Neuenburg

During the night of June 10 to 11, 1940, Neuenburg on the Rhine became the first German city to be destroyed entirely during the Second World War. French artillery did a thorough job, and "powerless, the severely tested Neuenburg residents looked out from the hills of the vineyards across to the Rhine, where their Heimat (homeland) had fallen victim to senseless destruction" as a citizen wrote in his diary.

   

This was all the more tragic because a ceasefire with France came into force on June 15. When those who had been evacuated as a precautionary measure returned home the following day, Neuenburg was still partially burning.

Salzstraße. The ruins of the Church of Our Lady are seen in the background.

The homecomers were met with a sad sight of buried streets, smoking piles of rubble, and bombed-out houses. The Arbeitsdienst (labor service) immediately began clearing up the debris.

A memorial of destruction and reconstruction

After the ruins were demolished and the rubble cleared, the people of Neuenburg began rebuilding the city. It was not the first time in its history that the city was destroyed, but this time it was rebuilt from scratch according to a new plan. This almost-completed reconstruction was followed by destruction once more, as the front line approached Neuenburg in 1944. On November 22, a hail of bullets and grenades rained down on Neuenburg. Once again, the city was evacuated.      

Neuenburg has a long history dating back to 1175, when Duke Bertold IV of Zähringen founded the town of Neuenburg between Breisach and Basel as a new transport link across the Rhine. Bertold was not pleased that the loyal advisor to Emperor Barbarossa, Bishop Ortlieb von Frohburg, had founded a merchant settlement on Breisach's Münsterberg in 1146, thereby competing with Freiburg for the east-west trade.

With their Neuenburg, the Dukes of Zähringen gained complete political and economic control over a Rhine crossing.

Then, in 1460, the meandering Rhine started to eat into the elevation on which Neuenburg was built.

In 1664, Matthäus Merian engraved the misery and wrote in his Topographia Germaniae:
Allhier rinnet der Rhein so starck an die Stadt / und frist dergestalt umb sich /
daß er die Kirch (so vor diesent von dem Fluß abgelegen) jetzunder halber hinweg geflöst /
daß nur das Chor allda übrig ist / und thut noch täglich Schaden an Gebäuen.

Here, the Rhine flows so strongly toward the city and erodes the area so severely that the church, which was previously located away from the river, has been washed away, leaving only the choir, and continues to cause damage to buildings daily.

The breakoff edge ran right through Neuenburg's church

And that was not all. The city was utterly destroyed in 1675 during the Dutch War and again in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession.

During the War of the Spanish Succession, the Neuenburgers attempted to rebuild their fortifications.

A: Work has begun where the enemy has dug a trench directly opposite and is constantly firing at the workers.

B: Here, the old city walls are being cleared away and searched for, upon which to build.

C: Is where the works are to be laid out.

D: Is where the dilapidated gate has been cleared away.

E: Is the other gate.
F: and B: are the two works where the enemy is continuously firing and trying to prevent our work.

A dug-out iron cannonball at the Stadtmuseum

An entry in the parish register reads: "The people of Neuenburg had become destitute when they returned to their devastated homeland in May 1714 after ten years of exile following the Peace of Rastatt and were allowed to begin rebuilding the leveled city."

Freiburg's chief archaeologist, Dr. Bertram Jenisch, invited history buffs to a guided tour of his archaeological finds, which he, as usual, combined with his extensive historical knowledge. That's why Red Baron Bertram loves his lectures and guided tours and has often blogged about them.

In the past, Bertram gave a lecture on the Freiburg Wall and, as curator, guided visitors through the exhibition "900 Jahre Leben in der Stadt (900 Years of Life in the City)".

His lecture on the excavation of a burial ground outside the city gates was fascinating, and he finally talked about the Breisach Gate.

After the people of Neuenburg rebuilt their city several times on the rubble of total destruction, it was necessary to dig up to eight meters deep to reach the foundation layer of the Zähringers.

Such opportunities arise during underground parking construction, so our first stop was a garage under the Neuenburg town hall.

Dr. Jenisch guided us to the breakoff edge. After Johann Gottfried Tulla straightened the Rhine in the 19th century, the river now flows one kilometer away from the city, leaving only a few pools of water.

He had us look down Marktstraße through the latest achievement in archaeology: The telescope into the past, or Archeoloscope.

Instead of the Volksbank, there used to be a trading house
with a deep wine cellar on Marktstraße (©Hans-Jürgen van Akkeren)

We ended our guided tour at and in the Stadtmuseum, where we saw artifacts found in the depths of Neuenburg.

Here is the potter working on the preliminary stage of sherds.

And here is painter Otto Rümmele's colered view of Merian's engraving.
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It’s All Exponential

Prof. Emanuel Deutschmann had made the long journey from Flensburg to Freiburg to present and sell his book "Die Exponential Gesellschaft, Vom Ende des Wachstums zur Stabilisierung der Welt" (The Exponential Society: From the End of Growth to the Stabilization of the World).

One of humanity's most significant weaknesses is its inability to understand exponential functions (Al Bartlett, 1976).

It is undoubtedly the most important function in mathematics (Walter Rudin, 1970).

Has its relevance in sociology been underestimated until now?

The lecture hall was well-filled. Prof. Deutschmann had divided his talk into three theses.

1. Today's society is characterized by exaggerated exponential trends that cause fundamental problems. 

2. These problems make stabilization a central issue of social order.

3. This constellation gives rise to new social conflicts.

In a double logarithmic scale, exponential functions are presented by a straight line.

Indeed, the economy and global production have grown exponentially with the industrial age. 

As early as 1848, Marx and Engels warned of "a continuous revolution in production, which will cause an uninterrupted upheaval of all social conditions."

 Here are some graphs:

The money supply in various countries is growing exponentially with a doubling time of 8.5 years.

The consumption of various building materials follows an exponential trend.

An exponential function represents a straight line in double logarithmic representation.

The number of scientific publications and the production of microprocessors increase exponentially over time, whereas AI grows even faster.

World tourism, the number of students studying abroad, and road traffic follow the trend.

Despite many international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, their levels continue to rise. Due to thawing permafrost, methane emissions have increased sharply in recent years.

Here is the verdict. Measured global warming and sea levels continue to rise exponentially.

An ever-rising global population is accelerating climate change.

All curves have a universal mechanism in common: More brings more, or growth is the basis for further growth in a positive feedback loop.

To stabilize the world economy, Justin Connolly "had a dream" of a donut-capped economic limit, i.e., a humanity living in a safe and just space with a regenerative and distributive economy.

In our world, two extreme attitudes clash: further expansion into space as Mother Earth's resources near exhaustion, with the opposing view that there is no planet B.

Prof. Deutschmann was clear: Ad astra expansionism a la Musk is a castle in the air, and metaverse expansionism a la Zuckerberg is a pipe dream.

The balance of power between the two extreme camps is uneven and one-sided.

The stagnant German economy must grow again, while the US breaks every record on GROWTH.

Since long, Red Baron has believed that the global economic pie has reached its maximum size and that growth is only possible when the pie is sliced differently, with one nation's gain being another nation's loss.

Whether a green economy will drive economic growth remains a subject of debate. The Camino Real is the decoupling of resource use from economic activity.

However, here is a caveat: the rebound effect known as the Jevons Paradox. Technological progress that enables more efficient use of a resource ultimately leads to increased use of that resource rather than to its reduction.

Here are Prof Deutschmann's conclusions:

The task: Crafting stabilizing utopias.

The goal: A good life for all within planetary boundaries, what Ernst Bloch called: "Optimism with a black ribbon."

Lagniappe: 

The other night, Red Baron attended the annual meeting of the Association Supporting the Freiburg Documentation Center on National Socialism. The president presented the growth in membership as a bar chart, with an exponential function superimposed. When will all Freiburg citizens be members?

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Potsdam Again Revisited

My last visit dates back to St. Sylvester 2023, when Red Baron celebrated the transition to the new year in Potsdam.

On the second day of our trip to Berlin, we took the S-Bahn from Berlin Hauptbahnhof (the central station) to Potsdam Hauptbahnhof. We walked across the Havel Bridge to the rebuilt Stadtschloss (City Castle) and the Alter Markt, home to the impressive dome of St. Nicholai church.

The bright yellow, classic-style building was not there during my last visit. It caught our attention. It is a reconstruction of the 1945-destroyed Plögerscher Gasthof, built in 1754 during the time of Frederick the Great.

This reconstructed "inn" has been named Building of the Year 2024 by the association "Stadtbild Deutschland" (Cityscape Germany): The enormous care taken in the detailed work on these facades radiates a high quality that is otherwise unmatched in new buildings.

The Plögersche Gasthof at the corner of Friedrich-Ebert-Straße and Anna-Zielenziger-Straße.
The dome of St. Nikolai Church on the Old Market Square is visible in the background.
©picture alliance/dpa

Wikipedia knows: The figures embody typical hospitable motifs that recall the building's former use as an inn, where people ate, drank, and danced. For example, in addition to a musician with a flute, the goddess of tree fruits, Pomona, and the goddess of agriculture, Ceres, are depicted.

 
We took the tram to Brandenburgerstraße and walked up to the Brandenburg Gate. There are many small shops and cafés.

The outlet of the Royal Porcelain Factory, founded in 1763, caught our attention. Frederick also wanted to earn money with white gold, just like the Saxon and Bavarian kings.

Potsdam's Brandenburg Gate

At the sight of the Brandenburg coat of arms, Red Baron instinctively hummed the state anthem:

Steige hoch, du roter Adler, über Sumpf und Sand Über dunkle Kiefernwälder, heil dir, Mein Brandenburger Land

Soar high, red eagle, over swamp and sand Over dark pine forests, hail to you My Brandenburg Land

On our way to the Sanssouci Park, we passed the Monument of the Three Empresses' Crowns, symbolizing Potsdam's royal identity. The crowns belong to Empress Augusta, wife of Wilhelm I, the first Kaiser of the Second Empire; Victoria, wife of Frederik III, the 99-day Kaiser; and Auguste Viktoria, wife of Wilhelm II, the last German Kaiser.

While approaching the gate to Sanssouci Park, we noticed a lady pulling up in an electric-powered vehicle with benches for disabled visitors.

Passing the Chinese tea pavilion in the mild autumn sun

We travelled with her to the Neues Palais (New Palace), which is now part of the University of Potsdam.

The New Palace without scaffolds (©A.Savin/Wikipedia)

Frederick the Great wanted to show the world that, following the Hubertusburg Peace, a peace of exhaustion, Prussia had still enough money to build a Neues Palais. The building was scaffolded.

Instead, we met roof statues, scrambled in a collection center waiting to be cleaned and restored.

And suddenly, on our way back, we saw Katie, the beautiful hoodie (Corvus cornix), whom I had met before in Potsdam, giving us the cold shoulder.

We arrived at the foot of the Sanssouci hill.

View of the sun-drenched terrace of the famous vineyard and the historic mill of Sanssouci.

We made our way through the park and admired the Prussian accuracy.

Katie had followed us and found a pleasant place to rest.

 

Frederick's grave marker with the obligatory potatoes.

The sun symbol above an entrance to the courtyard of the Sanssouci Palace. The Prussian Elector Friedrich Wilhelm featured the sun on his flag eagle and defiantly claimed "Non soli cedit," meaning he would not yield to the Roi soleil, Louis XIV, whose sun shone everywhere (Fulget ubique).

Promptly, in 1675, the Great Elector suffered a bitter defeat against the Sun King in distant Alsace in the Battle of Türkheim.

We bought tickets to the Sanssouci Palace at the Foundation of Prussian Palaces and Gardens.

There he was, the flute player of Sanssouci. An epigone of the artistic Frederick the Great, of whom his father, who wanted to make his young son a Prussian soldier, said: "Fritz is a Querpfeiffer* and a poet. He doesn't care about soldiers and will ruin all my work. I would like to know what goes on in that little head of his. I know that he doesn't think like me." 

*A traverse flute player, but it could also mean a rebel

A guest room with a sleeping alcove

The interior of the Sanssouci Palace is filled with oil paintings, but they are so far from visitors that it is impossible to make out their motifs.

  

 

 This painting was an exception and depicts King Frederick and his architect, Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, inspecting construction work.

Here is the exciting line of sight in the middle of the castle from one end to the other.

Since I had it with the birds. Here is a white stork (Ciconia ciconia) from the Chinese-style decorated room at Sanssouci.

The grey heron (Ardea cinerea) is also a native bird.

And here comes the star, the Silberreiher (great egret; Ardea alba),

A final view of the Sanssouci Palace. Because of my interest in other birds, Katie was offended and kept her distance.

On our way out, my brother in the walking stick, the Great Frederick, bade us goodbye.

Although time was running short, we took a quick look at the courtyard of the Peace Church near the entrance to Sanssouci Park.

   

On the civil war in South Sudan

Finally, peace, or just hope?

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