The Ministry of Story

Barlinnie Prison, Glasgow, Scotland

17 April 1976

“I thought of the beautiful cool evening, how I long to be walking in it outside this cell.

All of this took place while I sat in the semi-dark reading a book.

The thoughts on freedom were only momentary but so powerful that they seem to tear my soul apart.

There is something about being alone in a cell, about the inability to rise from a chair, open a door and speak to someone.

I would like to get up this minute and discuss this subject with someone.

I would like to put these feelings into a piece of sculpture and although sitting typing out the feelings is important there is a tremendous amount of strain and frustration attached to it.

During these periods I find it hard to read a book or watch TV, which I hardly do anyway.

The only solution is to tackle the mood and try to do something about it.“

(Jimmy Boyle)

Above: Jimmy Boyle, Barlinnie Prison, Glasgow, Scotland

Eskişehir, Türkiye

Wednesday 17 April 2024

Above: Sazova Park, Eskişehir, Türkiye

Jimmy Boyle is a Scottish former gangster and convicted murderer who became a sculptor and novelist after his release from prison.

In 1967, Boyle (23) was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of another gangland figure, William “Babs” Rooney.

He served 14 years before his release in 1980. 

Boyle has always denied killing Rooney, but has acknowledged having been a violent and sometimes ruthless moneylender from the Gorbals, one of the roughest and most deprived areas of Glasgow.

During his incarceration in the special unit of Barlinnie Prison, he turned to art, with the help of the special unit’s art therapist, Joyce Laing.

Above: Jimmy Boyle

He wrote an autobiography, A Sense of Freedom (1977), which was later turned into a film of the same name. 

In 1980, while still in prison, Boyle married psychiatrist Sara Trevelyan.

In 2017, Trevelyan wrote Freedom Found, a book about her 20-year marriage to Boyle.

In an interview after her book’s publication, she stated that she had never felt unsafe with him. 

Upon his release from prison on 26 October 1981, he moved to Edinburgh to continue his artistic career.

He designed the largest concrete sculpture in Europe called “Gulliver” for the Craigmillar Festival Society in 1976.

Above: “Gulliver“, Edinburgh, Scotland

In 1983, Boyle set up the Gateway Exchange with Trevelyan and artist Evlynn Smith:

A charitable organisation offering art therapy workshops to recovering drug addicts and ex-convicts.

Though the project secured funding from private sources (including actor Sean Connery, comedian Billy Connolly and John Paul Getty), it lasted only a few years.

In 1994, his son James, a drug addict, was murdered in the Oatlands neighbourhood of Glasgow.

Boyle has published Pain of Confinement: Prison Diaries (1984) and a novel, Hero of the Underworld (1999).

The latter was adapted for a French film, La Rage et le Rêve des Condamnés (The Anger and Dreams of the Condemned), which won the best documentary prize at the Fifa Montréal awards in 2002.

He also wrote a novel, A Stolen Smile, which is about the theft of the Mona Lisa and how it ends up hidden on a Scottish housing scheme.

Clearly our Jimmy has led an interesting life, but is his life an interesting story?

Above: Jimmy Boyle

From the cursory bio that Wikipedia provides it seems that Jimmy never studied literature at some fancy university.

That being said, he is a published diarist and novelist.

He somehow had to learn how to write.

A person can learn how to write, because I am still learning.

Jimmy wasn’t doomed to be just an ex con.

He learned craft, things that worked for him, that he could understand and use right away.

Craft can be taught and with diligence and practice, I, you, everybody, can improve our writing.

To break through with this thing called craft, you will need to be your own disciplinarian.

James Scott Bell recommends what it takes to learn:

1. Get motivated.

Write a statement of purpose, one that gets you excited.

“Today I resolve to take writing seriously, to keep going and never stop, to learn everything I can and make it as a writer.“

Put it on your wall where you can see it every day.

Come up with your own item of visual motivation.

(During my first Christmas here in Eskişehir our staff “Christmas” party had a Secret Santa arrangement where we would receive a gift from someone anonymously and give one in return to someone else anonymously.

Through the wonders of Photoshop, a colleague created a montage of me standing with Charles Dickens in front of the Canadian Parliament Buildings in Ottawa beneath the caption “A Tale of Two Legends“.

That my colleague felt that I could be (one day) comparable to Dickens remains a great motivation for me.)

Above: Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870)

Go to bookstores and browse.

Look at the author’s pictures and bios.

Read their openings.

And think:

“I can do this!“

Find some ritual that gets your creative juices flowing.

Don’t waste it.

Turn it into words on a page.

2. Try stuff.

Try out what you learn, see if you get it and try some more.

Take the time to digest what you learn and then apply what you learn to your own writing.

3. Stay loose.

Write freely and rollickingly.

4. First get it written, then get it right.

“Let the world burn through you.

Throw the prism light, white hot, on paper.”

(Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury)

5. Set a quota.

Writing is how you learn to write.

Writing daily, as a discipline, is the best way to learn.

Most successful writers make a word goal and stick to it.

The daily writing of words, once it becomes a habit, will be the most fruitful discipline of your writing life.

You will be amazed at how productive you will become and how much you will learn about the craft.

“I only write when I am inspired.

I make sure I am inspired every morning at 9 a.m.“

(Peter DeVries)

Above: American writer Peter De Vries (1910 – 1993)

6. Don’t give up.

The main difference between successful writers and unsuccessful writers is persistence.

There are legions of published novelists who went years and years without acceptance.

They continued to write because that is what they were inside:

Writers.

KEEP WRITING.

“When first we mean to build, we first survey the plot, then draw the model.”

(Henry IV, Part 2, William Shakespeare)

Above: William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)

Plot happens.

But does it work?

Does it connect with readers?

What is this story about?

Is anything happening?

Why should you keep reaading?

Why should you care?

The what happens is your plot.

When you get right down to it, there is something uniquely satisfying in being gripped by a great plot, in begrudgiıng whatever real world obligations might prevent you from finding out what happens next.

It is especially satisfying to surrender to an author who is utterly in command of a thrilling and original story, an author capable of playing us like fish, of letting us get worried, then riled up, then complacent and then finally blowing us away when the final shocks are delivered.

While glorious prose is a fine thing, without an enthralling story, it is just so much verbal tapioca.

What the reader seeks is an experience that is other.

Other than what he normally sees each day.

Story is how he gets there.

A good story transports the reader to a new place via experience.

Not through arguments or facts, but through the illusion that life is taking place on the page.

Not the reader’s life.

Someone else’s.

Your characters’ lives.

An author creates a dream.

When we dream, we experience that as reality.

In reality there is one reason, and one reason only, that readers get excited about a novel:

Great storytelling.

Can creative writing be taught?

No.

Can the love of language be taught?

No.

Can a gift for stroytelling be taught?

No.

But….

Like most writers, you learn to write by writing and by reading books.

Writers learn by reading the work of their predecessors and counterparts.

They study meter with Ovid, plot construction with Homer, comedy with Aristophanes.

Above: Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – AD 18)

Above: Bust of Greek poet Homer (8th century BC)

Above: Bust of Greek playwright Aristophanes (446 – 386 BC)

They hone their prose by absorbing the sentences of Montaigne and Samuel Johnson.

Above: French philosopher Michel de Montaigne (1533 – 1592)

Above: English writer / lexicographer Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784)

And who could ask for better teachers?

Though writers have learned from the masters in a formal, methodical way – Harry Crews has described taking apart a Graham Greene novel to see how many chapters it contained, how much time it covered, how Greene handled pacing and tone and point of view – the truth is that this sort of education more often involves a kind of osmosis.

Above: English writer Graham Greene (1904 – 1991)

For example, copying out long passages of a great writer’s work, you will notice that your own work should become, however briefly, just a little more fluent.

In the ongoing process of becoming a writer, I read and re-read the authors I have most loved.

I read for pleasure, but also more analytically, conscious of style, of diction, of how sentences were formed and information conveyed, how the writer structured their plot, created characters, employed detail and dialogue.

Writing, like reading, is done one word at a time, one punctuation mark at a time, putting every word on trial for its life.

Writers learn that which cannot be taught.

Writers learn to write by practice, hard work, repeated trial and error, success and failure.

And from the books they admire.

My blog is a sort of a “what-happened-on-this day” creation.

I like to focus on the birthdays of other writers or mention what holiday is being commemorated on this day.

Imagine we are about to be plunged into a story – any story in the world.

The curtain rises.

The cinema darkens.

We turn to the first paragraph of a novel.

The narrator utters the timeless formula:

“Once upon a time…“

John Ford (17 April 1586 – 1639) was an English playwright and poet born in Ilsington in Devon, England.

His plays deal mainly with the conflict between passion and conscience.

Although remembered primarily as a playwright, he also wrote a number of poems on themes of love and morality.

Above: English writer John Ford

Ford is best known for the tragedy ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (1633), a family drama with a plot line of incest.

The play’s title has often been changed in new productions, sometimes being referred to as simply Giovanni and Annabella — the play’s leading, incestuous brother-and-sister characters.

In a 19th-century work it is coyly called The Brother and Sister. 

Shocking as the play is, it is still widely regarded as a classic piece of English drama.

It has been adapted to film at least twice: 

• My Sister, My Love (Sweden, 1966)
• ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (Belgium, 1978).

On the face of it, so limitless is the human imagination and so boundless the realm of the storyteller’s command, we think that literally anything could happen next…

His plays deal with conflicts between individual passion and conscience and the laws and morals of society at large. 

Ford had a strong interest in abnormal psychology that is expressed through his dramas.

While virtually nothing is known of Ford’s personal life, one reference suggests that his interest in melancholia may have been more than merely intellectual.

“Deep in a dump alone John Ford was gat,

With folded arms and melancholy hat.”

(Choice Drollery, Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth)

The story will have a hero or heroine or both, a central figure or figures on whose fate our interest in the story ultimately rests.

Someone with whom we can identify.

The Laws of Candy is set in Crete — “Candy” and “Candia” being archaic names for the island.

In Ford’s fictional Candy, two unusual laws are in the statute books.

One is a (highly impracticable) law against ingratitude:

A citizen who is accused of ingratitude by another, and fails to make amends, can be sentenced to death.

The second law holds that after a military victory, the soldiers will select the one of their number who has done the most to achieve the success.

“Tell us, pray, what devil this melancholy is, which can transform men into monsters.“

(The Lover’s Melancholy, John Ford)

The second law is the cause of the play’s conflict.

The forces of Candy have just won a great victory over the invading Venetians.

(Historically, Venice conquered Crete in the early 13th century [1209 – 1217] and ruled the island until 1669, though with many rebellions by the local populace.)

The commander of the army, Cassilanes, the leading soldier of his generation, expects to receive the acclaim of the troops, and is incensed to find that he has a rival in his own son, Antinous, who has distinguished himself in his first battle.

The father’s concern is real:

Antinous wins the approval of the soldiers.

Paradoxically, Cassilanes is even more outraged when Antinous claims his reward from the state — and names a bronze statue of his father.

To Cassilanes, this is only one more assertion of the son’s assumed power.

Above: Island of Crete, Greece

“Melancholy is not, as you conceive, indisposition of body, but the mind’s disease.“

(The Lover’s Melancholy, John Ford)

Cassilanes is certainly an irascible old man — but he has an additional grievance.

He has mortgaged his estates to pay the troops, who otherwise would not have fought.

The state is in no hurry to rectify the matter.

The owner of the mortgage is Gonzalo, an ambitious Venetian lord.

Gonzalo is the play’s Machiavellian villain.

He plots and manipulates with the goal of becoming both the King of Candy and the Duke of Venice.

Gonzalo, however, makes two mistakes.

One is that he takes a young Venetian prisoner of war, Fernando, into his confidence, relying on their shared nationality.

When Cassilanes retreats to a poverty-stricken retirement, Gonzalo arranges for Fernando to live in the general’s little household to further his machinations.

Fernando is a noble young man, in mind as well as in birth.

Once he falls in love with Cassilanes’ daughter Annophel, he reveals Gonzalo’s plots.

Above: Location of the island of Crete (Kriti) (in red)

“Green indiscretion, flattery of greatness,
Rawness of judgement, wilfulness in folly,
Thoughts vagrant as the wind, and as uncertain.“

(The Broken Heart, John Ford)

Gonzalo’s second mistake is to fall in love himself, with the Princess Erota.

The play’s list of dramatis personae describes her as “a Princess, imperious, and of an overweaning Beauty“.

Royal, rich, witty, and beautiful, she is also extravagantly vain.

She is loved by many men, including a Prince of Cyprus named Philander, but scorns them all.

Until, that is, she meets Antinous and falls in love with him.

Motivated by that love, she manipulates the vain Gonzalo into selling her Cassilanes’ mortgage and also into committing his plots and plans to writing.

Above: Map of Crete

“Love is the tyrant of the heart.

It darkens reason, confounds discretion, deaf to counsel.

It runs a headlong course to desperate madness.“

(The Lover’s Melancholy, John Ford)

In the play’s final climactic scene, the other odd law of Candy comes into play.

Cassilanes comes before the Senate with a complaint of ingratitude against his son.

Antinous, resigned to death, refuses to defend himself.

But Erota makes a similar complaint of ingratitude against Cassilanes — which provokes Antinous to make the same complaint against her, in a sort of round-robin festival of egomania.

The solution to this tangle comes when Annophel enters and makes her own complaint of ingratitude against the Senate of Candy, for its treatment of her father.

Above: Firkas fortress in Chania, Crete, Greece

“Glories of human greatness are but pleasing dreams and shadows soon decaying.“

(The Broken Heart, John Ford)

The befuddled Senate turns the matter over to the Cypriot prince Philander for judgment.

Philander prevails on Cassilanes to repent and withdraw his complaint against Antinous, which allows all the subsequent difficulties to be resolved.

Almost as an afterthought, the Cretans and Venetians unite in condemning Gonzalo to punishment.

Erota’s pride is humbled (we know this, since she tells us so herself), and she accepts her most constant (and noble) suitor, Prince Philander, as her spouse.

Above: Venetian harbour in Chania, Crete, Greece

“The joys of marriage are Heaven on Earth,
Life’s Paradise, great princess, the soul’s quiet,
Sinews of concord, earthly immortality,
Eternity of pleasures, no restoratives
Like to a constant woman!“

(The Broken Heart, John Ford)

In The Witch of Edmonton, Elizabeth Sawyer is a poor, lonely, and unfairly ostracized old woman, who turns to witchcraft after having been unjustly accused of it, having nothing left to lose.

A talking devil-dog Tom (performed by a human actor) appears, becoming her familiar and only friend.

With Tom’s help, Sawyer causes one of her neighbours to go mad and kill herself, but otherwise she does not achieve very much, since many of those around her are only too willing to sell their souls to the Devil all by themselves.

The play is divided fairly rigidly into separate plots, which only occasionally intersect or overlap.

Alongside the main story of Elizabeth Sawyer, the other major plotline is a domestic tragedy centering on the farmer’s son Frank Thorney.

Frank is secretly married to the poor but virtuous Winnifride, whom he loves and believes is pregnant with his child, but his father insists that he marry Susan, elder daughter of the wealthy farmer Old Carter.

Frank weakly gives in to a bigamous marriage but then tries to flee the county with Winnifride disguised as his page.

When the doting Susan follows him, he stabs her.

At this point, the witch’s dog Tom is present on stage.

It is left ambiguous whether Frank remains a fully responsible moral agent in the act.

Frank inflicts superficial wounds on himself, so that he can pretend to have been attacked.

He attempts to frame Warbeck, Susan’s former suitor, and Somerton, suitor of Susan’s younger sister Katherine.

While the kindly Katherine is nursing her supposedly incapacitated brother-in-law, however, she finds a bloodstained knife in his pocket and immediately guesses the truth, which she reveals to her father.

The devil-dog is on stage again at this point, and “shrugs for joy” according to the stage direction, which suggests that he has brought about Frank’s downfall.

“Tempt not the stars, young man.

Thou canst not play with the severity of fate.”

(The Broken Heart, John Ford)

Frank is executed for his crime at the same time as Mother Sawyer, but he, in marked contrast to her, is forgiven by all.

The pregnant Winnifride is taken into the family of Old Carter.

The play thus ends on a relatively happy note — Old Carter enjoins all those assembled at the execution:

“So, let’s every man home to Edmonton with heavy hearts, yet as merry as we can, though not as we would.“

“Revenge proves its own executioner.“

(The Broken Heart, John Ford)

The note of optimism is also heard in the play’s other main plot, centering on the Morris dancing yokel Cuddy Banks, whose invincible innocence allows him to emerge unscathed from his own encounters with the dog Tom.

He eventually banishes the dog from the stage with the words:

“Out and avaunt!“

“He hath shook hands with time.“

(The Broken Heart, John Ford)

Despite the optimism of the play’s ending it remains clear that the execution of Mother Sawyer has done little or nothing to purge the play’s world of an evil to which its inhabitants are only too ready to turn spontaneously.

Firstly, the devil-dog has not been destroyed.

Indeed it resolves to go to London and corrupt souls there.

Secondly, the village’s voice of authority, the lord of the manor Sir Arthur Clarington, is represented as untrustworthy.

Mother Sawyer utters a lengthy tirade indicting his lechery – He had previously had an affair with Winnifride, which she now repents – and general corruption:

A charge which the play as a whole supports.

We are introduced to our central figure(s) in an imaginary world.

The general scene is set.

“Once upon a time…“

We are taken out of our present place and time into an imaginary realm where the story is to unfold.

We are introduced to our central figure(s).

(The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker)

The Witch of Edmonton may be very ready to capitalize on the sensational story of a witch, but it does not permit an easy and comfortable demonization of her.

It presents her as a product of society rather than an anomaly in it.

Something happens.

Some event, some encounter, precipates the story’s action, giving it a focus.

“Once upon a time there was Someone living Somewhere.

Then one day Something happened.”

(The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker)

The plot of The Fair Maid of the Inn concerns the intertwined fortunes of two prominent Florentine families.

Alberto is the Admiral of Florence.

He is married to Mariana.

Their children are Cesario and Clarissa.

Baptista, another old sailor, is a friend of Alberto, and father of Mentivole.

Like their fathers, Cesario and Mentivole are friends.

Alberto’s is a stable nuclear family.

Mariana is a doting mother, especially in regard to Cesario.

Baptista’s situation is less happy:

Fourteen years earlier, he, a widower in his prime, contracted a secret marriage with Juliana, a niece of the Duke of Genoa.

After a short three months of contentment, the Genoese Duke discovered the marriage, exiled Baptista, and sequestered Juliana.

He has not seen her since.

We meet a little boy called Aladdin, who lives in a city in China.

One day a sorcerer arrives and leads him out of the city to a mysterious cave.

(The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker)

This situation is delineated in the play’s long opening scene.

At the scene’s opening, Cesario warns Clarissa to safeguard her virginity and her reputation, but Clarissa responds by reproving her brother about his rumoured affair with Biancha, the 13-year-old daughter of a local tavernkeeper.

(She’s the “fair maid” of the title.)

Cesario protests that his connection with the girl is above reproach:

Biancha, he says, is beautiful but chaste.

By the scene’s close, Mentivole expresses his love for Clarissa.

She responds positively and gives him a diamond ring as a token of her affection and commitment.

We meet the Scottish General Macbeth, who has just won a great victory over his country’s enemies.

Then, on his way home, he encounters mysterious witches.

(The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker)

Friends though they are, Cesario and Mentivole have a falling-out over a horse race.

They quarrel, lose their tempers and draw their swords to fight.

They are separated by other friends, but only after Cesario is wounded.

The affair escalates into a major feud between the two families.

Alberto is called away by his naval duties and is soon reported dead.

Mariana fears that her son will be killed in the feud.

To prevent this, she announces (falsely) to the Duke and his court that Cesario is not really Alberto’s son.

Early in their marriage, she maintains, Alberto had wanted an heir, but the couple did not conceive.

Mariana exploited her husband’s absences at sea to pass off a servant’s child as her own.

Thus he is no longer Alberto’s son and safe from Baptista’s enmity.

But the Duke sees the injustice done against Cesario and decrees that the now-widowed Mariana should marry the young man and endow him with three-quarters of Alberto’s estate.

The remaining share will serve as Clarissa’s dowry.

We meet a girl called Alice, wondering how to amuse herself in the summer heat.

Suddenly she sees a white rabbit running past and vanishing down a mysterious hole.

(The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker)

Cesario is amenable to this arrangement — but Mariana assures him that any marriage between them will never be consummated.

Cesario proposes a marriage between himself and Clarissa, though both women reject the idea out of hand.

And even Biancha turns against Cesario, when she comes to understand that he is not serious about marrying her.

Eventually matters are set right when Alberto returns to Florence.

Not dead, he was instead captured by the Turks, but rescued by Prospero, a captain in the service of Malta.

Prospero is an old friend of both Alberto and Baptista.

He is able to inform the world of the fate of Juliana, and the daughter that Alberto didn’t know Baptista had.

She is Biancha, the supposed daughter of the tavernkeeper.

This good news allows the compounding of all the previous difficulties.

The quarrel between Alberto and Baptista is resolved.

Cesario is restored to his rightful place as Alberto’s son.

Cesario and Biancha can marry, as can Mentivole and Clarissa.

Above: Firenze (Florence), Italia (Italy)

We see the great detective Sherlock Holmes sitting in his Baker Street lodgings.

Then there is a knock at the door.

A visitor enters to present him with his next case.

(The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker)

The play has a comic subplot centered on Biancha, her supposed parents the Host and Hostess of the tavern, and their quests.

The comedy features a mountebank (a charlatan) and his clownish assistant, and their victims.

An event, a summons, provides the call to action which will lead the hero out of their initial state into a series of adventures or experiences which will transform their lives.

(The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker)

The play’s storytelling is rough and rather inconsistent, most likely due to the multiple hands involved in its authorship.

The action the hero is drawn into will involve conflict and uncertainty, because without conflict and uncertainty there is no story.

(The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker)

In The Queen, Alphonso, the play’s protagonist, is a defeated rebel against Aragon.

He has been condemned to death and is about to be executed.

The Queen of Aragon (otherwise unnamed) intercedes at the last moment and learns that Alphonso’s rebellion is rooted in his pathological misogyny.

The prospect of being ruled by a woman was too much for him to bear.

The Queen is struck with love at first sight.

She is, in her way, just as irrational as Alphonso is in his.

The Queen pardons Alphonso and marries him.

Alphonso requests a seven-day separation, to enable him to set aside his feelings against women.

The Queen grants his request.

The week extends to a month and the new King still avoids his Queen.

The intercession of her counsellors, and even her own personal appeal, make no difference.

In a bitter confrontation, Alphonso tells the Queen:

“I hate thy sex.

Of all thy sex, thee worst.“

The story carries us towards some kind of resolution.

Every story which is complete, and not just a fragmentary string of episodes and impressions, must work up to a climax, where conflict and uncertainty are usually at their most extreme.

Every story leads its central character in one of two directions.

Either they end happily with a sense of liberation, fulfilment and completion.

Or they end unhappily in some form of discomfiture, frustration or death.

(The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker)

One man, however, sees a solution to the problem.

The psychologically sophisticated Muretto half-counsels, half-manipulates Alphonso into a more positive disposition toward the Queen.

Muretto praises the Queen’s beauty to Alphonso and simultaneously arouses his jealousy by suggesting that she is sexually active outside her marriage.

Muretto functions rather like a modern therapist to treat Alphonso’s psychological imbalance.

The psychological manipulation works, in the sense that Alphonso begins to value the Queen only after he thinks he has lost her to another man.

To say that stories either have happy or unhappy endings may seem such a commonplace that one almost hesitates to utter it, but it has to be said, because it is the most important single thing to be observed about stories.

Around that one fact, around what is necessary to bring a story to some sort of an ending, revolves the whole of their extraordinary significance in our lives.

(The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker)

Yet with two such passionate individuals, reconciliation cannot come easily.

Alphonso condemns the Queen to death.

She can be reprieved only if a champion comes forth to defend her honour by meeting the king in single combat.

The Queen, however, is determined to bow to her husband’s will no matter the price and demands that all her followers swear they will not step forward in her cause.

Aristotle first observed that a satisfactory story – a story which is a “whole” – must have “a beginning, a middle and an end“.

(The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker)

Above: Bust of Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 – 322 BC)

The play’s secondary plot deals with the love affair of the Queen’s General Velasco, the valiant soldier who defeated Alphonso, and the widow Salassa.

Velasco has the opposite problem from Alphonso:

He idealises his love for Salassa, terming her “the deity I adore“.

He allows her to dominate their relationship.

(Velasco’s friend and admirer Lodovico has a low opinion of Salassa, calling her a “frail commodity“, a “paraquetto“, a “wagtail“.)

Salassa indulges in her power over Velasco by asking him to give up all combat and conflict, or even wearing a sword and defending his reputation, for a period of two years.

When he agrees, Velasco finds that he quickly loses his self-respect and the regard of others.

He regains those qualities only when he steps forward as the Queen’s champion, ready to meet the King on the field of honour.

There are tragic stories, stories in which the hero’s fortunes usually begin by rising, but eventually “turn down” to disaster.

(The Greek word catastrophe means literally a “down stroke“, the downturn in the hero’s fortunes at the end of a tragedy.)

(The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker)

Before the duel can take place, however, the assembled courtiers protest the proceeding.

Muretto steps forward to explain his role in manipulating Alphonso’s mind.

Finally, Alphonso is convinced of the Queen’s innocence and repents his past harshness.

Their rocky relationship reaches a new tolerance and understanding.

A humbled Salassa also resolves to give up her vain and selfish ways to be a fit wife for Velasco.

There are comedies, stories in which things initially seem to become more and more coomplicated for the hero, until they are entangled in a complete knot, from which there seems to be no escape, but eventually comes the peripeteia, the reversal of fortune.

The knot is miraculously unravelled (from which we get the French word denouement, an “unknotting“.

The hero is liberated.

We and all the world rejoice.

(The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker)

The play’s comic relief is supplied by a group of minor characters – two quarrelling followers of Alphonso, the astrologer Pynto and a bluff captain named Bufo, plus Velasco’s servant Mopas and the matchmaker/bawd Madame Shaparoon.

The plot of a story leads its hero either to a catastrophe or to a denouement, to frustration or liberation, to death or a new lease on life.

(The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker)

In ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Giovanni, recently returned to Parma from university in Bologna, has developed an incestuous passion for his sister Annabella and the play opens with his discussing this ethical problem with Friar Bonaventura.

Bonaventura tries to convince Giovanni that his desires are evil despite Giovanni’s passionate reasoning and eventually persuades him to try to rid himself of his feelings through repentance.

Above: Parma, Italy

“Nice philosophy may tolerate unlikely arguments, but Heaven admits no jest.“

(‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, John Ford)

Annabella, meanwhile, is being approached by a number of suitors including Bergetto, Grimaldi, and Soranzo.

She is not interested in any of them.

Giovanni finally tells her how he feels (obviously having failed in his attempts to repent) and finally wins her over.

Annabella’s tutoress Putana (“Whore“) encourages the relationship.

The siblings consummate their relationship.

“I have spent many a silent night in sighs and groans, ran over all my thoughts, despised my fate, reasoned against the reasons of my love, done all that smoothed-cheek Virtue could advise, but found all bootless:

‘Tis my destiny that you must either love or I must die.“

(‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, John Ford)

Hippolita, a past lover of Soranzo, verbally attacks him, furious with him for letting her send her husband Richardetto on a dangerous journey she believed would result in his death so that they could be together, then declining his vows and abandoning her.

Soranzo leaves and his servant Vasques promises to help Hippolita get revenge on Soranzo and the pair agree to marry after they murder him.

“Delay in vengeance gives a heavier blow.“

(‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, John Ford)

Richardetto is not dead but also in Parma in disguise with his niece Philotis.

Richardetto is also desperate for revenge against Soranzo and convinces Grimaldi that to win Annabella, he should stab Soranzo with a poisoned sword.

Bergetto and Philotis, now betrothed, are planning to marry secretly in the place Richardetto orders Grimaldi to wait.

Grimaldi mistakenly stabs and kills Bergetto instead, leaving Philotis, Poggio (Bergetto’s servant), and Donado (Bergetto’s uncle) distraught.

“There is a place, in a black and hollow vault, where day is never seen.

There shines no sun, but flaming horror of consuming fires – a lightless sulphur, choked with smoky fogs of an infected darkness.

In this place dwell many thousand thousand sundry sorts of never-dying deaths.“

(‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, John Ford)

Annabella resigns herself to marrying Soranzo, knowing she has to marry someone other than her brother.

She subsequently falls ill and it is revealed that she is pregnant.

Friar Bonaventura then persuades her to marry Soranzo before her pregnancy becomes apparent.

Donado and Florio (father of Annabella and Giovanni) go to the Cardinal’s house, where Grimaldi has been in hiding, to beg for justice.

The Cardinal refuses due to Grimaldi’s high status and instead sends him back to Rome.

Florio tells Donado to wait for God to bring them justice.

“Why, I hold fate clasped in my fist and could command the course of Time’s eternal motion, hadst thou been one thought more steady than an ebbing sea.”

(‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, John Ford)

Annabella and Soranzo are married soon after.

Their ceremony includes masque dancers, one of whom reveals herself to be Hippolita.

She claims to be willing to drink a toast with Soranzo and the two raise their glasses and drink, on which note she explains that her plan was to poison his wine.

Vasques comes forward and reveals that he was always loyal to his master and he poisoned Hippolita.

She dies spouting insults and damning prophecies to the newlyweds.

Seeing the effects of anger and revenge, Richardetto abandons his plans and sends Philotis off to a convent to save her soul.

“There’s not a hair sticks on my head but, like a leaden plummet, it sinks me to the grave:

I must creep thither.

The journey is not long.“

(The Broken Heart, John Ford)

When Soranzo discovers Annabella’s pregnancy, the two argue until Annabella realises that Soranzo truly did love her and finds herself consumed with guilt.

She is confined to her room by her husband, who plots with Vasques to avenge himself against his cheating wife and her unknown lover.

On Soranzo’s exit, Putana comes onto the stage and Vasques pretends to befriend her to gain the name of Annabella’s baby’s father.

Once Putana reveals that it is Giovanni, Vasques has bandits tie Putana up and put out her eyes as punishment for the terrible acts she has willingly overseen and encouraged.

In her room, Annabella writes a letter to her brother in her own blood, warning him that Soranzo knows and will soon seek revenge.

The Friar delivers the letter, but Giovanni is too arrogant to believe he can be harmed and ignores advice to decline the invitation to Soranzo’s birthday feast.

The Friar subsequently flees Parma to avoid further involvement in Giovanni’s downfall.

“Love is dead.

Let lovers’ eyes locked in endless dreams, th’ extreme of all extremes, ope no more, for now Love dies.”

(The Broken Heart, John Ford)

On the day of the feast, Giovanni visits Annabella in her room and after talking with her, stabs her during a kiss.

He then enters the feast, at which all remaining characters are present, wielding a dagger on which his sister’s heart is skewered and tells everyone of the incestuous affair.

Florio dies immediately from shock.

Soranzo attacks Giovanni verbally and Giovanni stabs and kills him.

Vasques intervenes, wounding Giovanni before ordering the bandits to finish the job.

Following the massacre, the Cardinal orders Putana to be burnt at the stake, Vasques to be banished, and the Church to seize all the wealth and property belonging to the dead.

Richardetto finally reveals his true identity to Donado and the play ends with the cardinal saying of Annabella:

“Who could not say,

‘Tis pity she’s a whore?“.

“Fly hence, shadows, that do keep,
Watchful sorrows, charmed in sleep.“

(The Lover’s Melancholy, John Ford)

The Lady’s Trial employs the multiple-plot structure that is typical of Ford and common in the dramas of the era.

The main plot concerns Auria, an aristocrat of Genoa, and his marriage to the beautiful and virtuous but lowly-born Spinella.

Auria’s marriage across class lines is controversial among other Genoese nobles, like his friend Aurelio.

When Auria announces that he is going off to the wars against the Turks to repair his fortunes – Spinella brought no dowry – Aurelio opposes the move on two counts:

Spinella will be exposed to temptations.

The role of soldier of fortune is unbecoming to a nobleman.

Auria replies that he trusts his wife and that he would rather stand on his own than depend on his friends.

The contrast is drawn between the two men:

Aurelio is rule-bound and conventional, while Auria is more independent in his judgments.

“He is a noble gentleman; withal
Happy in his endeavours: the general voice
Sounds him for courtesy, behaviour, language,
And every fair demeanour, an example:
Titles of honour add not to his worth;
Who is himself an honour to his title.“

(The Lady’s Trial, John Ford)

Aurelio is right in one respect:

Spinella is exposed to temptation in her husband’s absence.

The nobleman Adurni tries to seduce Spinella, though he is so convincingly repulsed that he reforms and abandons his lustful ways.

Spinella’s reputation is compromised, however, when Aurelio exposes their meeting.

Even when Adurni confesses his transgression and apologizes to the returned husband, the scandal comes to a head in a formal trial of Spinella (“the lady’s trial” of the title).

The trial allows Spinella to exonerate herself and prove to the world, and to aristocratic Genoese society, her honour and virtue.

Auria accepts Adurni’s repentance as sincere and chooses the path of reason over violent retribution.

Adurni in turn takes Spinella’s sister Castanna as his bride, as a seal of their reconciliation.

“Let them fear bondage who are slaves to fear;
The sweetest freedom is an honest heart.”

(The Lady’s Trial, John Ford)

The secondary plot involves the divorced couple Benatzi and Levidolche.

Levidolche has been seduced by Adurni.

Benatzi seeks to catch her in the act by wooing her in disguise — but Levidolche recognizes him and decides to reform.

But she tries to manipulate Benatzi into taking revenge on Adurni — an attempt that fails comically.

“We can drink till all look blue.“

(The Lady’s Trial, John Ford)

The third level, the comic subplot, deals with the Amoretta, a comical young lady with a lisp who has an obsession with horses.

She is pursued by two ridiculous suitors.

Firstly Guzman, a Spanish soldier with breath smelling of garlic and herring and Fulgoso a good looking but rather dim witted Dutchman who whistles constantly.

The two would-be suitors are encouraged by Futelli and Piero for the pairs own amusement.

Through various hilarious failed attempts by the two foreigners, the play is provided some much needed comic relief.

Amoretta eventually marries the vermin-like Futelli.

“A bachelor may thrive by observation, on a little.

A single life’s no burden, but to draw in yokes is chargeable and will require a double maintenance.“

(The Fancies, Chaste and Noble, John Ford)

The play ends with four marriages.

In a pattern typical of the comic genre, everyone has learned his or her lesson.

In Auria, Ford’s portrayal of a husband who “responds rationally to the rumour of his wife’s infidelity” provides a bold departure from, and a stark contrast to, earlier figures in English Renaissance drama like Othello, as well as the precedents of Ford’s own earlier plays.

“Sister, look ye, how, by a new creation of my tailor’s I’ve shook off old mortality.”

(The Fancies, Chaste and Noble, John Ford)

Thornton Niven Wilder (17 April 1897 – 1975) was an American playwright and novelist.

He won three Pulitzer Prizes for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and for the plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a US National Book Award for the novel The Eighth Day.

Above: American writer Thornton Wilder

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.“

(The Woman of Andros, Thornton Wilder)

Wilder began writing plays while at the Thacher School in Ojai, California, where he did not fit in and was teased by classmates as overly intellectual.

According to a classmate:

“We left him alone, just left him alone.

And he would retire at the library, his hideaway, learning to distance himself from humiliation and indifference.”

“Literature is the orchestration of platitudes.“

(TIME magazine, 12 January 1953, Thornton Wilder)

After graduating, Wilder went to Italy and studied archaeology and Italian (1920 –1921) as part of an eight-month residency at the American Academy in Rome.

He then taught French at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, beginning in 1921.

His first novel, The Cabala, was published in 1926.

In 1927, The Bridge of San Luis Rey brought him commercial success and his first Pulitzer Prize (1928).

He resigned from the Lawrenceville School in 1928.

From 1930 to 1937 he taught at the University of Chicago, during which time he published his translation of André Obey’s own adaptation of the tale “Le Viol de Lucrece” (1931) under the title “Lucrece“. 

In Chicago, he became famous as a lecturer and was chronicled on the celebrity pages. 

Above: University of Chicago shield

In 1938 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Our Town.

He won the Prize again in 1943 for his play The Skin of Our Teeth.

“Many plays — certainly mine — are like blank checks.

The actors and directors put their own signatures on them.“

(The New York Mirror, 13 July 1956, Thornton Wilder)

Above: Thornton Wilder

He went on to be a visiting professor at Harvard University, where he served for a year as the Charles Eliot Norton professor.

Though he considered himself a teacher first and a writer second, he continued to write all his life, receiving the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 1957 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963.

In 1968 he won the National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.

“The most valuable thing I inherited was a temperament that does not revolt against Necessity and that is constantly renewed in Hope.“

(Thornton Wilder)

Above: Frank Kraven as The Stage Manager in Our Town

The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) tells the story of several unrelated people who happen to be on a bridge in Peru when it collapses, killing them.

Philosophically, the book explores the question of why unfortunate events occur to people who seem “innocent” or “undeserving“.

It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928.

In 1998 it was selected by the editorial board of the American Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of the 20th century.

The book was quoted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair during the memorial service for victims of the September 11 attacks in 2001.

“For my reading I have chosen the final words of The Bridge of San Luis Rey written by Thornton Wilder in 1927.

It is about a tragedy that took place in Peru, when a bridge collapsed over a gorge and five people died.

“A witness to the deaths, wanting to make sense of them and explain the ways of God to his fellow human beings, examined the lives of the people who died, and these words were said by someone who knew the victims, and who had been through the many emotions, and the many stages, of bereavement and loss.

But soon we will die, and all memories of those five will have left Earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten.

But the love will have been enough.

All those impulses of love return to the love that made them.

Even memory is not necessary for love.

There is a land of the living and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love.

The only survival, the only meaning.“

(The Guardian, Friday 21 September 2001, Tony Blair)

Above: Tony Blair

Since then its popularity has grown enormously. 

The book is the progenitor of the modern disaster epic in literature and film-making, where a single disaster intertwines the victims, whose lives are then explored by means of flashbacks to events before the disaster.

The first few pages of the first chapter explain the book’s basic premise:

The story centers on a fictional event that happened in Peru on the road between Lima and Cuzco, at noon on Friday 20 July 1714.

A rope bridge woven by the Inca a century earlier collapsed at that particular moment, while five people were crossing it, sending them falling from a great height to their deaths in the river below. 

The collapse was witnessed by Brother Juniper, a Franciscan friar who was on his way to cross the bridge himself.

A deeply pious man who seeks to provide some sort of empirical evidence that might prove to the world God’s Divine Providence, he sets out to interview everyone he can find who knew the five victims.

Over the course of six years, he compiles a huge book of all of the evidence he gathers to show that the beginning and end of a person is all part of God’s plan for that person.

Part One foretells the burning of the book that occurs at the end of the novel, but it also says that one copy of Brother Juniper’s book survives and is at the library of the University of San Marcos, where it now sits neglected.

Part Two focuses on one of the victims of the collapse:

Doña María, the Marquesa de Montemayor.

The daughter of a wealthy cloth merchant, the Marquesa was an ugly child who eventually entered into an arranged marriage and bore a daughter, Clara, whom she loved dearly.

Clara was indifferent to her mother, though, and became engaged to a Spanish man and moved across the ocean to Spain where she married.

Doña María visits her daughter in Spain, but when they cannot get along, she returns to Lima.

The only way that they can communicate comfortably is by letter.

Doña María pours her heart into her writing, which becomes so polished that her letters will be read in schools in the centuries after her lifetime.

“Love is an energy which exists of itself.

It is its own value.“

(TIME magazine, 3 February 1958, Thornton Wilder)

Doña María takes as her companion Pepita, a girl raised at the Convent of Santa María Rosa de las Rosas.

When she learns that her daughter is pregnant in Spain, Doña María decides to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Santa María de Cluxambuqua to pray that the baby will be healthy and loved.

Pepita goes along as company and to supervise the staff.

When Doña María is out at the shrine, Pepita stays at the inn and writes a letter to her patron, the Abbess María del Pilar, complaining about her misery and loneliness.

Doña María sees the letter on the table when she gets back and reads it.

Later, she asks Pepita about the letter.

Pepita says she tore it up because the letter was not brave.

Doña María has new insight into the ways in which her own life and love for her daughter have lacked bravery.

She writes her “first letter” (actually Letter LVI) of courageous love to her daughter, but two days later, returning to Lima, she and Pepita are on the bridge of San Luis Rey when it collapses.

“Love, though it expends itself in generosity and thoughtfulness, though it gives birth to visions and to great poetry, remains among the sharpest expressions of self-interest.

Not until it has passed through a long servitude, through its own self-hatred, through mockery, through great doubts, can it take its place among the loyalties.”

(Thornton Wilder)

Esteban and Manuel are twins who were left at the Convent of Santa María Rosa de las Rosas as infants.

The Abbess of the convent, Madre María del Pilar, developed a fondness for them as they grew up.

When they became older, they decided to be scribes.

They are so close that they have developed a secret language that only they understand.

Their closeness becomes strained when Manuel falls in love with Camila Perichole, a famous actress.

“Style is but the faintly contemptible vessel in which the bitter liquid is recommended to the world.“

(The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder)

Perichole flirts with Manuel and swears him to secrecy when she retains him to write letters to her lover, the Viceroy.

Esteban has no idea of their relationship until she turns up at the twins’ room one night in a hurry and has Manuel write to a matador with whom she is having an affair.

Esteban encourages his brother to follow her, but instead Manuel swears that he will never see her again.

Later, Manuel cuts his knee on a piece of metal and it becomes infected.

The surgeon instructs Esteban to put cold compresses on the injury:

The compresses are so painful that Manuel curses Esteban, though he later remembers nothing of his curses.

Esteban offers to send for the Perichole, but Manuel refuses.

Soon after, Manuel dies.

“Now he discovered that secret from which one never quite recovers, that even in the most perfect love one person loves less profoundly than the other.“

(The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder)

When the Abbess comes to prepare the body, she asks Esteban his name and he says he is Manuel.

Gossip about his ensuing strange behavior spreads all over town.

He goes to the theatre but runs away before the Perichole can talk to him.

The Abbess also tries to talk to him, but he runs away, so she sends for Captain Alvarado.

“Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday.”

(Thornton Wilder)

Captain Alvarado, a well-known sailor and explorer, goes to see Esteban in Cuzco and hires him to sail the world with him, far from Peru.

Esteban agrees, then refuses, then acquiesces if he can get all his pay in advance to buy a present for the Abbess before he departs.

That night Esteban attempts suicide but is saved by Captain Alvarado.

The Captain offers to take him back to Lima to buy the present.

At the ravine spanned by the bridge of San Luis Rey, the Captain goes down to a boat that is ferrying some materials across the water.

Esteban goes to the bridge and is on it when it collapses.

“I am not interested in the ephemeral — such subjects as the adulteries of dentists.

I am interested in those things that repeat and repeat and repeat in the lives of the millions.“

(The New York Times, 6 November 1961, Thornton Wilder)

Uncle Pio acts as Camila Perichole’s valet, and, in addition, “her singing-master, her coiffeur, her masseur, her reader, her errand-boy, her banker.

Rumour added: her father.”

He was born the bastard son of a Madrid aristocrat and later travelled the world engaged in a wide variety of dubious, though legal, businesses, most related to being a go-between or agent of the powerful, including (briefly) conducting interrogations for the Inquisition.

His life “became too complicated” and he fled to Peru.

He came to realize that he had just three interests in the world:

• independence
• the constant presence of beautiful women
• the masterpieces of Spanish literature, particularly those of the theatre

“Like all the rich he could not bring himself to believe that the poor – Look at their houses! Look at their clothes – could really suffer.

Like all the cultivated he believed that only the widely read could be said to know that they were unhappy.“

(The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder)

He finds work as the confidential agent of the Viceroy of Peru.

One day, he discovers a 12-year-old café singer, Micaela Villegas, and takes her under his protection.

Over the course of years, as they travel from tavern to tavern throughout Latin America, she grows into a beautiful and talented young woman.

Uncle Pio instructs her in the etiquette of high society and goads her to greatness by expressing perpetual disappointment with her performances.

She develops into Camila Perichole, the most honoured actress in Lima.

“99% of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion.“

(The Matchmaker, Thornton Wilder)

After many years of success, the Perichole becomes bored with the stage.

The elderly Viceroy, Don Andrés, takes her as his mistress.

She and Uncle Pio and the Archbishop of Peru and, eventually, Captain Alvarado meet frequently at midnight for dinner at the Viceroy’s mansion.

Through it all, Uncle Pio remains faithfully devoted to her, but as Camila ages and bears three children by the Viceroy she focuses on becoming a lady rather than an actress.

She avoids Uncle Pio.

When he talks to her she tells him to not use her stage name.

“Money is like manure.

It is not worth a thing unless it is spread around encouraging young things to grow.“

(The Matchmaker, Thornton Wilder)

When a smallpox epidemic sweeps through Lima, Camila is disfigured by it.

She takes her young son Don Jaime, who suffers from convulsions, to the country.

Uncle Pio sees her one night trying hopelessly to cover her pockmarked face with powder.

Ashamed, she refuses to ever see him again.

He begs her to allow him to take her son to Lima and teach the boy as he taught her.

Despairing at the turn her life has taken, she reluctantly agrees.

Uncle Pio and Jaime leave the next morning.

They are the 4th and 5th people on the bridge of San Luis Rey when it collapses.

“Physicians are the cobblers, rather the botchers, of men’s bodies.

As the one patches our tattered clothes, so the other solders our diseased flesh.“

(The Lover’s Melancholy, John Ford)

Brother Juniper labors for six years on his book about the bridge collapse, talking to everyone he can find who knew the victims, trying various mathematical formulas to measure spiritual traits, with no results beyond conventionally pious generalizations.

He compiles his huge book of interviews with complete faith in God’s goodness and justice, but a council pronounces his work heretical.

The book and Brother Juniper are publicly burned for their heresy.

“Imagination draws on memory.

Memory and imagination combined can stage a servants’ ball or even write a book, if that’s what they want to do.”

(Theophilus North, Thornton Wilder)

The story then shifts back in time to the day of a funeral service for those who died in the bridge collapse.

The Archbishop, the Viceroy and Captain Alvarado are at the ceremony.

At the Convent of Santa María Rosa de las Rosas, the Abbess feels, having lost Pepita and the twin brothers, that her work to help the poor and infirm will die with her.

A year after the accident, Camila Perichole seeks out the Abbess to ask how she can go on, having lost her son and Uncle Pio.

Camila gains comfort and insight from the Abbess.

It is later revealed she becomes a helper at the Convent.

Later, Doña Clara arrives from Spain, also seeking out the Abbess to speak with her about her mother, the Marquesa de Montemayor.

She is greatly moved by the work of the Abbess in caring for the deaf, the insane and the dying.

The novel ends with the Abbess’ observation:

“There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.“

Wilder wrote Our Town, a popular play (and later film) set in fictional Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire.

It was inspired in part by Dante’s Purgatorio and in part by his friend Gertrude Stein’s novel The Making of Americans.

Above: Italian writer Dante Aligheri (1265 – 1321)

Above: American writer Gertrude Stein (1874 – 1946)

Wilder suffered from writer’s block while writing the final act. 

Our Town employs a choric narrator called the Stage Manager and a minimalist set to underscore the human experience.

Wilder himself played the Stage Manager on Broadway for two weeks and later in summer stock productions.

Following the daily lives of the Gibbs and Webb families, as well as the other inhabitants of Grover’s Corners, the play illustrates the importance of the universality of the simple, yet meaningful lives of all people in the world in order to demonstrate the value of appreciating life.

The play won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize.

“Wherever you come near the human race there’s layers and layers of nonsense.”

(Our Town, Thornton Wilder)

The Stage Manager introduces the audience to the small town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire and the people living there as a morning begins in the year 1901.

Joe Crowell delivers the paper to Doc Gibbs, Howie Newsome delivers the milk, and the Webb and Gibbs households send their children (Emily and Wally Webb, George and Rebecca Gibbs) off to school on this beautifully simple morning.

Professor Willard speaks to the audience about the history of the town.

Editor Webb speaks to the audience about the town’s socioeconomic status, political and religious demographics, and the accessibility and proliferation, or lack thereof, of culture and art in Grover’s Corners.

The Stage Manager leads us through a series of pivotal moments throughout the afternoon and evening, revealing the characters’ relationships and challenges.

“That’s what it was to be alive.

To move about in a cloud of ignorance.

To go up and down trampling on the feelings of those about you.

To spend and waste time as though you had a million years.

To be always at the mercy of one self-centered passion or another. 

Now you know — that’s the happy existence you wanted to go back to.

Ignorance and blindness.“

(Our Town, Thornton Wilder)

It is at this time when we are introduced to Simon Stimson, an organist and choir director at the Congregational Church.

We learn from Mrs. Louella Soames that Simon Stimson is an alcoholic when she, Mrs. Gibbs, and Mrs. Webb stop on the corner after choir practice and “gossip like a bunch of old hens“, according to Doc Gibbs, discussing Simon’s alcoholism.

It seems to be a well known fact amongst everyone in town that Simon Stimson has a problem with alcohol.

All the characters speak to his issue as if they are aware of it and his having “seen a peck of trouble” a phrase repeated by more than one character throughout the show.

While the majority of townsfolk choose to “look the other way“, including the town policeman, Constable Warren, it is Mrs. Gibbs who takes Simon’s struggles with addiction to heart, and has a conversation with her husband, Doc Gibbs, about Simon’s drinking.

“Nurse one vice in your bosom.

Give it the attention it deserves and let your virtues spring up modestly around it.

Then you’ll have the miser who is no liar and the drunkard who is the benefactor of the whole city.“

(The Matchmaker, Thornton Wilder)

Underneath a glowing full moon, Act I ends with siblings George and Rebecca, and Emily gazing out of their respective bedroom windows, enjoying the smell of heliotrope in the “wonderful (or terrible) moonlight” with the self-discovery of Emily and George liking each other, and the realization that they are both straining to grow up in their own way.

“The future author is one who discovers that language, the exploration and manipulation of the resources of language, will serve him in winning through to his way.“

(Thornton Wilder interview, Writers at Work)

The audience is dismissed to the first intermission by the Stage Manager who quips:

“That’s the end of Act I, folks.

You can go and smoke, now.

Those that smoke.”

“I think myself as a fabulist, not a critic. 

I realize that every writer is necessarily a critic — that is, each sentence is a skeleton accompanied by enormous activity of rejection and each selection is governed by general principles concerning truth, force, beauty, and so on. 

But, as I have just suggested, I believe that the practice of writing consists in more and more relegating all that schematic operation to the subconscious.

The critic that is in every fabulist is like the iceberg — nine-tenths of him is underwater.“

(Thornton Wilder interview, Writers at Work)

Three years have passed.

George and Emily prepare to wed.

The day is filled with stress.

Howie Newsome is delivering milk in the pouring rain while Si Crowell, younger brother of Joe, laments how George’s baseball talents will be squandered.

George pays an awkward visit to his soon-to-be in-laws.

Here, the Stage Manager interrupts the scene and takes the audience back a year, to the end of Emily and George’s junior year.

Emily confronts George about his pride.

Over an ice cream soda, they discuss the future and confess their love for each other.

George decides not to go to college, as he had planned, but to work and eventually take over his uncle’s farm.

In the present, George and Emily say that they are not ready to marry — George to his mother, Emily to her father — but they both calm down and happily go through with the wedding.

“A man looks pretty small at a wedding, George.

All those good women standing shoulder to shoulder, making sure that the knot’s tied in a mighty public way.“

(Our Town, Thornton Wilder)

Nine years have passed.

The Stage Manager, in a lengthy monologue, discusses eternity, focusing attention on the cemetery outside of town and the people who have died since the wedding, including Mrs. Gibbs (pneumonia, while travelling), Wally Webb (burst appendix, while camping), Mrs. Soames and Simon Stimson (suicide by hanging).

Town undertaker Joe Stoddard is introduced, as is a young man named Sam Craig who has returned to Grover’s Corners for his cousin’s funeral.

That cousin is Emily, who died giving birth to her and George’s second child.

Once the funeral ends, Emily emerges to join the dead.

Mrs. Gibbs urges her to forget her life, warning her that being able to see but not interact with her family, all the while knowing what will happen in the future, will cause her too much pain.

Ignoring the warnings of Simon, Mrs. Soames and Mrs. Gibbs, Emily returns to Earth to relive one day, her 12th birthday.

She joyfully watches her parents and some of the people of her childhood for the first time in years, but her joy quickly turns to pain as she realizes how little people appreciate the simple joys of life.

The memory proves too painful for her and she realizes that every moment of life should be treasured.

When she asks the Stage Manager if anyone truly understands the value of life while they live it, he responds:

“No. The saints and poets, maybe – they do some.”

Emily returns to her grave next to Mrs. Gibbs and watches impassively as George kneels weeping over her.

The Stage Manager concludes the play and wishes the audience a good night.

“I can’t. 

I can’t go on.

It goes so fast.

We don’t have time to look at one another.

I didn’t realize. 

So all that was going on and we never noticed.

Take me back — up the hill — to my grave.

But first:

Wait!

One more look.

Good-bye, Good-bye, world.

Good-bye Grover’s Corners – Mama and Papa.

Good-bye to clocks ticking and Mama’s sunflowers.

And food and coffee.

And new ironed dresses and hot bath and sleeping and waking up. 

Oh, Earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you.

Do human beings ever realize life while they live it?

Every, every minute? 

I’m ready to go back.

I should have listened to you.

That’s all human beings are!

Just blind people.“

(Our Town, Thornton Wilder)

His play The Skin of Our Teeth opened in New York on 18 November 1942, featuring Fredric March and Tallulah Bankhead.

Again, the themes are familiar:

• the timeless human condition
• history as progressive, cyclical, or entropic
• literature, philosophy, and religion as the touchstones of civilization

Three acts dramatize the travails of the Antrobus family, allegorizing the alternate history of mankind.

It was claimed by Joseph Campbell and Henry Morton Robinson, authors of A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake, that much of the play was the result of unacknowledged borrowing from James Joyce’s last work.

“The comic spirit is given to us in order that we may analyze, weigh and clarify things in us which nettle us, or which we are outgrowing, or trying to reshape.”

(Thornton Wilder interview, Writers at Work)

Act One is an amalgam of early 20th century New Jersey and the dawn of the Ice Age.

The father is inventing things such as the lever, the wheel, the alphabet and multiplication tables.

The family and the entire northeastern US face extinction by a wall of ice moving southward from Canada.

The story is introduced by a narrator and further expanded by the family maid, Sabina.

There are unsettling parallels between the members of the Antrobus family and various characters from the Bible.

In addition, time is compressed and scrambled to such an extent that the refugees who arrive at the Antrobus house seeking food and fire include the Old Testament prophet Moses, the ancient Greek poet Homer, and women who are identified as Muses.

“I hate this play and every word in it.“

(The Skin of Our Teeth, Thornton Wilder)

Act II takes place on the Boardwalk at Atlantic City, New Jersey, where the Antrobuses are present for George’s swearing-in as president of the Ancient and Honorable Order of Mammals, Subdivision Humans.

Sabina is present, also, in the guise of a scheming beauty queen, who tries to steal George’s affection from his wife and family.

The conventioneers are rowdy and party furiously, but there is an undercurrent of foreboding as a fortune teller warns of an impending storm.

The weather soon transforms from summery sunshine to hurricane to deluge.

Gladys and George each attempt their individual rebellions and are brought back into line by the family.

The act ends with the family members reconciled and, paralleling the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark, directing pairs of animals to safety on a large boat where they survive the storm and the end of the world.

“My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it is on your plate — that’s my philosophy.“

(The Skin of Our Teeth, Thornton Wilder)

The final act takes place in the ruins of the Antrobuses’ former home.

A devastating war has occurred.

Maggie and Gladys have survived by hiding in a cellar.

When they come out of the cellar we see that Gladys has a baby.

Sabina joins them, “dressed as a Napoleonic camp-follower“.

George has been away at the front lines leading an army.

Henry also fought, on the opposite side, and returns as a general.

The family members discuss the ability of the human race to rebuild and continue after continually destroying itself.

The question is raised:

“Is there any accomplishment or attribute of the human race of enough value that its civilization should be rebuilt?“

The stage manager interrupts the play-within-the-play to explain that several members of their company can’t perform their parts, possibly due to food poisoning (as the actress playing Sabina saw blue mold on the lemon meringue pie at dinner).

The stage manager drafts a janitor, a dresser and other non-actors to fill their parts, which involve quoting philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle to mark the passing of time within the play.

The alternate history action ends where it began, with Sabina dusting the living room and worrying about George’s arrival from the office.

Her final act is to address the audience and turn over the responsibility of continuing the action, or life, to them.

“I have never forgotten for long at a time that living is struggle.

I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for — whether it is a field, or a home, or a country.“

(The Skin of Our Teeth, Thornton Wilder)

In his novel The Ides of March (1948), Wilder reconstructed the characters and events leading to, and culminating in, the assassination of Julius Caesar.

Above: Roman general / statesman Julius Caesar (100 – 44 BC)

He had met Jean-Paul Sartre on a US lecture tour after the war.

He was under the influence of existentialism, although rejecting its atheist implications.

Above: French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 – 1980)

“Many great writers have been extraordinarily awkward in daily exchange, but the greatest give the impression that their style was nursed by the closest attention to colloquial speech.”

(Thornton Wilder interview, Writers at Work)

In 1962 and 1963, Wilder lived for 20 months in the small town of Douglas, Arizona, apart from family and friends.

There he started his longest novel, The Eighth Day, which went on to win the National Book Award.

According to Harold Augenbraum in 2009, it “attacked the big questions head on, embedded in the story of small-town America“.

“It is only in appearance that time is a river.

It is rather a vast landscape and it is the eye of the beholder that moves.”

(The Eighth Day, Thornton Wilder)

During a weekend gathering of the Ashley and Lansing families, Breckenridge Lansing is shot while the men are practicing shooting.

Townsfolk suspect that Eustacia Lansing, Breckenridge’s wife, and John Ashley were having an affair.

Ashley is tried, convicted, and sentenced to execution.

Miraculously, days before the scheduled execution, he is rescued by mysterious masked men.

He then escapes to Chile, where he assumes the identity of a Canadian named James Tolland and finds work in the copper mining industry.

“Those who are silent, self-effacing and attentive become the recipient of confidences.”

(The Eighth Day, Thornton Wilder)

While Ashley escapes to Chile, his family — left destitute without his income — turns to running a boarding house to make ends meet.

His son, Roger, assumes a fake name and moves to Chicago.

After working a series of odd jobs, Roger makes a name for himself as a writer for a newspaper.

Ashley’s daughter, Lily, also assumes a fake name and becomes a famous singer in Chicago, later moving to New York.

“Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous.

It is nothing if it is not ridiculous.”

(The Eighth Day, Thornton Wilder)

At the end of the book, it is revealed that a group of Native Americans, one of whom was friends with Roger, is responsible for helping Ashley escape his execution.

The group did this because, after a flood wiped out their local church, Ashley loaned them money to rebuild it.

It is also revealed that Ashley did not kill Lansing.

Lansing’s son George did, because Lansing was becoming violent towards his wife, George’s mother.

George feared for his mother’s safety, and consequently killed his father and then ran away to San Francisco, and later Russia, to work as an actor.

“A sense of humour judges one’s actions and the actions of others from a wider reference and a longer view and finds them incongrous.

It dampens enthusiasm.

It mocks hope.

It pardons shortcomings.

It consoles failure.

It recommends moderation.”

(The Eighth Day, Thornton Wilder)

Though there is a murder mystery in the novel, the main focus of the work is the history of the Ashley and Lansing families.

Wilder muses frequently on the nature of written history throughout the book.

Towards the end, he writes:

“There is only one history.

It began with the creation of man and will come to an end when the last human consciousness is extinguished.

All other beginnings and endings are arbitrary conventions — makeshifts parading as self-sufficient entireties.

The cumbrous shears of the historian cut out a few figures and a brief passage of time from that enormous tapestry.

Above and below the laceration, to the right and left of it, the severed threads protest against the injustice, against the imposture.“

Above: Thornton Wilder

The book concludes with a number of flash-forwards describing the rest of the lives of the characters.

Ashley’s wife, Beata, moves to Los Angeles and starts a boarding house there.

Roger marries one of Lansing’s daughters.

Ashley’s daughter Sophia suffers from dementia and moves into a sanitarium.

Ashley’s daughter Constance becomes a political activist and moves to Japan.

“We do not choose the day of our birth nor may we choose the day of our death, yet choice is the sovereign faculty of the mind.”

(The Eighth Day, Thornton Wilder)

His last novel, Theophilus North, was published in 1973.

It was made into the film Mr. North in 1988.

In 1920s Newport, Rhode Island, Theophilus North is an engaging, multi-talented middle class Yale University graduate who spends the summer catering to the wealthy families of the city.

He becomes the confidant of James McHenry Bosworth, and a tutor and tennis coach to the families’ children.

He also befriends many from the city’s servant class including Henry Simmons, Amelia Cranston and Sally Boffin.

“Man is not an end but a beginning.

We are at the beginning of the second week.

We are the children of the eighth day.”

(The Eighth Day, Thornton Wilder)

Complications arise when some residents begin to ascribe healing powers to the static electricity shocks that Mr. North happens to generate frequently.

Despite never claiming any healing or medical abilities, he is accused of quackery and with the help of those he had befriended must defend himself.

In the end, Mr. North accepts a position of leadership at an educational and philosophical academy founded by Mr. Bosworth and begins a romance with Bosworth’s granddaughter Persis.

“When God loves a creature he wants the creature to know the highest happiness and the deepest misery.

He wants him to know all that being alive can bring.

That is His best gift.

There is no happiness save in understanding the whole.”

(The Eighth Day, Thornton Wilder)

Donald Richie (17 April 1924 – 2013) was an American-born author who wrote about the Japanese people, the culture of Japan and, especially, Japanese cinema.

Richie was a prolific author.

Above: Donald Richie

Among his most noted works on Japan are The Inland Sea, a travel classic, and Public People, Private People, a look at some of Japan’s most significant and most mundane people.

The Inland Sea is nearly a land-locked body of water bounded by three of Japan’s four major islands.

It has been called “the Aegean of the East“, bounded as it is by the Honshu mainland on one side and the various lands of the Japanese archipelago on the other.

The people who live with the Seto Naikai, a name meaning “the sea within the straits”, remain isolated from each other and from the mainland.

The travels are real.

The chronology is real.

The people are real.

The places are all real.

They are there in the Inland Sea, within easy reach of the enterprising traveller.

The history and folklore are also real.

One’s thoughts about Japan tend to be contradictory.

And this is fitting in a land where mutual contradictions are entertained with no seeming inconvenience.

Consistency is no great virtue.

Indeed, the quite consistent is the quite dead.

We must all remember that for the Westerner, Japan is a great mirror.

In it we can see the land and the people clearly – but we can also see ourselves.

“I hear that they are building a bridge

To the island of Tsu

Alas…

To what now

Shall I compare myself?”

(Old Japanese poem)

He compiled two collections of essays on Japan: 

• A Lateral View 
• Partial Views

A collection of his writings has been published to commemorate 50 years of writing about Japan: 

• The Donald Richie Reader 
• The Japan Journals: 1947–2004 consists of extended excerpts from his diaries

Cynthia Ozick (born 17 April 1928) is an American short story writer, novelist, and essayist.

Ozick’s fiction and essays are often about Jewish American life, but she also writes about politics, history, and literary criticism.

In addition, she has written and translated poetry.

Above: Cynthia Ozick

“She thought:

How hard it is to change one’s life.

And again she thought:

How terrifyingly simple to change the lives of others.

(Foreign Bodies, Cynthia Ozick)

Henry James occupies a central place in her fiction and nonfiction.

The critic Adam Kirsch wrote that her “career-long agon with Henry James reaches a kind of culmination in Foreign Bodies, her polemical rewriting of ‘The Ambassadors‘ “.

Above: American author Henry James (1843 – 1916)

“Sometimes starting is so difficult, because it is all chaos.

It is the difference between writing an essay, which if it is about Henry James, at least you know that much, but with fiction you don’t.

It could be a scene in your mind or it could be some kind of tendril that you can barely define.

So I have to force it.

And then after – this is real compulsion, real self-flagellation – it kind of takes off.

But there is a lot of agony before.

And sometimes during.

And sometimes all through.

But just before the end and revelations start coming, that’s the joy.

But mostly that’s Hell.”

(The Guardian, 4 July 2011, Cythnia Ozick)

Above: Cynthia Ozick

The Holocaust and its aftermath is also a dominant theme.

Above: “Selection” of Hungarian Jews on the ramp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau in German-occupied Poland, around May 1944. Jews were sent either to work or to the gas chamber. 

For instance in “Who Owns Anne Frank?” she writes that the diary’s true meaning has been distorted and eviscerated “by blurb and stage, by shrewdness and naiveté, by cowardice and spirituality, by forgiveness and indifference“. 

Above: German Jewess diarist Anne Frank (1929 – 1945)

“I don’t think one writes for immortality.

I think beginning writers always think they will have fame.

But if fame – which is power – is what you want, then you will get it, probably.

But it is not something necessary to want or need.“

(NPR, 17 July 2016, Cynthia Ozick)

Above: Logo of National Public Radio

Much of her work explores the disparaged self, the reconstruction of identity after immigration, trauma and movement from one class to another.

Above: Cynthia Ozick

“I think the word is intractable.

I blame the lack of live and let live.

And which side is ıt coming from more than the other side?

I think it is coming from people who call other people infidels.

That’s how it strikes me.”

(The Guardian, 4 July 2011, Cynthia Ozick)

Ozick says that writing is not a choice but “a kind of hallucinatory madness.

You will do it no matter what.

You can’t not do it.”

She sees the “freedom in the delectable sense of making things up” as coexisting with the “torment” of writing.

Above: Cynthia Ozick

“I cannot not write.

I mean, what else am I going to do with my life?

That’s another way of putting it.

I simply must.

Writers cannot help themselves.

In a way they are sort of like the Queen of England.

Every writer is doomed to their profession.

What else is the Queen going to do with her life?

She was born a Queen.

She’s stuck.

And writers are stuck, too.“

(NPR, 17 July 2016, Cythnia Ozick)

Above: Cynthia Oznick

The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories (1971) is the second book and first collection of stories published by American author Cynthia Ozick. 

“I always knew that this was what I wanted to do.

I think this is true of most writers — especially anybody who has read ‘Little Women’, which is every writer.

Not so much the male writers, let’s admit it, but every writer who grows up has wanted to be Jo.“

(NPR, 17 July 2016, Cynthia Ozick)

Above: Cythnia Ozick

The Pagan Rabbi is about a rabbi who had just committed suicide by hanging himself in a public park.

He is remembered by his widow for having recently discovered a passion for nature and his widow felt that he left his beliefs of Judaism for Paganism.

Envy is about an American Yiddish poet who is bitterly jealous of his more-successful contemporary.

The main character also has a personal vendetta against televangelists who are attempting to convert Jews to Christianity.

The Suitcase is about a retired Imperial German fighter pilot, whose son is a well-recognized artist.

One of the artist’s friends finds that her purse has been stolen, and they try to figure out who stole it.

The woman who lost her purse accuses the father of the artist, because he was in the Imperial German army.

The Butterfly and the Traffic Light is basically an argument between a college girl and her professor about how traffic lights are the icons of American cities.

The Shawl follows Rosa, her baby Magda, and her niece Stella on their march to a Nazi concentration camp in the middle of winter.

They are described as weak and starving during the march.

Stella’s knees are described as “tumors on sticks“.

Rosa is said to be a “walking cradle” because she constantly carries Magda close to her chest wrapped in her shawl.

Rosa contemplates handing Magda off to one of the villagers watching their march, but decides that the guards would most likely just shoot them both.

Rosa says the shawl is “magic” when Magda sucks on it because it sustained Magda for three days and three nights without food.

Stella observes that Magda looks Aryan, but Rosa sees the observation as some kind of threat to Magda.

At the camp, Rosa continues to hide Magda, but is in constant fear that someone will discover and kill her.

“If you’re alone too much, you think too much.”, Persky said.

“Without a life, a person lives where they can.

If all they got is thoughts, that’s where they live.”, Rosa answered

(The Shawl, Cynthia Ozick)

One day, Stella takes Magda’s shawl away to warm herself.

Without her shawl, Magda, who hadn’t made a sound since the march, begins screaming for her “Ma“.

Rosa hears the screaming, but does not run to Magda because the guards will kill them both.

Instead, she runs to get the shawl and begins waving it in the hope that Magda will see it and calm down.

She is too late and watches as the Nazi guards pick Magda up and throw her into the electric fence, killing her.

Rosa stuffs the shawl into her mouth to stop herself from screaming.

“This is very nice, cozy. You got a nice cozy place, Lublin.”

“Cramped,” Rosa said.

“I work from a different theory.

For everything, there’s a bad way of describing, also a good way.

You pick the good way, you go along better.”

“I don’t like to give myself lies.

Life is short.

We all got to lie.”, Rosa said.

(The Shawl, Cynthia Ozick)

Ozick was inspired to write The Shawl by a line in the book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer.

The book mentioned a real event, a baby being thrown into an electric fence.

Ozick was struck by the brutality of the death camp and felt inspired to write about that event.

“Because she fears the past she distrusts the future — it, too, will turn into the past.“

(The Shawl, Cynthia Ozick)

Nick Hornby (born 17 April 1957) is an English writer and lyricist.

He is best known for his memoir Fever Pitch (1992) and novels High Fidelity and About a Boy, all of which were adapted into feature films.

Hornby’s work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists.

His books have sold more than 5 million copies worldwide as of 2018. 

In a 2004 poll for the BBC, Hornby was named the 29th most influential person in British culture.

He has received two Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay nominations for An Education (2009), and Brooklyn (2015).

Prior to his career as a novelist, Hornby worked for a time as a secondary-school English teacher.

Above: Nick Hornby

Fever Pitch, published in 1992, is an autobiographical story detailing his fanatical support for Arsenal Football Club. 

“I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring with it.“

(Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby)

It consists of several chapters in chronological order, from the time the author first became a football fan as a child until his early 30s.

Each chapter is about a football match that he remembers watching, most but not all at Arsenal Stadium, Highbury, and how it related to the events that were going on with his life.

“By the early 70s I had become an Englishman — that is to say, I hated England just as much as half my compatriots seemed to do.“

Above: Flag of England

As well as recounting Arsenal’s highs and lows, Hornby talks about other football clubs that play in London, and his interest in the contrasting surroundings of Cambridge United and Cambridge City, whose matches he attends while at university.

“As I get older, the tyranny that football exerts over my life, and therefore over the lives of the people around me, is less reasonable and less attractive.“

(Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby)

As a result, Hornby received the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award.

In 1997, the memoir was adapted for film in the UK, and in 2005 an American remake was released, following Jimmy Fallon’s character’s obsession with the Boston Red Sox, a baseball team.

With the book’s success, Hornby began to publish articles in the Sunday Times, Time Out and the Times Literary Supplement, in addition to his music reviews for the New Yorker.

High Fidelity — his third book and first novel — was published in 1995.

Rob Fleming is a 35-year-old man who owns a record shop in London called Championship Vinyl.

His lawyer girlfriend, Laura, has just left him and now he is going through a crisis.

At his record shop, Rob and his employees, Dick and Barry, spend their free moments discussing mix-tape aesthetics and constructing desert-island “top-five” lists of anything that demonstrates their knowledge of music, movies, and pop culture.

Rob uses this exercise to create his own list: “The top five most memorable split-ups.”

This list includes the following ex-girlfriends:

1) Alison Ashworth

2) Penny Hardwick

3) Jackie Allen

4) Charlie Nicholson

5) Sarah Kendrew

“Where’s the superficial?

I was, and therefore am, dim, gloomy, a drag, unfashionable, unfanciable, and awkward.

This doesn’t seem like superficial to me.

These aren’t flesh wounds.

These are life-threatening thrusts into the internal organs.“

(High Fidelity, Nick Hornby)

Rob, recalling these breakups, sets about getting in touch with the former girlfriends.

Eventually, Rob’s re-examination of his failed relationships, a one-time stand with an American musician named Marie LaSalle, and the death of Laura’s father bring the two back together.

Their relationship is cemented by the launch of a new purposefulness to Rob’s life in the revival of his disc jockey career.

“I’ve been thinking with my guts since I was fourteen years old, and, frankly, I think my guts have shit for brains.“

(High Fidelity, Nick Hornby)

Also, realizing that his fear of commitment (a result of his fear of death of those around him) and his tendency to act on emotion are responsible for his continuing desires to pursue new women, Rob makes a token commitment to Laura.

“Then I lost it.

Kinda lost it all, you know.

Faith, dignity, about fifteen pounds.“

(High Fidelity, Nick Hornby)

The novel, about a neurotic record collector and his failed relationships, was adapted into a 2000 American film starring John Cusack, a Broadway musical in 2006, and a television show High Fidelity starring Zoë Kravitz in 2020.

His second novel, About a Boy, published in 1998, is about two “boys“ — Marcus, an awkward yet endearing adolescent from a single-parent family, and the free-floating, mid-30s Will Freeman, who overcomes his own immaturity and self-centredness through his growing relationship with Marcus.

Set in 1993 London, About a Boy features two main protagonists:

• Will Freeman, a 36-year-old bachelor
• Marcus Brewer, a 12-year-old incongruous schoolboy described as “introverted“ by his suicidal mother, Fiona, despite his tendencies to bond and interact with people.

Will’s father wrote a successful Christmas song, the royalties of which have afforded Will the ability to remain voluntarily redundant throughout his life – he spends his plentiful free time immersing himself in 1990s culture, music, and pursuing sexual relations with women.

“There had been times when he knew, somewhere in him, that he would get used to it, whatever it was, because he had learnt that some hard things became softer after a very little while.“

(About a Boy, Nick Hornby)

After a pleasant relationship with a single mother of two, Angie, Will comes up with the idea of attending a single parents group as a new way to pick up women.

For this purpose, he invents a two-year-old son called Ned.

Will then makes a number of acquaintances through his membership of the single parents group, two of which are Fiona and her son Marcus.

Although their relationship is initially somewhat strained, they finally succeed in striking up a true friendship despite Will being largely uninterested during the early-middle stages of the novel.

Will, a socially aware and “trendy” person, aids Marcus to fit into 1990s youth culture by encouraging him not to get his hair cut by his mother, buying him Adidas trainers, and introducing him to contemporary music, such as Nirvana.

Marcus and Will’s friendship strengthens as the story progresses, even after Marcus and Fiona discover Will’s lie about having a child.

“Single mothers — bright, attractive, available women, thousands of them all over London — they were the best invention Will had ever heard of.“

(About a Boy, Nick Hornby)

Marcus is befriended by Ellie McCrae, a tough, moody 15-year-old girl, who is constantly in trouble at school because she insists on wearing a Kurt Cobain jumper.

He also spends some time with his dad Clive, who visits Marcus and Fiona for Christmas together with his new girlfriend Lindsey and her mother.

Clive has a minor accident during some D.I.Y. work and breaks his collarbone.

This prompts Clive into having “a big think” about the meaning of his life.

He summons Marcus to Cambridge to see him.

Marcus decides to bring Ellie along with him for support.

However, they are arrested on the way as Ellie smashes a shop window displaying a cardboard cut-out of Kurt Cobain – accusing the shopkeeper of “trying to make money out of him” after his suicide.

“Each day was a bad day, but he survived by kidding himself that each day was somehow unconnected to the day before.“

(About a Boy, Nick Hornby)

Meanwhile, to Will’s despair, he falls in love with a woman called Rachel.

Rachel is a single mother with a son named Ali (Alistair), who is the same age as Marcus.

The two originally fight, but quickly become friends.

Will’s emotional faculties are liberated and he begins to “shed his old skin” of emotional indifference.

Simultaneously Marcus is becoming more typical of his age.

He begins to enjoy his life more.

“These feelings were exactly what he had been so afraid of, and this was why he had been so sure that falling in love was rubbish, and, surprise surprise, it was rubbish, and … and it was too late.“

(About a Boy, Nick Hornby)

The penultimate scene takes place in a police station in Royston (a small suburban town), where nearly every significant character in the novel is present, their common link being Marcus.

The novel ends during a three-way dialogue between Marcus, Will and Fiona, where Will, to see if Marcus has truly changed, proposes the idea that he play a Joni Mitchell song on Fiona’s piano, which she is enthusiastic about.

However, Marcus responds saying he “hates” Joni Mitchell, whereby Hornby concludes the novel with the narration saying:

“Will knew Marcus would be OK“.

Hugh Grant and Nicholas Hoult starred in the 2002 film version.

In 1999, Hornby received the E. M. Forster Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Hornby’s next novel, How to Be Good, was published in 2001.

The female protagonist in the novel explores contemporary morals, marriage and parenthood.

“What if a sense of humour is like hair — something a lot of man lose as they get older?“

(How to Be Good, Nick Hornby)

It centers on characters Katie Carr, a doctor, and her husband, David Grant.

The story begins when David stops being “the Angriest Man In Holloway” and begins to be “good” with the help of his spiritual healer, DJ Good News (who also shows up briefly in Hornby’s A Long Way Down).

The pair go about this by nominally convincing people to give their spare bedrooms to the homeless, but as their next scheme comes around, “reversal” (being good to people one has not been good to in the past), this proves to be fruitless and thus David gives up his strivings and his plans for a book on how to be good, appropriately named “How to be Good“.

The protagonist, Katie, briefly encounters a minor character named Dick whose description and attitude towards music are reminiscent of the character of the same name from Hornby’s first novel, High Fidelity.

It was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2001.

He won the W.H. Smith Award for Fiction in 2002.

“And after tea, we play Junior Scrabble. We are the ideal nuclear family. We eat together, we play improving board games instead of watching television, we smile alot. I fear that at any moment I may kill somebody.”

(How to Be Good, Nick Hornby)

Part of the money he earned with his next book, Speaking with the Angel in 2002, was donated to TreeHouse, a charity for autistic children:

Hornby’s own son is autistic.

He was editor of the book, which contained 12 short stories written by his friends.

He also contributed to the collection with the story “NippleJesus“.

“Self-pity is an ignoble emotion, but we all feel it, and the orthodox critical line that it represents some kind of artistic flaw is dubious, a form of emotional correctness.“

(Songbook, Nick Hornby)

In 2003, Hornby wrote a collection of essays on selected popular songs and the emotional resonance they carry, called 31 Songs (known in the US as Songbook).

“Indeed, there is a moment on the first CD — the electrifying opening to “I Got Loaded,” which sounds like an R&B standard but isn’t — when you might find yourself asking whether anyone who has ever been smitten by pop music can fail to have his heart stopped by the chords, the swing, and, once again, Steve Berlin’s wonderfully greasy sax.“

(Songbook, Nick Hornby)

A Long Way Down is a 2005 novel written by British author Nick Hornby.

It is a dark comedy, playing off the themes of suicide, angst, depression and promiscuity.

The story is written in the first-person narrative from the points of view of the four main characters, Martin, Maureen, Jess and JJ.

These four strangers happen to meet on the roof of a high building called Toppers House in London on New Year’s Eve, each with the intent of committing suicide.

Their plans for death in solitude are ruined when they meet.

The novel recounts their misadventures as they decide to come down from the roof alive – however temporarily that may be.

Disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp, lonely single mother Maureen (51 years old), unsuccessful musician JJ and rude teenager Jess (18 years old) meet at Toppers House in London on New Year’s Eve.

They all want to commit suicide by jumping from the roof.

Their plans for death in solitude, however, are ruined when they meet.

After telling their individual stories to the others, they decide to hold off on jumping and to help each other.

Thus a group of four unfortunate and very individual people forms.

Jess’s condition not to jump is that they help her to find her ex-boyfriend Chas.

So they take a taxi and drive to the party they suppose Chas to be at.

After finding and talking to Chas they decide to go to Martin’s place where they find Penny, who has obviously been crying.

She accuses Martin of cheating on her because he had left the party they had both attended that evening without any explanation.

“I’m sorry, but there’s no disturbed mental balance here, my friend.

I’d say he got it just right.

Bad thing upon bad thing upon bad thing.

Surely that’s fair enough?

Surely the coroner’s report should read:

“He took his own life after sober and careful contemplation of the fucking shambles it had become.”

(A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby)

The next morning Jess’s dad learns that the newspapers are publishing a story about Jess and Martin.

Jess tells him that she slept with Martin, to avoid him finding out the truth of her attempted suicide.

He takes her to task because the whole thing is very awkward for him.

He is the Junior Secretary of Education and has a reputation to lose.

He goes out to get an early edition of the paper and sees the story about her ‘suicide pact‘ with Martin, so Jess’s “whole sex confession bit had been a complete and utter fucking waste of time“.

“I’m sorry, but there’s no disturbed mental balance here, my friend.

I’d say he got it just right.

Bad thing upon bad thing upon bad thing.

Surely that’s fair enough?

Surely the coroner’s report should read:

“He took his own life after sober and careful contemplation of the fucking shambles it had become.“

(A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby)

Jess’s father asks Martin to clear up the accusations.

Martin denies that he slept with Jess.

After the conversation, her father asks Martin to protect Jess and gives him money.

Afterwards, a reporter calls JJ wanting to know why they decided not to jump, but JJ refuses to discuss it.

“But I’d felt as if I’d pissed my life away in the same way that you can piss money away.

I’d had a life, full of kids and wives and jobs and all the usual stuff, and I had somehow managed to mislay it.

No, you see, that’s not right.

I knew where my life was, just as you know where the money goes when you piss it away.

I hadn’t mislaid it at all.

I had spent it.“

(A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby)

Later Jess calls Maureen.

They decide to organise a meeting at Maureen’s place.

At the meeting, Jess suggests that they try to profit from the suicidal-report in the newspaper.

Her idea is to confess to the press that they saw an angel who saved them from jumping.

Martin, Maureen and JJ don’t like the idea and they try to convince Jess out of talking to the press.

The next morning they find out that Jess told a reporter, Linda, that they saw an angel that looked like Matt Damon.

Jess also promised Linda an interview with Martin, Maureen and JJ.

Although they are upset with Jess’ behaviour, they decide to do the interview.

Linda uses the interview to attack Martin in the press.

Thus Martin is fired from his cable TV “Feet Up TV!”, but he receives a second chance by promising to his boss that the other three will be guests in his show.

The show is a disaster and Martin loses his job.

At another TV show Jess admits that the angel story was not true.

“And another way of explaining it is that shit happens, and there’s no space too small, too dark and airless and fucking hopeless, for people to crawl into.“

(A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby)

Later, JJ decides that the four of them have to go on holiday for Maureen’s benefit.

Martin, Jess and JJ help Maureen to find a place for Matty, her son.

One week later they are on a plane to Tenerife.

On the second day, Jess sees a girl who looks very similar to her lost sister Jen.

Jess bothers the girl and they have a fight.

Out of frustration Jess gets drunk and the police have to take her back to the hotel.

JJ meets a girl that saw his old band and they spend the night together.

Martin decides to leave the hotel after a fight with Jess.

During his absence from the others, he thinks about his life and decides that he has made no mistakes.

He blames other people for how his life has turned out.

In the taxi to the airport they talk about their holiday and plan another meeting for Valentine’s Day.

They meet at 8 o’clock on the roof of Toppers House on Valentine’s Day.

“And another way of explaining it is that shit happens, and there’s no space too small, too dark and airless and fucking hopeless, for people to crawl into.“

(A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby)

While they have a conversation, they see a young man who is planning to jump from the roof.

They try to stop him from committing suicide but he jumps.

They decide to go home and to meet the following afternoon at Starbucks.

“I couldn’t get the mood back; it was as if one of the kids had woken up just as Cindy and I were starting to make love. I hadn’t changed my mind, and I still knew that I’d have to do it sometime. It’s just that I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do it in the next five minutes.”

(A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby)

Martin tells them about a newspaper article he read according to which people who want to commit suicide need 90 days to overcome their predicament.

So they decide to hold their decision until 31 March.

Maureen and Jess decide to visit Martin’s ex-wife Cindy to bring her back to him.

Cindy Sharp lives with her kids in Torley Heath and has a new partner Paul, whom Maureen and Jess later find out is blind.

Cindy explains to them that Martin made many mistakes and that he didn’t take care of the children.

After that, Jess organises a meeting in the basement of Starbucks.

She invites relatives of the four.

All in all, 17 people appear, but the meeting is a disaster.

Jess and her parents are screaming at each other, because her mother claims that she had stolen a pair of earrings from Jen’s untouched room.

While they are fighting Jess runs out of the Starbucks.

JJ and a former member of his band are leaving the basement to have a fight and Martin has an argument with one of Maureen’s nurses because he claims that he is flirting with Penny.

Maureen is the only one of the four who is still present.

She talks to Jess’ parents and speculates that Jen may have come back to take the earrings.

The nurses Sean and Stephen help Maureen to bring Matty home and on the way Sean asks her if she is interested in joining their quiz team.

At the quiz, an old man from the team offers Maureen a job in a newsagent’s.

When Jess comes back from her trip to London Bridge, her mother apologizes for accusing her.

Jess accepts the apology, seeing the hope Maureen’s suggestion has given her mother.

Maureen, JJ and Martin have new jobs now.

Martin is a teacher and wants to start a new life.

JJ is a busker and is happy to make music again.

Maureen has started work at the newsagent’s.

The 90 days have passed and they meet in a pub near Toppers House.

They decide to go on the roof again.

While watching the London Eye from the roof, they realise that their lives aren’t that bad.

They decide to delay their final decision on killing themselves for another six months.

“I wanted to make my life short, and I was at a party in Toppers’ Hose, and the coincidence was too much.

It was like a message from God.

OK, it was disappointing that all God had to say to me was, like, jump off a roof, but I didn’t blame Him.

What else was He supposed to tell me?“

(A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby)

Hornby’s book Slam was published on 16 October 2007.

It is his first novel for young adults and was recognised as a 2008 ALA Best Books for Young Adults.

The protagonist of Slam is a 16-year-old skateboarder named Sam, whose life changes drastically when his girlfriend gets pregnant.

The novel’s protagonist is a troubled 16-year-old skateboarder, Sam, who lives in London.

His mother, Annie, gave birth to him when she was just 16.

They therefore have an unconventional relationship.

He has a poster of Tony Hawk in his room that serves as his friend and confidant.

Sam’s two best friends are Rabbit and Rubbish, two skateboarders.

Sam’s father, Dave, is somewhat estranged from the family, visiting them only occasionally.

After being introduced to Alicia at a party thrown by Annie’s co-worker, Andrea, Sam and Alicia start dating.

He believes he is in love with her and visits her numerous times, almost daily, in which they have sex several times.

However, one time Sam and Alicia try having sex not wearing protection.

Sam knows that due to him having sex with Alicia without a condom, she might be pregnant.

He’s just not ready to be a father.

After a while, Sam gets bored of his relationship and decides to break up.

A while later, Alicia calls him to meet so they can talk. Sam, realizing what news she has, has a prophetic dream of waking up next to Alicia in the future.

She is ugly and heavy, and their baby, Roof, is loud and obnoxious.

He attends the local college occasionally throughout the week, pursuing a career in art and design.

Moreover, Annie is pregnant.

Sam awakens the next morning.

He is back to his normal time and presumes that he was sent in the future by the mystical powers of his Tony Hawk poster.

In fear of the obvious news that Alicia will give him, he runs away to Hastings and throws his mobile phone in the sea.

Thinking he can make a permanent residence there, Sam goes to several attractions, only to be told there is no work.

While in a seedy bed and breakfast, Sam meets a rude old man, Mr Brady, that hires him as a helper with various day-to-day activities (helping him up and down the stairs, and retrieving his remote control).

In the middle of the night, Mr Brady barges into his room demanding he helps him find the remote that has fallen behind his bed.

Sam grudgingly retrieves it, only to decide that he no longer wants to stay in the town.

Above: Hastings, England

He returns home to Annie who has called the police.

After spending some time with Annie, Sam and Alicia meet up and she reveals that she is in fact pregnant.

Refusing to get an abortion, Alicia and Sam work up the nerve to tell Alicia’s elitist parents, Andrea and Robert.

Originally upset, Andrea and Robert try to convince Alicia to have an abortion.

When Alicia refuses, Andrea and Robert lash out and blame Sam for ruining Alicia’s life.

Sam, Alicia, Andrea and Robert march over to Sam’s apartment, only to find Annie with her new boyfriend Mark.

When told of the pregnancy, Annie breaks down and cries, furious that Sam would ruin his life.

That night, Sam has another prophetic dream in which he takes Roof (the name, he finds, being a contraction of Rufus) to a doctor’s appointment.

Again, Sam has no idea how to take care of Roof and no idea what is going on.

Sam upsets his son Rufus, and he again, realizes he is not a suitable father.

Fortunately, he meets with a young mother – whom he does not know, but who seems to know him – and gets her to show him how to change Roof’s diapers, though she says:

“But you are very good at doing it.”

When waking up he realizes that, like it or not, he is going to have a life of taking care of his son.

Gradually, he gets used to the idea.

As soon as Mark moves into their house, Annie becomes pregnant.

Sam moves into Alicia’s house only to find that he really isn’t welcome there.

He begins to take part-time college classes.

He encounters one of Alicia’s previous boyfriends who insinuates that Sam’s son Rufus is actually his.

He confronts Alicia when he believes that she conveniently made it look like it was his child – which she angrily disproves, but the scene adds to spoiling their relationship.

He moves back into his mother’s apartment, resulting in him researching the Internet for facts about teenage pregnancies.

He discovers that four out of five male teenage parents lose contact with their children.

He goes to Alicia’s and begins to row with Alicia, resulting in her thinking he is seeing another girl.

Eventually Alicia’s parents clear the matter up.

When Alicia’s time comes, Sam is very confused, but eventually does manage in a credible way the role of being at her side.

He then finds out the origin of the baby’s name – when recovering from birth-giving Alicia was listening to Rufus Wainwright.

It was Sam himself who changed it to “Roof“.

Soon afterwards, Sam’s mother gives birth to a daughter, Emily – who is strictly Roof’s aunt, though being a month younger than him.

Sam gets involved in taking care of Emily, too.

Soon after this Sam and Alicia take Rufus out for the day with Alicia and Sam having sex later.

Alicia’s mum discovers them and gets particularly angry.

Sam and Alicia finally confirm to each other they were from the beginning wrong for each other.

Then Sam has a third prophetic dream, presumably a few years in the future.

He wakes up with a beautiful girl he doesn’t know.

It is revealed she is his current girlfriend, Alex, as Alicia and he broke up.

The two go to meet Alicia and her new boyfriend, Carl, in a restaurant.

It is made clear that Alicia is the primary caretaker of the baby, but that she and Sam still have a friendly relationship.

Hornby’s following novel, titled Juliet, Naked, was published in September 2009.

Addressing similar themes as his earlier novel High Fidelity, the book is about a reclusive 1980s rock star who is forced out of isolation, after the release of demo recordings of the songs on his most famous album brings him into contact with some of his most passionate fans.

Duncan, an obsessive music fan, receives a CD of Juliet, Naked, an album of solo acoustic demos of the songs on the album Juliet by his favourite artist, Tucker Crowe.

Duncan’s girlfriend, Annie, opens it first and listens to it on her own.

Duncan is angry, especially when she expresses her dislike for it.

He writes an enthusiastic review for the fan website he runs.

Annie writes a passionate article criticising it and receives an email response from Tucker Crowe himself. Further email correspondence ensues, much of which consumes Annie’s thoughts.

Tucker Crowe is in Pennsylvania preparing for a visit from his daughter Lizzie, whom he has never met.

He has five children from four relationships.

His youngest son Jackson and Jackson’s mother, Cat, are the only ones he lives with.

Lizzie reveals that she is visiting because she is pregnant.

Duncan meets a new colleague called Gina, whom he sleeps with.

He tells Annie of his affair and she insists he move out.

The next day Annie talks to her judgmental therapist Malcolm.

Duncan regrets leaving Annie but she refuses to take him back.

Cat breaks up with Tucker, but Tucker remains to look after Jackson.

Annie places a photo of Tucker and Jackson on her fridge and invites Duncan round to make him see it, gleeful that he doesn’t know the significance of it, and tells him she is in a relationship with him.

She ponders the years she has wasted with Duncan and ends up going to the pub with her friend Ros.

She meets Gav and Barnesy, two Northern Soul dancers.

Barnesy comes back to her house and tells her he loves her, but leaves after she says she won’t sleep with him.

Annie discusses the incident the next day with Malcolm.

Tucker learns that Lizzie has lost the baby.

He and Jackson fly to London to see Lizzie.

On arrival at the hospital in London, Tucker has a heart attack and is admitted.

Lizzie invites all his children and their mothers to visit for a family reunion.

A mini-narrative describes the events which caused Tucker to end his career after hearing that he had a daughter, Grace, from the relationship before/during Juliet.

Annie visits him in the hospital.

He suggests staying at her house to avoid the family reunion.

The next day Annie visits again.

Annie discovers he had not yet met with Grace.

Tucker tells her about Grace and Juliet.

Annie insists he call his family.

They discuss his work.

Tucker sees it as inauthentic rubbish, while Annie thinks it is deep and meaningful music while clarifying that while the music is good, it doesn’t mean that Tucker as a person is good.

She also admits that she was in a relationship with Duncan, whom Tucker knows of from the website.

Annie encourages Tucker to meet Duncan, but he refuses.

The next day, they bump into Duncan.

Tucker introduces himself, but Duncan doesn’t believe him.

After considering it, Duncan comes over.

Tucker shows Duncan his passport as proof.

They have tea together.

Tucker clarifies some of Duncan’s beliefs about him, while Duncan expresses his love of his music.

Grace calls Tucker.

She says she understands how he and she can’t be close because it would mean giving up Juliet.

An exhibition Annie has been working on opens at the Gooleness Museum, where she works as a curator.

She suggests that Tucker could open it, but the councillor in charge says he’s never heard of him and invites Gav and Barnsey to do it instead.

At the party, Annie admits to Tucker that she likes him romantically.

Afterwards they have sex.

Annie says she has used a contraceptive, but she hadn’t.

Tucker and Jackson return to America.

Annie tells Malcolm about it all and tells him that she would like to sell her house and move right away to America to join Tucker and Jackson.

Malcolm’s paternalistic comment make her realise that she needs to leave England.

In the epilogue, Duncan and other fans review on the fan website a new release from Tucker, which they think is terrible.

One of them writes ‘Happiness Is Poison‘.

Only one new member says she and her husband love the new album, while they find Juliet too gloomy for their liking.

In 2010, Hornby co-founded the Ministry of Stories, a non-profit organisation in East London dedicated to helping children and young adults develop writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.

 

This blog has its own missions.

I have been advised by my wife (Ute) and my social media mentor (Emir) that I should consider reducing the size of my blogposts, that we live in an ADD (attention disorder deficit) society that is both unwilling and unable to read for any extended length of time.

But the length of my posts, including this one, is to fight against this feeling.

This post’s goal is simple.

I want you to read.

Whether or not you intend to be a writer or simply long for good writing to read.

These days it is impossible to get away from discussions of whether the book will survive the digital revolution.

Blogs, tweets and newspaper articles on the subject appear daily, many of them repetitive, most of them admitting ignorance of the future.

In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo put these famous words into the mouth of Archdeacon Claude Frollo:

“The book will kill the building.

When you compare architecture to the idea, which needs only a sheet of paper, some ink and a pen, is it surprising that the human intellect should have deserted architecture for the printing press?”

The great cathedrals – those “Bibles in stone” – did not vanish, but the avalanche of manuscripts and then printed text that appeared at the end of the Middle Ages did render cathedrals less important. As culture changed, architecture lost its emblematic role.

So it is with the book.

Above: Notre Dame de Paris

There is no need to suppose that the electronic book will replace the printed version.

Has film killed painting?

Television cinema?

However, there is no doubt that the book is the throes of a technological revolution that is changing our relationship to it profoundly.

A book represents a sort of unsurpassable perfection in the realm of the imagination.

What is a book?

What will change if we read onscreen rather than by turning the pages of a physical object?

Old-fashioned habits, perhaps.

A certain sense of the sacred that has surrounded the book in a civilization that has made it our Holy of Holies.

A peculiar intimacy between the author and the reader, which the concept of hypertextuality is bound to damage.

A sense of existing in a self-contained world that the book and, along with it, certain ways of reading used to represent.

What we call culture is in fact a lengthy process of selection and filtering.

Contemporary civilization, armed with every conceivable kind of technology, is still attempting to conserve culture safely, without much lasting success.

However determined we are to learn from the past, our libraries, museums and film archives will only ever contain the works that time has not destroyed.

Culture is made up of what remains after everything else has been forgotten.

The Internet has returned us to the alphabet.

If we thought we had become a purely visual civilization, the computer returns us to Gutenberg’s galaxy.

From now on, everyone has to read.

In order to read, you need a medium.

This medium cannot simply be a computer screen.

Spend two hours reading a novel on your computer and your eyes turn into tennis balls.

The book is like the spoon, the scissors, the hammer, the wheel.

Once invented, it cannot be improved.

There is no doubt that a lawyer could take his 25,000 case documents home more easily if they were loaded onto an e-book.

In many areas, the electronic book will turn out to be remarkably convenient, but I remain unconvinced – even with fast-rate reading technology – that it would be particularly advisable to read War and Peace on an e-book.

Hermann Hesse had some interesting things to say about the “re-legitimization” of the book that he thought would result from technical developments:

“The more the need for entertainment and mainstream education can be met by new inventions, the more the book will recover its dignity and authority.

We have not yet quite reached the point where young competitors have taken over functions from the book that it cannot afford to lose.“

Above: German writer / artist Hermann Hesse (1877 – 1962)

Cinema, radio and even television have taken nothing from the book – nothing that it couldn’t afford to lose.

At a certain point of time, man invented the written word.

Writing is an extension of the hand and therefore it is almost biological.

It is the communication tool most closely linked to the body.

Once invented, it could never be given up.

We have never needed to read and write as much as we do today.

If you cannot read and write, then you cannot use a computer.

Why do we read?

Generally, to profit from it, to grow somewhere in mind or spirit.

Good books, fiction or nonfiction, deserve reading.

Ask questions while you read – questions that you yourself must try to answer in the course of reading.

There are four main questions you must ask about any book:

1. WHAT IS THE BOOK ABOUT AS A WHOLE?

Try to discover the leading theme of the book and how the author develops this theme in an orderly way.

2. WHAT IS BEING SAID IN DETAIL AND HOW?

Try to discover the main ideas, assertions and arguments that constitute the author’s particular message.

3. IS THE BOOK TRUE, IN WHOLE OR IN PART?

You have to know what is being said before you can decide whether it is true or not. When you understand a book, however, you are obligated, if you are reading seriously, to make up your own mind.

4. WHAT OF IT?

If the book has given you information, you must ask about its significance.

Why does the author think it is important to know these things?

Is it important to you to know them?

And if the book has not only informed you, but also enlightened you, it is necessary to seek further enlightment by asking what else follows, what is further implied or suggested.

The four questions summarize the whole obligation of a reader.

Knowing what the four questions are is not enough. You must remember to ask them as you read.

Merely asking questions is not enough.

You have to try to answer them.

Grab a pen.

Full ownership of a book only comes when you have made it part of yourself.

The best way to make yourself a part of it is by writing in it.

Why is marking a book indispensible to reading it?

First, it keeps you awake.

Second, reading, if it is active, is thinking.

Thinking expresses itself in words.

The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he is thinking.

Why do we write?

To know what we are thinking.

Third, writing your reactions down helps you to remember the thoughts of the author.

Reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author.

Understanding is a two-way operation.

The learner has to question himself and question the teacher.

He even has to be willing to argue with the teacher, once he understands what the teacher is saying.

Marking a book is literally an expression of your differences or your agreements with the author.

It is the highest respect you can pay him.

Reading with pen in hand allows intimate communication with the writer.

We all begin as close readers.

Word by word is how we learn to hear and then read.

The more we read, the faster we can perform that magic trick of seeing how the letters have been combined into words that have meaning.

The more we read, the more we comprehend, the more likely we are to discover new ways to read, each one tailored to the reason why we are reading a particular book.

Reading a book can make you want to write one.

A work of art can start you thinking about some aesthetic or philosophical problem.

It can suggest some new method, some fresh approach to fiction.

More often the connection has to do with whatever mysterious promptings make you want to write.

The better the book, the more you imagine.

Reading a masterpiece can inspire us by showing us how a writer does something brilliantly.

Books are teachers, authorities to advise us, the models that inspire us with energy and courage to learn.

I will try to show you some writers that deserve a reading.

A movie may move us, but it demands little more than our attention.

A book demands we feel and think about what the book is trying to tell us, to use both our intelligence and our imagination.

God willing, I too will produce literature worthy of your time and attention, health and time permitting.

Put your phone down.

Turn the TV off.

Grab a book and a pen.

Begin the adventure of reading now.

Sources

• Wikipedia

• Wikiquote

• Google Photos

• How to Read a Book, Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren

• Plot and Structure, James Scott Bell

• The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker

• Daily Rituals, Mason Currey

• This is NOT the end of the book, Umberto Eco and Jean-Claude Carrière

• Reading Like a Writer, Francine Prose

• The Assassin’s Cloak, edited by Irene and Alan Taylor

Canada Slim and the Last Battle

Eskisehir, Switzerland, Sunday 19 September 2021

As the dates below will show, this blog (The Chronicles of Canada Slim) (one of two) has suffered from neglect.

I offer only one explanation:

I have been….distracted.

Above: Flag of Canada

The purpose of The Chronicles of Canada Slim is to capture in writing my adventures prior to the calendar year.

Generally, the Chronicles tells the tales of travels in Alsace, Italy, Lanzarote, London, Porto, Serbia and Switzerland.

Above: Flag of Alsace

Above: Flag of Italy

Above: Lanzarote (red) of the Spanish Canary Islands

Above: London, England

Above: Flag of Porto, Portugal

Above: Flag of Serbia

Above: Flag of Switzerland

But much has been happening since the finale of my Zwingli Way Walk (recorded here): an accident which broke both my arms, work commitments, a visit to Canada, the Corona virus, and the decision to work here in Turkey.

Please see Canada Slim and…..

• the City of Spirits (3 January 2016)
• the Push for Reformation (5 January 2016)
• the Genius of Glarus (14 August 2016)
• the Road to Reformation (12 November 2017)
• the Wild Child of Toggenburg (20 November 2017)
• the Thundering Hollows (27 November 2017)
• the Basel Butterfly Effect (3 December 2017)
• the Vienna Waltz (9 December 2017)
• the Battle for Switzerland’s Soul (18 December 2017)
• the Last Walk of Robert Walser (25 December 2017)
• the Monks of the Dark Forest (8 January 2018)
• the Privileged Place (26 January 2018)
• the Lakeside Pilgrimage (24 April 2018)
• the Battlefield Brotherhood (8 July 2018)
• the Family of Mann (12 August 2018)
• the Anachronic Man (8 October 2018)
• the Chocolate Factory of Unhappiness (30 January 2019)
• the Third Man (26 June 2019)
• the Humanitarian Adventure (10 December 2019)
• the Succulent Collection (14 November 2020)
• the Zürich Zealots (19 November 2020)

I have tried to contribute regularly to my other blog Building Everest, which tries to relate events of this calendar year along with ongoing accounts of Swiss Miss‘s world wanderings and recollections of my 2020 travels in Canada just prior to Covid-19’s impact being felt globally.

As well, other writing projects have also suffered, but as long as I breathe I will still believe that these too will eventually be accomplished.

Above: Mount Everest

Landschlacht, Switzerland, Thursday 3 December 2020

All things end.

One day these fingers will stop typing and my mind will go silent.

One day one breath will be my last.

Death is the one commonality we all share, regardless of whether pauper or prince, peasant or president, saint or sinner.

And it is accepting this inevitability that all of us must come to grips with, in our own way, in our own time.

Save for the suicidal or the sick, few of us wake up in the morning and think to ourselves:

Perhaps today is a good day to die.

Perhaps an exception to this rule of the suicidal or the painfully sick are the lives of those in risky professions, such as health care, the police force, the military.

Above: St. Leonhard Chapel, Landschlacht, Switzerland

As death is part of, and the end of, life, the question we all ask and the answer we all fear is what, if anything, follows death.

The afterlife (also referred to as life after death or the world to come) is an existence in which the essential part of an individual’s identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body.

According to various ideas about the afterlife, the essential aspect of the individual that lives on after death may be some partial element, or the entire soul or spirit, of an individual, which carries with it and may confer personal identity or, on the contrary nirvana.

Belief in an afterlife is in contrast to the belief in oblivion after death.

In some views, this continued existence takes place in a spiritual realm, and in other popular views, the individual may be reborn into this world and begin the life cycle over again, likely with no memory of what they have done in the past. In this latter view, such rebirths and deaths may take place over and over again continuously until the individual gains entry to a spiritual realm or otherworld.

Major views on the afterlife derive from religion, esotericism and metaphysics.

Some belief systems, such as those in the Abrahamic tradition, hold that the dead go to a specific plane of existence after death, as determined by God, or other divine judgment, based on their actions or beliefs during life.

In contrast, in systems of reincarnation, such as those in the Indian religions, the nature of the continued existence is determined directly by the actions of the individual in the ended life.

Above: Danube cemetery, Cernavoda, Romania

The Abrahamic religions, also collectively referred to as the world of Abrahamism, are a group of religions that claim descent from the worship of the God of Abraham, an ancient Semitic religion of the Bronze Age Israelites and the Ishmaelites, the direct predecessor of various ancient Israelite sects, including the remaining two extant Israelite religions of Judaism and Samaritanism, with all other Abrahamic religions descending from Judaism.

The Abrahamic religions are monotheistic, with the term deriving from the patriarch Abraham (a major figure described in the Torah, Tanakh, Bible, and Qu’ran, variously recognized by Jews, Samaritans, Christians, Muslims, and others).

Above: Portrait of Abraham, by Guercino, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy

The three major Abrahamic religions trace their origins to the first two sons of Abraham: for Jews and Christians it is his second son Isaac, and for Muslims his elder son Ishmael.

Above: The Angel Hinders the Offering of Isaac, by Rembrandt, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Abrahamic religions spread globally through Christianity being adopted by the Roman Empire in the 4th century and Islam by the Umayyad Empire from the 7th century.

Today the Abrahamic religions are one of the major divisions in comparative religion (along with Indian, Iranian and East Asian religions).

The major Abrahamic religions in chronological order of founding are Judaism (the source of the other two religions) in the 6th century BCE, Christianity in the 1st century CE, and Islam in the 7th century CE.

Christianity, Islam and Judaism are the Abrahamic religions with the greatest numbers of adherents.

Above: The Star of David, symbol of Judaism

Above: The cross of Christ, symbol of Christianity

Above: The word “Allah” in Arabic calligraphy, symbol of Islam

Christians are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

The words Christ and Christian derive from the Koine Greek title Christós (Χριστός), a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach (מָשִׁיחַ) (usually rendered as messiah in English).

While there are diverse interpretations of Christianity which sometimes conflict, they are united in believing that Jesus has a unique significance.

The term “Christian” used as an adjective is descriptive of anything associated with Christianity or Christian churches, or in a proverbial sense “all that is noble, and good, and Christlike.”

It does not have a meaning of ‘of Christ’ or ‘related or pertaining to Christ‘.

Above: Christ the Saviour (Pantokrator), a 6th-century icon, Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai, Egypt

According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there were 2.2 billion Christians around the world in 2010, up from about 600 million in 1910.

Today, about 37% of all Christians live in the Americas, about 26% live in Europe, 24% live in sub-Saharan Africa, about 13% live in Asia and the Pacific, and 1% live in the Middle East and North Africa.

Christians make up the majority of the population in 158 countries and territories.

280 million Christians live as a minority.

About half of all Christians worldwide are Catholic, while more than a third are Protestant (37%).

Orthodox communions comprise 12% of the world’s Christians. 

Other Christian groups make up the remainder.

By 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion. 

According to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey, Christianity will remain the world’s largest religion in 2050, if current trends continue.

Christians are the one of the most persecuted religious groups in the world, especially in the Middle East, North Africa, East Asia, and South Asia.

Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

It is the world’s largest religion, with about 2.4 billion followers.

Its adherents, known as Christians, make up a majority of the population in 157 countries and territories, and believe that Jesus is the Christ, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Hebrew Bible, called the Old Testament in Christianity, and chronicled in the New Testament.

Christianity remains culturally diverse in its Western and Eastern branches, as well as in its doctrines concerning justification and the nature of salvation, ecclesiology, ordination and Christology.

The creeds of various Christian denominations generally hold in common Jesus as the Son of God who ministered, suffered and died on a cross, but rose from the dead for the salvation of mankind, referred to as the Gospel, meaning the “good news“.

Describing Jesus’ life and teachings are the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, with the Old Testament as the Gospel‘s respected background.

Above: Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, by Carl Bloch (1877)

Christianity began as a Judaic sect in the 1st century in the Roman province of Judea.

Jesus’ apostles and their followers spread around the Levant, Europe, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Transcaucasia, Egypt and Ethiopia, despite initial persecution.

Above: The eastern Mediterranean region in the time of Paul the Apostle (5 – 64 CE)

It soon attracted Gentile (non-Jewish) God-fearers, which led to a departure from Jewish customs, and, after the Fall of Jerusalem (70 CE), which ended the Temple-based Judaism, Christianity slowly separated from Judaism.

Above: Siege and destruction of Jerusalem, by David Roberts (1850)

Emperor Constantine the Great (272 – 337) decriminalized Christianity in the Roman Empire by the Edict of Milan (313), later convening the Council of Nicaea (325) where early Christianity was consolidated into what would become the state church of the Roman Empire (380).

Above: Bust of Constantine, Capitoline Museum, Rome

The early history of Christianity’s united church before major schisms is sometimes referred to as the “Great Church” (though divergent sects existed at the same time, including Gnostics and Jewish Christians).

The Church of the East split after the Council of Ephesus (431) and Oriental Orthodoxy split after the Council of Chalcedon (451) over differences in Christology, while the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church separated in the East-West Schism (1054), especially over the authority of the Bishop of Rome. 

Protestantism split in numerous denominations from the Catholic Church in the Reformation era (16th century) over theological and ecclesiological disputes, most predominantly on the issue of justification and the primacy of the Bishop of Rome.

Christianity played a prominent role in the development of Western civilization, particularly in Europe from late antiquity and the Middle Ages.

Following the Age of Discovery (15th – 17th century), Christianity was spread into the Americas, Oceania, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world via missionary work.

Above: Various depictions of Jesus

The four largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church (1.3 billion / 50.1%), Protestantism (920 million / 36.7%), the Eastern Orthodox Church (230 million), and the Oriental Orthodox churches (62 million) (Orthodox churches combined at 11.9%), though thousands of smaller church communities exist despite efforts toward unity (ecumenism).

Despite a decline in adherence in the West, Christianity remains the dominant religion in the region, with about 70% of the population identifying as Christian. 

Christianity is growing in Africa and Asia, the world’s most populous continents.

Protestantism is a form of Christianity that originated with the 16th-century Reformation, a movement against what its followers perceived to be errors in the Catholic Church.

Protestants originating in the Reformation reject the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal supremacy, but disagree among themselves regarding the number of sacraments, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and matters of ecclesiastical polity and apostolic succession.

They emphasize:

• the priesthood of all believers 
• justification by faith (sola fide) rather than by good works
• the teaching that salvation comes by divine grace or “unmerited favour” only, not as something merited (sola gratia)
• affirm the Bible as being the sole highest authority (sola scriptura / “scripture alone“) or primary authority (prima scriptura / “scripture first“) for Christian doctrine, rather than being on parity with sacred tradition.

The five solae of Lutheran and Reformed Christianity summarize basic theological differences in opposition to the Catholic Church.

Protestantism began in Germany in 1517, when Martin Luther published his Ninety-five Theses as a reaction against abuses in the sale of indulgences by the Catholic Church, which purported to offer the remission of the temporal punishment of sins to their purchasers.

Above: Door displaying the Ninety-five Theses, All Saints’ Church, Wittenberg, Germany

The term, however, derives from the letter of protestation from German Lutheran princes in March 1529 against an edict of the Diet of Speyer condemning the teachings of Martin Luther as heretical.

Above: German reformer Martin Luther (1483 – 1546)

Although there were earlier breaks and attempts to reform the Catholic Church — notably by Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe and Jan Hus — only Luther succeeded in sparking a wider, lasting and modern movement.

Above: Statue of French reformer Pierre Vaudès (aka Peter Waldo) (1140 – 1205), Worms, Germany

Above: English reformer John Wycliffe (1328 – 1384)

Above: Portrait of Jan Hus (aka John Hus) (1372 – 1415)

In the 16th century, Lutheranism spread from Germany into Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia and Iceland.

Above: Lutheranism in the world, 2013 – The darker the region, the more Lutherans therein.

Calvinist churches spread in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland and France by Protestant Reformers, such as John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli and John Knox.

Above: French reformer Jehan Cauvin (aka John Calvin) (1509 – 1564)

Above: Swiss reformer Huldrych Zwingli (1484 – 1531)

Above: Scottish reformer John Knox (1514 – 1572)

The political separation of the Church of England from the Pope under King Henry VIII began Anglicanism, bringing England and Wales into this broad Reformation movement.

Above: English King Henry VIII (1491 – 1547)

Today, Protestantism constitutes the second-largest form of Christianity (after Catholicism), with a total of 800 million to 1 billion adherents worldwide or about 37% of all Christians. 

Protestants have developed their own culture, with major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts and many other fields.

Protestantism is diverse, being more divided theologically and ecclesiastically than the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church or Oriental Orthodoxy.

Without structural unity or central human authority, Protestants developed the concept of an invisible church, in contrast to the Catholic, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East, which all understand themselves as the one and only original church — the “one true church” — founded by Jesus Christ.

Some denominations do have a worldwide scope and distribution of membership, while others are confined to a single country.

A majority of Protestants are members of a handful of Protestant denominational families: 

• Adventists
• Anabaptists
• Anglicans / Episcopalians 
• Baptists  
• Calvinist / Reformed
• Lutherans
• Methodists
• Pentecostals  

Charismatic, Evangelical, Independent and other churches are on the rise and constitute a significant part of Protestantism.

Above: Key figures of the Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther and John Calvin depicted on a church pulpit, Mikolow, Poland. These reformers emphasized preaching and made it a centerpiece of worship.

As regular followers of my blogs know, I have, for quite some time, been writing about my following in the footsteps of Swiss reformer Huldrych Zwingli.

By “following in the footsteps” I do not refer to following the example of Zwingli’s life as a model for my own.

But rather I mean that I have been tracing on foot the life path of Zwingli by walking from his place of birth in Wildhaus in the Toggenburg region to his final resting place in Kappel am Albis – a five-hour / 19 km walk south of Uetliberg overlooking Zürich.

Above: Marcel and Yvonne Steiner

Huldrych Zwingli or Ulrich Zwingli (1484 – 1531) was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland, born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system.

Above: Birthplace of Huldrych Zwingli, Wildhaus, Canton St. Gallen, Switzerland

He attended the University of Vienna and the University of Basel, a scholarly center of Renaissance humanism.

Above: Seal of the University of Vienna (Austria)

Above: Logo of the University of Basel (Switzerland)

He continued his studies while he served as a pastor in Glarus and later in Einsiedeln, where he was influenced by the writings of Erasmus.

Above: Glarus Cathedral, Glarus, Switzerland

Above: Einsiedeln Abbey, Einsiedeln, Switzerland

Above: Dutch reformer Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466 – 1536)

In 1519, Zwingli became the Leutpriester (people’s priest) of the Grossmünster in Zürich where he began to preach ideas on reform of the Catholic Church.

In his first public controversy in 1522, he attacked the custom of fasting during Lent.

In his publications, he noted corruption in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, promoted clerical marriage, and attacked the use of images in places of worship.

Among his most notable contributions to the Reformation was his expository preaching, starting in 1519, through the Gospel of Matthew, before eventually using biblical exegesis to go through the entire New Testament, a radical departure from the Catholic mass.

In 1525, he introduced a new communion liturgy to replace the Mass.

He also clashed with the Anabaptists, which resulted in their persecution.

Historians have debated whether or not he turned Zürich into a theocracy.

Above: Grossmünster (large cathedral), Zürich, Switzerland

The Reformation spread to other parts of the Swiss Confederation, but several cantons resisted, preferring to remain Catholic.

Zwingli formed an alliance of Reformed cantons which divided the Confederation along religious lines.

In 1529, a war was averted at the last moment between the two sides.

Above: Religious map of Switzerland, 1536

Meanwhile, Zwingli’s ideas came to the attention of Martin Luther and other reformers.

They met at the Marburg Colloquy and agreed on many points of doctrine, but they could not reach an accord on the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Above: Woodcut illustration of the Marburg Colloquy (1 – 4 October 1529)

In 1531, Zwingli’s alliance applied an unsuccessful food blockade on the Catholic cantons.

The cantons responded with an attack at a moment when Zürich was unprepared….

Above: Battle of Kappel, 11 October 1531

Zwingli wanted to enforce the Reformed sermon in the entire area of the Swiss Confederation.

He tried to break the resistance of central Switzerland by force of arms.

This was his undoing.

The Reformation in Switzerland was unstoppable.

It prevailed in church and state and gave the authorities more power.

But there were also opponents of the Reformation.

Zwingli and his innovations were sharply criticized, but that didn’t detract from its popularity.

The people flocked to the Grossmünster for its services.

Zwingli commented on theological, ecclesiastical and political questions in the pulpit.

He tried to renew the Church from the inside and to abolish the excesses and abuses with the consent of the Bishop and Pope.

His mission was to lead the entire Swiss Confederation to true Christianity.

He could not accept that the five places involved in the pension system continued to withhold the Reformed sermon from the central Swiss.

Above: Switzerland, 1530

The struggle for the right belief, in his opinion, required courageous action.

Zwingli wrote:

“I believe that just as the Church came to life through blood, it can also be renewed through blood, not otherwise.”

The open break with the Pope and the Church became evident on 29 January 1523, when the Zürich Council obliged the pastors to preach the “pure gospel” based on Zwingli’s example.

At Easter 1525, the Evangelical Last Supper formulated by Zwingli was celebrated instead of Mass for the first time.

Above: Zürich, Switzerland

There were similar developments in other parts of the Swiss Confederation.

Zwingli was in contact with like-minded people.

Well-known exponents of the Reformation in the Swiss Confederation were:

• Johannes Dörig (1499 – 1526)
• Walter Klarer (1500 – 1567)
• Johannes Hess (1486 – 1537)
• Valentin Tschudi (1499 – 1555)
• Fridolin Brunner (1498 – 1570)
• Sebastian Hofmeister (1494 – 1533)

Above: Swiss reformer Sebastian Hofmeister

• Berchtold Haller (1492 – 1536)

Above: German reformer Berchtold Haller

• Niklaus Manuel (1484 – 1530)

Above: Swiss reformer Niklaus Manuel

• Konrad Pellikan (1478 – 1556)

Above: German reformer Konrad Pellikan

• Wilhelm Reublin (1484 – 1549)
• Johannes Oekolampad (1482 – 1531)

Above: German reformer Johannes Oekolampad

• Johannes Comander (1484 – 1557)
• Jakob Salzmann (1484 – 1526)
• Dr. Joachim von Watt (aka Vadian) (1483 – 1551)

Above: Swiss reformer Joachim Vadian

The disputes about what it meant to be a good Christian led to internal political tensions in the Swiss Confederation.

The 1524 Diet did not lead to an audible solution in dealing that the true gospel should be preached to all confederates.

The Swiss Confederation was weakened.

Above: Flag of the Swiss Confederation

The Pope and the French tried to influence.

Johannes Eck (1486 – 1543), who fought on behalf of the Pope, and Martin Luther (1483 – 1546), took part in the 1526 Baden Disputation.

Above: German counter-reformer Johannes Eck

Eck needed nine places in the Confederation to ostracize and ban Zwingli as Emperor Charles V (1500 – 1558) had done with Luther in 1521.

Above: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

However, the decision was never implemented.

Tensions continued.

Zwingli thought armed conflicts were possible.

He wanted to prevent the Reformed places from being reintegrated into the Catholic Church by military force.

He consulted with Zürich officers and at the beginning of 1526 he drafted a war plan for the attention of the Zürich authorities.

Above: Zwingli preaching, Grossmünster pulpit, Zürich

In February 1528, Bern officially converted to the Reformation.

Zwingli took note of this pleasure and satisfaction.

Above: Bern, Switzerland

On Zwingli’s advice, Zürich concluded so-called “Christian castle rights” with the Reformed cities of Bern, Konstanz, St. Gallen, Biel-Bienne, Mühlhausen, Basel and Schaffhausen.

Above: Konstanz, Germany

Above: St. Gallen, Switzerland

Above: Old town, Biel, Switzerland

Above: Mühlhausen, Germany

Above: Basel, Switzerland

Above: Schaffhausen, Switzerland

The cities pledged to help each other should they be attacked because of their beliefs.

As a reaction to this, the Catholic towns of Luzern, Uri, Schwyz, Zug and Unterwalden allied themselves with Ferdinand von Habsburg-Austria (1503 – 1564) in the “Christian Association“.

Above: Images of Luzern, Switzerland

Above: Flag of the Canton of Uri

Above: Schwyz, Switzerland

Above: Zug, Switzerland

Above: Flag of the Canton of Unterwalden

In the early summer of 1529 the situation came to a head:

Both parties committed attacks, the Unterwaldner in the Bernese Oberland, the Zürichers in St. Gallen, and the Schwyzers by executing Reformed pastor Jakob Kaiser (1485 – 1529).

The Zürich government decided to go to war on 4 June 1529.

On 9 June, 4,000 people in armor and guns were standing in Kappel am Albis on the border with the canton of Zug.

Zwingli and several like-minded pasters were there.

Zwingli wanted to ride of his own accord, but the army commanders would have preferred because of the hospitality against Zwingli that he would have stayed at home.

They appointed another pastor to be the field chaplain.

Above: Kappel am Albis, Switzerland

The troops of the Reformed towns numbered 30.000 men, the central Swiss had an army of 9,000 men.

In view of the great overwhelming power, the people of Zürich saw themselves marching into Zug and Luzern without much bloodshed, thus enforcing the free preaching of the Gospel and the prohibition of mercenaries and pensions throughout the entire Confederation.

Above: Coat of arms of Zug

Above: Coat of arms of Luzern

But shortly before the attack, the Glarner Landammann Hans Aebli suddenly wanted to parley.

The central Swiss troops were not yet fully armed and one should refrain from a brotherly fight.

So a break was agreed and the Zürich authorities informed of the Glarus request.

Above: Flag of Canton Glarus

Zwingli wanted to use the numerical superioriry of the Reformers at all costs.

He wrote from the field to the Zürich Council:

“Be steadfast and do not fear war.

We do not thirst for someone’s blood.

We are only concerned with one thing:

That the nerve of the oligarchs’ policy must be cut.

If that does not happen, neither the truth of the Gospel nor the servants of the Gospel safe with us.

We do not contemplate the cruel, but the good and patriotic.

We want to save people who otherwise perish from ignorance.

We thirst for freedom to be preserved.

So do not be afraid of our plans.“

Above: Flag of Zürich

As a condition for peace he suggested to the Council:

The Gospel should be able to be preached unhindered throughout the Confederation.

No more pensions should be accepted.

Those who brokered pensions in the five towns were to be punished while the Zürich troops were still in Kappel.

The Zürichers were to receive war compensation.

Schwyz had to make amends for the children of Pastor Kaiser of 1,000 guilders.

Zwingli’s admonitions and warnings to the Zürich authorities were not heard.

Above: Flag of Canton Schwyz

In the meantime, the central Swiss were ready to fight, but the fighting spirit waned on both sides.

The federal spirit gained the upper hand.

In addition, the men suffered from shortages on both sides.

The central Swiss lacked bread.

The Zürichers lacked milk.

A couple of people from central Switzerland put a bucket of milk on the border.

The people of Zürich got the hint:

They brought the chunks of bread for the soup, which went down in history as “Kappel milk soup“.

But the wait and the negotiations continued.

Above: Kappel Milk Soup

Since the assembly of 14 June in Aarau did not bring an agreement, the negotiations were conducted at Zwingli’s suggestion in front of the assembled troops in the vicinity of Kappel.

Above: Aarau, Switzerland

The ambassadors of the central Switzerland, Zürich and Zwingli expressed themselves.

Zwingli wrote to the Zürich authorities:

“For God’s sake, do something brave!“

The formulation of a peace agreement progressed resinously and after more than two weeks of negotiations the First Kappeler Landfrieden was finally proclaimed on 26 June 1529:

The Reformed sermon was allowed everywhere and the central Swiss cancelled with the Habsburgs.

This strengthened the “Christian castle rights” of the Reformers who felt themselves to be victorious.

Zwingli was on the one hand satisfied with the bloodless peace.

On the other hand, he did not trust the central Swiss.

Above: Huldrych Zwingli

The wording of the peace treaty left a lot of room for interpretation, which just two months later led to violent disputes at a parliamentary meeting.

In particular, there was a dispute over the sovereignty over belief in the individual areas.

Both sides demanded that the minority bow to the majority.

So it was allowed in Zürich to stick to the old faith and attend Catholic mass.

In central Switzerland, Reformers were not allowed to hold their own church services in communities that remained mostly Catholic.

There was also a quarrel about war compensation.

Instead of the 80,000 guilders demanded by Zürich and Bern, they awarded only 2,500 guilders from both places, which the central Swiss did not want to pay either.

The mutual trust was gone.

The Reformers were suspicious of the central Swiss, despite the contractual ban they were again in contact with the Habsburgs.

Zwingli and Zürich feared that Emperor Charles V and the Habsburgers could attack the Reformed areas in the Confederation and Germany with the support of central Switzerland.

Above: Flag of the Habsburg Monarchy

Zwingli wanted to defend the Reformed areas of the Confederation and tried to forge an alliance with Hesse and other Reformed states in Germany, as well as with Venice and Milan.

His attempts were unsuccessful.

Above: Coat of arms of the German state of Hesse

Above: Images of Venice, Italy

Above: Images of Milan (Milano), Italy (Italia)

At the beginning of 1531, Zürich again asked the central Swiss to allow the Reformer sermon.

They felt their autonomy was threatened and rejected the request.

Zwingli urged the Zürich Council to force the people of central Switzerland to make this concession.

Above: Zürich, Switzerland

They were not convinced by the food boycott either.

At a meeting on 14 June 1531, the two parties – Zürich and Bern on one side, the five central Swiss towns on the other – sat opposite one another.

No agreement could be reached, negotiations were held on 20 June and 11 July with no results.

Zwingli could not stand the hesitation of the people of Zürich and decided on 26 July to leave the city immediately.

The influential lords of the city did not want to allow that to happen.

They literally begged him to stay.

After a period of reflection, Zwingli withdrew his resignation.

Above: Zürich in the time of Zwingli

Since the negotiations between Zürich, Bern and central Switzerland were still going on, Zwingli arranged to meet the Bern representative before the meeting on 11 August and tried to win them over a war against the five central Swiss towns.

Shortly afterwards, Zwingli wrote in a letter:

“I am prepared for more than just one disaster.“

He felt himself at a loss.

“The retirees don’t want to be punished.”

They had too much popular support.

Instead of going to war, Bern advised in September 1531 to lift the supply block against central Switzerland.

Above: The Bern negotiations, 1531

The people of Zürich were informed of the preparations for war by the central Swiss from various quarters, but they remained inactive.

When, on 9 October 1531, a runner from Luzern demanded the delivery of the federal letters, Zürichers did not expect an attack.

Even after the central Swiss had already mobilized their troops, the people of Zürich still did not call their soldiers to arms.

Only when reports came in on 10 October that the central Swiss were at Baar did the Zürich-based vanguard send an advance guard to the border with Zug.

Above: City Hall, Baar, Switzerland

The central Swiss invaded and plundered Freiamt.

Above: Coat of arms of Freiamt, Switzerland

The Grand Council of Zürich now sent its main force to support the vanguard.

Instead of the expected 4,000 men, only 1,000 arrived.

Zwingli rode at their head as field preacher together with the captains.

More troops arrived.

Finally on 11 October 1531, 7,000 central Swiss troops faced 3,500 soldiers in Kappel.

The people of Zürich who hurried up in forced marches were exhausted even before the fight.

When the central Swiss attacked at 4 pm, they fled after a brief resistance.

Zwingli fell in the front ranks.

More than 500 people from Zürich died with him in this second battle of Kappel.

The central Swiss had fewer than a 100 deaths to mourn.

Above: The Battle of Kappel, 11 October 1531

Zwingli did not immediately die, as the Menzinger Jahrezeitenbuch reported:

The central Swiss recognized the wounded man and offered him a confessor.

Zwingli refused.

Then a captain killed him with a halberd.

Above: The murder of Zwingli, by Karl Jauslin

The following day, “martial law was held over the dead body of this dishonourable God and the unfaithful, perjured, vow-breaking arch heretics and seducers of the people“.

As a result, Zwingli was “first cut off as a traitor to the entire Confederation by the Luzern executioner and then burned to ashes as an arch heretic“.

As a resulr, Zwingli was “first cut off as a traitor to the entire Confederation by the Luzern executioner and then burned to ashes as an arch heretic“.

Above: Zwingli memorial, Kappel am Albis, Switzerland

Zwingli’s death triggered a fall in friends and followers in Zürich and raised hope among his opponents, but the majority of the population wanted to hold on to the Reformation.

As a result of Zwingli’s interference in urban and federal politics, a clear separation of religions and politics was sought.

Pastors were instructed not to interfere in politics, but to concentrate on the preaching of God’s word and to work for peace and tranquility.

Anyone who did not comply was dismissed by the Zürich Council.

The Council appointed Heinrich Bullinger (1504 – 1575) as the new pastor at the Grossmünster on 9 December 1531.

In doing so, he fulfilled Zwingli’s wish:

He had recommended Bullinger as his successor if he did not return from Kappel.

Above: Heinrich Bullinger

The Second Kappel War was not ended by Zwingli’s death.

More defeats for the people of Zürich and Bern followed on the battlefield.

After the defeat, the forces of Zürich regrouped and attempted to occupy the Zugerberg, and some of them camped on the Gubel hill near Menzingen.

Above: Zug Mountain (Zugerberg)

Above: Menzingen today

Following the defeat at Kappel, Bern and other Reformed Cantons marched to rescue Zürich.

Between 15 and 21 October, a large Reformed army marched up the Reuss Valley to outside of Baar.

Above: Reuss River, Luzern, Switzerland

Above: Baar today

At the same time, the Catholic army was now encamped on the slopes of the Zugerberg.

Above: Zugerberg and the city of Zug

The combined Zürich-Bern army attempted to send 5,000 men over Sihlbrugg and Menzingen to encircle the army on the Zugerberg.

Above: Babenwaag bridge in Sihlbrugg

However, the Reformed army marched slowly due to poor discipline and looting.

By the night of 23–24 October, they had only reached Gubel at Menzingen.

Above: Coat of arms of Menzingen

That night they were attacked by a small Catholic force from Aegeri and driven off.

Above: Oberaegeri (formerly Aegeri), Switzerland

About 600 Protestant soldiers died in the attack and the panicked retreat that followed.

This defeat destroyed much of the combined Zürich – Bern army and, faced with increasing desertion, it had to retreat on 3 November back down the Reuss to Bremgarten.

Above: Bremgarten, Switzerland

The retreat left much of Lake Zürich (Zürichsee) and Zürich itself unprotected.

Zürich now pushed for a rapid peace settlement.

Above: Map of Lake Zürich

On 20 November 1531, the Second Treaty of Kappel was concluded on the mediation of the federal states that had remained neutral.

It was stipulated that each canton could determine its own denomination.

The Abbey of St. Gallen was taken from Zürich and restored.

Above: Abbey of St. Gall, St. Gallen, Switzerland

The “Christian castle law” of the Reformed cantons repeatedly led to tensions and disputes.

After a long domination of the Catholic towns, the Reformed towns of Bern and Zürich gained the upper hand in the Swiss Confederation in 1712 in the Second Villmerger War (or Toggenburg War) (12 April – 11 August 1712).

Above: (green) Protestant cantons / (yellow) Catholic cantons / (grey) neutral cantons, 1712

Until the French Revolution, there were always new denominational disputes.

Above: The Helvetic Republic (1798 – 1803)

They also played a role in the Sonderbund War (3 – 29 November 1847), which led to the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848.

Above: Switzerland, 1847

Zürich to Kappel am Albis, Switzerland, Friday 13 March 2018

I am not a religious man, though I do respect the morality and traditions that religion tries to maintain.

I am considered by statistics as a man without religion, though I do consider myself a fairly moral man who was raised in the tenets of Christianity – my foster mother was a non-practising Baptist, my foster father was a non-practising Catholic, my foster sister and her family are fundamentalist Christians – I do not adhere to the notion that there is only one faith to follow to salvation – if there is indeed salvation at all.

My following in the footsteps of Huldrych Zwingli was far less a pilgrimage of faith as it was a pedestrian project of walking a path divided into many stages and accomplished in separate stages when time and money permitted.

I was not searching for God or holy illumination but rather I simply wished to get a sense of a historical period before my own and I felt that there was no better way to get a sense of Zwingli than to march along with his memory.

I have always preferred walking to any other method of transportation as the slowest of journeys generates the deepest experiences.

I have always held that the moment one puts wheels beneath them the journey loses its significance and the destination becomes the primary goal.

I wanted to imagine what the places I saw now appeared back then.

How did it come to this?

What did the people of yesterday think?

How did they feel?

How different were they from us?

How similar to us were they?

The Steiner book had led me in eight stages since 11 October 2017 from Wildhaus to Wollishofen in downtown Zürich.

Above: Wildhaus

Above: Wollishofen with the Uetliberg in the background

Today would be the final march that would take me from Zürich to Uetliberg, Hotel Uto Kulm, Balderen, Felsenegg, Buchenegg, Näfenhüser, Albispass, the Albis Hochwacht, Schnabellücken and Kappel am Albis.

Above: Limmat River, Zürich

Above: Uetliberg, seen from Lake Zürich

Above: Hotel Uto Kulm, Uetliberg

Above: Balderen house

Above: Felsenegg

Above: Restaurant Chusperhüsli, Buchenegg

Above: Näfenhüser

Above: Rüschlikon and Albispass

Above: Albis Hochwacht (lookout)

Above: Schnabellücken

Above: Kappel Monastery, Kappel am Albis

From the Haus zur Sul, at Kirchgasse 22, Zwingli’s official residence from 1522 to 1525, the last three years of his life, I walk from there to the Zürich Hauptbahnhof (Grand Central Station), to catch the Uetliberg train and the official start of this last leg of the Steiner trail.

Above: Haus zur Sul, Zürich

Above: Zürich Hauptbahnhof

The Uetliberg railway line (Uetlibergbahn) is a passenger railway line which runs from the central station in Zürich through the city’s western outskirts to the summit of the Uetliberg.

The route serves as line S10 of the Zürich S-Bahn (street railway/trams) with the Zürcher Verkehrsverband (Zürich Transport Commission)’s (ZVV) standards zonal fares applying.

The line was opened in 1875 and electrified in 1923.

In 1990 it was extended to its current terminus at Zürich Hauptbahnhof (Central Station).

Above: Zürich Hauptbahnhof

Today it is owned by the Sihltal Zürich Uetliberg Bahn, a company that also owns the Sihltal line and operates other transport services.

The line has a maximum gradient of 7.9% and is the steepest standard gauge adhesion railway in Europe.

It carries both leisure and local commuter traffic.

Above: Sihltal Zürich Uetliberg Bahn

The Uetliberg line shares a common terminus with the Sihltal line, utilising a dedicated underground island platform (tracks 21 and 22) at Zürich Hauptbahnhof.

There is no rail connection to the rest of the station, but the platform is served by the same complex of pedestrian subways and subterranean shopping malls that link the station’s other platforms.

From the Hauptbahnhof to Zürich Giesshübel station the two lines share a common twin-track line, initially in tunnel, partly running along and under the Sihl River.

Above: Giesshübel Station

Above: Sihl River near Sihlbrugg

The current Selnau station is located in this under-river tunnel section.

Above: Selnau Station

Although the two lines diverge at Giesshübel station, and the depot for Uetliberg trains is located there, Uetliberg line trains do not stop.

Just beyond Giesshübel, the line serves Zürich Binz station.

Above: Binz Station

The line then commences a long, steep but relatively straight climb through the Zurich suburbs, serving the stations of Zürich Friesenberg, Zürich Schweighof and Zürich Triemli.

Above: Friesenberg Station

Above: Schweighof Station

Above: Triemli Station

This section of line is single track, with a double track section between Binz and Friesenberg.

Triemli station is adjacent to the Triemli Hospital , one of Zürich’s main hospitals, and is the terminus for some trains on the line.

Above: Triemli Hospital

The station has two tracks and two platforms.

Beyond Triemli the line enters a more wooded and hilly environment, and executes a broad U-shaped route to the summit of Uetliberg, which is 5.9 km (3.7 mi) from Triemli by rail, but only 1.5 km (0.93 mi) away in a direct line.

Above: Uetliberg, seen from Felsenegg

This section of line serves Uitikon Waldegg and Ringlikon stations, and is single track, with double track sections between Triemli and Uitikon Waldegg, and at Ringlikon.

Above: Waldegg Station

Above: Ringlikon Station

Uetliberg station lies some 650 m (2,130 ft) from, and 56 m (184 ft) below, the summit of the Uetiberg.

The station has two terminal tracks, and a substantial station building, including a restaurant.

Above: Uetliberg Station

A refuge castle existed on the Uetliberg as early as the Bronze Age or an oppidum in Celtic times.

Various archaeological finds such as ramparts and the Prince’s grave mound Sonnenbühl can still be visited today. 

From 1644 it was the location of a high watch.

Above: Sonnenbühl

The Uetliberg and the nearby Albiskamm were the location of six castles in the Middle Ages, of which only remnants are left today: Uetliburg, Sellenbüren, Frisenberg, Baldern, Schnabelburg and Manegg.

Above: Uetliberg Castle

Above: Sellenbüren Castle ruins

Above: Old mill, Friesenberg Castle

Above: Original location of Baldern Castle

Above: Schnabelburg Castle ruins

Above: Manegg Castle

Uotelenburg was first mentioned in a document in 1210. 

In 1267 the people of Zürich allegedly destroyed the Uetliburg under Rudolf von Habsburg (1218 – 1291) in the course of the Regensberg feud (1268 – 1269), but this is not considered historically certain. 

Above: Grave slab of Rudolf von Habsburg, Speyer Cathedral, Germany

Twice (perhaps) Zwingli ascended Uetliberg in 1531 en route to battle.

That a man of the church sought bloodshed leaves me disappointed, but lives had already been lost in Zürich in the name of his religious reforms.

Above: Zwingli Monument, Wasserkirche, Zürich

In 1750 the poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724 – 1803) climbed the mountain.

He too would cause others to doubt his religious convictions.

Above: Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock grew up as the eldest of 17 children in a pietistic family. 

His father, Gottlieb Heinrich, the son of a lawyer, was a commissioner and had leased the estate of Friedeburg, so that Friedrich Gottlieb spent his childhood here from 1732 until the lease was given up in 1736. 

Above: Klopstock birthplace, Quedlinburg, Germany

His mother Anna Maria had the Bad Langensalza council chamberlain and merchant Johann Christoph Schmidt (1659 – 1711) as a father.

Above: Anna Maria Klopstock (née Schmidt)

After attending the Quedlinburg grammar school, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock came to the Fürstenschule in Schulpforte at the age of 15 , where he received a thorough humanistic education. 

Above: Pforta State School (Fürstenschule), Schulpforte, Germany

Above: Klopstock Memorial Stone, Pforta School

Klopstock read the Greek and Latin classics: Homer, Pindar, Virgil and Horace. 

Above: Bust of Homer, Glyptothek, Munich, Germany

Above: Replica of Pindar (522 – 446 BCE), Capitoline Museum, Rome, Italy

Above: Representation of Virgil (70 – 19 BCE), Monnus Mosaic, Trier, Germany

Here he also made his first own poetic attempts and wrote a first plan for the Messiah, a religious epic.

In 1745 he began studying Protestant theology in Jena, where he also wrote the first three chants of the Messiah, which he initially laid out in prose. 

After moving to Leipzig, the work was reworked in hexameters the following year. 

The appearance of the first parts in the articles in Bremen in 1748 caused a sensation and became the model for the Messiad literature of its era. 

In Leipzig, Klopstock also created the first odes. 

Above: Messiah, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock

After completing his theology studies, he took a private tutor in Langensalza (according to the custom of all theology candidates). 

During the two years of his stay in Bad Langensalza, Klopstock experienced the passionate love for the girl Maria-Sophia Schmidt, the intoxication of hope, the despair of disappointment, and finally the elegy of renunciation. 

Above: Old quarter, Bad Langensalza, Germany

This led to, during these two years, his composing the most beautiful of his earlier odes for the unapproachable lover.

The publication of the odes sparked a storm of enthusiasm among opponents of the “reasonable” poetics of Johann Christoph Gottsched, which had prevailed up until then. 

Above: German writer, “the literary pope“, Johann Christoph Gottsched (1700 – 1776)

It was the hour of birth of pure poetry.

Above: Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock

Contacts were made with Johann Jakob Bodmer (1698 – 1783), who invited Klopstock to Zürich in 1750.

Above: Swiss philologist Johann Jakob Bodmer (1698 – 1783)

Klostock gladly accepted the invitation from Bodmer, the Swiss translator of John Milton’s Paradise Lost, where Klopstock was initially treated with every kindness and respect and rapidly recovered his spirits.

Above: English writer John Milton (1608 – 1674)

Bodmer, however, was disappointed to find in the young poet of the Messiah a man of strong worldly interests, and a coolness sprang up between the two men.

After eight months, Klopstock went at the invitation of King Frederick V of Denmark (1723 – 1766). 

With Friedrich’s support he was able to complete his work. 

This granted him a life pension of 400 (later 800) thalers a year. 

He spent three years of his life in Denmark.

Above: King Frederick V of Denmark and Norway (1723 – 1766)

On 10 June 1754, Klopstock married Margreta (Meta) Moller (1728 – 1758), whom he met in Hamburg in 1751 while traveling to Copenhagen. 

She died of a stillbirth on 28 November 1758. 

For thirty years Klopstock could not forget her and sang about her in his elegies. 

Above: Margareta “Meta” Klopstock (née Moller) (1728 – 1758)

It was not until old age (1791) that he married Johanna Elisabeth Dimpfel von Winthem (1747-1821), a niece of Meta Moller.

Above: Johanna Elisabeth von Winthem

From 1759 to 1762 Klopstock lived in Quedlinburg, Braunschweig and Halberstadt, then travelled to Copenhagen, where he stayed until 1771 and exerted a great influence on the cultural life in Denmark. 

Above: Quedlinburg, Germany

Above: Braunschweig, Germany

Above: Halberstadt Cathedral, Halberstadt, Germany

Above: Images of Copenhagen, Denmark

In addition to the Messiah, which finally appeared in full in 1773, he wrote dramas, including Hermanns Schlacht (Herman’s Battle) (1769). 

He then returned to Hamburg. 

Above: St. Michaelis Church, Hamburg, Germany

In 1776, he moved temporarily to Karlsruhe at the invitation of Margrave Karl Friedrich von Baden (1728 – 1811). 

Above: The statue of Karl Friedrich von Baden, Karlsruhe Castle, Karlsruhe, Germany

Above: Karl Friedrich von Baden

After his death on 14 March 1803 at the age of 78, Klopstock was buried on 22 March 1803 with great public sympathy in the church cemetery in Ottensen.

Above: Klopstock Grave, Ottensen, Hamburg, Germany

Above: Klopstock’s grave under the linden tree, Ottensen bei Altona

In Quedlinburg, the Klopstockhaus provides information about the poet. 

Above: Klopstockhaus, Quedlinburg, Germany

Above: Klopstock Memorial, Brühl Park, Quedlinburg, Germany

In 1831, a memorial was inaugurated in the local park in Brühl.

Above: Brühl Park, south of Quedlinburg

As a father of the German nation-state idea, Klopstock was a proponent of the French Revolution, which he described in the 1789 poem Know Yourself as the “noblest deed of the century”. 

Klopstock also called on the Germans for a revolution. 

In 1792, the French National Assembly accepted him as an honorary citizen.

Later, however, he castigated the excesses of the revolution in the 1793 poem The Jacobins.

Here he criticized the Jacobin regime, which had emerged from the French Revolution, as a snake that winds through all of France.

Above: Jacobin hat, Army History Museum, Vienna, Austria

Above: Jacobin Club session, January 1792

Klopstock’s enlightened utopia The German Republic of Scholars (1774) is a concept that installs an educated elite in power for the princely rule, which is regarded as incapable of governing. 

The republic is to be ruled by “aldermen“, “guilds” and “the people“, whereby the former – as the most learned – should have the greatest powers, and guilds and people accordingly less. 

The “rabble”, on the other hand, would only get a “shouter” in the state parliament, because Klopstock did not trust the people to have popular sovereignty. 

Education is the highest good in this republic and qualifies its bearer for higher offices. 

This republic would do extremely well in accordance with the learned approach and would be pacifistic too:

Klopstock estimates sniffing, scornful laughter and frowning as punishments between the scholars. 

This made special demands on the executors:

“Whoever wants to become one of them must have two main characteristics, namely a great skill in being very expressive, and then a very special larval face, whereby the size and shape of the nose come into consideration. 

In addition to this, the scornful laugher must have a very strong and at the same time rough voice. 

It is customary to release Schreyer from being expelled from the country and to raise him to a sneer if his nose has the necessary properties for this task.” 

Klopstock’s conception of Heaven, shaped by the scientific achievements of NIcolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543) and Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630), is not that of an ancient sky at rest in itself, whose stars are gods and heroes. 

Its celestial sphere is rather a world harmony, a rhythm and symmetry of the spheres. 

Above: Polish scientist Nikolaus Kopernikus (1473 – 1543)

Above: German mathematician Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630)

So it says in the first song of the Messiah:

In the middle of this gathering of the suns the sky rises,
round, immeasurable, the archetype of the worlds, the abundance of
all visible beauty, which, like fleeting brooks,
pours out, imitating it through the infinite space.
So, under the Eternal, it revolves around itself.

While he is walking,
the spherical harmonies resound from him, on the wings of the wind, to the shores of the suns
high. The songs of the divine harpists
resound with power, as if animating. These agreed tones lead the
immortal hearer past many a high praise song.

Above: Kepler’s Platonic model of the Solar System

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832) will take up this picture again in Faust. 

The “Prologue in Heaven” begins like this:

The sun resounds in the old fashion
in the fraternal song of contests,
And its prescribed journey
completes it with a thunderous walk.

Above: German polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Above: Faust in his study, by Georg Friedrich Kersting

Klopstock gave the German language new impulses and can be seen as a trailblazer for the generation that followed him. 

He was the first to use hexameter in German poetry with his Messiah, and his examination of the “German hexameter“, as he called it, led him to his doctrine of the word foot (the smallest rhythmic unit. 

This paved the way for free rhythms such as those used by Goethe and Friedrich Hölderlin (1770 – 1843) for example. 

Above: German poet Friedrich Hölderlin

Klopstock also fought against the strict use of rhyme according to the Martin Opitz (1597 – 1639) school. 

Opitz’s aim was to elevate German poetry on the basis of humanism and ancient forms to an art object of the highest order, and he succeeded in creating a new kind of poetics. 

In his commemorative speech on the 100th anniversary of Opitz’s death in 1739, Johann Christoph Gottsched (1700 – 1766) called him the first who had succeeded in bringing the German language to a level that met all the demands of sophisticated diction and eliminated everyday language, which allowed him to advance of the French. 

With his reflections on language, style and verse art, Opitz gave German poetry a formal basis. In doing so, he drew up various laws that served as guidelines and standards for all German poetry for over a century:

• He demanded strict observance of the meter, taking into account the natural word accent.
• He rejected impure rhymes. (Probably rejected dirty limericks, too!)
• He forbade word abbreviations and contractions.
• He also excluded foreign words.

Opitz’s aesthetic principles included the Horace (65 – 8 BCE) Principle:

“Poetry, while it is pleasurable, must be useful and instructive at the same time.” 

Above: German poet Martin Opitz

Klopstock gave the poet’s profession a new dignity by exemplifying the artistic autonomy of the poet, and thus freed poetry from didactic poems. 

Klopstock is considered to be the founder of experiential poetry and German irrationalism. 

His work extended over large parts of the age of the Enlightenment. 

Unlike most Enlighteners, however, he was not committed to reason, but to sensitivity. 

In 1779 he coined the term inwardness, which he called one of nine elements of poetic representation:

“Inwardness, or highlighting the actual innermost nature of the thing.” 

Furthermore, he is considered an important pioneer for the movement of Sturm und Drang – literally “storm and desire”, though usually translated as “storm and stress“, where individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of emotion were given free expression.

Above: Friedrich Schiller’s The Robbers, an example of “Sturm und Drang“

In The Sorrows of Young Werther, Klopstock’s effect is felt in the writing of Goethe:

“We went to the window, it thundered to the side and the wonderful rain rustled on the land, and the most refreshing fragrance rose to us in the fullness of warm air. 

She stood on her elbow and her eyes penetrated the area, she looked up at the sky and at me, I saw her eyes full of tears, she put her hand on mine and said – “Klopstock!” 

I sank into the stream of sensations which she poured out on me in this loosing. 

I could not stand, leaned on her hand and kissed it with the most delightful tears. 

And looked at her eye again –

Noble! 

You would have seen your admiration in this look, and now I would never hear your name, which has so often been desecrated, mentioned again.“

In spite of all this, the young Lessing registers:

“Who will not praise a Klopstock?
But will everyone read it? – No!
We want to be less exalted
and read more diligently.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

Above: Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther

Klopstock reminds me of Zwingli.

Both strong men, both well-educated, both advocating radical change.

In 1812 the Uetliberg watch was erected.

Above: Lookout Tower, Uetliberg

Above: The view from Uetliberg

The Alt Uetliberg is a small farm west below the former Annaburg. 

Mentioned in a document 400 years ago and probably much older, the mountain home is a witness of old farming culture on the Uetliberg. 

In 1984 the canton of Zürich wanted to demolish the building. 

A petition successfully opposed this. 

Today the buildings serve as a scout home. 

Above: Alt Üetliberg

A wooden ski jump was built in 1954 south of the Alt Uetliberg farmhouse . 

A hill record of 41.5 meters was achieved in the 1970s. 

Due to the frequent lack of snow and decreasing public interest, the ski jump was demolished in 1994.

Above: Ski jump, Uetliberg

During the Second World War, the Uetliberg and Waldegg area was fortified with over 100 bunkered shelters as part of the first army position.

Above: Waldegg tank trench

In 1815 an inn opened in the former Hochwacht.

In 1838 Friedlich Bluntschli acquired the summit area from his cousin Gerber Bluntschli

The Zürich architect Johann Caspar Breitinger built the first spa house for Friedlich Bluntschli. 

In 1840 Friedrich Beyel opened the Uetliberg guest house and spa. 

Above: Hotel Uto Kulm, Uetliberg

Friedrich von Dürler was the son of Xaver von Dürler, a businessman from Lucerne, and Barbara Gossweiler from Zurich. 

Above: Friedrich von Dürler (1804 – 1840)

After the early death of his father, he trained as a businessman, but soon gave up the profession to devote himself to archeology and gymnastics. 

He was close friends with Ferdinand Keller, the founder of the Antiquarian Society of Zürich, and as treasurer of the association took part in excavations on the Lindenhof in Zurich and the Uetliberg. 

Above: Swiss archaeologist Ferdinand Keller (1800 – 1881)

Together with the theologian Alexander Schweizer, Dürler was one of the early promoters of gymnastics based on the ideas of the father of German gymnastics Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. 

Above: German educator Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778 – 1852)

From 1836 the bachelor served as secretary for the Zurich poor relief. 

In September 1838 Dürler became a member of the Swiss Society for Natural Research.

On 19 August 1837, he had the chamois hunters and mountain farmers Bernhard and Gabriel Vögeli and Thomas Thut from Linthal take him up to the Glarner Tödi to prove their first ascent of the peak from the north on 11 August 1837.

Dürler is still honored today with a plaque in Linthal.

Above: Tödi Mountain, Canton Glarus, Switzerland

Dürler and friends climbed the Uetliberg, where the first restaurant had just opened. 

On 8 March 1840, this mountaineer, naturalist and Zürich secretary for the poor, Friedrich von Dürler (1804 – 1840) fell to his death after visiting the inn while descending. 

On the basis of a bet, he slipped down a steep gully on his alpine stick, fell over a rock and died. 

The friends erected a memorial stone with a plaque on the ridge east of today’s Uto Staffel Restaurant, the Dürlerstein.

Inscription:

Here
Friedrich von Dürler fell down and died on
March 8th MDCCCXL
Mourning friends
set this stone for him

Above: The Dürler Stone, Uetliberg

In 1873 the hotelier Caspar Fürst bought the mountain inn.

The existing house was enlarged and a hotel was built to the north of it. 

In 1927 the Uetliberg Hotel was taken over by the City of Zürich and the ETH Zürich-Lehrwald (teaching forest) was established. 

Above: Logo of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

In 1935 the Niedermann brothers, both major butchers in Zürich, bought the hotel. 

In 1943 it was closed. 

In 1973 the hotel came into the possession of the general contractor Karl Steiner. 

In 1983 the Swiss Bank Corporation bought the Uto Kulm mountain inn.

In 1999 Giusep Fry bought the hotel with a lookout tower. 

He subsequently carried out various modifications that were declared illegal by the Federal Supreme Court.

Tourist development began in the 19th century with the Uetlibergbahn (opened in 1875) and the construction of various hotels and guest houses on the Uetliberg and the Albis chain. 

Today the traditional Hotel Uto Kulm and the Uetliberg observation tower, open to the public all year round, stand on the summit of the Uetliberg.

Above: Hotel Uto Kulm and observation tower, Uetliberg

Car-free Üetliberg is accessed by the S10 line of the Sihital-Zürich-Uetliberg Bahn, which is part of the Zurich S-Bahn network, is Europe’s steepest standard-gauge adhesion railway, running from Zürich Main Station to the Uetliberg station – a ten-minute walk below the summit. 

Above: Uetliberg, by Hans Leu the Elder

From the train station, the Uetliberg – Felsenegg Planet Path leads to Felsenegg, where the Adliswil – Felsenegg aerial cableway leads down to Adliswil.

Various hiking trails lead from the city of Zurich to the summit in around an hour:

• The varied Denzlerweg leads from Albisguetli (tram line 13 terminus) in a fairly straight direction to the summit. It is named after a baker Denzler who is said to have brought his rolls to the Hotel on the summit every morning on this route and is said to have made this route about 4,000 times.

Above: The Denzler Path

• Also from Albisgüetli, the Laternenweg leads a little further west onto the ridge. It takes its name from its earlier gas lantern lighting, which has been electrified since 2003.

Above: Lantern Path in winter

• From Triemli (tram line 14 terminus) the Hohensteinweg leads up a mountain shoulder, which is particularly popular as a toboggan run in winter.

Above: The High Stone Path

• A forest road leads from Uitikon-Waldegg (parking lot) to the summit. This path has the least incline.

The Uetliberg is particularly popular in winter, as its summit is often above the Zürich fog. 

In the past, in such inversion weather conditions, the tram lines that go to the foot of the Uetliberg carried the sign “Uetliberg hell”. 

In winter, some of the hiking trails are used as toboggan runs.

Swisscom operates an important telecommunications system on the Uetliberg (the Uetliberg television tower) for the transmission of radio and television programs.

The Uetliberg offers – especially from the Uetliberg observation tower on the mountain top – a view of the entire city and Lake Zürich. 

When the weather is good, the view extends to the north as far as Hohentwiel, and from east to south to Glarus, Graubünden and the Bernese Alps. 

Other mountain ranges in Germany (the Black Forest / Schwarzwald), France (Vosges) and Austria can also be seen.

Above: Uetliberg

The Felsenegg (810m) is a lookout point on the Albis chain and the mountain station of the Adliswil – Felsenegg aerial cableway southwest of Zürich.

The Albis is one of the most important local recreation and hiking areas in the greater Zürich area. 

Via the Felsenegg, the hiking trail from Uetliberg leads along the Albis ridge in an easterly direction to the Albis Pass, starting with the Uetliberg – Felsenegg Planet Trail. 

Above: Felsenegg

The Uetliberg – Felsenegg Planet Trail is a hiking trail in the canton of Zürich on the Albis. 

The path leads from the Uetliberg railway station of the Uetlibergbahn to Staffel, Annaburg, above the Fallätsche via Mädikon to the Felsenegg station of the Adliswil – Felsenegg aerial cableway, via Felsenegg to Buchenegg. 

The duration of the hike is around two hours.

The trail was designed by Arnold von Rotz and opened on 26 April 1979. 

The patronage was taken over by the Astronomical Society Urania Zürich.

Above: Urania Observatory, Zürich

The path is laid out on a scale of 1:1 billion and thus offers a clear representation of the sizes and distances in the solar system. 

One meter of the model corresponds to one million kilometers in reality. 

The planetary path includes not only the Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, planets Mercury, but also the dwarf planets Ceres and Pluto.

Above: Representation of the Solar System – We are the third rock from the Sun.

The planet models are attached to boulders on the Linth or Reuss glacier along the way. 

Above: Reuss glacier boulder with model of Jupiter

The smaller planet models were poured into glass and set into a niche in the boulder, the larger ones attached to the top of the boulder. 

Above: Venus model in a Malmkalk boulder

A board on each planet provides information about its position in the solar system and additional information, such as equatorial diameter, rotational speed, orbital speed, orbit circumference, and the like. 

As a model of the sun, a yellow sphere with a diameter of 1.39 meters was attached to a pole, which can be seen clearly from the first planetary models .

Above: Sun model with two Reuss glacier boulders

Dwarf planet Pluto is represented with three stations because of its strongly elliptical orbit:

Above: Pluto

The first position corresponds to the perihelion, while it lies ahead of Neptune. 

Above: Model of Neptune with view of Uetliberg

The second position at Felsenegg corresponds to the mean distance and the third station near Buchenegg corresponds to the aphelion.

The next star, Proxima Centauri, would be around 40,113 kilometers away on the same scale.

Above: Proxima Centauri, as seen from the Hubble Space Telescope

(For comparison: the circumference of the Earth is around 40,030 kilometers).

Above: Earth

A steep forest path built between 1908 and 1912 leads from Adliswil up to Felsenegg.

Above: Uetliberg

Adliswil is located in the lower Sihl valley between Albis and Zimmerberg on the border with the city of Zürich. 

The forest covers a third of the municipal area, the settlement area and traffic almost half, 20% are still used for agriculture.

The graves from the early Middle Ages, which were found in the Grüt near the border with the city of Zurich, give evidence of settlements. 

The slopes of Zimmerberg and Albis were settled first, as the valley floor along the Sihl was repeatedly endangered by floods.

Above: Adliswil and the Sihl Valley

A bridge over the Sihl has been documented since 1475. 

The first mill with a weir (dam) is also mentioned in the 15th century. 

The manorial power lay with the Grossmünster and Frauminister of Zürich, as well as the monasteries of Muri and Rüti, and passed to the city of Zürich in 1406.

Above: Grossmünster, Zürich

Above: Fraumünster, Zürich

Above: Müri Monastery

Above: Rüti Monastery before the fire of 1706

From 1942 to 1945, the second largest internment camp in Switzerland, which was set up as a result of the German occupation of southern France, was located in Adliswil. 

It was housed in the rooms of a disused mechanical silk weaving mill. 

In particular, German Jews who had previously found refuge in southern France tried to escape to Switzerland afterwards. 

The transit camp, which, despite its size, was little known among the population because it was shielded by the military, offered space for around 500 people. 

Above: Adliswil Internment Camp buildings

Above: Refugees, Adliswil Internment Camp, 1945

Above: Refugees, Adliswil Internment Camp, 1945

Above: Refugees, Adliswil Internment Camp, 1945

Above: Dorm quarters, Adliswil Internment Camp, 1945

Above: Refugees, Adliswil Internment Camp, 1945

The community experienced a strong growth spurt in the 19th century through industrialization, during which a large spinning company, the Mechanische Seidenweberei Adliswil (MSA), was built. 

Above: The Mechanical Silk Manufacturing Company, Adliswil

The village was also home to the chocolate manufacturer Norma, which later became part of the Cima – Norma SA company in Dangio – Torre.

Above: Buildings of Cima-Norma SA, Dangio-Torre, Canton Ticino, Switzerland

Today many of the residents work in Zürich. 

The majority of the resident companies operate in the tertiary sector. 

In particular, insurance companies (Generali, Swiss Reinsurance Company) have located part of their administration in Adliswil. 

The Liechtenstein tool manufacturer Hilti has its Swiss headquarters in Adliswil. 

A total of around 5,000 people in all sectors work in Adliswil.

Above: Coat of arms of Adliswil

Some personalities of Adliswil:

• Stefan Bachmann is a Swiss-American author of novels and short stories.

Above: Stefan Bachmann

His debut novel The Peculiar was published in 2012.

Bachmann was born in Colorado, but soon moved with his family to Adliswil. 

He was home schooled by his American mother and four siblings through high school. 

Above: Adliswil

He attended the Zürich Conservatory since he was 11, and then the Zürich University of the Arts, where he studied organ and composition. 

His first novel was published when he was 19 years old. 

He writes his books in English.

The Peculiar is about the opening of a portal to the fairy world, as a result of which a multitude of magical creatures come into the human world. 

Since the portal closed, the fairies and elves have been prevented from returning and have to live side by side with the humans. 

Children of a human and a fairy are called “the Peculiar” and are especially outlawed as crossbreeds on both sides.

Bartholomew and his little sister Henrietta “Hettie” Kettle are mixed race whose fairy father has left the family. 

They live with their mother on Krähengasse in Bath and are almost never allowed to leave the house, as very few people shy away from killing “mixed race children”. 

One day Bartholomew observes a lady in a plum-colored dress from the window of a secret attic room who is picking up another mongrel boy from the neighbors. 

When Bartholomew follows her, he is magically wrapped in feathers and taken into a distant, noble room, which he leaves shortly afterwards in the same way.

Arthur Jelliby is a parliamentarian and member of the Council of State in London, which also includes a fairy elite. 

For some time now, mongrels have been mysteriously disappearing and then found dead, which most of the Members of Parliament don’t care much. 

When Jelliby is invited to the fairy attorney general Lickerish, he gets lost in his house in a corridor and is tracked down by Lickerish’s fairy butler, who suspects him to have spied. 

By chance, Jelliby overhears Lickerish in an office and comes across a diabolical plan to open the portal to the fairy world in order to deliver England to the fairies. 

To do this, Lickerish needs a certain mixed-race child that the lady in the plum-colored dress named Melusine is supposed to get for him. 

In the meantime, Bartholomew has tried to conjure up a house ghost and instead leads Lickerish’s henchmen to him, who kidnap Hettie. 

At the same time, Jelliby arrives in Crow Alley and comes across Bartholomew, who is desperately looking for his sister. 

Together they make their way to the fairy market to get weapons for defense, and then to a lonely place in the forest where an old fairy lives in a trailer and tells them about Lickerish’s plans. 

He wants to invade all magical beings from the fairy world to England in order to subdue people and to rule over them.

Bartholomew and Jelliby travel back to London, where they locate an old warehouse with access to an airship over the city. 

That is where Lickerish is holding Hettie. 

He is responsible for the disappearance and death of the other mixed race children because he was looking for the right one. 

Hettie is the portal to the fairy world and is supposed to open it that night. 

When it happens, Bartholomew and Jelliby join them. 

They want to prevent the portal from opening, but fail, and Hettie disappears into the fairy world together with the fairy butler. 

The story ends with Bartholomew’s decision to bring Hettie home at all costs.

Bachmann wrote The Peculiar in English at the age of 16, inspired by The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia, among others. 

Above: J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings

According to his own information, he needed six months for the first version with 400 pages, plus another six months for the revision. 

Above: Bachmann at the time of the publishing of The Peculiar

An agent sent the manuscript to US publisher Harper Collins, who published it on 18 September 2012. 

According to some media reports, the novel quickly became a bestseller in the US, which also led to the film industry’s interest in film rights. 

Along with the publication, a book trailer was produced, the musical accompaniment of which was composed by Bachmann himself. 

A reading tour through the USA and a blog tour through Asia followed in 2013 and brought the author an income in the six-figure range. 

The book has been translated into seven languages, including Czech, Polish, and Spanish. 

The German translation was published on 26 February 2014 by the Swiss Diogenes Verlag.

Both the press, as well as representatives of fantasy literature judged The Peculiar mainly positive. 

The New York Times wrote in September 2012 that The Peculiar was “a story young fantasy buffs are sure to enjoy”.

The Los Angeles Times wrote “Bachmann’s prose is so elegantly witty.”

Publishers Weekly described the novel as “limitless reading pleasure for readers of all ages.” 

Christopher Paolini, author of the fantasy series Eragon, praised the book as “swift, strong and entertaining, highly recommanded”.

Above: Christopher Paolini

Percy Jackson author Rick Riordan said:

“Stefan Bachmann breathes fresh life into ancient magic.”

Above: Rick Riordan

• Margrit Baur (1937 – 2017) was a Swiss writer and secretary.

She was born and raised in Adliswil.

After teachers’ college, she attended a drama school in Vienna, where she also appeared in small theatres for a few years after completing her training.

Back in Switzerland, she worked in various “bread and butter” jobs in order to be able to devote herself freely to writing.

She brought up this juxtaposition of professional life and “real” life above all in Survival (1981) and Downtime(1983)

Baur lived in Gattikon near Zürich until 2017.

Above: Margrit Baur

• Franz Fassbind (1919 – 2003) was a Swiss writer, playwright and journalist.

Franz Fassbind was the son of photographer and small publisher Bernardin Fassbind (1887 – 1954) and Lina Fassbind-Marty (1884 – 1931) in Unteriberg in the canton of Schwyz. 

Above: Unteriberg

He grew up in poor conditions, first in the Engadine, then in Zürich’s industrial district and in Wipkingen. 

Above: The course of the Inn River – Within Swiss territory the Inn (En) River Valley is called the Engadine.

Above: Zürich’s Industrial Quarter

Above: Wipkingen

Later he attended the collegiate school of Einsiedeln Monastery and the Jesuit college in Feldkirch. 

Above: Einsiedeln Monastery

Above: The former Jesuit college, Stella Matutina (today: the Vorarlberg State Conservatory), Feldkirch, Austria

During these years Franz Fassbind wrote his first poems and small compositions. 

After dropping out of high school, he studied music at the Zürich Conservatory from 1936 and German studies at the University of Zürich. 

Above: The Zürich Conservatory (today: Zürich University of the Arts)

Without ever finishing a degree, he worked as a freelance journalist, writer and composer. 

His first poems were published in 1936, Radio Beromünster broadcast his first radio play at Christmas 1938, and his first novel was published three years later.

Above: Landesender Beromünster, home of Radio Beromünster, Gunzwil, Canton Luzern, Switzerland

Franz Fassbind became known primarily for his work for Swiss Radio. 

His radio plays and features had a formative effect on the medium from 1938 to 1974. 

Just as important was the series of programs he initiated, “The International Forum”, in which he allowed well-known scientists to have their say. 

His radio reviews in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung found a wide readership. 

His journalistic work is also an expression of the spiritual defense movement.

Above: Logo for Swiss Radio

(The spiritual defense movement is the cross-party strengthening of values ​​and customs perceived as “Swiss” in order to ward off totalitarian ideologies. 

At first it was directed primarily against National Socialism (Nazism) and Facism, later during the Cold War against Communism. 

Even when intellectual national defense was no longer actively pursued by the authorities, the cultural, anti-totalitarian values ​​remained in effect.

Swiss politicians still use the terms and metaphors of intellectual national defense today.) 

Above: Marble sculpture Readiness for military service, Ramisstrasse, Zürich

In the Dramaturgy of the Radio Play published in 1943 , he also reflected on his radio work theoretically.

In 1956 he turned to the medium of film. 

For The Art of the Etruscans he provided both the script and the music. 

The work earned him the 1st Film Prize of the City of Zürich. 

From 1948 Fassbind’s main poetic work, Die Hohe Messe (The High Mass), was published in demanding terzins – an Italian rhyming scheme wherein each stanza consists of three verses – based on Dante. 

There, as in his novels from the post war period, the focus is on dealing with Catholicism in today’s world.

Above: Dante Alighieri (1265 – 1321)

Fassbind married Gertrud Schmucki in 1941. 

Their only child, a daughter, Ursula was born in 1943. 

The family lived in Adliswil near Zürich, where Franz Fassbind died on 9 July 2003 at the age of 84.

Peter Wild published an edition of his work at Walter Verlag in Olten.

Above: Fassbind’s Zeitloses Leben (Timeless Life)

• Hannes Gruber (1928 – 2016) was a Swiss painter.

Above: Hannes Gruber

Hannes Gruber was the second son of Paul and Erna Gruber-Hartmann. 

He spent his youth and school days in Oberrieden on Lake Zürich. 

Above: Oberrieden

In 1943 – 1944 he attended the Zürich School of Applied Arts (1883 – 2007). 

From 1944 to 1948 he did an apprenticeship with Swiss bookseller Orell Füssli in Zürich, at the same time he attended courses in the painting at the Zürich School of Applied Arts. 

After moving to Grevasalvas in the Upper Engadine (1948) he worked there as a freelance painter. 

In 1953 his son Stefan (now known as filmmaker Steff Gruber) was born. 

Above: Grevasalvas, Upper Engadine

After returning to Zürich (1954), Hannes Gruber opened his own graphic studio. 

In 1957 his daughter Ursina was born. 

In 1968 his daughter Sandrina was born. 

Above: Hannes Gruber painting

The next year Gruber opened a studio on the Hirzel, a Swiss pass in the foothills of cantons Zürich and Zug, between Wadenswil and Sihlbrugg. 

Above: Hirzelpass

In 1972 he moved to the Engadin again, this time to Sils Baselgia. 

Above: The towns of Sils Maria (left) and Sils Baselgia (right)

He moved into a studio in Bondo. 

Above: Bondo

Gruber made his first painting trip to Northern Italy in 1949. 

Above: Flag of Italy

A study trip took him to the Netherlands in 1950 and another painting trip to Denmark in 1952. 

Above: Flag of the Netherlands

Above: Flag of Denmark

He made further trips to Italy (1958) to Bergamo and Verona, then to Sicily (1966) and Tuscany (1967). 

Above: Bergamo, Italy

Above: Images of Verona, Italy

Above: Flag of Sicily

Above: Flag of Tuscany (Toscana)

A summer stay in Spain (1969) earned him a commission for several wall paintings on a building on Ibiza. 

Above: Mediterranean Spanish island of Ibiza

He travelled to New York in 1974.

Above: Images of New York City

 

Another summer stay in Italy took place in 1977..

Above: Emblem of Italy

His first watercolours of landscapes from the area around Oberrieden were created in 1940.

He painted in oil for the first time in 1942.

Above: Oberrieden 

Above: Oberrieden, by Hannes Gruber

In 1950 he received an order for large murals for the Olma – the annual agricultural fair in St. Gallen. 

Above: OLMA (Swiss Fair for Agriculture and Food) halls, St. Gallen

In 1966 he illustrated an edition of Tristan by Thomas Mann (1875 – 1955). 

In 1971 he was commissioned with a three-dimensional wall design in the Fuhr schoolhouse in Wädenswil.

Above: Fuhr Schulhaus, Wadenswil

• Peter Holenstein (1946 – 2019) was a Swiss journalist and author.

Above: Peter Holenstein

In his journalistic work, for example in the Swiss weekly magazine Weltwoche, Peter Holenstein dealt in particular with topics relating to criminal justice and crime, the perpetrator-victim problem and the causes of violent crimes. 

His book The Incredible: The Murderous Life of Werner Ferrari in 2007 led to a review of the child murder case of Ruth Steinmann at the Baden District Court, which ended in Ferrari’s acquittal. 

Werner Ferrari is a Swiss serial killer. 

As a five-time child murderer, he is one of the most famous prison inmates in Switzerland. 

For example, he kidnapped or lured children away from public festivals, abused some of the victims and strangled them.

Ferrari grew up in various children’s and youth homes and was considered an introvert. 

He performed various jobs as an unskilled worker.

In 1971 Ferrari committed his first infanticide:

In Reinach (BL), he murdered 10-year-old Daniel Schwan. 

Above: Daniel Schwan (1961 – 1971)

Ferrari was sentenced to ten years in prison and released early after eight years in prison from the Zürich prison in Regensdorf.

Above: Regensdorf Prison

Between 1980 and 1989, 21 children disappeared in Switzerland, 14 of whom were found abused and murdered. 

Seven children, including Peter Roth (8) from Mogelsberg (SG), Sarah Oberson (5) from Saxon (VS), and Edith Trittenbass (9) from Gass-Wetzikon (TG), are still missing today despite intensive searches. 

Above: Peter Roth

Above: Edith Trittenbass

On 30 August 1989, four days after Fabienne Imhof’s murder, Werner Ferrari called the police – and stated that he had nothing to do with her death. 

Above: Fabienne Imhof

Shortly afterwards he was arrested in his apartment in Olten, and he made confessions in four cases. 

Above: Olten

Ferrari vehemently denied the murder of 12-year-old Ruth Steinmann, who was found on 16 May 1980 in a wooded area near Würenlos (AG).

In 1995 Ferrari was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Baden District Court for fivefold murder, including for the crime committed against Ruth Steinmann. 

Seven years later, research by journalist and book author Peter Holenstein discovered evidence that Ferrari could not be responsible for the murder of Ruth Steinmann. 

Among other things, a DNA analysis initiated by the journalist revealed that a pubic hair that could be secured on Ruth Steinmann’s corpse did not come from Ferrari.

On the basis of Holenstein’s research, the higher court of the canton of Aargau overturned the judgment against Ferrari in the Ruth Steinmann case in 2004 and referred it back to the Baden District Court for reassessment. 

As a result, a suspect on Ruth Steinmann was exhumed in March 1983 in Wolfhalden (AG) who had committed suicide. 

A dental report from the Scientific Service of the Zürich City Police showed that the bite marks on the girl’s body were definitely not from Ferrari, but from the man who died in 1983 and who looked very similar to Ferrari. 

In a national appeal, Werner Ferrari was found innocent on 10 April 2007 by the Baden District Court for the murder of Ruth Steinmann and acquitted of this crime. 

However, he remains detained for the other four cases.

Above: Ruth Steinmann (1968 – 1980)

As early as 1979, Holenstein succeeded in resolving a murder case in Italy with his research:

After he was able to convict the right perpetrator and he made a confession, the 46-year-old Swiss Werner Rudolf Meier was declared innocent in Elba Prison after 24 years served and was pardoned by Italy’s President Sandro Pertini. 

Above: Sandro Pertini (1896 – 1990), 7th Italian President (1978 – 1985)

From Dominique Strebel and  Christoph Schilling, Beobachter, 28 December 2006

The fortnightly Swiss magazine Beobachter (The Observer) reveals grievances where state arbitrariness is worst: in educational, reformatory or penal institutions. 

Everywhere where the individual is exposed to state power without protection. 

And this is most glaringly shown in the case of errors of justice, to which the Beobachter repeatedly points out.

Take the case of the Zürich furniture maker Werner Rudolf Meier, who was imprisoned in Italy for 24 years – for a murder that he demonstrably did not commit. 

Only when the journalist Peter Holenstein researched meticulously did the matter move. 

Holenstein convicted the real murderer, who made a full confession. 

A revision procedure failed, because the court declared the confessing perpetrator to be insane. 

Holenstein continued to write about the case until Federal Councilors Willi Ritschard and Pierre Aubert spoke directly to the Italian President Sandro Pertini on behalf of Meier. 

He was finally released in 1979. 

“Without the Beobachter, this would not have been possible,” said Holenstein.

“It played a decisive role in putting pressure on us.” 

Meier was not acquitted, but pardoned. 

Therefore, he did not receive any compensation for unlawful detention. 

Even now, the Beobachter does not let Meier fall and “participates in the necessary health, professional and human integration efforts with advice and action”.

Above: Logo of the Beobachter (Observer)

In 2001, Holenstein was awarded the German Regino Prize for the best judicial report of the year for Der Verdacht (The Suspicion), published in the magazine Tages-Anzeiger (Daily Indicator). 

Above: Logo of Das Magazin (formerly Tages-Anzeiger)

Peter Holenstein was a member of the Swiss Working Group for Criminology (SAK) and the Swiss Criminological Society (SKG / SSDP). 

At the age of 72, he died in Zürich in January 2019 as a result of a heart attack.

• Pjotr ​​Kraska, actually Peter Johannes Kraska, also known as Kraska rex (1946 – 2016) was a Swiss action artist, writer, visual artist, critic of the authorities and a Zürich original.

Above: Pjotr Kraska

In the late 60s he appeared, sometimes together with Dieter Meier, in experimental theatre and in avant-garde shows that startled the bourgeoisie at the time. 

Above: Dieter Meier

His book, The Big Throw, reflects on speaking and writing. 

One poem (1978/79) was partly enthusiastically discussed. 

In 1980 he declared himself “King of Zürich and Bilbao, ruler of the Zen and A-centric empires” and from then on fought a bitter but unsuccessful dispute over free travel on the Zürich public transport network (ZVV).

Above: Kraska’s “Triumphal Arch Card” for the entire transport network in the canton of Zürich

Above: ZVV logo

Kraska, the son of East Prussian parents, grew up as the third of four children in Oberleimbach (Adliswil). 

Above: Adliswil

After leaving school, he attended the Appenzell-Ausserrhoden (AR) cantonal school in Trogen, but took off before completion, deciding that he was an actor. 

Above: The Kantonsschule Trogen

He later lived in Zürich’s old town in Niederdorf. 

Above: HIrschenplatz (Deer Square), Niederdorf (Lower Town), Zürich

In 1966, Kraska began writing and performing experimental plays. 

He made his first public appearance on the occasion of the performance of Ladislav Kupkovic’s Písmená by the Zürich Chamber Choir in Fred Barth’s piece Forum Concert . 

Above: Slovak musician Ladislav Kupkovic (1936 – 2016)

In 1968 the 22-year-old Kraska founded the Wath-Tholl-Theater, where he performed the Darkroom play the same year:

“What can be admired in the non-stop, two and a half hour Darkroom piece is the concentration of the actors, the consistency with which the audience is alluded to that openly expressing incomprehension, and above all the virtuoso leadership of a – if one may say so – musical perceived arc to which the text is subordinated. 

Kraska’s problem is – and in this piece, in this nightmare, in any case in an annoying way, he chokes it out of himself – the lack of relationships, the groping in the pitch dark. 

Must this artistically inadequate examination of what may afflict a sensitive young man today take place in public and on a stage? “

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 16 June 1968

Above: The King of Zürich’s 1968 passport

In 1969 Kraska took part with the Wath-Tholl-Theater in the avant-garde show Underground Explosions, which was performed in Munich (München), Zürich and Cologne (Köln), among others, together with the rock groups Amon Düül and Guru Guru Groove, the Bavarians Paul and Limpe Fuchs (aka Anima) with experimental primal scream music, as well the Viennese performance artists Valie Export and Peter Weibel. 

Above: Austrian artist Waltraud Stockinger (née Lehner) (aka Valie Export)

Above: Austrian artist Peter Weibel

The Zürich concept artist Dieter Meier and Munich film activist Karl Heinz organized the shows, which culminated in student revolts, pop revolts and avant-garde culture, which grew into tangible scandal. 

Der Spiegel (The Mirror) devoted a whole page to the occasion after the performance in the Munich Circus Krone (which claims to be the biggest circus in the world) and in the Zürich Volkshaus, led to panic and chaos. 

Above: Circus Krone, Munich, Germany

Above: Zürich Volkshaus

Der Spiegel wrote about Kraska:

The Wath Tholl theatre of Zürich actor Pjotr ​​Kraska (22):

The group of twelve, aged between 16 and 24, spent the winter at an Andalusian farm honing their style.

The Kraska clan entered the Krone Circus with animal screams, attacked each other in combat ballets and ecstatic Blocksberg hugs. 

Kraska, who uses his pants as a notepad, wants to achieve “unity between mind and body”.

When a spectator kissed a Kraska girl, she fell to the ground as if touched by lightning.

Der Spiegel, 21 April 1969

Above: Pjotr Kraska

Even later, Kraska appeared as an action artist. 

For example, in 1982 he invited to a “simple monarchical-clerical celebration” on the Pestalozziwiese in Zürich , where Kristin T. Schnider was supposed to “let go“, as was announced – apparently with little public success:

Above: Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi Monument, Pestalozziwiese (park), Bahnhofstrasse, Zürich

“Now Kristin T. Schnider is no longer black-haired and no longer a poet, but rather bald and, as one hears, the first court poet to Kraska’s spiritual monarchy. 

And the actors pull away. 

The honoured audience sinks back into the grass and into boredom.“

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 24 – 25 July 1982

Above: Swiss writer Kristin T. Schnider

From the 1970s, Kraska shifted increasingly to writing and worked as a publicist. 

In 1979 his first book, The Big Throw, was published. 

A poem was enthusiastically reviewed by some of the critics and reprinted in 2000:

“The Big Throw is a ‘narrative‘ (246 pages) about writing, about language itself, which is rare in the linguistic landscape of Switzerland and which has so far hardly been heard of reflexive density, biblical form of language and metalinguistic stubbornness.

Stubbornness repeatedly brought back the litter before it could still hit. 

Sounds fall silent in meaning, profundity evaporates in letters:

In every way language is driven out of language, but hollowness and fullness now fall back all the more into the words.

Here there is no commitment to this or that, here is total commitment to the language. 

There is an intelligent and at the same time eloquent talent at work.”

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2 May 1978

Above: Kraska’s Der Grosse Wurf (The Big Throw)

In 1981 the novella Death in Naples was followed in 1982 by the novel The Hand in the Clong, and Buddha smiles forever. 

Above: Images of Naples (Napoli), Italy (Italia)

Above: Buddha statue, Sarnath Museum, India

Kraska also published several articles in the Neue Zürcher Zeitiung on bullfighting and flamenco. 

Above: Matador and bull, Cancun, Mexico

Above: Flamenco dancers, Cordoba, Spain

He had an ambivalent relationship with the Kunsthaus Zürich. 

Above: Kunsthaus Zürich (Zürich Arthouse)

For the exhibition Dada Global (1994) he was allowed to design a showcase as a “contemporary representative of Dadaism.” 

In 2013 the Kunsthaus acquired two Swiss banknotes painted by Kraska, and the museum library owns a complete collection of Court News. 

Conversely, the latter refused to include the “royal coat of arms” designed by Peter Fischli in the Fischli / Weiss retrospective, whereupon Kraska burned it in a public staging in front of the Kunsthaus. 

Above: Peter Fischli (b. 1952) and David Weiss (1946 – 2012)

Most recently, Kraska bequeathed his urn with the ashes to the Kunsthaus – a gift that was not accepted.

Above: Kraska burns the coat of arms, Kunsthaus Zürich

During the Zürich youth riots of 1980, Kraska declared himself “His Majesty King Kraska of Zurich and Bilbao, ruler of the Central and A-Central Empire“. 

Above: Images of Bilboa, Spain

During this time, he published the Crown’s Official Court News every nine months. 

In this glossy magazine he printed, among other things, excerpts from his numerous disputes in court, wrote instructions for the production of blank stamp cards, glorified the Spanish bullfight and rounded off everything with numerous photographs of himself and his followers. 

In 2015 he laid down the “crown”.

In the 80s and 90s he quarreled with the Zürich transport company (ZVV) and the responsible city councilor, Jürg Kaufmann:

Above: Jürg Kaufmann

The “King” took the right to travel without a ticket and declared himself a “green driver” (“in the service of the environment”) and fought a bitter dispute through all court instances until the Federal Court upheld a sentence of 30 days in prison in 1987.

Above: Federal Courthouse, Lausanne, Switzerland

In another trial, the Zürich District Council sentenced Kraska to three months’ imprisonment for “continued fraudulent activity“.

Above: District Courthouse, Zürich

Kraska unsuccessfully sued the Zürich city councilman Jürg Kaufmann for “insulting”, as he had described him in the magazine Bonus 24 as a “total weirdo”. 

Kraska’s defense attorney was temporarily the politically committed lawyer Barbara Hug, who had also represented the “escape king” Walter Stürm , the “sprayer of Zürich” Harald Naegeli and the alleged terrorist Giorgio Bellini in court. 

Above: Walter Stürm (1942 – 1999)

Above: Harald Naegeli

Above: Giorgio Bellini

As the quotations interspersed here show, Kraska’s work was controversial. 

In a résumé, the Tages Anzeiger wrote:

“In fact, King Kraska, together with Dieter Meier and other Dadaists, took up what had moved the 1960s: the liberation from authority and bourgeois morals. 

Today, the 67-year-old’s art and subjects are outdated. 

The civil fright has degenerated into a civil servant fright.“

Tages-Anzeiger, 26 June 2014

Above: Pjotr Kraska

His work as an artist faded increasingly into the background in the public perception, and from the 1980s his persistent fight for free use of public transport was at the center (“Schwarzfahrer-König“), which occupied all court instances. 

For the Beobachter, Kraska was therefore “a prominent example of the type of the modern resister“. 

In the obituaries published in 2016, Kraska was drawn primarily as a city original.

Above: Pjotr Kraska (right), Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich, 2007

• Kamil Krejčí is a Czech-Swiss actor, director and author who has lived in Switzerland since 1968.

Above: Kamil Krejčí

Kamil Krejčí attended the Zürich Acting Academy, where he trained as an actor and director. 

Since 1987 he has been active on the stage and in film. 

After a permanent engagement at the Stadttheater St. Gallen and the Stadt Bühnen Münster, he was a freelance actor and director. 

Above: Stadt Theater, St. Gallen

Above: Theater Münster, Germany

Krejčí worked on many stages in Switzerland and Germany, for example, the B. Fritz Rémond Theater, comedy in the Bayerischer Hof (Bavarian Court), Stadttheater Bern, Luzern and Solothurn. 

Above: The B. Fritz Rémond Theater, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Above: The Bavarian Court, Munich, Germany

Above: Stadt Theater, Bern, Switzerland

Above: Stadt Theater, Bern, Switzerland

Above: Stadt Theater Solothurn, Switzerland

He also played Erwin Imhof in Mannezimmer (Swiss television) in 65 episodes.

He was the founder of various theater companies, such as BIM Stage, Artsi Fartsi or Take Theater.

Above: Bühne Imst Mitte (BIM)(Stage in the middle), Zürich

Kamil Krejčí was responsible for the text editing of Der kleine Horrorladen (Little Shop of Horrors), as well as the Swiss-German version of the musical Elternabend (Parents’ Night) for the Theater am Hechtplatz or s’Dschungelbuech (The Jungle Book) for the Bernhardtheater. 

Above: Virginia Theater, Broadway, New York City

Above: Theater am Hechtplatz, Zürich

Above: Bernhard Theater, Zürich

The family musicals Der Zauberlehrling (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice), De chli Isbär (The Little Polar Bear), s’Dschungelbuech (The Jungle Book) and D’Schatzinsle (Treasure Island) toured Switzerland for several years. 

Krejci wrote the scripts for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, The Little Polar Bear and Treasure Island.

For Dschungelbuch he was responsible for the direction and the text version.

Above: First page of Der Zauberling by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Kamil Krejčí is the “inventor” of the “Adliswil Christmas Calendar”. 

From 2001 to 2018 he organized and hosted his living Christmas calendar in Adliswil. 

Together with Brigitte Schmidlin and Beat Gärtner (Stadt Theater) he told his own and adapted Christmas stories every day of Advent. 

Krejci now has a “story pool” of more than 200 Christmas fairy tales written in Swiss German.

Above: The Adliswil Christmas Calendar

From 2005 he wrote columns for the Zürcher Tages Anzeiger, then until 2016 in the newspaper “Züri 2”. 

In addition, a number of radio plays were created both under his direction and under his pen, for example, various Schreckmümpfeli (horror stories), but also several CDs with Papa Moll stories produced by SRF. 

In many other radio plays he acts as a speaker.

Above: Papa Moll and son

• Felix Mettler (1945 – 2019) was a Swiss writer.

Above: Felix Mettler

Mettler studied veterinary medicine and worked for several years as a senior assistant at the Institute for Veterinary Pathology at the University of Zürich. 

His first work, The Wild Boar, was translated into English and Italian. 

The novel also served as the basis for the film Death of a Boar (2006) with Joachim Król. 

The 73-metre high transmission tower Felsenegg – Girstel transmission tower of Swisscom is visible from afar and is around 300 metres from the mountain station of the Felseneggbahn cable car. 

The tower was built in 1959 to broadcast radio and television programs in the region. 

With the completion of the directional tower in 1963, radio and television broadcasting began in Switzerland.

 

The Felsenegg station was the most important national technical center for television broadcasting. 

It was the control centre for many private Swiss television stations and allowed national and international distribution.

Above: Felsenegg transmission tower, 1963

 

With the introduction of the REAL system, several transmission systems were distributed to 27 other Swisscom towers. 

As a result, the tower lost its originally outstanding central importance. 

The Felsenegg transmission tower is now integrated in the general network of transmission towers. 

Since fiber optics became popular, conventional broadcasting of radio programs has also declined. 

The tower shone until 10 December 200 as VHF radio from Radio Zürisee before it was switched to the Üetliberg.  

In 2020 the Felsenegg Tower was released from the canton’s inventory of historical monuments. 

In 2021 the dilapidated Felsenegg tower will be replaced by a 73-meter high lattice mast tower. 

The old concrete tower is to be dismantled by the end of 2022.

Above: Felsenegg transmission tower seen from Adliswil

Skyguide – the air traffic control company that monitors Swiss airspace and adjacent airspace – has been operating a radio receiving station there since 2005.

The directional beam tower was built by Zürich architect Edwin Schoch. 

It is 51 meters high and was made of reinforced concrete and clad with aluminum. 

This cladding not only has significant technical advantages, but also has a special play of light that adapts the tower’s color to the changing moods of the day and the weather.

By choosing a consistently slim tower shape, it was possible to avoid a forest fall on the narrow ridge of the Felsenegg. 

A triangular floor plan with cut corners makes the tower light and at the same time allows the large antennas mounted on special platforms outside the tower to be placed in the desired main beam directions without difficulty. 

At the top there is a 22-meter high dipole antenna made of steel. 

The tower has 16 floors and one underground floor in which the operating rooms are located. 

The antennas are mounted on the top five platforms and the roof. 

This includes parabolic and directional antennas. 

The maximum radiated power to the Nods Chasseral transmitter 111.3 kilometers away, as the crow flies, is 10 watts.

Above: Felsenegg transmission tower

The Türlersee (Türler Lake) is located in the Säuliamt in the canton of Zürich, on the border of the communities Aeugst and Hausen am Albis at 643 metres above sea level.

Above: Türler Lake

The Türlersee lies for the most part in the municipality of Aeugst. 

The lake is around 1.4 kilometers long and around 500 meters wide. 

On the southeastern bank there is a campsite and the Türlen Lido. 

Above: Türler Lake, Türlen

Türlen is a hamlet that belongs to the municipality of Hausen am Albis and is located on the Türlersee, west of the Albis in the canton of Zürich.

Türlen has a bus stop where regional buses run to and from Wiedikon, Hausen am Albis, Ebertswil and Affoltern am Albis, a restaurant and the outdoor pool on the Türlersee. 

The only campsite on the Türlersee is near Türlen, where on 26 May 2009, 17 caravans burned out due to a gas explosion and fire.

Sixteen people were injured.

In the north the River Reppisch leaves the lake.

Above: Reppisch River at Dönibach

A landslide on the Aeugsterberg changed the landscape at the end of the last ice age around 10,000 years ago. 

The Aeugsterberg, made up of molasse (sedimentary rock), rose like an island out of the ice masses formed by the Reuss and Linth glaciers. 

Above: Molasse rock

After the glacier melted, the pressure on the mountain flank eased, and at the same time the meltwater streams increased the erosion at the foot of the mountain. 

The slope lost its stability and 60 million cubic meters of rock slid into the valley and dammed the Reppisch to the Türlersee. 

Above: Aeugsterberg and Türlersee

First the Türlersee flowed over the Hexengraben (witches’ pit) towards the Reuss, only later over the Reppisch into the Limmat.

Above: The Hexengraben

With a path around the lake and through the surrounding forests, the lake is a popular local recreation area. 

A lido, as well as other beaches and jetties, offers bathing opportunities. 

First and foremost, the landscape at the Türlersee is a diverse nature and landscape protection area with natural banks, species-rich flat and sloping moors and dry meadows. 

The lake is of cantonal importance as a spawning area for common frogs and toads.

Above: Türlersee

Above: Common frog

Above: Common toad

In 1786 a coal seam was discovered north of the Aeugsterberg near Gottert, which led to the construction of the Riedhof Mine, in which coal was mined during the periods of 1786–1814, 1917–1921 and 1942–1947.

In 1944 the first ordinance for the protection of the Türlersee was issued, which was adjusted due to the steadily increasing influx of visitors in 1998 and 2001 (Protection Ordinance of December 17, 2001). 

For this reason, intensive recreational use is only possible in the demarcated areas:

In the area of ​​the campsite, near the cantonal road at the northern end of the Lake and at the Hexengraben.

Above: Türlersee

 

The Türlersee was frozen over in January 2009 and January 2012, with an accessible layer of ice.

Because of its sheltered location between Albis and Aeugsterberg, the water of the Türlersee is hardly circulated. 

Therefore, the water circulation in winter is supported by a circulation system.

The Türlersee is easy to reach by public transport:

From the city of Zürich, take tram 14 to Triemli and Postbus 235 or take the S5 Zürich S-Bahn to Affoltern am Albis, then Bus 223 via Hausen am Albis to Türlersee. 

Above: Zürich tram symbol

Above: Logo of the Zürich Transportation Authority

The Türlersee is on the regional cycling route 51 Säuliamt – Schwyz – Zurich – Schwyz. 

There is a legend about the origin of the water:

Where the Türlersee now spreads, there used to be a beautiful farm with fertile fields. 

The owner had an only child, a graceful, dear daughter. 

She caught the eye of the young lord of Schnabel Castle, and he pursued her passionately. 

But the honorable child persistently refused all his promises.

Then the lord of the castle persuaded the father to bring the girl to the Castle at midnight under all sorts of pretenses. 

He opened the gate himself and pulled the reluctant daughter in. 

As he was about to close the gate, she noticed what was being played and uttered a cry of curse on her traitorous father. 

At that moment lightning flashed from the sky and struck her parents’ house. 

She saw how a fiery chasm opened and the neat and once so blessed courtyard with all its fields disappeared into it. 

In the morning, however, there was a lake in its place.

Above: Türlersee

The Affoltern district is a district in the southwest of Canton Zürich. 

It lies between the Albis chain and the Reuss with borders in the west and northwest with Canton Aargau, in the south with Canton Zug.

The district is identical to the Knonaueramt region (or Knonauer Amt) and is popularly called Säuliamt . 

The name Zürcher Freiamt , which was also used in earlier centuries, is virtually unknown today.

Above: Coat of arms of Affoltern

From the beginning of the 15th century until the Reformation, the city of Zürich gradually gained control over the areas between Albis and Reuss. 

Already in 1406 the heirs of John of Hallwyl sold Langnau, Kappel, Rifferswil, Maschwanden, Ottenbach, and portions of today’s Obfeldens to Switzerland’s largest city. 

In the course of the Swiss conquest of Aargau in 1415, Zürich then annexed the Freiamt Affoltern and jurisdiction over Steinhausen, the Maschwanderamt and the Kelleramt. 

During the Old Zürich War (1440 – 1446), the entire region was severely affected by acts of war and was administered by Schwyz, Glarus, Lucerne and Zug between 1443 and 1450. 

Above: Knonau Castle

One of the traditional autonomy rights of the Freiamt was its own jurisdiction. 

The courts handed down from the Habsburg era (1173 – 1415) were Rifferswil, Affoltern am Albis and Berikon. 

Above: Old courthouse, Affoltern am Albis

The Freiamtsgemeinde met in the Mettmenstein church. 

It met for the last time on 26 March 1795, but had to be moved to Rüteli near today’s train station because the church was too small for the large number of visitors. 

Above: Reformed Church, Mettmenstetten

From 1507 to 1512, the Zürich government combined the abovementioned areas to form the Knonau bailiff and standardized the legal system. 

The centralization efforts of the city of Zürich’s guild regime provoked the resistance of the Ämtler population, for example in the Waldmann trade in 1489, in the Wädenswil uprising in 1646 (a tax revolt in Wädenswil and in the Knonaueramt, which Zürich condemned with military actions, executions and heavy fines), in Ämtlerhandel (1794 – 1795), and in the Bock War (1804). 

Above: Wädenswil and the Zürichsee

This last uprising ended the Knonaueramt with the disarmament and military occupation of the villages, imprisonment and fines as well as the execution under martial law of two revolutionaries, Jakob Schneebeli from Affltern am Albis and Heinrich Häberling from Knonau.

Their names (together with those of the also executed Hans Jakob Willi from Horgen and Jakob Kleinert from Schönenberg) are immortalized on a memorial stone at Affoltern train station.

Above: Affoltern Station

Hans Jakob Willi was born in Horgen as the son of the shoemaker Johann Jakob Willi and his wife Anna Maria Leuthold.

After completing his apprenticeship as a shoemaker in his father’s workshop, Willi started working as a mercenary in Spain and France at the age of 15. 

After escaping from British captivity, he returned to Horgen in 1801. 

On 28 March 1803 he married Anna Anton von Horgen.

Above: Horgen

The Mediation Constitution of 1803 shifted the balance of power in favor of the city of Zürich. 

Above: The Mediation Constitution

Willi, with his war experience, became the leader of the rebels in the countryside. 

The battles were named Bockenkrieg (Bock War) after the Bocken inn in Arn bei Horgen. 

Above: Bocken Inn, Arn bei Horgen

Three warships were used to bombard Horgen from Lake Zürich. 

The insurgents won the battle, but Willi had to retire injured. 

The uprising now collapsed very quickly.

After the battle at the Bocken, Hans Jakob Willi stayed in hiding until he was caught in Stäfa after seven days. 

An unconstitutional court martial condemned him despite the intervention of Napoleon Bonaparte. 

Above: Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821)

On 25 April 1804 at 2 p.m. Willi was executed in Zürich along with two co-defendants.

Above: Old city, Zürich

“We are free Swiss, citizens with equal rights throughout. 

If our government does not want to hear the voice of the people, it is tyrannical.“

Hans Jakob Willi

Above: Willi memorial plaque, Horgen

In 1798 the authorities of the Helvetic Republic created the district of Mettmenstetten, which included the core area of ​​the Landvogtei Knonau, as well as Aesch, Birmensdorf, Oberurdorf, Wettswil, Stallikon and Bonstetten. 

Langnau was assigned to the Hirgen district on this occasion. 

Steinhausen came to Canton Zug and Canton Baden, which in turn became part of the new Aaargau in 1803. 

In its current boundaries, the district emerged as the Knonau Oberamt after the end of the Mediation Constitution in 1814. 

The district capital was relocated in 1837 from the former bailiff’s seat of Knonau to the more centrally located Affoltern am Albis. 

This gave the district its current name.

Above: Coat of arms of Affoltern am Albis

After the turmoil and crises of the beginning of the century, a strong industrialization set in around the middle of the 19th century, which also found its expression in transport technology with the opening of the Zürich – Zug railway in 1864. 

The opening of National Highway 4 in 2009 marked another important turning point, as Affoltern am Albis could now be reached from Zürich and Zug in less than 15 minutes. 

In the 1980s a regional protest movement postponed the construction of the motorway for more than twenty years with growth-critical and ecological arguments, but ultimately could not stop the suburbanization of large parts of the district.

In 2012 almost 50,000 people lived in the Affoltern district and there were 16,000 jobs. 

In the last ten years, the district has recorded a population growth of 16.1% (compared to 14%, the cantonal average). 

Above: Affoltern train and bus station

Hausen am Albis is located in the south of the canton of Zürich in the Affoltern district, on the south side of the Albis. 

The community, located in the upper Jonental Valley, consists of the villages of Hausen am Albis and Ebertswil and the hamlets of Türlen, Vollenweid, Tüfenbach, Hinter-, Mittel- and Oberalbis, Husertal, Hirzwangen and Schweikhof. 

The municipality extends from Sihlbrugg to the Türlersee. 

This makes Hausen am Albis the largest municipality in the district with a total of 13.64 km². 

The highest point in the municipality is 916 metres above sea level. 

Bürglen is the lowest point at 532 metres above sea level. 

Hausen am Albis is located between the cities of Zürich and Zug.

Above: Hausen am Albis

Hausen am Albis was first mentioned in a document in 869 as Huson, today’s district of Heisch in 1184 as Heinsche. 

During this time the lords of Hausen were the Barons of Eschenbach. 

It was they who built the Schnabelburg on the Albis ridge in 1150 and founded the Cistercian Abbey of Kappel in 1185 . 

Above: Kappel Monastery

The Schnabelburg is the ruin of a hilltop castle on the beak-like elevation north of the Schnabellücke near the village of Hausen am Albis.

In 1185 Walter I, Baron von Eschenbach, named himself after the newly built castle. 

Above: Eschenbach coat of arms

However, it is not known for sure whether it was really the same castle, the ruin of which is known today. 

Archaeological investigations of the castle complex have shown that the castle was probably built in the 13th century, and that it was built very hastily. 

However, no traces have been found in the vicinity of the ruins that are visible today, which would suggest that another castle was built first.

In 1218 the last Duke of the Zähringen family, with whom the castle owners were connected, died, and the economic decline of the family of the Lords of Eschenbach-Schnabelburg began with Berchtold II.

Above: Zähringen coat of arms, New City Hall, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

In 1270 von Eschenbach became a friend of Rudolf I von Habsburg, the new lord of the castle of Schnabelburg. 

Berchtold II fought with the Habsburg in the decisive battle – one of the largest knight battles in Europe – on the Marchfeld (26 August) against Ottokar von Böhmen in 1278. 

Above: The iron and gold king of Bohemia, Ottokar II Přemysl (1232 – 1278)

Above: Memorial stone of the battle, Dürnkrutfeld, Austria

It can be assumed that the Eschenbach knight fell in the decisive battle near Göllheim in 1298, as he disappeared from documents at that time.

Above: Göllheim, Germany

A son of Berchtold, Walter von Eschenbach, helped murder King Albrecht I of Habsburg in 1308. 

After that, he was given the imperial ban. 

Above: Equestrian seal of Albrecht I (1255 – 1308)

In August 1309, the Habsburgs then besieged and conquered the Schnabelburg in revenge for the regicide. 

According to archaeological findings, the castle was either not destroyed during the siege or was later rebuilt.

In 1955, Hugo Schneider carried out excavation work and conservation measures at the ruins.

Above: Ruins of Schnabel Castle

In 1309 Eschenbach rule was ended by the destruction of the Schnabelburg, because Walther von Eschenbach was involved in the murder of King Albrecht. 

Albrecht I was the first legitimate son of the Roman – German King Rudolf I of Habsburg, born in wedlock, from his first marriage to Gertrud Anna von Hohenberg (died 1281). 

His older half-brother Albrecht von Schenkenberg, who received the Grafschaft Löwenstein from his father, was born out of wedlock. 

His motto were “Fugam victoria nescit” (“The victory knows no flight.”) and “Quod optimum idem jucundissimum” (“The best is the most pleasant.”)

From 1273 he officiated as Landgrave in the Landgraviate of Upper Alsace. 

After the 1278 victory in the Battle of Marchfeld over King Ottokar Premysl of Bohemia, he was appointed by his father in May 1281, when he left the conquered Vienna again, as imperial administrator over the imperial fiefs of the Duchy of Austria and the Duchy of Styria. 

The office had been vacant in the turmoil of the Austrian Interregnum since June 1278 because the Wittelsbach Heinrich XIII, had defected from Bavaria to the enemy.

On 17 December 1282, at the Reichstag of Augsburg, he was appointed Duke of Austria and Styria together with his brother Rudolf.

One year later on 1 June 1283 in the Treaty of Rheinfelden, he ruled alone in these rights. 

Above: King Albrecht I sends a messenger to Pope Boniface

Rudolf was to be compensated for this with other territories in southwest Germany, but this did not happen until his death in 1290. 

Albrecht quickly made himself unpopular with his policy of pushing back the natives through his Swabian clientele, especially the Lords of Walsee. 

Above: Coat of arms of the Lords of Walsee

In 1291 – 1292, the Landsberger Bund revolted in Styria, against whom Albrecht was able to quickly assert himself. 

Above: Deutschlandsberg Castle (1681), Styria, Austria, from whence the Landsperger Bund (conspiracy of nobles) was derived

In 1295 the Austrian nobility rose up as well. 

In Vienna, too, Ottokar Přemysl remained much more popular for a long time – not least because of economic relations with the Bohemian region. 

After all, Vienna got a new city charter in 1296.

Above: Coat of arms of Vienna (Wien), Austria (Österreich)

Rudolf I tried to make Albrecht co-king during his own lifetime in order to make the royal dignity in the House of Habsburg hereditary. 

Above: Habsburg Castle, Habsburg, Canton Aargau, Switzerland

However, the Electors, especially the Count Palatine (officials and representatives of the King or Emperor) and the clerical Electors, did not allow this to happen. 

An elector was one of the originally seven, later nine and finally ten highest-ranking princes of the Holy Roman Empire (modern Germany), who had had the sole right to elect the Roman (German) King since the 13th century. 

This royal title was traditionally associated with the right to be crowned Emperor by the Pope.

Above: The Codex Balduineus (1340) contains the first known pictorial representation of the college of electors: Here the electors elect Heinrich of Luxembourg (1278 – 1313) as King. 
The Electors are, recognizable by their coats of arms (from left to right), the Archbishops of Cologne, Mainz and Trier, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg and the King of Bohemia, who was actually not present when Heinrich was elected.

In 1290 Rudolf wanted to put his son on the throne of Hungary, which after the assassination of Ladislaus IV was regarded as a reverted fiefdom, but his death in 1291 thwarted this plan.

Above: King of Hungary and Croatia Ladislaus IV (1262 – 1290)

As Rudolf’s successor, Adolf von Nassau was elected the new Roman (German) king in 1292. 

Above: King Adolf von Nassau (1250 – 1298)

In the following years Albrecht hardly intervened in imperial politics, as he was bound by revolts by various nobles in his Austrian lands. 

In 1295 he was seriously poisoned, the reason for which remained unclear. 

Maybe the kitchen had processed slightly spoiled food or an assassin had mixed poison in the food. 

In any case, Albrecht collapsed from convulsions. 

His doctors gave him laxatives. 

After the colic, when he got angry, he lost consciousness and, faced with the fear of death, was hung upside down on both legs so that the poison could flow out of his body. 

The patient survived this procedure, but one eye was destroyed.

Above: Statue of Albrecht I, Army History Museum, Vienna, Austria

When Adolf was deposed again in 1298, Albrecht was elected as his successor as King on 23 June 1298. 

In the Knight’s Battle of Göllheim (Battle of the Hasenbühel) on 2 July 1298, Adolf fell while fighting the Habsburgs. 

On 27 July, Albrecht was elected a second time and then crowned King in Aachen on 24 August 1298. 

Above: Modern Aachen, Germany

On his first court day in Nuremberg in the same year he enfeoffed (gave) his sons – Rudolf, Fredrich the Beautiful and Leopold the Glorious – Austria and Styria. 

Above: Stained glass depiction of Rudolf I (1282 – 1307), St. Stephan’s Church, Vienna

Above: Seal of Frederick the Beautiful and his wife Isabella, Duke (#1) and King’s seal of Frederick (#5), Queen’s seal of Isabella (#9). Friedrich is shown enthroned frontally on the king’s seal with a crown and scepter. His feet rest on a lion.

Above: Stained glass depiction of Leopold I (1290 – 1326), Königsfelden Monastery

Through a marriage connection with France, Albrecht I achieved peace with Philip IV the Fair, with whom he had previously been in dispute over the course of the border. 

Above: French King Philippe IV (1268 – 1314)

Albrecht also reached an agreement with Wenceslaus II (Vaclav) of Bohemia in the dispute over rule over Poland:

The Bohemian king added the most important parts of the recently re-established kingdom to a new collapse into his territory, but recognized Albrecht’s suzerainty onwards. 

Above: Wenceslas II (1271 1305) with the Bohemian and Polish crowns, illustration from the Chronicon Aulae Regiae

Opponents of Habsburg power, however, remained the Rhenish Electors, including Pope Boniface VIII.

The papal approbation was only obtained in 1303 in return for far-reaching concessions which severely restricted the King’s power, especially in Italy, and which could have been understood as an oath of subjection towards the papacy. 

However, Albrecht refused the coronation offered by Boniface. 

Above: Pope Boniface VIII (né Benedetto Caetani) (1235 – 1303)

In 1304 Albrecht and his son Rudolf moved together against Wenceslaus II, who, after the death of Andreas III the Venetian, his son Wenceslaus III became the Hungarian king. 

Above: King of Hungary and Croatia Andreas III the Venetian (1265 – 1301)

Above: King of Hungary, Bohemia and Poland Wenceslaus III (1289 – 1306)

Since the Pope would have liked to see another Italian on the Hungarian throne in the form of the Neapolitan Prince Karl Robert, he asked Albrecht for help. 

Albrecht made the strangest demands on Wenceslaus II. 

When this did not fulfill them, the imperial ban was imposed on him. 

Wenceslaus then transferred the Hungarian crown jewels from Ofen to Prague. 

Above: King of Hungary and Croatia Karl I (1288 – 1342)

Above: The Hungarian Crown Jewels

On the following campaign Albrecht and Rudolf Kuttenberg besieged Kutná Hora, the silver mine in Bohemia. 

Their Cuman auxiliaries committed terrible atrocities in the country. 

At the beginning of winter, hunger broke out in their army and they withdrew.

Above: modern Kutná Hora, Czech Republic

A political unification of Central Europe under the leadership of the Habsburgs seemed within reach. 

Albrecht succeeded after the death of the childless King Wenceslaus III on 4 August 1306, who himself became king in Bohemia after the death of his father in 1305, installed his son Rudolf as King of Bohemia. 

But then the Bohemian estates rebelled and decided to depose the king. 

Albrecht quickly forced them to recognize his sovereignty.

However, 1307 brought a serious setback for the Habsburg hegemonic plans. 

After Rudolf’s early death, Heinrich von Carinthia from Meinhardingen became the new King of Bohemia. 

Above: Seal of Heinrich von Carinthia (1265 – 1335)

In connection with a controversial reverted fiefdom in Thuringia and Meißen, Albrecht also lost the Battle of Lucka against the sons of Albrecht the Degenerate from the House of Wettin. 

Above: Coinage of Albrecht the Degenerate (1288–1307), Margrave of Meißen and Landgrave of Thuringia

When King Albrecht invaded with a large army, the Margraves Dietrich IV of Lausitz and Friedrich I of Meißen fought him, at the head of armed citizens and peasants as well as Braunschweig cavalry bands, Albrecht suffered a complete defeat on 31 May 1307.

Above: Friedrich I the Bitten (1257 – 1323) and Dietrich IV (1260 – 1307)

Above: Wettinger Fountain commemorating the Battle, Lucka, Germany

In the dispute over the customs posts of German princes, Albrecht soon cracked down on them until the archbishops and Rudolf, the Count Palatine near the Rhine, surrendered. 

However, Pope Boniface stood in the way of breaking up the Kurkollegium. 

Unrest in Swabia, Baden, Alsace and Switzerland also increased again during this period. 

Peace remained elusive.

Above: The Electors in the royal election in 1308:
From left – Peter von Mainz (1245 – 1320), Balduin von Trier (1285 – 1354) and Rudolf I (1274 – 1319)

Albrecht was murdered in 1308 near Windisch, now in Switzerland, not far from his ancestral castle. 

The murderers were his nephew Johann von Schwaben – who was nicknamed Parricida (relative murderer) because of his deed – Baron Rudolf von Wart (1274 – 1309), Baron Rudolf von Balm, Baron Walter von Eschenbach and Baron Konrad von Tegerfelden. 

Above: Johann Parricuda (1290 – 1313)

Above: Baron Rudolf von Wart’s wife Gertrud von Balm (1286 – 1322) pleads with Albrecht’s daughter Agnes of Hungary (1281 – 1364) for her husband’s life, by August Weckesser

The exact course of the murder is presented differently by the chroniclers. 

Albrecht was probably on the way from Baden to his wife in Rheinfelden. 

In the morning, Duke Johann had claimed his inheritance at Stein Castle – as he had often done before – which led to a scandal. 

Above: Johann Parricida and his accomplices murder Albrecht after crossing the Reuss River.
In the background are the cities of Brugg and Königsfelden as well as Habsburg Castle. 
Coloured pen drawing, The Chronicle of 95 Dominions (1480), City Library, Bern

Above: Stein Castle, Aargau Canton, Switzerland

According to the chronicler Matthias von Neuenburg (1295 – 1364) the first sword cut that pierced Albrecht’s neck was received from his nephew Johann, then Rudolf von Wart pierced him with his sword, while Rudolf von Balm split the King’s skull in two. 

Johann was the son of Albrecht’s early deceased brother Rudolf II, who had renounced the regency in Austria in the Treaty of Rheinfelden and had become Duke of Swabia, Alsace and Aargau. 

Above: The murder of Albrecht in Königsfelden, Windisch, Switzerland, 1308

According to Chronicle reports, the failure to pay Johann in compensation was the main motive. 

Depending on the sources, Johann’s blood lust is also given as the motive for murder.

The successor as Duke was Albrecht’s son Friedrich the Fair, but he did not succeed as King. 

The royal dignity went to the House of Luxembourg with Henrich VII (1278 – 1313), where it remained until 1437 – interrupted by the governments of Ludwig of Bavaria (1282 – 1347) and Ruprecht of the Palatinate.

Above: Statue of Heinrich VII, Pisa Cathedral, Pisa, Italy

Above: Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian, Frauenkirche, Munich, Germany

Above: Ruprecht (1352 – 1410) with his wife Elisabeth von Hohenzollern-Nürnberg (1358 – 1411) in a miniature copy of a now-lost mural in Heidelberg Castle, Germany

King Albrecht was first buried in the Wettingen monastery (in today’s Switzerland). 

Above: Wettingen Monastery

In 1309, at the instigation of Henrich VII, his body was transferred to Speyer, where he was buried side by side with his former rival Adolf von Nassau in the Speyer Cathedral.

Above: Speyer Cathedral, Speyer, Germany

As a result of Eschenbach’s treachery Hausen am Albis was subordinated to the Hallwylers, who ceded it to the city of Zürich in 1406.

Above: Coat of arms of Hausen am Albis

It is said that the storyline of The Game of Thrones franchise was inspired by England’s Wars of the Roses, but I submit that the story of Albrecht I and his assassination is also worthy of dramatic accounts.

Kappel am Albis is first mentioned in 1185 as de Capella.

The settlement was founded in 1185 as a Cistercian monastery which today houses a seminar centre, hotel, cafe and a restaurant.

Above: Kappel am Albis

It was the location of the Wars of Kappel in 1529 and 1531, during the turmoil that accompanied the Reformation of Huldrych Zwingli.

Above: Huldrych Zwingli

A monument to Zwingli is located nearby at the hamlet of Näfenhäuser, marking the spot where he met his fatal end.

Above: Zwingli Monument, Näfenhäuser

In 1185 the Monastery was founded by the Barons of Eschenbach – Scnabelburg and confirmed by the Bishop of Konstanz Hermann II. 

Above: Coat of arms of the Diocese of Konstanz

A chapel was available to the first abbot Wilhelm and his monks to build a Cistercian monastery. 

The mother monastery of Kappel was Altenryf (Hauterive) Abbey (Freiburg Canton). 

Above: Hauterive Abbey, Posieux, Canton Freiburg, Switzerland

Through Pope Innocent III, the monastery received the Privilegium commune Cisterciense and it was placed under the protection of the Papacy in 1211.

Above: Pope Innocent III (né Lotario dei Conti di Segni) (1161 – 1216), San Benedetto Monastery, Subiaco, Italy

Until the end of the 14th century, the Monastery received donations from the founding family and other noble families, especially in the Knouauer Amt, in Zugerland (today’s Aargau), in Luzern Canton, on Lake Zürich (Zürichsee) and in the Zürich Lowlands (Zürich Unterland). 

There were also isolated lands in central Switzerland. 

The Monastery got into financial difficulties through the social development, especially the emerging money economy, the upswing of the cities and through the competition of the mendicant orders. 

In addition, the Monastery came more and more under the influence of secular lords, especially after the assassination of King Albrecht in 1308.

Above: Kappel Monastery

In 1344 the Monastery concluded a permanent alliance with the city of Zug in 1344 and a similar one with Zürich in 1403.

Through these alliances, the Monastery got between the fronts in the Old Zürich War (1440 – 1446) and was plundered by the Confederates in 1443. 

On 15 January 1493, a fire devastated the convent building, which the then Abbot Ulrich had rebuilt. 

Due to his dissolute lifestyle, Abbot Ulrich was forced to resign in 1508.

Above: Kappel Monastery

A new spirit arrived under Abbot Ulrich’s successor, Wolfgang Joner. 

In 1523 he summoned Heinrich Bullinger, who was only nineteen, to Kappel, where he taught the monks and young men from the area as a private tutor. 

Through Bullinger, the teachings of the Reformation found their way to Kappel, and so pictures (icons) were removed from the Monastery Church on 9 March 1525. 

Holy Mass was abolished on 4 September of the same year. 

A year later, on 29 March 1526, the monks celebrated the Lord’s Supper for the first time according to the Reformed order and took off their robes. 

Many left the Monastery and turned to a trade or became preachers. 

The convent finally handed the Monastery over to the city of Zürich in 1527. 

Wolfgang Joner, Heinrich Bullinger and four other men stayed in Kappel and continued to run the school as a boarding school for boys. 

The previous monastery church became the parish church of Kappel. 

Above: Statue of Heinrich Bullinger, Grossmünster, Zürich

During the First Kappel War in 1529, Kappel became the scene of the June deployment of the Reformed and Catholic troops, which came to a peaceful end with the legendary Kappel milk soup.

Above: The Milk Soup Stone Memorial, Kappel am Albis

At the end of June 1529, the Zürich troops marched against the central Swiss cantons. 

In this First Kappel War, thanks to the mediation of the neutral towns, a fratricidal war among the Confederates was prevented.

According to the reports, the common footmen of the two armies used the time while the leaders were negotiating to fraternize and put a large saucepan on a fire near Kappel am Albis, exactly on the border between the two cantons. 

The people of Zug are said to have contributed the milk and the people of Zurich the bread for a milk soup, which was then eaten by both armies together.

Today the “Milchsuppenstein” (milk soup stone) is located on a hill southwest of Ebertswil.

The large pot from which everyone ate together was of great symbolic value for the later historiography and identification of Switzerland.

Above: Kappel milk soup

In memory of this event, Kappeler milk soup is still served today when a dispute can be settled through negotiation, for example by Federal Councilor Pascal Couchpin at the conclusion of the St. Gallen cultural property dispute in 2006. 

Above: Pascal Couchepin

It was entirely different on 11 October 1531, when the Zurich reformer Zwingli was killed in the second battle near Kappel.

Above: The death of Zwingli

Above: Zwingli’s helmet

After the Reformation, the Monastery remained Zürich’s domain. 

Above: Kappel Monastery, 1741

From 1834 the buildings were used for social purposes, and since 1983 by the Zürcher Landeskirche (Zürich Canton Church) as a seminar hotel and educational center called the House of Silence and Encounter. 

Since 2008 it has been called Kloster Kappel again. 

The Monastery has been renovated since 2009. 

The Monastery Church shows a glass painting work by the Swiss graphic artist and painter Max Hunziker in the choir .

The Kappel Monastery Association (formerly the Kappelerhof Association) is the owner of the Kappel Monastery domain (real estate, land, forest). 

The 14 association members are the 13 parishes of the Affoltern district and the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of Zürich. 

The church and rectory belong to the Canton of Zürich.

Above: Kappel Monastery

As personalities go, Zwingli is not the sole person to get recognized when one speaks of Kappel am Albis.

Above: Coat of arms of Kappel am Albis

Josias Simler (1530 – 1576), Swiss Reformed theologian and historian, known among other things for his works on Swiss regional studies and history, was born in Kappel am Albis.

In 1544 Josias Simler went to Zürich to study under his godfather and sponsor Heinrich Bullinger. 

In 1546 he continued his studies in theology, languages ​​and natural sciences in Basel, and from 1547 to 1549 in arithmetic and geometry in Strasbourg. 

He then completed his theology studies in Zürich, worked as a pastor and occasionally as a mathematics teacher for Swiss physician/polymath/encyclopedist Conrad Gessner (1516 – 1565). 

Above: Conrad Gesner

In 1552 he became professor at the Carolinum for instruction in the New Testament in Zürich and in 1560 for theology. 

In that year he temporarily took over the chair of the dismissed Theodor Bibliander (1505 – 1564), who represented the views of Erasmus of Rotterdam and not those of the Reformed Church.

Above: Theodor Bibliander

Above: Desiderius Erasmus (1466 – 1536)

From 1555 he began to re-publish Conrad Gessner’s Bibliotheca universalis. 

Above: Bibliotheca Universalis

In his work De Alpibus Commentarius (Commentary of the Alps)(1574), the first work that dealt extensively with the Alps, he collected all information about the mountains from the works of various other authors with comments from his own experience. 

In the process, he developed new insights into the nature of avalanches, the difference between firn and ice, the low temperature at high altitudes and the plant endism in the Alps, in this the oldest description of the Alps in Latin.

In his childhood and youth in Kappel am Albis, Simler had the panorama of the Glarus, Uri and Bernese Alps on his doorstep. 

Above: Kappel Monastery and the Alps

Later he was unable to travel because of his gout. 

He had to draw his information from literary sources.

The “Commentary of the Alps” is a first attempt to give an overview of the natural and cultural history of the Alps and their individual mountain ranges. 

It is a collection of experiences from Swiss scientists that they personally gained in the Alps. 

An abundance of quotes from the classical tradition underlines the humanistic orientation of the text.

Above: De Alpibus Commentarius (1574)

Simler also wrote other works on Swiss cultural studies, such as De Republica Helvetiorum (1548) (abstract of the Chronicle by Johannes Stumpf: 1500 – 1578) or Vallesiae Descriptio. 

Above: Swiss historian Johannes Stumpf

He also advised Ulrich Campell (1510 – 1582) in formulating his Raetiae alpestris descriptio Topographica (Topographical Description of Alpine Raetia) (1573). 

The Simler Snowfield in Antarctica is named in his honour. 

Above: Location of the Simler Snowfield, Antarctica

I tour the Monastery of Kappel am Albis, sit in its cafeteria and dine on soup and salad and cola, and I make notes as I try to assess my feelings at this, the final end of this unreligious pilgrim’s progress.

Above: Descent into the cloister cafeteria

I have followed the life of one man, from his birthplace to the spot where he fell, and now I feel I must take stock of this man and decide for myself what is my opinion of this man who has garnered so much respect for his role in the Reformation in Switzerland.

Above: Zwingli statue, Zwinglikirche, Berlin, Germany

I cannot claim to be wise in the understanding of Christianity, for it seems to be too often that they who profess to be Christian fail too often to act in a manner which Christ would have.

Above: Crucifixion of Christ, by Diego Velázquez 

In fairness, I suspect that there are Buddhists who do not live in the way Buddha intended or Muslims who do not practice the teachings of Muhammad.

Above: The Buddha teaching the Four Noble Truths, Sanskrit manuscript, Nalanda, Bihar, India

Above: The Kaaba, Mecca, Saudi Arabia – the direction of prayer and destination of pilgrimage for Muslims

Religious affiliation checked on a census poll does not mean religious practice.

If that were so then Trump would not have been the candidate of choice for American evangelical Christians.

Above: Donald Trump

Trump went to Sunday school and was confirmed in 1959 at the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens, New York City.

In the 1970s, his parents joined the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan.

In 2015, the Church stated Trump “is not an active member“.

Above: Marble Collegiate Church, Manhattan, New York City

In 2019, he appointed his personal pastor, televangelist Paula White, to the White House Office of Public Liaison.

Above: Paula White

In 2020, he said he identified as a non-denominational Christian.

Above: The cross symbol of Christianity

On 1 June 2020, federal law enforcement officials used batons, rubber bullets, pepper spray projectiles, stun grenades, and smoke to remove a largely peaceful crowd of protesters from Lafayette Square, outside the White House.

Trump then walked to St. John’s Episcopal Church, where protesters had set a small fire the night before.

Above: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Washington DC

He posed for photographs holding a Bible upside down, with senior administration officials later joining him in photos.

Above: The “Christian” Donald Trump

Trump said on 3 June that the protesters were cleared because “they tried to burn down the church on 31 May and almost succeeded“, describing the Church as “badly hurt“.

Above: George Floyd protest, Washington DC, 31 May 2020

Religious leaders condemned the treatment of protesters and the photo opportunity itself.

Many retired military leaders and defense officials condemned Trump’s proposal to use the US military against anti-police brutality protesters.

Above: George Floyd protest, Washington DC, 1 June 2020

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark A. Milley, later apologized for accompanying Trump on the walk and thereby “creating the perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”

Above: The walk from the White House to St. John’s, 1 June 2020 – Milley is in military uniform

As a candidate and as President, Trump frequently made false statements in public speeches and remarks to an extent unprecedented in American politics.

His falsehoods became a distinctive part of his political identity.

Trump’s false and misleading statements were documented by fact checkers, including at the Washington Post, which tallied a total of 30,573 false or misleading statements made by Trump over his four-year term.

Trump’s falsehoods increased in frequency over time, rising from about 6 false or misleading claims per day in his first year as president to 16 per day in his second year to 22 per day in his third year to 39 per day in his final year.

He reached 10,000 false or misleading claims 27 months into his term, 20,000 false or misleading claims 14 months later, and 30,000 false or misleading claims five months later.

Many of Trump’s comments and actions have been considered racist.

He has repeatedly denied this, asserting:

“I am the least racist person there is anywhere in the world.“

In national polling, about half of respondents say that Trump is racist.

A greater proportion believe that he has emboldened racists.

Several studies and surveys have found that racist attitudes fueled Trump’s political ascent and have been more important than economic factors in determining the allegiance of Trump voters. 

Racist and Islamophobic attitudes are a strong indicator of support for Trump.

Trump’s comment on the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia — that there were “very fine people on both sides” — was widely criticized as implying a moral equivalence between the white supremacist demonstrators and the counter-protesters at the rally.

Above: Donald Trump

In a January 2018 Oval Office meeting to discuss immigration legislation, Trump reportedly referred to El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, and African nations as “shithole countries“.

His remarks were condemned as racist.

Above: Flag of El Salvador

Above: Flag of Haiti

Above: Flag of Honduras

Above: Africa (in green)

In July 2019, Trump tweeted that four Democratic congresswomen — all minorities, three of whom are native-born Americans — should “go back” to the countries they “came from“.

He was referring to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

This group is known collectively as “the Squad“.

Above: Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Above: Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley

Above: Congresswoman Ilhan Omar

Above: Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib

“So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful nation on Earth, how our government is to be run.

Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came?

Then come back and show us how it is done.

These places need your help badly.

You can’t leave fast enough.

I’m sure that (Speaker of the House) Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump on Twitter, 14 July 2019)

Above: Logo for Twitter

Two days later the House of Representatives voted 240–187, mostly along party lines, to condemn his “racist comments“.

Above: House of Representatives Speaker Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi

White nationalist publications and social media sites praised his remarks, which continued over the following days.

Trump continued to make similar remarks during his 2020 campaign.

Trump has a history of insulting and belittling women when speaking to media and on social media.

He made lewd comments, demeaned women’s looks, and called them names like ‘dog‘, ‘crazed‘, ‘crying lowlife‘, ‘face of a pig‘, or ‘horseface‘.

In October 2016, two days before the second presidential debate, a 2005 “hot mike” Access Hollywood recording surfaced in which Trump was heard bragging about kissing and groping women without their consent, saying:

“When you’re a star, they let you do it, you can do anything… grab ’em by the pussy.”

The incident’s widespread media exposure led to Trump’s first public apology during the campaign and caused outrage across the political spectrum.

At least 26 women have publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct as of September 2020, including his then-wife Ivana.

Above: Ivana Marie Trump (née Zelníčková)

Above: Jill Harth

Above: E. Jean Carroll

Above: Summer Zervos

Above: Alva Johnson

Above: Jessica Leeds

Above: Kristin Anderson

Above: Lisa Boyne

Above: Cathy Heller

Above: Temple Taggart McDowell

Above: Amy Dorris

Above: Karena Virginia

Above: Karen Johnson

Above: Mindy McGillivray

Above: Rachel Crooks

Above: Natasha Stoynoff

Above: Juliet Huddy

Above: Jessica Drake

Above: Ninni Laaksonen

Above: Cassandra Searles

Above: Faith Daniels

There were allegations of rape, violence, being kissed and groped without consent, looking under women’s skirts, and walking in on naked women.

Above: Logo of the Miss Universe beauty pagents

In 2016, he denied all accusations, calling them “false smears” and alleged there was a conspiracy against him.

There is very little that is Christ-like about this so-called “Christian”.

I am in no way suggesting that Zwingli resembled in any way the former US President, save in one respect.

Acting in a very un-Christ-like manner unbecoming to a Christian…..

Certainly Zwingli was an educated man and scholarship is something I deeply respect.

His studies led him to see the need for reform in the Catholic Church and this impulse to improve current systems is a wise and necessary impulse anywhere at all times.

Above: St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City –  the largest church in the world and a symbol of the Catholic Church

There is room for improvement in all things, though that being said I do not believe in simply progress for the sake of progress.

Changes should be considered not just for their potential profit but as well soberly assessed as to the cost of their consequences.

And it is here that the Reformation erred.

Certainly the Church was at this time truly a corrupt institution that the faithful found difficult to swear fealty towards.

But in freeing themselves from the rule of Rome they allowed the powerful within their groups to dominate them with the same sort of abuse from which they had fought to free themselves.

Voltaire wrote about Calvin, Luther and Zwingli:

“If they condemned celibacy in the priests and opened the gates of the convents, it was only to turn all society into a convent.

Shows and entertainments were expressly forbidden by their religion, and for more than two hundred years there was not a single musical instrument allowed in the city of Geneva.

They condemned auricular confession, but they enjoined a public one.

And in Switzerland, Scotland and Geneva, it was performed the same as penance.“

Above: French writer François-Marie Arouet (aka Voltaire) (1694 – 1778)

The Church dictated when a man should eat and when he should restrain himself from eating.

Ulrich Zwingli was a pastor in Zurich and was dedicated to the Reformation ideology of Martin Luther.

His first rift with the established religious authorities in Switzerland occurred during the Lenten fast of 1522, when he was present during the eating of sausages at the house of Christoph Froschauer, a printer in the city who later published Zwingli’s translation of the Bible.

Above: Christoph Froschauer (1490 – 1564)

Above: The Zwingli Bible

According to William Roscoe Estep, Zwingli already held Reformation-oriented convictions for some time before the incident now known as the Affair of the Sausages.

In March 1522, he was invited to partake in a sausage supper that Froschauer served to his workers – who, Froschauer later claimed, were exhausted from putting out the new edition of The Epistles of St. Paul – and to various dignitaries and priests. 

Leo Jud, Klaus Hottinger and Lorenz Hochrütiner were present at the supper and later gained notoriety for their part in the Swiss Reformation.

Above: Klaus Hottinger (d. 1524)

The meal involved Swiss Fasnachtskiechli and some slices of sharp smoked hard sausage, which had been stored for more than a year.

Because the eating of meat during Lent was prohibited, the event caused public outcry and led to Froschauer being arrested.

Though he himself did not eat the sausages, Zwingli was quick to defend Froschauer from allegations of heresy.

In a sermon titled Von Erkiesen und Freiheit der Speisen (Regarding the Choice and Freedom of Foods), Zwingli argued that fasting should be entirely voluntary, not mandatory.

According to Michael Reeves, Zwingli was advancing the Reformation position that Lent was subject to individual rule, rather than the discipline which was upheld at the time by the Catholic Church.

The Zürich Sausage Affair was interpreted as a demonstration of Christian liberty and is considered to be of similar importance for Switzerland as Martin Luther’s 95 Theses in Wittenberg for the German Reformation.

Above: Smoked sausages

The Catholic Church historically observes the disciplines of fasting and abstinence at various times each year.

For Catholics, fasting is the reduction of one’s intake of food, while abstinence refers to refraining from something that is good, and not inherently sinful, such as meat.

The Catholic Church teaches that all people are obliged by God to perform some penance for their sins, and that these acts of penance are both personal and corporeal.

Bodily fasting is meaningless unless it is joined with a spiritual avoidance of sin. 

Basil of Caesarea gives the following exhortation regarding fasting:

Let us fast an acceptable and very pleasing fast to the Lord.

True fasting is the estrangement from evil, temperance of tongue, abstinence from anger, separation from desires, slander, falsehood and perjury.

Privation of these is true fasting.

Above: Basil of Caesarea (330 – 379)

As a man who struggles with self discipline when it comes to his diet I can see a certain wisdom in dietary directives while I simultaneously differ with the notion of someone telling me when and what I should eat.

The Church demanded that the clergy remain single and celibate, which is not natural for all men despite their religious inclinations.

Certainly women and sex distract a man from his devotion to God, but wasn’t the point of Christ that we live our lives to the fullest if we do no harm to others?

In the Old Testament it is suggested that God is a jealous god insisting on total allegiance to Him, but I doubt that the intention of allegiance was the total denial of our biological imperatives.

Certainly there is a kind of freedom for a man to remove himself from the imperatives of woman.

Certainly sex is often not practiced in the life-affirming and mutually satisfactory and freely consented manner in which I believe it was intended.

But whether Zwingli was as chaste a man as he should have been and whether he acted responsibly towards women has come into question when his life prior to Zürich is examined.

On the topic of religious imagery I find myself ambivalent.

Images are representations of reality, but they were never meant to replace reality.

Though faith is, to a certain degree, an abandonment of reason to religion, I think the confusion of image with the intended recipient of devotion is a phenomenon too rare to be relatable a worry.

I think an image of the divine makes it easier to believe in the existence of that which is intangible and invisible to the human senses.

Imagery makes the voyeur more easily accept the existence of God whose sole proof of existence is our inability to prove His non-existence.

Imagery makes the unexplainable more palatable and acceptable to the incredulous.

Above: Destruction of icons in Zürich, 1524

As much as I respect the Islamic prohibition of images being made of Muhammad, I sincerely doubt whether viewing Muhammad as a man could ever possibly detract the Islamic faithful from fealty to his teachings.

Above: Logo of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo – The magazine has been the target of three terrorist attacks: in 2011, 2015, and 2020. All of them were presumed to be in response to a number of cartoons that it published controversially depicting Muhammad. On 7 January 2015, in the second of these attacks, 12 people were killed.

Let me repeat myself:

Murderers and terrorists are not true followers of faith.

Above: Commemorative plaque, Paris

Someone once said:

“Don’t try to be a ‘great’ man.

Just be a man and let history make its own judgments.”

Letting our moral leaders be visible human beings, does this diminish the value of what it is they had to teach?

I am uncertain.

Above: The Vitruvian Man, by Leonardo da Vinci (1490)

Zwingli’s notion of Bible study as opposed to simply a routine of rituals is a practice I approve of.

Our faith should be examined, should be questioned.

If a faith is true it can stand up to examination and questioning.

We are not only impulse and emotion.

We are also capable of reason and rationale.

An infallible and all-powerful God need never fear the legitimate desire for understanding that makes worship more possible.

Where I truly find myself at odds with the man who was Zwingli was in his persecution of those who disagreed with him.

Many in the radical wing of the Reformation became convinced that Zwingli was making too many concessions to the Zürich Council.

They rejected the role of civil government and demanded the immediate establishment of a congregation of the faithful. 

Above: Coat of arms, Zürich City Hall

Konrad Grebel (1498 – 1526), the leader of the radicals and the emerging Anabaptist movement, spoke disparagingly of Zwingli in private.

On 15 August 1524 the Council insisted on the obligation to baptise all newborn infants.

Zwingli secretly conferred with Grebel’s group and late in 1524, the Council called for official discussions.

When talks were broken off, Zwingli published Wer Ursache gebe zu Aufruhr (Whoever Causes Unrest) clarifying the opposing points-of-view.

On 17 January 1525 a public debate was held and the Council decided in favour of Zwingli.

Anyone refusing to have their children baptised was required to leave Zürich.

Above: Commemoration of Konrad Grebel’s home, Zürich

The radicals ignored these measures and on 21 January, they met at the house of the mother of another radical leader, Felix Manz (1498 – 1527).

Above: Felix Manz

Grebel and a third leader, George Blaurock (1491 – 1529), performed the first recorded Anabaptist adult baptisms.

On 2 February, the Council repeated the requirement on the baptism of all babies and some who failed to comply were arrested and fined, Manz and Blaurock among them.

Zwingli and Jud interviewed them and more debates were held before the Zürich council.

Meanwhile, the new teachings continued to spread to other parts of the Swiss Confederation as well as a number of Swabian towns in southwestern Germany.

On 6 – 8 November, the last debate on the subject of baptism took place in the Grossmünster.

Grebel, Manz, and Blaurock defended their cause before Zwingli, Leo Jud and other reformers.

Above: Swiss reformer Leo Jud (1482 – 1542)

There was no serious exchange of views as each side would not move from their positions and the debates degenerated into an uproar, each side shouting abuse at the other.

The Zürich council decided that no compromise was possible.

On 7 March 1526 it released the notorious mandate that no one shall re-baptise another under the penalty of death.

Although Zwingli, technically, had nothing to do with the mandate, there is no indication that he disapproved.

Felix Manz, who had sworn to leave Zürich and not to baptise any more, had deliberately returned and continued the practice.

After he was arrested and tried, he was executed on 5 January 1527 by being drowned in the Limmat River.

He was the first Anabaptist martyr.

Three more were to follow, after which all others either fled or were expelled from Zürich.

Above: Memorial plate on the river wall opposite 43 Schipfe, Zürich, in remembrance of Manz and other Anabaptists executed in the early 16th century by the Zürich city government

Historians have debated whether or not Zwingli turned Zürich into a theocracy.

Certainly it seems that he did not discourage the tendency.

Above: Zwingli statue, Wasserkirche, Zürich

The problem I have with religion is not with the faith itself but with the so-called practitioners of religion, for they divide the world into Us and Them camps, then turn upon their own to dispute the details of that faith causing further division amongst themselves.

The Reformation spread to other parts of the Swiss Confederation, but several cantons resisted, preferring to remain Catholic.

Zwingli formed an alliance of Reformed cantons which divided the Swiss Confederation along religious lines.

In 1529, a war was averted at the last moment between the two sides.

Above: The Swiss Confederation, 1530

Meanwhile, Zwingli’s ideas came to the attention of Martin Luther (1483 – 1546) and other reformers.

They met at the Marburg Colloquy (1 – 4 October 1529) and agreed on many points of doctrine, but they could not reach an accord on the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist (holy communion wherein wine and bread are symbolically consumed to represent the body and blood of Christ).

Above: Woodcut illustration of the Marburg Colloquy

The leading Protestant reformers of the time attended at the behest of Philip I of Hesse (1504 – 1567).

Philip’s primary motivation for this conference was political.

He wished to unite the Protestant states in political alliance, and to this end, religious harmony was an important consideration.

Philip I felt the need to reconcile the diverging views of Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli in order to develop a unified Protestant theology.

If Philip wanted the meeting to be a symbol of Protestant unity he was disappointed.

Above: Philip I of Hesse

Both Luther and Zwingli fell out over the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Above: Stained glass illustration of the Eucharist, St. Michael the Archangel Church, Findlay, Ohio

Luther believed that the human body of Christ was ubiquitous (present in all places) and so present in the bread and wine.

This was possible because the attributes of God infused Christ’s human nature.

Luther emphasized the oneness of Christ’s person.

Above: Martin Luther

Zwingli, who emphasized the distinction of the natures, believed that while Christ in his deity was omnipresent, Christ’s human body could only be present in one place, that is, at the right hand of the Father.

Above: Huldrych Zwingli

The executive editor for Christianity Today magazine carefully detailed the two views that would forever divide the Lutheran and Reformed view of the Last Supper:

“Luther claimed that the Body of Christ was not eaten in a gross, material way but rather in some mysterious way, which is beyond human understanding.

Yet, Zwingli replied, if the words were taken in their literal sense, the Body had to be eaten in the most grossly material way.

“For this is the meaning they carry:

This bread is that Body of Mine which is given for you.

It was given for us in grossly material form, subject to wounds, blows and death.

As such, therefore, it must be the material of the Last Supper.”

Indeed, to press the literal meaning of the text even farther, it follows that Christ would have again to suffer pain, as his Body was broken again — this time by the teeth of communicants.

Even more absurdly, Christ’s Body would have to be swallowed, digested, even eliminated through the bowels!

Such thoughts were repulsive to Zwingli.

They smacked of cannibalism on the one hand and of the pagan mystery religions on the other.

The main issue for Zwingli, however, was not the irrationality or exegetical fallacy of Luther’s views.

It was rather that Luther put “the chief point of salvation in physically eating the body of Christ,” for he connected it with the forgiveness of sins.

The same motive that had moved Zwingli so strongly to oppose images, the invocation of saints, and baptismal regeneration was present also in the struggle over the Supper: the fear of idolatry.

Salvation was by Christ alone, through faith alone, not through faith and bread.

The object of faith was that which is not seen (Hebrews 11:1) and which therefore cannot be eaten except, again, in a nonliteral, figurative sense.

“Credere est edere,” said Zwingli:

“To believe is to eat.”

To eat the Body and to drink the Blood of Christ in the Supper, then, simply meant to have the Body and Blood of Christ present in the mind.

Near the end of the Colloquy when it was clear an agreement would not be reached, Philipp asked Luther to draft a list of doctrines all that both sides agreed upon.

The Marburg Articles had 15 points and every person at the Colloquy could agree on the first fourteen. 

The 15th article of the Marburg Articles reads:

Fifteenth, regarding the Last Supper of our dear Lord Jesus Christ, we believe and hold that one should practice the use of both species as Christ Himself did, and that the Sacrament at the Altar is a Sacrament of the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and the spiritual enjoyment of this very Body and Blood is proper and necessary for every Christian.

Furthermore, that the practice of the Sacrament is given and ordered by God the Almighty like the Word, so that our weak conscience might be moved to faith through the Holy Spirit.

And although we have not been able to agree at this time, whether the true Body and Blood of Christ are corporally present in the bread and wine of Communion, each party should display towards the other Christian love, as far as each respective conscience allows, and both should persistently ask God the Almighty for guidance so that through His Spirit He might bring us to a proper understanding.

The failure to find agreement resulted in strong emotions on both sides.

Above: Marburg Castle, Marburg, Germany

When the two sides departed, Zwingli cried out in tears:

“There are no people on Earth with whom I would rather be at one than the Lutheran Wittenbergers.”

Because of the differences, Luther initially refused to acknowledge Zwingli and his followers as Christians, though following the Colloquy the two Reformers showed relatively more mutual respect in their writings.

Luther and Zwingli were more concerned with being “right” than being united in a common cause.

Above: Coat of arms of Marburg

In 1531, Zwingli’s alliance applied an unsuccessful food blockade on the Catholic cantons.

Starve or comply.

On 9 October 1531, in a surprise move, the Five States declared war on Zürich.

Zürich’s mobilisation was slow due to internal squabbling.

On 11 October, 3,500 poorly deployed men encountered a Five States force nearly double their size near Kappel.

Many pastors, including Zwingli, were among the soldiers.

The battle lasted less than one hour and Zwingli was among the 500 casualties in the Zürich army.

Zwingli had considered himself first and foremost a soldier of Christ, second a defender of his country, the Swiss Confederation, and third a leader of his city, Zürich, where he had lived for the previous twelve years.

Ironically, he died at the age of 47, not for Christ nor for the Confederation, but for Zürich.

Above: The death of Zwingli, Kappel am Albis, Switzerland, 11 October 1531

In Table Talk, Luther is recorded saying:

“They say that Zwingli recently died thus.

If his error had prevailed, we would have perished, and our church with us.

It was a judgment of God.

That was always a proud people.

The others, the Papists, will probably also be dealt with by our Lord God.”

Above: Martin Luther’s grave, Schlosskirche, Wittenberg, Germany

Erasmus (1466 – 1536) wrote:

“We are freed from great fear by the death of the two preachers, Zwingli and Oecolampadius, whose fate has wrought an incredible change in the mind of many.

This is the wonderful hand of God on high.”

Johannes Oecolampadius (1482 – 1531) had died on 24 November.

Erasmus also wrote:

“If Bellona (Roman goddess of war) had favoured them, it would have been all over with us.“

Above: Basel Minster, Basel, Switzerland, where Erasmus is buried

Such arrogance!

Such lack of sympathy!

Religious division seems to me as pointless as two bald men fighting over a comb.

If there is indeed a God and each of us has been given an individual mind then I believe that faith must be individual choice.

I believe that religion has its place in teaching us morality and in giving significance through rituals to the various stages of our lives.

It is here where I draw the distinction between individual faith and communal religion.

Above: Praying Hands, by Albrecht Dürer (1508)

I desire in no way, shape or form for anyone to follow my example on faith or lack thereof.

That being said, I equally resist anyone trying to force me to follow the rules of a religion which I myself do not practice.

Simply put, I live and let live.

I presently live in a predominantly Muslim nation.

Above: Reşadiye Camii (mosque), Eskişehir, Turkey

I was raised in a predominantly Christian country.

Above: Église de St-Philippe, Brownsburg-Chatham, Québec, Canada

I would never presume to tell others how to live nor will I willingly submit to others telling me how to live (except where my actions cause harm to others).

In all humility I mourn the loss of anyone past or present, whether I would have agreed with them or not.

Every death diminishes us even if we are unaware of their passing.

I will never celebrate the death of anyone no matter what evils they may have perpetuated, even men as reprehensible as terrorists or tyrants.

That said I will not celebrate the lives of everyone to whom life was given, for we do judge people by the acts that they do.

That a man of religious principle died in battle at the mere age of 47 is cause for sadness.

That a man of religious principle accepted the executions of Anabaptists and a food blockade against Catholic cantons is not cause for commemoration.

My journey, my walk, sought to understand Zwingli and what he represents to the Swiss celebrating his legacy.

I respect his legacy that lives on in the confessions, liturgy, and church orders of the Swiss Reformed churches of today, but I sincerely doubt that had we met that I would have liked him.

In my own way I did get a sense of what his life was like by visiting the places where he once lived.

I do not know in absolute certainty whether I would have acted as he, had my life experience been his.

I do know that Zwingli’s life was remarkable enough to relate it to my readers in the hopes that they might better understand his significance to the Swiss people with whom I lived with for a decade.

I believe that every person is my superior in that I may learn from them.

And the Zwingli walk was certainly…..

Educational.

Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Yvonne and Marcel Steiner, Zwingli-Wege: Zu Füss von Wildhaus nach Kappel am Albis – Ein Wander- und Lesebuch

Canada Slim and the Zürich Zealots

Landschlacht, Switzerland, Thursday 19 November 2020

A promise made is a debt unpaid.

Since I began blogging (18 May 2015) I have begun a number of consecutive writing projects within these Chronicles of Canada Slim and its companion blog Building Everest.

The select seven subjects that this blog has evolved into following are, accomplished in alphabetical order and covering places previously visited prior to this calendar year in which we find ourselves at this time of writing:

• Alsace (France)
• Italy
• Lanzarote (one of the Canary Islands)
• London (England)
• Porto (Portugal)
• Serbia (Belgrade and Nis)
• Switzerland

I have, since 12 November 2017, written a series of posts, (to be completed in one more Chronicles post after this one), about my adventures and discoveries following a book’s walking itinerary that traces the “footsteps” and life of Swiss reformer Huldrych Zwingli, from his birthplace in the village of Wildhaus to his final resting place in Kappel am Albis.

Above: Huldrych Zwingli (1484 – 1531)

Yvonne and Marcel Steiner, in their book Zwingli-Wege: Zu Fuss von Wildhaus nach Kappel am Albis – Ein Wander- und Lesebuch, break Zwingli’s life progression within Switzerland into nine separate walks.

I have expanded my accounts of Zwingli’s life to include locales off the Steiners’ beaten path (Basel and Vienna) as well as Geneva, the home of the Reformation Museum.

Please see Canada Slim and…..

• the Road to Reformation (12 November 2017)
• the Wild Child of Toggenburg (20 November 2017)
• the Thundering Hollows (27 November 2017)
• the Basel Butterfly Effect (3 December 2017)
• the Vienna Waltz (9 December 2017)
• the Battle for Switzerland’s Soul (18 December 2017)
• the Monks of the Dark Forest (8 January 2018)
• the Privileged Place (26 January 2018)
• the Lakeside Pilgrimage (24 April 2018)

…. of this blog, though Zwingli’s name has popped up in other posts of 2016.

As 2020 is drawing closer to its conclusion (thankfully) and 2021 is on the horizon with plans to relocate to Turkey (depending on corona conditions), I feel compelled in the few months (or weeks) remaining to bring to a conclusion the chronicles begun on the aforementioned seven sites visited prior to 2020, as many of the materials I presently use to compile these accounts may not be available to me once I am settled in Eskisehir.

Above: One of Eskişehir’s many bridges across the Porsuk River

I have also begun to consider whether it has been wise to write about these sites by hopping from one to another in an alphabetical succession of seven, as readers may find it difficult to keep the thread of each narrative clear in their minds.

Thus, it is my intention to immediately follow this post with other Zwingli Way posts until the tale has been told in its totality.

It is my hope, within this blog, during these next two months, to complete many of the tales of the other six sites before Turkey.

It is also my hope, before 2021, to explore and describe more of Switzerland in my companion blog, Building Everest.

Above: Mount Everest

A reform movement is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or political closer to the community’s ideal.

A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements, such as revolutionary movements which reject those old ideals, in that the ideas are often grounded in liberalism, although they may be rooted in socialist (specifically, social democratic) or religious concepts.

Some rely on personal transformation.

Others rely on small collectives, such as Mahatma Gandhi’s spinning wheel and the self-sustaining village economy, as a mode of social change. 

Reactionary movements, which can arise against any of these, attempt to put things back the way they were before any successes the new reform movement(s) enjoyed, or to prevent any such successes.

Above: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869 – 1948), also known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist, who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India’s independence from British rule, and in turn inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

The honourific Mahatma (Sanskrit: “great-souled” / “venerable“), first applied to him in 1914 in South Africa, is now used throughout the world.

With his book Hind Swaraj (1909) Gandhi, aged 40, declared that British rule was established in India with the co-operation of Indians and had survived only because of this co-operation.

If Indians refused to co-operate, British rule would collapse and swaraj (home rule) would come.

In February 1919, Gandhi cautioned the Viceroy of India with a cable communication that if the British were to pass the Rowlatt Act, he would appeal to Indians to start civil disobedience.

The British government ignored him and passed the law, stating it would not yield to threats.

The satyagraha (civil disobedience) followed, with people assembling to protest the Rowlatt Act.

On 30 March 1919, British law officers opened fire on an assembly of unarmed people, peacefully gathered, participating in satyagraha in Delhi.

(The Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act of 1919, popularly known as the Rowlatt Act, was a legislative council act passed by the Imperial Legislative Council in Delhi on 18 March 1919, indefinitely extending the emergency measures of preventive indefinite detention, incarceration without trial and judicial review enacted in the 1915 Defence of India Act during the First World War.

It was enacted in light of a perceived threat from revolutionary nationalists to organisations of re-engaging in similar conspiracies as during the War which the Government felt the lapse of the Defence of India Act would enable.)

Above: Sidney Rowlatt (1862 – 1945), best remembered for his controversial presidency of the Rowlatt Committee, a sedition committee appointed in 1919 by the British Indian Government to evaluate the links between political terrorism in India.

People rioted in retaliation.

On 6 April 1919, a Hindu festival day, Gandhi asked a crowd to remember not to injure or kill British people, but to express their frustration with peace, to boycott British goods and burn any British clothing they owned.

He emphasised the use of non-violence to the British and towards each other, even if the other side uses violence.

Communities across India announced plans to gather in greater numbers to protest.

Government warned him to not enter Delhi.

Gandhi defied the order.

On 9 April, Gandhi was arrested.

People rioted.

On 13 April 1919, people including women with children gathered in an Amritsar park, and a British officer named Reginald Dyer (1864 – 1927) surrounded them and ordered his troops to fire on them.

Above: Reginald Dyer, “the butcher of Amritsar“

The resulting Jallianwala Bagh massacre (or Amritsar massacre) of hundreds of Sikh and Hindu civilians enraged the subcontinent, but was cheered by some Britons and parts of the British media as an appropriate response.

Above: Mural depicting 1919 Amritsar Massacre

Gandhi in Ahmedabad, on the day after the massacre in Amritsar, did not criticise the British and instead criticised his fellow countrymen for not exclusively using love to deal with the hate of the British government.

Gandhi demanded that people stop all violence, stop all property destruction, and he went on fast-to-the-death to pressure Indians to stop their rioting.

The massacre and Gandhi’s non-violent response to it moved many, but also made some Sikhs and Hindus upset that Dyer was getting away with murder.

Investigation committees were formed by the British, which Gandhi asked Indians to boycott. 

The unfolding events, the massacre and the British response, led Gandhi to the belief that Indians will never get a fair equal treatment under British rulers, and he shifted his attention to swaraj for India.

In 1921, Gandhi was the leader of the Indian National Congress.

He reorganised the Congress.

With Congress now behind him, and Muslim support triggered by his backing the Khilafat movement to restore the Caliph in Turkey, Gandhi had the political support and the attention of the British Raj.

Above: Gandhi with Dr. Annie Besant en route to a meeting in Madras in September 1921.

Earlier, in Madurai, on 21 September 1921, Gandhi had adopted the loincloth for the first time as a symbol of his identification with India’s poor.

(Annie Besant was a British socialist, theosophist, women’s rights activist, writer, orator, educationist and philanthropist.

Regarded as a champion of human freedom, she was an ardent supporter of both Irish and Indian self-rule.

She was a prolific author with over 300 books and pamphlets to her credit.

As an educationist, her contributions included being one of the founders of the Banaras Hindu University.)

Above: Annie Besant (néeWood) (1847 – 1933)

Gandhi expanded his nonviolent non-co-operation platform to include swadeshi – the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods.

Linked to this was his advocacy that khadi (homespun cloth) be worn by all Indians instead of British-made textiles.

Gandhi exhorted Indian men and women, rich or poor, to spend time each day spinning khadi in support of the independence movement.

In addition to boycotting British products, Gandhi urged the people to boycott British institutions and law courts, to resign from government employment, and to forsake British titles and honours.

Gandhi thus began his journey aimed at crippling the British India government economically, politically and administratively.

Above: Gandhi spinning yarn, in the late 1920s

The idea of a reform movement and the Reformation are often confused with each other.

It is important to make a distinction between them, for I wish there to be no identifying as similar the actions of religious reformer Huldrych Zwingli with those of political reformer Mahatma Gandhi.

Though Zwingli and Gandhi both fought for that in which they believed, how they “fought” differed greatly.

The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in particular to papal authority, arising from what were perceived to be errors, abuses and discrepancies by the Catholic Church.

Above: St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City

(The Catholic Church throughout its long history, has on occasion been subject to criticism regarding various beliefs and practices.

Within the Church, this includes differences of opinion regarding the use of Latin at Mass and the subject of clerical celibacy.

In the past, different interpretations of scripture and critiques of clerical laxity and opulence contributed to separations such as the schism with the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Protestant Reformation.

The Catholic Church has also been criticized for its active efforts to influence political decisions, such as the Church’s promotion of the Crusades and its involvement with various 20th century nationalist regimes.

More recent criticism focuses on alleged scandals within the Church, particularly alleged financial corruption and the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals.)

Above: St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City

The Reformation was the start of Protestantism and the split of Protestantism from the Roman Catholic Church.

Above: Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms, where he refused to recant his works when asked to by Charles V

The following supply-side factors have been identified as causes of the Reformation:

• The presence of a printing press in a city by 1500 made Protestant adoption by 1600 far more likely.
• Protestant literature was produced at greater levels in cities where media markets were more competitive, making these cities more likely to adopt Protestantism.
• Ottoman incursions decreased, thus allowing conflicts between Protestants and Catholics, helping the Reformation take root.

• Greater political autonomy increased the likelihood that Protestantism would be adopted.
• Where Protestant reformers enjoyed princely patronage, they were much more likely to succeed.
• Proximity to neighbors who adopted Protestantism increased the likelihood of adopting Protestantism.
• Cities that had higher numbers of students enrolled in heterodox (dissident) universities and lower numbers enrolled in orthodox universities were more likely to adopt Protestantism.

The following demand-side factors have been identified as causes of the Reformation:

• Cities with strong cults of saints were less likely to adopt Protestantism.
• Cities where primogeniture – (the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent’s estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relative) –  was practiced were less likely to adopt Protestantism.
• Regions that were poor but had great economic potential and bad political institutions were more likely to adopt Protestantism.
• The presence of bishoprics made the adoption of Protestantism less likely.
• The presence of monasteries made the adoption of Protestantism less likely.

A 2020 study linked the spread of Protestantism to personal ties to Luther (e.g. letter correspondents, visits, former students) and trade routes.

Above: Luther as a friar, with tonsure

The Reformation was a triumph of literacy and the new printing press. 

Above: Recreated Gutenberg printing press, International Printing Museum, Carson, California

Luther’s translation of the Bible into German was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy, and stimulated as well the printing and distribution of religious books and pamphlets.

From 1517 onward, religious pamphlets flooded Germany and much of Europe.

By 1530, over 10,000 publications are known, with a total of ten million copies.

The Reformation was thus a media revolution.

Luther strengthened his attacks on Rome by depicting a “good” against “bad” church.

From there, it became clear that print could be used for propaganda in the Reformation for particular agendas, although the term propaganda derives from the Catholic Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Congregation for Propagating the Faith) from the Counter-Reformation.

Above: The headquarters of the Propaganda fide in Rome

Reform writers used existing styles, cliches and stereotypes which they adapted as needed.

Especially effective were writings in German, including Luther’s translation of the Bible, catechisms for parents teaching their children and for pastors.

Using the German vernacular they expressed the Apostles’ Creed in simpler, more personal, Trinitarian language.

Illustrations in the German Bible and in many tracts popularized Luther’s ideas. 

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472 – 1553), the great painter patronized by the electors of Wittenberg, was a close friend of Luther, and he illustrated Luther’s theology for a popular audience.

He dramatized Luther’s views on the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, while remaining mindful of Luther’s careful distinctions about proper and improper uses of visual imagery.

Above: Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472 – 1553)

Although the Reformation is usually considered to have started with the publication of the Ninety-five Theses by Martin Luther in 1517, there was no schism between the Catholic Church and the nascent Luther until the 1521 Edict of Worms.

The edict condemned Luther and officially banned citizens of the Holy Roman Empire from defending or propagating his ideas.

Above: Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses

The end of the Reformation era is disputed:

It could be considered to end with the enactment of the confessions of faith.

Other suggested ending years relate to the Counter-Reformation (1545 – 1648) or the Peace of Westphalia (24 October 1648).

From a Catholic perspective, the Second Vatican Council (11 October 1962 – 8 December 1965) called for an end to the Counter-Reformation.

Above: The historical town hall of Münster where the Peace of Westphalia treaty was signed, ending the Thirty Years’ War (1618 – 1648)

The oldest Protestant churches date their origins to Jan Hus (John Huss) in the early 15th century.

As it was led by a Bohemian noble majority, the Hussite Reformation was Europe’s first “Magisterial Reformation“, because the ruling magistrates supported it, unlike the “Radical Reformation“, which the state did not support.

Above: Woodcut of Jan Hus (1372 – 1415)

Common factors that played a role during the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation included the rise of nationalism, simony (the selling of Church offices and relics), the appointment of Cardinal-nephews (a cardinal elevated by a pope who was that cardinal’s relative) and other corruption of the Roman Curia (the administrative body of the Catholic Church) and other ecclesiastical hierarchy, the impact of humanism (a philosophical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively), the new learning of the Renaissance (15th & 16th centuries) versus scholasticism (learning as interpreted through the Catholic faith), and the Western Schism (a split within the Catholic Church, lasting from 1378 to 1417, in which two men (by 1410 three) simultaneously claimed to be the true Pope, during which each excommunicated the others) that eroded loyalty to the Papacy.

Above: Coat of arms of the Papacy

Unrest due to this Great Schism excited wars between princes, uprisings among the peasants, and widespread concern over corruption in the Church, especially from John Wycliffe at Oxford University and from Jan Hus at Charles University in Prague.

Above: John Wycliffe (1328 – 1384)

Hus objected to some of the practices of the Roman Catholic Church and wanted to return the church in Bohemia and Moravia to earlier practices: liturgy (services) in the language of the people (i.e. Czech), having lay people receive communion (ceremonial breaking of bread and drinking of wine), married priests, and eliminating indulgences (payments buying souls out of Purgatory) and the concept of Purgatory (a between-land between Heaven and Hell).

Some of these, like the use of local language as the liturgical language, were approved by the Pope as early as the 9th century.

The leaders of the Roman Catholic Church condemned Hus at the Council of Constance (Konstanz) (1414–1417) by burning him at the stake despite a promise of safe-conduct.

Above: Execution of Jan Hus, Konstanz

Wycliffe was posthumously condemned as a heretic and his corpse exhumed and burned in 1428.

Above: Burning Wycliffe’s bones, Lutterworth, Leicestershire, England (1428), from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1563)

The Council of Constance confirmed and strengthened the traditional medieval conception of church and empire.

The Council did not address the national tensions or the theological tensions stirred up during the previous century and could not prevent schism and the Hussite Wars in Bohemia (1419 – 1434).

Above: Council Hall building, Konstanz, Germany

Pope Sixtus IV (1471–1484) established the practice of selling indulgences to be applied to the dead, thereby establishing a new stream of revenue with agents across Europe. 

Above: Pope Sixtus IV (né Francesco della Rovere) (1414 – 1484)

Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503) was one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes.

He was the father of seven children. 

Above: Pope Alexander VI (né Rodrigo de Borja) (1431 – 1503)

In response to papal corruption, particularly the sale of indulgences, Luther wrote The Ninety-Five Theses.

Above: Martin Luther (1483– 1546)

A number of theologians in the Holy Roman Empire preached reformation ideas in the 1510s, shortly before or simultaneously with Luther, including Christop Schappeler in Memmingen (as early as 1513).

Above: Christoph Schappeler (1472 – 1551) was a German religious figure, reformer, and a preacher at St. Martin’s in Memmingen during the early 16th century and during the Protestant Reformation and the German Peasants’ War.

(Schappeler tended to side with the poor, causing the Senate to regulate his sermons in 1516.

However, by 1521 the climate had changed such that the senate was giving him support.

When he was excommunicated in 1524, the Senate refused to follow the bishop’s order to have him banished.

It is believed that Schappeler and Sebastian Lotzer wrote The Twelve Articles: The Just and Fundamental Articles of All the Peasantry and Tenants of Spiritual and Temporal Powers by Whom They Think Themselves Oppressed in early 1525.

Within two months of its initial publication in Memmingen, 25,000 copies of the Twelve Articles had spread throughout Europe.

The Twelve Articles was a religious petition that utilized Luther’s ideas to appeal for peasants’ rights.)

Above: Twelve Articles of the Peasants pamphlet of 1525

The Reformation is usually dated to 31 October 1517 in Wittenberg, Saxony, when Luther sent his Ninety-five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences to the Archbishop of Mainz.

The theses debated and criticized the Church and the papacy, but concentrated upon the selling of indulgences and doctrinal policies about Purgatory, particular judgment, and the authority of the pope.

Luther would later write works on devotion to the Virgin Mary, the intercession of and devotion to the saints, the sacraments, mandatory clerical celibacy, and later on the authority of the pope, the ecclesiastical law, censure and excommunication, the role of secular rulers in religious matters, the relationship between Christianity and the law, good works, and monasticism.

Some nuns, such as Katharina von Bora and Ursula of Munsterberg, left the monastic life when they accepted the Reformation, but other orders adopted the Reformation, as Lutherans continue to have monasteries today.

In contrast, Reformed areas typically secularized monastic property.

Above: Katharina von Bora, “the Lutheress” (1499 – 1552)

Reformers and their opponents made heavy use of inexpensive pamphlets as well as vernacular Bibles using the relatively new printing press, so there was swift movement of both ideas and documents. 

Magdalena Heymair printed pedagogical writings for teaching children Bible stories.

Parallel to events in Germany, a movement began in Switzerland under the leadership of Huldrych Zwingli.

These two movements quickly agreed on most issues, but some unresolved differences kept them separate.

Some followers of Zwingli believed that the Reformation was too conservative, and moved independently toward more radical positions, some of which survive among modern day Anabaptists.

Above: The Grossmünster (large cathedral) in the centre of the medieval town of Zürich (Murer map, 1576)

After this first stage of the Reformation, following the excommunication of Luther in Decet Romanum Pontificum and the condemnation of his followers by the edicts of the 1521 Diet of Worms, the work and writings of John Calvin were influential in establishing a loose consensus among various churches in Switzerland, Scotland, Hungary, Germany and elsewhere.

Above: the Decet Romanum Pontificem

Although the German Peasants’ War (1524 – 1525) began as a tax and anti-corruption protest as reflected in the Twelve Articles, its leader Thomas Müntzer gave it a radical Reformation character.

It swept through the Bavarian, Thurginian and Swabian principalities in the general outrage against the Catholic hierarchy.

Above: Thomas Müntzer (1489 – 1525)

In response to reports about the destruction and violence, Luther condemned the revolt in writings, such as Against the Murderous Thieving Hordes of Peasants.

Zwingli and Luther’s ally Phillip Melanchthon also did not condone the uprising.

Some 100,000 peasants were killed by the end of the war.

Above: Philipp Melanchthon (né Schwartzerdt) (1497 – 1560)

The city of Zürich, then mainly dominated by the ancient families of Zürich and the guild representatives in the Kleiner Rat (the executive) and Grosser Rat – after about the 1490s mainly an equivalent of present-day committees to assist – supported in the late European Middle Ages the then popular mendicant (religious) orders by attributing them free plots in the suburbs and asked to support the construction of the city wall in return, and the city’s fortification those construction began in the late 11th or 12th century and further on.

Fraumünster Abbey was established in 873 and its abbesses were imperial representans, that is, they were de facto the mistresses of the city republic of Zürich to 1524.

Above: Fraumünster Abbey, Zürich

Memorial measurements in Zürich usually had to be held until the 14th century at Grossmünster, because thus the most income was achieved.

Until the Reformation in Switzerland, all income obtained with the funerals had also to be delivered to the main parish church.

Above: Grossmünster, Zürich

Within the City, the mendicant orders, namely the Predigerkloster and the Augustinerkloster in the 15th-century had been reduced to the function of area pastors, thus the orders supported regime of the Guilds of Zürich.

Above: Predigerkirche, Zürich

Above: Augustinerkirche, Zürich

The priories at Grossmünster and St. Peter were responsible for all religion related questions and decisions.

Above: St. Peter Church, Zürich

The Oetenbach nunnery (1321) became influential, as well as the convent of the Fraumünster had for centuries, as also its nuns came from noble families, and therefore the women monasteries in fact were influential, just by the fact that they owned the most financial resources and estates in the so-called Zürichgau.

These were leased to the peasant population, and they had to bring their products to feed Zürich.

Furthermore, the water mills and the coinage right were held by the Fraumünster Abbey.

More or less influence had the merchants that primarily secured the long distance trade outside the Old Swiss Confederacy, and later the Guilds, but rather as member of the Grosser Rat, and their 12 deans in the Kleiner Rat in the 14th and 15th century.

Above: The area of the abolished nunnery towards Uraniastrasse, as seen from Limmatquai, Schipfe and Lindenhof to the left, with the Waisenhaus building to the right.

Zwingli was born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary.

He attended the University of Vienna and the University of Basel, a scholarly center of Renaissance humanism.

Above: Logo of the University of Vienna

Above: Logo of the University of Basel

Zwingli continued his studies while he served as a pastor in Glaurus and later in Einsiedeln, where he was influenced by the writings of Erasmus.

Above: Glarus Cathedral

Above: Einsiedeln Abbey

Above: Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469 – 1536)

Congratulations!

You have read a lot and you (hopefully) have learned a lot up to this point.

You learned of my motivations.

You learned the distinction between a reform movement and a reformation.

You are beginning to see the context and background of the events that led to Zwingli’s journey to Zürich.

The problem now for you, gentle readers, is to someone connect these events of the past and somehow relate them to today’s reality.

Zürich, and of course the aforementioned Steiners’ guidebook, recommend a walking tour of the city as seen through the eyes of Zwingli and the events of the Reformation.

(Contatc the Zürich Tourism Board – http://www.zuerich.com – for more information and guided tours – http://www.zwingli.ch.)

In 1519, Zwingli became the Leutpriester (people’s priest) of the Grossmünster in Zürich where he began to preach ideas on reform of the Catholic Church.

On 1 January 1519, Zwingli gave his first sermon in Zürich.

Deviating from the prevalent practice of basing a sermon on the Gospel lesson of a particular Sunday, Zwingli, using Erasmus’ New Testament as a guide, began to read through the Gospel of Matthew, giving his interpretation during the sermon, known as the method of lectio continua.

He continued to read and interpret the book on subsequent Sundays until he reached the end and then proceeded in the same manner with the Acts of the Apostles, the New Testament epistles, and finally the Old Testament.

His motives for doing this are not clear, but in his sermons he used exhortation to achieve moral and ecclesiastical improvement which were goals comparable with Erasmian reform.

Sometime after 1520, Zwingli’s theological model began to evolve into an idiosyncratic form that was neither Erasmian nor Lutheran.

Scholars do not agree on the process of how he developed his own unique model.

One view is that Zwingli was trained as an Erasmian humanist and Luther played a decisive role in changing his theology.

Another view is that Zwingli did not pay much attention to Luther’s theology and in fact he considered it as part of the humanist reform movement.

A third view is that Zwingli was not a complete follower of Erasmus, but had diverged from him as early as 1516 and that he independently developed his own theology.

Above: Entrance to the Grossmünster doors is inscribed Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.“

Zwingli’s theological stance was gradually revealed through his sermons.

He attacked moral corruption and in the process he named individuals who were the targets of his denunciations.

Monks were accused of indolence and high living.

In 1519, Zwingli specifically rejected the veneration (worship) of saints and called for the need to distinguish between their true and fictional accounts.

Zwingli cast doubts on hellfire, asserted that unbaptised children were not damned, and questioned the power of excommunication –  to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular, those of being in communion with other members of the congregation, and of receiving the Sacraments (baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist (communion), penance (confession), anointing of the sick, Holy Orders (devoting one’s life to the Church) and matrimony.)

His attack on the claim that tithing was a divine institution, however, had the greatest theological and social impact.

This contradicted the immediate economic interests of the foundation.

Above: The Seven Sacraments, altarpiece by Rogier van der Weyden, 1448

One of the elderly canons who had supported Zwingli’s election, Konrad Hofmann, complained about his sermons in a letter.

Some canons supported Hofmann, but the opposition never grew very large.

Zwingli insisted that he was not an innovator and that the sole basis of his teachings was Scripture.

Within the Diocese of Konstanz, Bernhardin Sanson was offering a special indulgence for contributors to the building of St. Peter’s in Rome.

When Sanson arrived at the gates of Zürich at the end of January 1519, parishioners prompted Zwingli with questions.

Zwingli responded with displeasure that the people were not being properly informed about the conditions of the indulgence and were being induced to part with their money on false pretences.

This was over a year after Martin Luther had published his 95 Theses on 31 October 1517.

The council of Zürich refused Sanson entry into the city.

As the authorities in Rome were anxious to contain the fire started by Luther, the Bishop of Konstanz denied any support of Sanson and he was recalled.

Above: Inscription, St. John Lateran, Rome: 

Indulgentia plenaria perpetua quotidiana toties quoties pro vivis et defunctis 

(“Perpetual everyday plenary indulgence on every occasion for the living and the dead“)

Our tour through Reformation-time Zurich takes us to the important
places in Reformer Zwingli’s life and in those of his successors.

The Reformation movement radically changed the Zurich area and the whole Swiss Confederation.

Unlike Germany, where rulers determined the policies of the
Church, Switzerland’s system featured pre-democratic structures,
which influenced the Reformation movement.

When Ulrich Zwingli was appointed Leutpriester (Priest
in charge of the local parish and pilgrims) at Grossmünster Cathedral by the Council of Zürich, he reported his activities to the government of Zürich.

As previously mentioned Zwingli had been a priest at Einsiedeln.

As a military chaplain he had witnessed the Battle of Marignano in 1515, in
which approximately 10,000 Swiss mercenaries, including many child soldiers, were killed.

Above: Francis I (1494 – 1547) Orders His Troops to Stop Pursuing the Swiss at the Battle of Marignano (13 – 14 September 1515)

From the very beginning of his ministry in Zürich, Zwingli criticized
the lucrative mercenary business, the worship of saints, the selling of
indulgences and the mass.

Above: A member of the Pontifical Swiss Guard with halberd (2011)

Zwingli’s arguments against the religious practices of his day were based on
the Bible.

From day one, instead of delivering his sermons on the prescribed church lectionary readings, he began preaching the Gospel of Matthew from beginning to end.

Zwingli soon found sympathizers, like-minded theologians, but also citizens and members of the government.

He stayed in contact with other localities within the Swiss Confederation, where the ideas of the Reformation were also attracting attention.

Above: Map of Switzerland, 1530

Today’s Grossmünster was largely built between 1100 and 1250.

It served equally as parish church and as a convent for the canons.

The Grossmünster was a monastery church, vying for precedence with the Fraumünster across the Limmat throughout the Middle Ages.

According to legend, the Grossmünster was founded by Charlemagne (748 – 814), whose horse fell to its knees over the tombs of Felix and Regula, Zürich’s patron saints.

Above: Charlemagne on the bronze doors

The legend helps support a claim of seniority over the Fraumünster, which was founded by Louis the German (806 – 876), Charlemagne’s grandson.

Above: Seal with Louis’ inscription and effigy

Recent archaeological evidence confirms the presence of a Roman burial ground at the site.

Above: The Roman Empire at its greatest extent

Felix and Regula were siblings and members of the Theban Legion (an entire Roman legion of 6,666 men who had converted en masse to Christianity and were martyred together in 286) under St. Maurice (d. 287), stationed in Aguanum (modern St. Maurice) in the Valais (southwestern Switzerland).

Above: St. Maurice (left)

Above: St. Maurice

When the Legion was to be executed in 286, Felix and Regula fled, reaching Zürich before they were caught, tried and executed.

After decapitation, they miraculously stood to their feet, picked up their own heads, walked forty paces uphill, and prayed before lying down in death.

They were buried on the spot where they lay down, on the hilltop which would become the site of the Grossmünster.

Above: The Murer map, 1576.

Shown is the Grossmünster, burial place of Saints Felix and Regula at the river Limmat, the Wasserkirche (Water Church), their execution site, and, on the left side of the Limmat, the Fraumünster Abbey, where important relics of the saints used to be on display to the public.

Their story was revealed in a dream to a monk called Florentius.

Above: Jesus and the patron saints of Zürich – Felix, Regula and Exuperantius

This story largely contributed to the massive conversion of the inhabitants of these regions to Christianity and had such an impact on Zürich that these three saints still appear on the seal of Zürich today.

In the 9th century, there was a small monastery at the location, outside the settlement of Zürich which was situated on the left side of the Limmat.

The Grossmünster was built on their graves from 1100.

From the 13th century, images of the saints were used in official seals of the city and on coins.

On the saints’ feast day, their relics were carried in procession between the Grossmünster and the Fraumünster, and the two monasteries vied for possession of the relics, which attracted enough pilgrims to make Zürich the most important pilgrimage site in the bishopric of Konstanz.

Above: Konstanz Cathedral

The Knabenschiessen (a traditional target shooting competition held on the 2nd weekend of September each year) of Zürich originates with the feast day of the saints on 11 September, which came to be the “national holiday” of the early modern Republic of Zürich.

Above: Coat of arms of Zürich

(The Knabenschiessen competition is open to 13- to 17-year-olds who either reside or are enrolled in a school in the canton of Zürich.

Originally reserved for boys (Knaben), the competition has been open to female participants since 1991.

The shooting is with the Swiss Army ordinance rifle, SIG SG 550.

The competition is held in the shooting range at Albisgütli to the southwest of the city center, on the slope of Uetliberg.

It is surrounded by a large fair.)

The Grossmünster is, in my opinion, the best site to start a Reformation Tour of Zürich, for its door, a bronze portal, a creation of the sculptor Otto Münch in 1939, depicts 16 scenes of Zwingli’s life.

Starting from the lower left side:

The second plate depicts the 14 year-old Zwingli playing his lute as a pupil of the Bern Dominicans.

It then shows him as a military chaplain preaching to the soldiers before the Battle of Marignano in 1515.

On the second row from the bottom to the far right we see the first celebration of the Lord’s Supper after mass had been abolished.

Further up Zwingli can be seen with his family and then translating the Bible.

The knight Ulrich von Hutten is pictured on the next plate.

Zwingli granted him asylum on Ufenau Island to save him from persecution by the German Empire.

Further up on the left the “Mushafen” (a large pot of mush) scene shows the feeding of the poor next to the Preacher‘s Church.

On the same row to the right a plate illustrates the Marburg Disputation, where Luther and Zwingli haggled over the meaning of the Lord’s Supper in
1529, but could not reach common ground.

Not until 1973 were the Leuenberg Agreements signed by the Churches of Europe and the differences resolved.

The square directly above this depicts Zwingli’s death near Kappel on 11 October 1531.

There are also illustrations showing Zwingli’s successor Heinrich Bullinger and Reformers from other Swiss cities.

Zurich had 7,000 inhabitants at the time of the Reformation.

This figure was reduced to 5,000 following an outbreak of the black plague.

In August 1519, Zürich was struck by an outbreak of the Black Plague during which at least one in four persons died.

All of those who could afford it left the city, but Zwingli remained and continued his pastoral duties.

In September, he caught the disease and nearly died.

He described his preparation for death in a poem, Zwingli’s Pestlied (plague song) consisting of three parts: the onset of the illness, the closeness to death, and the joy of recovery.

The final verses of the first part read (translated):

“Thy purpose fulfil.

Nothing can be too severe for me.

I am Thy vessel for You to make whole or break into pieces.

Since, if You take hence my spirit from this earth, You do it so that it will not grow evil and will not mar the pious lives of others.“

In his first public controversy in 1522, he attacked the custom of fasting during Lent.

(Lent is a solemn religious observance in the Christian liturgical calendar that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends approximately six weeks later, before Easter Sunday.

The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer for Easter through prayer, doing penance, mortifying the flesh, repentence of sins, almsgiving and self-denial.)

On the first fasting Sunday, 9 March, Zwingli and about a dozen other participants consciously transgressed the fasting rule by cutting and distributing two smoked sausages (the Wurstessen – sausage meal – in Christoph Froschauer’s print workshop).

Above: Christoph Froschauer (1490 – 1564)

Zwingli defended this act in a sermon which was published on 16 April, under the title Von Erkiesen und Freiheit der Speisen (Regarding the Choice and Freedom of Foods).

He noted that no general valid rule on food can be derived from the Bible and that to transgress such a rule is not a sin.

The event, which came to be referred to as the Affair of the Sausages, is considered to be the start of the Reformation in Switzerland.

Above: The Froschau quarter in Zürich, as shown on the 1576 Murer map, printed by Christoph Froschauer

According to William Roscoe Estep, Zwingli had already held his convictions for some time before the incident.

In March 1522, he was invited to partake of the sausage supper that Froschauer served not only to his workers, who, as he later claimed, were exhausted from putting out the new edition of the Epistles of St. Paul, but also to various dignitaries and priests.

Because the eating of meat during Lent was prohibited, the event caused public outcry, which led to Froschauer being arrested.

The planned provocation took place in the presence of Leo Jud, Klaus Hottinger and Lorenz Hochrütiner, which all gained notoriety for Swiss reformation later.

Above: Leo Jud (1482 – 1542)

Above: Klaus Hottinger (d. 1524)

Froschauer himself published the Zürich Bible.

Above: the Zürich Bible – It is thought to be the first Bible to contain a map.

The meal involved Swiss Fasnachtskiechli and some slices of sharp smoked hard sausage, which had been stored for more than a year.

Though he himself did not eat the sausages, Zwingli was quick to defend Froschauer from allegations of heresy.

In his Von Erkiesen und Freiheit der Speisen sermon, Zwingli argued that fasting should be entirely voluntary, not mandatory.

Above: Home of Christoph Froschauer, Brunngasse 18, Zürich

According to Michael Reeves, Zwingli was advancing the Reformation position that Lent was subject to individual rule, rather than the discipline which was upheld at the time by the Catholic Church.

However the Zürich sausage affair was interpreted as a demonstration of Christian liberty and of similar importance for Switzerland as Martin Luther’s 95 Theses were for German reformation.

After hearing of this indictment, Hugo Hohenlandenberg, the Bishop of Konstanz, was so scandalized by Zwingli’s preaching that he called for a mandate prohibiting the preaching of any Reformation doctrine in Switzerland.

However, the damage had already been done, and Zwingli went on to become an extremely popular and revered figure in Swiss Protestantism, having contracted and recovered from the Black Plague and drawn up 67 theses (similar to Martin Luther’s 95 theses) that denounced several long-standing beliefs of the Church of Rome.

Above: Hugo von Hohenlandenberg (1457 – 1532)

Following this event, Zwingli and other humanist friends petitioned the bishop on 2 July to abolish the requirement of celibacy on the clergy.

Two weeks later the petition was reprinted for the public in German as Eine freundliche Bitte und Ermahnung an die Eidgenossen (A Friendly Petition and Admonition to the Confederation).

The issue was not just an abstract problem for Zwingli, as he had secretly married a widow, Anna Reinhart, earlier in the year.

Their cohabitation was well-known and their public wedding took place on 2 April 1524, three months before the birth of their first child.

They would eventually have four children: Regula, William, Huldrych, and Anna.

Above: Remembrance plaque, Schifflände 30

As the petition was addressed to the secular authorities, the bishop responded at the same level by notifying the Zürich government to maintain the ecclesiastical order.

Other Swiss clergymen joined in Zwingli’s cause which encouraged him to make his first major statement of faith, Apologeticus Archeteles (The First and Last Word).

He defended himself against charges of inciting unrest and heresy.

He denied the ecclesiastical hierarchy any right to judge on matters of church order because of its corrupted state.

The events of 1522 brought no clarification on the issues.

Not only did the unrest between Zürich and the bishop continue, tensions were growing among Zürich’s Confederation partners in the Swiss Diet (national council).

On 22 December, the Diet recommended that its members prohibit the new teachings, a strong indictment directed at Zürich.

The City Council felt obliged to take the initiative and find its own solution.

Above: Federal Diet of Switzerland, 1531

On 3 January 1523, the Zürich City Council invited the clergy of the city and outlying region to a meeting to allow the factions to present their opinions.

The Bishop was invited to attend or to send a representative.

The Council would render a decision on who would be allowed to continue to proclaim their views.

This meeting, known as the first Zürich Disputation, took place on 29 January 1523.

The meeting attracted a large crowd of approximately 600 participants.

The Bishop sent a delegation led by his Vicar General, Johan Faber.

Above: Johann Faber (1478 – 1541) epitaph, Vienna Cathedral

Zwingli summarised his position in the Schlussreden (Concluding Statements or the Sixty-seven Articles).

Fabri, who had not envisaged an academic disputation in the manner Zwingli had prepared for, was forbidden to discuss high theology before laymen, and simply insisted on the necessity of the ecclesiastical authority.

The decision of the Council was that Zwingli would be allowed to continue his preaching and that all other preachers should teach only in accordance with Scripture.

In September 1523, Leo Jud, Zwingli’s closest friend and colleague and pastor of St. Peterskirche (St. Peter’s Church), publicly called for the removal of statues of saints and other icons.

This led to demonstrations and iconoclastic (icon destruction) activities.

The City Council decided to work out the matter of images in a second disputation.

The essence of the Mass and its sacrificial character was also included as a subject of discussion.

Supporters of the Mass claimed that the Eucharist was a true sacrifice, while Zwingli claimed that it was a commemorative meal.

As in the first disputation, an invitation was sent out to the Zürich clergy and the Bishop of Konstanz.

This time, however, the lay people of Zürich, the Dioceses of Chur and Basel, the University of Basel, and the 12 members of the Confederation were also invited.

Above: Chur Cathedral

About 900 persons attended this meeting, but neither the bishop nor the Confederation sent representatives.

This Second Disputation started on 26 October 1523 and lasted two days.

Zwingli again took the lead in the disputation.

His opponent was the aforementioned canon, Konrad Hofmann, who had initially supported Zwingli’s election.

Also taking part was a group of young men demanding a much faster pace of reformation, who among other things pleaded for replacing infant baptism with adult baptism.

This group was led by Konrad Grebel, one of the initiators of the Anabaptist movement.

Above: Commemorative plaque for Konrad Grebel (1498 – 1526), Neumarkt, Zürich

During the first three days of dispute, although the controversy of images and the mass were discussed, the arguments led to the question of whether the City Council or the ecclesiastical government had the authority to decide on these issues.

At this point, Konrad Schmid, a priest from Aargau and follower of Zwingli, made a pragmatic suggestion.

As images were not yet considered to be valueless by everyone, he suggested that pastors preach on this subject under threat of punishment.

He believed the opinions of the people would gradually change and the voluntary removal of images would follow.

Hence, Schmid rejected the radicals and their iconoclasm, but supported Zwingli’s position.

In November the Council passed ordinances in support of Schmid’s motion.

Zwingli wrote a booklet on the evangelical duties of a minister, Kurze christliche Einleitung (short Christian introduction) and the Council sent it out to the clergy and the members of the Confederation.

Above: Coat of arms of Zürich

In December 1523, the council set the deadline of Pentecost 1524 for a solution to the elimination of the Mass and icons.

(Pentecost is the 50th day (the 7th Sunday) after Easter Sunday, commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles (disciples of Christ) and other followers of Jesus while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in Acts 2: 1 -31).

Zwingli gave a formal opinion in Vorschlag wegen der Bilder und der Messe (Proposal Concerning Images and the Mass).

He did not urge an immediate general abolition.

The Council decided on the orderly removal of images within Zürich, but rural congregations were granted the right to remove them based on majority vote.

The decision on the Mass was postponed.

Evidence of the effect of the Reformation was seen in early 1524. 

Candlemas (2 February) was not celebrated, processions of robed clergy ceased, worshippers did not go with palms or relics on Palm Sunday to the Lindenhof, and triptychs (works of arts – usually panel paintings that are divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open) remained covered and closed after Lent.

Above: Blessing of candles on Candlemas

Above: Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, frescoes by Pietro Lorenzetti, Assisi, Italy

(Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday  before Easter.

The feast commemorates Jesus’ triumphial entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels.

Palm Sunday marks the first day of Holy Week, the last week of the Christian solemn season of Lent that precedes the arrival of Easter.)

Above: Palm Sunday procession, Moscow, with Tsar Alexei Michaelovich

Above: Lindenhof, Zürich

Above: Triptych, The Garden of Earthly Delights, Hieronymus Bosch, 1910

Opposition to the changes came from Konrad Hofmann and his followers, but the Council decided in favour of keeping the government mandates.

When Hofmann left the city, opposition from pastors hostile to the Reformation broke down.

The Bishop of Konstanz tried to intervene in defending the mass and the veneration of images.

Zwingli wrote an official response for the council and the result was the severance of all ties between the City and the Diocese.

Although the Council had hesitated in abolishing the Mass, the decrease in the exercise of traditional piety allowed pastors to be unofficially released from the requirement of celebrating Mass.

As individual pastors altered their practices as each saw fit, Zwingli was prompted to address this disorganised situation by designing a communion liturgy in the German language.

This was published in Aktion oder Brauch des Nachtmahls (Act or Custom of Communion).

Shortly before Easter, Zwingli and his closest associates requested the Council to cancel the Mass and to introduce the new public order of worship.

On Maundy Thursday, 13 April 1525, Zwingli celebrated communion under his new liturgy.

Wooden cups and plates were used to avoid any outward displays of formality.

The congregation sat at set tables to emphasise the meal aspect of the sacrament.

The sermon was the focal point of the service and there was no organ music or singing.

The importance of the sermon in the worship service was underlined by Zwingli’s proposal to limit the celebration of communion to four times a year.

Above: Statue of Zwingli in front of the Wasserkirche (water church) in Zürich

(Maundy Thursday is the Christian holy day falling on the Thursday before Easter.

It commemorates the Washing of the Feet (Maundy) and the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles, as described in the canonical gospels.)

For some time Zwingli had accused mendicant orders of hypocrisy and demanded their abolition in order to support the truly poor.

He suggested that monasteries be changed into hospitals and welfare institutions and incorporate their wealth into a welfare fund.

This was done by reorganising the foundations of the Grossmünster and Fraumünster (women’s cathedral) and pensioning off remaining nuns and monks.

The Council secularised the church properties (Fraumünster handed over by Zwingli’s acquaintance Katharina von Zimmern) and established new welfare programs for the poor.

Above: Katharina von Zimmern plaque, Fraumünster, Zürich

Zwingli requested permission to establish a Latin school, the Prophezei (prophecy) or Carolinum, at the Grossmünster.

The Council agreed and the school was officially opened on 19 June 1525 with Zwingli and Jud as teachers.

It served to retrain and re-educate the clergy.

Above: Carolinum (left) / Grossmünster (right), Zürich

The Zürich Bible translation, traditionally attributed to Zwingli and printed by Christoph Froschauer, bears the mark of teamwork from the Prophecy school.

Scholars have not yet attempted to clarify Zwingli’s share of the work based on external and stylistic evidence.

Shortly after the Second Zürich Disputation, many in the radical wing of the Reformation became convinced that Zwingli was making too many concessions to the Zürich Council.

They rejected the role of civil government and demanded the immediate establishment of a congregation of the faithful. 

Conrad Grebel, the leader of the radicals and the emerging Anabaptist movement, spoke disparagingly of Zwingli in private.

On 15 August 1524 the Council insisted on the obligation to baptise all newborn infants.

When Grebel joined the Anabaptist group in 1521, he and Felix Manz became friends.

They questioned the mass, the nature of church and state connections, and infant baptism.

Grebel, Manz and others made several attempts to plead their position.

Several parents refused to have their children baptized.

A public disputation was held with Zwingli on 17 January 1525.

The Council declared Zwingli the victor.

When talks were broken off, Zwingli published Wer Ursache gebe zu Aufruhr (Whoever Causes Unrest) clarifying the opposing points-of-view.

After the final rebuff by the city council on 18 January, in which they were ordered to desist from arguing and submit to the decision of the council, and have their children baptized within eight days, the brethren gathered at the home of Felix Manz and his mother on 21 January.

Conrad Grebel baptized George Blaurock, and Blaurock in turn baptized the others. 

This made complete the break with Zwingli and the council, and formed the first church of the Radical Reformation.

The movement spread rapidly, and Manz was very active in it.

He used his language skills to translate his texts into the language of the people, and worked enthusiastically as an evangelist.

Manz was arrested on a number of occasions between 1525 and 1527.

While he was preaching with George Blaurock in the Grüningen region, they were taken by surprise, arrested and imprisoned in Zürich at the Wellenburg prison.

Above: Felix Manz (1498 – 1527)

Grebel and a third leader, George Blaurock, performed the first recorded Anabaptist adult baptisms.

On 2 February, the Council repeated the requirement on the baptism of all babies and some who failed to comply were arrested and fined, Manz and Blaurock among them.

Zwingli and Jud interviewed them and more debates were held before the Zürich council.

Meanwhile, the new teachings continued to spread to other parts of the Confederation as well as a number of Swabian (Württemburg) towns.

On 6 – 8 November, the last debate on the subject of baptism took place in the Grossmünster.

Grebel, Manz and Blaurock defended their cause before Zwingli, Jud, and other reformers.

There was no serious exchange of views as each side would not move from their positions and the debates degenerated into an uproar, each side shouting abuse at the other.

The Zürich Council decided that no compromise was possible.

On 7 March 1526, it released the notorious mandate that no one shall rebaptise another under the penalty of death by drowning.

Although Zwingli, technically, had nothing to do with the mandate, there is no indication that he disapproved.

Felix Manz, who had sworn to leave Zürich and not to baptise any more, had deliberately returned and continued the practice.

On 5 January 1527, Manz became the first casualty of the edict, and the first Swiss Anabaptist to be martyred at the hands of magesterial Protestants.

While Manz stated that he wished “to bring together those who were willing to accept Christ, obey the Word, and follow in His footsteps, to unite with these by baptism, and to purchase the rest in their present conviction“, Zwingli and the council accused him of obstinately refusing “to recede from his error and caprice“.

At 3:00 p.m., as he was led from the Wellenburg to a boat, he praised God and preached to the people.

A Reformed minister went along, seeking to silence him, and hoping to give him an opportunity to recant.

Manz’s brother and mother encouraged him to stand firm and suffer for Jesus’ sake.

Manz was taken by boat onto the River Limmat

His hands were bound and pulled behind his knees and a pole was placed between them.

He was executed by drowning in Lake Zürich on the Limmat River.

His alleged last words were:

“Into thy hands, O God, I commend my spirit.”

His property was confiscated by the government of Zürich, and he was buried in St. Jakobs Cemetery.

Manz left written testimony of his faith, an eighteen-stanza hymn, and was apparently the author of Protestation und Schutzschrift (a defense of Anabaptism presented to the Zürich Council).

Above: Felix Manz’s Protestation und Schutzschrift (protest and written defence)

He was the first Anabaptist martyr.

Three more were to follow, after which all others either fled or were expelled from Zürich.

Above: Memorial plate on the river wall opposite number 43 Schipfe,  Zürich, in remembrance of Manz and other Anabaptists executed in the early 16th century by the Zürich city government

On 8 April 1524, five cantons, Luzern, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden and Zug, formed an alliance, die fünf Orte (the Five States) to defend themselves from Zwingli’s Reformation.

They contacted the opponents of Martin Luther, including Johann Eck who had debated Luther in the Leipzig Disputation of 1519.

Eck offered to dispute Zwingli and he accepted.

Above: Johannes Maier von Eck (1486 – 1543)

However, they could not agree on the selection of the judging authority, the location of the debate, and the use of the Swiss Diet as a court.

Because of the disagreements, Zwingli decided to boycott the disputation.

On 19 May 1526, all the cantons sent delegates to Baden.

Although Zürich’s representatives were present, they did not participate in the sessions.

Above: Baden, Switzerland

Eck led the Catholic party while the reformers were represented by Johannes Oecolampadius of Basel, a theologian from Württemberg who had carried on an extensive and friendly correspondence with Zwingli.

Above: Johannes Oecolampadius (1482 – 1531)

While the debate proceeded, Zwingli was kept informed of the proceedings and printed pamphlets giving his opinions.

It was of little use as the Diet decided against Zwingli.

He was to be banned and his writings were no longer to be distributed.

Of the 13 Confederation members, Glarus, Solothurn, Fribourg/Freiburg, and Appenzell, as well as the Five States voted against Zwingli. 

Bern, Basel, Schaffhausen and Zürich supported him.

Above: Map of the thirteen cantons of the Swiss confederacy in 1530 (green) with their separate subject territories (light green), condominiums (grey) and associates (brown)

The Baden Disputation exposed a deep rift in the Confederation on matters of religion.

The Reformation was now emerging in other states.

Above: Baden, Switzerland

The city of St. Gallen, an affiliated state to the Confederation, was led by a reformed mayor, Joachim Vadian, and the city abolished the mass in 1527, just two years after Zürich.

Above: Abbey Church, St. Gallen

Above: Joachim Vadian (né Joachim von Watt) (1484 – 1551)

In Basel, although Zwingli had a close relationship with Oecolampadius, the government did not officially sanction any reformatory changes until 1 April 1529 when the Mass was prohibited.

Above: Basel, Switzerland

Schaffhausen, which had closely followed Zürich’s example, formally adopted the Reformation in September 1529.

Above: Schaffhausen, Switzerland

In the case of Bern, Berchtold Haller, the priest at St. Vincent Münster, and Niklaus Manuel, the poet, painter and politician, had campaigned for the reformed cause.

But it was only after another Disputation that Bern counted itself as a canton of the Reformation.

Above: Berchtold Haller (1492 – 1536)

Above: Niklaus Manuel (1484 – 1530)

450 persons participated, including pastors from Bern and other cantons, as well as theologians from outside the Confederation, such as:

• Martin Bucer (1491 – 1551) from Strasbourg

• Wolfgang Capito (1478 – 1541) from Strasbourg

• Ambrosius Blarer (1492 – 1564) from Konstanz

• Andreas Althamer (1500 – 1539) from Nuremberg

Eck and Fabri refused to attend and the Catholic cantons did not send representatives.

The meeting started on 6 January 1528 and lasted nearly three weeks.

Zwingli assumed the main burden of defending the Reformation and he preached twice in the Münster.

On 7 February 1528, the Council decreed that the Reformation be established in Bern.

Above: Bern, Switzerland

In the years following his recovery from the plague, Zwingli’s opponents remained in the minority.

When a vacancy occurred among the canons of the Grossmünster, Zwingli was elected to fulfill that vacancy on 29 April 1521.

In becoming a canon, he became a full citizen of Zürich.

He also retained his post as the people’s priest of the Grossmünster.

Historians have debated whether or not he turned Zürich into a theocracy.

Above: Images of Zürich

Even before the Bern Disputation, Zwingli was canvassing for an alliance of reformed cities.

Once Bern officially accepted the Reformation, a new alliance, das Christliche Burgrecht (the Christian Civic Union) was created.

The first meetings were held in Bern between representatives of Bern, Konstanz and Zürich on 5 – 6 January 1528.

Other cities, including Basel, Biel / Bienne, Mülhausen, Schaffhausen and St Gallen, eventually joined the alliance.

The Five (Catholic) States felt encircled and isolated, so they searched for outside allies.

After two months of negotiations, the Five States formed die Christliche Vereinigung (the Christian Alliance) with Ferdinand of Austria on 22 April 1529.

Above: Ferdinand I of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor (1503 – 1564)

Soon after the Austrian treaty was signed, a reformed preacher, Jacob Kaiser, was captured in Uznach and executed in Schwyz.

Above: Schwyz, Switzerland

This triggered a strong reaction from Zwingli.

Zwingli drafted Ratschlag über den Krieg (Advice About the War) for the government.

Zwingli outlined justifications for an attack on the Catholic states and other measures to be taken.

Before Zürich could implement his plans, a delegation from Bern, that included Niklaus Manuel, arrived in Zürich.

The delegation called on Zürich to settle the matter peacefully.

Manuel added that an attack would expose Bern to further dangers as Catholic Valais and the Duchy of Savoy bordered its southern flank.

He then noted:

“You cannot really bring faith by means of spears and halberds.“

Zürich, however, decided that it would act alone, knowing that Bern would be obliged to acquiesce.

War was declared on 8 June 1529.

Zürich was able to raise an army of 30,000 men.

The Five States were abandoned by Austria and could raise only 9,000 men.

The two forces met near Kappel, but war was averted due to the intervention of Hans Aebli, a relative of Zwingli, who pleaded for an armistice.

Zwingli was obliged to state the terms of the armistice.

He demanded the dissolution of the Christian Alliance, unhindered preaching by reformers in the Catholic states, prohibition of the pension system, payment of war reparations, and compensation to the children of Jacob Kaiser.

Manuel was involved in the negotiations.

Bern was not prepared to insist on the unhindered preaching or the prohibition of the pension system.

Zürich and Bern could not agree and the Five (Catholic) States pledged only to dissolve their alliance with Austria.

This was a bitter disappointment for Zwingli and it marked his decline in political influence.

Der erste Landfriede (the first Land Peace) of Kappel ended the war, a war without bloodshed or battle, on 24 June.

Above: Kappel am Albis

While Zwingli carried on the political work of the Swiss Reformation, he developed his theological views with his colleagues.

The famous disagreement between Luther and Zwingli on the interpretation of the Eucharist originated when Andreas Karlstadt, Luther’s former colleague from Wittenberg, published three pamphlets on the Lord’s Supper in which Karlstadt rejected the idea of a real presence in the elements.

Above: Andreas Rudolph Bodenstein von Karlstadt (1486 – 1541)

These pamphlets, published in Basel in 1524, received the approval of Oecolampadius and Zwingli.

Luther rejected Karlstadt’s arguments and considered Zwingli primarily to be a partisan of Karlstadt.

Zwingli began to express his thoughts on the Eucharist in several publications including de Eucharistia (On the Eucharist).

Understanding that Christ had ascended to Heaven and was sitting at the Father’s right hand, Zwingli criticized the idea that Christ’s humanity could be in two places at once.

Unlike his divinity, Christ’s human body was not omnipresent and so could not be in Heaven and at the same time be present in the elements.

Timothy George, evangelical author, editor of Christianity Today and professor of Historical Theology at Beeson Divinity School at Samford University, has firmly refuted a long-standing misreading of Zwingli that erroneously claimed the Reformer denied all notions of real presence and believed in a memorial view of the Last Supper, where it was purely symbolic.

By spring 1527, Luther reacted strongly to Zwingli’s views in the treatise Dass Diese Worte Christi “Das ist mein Leib etc.” noch fest stehen wider die Schwarmgeister (That These Words of Christ “This is My Body etc.” Still Stand Firm Against the Fanatics).

The controversy continued until 1528 when efforts to build bridges between the Lutheran and the Zwinglian views began. 

Martin Bucer tried to mediate while Philip of Hesse, who wanted to form a political coalition of all Protestant forces, invited the two parties to Marburg to discuss their differences.

Above: Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse (1504 – 1567), nicknamed der Großmütige (“the magnanimous“)

This event became known as the Marburg Colloquy.

Zwingli accepted Philip’s invitation fully believing that he would be able to convince Luther.

In contrast, Luther did not expect anything to come out of the meeting and had to be urged by Philip to attend.

Zwingli, accompanied by Oecolampadius, arrived on 28 September 1529, with Luther and Philip Melanthchon arriving shortly thereafter.

Above: Philipp Melanchthon (né Philipp Schwartzerdt) (1497 – 1560)

Other theologians also participated including Martin Bucer, Andreas Osiander, Johannes Brenz and Justus Jonas.

Above: Andreas Osiander (1498 – 1552)

Above: Johann Brenz (1499 – 1570)

Above: Justus Jonas (1493 – 1555)

The debates were held from 1–4 October and the results were published in the fifteen Marburg Articles.

The participants were able to agree on 14 of the articles, but the 15th article established the differences in their views on the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Professor George summarized the incompatible views:

“On this issue, they parted without having reached an agreement.

Both Luther and Zwingli agreed that the bread in the Last Supper was a sign.

For Luther, however, that which the bread signified, namely the body of Christ, was present “in, with, and under” the sign itself.

For Zwingli, though, sign and thing signified were separated by a distance — the width between Heaven and Earth.“

“Luther claimed that the body of Christ was not eaten in a gross, material way, but rather in some mysterious way, which is beyond human understanding.

Yet, Zwingli replied, if the words were taken in their literal sense, the body had to be eaten in the most grossly material way.

“For this is the meaning they carry:

This bread is that body of mine which is given for you.

It was given for us in grossly material form, subject to wounds, blows and death.

As such, therefore, it must be the material of the Last Supper.”

Indeed, to press the literal meaning of the text even farther, it follows that Christ would have again to suffer pain, as his body was broken again — this time by the teeth of communicants.

Even more absurdly, Christ’s body would have to be swallowed, digested, even eliminated through the bowels!

Such thoughts were repulsive to Zwingli.

They smacked of cannibalism on the one hand and of the pagan mystery religions on the other.

The main issue for Zwingli, however, was not the irrationality or exegetical fallacy of Luther’s views.

It was rather that Luther put “the chief point of salvation in physically eating the body of Christ”, for he connected it with the forgiveness of sins.

The same motive that had moved Zwingli so strongly to oppose images, the invocation of saints, and baptismal regeneration was present also in the struggle over the Last Supper: the fear of idolatry.

Salvation was by Christ alone, through faith alone, not through faith and bread.

The object of faith was that which is not seen (Hebrews 11:1) and which therefore cannot be eaten except, again, in a nonliteral, figurative sense.

“Credere est edere,” said Zwingli.

(“To believe is to eat.”)

To eat the body and to drink the blood of Christ in the Last Supper, then, simply meant to have the body and blood of Christ present in the mind.”

The failure to find agreement resulted in strong emotions on both sides.

When the two sides departed, Zwingli cried out in tears:

“There are no people on Earth with whom I would rather be at one than the Lutheran Wittenbergers.”

Because of the differences, Luther initially refused to acknowledge Zwingli and his followers as Christians.

Above: Huldrych Zwingli

With the failure of the Marburg Colloquy and the split of the Confederation, Zwingli set his goal on an alliance with Philip of Hesse.

He kept up a lively correspondence with Philip.

Bern refused to participate, but after a long process, Zürich, Basel and Strasbourg signed a mutual defence treaty with Philip in November 1530.

Zwingli also personally negotiated with France’s diplomatic representative, but the two sides were too far apart.

France wanted to maintain good relations with the Five States.

Approaches to Venice and Milan also failed.

As Zwingli was working on establishing these political alliances, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, invited Protestants to the Augsburg Diet to present their views so that he could make a verdict on the issue of faith.

Above: Emperor Charles V (1500 – 1558)

The Lutherans presented the Augsburg Confession.

Above: Saxon chancellor Christian Beyer proclaiming the Augsburg Confession in the presence of Emperor Charles V, 1530

Under the leadership of Martin Bucer, the cities of Strasbourg, Konstanz, Memmingen and Lindau produced the Tetrapolitan (of the Four Cities) Confession.

This document attempted to take a middle position between the Lutherans and Zwinglians.

Above: Nôtre Dame Cathedral, Strasbourg

Above. Konstanz Cathedral

Above: Rathaus (city hall), Memmingen

Due to its proximity to the Allgäu region, Memmingen is often called the Gateway to the Allgäu (Tor zum Allgäu).

The town motto is Memmingen – Stadt mit Perspektiven (“Memmingen – a town with perspectives“).

In recent times it has been frequently referred to as Memmingen – Stadt der Menschenrechte (Memmingen – the town of human rights).

This alludes to the Twelve Articles, considered to be the first written set of human rights in Europe, which were penned in Memmingen in 1525.

Above: The Twelve Articles

Above: Town hall, Lindau

It was too late for the Burgrecht cities to produce a confession of their own.

Zwingli then produced his own private confession, Fidei ratio (Account of Faith) in which he explained his faith in 12 articles conforming to the articles of the Apostles’ Creed.

Above: The rubric above this 13th-century illuminated manuscript translates “twelve articles of faith set out by twelve apostles“.

The tone was strongly anti-Catholic as well as anti-Lutheran.

The Lutherans did not react officially, but criticised it privately.

Zwingli’s and Luther’s old opponent, Johann Eck, counter-attacked with a publication, Refutation of the Articles Zwingli Submitted to the Emperor.

When Philip of Hesse formed the Schmalkaldic League at the end of 1530, the four cities of the Tetrapolitan Confession joined on the basis of a Lutheran interpretation of that confession.

Given the flexibility of the League’s entrance requirements, Zürich, Basel, and Bern also considered joining.

Above: Schmalkaldic League military treaty, extended in 1536

However, Zwingli could not reconcile the Tetrapolitan Confession with his own beliefs and wrote a harsh refusal to Bucer and Capito.

This offended Philip to the point where relations with the League were severed.

The Burgrecht cities now had no external allies to help deal with internal Confederation religious conflicts.

Above: Philip of Hesse

The peace treaty of the First Kappel War did not define the right of unhindered preaching in the Catholic states.

Zwingli interpreted this to mean that preaching should be permitted, but the Five States suppressed any attempts to reform.

Above: Huldrych Zwingli

The Burgrecht cities considered different means of applying pressure to the Five States.

Basel and Schaffhausen preferred quiet diplomacy while Zürich wanted armed conflict.

Zwingli and Jud unequivocally advocated an attack on the Five States.

Bern took a middle position which eventually prevailed.

Above: Coat of arms of Basel

Above: Coat of arms of Schaffhausen

In May 1531, Zürich reluctantly agreed to impose a food blockade.

It failed to have any effect and in October, Bern decided to withdraw the blockade.

Zürich urged its continuation and the Burgrecht cities began to quarrel among themselves.

Above: Coat of arms of Bern

On 9 October 1531, in a surprise move, the Five States declared war on Zürich….

(To be continued…..)

Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Duncan J.D. Smith, Only in Zürich / Yvonne and Marcel Steiner, Zwingli-Wege

Canada Slim and the Author’s Apartment 3: The Diplomat

Landschlacht, Switzerland, Tuesday 8 September 2020

It must be difficult for followers of this first of two blogs to remain faithful and patient with the Chronicles of Canada Slim as they are not as often written as those of Building Everest.

 

 

 

To those who are new to the Chronicles, these posts are accounts of travels prior to the calendar year and have followed an alphabetical sequence of:

• Alsace
• Italy
• Lanzarote
• London
• Porto
• Serbia
• Switzerland

 

 

 

This post in the sequence is focused on Serbia and is the continuation of my story of a remarkable man and the museum in Belgrade that commemorates his achievements and prolongs the memory of the only Serbian (to date) to have won the Nobel Prize for Literature:

Ivo Andric.

 

 

 

 

Ivo Andrić (1892 – 1975) was a Yugoslav novelist, poet and short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961.

His writings dealt mainly with life in his native Bosnia under Ottoman rule.

Born in Travnik in the Austrian Empire, modern-day Bosnia, Andrić attended high school in Sarajevo, where he became an active member of several South Slav national youth organizations.

 

 

Above: The house in which Andric was born

 

 

Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914, Andrić was arrested and imprisoned by the Austro-Hungarian police, who suspected his involvement in the plot.

 

 

Above: The first page of the edition of the Domenica del Corriere, an Italian paper, with a drawing of Achille Beltrame depicting Gavrilo Princip killing Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo

 

 

As the authorities were unable to build a strong case against him, he spent much of the war under house arrest, only being released following a general amnesty for such cases in July 1917.

After the war, he studied South Slavic history and literature at universities in Zagreb and Graz, eventually attaining his Ph.D. in Graz in 1924.

 

 

 

 

He worked in the diplomatic service of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1920 to 1923 and again from 1924 to 1941.

In 1939, he became Yugoslavia’s ambassador to Germany, but his tenure ended in April 1941 with the German-led invasion of his country.

 

 

Above: Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia

 

 

Shortly after the invasion, Andrić returned to German-occupied Belgrade.

He lived quietly in a friend’s apartment for the duration of World War II, in conditions likened by some biographers to house arrest, and wrote some of his most important works, including Na Drini ćuprija (The Bridge on the Drina).

 

 

Above: Ivo Andrić monument in Belgrade, Serbia

 

 

Following the war, Andrić was named to a number of ceremonial posts in Yugoslavia, which had since come under communist rule.

 

 

 

 

In 1961, the Nobel Committee awarded him the Nobel Prize in Literature, selecting him over writers such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert Frost, John Steinbeck and E. M. Forster.

The Committee cited “the epic force with which he traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from his country’s history“.

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, Andrić’s works found an international audience and were translated into a number of languages.

In subsequent years, he received a number of awards in his native country.

 

 

Above: Front cover art for The Bridge on the Drina written by Ivo Andrić

 

 

Andrić’s health declined substantially in late 1974.

He died in Belgrade the following March.

 

 

 

 

In the years following Andrić’s death, the Belgrade apartment where he spent much of World War II was converted into a museum and a nearby street corner was named in his honour.

It is this author’s apartment, this Ivo Andric Museum in Belgrade which I visited in the spring of 2018.

 

 

Above: Ivо Andric Museum Building, Belgrade, Serbia

 

 

A number of other cities in the former Yugoslavia also have streets bearing his name.

 

 

 

 

In 2012, filmmaker Emir Kusturica began construction of an ethno-town in eastern Bosnia that is named after Andrić.

 

 

Above: Main entrance of Andrićgrad, Bosnia and Herzegovina

 

 

As Yugoslavia’s only Nobel Prize-winning writer, Andrić was well known and respected in his native country during his lifetime.

 

 

 

 

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, beginning in the 1950s and continuing past the breakup of Yugoslavia, his works have been disparaged by Bosniak literary critics for their supposed anti-Muslim bias.

 

Above: Flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina

 

 

In Croatia, his works were long shunned for nationalist reasons, and even briefly blacklisted following Yugoslavia’s dissolution, but were rehabilitated by the literary community at the start of the 21st century.

 

Above: Flag of Croatia

 

 

He is highly regarded in Serbia for his contributions to Serbian literature.

 

 

Above: Flag of Serbia

 

 

I have aspirations of becoming a published writer and I have always been fascinated by the lives of other writers and how those lives led to the fine literature that these literary legends produced.

 

In parts one and two of the Author’s Apartment, I wrote of Andric’s life from his birth and childhood to his studies and suffering (1892 -1920).

 

 

 

 

In 1920, after a time as a civil servant with the Ministry of Religion in Belgrade, Andric was taken into diplomatic service and a new chapter of his life began.

 

 

Above: Church of St. Sava, Belgrade

 

 

On 20 February 1920, Andrić’s request was granted and he was assigned to the Foreign Ministry’s mission at the Vatican.

 

 

Above: Flag of Vatican City

 

 

The post of Ambassador was occupied by the famous linguist Lujo Bakotic.

 

 

Above: Lujo Bakotic

 

 

(Lujo Bakotić (1867 – 1941) was a Serbian writer, publicist, lawyer, lexicographer and diplomat.

Though he was Roman Catholic, Bakotić considered himself Serbian, as had his father.

He completed his high school (gymnasium) education in Split, and jurisprudence in Vienna and Graz.

He was a lawyer by profession who was also politically active, representing the Serbian Party in the Diet of Dalmatia.

 

 

Above: Coat of arms of the Kingdom of Dalmatia

 

 

Owing to his party’s ideals he had to flee to Serbia in 1913.

With the start of the Great War, he left Belgrade for Niš and then went to Paris and finally Rome, where he was made a secretary in the Vatican to work on a mission, preparing a Concordat between Serbia and the Vatican (which never materialized).

After the war, he was Yugoslavia’s envoy at the Vatican from 1920 until 1923.

 

 

Above: St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City

 

 

He represented the Kingdom of Yugoslavia at The Hague, and later he was sent by the Serbian government to Moscow.

 

Above: Kurhaus, The Hague, The Netherlands

 

 

He retired as a civil servant in 1935.

Classically educated, Bakotić spoke several languages fluently, including: French, Italian, German, English, Latin and a number of Slavic languages and dialects.)

 

 

Above: Lujo Bakotić

 

 

Andric enthusiastically read the works of Francesco Guicciardini.

 

 

 

 

(Francesco Guicciardini (1483 – 1540) was an Italian historian and statesman.

A friend and critic of Niccolò Machiavelli, he is considered one of the major political writers of the Italian Renaissance.

 

 

Above: Niccolò Macchiavelli (1469 – 1527)

 

 

In his masterpiece, The History of Italy, Guicciardini paved the way for a new style in historiography with his use of government sources to support arguments and the realistic analysis of the people and events of his time.

 

 

 

 

The History of Italy stands apart from all his writings because it was the one work which he wrote not for himself, but for the public.

In his research, Guicciardini drew upon material that he gathered from government records as well as from his own extensive experience in politics.

 

His many personal encounters with powerful Italian rulers serves to explain his perspective as a historian:

“Francesco Guicciardini might be called a psychological historian—for him the motive power of the huge clockwork of events may be traced down the mainspring of individual behavior.

Not any individual, be it noted, but those in positions of command: emperors, princes and popes who may be counted on to act always in terms of their self-interest—the famous Guicciardinian particolare.”

 

 

Above: Villa Ravà, Arcetri, the former home of the Guicciardini family, where Francesco Guicciardini wrote The History of Italy

 

 

In the following excerpt, the historian records his observations on the character of Pope Clement VII:

“And although he had a most capable intelligence and marvelous knowledge of world affairs, yet he lacked the corresponding resolution and execution.

For he was impeded not only by his timidity of spirit, which was by no means small, and by a strong reluctance to spend, but also by a certain innate irresolution and perplexity, so that he remained almost always in suspension and ambiguous when he was faced with those deciding those thing which from afar he had many times foreseen, considered, and almost revealed.“

 

 

Above: Pope Clement VII (né Giulio di Guiliano de’ Medici)(1478 – 1534)

 

 

Moreover, what sets Guicciardini apart from other historians of his time is his understanding of historical context.

 

His approach was already evident in his early work The History of Florence (1509):

“The young historian was already doubtlessly aware of the meaning of historical perspective; the same facts acquiring different weight in different contexts, a sense of proportion was called for.”

 

 

Above: Guicciardini Family Crest

 

 

In the words of one of Guicciardini’s severest critics, Francesco de Sanctis:

“If we consider intellectual power, the Storia d’Italia is the most important work that has issued from an Italian mind.“)

 

 

Above: Francesco de Sanctis (1817 – 1883)

 

 

Andric travelled through Tuscany with Milos Crnjanski.

 

 

Above: Miloš Crnjanski, 1914

 

 

(Miloš Crnjanski (1893 – 1977) was a Serbian writer and poet of the expressionist wing of Serbian modernism, author, and a diplomat.

 

 

 

 

Crnjanski was born in Csongrád, Hungary, to an impoverished family which moved in 1896 to Temesvár (today Timișoara, Romania).

He completed elementary school in Pančevo and grammar school in Timișoara.

 

Above: Images of Timisoara, Romania

 

 

Then he started attending the Export Academy in Rijeka in 1912, and in the autumn of the following year he started studying in Vienna.

 

 

Above: Harbour, Rijeka, Croatia

 

 

At the beginning of World War I, Crnjanski was persecuted as part of the general anti-Serbian retribution of Austria to Princip’s assassination in Sarajevo.

Instead of being sent to jail, he was drafted to the Austro-Hungarian Army and sent to the Galician front to fight against the Russians – where he was wounded in 1915.

Crnjanski convalesced in a Vienna war hospital, although just before the end of the war he was sent to the Italian front.

 

 

 

 

After the war, he graduated in literary studies from the University of Belgrade.

After graduating from the Faculty of Philosophy in 1922, he taught at the Fourth Belgrade Grammar School and espoused “radical modernism” in articles for periodicals including Ideje, Politika and Vreme – sparking “fierce literary and political debates“.

 

 

Above: University of Belgrade logo

 

 

He entered the diplomatic corps for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and worked in Germany (1935 – 1938) and Italy (1939 – 1941) before being evacuated during WWII to England.

 

 

Above: Flag of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918 – 1941)

 

 

He took odd jobs and eventually became the London correspondent of the Argentinian periodical El economist.

During this period he wrote Druga knjiga Seoba (The Second Book on Migration) and Lament nad Beogradom (Lament over Belgrade).

 

 

Above. Tower Bridge, London, England

 

 

He returned to Belgrade after 20 years of exile in 1965 and shortly after published Sabrana dela u 10 tomova (“Collected works in 10 volumes”).

In 1971, he received the prestigious NIN award for Roman o Londonu.

 

 

Above: NIN Award logo

 

 

Crnjanski, aged 84, died in Belgrade on 30 November 1977.

He is interred in the Alley of Distinguished Citizens in the Belgrade New Cemetery.

He is considered a classic of Serbian literature by scholars as well as the public.

 

 

 

 

Crnjanski first books portrayed the futility of war.

He laid the foundations of the early avant-garde movement in Serbian literature, as exemplified by his 1920 Objašnjenje Sumatre (The Explanation of Sumatra):

“The world still hasn’t heard the terrible storm above our heads, while shakings come from beneath, not from political relations, not from literary dogmas, but from life.

Those are the dead reaching out!

They should be avenged.“

 

 

 

 

The Journal of Carnojevic is a lyrical novel by Miloš Crnjanski, which was first published in 1920.

 

 

 

The narrator of the novel is Petar Rajic, who tells his story in which there is no clearly established narrative flow, nor are events connected by cause and effect.

The protagonist of the book is a young Serbian soldier who lived in Vojvodina, now northern Serbia, which was, at the time, a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

When WW I began, he was, along with thousands of other young Serbs, recruited to the Austro-Hungarian army, and the war completely obliterated his image of the world.

Crnjanski himself had such a destiny, and he wrote the book right after coming back from the war – still as a young man.

The book is a combination of the present, the past and the future, strangely intertwined.

We can’t even say who he is – because of his alter ego, the sailor.

Just like the borders between the periods of life, the borders between persons are blurred and unclear.

 

“Autumn, and life without meaning.

I drag myself around taverns.

I sit by the window and stare at the mist and the yellow, wet, scarlet trees.

And where is life?”

 

“All they were doing, he said that somewhere, far away, on some island, was leaving a mark.

And when he would tell her that now, from her passionate smile, a red plant on Ceylon Island is drawing its strength to open, she would gaze at the distance.

She didn’t believe that all our actions could reach that far and that our power is so endless.

And that was the last thing he believed in.

Under the palm trees, in the hotel lobby, he told her that he didn’t believe someone could be killed, nor made unhappy.

He didn’t believe in the future.

He said his fleshly passions depended solely upon the color of the sky, and that life is being lived in vain – no, not in vain, but for the sake of a smile, with which he smiles to both plants and clouds.

He said that all his actions depended on some scarlet trees that he had seen on Ios Island.

She giggled.

Ah, he was funny and young.

So young.”

 

 

“I will go past borders and cities and villages and forests and waters and there will be nothing left on me but dust on my feet, silence in my heart and on my face a mild smile meaningless and burning.

So many are the places where something had been left, ripped out of my torn apart soul and my ragged life.“)

 

 

Above: Portrait of Milos Crnjanski

 

 

Andrić left Belgrade soon after, and reported for duty in late February.

At this time, he published his first short story, Put Alije Đerzeleza (The Journey of Alija Đerzelez).

 

 

 

 

(Gjergj Elez Alia or Đerzelez Alija is a popular legendary hero in epic poetry and literature in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Gora and in northern Albania.

Muslims from Bosnian Krajina modeled the poetic image of Alija Đerzelez after the image of Serbian (Christian) Prince Marko, based on the historic person Ali Bey Mihaloğlu.

 

 

 

 

Marko Mrnjavčević  (1335 – 1395) was the de jure Serbian king from 1371 to 1395, while he was the de facto ruler of territory in western Macedonia centered on the town of Prilep.

He is known as Prince Marko and King Marko in South Slavic oral tradition, in which he has become a major character during the period of Ottoman rule over the Balkans.

 

 

Above: Portrait of Prince Marko

 

 

Marko’s father, King Vukašin, was co-ruler with Serbian Tsar Stefan Uroš V, whose reign was characterised by weakening central authority and the gradual disintegration of the Serbian Empire.

Vukašin’s holdings included lands in western Macedonia and Kosovo.

 

 

Above: King Vukasin

 

 

In 1370, he crowned Marko “young king“:

This title included the possibility that Marko would succeed the childless Uroš on the Serbian throne.

 

 

Above: Coat of arms of the Kingdom of Serbia

 

 

On 26 September 1371, Vukašin was killed and his forces defeated in the Battle of Maritsa.

About two months later, Tsar Uroš died.

This formally made Marko King of Serbia.

 

 

Above: Maritsa Valley

 

 

However, Serbian noblemen, who had become effectively independent from the central authority, did not even consider to recognise him as their supreme ruler.

Sometime after 1371, he became an Ottoman vassal.

 

 

Above: Ottoman Empire logo

 

 

By 1377, significant portions of the territory he inherited from Vukašin were seized by other noblemen.

King Marko, in reality, came to be a regional lord who ruled over a relatively small territory in western Macedonia.

 

 

 

He funded the construction of the Monastery of Saint Demetrius near Skopje (better known as Marko’s Monastery), which was completed in 1376.

 

Above: Marko’s Monastery

 

 

Marko died on 17 May 1395, fighting for the Ottomans against the Wallachians in the Battle of Rovine.

 

 

Above: Battle of Rovine

 

 

Although a ruler of modest historical significance, Marko became a major character in South Slavic oral tradition.

He is venerated as a national hero by the Serbs, Macedonians and Bulgarians, remembered in Balkan folklore as a fearless and powerful protector of the weak, who fought against injustice and confronted the Turks during the Ottoman occupation.

 

 

Above: A Herzegovinian sings with a gusle in an 1823 drawing.

Serbian epic poems were often sung, accompanied by this traditional instrument.

 

 

South Slavic legends about Kraljević Marko or Krali Marko are primarily based on myths much older than the historical Marko Mrnjavčević.

He differs in legend from the folk poems:

In some areas he was imagined as a giant who walked stepping on hilltops, his head touching the clouds.

 

He was said to have helped God shape the Earth, and created the river gorge in Demir Kapija (“Iron Gate“) with a stroke of his sabre.

This drained the sea covering the regions of Bitola, Mariovo and Tikveš in Macedonia, making them habitable.

 

 

Above: Demir Kapija

 

 

After the Earth was shaped, Marko arrogantly showed off his strength.

God took it away by leaving a bag as heavy as the Earth on a road.

When Marko tried to lift it, he lost his strength and became an ordinary man.

 

Legend also has it that Marko acquired his strength after he was suckled by a vila.

King Vukašin threw him into a river because he did not resemble him, but the boy was saved by a cowherd (who adopted him, and a vila suckled him).

 

 

Above: Serbian epic heroes Prince Marko and Miloš Obilić, and the vila Ravijojla

 

 

In other accounts, Marko was a shepherd (or cowherd) who found a vila‘s children lost in a mountain and shaded them against the sun (or gave them water).

As a reward the vila suckled him three times, and he could lift and throw a large boulder.

An Istrian version has Marko making a shade for two snakes, instead of the children.

In a Bulgarian version, each of the three draughts of milk he suckled from the vila‘s breast became a snake.

 

 

 

 

Marko was associated with large, solitary boulders and indentations in rocks:

The boulders were said to be thrown by him from a hill, and the indentations were his footprints (or the hoofprints of his horse).

He was also connected with geographic features such as hills, glens, cliffs, caves, rivers, brooks and groves, which he created or at which he did something memorable.

They were often named after him, and there are many toponyms (place names) — from Istria in the west to Bulgaria in the east — derived from his name.

In Bulgarian and Macedonian stories, Marko had an equally strong sister who competed with him in throwing boulders.

 

 

 

 

In some legends, Marko’s wonder horse was a gift from a vila (a mountain nymph).

A Serbian story says that he was looking for a horse who could bear him.

To test a steed, he would grab him by the tail and sling him over his shoulder.

Seeing a diseased piebald foal owned by some carters, Marko grabbed him by the tail but could not move him.

He bought (and cured) the foal, naming him Šarac.

He became an enormously powerful horse and Marko’s inseparable companion.

 

 

 

 

Macedonian legend has it that Marko, following a vila‘s advice, captured a sick horse on a mountain and cured him.

Crusted patches on the horse’s skin grew white hairs, and he became a piebald.

 

 

 

 

According to folk tradition Marko never died:

He lives on in a cave, in a moss-covered den or in an unknown land.

 

 

 

 

A Serbian legend recounts that Marko once fought a battle in which so many men were killed that the soldiers (and their horses) swam in blood.

He lifted his hands towards heaven and said:

“Oh God, what am I going to do now?”

God took pity on Marko, transporting him and Šarac to a cave (where Marko stuck his sabre into a rock and fell asleep).

 

 

 

 

There is moss in the cave.

Šarac eats it bit by bit, while the sabre slowly emerges from the rock.

When it falls on the ground and Šarac finishes the moss, Marko will awaken and reenter the world.

Some allegedly saw him after descending into a deep pit, where he lived in a large house in front of which Šarac was seen.

Others saw him in a faraway land, living in a cave.

 

 

 

 

According to Macedonian tradition Marko drank “eagle’s water“, which made him immortal.

He is with Elijah in heaven.

 

 

 

Mihaloğlu Ali Bey or Gazı Alauddin Mihaloğlu Ali Bey, (1425—1507) was an Ottoman military commander in the 15th century and the first sanjakbey (provincial governor) of the Sanjak of Smederevo (the territory of Belgrade).

He was one of the descendants of Köse Mihal, a Byzantine governor of Chirmenkia and battle companion of Osman Gazi.

 

 

 

 

I am not certain of why Ali Bey is so honoured, for it seems he was continuously defeated in almost every military campaign he was involved in.

 

 

 

Songs about Đerzelez Alija were transmitted by bilingual singers from South Slavic milieu to northern Albanian milieu, where he is known as Gjergj Elez Alia.)

 

 

The year 1920 was a year of great changes:

• the First Red Scare, a widespread fear of far left extremism in the United States, continues, as do the Palmer (after Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer) Raids:  on one day alone (2 January) 4,025 people were arrested in several cities across the country – mostly Italian and Jewish immigrants were targeted.

 

• the Russian Civil War still raged

 

• the League of Nations began sessions in Paris before moving to Geneva

 

• the Netherlands refused to extradite exiled German Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859 – 1941)

 

• Prohibition in the United States began

 

• the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was founded and women’s suffragism realized in the US

 

 

• the victorious Allies carved up the former Ottoman Empire and Hungary lost 72% of its pre-WW1 territory

 

Above: The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, by Sir William Orpen

 

• the German Workers Party renamed itself the Nazi Party

 

• Estonia, Lithuania and Syria all gain their independence this year

Above: Flag of Estonia

 

• the world’s first peaceful establishment of a social democratic government took place in Sweden

 

• the US Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles claiming that it was too harsh on the defeated participants of WW1

 

• the Summer Olympics opened in Antwerp, Belgium

 

• the Mexican Revolution ended

 

• the Polish – Russian War ended in a Polish victory

Above: Five stages of the Polish-Soviet War

 

• Albanian PM Essad Pasha Toptani (1863 – 1920) was assassinated in Paris

 

• the US Postal Service ruled that children cannot be mailed

 

• three African American circus workers were lynched in Duluth, Minnesota

 

• Arthur Meighen (1874 – 1960) became the 9th Prime Minister of Canada

 

• the Irish War of Independence still raged, including “Bloody Sunday“

 

• the HIV / AIDS pandemic began in Léopoldville (today’s Kinshasa)

 

 

With the end of World War I and the collapse of both the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires the conditions were met for proclaiming the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in December 1918.

The Yugoslav ideal had long been cultivated by the intellectual circles of the three nations that gave the name to the country, but the international constellation of political forces and interests did not permit its implementation until then.

However, after the war, idealist intellectuals gave way to politicians, and the most influential Croatian politicians opposed the new state right from the start.

It was not certain through much of 1920 whether the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia) would survive its own internal divisions.

 

 

Above: Coat of arms of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

 

 

As for the Vatican, the Roman Question was still unresolved.

On 9 February 1849, the Roman Republic took over the government of the Papal States.

In the following July, an intervention by French troops restored Pope Pius IX to power, making the Roman Question a hotly debated one even in the internal politics of France.

 

 

 

 

In July 1859, after France and Austria made an agreement that ended the short Second Italian War of Independence, an article headed “The Roman Question” in the Westminster Review expressed the opinion that the Papal States should be deprived of the Adriatic provinces and be restricted to the territory around Rome.

This became a reality in the following year, when most of the Papal States were annexed by what became the Kingdom of Italy.

 

 

Above: the Italian peninsula, 1796

 

 

The Vatican is the religious centre of Catholicism, but the question raged as to whether it should also continue to have its own territory.

This question was not resolved until 1929.

 

 

Above: Coat of arms of the Bishop of Rome (aka the Pope)

 

 

In the midst of all this, Andric began his diplomatic career.

 

 

 

 

Andric complained that the consulate was understaffed and that he did not have enough time to write.

All evidence suggests he had a strong distaste for the ceremony and pomp that accompanied his work in the diplomatic service, but according to Hawkesworth, he endured it with “dignified good grace“.

Around this time, he began writing in the Ekavian dialect used in Serbia, and ceased writing in the Ijekavian dialect used in his native Bosnia.

 

 

 

Andrić soon requested another assignment.

 

In November, he was transferred to Bucharest.

Once again, his health deteriorated.

Nevertheless, Andrić found his consular duties there did not require much effort, so he focused on writing, contributed articles to a Romanian journal and even had time to visit his family in Bosnia.

 

 

Above: Flag of Romania

 

 

The Treaty of Bucharest was signed between Romania and the Entente Powers on 17 August 1916 in Bucharest.

The treaty stipulated the conditions under which Romania agreed to join the war on the side of the Entente, particularly territorial promises in Austria-Hungary.

The signatories bound themselves to keep secret the contents of the treaty until a general peace was concluded.

 

 

Above: Treaty of Bucharest

 

 

Romanians!

The war which for the last two years has been encircling our frontiers more and more closely has shaken the ancient foundations of Europe to their depths.

It has brought the day which has been awaited for centuries by the national conscience, by the founders of the Romanian State, by those who united the principalities in the war of independence, by those responsible for the national renaissance.

It is the day of the union of all branches of our nation.

Today we are able to complete the task of our forefathers and to establish forever that which Michael the Great was only able to establish for a moment, namely, a Romanian union on both slopes of the Carpathians.

For us the mountains and plains of Bukowina, where Stephen the Great has slept for centuries.

In our moral energy and our valour lie the means of giving him back his birthright of a great and free Rumania from the Tisza to the Black Sea, and to prosper in peace in accordance with our customs and our hopes and dreams. 

Part of the proclamation by King Ferdinand, 28 August 1916

 

Above: King Ferdinand I of Romania (1865 – 1927)

 

 

The concept of “Greater Romania“ materialized as a geopolitical reality after the First World War.

Romania gained control over Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania.

As a result, most regions with clear Romanian majorities were merged into a single state.

It also led to the inclusion of sizable minorities, including Magyars (ethnic Hungarians), Germans, Jews, Ukrainians and Bulgarians — about 28% of the country’s population.

The borders established by the treaties concluding the war did not change until 1940.

The resulting state, often referred to as “România Mare” or România Întregită (roughly translated in English as “Romania Made Whole“), was seen as the ‘true’, whole Romanian state, or, as Tom Gallagher states, the “Holy Grail of Romanian nationalism“.

The Romanian ideology changed due to the demographic, cultural and social alterations, however the nationalist desire for a homogeneous Romanian state conflicted with the multiethnic, multicultural truth of Greater Romania.

From 1918 to 1938, Romania was a monarchy whose liberal Constitution was seldom respected in practice.

 

 

Above: Greater Romania (1920 – 1940)

 

 

In 1922, Andrić requested another reassignment.

He was transferred to the consulate in Trieste, where he arrived on 9 December 1922.

 

 

Above: Flag of Trieste

 

 

At the beginning of the 20th century, Trieste was a bustling cosmopolitan city frequented by artists and philosophers such as James Joyce, Italo Svevo, Sigmund Freud, Zofka Kveder, Dragotin Kette, Ivan Cankar, Scipio Slataper, and Umberto Saba.

The city was the major port on the Austrian Riviera, and perhaps the only real enclave of Mitteleuropa (i.e., Central Europe) on the Mediterranean.

Viennese architecture and coffeehouses dominate the streets of Trieste to this day.

 

 

Above: Images of Trieste

 

 

Italy, in return for entering World War I on the side of the Allied Powers, had been promised substantial territorial gains, which included the former Austrian Littoral and western Inner Carniola.

Italy therefore annexed the city of Trieste at the end of the war, in accordance with the provisions of the 1915 Treaty of London and the Italian-Yugoslav 1920 Treaty of Rapallo.

 

 

Above: Flag of the Kingdom of Italy (1861 – 1946)

 

 

The Treaty of Rapallo was a treaty between the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed Yugoslavia in 1929), signed to solve the dispute over some territories in the former Austrian Littoral in the upper Adriatic and in Dalmatia.

The treaty was signed on 12 November 1920 in Rapallo, near Genoa, Italy.

 

Above: Rapallo

 

 

Tension between Italy and Yugoslavia arose at the end of World War I, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolved and Italy claimed the territories assigned to it by the secret Treaty of London of 1915.

According to the treaty signed in London on 26 April 1915 by the Kingdom of Italy and the Triple Entente, in case of victory at the end of World War I, Italy was to obtain several territorial gains including former Austrian Littoral, northern Dalmatia and notably Zadar, Šibenik, and most of the Dalmatian islands (except Krk and Rab).

These territories had an ethnically mixed population, with Slovenes and Croats composing over the half of the population of the region.

The treaty was therefore nullified with the Treaty of Versailles under pressure of President Woodrow Wilson, making void Italian claims on northern Dalmatia.

The objective of the Treaty of Rapallo was to find a compromise following the void created by the non-application of the Treaty of London of 1915.

 

 

 

 

While only a few thousands Italians remained in the newly established South Slavic state, a population of half a million Slavs, including the annexed Slovenes, were cut off from the remaining three-quarters of total Slovene population at the time and were subjected to forced Italianization.

Trieste had a large Italian majority, but it had more ethnic Slovene inhabitants than even Slovenia’s capital of Ljubljana at the end of 19th century.

 

 

 

 

Andric’s Trieste assignment meant he was representing Slovenes in a predominantly Slovene-populated territory now under Italian control.

 

 

Above: Peter Kozler’s map of the Slovene Lands, designed during the Spring of Nations in 1848, became the symbol of the quest for a United Slovenia.

 

 

The Italian lower middle class—who felt most threatened by the city’s Slovene middle class—sought to make Trieste a città italianissima, committing a series of attacks led by the Black Shirts against Slovene-owned shops, libraries, and lawyers’ offices, even burning down the Trieste National Hall, a central building to the Slovene community.

On 13 July 1920, the building was burned by the Fascist Blackshirts, led by Francesco Giunta.

 

 

 

The act was praised by Benito Mussolini, who had not yet assumed power, as a “masterpiece of the Triestine Fascism“.

It was part of a wider pogrom against the Slovenes and other Slavs in the very centre of Trieste and the harbinger of the ensuing violence against  Slovenes and Croats.

 

 

Above: Fascist logo

 

 

By the mid-1930s several thousand Slovenes, especially members of the middle class and the intelligentsia from Trieste, emigrated to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia or to South America.

Among the notable Slovene émigrés from Trieste were the author Vladimir Bartol, the legal theorist Boris Furlan and the Argentine architect Viktor Sulčič.

The political leadership of the around 70,000 émigrés from the Julian March in Yugoslavia was mostly composed of Trieste Slovenes: Lavo Čermelj, Josip Vilfan and Ivan Marija Čok.

 

 

Above: Flag of modern Slovenia

 

 

In 1926, claiming that it was restoring surnames to their original Italian form, the Italian government announced the Italianization of German, Slovene and Croatian surnames.

In the Province of Trieste alone, 3,000 surnames were modified and 60,000 people had their surnames amended to an Italian-sounding form.

The psychological trauma, experienced by more than 150,000 people, led to a massive emigration of German and Slavic families from Trieste.

Despite the exodus of the Slovene and German speakers, the city’s population increased because of the migration of Italians from other parts of Italy.

Several thousand ethnic Italians from Dalmatia also moved to Trieste from the newly created Yugoslavia.

 

 

 

 

The city’s damp climate only caused Andrić’s health to deteriorate further.

On his doctor’s advice, he transferred to Graz in January 1923.

 

 

Above: Hauptplatz, Graz, Austria

 

 

Graz is the capital city of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna.

 

 

Above: Graz

 

 

Emerging from the war, Austria had two main political parties on the right and one on the left.

 

 

Above: Flag of Austria

 

 

The right was split between clericalism and nationalism.

The Christian Social Party, (Christlichsoziale Partei, CS), had been founded in 1891 and achieved plurality from 1907–1911 before losing it to the socialists.

Their influence had been waning in the capital, even before 1914, but became the dominant party of the First Republic, and the party of government from 1920 onwards.

The CS had close ties to the Roman Catholic Church and was headed by a Catholic priest named Ignaz Seipel (1876–1932), who served twice as Chancellor (1922–1924 / 1926–1929).

While in power, Seipel was working for an alliance between wealthy industrialists and the Roman Catholic Church.

The CS drew its political support from conservative rural Catholics.

In 1920 the Greater German People’s Party (Großdeutsche Volkspartei, GDVP) was founded from the bulk of liberal and national groups and became the junior partner of the CS.

 

 

 

On the left the Social Democratic Workers’ Party of Austria (Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) founded in 1898, which pursued a fairly left-wing course known as Austromarxism at that time, could count on a secure majority in “Red Vienna” (as the capital was known from 1918 to 1934), while right-wing parties controlled all other states.

The SDAPÖ were the strongest voting bloc from 1911 to 1918.

 

 

Between 1918 and 1920, there was a grand coalition government including both left and right-wing parties, the CS and the Social Democratic Workers’ Party (Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ).

This gave the Social Democrats their first opportunity to influence Austrian politics.

The coalition enacted progressive socio-economic and labour legislation, such as the vote for women on 27 November 1918, but collapsed on 22 October 1920.

 

In 1920, the modern Constitution of Austria was enacted, but from 1920 onwards Austrian politics were characterized by intense and sometimes violent conflict between left and right.

The bourgeois parties maintained their dominance but formed unstable governments while socialists remained the largest elected party numerically.

Both right-wing and left-wing paramilitary forces were created during the 20s.

The Heimwehr (Home Resistance) first appeared on 12 May 1920 and became progressively organised over the next three years and the Republikanischer Schutzbund was formed in response to this on 19 February 1923.

 

 

 

 

From 2 April 1923 to 30 September there were violent clashes between Socialists and Nazis in Vienna.

On 2 April, referred to as Schlacht auf dem Exelberg (Battle of Exelberg) involved 300 Nazis against 90 Socialists.

Further episodes occurred on 4 May and 30 September 1923.

A clash between those groups in Schattendorf, Burgenland, on 30 January 1927, led to the death of a man and a child.

 

Above: Schattendorf

 

 

Right-wing veterans were indicted at a court in Vienna, but acquitted in a jury trial.

This led to massive protests and a fire at the Justizpalast (Palace of Justice) in Vienna.

In the July Revolt of 1927, 89 protesters were killed by the Austrian police forces.

Political conflict escalated until the early 1930s.

 

 

Above: the Palace of Justice, Vienna, before the fire

 

 

Whether the violence that Vienna viewed was reflected in Graz was never recorded by Andric during his time there as both vice-consul and student.

 

Andric arrived in the city on 23 January 1923 and was appointed vice-consul.

Andrić soon enrolled at the University of Graz, resumed his schooling and began working on his doctoral dissertation in Slavic studies.

 

 

Above: University of Graz logo

 

 

In August 1923, Andrić experienced an unexpected career setback.

A law had been passed stipulating that all civil servants had to have a doctoral degree.

As Andrić had not completed his dissertation, he was informed that his employment would be terminated.

 

 

 

 

Andrić’s well-connected friends intervened on his behalf and appealed to Foreign Minister Momčilo Ninčić, citing Andrić’s diplomatic and linguistic abilities.

 

Above: Momčilo Ninčić (1876 – 1949), Serbian politician and economist, and president of the League of Nations (1926 – 1927)

 

 

In February 1924, the Foreign Ministry decided to retain Andrić as a day worker with the salary of a vice-consul.

This gave him the opportunity to complete his Ph.D.

 

 

 

 

Three months later, on 24 May, Andrić submitted his dissertation to a committee of examiners at the University of Graz, who gave it their approval.

This allowed Andrić to take the examinations necessary for his Ph.D to be confirmed.

He passed both his exams, and on 13 July, received his Ph.D.

 

The committee of examiners recommended that Andrić’s dissertation be published.

Andrić chose the title Die Entwicklung des geistigen Lebens in Bosnien unter der Einwirkung der türkischen Herrschaft (The Development of Spiritual Life in Bosnia Under the Influence of Turkish Rule).

In it, he characterized the Ottoman occupation as a yoke that still loomed over Bosnia.

“The effect of Turkish rule was absolutely negative,” he wrote.

“The Turks could bring no cultural content or sense of higher mission, even to those South Slavs who accepted Islam.“

 

 

 

 

Several days after receiving his Ph.D, Andrić wrote the Foreign Minister asking to be reinstated and submitted a copy of his dissertation, university documents and a medical certification that deemed him to be in good health.

In September, the Foreign Ministry granted his request.

 

Above: Bust of Ivo Andric, Graz

 

 

Andrić stayed in Graz until 31 October 1924, when he was assigned to the Foreign Ministry’s Belgrade headquarters.

 

 

 

 

During the two years he was in Belgrade, Andrić spent much of his time writing.

His first collection of short stories was published in 1924, and he received a prize from the Serbian Royal Academy (of which he became a full-fledged member in February 1926).

 

 

Above: Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts plaque

 

 

The reader who takes the collected works of one writer, reads them as a connected whole, despite all the contradictions and breaks that the work of one writer carries within itself. 

He passes through that work as through a well-arranged street in which the facades of houses are interconnected, and everything comes to him as one more or less planned and well-connected whole. 

Because such a reader stands at the end point of the writer’s work, looks in the opposite direction from the one in which those works were created, observes them as a whole and continuity that they could not have when, one by one, they were slowly and difficultly created in long and restless periods of life.

Ivo Andrić
Signs by the Roadside

 

 

 

 

And what is, basically, a story?

How, in the shortest outline, could a story be described rather than precisely defined?

 

One of the most important features of the story is its size, ie the measure of its conciseness.

It depends on the extent of the compression of the form how the writer will arrange his material, how he will construct the plot and how to introduce his theme into it or network more motives, how he will explain his linguistic potential.

There is no doubt that the narrative is based on the categories of selection and summarization, on giving a restrictive, reduced form to the process of narration.

The concentration of attention, conciseness and interestingness of the narration must be in the foreground in order to achieve the impression of a unique whole.

That is why the story relies on a “limited world“, on a clearly emphasized detail, a motivated situation or an emphasized character.

 

 

 

 

But, the core, the essence, the justification of the existence of every story cannot be reduced only to its formal characteristics, because the most important thing is the story, the process of telling, the narration.

 

It gives meaning to human existence and its torment to reach the meaning and reason for the existence of the world.

 

From time immemorial, humanity has been telling stories, stories about heroism, love, suffering, betrayal, loyalty and friendship, the story is inherent in man, an integral part of his position in an interactive relationship with the world.

 

 

 

 

And it is no coincidence that Andrić put the words of his “uncle“, the late Fr. Rafa, into the mouth of his hero, Fr. Petar, who always joked:

“I could still do without bread, but without talking I can’t.“

 

 

 

 

In a thousand different languages, in various living conditions, from century to century, from ancient patriarchal stories in huts, by the fire, to modern narrators who are coming out of publishing houses in major world centers at the moment, the story of human destiny is being told, which people tell people without end and interruption.

The way and forms of that story change over time and circumstances, but the need for storytelling and storytelling remains, and the story flows on and the storytelling has no end.

So sometimes it seems to us that humanity, from the first flash of consciousness, through the centuries, tells itself, in a million variants, along with the breath of its lungs and the rhythm of its being, constantly the same story.

And that story seems to want, like the story of the legendary Scheherazade, to deceive the executioner, to postpone the inevitability of the tragic accident that threatens us, and to prolong the illusion of life and duration.

 

 

Above: Scheherazade, painted in the 19th century by Sophie Anderson

 

 

Perhaps the goal of that story is to light up, at least a little, the dark paths that life often throws us on, and to tell us something more about that life, which we live but which we do not always see and understand, than we, in our weakness, can know and understand.

Often only from the words of a good narrator do we learn what we have done and what we have missed, what we should do and what we should not.

Perhaps these stories, oral and written, also contain the true history of mankind, and perhaps one could at least sense, if not find out, the meaning of that history.

And that regardless of whether they are dealing with the past or the present.

Perhaps one could at least infer from them, if not find out, the meaning of that history.

 

 

Above: History by Frederick Dielman (1896)

 

 

Andrić in his imaginary “Conversation with Goya” in 1935, Andrić’s hero Goja, the narrator’s interlocutor, sees life and story as creatively intertwined.

Because without a story there is no real life.

And how to get to the story, that key to everything that “happened and is happening“, which is repeated in countless different forms?

Legends should be listened to:

“Those traces of collective human efforts through the centuries and the meaning of our destiny should be deciphered from them as much as possible”, says Andrićev Goja in one place, and further adds that the meaning should be sought “in those layers of humanity. ”

 

 

 

 

In 1924, the same year when he defended his doctoral dissertation in Graz, The Development of Spiritual Life in Bosnia under the Influence of Turkish Rule, Andrić published his first collection of stories under the simple title Pripovetke (Tales) in the Belgrade Serbian Literary Association.

 

 

 

 

In his dissertation, Andrić himself points out that “in its content and in its basic idea, this discussion is related to other works” that he prepared “in another form and on other occasions.”

We cannot help but wonder what that connection is.

What works does Andrić’s statement refer to?

How much did the research of the history of Bosnia in connection with the dissertation help Andrić to see the nature of life in the Bosnian backwater during the Turkish occupation?

Apparently, the research undertaken by the young doctoral student, and the insights he gained, became an inexhaustible source and raw material for his short stories, and not only for those printed in 1924.

“These tales about the Turks and about ours are only a part of one work, which began with the tale ‘The Way of Alija Đerzelez’,” Andrić wrote in the introductory note for Tales.

 

 

 

 

From the moment he went to study in Zagreb and then Vienna and Krakow, Andrić traveled frequently. 

Working as a diplomatic official in the Yugoslav embassies in some European cities, the writer got to know the people and regions of the countries in which he resided well.

 

 

 

 

Andrić published his first travelogue in 1914 under the title “Letter from Krakow” in the Croatian Movement, during his studies at the Jagiellonian University.

 

Above: Jagiellonian University logo

 

 

Living and studying in Graz, in 1923, Andrić translated his impressions of life and the country in the form of “notes from the road” into the text Through Austria.

 

 

 

 

Living in many capitals of interwar Europe inspired Andrić to write down his impressions.

However, he did not rely only on his own senses and observations, but carefully prepared for each trip and wrote in notebooks data from books on the history, culture and traditions of the country.

In his travelogues, Andrić primarily states what makes a country and its way of life specific.

 

Above: Europe, 1923

 

 

This is how I seek to write my travelogues.

 

In October 1926, he was assigned to the consulate in Marseille and again appointed vice-consul.

 

 

Above: Vieux Port, Marseille, France

 

 

On 9 December 1926, he was transferred to the Yugoslav embassy in Paris.

 

 

 

France suffered heavily during World War I in terms of lives lost, disabled veterans and ruined agricultural and industrial areas occupied by Germany as well as heavy borrowing from the United States, Britain, and the French people.

However, postwar reconstruction was rapid, and the long history of political warfare along religious lines was finally ended.

Parisian culture was world-famous in the 1920s, with expatriate artists, musicians and writers from across the globe contributing their cosmopolitanism, such as jazz music, and the French empire was in flourishing condition, especially in North Africa, and in Subsaharan Africa.

 

 

Above: Josephine Baker dances the Charleston at the Folies Bergère (1926)

 

 

Although the official goal was complete assimilation, few colonial subjects were actually assimilated.

Major concerns were forcing Germany to pay for the war damage by reparations payments and guaranteeing that Germany, with its much larger population, would never be a military threat in the future.

Efforts to set up military alliances worked poorly.

Relations remained very tense with Germany until 1924, when they stabilized thanks to large American bank loans.

 

Above: Germany (1919 – 1937)

 

 

France was part of the Allied force that occupied the Rhineland following the armistice.

Ferdinand Foch supported Poland in the Greater Poland Uprising and in the Polish–Soviet War and France also joined Spain during the Rif War.

 

Above: Ferdinand Foch

 

 

From 1925 until his death in 1932, Aristide Briand, as prime minister during five short intervals, directed French foreign policy by using his diplomatic skills and sense of timing to forge friendly relations with Weimar Germany as the basis of a genuine peace within the framework of the League of Nations.

He realised France could not contain the much larger Germany by itself or secure effective support from Britain or the League.

 

 

Above: Aristide Briand (1862 – 1932)

 

 

In January 1923, after Germany refused to ship enough coal as part of its reparations, France and Belgium occupied the industrial region of the Ruhr.

Germany responded with passive resistance, which included printing vast amounts of marks to pay for the occupation, which caused runaway inflation.

That heavily damaged the German middle class, whose savings became worthless, but also damaged the French franc.

 

 

 

 

The intervention was a failure, and in the summer of 1924, France accepted the American solution to the reparations issues, as expressed in the Dawes Plan.

It had American banks make long-term loans to Germany, which used the money to pay reparations.

The United States demanded repayment of the war loans although the terms were slightly softened in 1926.

All loans, payments and reparations were suspended in 1931, and everything was finally resolved in 1951.

 

 

 

 

In the 1920s, France built the Maginot Line, an elaborate system of static border defences that was designed to stop any German invasion.

However, it did not extend into Belgium, and Germany attacked there in 1940 and went around the French defenses.

Military alliances were signed with weak powers in 1920–21, called the “Little Entente“.

 

 

 

 

Domestic politics in the 1920s were a product of unresolved problems left by the war and peace, especially the economics of reconstruction and how to make Germany pay for it all.

The great planners were Raymond Poincaré, Alexandre Millerand and Aristide Briand.

France had paid for the war with very heavy borrowing at home and from Britain and the United States.

 

 

 

Heavy inflation resulted, and in 1922, Poincaré became Prime Minister.

He justified his strong anti-German policies:

Germany’s population was increasing, her industries were intact, she had no factories to reconstruct, she had no flooded mines.

Her resources were intact, above and below ground.

In fifteen or twenty years Germany would be mistress of Europe.

In front of her would be France with a population scarcely increased.

Poincaré used German reparations to maintain the franc at a tenth of its prewar value and to pay for the reconstruction of the devastated areas.

 

 

Above: Raymond Poincaré (1860 – 1934)

 

 

Since Germany refused to pay nearly as much as Paris demanded, Poincaré reluctantly sent the French army to occupy the Ruhr industrial area (1922) to force a showdown.

The British strongly objected, arguing that it “would only impair German recovery, topple the German government, and lead to internal anarchy and Bolshevism, without achieving the financial goals of the French.“

 

 

 

 

The Germans practiced passive resistance by flooding the economy with paper money that damaged both the German and French economies.

The standoff was solved by American dollars in the Dawes Plan.

New York banks lent money to Germany for reparations to France, which then used the same dollars to repay the Americans.

 

 

Above: Wall Street, New York City

 

 

Throughout the early postwar period, Poincaré’s political base was the conservative nationalist parliament elected in 1920.

However, at the next election (1924), a coalition of Radical Socialists and Socialists called the “Cartel des gauches” (“Cartel of the Left“) won a majority, and Herriot of the Radical Socialist Party became prime minister.

He was disillusioned by the imperialist thrust of the Versailles Treaty, and sought a stable international peace in rapprochement with the Soviet Union to block the rising German revanchist movement.

 

 

Above: Édouard Herriot (1872 – 1957)

 

 

Andrić’s time in France was marked by increasing loneliness and isolation.

His uncle had died in 1924, his mother the following year, and upon arriving in France, he was informed that his aunt had died as well.

“Apart from official contacts,” he wrote Alaupović, “I have no company whatever.“

Andrić spent much of his time in the Paris archives poring over the reports of the French consulate in Travnik between 1809 and 1814, material he would use in Travnička hronika (The Travnik Chronicle), one of his future novels.

 

 

 

 

(The Travnik Chronicle (1945) is a historical novel written during the Second World War, based on the model of a European realistic novel. 

It covers the period from 1807 until 1814 and therefore represents a classic novel more than any other Andrić’s novel.

The novel is narrated in the 3rd person and consists of a prologue, epilogue and 28 chapters.

Chronicle of Travnik is a seven-year fiction chronicle that deals with the stay of foreign consuls in that vizier’s city.

It begins with the arrival of the French consul, and ends with the departure of the second-appointed Austrian consul.

The novel is turned to history.

In the process of creating the Travnik Chronicle, Andrić used rich documentary material from the field of the history of civilization, ethnology and authentic writings about historical figures that are presented in the novel.)

 

 

Above: Travnik Fort

 

 

In April 1928, Andrić was posted to Madrid as vice-consul.

 

 

Above: Gran Via, Madrid, Spain

 

 

Spain’s neutrality in World War I spared the country from carnage, yet the conflict caused massive economic disruption, with the country experiencing at the same time an economic boom (the increasing foreign demand of products and the drop of imports brought hefty profits) and widespread social distress (with mounting inflation, shortage of basic goods and extreme income inequality).

 

 

Above: Flag of Spain

 

 

A major revolutionary strike was called for August 1917, supported by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, the UGT and the CNT, seeking to overthrow the government by means of a general strike.

The Dato government deployed the army against the workers to brutally quell any threat to social order, sealing in turn the demise of the cabinet and undermining the constitutional order.

The strike was one of the three simultaneous developments of a wider three-headed crisis in 1917 that cracked the Restoration regime, that also included a military crisis induced by the cleavage in the Armed Forces between Mainland and Africa-based ranks vis-à-vis the military promotion (and ensuing formation of juntas of officers that refused to dissolve upon request from the government), and a political crisis brought by the challenge posed by Catalan nationalism, whose bourgeois was emboldened by the economic upswing caused by the profits from exports to Entente powers during World War I.

 

 

 

 

During the Rif War, the crushing defeat of the Spanish Army in the so-called “Disaster of Annual” in the summer of 1921 brought in a matter of days the catastrophic loss of the lives of about 9,000 Spanish soldiers and the loss of all occupied territory in Morocco that had been gained since 1912.

 

 

 

 

This entailed the greatest defeat suffered by an European power in an African colonial war in the 20th century.

 

 

Above: Images of the Rif War

 

 

Spanish King Alfonso XIII tacitly endorsed the September 1923 coup by General Miguel Primo de Rivera that installed a dictatorship led by the latter.

 

 

Above: Spanish Alfonso XIII (1886 – 1941)

 

 

The regime enforced the State of War all over the country from September 1923 to May 1925 and, in permanent violation of the 1876 Constitution, wrecked with the legal-rational component of the constitutional compromise.

Attempts to institutionalise the regime (initially a Military Directory) were taken, in the form of a single official party (the Patriotic Union) and a consultative chamber (the National Assembly).

Preceded by a partial retreat from vulnerable posts in the interior of the protectorate in Morocco, Spain (in joint action with France) turned the tides in Morocco in 1925, and the Abd el-Krim-led Republic of the Rif started to see the beginning of its end after the Alhucemas landing and ensuing seizure of Ajdir, the heart of the Riffian rebellion.

The war had dragged on since 1917 and cost Spain $800 million.

The late 1920s were prosperous until the worldwide Great Depression hit in 1929.

 

 

Above: Miguel Primo de Riviera (1870 – 1930)

 

 

While in Madrid, Andric wrote (though did not then publish) essays on Simón Bolívar and Francisco Goya.

 

Above: Simón Bolívar (1783 – 1830)

 

 

Above: Francisco Goya (1746 – 1828)

 

 

That year he published the stories “Olujaci”, “Ispovijed” (Confession) and Most na Žepi (Bridge on the Žepa).

 

 

Bridge on the Zepa describes the construction of the bridge on Žepa, a river that often swells, and which the inhabitants have not yet managed to tame with the bridge.

So far, the river has taken away several wooden bridges (a similar theme, 20 years later, is dealt with in the Nobel Prize-winning novel On the Drina Bridge, so the story on the Bridge on the Žepa is considered an overture to the novel.

The narrator tells us the whole story in clear sentences.

The different segments of the story are firmly connected, although the vizier, as a narrator, often returns to the past and recalls his childhood in retrospect.

 

 

 

 

In Most na Žepi, Ivo Andrić describes many values, but also universal truths. 

He emphasizes the efforts of man to adapt the world to himself and to fight against the forces of nature that sometimes destroy everything in front of him.

In a story such as The Bridge on Zepa, the symbolism of the bridge is reflected in the emphasized human urge to subdue the world and nature around it, but also to bring order to oneself – which the Grand Vizier Yusuf failed to do.

In the story, we can also see how art outlives the man who creates it, so it seems to overcome death itself.

On the other side of the story, we have a builder who does not seek friendship, praise or help from anyone.

He does not even crave material things, but lives for his work.

He did not ask for much, but with his work he provided a lot and made life easier for many people.

 

 

 

The story describes a number of difficulties encountered by the builder in the construction of the bridge, but in the end the successful outcome is successful. 

The bridge was built, but the two characters end tragically.

Neymar dies of the plague, and the vizier suffers from the traumas experienced during his captivity, which lead him on a path of self-destruction.

In a figurative sense, the narrative is about man’s search for meaning.

Even after the goal was achieved (the construction of the bridge was completed), the characters did not achieve a sense of life satisfaction.

The story is written in the 3rd person.

 

 

 

 

Andric began work on the novel Prokleta avlija (The Cursed Court).

In Andrić’s novel, The Cursed Court is the name of the famous Constantinople dungeon, which Fr. Petar from Bosnia came to for unjustified reasons, when they sent him to Istanbul to do some monastic work.

It happened that the Turkish authorities caught a letter addressed to the Austrian internment in Constantinople, in which the persecution of the faithful by the Turkish authorities was described and the suspicion fell on Fr. Peter.

He was arrested and imprisoned in the pre-trial prison – “the Cursed Court“, where he remained for two months until he was sent on.

In The Cursed Court, Fra-Petar meets several people, who in this novel turn into a gallery of interesting characters.

There is the warden of the “Cursed Court” of Latifaga called Karadjoz , a prisoner of Chaim, a Jew from Smyrna, and then the central character from this novel is the prisoner Ćamil-effendi, a rich young Turk from Smyrna.

Fra-Petar learns from Haim, a young man’s fellow citizen, that he was imprisoned on suspicion that his study of consciousness was aimed at a rebellious plot against the sultan’s court, which was completely untrue.

Young Camil, the son of a rich Turk and a Greek woman, devoted himself to science and the solitary and ascetic way of life from an early age, which was especially emphasized by an unhappy and unhealthy love.

Namely, Camil fell in love with the daughter of a young Greek merchant, but for nationalistic and religious reasons, he did not want to give her to a Turk for a wife, but forcibly married her to a Greek outside Smyrna.

After that event, Ćamil completely closed himself in and became a kind of individual.

He surrounds himself with books and throws himself into science, showing a special interest in the consciousness of the Turkish Empire, of which he is particularly interested in one particular period – the time of Bayezid II and Jam-Sultan, his brother, whom Bayezid defeated twice in battle for the throne.

Then Jam sought refuge on the island of Rhodes, where Christian knights ruled.

From then on, the odyssey of Cem begins, who as a prisoner passes from the hands of various European rulers, and even the Pope himself, and they all use him as a trump card against the Turkish Empire, that is they threaten Bayazit that he will release him if he does not satisfy their various demands.

Ćamil is suspected of studying precisely that historical period, because it has similarities with the current situation at the court, where the sultan also has a rival brother, whom he declared insane and holds him captive. Jamil was sent to the Cursed Court, where he met Fr. Peter and told him about the life of Jam-Sultan, claiming that his life was identical with Jamil’s and that their destinies were the same.

After a while, they took him to a special prison, and one night during the interrogation, a fight broke out between him and the police.

It is not known whether the camels are taken out – alive or dead.

Fra-Peter never saw him again.

 

 

 

 

In June 1929, Andric was named secretary of the Yugoslav legation to Belgium and Luxembourg in Brussels.

 

 

Above: Images of Brussels, Belgium

 

 

Belgian King Albert returned from exile as a war hero, leading the victorious army and acclaimed by the population.

 

 

Above: King Albert I of Belgium (1875 – 1934)

 

 

In contrast, the government and other exiles came back discreetly.

Belgium had been devastated—not so much by combat, but rather by German seizure of valuable machinery.

Only 81 operable locomotives remained, out of the 3,470 available in 1914.

46 of 51 steel mills were damaged, with 26 destroyed totally.

More than 100,000 houses had been destroyed, as well as more than 120,000 hectares (300,000 acres) of farmland.

 

 

Above: Flag of Belgium

 

 

Waves of popular violence accompanied liberation in November and December 1918 and the government responded through the judicial punishment of collaboration with the enemy conducted between 1919 and 1921.

Shop windows were broken and houses sacked, men were harassed, and women’s heads were shaved.

Manufacturers who had closed their businesses sought the severe repression of those who had pursued their activities.

Journalists who had boycotted and stopped writing called for harsh treatment of the newspapers that submitted to German censorship.

Many people stigmatized profiteers and demanded justice.

Thus in 1918, Belgium was already confronted with the problems associated with occupation that most European countries only discovered at the end of World War II.

 

 

 

 

However, despite the status quo, Belgium recovered surprisingly quickly.

The first postwar Olympic Games were held in Antwerp in 1920.

In 1921, Luxembourg formed a customs union with Belgium.

 

 

 

 

German reparations to Belgium for damage incurred during the First World War was set at £12.5 billion pounds sterling.

 

In 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles the area of Eupen-Malmedy, along with Moresnet was transferred to Belgium.

“Neutral Moresnet” was transferred to Belgium, as well as the Vennbahn railway.

 

 

Above: Map of the route of the Vennbahn

 

 

An opportunity was given to the population to “oppose” against the transfer by signing a petition, which gathered few signatures, in large part thanks to intimidation by local authorities, and all regions remain part of Belgium today.

Belgian requests to annex territory considered as historically theirs, from the Dutch, who were perceived as collaborators, was denied.

 

 

 

 

Between 1923 and 1926, Belgian and French soldiers were sent to the Ruhr in Germany to force the German government to agree to continue reparation payments.

The Occupation of the Ruhr led the Dawes Plan which allowed the German government more leniency in paying reparations.

 

 

 

 

The League of Nations in 1925 made Belgium the trustee for the former German East Africa which bordered the Belgian Congo to the east.

It became Rwanda-Urundi (or “Ruanda-Urundi“) (modern day Rwanda and Burundi).

 

 

Above: Coat of arms of Ruanda-Urundi

 

 

Although promising the League it would promote education, Belgium left the task to subsidised Catholic missions and unsubsidised Protestant missions.

As late as 1962, when independence arrived, fewer than 100 natives had gone beyond secondary school.

 

 

Above: The Cathedral of Our Lady of Wisdom at Butare (formally Astrida) in Ruanda

 

 

The policy was one of low-cost paternalism, as explained by Belgium’s special representative to the Trusteeship Council:

“The real work is to change the African in his essence, to transform his soul, and to do that one must love him and enjoy having daily contact with him.

He must be cured of his thoughtlessness, he must accustom himself to living in society, he must overcome his inertia.”

 

 

 

 

On 1 January 1930, Andric was sent to Switzerland as part of Yugoslavia’s permanent delegation to the League of Nations in Geneva, and was named deputy delegate the following year.

 

 

Above: Geneva, Switzerland

 

 

The League of Nations, abbreviated as LON (French: Société des Nations, abbreviated as SDN or SdN), was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace.

It was founded on 10 January 1920 following the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War.

In 1919 US President Woodrow Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role as the leading architect of the League.

The organisation’s primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament, and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration.

Other issues in this and related treaties included labour conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, human and drug trafficking, the arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and protection of minorities in Europe.

The Covenant of the League of Nations was signed on 28 June 1919 as Part I of the Treaty of Versailles, and it became effective together with the rest of the Treaty on 10 January 1920.

The first meeting of the Council of the League took place on 16 January 1920, and the first meeting of Assembly of the League took place on 15 November 1920.

The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift from the preceding hundred years.

The League lacked its own armed force and depended on the victorious First World War Allies (France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan were the permanent members of the Executive Council) to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, or provide an army when needed.

The Great Powers were often reluctant to do so.

Sanctions could hurt League members, so they were reluctant to comply with them.

 

 

 

 

Following accusations of forced labour on the large American-owned Firestone rubber plantation and American accusations of slave trading, the Liberian government asked the League to launch an investigation.

The resulting commission was jointly appointed by the League, the United States, and Liberia.

In 1930, a League report confirmed the presence of slavery and forced labour.

The report implicated many government officials in the selling of contract labour and recommended that they be replaced by Europeans or Americans, which generated anger within Liberia and led to the resignation of President Charles D. B. King and his vice-president.

The Liberian government outlawed forced labour and slavery and asked for American help in social reforms.

 

 

Above: Flag of Liberia

 

 

The Mukden Incident, also known as the “Manchurian Incident“, was a decisive setback that weakened the League because its major members refused to tackle Japanese aggression.

Japan itself withdrew.

Under the agreed terms of the Twenty-One Demands with China, the Japanese government had the right to station its troops in the area around the South Manchurian Railway, a major trade route between the two countries, in the Chinese region of Manchuria.

In September 1931, a section of the railway was lightly damaged by the Japanese Kwantung Army as a pretext for an invasion of Manchuria.

The Japanese army claimed that Chinese soldiers had sabotaged the railway and in apparent retaliation (acting contrary to orders from Tokyo) occupied all of Manchuria.

They renamed the area Manchukuo, and on 9 March 1932 Japan set up a puppet government, with Pu Yi, the former emperor of China, as its executive head.

 

 

 

This new entity was recognised only by the governments of Italy, Spain and Nazi Germany.

The rest of the world still considered Manchuria legally part of China.

The League of Nations sent observers.

The Lytton Report appeared a year later (October 1932).

It declared Japan to be the aggressor and demanded Manchuria be returned to China.

 

 

Above: Chinese delegate addresses the League of Nations after the Mukden Incident in 1932

 

 

The report passed 42–1 in the Assembly in 1933 (only Japan voting against), but instead of removing its troops from China, Japan withdrew from the League.

In the end, as British historian Charles Mowat argued, collective security was dead:

The League and the ideas of collective security and the rule of law were defeated; partly because of indifference and of sympathy with the aggressor, but partly because the League powers were unprepared, preoccupied with other matters, and too slow to perceive the scale of Japanese ambitions.

 

 

Above: The Mukden Incident Museum (literally, “September 18th History Museum“) in Shenyang, China

 

 

The League failed to prevent the 1932 war between Bolivia and Paraguay over the arid Gran Chaco region.

Although the region was sparsely populated, it contained the Paraguay River, which would have given either landlocked country access to the Atlantic Ocean, and there was also speculation, later proved incorrect, that the Chaco would be a rich source of petroleum.

Border skirmishes throughout the late 1920s culminated in an all-out war in 1932 when the Bolivian army attacked the Paraguayans at Fort Carlos Antonio López at Lake Pitiantuta.

Paraguay appealed to the League of Nations, but the League did not take action when the Pan-American Conference offered to mediate instead.

The war was a disaster for both sides, causing 57,000 casualties for Bolivia, whose population was around three million, and 36,000 dead for Paraguay, whose population was approximately one million.

It also brought both countries to the brink of economic disaster.

By the time a ceasefire was negotiated on 12 June 1935, Paraguay had seized control of most of the region, as was later recognised by the 1938 truce.

 

 

Above: Paraguayan soldiers at Alihuatá, 1932

 

 

In 1933, Andrić returned to Belgrade.

Two years later, he was named head of the political department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On 5 November 1937, Andrić became assistant to Milan Stojadinović, Yugoslavia’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.

 

 

Above: National Assembly, Belgrade

 

 

Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe and Central Europe for most of the 20th century.

It came into existence after World War I in 1918 under the name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by the merger of the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (it was formed from territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire) with the Kingdom of Serbia, and constituted the first union of the South Slavic people as a sovereign state, following centuries in which the region had been part of the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary.

Peter I of Serbia was its first sovereign.

The kingdom gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris.

The official name of the state was changed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929.

 

 

 

 

On 20 June 1928, Serb deputy Puniša Račić shot at five members of the opposition Croatian Peasant Party in the National Assembly, resulting in the death of two deputies on the spot and that of leader Stjepan Radić a few weeks later.

 

Above: Punisa Racic (1886 – 1944)

 

 

On 6 January 1929, King Alexander I got rid of the constitution, banned national political parties and assumed executive power and renamed the country Yugoslavia.

He hoped to curb separatist tendencies and mitigate nationalist passions.

He imposed a new constitution and relinquished his dictatorship in 1931.

However, Alexander’s policies later encountered opposition from other European powers stemming from developments in Italy and Germany, where Fascists and Nazis rose to power, and the Soviet Union, where Joseph Stalin became absolute ruler.

None of these three regimes favored the policy pursued by Alexander I.

In fact, Italy and Germany wanted to revise the international treaties signed after World War I, and the Soviets were determined to regain their positions in Europe and pursue a more active international policy.

Alexander attempted to create a centralised Yugoslavia.

He decided to abolish Yugoslavia’s historic regions, and new internal boundaries were drawn for provinces or banovinas.

The banovinas were named after rivers.

Many politicians were jailed or kept under police surveillance.

The effect of Alexander’s dictatorship was to further alienate the non-Serbs from the idea of unity.

During his reign the flags of Yugoslav nations were banned.

Communist ideas were banned also.

 

Above: King Alexander I (1888 – 1934)

 

 

The king was assassinated in Marseille during an official visit to France in 1934 by Vlado Chernozemski, an experienced marksman from Ivan Mihailov’s Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization with the cooperation of the Ustaše, a Croatian fascist revolutionary organisation.

Alexander was succeeded by his eleven-year-old son Peter II and a regency council headed by his cousin, Prince Paul.

 

 

Above: The funeral of King Alexander at Belgrade

 

 

The international political scene in the late 1930s was marked by growing intolerance between the principal figures, by the aggressive attitude of the totalitarian regimes and by the certainty that the order set up after World War I was losing its strongholds and its sponsors were losing their strength.

Supported and pressured by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, Croatian leader Vladko Maček and his party managed the creation of the Banovina of Croatia (Autonomous Region with significant internal self-government) in 1939.

The agreement specified that Croatia was to remain part of Yugoslavia, but it was hurriedly building an independent political identity in international relations.

The entire kingdom was to be federalised, but World War II stopped the fulfillment of those plans.

 

 

Above: Vladko Macek (1879 – 1964)

 

 

On 1 April 1939, Andrić was appointed Yugoslavia’s ambassador to Germany, presenting his credentials of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler on 19 April. 

This appointment, Hawkesworth writes, shows that he was highly regarded by his country’s leadership.

 

 

Above: Adolf Hitler (1889 – 1945)

 

 

As previously mentioned, Yugoslavia’s King Alexander had been assassinated in Marseille in 1934.

He was succeeded by his ten-year-old son Peter, and a regency council led by Peter’s uncle Paul was established to rule in his place until he turned 18.

Paul’s government established closer economic and political ties with Germany.

 

 

Above: Prince Paul of Yugoslavia (1893 – 1976)

 

 

In March 1941, Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact, pledging support for Germany and Italy.

Though the negotiations had occurred behind Andrić’s back, in his capacity as ambassador he was obliged to attend the document’s signing in Berlin.

Andrić had previously been instructed to delay agreeing to the Axis powers’ demands for as long as possible.

He was highly critical of the move, and on 17 March, wrote to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asking to be relieved of his duties.

 

 

Above: Signing ceremony for the Axis Powers Tripartite Pact

Seated at front left (left to right) are Japan’s Ambassador Saburō Kurusu, Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Galeazzo Ciano and Germany’s Führer Adolf Hitler.

 

 

Ten days later, a group of pro-Western Royal Yugoslav Air Force officers overthrew the regency and proclaimed Peter of age.

This led to a breakdown in relations with Germany and prompted Adolf Hitler to order Yugoslavia’s invasion.

 

 

Above: King Peter II of Yugoslavia (1923 – 1970)

 

 

Given these circumstances, Andrić’s position was an extremely difficult one.

Nevertheless, he used the little influence he had and attempted unsuccessfully to assist Polish prisoners following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939.

 

 

Above: Images of the German invasion of Poland

 

 

Prior to their invasion of his country, the Germans had offered Andrić the opportunity to evacuate to neutral Switzerland.

He declined on the basis that his staff would not be allowed to go with him.

 

Above: Ivo Andric

 

 

On 6 April 1941, the Germans and their allies invaded Yugoslavia.

The country capitulated on 17 April and was subsequently partitioned between the Axis powers.

 

 

Above: The invasion of Yugoslavia

 

 

In early June, Andrić and his staff were taken back to German-occupied Belgrade, where some were jailed.

Andrić was retired from the diplomatic service, but refused to receive his pension or cooperate in any way with the puppet government that the Germans had installed in Serbia…..

 

 

 

 

The greatest part of the interwar period, Andric had spent abroad.

Living in Europe’s capital cities broadened his views and offered him the opportunity to improve his language skills, to meet men of letters and have an immediate access to literature of the countries in which he served as a diplomat, as well as to gather materials for his future novels and stories.

 

 

 

 

Inside the Ivo Andric Museum, the years of the writer’s diplomatic service are documented by original archival material – appointment and government decrees, certificates, acts of the Ministries of Religion and Foreign Affairs, issued to Andric as a civil servant and a chargé d’affaires.

The exhibited archival materials are arranged so as to illustrate, year by year, his advancement in the civil service, transfers and appointments, vacation and sick leaves.

Photos taken of him in Bucharest in 1922, Marseilles in 1927, Geneva in 1931, and Belgrade in 1937, capture visitors’ attention because they show not only an officer in the diplomatic service of the Kingdom, but also a rising writer and a newly elected member of the Serbian Royal Academy.

Andric’s diplomatic passport, issued for 1939 to 1941, is particularly interesting both as an exhibition item and a historic document.

The same applies to the photos of Andric taken in Berlin in 1939, because they remind us of times and events in the eve of World War II fateful for the Kingdom – the Tripartite Pact and demonstrations in Belgrade on 27 March 1941.

Andric’s career as a diplomat ended prematurely in the Third Reich Germany and was accompanied with his unsuccessful attempts to help prominent Polish intellectuals exiled from Krakow after the occupation of Poland in 1939 using his position as an ambassador and diplomatic channels.

Ivo Andric’s diplomatic uniform with gold embroidery, a feathered hat and a sword in an elaborately decorated scabbard, as well as his travel case with leather and wooden reinforcements – a witness to the diplomat’s journeys to Europe’s capitals and back to Belgrade – occupy the central, open area of the Museum’s exhibition room.

 

 

 

 

It is very important to point out that throughout this period of life and diplomatic service Andric was involved in literary work, gathering historical evidence in foreign archives, intensive cooperation with Yugoslav literary reviews and publishers, and correspondence with writers and friends from Zagreb, Sarajevo and Belgrade, including Zdenko Markovic, Julije Benesic, Tugomir Alaupovic, Borivoje Jevtic, Isak Samokovlija, Isidora Sekulic, Jovan Ducic, Milos Crnjanski and Dr. Miodrag Iborvac.

 

 

Above: Bust of Ivo Andric, Ivo Andric Museum, Belgrade

 

 

(Tugomir Marko Alaupović (1870 – 1958) was a Yugoslav professor at First Grammar School ,Sarajevo, as well as a poet, storyteller and politician.

In addition to his rich political biography, he was also Minister of Religion in the government of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

He has written several literary works that have been translated into French, German, Czech and Italian.

He was one of the initiators of the Croatian Society for the “Setting up of Children in Crafts and Trade” in Sarajevo and later initiated the change of the society name to Napredak.

He was a member of the Main Board of the Serbian St. Sava Society in Belgrade.

On 16 January 1934, after a serious operation, in a letter to Tihomir Djordjevic, a prominent Serbian ethnologist, he said:

“Unfortunately, my hopes have not been fulfilled and I will have to stay long or maybe even definitely in Zagreb.

It hurts and I’m sorry that for these reasons, I have to resign as a member of the Main Board of the St. Sava Society.

But rest assured that for the rest of my life, I will remain faithful to that beautiful and noble saying:

‘Everyone is my dear brother, be he any religion’“.)

 

 

Above: Tugomir Alaupovic

 

 

(Isak Samokovlija (1889 – 1955) was a prominent Bosnian Jewish writer.

By profession he was a physician.

His stories describe the life of the Bosnian Sephardic Jews.

 

 

Above: Isak Samokovlija

 

 

Samokovlija was born into a Sephardi Jewish family in Goražde, Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time of the Austro-Hungarian occupation.

While one side of his family came from Spain after the expulsion of Jews from Spain, “his great-grandfather moved to Bosnia from the town of Samokov in Bulgaria“, which led to the surname Los Samokovlis in Ladino or Samokovlija in Bosnian.

 

 

Above: Samokov Historical Museum with the statue of Zahari Zograf

 

 

After completing primary school Samokovlija went to Sarajevo.

He attended high school with Ivo Andric, the first Yugoslav to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

 

Above: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Hercegovina

 

 

After graduating high school in 1910, he receive a scholarship from local Jewish charity La Benevolencija to study medicine in Vienna.

Later he worked as a doctor in the towns Goražde and Fojnica (1921–1925) before beginning a regular job at Sarajevo’s Koševo hospital in 1925.

 

 

 

 

At the beginning of the Second World War, he was a department head at the Koševo hospital.

In April 1941 he was discharged from service as well as other Jews, but soon he was mobilized as a medical doctor fights against a typhus epidemic.

It was not until 1945, he managed to escape Yugoslavia and hide until the country was liberated.

 

 

 

 

After the end of World War II, he held various positions in the Bosnian and Yugoslav literary circles.

From 1948 to 1951 he edited the magazine Brazda, and then, until his death he was an editor at the publishing company Svjetlost.

His first short story Rafina avlija was published in 1927 and two years later his first collection of stories, Od proljeća do proljeća, came out.

 

Several of his stories were made into television films and his book Hanka was made into a film of the same name directed by Slavko Vorkapić in 1955.

He did not live to see the film, dying at age 65 in January 1955.

 

 

 

He was buried in the old Jewish cemetery on the slopes of Trebević mountain, near Sarajevo.)

 

 

 

 

(Isidora Sekulić (1877 – 1958) was a Serbian writer, novelist, essayist, polyglot and art critic.

She was “the first woman academic in the history of Serbia“.

 

 

 

 

Sekulić was born in Mošorin, a village of Bács-Bodrog County, which is now in the Vojvodina.

Apart from her studies in literature, Sekulić was also well versed in natural sciences as well as philosophy.

She graduated from the pedagogical school in Budapest in 1892, and obtained her doctorate in 1922 in Germany.

 

Above: View of Baudapest, Hungary

 

 

Her travels included extended stays in England, France and Norway.

Her travels from Oslo through Bergen to Finnmark resulted in Pisma iz Norveške (Letters from Norway) meditative travelogue in 1914.

 

 

Above: Flag of Norway

 

 

Her collection of short stories, Saputnici, are unusually detailed and penetrating accomplishment in self-analysis and a brave stylistic experiment.

She also spoke several classical as well as nine modern languages.

Sekulić’s lyrical, meditative, introspective and analytical writings come at the dawn of Serbian prose writing.

Sekulić is concerned with the human condition of man in his new, thoroughly modern sensibility.

 

Above: Isidora Sekulić

 

 

In her main novel, The Chronicle of a Small Town Cemetery (Кроника паланачког гробља), she writes in opposition to the usual chronological development of events.

Instead, each part of the book begins in the cemetery, eventually returning to the time of bustling life, with all its joys and tragedies.

Characters such as Gospa Nola, are the first strong female characters in Serbian literature, painted in detail in all their courage, pride and determination.

Isidora Sekulić also wrote critical writings in the areas of music, theatre, art, architecture and literature and philosophy.

She wrote major studies of Yugoslav, Russian, English, German, French, Italian, Norwegian and other literature.)

 

 

Above: The Chronicles of a Small Town Cemetery (Serbian original)

 

 

(Jovan Dučić (1871 – 1943) was a Herzegovinian Serb poet-diplomat.

He is one of the most influential Serbian lyricists and modernist poets.

Dučić published his first collection of poetry in Mostar in 1901 and his second in Belgrade in 1908.

He also wrote often in prose, writing a number of literary essays, studies on writers, letters by poets from Switzerland, Greece and Spain and the book Blago cara Radovana for which he is most remembered when it comes to his writing.

Dučić was also one of the founders of the Narodna Odbrana, a nationalist non-governmental organization in the Kingdom of Serbia and he was a member of the Serbian Royal Academy.

 

 

Above: Jovan Ducic

 

 

Jovan Dučić was born in Trebinje, at the time part of Bosnia Vilayet within the Ottoman Empire.

In Trebinje he attended primary school.

 

Above: Jovan Ducic Monument, Trebinje, Bosnia and Hercegovina

 

 

He moved on to a high school in Mostar and trained to become a teacher in Sombor.

He worked as a teacher in several towns before returning to Mostar, where he founded (with writer Svetozar Ćorović and poet Aleksa Šantić) a literary magazine called Zora (Dawn).

 

 

Above: Mostar, Bosnia and Hercegovina

 

 

Dučić’s openly expressed Serbian patriotism caused difficulties with the authorities – at that time Bosnia and Herzegovina was de facto incorporated into the Austro-Hungarian Empire – and he moved abroad to pursue higher studies, mostly in Geneva and Paris.

 

 

 

He was awarded a law degree by the University of Geneva and, following his return from abroad, entered Serbian diplomatic service in 1907.

 

 

 

 

Although he had previously expressed opposition to the idea of creating a Yugoslavia, he became the new country’s first ambassador to Romania (in 1937).

 

 

 

 

He had a distinguished diplomatic career in this capacity, serving in Istanbul, Sofia, Rome, Athens, Cairo, Madrid and Lisbon.

Dučić spoke several foreign languages and is remembered as a distinguished diplomat.

 

 

Above: Images of Lisbon, Portugal

 

 

It was as a poet that Dučić gained his greatest distinctions.

He published his first book of poetry in Mostar in 1901 and his second in Belgrade, 1908.

He wrote prose as well: several essays and studies about writers, Blago cara Radovana (Tsar Radovan’s treasure) and poetry letters from Switzerland, Greece, Spain and other countries.

 

 

Above: Tsar Radovan’s Treasure by Jovan Ducic (Serbian original)

 

 

Dučić’s work was initially heavily influenced by that of Vojislav Ilić, the leading Serbian poet of the late 19th century.

 

 

Above: Vojislav Ilic (1860 – 1894)

 

 

Ducic’s travels abroad helped him to develop his own individual style, in which the Symbolist movement was perhaps the greatest single influence.

In his poetry he explored quite new territory that was previously unknown in Serbian poetry.

He restricted himself to only two verse styles, the symmetrical dodecasyllable (the Alexandrine) and hendecasyllable—both French in origin—in order to focus on the symbolic meaning of his work.

He expressed a double fear, of vulgarity of thought and vulgarity of expression.

 

 

Above: Death and the Grave Digger (La Mort et le Fossoyeur) (c. 1895) by Carlos Schwabe is a visual compendium of symbolist motifs.

The angel of Death, pristine snow, and the dramatic poses of the characters all express symbolist longings for transfiguration “anywhere, out of the world“.

 

 

In the autumn of 1893, during the party in the newly built Hotel Drina in Bijeljina, a young and ambitious teacher Dučić met recent School of Commerce graduate Magdalena Živanović.

 

 

Above: Assembly Building, Bijeljina, Bosnia and Hercegovina

 

 

They got engaged with on 5 November 1893, and their correspondence continued even Dučić’s departure from Bijeljina to Mostar to teach from 1895 to 1899.

A part of the correspondence is kept safe up to this day, as well as the letter which Dučić’s friend and poet Aleksa Šantić redirected to Magdalena on 6 April 1901, asking for help in collecting a subscription for his songs.

 

 

Above: Aleksa Santic (1868 – 1924)

 

 

Ljiljana Lukić, a retired professor, keeps a personal copy of the correspondence between Dučić and Magdalena.

Professor Ljiljana Lukić states that Dučić lived for a short time in the house of Magdalena Nikolić who lived with her sister.

After her break up with Dučić, Magdalena shouted that she would never leave home again.

 

Above: Zivanovic and Ducic

 

 

“Like a novel heroine, she lived by her memories and the only happy moments she had was in reading the letters and songs of the man she loved“, as Professor Lukić concludes.

Dučić’s secret fiancé left the following words to be written after her death on her monument, which can still be read today on the Bijeljina graveyard:

Maga Nikolić-Živanović, 1874–1957,

the poet herself and first inspiration of poet Jovan Dučić.

 

 

 

Twenty years before Magdalena’s death, while Dučić was the authorized minister of Kingdom of Yugoslavia, a request was received that testifies of the deep trace which Dučić left in Bijeljina.

Singing society Srbadija asked the minister to help in building a home for the needs of the society.

 

 

Above: Museum of Semberija, Bijeljina

 

 

The Embassy of Serbia in Hungary is in the house which Jovan Dučić received from a Hungarian woman, and then donated it to the state.

 

 

Above: Embassy of Serbia in Hungary, Budapest

 

 

Dučić went into exile in the United States in 1941 following the German invasion and occupation of Yugoslavia, where he joined his relative Mihajlo (Michael) in Gary, Indiana.

 

 

 

From then until his death two years later, he led a Chicago-based organization, the Serbian National Defense Council (founded by Mihailo Pupin in 1914) which represented the Serbian diaspora in the US.

 

 

 

 

During these two years, he wrote many poems, historical books and newspaper articles espousing Serbian nationalist causes and protesting the mass murder of Serbs by the pro-Nazi Ustaše regime of Croatia.

In Yugoslav school anthologies immediately after WWII he had been declared persona non grata and widely viewed as a Serbian chauvinist.

He died on 7 April 1943.

His funeral took place at the Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in Gary, Indiana and he was buried in the Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Monastery cemetery in Libertyville, Illinois.

He expressed a wish in his will to be buried in his home town of Trebinje, a goal which was finally realized when he was reburied there on 22 October 2000 in the newly built Hercegovačka Gračanica monastery.

His Acta Diplomatica (Diplomatic Letters) was published posthumously in the United States and in the former Yugoslavia. )

 

 

Above: Dučić’s grave site in the Hercegovačka Gračanica monastery in Trebinje

 

 

(Miodrag Ibrovac (1885 – 1973) was a Serbian and Yugoslav literary historian, novelist, academic and professor at the University of Belgrade.

He graduated from college in 1907, and from 1911 he taught at the Belgrade Lyceum.

From 1924 to 1958, Ibrovac was a full professor at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade in the Department of French Language and Literature where he succeeded Bogdan Popović.

He was a corresponding member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1968 and a full professor in 1970.

He was a member of the Serbian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference that brought an end to the Great War with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

The delegation from Serbia consisted of Nikola Pašić, Slobodan Jovanović, Milenko Radomar Vesnić, Miodrag Ibrovac and others.

He is one of the founders of the Serbian PEN Center.

He was president of the Society for Cultural Co-operation Yugoslavia-France.)

 

 

Above: Miodrag Ibrovac

 

 

Andric’s years-long correspondence with Svetislav B. Cvijanovic, a Belgrade publisher, bookseller, writers’ great patron and Andric’s first publisher in Belgrade, is of particular significance.

 

There is much I learned from my visit to the Ivo Andric Museum, especially from his years as a diplomat:

• the importance of travel
• the importance of networking
• the importance of lifelong learning
• the importance of maintaining writing ambitions despite the demands of gainful employment
• the significance of the individual, especially in positions of persuasion

 

 

Above: Ivo Andric in his study in Belgrade

 

 

Andric, from penniless origins to highly educated academic, from obscure contributor to vice-consul to Nobel prize winner, is an inspiration.

 

Truly the record of a man is worthy of note.

 

 

Above: Ivo Andric

 

 

Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Belgrade Memorial Museum of Ivo Andric / Ivo Andric, Signs by the Roadside

 

Canada Slim and the Lemon Mutants

Landschlacht, Switzerland, Saturday 14 March 2020

From Brescia Today, Friday 6 March 2020

There are 268 cases of corona virus infections confirmed in Italy’s Brescia Province, while deaths there have risen to 18.

Fifteen new municipalities have been added to the epidemic network, which previously had not presented any infection: Acquafredda, Borgosatollo, Castenedolo, Darfo Boario Terme, Gambara, Gottolengo, Isorella, Ospitaletto, Paratico, Pompiano, Provaglio d’Iseo, Roncadelle, San Gervasio Bresciano and Seniga.

 

Above: Province of Brescia (in red), Italy

 

As of 13 March, over 145,000 cases have been confirmed in around 140 countries and territories, with major outbreaks in mainland China, Italy, South Korea and Iran.

More than 5,400 people have died from the disease and over 72,000 have recovered.

 

Above: Electron microscope view of the corona virus

 

The virus primarily spreads between people in a way similar to influenza, via respiratory droplets from coughing.

The time between exposure and symptom onset is typically five days, but may range from two to fourteen days.

Symptoms are most often fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath.

Complications may include pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome.

There is currently no vaccine or specific antiviral treatment, but research is ongoing.

Efforts are aimed at managing symptoms and supportive therapy.

Recommended preventive measures include handwashing, maintaining distance from other people (particularly those who are unwell), and monitoring and self-isolation for fourteen days for people who suspect they are infected.

Public health responses around the world have included travel restrictions, quarantines, curfews, event cancellations, and facility closures.

 

Above: Map of the COVID-19 outbreak as of 12 March 2020.

Be aware that since this is a rapidly evolving situation, new cases may not be immediately represented visually. 

The darker the country, the more cases of the corona virus there are therein.

Countries with cases of the corona virus:

• Afghanistan
• Algeria
• Andorra
• Argentina
• Armenia
• Australia
• Austria 
• Azerbaijan
• Bahrain
• Bangladesh
• Belarus 
• Belgium 
• Bhutan
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Brazil 
• Brunei
• Bulgaria
• Burkina Faso
• Cambodia 
• Canada
• Chile 
• China
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Croatia 
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic 
• Denmark
• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• Egypt 
• Estonia 
• Finland 
• France 
• Georgia
• Germany 
• Greece 
• Hungary
• Iceland 
• India 
• Indonesia 
• Iran 
• Iraq 
• Ireland
• Israel
• Italy 
• Japan 
• Jordan
• Kazakhstan
• Kuwait
• Latvia 
• Lebanon
• Liechtenstein
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg   
• Malaysia
• Maldives
• Malta
• Mexico 
• Moldova
• Monaco 
• Mongolia
• Nepal 
• the Netherlands 
• New Zealand 
• Nigeria 
• North Macedonia 
• Norway
• Oman
• Pakistan
• Palestine
• Panama
• Paraguay
• Peru
• the Philippines 
• Poland
• Portugal 
• Qatar
• Romania 
• Russia 
• San Marino 
• Saudi Arabia
• Senegal
• Serbia
• Singapore 
• Slovakia 
• Slovenia
• South Africa 
• South Korea 
• Spain 
• Sri Lanka
• Sweden 
• Switzerland 
• Taiwan 
• Thailand 
• Togo
• Tunisia
• Turkey 
• Ukraine 
• the United Arab Emirates 
• the United Kingdom 
• the United States 
• Vietnam 

 

These include the nationwide quarantine of Italy.

 

Above: (in red) Corona virus outbreak cases in Italy

 

On 9 March 2020, the government of Italy under Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte imposed a national quarantine, restricting the movement of the population except for necessity, work, and health circumstances, in response to the growing outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.

 

Above: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte

 

Additional lockdown restrictions mandated the temporary closure of non-essential shops and businesses.

 

 

This followed an earlier restriction announced on the previous day which affected 16 million people and included the region of Lombardy and fourteen provinces in Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Piedmont and Marche, and further back a smaller-scale lockdown of 11 municipalities in the province of Lodi that had begun in late February.

 

 

The first lockdowns began around 21 February 2020, covering 11 municipalities of the province of Lodi and affecting around 50,000 people.

 

 

Above: Piazza Duomo, Lodi

 

The epicentre was the town of Codogno (pop. 16,000), with police cars blocking roads leading to the quarantined areas and barriers erected on the roads.

Above: Ospedale Soave, Codogno

 

The quarantined “red zone” (zona rossa) was initially enforced by police and carabinieri, and by 27 February it was reported that 400 policemen were enforcing it with 35 checkpoints.

The lockdown was initially meant to last until 6 March.

While residents were permitted to leave their homes and supplies such as food and medicine were allowed to enter, they were not to go to school or their workplaces, and public gatherings were prohibited.

Train services also bypassed the region.

 

Above: The front page of Italian newspaper La Repubblica, reading “Tutti in casa” (“Everybody stay at home“), hung in a Bologna street on 10 March 2020, the first day of the nationwide lockdown in Italy

 

Early on Sunday, 8 March 2020, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced the expansion of the quarantine zone to cover much of Northern Italy, affecting over 16 million people, restricting travel from, to or within the affected areas, banning funerals and cultural events, and requiring people to keep at least one metre of distance from one another in public locations such as restaurants, churches and supermarkets.

Conte later clarified in a press conference that the decree was not an “absolute ban“, and that people would still be able to use trains and planes to and from the region for “proven work needs, emergencies, or health reasons“.

Additionally, tourists from outside were still permitted to leave the area.

 

Above: Areas quarantined on 8 March 2020

 

Restaurants and cafes were permitted to open, but operations were limited to between 06:00 and 18:00, while many other public locations such as gyms, nightclubs, museums and swimming pools were closed altogether.

Businesses were ordered to implement “smart working processes” to permit their employees to work from home.

 

 

The decree, in effect until 3 April, additionally cancelled any leave for medical workers, and allowed the government to impose fines or up to three months’ jail for people caught leaving or entering the affected zone without permission.

The decree also implemented restrictions on public gatherings elsewhere across Italy.

With this decree, the initial “Red Zone” was also abolished (though the municipalities were still within the quarantined area).

The lockdown measures implemented by Italy was considered the most radical measure implemented against the outbreak, outside of the lockdown measures implemented in China.

At the time of the decree, over 5,800 cases of coronavirus had been confirmed in Italy, with 233 dead.

 

 

A draft of the decree had been leaked to the media late on Saturday night before it went into effect and was published by Corriere della Sera, resulting in panic within the to-be-quarantined areas and prompting reactions from politicians in the region.

 

 

La Repubblica reported that hundreds of people in Milan rushed out to leave the city on the last trains on Saturday night, as a part of a rush in general to leave the red zone.

 

 

However, within hours of the decree being signed, media outlets reported that relatively little had changed, with trains and planes still operating to and from the region, and restaurants and cafes operating normally.

The BBC reported that some flights to Milan continued on 8 March, though several were cancelled.

New guidelines for the corona virus had assigned the responsibility of deciding whether to suspend flights to local judiciaries.

 

 

On the evening of 9 March, the quarantine measures were expanded to the entire country, coming into effect the next day.

In a televised address, Conte explained that the moves would restrict travel to that necessary for work and family emergencies, and all sporting events would be cancelled.

Italy was the first country to implement a national quarantine as a result of the 2020 coronavirus outbreak.

 

Above: Flag of Italy

 

On 11 March, Conte announced the lockdown would be tightened, with all commercial and retail businesses, except those providing essential services, like grocery stores and pharmacies, closed down.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luigi Di Maio has said that the lockdown has been necessary for Italy.

 

Above: Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Luigi Di Malo

 

The Italian authorities established sanctions for those who do not obey the orders, even those who, having symptoms of the virus, expose themselves in public places, being considered a threat of intentional contagion.

 

 

Responding to the thousands of people who evacuated from Lombardy just before the 8 March quarantine was put in place, police officers and medics met passengers from Lombardy in Salerno, Campania, and the passengers were required to self-quarantine.

 

 

Michele Emiliano, President of Apulia, required all arrivals from northern Italy to self-quarantine.

 

Above: Michele Emiliano

 

Similarly, Jole Santelli, President of Calabria, called for Calabrians living in northern Italy not to return home during the outbreak, and for the government to “block an exodus to Calabria“.

 

Above: Jole Santelli

 

Conte, alongside other leaders, called for Italians not to engage in “furbizia“—i.e. craftiness to circumvent rules and bureaucracy—when it comes to the lockdown.

Conte also told la Repubblica that Italy was facing its “darkest hour“.

In the initial quarantine, a special radio station (Radio Zona Rossa, or “Radio Red Zone“) was set up for residents of the Codogno quarantine area, broadcasting updates on the quarantine situation, interviews with authorities, and government information.

 

 

Catholic sermons were also broadcast through the radio.

 

Following the quarantine’s expansion, the hashtag #IoRestoACasa (“I stay at home“) was shared by thousands of social media users.

 

 

In compliance with regulations on keeping one metre of distance between each other in public locations, bars and restaurants placed duct tape on floors for their customers to follow.

Rushes to supermarkets in cities such as Roma and Palermo were reported as residents engaged in panic buying following the nationwide quarantine announcement.

 

 

After the national lockdown was announced, the Vatican closed the Vatican Museums and suspended Mass liturgies.

While St. Peter’s Basilica remained open, its catacombs were closed and visitors were required to follow the Italian regulations on the one-metre separation.

Catholic Mass in Rome and the Vatican were also suspended until 3 April, and Pope Francis opted to instead live stream daily Mass.

 

 

Dismayed by the Vicar General’s complete closure of all churches in the Diocese of Rome, Pope Francis partially reversed the closures, but tourists are still barred from visiting the churches.

 

Above: Pope Francis

 

The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom, praised Italy’s decision to implement the lockdown, stating that the Italian people and government were “making genuine sacrifices” with these “bold, courageous steps“.

 

Above: WHO Director General Tedros Adhamon

 

Among Brescian municipalities, Limone sul Garda is not listed among those with corona virus cases.

For now.

Though the virus is on Limone’s doorstep – in Gardone Riviera, Lonata del Garda and Moniga del Garda – one case in each town – it has yet to make its dark appearance felt within Limone itself.

Perhaps, miraculously, Covina-19 will avoid Limone, for Limone is a place of miracles….

 

 

Limone sul Garda, Italy, Tuesday 6 August 2018

Imagine a place where majestic mountains act as a backdrop for the infinite blue of Lake Garda.

Forget the impatience of the world for a moment and serenely choose a moment of tranquillity, to share with your loved ones.

The blue has never been as beautiful as it is now, in this natural backdrop of colours, tastes and perfumes.

 

 

Olives, lemons, oleanders, palms and bougainvilleas flourish in an enchanting inlet, where the mountains suddenly open up, mirrored in the intense blue of the water, like in a dream.

Limone, once a small fishing village, is today one of the most highly appreciated tourist centres, with a splendid lakeside promenade and camping grounds, hotels and modern residences, equipped with every comfort.

It has well-equipped beaches, street swarming with shops, bars and restaurants for every taste.

Limone, the home of tranquillity and courtesy, is the ideal place for a vacation on the Lake, year round.

 

 

The vestiges of the past are splendidly blended into the backdrop, conferring even greater harmony.

Thus, we can see the pillars of the ancient lemon houses rising from the shores exposed to the sun, which sweetly slope down towards the Lake.

In the surrounding area, the silvery foliage of centuries old olive trees ripple in the wind.

The old part of the village, set between the earth and water, opens up to reveal an infinite number of characteristic, peaceful corners.

The deep ties with the territory are still alive in the daily life that marches on: simplicity, hospitality and untiring work are the peculiarities of Limone entrepreneurs who make every effort, every day, to ensure that guests feel at home.

Nature alone generously offers considerable opportunities to enjoy leisure time, even for the less sporty: the Lake and its beaches, the itineraries that wind their way up to the ancient citrus fruit gardens, in the shade of the houses, the trails that branch out around the village, climbing up to the summits of the mountains that surround the village, providing uniquely beautiful views – an ideal habitat for mountain lovers and experts.

The multifunctional sports centre, the sports complex and the many tennis courts complete the array of proposals capable of meeting the requirements of both professional and amateur sportsmen.

 

 

Despite the presence of famous cultivations of lemons (the meaning of the city’s name in Italian), the town’s name is probably derived from the ancient lemos (elm) or limes (Latin: boundary, referring to the communes of Brescia and the Bishopric of Trento).

From 1863 to 1905 the denomination was Limone San Giovanni.

 

 

The first settlements found in the surrounding area of Benaco (the ancient name of the Lake) date back to the Neolithic period.

In fact, in the nearby Valley of Ledro you can visit a museum dedicated to the pile work houses from the Bronze Age found in that area.

 

 

In 600 BC, the Celtic tribes that inhabited the area were conquered by the Romans.

After this, the Lake’s historical development follows that of the rest of northern Italy: from the Longobards, to the arrival of Charlemagne, the Venetian Republic, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Italian Renaissance, the World Wars, up to the birth of the present Italian Republic.

 

 

However, the most important period of the social, economic and cultural development of Limone was the domination of the Venetian Republic or “Serenissima” (the Splendid) as it was called during the first half of the 15th century.

Due to the administration of the Serenissima, Limone developed from a typical rural village based on fishing and the growing of olives to the most northerly centre for the cultivation of citrus fruits, such as lemons, oranges and citrons.

 

Above: Flag of the Republic of Venice

 

They built the world famous lemon groves called Limonaia with high walls to protect the trees from the cold northeastern winds.

The huge columns in these groves were used to support wooden rafters which during winter covered the grove transforming it into a greenhouse.

 

 

However, things were not as easy as they may have seemed.

Soil had to be imported for the lemon trees from the southern part of the Lake, because the original soil was very poor as it consisted only of gravel.

The water supply for the lemon groves was a masterpiece of an irrigation system.

 

 

At the beginning of September 1786, when the famous German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe had just turned 37, he “slipped away“, in his words, from his duties as Privy Councillor in the Duchy of Weimar, from a long platonic affair with a court lady, and from his immense fame as the author of the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther and the stormy play Götz von Berlichingen, and took what became a licensed leave of absence.

By May 1788, he had travelled to Italy via Innsbruck and the Brenner Pass and visited Lake Garda, Verona, Vicenza, Venezia, Bologna, Roma, the Alban Hills, Napoli and Sicily.

He wrote many letters to a number of friends in Germany, which he later used as the basis for Italian Journey.

 

Above: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832)

 

Italian Journey initially takes the form of a diary, with events and descriptions written up apparently quite soon after they were experienced.

The impression is in one sense true, since Goethe was clearly working from journals and letters he composed at the time — and by the end of the book he is openly distinguishing between his old correspondence and what he calls reporting.

But there is also a strong and indeed elegant sense of fiction about the whole, a sort of composed immediacy.

Goethe said in a letter that the work was “both entirely truthful and a graceful fairy tale“.

It had to be something of a fairy tale, since it was written between 30 and more than 40 years after the journey, from 1816 to 1828-29.

 

Above: Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein’s Goethe in the Roman Campagna

 

The work begins with a famous Latin tag, Et in Arcadia ego.

This Latin phrase is usually imagined as spoken by Death — this is its sense, for example, in W. H. Auden’s poem called “Et in Arcadia ego” — suggesting that every paradise is afflicted by mortality.

 

Above: Wystan Hugh Auden (1907 – 1973)

 

What Goethe says is “Even I managed to get to Paradise“, with the implication that we could all get there if we chose.

If death is universal, the possibility of paradise might be universal too.

This possibility wouldn’t preclude its loss, and might even require it, or at least require that some of us should lose it.

The book ends with a quotation from Ovid’s Tristia, regretting his expulsion from Rome.

Above: Statue of Publius Ovidius Naso (aka Ovid) (43 BC – AD 18) commemorating his exile in Tomis (present-day Constanța, Romania)

 

Cum repeto noctem, Goethe writes in the middle of his own German, as well as citing a whole passage:

“When I remember the night…“

He is already storing up not only plentiful nostalgia and regret, but also a more complicated treasure:

The certainty that he didn’t merely imagine the land where others live happily ever after.

 

 

“We are all pilgrims who seek Italy“, Goethe wrote in a poem two years after his return to Germany from his almost two-year spell in the land he had long dreamed of.

For Goethe, Italy was the warm passionate south as opposed to the dank cautious North.

The place where the classical past was still alive, although in ruins.

A sequence of landscapes, colours, trees, manners, cities, monuments he had so far seen only in his writing.

He described himself as “the mortal enemy of mere words” or what he also called “empty names“.

He needed to fill the names with meaning and, as he rather strangely put it, “to discover myself in the objects I see“, literally “to learn to know myself by or through the objects“.

He also writes of his old habit of “clinging to the objects“, which pays off in the new location.

He wanted to know that what he thought might be Paradise actually existed, even if it wasn’t entirely Paradise, and even if he didn’t in the end want to stay there.

Some journeys – Goethe’s was one – really are quests.

Italian Journey is not only a description of places, persons and things, but also a psychological document of the first importance.

— W. H. Auden, Epigraph on Italian Journey

 

On 13 September 1786, Goethe passed by the village of Limone by boat and described with this words its lemon gardens:

“The morning was magnificent: a bit cloudy, but calm as the sun rose.

We passed Limone, the mountain-gardens of which, laid out terrace-fashion, and planted with citron-trees, have a neat and rich appearance.

The whole garden consists of rows of square white pillars placed at some distance from each other, and rising up the mountain in steps.

On these pillars strong beams are laid, that the trees planted between them may be sheltered in the winter.

The view of these pleasant objects was favored by a slow passage, and we had already passed Malcesine when the wind suddenly changed, took the direction usual in the day-time, and blew towards the north.“

(Italian Journey, Johann Wolfgang Goethe)

 

 

Apart from the cultivation of citrus fruits in the 19th century during the reign of the Habsburg family, Limone also offered other products such as magnesium, paper, quicklime and silkworms due to the mild climate.

Unfortunately, during World War I all these prosperous businesses came to a sudden end because of the geopolitical and strategic location of Limone.

The whole area, which was situated on the immediate border with Austria and which was in the active combat zone between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Italian Reign was completely evacuated.

When people returned to their homes after the war there was nothing left from the former activities and they had to start again by fishing and growing olives.

Throughout this whole period the only way to reach Limone was by water or through difficult mountain paths.

Until the 1940s the city was reachable only by lake or through the mountains, with the road to Riva del Garda being built only 1932, but today Limone is one of the most renowned tourist resorts in the area.

 

 

Limone’s hotel tradition has developed simultaneously with realization of the most important traffic artery of the Lake: the Gardesana Road.

Activities related to fishing and agriculture were gradually abandoned over the years, while increasing numbers of accommodation and commercial facilities have been created.

In the Seventies, many camping grounds grounds were transformed into hotels in order to meet the changing demands of the market and allowing entrepreneurs to extend the tourist season.

The expansion of the tourist season continued in the Eighties as well, as the village developed an accommodation capacity very similiar to the present day situation.

Over the last decade, collective efforts have privileged development of the quality of the offer:

This has led to important public and private works to requalify many areas, making Limone one of the most sought-after tourist destinations in the European market.

 

 

In order to document the socio-economic changes in Limone after the opening of the Gardesana Road the local council established a Museum of Tourism.

It was set up in the former local council building and inaugurated in 2011.

Inside the exhibition spaces display posters, calendars, holiday guides, souvenirs, etc.

 

 

A large area has also been dedicated to Limone’s citizen St. Daniele Comboni and the discovery of apoli protein A1, a good gene that helps to minimize the hardening of arteries and reduce heart disease.

 

Daniele Comboni, the founder of the Institutes for Comboni Missionaries, was born in Limone.

In the neighbourhood quarter Tesöl, Comboni’s life and work can be understood at the Tesöl Centre of the Comboni Missionaries.

Comboni (1831 – 1881) was an Italian Roman Catholic bishop who served in the missions in Africa and was the founder of both the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus and the Comboni Missionary Sisters.

 

 

Comboni was born on 15 March 1831 at Limone sul Garda in Brescia to the poor gardeners (working for a local proprietor) Luigi Comboni and Domenica Pace as the fourth of eight children.

He was the sole child to survive into adulthood.

At that time Limone was under the jurisdiction of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.

 

Above: Austrian-Hungarian Empire before World War I

 

At the age of twelve, he was sent to school in Verona on 20 February 1843 at the Religious Institute of Verona, founded by Nicola Mazza.

It was there that he completed his studies in medicine and languages (he learnt French, English and Arabic) and prepared to become a priest.

 

Above: Images of Verona

 

On 6 January 1849 he vowed that he would join the African missions, a desire he had held since 1846 after reading about the Japanese martyrs.

 

(The Martyrs of Japan were Christian missionaries and followers who were persecuted and executed, mostly during the Tokugawa shogunate period in the 17th century.

More than 400 martyrs of Japan have been recognized with beatification by the Catholic Church, and 42 have been canonized as saints.

Martyrs of Japan can be seen within the context of Christian colonialism and Christianization.)

 

Above: The 26 Martyrs of Japan at Nagasaki. (1628 engraving)

 

On 31 December 1854 in Trento he received his ordination to the priesthood from the Bishop of Trent Johann Nepomuk von Tschiderer zu Gleifheim.

 

Above: Bishop of Trent Johann Nepomuk von Tschiderer zu Gleifheim (1777- 1860)

 

Comboni made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land from 29 September to 14 October 1855.

 

(The Holy Land (Hebrew: אֶרֶץ הַקּוֹדֶשׁ Eretz HaKodesh, Latin: Terra Sancta; Arabic: الأرض المقدسة Al-Arḍ Al-Muqaddasah or الديار المقدسة Ad-Diyar Al-Muqaddasah) is an area roughly located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea that also includes the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River.

Traditionally, it is synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine.

The term “Holy Land” usually refers to a territory roughly corresponding to the modern State of Israel, the Palestinian territories, western Jordan, and parts of southern Lebanon and of southwestern Syria.

Jews, Christians and Muslims all regard it as holy.

Part of the significance of the land stems from the religious significance of Jerusalem (the holiest city to Judaism), as the historical region of Jesus’ ministry, and as the site of the Isra and Mi’raj event of 621 in Islam.

The holiness of the land as a destination of Christian pilgrimage contributed to launching the Crusades, as European Christians sought to win back the Holy Land from the Muslims, who had conquered it from the Christian Eastern Roman Empire in the 630s.

In the 19th century, the Holy Land became the subject of diplomatic wrangling as the Holy Places played a role in the Eastern Question which led to the Crimean War in the 1850s.

Many sites in the Holy Land have long been pilgrimage destinations for adherents of the Abrahamic religions, including Jews, Christians, Muslims and Bahá’ís.

Pilgrims visit the Holy Land to touch and see physical manifestations of their faith, to confirm their beliefs in the holy context with collective excitation, and to connect personally to the Holy Land.)

 

Above: The map of the Holy Land by Marino Sanudo (drawn in 1320)

Map orientation: north pointing left.

 

In 1857 – with the blessing of his mother – Comboni left for Africa along with five other missionaries, also former students of Mazza.

His mother gave him her blessing and said to him:

“Go, Daniele, and may the Lord bless you“.

 

Comboni departed on 8 September 1857 with Giovanni Beltrame, Alessandro dal Bosco, Francesco Oliboni, Angelo Melotto and Isidoro Zilli who hailed from Udine.

 

Above: Piazza San Giacomo, Udine

 

Four months later, on 8 January 1858, Comboni reached Khartoum in Sudan.

His assignment was the liberation of enslaved boys and girls.

There were difficulties including an unbearable climate and sickness as well as the deaths of several of his fellow missionaries.

This, added with the poor and derelict conditions that the population faced, made the situation all the more difficult.

 

Above: Modern Khartoum

 

Comboni had written to his parents of the conditions and the difficulties that the group faced but remained resolved.

He witnessed the death of one of his companions and instead of deterring him he remained determined to continue and wrote:

“O Nigrizia o morte!” (translation: “Either Africa or death“)

 

 

By the end of 1859 three of the five had died and two were in Cairo as Comboni himself grew ill.

 

Above: Modern Cairo

 

Comboni was in his new surroundings from 1858 until 15 January 1859 when he was forced to return to Verona due to a bout of malaria.

He taught at Mazza’s institute from 1861 until 1864.

He soon worked out fresh strategies for the missions while back in his native land in 1864.

 

Above: Portrait of Nicola Mazza (1790 – 1865)

 

He visited St Peter’s Tomb in Rome on 15 September 1864 and it was while reflecting before the Tomb that he came upon the idea of a “Plan for the Rebirth of Africa” which was a project with the slogan “Save Africa through Africa“.

 

Above: St. Peter’s Tomb

 

Four days later, on 19 September, he met with Pope Pius IX to discuss his project.

 

Above: Pope Pius IX (1792 – 1878)

 

Comboni wanted the European continent and the Universal Church to be more concerned with the African continent.

He carried out appeals throughout Europe from December 1864 to June 1865 for spiritual and material aid for the African missions from people including monarchical families as well as bishops and nobles.

Travelling under an Austrian consular visa, he went to France and Spain before heading north to England and then setting off to Germany and Austria.

The humanitarian “Society of Cologne” became a main supporter of his work.

It was around this time that he launched a magazine – the first in his homeland to delve into the missions for it was designed to be an exclusive magazine for those in the missions.

 

Above: Cologne Cathedral (Köln Dom)

 

He established a male institute on 1 June 1867 and one for women in 1872 both in Verona: the Istituto delle Missioni per la Nigrizia (since 1894 the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus) and the Istituto delle Pie Madri (later the Comboni Missionary Sisters) on 1 January 1872.

On 7 May 1867, he had an audience with Pope Pius IX and brought with him twelve African girls to meet the Pope.

In late 1867 Comboni opened two branches of the order in Cairo.

 

Comboni was the first to bring women into this form of work in Africa and he founded new missions in El Obeid and Delen amongst other Sudanese cities.

Comboni was well-versed in the Arabic language and also spoke in several African dialects (Dinka, Bari and Nubia) as well as six European languages.

 

 

On 2 April 1868, he was decorated with the Order of the Knight of Italy but he refused this in fidelity to Pius IX.

On 7 July 1968, he left for France where he visited the shrine of La Salette on 26 July before heading to Germany and Austria.

 

Above: La Salette

 

On 20 February 1869 he left Marseilles for Cairo where he opened a third house on 15 March.

 

Among Comboni’s early companions during his early years in Africa was Catarina Zenab, a Dinka who would go on to serve as a missionary in Khartoum later in her life.

 

Above: Catarina Zenab (1848–1921)

 

On 9 March 1870, he left Cairo for Rome and arrived there on 15 March, where he took part in the First Vatican Council as the theologian of the Bishop of Verona Luigi di Canossa.

He formulated the “Postulatum pro Nigris Africæ Centralis” on 24 June which was a petition for the evangelization of Africa.

This received the signature of 70 bishops.

The First Vatican Council was terminated due to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War and the dissolution of the Papal States before the document could be discussed.

 

Above: First Vatican Council (1869 – 1870)

 

In mid-1877 he was named as the Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa and received his episcopal consecration as a bishop on 12 August 1877 from Cardinal Alessandro Franchi (1819 – 1878).

 

 

Comboni’s episcopal appointment was seen as a confirmation that his ideas and his activities – which some deemed to be foolish – were recognised as an effective means for the proclamation of the Gospel.

 

Above: St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Khartoum

 

In 1877, and again in 1878, there was a drought in the region of the mission while mass starvation ensued soon after.

The local population was halved and the religious personnel and their activities reduced almost to nothing.

 

 

On 27 November 1880, Comboni traveled to the missions in Sudan from Napoli (Naples) for the eighth and final time to act against the slave trade and, though ill, he managed to arrive in Khartoum on 9 August in summer and made a trip to the Nubia mountains.

 

Above: Images of Napoli

 

Above: The Nuba Mountains

 

On 10 October 1881, he died in Khartoum during the cholera epidemic at 10:00 pm in the evening.

He had suffered a high fever since 5 October.

His final words were reported to be:

“I am dying, but my work will not die.”

 

Pope Leo XIII mourned the loss of the bishop as a “great loss“.

 

Above: Pope Leo XIII (1810 – 1903)

 

Bishop Antonio Maria Roveggio (1850–1902) served as the order’s superior sometime after Comboni died.

 

Above: Bishop Antonio Maria Roveggio

 

The male order received the papal decree of praise on 7 June 1895 and full papal approval from Pope Pius X on 19 February 1910.

 

Above: Pope Pius X (1835 – 1914)

 

As of 2018, the men’s order operates in about 28 countries, including Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Brazil, Colombia and the Philippines.

The female order received the decree of praise on 22 February 1897 and papal approval on 10 June 1912, while in 2008 there were 1,529 religious in 192 houses.

That order operates in Europe – in countries such as the United Kingdom, in Africa – in nations such as Cameroon and Mozambique, in the Americas – in countries such as Costa Rica and Ecuador, and in Asia – in countries such as Israel and Jordan.

 

Above: Countries where the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus are active.

 

Above: St. Daniel Comboni Kindergarten in Eritrea

 

On 26 March 1994 the confirmation of Comboni’s life of heroic virtue enabled Pope John Paul II to title him as Venerable.

 

Above: Pope John Paul II (1920 – 2005)

 

The miracle required for Comboni to be beatified was investigated on a diocesan level in São Mateus from 10 December 1990 until 29 June 1992 before it received validation on 30 April 1993.

The miracle was the 25 December 1970 healing of the Afro-Brazilian child Maria Giuseppa Oliveira Paixão who underwent a stomach surgical procedure for an infection that grew worse over time.

But their attention turned to Comboni’s intercession and she was healed the next morning in a case that surprised the doctor.

The seven medical experts approved that science could not explain this cure on 9 June 1994, while six theologians agreed likewise on 22 November 1994, as did the C.C.S. members on 24 January 1995.

 

Above: Sao Mateus, Brazil

 

Pope John Paul II confirmed on 6 April 1995 that this healing was indeed a miracle and beatified Comboni in Saint Peter’s Basilica on 17 March 1996.

John Paul II confirmed this miracle on 20 December 2002 and scheduled the date for Comboni’s canonization in a papal consistory held on 20 February 2003.

The pope canonized Comboni in Saint Peter’s Square on 5 October 2003.

 

Above: St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City

 

The miracle in question was the healing of the Muslim mother Lubana Abdel Aziz (b. 1965) who – on 11 November 1997 – was admitted into a Khartoum hospital for a caesarean section.

The hospital was one that the Comboni Missionary Sisters managed.

The infant was born but the mother suffered from repeated bleeding and other serious problems and was on the point of death despite a blood transfusion.

The doctors were pessimistic about her chances but the nuns began a novena to Comboni.

The woman healed, despite the odds, on 13 November and was discharged from the hospital on 18 November.

 

Above: Panorama of Khartoum

 

At the Tesöl Centre in Limone, you can visit Comboni’s birth house, the Chapel (which was later built under the birth house) and the small but interesting Museum of Curiosities.

If you want to deepen your knowledge of Comboni, there is the possibility of visiting the multimedia exhibition and a thematic exhibition.

Or you can simply relax in the special and calm atmosphere present in the park that surrounds the Centre with a marvelous view over Limone and Lake Garda.

 

Above: Centro Comboniano Il Tesöl

 

In 1979, researchers discovered that people in Limone possess a mutant form of apolipo protein (called Apo A-1 Milano) in their blood, that induced a healthy form of high-density cholesterol, which resulted in a lowered risk of atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases.

The protein appears to have given residents of the village extreme longevity – a dozen of those living here are over the age of 100 (for c. 1,000 total inhabitants).

The origin of the mutation has been traced back to a couple who lived in Limone in the 17th century.

Research has been ongoing to develop pharmaceutical treatments against heart disease based on mimicking the beneficial effects of the Apolipo A-1 mutation.

Above: Cartoon representation of the molecular structure of protein registered with 1nfn Code.

 

Apolipo proteins are proteins that bind lipids (oil-soluble substances, such as fat and cholesterol) to form lipoproteins.

They transport lipids (and fat soluble vitamins) in blood, cerebrospinal fluid and lymph.

The lipid components of lipoproteins are insoluble in water.

However, because of their detergent-like (amphipathic) properties, apolipo proteins and other amphipathic molecules (such as phospholipids) can surround the lipids, creating a lipoprotein particle that is itself water-soluble, and can thus be carried through water-based circulation (i.e., blood, lymph).

In addition to stabilizing lipoprotein structure and solubilizing the lipid component, apolipo proteins interact with lipoprotein receptors and lipid transport proteins, thereby participating in lipoprotein uptake and clearance.

They also serve as enzyme cofactors for specific enzymes involved in the metabolism of lipoproteins.

Apolipo proteins are also exploited by hepatitis C virus (HCV) to enable virus entry, assembly, and transmission.

They play a role in viral pathogenesis and viral evasion from neutralizing antibodies.

 

Apolipo protein A-1 Milano (also ETC-216 or MDCO-216) is a naturally occurring mutated variant of the apolipo protein A1 found in human HDL, the lipoprotein particle that carries cholesterol from tissues to the liver and is associated with protection against cardiovascular disease.

Apo A1 Milano was first identified by Dr. Cesare Sirtori in Milano (Milan), who also demonstrated that its presence significantly reduced cardiovascular disease, even though it caused a reduction in HDL levels and an increase in triglyceride levels.

 

Above: Logo of the University of Milano

 

The Apo A-1 Milano mutation was found by University of Milan researchers after their 1974 investigation of a low HDL / high triglyceride phenotype exhibited by Valerio Dagnoli of Limone.

Limone had only 1,000 inhabitants at the time and when blood tests were run on the entire population of the village, the mutation was found to be present in about 3.5% of the local population.

The mutation was traced to one man, Giovanni Pomarelli, who was born in the village in 1780 and passed it on to his offspring.

 

Above: Cartoon representation of Apo A-1

 

In the 1990s, researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center showed that injection of a synthetic version of the mutant Apo A-1 into rabbits and mice could reverse vascular plaque buildup.

 

Above: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles

 

Apo A-I Milano has been shown to reduce atherosclerosis in animal models and in a small phase 2 human trial.

Recombinant adeno-associated virus 8 (AAV8) mediated Apo A-I Milano gene therapy in combination with low-cholesterol diet induces rapid and significant regression of atherosclerosis in mice.

 

The first examination of using the mutant Apo A-1 in humans was conducted through a three way collaboration between the University of Milan and the companies Pharmacia and Upjohn in 1996, focusing on treatment of atherosclerosis.

 

 

The Apo A-1 Milano Trial, published in JAMA in 2003, was the first published placebo-controlled, two-dose level trial in humans.

This was a secondary prevention trial in that those included were individuals who presented to a participating hospital with unstable angina and agreed to consent to a rigorous trial, well beyond usual clinical practice testing and treatment, testing whether this HDL protein variant, which was so effective in animals, would also work in humans.

This trial was initiated by Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic after prompting by Roger Newton of Esperion to examine the effects of the mutant protein using intravascular ultrasound imaging.

 

 

Esperion provided the protein, code named ETC-216, for the duration of the trial.

 

 

Due to its potential efficacy, it was speculated that development of synthetic ApoA-1 Milano might be a key factor in eradicating coronary heart disease.

Esperion Therapeutics, a high tech venture capital start-up, demonstrated efficacy in both animals and humans, spending many millions of dollars over several years to conduct a single human trial which showed impressive and rapid efficacy by IVUS of coronary arteries.

However, over the course of the project they produced only enough Apo A-1 Milano to partially treat 30 out of the 45 people in the randomized trial, giving them one weekly dose each for five weeks.

The results of the trial were published in JAMA (5 November 2003).

 

 

Hoping to develop a more effective treatment than their current product Lipitor, Pfizer purchased and internalized Esperion shortly before JAMA published the results of the Apo A-1 Milano trial.

Currently, no drugs based on Apo A-1 Milano are commercially available.

 

 

Rights to Apo A-1 Milano were acquired in 2003 by Pfizer.

Clinically known as ETC-216, Pfizer did not move trials forward, probably because the complex protein is very expensive to produce and must be administered intravenously, limiting its application compared to oral medications.

 

Pfizer, after the CETP agent torcetrapib failed in a large human safety trial, decided to exit the cardiovascular market in 2008, though they continue to market Lipitor aggressively.

Esperion, divested by Pfizer in 2008, is back in business and continue to work on HDL mimetic therapies.

The company established an agreement with Trans Gen Rx as a protein source.

Calgary-based SemBioSys Genetics Inc. was a biotechnology company that was using safflower to develop commercial quantities of Apo A-1 Milano.

On 11 October 2011, SemBioSys Genetics signed a multi-product commercialization and platform collaboration agreement with Tasly Pharmaceuticals of Tianjin (China).

In May 2012, SemBioSys terminated its operations and announced that Tasly had terminated their agreement.

On 22 December 2009, the Medicines Company announced it had entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with Pfizer Inc. for Apo A-I Milano which it then renamed MDCO-216.

On 12 July 2010, the Medicines Company signed a pharmaceutical development and manufacturing contract with OctoPlus (a Netherlands-based drug delivery and drug development company) to perform process development and clinical manufacturing of MDCO-216.

After a trial study failed to produce significant enough results compared to other drugs being tested, in 2016 the Medicines Company discontinued development of MDCO-216.

 

 

Cardigant Medical is a Los Angeles-based biotech company currently working to commercialize Apo A-1 Milano to treat various vascular diseases.

Above: Logo of Cardigant Medical

 

One man of Limone (Daniele Comboni) spread the word of God to the continent of Africa.

Another man of Limone (Giovanni Pomarelli) left a heritage of health for the entire world to benefit from.

 

 

Never underestimate the power of one person to make a difference in the world.

 

The wife and I were on vacation.

She was Bond, James Bond.

 

Above: Ian Fleming’s original sketch impression of James Bond

 

I felt as helpless as Mr. White, though not tossed into the boot (trunk) of an Aston Martin I was a front seat passenger in a Capri careening through the tunnels of the Strada della Forra, the prisoner of a wife driven by purpose, bound for Limone sul Garda.

 

Above: Jesper Christensen as Mr. White

 

Quantum of Solace is a 2008 spy film and the 22nd in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions.

 

 

Directed by Marc Forster and written by Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, it is a direct sequel to Casino Royale, and the 2nd film to star Daniel Craig as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond.

 

 

Moments after the end of Casino Royale, James Bond is driving from Lake Como to Siena, Italy, with the captured Mr. White in the boot of his Aston Martin DBS V12.

 

 

Quantum of Solace was shot in six countries.

Malcesine, Limone sul Garda and Tremosine in Italy during March 2008.

Four weeks were scheduled for filming the car chase at Lake Garda and Carrara.

 

 

On 19 April, an Aston Martin employee driving a DBS to the set crashed into the lake.

He survived, and was fined £400 for reckless driving.

 

 

Another accident occurred on 21 April, and two days later, two stuntmen were seriously injured, with one, Greek stuntman Aris Comninos, having to be put in intensive care.

Filming of the scenes was temporarily halted so that Italian police could investigate the causes of the accidents.

 

Above: Aris Comninos

 

Stunt co-ordinator Gary Powell said the accidents were a testament to the realism of the action.

Rumours of a “curse” spread among tabloid media, something which deeply offended Craig, who disliked that they compared Comninos’ accident to something like his minor finger injury later on the shoot (also part of the “curse“).

Comninos recovered safely from his injury.

 

Above: Gary Powell

 

Considering the speed with which my wife likes to drive I wondered whether I would recover from mine.

 

 

Where Goethe headed south from Limone to start a new life, we headed north from Limone to soon resume our old lives.

It was summer and it was hot, unbearably hot.

But on this day everything changed.

 

We arrived during a storm.

Though the winds were violent and the sky threatened I was jubliant.

I had found the days insufferable and the nights intolerable.

Being August and high season, everywhere seemed overflowing with everyone.

Even though Limone is a popular tourist destination there were fewer tourists on the streets and in the shops on this day.

 

 

In a sense, the present lockdown of Limone (and the rest of Italy) is somewhat reflected in my memories of the town.

Folks huddled indoors, afraid to face the current situation.

 

 

We shopped and ate outside during breaks in the weather.

 

 

Our feet found the way to the Museum of Tourism and the Castèl Lemon Grove.

 

 

My memory sees white tiles in the pavement and cobblestone leading to the white pillars and walls of the limonaie facing the sun so as to catch life-sustaining, life-affirming rays of the distant star.

 

 

The lemon groves stand proudly above the lake shore.

There may have been no more than 100 citrus plants lovingly assembled between stone pillars and beneath wooden frame roofs that could be covered during a storm and left bare during days of sunshine and warmth, but the visitor feels dwarfed and insignificant in an orchard that feels larger than its reality.

 

 

I have no memory of whether we visited the town’s fishing museum or olive oil exhibition.

Where the former contains a typical boat with the tools used everyday for fishing by Limone’s forefathers, the latter holds an olive grove with silver leaves upon timeless trees and an ancient mill that coldly presses olives that produce an oil of very high quality.

 

 

Our path following led us to the Parish Church of the Holy Benedict built in 1691 on the ruins of a former Roman basilica mentioned in Pope Urbano III’s Papal Bull in 1186.

In the past it was the duty of the church to keep records up to date and so the parish church contains the oldest known record of Limone’s social events.

Holy Services are held daily “where the three men I admire the most, the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost” smile upon this citrus coast amongst masterpieces of ecclesiastical art dating back to the 16th century.

It was here that Carboni was baptized as a boy.

We light a candle in memory of my wife’s beloved grandfather, a prayer for his eternal salvation.

 

Above: The Parish Church of St. Benedict

 

We stumble upon the Church of St. Peter, the oldest church in Limone, dating back to the 9th century.

On the road to Tremosine on via San Pietro among olive trees, St. Peter is a simple church with a single nave and a white marble stoop.

The eyes and the spirit are drawn to the Church’s beautiful frescoes of the Last Supper and portraits of Saints Peter, Lucia and Zeno.

The simplicity of this small church evokes the essential inspiration of a community once deeply inspired by deep religious sentiment.

Until post-war years the population of Limone used St. Peter’s for penitentiary processions to implore the success of sowing and harvesting their crops, as well as to occasionally beseech immunity from natural disasters, illnesses and epidemics.

I wonder if the present lockdown allows the faithful of Limone to beseech God for deliverance from Covina-19.

The outside of the Church is powerful in its simplicity.

A small portico is inscribed with phrases bearing witness to important events that affected the town deeply, such as the plague of 1630, the defeat of Napoleon, bad olive harvests and seasons of sorrow.

Until the First World War, the portico was attached to a bell tower which was intentionally demolished because it was considered a dangerous landmark for the nearby artillery installations in Crocette.

What remains of this miniature House of God is therefore extremely precious.

St. Peter’s is an artistic, historical and religious relic, bearing truth to the town’s legacy of longevity, that Limone will endure while that which tests the resolve of the town will eventually pass.

 

Above: The Church of St. Peter

 

Another church, the Church of St. Rocco, situated at the northern end of the town centre, was built during the 16th century by those who survived the Plague and is dedicated to the patron saint believed to have saved the settlement from extinction.

Sadly time has not been gentle to St. Rocco as the Church’s frescoes and tiny tower were seriously damaged during World War I.

Stone steps lead up to the Chapel where faith has not faltered though the Church crumbles.

 

Above: The Church of San Rocco

 

In the historical town centre stands the former Chapel of St. Charles, built in 1905 by a Limone citizen in memory of her husband.

During WWI, the Chapel was used as a food stuffs cache for the town’s troops.

In 1930, the Chapel’s alter and sacred furnishings were removed and the premises used for civil events.

During the Second World War, the Chapel was again requisitioned for military use.

It now sits in silence, neither sacred or sublime, neither religious or secular.

 

Above: the former Chapel of San Carlo

 

Limone believes in miracles, in the divine.

In addition to churches and chapels, frescoes and crucifixes, niches, commonly referred to as “capitèi“, testify to the profound faith that endures.

Symbols of faith, icons of hope, images of gratitude, are triumphiantly displayed upon the facades of houses, at crossroads, along the road that connects the village to the countryside and on the paths that climb up towards the mountains that scratch the heavens.

Via Capitelli is typical of this ecclesiastical expression as the population was particularly devoted to the capitèi of the Madonna del Bis on this road, St. Louis on Via Fasse, St. Marcus on Nanzéi and St. John Nepomuceno on the bridge of Via Tamas.

 

 

Limone was a town in which I wish we had lingered longer, for days rather than hours.

We strolled between stalls selling nuts and candy, handbags and backpacks, lemons the size of melons on display amongst bottles of limoncello, packages of pasta and flasks of olive oil.

Our kitchen still contains a butter dish, a brightly painted memento of Limone sul Garda.

Temptations were many: caffes and gelaterias and ristorantes offering cucina italiana.

 

 

From here the world feels small and I wonder, as I often do, what it would be like to be in Limone walking the early morning streets in an off-season month.

 

 

When I consider Limone I think of a place that abides.

A place that awaits my return.

I only need to believe that the virus that despoils Italy will pass.

I only need to believe in miracles.

 

 

Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Lonely Planet Italy / Rough Guide Italy / http://www.visitlimonesulgarda.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canada Slim and the Humanitarian Adventure

Landschlacht, Switzerland, Tuesday 10 December 2019

There are things in Switzerland (and in our existence) that we simply take for granted:

And the thing about Swiss stereotypes is that some of them are true.

Diplomatic?

Yes.

Efficient?

Absolutely.

Boring?

Only at first glance.

Despite being one of the most visited countries in Europe, Switzerland remains one of the least understood.

It is more than simply the well-ordered land of cheese, chocolate, banks and watches.

It is more than a warm summer mountain holiday upon a cobalt blue lake, more than skiing down the slopes of some vertiginous Alp, more than postcard pristine beauty.

It is easy for the tourist to remain blissfully unaware of Swiss community spirit, that it speaks four official languages, that it possesses stark regional differences from canton to canton, that it has exubrant carnivals, culinary traditions and sophisticated urban centres.

 

 

With its beautiful lakeside setting, Geneva (Genève) is a cosmopolitan city whose modest size belies its wealth and importance on the world stage.

French-speaking and Calvinistic it is a dynamic centre of business with an outward-looking character tempered by a certain reserve.

Geneva’s major sights are split by the Rhône River that flows into Lake Geneva (Lac Léman) and through the city’s several distinct neighbourhoods.

On the south bank (rive gauche), mainstream shopping districts Rive and Eaux-Vives climb from the water’s edge to Plainpalais and Vieille Ville, while the north bank (rive droite) holds grungy bars and hot clubbing Pâquis, the train station area and some world organizations.

 

 

A little over 1 km north of the train station is the international area, home to dozens of international organizations that are based in Geneva –  everything from the World Council of Churches to Eurovision.

Trains and buses roll up to the Place des Nations.

Gates on the Place des Nations open to the Palais des Nations, now occupied by UNOG, the United Nations Office at Geneva, the European headquarters of the United Nations, accessible only to visitors who sign up for a tour.

The huge monolith just off the square to the west, that looks like a bent playing card on its edge, is WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization), the highrise to the south is ITU (the International Telecommunications Union), just to the east is UNHCR (the United Nations High Commission for Refugees), and so on, and so on, and so on, an infinite combination of letters of the alphabet in an infinite variety of abbreviations and acronyms.

The giant Broken Chair which looms over the square was installed in 1997 for the international conference in Ottawa (Canada’s capital) banning the use of land mines, a graphic symbol of the victims of such weapons.

 

 

Geneva is also the birthplace of the International Red Cross / Crescent / Crystal Movement.

And it was the latter, along with the International Museum of the Reformation, that compelled me to visit Geneva.

 

 

(For details about the Musée Internationale de la Réforme, please see Canada Slim and the Third Man in my other blog, The Chronicles of Canada Slim.)

 

Genevè, Suisse, mardi le 23 janvier 2018

Housed within the HQ of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Musée International de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant Rouge chronicles the history of modern conflict and the role the Red Cross has played in providing aid to combatants and civilians caught up in war and natural disasters.

Enter through a trench in the hillside opposite the public entrance of UNOG and emerge into an enclosed glass courtyard beside a group of bound and blindfolded stone figures.

The stone gathering represents the continual worldwide violation of human rights.

 

 

Inside, above the ticket desk, is a quotation in French from Dostoevsky:

“Everyone is responsible to everyone else for everything.”

 

Above: Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821 – 1881)

 

A free audioguide takes you through the Museum.

 

Twenty-five years ago, Laurent Marti, a former ICRC delegate, had the idea of creating the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum.

 

Above: Laurent Marti

 

Marti won the wives of US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Gorbachev over to his cause in a bid to obtain the support of their respective countries, together with that of local and international societies and personages and of various multinational companies representing a full range of human activities.

 

Above: Nancy Reagan (née Davis) (1921 – 2016)

 

Above: Raisa Gorbacheva (née Titarenko) (1932 – 1999)

 

The goal of the Museum is to emanate a very powerful atmosphere where no one leaves without having been shaken and deeply moved by what they had seen.

Suffering, death, wounds and mutiliations can be followed by a time of healing, restoration, reunification and an opportunity to be happy again, a right that seemed to have been withdrawn.

Of course, the scars remain deep within the human soul, but the hope of restoration and of a return to normalcy is the message of the Museum.

 

 

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is dedicated to preventing and alleviating human suffering in warfare and in emergencies, such as earthquakes, epidemics and floods.

The Movement is composed of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and the 188 individual national societies.

Each has its own legal identity and role, but they are all united by seven fundamental principles:

•  humanity
•  impartiality
•  neutrality
•  independence
•  voluntary service
•  unity
•  universality

The interactive chronology covers one and a half centuries of history, starting with the creation of the Red Cross.

For each year, the events listed include:

•  armed conflicts which caused the death of more than 10,000 people and/or affected more than one million people
•  epidemics and disasters that caused the deaths of more than 1,000 people and/or affected more than one million people
•  significant events in the history of the Movement
•  cultural and scientific milestones

 

 

In 1859 Henri Dunant was travelling on business through northern Italy.

 

Above: Henri Dunant (1828 – 1910)

 

He found himself close to the Solferino battlefield just after the fighting.

The battle of Solferino was a key episode in the Italian Wars.

 

 

With the support of France under Napoleon III, Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy, King of Piedmont, endeavoured to unite the different Italian states.

In spring 1859 the Piedmont forces clashed with the Austrian Empire, which had control over Lombardy and Venetia.

On 24 June 1859, the Franco-Piedmontese troops defeated the Austrians at Solferino, in a battle that left more than 40,000 dead and wounded.

Overwhelmed by the sight of thousands of wounded soldiers left without medical care, Dunant organized basic relief with the assistance of the local people.

 

 

“On that memorable 24th of June 1859, more than 300,000 men stood facing each other.

The fighting continued for more than 15 hours.

No quarter is given.

It is a sheer butchery, a struggle between savage beasts.

The poor wounded men that were picked up all day long were ghastly pale and exhausted.

Some, who had been the most badly hurt, had a stupified look.

How many brave soldiers, undettered by their first wounds, kept pressing on until a fresh shot brought them to earth.

Men of all nations lay side by side on the flagstone floors of the churches of Castiglione.

The shortage of assistants, orderlies and helpers was cruelly felt.

I sought to organize as best I could relief.

The women of Castiglione, seeing that I made no distinction between nationalities, followed my example.

“Siamo tutti fratelli” (we are all brothers), they repeated feelingly.

 

Above: Ossuary of Solferino

 

But why have I told of all these scenes of pain and distress?

Is it not a matter of urgency to press forward to prevent or at least alleviate the horrors of war?

Would it not be possible, in time of peace and quiet, to form relief societies given to the wounded in wartime?

Societies of this kind, once formed and their permanent existence assured, would be always organized and ready for the possibility of war.

Would it not be desirable to formulate some international principle, sanctioned by a Convention inviolate in character, which, once agreed upon and ratified, might constitute the basis for societies for the relief of the wounded?”

 

Above: Ossuary of Solferino

 

Back home in Geneva, Dunant wrote A Memory of Solferino.

The book was published in 1862 and was an immediate success.

 

 

In it, Dunant made two proposals:

• the formation of relief societies which would care for wounded soldiers
• the establishment of an international convention to guarantee their safety

Those ideas led, the following year, to the foundation of the Red Cross, and ten months later to the first Geneva Convention.

 

 

In 1863, in response to Dunant’s appeal, Gustave Moynier persuaded the Geneva Public Welfare Society to consider the possibility of training groups of volunteer nurses to provide relief for the wounded.

A committee was set up, the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, the future ICRC, was born.

 

Above: Gustave Moynier (1826 – 1910)

 

The need to defend human dignity has been a constant concern throughout history.

From the Code of Hammurabi (1750 BC) to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), texts from all periods and cultures exist to testify to that.

Those texts were frequently written in response to incidents in which human dignity was shown no consideration – slavery, chemical weapons, civilian bombing, concentration camps, atomic bombing, sexual violence, landmines, child soldiers, prisoners with no legal status.

Throughout time mankind has determined:

• that the strong should not suppress the weak (Code of Hammurabi – Mwaopotamia 1750 BC)

Above: Stele of the Code of Hammurabi

 

• that peace is possible between warring nations (Treaty of Kadesh, the oldest peace treaty known to man and the first written international treaty –  Egypt 1279 BC)

Above: Treaty of Kadesh

 

• that we should be free to practice our own religions (Cyrus Cylinder – Persia 539 BC)

Above: Cyrus Cylinder

 

• that we should not do unto others what we don’t wish done to ourselves (The Analects of Confucius – China 480 BC)

Above: The Analects

• that we should live lives of non-violence with respect towards all (The Edicts of Ashoka – India 260 BC)

Above: The Edicts of Ashoka

 

• that power should not be used arbitrarily nor imprisonment without just cause (The Magna Carta – England 1215)

Above: Magna Carta

 

• that all persons are free and that no one is a slave to another (The Manden Charter – Mali 1222)

Above: The Manden Charter

 

• that women and children and the insane have dignity and rights that must be respected (The Viqayet – Muslim Spain 1280)

 

• that mankind has natural and inalienable rights (freedom, equality, justice, community) (Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen – France 1789)

 

• that the wounded need to be treated regardless of nationality, that all human beings are free and equal in dignity and in rights (Universal Declaration of Human Rights – United Nations 1948)

 

The original title of the initial Geneva Convention was the Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field.

It had only ten articles and one sole objective:

To limit the suffering caused by war.

Article 7 provided for the creation of the protective emblem of the red cross.

This document laid the foundations of international humanitarian law, marks the start of the humanitarian adventure.

By 2013, 194 nations are party to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949.

(See http://www.icrc.org for the complete list.)

 

The Museum explains how the Geneva Conventions developed from one man’s battlefield encounter.

After Dunant’s publication of A Memory of Solferino in November 1862, Gustave Moynier (1826 – 1910), chairman of the Geneva Public Welfare Society, in response to Dunant’s appeal, persuaded Society members the following February to consider the possibility of training groups of volunteer nurses to provide relief for the war wounded.

An ad hoc committee was set up – the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded.

The future ICRC was born.

 

Above: ICRC Headquarters, Geneva

 

“Ambulances and military hospitals shall be recognized as neutral and as such protected and respected by the belligerants as long as they accommodate wounded and sick.” (Article 1)

“Inhabitants of the country who bring help to the wounded shall be respected and shall remain free.” (Article 5)

“Wounded or sick combatants, to whatever nation they may belong, shall be collected and cared for.” (Article 6)

“A distinctive and uniform flag shall be adopted for hospitals, ambulances and evacuation parties.” (Article 7)

A red cross on a white background was adopted in 1863, followed by a red crescent, a red lion and red sun (1929) and a red crystal (2005).

 

To protect the victims of conflict, the ICRC has at its disposal several instruments defined by international humanitarian law.

“At all times, parties to the conflict shall, without delay, take all possible measures to search for and collect the wounded and sick.”

“The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack.”

“The parties to the conflict shall endeavour to conclude local agreements for the passage of medical personnel and medical equipment.”

“Civilian hospitals may in no circumstances be the object of attack.”

“It is prohibited to commit any acts of hostility directed against historic monuments, works of art or places of worship.”

“Works or installations containing dangerous forces, namely dams, dykes and nuclear stations shall not be made the object of attack.”

“It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensible to the survival of the civilian population.”

 

Above: The Red Cross in action, 1864

 

The Second World War (1939 – 1945) involved 61 countries in war and caused the death of around 60 million people, more than half of whom were civilians.

In 1945 more than 20 million people had been displaced.

In 1995 the ICRC publicly described its attitude to the Second World War Holocaust as a “moral failure“.

 

Above: Images of World War II (1939 – 1945)

 

The persecution of the Jews by the Nazis began shortly after Hitler came to power in 1933 and subsequently continued to intensify, culminating in systematic extermination from 1942 onwards.

 

Above: Auschwitz, Poland, May 1944

 

At the time, the ICRC had no legal instrument to protect civilians.

The 1929 Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War applied only to members of the armed forces.

The organization thus considered itself powerless in the face of the anti-Semitic fury of the Nazi dictatorship.

 

 

Thus in October 1942 the Committee refused, in particular, to launch a public appeal on behalf of civilians affected by the conflict.

Although the International Red Cross endeavoured to provide aid for Jewish civilians, it erred on the side of caution.

 

Above: Jewish women, occupied Paris, June 1942

 

It was not until the spring of 1944 that a change of strategy took shape.

As Germany’s war efforts collapsed, ICRC delegates belatedly managed to enter some concentration camps, becoming voluntary hostages in order to prevent the further massacre or forced evacution of the prisoners.

 

Above: Auschwitz, May 1944

 

The harsh lesson of the Second World War had been learned.

In 1949 the Fourth Geneva Convention was adopted:

It provides protection for civilians during armed conflict.

It was complemented in 1977 by additional protocols which reinforce the protection given to victims of armed conflicts, international or domestic.

In particular, the additional protocols established the distinction between civilians and combatants.

 

In an armed conflict, the ICRC’s mandate is to ensure respect for the Geneva Conventions.

When the ICRC observes serious violations of the Conventions, it points them out to the countries concerned in confidential reports.

However, on occasion, that information has been published in the press:

• Le Monde during the Algerian War

Above: Images of the Algerian War (1954 – 1962)

 

• The Wall Street Journal about Abu Ghraib Prison

Above: Lynndie England with “Gus“, Abu Ghraib Prison, Iraq

 

• The New York Review of Books / Wikileaks about Guantanamo Prison

Above: Guantanamo “Gitmo” Prison, Cuba

 

Such leaks put the ICRC in a difficult position as discretion is a necessary part of its work and its discussions with the authorities.

Its confidentialiy policy actually facilitates access to detainees, wounded people and groups of civilians.

When humanitarian diplomacy fails, the ICRC then resorts to a more open form of communication.

It then issues press releases publicly condemning serious violations of the Conventions.

In the 1980s the United Nations Security Council set up ad hoc tribunals to judge the crimes committed in former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda.

In 1998 the International Criminal Court (ICC) was established.

It was a permanent institution with the power to open investigations, to prosecute and to try people accused of committing war crimes, genocide or crimes against humanity.

The ICC began its work in 2005 by opening three investigations into crimes:

• in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• in Uganda
• in the Sudan

The existence of a permanent international court gives the world the means of determining facts and of punishing those responsible for the crimes.

It gives victims an opportunity to have their voice heard.

 

Above: Logo of the International Criminal Court

 

Poverty, migration, urban violence….

All of them are present-day threats to human dignity.

All over the world, large sections of the population are living in extremely precarious hygenic conditions.

 

Economic changes are forcing more and more people to emigrate.

Those migrants, who frequently have no identity documents, are exploited and ostracized.

In some megacities, whole districts are at the mercy of armed groups which terrorize the inhabitants.

Each of those situations presents a challenge to which a response must be found.

 

Above: Syrian refugees, Ramtha, Jordan, August 2013

 

Since the First World War, the ICRC has had the right to visit prisoners of war and civilian detainees during an international armed conflict.

In other situations, the right to meet prisoners must be negotiated with the authorities.

Visiting prisons, talking to the detainees and making lists of their names are ways of preventing disappearances and ill treatment.

After each prison visit, ICRC delegates write a report.

They must have access to all places of detention and be allowed to repeat their visits as often as necessary.

The visits always follow the same procedure.

Following a meeting with those in charge of the prison, the delegates inspect the premises: cells, dormitories, toilets, the exercise yard, the kitchen and any workshops.

They draw up a list of prisoners and interview them in private without witnesses.

At the end of the visit, the delegates inform those in charge of the prison of their observations.

They then prepare a confidential report for the authorities.

 

 

The visitor sees many photographs of prison visits, including those to a German POW camp in Morocco, to French POWs in a German Stalag, political detainees in Chile, detainees in Djibouti….

But it is items from these visits given by prisoners to the ICRC delegates that tell far more emotional stories.

Some examples:

• a model village showing ICRC activities in Rwanda
• a doll figure of a female delegate made in an Argentinian prison
• a pearl snake made by Ottoman prisoners
• a necklace with a Red Cross pendant made by a lady prisoner in Lebanon
• a ciborium (a container for Catholic mass hosts – symbols of the body of Christ) made of bread by Polish prisoners of conscience
• a bar of soap carved into the shape of a detainee in a cell made by a Burmese artist imprisoned for suspected ties to the opposition party

 

An installation in the Museum that followed seemed somewhat incongruous….

Therein the visitor can change and produce large flows of different colours by touching a wall.

The idea is that the larger the number of visitors, the richer the flow of colours, so as to provide an interactive experience that appeals to people’s senses, emotions and feelings, thus all visitors become part of a colourful celebration of human dignity.

Honestly….

This felt more like a gimmick to capture children’s hyperactive attention than an exhibit that strengthens human unity, designed more to entertain than educate.

 

 

Human beings are social beings who are defined by their links with others.

When those links are broken, we lose part of our identity and our bearings.

Of the many activities the ICRC performs, the giving and receiving of news and finding one’s loved ones again are understood to be elements of stability that are critical during crisis situations.

 

 

This Museum has, like the Reformation Museum in this city, as other museums in other cities and countries I have visited, its own Chamber of Witnesses – video testimonials whose lifelike likenesses are meant to invoke within the voyeur a sense of how we are not unlike those speaking with us electronically.

We see Toshihiko Suzuki, a dentist and specialist in craniofacial anatomy, tell us how he identified victims of the 2011 tsunami.

We learn of the experience of Sami El Haj, an Al Jazeera journalist held in Guantanamo from 2002 to 2008.

We consider the life of Liliose Iraguha, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide.

We marvel at the resilience of human beings by listening to Boris Cyrulnik, a French neuropsychiatrist and ethologist.

 

 

During a conflict or a natural disaster, many people are cut off from their families – by capitivity, separation or disappearance.

Tracing one’s loved ones and passing on one’s news become basic needs.

 

 

Originally intended for victims of war, the ICRC tracing services subsequently expanded to include persecuted civilians.

More recently, tracing activities have been extended to families who have become separated as a result of natural disasters or migration.

The International Prisoners of War Agency (1914 – 1923) was established by the ICRC, shortly after the start of the First World War – which involved 44 states and their colonies and caused the death of more than 8 million people, 20 million wounded and in the immediate post-war period of epidemics, famine and destitution another 30 million deaths.

Organised in national sections, its archives contain six million index cards that document what happened to two million people: prisoners of war, civilian internees and missing civilians from occupied areas.

The cards contain information about individual detainees. when they were taken captive, where they were held and, if relevant, when they died.

People who were without news of a loved one could present a request to the Agency, which would then send them what information it had.

Today the Agency’s documents are still used to reply to requests from families as well as to enquiries from historians.

And, as far as I could tell, the Agency is now in the Museum.

It contains:

• 5,119 boxes with 6 million index cards
• 2,413 files containing information provided by the belligerents
• 600,000 pages filling 20 linear metres of general files

This location is fitting for it was in the Rath Museum in Geneva where the Agency once was.

In all, more than 3,000 volunteers, most of them women, worked there during the conflict.

During the War, the Agency dispatched 20 million messages between detainees and their families and forwarded nearly 2 million individual parcels as well as several tonnes of collective relief.

The Agency’s role was also to obtain the repatriation of prisoners who had been taken captive in breach of the Geneva Conventions: doctors, nurses, stretcher bearers and military chaplains.

It helped to ensure that the wounded were returned home or interned in neutral countries.

 

 

The pacifist writer Romain Rolland was one of the Agency’s first volunteers:

“Its peaceful work, its impartial knowledge of the actual facts in the belligerent countries, contribute to modify the hatred which wild stories have exasperated and to reveal what remains of humanity in the most envenomed enemy.”

 

Above: Romain Rolland (1866 – 1944)

 

It was not until the end of the Second World War that Europe realized the extent of the tragedy affecting civilians.

The International Tracing Service (ITS) was then established.

The ITS has files on more than 17 million people: civilians persecuted by the Nazis, displaced persons, children under the age of 18 who had become separated from their families, forced labourers and people held in concentration camps or labour camps.

The ITS was set up in Bad Arolsen, Germany, and has helped millions of people to trace their loved ones.

 

Above: International Tracing Services, Bad Arolsen, Germany

 

Nowadays, the need to trace missing people also extends to the victims of natural disasters and to migrants, using not only index cards, but photo tracing (used to find nearly 20,000 children missing during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda), distributions of name lists (for example, the Angola Gazette – a list of people who went missing during the Angolan Civil War from 1975 to 2002) and the Internet (for example, http://www.familylinks.icrc.org).

 

Despite all tracing efforts, sometimes missing people do not get found, do not go home.

In that case, receiving confirmation of death puts an end to uncertainty and enables families to begin the process of mourning and to start to rebuild their lives.

The erection of memorials is one way of honouring the dead and of giving them a place of dignity in the collective memory.

 

 

For example, in 1995 the city of Srebrenica was attacked by forces under the command of General Radko Mladic.

 

 

Mladic had the women and children of this refuge of hounded Muslim civilians separated from the men and forced to leave Srebrenica.

The men were hunted down and killed.

More than 8,000 people went missing.

By 2010 only 4,500 victims had been identified and buried.

 

 

When faced with a collective tragedy and without a dead body, families are completely at a loss.

A memorial is sometimes their only means of paying tribute to the dead, of giving them a place in the collective consciousness and of recalling the events that led to those disappearances.

Examples include victims from:

• the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima

Above: Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbuko Dome)

 

• the deportation of Jews from France

 

• the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia

 

• the Soviet gulags

 

• the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine

 

• the civil war in Peru

 

• the earthquake in Sichuan, China

 

• the 9/11 attack in New York City

 

Communication is often disrupted during a conflict or a natural disaster.

In circumstances like that, receiving news from one’s family is a source of joy and relief.

There are different ways of sending news:

• Red Cross messages (in use for more than a century)
• Radio messages
• Videoconferencing
• Satellite telephones

 

A Red Cross message is a short personal missive that was first used in the Franco-Prussian War (1870 – 1871).

It is still in use today.

Each year, thousands of messages are distributed in more than 65 countries with the help of the ICRC.

To make sure that they reach the addressees, messengers sometimes travel long distances to extremely remote areas.

The messages themselves are generally very simple.

The main thing is to enable people to pass brief news on to their loved ones – their state of health, their place of shelter or detention.

 

 

For example, the Museum shows messages:

• sent by a French POW to his godmother in Switzerland
• exchanged by a French POW in Morocco and Algeria and his family in France
• written by aircraft passengers taken hostage in Jordan in 1970
• illustrated by children during the Yugoslav conflict in 1994
• by a Sudanese detainee in Guantanamo
• from a Greek child refugee following the Cyprus conflict of 1974
• from a mother to her son in Liberia
• from a little girl writing to her parents in the Congo
• written by a woman to her brother in prison in Kirghizstan

 

In Columbia, the radio programme Las voces del secuestro broadcasts family messages to people held hostage in the jungle, enabling more than 18,000 people to send news to their loved ones.

 

 

In Bagram Prison in Afghanistan, no family visits are allowed, so in 2008 the ICRC and the American authorities developed a videoconferencing system to enable the detainees to communicate with their loved ones.

In the space of just a few months, 70% of the detainees were able to contact their families.

 

Above: Parwan Detention Facility, Bagram, Afghanistan

 

And finally the Restoring Family Links exhibition concludes with works by Congolese artist Chuck Ledy and Benin artist Romuald Hazouma.

 

 

Humanity has progressed by refusing to accept the inevitability of the phenomena that endanger it.

In the face of natural disasters and epidemics, communities take action to prevent the worst, to save lives and to preserve resources.

Another Chamber of Witnesses:

• Benter Aoko Odhiambo, the head of a Kenyan orphanage and the initiator of a market gardening programme
• Abul Hasnat, a Bangladeshi school teacher and a Red Crescent volunteer
• Madeleen Helmer, the Dutch head of the ICRC Climate Centre
• Jiaqi Kang, a Chinese student in Switzerland

 

After all, prevention concerns us all.

Blast Theory, a group of British artists, designed the game Hurricane to test the effectiveness of natural disaster preparedness activities.

Planting mangroves, constructing high-level shelters, building up reserve stocks of food and organizing evacuation exercises are all part of the game and involve actors such as ICRC delegates, village leaders, experts and volunteers.

As the hurricane strikes, the players have to evacuate the villagers.

At the end of the game tells us how many lives were saved.

 

 

Posters are key communication instruments in prevention initiatives.

The link between pictures and text makes the messages easy for everyone to understand.

The Museum’s collection of some 12,000 posters from more than 120 countries tells of the many different activities developed by the ICRC.

Nowadays, as the impact of global warming becomes clearer, the ICRC is increasingly involved in natural disaster preparedness.

 

 

The ICRC was very quick to perceive the role that the cinema could play in promoting its activities.

Some films focused on prevention – hygiene, epidemics and accidents.

Others on training volunteers in first aid or life saving.

While preventing illnesses and accidents is ancient history, the management of risks associated with natural disasters is a more recent development.

A workshop at the Haute école d’art et de design (Gèneve) was given a free hand to create new montages using more than 1,000 films from the Museum’s collection.

 

Above: Haute école d’art et de design, Genève

 

Prevention is first and foremost about saving lives.

A number of different measures can be taken to provide protection: building shelters, installing early warning systems, carrying out evacuation exercises and providing hygiene education.

All these activities mobilize the local communities and the humanitarian organizations.

They sometimes call for substantial investment.

It is easy to raise funds during disasters when emotions are running high.

It is more difficult to raise funds for longer-term work.

Nonetheless, one dollar invested in prevention is two to ten dollars saved in emergency relief and reconstruction work.

 

 

All of this is brought into sharp focus by the three “théâtres optiques” (Cyclone, Tsunami and Latrines), created for the Museum by the French artist Pierrick Sorin.

 

Above: Pierrick Sorin

 

Let’s take, for example, Bangladesh.

 

Above: Flag of Bangladesh

 

In 1970, Cyclone Bhola caused one of the worst natural disasters in history.

A 10-metre high wave and winds of 220 km/hour caused the death of 500,000 people here.

A cyclone preparedness programme was then launched, which included an early warning system, the construction of shelters and the training of evacuation volunteers.

 

 

In November 2007, Cyclone Sidr, one of the most powerful ever recorded, hit parts of Bengal and Bangladesh, affecting nearly 9 million people and causing vast economic damage.

1.5 million people were evacuated before the Cyclone struck.

Although 3,500 people died, this number of deaths was far below the 1970 disaster.

 

 

Or let’s consider Brazil.

 

Above: Flag of Brazil

 

Infectious diarrhoea can affect people throughout the world.

It is most frequently caused by water that has been contaminated by faeces.

Around 2 million people die from diarrhoea every year, most of them children in developing countries.

In 2008 more than 2 billion individuals were without suitable latrines.

Almost half of them defecated in the open air.

In 1997, the authorities in Salvador de Bahia in Brazil launched a water purification programme in the city.

A university team monitored 2,000 children under the age of 3, most of whome were living in impoverished urban districts.

The results showed that water purification had a direct impact on health:

The overall number of cases of diarrhoea fell by 22% in the city and by 43% in the poorest areas.

 

Above: Images of Salvador de Bahia, Brazil

 

The Museum was never designed with the intention of casting blame or lavishing praise upon particular countries or particular individuals, but rather it shows the situations, both general and particular, in which the ICRC functions and to further a better understanding of what they do.

The ICRC aids victims, not on account of their particular nationality or their particular cause, but purely and simply because they are human beings who are suffering and are in need of help.

It strives to assuage all human distress which has no hope of effective aid from other sources.

The ICRC desires to relieve above all that suffering which is brought about by man, brought about by man’s inhumanity to man, and is more painful on that account and more difficult to relieve.

 

The most terrible form of man’s inhumanity to man is war and that is why the idea of the Red Cross was born in the field of battle.

The Red Cross is a third front above and across two belligerent fronts, a third front directed against neither of them but for the benefit of both.

The combatants in this third front are interested only in the suffering of the defenceless human being, irrespective of his nationality, his convictions or his past.

The ICRC fights wherever they can against all inhumanity, against every degradation of the human personality, against all injustice directed against the defenceless.

These neutrals on this humanitarian front are free of the prejudice and hostility which is so natural to men engaged in warfare.

The dominant idea and the essence of the Geneva Convention is equality of treatment for all sick and wounded persons whether they are friends or enemies.

 

It is the fulfilment of the cry of Solferine:

Siamo tutti fratelli.

We are all brothers.

 

 

The Museum is a living embodiment of that humanitarian adventure.

It is an edifice of humanity working for humanity.

And it is good.

 

 

Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Lonely Planet Switzerland / Rough Guide to Switzerland / Red Cross Museum, The Humanitarian Adventure / The International Committee of the Red Cross, Basic Rules of the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols / Dr. Marcel Junod, Warrior without Weapons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canada Slim and the Harry Potter Fado

Landschlacht, Switzerland, Friday 11 October 2019

As you read what follows….

Download a fado piece.

Portugal’s most famous musical form, fado (Portuguese for “fate“) is urban music, of night and bars, of a yearning that is beautiful and melancholic, accompanied by guitarra and viola.

 

Above: Fado, José Malhoa (1910)

 

To the south, fado is feminine.

But in the north, fado is a man’s music, full of lusty lyrics and soaring vocals, and usually the most memorable fado of all is performed by the least advertised, the most anonymous, performer of all, where one’s identity is overwhelmed by one’s soul.

Fado is to the Portuguese soul as rich, deep and satisfying as a cup of Portuguese coffee or a glass of Porto port.

Fado is played on the radio, on buses, in taxis, cafés and restaurants, on TV and drifting down darkened streets from shadowy clubs.

Fado is fate and how fate has foiled the lover in love and in life.

Fado is the homeland that is missed or the longing for a lover that has left.

To sing fado, the singer must become fadista with an attitude that cries out:

“I am a pessimist, a nihilist and everything that fado demands from me is me.”

It is the mourning of a devil cast out of heaven, a broken heart beyond repair, a spirit beyond redemption….

 

 

What the hell was she thinking?

This is a question that American Catholic theologians are asking J.K. Rowling the creator of the Harry Potter franchise….

 

Above: Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington DC – the largest enclosed church building in the world

 

Religious debates over the Harry Potter series of books by J. K. Rowling are based on claims that the novels contain occult or Satanic subtexts.

 

 

A number of Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christians have argued against the series, as have some Shia and Sunni Muslims.

 

Above: The Kaaba, Mecca, Saudi Arabia – the Muslim destination of pilgrimage

 

Supporters of the series have said that the magic in Harry Potter bears little resemblance to occultism, being more in the vein of fairy tales such as Cinderella and Snow White, or to the works of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, both of whom are known for writing fantasy novels with Christian subtexts.

Far from promoting a particular religion, some argue, the Harry Potter novels go out of their way to avoid discussing religion at all.

 

 

However, the author of the series, J. K. Rowling, describes herself as a practising Christian, and many have noted the Christian references which she includes in the final novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

 

 

In the United States, calls for the books to be banned from schools have led to legal challenges often on the grounds that witchcraft is a government-recognised religion and that to allow the books to be held in public schools violates the separation of church and state.

 

 

The Orthodox church of Bulgaria and a diocese of the Orthodox Church of Greece have also campaigned against the series, and some Catholic writers and officials have voiced a critical stance.

 

Above: Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George, Istanbul (Constantinople)

 

The books have been banned from all schools in the United Arab Emirates.

 

Above: Flag of the United Arab Emirates

 

Religious responses to Harry Potter have not all been negative.

Rowling notes:

“At least as much as they’ve been attacked from a theological point of view the books have been lauded and taken into pulpit, and most interesting and satisfying for me, it’s been by several different faiths.“

 

Above: J.K. Rowling, 2010

 

From The Times, 3 December 2018

The Harry Potter books gave birth to a global franchise, provided steady work to grateful British actors and created millions of new readers, convinced of the magical properties of a good book.

 

Above: Crowd outside a bookshop awaiting the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

 

They also created a generation of Americans who are more likely to believe that they are possessed by the Devil, with Catholic priests reporting that they are overwhelmed with requests to perform exorcisms.

 

“When I was appointed 13 years ago, I probably received maybe 100 inquiries a year.“, said Vincent Lampert, the official exorcist for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

“Now I receive about 1,700 inquiries a year.”

He thinks the Harry Potter books and films, which spurred a broad interest in magic, are partly to blame.

“Magic is the focus on the individual, rather than having to deal with God.“, he said.

It encouraged “the belief that somehow the power is within them.

Even within the world of exorcism, the premise would be that God is not a bystander.

God is the main actor.”

Priests who conduct exorcisms say occult practices and symbols can serve as doorways for a demon.

The Harry Potter books “disarmed Americans from thinking that all magic is darkness“, one unnamed exorcist recently told The Atlantic magazine.

 

Above: St. Francis Borgia performing an exorcism, Goya

 

Adam Jortner, a historian of religion in American life at Auburn University, Alabama, said it was not the first time that members of the church had feared the influence of children’s books.

“The church had a go at C.S. Lewis for the Narnia books, a powerful allegory of Christianity itself.“, he said.

 

 

Jortner agreed that interest in the occult had grown.

“Harry Potter is responsible for mainstreaming magic.“, he said.

Exorcism had a clear history within the church and it sought to treat magic with respect.

He added:

“The Catholic church has some of the most stringent rules about exorcism in the world.

Most Catholic exorcists are required to go through this long list of things to ensure that it is not a neurological problem.”

Father Lampert said that all who sought his help were required to undergo an assessment by a medical professional, which ended most applications….

 

Above: St. Francis exorcising the demons of Arezzo, Giotto

 

When I read an article like this I am shocked to find that this sort of folly is taken seriously.

Putting aside for the moment the question of the existence of God, for which the largest defence is that God’s non-existence cannot be proven, and grasping with the notion that God possesses a team (angels) to battle another team (demons) led by His most bitter opponent (the Devil), then to further suggest that demons possess people….

This pushes rational credibility.

 

 

But then to blame the author of a series of children’s books for the rise in exorcism applications is utter poppycock in my opinion.

 

To play the Catholic advocate for a moment it can certainly be argued that children are gullible, easily influenced and misled.

But it insults the intelligence of our young people to suggest that they cannot discern the difference between a clever storyline and reality.

 

Could they believe in magic?

Sure, for there is much about existence that is difficult to explain.

But it stretches my incredulity that children, those poor deluded Muggles, would assume from a story that they too possess magical powers as the alumni and staff of Hogwarts do.

 

Above: Model of Hogwarts, Warner Bros. Studio, Leavesden, England

 

Nonetheless, let us humour these men of the cloth for a moment….

Let us imagine (if that is even possible) that Harry Potter leads to the need for exorcism.

Over the years, some religious people, particularly Christians, have decried Rowling’s books for supposedly promoting witchcraft.

 

Rowling identifies as a Christian.

She once said:

“I believe in God, not magic.”

 

Early on, she felt that if readers knew of her Christian beliefs they would be able to predict plot lines of characters in her books.

In 2007, Rowling said she was the only one in her family who went regularly to church.

She was an adherent of the Church of England.

 

 

As a student she became annoyed at the “smugness of religious people” and attended less often.

Later, she started to attend a Church of Scotland congregation at the time she was writing Harry Potter.

Her eldest daughter, Jessica, was baptised there.

 

Above: Logo of the Church of Scotland

 

In a 2006 interview with Tatler magazine, Rowling noted:

“Like Graham Greene, my faith is sometimes about if my faith will return.

It’s important to me.”

 

Above: Graham Greene (1904 – 1991)

 

She has said that she has struggled with doubt, that she believes in an afterlife and that her faith plays a part in her books.

In a 2012 radio interview, she said that she was a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church, a province of the Anglican Communion.

 

In 2015, following the referendum on same-sex marriage in Ireland, Rowling joked that if Ireland legalised same-sex marriage, Dumbledore (Headmaster of Hogwarts) and Gandalf (of the Lord of the Rings series) could get married there.

 

Above: Flag of the Republic of Ireland

 

The Westboro Baptist Church, in response, stated that if the two got married, they would picket.

Rowling responded:

“Alas, the sheer awesomeness of such a union in such a place would blow your tiny bigoted minds out of your thick sloping skulls.“

 

Above: Westboro Baptist Church, Topeka, Kansas

 

Is Rowling then guilty of intellectual or spiritual manslaughter by unintentionally killing children’s beliefs in God?

Or taking the concept to its ultimate crazy extreme….

Was this death of the divine within our children pre-meditated by Ms. Rowling?

Is she guilty of spiritual murder?

 

To answer this question with any certainty we must ask ourselves how and why did Rowling write the Harry Potter series.

To answer this question, come with me, back in time, both in Rowling’s past and my own….

 

 

Joanne Rowling (born 31 July 1965), better known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author, film producer, television producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist.

 

Above: J.K. Rowling, 1999

 

She is best known for writing the Harry Potter fantasy series, which has won multiple awards and sold more than 500 million copies, becoming the best-selling book series in history.

The books are the basis of a popular film series, over which Rowling had overall approval on the scripts and was a producer on the final films.

 

 

She also writes crime fiction under the name Robert Galbraith.

 

 

Born in Yate, Gloucestershire, Rowling was working as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International when she conceived the idea for the Harry Potter series while on a delayed train from Manchester to London in 1990.

 

 

The seven-year period that followed saw the death of her mother, birth of her first child, divorce from her first husband, and relative poverty until the first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was published in 1997.

 

 

There were six sequels, of which the last, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was released in 2007.

 

Since then, Rowling has written five books for adult readers: The Casual Vacancy (2012) and—under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith—the crime fiction Cormoran Strike series, which consists of The Cuckoo’s Calling (2013), The Silkworm (2014), Career of Evil (2015), and Lethal White (2018).

 

 

Rowling has lived a “rags to riches” life in which she progressed from living on benefits to being the world’s first billionaire author.

She lost her billionaire status after giving away much of her earnings to charity but remains one of the wealthiest people in the world.

She is the UK’s best-selling living author, with sales in excess of £238 million.

The 2016 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Rowling’s fortune at £600 million, ranking her as the joint 197th richest person in the UK.

Time named her a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year, noting the social, moral and political inspiration she has given her fans.

In October 2010, Rowling was named the “Most Influential Woman in Britain” by leading magazine editors.

She has supported multiple charities, including Comic Relief, One Parent Families, and Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain, as well as launching her own charity, Lumos.

Joanne Rowling was born in Yate, Gloucestershire, the daughter of science technician Anne (née Volant) and Rolls-Royce aircraft engineer Peter James Rowling.

 

Above: View of Yate, Gloucestershire, England

 

Her parents first met on a train departing from King’s Cross Station bound for Arbroath in 1964.

They married on 14 March 1965.

 

 

One of Rowling’s maternal great-grandfathers, Dugald Campbell, was a Scottish man from Lamlash.

 

Her mother’s French paternal grandfather, Louis Volant, was awarded the War Cross for exceptional bravery in defending the village of Courcelles-le-Comte during World War I.

Rowling originally believed Volant had won the Legion of Honour during the war, as she said when she received it herself in 2009.

She later discovered the truth when featured in an episode of the UK genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? in which she found out it was a different Louis Volant who won the Legion of Honour.

When she heard her grandfather’s story of bravery and discovered that the War Cross was for “ordinary” soldiers like her grandfather, who had been a waiter, she stated the War Cross was “better” to her than the Legion of Honour.

 

 

Rowling’s sister Dianne was born at their home when Rowling was 23 months old.

The family moved to the nearby village Winterbourne when Rowling was four.

As a child, Rowling often wrote fantasy stories which she frequently read to her sister.

 

Above: Duck pond, Winterbourne, Gloucestershire

 

Aged nine, Rowling moved to Church Cottage in the Gloucestershire village of Tutshill, close to Chepstow, Wales.

 

Above: Church Cottage, Tutshill, Gloucestershire

 

When she was a young teenager, her great-aunt gave her a copy of Jessica Mitford’s autobiography, Hons and Rebels.

Mitford became Rowling’s heroine and Rowling read all of her books.

 

 

Rowling has said that her teenage years were unhappy.

Her home life was complicated by her mother’s diagnosis with multiple sclerosis and a strained relationship with her father, with whom she is not on speaking terms.

Rowling later said that she based the character of Hermione Granger on herself when she was eleven.

 

Above: Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, poster for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

 

Sean Harris, her best friend in the Upper Sixth, owned a turquoise Ford Anglia which she says inspired a flying version that appeared in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

 

 

Like many teenagers, she became interested in rock music, listening to the Clash, the Smiths and Siouxsie Sioux, adopting the look of the latter with back-combed hair and black eyeliner, a look that she would still sport when beginning university.

 

Above: Siouxsie Sioux, 1980

 

As a child, Rowling attended St Michael’s Primary School, a school founded by abolitionist William Wilberforce and education reformer Hannah More.

Her headmaster at St Michael’s, Alfred Dunn, has been suggested as the inspiration for the Harry Potter headmaster Albus Dumbledore.

 

Above: Richard Harris (1930 – 2002) as Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

 

She attended secondary school at Wyedean School and College, where her mother worked in the science department.

Steve Eddy, her first secondary school English teacher, remembers her as “not exceptional” but “one of a group of girls who were bright, and quite good at English“.

Rowling took A-levels in English, French and German, achieving two As and a B, and was Head Girl.

Above: Logo of Wyeburn School, Sedbury, Gloucestershire

 

In 1982, Rowling took the entrance exams for Oxford University but was not accepted and earned a BA in French and Classics at the University of Exeter.

Martin Sorrell, a French professor at Exeter, remembers “a quietly competent student, with a denim jacket and dark hair, who, in academic terms, gave the appearance of doing what was necessary“.

Rowling recalls doing little work, preferring to read Dickens and Tolkien.

After a year of study in Paris, Rowling graduated from Exeter in 1986.

In 1988, Rowling wrote a short essay about her time studying Classics titled “What was the Name of that Nymph Again? or Greek and Roman Studies Recalled“.

It was published by the University of Exeter’s journal Pegasus.

 

 

 

 

After working as a researcher and bilingual secretary in London for Amnesty International, Rowling moved with her then boyfriend to Manchester, where she worked at the Chamber of Commerce.

 

 

In 1990, while she was on a four-hour-delayed train trip from Manchester to London, the idea for a story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry “came fully formed” into her mind.

When she had reached her Clapham Junction flat, she began to write immediately.

 

Above: Clapham Junction Railway Station

 

In December, Rowling’s mother, Anne, died after ten years suffering from multiple sclerosis.

Rowling was writing Harry Potter at the time and had never told her mother about it.

Her mother’s death heavily affected Rowling’s writing and she channelled her own feelings of loss by writing about Harry’s own feelings of loss in greater detail in the first book.

 

An advertisement in The Guardian led Rowling to move to Porto, Portugal, to teach English as a foreign language.

JK Rowling moved to Porto in 1991.

 

Above: Porto

 

This was a difficult time in her life, as her mother had recently passed away after a long battle with multiple sclerosis.

And to rub salt in the wound, her house in Manchester had been burgled, and everything her mother had left her was stolen.

 

Eager for a change of scenery, she accepted a job teaching English as a second language in Porto at a private language school on Avenida de Fernão de Magalhães called Encounter English.

 

 

Rowling spent her evenings teaching English to young teenagers, business people and housewives and spent her days working on the manuscript of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

 

The time Rowling spent in Portugal was in many ways a dark and painful period of her life, and one that she rarely talks about.

For this reason, it’s hard to know for sure exactly which elements of the Harry Potter saga were inspired by her experiences in Porto.

Nevertheless, the influence is clearly there.

 

Many people have speculated that Rowling took inspiration from certain Porto landmarks, shops and cafés.

Some of these supposed inspiration locations almost certainly did inspire her, while others require a stretch of the imagination.

Rowling may have been subconsciously influenced by them, even if she didn’t recognize it at the time.

She taught English-as-a-foreign language at the Encounter English School at night and began writing in the day while listening to Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.

 

Above: Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893)

 

After 18 months in Porto, she met Portuguese journalist Jorge Arantes at a café and found they shared an interest in Jane Austen.

Arantes would later tell London’s Daily Express newspaper the story of his whirlwind romance and doomed marriage to the then-unknown Joanne Rowling.

 

Above: Jorge Arrantes

 

It was a sexually passionate relationship that ended in violence and bitterness.

She was a 25-year-old teacher, he was a 23-year-old journalism student.

He spotted her drinking with some friends in a café, was drawn to her piercing, aquamarine eyes and tried to pick her up.

“Immediately there was a connection between us.“, Arrantes said.

“Joanne could not speak any Portuguese, but my English was good.

We both realized we had a great deal in common with our love of books.

I remember her saying she was re-reading Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, which I had also read.”

 

 

Arrantes said she told him about an affair she had had with another Portuguese man and about a love affair with a man in England.

When the night ended, they exchanged telephone numbers – and a kiss.

 

Two days later, he said, they had their first date – and ended up in bed.

“Before we knew what was happening, she was back at my flat and we spent the night together.

There was nothing sordid about it.

We were simply two young, independent people enjoying life.

After that night, Joanne and I saw each other two or three times a week.

It was an intense and passionate relationship.”

 

It was also tempestous.

Their frenetic lovemaking was punctuated with furious arguments.

“We were always either in Heaven or in Hell.”

 

They moved into his mother’s apartment, a shabby two-bedroom flat with a tiny kitchen, on Rua do Duque de Saldanha.

 

Above: Entry to Arantes flat, Rua do Duque de Saldanha, Porto

 

Arantes later claimed he had helped her come up with ideas for the Harry Potter novels, though she denies this.

Among the belongings she brought to their home, according to Arantes, was a well-thumbed copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic The Lord of the Rings.

 

 

Several months later, Joanne discovered she was pregnant.

It was unplanned and both were afraid of the responsibilities parenthood might bring.

 

According to Arantes, Rowling began writing her first Harry Potter book during this pregnancy.

She kept her writing secret for a time, then showed her work in progress to Arantes.

“I am proud to say that I was the first person to read about Harry Potter.

It was obvious to me straight away that this was the work of a genius.

I can still remember telling Joanne:

‘Whoa! I am in love with a great, great writer.’

Even in those days, Joanne had a great talent for structure.

I never doubted it would be a success.”

 

Arantes says they discussed the stories, which Rowling found helpful.

“We studied each other’s work and made suggestions.

When I told Joanne to change something, she would usually make an alteration.”

He claims she had planned the full series of seven books, because  she believed the number 7 has magical associations.

 

 

But just as they had begun to look forward to the birth of their child, tragedy struck.

Joanne miscarried.

 

They married on 16 October 1992 and their child, Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes (named after Jessica Mitford), was born on 27 July 1993 in Portugal.

 

Above: Joanne and Jorge Arantes with baby Jessica

 

Two months after Jessica’s birth, Arantes admits, he ordered Joanne out of their apartment.

“She refused to go without Jessica and, despite my saying she could come back for her in the morning, there was a violent struggle.

I had to drag her out of the house at 5 in the morning and I admit I slapped her very hard in the street.”

 

The couple separated on 17 November 1993.

Biographers have suggested that Rowling suffered domestic abuse during her marriage, although the extent is unknown.

 

In December 1993, Rowling and her then infant daughter moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, to be near Rowling’s sister with three chapters of what would become Harry Potter in her suitcase.

Seven years after graduating from university, Rowling saw herself as a failure.

Her marriage had failed and she was jobless with a dependent child, but she described her failure as liberating and allowing her to focus on writing.

During this period, Rowling was diagnosed with clinical depression and contemplated suicide.

Her illness inspired the characters known as Dementors, soul-sucking creatures introduced in the third book.

 

 

Rowling signed up for welfare benefits, describing her economic status as being “poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain without being homeless.”

 

Rowling was left in despair after her estranged husband arrived in Scotland, seeking both her and her daughter.

She obtained an Order of Restraint and Arantes returned to Portugal, with Rowling filing for divorce in August 1994.

 

She began a teacher training course in August 1995 at the Moray House School of Education, at Edinburgh University, after completing her first novel while living on state benefits.

She wrote in many cafés, especially Nicolson’s Café (owned by her brother-in-law) and the Elephant House, wherever she could get Jessica to fall asleep.

 

 

Meanwhile Arantes’ life was falling apart.

He lost his job as a television journalist and descended into a nightmare of drug addiction.

 

His 70-year-old mother, Marilia Rodrigues, told the London Daily Mail that Arantes stole family heirlooms and jewellery to feed his drug habit.

“He still loved her very much and was heartbroken when they parted.“, Rodrigues said.

“He still believes they could get together again and he would take her back at the drop of a hat.

He just wants her and his daughter.”

 

Arantes says he has recovered from his drug addiction and lives in a small apartment in the Paris suburb of Clichy with his brother Justino, a travel agent.

 

Rowling rarely talks about her first marriage, but once told the Times of London:

“I married on 16 October 1992.

I left on 17 November 1993.

So that was the duration of what I considered to be the marriage.

Obviously, you do not leave a marriage after that very short period of time unless there are serious problems.

I’m not the kind of person who bales out without there being serious problems.

My relationship before that lasted seven years.

I’m a long-term girl.

And I had a baby with this man.

But it didn’t work.

And it was clear to me that it was time to go, and so I went.

I never regretted it.”

 

In a 2001 BBC interview, Rowling denied the rumour that she wrote in local cafés to escape from her unheated flat, pointing out that it had heating.

One of the reasons she wrote in cafés was that taking her baby out for a walk was the best way to make her fall asleep.

 

In 1995, Rowling finished her manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone which was typed on an old manual typewriter.

Upon the enthusiastic response of Bryony Evens, a reader who had been asked to review the book’s first three chapters, the Fulham-based Christopher Little Literary Agency agreed to represent Rowling in her quest for a publisher.

The book was submitted to twelve publishing houses, all of which rejected the manuscript.

A year later she was finally given the green light by editor Barry Cunningham from Bloomsbury, a publishing house in London.

The decision to publish Rowling’s book owes much to Alice Newton, the eight-year-old daughter of Bloomsbury’s chairman, who was given the first chapter to review by her father and immediately demanded the next.

Although Bloomsbury agreed to publish the book, Cunningham says that he advised Rowling to get a day job, since she had little chance of making money in children’s books.

Harry Potter is now a global brand worth an estimated US$15 billion and the last four Harry Potter books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history.

The series, totalling 4,195 pages, has been translated, in whole or in part, into 65 languages.

The Harry Potter books have also gained recognition for sparking an interest in reading among the young at a time when children were thought to be abandoning books for computers and television, although it is reported that despite the huge uptake of the books, adolescent reading has continued to decline.

 

On 26 December 2001, Rowling married Neil Murray (born 1971), a Scottish doctor, in a private ceremony at her home, Killiechassie House in Scotland.

Their son, David Gordon Rowling Murray, was born on 24 March 2003.

 

Above: Joanne and Neil Murray

 

Shortly after Rowling began writing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, she ceased working on the novel to care for David in his early infancy.

Rowling’s youngest child, daughter Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray, to whom she dedicated Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was born on 23 January 2005.

 

 

 

Regarding Jessica’s career, she can best be described as an Instagram model who posts beautiful photos of herself as well as videos with her family and friends.

Jessica started her Instagram account in 2013 and instantly started sharing photos.

She has now managed to gather almost 7,000 followers.

Apart from that, Jessica owns a clothing line called Jc.closefit.

She also loves travelling and taking photos while on her exotic tours.

 

Above: Jessica Arantes

 

Rowling’s life in Portugal clearly influenced aspects of the books:

 

Many of Potter’s spells can be easily understood by Portuguese speakers:

• aguamenti (bring out water)
• duro (make things hard)
• protego (protect people)
• silencio (to silence people)

 

One of Hogwart’s founding professors was Salazar Slytherin.

Dr. António de Oliveira Salazar was Portugal’s notorious dictator for much of the 20th century.

 

Above: António de Oliveira Salazar (1889 – 1970)

 

There are also many similarities between Porto’s most colourful buildings and elements of Hogwarts, and as my wife (Ute) and I explored the city of Porto, I found myself trying to imagine Joanne Rowling’s life pre-Harry Potter fame and fortune.

I also found myself marvelling at her choice of a dictator’s name for one of the school’s founders.

Was her deciding to take the name of Salazar suggesting that despite his  nature he was partially responsible for making the place possible?

Without a Salazar could it have become what it eventually became?

Rowling’s relationship with Arantes did not end well though their union resulted in Jessica’s birth.

Perhaps Arantes was Rowling’s Salazar?

Perhaps the rumours of domestic violence are true, but perhaps Arantes’s claims of inspiring Rowling’s ideas are also credible.

What would Porto, through a Rowling lens, tell me about writing and inspiration?

What would it tell me about myself?

 

Above: Images of Porto

 

Porto, Portugal, Thursday 26 July 2018

There are a number of sites in Porto frequently mentioned on Potterhead blogs that my mentioning will surprise no one.

The only difference I can offer is my perspective of them.

I shall briefly list them here and then offer my perspective:

• Livraria Lello
• Escovaria de Belomonte
• Universidade do Porto
• Café Majestic
• Fonte dos Leones
• Torre dos Clerigos

 

The Livraria Lello, Porto’s famous galleried Art Nouveau bookshop, with its neo-Gothic exterior and inner staircase just begging for a grand entrance, is a visual delight beyond words.

It was founded by the well-to-do Lello intellectual brothers in 1906 and specialized in limited edition books – many of which are still here.

The brothers now appear as bas-reliefs on the walls, alongside busts of great writers, including Eca de Queiroz and Miguel Cervantes.

The Lellos commissioned an engineer and fellow bibliophile Francisco Xavier Esteves to design the interior, which is simply stunning.

The ground level even has rails set into the floor for transporting book “carriages“.

 

 

The impressive double, freestanding staircase (actually made of concrete) lures people upstairs where you can admire the extraordinary plasterwork ceiling, which resembles ornately carved wood.

Columns and a stained glass roof light add to the air of something far grander than a bookshop, the whole design having an almost organic feel, as if the walls and ceiling are the ribs and bones of a living creature.

 

 

The first floor was the traditional meeting point of artists and intellectuals and was frequented by Rowling during her time in Porto in the 1990s.

It is this, and the similiarity of the shop’s decor to some of Hogwarts’ more outlandish design characteristics, that has put the bookshop firmly on the tourist circuit, with up to 4,000 people visiting daily.

There are often queues to get in, but if you come first thing in the morning or in the evening shortly before closing time, you may be able to experience the place more as a bookshop than a tourist site.

 

 

Porto’s famous galleried Art Nouveau shop has become a tourist site in its own right, but behind the crowds this still remains one of the city’s best bookshops.

There’s general fiction on the ground floor (including the Harry Potter stories in many languages), much of it in English, with reference and non-fiction (including travel) on the upper floor.

 

 

You can also find rare editions of Portuguese books.

 

Look out for the original till, made in 1881, the first in Portugal to issue paper receipts and with prices in reis (the currency before the escudo and the euro).

 

 

You get your €5.00 entry fee back on any purchase.

 

 

In 1869, the Livraria Internacional de Ernesto Chardron was founded, from a shop on Rua dos Clérigos by the Frenchman Ernesto Chardron.

Following its founder’s death, at the age of 45, the firm was sold to Lugan & Genelioux Sucessores.

Alternately, in 1881, José Lello along with his brother-in-law created the firm David Pereira & Lello.

But, the following year, after the death of David Lourenço Pereira, the establishment began to be operated as José Pinto de Sousa Lello & Irmão, when he partnered with his younger brother (António Lello).

The brothers both became prominent members of Porto’s intellectual bourgeoisie by the turn of the century.

The brothers hired engineer Francisco Xavier Esteves (1864-1944) to construct the new bookstore on Rua das Carmelitas.

In 1906, the Livraria Lello was inaugurated.

By 1919, the bookstore was simply designated as the Lello & Irmão, Lda.

With the 1930 addition of José Pereira da Costa, the bookstore began to be known simply as Livraria Lello.

But, between 1930 and 1940, it once again became designated Lello & Irmão.

Beginning in July 2015, the bookstore began requesting entrance fees for visitors.

On 21 April 2016, an artistic mural was erected to conceal the scaffolding placed on the facade of the building, during its restoration, by graffiti writer Dheo and colleague Pariz One.

 

 

Dheo painted the central area of the mural with a pile of old books, a lit candle and a bottle of Port wine, while the rest was painted by Pariz One with geometric shapes, referring to the stained glass inside the bookstore.

The work took two months to produce.

On 31 July, following the restoration, the main facade of the building was uncovered, showing the laboratory-tested recovered primitive gray.

 

 

There is no denying that the woodwork and the glass art and the red winding staircase do make the Livraria Lello a beautiful place to visit and certainly there is a good case to argue that Hogwarts’ moving staircases and the interior of the Diagon Alley bookstore Flourish and Blogs were inspired by the Livraria.

 

Above: Hogwarts’ moving staircases

 

 

But therein lies the problem.

It attracts too many tourists and it knows it.

 

As a passionate bibliophile I certainly admire the architecture, but for me a bookshop should in some ways resemble a library, a sanctuary of literature, a temple of tomes, rather than a marketplace for mobs.

A person cannot linger in any one spot too long before some impatient patron will jostle and push you about the place.

One could make a grand entrance if the store were a little less crowded, but one loses one’s regal bearing very quickly after enduring long queues to get in, for the indignity of paying an entrance fee just to view the shop, down each and every aisle, up and down the staircase, and at the cash register….

This is not the place for those who dislike crowds in enclosed spaces.

And though the Livraria does offer rare Portuguese books I am not so certain the Lello brothers would have liked the changes that time and fame have wrought, for as wonderful as it is to see people eagerly seeking books to read in this awkward age of automation and animation, a sense of intellectualism no longer pervades this establishment.

The place feels like a souvenir shop at one of Walt Disney’s magic kingdoms of artificiality than it does a sacred reminder of Portugal’s literary past.

 

Above: Disney World, Orlando, Florida

 

I doubt the American tourists who came to or left the Livraria had any conception of, or compassion for, the existence of a Portuguese literary history.

For the place is populated with Potterheads and nothing else seems to matter.

But suggesting such sacrilege to these Rowling fanatics is akin to being Cervantes’ Don Quixote tilting at thick stone windmills.

 

 

Pointlessly defending an honour long gone.

 

The Livrario made me think of St. Gallen’s Stiftbibliothek (Abbey Library) with its hefty admission fee and cramped interior when crowds congregate.

It is my hope that Rowling (or those of her ilk) never visit the Abbey Library and over-popularize the place with their writing, for the Library at least still maintains an aura of the sacred which the Livrario has long ago lost.

 

Above: The Abbey Library of St. Gallen

 

I was seeking a Porto version of Paris’ Shakespeare & Co., but got instead an amusement park souvenir shop.

 

 

It was worth a visit for the heart but at a cost to the mind and soul.

 

The Escovaria de Belomonte (Brushes of Belomonte), founded by Antonio da Silva on 29 January 1927, is not, at present, part of guidebook description, but it is most definitively part of Potter lore and appears on every blog where Rowling and Porto are mentioned in the same breath.

Though the Escovaria de Belomonte has only existed for 82 years, they excel in the manufacture and restoration of industrial brushes.

Why buy new brushes when you can have your old ones renewed?

The Escovaria de Belomonte replenishes and renews any type of brush.

They create brushes for every kind of customized applications for all types of industries, including industrial factories, textile production, footwear producers, jewelry stores, cast moulding manufacturers, grinding establishments, water treatment plants, car washes, typographical firms, gastronomy, and the list goes on….

They make any and every kind of brush and broom.

Whatever your needs, Escovaria de Belomonte will help you find a solution.

 

 

The handsome Belomonte brooms with their rustic luxurious look, many of them hanging from the store ceiling, handmade with high-quality wood and natural fibres, bear a striking resemblance to Harry Potter’s flying broom, the Nimbus 2000.

 

 

It has also been suggested that the name of Harry Potter that graces the front cover of every Potter novel bears a striking resemblance to the lettering and design of Escovaria de Belomonte‘s street sign.

Visually it is a great store to visit, but I wonder whether Potterheads actually make a purchase here.

There is no entrance fee and I am certain the place is much photographed by Potterheads, but whether the Escovaria is pleased with being a tourist attraction more than a serious business establishment is debatable.

 

 

It has been suggested by Potterhead blogs that the outfit worn by Universidade do Porto (University of Porto) students was the inspiration for the outfits that Hogwarts students were required to wear during academic hours.

The wife and I were not able to fit in a visit to the University, saw no one on the streets dressed in such attire and found very few photos of students dressed in this manner.

 

 

What can be said about the University:

• Founded on 22 March 1911, it is the 2nd largest Portuguese university by enrolled students (after the University of Lisbon) and has one of the most noted research outputs in Portugal.
• It is ranked among the best Portuguese universities, is among the 100 universities in Europe and ranked 328th of the best 400 universities in the world.
• Today, about 28,000 students (11,000 postgraduates) attend the programmes and courses provided by the University of Porto’s 15 schools (13 faculties, a biomedical sciences institute and a business school) each with a considerable degree of autonomy.
• It offers 63 graduate degree courses, over 160 master courses and several doctoral degree courses and other specialization courses, supported by 2,300 lecturers and a technical and administrative staff of over 1,600 people.
• Of those who can call themselves alumni or staff of the University are:
  • Richard Zimler (journalist / writer / professor)
  • Julio Dinis (1839 – 1871)(writer)
  • Jorge de Sena (1919 – 1978)(doctor / writer)
  • José Neves (billionaire businessman / founder of Farfetch)
  • Marisa Ferreira (artist)
  • Camilo Castelo Bianco (1825 – 1890)(writer)
  • Agostinho da Silva (1906 – 1994)(writer)

(This last mentioned I find inspirational:

“What you need, above all, is to not remember what I said. 

Never think for me. 

Think always for yourself. 

Be sure that all your mistakes that you commit are, according to your own thinking and deciding, all more valuable than all your correct actions made according to my thinking, not yours.

If the Creator wanted to put us together we perhaps couldn’t have two different bodies and two different heads.

My counselling should serve you to confront it.

It is possible that, after this confrontation, you come to think like me, but, at this time, your thought is yours.

My disciples, if I have any, are the ones who oppose me, because in their deep soul they guard what truly animates and what I most want to transmit to them.

The wish is to not conform.“)

 

Above: Agostinho da Silva

 

It is more likely that Rowling was inspired not by the University of Porto, but rather by the University of Coimbra – 1.5 hours south of Porto – whose students do indeed wear academic robes similiar to those of Hogwarts students.

We did not get to Coimbra.

We did not need to.

 

Above: University of Coimbra students in ceremonial robes

 

There are hundreds of places to eat and drink in Porto, from old town tascas and Art Nouveau cafés to riverfront designer restaurants.

Of these, the one place that attracts the Potterhead is the Café Majestic.

In 1916, Rua de Santa Catarina 12 was built on a paved shopping street.

Opened in 1921, the Café Elite was designed in Art Nouveau style.

The then Bohemian quarter of the city did not think the name “Elite” was appropriate as it was not part of the Zeitgeist that was the post-1910 revolutionary Portuguese Republic.

The coffee house was subsequently given the name it is still known by.

The Majestic became over time a place frequented by intellectuals and literary legends, including Gago Coutinho, Beatriz Costa, Júlio Resende, José Régio and Teixeira de Pascoaes.

 

 

(Carlos Viegas Gago Coutinho, generally known simply as Gago Coutinho (1869 – 1959) was a Portuguese geographer, cartographer, naval officer, historian and aviator.

An aviation pioneer, Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral were the first to cross the South Atlantic Ocean by air, from March to June 1922, from Lisbon, Portugal, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.)

 

Above: Coutinho (right) and Cabral (left) on the Lusitánia

 

(Beatriz Costa (born Beatriz da Conceição; 1907 – 1996) was a Portuguese actress, the best-known actress of the golden age of Portuguese cinema.)

 

Above: Beatriz Costa

 

(Júlio Resende is a Portuguese pianist and composer.

He is active as a jazz musician (both as a bandleader and as a sideman for other artists) and is also involved in the Fado scene, having recorded a solo piano tribute to Amália Rodrigues and collaborating with singers like António Zambujo, Ana Moura and Aldina Duarte.

He is also the leader of Alexander Search, a rock band fronted by Eurovision Song Contest 2017 winner Salvador Sobral and inspired by Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa.)

 

 

(José Maria dos Reis Pereira, better known by the pen name José Régio (1901 – 1969), was a Portuguese writer.

José Régio was the author of novels, plays, poetry and essays.

His works are strongly focused on the theme of conflict between man and God and between the individual and society, a critical analysis of solitude and human relations.)

 

Above: José Régio

 

(Joaquim Pereira Teixeira de Vasconcelos (1877 – 1952), better known by his pen name Teixeira de Pascoaes, was a Portuguese poet.

He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.)

Above: Painting of Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

In the 1960s, the Café experienced a decline, parallel to the increasingly repressive social situation of Portugal under the authoritarian regime of António de Oliveria Salazar’s Estado Novo (“New State“).

In 1992 the Barrias family decided to extensively restore the Majestic.

Using old photographs as their guide, the restoration was completed, a new floor laid and the Café reopened in 1994.

In the year prior to the commencement of the Majestic’s renovations, Rowling often visited the Café, writing her thoughts for her first Harry Potter novel on Majestic napkins.

The Majestic today is the best known of Porto’s belle époque cafés, with a perfectly preserved decor of celestial cherubs, bevelled mirrors, carved chairs and wood panelling.

 

 

Waiters float to the strains of The Blue Danube.

Come for coffee or afternoon tea as we did.

 

 

The Fountain of the Lions (Portuguese: Fonte dos Leões), is a 19th-century fountain built by French company Compagnie Générale des Eaux pour l’Etranger.

 

 

Cast by the Val d’Osne foundry in France, it is a copy, in most part, of the fountain in the Town Hall Square of Leicester, England.

The fountain is located in an urban, isolated location, within the gardened Praça de Gomes Teixeira.

The central fountain has a cruciform layout with a group of sculptures at the base supported by four seated lions on the extremes.

Between each lion, the axis of the source has a column with base, shaft and capital.

To top, two central, circular cups superimposed and staggered, with a pine cone surmounting all.

The octagonal shaped granite tank has rounded edges.

The outer profile of the tank walls is corrugated.

The edge of the lower plane bowl is outlined in relief by a frieze with plant elements interrupted only by four cornets from which water flows.

 

 

It is thought by Potterheads that this fountain inspired Rowling’s choice of logo for the House of Gryffindor at Hogwarts.

 

 

The Clérigos Church (Portuguese: Igreja dos Clérigos,”Church of the Clergymen“) is a Baroque church with its tall bell tower, the Torre dos Clérigos, seen from various points of the city and is one of Porto’s most characteristic symbols.

 

 

The main façade of the church is heavily decorated with baroque motifs (such as garlands and shells) and an indented broken pediment.

This was based on an early 17th-century Roman scheme.

The central frieze above the windows present symbols of worship and an incense boat.

The lateral façades reveal the almost elliptic floorplan of the church nave.

The Clérigos Church was one of the first baroque churches in Portugal to adopt a typical baroque elliptic floor plan.

 

 

The monumental tower of the church, located at the back of the building, was only built between 1754 and 1763.

The baroque decoration here also shows influence from the Roman Baroque, while the whole design was inspired by Tuscan campaniles.

The tower is 75.6 metres high, dominating the city.

There are 240 steps to be climbed to reach the top of its six floors.

This great structure has become the symbol of the city.

 

 

Did the Torre dos Clerigos inspire Hogwarts’ Astronomy Tower?

Potterheads like to think so.

 

 

At all of these sites, especially atop the Torre dos Clerigos, the visitor, headphones on, fado playing, can ponder how fado, Arantes, Rowling and yours truly all interconnect.

We have learned that Arantes probably abused Rowling as possibly did her father.

Fans who re-read Harry Potter as adults quickly realize that the behaviour of the Dursleys reads like child abuse: starvation, forced labour and confinement.

 

 

Starvation has been a stranger to me, but forced labour and confinement I did know.

 

In the Harry Potter series, more explicit abuse is described when Harry learns through a Pensieve memory that Severus Snape’s father beat his son and wife.

Porto is a Pensieve for me….

 

And then there is Rowling’s post-Potter writing….

 

In her novel The Casual Vacancy, Andrew is a restless teen who lives with his abusive, degrading father.

Rowling once told The New Yorker that Andrew represented her mindset as a teen, and although Andrew was not exactly based on her father, she said:

“I did not have an easy relationship with my father.”

 

Above: Andrew Price, The Casual Vacancy

 

Abuse also finds its way into Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Credence has an adopted mother who hits him with a belt.

That resentment from his mother’s frequent beatings turns him into an Obscurial, a repressed being that the evil Gellert Grindelwald wants to use for dark magic.

 

 

Often, but certainly not always, children who were abused by their parents often abuse their children when they become parents.

Perhaps this was the case in the behaviour of Arantes.

 

And, lest we forget, why Rowling chose António de Oliveira Salazar as the inspiration for the repressive Hogwarts co-founder Salazar Slitherin….

One overriding criticism of Salazar’s regime is that stability was bought and maintained at the expense of suppression of human rights and liberties.

Abuse on a national level.

Under Salazar’s authoritarian rule, he brought stability and prosperity to Portugal, but at enormous cost: censorship, imprisonment and torture.

 

Above: Salazar, 1939

 

Arantes was born in 1967.

Salazar’s Estado Nova lasted from 1932 to 1974.

Arantes’ father knew abuse and repression and so would Arantes.

 

It is hard to sympathize with those that abuse unless we realize that they were probably a product of abuse themselves.

Arantes lost the mother of his child and his daughter as well.

In the quiet of night as Arantes lies in his solitary bed in his brother’s Clichy apartment fado music plays inside his head.

Arantes is a pessimist, a nihilist, alone, and forever known for his greatest failure:

Losing the world’s most famous novelist as his lover and the child they made together.

 

We quietly walk through the wonders of Porto.

Fado fills the streets.

Sadness of memory fills my soul.

And sits upon my shoulders like an invisibility cloak.

 

Above: Porto, night

 

Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Facebook / Pocket Rough Guide Porto / Lonely Planet Portugal / Rough Guide Portugal / Matthew Hancock, Xenophobe’s Guide to the Portuguese / A.H. de Oliveira Marques, A Very Short History of Portugal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canada Slim and the Road to Utopia

Landschlacht, Switzerland, Tuesday 27 August 2019

Sometimes a place defines a person.

Sometimes a person defines a place.

 

 

Take the eminent Canarian author Alberto Vásquez-Figueroa as an example of the first.

 

 

Alberto’s grandfather was an architect.

Alberto’s father was born in Guadalajara while Alberto’s grandmother was there.

Alberto’s mother, the daughter of a local farmer, was born on Isla de Lobos, one of the Canary Islands.

 

 

Alberto himself was born on 11 October 1936 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, although he had not yet reached one year old when his family was exiled for political reasons to Spanish Africa, since his father was a Socialist Republican during the Spanish Civil War.

There Alberto spent his childhood.

His father was released, but he was admitted to hospital for several years because of tuberculosis.

While Alberto was in Africa, his mother died.

 

 

Alberto’s care was picked up by his uncle, the civil administrator of the military fort in the Spanish Sahara where they lived.

His uncle provided Alberto books to read, especially beloved adventure novels, by authors such as Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness), Herman Melville (Moby Dick) and Jules Verne (Around the World in 80 Days), which would later become Alberto’s preferred genre.

Since his youth, Alberto visited the Sahara and would later describe the culture of the desert region in his writing.

 

 

At 16 Alberto returned to Tenerife to study, working as a scuba instructor in the Cruz del Sur Diving School, along with Jacques Cousteau, where he would remain for two years.

Alberto worked on the rescue of bodies in Lake Sanabria after the Vega de Tera Dam burst, destroying the town of Ribadelago.

 

Above: Monument to the victims of Ribadelago

 

He attended the studios of the Escuela Oficial de Periodismo de Madrid in a 1962 and worked in the Destino specials.

He was a war correspondent in La Vanguardia, for TVE (Televisión Española) and for the program A toda plana with de la Cuadra Salcedo and Silva.

As a correspondent, he documented revolutionary wars in countries such as Bolivia, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala.

 

 

He later wrote his first novel, Arena y viento (Sand and Wind) and in 1975, he published as many as 14 to 15 novellas such as Ébano.

His other works include Tuareg and El perro as well as the sagas Cienfuegos, Bora Bora, Manaos and Piratas.

 

 

Ébano was cinematized in 1979 by director Richard Fleischer and renamed Ashanti.

Ashanti (also called Ashanti, Land of No Mercy) is a 1979 action adventure film.

Despite its impressive cast and setting (on location in the Sahara and in Kenya, Israel and Sicily), it was widely panned by critics upon release.

Michael Caine was reportedly very disappointed with the project and claims it was his third worst film.

Ashanti is an action adventure film, set against the background of modern-day slave trading, with a man who determinedly takes on a perilous journey in order to find his beautiful wife, who has been kidnapped by brutal slave traders.

David and Anansa Linderby (Caine and supermodel Beverley Johnson respectively) are doctors with the World Health Organization (WHO).

On a medical mission carrying out an inoculation programme, they visit a West African village.

While David takes photographs of tribal dancers, Anansa goes swimming alone.

She is attacked and abducted by slave traders led by Suleiman (Peter Ustinov), who mistake her for an Ashanti tribeswoman.

The police can do nothing to find her and David has almost given up hope when he hears rumours that Anansa has been kidnapped by Suleiman to be sold to Arab Prince Hassan (Omar Sharif).

The African authorities deny that the slave trade even exists.

So David must find help in a shadowy world where the rescuers of slaves are just as ruthless as the traders themselves.

As David tracks her across Africa and the Sahara desert, he is helped by a member of the Anti-Slavery League (Rex Harrison), a mercenary helicopter pilot (William Holden) and Malik (Kabir Bedi) a tribesman who is seeking revenge on Suleiman.

 

 

Alberto’s novel Tuareg was cinematized in 1984 by director Enzo G. Castellari.

Tuareg is a thriller novel that was his most critically and commercially successful, with global sales in excess of 5,000,000 copies.

It was adapted into a 1984 movie starring Mark Harmon, Tuareg – The Desert Warrior.

This is the first book in the Tuareg trilogy, followed by Los Ojos del Tuareg and El Último Tuareg.

 

 

One day, two old men and a boy appear in Gacel Shayah’s camp in the Sahara.

He, a noble inmouchar observing the millennial tradition of the desert, shelters travelers.

But he fails to protect them.

People in dusty military uniforms violate the ancient hospitality law.

They kill the boy and take one old man away.

Gasel Shayah remembers the great commandment of the Tuareg people:

Your guest is under your protection.

Therefore, he must seek vengeance.

 

 

Alberto’s novel Iguana was cinematized in 1988 by Monte Hellman.

Iguana is a 1988 American adventure drama/thriller film starring Everett McGill in the main role.

The movie is based on the life of a real Irish sailor called Patrick Watkins.

The movie was mainly shot on location in Lanzarote.

 

 

The film takes place at the beginning of the 19th century.

Oberlus (Everett McGill), a harpooner on a whaling ship, is regularly subjected to ridicule and abuse by other sailors.

The right half of his face is bizarrely disfigured and covered with hummocky outgrowths, which leads him to being nicknamed Iguana.

One night, after a brutal beating, Oberlus escapes to the uninhabited Hood Island.

He is soon discovered by a team led by Captain Gamboa (Fabio Testi).

Gamboa brutally tortures Oberlus and ties him up for further punishment, but Iguana manages to escape and hides himself in a cave.

The ship leaves the island and Gamboa orders that sailor Sebastian (Michael Madsen) be tied to a post on the coast as punishment for letting Iguana escape.

Oberlus finds Sebastian and proclaims himself “King of Hood Island” and Sebastian his first slave, forcing him to cook his food.

Declaring revenge upon the world, Oberlus enslaves two other sailors thrown ashore after the shipwreck.

He keeps his captives in a cave with a disguised entrance.

After some time, a ship holding Carmen (Maru Valdivieso) and her fiancé Diego (Fernando De Huang), is moored near the island.

Oberlus takes them prisoner.

Oberlus kills Diego and makes Carmen his concubine.

The captain of the ship, assuming Carmen and Diego to have died in the storm, does not look for them, but sails away.

One day, Oberlus notices the arrival of his former whaling ship.

At night, he climbs on board, kills two sailors on the deck, takes Gamboa prisoner, and sets the ship alight, having previously locked the hull.

Gamboa fights Oberlus, but is killed by him.

Resigned to her fate, Carmen tells Oberlus that she is pregnant with his child.

Months later, the captain of the ship Carmen and Diego arrived on, returns with a group of armed sailors.

They begin their search and Oberlus has to flee to the other end of the island with pregnant Carmen and his surviving prisoners.

Oberlus plans to sail away with Carmen on the boat.

Carmen gives birth, but Oberlus takes the child, claiming that he will allow him to suffer.

With the child in his arms, he enters the sea, intending to drown himself and the child.

 

 

Alberto’s novel Garoé (the name of a sacred tree in the Canary Islands) won the 2010 Historical Novel Prize Alfonso X El Sabio, valued at €100,000.

He has also published an autobiography entitled Anaconda.

He is also a screenwriter and film director and has made such films as Oro rojo (Red Gold).

 

 

Alberto currently resides between an attic apartment in the Madrid neighbourhood of Argüelles and a home on Lanzarote.

I am not sure if that home is in the village of Haría in the north of the island of Lanzarote, but I suspect it might be, for Alberto once described Haría as the most beautiful village in the world.

Although this description is a tad exaggerated, Haría really does have a pretty bucolic setting, in a palm-filled valley punctuated by splashes of brilliant colour from bougainvillea and poinsetta plants.

 

 

But we were not searching for Alberto and had we passed him on the streets we would not have recognized him.

Instead we were looking for a local legend, Lanzarote’s favourite son, César Manrique.

My wife and I spent our mini-vacation tracking down buildings across the Island of Lanzarote that César designed.

We hoped to understand why this place and this man remain inseparably intertwined in the hearts and minds of those who come here and those who knew him.

César Manrique defined Lanzarote.

To understand César Manrique is to understand Lanzarote.

We came to learn.

We began in Haría where his story ends.

 

 

Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain,  Monday 3 December 2018

Much like César, our first discovery of Lanzarote was Arrecife.

For us it was the international airport north of Arrecife the day previously.

 

 

On this day we drove our rented car, from our hotel in Costa Teguise (See Canada Slim and the Royal Retreat of this blog.), past an aquapark and golf grounds, through the town of Tahiche (more on this town in a future post), through Nazaret and Teguise (See Canada Slim and the Pirates of Teguise of this blog.), through Los Valles and past a windpark to arrive at Haría.

 

 

(Los Valles, a quiet agricultural hamlet between Teguise and Haría, is situated in a valley at the foot of the Famara Massif.

Los Valles was founded by refugees from the village of Santa Catalina, which has been destroyed during the eruptions of 1730 – 1736 of Mount Timanfaya.

 

 

The pretty, white village church of Ermita de Santa Cantalina stands at the bottom of the valley on the side of the highway.

 

 

Immediately after you pass the restored Casa de los Perazas, one of the oldest buildings on Lanzarote.

 

 

The road begins to climb steeply passing the Mirador Los Valles.)

 

César Manrique Cabrera was born in Arrecife on 24 April 1919, the son of Francisca and Gumersindo Manrique.

César’s father was a food merchant and his grandfather a notary public.

César preceded his twin sister Ampara by just a few minutes.

He had another sister and a brother.

Gumersindo came from Fuerteventura and emigrated to Lanzarote.

The Manriques were a typical middle class family, without financial burdens.

In 1934, Gumersindo bought property in Caleta de Famara and built a house next to the ocean.

This house left a visible impression on César that lasted his lifetime.

 

 

Ute and I on our first day spent a few hours on Famara Beach and like César did we remember it with joy:

“My greatest happiness is to recall a happy childhood, five-month summer vacations in Caleta and Famara Beach with its eight kilometres of clean and fine sand framed by cliffs of more than 400 metres high that reflected on the beach like a mirror.

That image has been engraved in my soul as something of extraordinary beauty that I will never forget in all of my life.”

 

 

César would fight in the Spanish Civil War as a volunteer on dictator Franco’s side.

His experience of the War was atrocious and he refused to talk about it.

In the summer of 1939, once the War was over, César returned to Arrecife, still wearing his military uniform.

After greeting his family, he went up on the flat roof, took off his clothes, angrily stepped over them, sprayed them with petroleum and burned them.

 

 

César attended the University of La Laguna to study technical architecture, which he would abandon after two years.

In 1945 he moved to Madrid and studied art at the Academia de Bellas Artas de San Fernando where he graduated as a teacher of art.

 

 

In 1953, César began painting abstracts, which in Franco’s Spain was tantamount to treason, and one year later he exhibited his works alongside those of his friends Manuel Manpaso and Luis Féito.

By the late fifties César had made a name for himself in Madrid.

There followed exhibitions in major cities of Europe, Japan and America, which gave him international renown.

 

 

In the fall of 1964, following the advice of his cousin Manuel Manrique, a New York psychoanalyst and writer, César lived in New York City until 1966.

He was the guest of Waldo Diaz-Balart, a Cuban painter, who lived in the Lower East Side, at a time when this was a neighbourhood of artists, journalists and bohemians.

Through César’s cousin Manuel’s friendship with the Director of the Institute of International Education, which was sponsored by Nelson Rockefeller, a generous grant allowed César to rent his own studio and produce a number of paintings which he exhibited with success in the prestigious New York gallery of Catherine Viviano.

 

 

While in New York, he wrote his friend Pepe Dámaso:

“More than ever I feel true nostalgia for the real meaning of things.

For the pureness of the people.

For the bareness of my landscape and for my friends.

My last conclusion is that Man in New York is like a rat.

Man was not created for this artificiality.

There is an imperative need to go back to the soil.

Feel it.

Smell it.

That’s what I feel.”

 

 

In his unpublished diary, César wrote of his homesickness for Lanzarote.

At the time he was still undecided as to where to set up his permanent studio.

In 1968, César travelled straight from New York City to Lanzarote, which he found exactly as he had left it in 1945.

He felt Lanzarote needed him.

He made himself the Island’s champion.

 

 

“When I returned from New York, I came with the intention of turning my native island into one of the most beautiful places on the planet, due to the endless possibilities that Lanzarote had to offer.”

 

 

The Canarian Island was then just beginning to develop a tourism industry, but César promoted a model of sustainability in an attempt to protect Lanzarote’s natural and cultural heritage.

This Manrique model was a determining factor in Lanzarote being declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1993.

 

 

In parallel with his commitment to the Island, César opened his creative work up to other forms of artistic expression.

He developed a new aesthetic ideology, dominated by art-nature / nature-art.

He began a dialogue of respect for the natural surroundings in which  values of local traditions blended harmoniously with modern designs.

Well versed in many forms of creative expression, a very real desire for integration with the surrounding natural landscape underlies César’s body of artistic work as a whole.

 

 

“One of the fundamental preoccupations which has guided my artistic work has been to try to achieve harmonious integration of the forms and ideas of painting, sculpture and spaces into nature.

I believe that this way, of integrating the greatest possible number of artistic elements – colour, texture, dimension, ambience, proportion – leads to a greater aesthetic enjoyment and quality of life.

It is necessary to create and act in freedom, to break with formulae and extend the concept of art to everyday human life, to create non-hostile spaces modelled on the integration of art into nature and nature into art.“

 

 

That César’s ideas were carried out on Lanzarote is all thanks to the man’s tireless energy, persistence, immense abilities and international fame.

Without César Manrique, Lanzarote would scarcely be what it is today.

It is his influence and his work that have shaped the Island.

César shaped planning policy on the whole island and his influence can be seen everywhere.

He began with a campaign to preserve traditional building methods and a ban on roadside hoardings.

He convinced the authorities to impose a universal ban on advertising and ensure that telephone and high voltage cables were laid underground.

A multifaceted artist, César turned his flair and vision to a broad range of projects, with the whole of Lanzarote becoming his canvas.

César was a painter, sculptor, architect, ecologist, monument preserver, construction advisor, urban development planner, landscape and garden designer.

 

 

César’s work is full of vitality, colour and light.

There is nothing gloomy in either his paintings or sculptures or in the buildings he designed.

 

 

Together with his friend from his youth, José Ramirez Cerdá, who was president of the Cabildo Insular (island government), César skillfully put his architectural projects into operation.

Luis Morales, an employee of the Cabildo, was a sympathetic partner in all this.

As a practical builder, Morales had the skills to execute Manrique’s plans.

 

Above: Flag of Lanzarote

 

César encouraged the traditional cubic form of architecture.

A house is capable of growth.

The Lanzarotenos start with one or two rooms.

As a family grows, they add cubes of one or two storeys, arranged around a central courtyard and the water tank.

 

 

César’s idea was harmony with nature and the continuation of natural processes.

He wanted to preserve Lanzarote tradition and achieve a landscape-related architecture in proportion to the natural surroundings.

He believed in a humane architecture where nature should be spared and not choked with buildings.

Tourism threatened to sweep away everything before it, but César’s ceaseless opposition to such unchecked urban sprawl touched a nerve with Lanzarote locals and led to the creation of an environmental group known as El Guincho, which has had some success in revealing – and at times reversing – abuses by developers.

 

 

As we drove through villages across the Island, we could see how traditional stylistic features still remain.

The standard whitewashed houses are adorned with green-painted doors, window shutters and strange onion-shaped chimney pots.

The entire Island is a testimony to César’s influence and ever-enduring spirit.

 

 

“The awareness of the miracle of life and its brevity have made me see clearly that we are impoverished by the tragic sentiment of our existence.

The only important reality is the great mystery of life and of man with his inexhaustible imagination and his infinite ways of acting.

We must observe and learn from the energies of life.“

 

 

Those who knew César only superficially ignored the streak of puritanism that ruled his conduct.

He was a frugal man.

He didn’t drink or smoke or allow others to smoke next to him.

He regularly went to bed very early and got up at dawn and began work in his studio very early.

 

 

In all César carried out seven major projects on the Island and numerous others elsewhere in the archipelago and beyond.

At the time of his death, he had several more in the works.

It was the buildings that my wife and I were determined to visit on our five-day sojourn on Lanzarote.

We wanted to see how César’s life-affirming architecture relates to the Lanzarote landscape.

We were confused by descriptions that suggested that César’s buildings were generous but at the same time deeply modest.

Guidebooks wrote that César, with great aesthetic powers and unerring taste, had created places for the muses, of contemplation, of meditation, which radiate joy and tranquillity, places endowed with humanity.

It was written that César had striven to discover the beautiful and make it visible to everyone, but not simply beauty for beauty’s sake, but a unity of truth and intrinsic originality.

We wanted to see this for ourselves.

 

 

To speak of harmony with nature we need to speak of the landscape of Lanzarote.

On arriving in Lanzarote one feels transported in time, whisked back to the beginnings of the world, a fresh, clean world, in which the Traveller himself is the hero of discovery.

Here are seas of lava, enchanted grottos, columns of steam seeping from the bowels of the planet, magnificent multicoloured stone walls, threatening volcanoes, waves that furiously smash upon tortured cliffs that loom like giants frozen for all time in their march to the sea and eternally punished for such audacity, lurking lagoons that appear suddenly among the rocks, pockets scooped from deadly lava where livelihood-sustaining vines thrive to produce unsurpassable wine, golden beaches of skin-caressing sands, transparent blue waters….

Another world, another time, a unique place.

Here are peaceful, flower-bedecked whitewashed villages and a heritage of hardy people who overcame, will always overcome, the desolation that civilization commits and the fury of nature defied.

From lava and ash, drops of dew defiantly defended have been clawed from nature’s clutches and cultivated.

Yet these sturdy island warriors are kind, hospitable people who shelter guests in comfort and compassion.

Civilization’s constants are also found on Lanzarote, but they blend rather than blind the visitor to the natural delights of the Island.

 

 

By far the most beautiful place in the archipelago, Haíra lies within a sea of palm trees and has the charm of a small sheltered oasis.

Haría is a place to relax, a Utopia where the locals set the tone.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, locals traditionally planted a palm tree to celebrate a birth (two for a boy, one for a girl), thus resulting in today’s tourist viewing a palm-filled valley upon a barren Island.

 

 

Haría has many positive qualities: magnificent flora, an abundance of trees.

The mind can manage this place so peaceful, so tranquil, as the body sits comfortably under wide spreading canopies of leaves.

No one, except children in haste, runs in Haría.

One strolls here.

The soul quietly smiles at the serenity.

 

 

The central pedestrian avenue, Plaza León y Castillo, is shaded by lush leafy laurel and eucalyptus trees and cast-iron lanterns above benches where children play and seniors meet watching tourists gorge themselves at the Plaza’s open-air restaurant.

This is also the site of a superb Satuday morning craft and produce market.

 

 

From the town hall up the street about 100 metres, the Traveller comes to the municipal arts and crafts centre, the Taller de Artesania Municipal.

Handicrafts are available throughout the week at the Taller de Artesania Reinaldo Dorta Déniz (to give its full name) on Calle Barranco de Tenesia, a town hall-backed craft workshop where local artists produce macramé, silverware, ceramics, dollmaking, embroidery and some charming pieces made of palm leaves and reeds, where one can watch the crafters at work before buying.

It is open Tuesday to Sunday 1000 – 1330 and 1600 – 1900, Monday only 1000 to 1330.

 

 

The Mercado Municipal de Abastos, adjacent to the arts and crafts centre, is a small market here with a health-conscious attitude, with fruit, vegetable, meat and fish counters.

There is also a food stall here where the locals are tempted with tapas.

It is open Monday to Saturday 0900 – 1400.

 

 

Haría does not boast any monuments of particular historical or architectural importance, for the history of this municipality is of little relevance.

Theirs is a past marked by poverty, foreign invasions and mass emigrations.

A 1587 account of the neighbourhood mentions a fountain and 100 people, a time when it was the only village on the Island besides the capital of Teguise.

In 1590, there were no more than 1,000 people on the Island, of which 250 were military, as well as 40 horses.

Population scarcity was due to three raids carried out for 16 years by Moorish and Turkish pirates.

One of the most devasting pirate attacks was that of the troops of Morato Arráez, who, in August 1586, burned down all the palm trees.

Fortunately they grew back again.

 

 

What is immediately outstanding is the good taste of the town’s buildings and the way they blend into the landscape.

Some stately Andalusian-style houses date back to the 19th century when Haría at times played an important role in island politics.

 

 

At the far end of the Plaza Leon y Castillo stands the modern parish church of Our Lady of the Incarnation.

The church was built in 1619 although it has suffered numerous setbacks over time.

The most significant was the storm of 1956, which left only the tower standing.

Inside the church five fine lovingly-carved arches support the ceiling.

 

 

In front of the church is the La Tegala Cultural Centre, a more than 100-year-old house which has already served as a barracks, a shop and a workshop.

 

 

A visit to the Diocese of the Canaries’ Museum of Popular Sacred Art in Plaza León y Castillo is recommended for the abundance of wonderful works springing from the imagination of the people of Lanzarote.

 

 

At the Plaza de la Constitución, the small square next to the Plaza Leon y Castillo, stands the classical town hall also containing the local police station.

 

 

Around the corner is the beautiful city library with its rich selection of Canarian historical and cultural materials.

 

 

On the square there is a small rest area with benches, above the large cistern Aljibe which has been converted into a meeting and exhibition hall.

 

 

Since the advent of tourism in the early 1980s Haría has flourished, but the tourists come not  only for the celebrated beauty of the town or for the Sacred Art Museum or for the handicraft workshops, but they come to see the Casa Museo César Manrique on Calle Elvira Sanchez.

 

 

But before we remember the dead, let us honour the living while we can.

 

Behind the Museum one can, if lucky, witness an artist at work in a garage.

That craftsman is Don Eulogio Concepción Perdomo, signposted as “Cesteria“.

This man, the only and last basket weaver on the Island, is now over 80.

In patient manual labour Perdomo makes, from the strong fronds of Canarian date palms, stable baskets of various sizes and the famous Lanzarote conical-shaped hats.

We witness him making a small fruit basket, which takes more than an hour to produce, costs about €20.

I call his name and shake his hand.

Does he know of his fame?

Does he understand just how important he is?

 

 

A palm-fringed property was the final home of Lanzarote’s favourite son and has been opened as a shrine to his memory.

This is a house frozen in time, complete with César’s clothes in the closet and personal art collection adorning the walls.

It is an intimate and personal view of César in his domestic surroundings.

It is a strikingly beautiful home situated in a lush palm grove in a charming village that is itself a showcase of Lanzarote’s traditional lifestyle.

This relatively new attraction of Haría, César’s last home, was opened in the summer of 2013.

 

 

Surrounded by date palms and tucked away and back from the street, César’s home is a pleasure to stroll through.

The entrance fee is steep but the Museum is well laid out.

Rarely does one experience such harmonious living space with such a feel-good factor.

Within this spacious property, within the context of the comfortable and tasteful decor are many personal items, including painting items and incomplete works.

 

 

The living room with a large fireplace and heavy wooden ceiling, the light-flooded dining room, the bedroom with high panelled ceiling, and, as always with César, an extravagant bathroom that opens with glass fronts to the outside, César designed his home with much love, a house that was far from completion when he died.

The Casa Museo César Manrique is open every day from 1030 to 1800 (last entry 1730).

 

 

It is in Haría where César was lain to rest, when at the age of 73, still in good health and full of vitality and the joy of living, he was killed in an automobile accident on 25 September 1992, next to the present site of his Fundacion.

The irony of fate that he would meet his death in a car accident is rich as he loathed the massive amount of vehicles.

 

Above: Painted BMW from 1990 Art Basel exhibition, Casa Museo César Manrique, Haría, Lanzarote

 

César’s final resting place in Haría’s cemetery is located at the exit to Arrieta atop a low hill.

His simple grave is located on the left in front of the small chapel.

César’s differs fundamentally from the other graves which are made of stone slabs and crosses.

His is a flat oval bordered by lava stones under a palm tree and adorned with succulents and cacti.

The carving “C. Manrique 1919 – 92” testifies that here lies Lanzarote’s loyal son.

From the forecourt of the cemetery there is a beautiful view of the valley below.

 

 

In retracing his life in reverse chronology, I am reminded of a text he wrote to describe himself and his view of life:

“I have never followed the signs indicating the road to Utopia.

Utopia, I do presently believe, is an inner path.

My enthusiasm, in any case, is the sole force that can guide me approximately.“

 

 

Starting from César’s endpoint is appropriate.

For it is in Haría we view not the celebrity César, not the artist César, but the man César, a man as common as we all are, mortal and preoccupied with all the minutae that comprise a life lived daily.

 

 

To fully appreciate César’s impact on the Island one must journey out of Haría, away from a traditional Lanzarote, to a Lanzarote of the future built upon five volcanic bubbles of a lava flow 6km north of Arrecife, César’s birthplace.

The Taro de Tahíche is a dormant remnant of the 1730 eruption of the volcano Timanfaya on the northwest corner of the Island, and it is upon this that the Fundación César Manrique sits.

 

 

From the Fundación and the overview of all that César Manrique was and did, the Traveller is encouraged to explore Lanzarote through César’s eyes and creations:

• the Jameos del Agua

• the Monumento al Campesino

• the Restaurante El Diablo

• the Mirador del Río

• the Castillo San José

• the Jardín de Cactus

 

It is at the Fundación and at the aforementioned half-dozen Manrique creations that the Traveller senses how César’s life-affirming architecture relates to the Lanzarote landscape:

Generous and yet deeply modest.

With great aesthic imagination and impeccable taste César created monuments for muses, cathedrals of contemplation, monoliths of meditation, jubilees of joy, temples of tranquillity, havens of humanity.

He sought what was beautiful and brought to this beauty his strength of purpose and crystalline originality.

In Lanzarote posts to come his creations and the Island that inspired them will be patiently revealed.

I hope that you will enjoy learning of them as I shall enjoy the experience of sharing them with you.

 

Above: Undiscovered Planets, César Manrique

 

Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Fernando Gómez Aguilera, César Manrique in His Own Words / Wolfgang Borsich, Lanzarote and César Manrique: Seven Buildings / Lucy Corne and Josephine Quintero, Lonely Planet Canary Islands / Jorge Echenique and Andrés Murillo, Lanzarote / Eberhard Fohrer, Müller Lanzarote / Raimundo Rodriguez, Lanzarote

 

 

Canada Slim and the Third Man

Landschlacht, Switzerland, Wednesday 26 June 2019

To understand something alien to one’s self it becomes necessary to make time and effort to learn and study that which one does not already know.

I have often considered it a sign of wisdom and maturity when one does not only admit when one does not know something but as well makes no pretense that he does.

For the past year I have been following, as literally as possible, in the footsteps of Huldrych Zwingli, the Swiss Reformer, from his birthplace in Wildhaus to the site of his death in Kappel am Albis, using Yvonne and Marcel Steiner’s excellent guidebook, Zwingli-Wege: Zu Fuss von Wildhaus nach Kappel am Albis: Ein Wander- und Lesebuch.

 

 

(Please see:

Canada Slim and….

• the Road to Reformation
• the Wild Child of Toggenburg
• the Thundering Hollows
• the Basel Butterfly Effect
• the Vienna Waltz
• the Battle for Switzerland’s Soul
• the Monks of the Dark Forest
• the Privileged Place
• the Lakeside Pilgrimage
• the Family of Mann
• the Anachronic Man
• the Chocolate Factory of Unhappiness

….of this blog for an account of these adventures and discoveries.)

 

(Zwingli and Zürich are also mentioned in:

Canada Slim and….

• the Rush for Reformation
• the City of Spirits)

 

I have written of Zwingli’s life and my retracing of that life from Wildhaus to Kilchberg.

 

Above: Huldrych Zwingli (1484 – 1531)

 

In Canada Slim and the Rush for Reformation, I described a tour through Reformation-time Zürich that takes the reader to the most important places in Zwingli’s life and in those of his successors, starting at the Wasserkirche (Water Church) where the Zwingli Monument stands to the Rathaus (City Hall) where the political decisions of the Reformation were decided, for the Reformation was not only a transformation of church government but as well as civic government.

 

 

I visited and described my visit to the Wasserkirche and the Grossmünster with its Cloister where the Prophesy took place, the Zwingli Portal depicting 16 scenes from Zwingli’s life and Zwingli’s successor Heinrich Bullinger’s statue.

 

 

I visited the Haus zur Sel where Zwingli once lived and the Froschau Fountain named after Christoph Froschau, who had a major impact on the Reformation in Zürich.

 

 

I visited the Preacher’s Church, a former Dominician convent abolished in the Reformation that was first converted into a bread line for the poor and a hospital and then later the parish church of the neighhourhood of Niederdorf.

 

 

I saw the Schipfe where the first Anabaptist was martyred and St. Peter’s with Europe’s largest church tower clock.

 

 

I visited the Fraumünster and its amazing stained glass windows created by Marc Chagall.

 

 

I also visited the City Hall where religion and civic government met.

 

 

I came to the realization on 23 January 2018 that I could not make Zwingli’s actions, most significantly in Zürich, understandable, if I couldn’t explain why the Reformation actually matters, then and now.

So I went to Geneva (Genève) to finally see two Museums I had not as yet seen but had always wanted to see:

• The International Museum of the Reformation
• The International Red Cross Museum

 

Above: Musée Internationale de la Reforme, Geneva

 

Above: International Museum of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Geneva

 

(The latter will appear in a future blog post.)

 

Genève, Suisse, Mardi le 23 Janvier 2018

The airy Musée International de la Reforme is housed in the handsome 18th century Maison Mallet, which backs onto the Cathedral.

The Museum explores the ideas behind 500 years of Protestantism, from early theological debates to the influential charismatic preachers who today lead many churches around the world.

State-of-the-art exhibits and audiovisuals bring to life everything from the earliest printed Bibles to the emergence of Geneva as “Protestant Rome” in the 16th century, from John Calvin all the way to the 21st century.

 

 

The causes that led to the break between Roman Catholicism and what came to be known as Protestantism are complex and are still in dispute.

Political economy, nationalism, Renaissance individualism, and a rising concern over ecclesiastical abuses all played their part.

They do not, however, camouflage the fact that the basic cause was theological, a difference in Christian perspective between Rome and those that did not share her views.

 

Above: St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City

 

This is what I learned from my tour of the Museum….

 

Above: The Calvin Room, International Museum of the Reformation

 

View the 16th century, when most of the events we now call the Reformation took place, as a vast tunnel.

The Western Church entered that tunnel whole and emerged from it in several sections, or movements of churches.

 

 

The two great enduring themes which split the Western Church apart were justification by faith and the principle of idolatry.

 

 

Faith, in the Protestant conception, is not simply a matter of belief – an acceptance of knowledge held with certainty to be true yet not based on evidence.

Faith is a response of the total self – a totality act of the whole personality.

As such it is not only a conviction of God’s limitless, omnipresent creative power, but as well it is a movement of the affections in love and trust and a decision of the will in a desire to be an instrument of God’s redeeming love.

When Protestants say that human beings are justified by faith, they are saying that faith requires a movement of the total self, in mind, will and affections.

It is a mark of the strength of the ecumenical movement in the 20th century that Roman Catholic theologians, including the present Pope Francis, now increasingly understand faith in the same way.

 

Above: Jorge Mario Bergoglio (aka Pope Francis)

 

Thus defined, faith is a personal phenomenon.

“Right beliefs” or “sound doctrine” can be accepted secondhand and largely by rote, but service and love cannot.

Faith is the response by which God becomes God for me, my God.

This is what Martin Luther meant when he said:

“Everyone must do his own believing as he will have to do his own dying.”

 

Above: Martin Luther (1483 – 1546)

 

To feel the force of the Protestant emphasis on faith as the response of the entire self, we need to see it as a passionate repudiation of religious perfunctoriness, the unthinking repetition of routine.

Luther’s protest against indulgences – a kind of “she’s buying a stairway to Heaven” – which were thought to help reduce the buyer’s time in Purgatory – is only a symbol of this wider protest.

 

 

No number of religious observances, no record of good deeds, no roster of doctrines believed, could guarantee that an individual would reach their desired state.

Though such things are not irrelevant to the Christian life, unless they help to transform the believer’s heart (his attitudes and response to life), these things were inadequate.

This is the meaning of the Protestant rallying cry:

“Justification by faith alone.”

It does not mean that creeds or sacraments are unimportant, but unless they are accompanied by the experience of God’s love and a returning love for God, they are insufficient.

The same goes for good works.

 

Creeds, sacraments and good works are the consequences of faith, not the prerequisites.

 

If one really has faith, good works will flow from it naturally.

The reverse cannot be assumed.

Good works do not necessarily lead to faith.

 

To a large extent both Paul and Luther had been driven to their emphasis on faith precisely because a respectable string of good works, doggedly performed, had not succeeded in transforming their hearts.

 

Above: Paul the Apostle, Rembrandt

 

The other controlling perspective in Protestantism, often called the Protestant Principle, comes to its conclusions in the following fashion:

Human allegiance belongs to God – this all religions will affirm.

God, however, is beyond nature and history.

While God is not removed from nature and history, the divine cannot be equated with either or any of these parts, for while the world is finite, God is infinite.

With these truths all the great religions agree.

But these truths are very hard to keep in mind.

So hard, in fact, that people continually let them slip and proceed to equate God with something they can see or touch or at least conceptualize more precisely than the infinite.

Early on mankind equated God with statues, until prophets (protesters on this score) rose up to denounce these substitutions.

Though much of mankind would stop deifying wood and Stone images, the secular world proceeded to absolutize the state or the self or human intellect, while Christians fell to absolutizing dogmas, the Sacraments, the Church, the Bible or personal religious experience.

Protestants don’t devalue these, but it does insist that none of them are God.

All, being involved in history, contain something of the human.

Since the human is always imperfect, then these instruments are also to some degree imperfect.

Therefore any human claim to absolute truth or finality must be rejected.

So, for example, Protestants cannot accept the dogma of papal infallibility because this would remove from criticism forever opinions that, having been channeled through human minds, can never wholly escape the risk of limitation and partial error.

Creeds and pronouncements can be believed, but to place them beyond the cleansing crossfire of challenge and criticism is to absolutize something finite to the position that should be reserved for God alone.

Protestants believe that God speaks to people through the Bible, but to elevate the Bible to a point beyond criticism is to insist that every word and letter was dictated directly by God and so can contain no historical, scientific or other inaccuracies, is to forget that in entering the world, God’s word must speak through human minds.

 

 

The problem with Protestantism is that this concept of the word of God speaking to each individual soul directly is that it creates two dangers:

First, there is the danger of misconstruing God’s word, for if all things human are imperfect, than each individual’s vision of God is limited and sometimes erroneous.

Second, each person derives a different individual truth, which explains why Protestantism has split into more than 900 different denominations in the United States alone.

 

 

To be fair, 85% of all Protestants belong to 12 denominations and considering the freedom of belief Protestantism affirms, the wonder is not the diversity that exists but the extent to which Protestants have managed to stay together at all.

The divisions that do exist in Protestantism are more a reflection of differing national origins or differing social groups rather than differing theologies.

 

And one could argue whether diversity is actually such a bad thing.

People and their historical circumstances create life-affecting differences that must be taken seriously.

New occasions teach new duties.

Protestants believe that life and history are too fluid to allow God’s redeeming word to be enclosed in a single form, whether it is doctrinal or institutional.

Though they take steps to mend differences that are no longer meaningful, they do not believe that people should congregate together just for comfort.

Protestants prefer precarious freedom to the security of doctrines or institutions that remain fallible.

It is their faith that, in the end, bolsters them.

Asked where he would stand if the Church excommunicated him, Luther replied:

“Under the sky.”

 

Above: Luther’s rose standard

 

Although the Reformation began during the 16th century, the need for reform within the Western Church had been felt already.

Several attempts for reform took place, especially during the 15th century, such as the one led by Jan Hus in Bohemia, which ended with his burning at the stake during the Council of Constance in 1415.

 

Above: Execution of Jan Hus, 1415

 

(Please see Canada Slim and the City of Broken Promises of this blog for the story of Jan Hus and the Council of Constance.)

 

Other Councils of this period tried to limit the abuses plaguing the Church, which seemed more concerned with its own temporal power than with the salvation of the faithful, but these measures did little more than the skim the surface.

Although ecclesiastic institutions were established in an effort to reform the clergy, such measures did little to satisfy the spiritual craving of late medieval Christians.

The Reformation took place not only because the Church was living badly, but because it was also believing badly.

It had allowed the message of the Gospel to become distorted.

 

The purpose of the reformers was to reconnect with the original message of Christianity – the Gospel – as preached by Jesus Christ and his apostles in the first years of the Christian era.

As they saw it, over the centuries the Church had obscured this message.

Thus, in an era that was haunted by the fear of Hell and sustained by the hope of salvation, these men turned to the Bible, where they found that God was revealed not as a judge who pursued men with His wrath, but as a Father who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to offer salvation.

They found the Gospel offered greater comfort against the terror of damnation than did the purchase of indulgences.

Reformers argued that Heaven could neither be bought or sold.

Christ, who had died and then risen, graciously allowed anyone who believed in Him to enter.

Reformers were rediscovering the true sense of Paul’s message – that one is saved through belief in Christ rather than by attracting God’s grace with good works.

Faith, not works, justified salvation.

 

 

As reformers returned to their original sources of their faith, they naturally began questioning the legitimacy of the Church.

They accused the Church of hijacking salvation.

 

From this point on, the battle lines were drawn.

On one side, the Church which saw itself as the sole guardian of the gates of Heaven.

On the other, reformers who called for believers to return to the Bible – the word of God that announced free salvation in Christ.

The Reformation thus took place in a climate of controversy.

Humanist scholar Erasmus warned Luther that attacking the “bellies of the monks” would earn him no end of trouble.

 

Above: Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (1466 – 1536)

 

The Reformation was not born in Paris or Rome, the great cities where fashionable ideas usually originated, but in Wittenberg, a small university town in Saxony where a well-known doctor of theology named Martin Luther taught.

Luther launched the Reformation with the publication, in November 1517, of a treatise arguing that divine grace was a more effective means of securing salvation than the purchase of indulgences.

This was a direct attack on the authority of the Pope.

Luther’s ideas were soon debated far and wide.

 

Above: Luther’s Ninety-five Theses

 

Young humanist intellectuals were inspired by Luther.

He also had a following in convents and monasteries, many of which emptied after reading his works.

Above all, Luther’s ideas answered the aspirations of a population preoccupied with the existential question of their final destiny.

The sudden success of his movement was due in part to the appearance of a new media that disseminated information without distorting it, namely, the printing press.

 

 

Several princes sympathetic to Luther encouraged the dissemination of his ideas by creating national churches that opposed or even replaced the Roman Catholic Church.

Their support was a decisive factor in establishing the Reformation.

The face of the Reformation changed from a spontaneous popular movement to a contest between princes and city-states.

 

 

A complex figure, Huldrych Zwingli was active and influential in many related areas, all of which are important for our understanding of the man: a self-taught humanist, a religious thinker and reformer, he is also considered to be a patriot and Swiss national hero.

Zwingli was a humanist and a scholar with many devoted friends and disciples.

He communicated as easily with the ordinary people of his congregation as with rulers such as Philip of Hesse.

His reputation as a stern, stolid reformer is counterbalanced by the fact that he had an excellent sense of humour and used satiric fables, spoofing, and puns in his writings.

He was more conscious of social obligations than Luther and he genuinely believed that the masses would accept a government guided by God’s word.

He tirelessly promoted assistance to the poor, who he believed should be cared for by a truly Christian community.

Zwingli’s life and the history of Switzerland are closely linked.

Outside of Switzerland, no church counts Zwingli as its founder.

Scholars speculate as to why Zwinglianism has not diffused more widely,even though Zwingli’s theology is considered the first expression of Reformed theology.

Although his name is not widely recognised, Zwingli’s legacy lives on in the basic confessions of the Reformed churches of today.

He is often called, after Martin Luther and John Calvin, the “Third Man of the Reformation“.

 

 

In 1516, Zwingli adopted Erasmus’s view of Christ as the source of every good and the idea that God calls Christians to master their passions.

As soon as he arrived in 1519 to assume his position as preacher and minister of Zürich Cathedral, Zwingli attempted to reform the city in the spirit of Erasmus without breaking with the Church as Luther had done.

 

Above: Grossmünster, Zürich

 

Nonetheless, Zwingli’s criticism of the Church and his ideas on justification by faith betray the influence of the monk of Wittenberg.

In 1522, Zwingli openly affirmed the primacy of the Gospel as the only basis for the doctrine and the life of the Church.

He rejected both doctrine and worship of anything that seemed to be a human addition.

 

 

That same year, he defended several friends (primarily book printer Christoph Froschauer) who had broken the Lent fast by eating sausages – the Church banned the consumption of meat during Lent – by preaching about a Christian’s freedom to choose one’s own diet.

The Council of Zürich organized a disputation (discussion) of Zwingli’s teachings and, being convinced completely changed the laws on fasting.

 

 

In July 1522, Zwingli questioned the celibacy of priests, which he himself had previously broken by secretly marrying Anna Reinhart the previous spring.

 

Above: Anna Reinhart-Zwingli (1484 – 1538)

 

He addressed a petition on behalf of himself and eleven other priests to the Bishop of Constance requesting the right for priests to marry.

The Bishop in turn wrote to the Zürich city authorities, demanding that they take action against these “disorders“.

 

Above: Konstanz (Constance) Cathedral

 

The following year, on 29 January 1523, the first Dispute of Zürich took place at the request of the city council.

The Bishop’s delegate dismissed the authority of the Council, but attended nevertheless.

Completely outmatched, he witnessed the strength of the ideas of Zwingli and his allies.

Zwingli presented a list of 67 theses as a basis for discussion.

His doctrine was derived principally from the Epistles of Paul and claimed that faith was granted by the Holy Spirit.

Zwingli asserted the equality of all Christians and added that civilian authorities, provided they were Christian, should take charge of church affairs, but could also be disposed if they failed to follow the teachings of Christ.

He called for the Reformation to take place in an orderly fashion with the support of the magistrates, but some of his followers rushed matters and destroyed images and statues in churches.

 

 

A second Dispute focusing exclusively on the Mass and images was organized in October 1523 to resolve the issue.

Images were finally abolished in 1524 after a third Dispute.

 

Relations between the Bishop of Constance and the city of Zürich broke off at the end of the summer of 1524.

Convents were secularized and their possessions sold to endow the poorhouses.

A school of Biblical education, The Prophesy, opened in 1525 with the mission of presenting its findings to the people, in German, during five weekly lectures.

Students and scholars met in the Choir of the Grossmünster Cathedral to translate the Bible and preach to the people.

 

 

Theirs was the first complete German translation of the scriptures, called the Froschauer Bible after the sausage-eating bookbinder who printed it.

It was the first school of its kind and a model for Reformed academies everywhere.

The Prophesy would become a school of theology which in turn would lead to the establishment of the University of Zürich.

 

Above: Logo of the University of Zürich

 

That same year, the Council abolished Mass, replacing it by a a very sparse service without music, distinct from the Communion service, which was celebrated only four times a year.

Communion was understood as a communal meal in memory of Christ’s death, through which the faithful expressed their desire to belong to Him.

 

 

Meanwhile, the establishment of a matrimonial court extended the spirit of the Reformation to the area of public morality.

 

 

Some of Zwingli’s followers demanded a more radical Reformation.

The common features of this community was the rejection of child baptism as a sign of entry into the Christian faith (for which they were labelled “Anabaptists“), as well as the refusal to conduct the oath of allegiance to local government authorities and the law.

Under the influence of Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz, they accused Zwingli of subordinating church reform to the approval of the political authorities.

Zwingli tried to win them over to his views through several pamphlets and debates, but was unsuccessful.

The Council feared that the Anabaptist movement could eventually lead to a general revolution.

Felix Manz was sentenced to death and drowned in the Limmat River for “rebellion against the Christian bourgeosie, destruction of the Christian community and perjury“.

 

 

Five more Anabaptist executions would take place before 1532.

The worldwide Anabaptist-Mennonite movement considers Zürich one of its prime places of origin, though the executions rang the death knoll of Anabaptism in Zürich itself.

 

 

Zwingli’s other great adversary was Martin Luther, for although Zwingli admired the German reformer, he could not endorse Luther’s position on the real presence of Christ in the bread and wine during Communion.

For Zwingli the presence of Christ was purely symbolic.

The two theologians met at the Colloquy of Marburg in 1529, but could not agree.

 

 

Meanwhile, the onslaught of the Reformation split Switzerland in two.

On one side, the Cantons that remained faithful to Roman Catholicism – Luzern, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwald and Zug.

On the other, those that followed the new ideas – Zürich, Basel, Bern and St. Gallen.

In 1524, the Catholic Cantons came together to form the Beckenried Alliance and began to present a real threat to Zürich.

Zwingli tried to appease the tensions, but in 1526 the Alliance decided to resolve the religious questions in a Diet.

They organized a Dispute in Baden that lasted four weeks from late May to early July 1526.

 

 

Johann Eck, an opponent of Luther, was invited to defend the Catholic faith and very skillfully sowed discord amid the Reformed camp by exposing the disagreement between Luther and Zwingli over Communion.

 

Above: Johann Maier von Eck (1486 – 1543)

 

The Catholics won.

Zwingli was excommunicated.

Yet the Zürich authorities refused to give up their Reformer, despite the threats of exclusion of Zürich from the Swiss Confederation.

Zürich obtained the support of Basel, Bern and Schaffhausen.

War was coming.

 

 

Meanwhile the Reformation had been slow to establish itself in Geneva.

Introduced in 1526 by German merchants, the Reformation did not reach an impact on Geneva until 1533 with the preaching of Guillaume Farel and was not officially adopted until 21 May 1536.

 

Above: Guillaume Farel (1489 – 1565)

 

John Calvin would not arrive in Geneva until later that summer.

 

Above: Jehan Calvin (1509 – 1564)

 

Too late to assist Zürich and her allies.

Too late to save Zwingli.

 

Understanding the background made me understand the events that would lead to Zwingli’s death at Kappel am Albis.

 

 

And that final chapter of the Zwengli Trail Chronicles will follow soon in an upcoming post….

 

Of course, there is much more that could be said and much more was learned in the Museum about the Reformation and its many players and events that shaped the world: Théodore de Bèze, the Edict of Nantes, Frederick the Wise, Philip Melanchton, Martin Bucer, Johannes Hussgen, Pierre Viret, Moise Amyraut, Francois Turrettini, Bénédict Pictet, Jean Le Clerc, Jean-Alphonse Turrettini and Karl Barth, and so on.

And we all know the names of famous Protestants who inherited the struggle the aforementioned Reformers passed on to them: George Bush and George W., Desmond Tutu and Queen Elizabeth II, Albert Schweitzer, Oliver Cromwell and William of Orange, to name a few.

Some more faithful in name than in practice.

 

 

But this is a story of two men: your faithful blogger and Huldrych Zwingli, the man whose footsteps I followed based on a guidebook that intrigued me.

 

 

(Of course, as my travels coincide with some of the aforementioned people and events not as yet detailed, they shall be mentioned.)

 

Earlier I mentioned that there is much I don’t know, much I don’t understand.

But there is one thing I am sure of….

 

It is not enough for me to see.

I want to understand what I am seeing.

 

I hope you share that same impulse.

 

 

Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Huston Smith, The World’s Religions / International Museum of the Reformation, Understanding the Reformation / Yvonne and Marcel Steiner, Zwingli-Wege: Zu Fuss von Wildhaus nach Kappel am Albis: Ein Wander- und Lesebuch

Canada Slim and the Mandir of Nose Hill

Landschlacht, Switzerland, Tuesday 21 May 2019

This Sunday in Switzerland some folks will attend services in either a Reformed Church or a Roman Catholic Church and both groups will call themselves Christian.

 

 

And as the Earth spins around the Sun, from the Dark Continent of Africa to the Canadian tundra, Christians will kneel on this day to receive the elements of their own version of the eternal Eucharist as written in the Bible that speaks of how God sent His Son whose sacrifice somehow saved our wretched souls and whose resurrection conquered death for all of us, despite death being our destiny.

 

 

In Jerusalem and parts of the planet where the Great Diaspora has led them over centuries, others, wrapped in the prayer shawls that their ancestors wore in the desert, recite the Torah, as their Rabbi lovingly guides a wand across sacred text that Yahweh spoke to His Chosen People.

 

 

And within the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, and anywhere where the Qu’ran reigns the mind, five times a day, the faithful prostrate themselves towards Mecca, towards Mohammed’s holy city, and show their devotion to Allah, who also remains God the Father of Christianity and Yahweh of the Jews and yet is unrecognizable as the same God of Abraham said to be the originator of all three great religions.

 

 

Same deity, different names, different practices, same intolerance too often seen by those who claim this deity as their own.

 

 

In a tiny house by the Ganges River at the foot of the Himalayas, a Hindu Swami will not speak today, but will continue his devotional silence that, with the exception of three days each year, he has kept for years.

 

 

In Yangon, the monks of Shwedagon sit alone and together with the eternal in the tranquil silence and privacy of their Buddhist shrine, as do the Zen monks in Kyoto, spending most of the day sitting immovable in the lotus position, as they seek to plumb with absolute absorption the Buddha-nature that lies at the centre of their being.

 

 

What a freaky fellowship, an odd misplaced madness, this is, this seeking of something divine that defies description or definition, voices raised in desperate disparate ways, sacrificing precious life to a God of life that cannot be proven not to exist.

Such strange ethereal harmony, each faith claiming superiority over every other belief, no individual religion understanding the others, and yet united in lifting their voices to the heavens in the hopes that what binds the universe will spare a moment for those who are naught more than carbonated stardust.

 

Are the faithful foolish or the unbelieving unredeemable?

 

We cannot know.

 

All we can do is try and listen carefully, with full attention to each voice as it in its turn addresses the divine that lies within and without us.

 

Religions wrap the globe in their comfort, with histories stretching back into the forgotten mists of time, that still motivates more people today than ever before.

Nothing unites us more nor divides us more than religion does.

 

 

Who should we follow?

What should we believe?

 

Should Christians worship in ornate cathedrals bedecked with icons or consider even steeples divine desecrations?

How should Muslims decide between Sunni and Shi’ite or feel about Sufism?

Must a Jew be orthodox to call himself a true Jew?

And let us wonder as Buddhists ponder different traditions of Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana philosophies.

 

Millions live by a faith.

More than three quarters of the world’s population consider that they belong to a religion, however little or much they do about it.

Communities of people who share practices and beliefs gather in special buildings for worship or meditation and seek to live lives in special ways in the world.

Whether we care to acknowledge it or not, religion has been the resource and inspiration for virtually all the most enduring art, architecture, music, drama, dance and poetry that the world has known, in search and expression of that which endures when all else passes away.

 

 

We must decide if faith has relevance in these digital days, our modern minds, our computerized lives.

 

As every religion mixes universal truths with local peculiarities we must lift out the former from the latter and embrace that which speaks to what  is generically human in us all.

 

This is not easy for the irreverent, for religion is rich in rites and laden in legends.

This is not simple for those whose lives are reigned by rationalism, for the claim that the universal principles of faith are more important than rites and rituals is like contending that the trunk of a tree is more important than the branches, leaves or roots of that tree.

I know that when I seek to understand the religious impulse, that I myself lack, this is akin to trying to comprehend the incomprehensible.

 

The mind that is mine struggles to grasp how Hindu’s holy Kali Temple in Calcutta revers two million cows to the point of nuisance while fakirs offer their bodies to bedbugs as sacrifice.

 

 

I find myself conflicted between the stillness of Bethlehem and department stores blaring “Silent Night” from stereos above plastic reindeer and overweight Santas.

 

 

I seek to define the divine amidst images of crucified Christs and chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs.

 

 

I wallow in a mire of confusion as to how Crusades can be Christian or Jihads holy, or how a God of love co-exists with witch slaughter in Salem, monkey trials in Tennessee and Grand Inquisitions in Spain.

 

 

I, like billions before me and aeons after me, seek the meaning to my existence in the hope that my short span of life has worth.

 

I am reminded of a Faustian fable of a man who climbed to the top of a mountain and seized hold of the Truth.

Satan, suspecting sedition from this mortal upstart, directed a demon to tail the determined seeker.

When the demon reported with alarm the man’s success, Satan was not in the least bothered by the bulletin.

“Don’t worry.“, Satan yawned.

“I will tempt him to institutionalize the Truth.”

 

 

The empowering theological and metaphysical truth of faith is inspirational, but the religious institutions built around this truth are often not.

Religion is constituted of people with their inbuilt frailities, vices and virtues.

When the vices get compounded by masses, the results are horrifying to the point where one might suggest that faith should be left outside the hands of humanity.

But faith without the faithful would have left no mark upon humanity’s history, for better or for worse.

Had faith remained as only aloof disembodied insight and had not embraced institutions and rituals, then faith could not have established traction on history or upon men’s souls.

What is important is to not get lost in the smoke and ceremony of rite and ritual, but instead we need to sift religion for the truths they try to preserve, the wisdom that maintains our world.

 

 

As T.S. Eliot so wisely phrased it:

“Where is the knowledge that is lost in information?

Where is the wisdom that is lost in knowledge?”

 

Above: Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888 – 1965)

 

I categorically reject the premise that one religion is superior to another, for it is this comparison that is the most odious aspect of all institutions, for, as Arnold Toynbee observed:

“There is no one alive today who knows enough to say with confidence whether one religion has been greater than all others.”

 

Above: Arnold Toynbee (1852 – 1883)

 

It must be admitted that though I seek to embrace the world, I am incorrigibly myself and I know that the tale I am about to tell might be quite differently written had I been a Burmese Buddhist, a Turkish Muslim, a Nepalese Hindu, a Serbian Orthodox, a Swiss Catholic or a Polish Jew instead of a Canadian humanist with delusions of fluency.

 

 

We live in a world of wonders.

Lands across the planet are our neighbours, China is around the corner, the Middle East is our backyard, my younger colleagues and close companions with backpacks go everywhere, while I – who often remain at home in this wee hamlet of Landschlacht – have access to an endless parade of books and videos and visitors from abroad.

It isn’t so much that East meets West as it is humanity is being flung at one another, hurled across distances at jet speed, information invading our impatient intelligence within the breath between atoms.

 

 

Diogenes, twenty-five hundred years ago, exclaimed:

“I am not an Athenian or a Greek but a citizen of the world.”

 

Above: Diogenes (412 – 323 BC)

 

Today we have the possibility to not only think of ourselves by the nations we found ourselves born in, but rather we have the opportunity to judge our heartbeat by the pulse of the planet.

We need to understand the faiths of others if we are to meet them as allies or antagonists, so that we can avoid military engagement through diplomacy.

We need to understand one another through our faiths so we can enjoy the world vision it offers us.

 

 

Or put another way….

What do they know of England, who only England know?

 

 

How can we truly understand our beliefs if we never question them by comparison with others?

How truly enriching our lives become when we truly understand what belonging means to the Japanese, to sense with a Burmese grandmother what passes in life and what endures, to comprehend with the Hindu that our personalities mask the Infinite within, to follow the paradox of a Zen monk who assures you that everything is sacred but refrains from acts that are unholy, to feel the comfort that confession offers the devout Catholic….

For as language opens the mind to understanding other people, faith enlarges the heart to compassion and love for humanity.

 

True faith, not a dull habit but a living passion, confronts the individual with the momentous wisdom that life can offer.

Faith calls a soul to the highest adventure, a journey across the landscape of the human spirit.

It is the siren call to confront reality as it is, to master the self.

It is a lonely journey, a personal quest….

 

“A sharpened edge of a razor, hard to traverse,

A difficult path is this – the poets declare!”

(Alfred Toynbee, Civilization on Trial)

 

 

Los Alamos, New Mexico, 16 July 1945

Today is the day that the chain reaction of scientific discoveries that began at the University of Chicago and focused here at Site Y has reached the final culmination.

 

 

No one has been more instrumental in this project’s achievement than the director of the Los Alamos Project, Robert Oppenheimer.

All eyes are upon him closely this morning.

 

Above: Robert Oppenheimer (1904 – 1967)

 

“He grew tenser as the last seconds ticked off.

He scarcely breathed.

He held on to a post to steady himself.

When the announcer shouted “Now!”, there came this tremendous burst of light, followed by the deep-growling roar of the explosion, his face relaxed in an expression of tremendous relief.”

The first atomic bomb is a success.

 

 

What flashed through Oppenheimer’s mind during those moments were two lines from the Bhagavad-Gita in which the speaker is God:

“I am become Death, the shatterer of worlds;

Waiting that hour that ripens to their doom.”

 

(The Bhagavad Gita is a discourse between Krishna and Arjuna set in a chariot at the start of the Mahabharata War.)

 

Thus began an age in which violence and peace continue to confront each other more fatefully than ever before.

 

In India, Gandhi’s name became, in the middle of the 20th century, the counterpoint to those of Stalin and Hitler, but not just for the British withdrawl from the Subcontinent in peace, but, more importantly, for his lowering a barrier even more formidable than that of race in America.

Gandhi renamed India’s untouchables harijan – God’s people – and raised them to human stature.

In doing so, Gandhi provided the non-violent strategy and the inspiration for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s civil rights movement in the United States.

Gandhi’s inspiration was revealed in his autobiography:

“Such power as I possess for working in the political field has derived from my experiments in the spiritual field.

Truth is the sovereign principle and the Bhagavad-Gita is the book par excellence for the knowledge of truth.”

 

Above: “Mahatma“(“the Venerable“) Mohandas Gandhi (1869 – 1948)

 

On a grey day in October 2017, a stone’s throw from the grim North Circular, that drab ring road that encircles London’s northern suburbs of Neasden, I would follow my curiosity and thirst for truth eternal to a Hindu temple.

A temple both alien and appropriate in the homeland of English, in the heart of an empire that once dominated my own birth country of Canada and whose sovereign remains our head of state, from a religion with roots in the land of India – that living coalition of religions and languages where one billion congregate and of which 80% call themselves Hindu – with 30 million adherants dispersed throughout the world.

On that day I would visit the largest traditional Hindu temple outside India (as recognized by Guinness World Records), Neasden’s 8th Wonder of the World, the Crown Jewel of Hinduism, one of Reader’s Digest‘s 70 Wonders of the Modern World, Time Out London‘s Seven Wonders….

The BAPS Shri Swamirayan Mandir Hindu temple.

It would not make me a Hindu nor make me feel any more knowledgeable about Hinduism than I felt before, but, nevertheless, my morning visit left impressions with me that still remain….

 

 

London, England, 26 October 2017

Shri Swaminarayan was not my first visit to a Hindu temple (and I have a feeling that it won’t be my last), for on a visit to Singapore in the spring of 2014, en route to the Perth wedding of friends in Western Australia, I visited Sri Mariamman Temple, paradoxically located in the Lion City’s Chinatown district.

Sri Mariamman is the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore and I still remember the temple’s incredible, brightly coloured gopuram (tower) above the entrance, covered in kitsch plaster images of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver and (Oppenheimer’s) Shiva the Destroyer, as sacred cow sculptures graze the boundary walls.

 

 

I had a three-day stopover in Singapore and in the process of trying to cram so much into my consciousness in a very short time Sri Mariammen is a blurred memory amongst many that I saw during my short sojourn in the city-state.

I recall also seeing the Peranakan Museum, the Raffles Hotel, the Chinatown Heritage Centre, the Buddha Tooth Relic Museum, the Taoist Temple of Heavenly Happiness (Thian Hock Temp), Little India, Changi Prison, the Night Safari, Sentosa Island and Pulau Ubin.

I remember Little India, not for the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple with images of Kali, wearing a garland of skulls and ripping out the insides of her victims, but rather for the Bismallah Biryani Restaurant’s mutton kebab.

Hindu temples in Singapore were, for me at the time of my visit, only part of a tightly squeezed adventure and a list of must-sees rather than research for right or righteous religion.

 

 

(Thinking of Singapore and Perth I see future posts about them….)

 

I might not have bothered with London’s BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Manhir at all had not my wife purchased for us two London Passes, offering free entry to over 60 attractions, as well as free public transport on buses, tubes and trains, and strongly suggested I use mine as much as possible during the days of the medical conference she would attend that week.

Today would be the first day that I would view London unaccompanied by my spouse during the week.

 

 

It was not my first visit to London….

 

 

(I had spent a couple of days on my own in 1995, mostly walking along the Thames rather than doing much exploring as a lack of money dogged my days then.

I spent a day and an evening in 2010 with my good friend Iain and his beautiful companion – now his spouse since the aforementioned Perth wedding – Samantha, visiting Greenwich Observatory and seeing the show Avenue Q in the Theatre District, with time to enjoy life walking well and dining fine.)

 

 

But this was the first time I would attempt to deliberately explore London on my own without having to worry excessively about money.

I approached the Project alphabetically from the pages of the London Pass Guide.

As the ArcelorMittal Orbit (London’s tallest sculpture), the All Hallows by the Tower Church (where William Penn was baptized, John Quincy Adams was married and Archbishop William Laud was buried), Apsley House (with the oldest surviving grand piano in the UK) and the Arsenal Stadium Tour & Museum – (Football was never so crucial a sport to me as Canadian ice hockey or American baseball.)(Iain, an Everton fan, would never have forgiven me such a sacrilege.) – didn’t strike me as “must-see-before-I-die” / bucket list attractions, BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Manhir seemed the place to start.

 

 

And I must admit the attraction was attractively described:

“BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir is a masterpiece of traditional Hindu design and exquisite Indian workmanship in the heart of London. 

Using 5,000 tonnes of Italian and Indian marble and the finest Bulgarian limestone, it was hand-carved in India before being assembled in London in just 2.5 years. 

Since it opened in 1995, this renowned place of worship has attracted over 400,000 visitors every year. 

Come and marvel at the intricate carvings, experience a traditional Hindu prayer ceremony, or learn about the world’s oldest living faith.“

 

 

I took the Tube from our hotel’s neighbourhood way out to Stonebridge Park Station and wandered lost for an hour until I reached Neasden in the London Borough of Brent.

 

 

It may seem at first thought that Neasden is an unusual spot for a Hindu temple, but then Neasden has always been an unusual spot in its own right.

Neasden’s name meant “nose hill” and referred to the small promontory at the western end of the Dollis Hill Ridge upon which the hamlet sat.

The countryside hamlet land was once owned by St. Paul’s Cathedral and consisted of only several small buildings around a green near the site of the present Neasden roundabout until the mid-19th century.

In 1823 Neasden was no more than a “retired hamlet” with six cottages, four large farms, a pub and a smithy gathered around the green.

 

The Brent Reservoir (aka the Welsh Harp Reservoir from the name of the aforementioned pub) between Henden and Wembley Park, that straddles the boundary between the Boroughs of Brent and Barnet, was completed in 1835 and was breached in 1841.

The breaking of the dam on the River Brent resulted in folks dying and many fields and meadows under water.

Today the Brent Reservoir is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and home to the great crested grebe, the gadwall, the shoveler, the common pochard, the tufted duck and the common tern, as well as eight species of warbler – a total of 253 species of bird life.

As well the Reservoir possesses 31 species of butterfly, 15 species of dragonflies and is also the residence of grey squirrels, red foxes and bats.

In 1960 the Reservoir hosted the Women’s European Rowing Championships.

Today the Welsh Harp Open Space surely sees not only rowboats and sailboats but those of the Hindu faith enjoying the magic of this unglamourous corner of suburban tranquillity.

 

 

(Not fishermen though, as fishing is strictly forbidden.)

 

In 1873 Neasden had a populace of 110 and the horse was the main form of transport.

As London grew, the demand for horses in the capital soared, so in the second half of the 19th century Neasden farms focused on rearing and providing horses for the City.

Town work was exhausting and unhealthy for the horses….

 

 

(It ain’t so wonderful for humans either.)

 

In 1886 the RSPCA formed a committee to set up the Home of Rest for Horses with grounds in Neasden, where, for a small fee, town horses were allowed to graze in the open for a few weeks.

 

The urbanization of Neasden began with the arrival of the railway.

The first railway running through Neasden was opened for goods traffic in 1868 with passenger services following soon after.

 

 

In the 1890s change led to a conscious effort to create a village atmosphere.

At this time, the Spotted Dog became a social centre for local people.

By 1891 Neasden had a population of 930, half of whom lived in the village.

Despite the presence of the village in the west, it was the London end that grew fastest.

 

In 1893 the Great Central Railway got permission to join up its main line from Nottingham with the Metropolitan.

The Great Central set up a depot south of the line at Neasden and built houses for its workers.

 

 

The Great Central village was a “singularly isolated and self-contained community” with its own school and single shop, Branch No. 1 of the North West London Co-operative Society.

It is now part of a conservation area.

There was considerable sporting rivalry between the two railway estates and a football match was played every Good Friday.

By the 1930s the two railways employed over 1,000 men.

 

 

Neasden Hospital was built in 1894 and closed in 1986.

 

Apart from the railways, Neasden was dominated by agriculture until just before the First World War.

In 1911, Neasden’s population had swelled to 2,074.

By 1913, light industry at Church End had spread up Neasden Lane as far as the station.

 

In the 1920s, the building of the North Circular Road, a main arterial route round London, brought another wave of development.

It opened in 1923.

 

 

The 1924 British Empire Exhibition led to road improvements and the introduction of new bus services.

Together with the North Circular Road, it paved the way for a new residential suburb at Neasden.

The last farm in Neasden was built over in 1935.

The Ritz Cinema opened in 1935, and Neasden Shopping Parade was opened in 1936, considered then to be the most up-to-date in the area.

All of Neasden’s older houses were demolished during this period, except for The Grange.

The Spotted Dog was rebuilt in mock-Tudor style.

Industries sprung up in the south of the area, and by 1949, Neasden’s population was over 13,000.

 

The Post Office Research Station was located nearby in Dollis Hill.

 

 

There the Colossus computers, among the world’s first, were built in 1943-1944, and underneath them the Paddock Wartime Cabinet Rooms had been constructed in 1939.

 

 

Neasden Power Station, which was built to provide power for the Metropolitan Railway, was closed and demolished in 1968.

 

The post-war history of Neasden is one of steady decline.

Local traffic congestion problems necessitated the building of an underpass on the North Circular Road that effectively cut Neasden in half and had a disastrous effect on the shopping centre by making pedestrian access to it difficult.

The decline in industry through the 1970s also contributed to the area’s decline.

 

But nonetheless Neasden has somehow survived, largely due to a succession of vibrant immigrant communities keeping the local economy afloat.

 

Neasden Depot continues to be the main storage and maintenance depot for the London Underground’s Metropolitan line (and is also used by trains of the Jubilee line).

It is London Underground’s largest depot and as such it is a major local employer.

The Grange Tavern (previously called The Old Spotted Dog) on Neasden Lane was closed in the 1990s and demolished to make way for a block of flats, bringing to an end the inn that had stood there for around two centuries.

Another old pub, The Pantiles, which stood on the North Circular Road was converted into a McDonald’s restaurant.

 

The Swedish furniture retailer, IKEA opened its second UK outlet in Neasden in 1988.

 

On 14 July 1993, in an MI5 anti-terrorist operation, a Provisional IRA man was arrested in his car on Crest Road carrying a 20 lb bomb.

It came just over a year after the Staples Corner bombing just over 500 yards away, which devastated the junction.

 

 

In 1995, Neasden became the unlikely home of the biggest Hindu temple outside India: the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, known locally as the Neasden Temple.

 

In 2004, the shopping centre area was partially redeveloped by the Council in an effort to reverse its fortunes.

The Grange, which had housed a museum about the people of Brent, was closed by the Council in 2005.

The 2004 redevelopment proved to be unpopular with local businesses, as it changed the layouts of parking, thus forcing customers and local trade to pass by due to the parking restrictions of the redevelopment.

Neasden was once nicknamed “the loneliest village in London” and “God’s own borough“.

Neasden has achieved considerable notoriety thanks to the British satirical magazine, Private Eye.

Since early in its history (when the magazine was actually printed in Neasden) the magazine has used Neasden as an exemplar of the suburban environment in pieces parodying current events, personalities, and social mores (for example, the University of Neasden).

Spoof sports reports in the magazine usually feature the perennially unsuccessful football team, Neasden F.C. with their manager, “ashen-faced” Ron Knee and their only two supporters, Sid and Doris Bonkers.

 

 

Neasden was one of the locations in the TV documentary Metro-land.

In it, Sir John Betjeman described Neasden as “home of the gnome and the average citizen” (the former a reference to the preponderance of gnome statuettes in suburban front gardens, but possibly also a nod in the direction of the Eye’s fictional proprietor, Lord Gnome).

Background music was provided by William Rushton’s recording of Neasden (1972):

(“Neasden

You won’t be sorry that you breezed in.“)

 

 

In a celebrated spoof of the Early Music phenomenon which grew enormously in the late 1960s, Neasden was selected by BBC Radiophonic Workshop composer David Cain as the home of a fictional ensemble dedicated to historically-informed performances on authentic musical instruments from an indeterminate number of centuries ago.

It was thus that in 1968, listeners to BBC Radio 3 were given a recital by the Schola Polyphonica Neasdeniensis whose members performed on the equally fictional Shagbut, Minikin and Flemish Clackett.

 

 

Athletico Neasden was an amateur football team of mostly Jewish players, which played in the Maccabi (Southern) Football League in the 1970s and 1980s and were named after the place, though they didn’t actually play in the area.

The team eventually merged with North West Warriors to form North West Neasden.

 

 

David Sutherland’s children’s novel A Black Hole in Neasden reveals a gateway to another planet in a Neasden back garden.

 

Diana Evans’s 2006 novel 26a details the experiences of twin girls of Nigerian and British descent growing up in Neasden.

Willie Hamilton reported in ‘My Queen and I‘ that the Victorian Order medals were made on a production line in Neasden from used railway lines.

 

 

A pirate radio station, Dread Broadcasting Corporation, credited as Britain’s first black music radio station, was broadcast from a Neasden garden between 1981 – 1984.

 

In the Dangermouse episode “Planet of the Machines“, Dangermouse and Penfold arrive back in Neasden from the planet in the Baron’s space time machine.

 

 

Konnie Huq and Matt Cooke from BBC TV present the Your News programme from Neasden.

 

So all of this begs the question:

 

What in the name of Krishna is a Hindu temple doing here?

 

 

Perhaps there is wisdom to be found in the old Hindu proverb:

“The lotus blooms in splendour, but its roots lie in the dirt.”

 

 

Let me be frank.

Neasden is a glum place, especially after the glamour of the City has been seen, thus the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir seems to rise majestically above the dismal, between-the-world-wars housing like a welcome oasis of sight.

So sudden and grandiose does the Mandir appear that the viewer wonders whether it is a mirage, a shimmering dream, conjured up by one’s overactive imagination.

Here in London’s loneliest village is an experience of India’s glorious tradition and faith, a legacy that seems to have evolved over millennia rather than appearing miraculously on the landscape in a mere 30 months.

 

 

Since the Mandir opened in 1995, this renowned place of worship has attracted over half a million visitors a year.

The inventory of visitors, including your humble blogger, has incorporated prime ministers and presidents, royalty and religious leaders, artists and industrialists, school children and journalists, the devout and the merely curious.

 

It is impossible to catalogue all the appelations, emotions, inspirations and experiences that this Mandir has evoked.

On a personal profound level, the Mandir is a pavilion of peace and promise, a dissolver of disquiet, a messenger dispelling misunderstanding, a statement of hope and faith for the future.

 

 

I am fascinated by the power of belief and teamwork and the spirit of volunteerism that made the Mandir possible.

In June 1970, the first BAPS Mandir in Britain opened in a converted disused church in Islington, North London, by Yogji Maharaj.

In 1982, having outgrown the Islington temple, the congregation moved to a small former warehouse in Neasden.

The present Mandir was designed by Pramukh Swami, a 92-year-old Indian sadhu (holy man) and is made of 2,828 tonnes of Bulgarian limestone and 2,000 tonnes of Italian marble, which was first shipped to India to be carved by a team of 1,526 sculptors.

 

Above: Pramukh Swami (1921 – 2016)

 

It was built and funded entirely by the Hindu community.

The entire project took five years, although the Neasden construction itself was completed in a mere 30 months.

 

In November 1992, the temple recorded the largest concrete pour in the United Kingdom, when 4,500 tons were put down in 24 hours to create a foundation mat 1.8 metres / 6 feet thick.

The first stone was laid in June 1993.

Two years later, the Mandir was complete.

 

 

Designed according to the Shilpa-Shastras, a Vedic text that develops Hindu architecture to metaphorically represent the different attributes of God, it was constructed almost entirely from Indian marble, Italian marble, Sardinian granite and Bulgarian limestone.

No iron or steel was used in the construction, a unique feature for a modern building in the UK.

From the conceptual design and vision of Pramukh Swami, the architect C. B. Sompura and his team created the Mandir entirely from stone.

 

It is a shikharbaddha (or pinnacled) mandir:

Seven-tiered pinnacles topped by golden spires crowd the roofline, complemented by five ribbed domes.

The temple is noted for its profusely carved cantilevered central dome.

Inside, serpentine ribbons of stone link the columns into arches, creating a sense of levitation.

Light cream Vartza limestone from Bulgaria was chosen for the exterior, and for the interior, Italian Carrara marble supplemented by Indian Ambaji marble.

The Bulgarian and Italian stone were shipped to the port of Kandla in Gujarat, where most of the carving was eventually completed, by over 1,500 craftsmen in a workshop specially set up for the project.

More than 26,300 individually numbered stones pieces were shipped back to London and the building was assembled like a giant three-dimensional jigsaw.

 

 

The Mandir was inaugurated on 20 August 1995 by Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the spiritual leader of BAPS – the organisation behind the temple.

The entire Mandir complex represents an act of faith and collective effort.

Inspired by Pramukh Swami Maharaj, more than 1,000 volunteers worked on the building, and many more contributed and solicited donations, or organised sponsored walks and other activities.

Children raised money by collecting aluminium cans and foil for recycling – the biggest can collection in English history – 7 million cans collected by 1,500 children.

 

The Mandir serves as the centre of worship.

Directly beneath each of the seven pinnacles seen from the outside is a shrine.

Each of these seven shrines houses murtis (sacred images) within altars.

Each murti is revered like God in person and devoutly attended to each day by the sadhus (monks) who live in the temple ashram.

 

 

Beneath the Mandir is the permanent exhibition ‘Understanding Hinduism‘.

Through 3-D dioramas, paintings, tableaux and traditional craftwork, it provides an insight into the wisdom and values of Hinduism.

Visitors can learn about the origin, beliefs and contribution of Hindu seers, and how this ancient religion is being practised today through traditions, such as the BAPS Swaminarayan Sampraday.

 

The Mandir is open to people of all faiths and none.

Entrance is free, except to the ‘Understanding Hinduism‘ exhibition where there is a £2 fee, which was covered by the London Pass.

 

 

(A note about BAPS….

Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Sanstha (BAPS) (Bocāsanvāsī Akshar Purushottam Sansthā) is a Hindu religious and social organization within the Swaminarayan branch of Hinduism.

BAPS was established on 5 June 1907 by Shastriji Maharaj after leaving the Vadtal Gadi of the Swaminarayan Sampraday.

It was formed on the founder’s interpretation that Swaminarayan was to remain present on Earth through a lineage of Gunatit Gurus (or Akshar) dating all the way back to Gunatitanand Swami – one of Swaminarayan’s prominent devotees.

Gunatitanand Swami was succeeded by Bhagatji Maharaj, Shastriji Maharaj, Yogiji Maharaj, Pramukh Swami Maharaj and Mahant Swami Maharaj.

Due to the organizational emphasis on the Akshar Purushottam doctrine, it essentially forms the organization’s middle name.

The fundamental beliefs of BAPS include the spiritual guidance through the living Akshar (or Guru) who is believed to have attained oneness with Swaminarayan.

Mahant Swami Maharaj is the current Guru and the president of the organization.

As a global, well-established Hindu organization, BAPS actively engages in a range of endeavors aimed at spirituality, character-building, and human welfare.

The activities span religious, cultural, social, and humanitarian domains.

Through these activities, it aims to preserve Indian culture, ideals of Hindu faith, family unity, selfless service, interfaith harmony and peaceful coexistence.

55,000 volunteers and 3,300 temples serve 3,300 communities around the world.

As of August 2018, BAPS has approximately 1,560 saints (or sadhus), among the most saints in one sanstha in Hinduism.

As part of its efforts towards community outreach, BAPS also engages in a host of humanitarian and charitable endeavors, by which its volunteers serve neighbors and communities.

With total assets of 17.5 billion USD, BAPS is able to contribute to a lot of welfare and public service works.

Through BAPS Charities, a non-profit aid organization, BAPS has spearheaded a number of projects around the world in the arenas of healthcare, education, environmental causes and community-building campaigns.)

 

 

For the Hindu community, the Mandir is a unifying force that installs pride and dignity with a zeal to serve society.

Every week, hundreds of faithful devotees, young and old alike, gather for prayers and services.

The annual Diwali and New Year’s festivals are witnessed by thousands of devotees and well-wishers.

Diwali is a spectacular celebration that falls in the month of November, a festival of lights and fireworks that celebrates the triumph of good over evil.

Every year 35,000 children visit the Mandir.

 

 

What exactly is a Mandir, you ask?

A Mandir is a Hindu place of worship, literally a place where the mind becomes still and the soul floats freely to seek the source of life, bliss and meaning, a place to pause for a moment to pray, reflect and absorb the peaceful ambiance.

 

 

The problem is that the Mandir is a place that takes religion seriously, and though it is listed as a tourist attraction, the Mandir is anything but one.

Here, there is no pandering to curiosity seekers.

It is not a place to go rifling through the Hindu faith to light on what has shock value, for the focus on what is bizarre and outside one’s experience is the crudest kind of vulgarization of faith.

Behind the ceremony and ritual, we seek what is of deepest concern to ourselves, that search for the essential similarity in human nature.

Hinduism is, like true faith, like other religions, not a dull habit but a raging fever, a pounding pulse that gives its adherants all that is startling about life itself.

 

The Mandir in the suburbs of Neasden is as unbelievable to the eyes as a garden in the Sahara.

This spectacular edifice, this the largest Hindu temple outside India, includes seven spires (shikhars), six domes, 193 pillars and 55 different ceiling designs.

The Mandir‘s visual splendour and tranquil atmosphere have spontaneously generated poetic expressions and sentiments.

The media have dubbed the Mandir as “hallucinogenic” and described the profuse carvings as “frothy milk on a cappuccino“.

Deities and motifs representing the Hindu faith spring from the ceilings, walls and windows.

The impressive monument is supported by a 1,070-foot long pageant of extraordinary stone elephants and a 610-foot long ornately carved outer wall.

The Narayan Sarovar, a water body that embraces the monument on three sides, gives the Mandir an aura of a traditional place of pilgrimage.

The Mandir is entered through the richly carved portico of the Grand Haveli (cultural complex), welcoming you into a majestic wooden courtyard with soaring teak columns and oak panels.

Elegant peacocks, delicate lotus flowers and royal elephants beckon in greeting, with the carpet designed to compliment the motifs.

 

 

Wood for the Haveli was sourced from sustainable forests, and for each tree felled, ten saplings were planted.

The Haveli Prayer Hall is a pillar-less assembly area that measures 2,750 square metres and seats over 2,500 worshippers.

The Hall incorporates environment-friendly features such as light wells, energy-saving lighting and a heat exchanger which uses thermal energy dissipated by the congregation to heat other parts of the complex.

Here is the venue for weekly assemblies and regular festivals.

 

 

The heart of the Mandir is its murtis (the sacred images of the deities who are revered as living gods), ritually infused with the presence of the divine.

Hindus worship murtis to express and enhance their loving relationship with that which is holy.

Murtis are the soul of the Mandir, making it a sacred place of worhsip wherein God resides – the home of God.

 

 

The shrine’s foundations are His feet, the pillars His knees, the inner sanctum His stomach, the throne His heart, the murti His soul, the shikhars His shoulders, the bell His tongue, the lamp His breath, the lion His nose, the windows His ears, the ringed stone on the shikhar His neck, the golden pot His head and the flags His hair.

The entire Mandir is revered as a divine manifestation.

In total, there are 11 shrines with 17 murtis, including Ganesh, Hanuman and Swaminarayan – this last to whom the Mandir is dedicated.

 

The murtis are ritually served by dedicated sadhus (monks) who live in the Mandir.

Before sunrise, the murtis are awakened by the sadhus and the shrine doors opened for the first of five daily artis (prayers), the Mangala Arti.

 

 

An arti is a ritual wherein a specific prayer is recited to a poetic format with music while the sadhus wave a lighted lamp in front of the murtis.

The sadhus recite some shlokas (prayers), serve the murtis, offer them food and bathe them and close the shrine doors.

Feeding and bathing of the murtis continues throughout the day.

 

The shrines are opened again for the second aarti, the Shangar Arti, and remain open from 0900 to approximately 1100, when the shrines are closed and offered thal (hymns).

At 1145, the shrines are opened for the midday arti, the Rajbhog Arti, and the thal is recited before the murtis.

The shrines are closed after this to allow the murtis to rest during the afternoon.

The shrines reopen at 1600 until 1830 for darshan.

 

 

The Sandhya Arti (sunset arti) follows at 1900.

Thereafter, a selection of prayers are recited by the devotees including dhun (where the names of God are chanted and verses of praise are sung).

The shrines are closed again for approximately one hour so they can be offered their final meal by the sadhus.

The murtis are then prepared for the night and adorned in their evening attire by the sadhus.

The shrines are opened a final time for the Shayan Arti (night-time arti) with the lights dimmed and music lowered.

The devotees recite a few hymns, gently sending the murtis to sleep, before the shrines are finally closed for the night.

 

The elaborately carved pillars, friezes, ornate ceilings and the magnificent dome provide an aesthetic and elevating atmosphere to the sanctum sanctorum of the Mandir.

 

 

The murtis of the Mandir – Bhagwan Swaminarayan, Guru Parampara, the avatars of Sanatan Dharma, Shri Akshar-Purushottam Maharaj, Shri Radha-Krishna, Shri Sita-Ram, Shri Shiv-Parvati, Shri Ganeshji and Shri Hanumanji – exude a heavenly calm and beauty.

 

Don’t despair if you can’t decipher who is who and what is what, for, to understand all of this, one needs to be steeped in Hindu history and Indian heritage.

 

 

Here prayers are whispered, songs of praise are heightened and the soul rejoices beyond the frontiers of mundane existence to experience the divine peace of God.

It is a nucleus of socio-spiritual activities for the benefit and elevation of individuals, families and society.

It inspires a society free from violence, crime and addiction.

It infuses people with a spirit of selfless service, to live in tune with God and in harmony with humanity.

 

Or at least these are the Mandir’s intentions.

 

 

An hour of lost and bewildered walking finally led me to a procession of French teenagers who were scrutinized carefully by the burly security that met us.

 

Here at 105 Brentfield Road, as in most places that devote time and attention to unearthly divinity, apparently God has a strict dress code that must be adhered to before you will be allowed to worship Him.

Clothing must be respectable, respectful.

Shorts and skirts must be below knee-length and footwear removed upon entering the Mandir complex.

No one smokes on the premises.

Video and photography are forbidden upon entry.

Mobile phones must be turned off and no food or beverages are allowed on the premises.

 

 

By the time I reach the security shed where backpacks are stored upon long shelves and make my way into the Mandir I am immediately summoned by personnel into the Prayer Hall where row upon row of folding chairs support a large collection of English senior citizens let loose here on this most unusual excursion.

The film is agonizingly long and as I am not officially a part of this senior set, despite the balding pate and silver mane that is mine, I extrude myself as quietly as I can and find myself lining up to enter the Inner Sanctum with the aforementioned French and some Indian devotees.

 

Hindu worship (puja) involves images (murtis), prayers (mantras) and diagrams of the universe (yantras).

The simplest yantra is a circle within a square within a rectangle, with four gates to represent the four directions of the universe.

Hindu temples are based on this design, although still open to endless additions and variations in decoration.

Central to worship is the icon, or sacred image, which together with the temple, is believed to both house and represent a manifestation of God.

An icon can be worshipped at home or in a temple.

Most Hindu worship at home more often and the majority of Hindu homes have a shrine, where at certain times different members of the family make offerings and say prayers.

Most Hindus worship individually, not in a communal service.

Worship involves mantras (vibrating sounds that summon the murti) and prasad (the offering of gifts).

While many prayers and offerings are made for the fulfillment of wishes, the ultimate objective is the offering of the self to become one with God.

Central to this worship is darshan (seeing and being in the presence of the central murti).

 

 

The best time to visit the Mandir is just before 1145, when the rajbhog arti ceremony is performed.

Lit candles are waved in front of the embodiments of the murtis, accompanied by a musical prayer performed by drums, bells, gongs and a conch shell.

 

It is truly a haunting and uplifting experience.

 

Abhishek is the ancient Hindu practice of pouring water over the sacred image of God to honour Him and to attain His blessings.

In this Mandir, abhishek of the sacred image of Nilkanth Varni (or Bhagwan Swaminarayan) is performed daily to the chanting of Vedic verses, including the ancient prayer of peace (the Shanti Paath) and the recital of the 108 auspicious and liberating names of Varni (the Janmangal Namavali), in a ceremony that lasts 15 minutes.

The abhishek is done by devotees on days of special significance to them or to seek blessings for personal reasons.

 

 

The Abhishek Mandap is a marble chamber on the lower floor of the Mandir, housing the sacred image of Shri Nilkanth Varni, the teenage form of Bhagwan Swaminarayan to whom the Mandir is dedicated.

The chamber is clad in Brazilian and Italian marble and embellished with intricate traditional designs.

At the chamber’s heart lies the murti of Varni in gilded brass.

He is depicted in mid-step, emaciated, yet looking calm and resolute.

With matted hair and a small gutko (handwritten manuscript of excerpts from sacred texts) wrapped in a kerchief around his neck, Varni is wearing nothing but his loincloth tied at the waist by a jute cord.

In his left hand, Varni carries a dand (a wooden staff) and a kamandalu (a drinking pot made from dry gourd), both common marks of Hindu ascetism.

 

 

Who was Varni?

After renouncing his home at the tender age of 11, Bhagwan Swaminarayan embarked upon an epic journey of spiritual awakening that took him around India, into Nepal and Tibet, and through Myanmar and Bangladesh.

During this time, he became to be known as Nilkanth Varni.

Barefoot and alone, Nilkanth walked almost 8,000 miles over seven years, blessing the land and liberating numerous spiritual aspirants along the way.

Carrying no maps, no food and no money, Varni crossed raging rivers, faced ferocious animals and survived the freezing heights of the Himalayas.

His solitary journey is a story of courage, kindness and enlightenment, and the inspiration for the naming of the Mandir.

 

 

But can the non-believer understand Hinduism?

I have tried and what I have concluded is the following….

 

Hinduism is the world’s oldest ongoing living religion, practised as early as 6500 BC.

It has, unlike Christianity or Islam, no one single founder, but is rather a collective of experiences of ancient seers over the centuries.

According to Hinduism’s adherents, Hinduism teaches one to see the presence of God in everything and thus honour the whole of creation.

You can find God in the world of everyday affairs as readily as anywhere else.

 

 

With this perspective, there are no heathens nor enemies.

Many Hindus acknowledge Christ as a divine man, while believing that there have been many as such, including Rama, Krishna and the Buddha.

 

Everyone, even Canada Slim your humble blogger, has the right to evolve spiritually and will, at some time, realise the truth.

 

Hindus believe that souls are not limited to one life – many lives offer many chances for spiritual elevation.

 

 

Like many religions, this faith has rigorous rules.

People are responsible for every action they perform, through the Law of Karma.

 

Hindus believe in one supreme, all-powerful God, the Creator, who has a divine form, is immanent (eternal), transcedent and the grantor of spiritual liberation (moksha).

Jews, Christians and Muslims view the worship of God in the form of one chosen ideal.

Hindus view and represent God in innumerable forms.

 

 

Each form (avatar) is but a symbol that points to something beyond.

No one form can truly encapsulate God’s actual nature, so an entire array is needed to complete the picture of God’s aspects and manifestations.

Each representation’s vocation is to introduce the human heart to what it represents but what it itself is not.

Though each representation points equally to God, the Hindu devotee tends to form a lifetime attachment to one, the ishta, the form of the divine the devotee wishes to adopt.

This worship of sacred images of God is called murti puja.

After all, love assumes different nuances according to the relationship involved.

 

Hindus believe in Karma that the soul reaps fruit – good or bad – which is experienced either in this life or in future lives.

They believe in reincarnation (punar-janma), that the soul is immortal, repeatedly born and reborn in one of millions of lifeforms until it attains spiritual liberation (moksha).

Moksha is the release of the soul from this perpetual cycle of births and deaths, remaining eternally in the blissful presence of God.

 

 

Dharma is how we choose to live our lives according to divine law, which values service, sacrifice, humility, duty, devotion, purpose, fidelity, respect and integrity among other positive practices and virtues.

This divine law is believed to be revealed by the authority of the Vedic scriptures, the four Vedas – the Samhita, the Brahmana, the Aranyaka and the Upanishad.

And in a model of efficiency these are encapsulated in the Shikshapatri, a book of moral conduct in 212 succinct Sanskrit verses.

 

 

In a nutshell of simplicity:

• Do not steal.
• Do not eat meat.
• Do not consume alcohol or other intoxicants.
• Do not commit adultery.
• Maintain purity of conduct.

 

Hindus claim a proud heritage:

• the world’s first university (700 BC), Takshashila, India
• the invention of the Zero, which makes the binary system and computers possible
• the invention of the decimal system
• the invention of geometry and trigonometry
• the value of pi – the ratio of the circumference and diameter of a circle
• the prior formulation of the Pythagorean Theorem (which says that the square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle equals the sum of the square of the two sides)  (For me, mathematics is as arcane and mysterious as faith.)
• a theory of the revolution of the Earth 1,000 years before Copernicus
• a formulation of the law of gravity 1,200 years before Newton
• an idea of the smallest and largest measures of time from a kratl (34,000th of a second) to a kalpa (4.32 billion years)
• the practice of surgery 2,600 years ago with 125 types of surgical instruments for 300 different operations

 

I did not leave the Mandir of London as a convert to Hinduism, but what my visit showed me was worth the effort.

 

 

Life holds more than what one is experiencing now.

People need to live for something which makes life worthwhile, a quest for meaning and value beyond oneself.

Life holds other possibilities beyond our own experience.

 

Hinduism holds that underlying the human self and animating it is a reservoir of being that never dies, is never exhausted and is unrestricted in consciousness and bliss.

Hinduism sees the mind’s hidden continents as stretching to infinity, infinite in being, infinite in awareness, infinite in joy.

Hindus believe that there are multiple paths to God, each calling for a distinctive mode of travel, each starting from the kind of person one is.

 

 

We all play the roles our personalities dictate, cast in this moment in the greatest of all tragi-comedies, the drama of life itself in which we are all simultaneously co-authors and actors, powered less by reason than by emotion.

To find meaning in this drama, in the mystery of existence, is life’s final and fascinating challenge.

Life is a training ground for the human spirit.

The world is the soul’s gymnasium, both a school and a training field.

 

Hindus believe that the world is lila, God’s plan, that the goal of life is life itself.

 

The various major religions are alternate paths to the same goal to find meaning to our lives beyond ourselves.

The various religions are but different languages through which God, should God exist, speaks to the human heart.

 

“Truth is one.

Sages call truth by different names.”

 

Differences in culture, history, geography and temperament all make for diverse starting points.

Is life not more interesting as a result of its infinite variety in endless combinations?

 

I may not always understand that which is out of my experience, but the benefits of trying to go beyond my experience are boundless.

 

 

Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Understanding Hinduism Exhibition Guidebook, BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir / John Bowker, World Religions: The Great Faiths Explored and Explained / Rachel Howard and Bill Nash, Secret London: An Unusual Guide / Huston Smith, The World’s Religions / The Bhagavad-Gita