Hiking Tour on German Unity Day (3rd of October)
with Walter Kolb, the FMG,
and the American Students to the Rappenecker Hut in the Black Forest
This year quite a number of AYF-stundent
participated in the hiking tour on German Unity Day.
The path behind going up leads to the Rappenecker Hut on the other
side of the mountain
Walter Kolb talking to a skeptical crowd of
students in front
of our starting place the Leopoldstollen (Leopold's mine) pointing to
the remainig silver in the ground
FMG President Toni Schlegel and committee member
Dr. Renate Schulz-Weiling enjoying the Altweibersommer (Indian summer)
Following the meal at the Rapperecker Hut Walter
Kolb recited among other poems a jeer written in September 2008 at a
time when the
financial crises had peeked. The author is Richard Kerschhofer, an
Austrian.
For those who read German: Nothing has changed since then.
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Wenn die Börsenkurse fallen,
regt sich Kummer fast bei allen,
aber manche blühen auf:
Ihr Rezept heißt Leerverkauf.
Keck verhökern diese Knaben
Dinge, die sie gar nicht haben,
treten selbst den Absturz los,
den sie brauchen - echt famos!
Leichter noch bei solchen Taten
tun sie sich mit Derivaten:
Wenn Papier den Wert frisiert,
wird die Wirkung potenziert.
Wenn in Folge Banken krachen,
haben Sparer nichts zu lachen,
und die Hypothek aufs Haus
heißt,
Bewohner müssen raus.
Trifft's hingegen große Banken,
kommt die ganze Welt ins Wanken
- auch die Spekulantenbrut
zittert jetzt um Hab und Gut! |
Soll man das System gefährden?
Da muss eingeschritten werden:
Der Gewinn, der bleibt privat,
die Verluste kauft der Staat.
Dazu braucht der Staat Kredite,
und das bringt erneut Profite,
hat man doch in jenem Land
die Regierung in der Hand.
Für die Zechen dieser Frechen
hat der Kleine Mann zu blechen
und - das ist das Feine ja
- nicht nur in Amerika!
Und wenn Kurse wieder steigen,
fängt von vorne an der Reigen
- ist halt Umverteilung pur,
stets in eine Richtung nur.
Aber sollten sich die Massen
das mal nimmer bieten lassen,
ist der Ausweg längst bedacht:
Dann wird bisschen Krieg gemacht. |
On our way back:
Happy cows* pasturing in the
beautiful Black Forest
* in Madison too
Reception for the Students of the Academic Year in
Freiburg 2011/2012
at the Greiffenegg-Schlössle
FMG President Toni Schlegel and Vicepresident
Frauke Feix greet the students at the Greiffenegg Schlössle
Jokes in the welcome speech draw smiles on
Professor Puff's and the students's faces
The AYF 2011/2012 students and Ulli Struve smiling.
They are nearly missing the sunset over the Vosges in the back.
FMG's honorary member Mrs. Weber sitting together
with Mrs. Herr
Toni Schlegel and Resident Director Professor Puff
are in high spirits
A Touch of Harvard
In today’s Badische Zeitung I read that Freiburg’s University
Albertina-Luduvica will collaborate with Ivy League Harvard University.
Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust and Freiburg’s Rektor Hans-Jochen
Schiever signed an agreement for an Harvard Europe Program starting
already in January 2012. Twenty US-students will cross the Atlantic with their
professor for 6 months and explore how Europe comes to grips with the
modern world. It sounds similar to the Freiburg-Madison student
exchange program, however the agreement stipulates that during the
period the teaching hole left in Harvard will be filled with a professor
from Freiburg.
Did I anticipate all this when I visited Cambridge last February and
took the photo of John Havard’s monument?
4th of July Party
Yesterday, the 2nd of July, Freiburg's American
community celebrated the 4th of July at
the sunny Ganter beergarden.
For a personal reflections on the change of dates you may like to read
my Blog. The Carl-Schurz-Haus had arranged the party:
For this year’s celebration of the 235th
Independence Day we will come together with friends from around the
globe. Let’s fire up the grill, have some drinks, enjoy live music with
the “Tootles”, watch the US-women’s soccer team play Columbia in the
World Championship, and discuss women’s sports with young people from
here and elsewhere.
The beergarden sounded, looked, and smelled
American. It was not only the language spoken but a small band of
teenage kids swung jazzy sounds. Of those teenies the tiny tuba player
seen on the photo below made the greatest
impression when he took a riff on the American Jazz classic Melon
Man. As far as the eyes are concerned the star spangled banner was
seen and the place was decorated all in red, white, and blue. As for the smell we had spare ribs, hot dogs, and French
fries only the beer was local German.
Topping all of it: the American female soccer team won their
match against Columbia. Congratulations girls!
6th International Meeting of Freiburg's Partner
Cities, a post mortem
No, the Meeting of Freiburg's Partner Cities is
not dead. It will continue, however not
in 2012. The next edition is planned for 2013 coinciding with the 50th
anniversary of Freiburg's partnership with Innsbruck, Austria. My
personal speculation for not having the jamboree next year is possibly the
overstretching of the city’s resources including its finances due to the
Pope's visit in September this year.
Yesterday Ariane Hoetzer, the city's charming
ambassador for the relation
with its sister cities, had called in the representatives of the
relevant partner committees into the Rathaus for a post mortem. The
general feeling was that this year’s meeting was an even better success
than the one a year ago. I do not want to bore you with all the details
brought up during the discussion but rather brief you on some
of the highlights.
The serving of soups has turned out to be the
greatest success and sparked ideas for an even greater serve next time.
The more than 500 Euros earned went to the earthquake-tsunami victims in
Japan. The artistic performances in the Festzelt (tent) drew big crowds
whereas the presentations of Freiburg’s partner city committees lacked
attendance. I suggested to sandwich the latter between two stage
performances in the future such that the crowd will stay on to listen
to the advertising.
My only critique concerned the attribution of
space in general and for the Madison booth in particular. I requested
more transparency in the future with respect to the allocation of
tables.
One guy suggested mentioning Madison that national flags shouldn't be
flown since only partner cities were at the exhibition. I retorted that
he was completely mistaken for we hadn't hoisted the flag but rather
used the star spangled banner as a decorative eye catcher and surely
would like to continue such practice. The others of the participants
fully supported my view when I added that we Germans out of bad
historical experience shouldn't start a new quarreling about flags
(Flaggenstreit).
There was a general regret that a photo of all those who had served
so devotedly during the three days hadn’t been taken. I consider the
Freiburg-Madison staff to be well represented on this web page (see
below) and would again like to express my personal thanks to all our
friends from Madison and the students of the Academic
Year in Freiburg (AYF) who came to help us
during the International Meeting.
ALDI's 4th of July
It has become a tradition: in time for the 4th of July discounter
ALDI sells American food products although mostly made in Germany. You
wouldn't assume that chocolate and blueberry muffins, chocolate and
walnut brownies, scones, blueberry and cranberry cookies, pre-prepared
pancakes, bagels, barbecue and sandwich sauces, cucumber, roasted
onions, spare ribs, hot dogs, ketchup, and mustard are flown in from the
States? The permanently available ice cream is simply relabelled with
American symbols. On the other hand who knows how to make jelly beans
and marshmallows ready for barbecueing here in Europe that are sold at ALDI's?
Anyway, we are all set to celebrate America's national holdiday
decently. Here in Freiburg we have a party already on the 2nd of July
although drinking local beer at the Ganter beergarden instead of
Budwiser.
A few American food products like popcorn and peanut butter (creamy or
crunchy) ALDI sells throughout the year. Also Burlwood Californian wine
for all tastes from white to red produced and bottled at E. & J. Gallo
Winter's winery you'll find at ALDI's permanently:
a 2010 Chardonnay, a 2010 Grenache rosé, and
a 2009 Zinfandel.
Do they really ship the labelled bottles from
California to Germany for a selling price of just Euro 2.99? How many US cents
does vinter Winter get for his product?
An Encounter of the Third Kind
 This
is no news from Freiburg but from
Murten,
a most beautiful town in Switzerland located on a Lake with the same
name and on the language barrier between the Swiss-German and the French
speaking parts of the country. Frauke, her husband Günter and myself had
just stepped off the bus for a visit of and a lunch break in Murten when
suddenly we spotted some Swiss guy in a local outfit ready to do his
yodeling.
Our hearts stood still, no this was no Swiss, it was
our beloved friend Ken Schneider from Madison Wisconsin! Our meeting in
the middle of Switzerland should have been impossible. Frauke, Günter
and myself were on our way back from a visit to
CERN,
Geneva with
Freiburg's Museumsgesellschaft and here is Ken with his bus on the
same parking lot at the same time in Murten with his Yodel Club ready
to show the Swiss all the tricks of the trade. This is just too
impossible to be a real encounter!
On 18 June the Freiburg-Madison Gesellschaft welcomed
10 of 17 students (some hadn't arrived yet) from the University of
Madison who have come to Freiburg to live their "Green Summer"
sustainable experience. The students are companied
by Professor Elisabeth Tyron. After a guided tour that concentrated on
some of Freiburg's historical highlights the FMG invited them for
"restauration" at Toni's place.
Beth's students
enjoyed Wiener Schnitzel, Weißwurst and Ganter Pils
Unpolitely the
photographer caught Professor Tyron in the act of eating Weißwurst,
Bretzel and sweet mustard
while some students keep digging into their food and others smile
6th
International Meeting of Freiburg's Partner Cities
The 6th International Meeting of Freiburg's Partner Cities
took place at the Rathausplatz from 26 to 28 May 2011. This year we had the
active participation of four Madisonians helping us to promote the
friendship between our cities: Eric and Peter Lewandowski, Charles James
and last not least
Stephanie Ziebarth. In
addition students from Madison of the Academic Year 2010/2011 in Freiburg
(AYF)
supported our activities around the Madison booth:
Eric. Charles and
Peter just arrived and unpacked their material for the booth
With George von
Savigny and myself trying to help we eventually found ourselves
overstaffed
Suddenly a well
known face appeared. Mike von Schneidemesser on his bicycle trip through Germany had made a
stoppover in Freiburg and met students Janelle and
Sabine as well as FMG Committee member Georg von Savigny at the booth©Afislander
Justin, Mat and
Eric.The AYF students and of course Eric were a great help
_w.jpg)
AYF Resident
Director Jim Steakley was welcomed by his students Sabine and Kat with
FMG Committee member Freddie Meier hiding behind a set of photos
©RT
Charles, Peter
and Eric visit the photo exhibition illustrating the historical
development of Freiburg's partner cities. Two wear the brand new poloshirt with
the Freiburg-Madison logo
Wearing the "WIS
14 fighting" T-shirt, holding Freiburg-Madison Gesellschaft (MFG) flyers
in my hand and even sporting a "green" pencil I tried to convice a small
audience in front of the tent to become members of our society. While
Stephanie smiles at my efforts AYF student Steffi waves to the non
existing crowd and Eric is looking sceptical
©Afislander
Also Charles
worked hard to convince the Freiburgers to join the FMG
with Steffi and Eric admiring his charming allocution in
a perfect German
©Afislander
Freiburg's Lord Mayor Dr. Dieter
Salomon visiting the Madison booth. Standing with their backs to the camera FMG board
members Frauke Feix and Georg von Savigny with AYF student Emily joining
in the discussion
©CJ
Back at the
booth: Stephanie, Peter and Barbara side by side. Peter uses his German on a potential FMG member holding
already the FMG flyer in her hand
while Charles takes a well deserved rest in the back
Note 1: If you have better photos please forward them
with your copyright for publication on this webpage to
mhoefert@t-online.de
Note 2: For photos of the visit of the honorable US
Consul General Edward M. Alford at the Greiffenegg tune to the
German page
Traditional 1st of May
Hiking Tour with Walter Kolb, the FMG,
the Circle of Business Juniors and the Students from Madison
Walking around the Schönberg
11:30 a.m.: Our meeting place is the terminus of
streetcar number 3 „Innsbruckerstraße“ in Vauban
Listening to our guide Walter Kolb and
Dr. Hein - the man watching that Freiburg doesn't lose
its traditional
charm - during a
short stop at the Jesuitenschlössle
Old and young walk in the
direction of the Schönberg with impressive views on the Rhine valley
and the Vosges.
The “Schönberger Hof”
greets all the AYF student power for a small lunch in the beer
garden
(around 12:30 p.m.).
In the afternnoon we returned to the streetcar stop
from where we started. The total walking distance was 7.5
km, the difference in height 150 m.
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