Friday Shuffle - Swing and Sway Edition

Oops! You caught me. I was absolutely not paying attention and didn't realize how late in the evening it is. Y'all were expecting a shuffle and I was busy listening out the window to the folks on the street coming from the beer tent that's set up at the end of our block. That only means one thing - it's Pentecost weekend and that means it's Magdeburg's annual Stadtfest - city festival.

I look forward to Stadtfest every year. It's a bit like the Christmas market without all the Christmassy thing so it satisfies me until the actual Christmas market opens. There are shows on various stages spread around the downtown area where I live. There are rides and sale stands and of course lots and lots of yummy food that you probably shouldn't eat but do anyway because it's a festival, dang it all! I believe the root of the word "festival" is Latin and means "eat lots o' crap". And of course the Stadtfest wouldn't be complete without the beer tent - an enormous tent set up with tables and benches where folks gather to drink beer, eat more junk and listen to an enormous amount of German Volksmusik from a band from Bavaria. Music that's so hokey and ridiculous sounding when you first enter the tent but becomes fabulous and you find yourself clapping along or linking arms and swaying with your seatmates as you drink more and more beer. For years the beer tent's location would change. Some years it was down near the cathedral. Some years it was down by the river. Finally they figured out where it worked best and as luck would have it, the place it works best is at the end of my block. Just a few hundred meters walk and I'm there. Even better, just a few hundred meters walk and I'm back home to a clean bathroom.

How much one enjoys the Stadtfest depends a lot on how the weather is. The worst thunderstorm I've ever seen since I've lived here occurred when I was at the Stadtfest. One minute it was a warm, muggy late afternoon and the next minute the winds howled, the clouds puked rain and I was in fear of being electrocuted or having a tree limb whack me on the head. Three years ago when my sister and her family were visiting it was dreadfully damp and much too cool. It didn't slow us down any though. We hung out in the beer tent and drank and sang and laughed. It was the year when the band played "My Way" and my sister gave us a stunning (read: drunken) vocal interpretation of that song. I wish my sister remembered it because it's burned into my brain. I've never seen her so uninhibited but that's what happens when you're a little plowed and you're in a country where you don't live.

It's supposed to be somewhat warm this weekend - in the upper 60's - and hopefully not rainy so we're planning on getting Burkhard outside and down the street to the Stadtfest. We'll weave our way through the crowds, maybe watch a stage show or two, get some junk to eat and then we'll make our way to the beer tent. 'Cause it just ain't Stadtfest unless you hear the music.

Speaking of - let's shuffle.

1. Hungry Heart - Bruce Springsteen
2. Hidden Shame - Elvis Costello
3. Kiss And Tell - Alexander Rybak
4. That Look You Give That Guy - Eels
5. Build Me Up Buttercup - The Foundations
   
6. C'mon C'mon - Von Bondies
7. For What It's Worth - Placebo
8. Come And Get Your Love - Redbone
9. Cruel To Be Kind - Nick Lowe
10. She's A Rainbow - The Rolling Stones
    

Friday Shuffle - 800 Years Edition

I love Magdeburg's cathedral. It sits in the middle of the city and Magdeburg is so flat that regardless of what direction you enter the city you can see it.

Today at the cathedral was the beginning of months of scheduled celebrations to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the laying of its cornerstone. On the same spot was originally an abbey built of wood which later became the city's cathedral but it was destroyed in a fire in 1207. Two years later in 1209 they began to rebuild the cathedral and it took about 300 years to complete.

In the summer when it's horribly hot outside it's lovely to go into the cathedral. The walls are all thick stone and it's always cool inside and I always feel comforted when I'm there, regardless of the time of year. There's a new pipe organ - the original had been completely destroyed during the 1945 bombing of Magdeburg - that's absolutely gorgeous. The baptismal font is huge - I understand it likely was originally to be a fountain or was a fountain - and is said to be thousands of years old. In one corner of the cathedral is an Ehrenmal - an honor memorial - that depicts the sadness and misery of war and candles for peace are lit at its base. The graves of Holy Roman Emperor Otto I and his first wife, Editha are there. And one of my favorite things at the cathedral is outside of the north entrance to the transept - the sculptures of the ten virgins from the Bible - five wise virgins who are smiling and happy because they brought their lamp oil to the wedding and five foolish virgins who are miserable and crying because they didn't bring their oil and have to miss the wedding feast. Their expressions are so compelling and I could study them for hours.

Over the centuries the cathedral has seen many changes and uses. Originally it was a Catholic cathedral but years after Martin Luther preached at other churches in Magdeburg, the priests at the cathedral coverted to Protestantism and it's still a Protestant cathedral. During the Thirty Years War the virtually only survivors of the slaughter of Magdeburg in 1631 were the the 4000 people who hid out in the cathedral and survived because the head priest of the cathedral, on his knees, begged General Tilly for the people to be spared. For a while the cathedral was used as a fortress and even for a time as a horse barn and sheep pen. It's been looted, had all it's windows smashed, been bombed and caught on fire, but 800 years after its construction began, it's still there. The renovation and repair of the cathedral is almost unending. I moved to Magdeburg in late 1997 and it wasn't until a couple months ago that I had ever seen the cathedral without one or the other of its towers covered in scaffolding.

And its bells. They're named Susanne, Apostolica and Dominica. I love their voices and if I happen to be close enough at noontime to hear them ring I pause what I'm doing until they stop.

During the time that Magdeburg was part of East Germany, most people here weren't religious but it never stopped the cathedral from being the heart of the city. It was a natural meeting place for folks to gather in 1989 to begin the Monday protest marches that were so instrumental in the demise of communism in East Germany. I think for a lot of people in Magdeburg the cathedral is their favorite building in the city and when they've been away for a while they get a feeling of being home again when they can see its towers in the distance. Even when I am in my flat I like to stand out on my balcony and look southward and see the cathedral. It gives me a feeling of being home even though my home is really thousands of miles away.

Let's shuffle.

1. Here In The Real World - Alan Jackson
2. Morning Star - Blackmore's Night
3. There Are No Goodbyes - Sophia
4. I Want You Now - The Feeling
   
5. I Wanna - The All-American Rejects
6. Spring Released - Grant-Lee Phillips
7. In The Mood - Glenn Miller Orchestra
8. Cecilia - Simon & Garfunkel
9. You Wanted More - Tonic
10. Spanish Flea - Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass

Have a great weekend. Go somewhere you love to be.

Ugly Building, Beautiful Sentiment

So what's on your agenda for the weekend? I've got to finish knitting a sock, do a bit of housework, bake a cake for my birthday on Monday and I'll be participating in a march against fascists. A convenient one too as the march will literally pass by my flat.

The view from my balcony isn't the best, mostly because across the street there's a truly hideous abandoned building. It was a once an office building for the city's school system but now it serves its function as being an eyesore. This building is the finest in East German boring, we're-interested-in-function-only design but right now I think it looks terrific.



In the windows are photographs of ordinary citizens of the city and the sign above them says Magdeburg zeigt Gesicht gegen Nazis! (Magdeburg shows its face against Nazis!). Below the photographs are the corporate sponsors of this project. Often times words like "Neo-Nazi" or "right wing extremists" are used to describe fascists but in this case there's no mincing of words. They mean Nazis and they're going to call them by their rightful name.

It's not a secret that the former East Germany has become a gathering point for fascists. High unemployment and disaffected young people make for easy pickings for those pushing their extremist agendas and while they're a minority, they still shout pretty loudly. They like to use the of the January 16th, 1945 anniversary bombing of Magdeburg, not as a way to remember those lost that night or speak of the horrors of war but to march and spread their message of intolerance and blame the ills of the world on those who aren't like them.

This year the city has planned for January 17th a day for all those who are tired of these shrill extremist voices. To protest their message of hate and and intolerance. There will be a pro-democracy march through the city in which all will be encouraged to participate. Afterward there will be all sorts of events - musical performances, skits, speeches, even vendors. The message is that Magdeburg is our city and we're not going to be frightened indoors by those who want to take us back in time seventy years. It's a bit of a mix between a civil protest and a carnival but the idea is to make supporting democracy and freedom a happy event.

This won't the first anti-Nazi protest in which I've participated. I've been to other counter demonstrations and shouted Nazis raus! (Nazis get out!) until I could no longer speak. I was glad for my participation but this time I feel more positive about taking part. This time there's the feeling that the city and its citizens and businesses are joining together for a common cause and banding together to stop hate.

City Bells

It started with the deep, bass tones of the cathedral bells and then slowly the other bells chimed in. At 9:28pm all the church bells in the city were rung to commemorate the destruction of Magdeburg in the bombing of January 16, 1945.

I normally love to hear the church bells ring. I live near a lot of churches and I hear them throughout the day striking the hour and calling worshipers to morning mass and when 6:00pm rolls around I hear them ring the Angelus. Most people ignore them but I like to pay attention when I hear them.

Tonight, though, they made me sad. As I stood on my balcony I could only think of each peal of each bell being a bomb that fell on the city that killed thousands, destroyed about 60% of the entire city and 90% of the old town area where I now live. I felt sad for the people who lost their lives and those who lost loved ones and those who were left homeless. I felt sad for the millions elsewhere who had lost everything because of one man and his war.

I can't imagine what it must have felt like to be in your home or in a movie theater or in a pub and suddenly have everything around you explode. I can't imagine the fright and confusion - the sheer terror of it all. B's father was a little boy of 8 when Magdeburg was bombed. There had been other bombings that he survived but this was the worst. Until he died he never got over it. He still had nightmares and a sudden, loud noise startled him no end.

My MIL grew up in a village about 15 miles from Magdeburg so she was spared the bombing but she vividly remembers hearing the planes fly over and she could see the sky glow with the flames of the city burning. She had relatives living in Magdeburg and she remembers riding her bicycle with her father to Magdeburg the day after the bombing to help him locate them and she said she saw things that were burned into her brain but she doesn't like to talk about. Luckily none of the relatives died that night although their homes were damaged but the bombs did eventually claim one. My MIL's uncle was a type of postman - he delivered telegrams and he was also responsible for delivering to homes the pay envelopes of workers. After the bombing of January 16th he simply had no more customers - they were all killed. He couldn't bear the sadness of losing every single person he delivered to each week so he went home and hanged himself.

The bells tonight rang for the same amount of time that the bombs fell - about ten minutes. The weather tonight is warmer than what is usual here for January but still I grew cold standing on my balcony in my shirt sleeves. If I thought it was a long time to stand there, how much longer did the time seem when instead of hearing bells one only heard airplanes flying over, explosions, screams, alarms - pure chaos. If I was cold how cold were the ones who managed to escape death but only had to their name the clothes on their backs?

I don't know if I believe in ghosts but if such things exist, I would imagine that where I live now would be filled with them. Hundreds and hundreds died in just the area where I can see simply standing on my balcony. And if they could talk to us now, what would they say? Do they now know more than they did back then? Do they know more than we do now? I think perhaps if they could talk to us then maybe they'd warn us all to end the hate everywhere before we end up suffering their same fate. As safe as I feel now in my home is maybe just as safe as they once felt in their own homes until they had to pay the price for hate.

Herrenkrug

I love knitting. I love parks. I really love knitting in parks so I went off yesterday for some good sit-on-a-bench-and-knit time.

The park I chose yesterday was the Herrenkrug Park hotel:



The hotel started as an inn back in 1676 and by the early 1800s it was a popular location for outings for those in Magdeburg and the surrounding areas and for concerts. Later in the 19th century the current building was built and the surrounding park and gardens were designed.





Here's the side veranda that goes down into the beer garden. At one time the beer garden could seat about 12,000 customers and was one of the biggest in Germany.



And here's the rear of the hotel where the winter garden is located:



The park itself is very large with winding paths and many, many park benches where you can sit and rest. And every bench has a trash can next to it. German efficiency and sense of order at its best! There is also a playground, miniature golf course, a regular golf course and a horse racing course.



At the rear of the park was an arbor with benches surrounding it.



In the center was this pillar:



and you can see where Russians that were once stationed in Magdeburg had scratched their names or initials into it:



Defaced pillars aside, this was a perfect spot to do a little knitting in public. However remembering to bring the camera seemed to mean I was destined to forget my knitting at home so I continued my walk along the sun dappled paths.



And eventually I made it down to the river - actually a channel off the main part of the Elbe river.



But what's a scenic riverside view without some sock knitting to go with it? So I made my way back to the car and back home to my sticks and string.

Combinations

If you go to a place like this:



and have a lot of these:



it's quite possible that before long you'll be up doing this:



And that's what I love about our city's annual summer festival. You can do this:



but if you've had enough of this:



this:



may only seem like a bad dream.

Friday Shuffle - Boot Scootin' Boogie Edition

Late this afternoon I went in search of new toothbrushes. Yeah, I could get them while grocery shopping but the grocery store I frequent has the nasty habit of hanging their toothbrushes literally out of my reach so I can't search through them to be sure I'm picking up a soft one instead of a middle-hard one. I suppose they believe that those of us under 5'5" tall either don't need to keep up with oral hygiene or should just settle for what they can reach.

During my shopping trip I not only bought new toothbrushes but also a new powder makeup compact, a new round brush, eye makeup remover and - and I wish I were kidding - a hairnet (German pillows, which are vastly different than pillows in the US tend to smash the layered top of my hair into devil horns overnight so I was figuring that a hairnet made for sleeping may help. Yes, I have turned into my grandmother.) This always happens. I go to spend 7€ on toothbrushes and don't come home before I've used up a 50€ bill. Damn my makeup addiction!

I came home on a streetcar and when I exited I could hear some very loud country music and across the street from me I saw this:



Sorry for the quality. All I had on me was the camera in my cell phone.

Remember back a month ago when I mentioned that down the street from my apartment they're opening a self described "saloon/BBQ/line dance bar" called "Nashville"? They were having their grand opening this afternoon. I'd done some searching in past month and found that this place isn't new, they're just changing locations. Or opening a second one - I never figured out which it is. Anyway, they have a regular line dancing group or club or whatever you call it and they were out there in front of the new establishment line dancing their little hearts out.

I know it was mean and rude of me but I had to laugh. I covered my mouth and all and tried not to let on but I had to laugh. Not laughing at them. They were actually sort of cute and I gave them props for being brave enough to do that out in the street. It was more of a nervous sort of laugh. As I said last month, few things weird me out more than fake country/fake Southern/fake Americana stuff and seeing these people decked out American flag shirts doing their little line dance routine was weirding me out high ten. It's simply too strange to be out in the middle of a city in the middle of Germany and watching Germans line dancing while Eddie Rabbitt on a CD wails that he loves a rainy night. It also didn't help that I despise that song. And boy, were these people stiff. I know that country line dancing isn't exactly the jitterbug but this looked like a cross between the Achy-Breaky and Riverdance - lots of foot and leg movement while backs were ramrod straight. Maybe they loosen up after you get a few drinks into them.

I walked around the building to my apartment, grabbed my camera, and dashed back hoping to get better pictures. Unfortunately the adults were finished with their dancing display and it was time for the kids group to perform. Decked out in their tee-shirts with "Country Kids" printed on the back they performed their own line dance routines. Now they really were cute. Not terribly skilled, but their enthusiasm was wonderful and they were very cute. There was one little boy with a bandana around his neck, a little fake cowboy hat with a sheriff's star on it and a little six shooter holstered around his waist that just knocked me out.



And then there was this:



Pardon the lamp post. I was trying to get the picture on the sly. I couldn't exactly say "Would you mind posing for me? You're entirely too strange to pass up!"

What in the hell are they supposed to be anyway? Did Magdeburg get a new schoolmarm and sheriff? Is dressing like extras from Little House on the Prairie supposed to be somehow country? I think they must be some of those people you find in Germany who are rather infatuated with the whole old South/Civil War/Wild West culture and they take the parts of it that they like and shake it all together. They actually get together on weekend and vacations and "play" these roles. I know a family that does this. Not like serious Civil War reenactors you find in the US - these folks definitely lack authenticity. My guess is that if looked under her acrylic shawl you'll find a zipper on that dress.

About an hour ago I went back out and walked over to the Nashville Saloon to see what was going on and I would pronounce their grand opening to be a success. Both the restaurant area downstairs and the dancing area upstairs appeared to be full. And boy oh boy - that place is reeking with kitschy Americana decor. From the upper level I can see both American and Confederate flags decorating a few of the windows. I don't even want to start with how inappropriate that is...these folks certainly wouldn't get it. There's also a Statue of Liberty lamp - her torch has a big, round bulb on the end and her gown is painted in Stars and Stripes. I saw a wooden Indian, dreamcatchers in two of the upper windows - a bit more inappropriate cultural appropriation - and of course what saloon/line dance bar would be complete without the plastic blow up electric guitar advertising Jim Beam whiskey?

Music was still blaring outside and while I sat for a moment on a bench located a respectful distance away I could see a handful of folks line dancing on the sidewalk. I don't know if they just couldn't fit inside on the dance floor or if they just couldn't resist showing off their dance skills in public while Dolly Parton asked why'd you come in here looking like that. Oh Dolly - that's a question you needed to pose to our hoop skirted friend we saw earlier.

Everyone seemed to be having fun and I suppose in a world where fun seems to be in short supply at times I was glad for them. Sure, this place is almost like a parody of Southern America and the country music culture but maybe that doesn't matter. And honestly I wouldn't mind going there myself sometime, just to have the experience if nothing else. B's dying to go there too. He keeps asking me if his wheelchair will fit inside and honestly it may be a tight squeeze. The restaurant area downstairs has nothing but booths for seating. Red vinyl covered booths like a diner. Oh yeah. Very roadhouse.

Yeah. It's a bit unauthentic and a lot corny and kitschy. And it makes me homesick. I'd give a whole lot to be tonight in the Elk's Lodge in my hometown and listen to the country band my brother performs with as they play and we drink flat beer and dance.

Bixente the iPod has a French name but he was developed in America and built in China so he's already multi-national. If country music can go international so can he so he's going to dip into my vast country music folder and shuffle from there.

1. She Knows What She Wants - Foster & Lloyd
2. What A Crying Shame - The Mavericks
3. I Fell In Love - Carlene Carter
4. I Married Her Just Because She Looks Like You - Lyle Lovett
5. Little Bitty - Alan Jackson
6. Why Baby Why - George Jones
7. Family Tree - Loretta Lynn
8. Honey (Open That Door) - Ricky Skaggs
9. Guitars, Cadillacs - Dwight Yoakam
10. It Sure Is Monday - Mark Chesnutt

Have a good weekend. Enjoy whatever it brings.

More Nature. Put On Your Sunscreen.

I know. I'm beating you to pieces with outdoorsy this week but it'll make up for the times this summer when I won't set foot outside and I whine, "I'm not going ouuuut! It's hotttt! And there are buggggs!".

I went to another park today. This one is a bit farther away but it's easily accessible to me by streetcar. I've been to it before in the middle of summer but it's this time of year that this particular park is special. I'd been told about it a couple years ago by one of Burkhard's aunties (one of the aunties that adores me) but had never seen it myself. I thought I had a few weeks time yet but my MIL told me she read in the newspaper that this is the week I needed to get down there, camera in hand.

Here's the view of the park at the entrance I used:



It look a little like pools of water in the distance or that the grass is simply blue, doesn't it?



It's definitely a blue lawn, but not grass. It's millions of little blue flowers.



That's the individual flowers. They're called in German Scilla or Blaustern and a friend told me in English they're called Siberian Squill.



They're everywhere. On virtually ever bit of grassy area are these little blue flowers. They normally don't bloom until April but since we're having mild weather a bit earlier than normal they've come out. They'll probably be gone again in the next week or ten days so folks are making sure they see them before they fade away for the year. I noticed as I walked along the paths winding through the park (this one is larger than the one I was at the other day but this one is perfectly flat - no scary stairs to contend with) that the flowers gave off a mild, sweet scent. It was rather charming in a sort of storybook way to see people laying in the flowers enjoying the sunshine. I've seen fields of wildflowers before but never this dense and over such a large area right in the middle of a city.



I have to go back down there before they fade for the season. I couldn't get enough of looking at that carpet of blue.

Looking For a Good Place to Land

Magdeburg used to be a really beautiful city. Before it was bombed in 1945 it was filled with baroque architecture and photographs I've seen show a very pretty, charming looking city. While some of the old baroque buildings survived most of the downtown area was destroyed - literally bombed down to the ground - so much of what one sees now is utilitarian, Socialist inspired, blah architecture.

But we have one thing that makes up for the blocks of concrete that pass for apartments and office buildings - parks. Magdeburg has a lot of parks. And even where there aren't parks, there is still a good bit of trees and grass around. You can overlook a lot of dull buildings if you've got flowers and trees and grass to distract your eyes.

I'm forever looking for a spot to have a little quiet time during the warm weather months. I like going for daily walks to get a little exercise and fresh air but sometimes I just want a quiet spot outdoors where I can sit and knit or read and be left alone. I usually go down to the river and find an empty bench somewhere but when the weather is really great or if it's a weekend you can't find a good spot.

There's an old park - one that must have been built back sometime in the 19th century - just a few blocks from my apartment. Despite its local I'd never been there myself - only having driven by it on occasion. Since our brief throwback to winter is over I took advantage of the warmer temperatures yesterday to walk over and see if it could become my place.



I love pansies.



I think the city just planted these recently because they're still rather puny.

There are three or four ways to enter the park and the entrance I chose took me up a hill to an overlook and that's where I noticed the pansies down below near another park entrance. As I walked towards that end I noticed these stairs to take me down the hill:



If I'd walked another...oh...fifty feet or so I'd have walked down another hill that would take me to the flower bed but being as I'm...uh...what's that word? Oh yeah. Idiot. Being as I am an idiot I went down those stairs.

Let's be honest. I'm built weird. Short, stubby legs and so top heavy a decent tap would send me pitching forward. My sense of balance is pretty lousy on level ground and I have a terrible time seeing my feet and therefore have trouble walking down stairs and yet I felt the need to challenge myself to skip down these bad boys.



Here's the other end. You'll notice there's no trail of blood leading down from where I'd fallen and bounced my big, dumb ass down those crazy ass stairs. I made it down successfully but not without a lot of panic on my part. By the time I got to the bottom my heart was about to leap out of my chest and I was sweating like a whore in church. I got a nice sense of accomplishment though. Perhaps the only thing worse would be to walk up them because no only would you have the sense that your feet are going to slip out from under you as you walk up but it's a rather steep hill. Walking up that set of stairs would have me puffing like a freight train.



Farther into the park one sees this big, white villa. I don't know what it is - if it's a public building or someone's home or what. I wanted to know at least what it's called and reminded myself to ask my MIL, who went to this park often when she was a child and was visiting her grandmother, when I showed her the photograph.

"What's this big, white villa called?"

"I call it the big, white villa."

Glad she cleared up that mystery.



This is the view from where I first sat and took a break from my walk. Walking paths wind all thorough the park, up and down hills and stairs (actual modern, safe, concrete stairs - not just stairs made from ancient stones worn slicker than ice from decade upon decade upon decade of exposure) and there are park benches scattered all along the paths. And the all important trash cans. It's irksome to have a nice park and no decent place where one can get rid of trash.

One thing I noticed that pleased me no end was that the park wasn't filled with drunks. Drinking in public and even being drunk in public isn't forbidden in Germany and in some parks or public squares the city drunks congregate to sit all day with a case of beer and crappy music on their tinny radios. This park is a bit more secluded and, more importantly, not anywhere near a store or kiosk where alcohol is sold. If it's too much of a pain to get your beer and return your empty bottles, it's not worth it to them to hang out there. Instead I saw a few student from the university laying in the sunshine and studying. Older couples out for a walk (this park is near some senior citizen housing). Near where I sat I saw two young guys sitting on a bench passing a guitar back and forth between them while smoking from a water pipe - one would play while the other smoked. It was some fruit infused tobacco. Smelled like apples.



This is the view from the second place where I sat - more or less the opposite side of where I'd been sitting before. I like that little willow tree. The next time I go there I want to sit underneath it.

I think I've found a good spot for me. My place to be on my own enjoy being outdoors. It's the place where I want to sit and knit and just listen to the wind as it blows through the trees. That was the other thing I liked about this park. Even though it's in the center of the city, it's very quiet. I couldn't hear any cars or streetcars or anything else for that matter.

But I'm going to be sure that when I'm there I have my cell phone with me. You know, just in case I get the urge to walk down those stairs again and that's the time I'm unsuccessful.

Fellow Citizens

In an attempt to get in as much outdoor time as I can cram in before the weather turns lousy this weekend I took Bonnie down to the river for a walk. B can't get out with me during cold weather months so he told me to take the camera with me and take a picture of something he wouldn't have seen in a long time - my choice of subject.

Magdeburg is a flat city but it's built up a hill - not quite steep enough to call it a bluff - from the river. A wall once ringed the city, as was the case with most old cities, and some of the original wall is still along the river side of the city. I don't know how old the wall itself is - the city is just over 1200 years old and I know the wall was there 400 years ago when Magdeburg was sacked but that's as well as I can pinpoint its age.

What I took pictures of though isn't as old - my MIL told me they've been hanging on this section of the city wall since sometime in the 50s.



They're sculptures of what are supposed to be people of Magdeburg from long ago, carved out of limestone. All of them have names carved on the sculpture itself.



This one is named Blutappelsine - Blood Oranges. She seems to know how to advertise her wares.



This is Fliejentuten-Heinrich - Flypaper Henry. When I was there I was thinking he looks important like a barrister, but he's the flypaper seller. Of course back when this wall was built, he may have been an incredibly important man.



This is Feuerkäwer - Firebug. As the story goes, she had long, flowing red hair - hence the fire name - and the lighting bolts from her cup indicates she liked to drink. She also had a tobacco store and another "business" on the side. Her position may indicate what business that was.



This is Lusebenecke - Lice Benecke. He was Herr Benecke and lived under bridges with his little dog. He was known to have a little trouble with keeping clean and the lice that he had made people stop calling him Herr Benecke and start calling him Luse Benecke.



This is Schlackaffe - the stinky, dirty guy. His story is that he worked on the fishing docks along the river and was paid in fish which he would put in his pockets and leave there. Naturally this began to smell something terrible and from this story originates the terms verpattet or verschlackt which are very old words usually only used by old folks now to describe something extremely filthy dirty.



This is Affenvater - Monkey father. He's an organ grinder who was up on the road where now my MIL's apartment is. A little monkey sat up upon his organ and so he was called the monkey father.

I don't know if these were real people or were just characters the sculptor made up to populate the imaginary Magdeburg in his mind but I don't think it would be hard to believe that such people really existed here long ago.

I did well. B said it they were definitely things he hadn't seen in a very long time - perhaps thirty years or so. I'd seen them many times but today was the first day I bothered to stop and take a closer look at them. It makes me wish I could somehow see back in time 500 years and see what Magdeburg was like back then.