Third Collisions

CERN launched its alumni program seven years ago. It is a constant coming and going; some visit the European Center for Particle Physics as guests for just a few weeks, and others, like Red Baron, spend 32 years of their lives there on the western outskirts of Geneva. We all carry the CERN spirit into the world, so it is natural to meet occasionally and exchange experiences and views.

Possibly, no one will remember my blog about the first alumni meeting, "First Collisions," at CERN in 2018.

The "Second Collisions" took place online in the fall of 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic and the fourth wave of infection that swept through Germany.

Red Baron attended the "Third Collisions" at CERN from February 9 to 11, 2024.

Rachel Bray, the head of the CERN Alumni Network, opened the meeting at the new premises, the Science Gateway.

CERN's Director General Fabiola Gianotti, still the same, greeted the primarily young participants. Red Baron would not exclude that he was the oldest alumni present. I didn't meet any of my former colleagues and felt somewhat lost.

CERN took about 800 photos of the young participants, i.e., Red Baron was on only two.
Detect the lonely old white-haired man in the third row of the Science Gateway auditorium (©CERN).

Here is another lecture hall with me in the front, my white head sticking out

The excellent scientific contributions presented during the meeting mitigated my dark sentiments. I shall pick some highlights and things that impressed me.

Professor Patrick Glauner from the Deggendorf Institute of Technology spoke about "The AI Revolution: Recent Developments, Opportunities, and Best Practices." He allayed his listeners' fears of AI, a technique that has long since found its way into everyday life. Legislators are currently struggling with regulations to limit possible excesses. Without knowing where the development of KI will eventually lead, this task is not easy.

In David Townsend's lecture "Medical Imaging Revolutionizing Healthcare," Red Baron saw a photo of Professor Alfred Donath, who for many years was the Geneva cantonal representative for radiation protection and also the responsible supervisor for CERN. I have fond memories of him. R.I.P.

In his lecture "Physics, Facts and Frontiers of Climate Change Science," Jonathan Gregory once again presented the standard model to his audience and showed a photomontage of the FCC, the future planned proton collider in the Geneva area.

Then Jonathan stuck to his topic and showed that "it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the climate," emitting CO₂ in the atmosphere.

Future rise of CO₂ concentrations following various assumptions

He also pointed out that carbon dioxide in a concentration of over 1000 ppm is toxic to humans and animals.

For him, as a scientist, it is vital to reduce the uncertainties of the various models

A rise in sea level of 25 cm by 2100 is manageable for the Dutch. For Bangladesh, however, such a rise would be catastrophic.

Each session was preceded by detailed safety instructions. Strangely enough, was the radiation warning sign mutilated accidentally or intentionally?

I passed the illuminated CERN globe on my way to the conference dinner. 

An alphorn trio greeted the participants at the entrance to the restaurant.

Valerie Domcke of CERN led us through "The Early Universe as a Particle Physics Laboratory." 

After the Big Bang, the universe cooled down to such an extent that it became "transparent."  However, there are slight variations in temperature on the micro-Kelvin scale.

This allowed the cosmic microwave background (CMB) to be used to explore the universe.

We now know that the universe comprises 4.9% Ordinary Matter, 26.8% Dark Matter, and 68,3% Dark Energy.

Analyzing gravitational waves may help us better understand the universe. Red Bareon remembers that during his time at CERN, all efforts failed to detect GWs. In the meantime, detectors have become more sensitive.

"The discovery of the CMB revolutionized our understanding of the universe. What surprises do gravitational waves have for us?"

In the session on Aviation & Space, "Beyond the Collider: CERN Alumni Soaring in Aviation and Space," two contributions did not quite fit the title but were interesting. 

Thomas Rognmo of Nordic Electrofuel AS presented a plant for producing green fuel that already operates in Norway. The electricity exporter in Europe's north can carry out such experiments, even if their product cannot be made at the cost of fossil fuels and will probably not be competitive in the future, either.

Hannah Rana of Harvard University showed the Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) plans. Everyone has seen the glowing photon ring of a black hole in the press. The Black Hole Explorer, placed deep in space, will lead to a sharper image, they hope.

For how long still?

Thank you, Pasquale

In the end, there was a photo of Red Baron. An Italian colleague sent me a selfie he took while I was leaving the meeting on my way home.

*

Christoph Martin Wieland, the Forgotten Writer

In Weimar, around the turn of the 19th century, Christoph Martin Wieland formed the quadruple star of the German Classic with Goethe, Herder, and Schiller. Wieland's literary work is no longer read, although Jan Philipp Reemtsma defines the writer as the inventor of German literature in his Wieland biography.

Christoph Martin Wieland 1805. Portrait by Ferdinand Jagemann (©Hajotthu/Wikipedia)

In Wikipedia, we read, "Wieland is best-remembered for having written the first Bildungsroman (educational novel) Geschichte des Agathon ... and ... Wieland's thought was representative of the cosmopolitanism of the German Enlightenment, exemplified in his remark: 'Only a true cosmopolitan can be a good citizen.'"

Reemtsma's Wieland biography is an opus magnum of 950 pages. It took Red Baron several weeks to finish the book. The book is a masterpiece of the German language. Once you have started reading, you cannot stop easily because of the book's content and style.

Reemtsma advocates "learning to read Wieland's work again and thus gaining a sense for the perception of specific beauties in his writings. In addition, it should show the singular role Wieland's work played in a particular epoch - so singular that the subtitle "The Invention of Modern German Literature" is probably justified."

It is impossible to describe Wieland's biography in one blog. So Red Baron will content himself pointing out a few highlights, quoting Reemtsma ("in quotes") and citing some of Wieland's original texts ("in italics"). Surprisingly, many of these texts are still relevant today. The snippets will underline the statement's validity that educated people in the 18th and 19th centuries were true cosmopolitans.

They communicated all over Europe with handwritten letters where languages were never a problem. All of them knew Latin, and some had studied Ancient Greek. Modern languages like French, English, or Italian were no hurdle. Today, we would say those people were gut vernetzt (well-networked). They profited from their European contacts in a win-win situation.


Wieland, professor in Erfurt

Let's start with Wieland's appointment as professor:

"On January 2, 1769, Wieland was informed by Elector Emmerich Josef from Mainz that he had been entrusted with 'the professorship of Philosophiae primarium at the University of Erffurth, with an annual salary of five hundred Reichsthaler in money, together with two Malter* of grain, two Malters of barley and four cords of wood.'"
*One Malter differed from place to place, but in the Erfurt region, it was 130 liters, corresponding to about one barrel.

Salaries were low, so additional goods in kind were common, although Wieland did not mention beer or wine.

"He disliked those studying* which is said to have moved Fichte somewhere to the sarcasm, 'Yes if they would' - i.e., study): 'Heaven forbid that my bones do not have to lie in the country where my fate has led me! What people, what minds, what manners, what crudeness, what lack of spirit, heart, and taste! I have to educate them to be human beings, these people!' But such complaints about student behavior could be found everywhere in Germany. Over time, everything settled down; he liked them, they liked him, and Wieland no longer despaired of his educational mission."
*In the 18th century, students were called 'those studying.' Nowadays, the term 'those studying' has turned into German gender madness. Because the form Studenten is masculine (female students are Studentinnen), the clumsy form for both genders, Studierende (those studying) is used


Anna Dorothea Hillenbrand

In his new position, Wieland had to be married. He writes, "So be it as it may, I have taken a wife, or rather, a little wife, for she is a small, though in my eyes quite a nice and amiable creature, whom I have had my parents and good friends, I don't really know how lay near to me. That's how it is; I'm satisfied, as are my fellow citizens, for they don't like when their superiors are unhitched."


The History of Agathon

Reemtsma states, "As a narrator, Wieland uses the prose forms of anecdote, fairy tale, story, novella, novel. His beginning is the stiff, didactic, highly overrated old-school  Bildungsroman 'Agathon.' "

Still, "Lessing called Wieland's 'History of Agathon' the 'first novel for readers of classical taste.' With it, the novel became a generally recognized literary genre in Germany."

Agathon left its mark on German philosophy like no other, "The motto sapere aude (dare to be wise), which Kant declared to be the motto of the Enlightenment, comes from the novel. Agathon's motto is Quid Virtus, et quid Sapientia possit / utile proposuit nobis exemplum (What virtue and wisdom are capable of / a useful example has shown us)." Later, Wieland translated it as: "What virtue and what wisdom/ are capable of, Homer gives us/ a valuable example of in Ulysses. "


Julie Bondeli

Wieland met Julie Bondeli in Zürich. She was the only person and woman who could not only hold a candle to him in terms of knowledge but was superior.

"Julie Bondeli " put all the other women Wieland met in the shade. She was an intellectual for whom there was no place in the world where she was forced to live. She knew that. She described herself as a 'femme philosopher' and 'Plato de jupe.' She ironized the fact that people marveled at her by comparing her to a circus attraction, a kind of rhinoceros."

"She noted with some amusement that, unlike the compendiums0 of higher mathematics, stocking work had always remained a closed book to her."


Wieland's View About Women

"A woman who wishes to assert her independence must regard her gender in general as a hostile power ... with which she can never enter into a sincere peace without sacrificing her own welfare. This, it seems to me, is a necessary consequence of the undeniable fact that the female part of mankind is almost on the whole earth in a state of degradation and oppression, which can be founded on nothing in the world but the superiority of men in physical strength; since the advantages of the mind, in the exclusive possession of which they seek to place themselves, is not a natural prerogative of their gender, but one of the usurpations of which they have arrogated to themselves by virtue of their stronger bones. Among all peoples, the rougher the men, the more unhappy the condition of women is. Still, even among polished nations and among the most educated of all, women are treated by men in general either as slaves to their needs or as instruments of their pleasure. The most beautiful of them would be very stupid if she thought the least of the splendor or number of her pretended worshippers and slaves and could conceal from herself what the masters have done in the deceitful game that they play with the women's vanity and pleasure."


The Adventures of Don Sylvio

Once Wieland had finished the 'History of Agathon,' "he immediately begins to vary his style in the most charming way: the 'Don Sylvio' and the 'Danischmend' are already overflowing with the most spirited stylistic artistry."

"In the Adventures of Don Sylvio, Wieland has finally set himself free. Even Julie Bondeli, who was rather dissatisfied with the novel's jokes and quite unhappy with its slippery bits, stated what Friedrich Nietzsche would go on to say a hundred years later in a once-for-all dictum, 'No one writes such good German prose as Christoph Martin Wieland.'"


Shakespeare

When a Shakespeare translation is mentioned in Germany today, it is the one by Schlegel-Tiek. But before that, Wieland had already successfully translated Shakespeare's plays. In this process, Wieland, like Luther 250 years before, became a creator of German expressions. Nowadays, these "words are used as if they had always been there. The phrase Abschied nehmen (to take leave) or Steckenpferd (hobbyhorse) are of Wieland/Shakespearean origin - and many more.”

Here is more:

cold-hearted kaltherzig
crab-like krebsartig
declaration of war Kriegserklärung
everyday work Alltagsarbeit
death voice Totenstimme
grief-stricken kummerbeladen
heroic figure Heldengestalt
honey-dripping honigtriefend
hook-nosed hakennasig
infant age Kindesalter
lunch time Mittagsessenszeit
milkmaid Milchmädchen
pot-bellied schmerbäuchig
safety clause Sicherheitsklausel
sharp-tongued scharfzüngig
spleen Spleen
weary of life lebensüberdrüssig
widow maker Witwenmacher
winter tale Wintermärchen
Word breaker Wortbrecher
world literature Weltliteratur
world ruler Weltherrscher


The New Amadis

And in Der Neue Amadis, Wieland presents two more new and widely used German idioms.

"All the others (daughters and knights) are also narratively forced into pairs at the end, each pot gets its lid*, as the last line says."
*Jeder Topf bekommt seinen Deckel

"With the 'beautiful soul'*, which here forms the keystone of the cupid's construction, Wieland invents a German word for the Greek term 'καλοκἀγαθία' (the term for a Greek ideal of physical and spiritual excellence ('beauty and goodness')), which henceforth makes a career for itself."
*schöne Seele


A Nation Favored by the Muses

In his beginnings, "Wieland sees German literature as the whole world, and the whole of Germany saw it around, say, 1750. And now the whole world and the whole of Germany see it where the poets of the middle of the century wanted to see it, namely in terms of standard, sophistication, and poetic intelligence, where France, Italy, and England had long been."

This belated recognition was mainly due to Wieland, who proudly writes, "Especially since the French have for some time been convinced that we Germans, à l'heure qu'il est, are the only nation in Europe favored by the Muses."


Der Teutsche Merkur

Indeed, since 1773, Christoph Martin Wieland published and edited a literary magazine, Der Teutsche Merkur, modeled on the French magazine Mercure de France. Wieland "used the Merkur as an organ to advance the Enlightenment and to provide a platform to support literary taste."

"He is the stupendously hard-working publisher, editor, and author of the Teutsche Merkur, which is published unflinchingly quarterly and is the most highly regarded literary and political journal in Germany" that was also read all over Europe.

From 1790 to 1810, the journal was renamed Der Neue Teutsche Merkur.

"Wieland's work soon became tiresome and too much, 'But I too ... am unnoticedly being overtaken by the winter of life, and if I am less aware of it, and still have enough energy and activity to imagine myself younger than I am, the cause of this is probably merely my domestic bliss and the teeming, sprouting and life of so many young creatures around me.'" From 1798 to 1803, Wieland lived in his manor, Oßmannstedt, which he could buy from his royalties. Here, he enjoyed country life, raising animals and 13 children.

"In 1799, Wieland appointed Karl August Böttiger as editor in charge but remained publisher. He repeatedly considered discontinuing the journal, but at the end of 1810, the time had come: after 38 volumes, the last issue of what had long been Germany's most important literary and political journal was published."


Goethe

On Goethe, Reemtsma writes, "But did he always make the most of his talents? - Wieland is not alone in his doubts - to this day, people argue about the place Goethe gave to his speculations on the physics of colors and what rank posterity should give them. Wieland also takes careful note of this aspect, refrains from passing judgment, but asks about the public reaction '... so I ask you to tell me how Goethe's great work on light and colors, especially its polemical part, is regarded by the scholars in Leipzig. Newton's admirers will shake their heads violently and cringe. He has stung a great wasp's and hornet's nest."


Schiller

Schiller held the history chair at the University of Jena, and "German historiography only began with his 'History of the Thirty Years' War. This assessment is rarely found in self-thematizations of German historiography; in fact, not at all. Schiller's historical works are seen as a poet's excursions into a terrain that is basically foreign to him, or more precisely, a terrain that does not exist yet. If one were to take a closer look, one would be surprised to discover that he opened up this terrain."

Herder

"Herder came to Weimar because Wieland and Goethe sought him out. Herder stood for a new kind of philosophical theology or theological philosophy, a new idea of the connection between literature, poetry, and historical time."

"Pope Benedict XVI has always believed that the sola scriptura doctrine leads to philologists and historians being left to judge the truth of Scripture, ultimately leading to a hopeless secularization. This is precisely what Wieland welcomes, celebrating Herder's writing as a 'new transfiguration' of Christ and his 'new resurrection,' 'Everything, it seems to me, is ripe for Christianity to either cease to be visible in the world or to emerge victorious in a new, i.e., in its pure and true form.'"

"Through the falsification of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth (and the legend of his resurrection), Christianity had risen to become an initially popular and then dominant religion, and it was now time to uncover the ethical core again through philological and historical (and philosophical) criticism of revelation. Which, however, turns out to be astonishingly trivial: 'Children, love one another,' says the old Johannes in Lessing's work - and that's all he needs, he says."

Red Baron listens to The Beatles.


Kant

"If a philosophical direction develops a special language, then it misses what, in Wieland's eyes, constitutes or should constitute philosophy: To be a doctrine of right living, for such a doctrine must necessarily include not speaking elite jargon, 'Him I accept, but with his philosophical Rothwälsch (thieve's cant), which is neither German, nor can it be translated into any language without destroying it, Never!'"

Wieland should not complain here. After all, he was spared Heidecker.


Seume

" Wieland called Johann Gottfried Seume a 'true cynic,' and such a person was the 'most genuine man and the true sage ... Ancient Greece had barely half a dozen of them within 500 years, and in our days Seume is the only one I at least know.'"


About the German Language and Printing

"The prejudice that the German language was 'less poetic' due to its lack of vowels (compared to Italian or French) was for a long time something of a poetological certainty, which Wieland felt was his duty to refute. An open-minded reader would have found 'the language, which Emperor Charles the Fifth (certainly not a German, although king in Germania) only wanted to neigh with his horse, is to a very high degree musical if he had been able to read and fully feel the best songs of Hagedorn, Gleim, Utz, Weisse, Jakobi, Bürger, Hölthy and others.'"

"Wieland always spoke out against the scarification of German through eradicating foreign words. Wieland polemicized against a style of language and thus of thought to which he also had other objections."

"Sometimes Wieland advocated using the Fraktur (Gothic) typeface when he wrote to one of his printers: 'I am delighted that you also favor German letters. I will not be talked out of the fact that the German letters are more appropriate to our national character and much more pleasing to the eye than the Latin ones. 'Probably because of his foreign readers, he refrained from printing his Sämmtliche Werke in Fraktur."


Parapsychology

"Magnetization was in vogue. Reports of spiritual phenomena were read with pleasure and belief. Mischief and seriousness mingled. This was funny and disturbing. Lavater measured skull shapes, Goethe tried to refute Newton and show that light did not 'refract' in the prism, Swedenborg had made proselytes, and Kant did not think it idle to exercise his pen here, in 1766 his 'Dreams of a Visionary' appeared, in which he speaks of 'hypochondriacal vapors, old wives' tales, and monastic miracles.' In 1781, Wieland wrote 'On people's tendency to believe in magic and ghostly apparitions' in the Merkur and included this essay in his Sämmtliche Werke."

"This tendency of the time could be viewed with political concern; one thinks of Schiller's 'Geisterseher,' of Goethe's 'Der Groß Cophta,' which was dedicated to the machinations of Cagliostro and the unfortunate "Affair of the Diamond Necklace" (in which Cagliostro was involved), a dreary scam."


Vaccination

"An interesting topic that takes up quite a bit of space in Wieland's correspondence is inoculation. In 1782, Wieland had his children vaccinated against smallpox by the physician Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland, and later his grandchildren were also vaccinated."

"In 1788, he advised his son-in-law Reinhold, 'We cannot disapprove of your concern about the recommended inoculation of Caroline: However, since the danger of natural smallpox, from which she cannot be protected in any other way than by inoculation, is incomparably greater,' he should have the vaccination carried out."

"The problem, which was discussed in Germany in 2021/22 under the term vaccination breakthrough, was already dealt with in June and December 1775 in the Teutscher Merkur under the title 'Concerning the case of natural smallpox returning after previous inoculation.'"


Wieland's Concerns About Democracy

"Wieland's novel Aristipp reflects his skepticism about the idea that the creation of constitutions is essential. Without capable and responsible politicians, the best constitution is useless - (In his Aristipp). Cyrene is lucky to be governed by the best politicians in the city at the moment, but if these times pass, the constitution, although cleverly devised, will collapse. The people, Wieland has reasoning his Aristipp, cannot govern themselves, but are governed by people who are usually just as incapable of doing so."

"The trial and condemnation of Socrates, of which Aristipp learns in a letter, are for him, however, proof of the unsuitability of democracy as a form of government: demagogues could incite a popular or, in this case, a judicial assembly to the greatest follies. Aristipp takes the statement by Dionys, the dictator of Syracuse - Socrates had nothing to fear from him and would have had a peaceful old age - as an opportunity to renew his earlier praise of Dionys' wisdom and energy - if it came down to it, he would make Dionys the autocrat of all Greece. Aristipp undoubtedly shares his aversion to plebiscitary democracies with his 'author' Wieland."


Wieland on the French Revolution

Reemtsma starts by quoting David Hume, who "once answered the question of why people tolerate authorities that (obviously) govern, or oppress them badly: because putting up with them (obviously) seems more advantageous than rebelling against them."

Now, in 1789, taking the 13 States of America as a role model, the people of France rebel against their authorities such that Wieland writes, "I abandon myself ... to the sweet feeling of joy which must refresh the heart of every citizen of the world who participates in the welfare of mankind at the thought of having lived to this epoch, when the most cultivated nation of Europe gives the world the great example of legislation which, founded solely and exclusively on human rights and true national interest, is always the clear expression of reason in all its parts and articles ...".

However, he added an admonition: "Whatever constitution is enacted, it should consider the following principles of law and state philosophy: Separation of powers, guarantee of individual property, general taxation, and acceptance that there are irrevocable differences in status."

"The Republic or death and destruction! was and is the watchword of the Jacobins and Sankülots."

The party was over. After the excesses in France, Wieland resigned, "Mankind has made an 'instructive experiment at the expense of the French, which will at least teach all other peoples that any still-suffering state is infinitely better than a revolution without a head, without a plan, without means, without an end, in a word, without reason.'"

"Had it stood with me, neither the guilty nor the innocent would certainly have been hanged on lampposts without justice and judgment, no man's house would have been plundered, no good nobleman's or even a peasant oppressor's castle would have been set on fire, and the good King Louis XVI's Majesty would have been hounded to Paris in a far more mannerly way than unfortunately happened on October 6 of last year (1791) ... But it is, nevertheless, absolutely impossible for me to be less convinced, for the sake of all those real and fictitious atrocities of which the Parisian mob ... may have been guilty in the course of the last ten months, that the Revolution was a necessary and salutary work, or rather the only means of saving and restoring the nation and, in all probability, of making it happier than any other has ever been."


Buonaparte

In a fictitious dialog, Wieland has one participant suggest a dictator for the revolution-shaken France:

"It's - don't get too excited! - it is - because they no longer want a king" and "their constitution of the year 1795, which after the tremendous rupture it received on the 18th of Fructidor* cannot last much longer anyway, the better to throw itself into the fire and elect a dictator."
*Meant is the aborted coup d'état of 18 Fructidor in the Year V (September 4, 1797)

"For many reasons, however, he must not be a true Frenchman, at least not from an old and well-known family, and if he even had a foreign name, it would be all the better ... The most extraordinary thing about the matter is that you do not need to look for this man, for he has already been found by a stroke of luck, which may well be called unique in its kind."

"Buonaparte, then?"

"Buonaparte, dictator of the great Nation!"

Wieland's prediction had reactions.

"On January 25, 1800, an article entitled 'Prediction concerning Buonaparte' appeared in the St. James Chronicle. It stated that, in all probability, the article in the Merkur, penned by a certain Weiland (!!), had been inspired by 'the Illuminati, with the intention of ... making their hero acceptable to the French nation. All this cannot leave the slightest doubt,' and Weiland's dialog was a 'secret, but well-understood code by all adepts of this horrid system.'"


Freedom of the Press

"In the Teutscher Merkur of September 1785, Wieland summarized his credo: 'Freedom of the press is the concern and interest of the whole human race. It is mainly to this freedom that we owe the present degree of enlightenment, culture, and refinement of which our Europe can boast. Rob us of this freedom, and the light which we now enjoy will soon disappear again; ignorance will soon degenerate into stupidity, and stupidity will again abandon us to superstition and tyrannical despotism.'"


The Meeting with Napoleon at Weimar

Napoleon, who he may have looked according to AI (©Facebook)

"October 6, 1806, there was a hunt in the morning with tents on the Ettersberg and the usual number of 47 deer and other animals, then a table in the palace: 'This afternoon in Weimar is the highest visible expression that Napoleon's power has ever found. For there they all sat at a separate table in a semicircle around him, the Tsar and the German kings and princes created and dependent on Napoleon, at the ends of the horseshoe Carl August and his son, the Hereditary Prince, between them Bavaria, Saxony, Württemberg, Westphalia, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, a Prince of Prussia, Grand Duke Constantine, Duchess Luise, her daughter and also Talleyrand, the Prince of Benevento. There was also Dalberg, the primate prince, who was the last to represent the ecclesiastical rulers of Germany who had been swept away by Napoleon. Then we went to the theater. Voltaire's 'La mort de César' was performed. Followed by the Ball in the Castle," which Wieland did not attend.

"But Napoleon asked for me twice and seemed surprised not to see me at the ball, as he had seen me in the play in a box quite close to his seat - the Duchess let me know this pp., and now there was no other advice than to put me in the court carriage that was sent to me and - in my usual accouterment, that is a calotte on my head, unpowdered without a sword, and in cloth boots (decently costumed, by the way) to appear in the dance hall."

When Wieland appeared, Napoleon immediately took him under his wing, probably also because Wieland spoke passable French.

"Today's play had turned the conversation to Julius Caesar, and Napoleon declared him to be one of the greatest minds in the whole history of the world; indeed, he added, he would be the greatest without exception if he had not made a single but quite unforgivable mistake. I pondered in vain what that mistake might have been but did not want to ask; Napoleon, however, who could read the question in my eyes, immediately continued, 'You want to know this mistake? Caesar had long known the people who had put him on the side, and so he should have put them on the side. - If Napoleon had been able to read my soul, he would have read, You will not let yourself be guilty of this mistake!" History reports that Napoleon was not squeamish when it came to eliminating his real or supposed opponents.

"Wieland was very annoyed by the copperplate engraving of the encounter in the Weimar Palace. He called it a 'disgraceful bungling of a vivid depiction of this unfortunate Napoleon and Wieland! ... as if it had been painstakingly designed to ridicule the Emperor and myself - me, who stands opposite the Emperor without a hat, in a white gillet and in gaiters, and makes a gesticulation with both hands as if I had much to object to what he says. The bungler turns the Emperor into a good-natured, invalid sergeant, prating of his great deeds, who cuts such a miserable, pompous figure even to the poor pedant that one does not know whether to laugh or cry.'"

Two years later, Napoleon awarded Wieland the Order of the Legion of Honor First Class and Tsar Alexander the Order of St. Anne Second Class at the meeting of princes in Erfurt. His reaction was, "Why all this? I would have preferred a modest pension."


Wieland on Getting Old

"About a year before his death, in February 1812, Wieland writes an astonishing letter: 'In such a protracted, though not very boring life as mine, nothing is more natural than that of all the millions of strings to which we cling in life, one after the other breaks without being noticed, and so when we linger too long, it finally comes to pass that we cling to almost nothing, desire little or nothing, hope even less, and generally regard ourselves as people from another world, who have as much as nothing in common with the present one, whose role has been played out, and who could therefore go their way without the world becoming aware of their disappearance. But for my part, when I listen to myself as quietly as possible, I must either be organized differently from others, or I could take it as a sign that I am still destined to experience more. The truth about me is that, although countless threads on which I was hanging ... were torn off sooner or later, new ones are always spinning up, which, just as unnoticed, at least up to a certain point, involve me in life and prevent me from ever becoming indifferent to it.'"

Red Baron somehow goes through the same experience but would like to add that these new threads are thinner than the initial ones.

*

Tiny Particles and CERN

 In the past, Red Baron blogged a couple of times about particle physics and his former place of work, CERN (here and here).

Recently, Karl Jakobs, professor of experimental particle physics at the University of Freiburg, gave a talk at the Museumsgesellschaft titled CERN and the Search for the Tiniest Building Blocks of Matter.

In the run-up to this lecture, some friends told me that the topic was too difficult for them and they would not come.

There are many reasons for their attitude. In my generation, many still boast that they didn't understand anything about physics at school. Others of my age are more knowledgeable. They had just gotten in physics class as far as Bohr's atomic model but hadn't been interested in the advances in physics since then.

So, the auditorium was less packed than at other lectures. Red Baron, on the other hand, got his fill. Leaning back in my chair, I let the slides of the standard model - Professor Jakobs said standard theory - pass in review.

In addition to particle physics, the lecturer presented the big CERN accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, and the four experimental facilities at the LHC. For many years, Professor Jakobs was the spokesperson for ATLAS, the largest experiment at the LHC.

Here are my thoughts instead of a lecture report (View Professor Jakob's slides): I love the Standard Theory and the Higgs Boson. I've blogged about those topics before (here and here). 

Following the discovery of the Higgs, physicists working at the big experiments at CERN are desperately searching beyond the Standard Theory for a "New Physics," which the theorists call for in ever-new mathematical approaches. 

Professor Jakobs confirmed: So far, nothing "beyond" has been found in the experiments at CERN, which, in my opinion, must lead to great frustrations among the experimental physicists. 

Professor Jacobs disagreed and said that the precise measurement of the Higgs particle could reveal discrepancies. Is there more than one Higgs particle? He showed the following graphics:

Over the last ten years, the precision of the Higgs particle mass (blue) has increased dramatically.

As one would expect, the strength of the interaction of the Higg is proportional
 to the mass of the particles from μ, the light muon, to t, the heavy top quark.
Click the graphic to enlarge.

Einstein's general theory of relativity encounters inconsistencies when applied in space.

The discrepancy between observed and measured rotation velocities of galaxies points to big masses beyond the optical limit. In addition to this dark matter, there must be dark energy to reconcile Einstein's theory with the measurements.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrass Tyson introduced me to dark matter and wrote about dark energy in his books. 

In the discussion following Prof. Jakobs' lecture, the wish arose to listen to an astrophysicist on the "dark topic." My spontaneous suggestion to fly in Neil deGrasse Tyson from New York to explain the subject was not very helpful. 

Not all young physicists working at CERN may stay in high-energy physics. Professor Jakobs gave an interesting breakdown of this.

According to the graphic, only 8% of physicists remain in high-energy physics. Still, 35% end up in Information Technology, although, in the meantime, IT established itself as an independent field of science. Employers prefer people with practical experience to those who have just graduated.

Red Baron remembers a discussion at CERN in the 1970s when the academic job market was somewhat limited. Regarding job opportunities, Director Mervin Hine emphasized that CERN physicists had no problem finding a job. He backed up his statement by saying, "A physicist can do anything," but added to his reassuring statement with fine British humor, "Almost." 

 Stephen Hawkins once wrote, "The great advances in physics have come from experiments that gave results we didn't expect." How true. These are the great moments in physics. 

Red Baron remembers it like yesterday, when in 1974, two physicists in the States, Burton Richter at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and Samuel Chao Chung Ting at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, simultaneously discovered the J/ψ particle, a quark compound of charm and anti-charm nobody had been waiting for. 

The discovery was one of those magic moments in physics. It made theoretical physicists sweat in their attempts to explain the new particle. To make a long story short, The experimental discovery of the intermediate boson J/ψ opened up a whole new physics that eventually ended in today's Standard Theory.

Experimental physicists at CERN are looking forward to the coming upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider to higher intensities. At 13.7 GeV, the magnetic field of the LHC is pushed to its limit, having almost reached its design energy of 14 GeV. So, higher energies can only be achieved with a more giant accelerator.

Planning the Future Circular Collider (FCC) ©CERN
All other slides ©Prof. Jakobs

A machine with a circumference of up to 100 km is under study at CERN. Where to find the money?

China is going ahead with another project. Scientists at the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) in Beijing plan to build a "Higgs factory" by 2028 - a 52-kilometre underground ring that would smash electrons and positrons together.

Collisions of these fundamental particles would allow the Higgs boson to be studied with great precision. More Higgs are to come.

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Creative Democracy

Creative Democracy: The Task Before Us" is a 1939 essay by American philosopher John Dewey.

Freiburg's Carl-Schurz-Haus offers with Demokratie erlesen (clumsily translated as "deepen on democracy by reading about it") a new branch in their present cycle, "Mutprobe Demokratie (Democracy as a Test of Courage)." Derk Janßen, Publizist, moderates a series of four evenings that started on February 1.

Democracy is "booming" in Germany, not only with the many peaceful street demonstrations against the Right. The form of democratic government is supported in two recent surveys, too.

In the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, 89% of respondents described democracy as the best form of government. Even more encouraging is a European study showing that in Germany, 60% of 18 to 30-year-olds have a fundamental trust in democracy and the European Union. By the way, this is the best figure in the ten European countries where this generation was interviewed.

Has the young generation understood that today's nearly unlimited freedom is endangered?

In 1939, with fascist governments in power in Germany, Italy, and Spain, John Dewey wrote in his essay, "Democracy is the great word of our time, but the realization of its meaning is yet to come."

He stressed the need for education to cultivate democratic habits of mind and action. "Democracy must be reborn in every generation, and education is its midwife."

Furthermore, Dewey explored the concept of democracy beyond mere political participation to encompass active engagement and creativity in all aspects of society. "The democratic ideal involves not merely the political form of government but also the fostering of a social consciousness which will make democracy real."

He argued that democracy should be a way of life, emphasizing the importance of continual experimentation, collaboration, and problem-solving to address societal challenges and promote individual and collective flourishing.

Overall, Dewey advocated for a dynamic and participatory democracy that empowers citizens to shape their own destinies and build a more just and equitable society. "The task of democracy is forever that of creating a freer and more humane experience in which all share and to which all contribute."

1939 was also the year when on February 20, the German-American Bund organized a Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in New York,

 

This "mass demonstration for true Americanization" of more than twenty-two thousand members marked the Bund's popularity. They carried banners with national messages such as "Wake up America! Smash Jewish Communism" and racist inscriptions, "Stop Jewish Domination of Christian Americans." Attendants performed Nazi salutes toward the three-story tall banners of George Washington flanked by Nazi swastikas. Jews were regarded as a threat to American identity. So New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia was called "the Jew Lumpen LaGuardia."

AYF 2024/25 Academic Director Prof. Michaela Hönicke-Moore mentioned this particular Nazi mobilisation in the talk she gave at the FMG Stammtisch on February 7: "Wie die Amerikaner das Dritte Reich sahen (How Americans viewed the Third Reich).

Were Americans fascinated by Nazi regimes? Michaela said that due to the reporting of many foreign correspondents, the Americans were well informed in the press and on the radio about what was happening in the Third Reich. William Shirer wrote, "The Germans stand by Hitler." At the same time, Will Durant suggested in 1938 that "coward cruelty is not a characteristic of the German soul but a neurotic reaction to their defeat and the new fear of Bolshevism."

Thomas Wolfe described in his novel You Can't Go Home Again "Nazism as a terrible part of the common heritage of mankind," while for Sinclair Lewis, "Fascism is a perversion of mass politics that could also happen here."

At a rally of the American First movement in De Moines on September 11, 1941, American hero Charles Lindbergh identified three warmongering groups: Great Britain, the Roosevelt administration, and the Jews. In the same year, on December 11, Germany declared war on the United States. 

 
Having learned all this, Red Baron is left preoccupied with two questions:

How much of the present German mass demonstrations for democracy is folklore, and how much of it will endure.

With Trump's second appearance likely, How robust is the world's oldest democracy against populist power fantasies taking its outdated traditions in times of social media and deep fake news?

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Rising up Against the Right

You may have read about the demonstrations in many places all over Germany, with tens of thousands of people against the Right - incarnated by the AFD.

Michael Wehner, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute for Political Education in Freiburg, commented, "The Potsdam meeting with the tenor of remigration had an air of conspiracy - the enemies of democracy gathered there - and on top of that there is the super election year 2024 with approval ratings for the AfD soaring. That makes many people want to show their colors."

Last Saturday, Red Baron, together with other citizens of Freiburg, went to the large-scale event "We are the firewall against the right" on Platz der alten Synagoge (Old Synagogue Square) to set a mark against right-wing extremism.

  

The Old Synagogue Square filled slowly but surely.

Human rights instead of right-wing humans (©BZ/Barbara Ruda)

Gorgeous weather

A drone photo (©BZ/Annika Vogelbacher)

With 30,000 participants, it was probably the largest demonstration in Freiburg since the end of the Second World War. There were individuals, but the rally was also supported by more than 500 organizations of various "colors."

Many people at the demonstration realized that demonstrating is a democratic right worth protecting. So strange alliances formed between supporters of various parties such as the CDU, SPD, FDP, and Greens, climate activists such as Fridays for Future, and political organizations like Antifa.

One banner read, "Voting AfD is like 1933". Indeed, at a Bürgerstammtisch (citizens table) in Potsdam (again!) on January 18, Lars Hünich, AfD member of the Brandenburg state parliament, declared, "If we are in government tomorrow, then we must abolish this party-state".

The demand to abolish the party system is a clear attack on the free democratic rule because our Grundgesetz (Basic Law, i.e., constitution) protects parties as part of the people's decision-making process.

The abolishing of the party-state was put into practice in the Weimar Republic on March 24, 1933, with the Nazis' Ermächtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act).

Given the diversity of the demonstrators, how long will such an "alliance of convenience" last?

Michael Wehner believes that it might well happen that some people say the protests went too far while others say they didn't go far enough.

There were a conspicuous number of young people at the demonstration. There was rapping about gays and lesbians on stage. The piercing loudspeaker transmission may have irritated some older participants.

Red Baron was okay with the colorful diversity.

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On the Poetry of Wine, Drunkenness and Intoxication

I read all kinds of things about you.
All illustrations are from Professor Frick's lecture

Last Saturday, Red Baron listened to a talk, "Zur Poesie von Wein, Rausch und Trunkenheit" by Professor Werner Frick. The motto, "So lang' man nüchtern ist, Gefällt das Schlechte (As long as you're sober, You like the bad things)," the speaker took from Goethe's Poem Cycle West–Eastern Divan.

Retired Werner Frick was a Professor of German Studies at the University of Freiburg and is now the spiritus rector of the Studium generale, which also includes the lectures of the Saturday University covering a range of topics.

In recent years, for example, there has been a series of lectures on 70 years of Germany's Basic Law (Constitution), Resilience, and Education Today. This Winter Semester, the topic of wine will be explored in all its facets.

Professor Frick announced his lecture as follows: Wine, the great tongue-loosener and bringer of joy, has always been considered the elixir of poets, inspiring and entrancing them to Dionysian as well as (more rarely) alcoholic ecstasies. This has resulted in a lot of mass-produced poetry but also exquisite poetic wines of the highest quality. The lecture invites you to taste them together in the spirit of "wine and transfiguration."

And he continues with his wine recommendation: "Goethe, who will also be the subject of the lecture, would have recommended his beloved 'Eilfer,' a Rheingau Riesling from the 1811 vintage of the century - that could be expensive fun today (and ultimately just a mixed pleasure). So I would recommend a witty Gewürztraminer from local latitudes to go with the cheerful drinking songs of the Anacreontic variety and would serve a full-bodied, profound red wine with the darker-toned wine poems by Baudelaire, Hofmannsthal, and Pablo Neruda: From Amarone to Zinfandel, many noble varieties fit!"

As expected, the lecture hall was packed to the last seat, and Professor Frick's lecture was outstanding. In the following, I shall present most of the poems in German together with my humble translation into English.

Portrait of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in 1755 by Johann Heinrich Tischbein

The first poet Professor Frick introduced was Gotthold Ephraim Lessing when, in his young years, he wrote Anacreontic poems about wine. 

Previously, Red Baron associated Anacreontic with the German poet Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim. Anacreontics, with its eight-syllable lines, is a playful style of German and European poetry in the mid-18th century (Rococo) named after the ancient Greek poet Anacreon (6th century BC).

 

Die Gewißheit Ob ich morgen leben werde, Weiß ich freilich nicht; Aber, wenn ich morgen lebe, Daß ich morgen trinken werde, Weiß ich ganz gewiß.

The certainty Whether I shall live tomorrow, I certainly do not know; But, if I live tomorrow, That I will drink tomorrow, I know for sure.

Die Stärke des Weins Wein ist stärker als das Wasser: Dies gestehn auch seine Hasser. Wasser reißt wohl Eichen um, Und hat Häuser umgerissen: Und ihr wundert euch darum, Daß der Wein mich umgerissen?

The Strength of Wine Wine is stronger than water: Even its haters confess this. Water may tear down oaks, And has torn down houses: And ye marvel at it, That wine has overthrown me?

Der alte und der junge Wein Ihr Alten trinkt, Euch jung und froh zu trinken: Drum mag der junge Wein Für euch, ihr Alten, sein. Der Jüngling trinkt, Sich alt und klug zu trinken: Drum muß der alte Wein Für mich, den Jüngling, sein.

The Old and the Young Wine You old people drink, To drink yourselves young and happy: Therefore, may the young wine Be for you, old people. The young man drinks, To drink himself old and wise: Therefore, the old wine must Be for me, the young man.

An den Wein Wein, wenn ich dich jetzo trinke, Wenn ich dich als Jüngling trinke, Sollst du mich in allen Sachen Dreist und klug, beherzt und weise, Mir zum Nutz, und dir zum Preise, Kurz, zu einem Alten machen. Wein, werd' ich dich künftig trinken, Werd' ich dich als Alter trinken, Sollst du mich geneigt zum Lachen, Unbesorgt für Tod und Lügen, Dir zum Ruhm, mir zum Vergnügen, Kurz, zu einem Jüngling machen.

To the Wine Wine, if I drink you now, When I drink thee as a young man Thou shalt be my guide in all things Cheeky and clever, bold and wise, For my benefit and for your praise, In short, make me an old man. Wine, when I drink you in the future, I will drink you as an old man, Thou shalt make me inclined to laugh, Unconcerned for death and lies, For your glory, for my pleasure, In short, make me a young man.

Die Beredsamkeit Freunde, Wasser machet stumm: Lernet dieses an den Fischen. Doch beim Weine kehrt sichs um: Dieses lernt an unsern Tischen. Was für Redner sind wir nicht, Wenn der Rheinwein aus uns spricht! Wir ermahnen, streiten, lehren; Keiner will den andern hören.

Eloquence Friends, water makes dumb: Learn this from the fish. But with wine, it is reversed: Learn this at our tables. What orators we are not, When the Rhine wine speaks from us! We exhort, argue, teach; No one wants to hear the other.

What a fine observation! When a group sits together in a pub, and the alcohol level rises, nobody listens to what the others are saying anymore. 

Der Tod Gestern, Brüder, könnt ihr's glauben? Gestern bei dem Saft der Trauben, (Bildet euch mein Schrecken ein!) Kam der Tod zu mir herein. Drohend schwang er seine Hippe, Drohend sprach das Furchtgerippe: Fort, du teurer Bacchusknecht! Fort, du hast genug gezecht! Lieber Tod, sprach ich mit Tränen, Solltest du nach mir dich sehnen? Sieh, da stehet Wein für dich! Lieber Tod, verschone mich! Lächelnd greift er nach dem Glase; Lächelnd macht ers auf der Base, Auf der Pest, Gesundheit leer; Lächelnd setzt er's wieder her. Fröhlich glaub' ich mich befreiet, Als er schnell sein Drohn erneuet. Narre, für dein Gläschen Wein Denkst du, spricht er, los zu sein? Tod, bat ich, ich möcht' auf Erden Gern ein Mediziner werden. Laß mich: ich verspreche dir Meine Kranken halb dafür. Gut, wenn das ist, magst du leben: Ruft er. Nur sei mir ergeben. Lebe, bis du satt geküßt, Und des Trinkens müde bist. O! wie schön klingt dies den Ohren! Tod, du hast mich neu geboren, Dieses Glas voll Rebensaft, Tod, auf gute Brüderschaft! Ewig muß ich also leben, Ewig! denn, beim Gott der Reben! Ewig soll mich Lieb' und Wein, Ewig Wein und Lieb' erfreun!

Death Yesterday, brothers, can you believe it? Yesterday, with the juice of the grapes, (Imagine my horror!) Death entered. Menacingly, he swung his scythe, Threatening spoke the fearful skeleton: Away, you dear Bacchus servant! Out, you have had enough carousing! Dear death, I said with tears, Should you long for me? Look, there's wine for you! Dear Death, spare me! Smiling, he reaches for the glass; Smiling, he empties it on the base, On the plague and health; Smiling, he sets it down again. Cheerfully, I believe myself liberated, As he quickly renews his threat. Fool, for your glass of wine Thinkest thou, saith he, to be rid? Death, I prayed, I on earth I like To become a physician. Let me: I promise you, Half of my sick for it. Well, if that is, you may live: He cries. Only be devoted to me. Live until you've kissed your fill, And are tired of drinking. Oh, how beautiful this sounds to the ears! Death, you have given me a new birth, This glass full of grape juice, Death to good brotherhood! Eternally must I live, Eternally! for, by the God of the vines! Eternally shall love and wine delight me, Eternally, shall wine and love delight me!

A deal with Death? Until now, I only knew this from the Brothers Grimm fairy tales.

Eine Gesundheit Trinket Brüder, laßt uns trinken Bis wir berauscht zu Boden sinken; Doch bittet Gott den Herren, Daß Könige nicht trinken. Denn da sie unberauscht Die halbe Welt zerstören, Was würden sie nicht tun, Wenn sie betrunken wären?

One health Drink, brothers, let us drink. Till we sink intoxicated to the ground; But pray to God the Lord That kings may not drink. Since they destroy Half the world not being drunk What would they do, If they were drunk?

Indeed. God forbid that a war-mongering vodka drinker in the East should be joined in power by a crazed candidate in the West who then may consume several Manhattans instead of one.

 

Der trunkne Dichter lobt den Wein Mit Ehren, Wein, von dir bemeistert, Und deinem flüß'gen Feu'r begeistert, Stimm ich zum Danke, wenn ich kann, Ein dir geheiligt Loblied an. Doch wie? In was für kühnen Weisen Werd' ich, o Göttertrank, dich preisen? Dein Ruhm, hör' ihn summarisch an, Ist, daß ich ihn nicht singen kann.

The Drunken Poet Praises the Wine With honors, wine mastered by you, And thrilled by your flowing fire, I'll sing thanks if I can, A sacred song of praise to thee. But how? In what bold ways Shall I praise thee, gods' potion? Your glory, listen to it in summary, It is that I cannot sing it.

Poet Robert Gernhardt's Confession: Bottle of wine, bottle of wine will soon be empty.
Because I need just one bottle per poem and no more.

Getting drunk did not happen to Robert Gernhardt, who needed only one bottle to write a poem.

It could have happened to Goethe. Germany's national poet loved wine (see above). He is said to have drunk two bottles a day. 

Goethe loved wine so much that he dedicated a Schenkenbuch (tavern book) to it in his West–Eastern Divan. This is a blatant case of blasphemy because, for a devout Muslim, drinking alcohol is forbidden. 

Questioning the eternity of the Koran, as in the following excerpt from the West-Eastern Divan, makes Goethe an unprotected game for devout Muslims once and for all.

Ob der Koran von Ewigkeit sey? Darnach frag' ich nicht! Ob der Koran geschaffen sey? Das weiß ich nicht! Daß er das Buch der Bücher sey Glaub' ich aus Mosleminen-Pflicht. Daß aber der Wein von Ewigkeit sey Daran zweifl' ich nicht. Oder daß er vor den Engeln geschaffen sey Ist vielleicht auch kein Gedicht. Der Trinkende, wie es auch immer sey, Blickt Gott frischer ins Angesicht.

Is the Koran is eternal? I do not ask! Was the Koran created? I do not know! That it is the book of books I believe that out of Muslim duty. But that the wine is from eternity I do not doubt it. Or that it was created before the angels Perhaps it is a poem, neither. The drinker, whatever it may be, Looks God more freshly in the face.

The sick Heinrich Heine.
Pencil drawing by Charles Gleyre, 1851

Heinrich Heine wrote the most impressive wine poem of the entire lecture. It is touching how, two years before his death in his Matratzengruft (mattress tomb) in Paris, he relives his longing for the German Rhine and wine in a feverish dream. The poem is taken from Posthumous Poems, Section III: Lamentations.

Mir lodert und wogt im Hirn eine Flut Mir lodert und wogt im Hirn eine Flut Von Wäldern, Bergen und Fluren; Aus dem tollen Wust tritt endlich hervor Ein Bild mit festen Konturen. Das Städtchen, das mir im Sinne schwebt, Ist Godesberg, ich denke. Dort wieder unter dem Lindenbaum Sitz ich vor der alten Schenke Der Hals ist mir trocken, als hätt ich verschluckt Die untergehende Sonne. Herr Wirt! Herr Wirt! Eine Flasche Wein Aus Eurer besten Tonne! Es fließt der holde Rebensaft Hinunter in meine Seele Und löscht bei dieser Gelegenheit Den Sonnenbrand der Kehle. Und noch eine Flasche, Herr Wirt! Ich trank Die erste in schnöder Zerstreuung, Ganz ohne Andacht! Mein edler Wein, Ich bitte dich drob um Verzeihung. Ich sah hinauf nach dem Drachenfels, Der, hochromantisch beschienen Vom Abendrot, sich spiegelt im Rhein Mit seinen Burgruinen. Ich horchte dem fernen Winzergesang Und dem kecken Gezwitscher der Finken - So trank ich zerstreut, und an den Wein Dacht ich nicht während dem Trinken. Jetzt aber steck ich die Nase ins Glas, Und ernsthaft zuvor beguck ich Den Wein, den ich schlucke; manchmal auch, Ganz ohne zu gucken, schluck ich. Doch sonderbar! Während dem Schlucken wird mir Zu Sinne, als ob ich verdoppelt, Ein andrer armer Schlucker sei Mit mir zusammengekoppelt. Der sieht so krank und elend aus, So bleich und abgemergelt. Gar schmerzlich verhöhnend schaut er mich an, Wodurch er mich seltsam nergelt. Der Bursche behauptet, er sei ich selbst, Wir wären nur eins, wir beide, Wir wären ein einziger armer Mensch, Der jetzt am Fieber leide. Nicht in der Schenke von Godesberg, In einer Krankenstube Des fernen Paris befänden wir uns - Du lügst, du bleicher Bube! Du lügst, ich bin so gesund und rot Wie eine blühende Rose, Auch bin ich stark, nimm dich in acht, Daß ich mich nicht erbose! Er zuckt die Achseln und seufzt: „O Narr!" Das hat meinen Zorn entzügelt: Und mit dem verdammten zweiten Ich Hab ich mich endlich geprügelt. Doch sonderbar! Jedweden Puff, Den ich dem Burschen erteile, Empfinde ich am eignen Leib, Und ich schlage mir Beule auf Beule. Bei dieser fatalen Balgerei Ward wieder der Hals mir trocken, Und will ich rufen nach Wein den Wirt, Die Worte im Munde stocken. Mir schwinden die Sinne, und traumhaft hör Ich von Kataplasmen reden, Auch von der Mixtur - ein Eßlöffel voll - Zwölf Tropfen stündlich in jeden.

A Flood Blazes and Surges in My Brain A flood blazes and surges in my brain Of forests, mountains, and meadows; Out of the mad jumble, at last, emerges A picture with firm contours. The little town that floats in my mind, It is Godesberg, I think. There again, under the linden tree I sit in front of the old tavern. My throat is dry as if I had swallowed The setting sun. Landlord! Landlord! A bottle of wine From your best barrel! The fine grape juice flows Down into my soul And quenches on this occasion The sunburn of my throat. And another bottle, landlord! I drank The first one in simple distraction, Without any devotion! My fine wine, I beg your pardon. I looked up to the Drachenfels, Which, highly romantically illuminated Reflected by the sunset in the Rhine With its castle ruins. I listened to the distant song of winegrowers And the perky twittering of the finches - So I drank absentmindedly, and I didn't think about the wine while drinking. But now I put my nose in the glass, And earnestly, before I sip I look into the glass, but sometimes, Without looking at all, I sip. But strange! As I sip, It occurs to me as if I were doubled, Another poor swallower is Coupled together with me. He looks so sick and miserable, So pale and haggard. He looks at me with a painful sneer, Which makes me strangely nervous. The fellow claims to be myself, We were only one, the two of us, We would be one poor man, Who now suffers from fever. Not in the tavern of Godesberg, In an infirmary Of distant Paris we would be - You lie, you pale knave! You lie; I am as healthy and red Like a blooming rose, I am strong too, beware, That I do not vomit! He shrugs his shoulders and sighs: "O fool!" That has quenched my anger: And with the damned second self I've come to blows at last. But strange! Every puff, I give the guy, I feel in my own body, And I hit myself bump on bump. During this fatal courtship My throat was dry again, But as I want to call the landlord for wine, Words falter in my mouth. My senses fade, and dreamlike, I hear I hear talk of cataplasms, Also of the mixture - a tablespoonful - Twelve drops every hour in each.

Preprint of Les Fleurs du Mal with corrections by Charles Baudelaire

One of the last authors Professor Frick covered was Charles Baudelaire, who recommends drunkenness in his Petits Poèmes en prose to endure the slavery of Time.

ENIVREZ-VOUS Il faut être toujours ivre. Tout est là: c'est l'unique question. Pour ne pas sentir l'horrible fardeau du Temps qui brise vos épaules et vous penche vers la terre, il faut vous enivrer sans trêve. Mais de quoi? De vin, de poésie ou de vertu, à votre guise. Mais enivrez-vous.;

GET DRUNK You have to be drunk all the Time. That's the only question. If you don't want to feel the horrible burden of Time shattering your shoulders and bending you down to earth, you've got to get drunk all the Time. But of what? Wine, poetry, or virtue, as you wish. But get drunk.

Et si quelquefois, sur les marches d'un palais, sur l'herbe verte d'un fossé, dans la solitude morne de votre chambre, vous vous réveillez, l'ivresse déjà diminuée ou disparue, demandez au vent, à la vague, à l'étoile, à l'oiseau, à l'horloge, à tout ce qui roule, à tout ce qui chante, à tout ce qui parle, demandez quelle heure il est; et le vent, la vague, l'étoile, l'oiseau, l'horloge vous répondront: « Il est l'heure de s'enivrer! Pour n'être pas les esclaves martyrisés du Temps, enivrez-vous; enivrez-vous sans cesse! De vin, de poésie ou de vertu, à votre guise. »

And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace, on the green grass of a ditch, in the dreary solitude of your room, you wake up, your intoxication already diminished or gone; ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, everything that rolls, everything that sings, everything that speaks, ask what time it is; and the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock will answer you: "It's Time to get drunk! To avoid being slaves martyred by Time, get drunk; get drunk all the time! Wine, poetry, or virtue, as you wish."

The applause from the audience for Professor Frick's lecture was overwhelming and well-deserved.

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