Jüdisches Leben in der Wiehre

Jewish life in Freiburg's district Wiehre was the title of a presentation by Marlis and Andreas Meckel in the framework of the Jewish Cultural Days 2023.

Before the Meckels took the floor, an artist donated a painting to the New Synagogue. She painted the Menora during last year's Hanukkah festivities at the Square of the Old Synagogue. Note the model of the former building in the lower right corner.

Marlis is well-known in Freiburg because of her efforts placing stumbling stones (Stolpersteine) in front of houses where Jews and other people deported by the Nazis once lived. They are heaped in the Wiehre because there was a large number of Jewish small businesses like a textile shop, a milliner's store, wine shops, a white linen store, and eight livestock dealers, a traditional Jewish trade. And Jewish university professors, dentists, and lawyers lived with their families in an amiable coexistence with Christians in the Wiehre.

Andreas initiated memorial plates in Freiburg and, in particular, the one on Annaplatz in the Wiehre. Here, on October 22, 1940, Jews were forcibly rounded up and deported into the concentration camp Gurs. 

He described Jewish life in Freiburg that started as early as 1230 and was extinguished in the pogrom on January 30, 1349. This was followed on July 4, 1401, by the expulsion of the few Jews who had resettled in the city. King Sigismund confirmed the eternal expulsion of all Jews in 1424.

Eternity lasted 438 years until 1862 when, on April 25, the deputies of the Second Chamber of the Grand Duchy of Baden passed the "Law on the Civil Equality of the Israelites."

I will not report further on Andreas' presentation, for I blogged about the Jewish history in Freibung before 1424 here and about the past from 1862 on here, including the deprivation of rights, expulsion, and murder of Freiburg's Jews in the 3rd Reich.

But what happened during the 438 years when Jews were not allowed to settle within the city boundaries? Here, Andreas had some interesting facts. Jews were allowed to do business in Freiburg from dawn to dusk. They entered through one of the southern gates and, while in town, were accompanied by a city servant during the day. These Jewish merchants had their lodgings in the Wiehre.

Following Andreas' historical account, Marlis spoke and read about the moving fates of Jewish fellow citizens in the Wiehre under the Nazi regime. Meticulously, she works to clarify the history of the people behind each individual Stolperstein.

Red Baron has "his" stumbling stone embedded in the pavement in front of a house in the Upper-Wiehre. I investigated the life of Professor Sigmund Fleischmann, consulting the state archives in Karlsruhe and Freiburg. I also looked into Marlis' Stolperstein page. 

Then, I composed an article for the German Wikipedia but hesitate to publish it. Is the description of Sigmund Fleischmann's life relevant for an article? For me, Yes, for Wikipedia, possibly No.

However, it seems that Fleischmann's doctoral thesis, "The agricultural crisis of 1845-1855 with special reference to Baden," has a particular relevance since it has been reprinted in the States.

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Can America Be Trusted Again?

Remember last year's Democratic Vista lecture series when the American ambassador to Germany, Professor Amy Gutmann, was in Freiburg and gave the keynote lecture?

  

US Ambassador to Germany, Prof. Amy Gutmann, at the rostrum

In the end, three students from Freiburg's UWC Robert Bosch College discussed with the ambassador on stage.

The Director of the Carl-Schurz-Haus Friederike Schulte presented this year's lecture series called Mutprobe Demokratie.

Is it so? Has democracy become a dare, a test of courage? Are people like Viktor Orban the rulers of the future? Presidential candidate Donald Trump recently admired Orban during an election rally and introduced him to the audience as the leader of Turkey. Should I shake my head?

Fabulous Friederike introduces the speaker.

This year's CHS lecture series started with the keynote by David Frum titled Can America be trusted again?

Note the co-sponsors of the event.

David gave a fascinating lecture, but in the end, he didn't answer the salient question.

I felt sorry for the speaker, but who would dare to answer "Yes? "Anyway, the answer cannot be given before the results of the next presidential elections are known, and even then.

Will the new president be able to govern with a solid majority in the House of Representatives, which presently is so bitterly divided?

No wonder even Americans become frustrated with democracy when they have to wait four weeks until the majority party is able to elect the speaker of the house.

Following a massive turnout at the polls in the 2020 presidential elections, most Americans rejected authoritarianism and isolationism. But how will the voter react in 2024 with wars ranging in Ukraine and the Middle East and in the face of ever-increasing government spending on "foreign aid?" Wouldn't it be better to withdraw from international engagements while at home the many problems to be solved require billions of dollars? The voters' mood  may be turning toward  "to hell with America's leadership that  always has been a spending one." Can the world trust the US beyond the 2024 elections?

Doesn't the oldest democracy in the world yearn for a strong leader? Will Trump be the guy? Will he do everything to make America great again by cutting relations with the outside world? Too many questions, and there are no answers.

Frum made the audience aware that President Biden only partly rolled back the decisions Trump had taken concerning global agreements on trade and climate.

From 1950 to 1953, Red Baron lived through the Korean War as a pupil. For me, the United States was the defender of democracy worldwide. The end of the war saw Korea split into one democratic south and one communist dictatorship north.

When the US took over the rotten French heritage in Vietnam in 1955, defending the so-called Western values, things no longer looked so bright. In 1975, Americans had to clear the field hastily.

Similar to Afghanistan, where Operation "Enduring Freedom "started in October 2001 and ended abruptly in August 2021. This time, other NATO countries suffered human and financial losses, too. All military forces and humanitarian organizations rushed out of the region without having achieved Afghanistan's "westernization." The States have definitely lost their power to keep up the fight for democracy in the world.

So, the two US aircraft carriers off the Israeli coast will be, at most, a  gesture that will neither intimidate Hamas nor decide the war in the Middle East. Enough of my personal dark thoughts.

In the end, David Frum sat down with the students from the UWC Robert Bosch College, who asked their well-behaved questions. So, we learned, among other things, about David's reflections on global security, the economy, and his plans for writing books.

At the following reception, I saw familiar faces and met several friends over a glass of wine.

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City Seniors' Day

Blessed gender-free English. The Freiburg Stadtseniorentag, on October 24, failed to mention most of its participants in its title. i.e., Seniorinnen.

 The City Seniors' Day is organized by the Stadtseniorenrat (City Seniors' Council), a contact address for the older generation and an advocate of their interests.

  

Chairwoman Edeltraut Kambach addresses the audience.

Why did the City Seniors' Council not name the City Seniors' Day Stadtsenior:innentag the more so because they have a chairwoman?

Edeltraut (right) asked the council members to explain their mandates and duties to the audience.

I will stop here and not enter again into that useless gender debate people get involved in when they have, as we say, no other worries. Let's instead concentrate on what the city of Freiburg presented during the Seniors' Day and what it offers for the elderly throughout the year.

You would expect as people get older that they become isolated. So loneliness was the keyword at the information stands of the numerous associations in the auditorium's anteroom and in the oral contributions on stage. In addition to the City Seniors' Council, the City Library, the Senior Office with care support, the Citizen Donation "Social Freiburg," the Meeting Places, the police, and many honorary groups operated information stands.

The hurdle of using the smartphone is too high for many elderly. They can be helped.
Red Baron likes Seniorita as the female form of Senior.

The obvious way to fight loneliness is to meet people, but don't expect them to approach you. Since Elisabeth died, I have stepped up my social activities. I work in and for many associations, attend lectures and events - like this one - and participate in the discussions.

Begegnungstätten (meeting centers) in Freiburg

So, I have no time to profit from the numerous meeting centers for elderly people in Freiburg. I don't have to be entertained by music afternoons, nor do I have to fritter away my time with parlor games. 

On the other hand, I could become an adoptive grandfather for a single child or visit elderly people who can no longer move outside their homes for reading or conversation. But where will I find the time when all my normal daily pursuits require more time than in my younger years?

He played it his way during the day and in the intermissions.

Much applauded by the 95% women present in the audience

The absolute highlight of the afternoon was a fashion show.

The second appearance was top elegant.

Ladies from the various institutions served as models for clothing donations. which had been collected, mended, and cleaned by the specialized Boutique LeSac.

The afternoon's last session was devoted to exercises for everyday use, even without sporting ambitions. Yes, everything is moving, and moving is everything.

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Yiddish Must Not Die

Red Baron listened to Yiddish for the first time in New York when buying in a Jewish shop on a Sunday morning.

The language fascinated me, and last Monday, I had the rare chance to listen to a talk by a real expert, Ruben Frankenstein, who is a Lecturer of Hebrew and Hebrew literature at the University of Freiburg.

He held his talk in the framework of the Jewish Cultural Days at the lecture hall of Freiburg's new synagogue.

Given the present situation in the Near East, security measures have been stepped up. Due to the beeping of the metal detector all over my body, I was thoroughly groped before being admitted to the lecture hall.

Yiddish (יידיש) is an approximately thousand-year-old West Germanic language that originated from Middle High German and was spoken by Ashkenazi Jews throughout much of Europe. It is written from right to left with Hebrew letters. Because of its wide distribution, Yiddish contains many Hebrew-Aramaic, Slavic, and Romanic components.

The etymology of the word is interesting. The Americans called the language of the Jewish immigrants Yiddish, derived from the German jüdisch. The "d" in English was doubled for clear hyphenation.

In German, the lingua franca of the Jews* was pejoratively called Judendeutsch, a taboo word after the Holocaust. Thus, people readily adopted the American term, Germanized as Jiddisch.
*referred to by them as mame-loschn (מאַמע-לשון), "mother tongue."

Lecturing Ruben Frankenstein

It is often assumed that Yiddish originated in the area of the Schumm cities, but Ruben had located the origin of the language instead in Upper Germany.

To form the past, Yiddish uses the Perfect tense rather than the Praeteritum, as is still the case in the Bavarian dialect. In addition, the Yiddish diminutive syllable is "-le," which corresponds to the German "-lein," while in North German, the appended "-chen" prevails.

Ruben Frankenstein gave three reasons why Yiddish is spoken today only by a few people in so-called language islands.

The first blow came with the slow emancipation of Jews in Germany, for which author Moses Mendelssohn, in the mid-19th century, insisted that for proper assimilation, the modern Jew must speak High German. Thus, the weight of spoken Yiddish shifted from Germany to Eastern Europe. The language integrating some Slavic words is called Eastern Yiddish.

Theodor Herzl, dreaming of a Jewish state in Palestine

The second reason for the decline of Yiddish was Theodor Herzl's idea of a Jewish state in Palestine. Being an Austrian Jew, he was an advocate of "German" to become the national language. However,   his concept excluded other Jews, such as the Sephardim (Spanish or Portuguese Jews) and the Misrahim (Jews from Arab countries or Iran and India). 

So, the Zionist movement decided very early for Ivrit, the New Hebrew. The linguistic creative Eliezer ben Jehuda pushed the revival of Hebrew, and the new form of the "sacred" language became the lingua franca, the official language of the State of Israel.

However, the all-important reason for the decline of Yiddish was the Holocaust, in which the Jewish population was wiped out in large parts of Europe.

In the English Wikipedia, we read: In the 21st century, most people who speak (Eastern) Yiddish in their daily lives are Hasidim and other Haredim (strictly Orthodox Jews not accepting Hebrew as a secular language). Their numbers are estimated to be between 500,000 and one million in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Israel.

According to a lady in the audience, there is an active revival of Yiddish in the States. Let it be more than a flash in the pan.

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1923 or The Look into the Abyss

Heinz Siebold did it again. My faithful readers remember his last year's scenic staging of Rapallo. This time, he staged a fictitious interview with Joseph Wirth, a native of Freiburg and a member of the Catholic Centre Party (Zentrum). Wirth was Chancellor of the Reich in 1921 and 1922.

  

The Winterer Forum was packed for this Sunday matinée. So Red Baron had to take photos from behind using the tele lens of his iPhone.

1923 was an annus horribilis for Germany and its young Weimar Republic.

On January 11, French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr region on the pretext of the nonfulfillment of reparations under the Versailles Peace Treaty, i.e., lack of supply of lumber, telegraph poles, and coal.

The German side responded with passive resistance to the occupying forces. This and violent actions in the Ruhr region led to a shortage of consumer goods due to a lack of production. Prices rose.

Inflation galloped during the year. While one U.S. dollar initially cost 4.20 gold marks, its exchange rate to the paper mark rose to an unimaginable 4.2 trillion mark at the height of demonetization in November 1923.

In his lecture "Ruhr Occupation, Hyperinflation, Terror and Hitler Putsch. Was 1923 the Beginning of the End of the Weimar Republic?", Prof. Braun said that toward the end of the drama, inflation-adjusted salaries were paid out in the morning, at noon, and at night. Entire fortunes were wiped out within a year, so the fear of inflation still runs deep in the German soul. Monetary stability is one of the highest goods in Germany.

In contrast, during this crisis-ridden period, the Hitler putsch in Munich on November 9, 1923, was not taken seriously. The wearer of the upper lip beard* was derided in the press as Little Mussolini in white and blue, i.e., the Bavarian colors.
*The "Hitler beard" became popular in the USA at the end of the 19th century as a low-maintenance alternative to the full mustache and found its way to Europe.

More serious was the plan of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) in Moscow to exploit the state crisis of the Weimar Republic at its height for an armed coup in Germany. When the KPD (German Communist Party) entered into government alliances with the SPD (Social Democrats) in the states of Thuringia and Saxony under the slogan of a left-wing "united front" in October 1923, the Moscow masterminds saw a favorable starting point for a left-wing uprising. However, a Reichsexekution (an intervention of the Berlin government) in both states nipped the overthrow plans in the bud.

Thus, the "German October" took place only in Hamburg. There, between October 23 and 25, 1923, revolting proletarian militants suffered 24 dead but also killed 17 policemen.

Hitler first gained Germany-wide notoriety through his trial, in which he was accused of high treason along with the prominent General Erich Ludendorff.

This is the only photo of all defendants after the mild verdicts in the Hitler-Ludendorff trial in Munich on April 1, 1924 (sic!). On the far right is Robert Wagner, the later hangman in Alsace, whom Hitler trusted unconditionally.

The Nazi breakthrough eventually came in 1929 when, due to the world economic crisis, mass unemployment in Germany reached the 30% mark in 1932, with 8 million people unemployed.

The matinee was framed with contemporary chansons masterfully presented by the attractive Juliane Hollerbach, who also performed the famous Brecht/Weill song: Wovon lebt der Mensch with the renowned verse Erst kommt das Fressen und dann die Moral (First comes food, Then comes the moral) alluding to the misery of broad masses in the Weimar Republic.

Here is Juliane, young and naiv

The "Impossible Interview" with Joseph Wirth.

The protagonists greet each other.

A visibly burnt-out Wirth (Peter Haug-Lamersdorf)
with a heart condition answers the journalist's questions.

Asking Wirth about the prospects of democracy in Germany (Heinz Siebold)

Near the end of the interview, Wirth recalled the violent death of his foreign minister Walter Rathenau, who, riding in his car, was "executed" with a submachine gun by right-wing extremists on June 24, 1922. 

Visibly moved, Wirth rose from his seat and repeated the words he had said in a speech before the deputies of the Reichstag. Turning to the right, where the members of the right-wing parties traditionally have their seats, he accused, "There stands the enemy, dripping his poison into the wounds of our people. - There stands the enemy - and there is no doubt about it: this enemy stands on the right."

NB: Click on the pictures to enlarge

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The Strasbourg Minster Church

Who hasn't seen the photo of the Strasburg Cathedral with its only one steeple?

A week ago, Red Baron took part in an excursion to Strasbourg organized by the Freiburg Münsterbauverein. The plan was to visit the minster repair workshop, see a demonstration of the famous astronomical clock, and take a detailed tour of the Strasbourg Cathedral.

After a march from the bus parking lot, we arrived first in front of the cathedral and waited for the rest of the group to catch up.

At the cathedral repair workshop entrance, we were greeted by St. Benedict of Nursia, pointing with his finger to the rule of “his“ order (Regula S. Benedict), and Blessed Eberhardt of Einsiedeln.

Eberhardt, taking the example of the monastery of St. Gall, founded the Benedictine monastery of Einsiedeln around 934 with Benno of Metz and the hermits living there. Around 950, Eberhardt was the provost of the Strasbourg cathedral chapter and his statue bears a copy of the original Romanesque cathedral church.

Before our group visited the workshop, we learned about the origin of the present cathedral.

There is little information about the initial church in the Romanesque style.

Like in Freiburg, the new construction started at the transept and advanced in the direction of the steeples, keeping the old building as much as possible operational for holding mass. The new cathedral was built on the old foundations.

     

A horn blower around 1240

The crowning of St. Mary

©Wikipedia/PogoEngel

In Freiburg, we proudly present Hans Baldung Grieen's masterpiece.

Another masterpiece, this time in stone, ready to be installed

In Stasbourg's cathedral workshop, there is a clear distinction between sculptors and stonemasons.

A sculptor is reproducing an ornamental piece with the help of a plaster cast

The breathtaking work of a stonemason

We could have stayed on, but we wanted to attend the presentation of the cathedral's famous astronomical clock in the south part of the transept.

We, too, went on a visit out of the ordinary.

After lunch, we started our cathedral tour guided by a genuine "connoisseuse." Red Baron was impressed by how the lady could break down her expert knowledge to make us laymen/women understand.

The flat wall you are looking at is the oldest part identified so far.
It dates back to 1050.

We started at the oldest part of Strasbourg's cathedral, the crypt.

Richly ornamented column capitals

On the left is the column with sculptures of the last judgment

In the south part of the transept, the building progress with increasing height from Romanesque to Gothic style is impressive.

On our way to the north part of the transept, Red Baron looked right...

What looks like a mosaic on the walls of the choir are paintings
realized during the "German years" from 1871 to 1919.

... and turned his eyes left on to the famous rosette window.

In the north part of the transept, I took the following photo:

Texts of a German-speaking Straßburg in the late 16th century

The Reformation hit a fertile ground in Alsace early on. Already in 1524, the city council assigned the Minster to the followers of the Lutheran faith. Thus, in 1539, the first Christmas tree in the world is said to have been displayed in Strasbourg‘s cathedral, or was it earlier?

Festive lighting on the occasion of the return of the cathedral to the Catholic Church

After French troops had taken Strasbourg in the course of Louis XIV's Reunion policy on September 30, 1681, the cathedral was returned to the Catholic Church on October 23, 1681, during a solemn mass in the presence of the king and prince-bishop Franz Egon of Fürstenberg.

Eighty-nine years later, the people of Freiburg do not let themselves be left behind and illuminated their Minster Church on the occasion of Marie-Antoinette's visit on her way to Paris. To the abbot of St. Märgen, the illuminated steeple appeared like a fallender feyriger Zukerhut (falling fiery sugar loaf).

Back to the visit. The pulpit in the Strasbourg Cathedral is an exceptional work of art. Red Baron admits that the explanations of our guide met a full brain. 

Therefore, like many visitors, I only took the doggy's head, greasy and dirty from all the touching.

Before we left the cathedral, our eyes fell on The Stone of Europe, a decorative pinnacle made up of 18 elements in different materials by European cathedral workshops. Since 2020, the traditional skills of these workshops have been listed as intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. Admire the various materials fitting together. The Strasbourg and Freiburg workshops are represented. 

This memorable excursion was well organized. Thank you.

NB: Click on the pictures to enlarge

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