Tête-à-Tête Archives - Page 31 of 38

Archive for the ‘Tête-à-Tête’ Category

Schloss Cecilienhof – Cecilienhof Palace

Thursday, November 20th, 2014

Schloss Cecilienhof became international known as the site of the Potsdam Conference in 1945. Prior to the end of World War II, the palace had served as the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm, his wife, Duchess Cecilie von Mecklenburg-Schwerin and their six children. Located southwest of Berlin, Germany, the English Tudor-style building resembles a Grand English Country Manor with its half-timbered walls, bricks and many chimneys. With a total of 176 rooms, Cecilienhof is considerably larger than it seems.

Schloss Cecilienhof – Cecilienhof Palace

Schloss Cecilienhof’s Pre-1945 History

The castle was the last palace to be built by the Hohenzollern, a dynasty that ruled Prussia and Germany for 500 years. The German Emperor Wilhelm II had Schloss Cecilienhof built for his eldest son, Crown Prince Wilhelm. Construction began in 1914 and was completed in 1917. After only one happy year together in their new home, the royal couple remained separated for the rest of their lives. Even before the revolution of 1918, the Crown Prince rarely found time to be with his family. The Duchess and her six children continued to live at the palace from time to time until 1920 when Schloss Cecilienhof was confiscated. The royal couple’s two oldest sons, Wilhelm and Louis Ferdinand, remained at castle to attend public school in Potsdam. But when the Red Army drew close to Berlin in February of 1945, the Duchess and all of her children fled without being able to salvage many of their possessions. At the end of World War II, the Soviets seized Cecilienhof, which was located within the Soviet Zone of Germany.

Schloss Cecilienhof and the Potsdam Conference

From July 17 to August 2, 1945, US President Harry S. Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and General Secretary of the Communist Party’s Central Committee Joseph Stalin convened at the Schloss Cecilienhof to decide the future of Germany. The three Allied powers decided to meet at the palace because the capital itself was too heavily damaged.

Prior to the Potsdam Conference, thirty-six rooms and the Great Hall were renovated and furnished with furniture from other Potsdam palaces. The Hohenzollern’s furniture had been removed by the Soviets and stored elsewhere. Cecilie’s music salon and writing room, Wilhelm’s smoking room, library and breakfast room as well as the Great Hall (where the Potsdam Agreement was signed) were among the rooms that were renovated and used during the Potsdam Conference. The various delegations were housed in the suburb of Potsdam-Babelsberg.

The Great Hall at Schloss Cecilienhof where the Potsdam Agreement was signed

Schloss Cecilienhof’s Post-1945 History

After the Potsdam Conference had ended, Soviet troops used the palace as a clubhouse for a while. Later, Schloss Cecilienhof was handed over to the state of Brandenburg. In 1952, a memorial for the Conference was set up in the former private chambers of Crown Prince Wilhelm and Duchess Cecilie. The East German government used the palace for state receptions and other important meetings. In 1960, part of the castle was turned into a hotel. Today, part of Schloss Cecilienhof still serves as a museum. The hotel is temporarily closed for renovations and expects to reopen in 2018.

Since 1990, Schloss Cecilienhof is part of the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin UNESCO World Heritage Site.

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic or current events, people, places or food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.

Tags: Cecilienhof Palace, Crown Prince Wilhelm, Duchess Cecilia von Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Great Hall, Harry S. Truman, Hohenzollern, Joseph Stalin, Potsdam conference, Schloss Cecilienhof, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Winston Churchill, World War II
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What is affluence?

Monday, November 17th, 2014

“Affluence is having more clocks than time.”

I saw this sign in a clock repair shop in Munich. Somehow it rings true, doesn’t it?

Tags: affluence, clocks, watches
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A Berliner is a Doughnut, myth or fact?

Thursday, November 13th, 2014

The myth persists that President John F. Kennedy said, “I am a doughnut,” when he spoke the famous words,

“All free men, wherever they live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, “Ich bin ein Berliner.”

I stood in the crowd in front of Schoeneberger Rathaus in West Berlin in June of 1963. Let me assure you that none of us in the audience thought for one minute that JFK had misspoken. Here is why:

A Berliner

True, a Berliner Pfannkuchen, in short a Berliner, is a jelly filled and sugar-glazed bakery item, akin to our well-loved doughnut. So far – so good. But, as a long-time US citizen who was born in Berlin, I still respond to the question what area in Germany I originally came from with, “Oh, don’t you know, I am a Berliner.” Same word – different context. I hope no one ever assumes that I like to refer to myself as a doughnut. And John F. Kennedy knew what he was saying as well. In fact, translators who knew the German language very well had written the phrase for him.

When President John F. Kennedy made that statement, “Ich bin ein Berliner” in his speech in West Berlin, his German audience understood without question what his words meant. They meant, “I am a citizen of Berlin.” No one laughed at or misconstrued his words. Instead, the audience understood him to say that America would stand by them in their Cold War battle against the Berlin Wall and a divided Germany.

An American

Let’s take this persistent myth one step further. In Berlin (maybe also in some other German cities), there is another bakery item, called an American. Americans are a little larger and flatter than Berliners (no pun intended). Americans are not jelly filled but are also sugar-glazed. And now the most interesting part – Americans are available with a white sugar glaze or a chocolate sugar glaze and are called light Americans or dark Americans, respectively.

A light "American," Photo by J. Elke Ertle © 2014

Next time you call yourself an American when abroad, aren’t you glad that the rest of the world isn’t wondering whether you are referring to yourself as an US citizen or as a flattened doughnut? So let’s put that stubborn myth to rest once and for all.

Tags: "Ich bin ein Berliner", dark Americans, I am a doughnut, John F. Kennedy, light Americans, West Berlin
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Reunification exuberance turns to gloom

Thursday, November 6th, 2014

Last week, we talked about the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 and the reunification of East and West less than one year later. We also alluded to the financial and social costs that unity would require.

Financial and social costs of reunification

Immediately following reunification, an agency was created to privatize the “people’s property”, the state-owned enterprises in the former East. This agency was called Treuhandanstalt. It soon became clear that the average productivity of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was equal to only one-third of that of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). The profit from privatization that had been expected to come close to DM 600 billion (about €300 billion) fell short by far. In fact, the expected profit turned into an actual deficit of DM 230 billion (€115 billion). That meant that privatization could no longer pay for the needed infrastructure in the new federal states, as had been anticipated. To make matters worse, factories in the former East were so outdated that they had to be closed and/or rebuilt resulting in massive unemployment. With little initial productivity in the East, the population in the former West was forced to bear most of the financial costs of reunification. The population in the former East was forced to bear most of the social costs of reunification. Soon, reunification exuberance turned into gloom on both sides.

Aufbau Ost project.

Then there was the Aufbau Ost project. It consisted for the most part of the construction of infrastructure and telecommunication facilities in the former East, preservation of cultural assets, environmental projects, and the renovation of inner-city residential quarters in Dresden, Leipzig, Chemnitz, and Halle. The initial lack of such assets in the five new federal states resulted in an immediate exodus from east to west. According to a recent statement by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the exodus has finally stopped. But it took 25 years before the population outflow in the new federal states is equal to the population influx.

Today, 25 years after reunification, great progress has been made in the former East, both economically and socially. The worst is over. Still, enormous challenges remain. But the people from East and West are now prepared to face them together.

Tags: Aubau Ost project, German reunification, people's property, privatization, Treuhandanstalt
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German reunification

Thursday, October 30th, 2014

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

At the beginning of 1989 German reunification was on no one’s mind. Hardly anybody in Germany or elsewhere anticipated that the Berlin Wall would disappear in the near future. During the course of the preceding twenty-eight years, the East German government had continually “improved” the Wall. Now, in its forth generation, the Berlin Wall was higher, stronger, and even less surmountable than ever before.

Reunification within one year

On October 7 of the same year, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) celebrated its 40th anniversary. Despite preceding unrest and demonstrations, no one expected it to be the GDR’s last anniversary celebration. But only one year later, on October 3, 1990, the two distinct German states were reunited after forty years of separation. East Germany had collapsed like a house of cards in the space of just a few months, and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) had added five new federal states by accession. They were: Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.

The cost of reunification

Initially, reunification brought forth nothing but exuberance among the people on both sides of the dividing line. East and West Germans assumed that the reunification process could turn into an administrative nightmare, but that it would be a manageable undertaking. But it tuned out that the social and financial costs of reunification were enormous. Within a brief period, people in the East and West were forced to come to terms with their past, present and future without so much as a precedent in history.

Next time, I will discuss some of the problems East and West Germans had to face during the reunification process and for many years thereafter.

Tags: Berlin Wall, cost of reunification, Federal Republic of Germany, German Democratic Republic, German reunification
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Litfass and outdoor advertising

Thursday, October 23rd, 2014

Litfass ends messy advertising

By the mid-1800s, Berlin-born Ernst Litfass was tired of the rampant, untidy advertising and graffiti that had become the norm in his hometown. People routinely hung notices and other materials on walls, doors, fences and trees. It made the city look cluttered and unkempt. In hopes of putting an end to these objectionable practices, the printer and publisher approached city officials with an idea: Litfass proposed the erection of columns throughout the city to which residents would attach their notices and messages.

Litfass gains a monopoly

After years of negotiations, on 5 December 1854, Berlin’s President of Police, Karl Ludwig von Hinkeldey, finally granted permission for Litfass to erect the first of his proposed “advertisement columns.” In fact, the City of Berlin issued him a ten-year monopoly on these columns. In return, Litfass had to agree to also publicize public service announcements. The next year, in 1855, the first 100 columns were erected, bearing the name of their inventor – Litfass Saeulen (Litfass columns). The idea caught on. Both parties to the agreement realized that they benefitted from this new method of advertising: City fathers found that it helped them to censor public information while advertisers could rest assured that their announcements remained visible throughout the rental period without someone obscuring their ads. Ten years later, Litfass had an additional 50 columns erected.

Litfass Saeule in Berlin, Photo by J. Elke Ertle © 2014

Litfass Saeulen become commonplace

Litfass grew rich fast. After his death in Wiesbaden in 1874, the idea of putting up Litfass Saeulen quickly spread to other German cities. Today, the columns can be found in other countries as well. In France, they are named Morris after Gabriel Morris. Morris columns were originally built by La Société Fermière des Colonnes Morris but are built and maintained today by the JCDecaux company. Although Litfass Saeulen are generally used to display advertisements in the form of posters pasted to the column, such as theater, cinema, nightclub, and concert announcements, some are motorized and rotate very slowly. Others serve as vents for underground services; still others are equipped with a hidden door so that the interior can used for storage purposes.

Tags: Ernst Litfass, Gabriel Morris, JCDecaux, Karl Ludwig von Hinkeldey, La Société Fermière Colonnes Morris, Litfass Saeule
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Jesse Owens and the big “snub”

Thursday, October 16th, 2014

Jesse Owens was an American track and field athlete and winner of four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. He was the most successful athlete at the Olympic games and won the 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump and the 4×100 meter relay. Most of my life, I heard it said that Hitler refused to shake Owens’ hand. He snubbed Owens because he was Black. I recently learned that this is only a partial truth.

Did Hitler snub Jesse Owens?

I am not trying to minimize Hitler’s arrogance and mistaken belief in Aryan superiority. According to his chief architect Albert Speer, it is true that Hitler â€œwas highly annoyed by the series of triumphs of the colored American runner, Jesse Owens. People whose ancestors came from the jungle were primitive, Hitler said with a shrug; their physiques were stronger than those of civilized whites and hence should be excluded from future games.” In other words, it is true that Hitler viewed Jesse Owens as racially inferior and, therefore, might very well have snubbed him, but reality apparently played out differently.

Jesse Owens and the 1936 Olympics

Jesse Owens was a true celebrity in Berlin, and the German public received him warmly. On the first day of the Olympics, Hitler shook hands with the German gold medal winners. Cornelius Johnson, another Black American athlete, won the first gold medal for the United States. Hitler left the stadium just before Johnson was to receive the award.There are several speculations relative to the reasons behind Hitler’s departure. In any case, Olympic committee officials prevailed upon Hitler to shake hands with all or none of the winners, and Hitler decided to skip all medal presentations from that day forward. Therefore, technically Hitler shunned Cornelius Johnson rather than Jesse Owens.

Jesse Owens and discrimination in the U.S.

Born in 1913, Jesse Owens was nine years old when his family moved from Alabama to Ohio. His given name was James Cleveland Owens, and he was called “J.C.” But because of his southern accent, J.C.’s new teacher in Ohio thought he had said his name was “Jesse.” And the name Jesse stuck for the rest of his life. Due to racial discrimination, Owens was forced to live off-campus with the other Black American athletes (he attended Ohio State University), eat in “black-only” restaurants, and stay in “black-only” hotels while traveling in the U.S. Following Jesse’s marvelous Olympic triumphs, President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not invite him to the White House. The Black athlete even had the ride the freight elevator at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York to attend his own reception. According to Jeremy Schaap, author of “Triumph: the Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics” Owens later said, “Hitler didn’t snub me, it was FDR who snubbed me. The president didn’t even send me a telegram.”

Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany (Bundesarchiv)

Jesse Owens – finally honored

Neither President Franklin D. Roosevelt nor his successor, Harry S. Truman bestowed honors upon Jesse Owens. In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower named him “Ambassador of Sports.” In 1984, the street leading to the Olympic Stadium in Berlin was renamed in his honor, and in 1990 and 1998, two U.S. postage stamps were issued to honor him.

Tags: 1936 Olympics, Albert Speer, Cornelius Johnson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Franklin D. Roosevent, Harry S. Truman, Hitler, Jeremy Schaap, Jesse Owens
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Love-It-or-Leave-It Sauerkraut

Thursday, October 9th, 2014

Because of my German roots I have been called a “Kraut” a time or two. At first I was surprised. I am not exactly a Sauerkraut-lover. Maybe some Germans are, but in my house Sauerkraut was eaten twice a year at most. And then we did not eat it because it was a family favorite, we ate it–mainly in the winter–because fresh vegetables were difficult to obtain or exorbitantly expensive. Actually, the French and Americans have a higher per-capita consumption of Sauerkraut than the Germans.

What is Sauerkraut?

Simply put, Sauerkraut is fermented cabbage. Traditionally, it is shredded, salted and then left to ferment for 4-6 weeks. During fermentation, microbes produce lactic acid. Enzymes break the cabbage into smaller, more digestible molecules and the lactic acid, which acts as a preservative, kills unwanted organisms. Food manufacturers often heat it and use vinegar in lieu of salt. In that case, we are looking at pickled – not fermented – Sauerkraut.

Sauerkraut – not a German invention

Although the word Sauerkraut is German for “sour cabbage,” the Germans didn’t invent the process. It is thought that laborers building the Great Wall of China over 2,000 years ago began to ferment shredded cabbage in rice wine. Most likely, Genghis Khan introduced the process in Russia sometime in the 13th century. From there, it continued to spread westward. By the 16th century, Germanic tribes began fermenting cabbage. But according to Hans Hermann von Wimpffen, author of “Sauerkraut,” the Alsatians in France, not the Germans, turned fermented cabbage with sausage and bacon into their national dish. Early German and Dutch settlers brought their recipes for Sauerkraut to the Americas.

Sauerkraut with sausage. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Sauerkraut – health effects

Sauerkraut, like other fermented foods like yogurt, pickles, and tempeh, are said to have important health effects. They provide fiber and is a potent source of vitamin C and several B vitamins. Lactic acid improves the intestinal flora and helps break down proteins. The enzymes break molecules into building blocks that can more easily be absorbed and used by the body. The immune system benefits because beneficial microorganisms populate the stomach and prevent harmful organisms from entering. Better health is the all-around result.

My favorite Sauerkraut recipe calls for fried apples, onions and pork sausage.

Tags: fermented foods, great wall of china, Hans Hermann von Wimpffen, Sauerkraut
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A Man Called Martin Luther

Thursday, October 2nd, 2014

Martin Luther, German monk, Catholic priest, and professor of theology was born in 1483 and died in 1546. By questioning some of the basic tenets of the Roman Catholic Church he laid the groundwork for becoming one of the most influential figures in the Protestant Reformation movement.

Martin Luther – early years

Martin Luther was born in the town of Eisleben in southeast Germany, which was part of the Holy Roman Empire at the time. He initially entered the University of Erfurt to pursue a legal career. But at age 22 he had a life-changing experience that set him on a different course. One day, he was caught in a horrendous thunderstorm. A lightening bolt struck near him. Luther cried out to St. Anne, the patron saint of miners, “Save me, St. Anne, and I’ll become a monk!” http://www.biography.com/people/martin-luther-9389283. He was spared and took his promise seriously. He left law school and entered a friary in Erfurt. In 1507, he was ordained to the priesthood, became the dean of the newly founded University of Wittenberg one year later, and was awarded his Doctor of Theology in 1512.

Martin Luther

Martin Luther – his 95 theses

When a papal representative was sent to Germany in 1516 to sell indulgences to raise money to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Luther vehemently objected. Indulgences were grants for good works. They were given by the pope. They could also be purchased by donating money to the church and then be used to temporarily relieve punishment for minor sins. Luther felt this practice was wrong and protested by nailing a sheet of paper on the door of the All Saint’s Church in Wittenberg. The paper contained 95 Theses. Thanks to the newly invented printing press, his theses spread throughout Germany and Europe within weeks and sparked the Reformation. Throughout 2017, Germany celebrates the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s life and theses. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/500th-anniversary-martin-luthers-theses/

Martin Luther – later life

When Martin Luther refused to retract his theses, the Catholic Church excommunicated him in 1921. At age 41, he married the 26-year-old former nun, Katharina von Bora. He devoted his life to organizing the new church. He wrote a German Mass, developed the catechism as a teaching method, translated the New and the Old Testament into German, and wrote numerous hymns. His hymn Vom Himmel hoch da komm’ ich her (From Heaven Above to Earth I Come), based on Luke 2:11-12, is still sung every Christmas season. In his later years, Luther grew increasingly bitter toward several segments of society, particularly Jews and Muslims. According to the prevailing view among historians, the Nazis later incorporated his anti-Jewish rhetoric. He died at the age of 62.

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home pag and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic or current events, people, places or food.

Tags: 95 Theses, Eisleben, Holy Roman Empire, Katharina von Bora, Martin Luther, Protestant Reformation movement, sale of indulgences
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Mr. Volkswagen: Heinrich Nordhoff

Thursday, September 25th, 2014

Heinrich Nordhoff was born in Hildesheim, Germany, in 1899. As a young man in 1930, he left BMW (Bayerische Motorenwerke) to accept an executive position at the competition, the Opel AG. General Motors (GM) had become the majority stakeholder in Opel the year before. During World War II, most of Opel’s factories were shut down. The exception was their truck manufacturing division in Brandenburg, managed for GM by Nordhoff. At the end of the war, the truck division fell into the Russian zone of divided post-war Germany. The plant was dismantled and shipped to Russia. Nordhoff fled to the West. Having been trained by GM, he hoped for a leading position at the newly rebuilt Opel plant in Ruesselheim in the West. But the Americans told him that he would never again build cars. He should consider himself lucky to get a job sweeping the street.

Nordhoff turns to Volkwagen

Until GM had given Nordhoff the cold shoulder he had been completely disinterested in associating himself with the Volkswagen, that “Nazi car.” http://walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/those-tough-little-beetles/.However, when British occupation forces offered him the management of the badly damaged Volkswagen plant in Wolfburg, he accepted. On January 1, 1948, a day before his 50th birthday, he became managing director of Volkswagen. Nordhoff never looked back. During his first year, Volkswagen doubled the production of the Beetle to 20,000 cars. By 1950 they produced 100,000, and by 1955 1 million had been built. Despite his GM training, which subscribed to multi-market marketing, Nordhoff took the opposite approach. He believed in continuous improvement of the car’s underpinnings while retaining the humpback styling. http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-46106820.html

Nordhoff and the American Market

1969 Volkswagen Beetle, Photo © J. Elke Ertle

Within five years after World War II, Nordhoff exported the Beetle to the USA. When he first traveled to New York to promote the car, custom agents just laughed when they took a look at his promotional drawings. They told him that no one in the world would buy a car like that and charged him $30 in fees. The fees were levied because customs rejected Nordhoff’s claim that the drawings were promotional materials. The agents declared them to be art graphics. http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-46106820.html But Nordhoff did not give up. He had come to believe in the Beetle despite the British Officers’ warning that the Beetle “has more flaws than a dog has fleas.” As we know, the Volkswagen Beetle went on to become the symbol of West Germany’s post-World War II Wirtschaftswunder – economic wonder.

The End of the Beetle

By the late sixties, however, the Beetle was getting serious competition from Japanese, American, and other European models. With 15 million sold in 1972, production of the Volkswagen Beetle had exceeded even that of Ford’s Model T. The last Beetle was sold in Mexico in 2003. Visit also http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/those-tough-little-beetles/, http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/volkswagen-when-greed-meets-technology/

Now, Volkswagen is hoping to make a comeback with the production of an all-electric, fully integrated e-generation bus. The vehicle should hit the market by 2022 and is intended to make Volkswagen a worldwide bestseller once again. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/volkswagen-comeback-e-generation-bus/

Tags: Bayrische Motorenwerke, Beetle, General Motors, Heinrich Nordhoff, multi-market marketing, Opel AG, Volkswagen, Wirtschaftswunder
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Archive for the ‘Tête-à-Tête’ Category

Schloss Cecilienhof – Cecilienhof Palace

Schloss Cecilienhof’s Pre-1945 History

Schloss Cecilienhof and the Potsdam Conference

Schloss Cecilienhof’s Post-1945 History

What is affluence?

A Berliner is a Doughnut, myth or fact?

A Berliner

An American

Reunification exuberance turns to gloom

Financial and social costs of reunification

Aufbau Ost project.

German reunification

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

Reunification within one year

The cost of reunification

Litfass and outdoor advertising

Litfass ends messy advertising

Litfass gains a monopoly

Litfass Saeulen become commonplace

Jesse Owens and the big “snub”

Did Hitler snub Jesse Owens?

Jesse Owens and the 1936 Olympics

Jesse Owens and discrimination in the U.S.

Jesse Owens – finally honored

Love-It-or-Leave-It Sauerkraut

What is Sauerkraut?

Sauerkraut – not a German invention

Sauerkraut – health effects

A Man Called Martin Luther

Martin Luther – early years

Martin Luther – his 95 theses

Martin Luther – later life

Mr. Volkswagen: Heinrich Nordhoff

Nordhoff turns to Volkwagen

Nordhoff and the American Market

The End of the Beetle

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