The sunrise yesterday was immense and memorable. Exactly 18 years ago, yesterday, here in Munich, it was a mirror image on that fateful day, with a cool morning followed by a warm, sunny afternoon. Brilliant sun and sky. In 2011, I was on my way to work. On one stretch of Tagernseer-Landstrasse where my destination… Read More My September Eleventh Reflections
On Christmas Eve in 1705, a group of peasants, farmers and working men from all across Upper Bavaria, gathered in Sendling, a few kilometers southwest of Munich. They did not come to hear priests or other holy men speak about Jesus or Christmas or anything else religious. They came to overthrow the yoke of the… Read More A not very Merry Christmas
Since the death of Richard Wagner, the story of music in Germany has been one of a long, slow, seemingly unending and inexorable decline, The Scorpions, Kraftwerk and Rammstein, the excepted. Perhaps there is no brighter glaring example of this than at Oktoberfest. The songs heard at Oktoberfest with German lyrics are often also sung… Read More The Top Ten American Songs at Oktoberfest (F)
THE LONDON TIMES Filed on October 13th, 1810 Munich — Yesterday, on a cold, damp, drizzly Friday afternoon, October 12th, 1810, Bavaria’s Crown Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese Charlotte Luise Frederica Emilie of Saxony-Hildburghausen, at the Hofkapelle inside Munich’s Residence, in front of about 200 witnesses. Bavaria’s favorite son, and Saxony’s most eligible lady-in-waiting, tied the knot just after 2 pm. During a short respite of the rainy weather, the bells… Read More Ludwig Meets His Match (F)
The Germans are fond of saying “April, April, der macht was er will.” April, April, he does what he wants. In Germany, April gets a bad rap for its weather. That is saying a lot in a country where cold drizzle falling from skies imbued with more than fifty shades of grey is as ubiquitous… Read More A bit about April (F, NF)
Late in the 19th century, to combat Bismarck’s protectionist “Rye and Iron” tariffs, Great Britain forced all products sold in the UK to be labelled with their country of origin. The words “Made in Germany” were born. It was intended in the late 1800s and early 1900s to dissuade Brits from buying inferior products and… Read More German Mega-projects Play Like Greek Theater (NF/F)
Laptops And Lederhosen 