Out from the Shadows into the Light

Germans are humorless, according to a well-known stereotype. Well, humor is a tricky quality, but Red Baron is convinced that my compatriots are not without it.

On the other hand, Germans are notorious Nörgler (grumblers). They bitch and moan about everything, usually adding that everything used to be better in the past.

Yes, some things were better in the past, and will get worse in the future, when Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared in August that Germany's social welfare programs were unsustainable and needed an overhaul. "We simply can no longer afford the system we have today," he said in a speech, adding, "This will mean painful decisions. This will mean cuts."

A declining number of young people has to support a growing number of elderly people.

The Washington Post addressed the issue and titled an editorial "The decline of the welfare state has boosted the rise of the far right."

The fact that cuts to the social safety net will be necessary in the future is grist to the mill for those who know how to deal with it.

For the right (AfD), the problem is solved by deporting lazy foreigners who are a burden on the German social system.

And for the left (Die Linke), it's even simpler: Tax the rich.

These solutions appeal not only to right- or left-wing voters. They are, however, too simplistic.

But is it really so bad in old Germany?

At the turn of the year, Deutsche Telekom News' editorial team published a list comparing Germany's economic and political situation with those of other countries.

I have reorganized the list, added some graphics and personal comments, and I want to share the results with my readers.

The global crises are also affecting all people in this country, and do not suggest that world peace will arrive any time soon. Politically and economically, 2025 was unfortunately not a year that gave much cause for confidence and hope.

But humans would not be humans if they did not manage to strive for the light even in dark times. Because, viewed sine studio et ira, things are developing better in this country than the daily barrage of bad news would suggest.

Germany undoubtedly faces significant problems and must overcome many challenges simultaneously. However, there are only a few countries in the world that are better equipped to tackle those than the Federal Republic, as ten facts may show:

World ranking in 2024

1. Germany still has the largest gross domestic product in the EU, but, as the third-largest economy in the world, it cannot really compete with giants such as the US and China.

 

2. The standard of living is exceptionally high by global standards; Germany ranks in 7th place on the UN Human Development Index.


3. Life expectancy in Germany at 81.7 is also well above the global average of 73.5 years. Still, it is 4.1 years lower than the number one, Hong Kong, and 2.5 years lower than the European forerunner, Switzerland. Note that Red Baron is now at 90.5

4. Germany's unemployment rate is well below the EU average and one of the lowest in Europe, even among young people; the dual education system is considered a guarantee of success.

5. Because German companies invest heavily in research and development, their innovative strength is not only well above the EU average, but also above the European Commission's target.

    

6. Germany has been consolidating its position as a leading export nation for years; customers all over the world are clamoring for many German products. Still, my country looks poor compared with the ten times smaller Netherlands.

7. Despite huge debt packages that were recently voted in the Bundestag, public finances remain comparatively stable in my country. With a debt ratio of less than 65 percent, Germany is in a much better position than Japan (230 percent), Italy (137 percent), and the US (125 percent).

 

8. According to an OECD study, Germany is particularly attractive to highly qualified professionals.

9. The Federal Republic also ranks among the best internationally in terms of the rule of law, performing particularly well in categories such as "order and security" and "civil justice."

10. Despite all the doom and gloom and criticism from the US, freedom of expression and freedom of the press are well established in Germany. While Scandinavian countries and Switzerland have a GxR Score of freedom of expression and information above 90, Germany is on par with the US at 86. The UK, strangely, scores only 79.

Without sugarcoating the situation, these are good conditions for not necessarily increasing prosperity, but for maintaining it and ensuring a free, stable society in Germany.

Out of the shadows and into the light. That should be an apt headline for the political program, economic initiatives, and social impulses for the coming year. All it takes is enough people to get involved to overcome the current challenges.

My country fellows should not dwell on grievances and abuses, but clearly identify problems and seek solutions. Since these solutions are not easy, our government has referred the issues to mandated committees with clear deadlines.

Looking at all this, Germans must not forget their humor, which brings us back to the beginning of the blog.

Happy New Year, Everybody

**

80 Years Ago in America

An extremely well-written article by Stephen Collinson of CNN titled "The year the Christmas lights burned again" made such a huge impression on me that, for the first time, I copied it into a blog for the benefit of my German-speaking readers.


It was Harry S. Truman's first Christmas in the White House, and he was antsy to get away.

His wife, Bess, and daughter, Margaret, had already decamped to their home in Independence, Missouri. He planned to join them by taking a December 25, 1945, flight on the presidential aircraft nicknamed the "Sacred Cow."

President Truman's plane, a Douglas VC 54C

But Christmas morning brought sleet storms and a glaze of ice on Washington's roads, which halted the public bus service and made taking off from National Airport too dangerous. Eventually, after a four-hour delay, Truman climbed aboard his plane, but not before joking to reporters that he'd wait to see whether their charter made it off the slush-bound runway first.

Truman's propeller plane was buffeted by ice and high winds during his six-hour flight, but eventually made it to Missouri safely, although several newspaper columnists chided him for taking too great a risk.

Truman was having a difficult time adjusting to life as president since succeeding beloved Franklin Roosevelt, who died in April that year, weeks before the end of hostilities in World War II. By Christmas, Truman had already given the order to drop the world's first atomic bombs in Japan, and wrestling with how to build an enduring peace as a new confrontation loomed with the Soviet Union.

A plainspoken man, Truman had never dreamed of the presidency, although Roosevelt's declining health made his selection as running mate in 1944 a critical one. He'd written home from the White House to Bess in June that just two months earlier, he'd been a "happy and contented" vice president. "But things have changed so much it hardly seems real."

"I sit here in this old house and work on foreign affairs, read reports, and work on speeches — all the while listening to the ghosts walk up and down the hallway and even right in here in the study," the president wrote. "The floors pop and the drapes move back and forth — I can just imagine old Andy (Jackson) and Teddy (Roosevelt) having an argument over Franklin (Roosevelt)."

Truman wasn't the only American desperate to get home. Tens of thousands of service personnel raced the clock to reunite with their families for their first Christmas after leaving foreign battlefields.

On Christmas Day alone, 15,000 troops pulled into New York Harbor after a harrowing trip through Atlantic storms from Europe and North Africa, according to The New York Times. One vessel, the navy cruiser Philadelphia, had been hit by a huge wave that buckled its forecastle, but still limped home with its precious cargo. At ports on the East and West coasts, troops disembarked from transport ships and flocked to bars, cinemas, and bowling alleys while waiting for trains home.

Just a year earlier, these men had been battling Nazi troops in frozen foxholes at the Battle of the Bulge or Imperial Japanese soldiers in Asia. But their euphoria at being back stateside for Christmas was tempered by the grief they carried — the memories of thousands of Americans who'd never come home and the empty places that would remain forever unfilled at Christmas dinner tables.

Still, the sense of relief is palpable from news reports that day in 1945. "Earth wore a tiara of light for Christmas yesterday, for the first time since 1938, and men worshipped in its glow," the Times reported on December 26.

The returning exodus jammed railroad stations, already packed with regular holiday travel. Travelers bound from Union Station in Washington for the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida were directed to a local train by mistake. The two trains swapped loads at an unscheduled halt in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

San Antonio, Texas, basked in its temperatures of 82 degrees, then the highest on record for Christmas Day. Candlelit services and carol singing took place countrywide.

In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, even prisoners in the local jail felt the goodwill, chowing down on roast turkey, filling, giblet gravy, candied sweet potatoes, stewed corn, cranberry sauce, celery, pumpkin pie, and coffee.

Christmas also brought tragedy. A man in the capital was stabbed to death with a Japanese dagger brought home from the war as a souvenir. In Berlin, two American soldiers were shot dead* in separate incidents that showed how dangerous it still would be to enforce the Allied occupation.

*The defeated Germans were not involved. I asked ChatGPT, and it reported about only one incident, the Potsdamer Platz shooting. It took place on August 24, 1945, only three months after Germany's surrender.
The victorious Allies had divided Berlin into four occupation zones. Near Potsdamer Platz, where the American, British, and Soviet sectors met, two U.S. Army soldiers allegedly crossed into the Soviet sector. Soviet guards challenged them, the situation escalated, and the Red Army soldiers opened fire. Both Americans were killed.
In the follow-up, the Soviets claimed that the Americans had ignored warnings and had entered a restricted zone. The incident contributed to growing mistrust between the Allies and is often cited as an early sign of the emerging Cold War.

But Truman encapsulated the national mood on a Christmas Eve radio broadcast. "This is the Christmas that a war-weary world has prayed for through long and awful years. With peace come joy and gladness. The gloom of the war years fades as once more we light the National Community Christmas Tree," he said.

The president cast an eye across the capital at the vast marble monuments to great presidents. "It is well in this solemn hour that we bow to Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, and Lincoln as we face our destiny with its hopes and fears, its burdens and its responsibilities. Out of the past we shall gather wisdom and inspiration to chart our future course," he said.

"With our enemies vanquished, we must gird ourselves for the work that lies ahead. Peace has its victories no less hard-won than success at arms. We must not fail or falter."

President Harry Truman in front of his home in Independence, Missouri,
with his arms laden with Christmas gifts for delivery (©Harry S. Truman Library)

"I wish my countrymen* a Merry Christmas and joyous days in the New Year."

*Gendering had not yet been invented

**

From Heaven Above I Come

Yesterday, I found a reproduction of a magnificent print of Martin Luther's "Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her.“

Luther wrote the text and melody of the Christmas carol in 1534, initially for the Heiliger Abend. The Christmas Eve observance was held annually at his home with his children. Later, he had the carol sung also in church services.

The text of "Vom Himmel hoch" is based on the Bible verses in Luke 2:1-18. The opening verses were traditionally sung by a man dressed as an angel proclaiming the birth of Jesus.

Catherine Winkworth translated the traditional English lyrics from German in 1855.

Vom Himmel hoch, da komm' ich her. Ich bring' euch gute neue Mär, Der guten Mär bring' ich so viel, Davon ich sing'n und sagen will. Euch ist ein Kindlein heut' gebor'n Von einer Jungfrau auserkor'n, Ein Kindelein, so zart und fein, Das soll eur' Freud' und Wonne sein. Es ist der Herr Christ, unser Gott, Der will euch führ'n aus aller Not, Er will eu'r Heiland selber sein, Von allen Sünden machen rein. Er bringt euch alle Seligkeit, Die Gott der Vater hat bereit, Dass ihr mit uns im Himmelreich Sollt leben nun und ewiglich. So merket nun das Zeichen recht, Die Krippe, Windelein so schlecht, Da findet ihr das Kind gelegt, Das alle Welt erhält und trägt. Des laßt uns alle fröhlich sein Und mit den Hirten gehn hinein, Zu sehn, was Gott uns hat beschert, Mit seinem lieben Sohn verehrt.

From heaven above I come. I bring you good new tidings, Of glad tidings I bring so many, Whereof I want to sing and say: To you a small child is born today of a chosen Virgin; A little child so tender and fine, should be your joy and bliss. It is the Lord Christ, our God, Who wants to lead you out of all adversity, He Himself wants to be your Savior, to purify you of all sins. He brings you all blessings, that God the Father has ready, (so) that you with us in heaven should live, now and forever. So note now the sign rightly, the manger, swaddling-clothes so bad, There you'll find the Child laid, who all the world maintains and bears. Let us all be of good cheer and go with the shepherds thereto to see what God has bestowed upon us, honored with his dear Son.

Johann Sebastian Bach must have held Luther's Christmas carol in high regard, given that he used the melody as the basis for several chorale cantatas and cantata movements. In the Christmas Oratorio, the melody resounds as a cantus firmus, artfully embedded in the movement. Bach understands the chorale as a theological confession.

Listen to “Vom Himmel hoch” in an interpretation by Munich’s University Choir. After an instrumental introduction, the choir performs the version in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio until the community sings Luther’s Christmas carol.

Merry Christmas to my loyal readers

**

Sir Thomas More

Nine years ago, Red Baron read an article in The Guardian that fascinated him, but he never found the time to write a blog.

 

This is the last surviving script handwritten by William Shakespeare, in which he imagines Sir Thomas More making an impassioned plea for the humane treatment of refugees. The theater piece about the life of Henry VIII's councillor and lord chancellor was not staged because of fears it might incite unrest.

British scholars found out that Shakespeare wrote the play "Sir Thomas More" actually in collaboration with Henry Chettle, Anthony Munday, and others in 1592. It survived only in fragmentary form after being censored by Edmund Tylney, Master of the Revels, in the government of Queen Elizabeth I.

Here is the powerful scene, featuring More challenging anti-immigration rioters in London against the number of French Protestants (Huguenots) seeking asylum in the capital.

 
"You'll put down strangers,
Kill them, cut their throats, possess their houses,
And lead the majesty of law in lyam
To slip him like a hound.
Alas, alas! Say now the King
As he is clement if th'offender mourn,
Should so much come too short of your great trespass
As but to banish you: whither would you go?
What country, by the nature of your error,
Should give you harbour? Go you to France or Flanders,
To any German province, Spain, or Portugal,
Nay, anywhere that not adheres to England:
Why, you must needs be strangers."

In two cases, Red Baron needed some help with the English: "And lead the majesty of law in lyam" translates to "keep the authority of the law under restraint," and "Why, you must needs be strangers" reads in modern English as "Well then, you must necessarily be foreigners."

Thomas's powerful rhetoric urges the crowds to empathise with the immigrants. He is asking the rioters to imagine what it would be like if they went to Spain, Portugal, or German provinces*, they would then be strangers. Thomas is pleading for empathy.

*Provinces, indeed. Germany was founded as late as 1871.

Wasn't it always, and isn't it still like this with strangers seeking protection and peace?

With greetings from Bethlehem, a Merry Christmas to all my readers.

**

Caspar David Friedrich

Caspar David Friedrich's most famous painting, Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer (Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog), hangs in the Hamburger Kunsthalle.

During my visit to the Hamburg Art Gallery in July 2023, this masterpiece was in transit to the Kunstmuseum in Winterthur for the exhibition "The Harbingers of Romance." 

So, Red Baron had to settle for an alienation featuring wind power stations.

The most extensive collection of Caspar David Friedrich's paintings may be housed at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

During my recent visit to our capital, we were particularly interested in one painting by this Romantic artist. Still, I do not want to deprive you of a sculpture near the entrance to the Old National Gallery.

Johann Friedrich Schadow:
Double Statue of the Princesses Luise and Friederike of Prussia

The two sisters are usually on display at the Friedrichswerder Church, but since it is currently being reconstructed, they are temporarily displaced. Read more about Luise's courage.

©Manfred Brückels/Wikipedia

The National Galerie is based on ideas and an initiative of the Prussian King Frederick William IV. As the "romantic king," he was a patron of art, architecture, and history, but was also the ruler who brutally suppressed the revolution in Berlin in March 1848 (Read more in German).

The dedication above the temple-like building, "To German Art," is traced back to Frederick William.

Caspar David Friedrich: Monk by the Sea 1808 -1810

Here is the coveted painting along with a Wikipedia article describing it.

Here is a portrait of Caspar David Friedrich at the age of 44 by Caroline Badua.

Greifswald Harbour 1818-1820

Caspar was born in Greifswald near the Baltic Sea. So many of his paintings address scenes with the sea in the background.

Moonrise over the Sea 1822

Coast Scene by Moonlight 1830

The romantic moon is a central style element in Caspar's work.

Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon 1818-25

Deep in the Forest by Moonlight 1822-1830

Woman at a Window 1822.
Isn't she watching a ship in Greifswald Harbour?

Abbay among Oak Trees 1809-1810

The Watzmann 1824-25

At the beginning of the 19th century, many other painters jumped on the romantic bandwagon.

    

Carl Blechen: Forest Path with a View of a Church, 1835

From the mysterious, dark German forest, they step into the light.

     

Carl Blechen: Castle Sanssouci, 1832

I chose the painting to remind you of the second part of my Berlin 2025 trilogy.

We tried to step out of the Alte Gemäldegalerie at the front, but a window blocked the exit. Nevertheless, the view is breathtaking. Like Fredrick William IV on horseback, you see the Berlin Cathedral, and in the back, the entrance to the Humboldt Forum in the rebuilt City Palace.

**

Why Are the Jews Always to Blame?

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it," is the correct* inscription at the entrance to the "General Exhibition" Extermination at the Auschwitz Memorial.
*"cannot" is definitely wrong in Professor Paganini's slide.

The subtitle of Professor Paganini's lecture was "How anti-Semitic is the Bible?" But before that, he looked at some stereotypical accusations.

1. "The Jews kill Palestinians indiscriminately – just as they always do." This is a generalization implying systematic cruelty and equates the State of Israel with "the Jews.

2. "The Jews and Israel are secretly controlling the global economy from the US." This is the anti-Semitic conspiracy lie/myth about a "Jewish financial elite" and is an update of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

3. "The Jews exaggerate the Holocaust to gain political capital or justify Israel's wars." The Holocaust must neither be relativized nor denied. It is impossible to exaggerate.

4. "The Jews killed Jesus/God and are forever guilty." This again is a generalization. The deicide transfers a theological statement to the entire Jewish community.

This latter accusation is depicted subliminally in an Italian caricature.

"The Church of the Holy Family was hit. It was a deplorable mistake …
We were aiming at the Baby Jesus."

Stop the blog!

While drafting the blog about Prof. Paganini's lecture, the terrible news of the shooting at Bondi Beach in Australia caught me entirely off guard.

There was one fate that moved me to tears.

The 87-year-old retired civil engineer, Alexander Kleytman, took his wife, Alisa, a Holocaust survivor, to the Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney every year.

Alexander was just a boy when he fled his home to Siberia before the advancing Nazi henchmen invaded the Ukraine, and endured a harrowing train journey to Siberia. Years of starvation in Russia's eastern provinces left him permanently hunched. Living in the Soviet Union, he suffered decades of antisemitism but never stopped being "a proud Jew," as his daughter recalls.

In 1992, after the fall of the Russian Empire, Kleytman took his wife and two children to Australia, where he continued his professional career.

Alexander was killed shielding his wife, Larisa, from the hail of bullets that hit the Jewish Australians celebrating the first night of Hanukkah.

In a discussion, it is essential to distinguish between two terms. Anti-Judaism refers to hostility toward Jews based on religious, more specifically Christian, theological grounds, as opposed to antisemitism, which is primarily based on nationalist and racist grounds. In practice, the two terms have been deliberately confused.

The reasons why Jews are and have been persecuted are rarely based on reality, but are usually based on a multitude of prejudices and invented myths. Old prejudices are not outdated or forgotten, but they are maintained, supplemented, updated, and adapted to new situations. 

The IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) working definition of Antisemitism reads: "Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities."

IHRA then cites eleven specific points of antisemitism:

1. Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.

- The 2018 Pittsburgh Synagogue shooter posted online that Jews "deserve" to die before killing 11 worshippers.  

- The 1988 version of the Hamas Charter includes language framing the killing of Jews as religiously justified.

2. Making dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such, or about the power of Jews as a collective, such as the myth of a "Jewish world conspiracy."

- Henry Ford's newspaper, The Dearborn Independent (1920s), claimed Jews ran a global conspiracy based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.    

- Nazi propaganda films like "Der ewige Jude" (1940) depicted Jews as parasites controlling finance and media.  

3. Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even by non-Jews.

- Medieval Europe: With the advent of the "Black Death," Jews were collectively blamed for "poisoning wells," leading to pogroms.  

- Today: When a Jewish politician or businessman is involved in wrongdoing, antisemites make claims such as "all the Jews are behind it."

4. Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms, or intentionality of the Holocaust, especially the systematic genocide of the Jewish people by Nazi Germany and its supporters.

- David Irving, a British writer, publicly denied that gas chambers existed and lost a major libel trial because his claims were proven false.

5. Accusing Jews or Israel of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.

- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005–2009) repeatedly called the Holocaust a "myth" and "exaggeration".  

- Neo-Nazi groups claim the Holocaust was invented to gain "financial compensation."

6. Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.

- In the 1894 Dreyfus Affair, Captain Alfred Dreyfus was accused of treason, partly based on claims that Jews were disloyal to France.  

- U.S. Jewish politicians are accused "online" of being "agents of Israel" regardless of their actions.

7. Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination —for example, by claiming that the existence of the State of Israel is a racist endeavor.

- The Soviet anti-Zionist campaign of the 1970s framed Zionism as inherently racist and illegitimate, erasing Jewish peoplehood.

- Statements such as "Jews are not a people and therefore have no right to a state," used by some extremist groups.  

8. Applying double standards to Israel by requiring it to behave "not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation."

- Demanding that Israel alone dismantle defensive measures (e.g., borders, security fences) while not expecting the same of other states in conflict zones.

- Calling for boycotts of "only "Israeli academics because of government policy, while not calling for the same with any other country's academics under similar or worse conditions.

German, think of the stab in the back

9. Using classic antisemitic symbols or images (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or a blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.

- Political cartoons showing Israeli politicians drinking blood, echoing the medieval "blood libel" myth.

- Cartoons portraying Israelis with hooked noses and moneybags - imagery taken from 19th-century antisemitic caricatures.

10. Drawing comparisons between contemporary Israeli policy and that of the Nazis.

- Posters in protests reading "Stars of David = Swastikas".  

- Public figures or activists calling Gaza "Auschwitz" or Israeli soldiers "Nazis," trivializing the Holocaust.

11. Holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the State of Israel.

- After the 2014 Gaza conflict, synagogues in Paris and Berlin were attacked, and Jewish businesses vandalized, despite having no connection to Israeli politics.

- Jewish individuals are being asked to "explain" or "justify" Israeli government policies because they are Jewish.

Back to the Bible.

The anti-Judaism of the early Christians began with Paul's mission to the Gentiles in the 50s and came to a head with the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, in the conflict between the group of Jewish Christians and that of Gentile Christians. 

Paul clearly expressed his view in his third letter to the Galatians*, who were predominantly Gentile Christians: 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

*They belonged ethnically to the Celts and had settled in Galatia in Asia Minor around Ankyra, today's Ankara.

Prof. Paganini stated that Paul obviously suffered from the failure of his mission among his former Jewish fellow believers and used two classic motifs of antisemitism against them: godlessness and misanthropy.

They displeased God and were enemies of all people, and even more sharply in his second letter to the Greek Christians in Thessaloniki: 15 The Jews killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to everyone 16 in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way, they always heap up their sins to the limit. 17 The wrath of God has come upon them at last.

Adolf Hitler on April 21, 1921, in Rosenheim at the first local branch of the NSDAP outside Munich:
"I cannot imagine Jesus as anything other than blond with blue eyes,
but the devil only as a Jewish grimace."

Prof. Paganini explained: In contrast to the three synoptic Gospels, which are mentioned in John's Gospel*, Jesus appears in John's theologically reflective text as a non-Jew.

*John 20: 30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

In John, there is no birth story; instead, Jesus comes directly from God. John 1: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. continues in 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

A central Johannine motif in John 1 is that not ancestry but faith establishes community: 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

In John, Jesus' biological mother takes a back seat to his mission from the Father.

This becomes evident in John 2 at the wedding in Cana: 1 And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: 2 and both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. 3 And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. 4 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee?* mine hour is not yet come. 5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.

*Whenever I listened to the extremely curt German text as a boy, "Weib, was habe ich mit dir zu schaffen? "I was shocked.

It is not Jesus but the apostle John who takes distancing from family bonds to the extreme here. Jesus' actions do not conform to family expectations, but are guided solely by the will of the Father, even when he ultimately performs the all-too-worldly miracle of turning water into wine.

Above all, the Gospel of John takes up the conflicts between the Johannine community and the synagogue. The Jews are Jesus' adversaries par excellence. 

In John 7, it is recounted that Jesus refuses to attend the Festival of Tabernacles: 1 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. 2 But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus' brothers said to him, "Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world." 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him. 6 Therefore, Jesus told them, "My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the festival. I am not[b] going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come." 9 After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee. 10 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11 Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, "Where is he?" 12 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, "He is a good man." Others replied, "No, he deceives the people." 13 But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.

In the Book of Revelation, John calls the Jewish house of worship the synagogue of Satan.

As it is written: He who testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.    

**

Spectacular Pink

Yesterday evening, Red Baron observed a rare meteorological phenomenon.

While I expected a red-orange sunset, the sky was pink.

Look at the photo of a "classical" sunset by a friend of mine, the gifted Photographer Margit Anhut. An orange glow over the Vosges Mountains as seen from Schauinsland, the fourth-highest mountain in the Black Forest. Note the fog in the valleys.

As the sun sets, its light travels through a thicker atmospheric layer than when it shines from the zenith.  As a physicist, I have learned that, by Raleigh scattering, short-wavelength blue and violet light is scattered out of view. Therefore, the less scattered, longer red and orange wavelengths dominate the sky.

Now, high-altitude thin and wispy cirrus clouds enter the game. These clouds are ideal for reflecting the last rays of red and orange sunlight, particularly when the sun is below the horizon. Thus, the red light is diluted and mixes with the residual blue, making the sky appear pink.

Was it more than an incident that the very evening Red Baron listened at Freiburg’s Konzerthaus to the London Symphony Orchestra playing Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, the soloist Arabella Steinbacher wore a spectacular pink dress?

However, this is nothing compared to the dress Arabella wears on her website.

**

Neuburg

In the 13th century, Freiburg was a boomtown, and towns exerted a magical attraction on people. Those who could leave the countryside moved to a neighboring town to earn their living and to consume their bread freely and securely behind its walls. Many free men wanted to be protected against the dangers of the open countryside.

They were followed by serfs, i.e., anyone who managed to escape from their bailiffs or lords. According to an old privilege from 1160, anyone who had lived in Freiburg for a year and one day without being claimed as an escaped serf would remain free in the future.

With Freiburg's population increasing, the town outgrew its narrow walls. People settled extra muros along the access roads so that, in case of danger, they could reach the town's protection quickly.

To remedy this misery, Count Konrad founded, in 1263, a suburb to the north of Freiburg's old town, near the outermost gate leading to Zähringen, calling it Neuburg. It was mainly craftsmen and small businesses such as potteries, blacksmiths, and carpenters who settled here.

The Sickinger Plan of 1589 shows the then-built-up and walled Neuburg
with St. Niclaus (2), Teutsch Hauß* (11), Arm Spital (12),
Blatterhaus (13), St. Michael (14), and St. Clara (16)
*Already in 1263, Count Konrad donated estates in Neuburg to the Teutonic Knights.

Soon, an imposing church dedicated to St. Nicholas adorned the suburb of Neuburg.

During Operation Tigerfish on November 22, 1944, aerial bombs reduced Neuburg to rubble. After the war, the district was rapidly rebuilt.

Meanwhile, in many parts of Neuburg, the post-war buildings were replaced by new developments with underground parking.

Presently, the area at the intersection of Albertstraße and Habsburgerstraße is being prepared
for the construction of the new Oberfinanzschule (Higher Finance School).

Whenever they dig deep, enter Dr. Bertram Jenisch with his team.

They dug out a tiny ceramic head.

The head is crowned with a Gugel (hood), a garment worn not only today, but also in the Middle Ages.

Psalter around 1180: Winegrowers in March

Two fools with hoods
Psalter of Jutta of Luxembourg, circa 1248

Here is the site where the Köpfchen was found.

The excavation site:
Blue > Medieval pits and kilns
Dark gray > Walls of medieval buildings
Light Gray > Medieval cellars

That was not all. The archaeologists dug up clay figurines. 

With the many medieval wooden structures in densely populated towns, fires were particularly feared. It can therefore be assumed that fire-intensive professions, such as potters with their kilns, settled in the less densely populated Neustadt district.

A possible excavated kiln

In addition, the excavations suggest that there was a common open area (Allmende* see the slide above) between two rows of houses. Pits were found there where kilns had stood. 

*So far Red Baron knew Allmende as being a common land to pasture cattle, horses, sheep or other animals

The dug-out clay female figurines are of particular interest, as similar objects are found in southwestern Germany and are dated to the 13th and early 14th centuries.

Were those figurines produced in Freiburg? Physical and chemical analyses of the scattered finds nearby may provide answers. It all remains exciting.

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