A Voté

"Has voted" is the distinctive call of the polling station officer in France when votes find their way into the ballot box. Not so in my country: the officer just nodded when I had slipped my ballot into the box yesterday as one of the 60 million eligible persons to vote for Germany's 20th Bundestag.

Even Google honored the German federal election.

Germany has a mixed electoral system, and voters have two votes. 299 deputies are directly elected in their electoral districts with a "first" vote. This is the same as in the States or the UK. However, Winston Churchill already mused, "It isn't one hundred percent democratic, but it works." Right he was, for all votes for the smaller parties fallen unter den Tisch (are lost).

To remedy this "undemocratic "situation, Germany's electoral law stipulates that another 299 deputies are added to the Bundestag according to the percentage of "second" votes a party has gained.

Darker means a higher percentage of votes (©Der Spiegel)

Here are Germany's 299 electoral districts. By now, you know that for the two major parties, black stands for the Christian Democrats, and red for the Social Democrats. Germany's south and west voted black, while the north and the Ruhr district are traditionally red. Here and there, the direct mandate fell to the Greens, so in electoral district 281 Freiburg (what else?). Those blue constituencies in Saxonia and Thuringia are unpleasant, where the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland got the majority of the votes cast and the direct candidate elected.

With Christian and Social Democrats being the significant parties, it frequently happens that their number of direct mandates won in a particular state is greater than the percentages of their votes. These seats are called overhang mandates and are compensated by additional leveling seats, thus adjusting the number of deputies according to the portions of the "second" votes cast for their parties.

These two mechanisms try to make the election result nearly one hundred percent democratic but have the unpleasant side effect of swelling the Bundestag. The number of deputies increased from nominally 598 deputies to 709 in 2017 and now to 735 or from XL to XXL. All election law reforms to decrease the number of seats have failed so far. Note: No deputy will vote for his/her own suppression.

Percentages of "second" votes
Gains and losses are compared to the 2017 election results.
(©Der Spiegel)

Here are the final provisionally results of 2021, showing winners and losers.

Angela's reaction to her party's losses (©AP)

The big losers are the Christian Democrats, i.e., Angela Merkel's party, but the extreme right and left parties shrunk too. Germany moved to the center. Only a tripartite alliance can form a stable government. Will we get a center-right Jamaica or a center-left traffic light coalition? Let us hope we have a new government soon; otherwise, acting Chancellor Angela will give the traditional New Year's address on national television.

(©ntv)

On the evening of the election, Chancellor Angela Merkel at a party rally with the wannabe chancellor Armin Laschet (CDU). After 16 years at the helm, the chancellor looks tired. Did she support him enough?

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Klassentreffen

Every year on the third Friday in September, my former class of '54 holds its annual reunion in a suburb of Hamburg with a dinner.

Park Cemetery Ohlsdorf (©bgmr)

I always use the opportunity to visit my parents' graves. They are buried at the Ohlsdorf cemetery, the largest in the world.

Sunflowers, my father's favorites 

My father died at 54, and my mother at 90. They were married for 25 years, and my mother lived as a widow for another 35 years.

Roads run through the Ohlsdorf cemetery, and two bus lines connect the main entrance with 14 chapels used for funeral ceremonies in various parts of the cemetery park.

Bicycles are allowed

Wilhelm Cordes had the idea to bury the Hamburgers in a vast garden. Indeed, people walk along the small lakes admiring the sumptuous flowers during the rhododendrons bloom.

Public transport was allowed, but a big surprise for those
cars approaching the barrier from the opposite side.

Other activities like teaching your children how to drive or speeding cars and taking the quiet roads as a shortcut were initially tolerated, but the situation went out of hand. Now barriers prevent transit for individuals.

In the late morning, I took the ferry crossing the Elbe River to Finkenwerder, now known for the Hamburg branch of Airbus Industries. 

During the day, the ferry boat is used mainly by tourists
cruising the Elbe River and just paying a token.

Bye, bye Hamburg

Passing a rudimentary Elbe beach

Finkenwerder is still famous for its fishing fleet. The specialty is plaice that is deliciously prepared on-site as Finkenwerder Speckscholle (baked plaice with bacon).

Even though I had dinner with my former classmates, I couldn't resist.

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AYF 2021/22

American students are back in town for the Academic Year in Freiburg 2021/22.

The AYF exchange program dates back to 1960, with a celebration scheduled in 2020, but it had to be cut short in the same year. Because of the spreading pandemic, all AYF students were ordered back home. The program set up for them was canceled, including the events planned by the Freiburg-Madison-Gesellschaft (FMG). The  FMG is in contact with Madison, WI, Freiburg's sister city in the States.

 No student arrived for the AYF 2020/21, so we were all glad when Ulrich Struve, the AYF program director, announced that 26 new students from Madison and Michigan would come to Freiburg this fall.

©US

Red Baron was proud to open the FMG student program. On September 8, I led a guided tour of Freiburg's historical places. This year, I had a record audience of 19 students participating.

As usual, I concentrated on the Reformation's time, although Freiburg, a Habsburg outpost on the Rhine, always stayed Catholic. Nevertheless, the effects of the religious division on Freiburg were dramatic.

Haus zum Walfisch

Witnessing the iconoclasm at the Basel Minster, the great Erasmus of Rotterdam left the city in May 1529 and settled in Catholic Freiburg at the House of the Whale. My followers who read German may look for the full story here.

  

Basler Hof

I told the story of the Baseler Hof on Kaiser-Joseph-Straße, in which the chapter of the Basel Minster Church found refuge in April 1529, fleeing the radical reformists in their town.

Finally, our group ended up at Minster Square admiring "the most beautiful steeple in the world," according to art historian Jacob Burkhardt.

Learning phase: The left tracery window shows the progression
from early Gothic (RHS) to High Gothic style.

The change in style from Romanesque to Gothic came as a surprise to the Freiburg Minster builders. Their attempts to build gothic window tracery were pitiful. But when they called in colleagues from Strasbourg, their successive arches looked more refined.

 
Although all students were vaccinated and their masks well in place, it was a surprise that we were thrown out of the church. We were too many. Only ten persons per group are allowed to visit the interior of the Minster.

So here are three pictures of what I had intended to show and explain inside the Minster Church.

The builders had to raise the initial Romanesque columns
to accommodate the higher Gothic vault ribs.

Inside the Minster, at the transition of transept and nave, the change in style resulted in some construction acrobatics one had to make fit the higher Gothic arch onto the supports for the Romanesque arch.

©miJoergens/Wikipedia

The photo above shows Geigesgate. Freiburg's city council mandated the famous Fritz Geiges to complement broken stained-glass windows at the Minster Church. Compare the two pretzels, which are original and recreated. Read the full story here.

During my guided tours, I always show the ruins of Freiburg following the British air raid on November 27, 1944, as my last photo.

People still call it a miracle that the Minster Church stood while all the buildings around were in ruins. One reason is that the builders have solidly constructed walls and arches. They didn't know how to calculate the statics at those times, so they better over-dimensioned all building elements. Present calculations show that the safety factors built into the construction are at least seven times greater than would be required by modern architecture. This is one reason why the Freiburg Minster Church, although under permanent restoration and repair, will survive for another couple of centuries.

         

Honoring Madison's coat of arms ©US

We wish all AYF 2021/22 students all the best for their Academic Year in Freiburg.

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Variant of Interest

Presently the Covid-19 Delta variant of concern (VOC) determines the Corona infections around the globe.

The scale of WHO Bedrohungslagen opened at the top by Stephen Colbert
(©Stephen Colbert/CBS)

The other day the World Health Organisation (WHO) identified a new, the Mu variant, as a variant of interest (VOI). With its multiple spike mutations, will this virus become Corona's dominant spreader?

For my German readers "Zwischen Aufstrich und Ausbreitung"
of epidemics (©Stephen Colbert/CBS)

Here is what Dr. Fauci said regarding the present situation in the States, "There are isolates of the Mu variant in this country. The thing that is telling us it isn't an immediate issue right now is that the Delta variant continues to be profoundly dominant in this country. More than 99% of the isolates in this country are Delta. So, Delta seems to be pushing out all the other variants."

Mu is the twelfth letter in the 24-letter Greek alphabet, two letters short of the Latin alphabet used in English. With more mutants of the Coronavirus being identified, it is evident that sooner or later, we will run out of Greek letters.

When this happens, the Cyrillic alphabet could come in handy with its abundant 29 letters, not counting the modifying hard and soft signs. Mind you, some of the Cyrillic letters are of Greek or Latin origin. Will we ever need the umlauted and the accented letters to name new Covid-19 variants? I digress.

Four waves of Corona infections in Germany (©ntv)

The 4th Corona wave is somewhat frightening. Looking at the progress in vaccinations in various countries, you will note that vaccination rates of around 60% are far from any herd immunity with the aggressive Delta variant. However, Denmark recently lifted all Corona restrictions with its 73,1%.

Vaccination progress for selected countries (©RTL)

Countries that started their vaccinations early, like Israel, the UK, and the States, are not better off than Germany, a late starter. With 61.3% of its population fully vaccinated, Germany has passed the US with 52,3%. There is vaccine fatigue in all countries, so the present numbers increase only slowly with time.

Seven day Corona incidences for unvaccinated
and fully vaccinated people in a few German States (©ntv)

And then there are breakthrough infections. Fully vaccinated persons fall ill with Corona, although the progression of the disease is mild, showing that the vaccination is effective.

The course of the pandemic is profoundly different in Germany in 2020 and 2021, as illustrated in the following graphics by Deutsche Telekom©:

After Germany met the initial wave with a lockdown, the Corona incidence stayed low during the summer of 2020 (orange curve) and started to climb with the cold season. In 2021 a similar trend was expected, but the Delta variant made that the Corona incidence began already to rise at the end of July, climbing since then. The rate has now reached a value above 83 infections per 100,000 inhabitants. Where is the effect of the vaccination?

We see the effect of vaccination in the above graphic comparing the number of deaths due to Corona in 2020 (orange) and 2021 (red). This year the number dropped as the number of vaccinations increased. In addition, the death rate will remain low in 2021, although the number of infected people is increasing. Many older people died from Corona last year. This cohort is now nearly fully inoculated, and the number of deaths due to the Delta variant in younger population segments is low.

Finally, the following graphic shows the number of people in intensive care again for the years 2020 (orange) and 2021 (red). This year's load on the hospitals is still low. So yesterday, parliament - in its last session before the deputies adjourned to fight for their seats in the upcoming federal election - passed an amendment to the Infection Protection Act, replacing the corona incidence rate with a hospitalization rate. This rate indicates how many Corona patients per 100,000 inhabitants were admitted to hospitals in the last seven days. Last Tuesday, that figure was 1.69 nationwide, having little meaning. So instead, in the future, each State will define its limiting numbers according to the number of still-empty hospital beds. Presently the State Ordinances are being adjusted.

Berlin, which had a traffic light for additional actions to be taken when the Corona rate in the city-state passed limiting values, converted its traffic light to an indicator of hospitalization incidence. At a value of 4, the light turns yellow, meaning that the Senate (the state government) needs to talk; at a value of 8 (red), there is a need for action, i.e., for new or further Corona restrictions.

Baden-Württemberg's draft of a new Corona Ordinance stipulates that if the hospitalization incidence passes 8, unvaccinated people would only be allowed access with a negative PCR test to some public areas, such as restaurants and cultural and sporting events.

A second alert level applies if the hospitalization incidence is 12. At this value, 2G becomes the rule in the land. Unvaccinated people would no longer have access to certain areas and must reduce their contacts to a minimum.

The planned rigid 2G rule in Baden-Württemberg differs from that in Hamburg. Here organizers and landlords can decide whether to admit only vaccinated and recovered people under an option model to their premises.

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Parashah Nitzavim

On September 4, Red Baron went to the local synagogue. It was the last Sabbath in the Jewish annual cycle, during which Moses’ five books are read from the Torah. On this day, the last verses of the book Deuteronomy (29:9-30:20), i.e., the 51st weekly parashah (section), are recited. This last Sabbath in the Jewish year is named Nitzavim after the first distinctive word - being the second - in the final parashah of the book Deuteronomy*.

*A similar scheme is practiced in the Catholic Church, where Sundays in the annual cycle are frequently named after the first word of the introit, the first prayer in the Mass. So the four Lent Sundays are known as Invocavit, Reminiscere, Oculi, and Laetare.

 

I attended the service because of the invitation of the Freiburg Jewish community on the occasion of the European Day of Jewish Culture.

Red Baron took his kippah, the streetcar, and was early for the service scheduled at 9:30 a.m.; time to look around and watch old white-haired men arriving. They put on their Talith (prayer shawl) and placed their Siddur Schomer Jissrael (Prayer book for Shabbat and [Jewish] holidays), waiting for the service to begin.

At 9:40 a.m, the Cantor started the service. I was left with the prayer book with texts printed in Hebrew, their phonetic transliterations, and translations of the Hebrew texts into German.

In the meantime, the Rabbi arrived. When he terminated his private prayers, he walked around and helped the old men* find the texts the Cantor was reciting in their prayer books. He helped me the goy too.
*Many of those pious men are Jews who fled the Soviet Union and settled in Germany

Frequently some of the men present participated in the recitation of texts.

The highlight of the service was the pulling out of the Thora and the reading of the last verses of Moses’ Fifth Book.

The Rabbi’s homily in German (!) centered around a rabbi in White Russia who went to the synagogue in his village for spiritual enlightenment on his religious queries. When he left the place of worship, he was deeply disappointed that the Lord had not spoken to him and went home saddened.

Later the keeper of the synagogue knocked at the rabbi’s door, asking him for some roubles for the work on the synagogue. The rabbi was generous. Hardly had the visitor left the house; the rabbi had all the answers to his queries. Amen.

Then a few men in the audience, one after the other, went to the front, and an attendee asked them in Hebrew who should be included in the prayers. Those questioned pronounced first names, including the Cantor and the Rabbi, and some mentioned the guests (me). The man knowledgeable in Hebrew repeated those names loudly, sometimes asking to ensure he understood well.

Near the end of the service, the Cantor prayed for the sick and the suffering. I forwarded my daughter's name when he invited the community to mention names.

The service was long. Luckily, the seats had cushions, so Red Baron survived the two hours.

Today September 6, is Rosh Hashanah (the start of the year). The Jewish New Year 5782 begins. Time to wish you all, Shana Tova, a good year,

The impressive cupola of Freiburg's synagogue.

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My Booster Jab

At 8 p.m., the deserted exhibition hall in the morning fog

This morning Red Baron went to the Freiburg Impfzentrum to get his third, a refresher vaccination of BioNTech/Pfizer.

Empty parking in the slowly winning sun

Streetcar number 4 took me to Freiburg’s exhibition grounds on Madisonallee. The city continues to offer Corona vaccinations in the halls until September 15, before the place is closed and returned to its original purpose.

Next will be the 129th Gebrauchtwagenverkaufsschau (used cars sales show)
starting on September 24.

 

Instead of booth 6, this time, I waited in front of booth 5.

At 8:23 a.m., I waited the usual 20 minutes for an allergic shock that did not come. Ich bin hindurch!

This time Red Baron missed the stand of the friendly coffee brewer. So on my way home, I stopped downtown at Schmidt‘s Café on Bertoldstraße for an espresso, and a seasonal Zwetschgenschnitte translates to a plum cut. 

Zwetschgenschnitte is a slice of thin yeast dough covered with damsons. Ordinary plums are no good, for they lose their juice and become sour when cooked. The layer of damsons must be so dense that the dough does not shine through. My mother used to put large surfaces of Zwetschgenkuchen in the oven. From there, you cut those handy Schnitten my brother and I gulped down, still warm, not counting their number.

Café Schmidt serves espresso with a small bowl of whipped cream. The cream comes in handy for one part that can be used to cover the surface of the coffee, protecting it from cooling too fast*. The rest is spread on the Zwetschgenschnitte. Delicious!

* For the so-called Einspänner effect, see here.

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The Triell

Presidential debates in the States are duels between candidates of the Democrats and Republicans. In Germany, the party landscape is more diverse and colorful. Instead of blue and red, we have more colors, i.e., more parties: black (CDU, Christian Democrats, conservative), red (SPD, Social Democrats, moderate left), green (Grüne, Greens, ecologists), yellow (FDP, Free Democrats, liberals), blue (AfD, Alternative for Germany, right-wing), and amber (Die Linke, The Left, left-wing).

The three parties likely to become the strongest in the new Bundestag (parliament) as the result of the upcoming federal elections on September 26 have sent candidates into the race for chancellor knowing that elections are decided mainly by personalities.

The Triell at the Berlin Adlerhof studios (©WIWO)

So last Sunday, Armin Laschet (CDU), Annalena Baerbock (The Greens), and Olaf Scholz (SPD) met on national television for a debate in a "triell" constellation.

The result of a poll taken following the debate.
Who is the winner? (©RTLaktuell)

Observers called the debate's outcome a stalemate, while a poll following the "triell" saw a clear winner. Germans don't like abrupt changes. 

Kanzlerdämmerung. Chancellor Merkel last week at the Bundestag in Berlin.
After 16 years, Goodbye, Angela, many will miss you (©Filip Singer/EPA).

Vice-chancellor and solid minister of finance Olaf Scholz placed his experience in government on the scales, playing the Merkel card, and preaching continuity with subtle changes. This attitude resonates with the German voter.

©CDU

The ruling Christian Democrats are on the defensive, but instead of Konrad Adenauer's successful slogan of 1957, "No experiments," ...

©dpa

... they get the red socks of 1994 from behind the oven painting a left-wing coalition on the wall, including Die Linke. However, this option does not frighten the voter with Olaf Scholz at the helm.

No party will gain more than 50% of the seats in the next Bundestag, so coalitions must be formed. Here is the play of colors for possible constellations:

Projected number of seats in the future Bundestag
considering recent results of polls (©Der Spiegel)

Some possible coalitions carry funny names like Kenia, Jamaica, or Germany but have nothing to do with the respective country. The combination of party colors simply mirrors the colors of the individual flags. Mind you, Kenia is set; no one has called it the Afghanistan coalition so far.

As you may see from the graph, several coalitions have a majority of seats possible.

©mdr

Some color combinations form state governments, e.g., a Kenia coalition in Saxonia ...

©NABU

... or a Jamaica coalition in Schleswig-Holstein.

©CDU

Last March, voters in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate confirmed a successful traffic light coalition. Too many people did not like the CDU pulling the plug.

The Grand Coalition has governed Germany since 2013 and is likely to have no majority in the new Bundestag. It needs at least three parties to form a government.

The protagonists of CDU, SPD, and FDP (©Die Welt)

So a novelty would be a "Germany coalition" between CDU, SPD, and FDP. 

Will there be a significant shift in party preferences until September 26? I doubt.

P.S.: September 1. From the New York Times article, It's Election Season in Germany. No Charisma, Please!: 

 Less than a month before the vote on September 26, the field is being led by two male suit-wearing career politicians — one balding, one bespectacled, both over 60 — who represent the parties that have governed the country jointly for the better part of two decades.

Olaf Scholz, center left, of the Social Democrats, and Armin Laschet, center,
of the Christian Democratic Union [both on occasion, not suit-wearing
are visiting flood-stricken regions in North Rhine-Westphalia
where Laschet is governor]. Their race has become a contest
 to see who can best channel Chancellor Angela Merkel's aura
of stability and calm (©Marius Becker)

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