Here and there, including Neuengamme

Not quite an entirely random post. I have several smallish things I figured I should put together before I forget all about them or such. I also have a list of ''weird things about Germans/Germany" I've been accumulating that I'm not sure where to put or how often to say something about it, so I'll put it here for now.

Content: German commentary, pics from a past Berlin trip, apartment, Neuengamme,

0.  German(y) commentary: 

I was recently asked what I miss from the states.  

• Shopping on Sundays         (outside of the few shops at the bigger train stations)
• Ibuprofen not being a controlled substance        (in Germany you can only get it in a pharmacy, and those are never open on Sundays, not even in train stations)
• Internet that doesn't suck    (German's all use patchy-at-best DSL. When I complained that DSL by default is slow, they said well, there also *is* superfast DSL. Yeah, but, none of you guys buy and use it. Bleah). 

Things I don't miss: 

• the inability to get anywhere without a car
• the sprawl of the average American city 
• our absurd anti-science politics
• quiet concerns about things like the potential of being bankrupted by a medical bill 

Something I'd like to have: 

I'd really like a webpage where I type in something/some store I want from the states and I get out its German/Hamburgisch equivalent. Here are some examples: 

States                                         Germany

REI                                          Globetrotters

Bed, Bath & Beyond      Dänisches Bettenlager (for the bed stuff) + maybe Butlers +...? 

Walmart/Target                     Toom or Real 

Miscellaneous cultural commentary: 

Asparagus: 
So, Germans are crazy about their crazy albino asparagus (Spargel):

From Germany 2012-2013

This is now in full season and everywhere. It's grown in sandy mounds, kept under plastic to regulate the heat, and picked before breaking through the surface. To cook it, you're supposed to peel it (since it's much thicker than what I would call ''normal'' asparagus) and then boil it for ~15 minutes and cover it with hollandaise sauce. Probably also serve with potatoes.

Holidays/'Feierabend'

When leaving for the weekend, you might wish someone a nice weekend(ein schönes Wochenende), or when they're leaving work the day before a holiday, you might wish them a nice holiday(schöner Feiertag). However, people also wish each other a pleasant ''holiday evening''(schöner Feierabend).  I remarked to my officemate (Bürokollege) that this seemed to express a different view on one's time relative to work. That is, you're sort of saying that your baseline assumption is to work all the time, and the time at night is ''holiday time''.

Also, man, so many religious holidays. I mean, I'm not turning down a holiday, I just find it a bit weird. 

Dogs, everywhere

No, really. From the grocery store to the fancy restaurant next to the art cinema, to the mall, everyone takes their dogs everywhere. And these are not all teacup-poodle-sized, either. Labs and larger, even. 

Handshake

It's not really done, here. Or, it's often the ''dead fish'' handshake, where one hands the other person their (limp) hand and it is awkwardly clasped and released. 

For your amusement, some false cognates (or 'Falsche Freunde'):

• das Gift = poison
• der Ass.  As in, ''Er ist ein wirkliches Ass". This was something one of the profs I teach for said in an E-mail. It means  ''Ace'' or "whiz''. 
• der After (I'll let you look that one up)
• die Fabrik = factory 
• blenden (=to dazzle/blind with light)
• bald = soon
• fast = almost
• der Mop = mop
• der Mops = pug (as in, the dog) 
• die Mappe = Folder/portfolio 
• Not = emergency 
• genial = clever 

Additionally, there is no word for "Cranberries" in German, despite whatever dict.leo.org says. Since they show up a lot, here are the other berries one might mistake for cranberries:

Preiselbeeren  = Lingonberries

Johannisbeeren= Currants

And, for your amusement, a cute German poem with illustrations Ottos mops. This is how I learned that there's a word in German for ''to spite someone'', which is "trotzen'' (it becomes ''trotzdem'' to mean ''despite'').

I. Pics from a past Berlin trip:

I went to a big complex of gardens in former east Berlin (Marzahn, ''Gärten der Welt''). Here's the nest pic I took in the trip:

From Germany 2012-2013

There was also a (creepy/oppressive-feeling) ''Christian Garden'' with surrounding walkways full of text (sayings of Christian religious people, not Bible text). The garden itself was roped off (i.e. you weren't allowed to enter). There should be some kind of Eden comment here.

From Germany 2012-2013

II. My apartment

So, I made a key mistake. I'd like to share so that none of you make the same mistake, if you can avoid it. That is, I moved into an apartment where my landlady=my flatmate, and she's lived there on her own since '85 (i.e. for quite a long time). When people live alone a long time, they build up a lot of habits of ways things need to be to make them happy.

E.g., the lid on the toilet always has to be down (otherwise ``money flows out of the apartment'') and one part of my room has to be entirely yellow (because that's the part that is not included in the area that has a balcony in front of it).

Yellow corner

From Germany 2012-2013

There's more I can say, but I'll just leave it at that. I'm happy to elaborate over a beer if we happen to be in the same place and time (and around some beer).

I do have a nice balcony with a great view, but the weather's been a bit chilly and wet (12 C/54 F) for hanging out on it. Also, the internet signal (weak and patchy anyway) doesn't reach out there.

view of balcony from my door-windows

From Germany 2012-2013

view down from balcony, of inner green courtyard area

From Germany 2012-2013

So, found a new place, moving in next month. Lease for a year. It's a relief, for sure.

III. Neuengamme

I'm not trying to treat this with too much levity. I'm not sure how to treat it. It was strange and somber and also somehow not inclusive of enough of the right sorts of information. One building was all about the SS workers (and how many of them didn't end up getting charged criminally -- lack of evidence, from all the document destruction :/). The last building we went into was a factory run by a separate company, and it detailed the lives and treatment of workers.

The path there was really beautiful.

From Germany 2012-2013

The plants really were a sort of neon green. It was weird.

From Germany 2012-2013

Neuengamme was a ''Konzentrationslager'', near Hamburg. A work camp (where people were worked to death, actively).  I visited it with my officemate. We were looking for other people who were interested in going as well, but this was complicated by the awkwardness of asking someone to go to a Konzentraionslager, and the fact that there was a Neo-nazi march (and counter-protest) taking place the same day in Hamburg which people wanted to be at to protest.

From Germany 2012-2013

One of the workers buried logbooks, so the following records survived the general informational purge at the camp at the end of the war:

the first rather somber thing we came across

From Germany 2012-2013

Your suffering, your struggle and your death shall not be forgotten/forgiven(?)

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Bricks and concrete slabs were made in the camp. Moving these things around (and onto barges to ship elswhere) was very dangerous work. 

Common house of pre-fabricated concrete slabs from the camp

From Germany 2012-2013

After the war, it was converted into a prison and used as such for a long time.  Graffiti says "Here once stood a concentration camp". People were upset as they felt this usage was the government trying to erase/ignore what happened here. 

From Germany 2012-2013

In Hamburg (at least), buildings often come with plaques saying who built it and when. This is a board put up by one of the 'international peace camps' that was involved in preservation/restoring/construction of the current exhibit/layout of the camp. There's a ''company'' that ran the labor camps, which was the "Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke GmbH'' (German Earth and Stonework, ~LLC). That is, this is a bit of dark humor (or levity?) added later.

a small amount of levity.

From Germany 2012-2013

the only remaining watchtower from the camp

From Germany 2012-2013

(mostly) Lübeck

A few weeks ago was "Hafensgeburtstag" (Harbor Birthday) in Hamburg. This meant tons of ships and sailors and a carnival-esque atmosphere around the shore:

From Germany 2012-2013

So, unlike the States, Germany has every major Christian holiday off. We just had off for ascension and we have Monday off for pentecost. I won't complain for having days off, it's just weird to me that they're religious holidays.

They also made ascension be ''Cherry Blossom Festival'' day, whose main highlight every year is an extensive fireworks show, based on the larger chunk of the lake in the middle of town. There was also a ''Japanese Cultural Day'' in the large park near the university, which I managed to miss all of, since the schedule that was posted was vague and apparently inaccurate by an hour or two (oh well).

I took that Friday off (we had Thursday officially off), and went to Lübeck, which was also a town of the Hanseatic League, and was also a free state for quite a while.   Hamburg still is, inasmuch as it is both a city and a state (Stadt und Staat). Lübeck is about 45 minutes to an hour fom Hamburg (depending on where you start inside Hamburg).

There's a story in my ''Rough Guide to Germany'' book that a Jewish ex-Lübeck resident saved Lübeck from the worst of the last leg of bombing it was destined for during the war (it was actually one of the earliest cities hit by RAF bombing), by tipping off his Swedish cousin and I think a Red Cross camp or such was started there (I'd have to go dig up the book; the internet is not coughing up anything that remotely sounds like this story. Ah well).

Here's the Lübeck Hauptbahnhof:

From Germany 2012-2013

Pro-tip: don't pay the 2 euros at the information booth for the map of Lübeck. Very incomplete, waste of money.  Also, the fish shack a block away gives them out for free.

To walk to the old city, you cross the ''Puppet Bridge'', named for the statues along it.

Bees attacking child/cherub?

From Germany 2012-2013

Naked, maybe drunken statue

From Germany 2012-2013

The river spanned by this bridge is the Trave:

From Germany 2012-2013

and you walk up to the iconic view of Lübeck, with its leaning gate (Holsten Tor) and (also leaning) church towers:

From Germany 2012-2013

From Germany 2012-2013

Holsten being Plattdeutsch for "Holstein", which is the town in the direction which the gate faces. I took the guided tour of the city advertised at the visitor's info center (7 euros, included the (4 euro) tour of the city hall). The gate leans so much in part because each tower is on its own foundation, and they shifted independently over time.

passing through the gate to the old city

From Germany 2012-2013

top, inside part of gate

From Germany 2012-2013

I still find this (S.P.Q. + letter for German town) pretentious, but maybe it's a symptom of this whole ''Holy Roman Empire'' business:

the inside of the gate

From Germany 2012-2013

The two dates are when it was built and when it was repaired from being in near-ruins from neglect.

Just behind the gate is the (other) river; at some point, they dug around and connected the two rivers so that the altstadt became an island. I don't remember the name of this river:

From Germany 2012-2013

Walking around, there's a puppet/figure museum & stage, with a cute dragon:

From Germany 2012-2013

Incidentally, in German, the word for "Dragon" is the same as the word for "kite" (that thing that kids fly); die Drache.

Wandering around the old city of Lübeck. It felt kind of Copenhagenesque to me. Maybe its the Hanseaticness, or the age of the survived/repaired buildings:

From Germany 2012-2013

and another picturesue street view:

From Germany 2012-2013

On the tour, one thing we saw was this thing. During WWII the area behind/under this was turned into a bunker

From Germany 2012-2013

and the arch was a causeway through to a pleasant courtyard-area:

From Germany 2012-2013

So, at some point, Lübeck decided to tax people by the amount of square meters facing the street. The 'solution' was to not have any. That is, people tunneled through existing buildings to build in the courtyards. These tunnels had to be big enough to pass a coffin, and could actually be quite short (shorter than me, in one case).  There were 80 made before the city outlawed this practice, as the firefighters were having a hell of a time.

Here are some more walkways and their interiors:

From Germany 2012-2013

From Germany 2012-2013

From Germany 2012-2013

From Germany 2012-2013

This is the one shorter than me

From Germany 2012-2013

and a cool random thing above a door:

From Germany 2012-2013

I do wonder if they have soft ground in Lübeck, because everything leaned. All the church towers, in addition to the Holsten gate:

From Germany 2012-2013

And another leaning church tower:

From Germany 2012-2013

Here's part of a model of the old city, which is cool in part because it has braille explaining the monuments/buildings:

From Germany 2012-2013

Lübeck's town hall is bizarre looking. It had three building phases, all very distinct. Here's phase I and II smushed together:

From Germany 2012-2013

with a sundial

From Germany 2012-2013

and extended at a 90ºangle (i.e. along the corner of the square, you had this sort of thing:

From Germany 2012-2013

Room in the city hall containing allegorical paintings. The painter's daughter was the model for all the women, and some famous military guy in the city saw the paintings and decided he must marry her (and so he did).

From Germany 2012-2013

Hanseatic art. They apparently enjoyed the tale of Solomon (this illustrates that):

From Germany 2012-2013

Also, it was pointed out that the Hanseatic depiction of Justice was never blind. Something about needing a discerning eye to make good decisions or such:

From Germany 2012-2013

Some stained glass in the roof of the stairwell:

From Germany 2012-2013

Here's some fun wood art (along a sort of half-wall/desk thing) in the parliament chambers:

From Germany 2012-2013

This might've been my favorite thing there. Cool wooden depiction of the old city, how it was circa 1471:

From Germany 2012-2013

Then you open it!

Left panel:

From Germany 2012-2013

Center panel (height of blocks seem to represent population):

From Germany 2012-2013

Right panel:

From Germany 2012-2013

This was reached by a cool hallway full of portraits of burgers (including Ehrenburgers):

From Germany 2012-2013

After leaving the town hall, the tour was almost through, but had another half hour or so. Instead I found something to drink and wandered a bit. Found this, the 'Holy Ghost' hospital, one of the oldest ?

From Germany 2012-2013

This is the gate on the other side of the city, which is where Napoleon got through:

From Germany 2012-2013

Cool adjacent building, with black and red brick:

From Germany 2012-2013

and across the street was a place a bit in disrepair,

From Germany 2012-2013

with this sign:

~ since 1491, residence of the Bishop of Ratzeburg

From Germany 2012-2013

and here's the view out the train on the way back (the yellow flower is what you get Rapeseed oil (Rapsöl) from):

From Germany 2012-2013

From Germany 2012-2013