von Limpurg complained at the Corpus Evangelicorum of the permanent Reichstag (Imperial Diet) and at the imperial Reichshofrat (Aulic Council) about his brother's repudiation of his wife Dorothea Maria following the change of confession and Philipp Albrecht's endeavor to raise his new wife Maria Barbara to the ranks of nobility.

However, all the efforts of the newly married husband had been a waste of time, as he died in 1682.

Professor Fritz presented other colorful testimonies about sexuality in the Middle Ages that ranged from impotence to super virility.

A landgrave was impotent with his wife. So her family complained to the emperor. When the Kaiser took the husband to task, the landgrave blamed his dick: Derselbig welle den beren nit stechen, er thue im gleich, wie er welle (It does not want to prick the bear and he, the landgrave, is doing alike just following its will). The emperor's verdict was surprising: Nun, nun ich kan sein schwanz nit mandieren (Well, well, I cannot command his prick<7a>).

Ironically, the other extreme was a well-known monk, Thomas Murner, who in 1506 had studied and completed his thesis in theology at Freiburg University. Opposed to the Reformation and Martin Luther, he wrote a book titled: Von dem großen Lutherischen Narren (About the big Lutheran fool)

Back to the subject. Monk Murner once saw a girl in Straßburg and was able to help her catch the fleas between her legs eighteen times within a few hours (ihr innerhalb wenig stunden achzehn mal die flech zwischen den bainen helfen fehen).

Another clergyman, a capitular from Mainz, verspürt ein solliche unruhe in der bruech, das im der wadel in etlichen wochen weder tag oder nacht nicht mocht gebogen oder geschwecht werden (feels such an unrest in his breeches that neither by day nor by night his willie would bend or be weakened). For me, this citation has nothing to do with sexuality but rather is an early description of priapism.

After the talk, I wondered how many of the people present had already decided to buy Gerhard Fritz's forthcoming book?

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