A fascinating perspective of Berlin, where so much of 20th Century history has been inscribed in blood. Thank you for taking the time to post your observations, Steven.
George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Americans should read more about present day Germany as well as the Germany of the 1920's and 30's, and how they lost their democratic efforts, and are actually facing the same threats today as we are in America. A strikingly small minority overturned Germany, and a relatively small minority are doing the same today while most of us are just trying to make it while 90% of the country's wealth is going to 2% of the population and businesses. When are we going to wake up and understand that folks like the Koch brothers, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, etal.., are taking it all for themselves and their investors. These oligarchs have funded the conservative, often ultra-right non-profits that have created the laws that are gerrymandering districts to ensure their folks are elected, further ensuring that only they control state governors and legislators. If you read the legislation passed by red states, it is almost always the same language and approach, assuring that they, the monied folk, are in control. I live in one of these states, and they have managed the squelch any dissent. What can be done short of revolution? How can we create an effort for a constitutional convention to change what existed to bring it out of the 18th and 19th centuries when the only people who could have even created what we use today were white, privileged property owners, most of the best of them who owned slaves. Time have changed and they are achangin' now as folks begin to see how those on the SCOTUS are beginning to take hard lines on the "basic" Constitution from back in the good old days of white supremacy. When you look at constitutional history, it is actually a wonder that we ever got this far. How do we do that, Steven? How are we going to make the required changes?
It is always interesting and important to read about Germany and its history.Usually we concentrate on World War II and the evil that arose from German leaders. But there is another side of that country that is connected to a peaceful people, the plain people, the Pennsylvania Dutch.My grandmother, maiden name Wagner,was of German ancestry as are 17% of Americans today, the largest ethnic group in the country.In 1946, she gave my father a book, The Story of the Pennsylvania Dutch (1943)for his birthday. It is a book with wonderful, colorful drawings on each page and looking/reading it as a little girl was one of my favorite things to do. Leafing through it this morning after reading your column, brings back memories and facts I have forgotten.
Devastated, persecuted and impoverished by Europe's Thirty Years War, they came to America, specifically Pennsylvania, at the invitation of William Penn, tamed the frontier and settled in the promised land with some of the richest soil in America. They originated the Conestoga wagon , named after the Conestoga Indians, which played a prominent place in the settlement of the west. And during the American Revolution, Dutch farmers drove them through enemy lines at Valley Forge bringing food and supplies to Washington's starving army.
Drivers wore high topped "stogie" boots and had long cigars in their mouths, thus, are cigars called stogies. They always walked on the left side of the wagon which led to the American way of passing approaching traffic on the right rather than the British left
A man named Christopher Sauer built a printing press, and in 1743. produced the first American edition of the Bible in a European language.The only one used before was an Indian bible printed 80 years before.
They have their own dialect-Go the road up, tie the cow loose. I have a switch plate painted black with colorful tiny tulips and a Dutch dressed man on it with the words Outen The Lights. I have little figurines of Dutch dressed children, one sits a little school desk, a little girl swings on one made of metal and wire. Plus a couple of little cows and a tiny decorated clothes iron.
Dutch farmers brought with them the practice of crop rotation to preserve the soil. They had Market Day where sold were pickled pigs feet, applebutter, coleslaw,shoofly pie, and my (and Pennsylvanians)favorite, pink pickled eggs, made often by me and mine and sold in grocery stores in central PA. We cannot forget the settlement of Bethlehem, PA where today, thousands of cards flood the city at Christmas time to get that postmark.
Some famous Dutchmen/women were General Pershing, Herbert Hoover, Lowell Thomas, John Wanamaker, Amelia Earhart, Molly Pitcher, and Jane Addams.
Near State College, PA, home of Penn State (We Are . . .)there are still Dutch farms to be seen from the road, red barns, everything neat and orderly. It's funny though. Just beyond them is the Pennsylvania State Prison with its gates and barred windows.
Sorry to be so long, but just wanted to share a different and often forgotten German story. : )
I'm a long time reader of this site, and commenter. I'm 86 and don't have a credit card any more or I'd subscribe. Are there scholarships ? William Doolittle
A fascinating perspective of Berlin, where so much of 20th Century history has been inscribed in blood. Thank you for taking the time to post your observations, Steven.
George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Thank you, Homi.
🙏🏼 Thank you for the perspective from Berlin.
Americans should read more about present day Germany as well as the Germany of the 1920's and 30's, and how they lost their democratic efforts, and are actually facing the same threats today as we are in America. A strikingly small minority overturned Germany, and a relatively small minority are doing the same today while most of us are just trying to make it while 90% of the country's wealth is going to 2% of the population and businesses. When are we going to wake up and understand that folks like the Koch brothers, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, etal.., are taking it all for themselves and their investors. These oligarchs have funded the conservative, often ultra-right non-profits that have created the laws that are gerrymandering districts to ensure their folks are elected, further ensuring that only they control state governors and legislators. If you read the legislation passed by red states, it is almost always the same language and approach, assuring that they, the monied folk, are in control. I live in one of these states, and they have managed the squelch any dissent. What can be done short of revolution? How can we create an effort for a constitutional convention to change what existed to bring it out of the 18th and 19th centuries when the only people who could have even created what we use today were white, privileged property owners, most of the best of them who owned slaves. Time have changed and they are achangin' now as folks begin to see how those on the SCOTUS are beginning to take hard lines on the "basic" Constitution from back in the good old days of white supremacy. When you look at constitutional history, it is actually a wonder that we ever got this far. How do we do that, Steven? How are we going to make the required changes?
Bravo
It is always interesting and important to read about Germany and its history.Usually we concentrate on World War II and the evil that arose from German leaders. But there is another side of that country that is connected to a peaceful people, the plain people, the Pennsylvania Dutch.My grandmother, maiden name Wagner,was of German ancestry as are 17% of Americans today, the largest ethnic group in the country.In 1946, she gave my father a book, The Story of the Pennsylvania Dutch (1943)for his birthday. It is a book with wonderful, colorful drawings on each page and looking/reading it as a little girl was one of my favorite things to do. Leafing through it this morning after reading your column, brings back memories and facts I have forgotten.
Devastated, persecuted and impoverished by Europe's Thirty Years War, they came to America, specifically Pennsylvania, at the invitation of William Penn, tamed the frontier and settled in the promised land with some of the richest soil in America. They originated the Conestoga wagon , named after the Conestoga Indians, which played a prominent place in the settlement of the west. And during the American Revolution, Dutch farmers drove them through enemy lines at Valley Forge bringing food and supplies to Washington's starving army.
Drivers wore high topped "stogie" boots and had long cigars in their mouths, thus, are cigars called stogies. They always walked on the left side of the wagon which led to the American way of passing approaching traffic on the right rather than the British left
A man named Christopher Sauer built a printing press, and in 1743. produced the first American edition of the Bible in a European language.The only one used before was an Indian bible printed 80 years before.
They have their own dialect-Go the road up, tie the cow loose. I have a switch plate painted black with colorful tiny tulips and a Dutch dressed man on it with the words Outen The Lights. I have little figurines of Dutch dressed children, one sits a little school desk, a little girl swings on one made of metal and wire. Plus a couple of little cows and a tiny decorated clothes iron.
Dutch farmers brought with them the practice of crop rotation to preserve the soil. They had Market Day where sold were pickled pigs feet, applebutter, coleslaw,shoofly pie, and my (and Pennsylvanians)favorite, pink pickled eggs, made often by me and mine and sold in grocery stores in central PA. We cannot forget the settlement of Bethlehem, PA where today, thousands of cards flood the city at Christmas time to get that postmark.
Some famous Dutchmen/women were General Pershing, Herbert Hoover, Lowell Thomas, John Wanamaker, Amelia Earhart, Molly Pitcher, and Jane Addams.
Near State College, PA, home of Penn State (We Are . . .)there are still Dutch farms to be seen from the road, red barns, everything neat and orderly. It's funny though. Just beyond them is the Pennsylvania State Prison with its gates and barred windows.
Sorry to be so long, but just wanted to share a different and often forgotten German story. : )
I'm a long time reader of this site, and commenter. I'm 86 and don't have a credit card any more or I'd subscribe. Are there scholarships ? William Doolittle