Transit to Turkey

The journey to Turkey was a long one. Not literally. Getting to Turkey from Germany is a piece of cake. No doubt a legacy of the hundreds of thousands of Turks who came to Germany as ‘Gastarbeiter’ after World War II. Today, there are large Turkish communities in many German cities and as a result, good airline connections between the two countries. No, the actual trip from Germany to Turkey was easy, short and inexpensive. It was the journey to Turkey that was long.

When I originally made my application for the sabbatical, Turkey was not on the list. My ambition was to visit Iran, to experience life and politics in the muslim country. I knew when I made my list that Iran was going to be something of a stretch. US relations with the Islamic Republic have been bad for decades and took a downturn with Iraq war. Still, when I first made my application we were at the dawn of a new day - maybe. A new presidential administration, maybe things would improve enough to make a visit possible. Or maybe not. In the last year, if anything, things may have become worse. The kidnapping of the UC Berkeley hikers was a barometer for me. In late September, reluctantly, I abandoned the idea.

A Turkish Restaurant - In Berlin

If not Iran, then what? I think my primary goal in these travels has been to broaden my perspective. Iran could have been replaced with France, or even Canada, but doing that would not further my goals. I began to think about Turkey. MC was enthusiastic about the prospect. Greece and Turkey where on her list the whole time, if only for tourism. The idea got another nudge from Murat, a former student of mine at DVC. “Why not include Turkey in your project,” he said.
Indeed, why not? Well, changing the plan required the approval of the Sabbatical Leave Committee, so I wrote and got that. Turkey would give me a perspective on life in a country that just happens to be muslim (you have to be careful about how you phrase it. More on that in the religion post.)

Playing Wit?  There's a new clue.  BTW, if you guessed, you are wrong.

Germany: Cinema The White Ribbon & (T)Raumschiff Surprise

‘The White Ribbon’ won its share of awards, and I suppose, as a film, it was interesting enough. Like many European films I have seen, however, I got to the end and still was puzzled - what was it all about?

There's a reason the ‘Hollywood Ending’ is called a Hollywood ending. It seems American audiences demand that their movies have an end - preferably a happy end. I have read that studios will sometimes assemble focus groups and show them their films with different endings, to test out which one will be the most successful – pointing, of course, towards commercial success.  I don't think Europeans do that. Often the film ends and the audience is left to puzzle - okay what was that all about? ‘The White Ribbon’ fits comfortably into this model.

It is set in a German village on the eve of World War I. I was looking forward to seeing what today's Germans make of that era. From what I have read about prewar Germany, in history and fiction, I get the sense that today's Germans may as well be from a different planet. That part did come through.  The old Germany was portrayed as cold, cruel and repressive - quite distant from today's ambience. Consistent with what you might expect from people who hate their past.

‘(T)raumshiff Surprise’ was something completely different.  Yes, about as wacky as what you might expect from Monty Python. It was a spoof of Star Trek, born on television and expanded for the big screen. If you can imagine a German ‘Spaceballs’, you pretty much have this film. What was interesting was the choices of what to spoof.  The lead characters are gay and for some reason they end up in the Wild West. Germans have a fascination with that time and place. I guess it all makes sense…

Who is That? #11

Here is this week's.  Send your guesses here.  This one is tougher than the last few - so we will start with a clue.  This guy is perhaps better known on your side of the pond.  There are other clues in the picture, which combined with what you know about our travels should help a lot.  Clearly, we did not take this picture in Greece - where we are now.  In Athens, it's raining, but it is a long way from snow.

More Clues: It was his connection to MC's hometown that drew us to his hometown.

Last week's answer: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

First correct answer, Scott P. beat AM by 3 minutes.  Every second counts!

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Scoring:  First Day - 10 pts.  First Correct - Bonus 5.  After Clues: 5 pts.  No Guess: 0 pts...

The standings after four rounds:

MZ: 30
AM: 25
SP: 20
CM: 10
NH: 5
KM: 5
You: 0

Germany: Dresden traces of the GDR

When trying to decide where we should go in Germany to get that second look I need for comparison, the decision was not really all that hard. I was anxious to see what had happened over the last 20 years in the old east Germany. In Dresden I would have some basis for comparison, having visited the city in 1979.  A hint of some of the changes we would see, we had already had in Berlin. Half of that city had been in the GDR, but it would take a pretty keen eye to be able to visually distinguish between Berlin neighborhoods today. There really is not much difference between East and West Berlin.

In Dresden, the changes have been a bit slower in coming. As you know from previous posts, there has been a lot of reconstruction of the historic buildings.  That part of town looks more like 1890 than 1990 (the year the wall came down). In the other parts of town the legacy of the GDR is not fading so rapidly into the past. In many parts of the city you still find the excessively wide streets that have far more capacity than is needed for current traffic loads, but were needed for May Day tank parades. It appears that the bulk of the residents still live in the massive block structure apartment complexes preferred for both economic and ideological reasons throughout the Soviet bloc.

If you remember, when we were in Moscow we stayed in just such a building. You can cram a bunch of people into a small space, but it creates an odd cityscape. Huge buildings separated by huge empty spaces. Possible only where land has little value and people have little choice.

Slowly, it seems some of these structures are coming down and being redeveloped but it is a slow process. Kind of like the Socialist mural on the side of the city's theater complex, it seems they are allowing the old GDR to fade away slowly on its own through benign neglect. Someday, when it gets bad enough they will replace it.

Transit to Dresden

Woman, waiting for a train in the cold

Not just efficient, they're pretty

I love German trains. As a matter of course, if you asked me my preferred mode of travel, I would say it is by train - but that's because when I think of train travel, I think of German trains. If you reminded me of experiences with Italian or American trains, I might reconsider that preference but nothing beats travel by German train.

What's so good? Well it starts with the departure - which will happen pretty much exactly when they say it will happen. Even with the difficult weather Northern Europe has been experiencing, for the most part the trains kept rolling and if they were delayed (as some we used were) they kept you in informed of the delays and delivered accurate information about them. Compare that to an airport experience.

But they are not just reliable.  They are also pretty comfortable and reasonably priced. MC and I traveled on what is called 'Schönes Wochenende' fare (nice weekend) that cost us only €39 and allowed us to go anywhere in Germany we wanted to go. In fact it would've allowed us to transport five people on that trip. Pretty reasonable - anywhere you want, about eight euros per person. We, of course under utilized ours. It seems we were not aggressive enough about finding partners. Some folks go to stations and try to find someone with extra room on their ticket to share the fare. The person sitting across from us had done exactly that. Did not even sit with her "group".

No reason to hurry

There is a catch. You have to ride the slow trains. On the Berlin-Paris stretch that might make a big difference, but on our route it only cost us less than one hour, in comparison. We used that hour to read, chat and have lunch on the way. At the end of the trip we stepped off our train in the heart of the city rather than 30 min. outside which seems to be a minimum for the airports we have used.

MC's Ankara

WiT Clue

Ankara, the capital of Turkey could not be any more different from Istanbul. There is no sea, no river and is a stark landscape in comparison. The temperature is much colder than Istanbul, frost every night and most days have started out in the minus Celsius range. 
Ankara is a very young capital established in the 1930's.  It is a modern city and some areas remind me of Irvine.  They have an incredible number of shopping malls that make Stone Ridge or Sunvalley look like nothing.  All the big names are here, Gap, Levi's Ralph Lauren etc etc. But they also have Tefal and Samsung as their own store. 

Somebody's back yard

They do have some historic areas and some pretty remarkable museums. We visited the Archaeological Museum and the artifacts they had were incredible. I always felt bad when visiting the British Museum or the Pergamon, that house stolen antiquities, but they have so much in Turkey that maybe they don't care?

When we were in the Archaeological Museum, Murat told us that his assistant comes from a farming community. Recently when they were plowing the land they unearthed a roman statue. We saw pictures of that enormous statue, in very good condition, that they donated to a museum. That is the law, unless you have obtained a license to have your own collection, which must be open to the public and conform to other guidelines. It is pretty normal here.  Many people have found statues, benches, pillars etc. in their backyard.  It’s mind boggling and amazing to me.

Turkish people are quite amazing.  They are warm and so hospitable it makes you want to stay forever.

Scott's former student, Murat, was the consummate host.  He organized our hotels in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and even Athens, drove us around and showed us the sights.  His passion for Turkey, as well as Greece (having studied there) was a fountain of information and insights into what is happening daily. The time he spent with us is unforgettable.

His friend Tugba, who studied in Alabama some years ago, was so kind.  She took time off to chauffeur us around though she rarely has time to take a day off from her job as head of programming at a political channel not popular with the current government.

But there was also the police officer at the Turkish Parliament, who spoke about 20 words in English, but decided we were ok and took us into the parliament to visit.  He then found a journalist in the hall who spoke a few more words in English to explain things to us. After the visit he insisted on taking us to the cafeteria for a cup of tea. He found someone else to translate (this time a friend of his) and ended the visit by inviting us to dinner at his house.  He would send someone to pick us up and drive us back to our hotel!  Would this ever happen at home?

Now we are in Izmir on the shores of the Aegean.  Today we visited Ephesus and Mary's house.  They say that Ephesus is the second best Archaeological Site after Pompeii.  Well, next week we will be there so we'll see.  But Ephesus was quite spectacular. 

Tomorrow we leave for Athens, so the adventure continues, although the end is in view for me!

Germany: Explore Dresden

I wonder for what Dresden is better known for - what was built or for what was destroyed?

Make no mistake over the centuries wondrous things were created in the capital of the Saxon kingdom. The surrounding territory was rich in gems and mineral deposits and this wealth became the foundation for a very prosperous city where sculpture and porcelain arts flourished. It also made the Kings very wealthy and as wealthy kings often do, they built palaces and cathedrals. Dresden was a wonderful place.

Until that night in February 1945 when, for whatever reason, bombs rained down on the city.  The bombing has long been controversial.  Was it revenge or a legitimate military target? To Dresdeners it did not really matter. The allies sent their bombers and nearly erased the city from this earth. Dresden, of course, was not unique in that respect. The pictures of Coventry or Cologne after the war show a scene not all that different to what you would have seen in Dresden. The war over, in Cologne they began the building.

What makes Dresden interesting is that after the war, that same rebuilding was not undertaken.  In part, it was a simple lack of resources. East Germany did not get Marshall Plan aid. Part of it was ideological, "should a Workers State rebuild palaces and churches?" The answer was no. I always thought that perspective was short sighted. There's money in tourism - but then tourism is a pretty bourgeois activity.

Nonetheless, as of 1979 when I first visited Dresden, little of the prewar grandeur had been restored. Some of the ruins, in particular the Frauenkirche (see next post) had been intentionally preserved as a ruined pile of rubble - the fruits of fascism. They had just begun to work on the Zwinger Palace, though this was already 35 years after the end of the war.

Now 20 years later and with a change in the political regime, what would Dresden be like?

Well as you can see from the pictures, Dresden's architectural treasures have been reclaimed. Today the city is an interesting blend of three eras; the Royal; the communist; and the capitalist. The city bears all the marks of its somewhat rocky road to the present.

MC's Istanbul

While sitting at the airport waiting for our flight to Ankara, I felt I should write some of my thoughts about Istanbul before the next impressions.

Istanbul is amazing.  It is beautiful, full of history and exotic all at the same time.  The people we got to know and even the people on the street are gracious and hospitable.  Is it part of their culture to be so gracious and accommodating to visitors?  I don't know for sure but even the way sales people on the street approach you is not off-putting. "Can I help you?" is the refrain you hear almost incessantly.  I'm sure they know that very few people will actually ask for help but nonetheless it is nicer than "you want to buy?".


The city itself is like a jewel.  There is something beautiful to look at every turn.  The mosques, the Hagia  Sofia and all the incredible  palaces,  it took my  breath away.   The richness and beauty of the Harem at Topkapi palace and the Domabahce Palace is like nothing I've ever seen before. But even just walking around the city or riding public transportation (very well run and affordable) something always catches your eye. 
We were very lucky with the weather here except  yesterday when it rained all day.  It was an opportunity to take it easy (compared to the other days).  I know that bad weather would have easily made me feel a little less enthusiastic about this city. Walking around when the weather is a balmy 50 F and mostly sunny is a treat.  To watch the light play on the buildings, behind the palaces or illuminating the mosques is also part of this city's beauty. 

A few random observations: In Turkey they understand the meaning of bath towels! The size is what matters and they are certainly big (long and wide) enough to cover any size person. Love it!

Even though Turkey is a very egalitarian culture (more to come on that) they always seem to address the man first.  When walking around they would always compliment the man, "Hello handsome man, can I help you?"  (that could be just because I was with Scott, though)  The man is always served first in a restaurant.

They also know how to enjoy breakfast. Here it is a huge meal with eggs, grilled vegetables, soup, cold cuts and a large assortment of cheeses, fresh fruit, dried fruit, yogurt, olives, nuts (now I understand my friend Nancy N.) and my favorite - a large block of honeycomb that you just dig into and savor.  They also serve feta in filo, a cheese and potato dish and the list goes on.  I have consumed more Turkish coffees in the last few days than I can count, not to mention all the tea!  (other meals will be covered in the Ankara part of my blog!).
So do not come to Turkey unless you are ready to eat a lot and have a very big bladder!  Some of the people we have met say that they drink 20 cups of chai or coffee on a daily basis! No need for Red Bull here.

Germany: School

Our Neighborhood's School

On the Berufsschule curriculum

You hear stories about parents in Manhattan that stress over whether their kids will get into the right preschool. Apparently, if they screw that up, the kid is toast. You can kiss the Ivy League and future success goodbye. It's a good story, I don't know whether it is true.

There is some truth in the fact that preparation at one level of an educational system opens doors to the next. The obverse is also true. The absence of preparation closes doors. Students on one track tend to end up where that track leads. On a different track? You are probably headed to a different destination.

Tracking is not a big part of the American public education system. If you are in the public system you are in the same boat as the overwhelming majority of fellow students. There are many tracks that branch off the public high school system.

That is not true in Germany. Germany students may all start off in the same boat at the primary level of education, but after that they separate into groups and start heading in different directions. The top students head off to the Gymnasium on their way to the university. For those students, the path is pretty sweet. German universities are almost free and at the end of the road, you have an elite education that sets you apart from the other 90% of your student cohort . Your prospects are good.

What they teach, where

And what about the other 90%? It may seem pretty cold to slam the university door closed on students just barely in their teens. And that is pretty much what happens. It is possible to get to the university without going to Gymnasium, but it is not at all common. So what becomes of them? Well, some of them receive a basic education and then technical apprenticeships and working-class jobs. Others will go to Berufsschule and professional training - again leading to a career.

With low unemployment, generous benefits, vacation allowances that make US norms seem pitiful and decent wages (wage disparity is half - top to bottom - what it is in the US) the economic consequences of the educational tracking are nowhere near as great as those confronting Manhattan toddlers. All tracks can lead to a decent life.

Museum, Art: German Museum of Film and TV

So one of my elements is to visit an art museum, the idea being that a society's relationship to art is an expression of how they see the world, and how they see themselves in the world.

The challenge in each place is not to find the museum but to decide which of the museums I want to write about. On this trip to Germany, we visited five very different art museums, from ancient to modern, each was impressive in someway. So, it is a surprise to me that I am writing about the film museum. At the outset it was not even on my list. But one day we found ourselves at Potsdamer Platz with a couple of hours to kill. We had gone to see the impressive redevelopment of the ‘platz’ itself (Sony dropped a few billion on it) only to get there and discover it pretty much closed (it was a Sunday and Boxing Day no less) You could wander around outdoors, but it was about -10° C - not very inviting. We needed a place to go and the film museum just happened to be there, open and heated. It turned out to be a lucky happenstance. The Museum is both fascinating and eye-opening. Today, when you think ‘film’, you think Hollywood. That's where the films come from. And that means an American perspective dominates the vision of world cinema.  As true as that is, it was not always so. And maybe did not need to turn out that way.

The museum chronicles the early years of the development of cinema as an art form.  It displays the technology and the finished product. At the beginning there was an exceptionally strong German presence in both. Landmark films like the ‘Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ and ‘Metropolis’ and global stars like Marlene Dietrich are testament to the German product and potential.

And then something happened. The Nazi era destroyed nearly everything that had been built by German film before it. It chased its best technicians and talent, mostly to Hollywood. What it did not chase it completely discredited.  The brilliance of Leni Reifenstahl (Olympia and Triumph of the Will) is impossible to separate from the depravity of the Nazi movement.
The rest as they say, is history. Hollywood became the center of the film universe and German film, though it still exists, toils mostly in obscurity. Germany's favorite films? Not German. One wonders what might have been.

Germany: Dresden and the Frauenkirche

WiT?  J-K ;-)

Standing in the square in front of the Frauenkirche is a statue of Martin Luther, the survivor. That statue was a part of the church which like almost everything else, was destroyed in the 1945 bombing. The statute remains and was moved to the square - standing watch over a pile of rubble that once was a church described as the protestant’s St. Peter's.

In its day, the Frauenkirche had been a center of Protestant theology and a showpiece, boasting the largest dome north of the Alps – in other words, in the Protestant world. It was a glorious structure and an impressive display of engineering know how. It said to the Catholic world “we are your equal”

And of course, in the bombing, it all came crashing down. The initial response of Dresdeners was to rebuild it. The preference of the East German communists was to leave it as it was - the ruins being a reminder of the consequences of war. The symbolism of Luther’s church lying in ruins was also no doubt appealing to the GDR's official atheists.

And so for decades that is how it sat. That is how we saw it in 1979. A pile of rubble. In 1990, with the Communists now lying in the ash bin of history, Dresdeners once again raised the idea of reconstruction. They put out an international appeal for aid ($) and their call was answered. Locally, the rebuilding sparked some controversy. Some felt preserving the ruin, like the Berlin Gedächniskirche, was required to preserve the memory of the destructiveness of war. The church community's response was to build the memorial into the reconstruction itself. Whenever possible, the original bricks were used and where they were used they bear the marks of the bombing. Those black stones contrast with the new Sandstone and send a powerful message. It is a message you see communicated almost where ever you look in the old city. Why are those buildings so black? War.

Playing WiT?  There's a new clue...

Germany: Religion

The old joke about religion in Europe, like any good joke, has humor because there is an element of truth. "At times Europe can be terribly crowded.  If you want to be alone, where can you go? Try a church on Sunday morning."

Or Christmas Eve, as it turns out. As we were in Berlin for Christmas, we decided to visit Berlin's iconic Gedächniskirche.  We were in the neighborhood the day before so we stopped by and checked the board to see what was going on. Christmas Eve they had a service at seven and at nine something listed as an organ concert. We decided on the Christmas Eve concert and showed up about 20 minutes til, knowing how things are at our church on Christmas.  Show up on time and you won't get a seat. We had no problem. As a matter of fact, the church - which probably seats 400 may have had a dozen people in it. But then, we were there 20 minutes early.

By the time the concert started there may have been 60 people there. Yes, that would be concert - not service. Despite the fact that it was Christmas Eve there was no religious element to the evening whatsoever. In fact there was almost no speaking, whatsoever. There was the introduction of organist and description of his musical choices and a note that financial support on your way out would be welcome.

I was in a church on Christmas Eve but it wasn't like going to church. Now, from an academic perspective you could say I learned a lot from my experience but I was personally unsatisfied.  So the following Sunday morning we went back for the real thing. This time there was a service but they're still weren't many people there. Maybe there were about 50, again spread around a pretty big church. Each group sat by themselves. Where we sat there was no one in either the row in front,  nor the row behind. We could not reach out and touch another person, even if they were reaching for us. We were alone.

The service was nice.  Having grown up Lutheran, it was very familiar. The sermon was about evangelism - spreading the good word. Why we believe, and a call to consider those who have never been introduced to religion. In Berlin that is a salient message.  Between the general secularization of postwar Western society and the aggressive atheism of East Germany, there is now an irreligious majority in Berlin and its surrounding state of Brandenberg. That may explain the Christmas Eve program. How do you get the non-religious to come to the church on Christmas? Offer a free concert and perhaps there is a spark?

Germany: Exploring the Capital

Me & the Bahns

What is Berlin like? Well, first off it is a massive city. Like any other European city of import, that means it will have a thorough and reliable system of mass transit. Berlin does not disappoint on that question. The system here is so extensive that printed maps are of little use to my 50 year old eyes. In order to squeeze its totality onto an 8 1/2 x 11 page they have to resort to what looks like a four point typeface to list what must be more than 200 stations, strung upon two dozen separate lines. (I did not stop to count). You can cover a lot of ground and you can do it relatively economically at about eight dollars for an unlimited day pass without any discount or monthly purchase.


But then Berlin needs a massive infrastructure because it is, of course, two cities merged only recently. East Berlin was a European capital in its own right and needed all of the accoutrements of that status. Museums, operas, theaters and the like, in addition to the government buildings. West Berlin was not just a capital in waiting but a show piece. It

Pergamon Museum Ishtar Gate

had to out shine it's twin. Then, the wall separating the two came down and the reason for the duplication disappeared. But all of those resources did not. Berlin is an extraordinarily cultured city.

It has more than 60 museums and even though that list includes the “German Curry Wurst” museum (did not visit) it also includes the sum of the cultural heritage of two great cities and competing political regimes.

Today, without knowing, you would be hard pressed to tell where capitalist Berlin left off and socialist Berlin began. The fall of the wall created extraordinary opportunities for urban redevelopment and corporations (like Sony at Potsdamer Platz) have stepped in and entirely remade the landscape. Today there is just one Berlin – modern, vibrant and efficient.

Murat's Turkey

Long time blog followers know the drill.  I visit a country and do my 25 things, then I start writing about it and finally, I start to post the blog entries.  There is sometimes a sizeable lag.  For Russia, I was still cleaning things up weeks after we arrived in Belgium.  For Germany, I will still be cleaning things up long after we have left "the next destination", this time Turkey.  And I am sure Turkey will not be finished until after I get back to North America (Montreal) and finally have some long blocks of time where I can sit and write.  There is a lot to say about Turkey.  It is an extraordinary country, populated by perhaps even more extraordinary people.

Today we leave Ankara, our second Turkish stop, for Izmir - what will be our last stop in Turkey.  Everyday we see or experience one thing more interesting and marvelous than the day before.  It has been a phenomenal experience, made possible by a former student, Murat who has made sure we experience his country fully.  We owe him a great debt of gratitude.

So, coming attractions - the next couple days look for a bunch of posts on the remaining German topics with maybe a post or two from MC on Turkey.  We are headed from Izmir to Greece, then Italy flying from Rome to Montreal.  From there MC goes home and I go to Cuba (she was denied the permission they gave me to visit).  One of us will be in California mid February.  By the end of February, we will both be there with China & Japan hovering on the horizon.

For those playing WiT?  Check the original post for new clues as I get a chance.

Who is That? #10

Here is this week's.  Send your guesses here. First Clue.  A bit more of the picture, and this:  If anyone is ever truly the father of his country, it may be this guy... 2nd clue: In this guy's country his presence is literally everywhere.  Even 70 years after his death.

Last week's answer:
Henri IV of France.

First correct answer,
Christopher M. - but no points as he was standing next to me when I took it.
First Correct answer by a person not standing next to me when I took it: Matt Zahner

Scoring:  First Day - 10 pts.  First Correct - Bonus 5.  After Clues: 5 pts.  No Guess: 0 pts...

Henri IV of France

The standings after three rounds:

MZ: 25
AM: 20
CM: 10
SP: 10
NH: 5
KM: 5
You: 0

Germany: Daily Periodical Review

The purpose for this project, the daily review of periodicals is kind of like the purpose of a medical technician taking a person's pulse. That pulse tells you something about the subject at a given moment. It doesn't tell you a lot about the past and it is not really a great predictor of the future. But it is a snapshot of the present.

When I did the daily periodical review for Russia, I was very aware that my view may have been skewed. I don't read Russian and so I really don't know what Russians were seeing in their papers. Only what the English language Russian press was saying. That made me uncomfortable.

In Germany I had no such problem. Speaking the language of the place dramatically improves one's ability to observe directly without filters. Reading German papers for two weeks gave me a pretty good sense of where Germans are right now.

So, what are they thinking about? As you know, our stay in Germany coincided with a severe winter storm. Of course the papers were full of those stories - that's just current events. I was somewhat taken aback by their sense that they were coping well. Having lived in Canada, where it really snows, my sense is Germany responded poorly.

The more serious and long-term concerns that recurred were about immigration and Germany's demographic “problem”. Not enough German-Germans being born. Germany's challenge will be integrating people whose native culture is not German. They know this and are worried about it.

They also worry about the EU. Germany is the pillar on which the EU rests. Yes, pillar, singular. Germany may be holding things together, on its own. Without their support, it would collapse. Lots of stories reflect the centrality of Germany in European politics and of European politics to Germany. EU governance stories seemed more prominent than internal German politics stories. Kind of the way DC politics overshadows state politics in the US.

WiT? Clue:  Can't post a statue of Ché.  That would be too easy.  So we have this guy, a kindred spirit in some ways...

Germany: Cultural - ‘Linie 1’

What does it say when a theater production is still running 25 years after its Premier? I think it says the piece has struck a chord with the audience. It must be offering something you can't get at home on your TV or even in the cinema. Something unique.

In Berlin we were fortunate to be able to experience such a performance. We saw a play called ‘Linie 1’.  It is a musical, set in the 1980s, which plays out over the course of the subway journey from one end of ‘Linie 1’ to the other.

It is the story of a star struck young girl who comes to Berlin to follow a rocker who hads paid her some attention and created some hopes, before moving on. She arrives in Berlin to look for him, and the first encounter she has with the city is in the infamous Bahnhof Zoo. Back in the day, Bahnhof Zoo was kind of the end of the line and

Conductors, Not what you think...

populated by the kind of people you might expect to meet at the ‘end of the line’. From there she rides the U-Bahn across Berlin and then back, along the way meeting a cross-section of the city’s inhabitants.

Why has ‘Linie 1’ been so successful? It is Germany's most frequently performed musical with only one exception. That would be  Bertold Brecht’s classic ‘Three Penny Opera’.  I think it is because it captures so well, those inhabitants. As you watch, you recognize characters

The Subway & Me

that you know. In 1986 you saw them every day. In 2011 most of them are gone from everywhere but the memory. There is something of nostalgia in the piece, but also a satisfaction in knowing that many of the ‘types’ and ‘behaviors’ captured in ‘Linie 1’ are now part of the past.


I am sure its success can also be attributed to the very catchy score and can't be hurt by low ticket prices ($22 a seat) made possible by a local government subsidy. ‘Linie 1’ has become an institution - well worth a visit.

Germany: Commerce

30 years ago in Berlin, KaDeWe (Kah, Day, Vay) was the ultimate shopping experience. Even its name spoke to its special status.  It was the Kaufhaus des Westen, the West’s market. An entire city block and sixth floors of almost everything you can imagine. Even by Western standards, it was an incredible place. Before August 1961 (the building of the wall) it must've been mind-boggling for Germans living in Soviet Zone to stop in on a visit to West Berlin. The difference between what was available at KaDeWe and in the East would have been enourmous. There was a difference between KaDeWe and other stores even in West Berlin. It really was unique.

30 years later, KaDeWe is still there and it still has almost everything, but it is no longer unique. In Berlin we saw several stores that could match KaDeWe‘s inventory and even its style. It is not all that surprising. West Germany and then all of Germany has been a prosperous country

The Media Giant in the shadow of the DGR's Fernsehturm

for decades. Plenty of time for consumers to develop the demand and for retailers to respond to fill that demand. Today it is hard to imagine what might you might want that you couldn't find at your average department store, whether it be in Dresden, Munich or even a small town. A trip to KaDeWe in Berlin does not astound anymore.

Shopping in Germany was not exactly like shopping in the US, however. There was a noticeable difference in the grocery stores. It seems the German chains target market niches much more than the ones were used to in California. In our neighborhood in Berlin

You can get anything at KaDeWe

(Kreuzberg: working-class, immigrant) there were two chains near our flat. Both of them seem to be geared toward the budget end of the market. In terms of product diversity they had pretty much everything you want, but unlike Safeway, they did not have a choice in terms of quality within the product category. It was budget-brand this or budget-brand that. Not a brand-name in sight.  Not even in the important product categories where you might want a bit of luxury - like chocolate or (for Germans, gasp!) beer.

Still playing WiT9?  Racking your brain?  I bet you could use a stiff drink.  This would be your go-to guy!

Germany: History

Five Germanies I Have Known, by Fritz Stern

For a history about Germany, I started by looking for a book that fit my predilection - the biography of a great leader. When I teach American government, I always ask the students to consider America without George Washington. Take that one person out of the equation in the country and its history is quite different. For Russia, Lenin was the obvious choice and for Germany? We all know the obvious choice. Hitler. So why not read a biography of Hitler? Well first I already have. In grad school we had a course in totalitarianism and the reading was biographies of Hitler, Stalin and Mao, among others. I think I know as much as I care to about the Führer. So if not him, who else?  Having thought about German history I considered the options (Bismark, Adenauer, Brandt) I was still unsatisfied and searched Amazon for books on German history. Immediately one jumped out at me: Five Germanies I Have Known. The idea was spot on.  There have been at least five distinct Germany's and the author seemed to have a great vantage point from which to consider them.

The book was written by Fritz Stern, an eminent historian from Columbia University. It is a blend of autobiography and history written by a person who not only became renowned for his study of German history but who had the ability to enhance his scholarly treatment of the subject with his intimate experience of events and personalities. Spanning from unification (1870) through disaster and division (1933-1945) and finally to reconstruction and reunification (1990+) He really had seen it all.

GDR's Free German Youth

So what are the five Germany's?  Actually, there are six. Stern writes about them all but, the first disappears before he is born and is introduced through the stories of his grandparents, converted Jews living in Breslau under the Kaiserreich. World War I and German defeat wash that away and in its place comes the ill-fated Weimar Replublic. Hitler's Germany is Sterns second from personal experience and the last that he experiences directly as a citizen. For the Nazis baptism was meaningless. Jewishness is a racial quality that a dab of water could not erase. Hence Stern was Jewish and his family subject to Nazi oppression. His family was lucky. They had foresight and means and escaped. Stern finished growing up and was educated in war time in America. After the war Stern became a leading historian of the early 20th century Germany. As such, he addressed the burning question of the day: how could this (Nazism) happen? Because of the centrality of this question, and Stern’s prestigious position (Columbia University) he was thrust into the center of making sense of the 30s as a prelude to reconstruction and then developing the Germany's of the postwar era. Those would be Germany's #3 and #4, The Federal Republic (West) and its communist twin the GDR (German Democratic Republic, East).

Stern was there, commenting and at times getting sucked into the trials and tribulations of those times. His perspective as an “expellee” - oddly drawn to the task of restoring Germany to the community of Nations - presents a fascinating narrative, both personal and historical, which leads us directly to the present moment – Stern’s Fifth Germany, the one we know today – unified, strong, confident and at the center of European life. In 1940, that might have been a terrifying prospect.  Today it seems normal. A story with a happy ending.