tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4565845984512808077.post3973459886818388989..comments2024-03-19T21:41:42.835+01:00Comments on Poemas del río Wang: The name of the roseStudiolumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377777909296284368noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4565845984512808077.post-5978052895343248792013-01-28T12:06:41.899+01:002013-01-28T12:06:41.899+01:00Thank you, Stuart! I will try to find and read the...Thank you, Stuart! I will try to find and read the book.<br /><br />Effe: Rose/Rome di cui non è rimasto che il nome ci sono dappertutto… :)Studiolumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06377777909296284368noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4565845984512808077.post-25104738780696409882013-01-28T11:16:08.264+01:002013-01-28T11:16:08.264+01:00Off-topic: here's something for you that may b...Off-topic: here's something for you that may be more familiar to (some) Kölner than to (most) Berliner. Last night on "Dom Radio" (a Catholic FM radio station !?) or "Deutschlandfunk" there was an interview with one Dr. Christiane Hoffrath, who in 2010 published <a href="http://www.amazon.de/B%C3%BCcherspuren-Schicksal-Richter-Bibliothek-%C2%BBDritten/dp/3412206512/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359367274&sr=1-1" rel="nofollow">Bücherspuren: Das Schicksal von Elise und Helene Richter und ihrer Bibliothek im »Dritten Reich«</a>. Hermann Corsten was the director of the university and municipal library in Cologne during the Third Reich and thereafter until he retired in 1954. He bought the Richters' library in an attempt to save it. <br /><br />Hoffrath had much to relate about how the Nazis dealt with books, much of it previously unknown to me. For one thing, the 1933 "book burnings" were merely propaganda exercises. Various ministries, among them the <i>Reichssicherheitministerium</i>, had policies for collecting (= confiscating) books and putting them into special "Judaica" holdings. By the end of 1933, only public libraries had been divested of their books (by about 1000 authors) deemed to be inimical to the state. The books were not burnt, though, but transferred to the special holdings. As time went on, special private collections were put under fire. Corsten helped to save one Domenican collection somewhere in 1943, I think. <br /><br />Hoffrath's book must be well worth reading, because she's well worth listening to.Stuart Claytonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13707750452117583297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4565845984512808077.post-59254938987808001172013-01-28T11:08:05.704+01:002013-01-28T11:08:05.704+01:00Umberto Eco in berlin :-)Umberto Eco in berlin :-)Effenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4565845984512808077.post-37657205956919308822013-01-28T10:51:39.233+01:002013-01-28T10:51:39.233+01:00OK, I can understand that Berliner would remember ...OK, I can understand that Berliner would remember the events in the special light of how they affected Berlin. The city itself was divided, like the two Germanys. In Köln, however, <i>die Wiedervereinigung Berlins</i> is not an everyday expression, in constrast to <i>die Wiedervereinigung Deutschlands</i>. It is primarily a phrase one might have heard in the news in 2010, and otherwise perhaps in conversations on Berlin, as you say.Stuart Claytonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13707750452117583297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4565845984512808077.post-34512244569859153662013-01-28T10:28:54.145+01:002013-01-28T10:28:54.145+01:00Obviously, the unification of Berlin is unimaginab...Obviously, the unification of Berlin is unimaginable without that of Germany, and is not a political act independent of it. What I wanted to point out is that, nevertheless, it is an event remembered separately in the collective memory of the Berliners projecting down the national events to their local context, both in the daily language (“vor der Wiedervereinigung Berlins war Kreuzberg durch die Mauer von Friedrichshain getrennt”) and even – as you see – on an official-propagandistic level. I first heard the expression on the night of 9 November 1989, when I by chance happened to be there at the opening of the Wall, and since then I have often read or heard it in texts or conversations on Berlin, both in German and in my own language.Studiolumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06377777909296284368noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4565845984512808077.post-69463324444448945152013-01-28T07:18:42.646+01:002013-01-28T07:18:42.646+01:00Can one even conceive of a Wiedervereinigung Berli...Can one even conceive of a <i>Wiedervereinigung Berlins</i> as an autonomous political act preceding the <i>Wiedervereinigung Deutschlands</i> ? The <i>Bedingungen der Möglichkeit</i> seem to be missing. Ostberlin was the de facto capital of the DDR, its administration had no authority to declare itself part of the BRD, a foreign country. Once the DDR and the BRD were politically united, of course, the division of Berlin, based on a political distinction between countries, would have disappeared as a consequence. <br /><br />Your link is to a brochure about the "commemoration" ceremony in 2010. What happened on October 2 1990 is said to be this: <br /><br /><i> Am 2. Oktober 1990 beendeten die drei <b>westalliierten</b> Stadtkommandanten ihre Arbeit und überreichten dem damaligen Regierenden Bürgermeister, Walter Momper, die letzte „Berlin-Kommandatura Letter“ im Rathaus Schöneberg. Mit ihr verabschiedeten sie sich von der Stadt und den Berlinerinnen und Berlinern unter anderem mit den Worten: „Das Berlin, das wir zurücklassen, <b>wird</b> vereint und frei <b>sein</b>!“.</i><br /><br />The three Allied military commanders simply "took leave of the city". The Soviet <i>Stadtkommandant</i> is not mentioned, nor the DDR. The quote from the "Letter" shows that the commanders were aware that their act did not itself constitute a reunification of Berlin - "<i>wird ... sein</i>" is the future tense, referring to the following day October 3. The official reunification of the country (<i>Vollzug der Einigung</i>) was to be declared on that day, as everyone knew. The <i>Einigungsvertrag</i> had already been signed by both governments in September.<br /><br />The expression <i>Wiedervereinigung Berlins</i> seems to be a PR phrase made up in 2010 as an excuse to hold a ceremony. Nothing wrong with that, but ceremonies are not history. <br /><br />What are your views on this ?Stuart Claytonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13707750452117583297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4565845984512808077.post-64133719976645179412013-01-27T23:13:50.753+01:002013-01-27T23:13:50.753+01:00Of course it was a typo: thank you for the correct...Of course it was a typo: thank you for the correction. I have now changed it. However, as to the unification of Berlin, such a thing exists not only in the popular, but also in the official historiography of Berlin, which is extremely proud that <i>die Wiedervereinigung Berlins</i> happened one day earlier than <i>die deutsche Wiedervereinigung.</i> And they officially celebrate it one day before the Nationalfeiertag, on October 2, instead of 3. <a href="https://www.parlament-berlin.de/pari/web/wdefault.nsf/vHTML/F12_1-00070?OpenDocument" rel="nofollow">Cf. this, for example.</a>Studiolumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06377777909296284368noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4565845984512808077.post-23772378341029325952013-01-27T22:56:00.610+01:002013-01-27T22:56:00.610+01:00Very instructive. I know a few people from Görlitz...Very instructive. I know a few people from Görlitz who came to Cologne around 2000, but I've never been to the place itself. I recently saw part of a TV documentary about the grand economic and political past of Görlitz, but they didn't show much of the city. I had imagined it as a decaying dinky town like Trier. <br /><br />Small typo: "only after the unification of Berlin, in 1988 they built the new building of the British Embassy" should probably read "1998", as in the caption of the picture following. Unification was in 1990, and - to be precise - it was not Berlin that was unified, but the two Germanies (<i>die deutsche Wiedervereinigung</i>).Stuart Claytonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13707750452117583297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4565845984512808077.post-4310397838700631292013-01-27T20:29:44.448+01:002013-01-27T20:29:44.448+01:00Thanks a lot! Sometimes these byways show so clear...Thanks a lot! Sometimes these byways show so clearly through the present city fabric that it is impossible not to follow them. And maps always help in it, especially when they show the original context of these byways.Studiolumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06377777909296284368noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4565845984512808077.post-26587750887209178562013-01-27T15:55:51.774+01:002013-01-27T15:55:51.774+01:00What a great post! As always, I deeply appreciate...What a great post! As always, I deeply appreciate your untangling of the forgotten byways of history (and the accompanying maps).languagehathttp://www.languagehat.com/noreply@blogger.com