Freischütz formula

Das rechte Auge eines Wiedehopfs...

...das linke eines Luchses.

Probatum est!

another castle

Fifteen miles down the Elbe from Dresden is Meissen, with the Schloss Albrechtsburg (NOT ...berg), Germany's oldest castle (they claim).  Quite impressive.  Biked there today the long way, for a total of about 40 miles.  Toured the castle and cathedral, but didn't go to the porcelain factory.

Saw a wonderful sign within the castle area, just across from the side of the castle cathedral:  "Historical Prison, with building permits, for lease or sale."  I want to put in an offer, and when they ask what I plan to do with it, say "Keep prisoners there, of course."

I'm calling time on my last quiz.  No entries, no winners.  Constance probably thought it was too easy.  It was.  Google could solve it for you in .00017 seconds.  The answer is (a), Eisenberg.  The extra credit part was harder, and I was hoping someone could find the real answer and tell me, so I could confirm my theory:  note the year, 1934, when the name of the town was changed from Eisenberg to Moritzburg (to match the name of the major landmark there, I said).  Seems obvious to me that the Nazis decided to do this because Eisenberg sounded too Jewish to them.  But I didn't find any evidence to confirm the idea.  I still think it's right.

Moritzburg, Kollwitz, (quiz???)

Schloss Moritzburg

Roughly 12 miles from Dresden is a little town out in the farmland called Moritzburg, named for the eponymous castle which was a hunting "lodge" for the 17th-18th century Dresden monarchs.  Took a little trip out there recently.  Absolutely idyllic, gorgeous castle in the middle of a lake, accessible over causeways.

Rüdenhof, where Käthe Kollwitz died, with Moritzburg Lake in the background.  She had a good view.

Across the street from the lake is a house named the Rüdenhof which is now a memorial and museum to the artist Käthe Kollwitz, who spent her last year there as a war refugee from Berlin, and died in her room there on 22 April 1945.  What I learned: I knew that she had a Dresden connection, as "Käthe Kollwitz Street" runs along the left bank of the Elbe for several miles, just a couple blocks away from my apartment.  But I didn't know the details--that she came to Moritzburg as a refugee after her apartment in Berlin was destroyed in bombings in 1943, and died there at age 77.

self portrait

She had lived a fairly good life as a well-respected artist, married to a doctor.  This in spite of official disapproval of her work by the Nazis.  But most of her best known work came earlier.  I don't know lots about her, but it seems my older image of her as a poor, starving woman comes more from her work, and less from her own life.  She did lose a son to WWI, however, and wartime loss and privation is certainly consistent with what I knew of her influences and aesthetic.

In 1934, the town containing the Moritzburg Castle was re-named "Moritzburg" to match the town's dominating landmark.  Here's the quiz:  What was its former name, the name it had carried for centuries?

     (a) Eisenberg
     (b) Freiburg
     (c) Herzberg
     (d) Pitzburg

For extra credit, WHY was it renamed?

Answer someday.

more funny German stuff (in my opinion)

This is a little poster on a lamp post down the street from me, left over from the February, 2011 demonstrations I wrote about at the time.  And the more I look at this, the funnier it gets.

It wants people to listen to Schönberg instead of Wagner, I take it because Wagner was beloved by Nazis and Schönberg wasn't, and was Jewish.  It shows an image of an Egon Schiele portrait of Schönberg and a well-known standard one of Wagner (whose painter I don't know).  The blue circle at the left edge calls people out to counter-demonstrations against the neo-nazis.  It even uses typography to help make its point.

My god.  People should listen to Schönberg over Wagner?  Sure, they're both great composers, but 99% + of the demonstrators would certainly prefer Wagner's music if they heard both back to back.  If they've even heard of them.  Totally silly.

Then I noticed the little line at the bottom of the sign saying who put it out.  Using lots of abbreviations, it seems to come from the anti-fascist committee of the student council of the Dresden Conservatory of Music.  Great.  Good left-wing students, as is expected in German universities.  And just as thoughtful as you'd expect, too.