The Shaping of Germany

Red Baron likes the Deutsches Historisches Museum (German Historical Museum) on Unter den Linden, located in Berlin's former arsenal. Right at the entrance to the permanent exhibition, a new slideshow presents the historical development of the present German territory. Located in the heart of the continent, Germany has more neighboring countries than any other European country.

Here are the most essential steps in the development of present-day Germany. Looking at the timeline on the left, you will notice many more dates than covered by the following slideshow.

395: The Roman Empire extended over most of Western Europe and the Mediterranean.
Only some German tribes east of the Rhine River resisted their impregnation by
Roman culture and the Latin language.

1041: Emperor Henry III ruled a Holy Roman Empire comprising Italy.
Note the formation of neighboring states.

1253: Colonization of north-east territories is in full swing

On the eve of the Reformation, Germany is threatened in the west by France,
in the east by the Ottoman Empire.

The 100th anniversary of the Reformation causes a renewed flare-up
of religious differences leading to the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War.

The Peace of Westphalia saw a devastated Empire with more than one-third
of its population killed. It comprises nearly 1500 territories, while
the Netherlands and Switzerland become independent.
The question in Goethe's Faust is most relevant:
What still holds together the Holy Roman Empire?

1763: Enlightenment leading to American independence and the French Revolution

1815: Following the devastating rule of Napoleon over most of Europe,
the Congress of Vienna launched a German Federation.

1866: The Austrian Empire and the Prussian territories drift apart,
culminating in the creation of a North German Federation led by Prussia.

1871: The unified Second Empire comprises all German territories,
excluding the multinational Austrian Empire.

1919: The Treaty of Versailles reduced the German territories in the west and east.

1938: The Austrians plebiscite their Anschluss to the Third Great-German Reich. 

1942: The beginning of the fall of the Third Reich 

1949: After World War II, a rudimentary Germany was divided into four zones
occupied by the four Allied forces; they later became the BRD and the GDR.

1990: The reunification of Germany in 1989 also meant the breaking apart
of the Eastern bloc, including the Soviet Union, as seen in the following years

2000: In ten years, the shape of Germany has not changed,
but Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

As you may have noticed, peripheral German tribes diffused off over the centuries. They became independent from the former Holy Empire, such as the Dutch, the Swiss, and the Flemish-speaking Belgians. However, the apotheosis was the explosion of the Habsburgian Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the Great War and the division of Germany following the Second World War.

Let's have peace!

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The Hohenzollern

My history blogs frequently referred to the Habsburgs as the ever-ruling German imperial family from 1273 to 1918. I covered the wars fought, their personal history, or bemoaned the last Habsburg.

Only lately, during my recent visits to Berlin, the other German ruling family, the Hohenzollern, came into focus. I walked through their city, Berlin, and visited their museums.

Some refer to the Hohenzollern as the Prussian dynasty, although initially, they originated from Württemberg.

Unter den Linden, Fredrick, the phantom horseman, under a gray Berlin sky.

I don't intend to dig deeply into Prussian history, but I will mention King Frederick the Great. Some historians regard him as the enlightened prince, while I call him a warmonger.

Anton von Werner: Inauguration of the Reichstag by Wilhelm II in the White Hall
of the Berlin City Palace in June 1888 (©DHM)

The latter quality certainly is true for Emperor William II. The painting by Anton Werner, seen at the Deutsches Historisches Museum, notes the 29-year-old uniform-loving greenhorn, silly-looking in his red outfit, while 73-year-old Bismarck, slightly standing or rather bending, is suffering in his posture as the Red Baron.

Heavy tourist boat traffic on the Spree River near the Berliner Dom.

Being back in Berlin for a family affair - another wedding - I concentrated my "free" time on the Berlin Cathedral in memory of William I, the "founder" of the 2nd German Reich in 1871.

Have a glimpse of the bride and groom taking their seats for the ceremony, not at the Dom but at Herz Jesu Kirche. Here we listened to a singer with the groom's brother playing the guitar.

Let the little children come to me, and do not keep them away ...

A group of children partly helped with the ceremony by holding the stoup and rings. They nearly stole the show from the bridal couple.

At the Dom, the super wide-angle lens of my iPhone was useful.

The Berliner Dom was built in the 1880s as a Protestant counterbalance to the Catholic Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom).

Erntedankfest inside the Dom: Thanksgiving for the harvest the German way.

Sarcophagus of the Great Elector Frederick William.
In the window, the electoral hat.

And again, as an answer to the Vienna Imperial Crypt of the Habsburgs, the Hohenzollern built their spacious imperial crypt below the Berliner Dom.

Sarcophagus of Luise Henriette, first wife of the Great Elector.
Black and white, the Prussian colors, are shown in the window.

Animated Queen Elisabeth Christine, wife of Frederick the Great and Frederick's bravest soldier.
Her sarcophagus was destroyed in an air raid.

When I stepped out of the Dom, I admired the restored facade of the Berliner Stadtschloss, the future Humboldt Forum. I presented other views in a previous blog.

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A Flag Dispute Among Military Blockheads

The German Federation (Deutscher Bund) - formed at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 following the Napoleonic wars - did not have a navy.

It was painfully missed during the first Danish-German War of 1848 when the Danes claimed the German-speaking Schleswig by separating it from Holstein. These two territories had as Maxime," Op Ewig ungedeelt (Schleswig and Holstein shall remain undivided eternally)."

German Imperial Navy 1848 (©David Liuzzo/Wikipedia)

In Frankfurt, the German National Assembly of 1848 became upset when the Danes, although beaten on land, still dominated the Baltic Sea with their ships ad libitum. The deputies collected money, elected an admiral, and selected a flag for a non-existing navy. Read the entire history in German here.

On this cryptic poster, the ship arriving in the New World
 flies the Imperial flag (©Facebook)

Needless to write that the projected German navy did not float.

Flag of the imperial fleet 1890 (©Der Spiegel)

This impotence at sea was possibly one of the reasons why Kaiser Wilhelm II insisted so much on building up "his" fleet.

The imperial navy flag flew at the Steuben Parade in New York in 1909
 when the world was still in order (©Der Spiegel)

When Germany lost the Great War, little of its navy remained. The training vessel Schleswig-Holstein (sic!) and the flag were among the small heritage. Read about the decisive role of the Schleswig-Holstein at the beginning of the 2nd World War.

Ebert's flag with the new republican eagle (©Fomax/Wikipedia)

The Weimar Republic used the colors of the 1848 Revolution, black-red-gold, instead of the black-white-red of the 2nd Reich. So on September 27, 1919, the President of the Reich, Friedrich Ebert, introduced a new navy flag that the rudimentary German navy completely ignored*.
*Red Baron wrote about a different German flag dispute previously.

Revised navy flag of 1922 (©Der Spiegel)

Therefore, on January 1, 1922, a revised version of the flag was officially introduced. The navy order of the day contained the phrase, "Our feelings, when striking this flag, are buried deep in our hearts."

Deutsche Kriegsmarine 1935, later official for all German military forces
(©A-41/English Wikipedia).

Thirteen years later, the Militärköpp (military blockheads) rejoiced and insisted on the official name Reichskriegsflagge (Imperial War Flag). It was the beginning of the end.

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Typewritten Hate

Back from his vacation Thomas Fricker, editor-in-chief of Freiburg's Badische Zeitung, found the following machine-typed paper in his letterbox at home.

Before I give you the translation of the above text, here are some personal remarks about hate speech, rude comments on social media, and anonymously smeary-writing cowards. Society is amidst a social development that some people like to sell as absolute democracy. The psychological barrier has become so low that the next step, I fear, will be physical attacks on a larger scale. Does Mr. Fricker need a bodyguard?

Western society has lost its ethical attitude, and don't tell me that this is due to the loss of our Christian basis. Take the Catholic Church or the Evangelicals preaching the Gospel to their sheep, but many officials are not living up to their words. By their fruits, you will get knowledge of them (Matthew 7:16). If Christian leaders no longer serve as role models. Who else will?

Red Baron faced a Sisyphean task translating the infamous text Mr. Fricker had published on Facebook. Knowing German and English vocabulary, it was still challenging to "pair" the German expressions with their English equivalents. Dictionaries were not a great help. Here is my best effort trying to keep the primitive diction of the anonymous author as much as possible.

Th. Fricker: Infamous, primitive smear campaigners, lying toads, journalists of your race are "Poison for democracy"! If you need negroes, headscarf sluts, terrorists, or Islamists, go to their countries of origin. You will not be missed here. Can you still look into the mirror with your hating face, your lying mouth? You are a rotten creature earning your living with smear campaigns, lies, and insults toward your fellow citizens, all to the detriment of our fatherland. What a wretched little creature. The level of the lying paper BZ speaks for itself when presenting such a man as the editor-in-chief. Fie, a shame! Look closely: wars, brutality, devastation, destruction, and disregard for human dignity only exist where there is Islam. These criminal parasite gangs invade our country, are generously supported by our taxes and fees, and sold to us as a "profit" and an "enrichment." It is enough. We already have sufficient stabbers, rapists, murderers, highwaymen, dealers, etc. ... who live in paid comfort apartments and houses, while righteous German citizens can no longer afford the horrendous rents. Deport, deport, and create space for German families. This is the fatherland we have built up and designed with our honest work. Stop the asylum dictatorship! These presumptuous criminals burden our administrative bodies and our courts and cure their epidemics plagues in our hospitals. This is poison for democracy! Shame on you, cheap, characterless, honorless traitor of our fatherland!

Red Baron is shaken, appalled, and slightly depressed.

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Freiburger Kippa-Tag

©Jüdische Gemeinde Freiburg

Yesterday, Freiburg's Jewish Community organized its first Day of the Kippah.

Irina Katz is addressing the crowd assembled in front of the New Synagogue

Irina Katz, chairwoman of Freiburg's Jewish community, even claimed that it was the first Kippa-Tag in Baden-Württemberg.

We, the participants, protested against a resurgence of antisemitism in Germany. Antisemitism is also on the rise in other European countries. In France, thousands of Jews have already left the country for Israel.

Nip it in the bud! In Germany, people wearing the kippah in the street were verbally abused, spat at, and sometimes physically attacked. Walking from Freiburg's New Synagogue to the Square of the Old Synagogue, we wore the kippah as a symbol of tolerance against xenophobia and exclusion.

In front of the memorial of the Old Synagogue, Irina Katz is at the microphone; behind are
the orators, Mayor Martin Horn, and the City Councilors Simon Waldenspuhl and Monika Stein.

Antisemitism has developed into a complex conglomerate of old Christian sentiments against the Jews as formulated by the Church Fathers - later" modernized" by Martin Luther - mixed with the rejection of the Israeli settlement policy in Palestine.

In our faraway societies, sympathy for Israel's struggle for survival clashes with the rejection of the Palestinian population's treatment by the Jewish State. This dilemma frequently leads to a new form of antisemitism, nourished in Germany primarily by our fellow Islamic citizens.

At the Square of the Old Synagogue, a listening crowd

At the rally at the Square of the Old Synagogue, City Councilor Simon Waldenspuhl demanded that Freiburg cut its partnership with the Iranian city of Isfahan. While a murmur passed through the audience, Red Baron and another guy spontaneously shouted Nein.

Later, I discussed this with the orator and accused him of hypocrisy. Although he had spoken comprehensively against exclusion, he excluded the citizens of Isfahan. Freiburg has always understood its sister cities as a means of building personal contacts and getting to know the people of our partner cities, but never as a political connection.

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5G

Shaping Freiburg Digitally! was the title of a workshop last November. The officials asked their citizens to help describe and subsequently determine Freiburg's digital future, a laudable undertaking. Here are the guiding principles ...

... and here were the topics to be discussed at the workshop in groups:

Red Baron went to the workshop and attended the working group on education, science, and culture, only to be overwhelmed by a large number of high school teachers asking for faster Internet and demanding free tablets for their schools.

The official chairpersons of the working groups had to draft proposals for the city council's attention. These papers were to be discussed and refined at a later date.

So, in July of this year, during a meeting called "Check-Up," printed copies of the drafts were pinned to the wall for those present to study. We were asked to garnish the papers with colored stickers annotating the content and style of the documents.

Once all comments had been glued to our draft on education, science, and culture, the discussion began. This proved tedious for one lady, who kept harping on the harmful biological effects of the high frequencies of the new 5G mobile standard.

My knowledge so far was that of a mere thermal effect on human tissue. I was seconded in my view by another physicist present. The lady continued to pester, eventually admitting that she was a homeopath. At that point, I was carried away, remarking, "That explains everything." Back home, I decided to take a closer look at the 5th Generation.

According to experts on the biological effects of electromagnetic radiation, radio waves become "safer" at higher frequencies and therefore are not more dangerous than those of lower frequencies. Notabene, this is not true for extremely high-frequency radiation, such as UV, X-, or gamma rays. They indeed interact differently with the human body and pose a health risk.

The skin acts as a barrier to radio waves in the 5G frequency band, shielding internal organs, including the brain, from exposure. "This kind of radiation doesn't penetrate," says Christopher M. Collins, a professor of radiology at New York University who studies the effects of high-frequency electromagnetic waves on humans.

This is why, in cities, 5G service requires many antenna towers, because walls, buildings, rain, leaves, and other objects can block the high-frequency signals. Human skin absorbs 5G signals, thereby delivering thermal energy to surrounding tissue.

Imagine all those people panicked by angst, throwing their mobile phones away
(Found on Facebook).

However, the adversaries of 5G believe in the damaging effects of any electromagnetic fields on cell membranes, on mitochondria - the energy suppliers of cells - and even on the DNA of body cells, resulting in mutations, a weakened immune system, and ultimately an increased risk of cancer.

The City of Freiburg placed us in immediate danger
by offering free WiFi4Fr in the conference room.

The authorities, the Ministry of Health in Stuttgart and the Ministry of Environment in Berlin, both led by Green ministers, are waving their hands. "There are no health-relevant effects below the current limits," assures the Ministry of Health in Stuttgart.

Berlin's Ministry of Environment confirms that, based on the current state of knowledge, there is no scientifically valid evidence of endangerment to humans, animals, and plants from high-frequency electromagnetic fields below the official limits.

The editor-in-chief of the quarterly journal Reviews on Environmental Health, Dr. Carpenter, wrote in 2013, "The rapid increase in the use of cellphones increases the risk of cancer, male infertility, and neurobehavioral abnormalities." However, mainstream scientists continue to see no evidence of harm from cellphone radio waves so far.

"If phones are linked to cancer, we'd expect to see a marked uptick," David Robert Grimes, a cancer researcher at the University of Oxford, recently wrote in The Guardian. "Yet we do not."

However, Dr. Carpenter defended his high-frequency view. "You have all this evidence that cellphone radiation penetrates the brain," he said. Still, after some discussion, he conceded that the increasingly high frequencies of 5G could, in fact, have difficulty entering the human body and acknowledged, "Maybe it's not that big a deal."

In Germany, the tone has become rougher concerning the health effects of 5G frequencies. Scientists are declared "counterfeiters" and "liars," politicians "ignorant," or "corporate lackeys."

Once again, German angst is the driving force behind such tantrums, as the head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques (IPM) in Freiburg, Karsten Buse, suspects. He calls the uproar the Nocebo effect, the opposite of the placebo effect, "I'm afraid it's hurting me - so it's hurting me," and continues, "The word radiation alone reminds people of X-rays or irradiation by radioactive materials."

Buse is an expert in the field. At the beginning of his academic career, he dealt with people's fear of electrosmog, which meant high-voltage lines or post office transmitter masts. "Angst is a health burden; you have to take it seriously," Buse concedes. But he also says, "I regard the fear that is spread as completely exaggerated. Many millions of mobile phone users - some already for a long time - undergo a daily self-experiment using their mobile phones; this should have been reflected epidemiologically, but it hasn't, especially not in the cancer registry. Non-ionizing radiation cannot alter individual atoms or molecules, destroy genetic material, or cause cancer."

The critics, however, want a moratorium, a halt to 5G expansion until further studies bring clarity. An Action Alliance, "Freiburg 5G-free," intends to achieve this through a residents' meeting for Freiburg.

Martin Horn only slightly looks enthusiastic (©BZ).

Here, members of the Action Alliance present Mayor Martin Horn with a list of signatures requesting a residents' meeting to discuss the endangerment of the population from mobile radio waves, especially in connection with 5 G. They had to collect 2500 signatures and easily reached the quorum: 3875 names are on their list. According to the city administration, the residents' meeting will take place on 13 November.

Elsewhere, concerned citizens have already achieved a moratorium, e.g., in the canton of Geneva. In April, Belgians stopped a 5G pilot project for the EU capital, Brussels.

Regarding the health effects of cell phones, Red Baron sees those emerging in a couple of years among future generations. Young mothers pushing their strollers with one hand while texting with the other, teens glued to the screens watching the latest music video, younger children playing on their mobile phones, shoot-em-up games, they all bend their necks excessively.

Medical students become orthopaedists! A job with an assured future.

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Freiburg Splinters

On June 10, I introduced splinters, bits, and pieces of information that may interest my readers, but do not justify writing a blog. This time, the splinters from Freiburg will interest my friends from our sister city, Madison.

The Fish Ladder

On Monday, September 16, on my way to the reception for the newly arrived American students of the Academic Year 2019/2020 in Freiburg (AYF), I crossed the river Dreisam on the Schwabentorbrücke, admiring the new fish ladder.
*Organized annually by the Freiburg-Madison-Gesellschaft (FMG) at the Greiffenegg-Schlössle

The old fish ladder made of wood had become rotten, possibly accelerated by the frequent low water levels of the Dreisam, which had laid bare parts of the wood (CC).
*Oakwood permanently kept underwater may be conserved for centuries.

The new fish ladder is made of stones set in concrete. Nobody expected it to become an attraction. Despite the late hour, people were bathing in the cold waters of the Dreisam, leaving little room for fish to jump. OK, there is no high cotton in Freiburg, and our corn only grows low due to the lack of rain (CC).

Turning Moats into Playgrounds

Later, I passed a sort of valley, a vestige of a moat. Military architect Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban had it dug when fortifying Fribourg-en-Brisgau, la Ville de Sa Majesté.

From 1677 to 1697, Freiburg was a French city under King Louis XIV, serving as an essential link in France's northern belt of fortifications.

The allusion to "Turning Moats into Playgrounds" is appropriate when looking at today's photo.

Not much is left of Vauban's masterpiece. Here is the vestige of a tower, partly covered by soil.


Stone Fall

©BZ

At the end of August, during the night, parts of the sill of the former Augustiner Church, now the core of Freiburg's Augustiner Museum, fell onto the sidewalk. Luckily, nobody was hurt.

When Red Baron passed during the day, the whole sidewalk was fenced off. Well, it's the glue again! Remember my blogs about the new university library? This time it was not just a tiny metal lamella but stones, with the heaviest part weighing 15 kg.

Nowadays, glues are used everywhere. However, in construction and building work, there should be a CAVEAT. When thermal movements are involved, the glue layers become brittle, and gravity takes over.

Those still-hot days in Freiburg are now followed by cooler nights, so the differences in daily temperatures are more pronounced. In the case of the glued sill, thermal expansion during the day is followed by thermal contraction at night, which stresses the glue. By the way, those lamellae at the windows of the university library are now riveted.

Warming Stripes for GLOBE

Last Friday, Red Baron was on the train for his annual class reunion in a suburb of Hamburg.

Remember the pot of coffee and Butterkuchen served on the ICE (Intercity Express)? Unfortunately, the quality of the butter cake has degraded over the years. This time, I just had a pot of coffee and a hearty bite of a Laugencroissant I had bought at the Freiburg station. The dictionary translates Laugencroissant as a delicate triangular croissant pastry with a slightly salty crust.

           Greta started it all (©Facebook)

Because of my train ride, I missed the Fridays for Future demonstrations both in Freiburg and the Hanseatic city. Still, I am very concerned when thinking of my grandchildren. By placing CC in the text, I reminded you that we have started to see the effects of climate change in our everyday lives here in Freiburg.

More than 20,000? (©dpa)

While I was on the train, Freiburg saw its largest crowd in history. More than 20,000, primarily young people, demonstrated at the Square of the Old Synagogue to demand a livable climate for their future.

On Facebook: Freiburg's mayor was among the crowd (©Fionn Große)

You may have already seen the "Warming Stripes for GLOBE from 1850-2018".

©BZ

Menetekel is not written on the wall but painted on a streetcar (©BZ)

Freiburg's public transport company now reminds riders of their streetcars that it is nearly too late to stop climate change. They reproduced the Warming Stripes on one of their trams, showing the dramatic rise in temperatures during our recent summers.

Meanwhile, our coalition government had entered into its long-term planned discussions at the chancellery in Berlin on what they called a climate package for Germany.

After 19 (!) hours of deliberations, parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus* as the Latin poet Horace once wrote. Worn out, Angela Merkel went before the press and presented the compromise reached between the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats.
*The mountain went into labor and delivered a ridiculous mouse, Horace (65 - 8 v.Chr.), Ars Poetica, Verse 139

The timid measures proposed are too small; they come too late.

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