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Corner hugging Nante – Eckensteher Nante

Thursday, June 4th, 2015

“Corner hugging Nante (Eckensteher Nante in German),” along with painter Heinrich Zille (http://walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/heinrich-zille-and-his-milieu/) and street singer “Harfenjule”, were Berlin archetypes of the 19th and early 20th century. Each is credited with a good dose of the legendary spirit, so unique to the Berliner character: Big heart and big mouth. These Berlin originals were good-natured, quick-witted, exceedingly self-confident, flippant, and sometimes even a little coarse. They came from all walks of life and commented on life around them with the appropriate joke. The figure of Nante became a timeless classic on account of Adolf Glassbrenner’s folksy theater piece, “Eckensteher Nante im Verhoer (The Interrogation of Corner hugging Nante), which premiered in 1833.

Corner hugging Nante

The real name of the historic Eckensteher Nante was Ferdinand ‘Nante’ Strumpf. He was born in 1803, had little education and performed casual work when he ran out of beer money. Once he had earned enough change, he headed for the nearby distillery Eulner. http://www.in-berlin-brandenburg.com/Berliner/Eckensteher-Nante.html It is said that Corner hugging Nante spent more time in the distillery than at work. To earn beer money, Nante positioned himself on Berlin’s ritzy boulevard, Unter den Linden (then called Koenigstrasse – King Street) and waited for an opportunity to make himself useful. He always stood in the same spot at the corner of Koenigstrasse and Neue Friedrichstrasse. With a strap slung over his shoulder to carry heavy loads, Nante usually stood resting against a post or house wall. For a few pennies, he offered to carry the purchases or luggage of well-to-do passers-by. But don’t think that Corner hugging Nante was loitering. Not at all. He was duly registered as a serviceman with the Berlin police department and wore an official brass armband that identified him as work permit holder number 22. Standing there, waiting, Nante made fun of the world around him. With typical Prussian humor, he commented on the hustle and bustle on the streets of Berlin. His earthy sayings were characterized by sarcasm, a distrust of “those above” and delivered in the grammatical style that is unique to Berlin. Over time, his cheeky proverbs became literary legend.

The archetype of the Berliner

According to “Meyers Konversations-Lexikon des 19. Jahrhunderts” 37 percent of the inhabitants of Berlin during Nante’s time had Germanic origins, 39 percent had Romanesque roots and 24 percent had Slavic blood. This mix and the prevailing circumstances evolved over time into an archetype that pooled the good and the bad qualities of the different nationalities, races and tribes. It resulted in a character that combined the toughness, endurance and obstinacy of their Germanic ancestors; the courage, laissez-faire spirit and hot-bloodedness of the French; and the quick grasp, language skills and moodiness of the Slavs. This mix made the Berliner good-natured and capable of great sacrifices. It also made him short-tempered and opinionated. Above all, it spawned the dry Berlin humor.

Nante Eck

If you wish to catch a bit of the spirit of Eckensteher Nante, drop by the Nante Eck on Unter den Linden at the corner of Friedrichstrasse. This Old-Berlin Restaurant serves traditional German food and offers plenty of ambiance. A statue of Corner hugging Nante greets you outside.

Eckensteher Nante (Corner hugging Nante) in front of Nante Eck, Berlin
© Photo by J. Elke Ertle, 2014

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 and current events, people, places and 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: Adolf Glasbrenner, Berlin, Cornerhugging Nante, Distillery Eulner, Eckensteher Nante, Ferdinand 'Nante' Strumpf, Friedrichstrasse, Heinrich Zille, history, Nante Eck, tart, Unter den Linden
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Value versus price

Monday, June 1st, 2015

The setting of a gemstone increases its price, not its value.

Ludwig Boerne

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 the home page of http://www.walled-in-berlin.com. Walled-In is a story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War.

Tags: cost, gems, price, value, wisdom
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Leipzig Lark – A Tart With a History

Thursday, May 28th, 2015

During a recent visit of the 1000-year-old city of Leipzig, I stopped by a cafe one afternoon. When travelling, I enjoy giving unfamiliar delicacies a try. This time, I spotted a tray of unusual-looking pastries in the window of Cafe Kandler, located across from the St. Thomas church. Leipziger Lerchen (Leipzig Larks), the sign read. Of course, I had to try one.

Leipziger Lerche, Cafe Kandler © Photo by J. Elke Ertle

Leipziger Lerche, Cafe Kandler, Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2014

What is a Leipzig Lark?

At first glance, a Leipzig Lark vaguely resembles a cupcake, but it really is a marzipan-filled shortcrust tart. The small pastry is then topped with two crossed strips of dough. But it is the story behind this treat that intrigued me.

History of the Leipzig Lark

Larks, the songbirds, are 5-7 inches long and can be found across much of Europe. They are streaked brown above and pale below and have a short, blunt, erectile crest. They live in open habitats and sing in flight. In the 18th century, local Leipzig merchants hunted these little birds and sold them to the wealthy who plugged, roasted and ate them with herbs and eggs. Boxes of bird carcasses were also shipped around the continent, from Spain in the southwest to Moscow in the northeast. The Leipzig Lark quickly became a culinary specialty of the city and business boomed.

The practice of hunting for larks became so prominent that over 400,000 specimens were killed in one month – October 1720 – alone. Nature lovers began to condemn the practice and tried to stop it in order to preserve the species. It took more than 100 years, but aided by a devastating storm that killed thousands of the birds, nature lovers finally prevailed. In 1876, King Albert of Saxony forbade lark hunting. Business in Leipzig suffered. A substitute had to be found.

An astute baker saved the day when he created a sweet treat that was visually vaguely reminiscent of the stuffed bird. He came up with a marzipan-filled shortcrust tart, made from pastry dough and ground almonds. By placing two strips of dough across the top of the tart, he tried to simulate the string that tied the stuffed body of the lark together. At last, the baker placed a cherry inside the confection to represent the heart of the bird. And so, the Leipzig Lark was born. It quickly replaced the traditional meat delicacy in popularity.

Surprise your friends

It only takes about 30 minutes to create a handful of Leipzig Larks, using ordinary muffin cups. If you allow an additional hour to allow the batter to rest, voila, you have your own assortment of Leipzig Larks. For recipe suggestions, visit http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/537781150886330/Leipziger-Lerchen.html.

Tags: Cafe Kandler, King Albert of Saxony, Leipzig Lark, Leipziger Lerche, marzipan-filled pastry, St. Thomas Church, tart
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Our face at different stages of life

Monday, May 25th, 2015

At 20 everyone has the face that God gave them.

At 40 everyone has the face that life gave them.

At 60 everyone has the face that they deserve.

Albert Schweitzer

Tags: deserve, discovery, face, God, life
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Heinrich Zille and his milieu

Thursday, May 21st, 2015

Heinrich Zille was a German illustrator and photographer and one of the most famous Berliners of the first half of the 20th century. He was best known for his tongue in cheek portrayals of Berlin’s working class. He sketched during the late 1900s and into the roaring 1920s. At that time, a great majority of the city’s population (96%) rented. http://www.focus.de/kultur/buecher/literatur-heinrich-zille-als-fotograf-das-alte-berlin_id_4374447.html

Workers’ lived in Mietskasernen

Berlin grew rapidly during the industrial revolution. In search of prosperity, scores of people moved from the countryside to the cities between 1860 and 1914. Unfortunately, the move often pushed them into even deeper poverty. Although menial work was available in Berlin, housing was extremely difficult to find. Many of these transplants ended up living in deplorable conditions. The most common accommodation was a one-room apartment in a Mietskaserne (tenement barracks). These barracks were five stories high and had front, rear, and cross buildings surrounding several courtyards. The relative posh front building housed the middle class. The working class occupied all of the back buildings. These structures in the rear might consist of three to eight building groups, separated by small rectangular courtyards. The courtyards were only large enough to allow for a fire truck to turn around. Entire families lived in a few square feet and under conditions that seem unimaginable today. Many lived in damp basements, attics and spaces under stairs. The windows of lower-level apartments were often blocked by courtyard businesses. Many shift workers shared a room and the same bed. Some of the buildings housed as many as 3,000 individuals (20% of the apartments did not have running water, 34% did not have a toilet and 72% did not have a bathroom). Stoves burning charcoal briquettes provided the heat. http://www.hufeisensiedlung.info/geschichte/stadtgeschichte/bevoelkerungswachstum-und-mietskasernen.html

Heinrich Zille sketches his milieu

Heinrich Zille sketched the social settings in which the Berlin working class went about their everyday business. Because he sketched the unpleasant and often hopeless conditions of the common worker, German Emperor Wilhelm II referred to Heinrich Zille as a “gutter artist.”

Zille’s milieu could be found in the courtyards of tenement buildings, in the back alleys and in seedy bars. His illustrations showed children, ragged and unwashed, dirty and with bloody noses. He sketched the dark entrances of the tenements, the hanky-panky in courtyards and stairwells and families at weekly markets. He sketched kids playing in mud, basement businesses with signs “Buying rags and bones” and mothers ready to drown themselves to escape their hopeless life.

Heinrich Zille’s “Blumenerde” – potting soil – (reproduction, part of the Axel Springer collection and presented to customers of the Berliner Morgenpost)

Many of Heinrich Zille’s works can be seen at the Zille Museum in Berlin’s Nikolai Quarter of Berlin, Provost Strasse 11.

Tags: Emperor Wilhelm II, Heinrich Zille, industrial revolution, Mietskaserne, milieu, tenement barracks, working class, Zille Museum
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Learning is like rowing against the tide

Monday, May 18th, 2015

Learning is like rowing against the tide. As soon as we stop we drift back.

Benjamin Britten

Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2014

Tags: drifting, forward, learning, motivation, tide
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Chemnitz Petrified Forest

Thursday, May 14th, 2015

I discovered the Chemnitz Petrified Forest in the courtyard of the Chemnitz Cultural Center when I visited Chemnitz, Germany, last fall. The city is located in Saxony, a state in the central region of Germany. In its 1,000-plus-year history, Saxony has been a medieval duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, a kingdom and twice a republic. At the end of World War II, U.S. troops conquered the western part of Saxony, where Chemnitz is located, but later handed it to the Soviets in accordance to the Potsdam Agreement. Chemnitz became part of East Germany and was renamed Karl-Marx-Stadt in 1953. In 1990, when the two Germanys reunited, Chemnitz returned to its original name.

Specimens of the Chemnitz Petrified Forest on exhibit in the Chemnitz Cultural Center - Photo by J. Elke Ertle © 2014

Chemnitz Cultural Center – DAStietz

Specimens from the Chemnitz Petrified Forest are on exhibit in the courtyard of the Chemnitz Cultural Center, named “DAStietz”. In 1913, architect Wilhelm Kreis constructed the building in 1913 for the Tietz family. It served as a large and modern department store and was knows as Kaufhaus Tietz (Department Store Tietz). Because the Tietz family was Jewish, the Nazis closed the store during the pogroms of 1938. In 1945 the building suffered serious damage and was not reconstructed until the 1960s. It reopened as a people-owned department store under the name Zentrum in 1963. In the 1990s, after German reunification, the Kaufhof chain acquired the building and turned it into a shopping center. But when a new department stored opened nearby, the original building was turned into a cultural center. Following extensive renovation, the building reopened in 2004 as “DAStietz”, Along with shops, it now houses the Chemnitz Municipal Library, the Chemnitz Community College, the Museum for Natural History, the New Saxon Gallery and the Chemnitz Petrified Forest.

What is petrified wood

Petrified wood is a fossil wood that is preserved due to a lack of oxygen. Minerals replace the original organic materials. The original structure of the wood remains. The process occurs while the wood is buried under sediment. Over time, water flows through the sediment and deposits minerals in the plant’s cells. As the organic material decays, a stone mold forms in its place.

How the Chemnitz Petrified Forest formed

The Chemnitz Petrified Forest formed as a result of an eruption of a volcano in the Zeisigwald, a large wooded area northeast of the city. The blast uprooted and snapped off the primeval tree ferns and horsetails. Hot tephra (fragments of volcanic rock and lava) covered the tree-like trunks. Fossilization occurred over the millions of years that followed. Although the event occurred about 291 million years ago, the petrified fossils were not discovered until 1737. https://www.tu-chemnitz.de/uk/pressestelle/aktuell/1/5538/en

Tags: Centrum, Chemnitz, Chemnitz Cultural Center, Chemnitz Petrified Forest, DASTietz, Karl-Marx-Stadt, Kaufhaus Tietz, Kaufhof, petrified wood, Wilhelm Kreis
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On the practice of education

Monday, May 11th, 2015

If we practiced medicine like we practice education, we’d look for the liver on the right side and left side in alternative years.

–Alfred Kazin

Tags: education, medicine
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Two Plus Four Treaty

Thursday, May 7th, 2015

The Two Plus Four Treaty (Zwei-Plus-Vier-Vertrag) is an agreement between the TWO post-World War II German states and the FOUR victorious Allied powers. The two German states in the agreement refer to the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The four victorious powers referred to the four occupying Allies: the United States of America, The United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union.

Effective date of the Two Plus Four Treaty

Representatives from each of the six countries signed the Treaty on the final settlement with respect to Germany. It was signed in Moscow on 12 September 1990. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/genscher-detoxifier-of-east-west-relations/ In a joint declaration the Four Allied Powers renounced their rights and responsibilities relative to Germany on 1 October 1990. Two days later, on 3 October 1990, the German Democratic Republic acceded to the Federal Republic of Germany. While the newly united Germany and the three western powers speedily ratified the Treaty, Moscow took its time. The Soviet Ambassador finally presented the German Foreign Minister with the instrument of ratification in March of 1991. Only then did the Two Plus Four Treaty go into effect. https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/politics/development-dialogue/25th-anniversary-of-the-two-plus-four-treaty https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/politics/germany-europe/two-plus-four-treaty

Terms of the Two Plus Four Treaty

Under the terms of the treaty,

(1) The Four Allied Powers renounced all rights in Germany, including those relative to the city of Berlin. The Allies returned full sovereignty to the reunited Germany.

(2) The treaty stipulated the withdrawal of Soviet troops from East Germany by the end of 1994.

(3) Germany agreed to limit its combined Armed Forces personnel to no more than 370,000. Germany further agreed to use military force only in accordance with the United Nations Charter and to continue to abide by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

(4) Germany confirmed to abide by the internationally recognized border with Poland and gave up any future claims to territory that had been part of Germany before 1945.

Tags: Two Plus Four Treaty, Zwei-Plus-Vier-Vertrag
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polishing your reputation

Monday, May 4th, 2015

If you spend too much time polishing your reputation, your character will become tarnished.

–Anonymous

Tags: character, reputation
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