Ensisheim

What is written in Micah 5:2 in the Old Testament about Bethlehem could be said about Ensisheim:

"But you, Ensisheim in Alsace, though you are small among the cities of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation, you will become the administrative capital of Further Austria (Vorderösterreich). Your origins are from of old, from ancient times."

Ensisheim around 1650

Ensisheim was first mentioned in a document in 768 under the name Engisehaim.

In Merian's Topographia Germania, Alsace 1663, it is written that after the death of the Landgraves of Ensisheim around the beginning of the 13th century, the town and castle, together with the landscape of Upper Alsace, came under the hegemony of the Counts of Habsburg.

The Habsburg or Habichtsburg (hawk castle) in Aargau

The Habsburgs took their name from a fortress built in the Aargau* in the 1020s.

*present-day Switzerland

Rudolf's monument on the square in front of the church by night

In the second half of the 13th century, King Rudolf I, previously Count Rudolf IV of Habsburg, built a "royal castle" in Ensisheim.

 
In 1510, the city became the seat of the administration of Further Austria (Vorlande), i.e., Alsace, Breisgau, Aargau, and Lake Constance.

On November 15 and 16, 2024, Ensisheim hosted a colloquium on the question, "Why did Ensisheim become a central place in the region?" In a future blog, Red Baron will attempt to answer this query.

The museum piece.
Note the meteorite's impact on a field outside Ensisheim in the background.
Click to enlarge.

One event has burned itself into people's memories. In Merians Topographia, we read, "1492 on November 7, a stone or dumpling weighing 280 pounds, a foot high, and the same color as iron ore fell from the clouds with a thunderclap."

Sebastian Brant wrote a poem: Since one counts fifteen hundred years on St. Florence's day, it was ninety and two at noon there was an enormous thunderclap a stone of three hundredweight fell in a field before Ensisheim.

King Maximilian ordered the "symbol of God" to be taken to the church and kept there. When he visited the site 14 days later, he did not know that he had inspected the first historically documented meteorite in Europe while it was still almost warm. Today, the meteorite is kept in the city museum in the historic Palais de la Régence.

Maximilian's press spokeswoman announces the King's visit.
He is surrounded by his bodyguards.

The children of the elementary school Jean Rasser at Ensisheim took Maximilian's visit to delight the colloquium participants with a performance, Retour au temps des Habsbourg.

The King is at the table with his attendants and looks graciously at his subjects.

They are entertaining the King performing ...

... and singing

Stay tuned for a blog about the colloquium proper.

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Bellissimo

Bellissimo! Outstanding Italian paintings from the Gothic period to the Renaissance are displayed at Freiburg's Augustinermuseum. On the occasion of the renovation of the Lindenau-Museum Altenburg, the paintings are temporarily parked in Freiburg.

Freiburg's Minster Church, with the most beautiful tower in the world, did not want to be left behind. So the exhibition curator, Dr. Eva Maria Breisig, and the Münsterbaumeisterin (cathedral master builder), Dr. Anne-Christine Brehm, met for a joint lecture, "Bellissimo!" and "The Most Beautiful Tower," in which they compared the pictures in the exhibition to the contemporaneous developments at Freiburg Cathedral.

The "Bellissimo!" exhibition is dedicated to Italian painting from the 13th to the early 16th century. Over 100 paintings and altarpieces provide an overview of the developments of the time. These were style-defining and ground-breaking since, alongside Christian motifs, artists discovered secular motifs and strove for a greater closeness to reality than before. Over three centuries, a new artistic concept of movement, space, and the image of man emerged.

The architecture was also characterized by innovations in the 13th and 14th centuries, with statically bold constructions such as Freiburg's openwork spire, which gave the simple parish church "the most beautiful tower" on earth. The master builders of the Gothic period pushed what was feasible to the extreme and redefined boundaries. In the 16th century, the Minster was one of the few large medieval churches to be completed by closing the choir vault. However, the Renaissance also left its mark on the cathedral with the southern vestibule and a rood screen now folded into the sides of the transept.

I will present some of the highlights in the following, as a complete description of the exhibition would go beyond the scope of this blog. St. Mary and Child were the tenors of the exhibition.

Around 1478. Marco Soppo (Venice 1432-1478)
Madonna and Child

A sad mother holds her child, who is not dressed festively, tightly in her hands. This child looks at the world with big, questioning eyes.

Around 1549. Pellegrino Tibaldi (Milan 1527-1596)
Madonna del Silenzio Holy Family with St. John the Baptist

Thirty years before El Greco, Tibaldi paints clothes with unusual colors. The adolescent son trustingly lays his head in his mother's lap. The somewhat older John the Baptist looks thoughtfully at this scene. Does he already know what will happen to this sleeping youth?

Around 1495. Raffaello Carli, called Raffaellino del Garbo (1466-1524)
Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici receives the child's blessing before the Madonna.

About 50 years later, del Garbo painted the Madonna and Child, blessing a member of the Medici family. This was sorely needed because, during the Renaissance, the Medici family provided many of the mostly rather unholy cardinals and popes.

Around 1500. Sandro Botticelli (Florence 1445-1510)
Adoration of the Child.

This is a depiction of the Holy Family that is still common today. It shows the old man Joseph not yet understanding what has happened to him.  

Around 1370. Giovanni del Biondo (Florence 1356-1398)
St. Jerome.

Church Father St. Jerome presents a book. Without him, Erasmus of Rotterdam could not have produced his new translation of the Bible, the Novum Instrumentum.     

Around 1395. Agnolo Gaddi (Florence 1369-1396)
The Last Supper.

Due to the short length of the painting, the table is depicted here in the shape of a horseshoe. The favorite disciple's head seems to be growing out of the table while Judas has sat down quite provocatively on the other side opposite Jesus.

Around 1440. Pietro di Giovanni d'Ambrogio (Siena 1409-1449)
St. Augustine.

Church Father St. Augustine invented the Original Sin, which means that unbaptized children will go to hell. In the interpretation of the faith, St. Augustine is still regarded by many Catholics as the second St. Paul.

Around 1500. Unknown artist in Naples
Coronation of the Virgin.

God the Father and the Holy Ghost watch Jesus, who graciously puts the crown on his mother's head. Compare this to Hans Baldung Grien's masterpiece in Freiburg's Münster (1520/30). 

©Pogo Engel/Wikipedia

The altarpiece shows Christ in a somewhat leisurely posture, holding the world in one hand while clumsily helping his father coronate his mother as celestial queen. Still, today, some pious viewers are shocked.

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Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten vs Executive Order

Following the presidential election's outcome in the States, people frequently ask whether the much-vaunted checks and balances will be sufficient to protect American democracy against the undermining measures announced by the newly elected president. Yes, and then the German press draws parallels to the fall of the Weimar Republic. How so?

Well, in 1933 Germany, it only took the Führer six months to turn a parliamentary democracy into a dictatorship. My German-speaking readers may follow the downfall here.

The certificate of appointment

The course of events in Germany started on January 30, 1933, when Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg assigned Hitler the task of forming a center-right government.

Hitler's cabinet: Next to the Chancellor, Hermann Göring (NSDAP)
and Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen (independent, formerly of the Center Party).
Standing, from left: Franz Seldte (DNVP), Dr. Günther Gereke (CNBL),
Johann Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk (independent), Wilhelm Frick (NSDAP),
Werner von Blomberg (independent) and Alfred Hugenberg (DNVP).

Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen sounded, "I have von Hindenburg's confidence. In two months, we've pushed Hitler into a corner so hard that he squeaks. There is no danger at all."

   

The Daily Herold sneered, "Hitler, The Clown Who Wants to Play Statesman."

And Keith Temple in the States sees nice, safe, conservative checks.

Back to the States. Trump said in his victory speech, "And now it's going to reach a new level of importance because we're going to help our country heal. We help our country heal. We have a country that needs help, and it needs help very badly. We're gonna fix our borders. I got to fix everything about our country. We made history for a reason tonight, and the reason is going to be just that ...".

Hitler must have whispered similar words in the ears of von Hindenburg, who signed the Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten zum Schutz von Volk und Staat. Vom 28. Februar 1933.

Von Hindenburg signed the decree one day after Zu Berlin im Jahre neunzehnhundert-
dreiunddreißig stand dann an einem Montagabend des letzten Reichstags Haus in Brand (In Berlin in the year nineteen thirty-three on a Monday evening the last Reichstag was on fire). Bertolt Brecht, 35, wrote these lines, interpreting the sign correctly. A day later, he went into exile with his wife, Helene Weigel, and their children.

The Communists were accused of having set the fire. Intended to combat their threat, the Reichspräsident's decree was soon used against Social Democrats and other undesirables.

Reichspräsident's decree for the Protection of the People and the State of February 28, 1933.

Based on Article 48 Ab. 2 of the Constitution of the German Reich, the following decree is issued to ward off Communist acts of violence that endanger the state:

§ 1 Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich shall be suspended until further notice. Therefore, restrictions on personal freedom, the right to free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press, the right of association and assembly, interference with the privacy of correspondence, post, telegraph, and telephone, orders for searches and seizures, as well as restrictions on property are also permitted outside the statutory limits otherwise specified for this purpose.

Paragraphs 2 to 5 define the penalties for violating this order's implementing provisions, which range from fines to imprisonment to the death penalty.

 § 6 This Order shall come into force on the day of its promulgation. Berlin, February 28, 1933.

The Reichspräsident von Hindenburg, the Reichschancellor Adolf Hitler, the Reichsminister of the Interior Frick, the Reichsminister of Justice Dr. Gürtner

Back to the States: Trump reported about an interview he had with Sean Hannity, "He says, 'You're not going to be a dictator, are you?' I said, 'No, no, no, other than day one. We're closing the border, and we're drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I'm not a dictator."

During one day, there is plenty of time to sign an executive order to protect America against "some sick people, radical left lunatics..."

Trump continued on FOX News, "And it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard or really necessary by the military, because they can't let that happen."

Reichspräsident's Decree versus Executive Order. Maybe drawing parallels between the situation in the USA in 2024 and the Weimar Republic in 1933 is not too far-fetched?

In his Madison Square Garden rally, Donald Trump glowered and gripped the podium. "On Day One, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history."

Will there be checks and balances after Day One?

In the meantime US citizens are doom spending.
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Hambourg, mon amour

The title perfectly rhymes. And so did my recent trip to Hamburg.

Click to enlarge

The official occasion was the 90th birthday of my classmate and friend Wulf on November 4. During his professional life, he taught Biology and German in High School. He must have been an excellent teacher because, at his birthday party, which took place in the Museum Village at Volksdorf, a Hamburg suburb, many of his former students honored him with musical or literary contributions.

Wulf doesn't like close-ups.
©UF took the photo during this year's class reunion on October 13.

We are still three of our former Abitur class, of which Helmut (in the middle) already celebrated his 90th on August 14, and I (on the right) will celebrate my milestone birthday, God willing, next year in June.

After Wulf retired, he practiced his knowledge of biology and the German language with his former classmates. The biking tours he organized are legendary. I documented them on my website. Thank you, Wulf.

Hamburg had many blissful moments.

On the way to High Mass in Hamburg's St. Mary's Cathedral: Be careful when stepping on a gay crosswalk that does not comply with traffic regulations. Look left and look right before crossing.

In front of the cathedral, we met St. Ansgar, who became archbishop of Hamburg in 831.

Click to enlarge

Our trip to Hamburg continued to revolve around churches. Here is a panorama showing the towers of the Hanseatic city as seen from the Neustadt (new town) in the second half of the 17th century. At that time, the single-towered old St. Mary's Cathedral still stood between St. Peter's and St. Catherine's Churches.

View of the renovated Great Michel.
The new copper cladding will take about 30 years to develop a patina.
No chance. That would make me 106.

We concentrated on Hamburg's Neustadt (new town) and its landmark, the Great Michel (Protestant). The new town was built over a plague cemetery laid out in 1600 to the west outside the city wall behind the large Alsterfleet* towards a fishermen's settlement on the Elbe River. The people of Hamburg considered the settlement all to nah (all too close). Altona is now part of Hamburg.

*The main canal between the Alster and Elbe Rivers

Shortly before the end of the Thirty Years' War, Hamburg's citizens eventually decided to build a parish church for the inhabitants of Neustadt. This church was consecrated as St. Michel's Church in 1661. Before, the people of the new town had to be content with an outside chapel of St. Nikolai.

The "Michel" burned down often, for the first time in 1750, so its original appearance bears no resemblance to today's baroque church.

Note the tower of Great St. Michel in the background (©Flavus Rabanus/Wikimedia)

Today's small St.Michel (Catholic) stands at the place of the former chapel. 

The church was destroyed during the war and rebuilt in 1955 in a sober style. It is dedicated to St. Ansgar and St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

Charlemagne, the founder of Hamburg, faces and watches the church entrance. As a sign of peace, he holds only the pommel of his sword in his right hand. In his left hand, the Great Charles carries a model of the Hammaburg, the initial refuge castle whose name has only been documented since 832.

Martin Luther, who else, watches over Great St. Michel.

Zitronejette, less known than water carrier Hummel, saw us leaving the church complex and insisted that we buy some of her citrons.

One highlight of the trip was attending the extraordinary performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Hamburg State Opera.

Crossing the Elbe River with a ferry to the island of Finkenwerder resulted in a culinary delight.We enjoyed the famous Finkenwerder Scholle. I had mine traditionally with roasted bacon cubes.

We lived through wonderful hours and days in Hambourg, mon amour.

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A Nightmare Turned Reality

The anchor of KTLA5 announced on November 6, at 8:33 AM local time, "Mr. Trump made history tonight. He will be the first convicted felon to become president of the United States."

We Europeans are stunned, some are shocked, and Germany is doubly so. No sooner had we realized that Trump had won the election than our coalition government collapsed. But that is a different story.

Back to America. So why this victory? Again, it's the economy, stupid. Many voters' economic situation and concerns about the financial future tipped the scales. It was high inflation, especially in the year before last, an increase in the price of services, and a rise in rent, especially in medium-sized and large cities.

What about "democracy, constitutional rights, and bedrock freedoms," Kamala Harris had written on her banner? "Abstract truths mattered less, voters said, than tangible issues."

This Brechtian "First comes the food and then the morals (Erst kommt das Fressen und dann die Moral)" weighed heavier than Trump's lies, his contempt for women, his venom, and his agitation against political opponents. Voters set aside Trump's mental confusion, his threats to take revenge on political opponents, to tailor democratic institutions to his authoritarian ideas, or to deport migrants.

Last night's Stammtisch of the Freiburg-Madison-Gesellschaft was dedicated to the outcome of the US election. Due to the highly topical subject, it was well attended. In particular, many AYF students found their way to the Greiffenegg-Schlössle. 

On the right, Dietmar Ostermann is highly concentrated
while FMG President Toni Schlegel listens attentively

Dietmar Ostermann, political editor of the local Badische Zeitung and long-time USA correspondent for German-language newspapers, gave a keynote speech followed by a discussion.

He began with a factual introduction that avoided speculating about the consequences of Trump's victory. At the moment, we can only guess what the new administration will bring us. Unlike the first Trump administration, a team of loyal vassals is ready to take up key positions in the new government.

This is my blog, so I will offer some of my own thoughts here, however exaggerated or wrong they may be.

While the discussion at the Greiffenegg-Schlössle initially centered on missing American military aid for Ukraine, but Trump promised the end of the Ukraine war within 48 hours, I moved the discussion to a topic that could shake the world.

With his motto, "America first," Trump has ushered in Monroe Doctrine 2.0, something that had already been foreshadowed under previous administrations and culminated in the dramatic withdrawal from Afghanistan: The USA is abandoning its role as the world's sheriff.

This means that more small warlords might raise their heads in the future, as is already happening in South Sudan, with cruel consequences for the civilian population being crushed between the fronts.

Existing conflicts, such as in the Middle East, continue unabated. The state of Israel is waging a bloody struggle for its existence and is not bothered by either US or international efforts to achieve a ceasefire.

A recession threatens the global economy. Isolating America by introducing tariffs (Trump's favorite word) will make importing foreign products into the USA more difficult.

This means that export-oriented countries such as China and Germany will find it more difficult to export to the USA and, subsequently, will produce fewer goods. This will exacerbate the existing economic recession in both countries.

Following the possible closure of Volkswagen plants in Germany, social unrest will probably be limited. Still, it is feared that radical parties on the right and left will gain ground, which could lead to the centrist democratic parties no longer having a majority for forming governments. These "Weimar conditions" are currently observed in the federal state of Saxony.

We can only speculate whether there will be social unrest in China, mainly due to rising youth unemployment.

Trump's knowledge of economics is at least as modest as mine. When imported products become more expensive due to high import tariffs, he will be unable to keep his promise to lower prices in the USA. On the contrary, inflation will be fueled, and the American people as a whole will not be better off than now.

Nowadays, the promise of better living conditions for one part of the world can only be fulfilled at the expense of others, as economic growth is ruled out due to the suffering environment. Trade wars are inevitable.

Afterthoughts

On last night's Late Show, Stephen Colbert began his analysis of the election result with the word shit. He was not at all happy about the prospect of having plenty of material for his political jokes over the next four years. Instead, he ended his monologue by introducing his pessimistic sticker:

The Democrats lost, but on the positive side, Trump's election is a victory for democracy. He won not only the majority of electoral votes but also the majority of popular votes. Therefore, on January 20, 2025, we will see a peaceful transfer of power, not a new Storm on the Capitol.

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Man of Labor, Wake up!

The memory of "175 years of the 1848/49 Revolution" commemorated last year is fading, but Heinz Siebold did it again. 

This time, he presented the Revolution and the Labor Movement.

The Revolution of 1848/49 was primarily a bourgeois revolution. Its ideas were supported by two population groups, the supporters of a limited monarchy and the liberals, who sought a democratic constitution without a crowned ruler at the head of a united Germany.

In 1850, 55% of the German population was rural and peasant, and workers (24%) only played a role in revolutionary events in large cities such as Berlin or Vienna.

Wilhelm Liebknecht was an active participant in the Baden Revolution,
Ferdinand Lassalle founded the General German Workers' Association, and
Georg Herwegh is regarded as the poet of the Revolution of 1846/49.

A workers' movement had already been organized in the 1830s. Ferdinand Lassalle founded the Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein (ADAV) in Leipzig on May 23, 1836, and is considered the father of social democracy in German-speaking countries. Note that Lassalle was far from being a proletarian; he died prematurely, shot in a duel over a woman. Red Baron visited Lassalle's grave in Wroclaw, formerly Breslau, in 2010.

The redecorated Tivoli (©A.Savin/Wikipedia)

From 1869, the ADAV competed with the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) until the two organizations met at the Tivoli at Gotha from May 22-27, 1875, and united at the Fusion Party Congress to form the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany, the immediate predecessor of Germany's modern Social Democratic Party (SPD). Red Baron visited Gotha in 2020.

The social question was an essential topic of the Revolution of 1848/49. As early as September 12, 1847, in Offenburg, in the 13 demands of the people in Baden, Article 10 stated: We demand equalization of the disproportion between labor and capital. Society is obliged to elevate and protect labor. 

Marx's and Engels's Communist Manifesto did not appear until February 21, 1948.

The question of social justice accompanied the Revolution from the beginning to its bitter end. On July 18, 1849, Ernst Elsenhans wrote in one of the last editions of the Festungs-Bote (fortress messenger) before the besieged revolutionaries entrenched in the Federal Fortress Rastatt - their last retreat - surrendered to the superior Prussian army on July 23: 

What is social democracy, and what does it want?

Democracy will give us neither work nor bread, it will not pay our due interest, and it will not free us from worries and suffering, for in solving its task of bringing the people to power, it always comes up against the disproportion of property of ownership. 

Socialism seeks to abolish this inequality, this disproportion, by establishing equality. It wants to put an end to the oppression and untruth that prevails everywhere and to the desolate misery that we see in the lower classes, i.e., in the vast majority of the population. It presses for the continuous improvement of the moral, spiritual, and physical existence of the most numerous and poorest class. It strives for the rule of labor, or at least its equality with capital, instead of the rule of capital. 

The distribution of property, according to the desire of the socialists, is to be made dependent on labor, and thus, the greatest possible equality among men is to be obtained; every industrious, orderly, and skillful man is to be given the opportunity of acquiring as much property as is necessary for the reasonable enjoyment of life. 

The equalization of labor with capital, in other words, the organization of labor, and consequently the abolition of the monstrous disproportion between the haves and have-nots, the so-called proletariat, is what socialism is concerned with.

Today, one would write: Men and Women of Labor, Wake up!

The phrase Alle Räder stehen still, wenn dein starker Arm es will is taken from the Union Song (Bundeslied) for the General German Workers' Association (Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein). The text is based on a poem written by Georg Herwegh in 1863.

Mann der Arbeit, aufgewacht! Und erkenne deine Macht! Alle Räder stehen still, Wenn dein starker Arm es will. […] Brecht das Doppeljoch entzwei! Brecht die Not der Sklaverei! Brecht die Sklaverei der Not! Brot ist Freiheit, Freiheit Brot!

Man of labor, wake up! And recognize your power! All wheels stand still, When your strong arm wants it. [...] Break the double yoke in two! Break the bondage of slavery! Break the slavery of bondage! Bread is freedom; freedom is bread!

The two protagonists of the evening strike up the Internationale.

We did not sing the Bundeslied, but to round off the evening, we sang the Internationale, the most widespread combat song of the socialist labor movement worldwide.

Its original French lyrics are from 1871, written by Eugène Pottier, a poet and active participant in the Paris Commune. This revolutionary city council formed spontaneously during the Franco-Prussian War. The Belgian Pierre De Geyter composed the song's melody in 1888.

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On the Future of Energy

Coincidence? The other day, Red Baron read an article about a new kind of energy storage.

You know that the critical path for transforming our society to renewable energy is its storage, i.e., bridging the times when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing.

The same day, a friend from Madison emailed me an article on Cold Fusion. But first things first.


A new energy-storage facility using carbon dioxide, the arch-culprit of climate change, is on its way toward becoming a reality in Wisconsin. The facility will use CO₂ as the medium to store sustainable power.

The Energy Dome

Energy Dome, as both the company and technology are called, is essentially a large domed storage facility used to house carbon dioxide. Its technology is based on a closed thermodynamic transformation of CO₂ between its gaseous and liquid states. It is withdrawn from the Dome, an atmospheric gasholder, and compressed. The heat generated from the compression is stored in a thermal energy storage system. The withdrawn CO₂ is liquefied and stored in vessels under pressure at ambient temperature with zero atmospheric emission.

When energy is needed, the CO₂ is heated, evaporated, and sent into an expander before it flows back into the Dome. The expander drives a turbine coupled to a generator, feeding climate-neutral electricity into the grid.

A pilot Energy Dome facility, rated at 20 MW, was built in Sardinia, Italy. It will be scaled up to 200 megawatts for the Wisconsin-based facility, called the Columbia Energy Storage Project, consisting of ten 20-megawatt units. They will boost grid stability and deliver enough electricity to power around 18,000 homes with a single charge.

If regulators approve the application, it will be North America's first zero-pollution Energy Dome facility. Construction should begin in 2026, and it is planned to be online by 2027.

The Energy Dome Company claims that the CO₂ Battery™ should be able to function without degradation of capacity or performance for over 30 years. By comparison, lithium-ion battery storage has a high degradation rate and only lasts around 12 years.

Using carbon dioxide to store energy is a unique solution to the overabundance of this planet-warming gas. It can be used alongside other storage mediums to support a balanced grid powered by sustainable solar and wind energy, further reducing the reliance on fossil fuel sources.

The Energy Dome Company said its patented technology is a zero-pollution storage source operating only on water, steel, and CO₂. Off-the-shelf equipment, standard components, modularity, and scalability make the CO₂ Battery™ more accessible than other typical battery facilities.

Energy storage is good, but having a cheap and reliable energy source would be much better.

Since I was an active physicist, colleagues have tried to reproduce the sun's conditions for generating energy on Earth by fusing atomic nuclei using increasingly sophisticated systems.

For example, in 2022, the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory issued a press release, which Red Baron reported on. Small advances in nuclear fusion are always celebrated, but it will be decades before a working "hot fusion" reactor is achieved, if ever.

In 2011, Italian inventor Andrea Rossi made a name for himself by presenting a reactor based on Cold Fusion. However, he could not obtain a patent for it, as experts argue that Rossi's cold reactor contradicts the generally accepted laws of physics.

Red Baron wrote a blog at the time. Then, things went quiet for Andreas Rossi.

However, in December 2021, he surprisingly announced his E-Cat SKLep power generator. This generator is designed to supply a constant 100 watts of electricity used to charge batteries and operate motors.

Photo of the E-Cat and the E-Cat control unit from the left-hand side of a Renault Twizy

The practical presentation took place on September 27, 2024. Watch for yourself here. 

What should I make of it? An energy generation from the zero. energy field? 

Here is Rossi's scientific publication is here. 

Will industry now pounce on the aggregate and make Rossi a billionaire?

We'll see.

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