This may seem like a long way from the Silk Road, but for the next few weeks, we will be indulging in Germany. Europe was in the end, the major destination point for many products imported from China and the rest of Asia. They no longer relied on the overland route to transport food and goods, but developed sea routes to bring goods to market faster. We are revisiting all the countries I traveled through in the past six years, not in order, but in a line from Mongolia to the UK, end to end.

Since I have spent more than a month each year learning German in different cities, I am devoting one post per city, from Munich to Schwabisch Hall, Dusseldorf, Dresden, and Berlin. These posts are culled from multiple entries to give you the highlights from each city.

Nazis, Rings and the Blue Rider

In order to provide an overview each city, general sights I visited will be provided. They are not intended to cover all sights popular to tourists. My interests in architecture, art museums, opera, and food and people are featured. Tours sponsored by the Goethe Institute, where I took German classes, are the background for much of the historical information and hidden gems of each city.

National Socialism Museum

The National Socialism Tour by Dr. Christoph Engels, an expert in the history of the Nazi era, gave us fascinating insight on Hitler and how Munich became a central control and rallying point for the Nazi Party.

Using emblems for the flag, logo, and uniforms, Hitler combined propaganda and design to seduce the populace with fanfare and drama. Frequent marches down the main thoroughfare from Marienplatz to the Odeonsplatz were displays of might and staging trials for the military.

The monumental boulevards and parks reminiscent of Paris contributed to the public parades of the military. Billions of dollars were donated to the Nazi Party by private citizens, who saw the salvation of Germany led by Hitler. The original headquarters of the Nazi Party still exists, and while not open to the public, it continues to host activities of the Neo-Nazi Party members.

There were three phases of recovery by the German people after the devastating reign of terror. First, there were those who experienced it, followed by the children of the war survivors. They experienced a long period of “Scham und Schuld”, or Shame and Guilt. After 1968, the third generation began to ask the grandparents what role they had in the war. These questions were difficult discussions that needed to be answered by each family.

When the official statistics about the Holocaust victims at 6,000,000 people were mentioned, a couple of my classmates from Russia and the Ukraine noted that there were many more Russians killed by Stalin before and after WWII. They wanted to put history in perspective with their experience and knowledge. They also noted that the war itself spared many Russians from starvation and death caused by Stalin.

Maxvorstadt

The Ludwig-Maximilians University Quarter tour began with some historical elements of WWII. Sophie Scholl, who protested the dealings of the Nazi Party, attended this university, known as the University of Munich at the time. She was a Philosophy major there.

In 1943, she, her brother, and their friend Christoph Probst were found guilty of treason and beheaded in February 1943. The White Rose represented their movement. Live roses are still posted in memoriam at the entrance to the University and inside the main lobby. It gave me goose bumps after walking through the spaces. You can read more about her here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Scholl

Shops around the University area included antiquarian bookshops and quirky cafes like Verruckt. This ice cream shop, translated as “Crazy” in German, features beer flavored ice cream and breakfast ice cream. A storefront cooking school allows you to peek in and see all the action and after-effects of food being consumed. And a specialty bike shop has custom colors for hand made bike frames (see slide show below).

Many of the Altbaus, or old buildings, were built during the 18th and 19th Centuries.  Inner courtyards or “hofs” hide renovated or jazzy new buildings and green areas with retail spaces are tucked into the ground floor. Craftsman-quality cabinet shops and made-to-order items are plentiful and enough to delight the eye and microwave the credit card.

The Alte and Neue Pinotheks

For the past three years, Very Good Friend Helena from Brunnen (near Lucerne) Switzerland has joined me each year in Germany. In Munich, we tackled the Museums of the Alte and Neue Pinotheks together. The Masters and Impressionists of European art, respectively, reside at these museums.

We concentrated only on the Vermeer Woman in Blue Special Exhibition at the Alte Pinothek, and the French Impressionists at the Neue.

It was delightful to hear the German guide’s commentary on the Vermeer painting. Her clear and inspiring comments reminded me why I’m in Germany. The clarity and forthrightness of her explanation about the form, structure, color, and subject of the painting made it engaging and easy to understand.

Many of these genre paintings with exquisite light were symbolic connections to the Dutch military and its world explorations, that included Asia and the Dutch East Indies. I had never connected these dots before.

The woman’s place in society is symbolized in this painting. Women represented the Republic and their noble public image. Men, who often were sailing or serving as soldiers, represented the dark and negative side of humanity. When at port, they often headed to the brothels and represented bad behavior.

This was certainly a new spin on the exquisite Dutch, light-filled genre paintings that I came to admire. I couldn’t help but to compare the intimate, home-bound intimate interiors with the bawdy red light district in contemporary Amsterdam.

A few other notable artists’ works in the Neue Pinothek included these impressionists from the 19th Century:

On Sunday we rolled down the hill and across the swift flowing Isar River to the Deutsches Museum. The river not only has a surfing spot, but also a decent sandy beach down down the street from where I live in the middle of town!!

The Museum is one of the foremost science museums in the world. It’s a full scale playout of The Way Things Work and more. We focussed on the Planetarium and Astronomy sections of the museum. The English translations are excellent. The featured image above is from a diorama replica of the Challenger Expedition in 1872.

Lenbach Museum

Helena had suggested going to the Lenbach Museum during her visit here. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to fit everything in. She has pretty good taste in choosing museums, so I decided to venture there on a free morning. I combined a trip to load up on German sketch books at an art supply store near the museum area with a visit to the Lenbach.

I could only remember that Helena had told me about something Blue that was on display there. After all, Helena and I had just seen Vermeer’s Woman in Blue Reading a Letter the week before, right? At first, I thought it was the Blue Wonder, then I remembered, no, that’s a bridge in Dresden. After I ripped through a gaggle of galleries searching for the missing identity, I finally asked the guide where the Blue Rider was located. His answer: they’re everywhere! I was perplexed at first, then realized that its…a movement.

The collection generated a lively FaceTime conversation with my German language partner in the Bay Area. Being an art history aficionado, he set me straight. The text may be hard to read, but if you are interested, you can view it on a monitor.

Munich Opera Festival

The Ring by Richard Wagner is a 17-hour epic, presented in a series over four days. The 2.5 hour, no-break opera in German subtitles was a challenge.  I had prepared myself for the “real thing” after seeing my first Ring at the SF Opera the previous month.

The difference between the two? San Francisco spent alot more effort in the production, the acting, the stage sets, but the singing was weak. Munich was the opposite. The stage sets were minimal, but Munich delivered some of the best singing I have ever heard. The opera house is smaller than San Francisco’s, and the singers must have their voices perfectly calibrated to the acoustical capabilities of the house. It didn’t hurt to have estatically beautiful music for both, thanks to Wagner.

And here’s a clip of how it looked from the audience during the curtain call. You would have to turn your sound up to full volume (but don’t do it!) to capture the thunderous foot stomping that Germans do in addition to clapping. The gesture is highly successful because: 1. you don’t have to stand up and drop the program in the process while still being able to respond spontaneously; 2. you don’t block others behind you who don’t want to stand or have a different opinion; and 3. It gets your entire body stimulated and the blood flowing so you can remember to get up to leave!

International Evening at the Goethe Institute

At the Goethe Institute’s International Dinner, I taught my Turkish classmate how to use chopsticks. She was a natural. Despite her gesture of pulling both eyes to indicate being slanted at me, I calmly used the teachable moment to explain that it is rude to make such an expression to Asians. She quickly got the message.

We went shopping in the Asian market together, and after that her boyfriend and another Turkish classmate helped prepare Turkish mini-ravioli with a sauce that was delicious!

Miscellany

And as a parting bonus video: a clip of the evening performance of the organ concert at the Asam Kirche is below.

Here’s VGF Helena at lunch next to the museum and an irresistible baby at the next table:

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Next week: On to Schwabisch Hall, a charming city tucked between Stuttgart and Frankfurt!