The Old One

While Newton, with his basic laws of physics, was a grounded Christian, Einstein had an ambivalent relationship with the Old One, as he used to call his Jewish God. Although he never dug quantum mechanics, he was sure that "God does not throw dice."

Red Baron discussed his relationship to religion in general and to God in particular in various blogs:

2012 The Swerve; The Angel Said unto Them

2013 Faith And Superstition, A Wicked Company

2014 World Without God; True Religion?

2015 Do We Need God?;  From Heaven Above 

 Physicists seem to be fascinated by religious questions. The latest example is Frank Wilczek, theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winner of 2004. He received the Templeton Prize 2022 for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities. According to the Templeton Foundation, Wilczek uses "the power of the sciences to explore the deepest questions of the universe and humankind's place and purpose within it," which renewed my interest in the topic.

Frank Wilczek in 2017 (©Julia Reinhart/Getty Images)

As an introduction, here are a few statements by Wilczek:

"My everyday life has been very much enhanced by occasionally reflecting on what's going on under the hood,"

"In studying how the world works, we are studying how God works and thereby learning what God is. In that spirit, we can interpret the search for knowledge as a form of worship and our discoveries as revelations,"

His friends and students describe Wilczek as a kind and generous scientist who never lost his childlike wonder at the immense beauty of the world and how it all works. Still, one of his scholars distinguished curiosity and wonder, "Curiosity is an intellectual outlook, but wonder suggests there is something in your soul that compels you to know more about the world. That's something Frank embodies in a real, genuine way."

Recently, the Los Angeles Times published a Q&A: Talking God, science, and religion with theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek and my favorite blogger Jerry Coyne - who else? - was eager to weigh in.


When Wilczek was asked whether he is an atheist or agnostic, he answered that he is a pantheist, "I believe that the whole world is sacred, and we should take a reverential attitude toward it."

This stand excludes a personal God and is near to the idea of Spinoza, who identified God with reality with his creation. But Wilczek goes one better, "So, to me, God is under construction. My concept of God is really based on what I learn about the nature of reality."

You already find the metaphor of an unfinished and dynamic world in St. Paul's letter to Romans 8:22, "We know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now." Wilczek takes Paul's statement one step further, "God is not only the world as it is but the world as it should be."

Several questions remain open. They were not asked and answered. What does Frank mean by a sacred world that should be reverenced? Is this an extended version of Albert Schweitzer's Reverence for Life? And how should this world be? Shouldn't God have made it right from the beginning? And does He, as the creator, interfere with evolution? Coyne rightly calls the Los Angeles Times Q&As a softball interview.

One of Jerry's favorite subjects is the conflict between science and religion. On this subject, Frank said, "No, they are not in conflict with each other. There have been problems when religions make claims about how the world works or how things got to be the way they are that science comes to make seem incredible. For me, it's very hard to resist the methods of science which are based on the accumulation of evidence."

"On the other hand, science itself leads to the deep principle of complementarity, which means to answer different kinds of questions, you may need different kinds of approaches that may be mutually incomprehensible or even superficially contradictory."

O, Lord. Quantum mechanics eventually comes to the rescue of religion? Is the Copenhagen interpretation the open door to spirituality? No, because science is based on evidence of how badly complementarity is understood, while religion is based on faith.

Does a "nonpersonal "God have a will? On which Wilczek said, "Not a will as we would ascribe to human beings, although I'm not saying that's logically impossible. I would say it's really a stretch, given what we know. The form of the physical laws seems to be very tight and doesn't allow for exceptions."

"The existence of human beings, as they are, is a very remote consequence of the fundamental laws."

Frank stresses the well-known point that the world's existence, including space, is an interplay of tightly fitting physical constants. Slight differences in their values would have led to instability and diverged the "creation." Finally, atheist Richard Feynman took the view that the universe doesn't look as if it were constructed with humans in mind.

According to Sartre, man/woman was just "thrown" into the world?

*

Rapallo

 Following the after-party at the Winterer Foyer of the Municipal Theater last Saturday night Red Baron was there again only twelve hours later. He attended a stage presentation of "The Historic Hour: 100 Years of the Rapallo Treaty. "

On April 16, 1922, Germany and Soviet Russia negotiated a treaty in Rapallo to reorganize their relations. Both countries are shaken by the First World War and are losers. They are internationally isolated, and their existence is threatened by excessive reparations and compensation demands.

The negotiators are the Freiburger Joseph Wirth, member of the Catholic Center Party and Chancellor of the Reich, and former noble and polyglot man, Georgij Chicherin, Soviet Russian People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs.

Russian vodka and Black Forest kirsch peacefully united

Heinz Siebold, the play's author and director wrote the scenes based on authentic documents, i.e., personal conversations between Wirth and Chicherin in Rapallo and a telephone conversation between Wirth and Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau. Siebold recreated a political context that is unexpectedly topical with the war in Ukraine.

A somewhat frosty climate in the beginning, but alcohol helps

To this day, "Rapallo" stands for the unique features of German-Russian relations. On the one hand, it is an opportunity for a policy of understanding; on the other hand, the two nations walked a Sonderweg (particular path). The present wavering attitude of German policy towards Russia is a relic of long-gone times.

Now the two gentlemen drink coffee.

In an interview with the Badische Zeitung, Heinz Siebold clearly said, "The fact that 100 years after this treaty, there is this war is just horrible. At the time, the Treaty of Rapallo was an attempt by two outsider countries to come closer and cooperate economically. After World War I, Germany was on the brink because of the Treaty of Versailles, and Bolshevik Russia was a threat to the Western powers. The Treaty of Rapallo was a bold step to get closer, even if the Russians were never comfortable partners. My scenic portrayal shows how the negotiations came about, how they proceeded."

Wirth's decisive telephone call to Walter Rathenau

The events took place 100 years ago, so Siebold continued modestly, "I don't want to spread a message, but illustrate the historical situation. For me, part of political education is to keep pointing out the value of democracy and understanding because neither falls from the sky. It is fatal that it does not seem possible for people to learn permanently from history. But that doesn't change the fact that we must constantly struggle anew for understanding. This is true even if agreements only last for a while. Therefore, the Treaty of Rapallo is more topical than ever, even if German-Russian relations have now reached an all-time low. But that will not be the end of the story. We must not let the bridge to Russian culture and history be torn down."

Thank you, Heinz.

More thanks from right to left: Peter Haug-Lamersdorf (Wirth),
Burkhard Wein (Chicherin), Stephanie Heine (Songs of the 1920ies),
Andreas Binder (piano) and Anita Morasch (Russian folk songs)

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The Folly

Saturday night Red Baron went to the opera and listened to the world premiere of "The Folly," an oeuvre by Fabrice Bollon, presently musical director in Freiburg, but on the go to Halle.

I am a lowbrow (Kulturbanause) regarding the opera, but there are exceptions to the rule, like Carmen, Die Meistersinger, Wozzeck, or The Three Penny Opera. This time it was the person Erasmus of Rotterdam who aroused my interest. Fleeing the Reformation's radicalization and excesses in Basel, the highly respected academic found refuge in Catholic Freiburg from 1529 to 1535.

While living here, it is known that Erasmus had a troubled relationship with Freiburg's clergy, city, and university. He doesn't like the climate in Freiburg; the constant fog is annoying, and it rains too much. Compared to Basel, Freiburg is too provincial, the market offers too little choice, the wine is terrible, and the goods are too expensive. Erasmus also finds his neighbors annoying, mainly the constant ringing of the Franciscan church opposite his residence, the Haus zum Walfisch.

In a letter written at Friburgi 23 die Ianuarii Anno a Natali 1534 to a friend, the Dominican Casperi Scheto, Erasmus also complained about the Bächle (brooklets): There is great uncleanness here. Through all the streets of this city runs an artificial stream. This takes in the bloody juices of butchers, the stench of all kitchens, the filth of all houses, the vomit and urine of all passers-by, and even the feces of those who have no latrine at home. With this water, the linen cloths are washed, wine glasses are cleaned, and even the cooking pots are. This could be endured if there were something [right] to eat: all year round, I live on chicken*. There are no lavish feasts here, and if there are, it is denounced to the nobles ...
*The opera insinuates that Erasmus lived on cabbage soup and Schwarzbrot (black bread) in Basel.

My German-speaking readers may like to read more about Erasmus' stay in Freiburg.

As the outstanding academic of his time, Erasmus was accepted by his fellow Catholics and moderate Protestants. Erasmus's epitaph is the only monument in the otherwise during the iconoclasm emptied Basel cathedral.


Back to the opera in 5 Acts. Its original title in English refers to Erasmus's book Moriae encomium, "Praise of Folly," where he denounces the ecclesiastical and secular situation in his time. He circumvented the inquisition by choosing the fool's voice for his complaints.

Popes live like emperors, wage wars of conquest, and practice nepotism with offices and possessions. So Erasmus writes in Moriae encomium: Some German bishops do it more unscrupulously; I do not know whether they or the popes started it. They care nothing for worship, the giving of blessings, and whatever other pious customs there are: they live like the most warlike satraps and consider it almost a cowardice, a desecration of the episcopal dignity, not to return their heroic souls to God on the battlefield.

In Act 1 of "The Folly," the story is taken from Erasmus' satire Julius Exclusus. Pope Julius II tries in vain to pass into heaven. Boasting to St. Peter about his power and richness, he is excluded. Then we see Erasmus reading his book from 1517: Querela Pacis (The Lamentation of Peace).


In Act 2, Julius' successor Leo X has the new St. Peter's Basilica building financed by selling indulgences. For Erasmus, this is folly: Some Christians rely on the supposed indulgence of their sins and feel that they are already in heaven; they calculate the duration of the purgatory as if with a clock, to the exact decade, year, month, day and hour, as if according to an arithmetic table, without error.

In fact, the life of the Christian people is full of silliness of this kind, and the priests tolerate it without hesitation and breed it because they know well what a nice business one makes with it.

This is why Catholic monks, particularly Martin Luther criticize the Church too. There are no traces of repentance and no study of the Holy Scriptures by the clergy, but this is what both Erasmus and Brother Martin pursue.

In 1516 Johann Froben at Basel published the Novum Instrumentum omne diligenter ab Erasmo Roterdamo recognitum & emendatum, non solum ad graecam veritatem, verumetiam ad multorum utrisque linguae codicum ... emendationem & interpretationem ... Erasmus had reconstructed the text of the New Testament from many Greek "originals" and translated it into Latin that Luther in turn translated into German.

©Theater Freiburg/Britt Schilling

But Luther, contrary to Erasmus, is also a man of action. He calls the people to repentance and gains more and more followers. The pope's secretary, Cardinal Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena, worries: "The faithful in the north only read Luther's curses, Hutten's satires, and German books."

Ulrich von Hutten, a pugnacious warrior, versatile scholar, and fiery poet on the subject of the Reformation visits Erasmus. He tries to persuade his friend to take sides with Luther. But Erasmus insists on his neutrality.


In Act 3, Adrian VI, Leo's successor, urges Erasmus to take a public stand against Luther in Rome, but Erasmus hates discord and loves understanding. So he declines the invitation to the Holy See for health reasons.

One of the opera highlights is the clash of Erasmus and Luther over the question of free will. Mind you, the two never met but exchanged their views in letters. A critic noted that both baritones set an ideal counterpoint here, Erasmus's finely articulating lyric against Luther's hot temper.

©BZ/Britt Schilling

In Act 4, Erasmus' housekeeper, Margarethe Büsslin, has deciphered individual letters of the book title "The Praise of Folly," but anti-intellectually sweeps them up. The alphabet means words and books for her: "Arsonists, where the world is broken..."

©Theater Freiburg/Britt Schilling

Then Folly appears herself and sings her own praises. With her entourage, she ridicules politicians, clerics, and intellectuals. What good are wise men? It is stupidity that makes life alive.

This is one of those wild and overtwisted scenes built into many plays like the Walpurgisnacht in Goethe's Faust or the fantastic dream of poet Jerry Mulligan in An American in Paris.

In Act 5, Margarete refuses to let Ulrich von Hutten in at Erasmus' request, who, as a Hypochonder, fears for his health. Von Hutten is worn out from his fights and ill with syphilis.

©Theater Freiburg/Britt Schillinger

Still, von Hutten unhistorically dies in Erasmus's arms. He actually died in Zürich, where Zwingli received him in 1523.

©Theater Freiburg/Britt Schillinger

Erasmus describes his times as the most unhappy of all; peace is lacking. He reads again in his "Lamentation of Peace" before his book is publicly burned, "Why my book, why this book?"

Since the Reformation gained the upper hand in Basel, Erasmus considered leaving the city and going to Freiburg. Margaretha laughs at him, so a unique chuckle goes through the audience.

Erasmus, who hated war, heroism, and intolerance, suddenly no longer felt safe in his beloved Basel. He found himself between the fronts. His impartiality had lost justification, forcing him to flee into the provincial but Catholic Freiburg.

Applause well deserved

At the after-stage party. From left to right:
Scriptwriter and producer Clemens Bechtel, Stage Stefan Heyne,
Erasmus Michael Borth, The Folly ZviEmanuel-Marial,
Luther Roberto Gionfriddo, and Margarethe Büsslin Anja Jung

*

Lazarus von Schwendi

You possibly know the story of the raising of Lazarus at Bethany. This miracle by Jesus is recounted in the New Testament in John (11:1–44). Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead four days after his entombment. But have you heard about Lazarus von Schwendi?

Lazarus von Schwendi's story in an old historical journal

Wikipedia knows: Lazarus von Schwendi, Reichsfreiherr (imperial baron) von Hohenlandsberg, was born in 1522 in Mittelbiberach. He was a diplomat, statesman, imperial field captain, and general in the service of the emperors Charles V, Ferdinand I, and Maximilian II. Lazarus died on May 28, 1583, in his castle at Kirchhofen and was buried in Alsace in the church of Kirchheim

On Saturday, April 30, Red Baron followed a guided tour of the Lazarus-von-Schwendi Castle at Kirchhofen, south of Freiburg.

The announcement of the excursion by the Freiburg Historical Society Schau-ins-Land read as follows: The castle in Kirchhofen is the best-preserved moated castle in the Breisgau region. Three corner towers with pointed conical roofs and embrasures still exist, and the moat is clearly visible. Under the manor house is a large vaulted cellar. The large bright rooms in the main house are designed as a museum, and the visitors will be led into one of the towers dedicated to the memory of the former lord of the castle, Lazarus von Schwendi (1522-1583).
 

A moated castle on a hill? This question drew a large crowd split into three groups for the tour. 

Castle on a hill and a moat filled with water: The model.

In 1507, the castle was laid out in its present dimensions. It was surrounded by a wall and a moat. Of the original four towers, three are still preserved. 

In 1572, Lazarus von Schwendi acquired the Kirchhofen Domaine with the moated castle, which he had expanded into his residence.

View from the right front tower into the dry moat.

Standing in the moat,
looking at the right rear tower and the main building.

The rear of the castle. Knowledgeable people informed the participants
about water sources located at a higher level. Those might have filled the moat.

In 1578, after he retired from imperial service, Lazarus used his castle not just as a retirement residence, for in the same year, he founded the hospital and the first school at Kirchhofen. 

Red Baron became interested in Lazarus von Schwendi as a mediator between confessions when the enmity between Catholics and Protestants festered.

In the second half of the 15th century, a nobility crisis occurred in the Upper Rhine region when, in Catholic Anterior Austria, the knighthood in Alsace became Lutheran-minded. Lazarus is the one bright beacon of several prudent men who urged peaceful coexistence between the confessions. He was shocked by the horrors of St. Bartholomew's Night in neighboring France. As a former general of the imperial troops on the Eastern Front against the Turks, he stressed that religious disputes weakened the ability of the Empire to fight against the Ottomans. Being the author of a book about the government of the Empire and religious tolerance, he practiced the latter in his private life, marrying a Protestant as his second wife.

When he was appointed imperial bailiff at Hagenau in 1573, all the hopes of the Protestant towns in Alsace rested on him, and he did not disappoint them. Lazarus ignored the order of the Anterior Austrian government in Innsbruck, asking him to dismiss the three Protestant sub-bailiffs of Münster, Türkheim, and Kayserberg. He wrote, "It is not my occupation and job to engage in the persecution and extermination of the new religion... that I should personally interfere in religious matters, force people's conscience, and compel them to another religion that is not at all my occupation, my doing, or on my mind. I am obliged to nothing ..."

The history of the castle

In 1847, the local Kirchhofen school was housed in the castle, where it remained until 1961 when the new municipal school building was erected. The old premises are presently developed into a municipal museum.

From his school days,
Red Baron still remembers the physical map of Central Europe.

Calculating in the old days

Lazarus von Schwendi is venerated on both banks of the Rhine River.

Red Baron will definitely participate in the festivities of LvS's 500th birthday.

*

Cancel Carl?

Yesterday, Friday 13, Red Baron read a disturbing story in Der Spiegel:

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wanted to solemnly inaugurate a bust of Carl Schurz at the Bellevue Palace in Berlin, his official residence. According to the author of the article, 

Kein Held ist perfekt (No Hereo Is Perfect)

Dirk Kurbjuweit, Carl is one of the four "forgotten "revolutionaries of 1848/49, together with heroes such as Friedrich Hecker, Gustav Struve, and Franz Sigel. Following the abortion of their revolution for democracy and freedom in Germany, all those Forty-Eighters emigrated to the States and fought slavery (what else?) in the Civil War.

Last Monday evening, our president had the inauguration appointment canceled with these words: "Allegations have come to light against Carl Schurz, relating in particular to his term as Secretary of the Interior of the United States from 1877 to 1881 and concerning the removal of Native American children to boarding schools."

Coincidence had it that the big story in BuzzFeed News on May 13 was:

The U.S. has confirmed hundreds of deaths occurred
at Native American boarding schools.

The remains of more than 500 children were discovered at burial sites across the U.S. as part of a wide-ranging investigation into the Indian boarding school system that systematically erased Indigenous culture from the early 1800s to around 1970. The real number of children whose bodies were dumped in the mass graves is expected to be much higher.

Advocates have been cataloging atrocities on their own for decades and have long called for official federal recognition and documentation. Last year, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna whose grandparents survived boarding schools, ordered a formal investigation to "uncover the truth about the loss of human life and the lasting consequences.

The investigation explained that in 1803, President Thomas Jefferson told Congress that he wanted to create policies to separate Indian tribes from their land. Children were 'coerced, induced, or compelled to enter the schools, many without their parents' consent.

And again, on Friday, May 13, Jerry Coyne wrote a blog:

Erasing George Washington

As I've said several times during this time of cancellation, renaming, and statue-toppling, I would only favor this kind of "erasure" (usually not by straight erasure, but by giving "context") when the person at issue fails to fulfill two criteria:

a. Are they being honored for their positive accomplishments? and

b. On balance, did their life and accomplishments make the world a better place?

If "yes," let them stay. If "no," erasure might be considered, though I favor the retention of history with, perhaps, an explanatory note.

Now, these are my own criteria, and others differ, but I'd say, for instance, that removing a Jefferson or Theodore Roosevelt statue because they were imperfect humans violates the two criteria above. Both men are "yes" in a. and b.

Slavery is an exception to what I just said. Even in times of slavery, there were many who opposed it, and so it has to be counted as a severe moral deficit in anyone connected to the slave trade or to have had slaves. And this brings up the matter of two of our most famous Presidents, both of whom were enslavers: George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. This issue is part of what led Caleb Francois, a senior at George Washington University in the District of Columbia, to write in the Washington Post:

Coming back to Carl Schurz. U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes made Schurz Secretary of the Interior in 1877. He was thus responsible for the indigenous peoples, who were mainly defeated and, to a large extent, living in dire conditions on reservations.

New findings of Schurz's actions as U.S. Secretary of the Interior came to light thanks to his current successor, Deb Haaland, who belongs to the Laguna Pueblo people. She had an investigation conducted into how Schurz and others treated indigenous peoples. Some of the results are startling.

Schurz's actions were controversial during his time as Secretary of the Interior. From the point of view of many whites, he treated indigenous people too leniently. It was even rumored that out of respect for Schurz, many Native Americans have been given the first name Carl.

Now Haaland's Federal Boarding School Initiative, which is having research done on how indigenous children fared when they were taken from their families and placed in special boarding schools, delivers a scathing verdict: "In the establishment of these brutal assimilation institutions, as well as in the forced sellout of the remaining reservations, Schurz, as Secretary of the Interior from 1877 to 1881, played a prominent, if not a decisive, role."

During his time, Schurz said about his fosterlings, "The wild look of the Indian boys and girls quickly gives way to a well-groomed appearance. A new intelligence that lights up their faces transforms their expressions." He continued, "Let justice be done to them, and if they cannot be made as civilized and useful citizens as the whites, then let them become as civilized and useful as possible."

Kurbjuweit notices sheer racism in these sentences, although Schurz possibly saw himself on a humanitarian path, assuming these people would be better off if they lived like whites.

 
We, the white people in Europe and the U.S., are the best, and we know what is best for everyone: to become and live like us. Is it right not to grant Carl Schurz a place in Bellevue Palace? Should he be canceled? 

Judge yourself by applying Jerry's a and b criteria.

*

On the History of Freiburg‘s Sister Cities

Last fall, two students of the German-French Highschool interviewed the president of the Freiburg-Madison-Gesellschaft and me on the history of Madison, particularly in the previous World War. Even after consultation with knowledgeable friends in our sister city, the information situation remained thin.

Thus Madison is presented at the exhibition on Freiburgs Partnerstädte und ihre Geschichte with only two posters, while the information on places that suffered during the war is documented on three posters.

Presentation of the Madison posters at the Zentrum Oberwiehre  by a student

On May 2, Red Baron took part in the vernissage.

Naturally, the posters about Madison found my interest. Here are the two posters. Click on them to enlarge them.

             Marc Chagall's vision (©facebook)

The actuality, however, is with Lviv (Львів), Freiburg's battered sister city. Its Austro-German name is Lemberg, Polish Lwów [lvuf], Yiddish לעמבערג, Armenian Լվով [lvov], Russian Львов [lʲvof].

In addition to what is written on the posters, here are Red Baron's personal observations:

Endowed with royal privileges, Lviv belonged to the Kingdom of Poland from 1349 until the first Polish partition in 1772, when it fell to the Habsburg Monarchy. Lviv became the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and the fourth-largest city in the multiethnic state. Emperor Joseph II wanted to impose German as the administrative language in his entire realm, although German was already the lingua franca in the blooming city.

Population development in Lviv (©xyzzyva/Wikipedia)

From the second half of the 19th century until the end of the First World War, Lemberg was a melting pot of people, with 50% Poles, 20% Ruthenians (Ukrainians), and nearly 30% Jews.

The new map in 1920
(©The Independent (New York), June 14, vol. 98, 1919/Wikipedia)

With the Peace treaty of Trianon, Lwów became Polish again. Now Poland's third-largest city, it was a stronghold of Polish culture but remained a focal point of Ukrainian national feeling. However, the Habsburg supranational identity remained present in the background.

With the Hitler-Stalin Pact, Lvov was part of the Soviet Union. After the German army captured the city during World War II, nationalists proclaimed Ukrainian independence. The German occupation nipped these attempts in the bud. Lvov became part of the German General Government instead. The city now functioned again under the name of Lemberg as the capital of the district of Galicia.

In 1946, Poland was shifted westwards (©facebook)

After the war, the Russian victors retained the eastern Polish territories and moved the borders westward with the 4th partition of Poland. The Polish residents were resettled in Germany's eastern regions, mainly Silesia.

Russians, especially Ukrainians, poured into the annexed territories, where the Ukrainian share of the population increased in recent decades as the Russian share decreased. The fate of the Jews can also be seen in the graph. Almost the entire Jewish population of לעמבערג perished in the Holocaust. Their percentage, which was only 7% in 1950, has further dropped to 0.3% in the wake of an underlying anti-Semitic atmosphere in the Soviet Union. Also, the Polish share of Lwów's population fell below 1%.


As a minor observation, Red Baron read on the poster of Tel Aviv:

Well, there is Betanien, or better Bethanien, a spot in the Holy Land, and Brittany, a female forename, but no such word as Großbrittanien.

The correct spelling is Großbritannien, but the name is somewhat outdated. It is the German word for the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707-1801), the state after the union of England (one state with Wales) and Scotland.

This construct was followed by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801-1927). The latter is the predecessor name of the present Vereinigtes Königreich (United Kingdom) since 1927.

*

Cancel Culture Only in the States?

"Cancel Culture" refers to boycotting or shunning a person (often a celebrity and sometimes a person from the past) whose behavior or statements are deemed unacceptable nowadays.

Today, cancel culture is often the result of a person's "political incorrectness."

Cancel culture is not about engaging in open debate or factually refuting provocative claims but discrediting their originators.

©The Week

We watched the downing of monuments to Confederate generals who fought in the American Civil War and were suddenly reduced to their role as slaveholders?

There was no such thing in Germany, nor was there a demand to smell the Freiburg Victory Monument, erasing the memory of individuals. General August von Werder, for instance?

In fact, cancel culture is a new catchy term for something old. Just think of the burning of books by "un-German" authors by the Nazis.

Also, in the 3rd Reich, the fact that Einstein was a Jew was sufficient to brand his theories of relativity as "Jewish Physics." The theories were answered with a "Deutsche Physik."


In Germany, in recent years, it was sometimes sufficient to "cancel" authors or politicians hastily when anti-Semitic statements were found in their writings or speeches.

However, it cannot be denied that during its extended discussions, the working group for the renaming of streets in Freiburg has considered the cases in a differentiated and proportionate manner. They did not make it easy for themselves. Is one politically incorrect statement or action already sufficient to discredit, sorry, cancel a person?

Red Baron still wonders why it was necessary to rename Rennerstraße in Freiburg. Renner who? 

Was the street named after the German communist Heinrich "Heinz" Renner (1892-1964), the first mayor of the city of Essen after the end of Nazi tyranny in 1946, or was it named after the father of the Austrian Republics in 1919 and again in 1946 Karl Renner (1870-1950)?

No, it was Johann Jacob Renner. He was a sheriff (Schultheiß) in Freiburg around 1600 and a financial benefactor of the city, but he also sent twelve women to the stake as witches in 1599. Consider that Johann Jacob was forgotten in Freiburg. He did not even have an article on Wikipedia. 

That article I wrote when the working group dragged Renner's gruesome deed into the light of day. So, at least he is not canceled on the Internet.

©Andreas Schwarzkopf†/Wikipedia

On the contrary, the city wrote about the street renaming - in total twelve - in Freiburg: No historical facts are to be erased. Additional plaques and explanations on the streets keep the past present in the city's public.

However, the general rule is that streets are named after people to be given special honors. Even if their other achievements are undisputed, people with criminal views and deeds do not need to be honored this way.

Anti-Semitism is as old as the Jewish diaspora, and through the centuries, Christians have failed to proselytize or reform the Jews.

Initially, Martin Luther saw missionized Jews as a way to counterbalance the Roman Church. His writing, "That Jesus Christ was born a Jew," bears witness to this. When the reformer failed in his attempt to win over the "unbelieving" Jews, his initial friendliness toward the Jews turned into abysmal hatred in his later writings, "Von den Jüden und jhren Lügen (On the Jews and their lies). "

In a sermon in Eisleben on the day of his death, Luther speaks his last words on the Jewish question: "If they do not convert, we shall not tolerate nor allow them among us. Therefore, always away with them, but if they confess, leave their usury, and accept Christ, we will gladly keep them as our brothers. "

In 1821, Karl von Rotteck, a spokesman in the state parliament, tried to make the total emancipation of the Jews in Baden dependent on their complete assimilation. This included changing the Sabbath day to Sunday, abolishing dietary laws, renunciating Hebrew, and purifying the Talmud from "anti-state tendencies." In other words, the Jews were to earn their civil rights through increased integration.

This covert anti-Semitism was enough for the Freiburg City Council to rename the Karl von Rotteck Medal of Merit into the Gertrud Luckner Medal. However, Rotteck's merits as a constitutional lawyer and co-author of the first Baden constitution prevented the Rotteckring from being renamed.

The situation is somewhat different for Alban Stolz, the poet and theologian who was proven anti-Semite. In October 2020, a street in Freiburg named after him became Denzlinger Straße.

Bust removal in December 2020 (©Thomas Kunz/BZ)

However, a culture war broke loose over Stolz's bust in front of the Konviktkirche. Municipal, ecclesiastical authorities, and the State Cultural Office were at loggerheads for a long time until it was finally agreed to move the bust from the public space to the seminary garden, the Collegium Borromaeum. Alban Stolz was only partially canceled.

Let us return to the present. Recently, President Putin complained that  Cancel Culture had turned into Culture Cancellation in the West. The names of Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, and Rachmaninoff would be dropped from concert programs, which is partly true. Russian writers and their works would be banned, which is not true.

And Putin continued, "We remember well the images of book burnings in city squares," referring to the Nazi practice of book burning in the 1930s.

Is the cultural bridge broken between Ukrainians and Russians? They fought side by side against Nazi Germany in World War II, paying a heavy toll of blood.

The day before yesterday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko personally supervised the demolition of the Soviet Friendship Monument in Kyiv. Is this a case of Canceling Culture?

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