My Icelandic Diary

Actually, Red Baron didn’t want to fly anymore in this lifetime, but who can resist a charmingly presented suggestion to visit Iceland?

In the background, the Mainhatton skyline at dawn

So at 7:25 a.m. in Frankfurt, we boarded an Icelandair plane for the three-and-a-half-hour flight to Reykjavik.

I tasted and tested Icelandic ESJA beer on the plane

The international airport is no longer near the city center but at Keflavik, about 50 km to the west, so after a 45-minute drive we - having been woken up at 4:00 a.m. - arrived at our Reykjavik hotel quite tired.

There we realized that the winter clothes we’d packed weren’t enough for the windy, rainy, and chilly 13 °C weather. So Red Baron bought a bonnet, which he didn’t end up needing at all in the days that followed.

For we’d brought the warm, Central European weather with us; during the trip to Iceland’s east coast, we had sunshine and temperatures as high as 25 °C.

After our first night in Reykjavik, our small group traveled by minibus with a luggage trailer to Gullfoss waterfall and the Strokkur geyser.

Thanks to our tour guide, Andrí, our trip to Iceland became an unforgettable experience. As a native Icelander with a German education, he knew exactly how to bring his homeland to life for us in all its facets. Even when answering difficult questions, his explanations were seamless. Lucky are those who travel with this multitasker - that is, he was also the driver and the one who took care of our luggage.

Over millions of years, the Hvítá River had carved a deep canyon into the ancient lava rock. Upstream, we caught sight of the imposing Gullfoss waterfall.

A text from a 1907 travel book reads:

No waterfall in Europe can match Gullfoss. In both ferocity and fury, it outdoes Niagara Falls in the United States. The power of thousands of untamed horses flows down into the gorge, year in and year out. Gullfoss will surely be harnessed for electricity production to supply the inhabitants of the southern part of the country with an abundance of light and heat.

But Sigríður from Bratthold was against it. She fought for the preservation of this cultural monument:

The weather was cold and windy.

King Christian X of Denmark visited Gullfoss on June 19, 1936:

A last look back on Gullfoss before we left for Geysir.

In contrast to Gullfoss, the Strokkur geyser was a disappointment.

An information panel at the entrance to the site stated: A geyser erupts intermittently and spits hot water to heights ranging from several centimeters up to tens of meters. Strokkur does it every 8 to 10 minutes, reaching heights of 25 to 35 meters.

Click to enlarge

The base of a geyser is a long column of water. A vent extends several tens of meters into the earth, where temperatures reach up to 100°. When the water at the bottom heats up and is subjected to too much pressure from the water column above, it superheats, abruptly forming steam and releasing pressure by ejecting the water column above as a geyser.

Visitors waited patiently, cameras on their cell phones ready, for Strokkur to erupt.

Finally, the geyser emitted a small puff of steam. Was Strokkur suffering from the weather?

Having experienced Old Faithful at Yellowstone, an American tourist voiced his disappointment. Well, Old Faithful erupts 25 to 55 meters, but only every 30 to 100 minutes.

More impressive was the steaming landscape.

The Litli Geysir by the side of the trail was trying its best and cheered us up.

On the map above, the Geysir proper is marked nearby; however, it erupts only after earthquakes, like in 1896 and 1930. The Geysir last erupted in 2000. We didn’t have time to wait.

Stay tuned for more.
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Strasbourg

This year's Museumsreise was a successful excursion to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, followed by a visit to Nancy, the capital of Lorraine. 

Special thanks go to Prof. Ronald Asch and Dr. Karl Schäfer for the well-prepared program.

Our group arrived at the Rotunda of the European Parliament, and before Red Baron could take a photo, they were off to the discussion with Engin Eroglu, an MEP* of the Freie Wähler party associated with the Renew Europe Group. Eroglu is a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament.

*Member of the European Parliament   

MEP Eroglu answered our questions at length

In the field of trade and foreign policy, Engin Eroglu was nominated as one of the 5 most influential members of the European Parliament in the Influence Index 2021.

Blue-eyed Red Baron took a "forbidden" photo of the debate
and was gently reprimanded by a charming female guard

We were then escorted into the plenary chamber, where 720 Members of the European Parliament discussed Urgent measures to strengthen competitiveness and secure high-quality jobs in the EU’s automotive sector. 

This is an issue that particularly concerns Germany’s declining car industry. Each MEP was limited to one minute of speaking time. Note the countdown on the screen, turning from green to red after 60 seconds.

The subject of the debate was of rather secondary importance. The crowning achievement of any parliament is the passage of the budget.

         

On our way out, we crossed the impressive inner courtyard once more.

A view back at the parliament building through transparent walls.

Some of the group had lunch on their way downtown, with the cathedral's spire guiding the way. Time was short. 

For more, here is a link to a trip to Strasbourg in 2023, especially devoted to the Minster church. Therefore, I present only two impressive photos in this blog.

 

The world-famous rose window on the rear facade and a modern depiction of Mary, the cathedral’s patron saint, in the apse.

          

There were two observations on our way back to the bus.

The Italian tagliatelle become French tagliatélles, and the German Knackwurst becomes Alsatian knak. All is served à la crème for just 10.90 euros. Enjoy your meal!!

La gloire de France hangs over Rue d'Austerlitz.

Stay tuned for a more extensive blog about Nancy.

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Coffee. I Need Coffee

As the Red Baron was out on his daily walk around noon this Sunday afternoon, he passed by St. Peter's Church in his neighborhood. I looked over the announcements and saw that there would be a baroque music concert with a cake buffet at 3:00 p.m.

   

The photo is misleading. The other year at "Cake with Bach,"
they performed Bach's Concerto for four harpsichords in A minor, BWV 1065, at Petruskirche.

So I returned to the venue around 2:30 p.m., and lo and behold, there were still tickets available. Since I arrived at the church early, I managed to snag a seat in the second row.

This concert is part of a concert series called "With Bach Through the Region." It began with Johann Sebastian Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067. Some scholars claim that this suite belongs to the entertainment music Bach wrote for the Zimmermannisches Caffe-Hauß in Leipzig.

Henry Purcell's "The Old Bachelor," Op. 607, impressed with its folk-inspired sounds and musicality.

The musicians thanked the audience for the deserved applause. From left to right: Traverse flutist: Karl Kaiser, concertmaster and first violin: Gottfried von der Goltz, conductor and harpsichord: Lars Schwarze. Note the listeners on the side waiting for Kaffee und Kuchen, which was served in the following pause. 

The highlight and conclusion of the afternoon concert was Bach's Kaffeekantate BWV 211.

Liesgen: Wenn ich des Tages nicht dreimal mein Schälchen Kaffee trinken darf ... Well, Red Baron needs at least three pots a day.

Liesgen, her father, and the narrator sang the final chorus together:

Cats do not give up mousing,
Girls remain coffee-sisters.
The mother adores her coffee habit,
And grandma also drank it,
So who can blame the daughters!

During the final applause for the orchestra and the singers, Liesgen wore cat accessories, while her father and the narrator wore mouse ears.

**

What Does It Mean to Be Human?

Was bedeutet Menschsein? was the title of a musical reading about the exceptional Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla.

Solo artist Cordula Sauter from Freiburg presented this extraordinary man, who always remained true to himself despite enormous resistance, with his accordion solo pieces.

Piazzolla grew up in the Bronx, New York. His life was a constant series of ups and downs, which he drew on and expressed in his music. He developed his Tango Nuevo from the traditional Tango Argentino, incorporating elements of classical music, jazz, and klezmer. In doing so, he shook the foundations of his homeland's musical tradition and only gained recognition there late in life.

American composer John Adams said: "Astor Piazzolla wrote music about the flawed confusion of human beings—music that was steeped in sweat and smoke, as impure as our bodies with their food stains and shame. With its wrinkles, dreams, prophecies, its embellishments of love and hate, stupidity, political convictions, denials, doubts, and affirmations. Music as impure as old clothes that smell of lilies and urine."

Cordula Sauter enriched the one-hour program of Piazzolla's accordion solo pieces with literary prose, thoughts on being human, written at the time the pieces were composed. Food for thought was: "Forgetting," "Freedom/being free," "Heimat," "Dreams," "Aimlessness," "Liveliness," "Fear."

Red Baron has personal difficulties with two of these thought-provoking ideas, while Goethe had his challenges with freedom. In his drama Egmont, the title character asks the Spanish Governor of the occupied Netherlands, Duke Alba, "Who guarantees freedom to the Dutch?" The Duke answers, "Freedom is a beautiful word. Who understands it correctly?"

Rosa Luxemburg thought she understood the "word" when she gave the all-encompassing answer, "Freedom is always the freedom of those who think differently."

For Red Baron, freedom is the ability to live my life while living with others.

Cordula's other thought-provoking idea, which has always preoccupied Red Baron, is "Heimat." The German term is inadequately translated by the English words "home" or "homeland." In German, Heimat means all of the following:

• Place (landscape, city, dialect)
• Time (childhood, memories)
• Relationship (familiarity, recognition)
• Identity ("I am not a stranger here").

Here are two testimonies about Heimat:

Philosopher Martin Heidegger had a deep connection to his Black Forest: "Heimat is the place where language brings the Being into appearance and Being dwells in man."

Martin Heidegger and Rudolf Augstein on their way to Todtnauberg (©Der Spiegel)

I remember that towards the end of his life, Heidegger is said to have remarked that all that remained of his philosophy was his rooted Being in his Heimat, his hut near Todtnauberg.

Martin at the entrance to his hut (©bpk/Digne Meller Marcovicz)

Last Sunday, Red Baron, as a member of the Association supporting the Freiburg Documentation Center on National Socialism, was invited to a pre-tour of the new temporary exhibition Ende der Zeitzeugenschaft (The end of contemporary witnessing).

    

Witnesses who still remember the horrific events of the Third Reich are dying out. This exhibition shows videos of interviews with contemporary eyewitnesses made in the 1990s. 

One of them is Lotte Paepke, who, as a Freiburg resident and Holocaust survivor, recounts her experiences during the Nazi era. When asked about her Heimat, she said that "coming home" to Israel felt good, but when the interviewer continued to cite the final sentence of Ernst Bloch's three-volume work, The Principle of Hope, where "he states that all people are searching for something - and I quote,' which shines into the childhood of all and in which no one has yet been: Heimat. 'Is there a Heimat at the end of your life?"

Thinking of her country of birth, Lotte answered:

As a child, Red Baron was displaced throughout Germany during the last war. Afterward, he attended school in Hamburg for 9 years, studied at the universities of Tübingen, Göttingen, and Munich, worked at CERN in Geneva for 32 years, and has been retired in Freiburg for 25 years. So, I never had a Heimat.

**

Tomorrow‘s Forests?

I still recall an Umweltgespräch (environmental discussion) in Freiburg that addressed droughts and heavy rainfall. The predictions made by the speaker six years ago have essentially come true.

That's why I was fascinated when I read about two evening lectures in the series Umweltgespräche, focusing on the forests of tomorrow.

German forests have always fascinated me. In 2015, I blogged about the severe damage to forests in Germany's Mittelgebirge (medium high mountain regions), such as the Harz Mountains.

In 2020, I revisited the topic of Waldsterben. The beginning of the coronavirus pandemic was a challenging year for people, but particularly devastating for German forests.

Finally, in 2023, I learned that not only do forests surrounding a city mitigate the local climate, but individual trees within the city can also reduce heat spots.

That's why I was excited about the two lectures, whose content was contrasting and therefore made for a fascinating evening. 

Prof. Jürgen Bauhus, Chair of Silviculture at the University of Freiburg, played the skeptic and demonstrated in his lecture, "Wald im Wandel, Wandel in den Köpfen (Forest in Transition, Transition in Minds)," that the topic of forests is much more complex and multifaceted than I had previously assumed.

In contrast, Ms. Nicole Schmalfuß, head of the Freiburg Municipal Forestry Office, took a pragmatic and practical approach to the subject in her presentation "Stadt - Wald - Vielfalt (City - Forest - Diversity)."

Freiburg's Environmental Mayor, Christine Buchheit, welcomed those present and pointed out that tonight's lectures would be attended not only by Freiburg citizens, but also by participants in a specialist workshop entitled "Wald neu denken (Rethinking the Forest)" taking place in Freiburg this week.

The evening's moderator, Prof. Heiner Schanz (left), introduced Prof. Bauhus as the first speaker. The latter emphasized the balancing act he had to perform to satisfy both the citizens and the experts present with his lecture.

He then complained about the small projection screen, as the hall was overflowing with people. Many listeners had to stand in the back, where they could probably only see splashes of color. Red Baron had arrived early, managed to get a seat in the third row, and was just able to read the slides. Nevertheless, the quality of my shots of the screen you will see in the following leaves much to be desired.

Here are a few points that stood out to me and were new to me.

Prof. Bauhus presented the research approach of the Cluster of Excellence on Future Forests in Freiburg.

Feedback on risks and potential adaptation options for forests, as well as their impacts on future forest decision-making, is incorporated into forest research. These two inputs can be used to develop transformation pathways for future socio-ecological forest systems.

The drivers of change include extreme events, disturbances, interactions, targeted environmental changes, system shifts, tipping points, and societal changes. Their predictability is limited. Here are examples:

According to the German Climate Protection Act, greenhouse gas emissions (essentially carbon dioxide and methane) in the land-use ecosystem are to be reduced by 25 million tons by 2030. However, after three consecutive dry summers between 2018 and 2020, so many trees died in the low mountain ranges that the balance was ruined, and only a saving of around 1 million tons of greenhouse gases is expected by 2030.

The planting of late-flowering black cherry trees (Prunus serotina) in the Netherlands was a complete misjudgement. The species forms dense stands and suppresses the regeneration of native trees (e.g., oak or beech). Prunus serotina's leaf litter changes the soil chemistry and hinders the growth of other plants. Between 1965 and 2018, this American import spread so rapidly that to date €500 million has been spent on combating it. 

Therefore, plans and decisions on climate protection can only be made against a backdrop of great uncertainty. In the above graphic, the lower blue ecological system state will be reached when no action is taken. Although planned remedy activities point in the right direction, they are not very targeted.

Changes in forests also require changes in society, or environmental changes generally go hand in hand with social changes.

On the one hand, forests have the capacity to provide a range of ecosystem services. On the other hand, society relies on the services this ecosystem provides. The resilience of these socio-economic factors is crucial, so risks must be mitigated through adaptation and overcome through transformations.

Results of studies show that locally adapted tree species are not always the best choice for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, changing tree species alone does not preserve the carbon sink properties of forests either. The best approach is flexible regeneration of adapted tree species, coupled with controlled changes in their composition. A suitable selection will maintain the CO₂ balance and can even improve it.

The future utilization potential of trees can be derived from forest utilization between 2012 and 2022. This results in an 18% decrease for spruce, a 43% increase for pine, a 160% increase for oak, and a 178% increase for beech in the years up to 2037.

The second speaker of the evening was the lively Ms. Schmalfuß.

She showed that forests cover 42% of the 6,509 hectares of the city of Freiburg. The small image illustrates the drought index in Germany for the year 2024. It shows that the moisture situation in the far southwest of Germany is quite different from that in the east (indicated by the brown areas).

Here are the predictions of future droughts made in 2019.

Freiburg boasts a diverse range of forests, from mossy to mountainous, and everything in between.

Ms. Schmalfuß presented the Freiburg Forest Convention of 2020. The city forest is preserved and managed in a way that ensures and promotes all four forest functions - protection, utilization, recreation, and climate mitigation - equally.

The objectives are:

1. Permanent preservation of the city forest
2. Preservation and promotion of biodiversity and other protective functions
3. Stability through diversity
4. Sustainable timber production
5. Increased use of timber in construction (buried  CO₂)

6. Preservation and promotion of the climate protection performance of the city forest
7. Preservation and further development of the recreational function of the city forest
8. Forest and environmental education in the city forest
9. The city forest as a workplace: occupational safety and training quality
10. The Freiburg city forest as an object of research, teaching, and study

The city forest (light green) is primarily a multifunctional commercial forest. Blue areas are forests with a prominent recreational function. Purple areas are extensive and maintenance areas, while dark red areas denote decommissioned forest areas.

The equal importance of the various functions does not mean that the same goals should be pursued everywhere since the diversity of forests requires differentiation.

Forests with a long history of forestry have great potential for biotope protection. Forests with high growth rates have great potential for climate protection. Forests with high-quality wood have significant potential for commercial use, while those located near cities have substantial potential for recreational purposes.

The concepts and instruments for implementing the Freiburg Forest Convention are:

1. Systematic management control, i.e., forest management with interim reviews and annual planning
2. FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification
3. Near-natural forestry and the forest development type guideline
4. Long-term adaptation to climate change
5. Old and dead wood concept
6. Biodiversity action plan
7. Integration of management planning in Natura 2000 areas*
8. Regulated hunting
9. Information and guidance for forest visitors through attractive infrastructure offerings and a forest recreation map
10. Forest education in the city forest as a contribution to education for sustainable development and inclusion - offerings by the Forestry Office and Waldhaus Freiburg

*European animal and plant species protected areas

The slide on the planned management of forest facility renewal within the 10-year plan of the updated Freiburg Forest Convention was simply not legible.

Tomorrow's forests? Ms. Schmalfuß ended her lecture with an optimistic outlook:

Still forests tomorrow!

**