“It will be difficult to please everyone in the audience because everyone has come for different reasons: some for the wit, some for the costumes, some for comedy, some for passion, and some to arrange a lascivious meeting.
But, despite this, I am confident that, as long as everyone can pay attention and understand the play, they will all be satisfactorily entertained.“
(No Wit, No Help Like a Woman’s, Thomas Middleton)
Thomas Middleton (18 April 1580 – 1627) was an English Jacobean playwright and poet.
He, with John Fletcher (1579 – 1825) and Ben Jonson (1572 – 1637), was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jacobean period (1603 – 1625), and among the few to gain equal success in comedy and tragedy.
He was also a prolific writer of masques and pageants.
Above: Thomas Middleton
He was the son of a bricklayer, who had raised himself to the status of a gentleman and owned property adjoining the Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch.
Middleton was five when his father died and his mother’s subsequent remarriage dissolved into a 15-year battle over the inheritance of Thomas and his younger sister – an experience that informed him about the legal system and may have incited his repeated satire against the legal profession.
Middleton attended The Queen’s College, Oxford, matriculating in 1598, but he did not graduate.
Before he left Oxford sometime in 1601, he wrote and published three long poems in popular Elizabethan styles.
None of them appears to have been especially successful, and one, his book of satires, ran foul of an Anglican church ban on verse satire and was burned.
Nevertheless, his literary career was launched.
Above: The Queen’s College, Oxford, England
In the early 17th century, Middleton made a living writing topical pamphlets, including one – Penniless Parliament of Threadbare Poets – that was reprinted several times and became the subject of a parliamentary inquiry.
At the same time, records in the diary of Philip Henslowe (1550 – 1616) show that Middleton was writing for the Admiral’s Men.
Unlike Shakespeare, Middleton remained a free agent, able to write for whichever company hired him.
Above: Thomas Middleton
His early dramatic career was marked by controversy.
His friendship with Thomas Dekker (1572 – 1632) brought him into conflict with Ben Jonson and George Chapman (1559 – 1634) in the War of the Theatres.
(The War of the Theatres is the name commonly applied to a controversy from the later Elizabethan theatre.
Thomas Dekker termed it the Poetomachia.
Because of an actual ban on satire in prose and verse publications in 1599 (the Bishops’ Ban of 1599), the satirical urge had no other remaining outlet than the stage.
The resulting controversy, which unfolded between 1599 and 1602, involved the playwright Ben Jonson on one side and his rivals John Marston (1576 – 1634) and Thomas Dekker (with Thomas Middleton as an ancillary combatant) on the other.
The role Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) played in the conflict, if any, has long been a topic of dispute among scholars.)
The grudge against Jonson continued as late as 1626, when Jonson’s play The Staple of News indulges in a slur on Middleton’s great success, A Game at Chess (1624).
It has been argued that Middleton’s Inner Temple Masque (1619) sneers at Jonson (then absent in Scotland) as a “silenced bricklayer“.
Above: English playwright / poet Ben Jonson (1572 – 1637)
In 1603, Middleton married.
In the same year an outbreak of the plague forced the London theatres to close, while James I came to the English throne.
Above: James I of England / James VI of Scotland (1566 – 1625)
These events marked the beginning of Middleton’s greatest period as a playwright.
Having passed the time during the plague composing prose pamphlets (including a continuation of Thomas Nashe’s Pierce Penniless), he returned to drama with great energy, producing almost a score of plays for several companies and in several genres, notably city comedy and revenge tragedy.
Above: Woodcut of Thomas Nashe (1567 – 1601) in chains
He continued to collaborate with Dekker:
The two produced The Roaring Girl, a biography of the contemporary thief Mary Frith (1584 – 1659).
Above: Image of Mary Frith from title page of The Roaring Girl
In the 1610s, Middleton began a fruitful collaboration with the actor William Rowley, producing Wit at Several Weapons and A Fair Quarrel.
Working alone in 1613, Middleton produced a comic masterpiece:
A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.
He also became increasingly involved with civic pageants.
In 1620 he became officially appointed as chronologist to the City of London, a post he held until his death in 1627, when it passed to Jonson.
Such official duties did not interrupt Middleton’s dramatic writing.
Above: Bank Junction, London
The 1620s saw the production of his and Rowley’s tragedy The Changeling, and of several tragicomedies.
In 1624, he reached a peak of notoriety when his dramatic allegory A Game at Chesswas staged by the King’s Men.
The play used the conceit of a chess game to present and satirise the recent intrigues surrounding the Spanish Match.
Though Middleton’s approach was strongly patriotic, the Privy Council silenced the play after nine performances, having received a complaint from the Spanish Ambassador.
Middleton faced an unknown, probably frightening degree of punishment.
Since no play later than A Game at Chess is recorded, it has been suggested that the sentence included a ban on writing for the stage.
Middleton died at his home at Newington Butts in Southwark in 1627.
He was buried on 4 July in St Mary’s Churchyard.
The old Church of St Mary’s was demolished in 1876 for road-widening.
Its replacement elsewhere in Kennington Park Road was destroyed in WW2, but rebuilt in 1958.
The old churchyard where Middleton was buried survives as a public park in Elephant and Castle.
Above: St Mary’s Churchyard, Newington Butts, Southwark, England
Middleton’s work has long been praised by literary critics, among them Algernon Charles Swinburne and T. S. Eliot.
Above: English writer Algernon C. Swinburne (1837 – 1909)
The latter thought Middleton was second only to Shakespeare.
Above: English writer Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888 – 1965)
Middleton’s plays were staged throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, each decade offering more productions than the last.
Even some less familiar works of his have been staged:
A Fair Quarrel at the National Theatre, and The Old Law by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Above: The National Theatre, London
The Changeling has been adapted for film several times.
The tragedy Women Beware Women remains a stage favourite.
The Revenger’s Tragedy was adapted for Alex Cox’s film Revengers Tragedy, the opening credits of which attribute the play’s authorship to Middleton.
Middleton wrote in many genres, including tragedy, history and city comedy.
His best-known plays are the tragedies The Changeling (with William Rowley) and Women Beware Women, and the cynically satirical city comedy A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.
Middleton’s work is diverse even by the standards of his age.
He did not have the kind of official relationship with a particular company that Shakespeare or Fletcher had. Instead he appears to have written on a freelance basis for any number of companies.
His output ranges from the “snarling” satire of Michaelmas Term (performed by the Children of Paul’s) to the bleak intrigues of The Revenger’s Tragedy (performed by the King’s Men).
His early work was informed by the flourishing of satire in the late Elizabethan period, while his maturity was influenced by the ascendancy of Fletcherian tragicomedy.
His later work, in which his satirical fury is tempered and broadened, includes three of his acknowledged masterpieces. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, produced by the Lady Elizabeth’s Men, skilfully combines London life with an expansive view of the power of love to effect reconciliation.
The Changeling, a late tragedy, returns Middleton to an Italianate setting like that of The Revenger’s Tragedy, except that here the central characters are more fully drawn and more compelling as individuals.
Similar development can be seen in Women Beware Women.
Middleton’s plays are marked by often amusingly presented cynicism about the human race.
True heroes are a rarity:
Almost every character is selfish, greedy and self-absorbed.
A Chaste Maid in Cheapside offers a panoramic view of a London populated entirely by sinners, in which no social rank goes unsatirised.
In the tragedies Women Beware Women and The Revenger’s Tragedy, amoral Italian courtiers endlessly plot against each other, resulting in a climactic bloodbath.
When Middleton does portray good people, the characters have small roles and are shown as flawless.
A few descriptions and lines from Middleton’s plays capture my attention.
Falso calls his niece to him and woos her.
She is disgusted at the incest, and says that her heart is Fidelio’s anyway.
She would rather be a beggar than yield.
(The Phoenix, 1604)
(She preferred to be a beggar than to stop being true to herself.)
The Honest Whore begins with a funeral procession for the Duke of Milan’s daughter, Infelice.
The procession is attended by the Duke and several others.
Infelice’s former lover, Hippolito enters.
Extremely upset, he insists that Infelice is not truly dead and demands to see the body.
(I believe that as long as we remember someone that someone is never truly dead for us.)
His friend Matteo holds him back and tries to calm him down.
The procession exits, but the Duke, Hippolito and Matteo stay behind.
The Duke commends Matteo’s efforts to control Hippolito and exits.
Hippolito continues raging.
He swears that he will never love any other woman.
Matteo scoffs at his friend’s oath and predicts that Hippolito will forget about Infelice and visit a brothel within the next ten days.
Above: Milano, Italia
Fustigo has just returned from sea.
He is totally broke.
He sends a porter to fetch his sister, Viola, who has recently married Candido, a wealthy (and very patient) linen-draper.
Viola enters.
Fustigo begs her to give him some money.
Viola agrees to help him out on condition that he do a service for her in return.
She explains that, although she is generally satisfied in her marriage, her husband, Candido, is even-tempered to a fault.
Nothing can move him to anger.
Her greatest wish is to see her husband throw an explosive fit.
With this goal in mind, she instructs Fustigo to pose as a “wide-mouthed swaggerer” and attempt to annoy Candido by stealing things, kissing Viola, etc.
Fustigo agrees to go along with the plan.
But even the loss of millions would not make Candido angry.
Above: Colonne di San Lorenzo, Milano
(Some thoughts here, though they may seem to contradict one another:
It is rather praiseworthy that Candido has mastered himself to such an event that he does not get angry, does not take offence.
His Zen-like nature is quite admirable.
That being said, when it came to his relationship with his wife, I feel that his lack of reaction to his wife’s inappropriate behaviour was not the correct course of action.
I think it is important to stand up to your wife or partner as an equal without intimidating her or being intimidated by her.
Too many men, when faced with their wife’s anger, complaints or general unhappiness, simply submit, mumble an apology (It doesn’t matter if he is blameless.) and tiptoe away.
Sadly, there will always be a small remnant group of men who handle their differences with women through violence and intimidation.
The reader gets the sense that Viola would foolishly prefer the later response to the former response, but the later is abhorrent and the former too ambivalent.
The millions of men who adapt the first stance find that this rarely, if ever, leads to happiness.
Women with this kind of partner are not happy.
They actually become more dissatisfied, more complaining.
Often without even realizing why, the henpecking behaviour escalates – for a simple reason.
Deep down, women want to be met by someone strong.
They want to be debated with, not just agreed with.
They hunger for men who can take the initiative sometimes, make some decisions, tell them when they are not making sense.
It is no fun being the only adult in the house.
Above: Scene from Laws of Attraction
How can a woman relax or feel safe if the man she is teamed with is soft and weak?
Many strong, capable feminist women who finally find the sensitive, caring New Age man they thought they wanted now find themselves bored stiff.
Too many men know they are failing to satisfy the women in their life, have failed to keep their relationships together and don’t know what they have done wrong.
Men may learn to be receptive, but receptivity isn’t always enough to carry a partnership through troubled times.
Above: Scene from Bedazzled
In every relationship, something fierce is needed once in a while.
Both the man and the women need to have it.
But at the point when it was needed, though he was nurturing, something else was required.
A man may learn how to say to a woman:
“I can feel your pain.
I consider your life as important as mine.
I will take care of you and comfort you.“
But he also needs to say what he wants and stick by it.
Resolve of that kind is crucial.
Women are only human.
Sometimes they are dead right and sometimes completely wrong.
Women are neither devils nor saints.
They are normal, fallible human beings.
So a man with a woman needs to keep his head on straight.
You cannot just drift along and let them decide everything.
Marriage is not an excuse to stop thinking.
Not only can she be wrong or immature, perverse or prejudiced, competitive or bloody-minded (just like him), sometimes a man and a woman will just see things differently because you are different.
What is right for her may be wrong for him.
Women often don’t understand men.
(Viola clearly didn’t understand Candido.)
But how can women understand men unless men explain themselves to them?
This doesn’t mean that men and women cannot get along.
It only means that negotiations never end.
Steve Biddulph, Australia’s best-known therapist, has heard hundreds of women say in frustration:
“My husband won’t fight with me.
He won’t even argue.
He just walks away.“
Retreating may be all he knows how to do.
To have a happy marriage, a man has to be able to state his point of view, to debate, to leave aisde hysteria and push on with an argument until something is resolved.
Women need to give up their power in order to experience a really equal relationship, based on intimacy and negotiation, not on emotional dominance.
Both partners need to learn more respect for the other’s need for selfhood.
Couples need to fight in order to root out fixed attitudes or longer term misunderstndings and pull them into the light of day.
A good partnership is therapy, every living day.
Conscious fighting is a great help in relationships between men and women.
When a man and a woman are standing toe-to-toe arguing, what is it that the man wants?
Often he does not know.
He wants the conflict to end because he is afraid, because he doesn’t know how to fight, because he doesn’t believe in fighting, because his boundaries are so poorly maintained that every sword thrust penetrates to the very centre of his being.
It is a paradox that we can only let our feelings flow freely and only be truly passionate when we have certain boundaries laid down.
Trust has to be there.
Never be physical or threatening.
Never walk out mid-fight.
Don’t use put-down language.
Stay on point.
Listen to the other’s point of view while honouring your own.
Take time out, by agreement, if it becomes too heated – to think it over and return to continue the argument.
Above: Scene from Laws of Attraction
Biddulph tells a story of a marriage.
The very first time the wife “threw a fit” (her words) and began to be wildly abusive, the man simply walked quietly to his room and began packing his things.
He refused to fight “dirty” as was being expected.
His words are beautiful:
“I know I am supposed to act like a man now and shout and hit you, but I am not that sort of man.
I will not allow anyone to talk to me in the way you have.
I am leaving.“
The woman was so shocked she apologized.
They are still together.
It is important to point out that if the woman in the story had been making a point, asking for a change, then the man needed to stay put and listen, but this was quite different.
She was “having a fit“.
Men and woman both have a capacity for blind rage, which achieves nothing.
Arising out of centuries of two-way, intergender abuse, there is an archetypal core of rage in us which, if we take it into our relationships, destroys all love and feeling.
“I’ve had it with men!“, says she.
“Women! Can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em!“, he cries.
All men hate all women some of the time.
All women hate all men some of the time.
There is a long history of man-bashing by women and woman-bashing by men.
But this isn’t a personal thing and shouldn’t be brought into personal affairs.
Above: Scene from War of the Roses
We must fight, debate and be true to ourselves.
Otherwise our closeness is just an act.
But in fighting, we must show great restraint and always have respect.
Romance is all “Yes!” and heavy breathing.
Marriage is a relationship of trust that is steeped in the primal ambivalence of love and hate.
A third observation I have here is that I wonder if what Viola was searching for was not necessarily anger but rather passion.
Viola wants passion and purpose in Candido.
She carries a weighty desire in her, a passion somewhere between erotic feeling and religious fanaticism.)
Bellafront (the titular “honest whore“) is sitting in front of a mirror as she prepares her make-up.
(Isn’t make-up by its very purpose dishonest?
There is virtually no difference between an unmade-up bald naked woman and an unmade-up bald naked man, except their reporductive organs.
Any other difference between them is artifically produced.
A woman is the author of her own transformation and produces feminity by means of cosmetics, hairstyle and clothes.
This femininity, synthetic in origin, consists of two different components:
Emphasis on secondary sexual characteristics, to make her desirable.
Distancing herself by means of masks, to make her mysterious.
She deliberately keeps men in a state of constant bewilderment.
Woman regards her natural self merely as the raw materal of a woman, as if the raw material is of less value than the mask that conceals it.
It is not the raw material but the end result that has to be judged.
They have the odd idea that unmade-up, without curls and bracelets and necklaces that a woman is not really present.
Amusing themselves with their own bodies has become an end in itself.
For women’s demands on themselves are enormous.
Men have wisely, millennia ago, dropped out of the game.
Every man knows that he himself does not give a damn if a woman wears three colours of eye shadow or one or none, just as he knows he has no need for lace curtains or plants in the living room.
Women are so preoccupied with self and with beautification that men have come to the conclusion that, even if women paid any attention to them at all, they would never be considered handsome.
But men are not driven to wear a mask to pretend a beauty they neither possess nor feel.
What every man of maturity realizes is that woman are only fooling themselves.
If women spent as much time developing their intelligence and character as they do maintaining a mask of beauty than they may truly feel the equality they so desperately claim to crave.)
Hippolito tells her that, if she were his mistress, he would not permit her to carry on with so many different men.
Bellafront sighs longingly and tells Hippolito that it is her dream to be true to a single man.
Hippolito scoffs at this pronouncement and accuses Bellafront of lying to lure him into her web.
He is certain that, if he were to take up with her, she would certainly deceive him, just as all prostitutes always deceive their patrons.
Bellafront swears that she is an “honest whore“.
Claiming that there could never be such a thing, Hippolito offers to “teach” Bellafront “how to loathe” herself.
He proceeds to deliver a long, nasty speech on the sordidness of prostitution.
Bellafront weeps to hear his harsh words, but begs him to continue.
Hippolito continues a little further and exits, even though Bellafront begs him to stay.
Bellafront agonizes over her unrequited love for Hippolito.
She notices that he has left his sword behind, grabs it and prepares to stab herself, but stops when Hippolito re-enters and calls her a “madwoman“.
Hysterical, she begs him to love her or kill her.
Hippolito takes his sword from her and exits without saying another word.
Above: Scene from Wyatt Earp
(In a way, there is a kind of honesty in prostitution.
Every method of manipulation is based on the carrot-and-stick principle.
A man would be above bribery altogether were it not for one basic male need which has to be satisfied.
The need for physical contact.
This need is so strong.
Its fulfillment gives men such intense pleasure.
A man could, of course, condition his sexual needs, but instead of learning to suppress his needs, a man will allow them to be encouraged whenever possible.
Men never dress in such a way as to awaken sexual desire in a woman, but this is very much the contrary with women.
From the moment a girl becomes a woman, she disguises herself as bait.
She offers herself, at a price.
His total subjection to her.
It would be more economical and efficient for a man to satisfy his libido with a prostitute than rushing into marriage, so it is ironic that men consider ordinary prostitutes so very contemptible.
Prostitutes are among the few women who frankly admit that they make money by renting their bodies.
But no man would allow a prostitute to exploit him beyond the bartering of cash for momentary gratification.
Women despise the common prostitute for her stupidity.
A woman who sells her body so ineptly is shockingly stupid by female intelligence standards.
A man with strong sexual needs must be more obedient to women than others.
A woman profits from her body, while a man is slave to his.
The knack of being a good lover is to persist in the chase, without being a pest.
As tenderness, skill and intensity of touch set her alight, he can abandon himself more and more to his passion, cathcing up with her in joyous abandon.
Lovemaking and courtship takes confidence.
Between first meeting a woman and getting where you want to be, there are many chances of rejection, but if you pass the initiation stage, if you view your own sexuality as sacred and are proud of your own gender, then you come to the woman with fascination and respect, but on equal terms.
You respect and desire her but you respect yourself too.
It takes the desperation out of it.
“I am just a poor boy Though my story’s seldom told I have squandered my resistance For a pocketful of mumbles Such are promises All lies and jest Still a man hears what he wants to hear And disregards the rest
When I left my home and my family I was no more than a boy In the company of strangers In the quiet of the railway station Running scared Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters Where the ragged people go Looking for the places only they would know
Asking only workman’s wages, I come looking for a job But I get no offers Just a come-on from the whores on 7th Avenue I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome I took some comfort there, la-la-la-la-la-la-la
Then I’m laying out my winter clothes And wishing I was gone, going home Where the New York City winters aren’t bleeding me Leading me, going home
In the clearing stands a boxer And a fighter by his trade And he carries the reminders Of every glove that laid him down Or cut him till he cried out In his anger and his shame “I am leaving, I am leaving“ But the fighter still remains
Most contemporary men get together with a woman first and then grow up second.
We fall in love mostly by good luck.
It just happens.
Sadly, maintaining love is often left to luck too.
But love is a craft which takes practice.
Eventually, then, many men and women lose the spark.
They fall out of love.
The man usually denies this to himself and is happy enough as long as his partner stays sexually available, a kind of sedating, sex-as-a-reward-at-the-end-of- the-day.
Sex compensates for his life of quiet desperation.
Mouths to feed, mortgage to pay, the soul-numbing routine of work.
I wake up every mornin’ I stumble out of bed Stretchin’ and yawnin’ Another day ahead It seems to last forever And time goes slowly by ‘Til babe and me’s together Then it starts to fly
‘Cos the moment that he’s with me Time can take a flight The moment that he’s with me Everything’s alright Night time is the right time We make love Then it’s his and my time We take off
My baby takes the morning train He works from nine till five and then He takes another home again To find me waitin’ for him
He takes me to a movie Or to a restaurant, to go Slow dancing Anything I want Only when he’s with me I catch a light Only when he gives me Makes me feel alright
My baby takes the morning train He works from nine till five and then He takes another home again To find me waitin’ for him
All day I think of him Dreamin’ of him constantly I’m crazy mad for him And he’s crazy mad for me (Crazy mad for me) When he steps off that train I’m makin’ a fool, a fight Work all day to earn his pay So we can play all night
My baby takes the morning train He works from nine till five and then He takes another home again To find me waitin’ for him
He’s always on that morning train (He works from nine till five and then) He works so hard (He takes another home again) To find me waiting for him (My baby takes the morning train)
Very often though, today’s woman tires of routine sex.
The very thing that makes him a good husband – his devotion to being a stable provider – wears out his spirit and mkaes him boring.
Finding little reward in their boring live or their sex life, she starts to cool down.
She exerts her perfect right not make love.
The man sulks, suffers, grouches and schemes, to no avail.
This long dark night is the result of a totally mistaken belief that he cannot live without a woman’s love.
But for the man who makes it through the long dark night, the rewards are great.
Comfortable in his solitude, he approaches women as equals.
The irony is that when you can “take it or leave it“, when love and affection are no longer a matter of life and death, then you are finally receptive.
Not needing sex makes you much more attractive.
Bellafront realizes that she wants a man’s constant companionship.
In this regard, she truly is honest.)
In A Trick to Catch the Old One, Theodorus Witgood, a ruined gentleman, enters and tells how, after foolishly wasting away all his money on brothels and drunkenness in the city, he has lost all of his lands to his uncle, Pecunius Lucre a usurer.
According to Witgood, Lucre’s motto is:
“He that doth his youth expose
To brothel, drink and danger
Let him that is nearest kin
Cheat before a stranger.”
Witgood says that he must now find some way to make a living for himself, and hints that he may not be averse to activities “out of the compass of the law” (i.e., illegal).
Witgood’s courtesan (kept lady) enters.
Witgood scolds her for being the cause of his ruin.
The Courtesan replies that the ‘jewel’ she gave him — her virginity — was worth much more than all the lands he has lost.
(Here is where I marvel at the mess mankind has made of sexuality.
Why in Heaven’s name does a woman possess more erogenous zones than a man and yet deny herself the liberty of their enjoyment?
How can it be psychologically healthy to possess such innate desires and yet suppress those desires for the sake of potential profit later?
Certainly, I have to admit there is a sort of reckless courage that a woman possesses in deliberately stoking the fires of men’s desires for physical contact with her.
As well, we live in an age where the use of contraceptives can prevent unwanted pregnancy and minimize the risks of contamination, so a cautious woman can be sexually active without the same intensity of worry that previous generations had.
But the unaccountable stigma that is cast upon a woman if she is too promiscuous must, in my opinion, be a source of frustration for some.
As for the jewel of virginity, ideally she should have as her first lover a person that reciprocates the desire, passion and intensity of feeling that she has.
I think what bothers me is the idea of her sex viewed as a jewel, a bartering of her body.
Certainly, she decides the bedroom fun, but if her goal is a devoted exclusive relationship, she may have to kiss a lot of frogs before she finds her prince.)
Witgood lays out a plan to get his lands back from his uncle.
The plan involves going to London (where his uncle is now located) and passing the Courtesan off as a wealthy widow whom Witgood intends to marry.
The Courtesan agrees to the plan.
Above: London, as seen from Primrose Hill
Joyce might marry Sam Freedom (Lucre’s wife’s son from another marriage), however, the match has not yet been confirmed.
Joyce has two suitors:
Sam, a rich idiot, and Moneylove, an impoverished scholar.
Joyce is currently in London, where she is learning how to become a gentlewoman so that she can catch a wealthy husband.
(Notice the calculating nature of all this.
Joyce is interested in her self development so she can catch a wealthy husband.
In fairness, the horizons of a woman in 1608 were quite different than they are for an Englishwoman of 2024.
But I find myself asking the question:
What makes a woman worthy of a man?
It has been said that a woman merely has to be to get a man, while a man has to become to be considered worthy of a woman.
But is it wrong to desire a woman who is a man’s equal counterpart in strength, intelligence and imagination?
To have a life partner who contributes to the family’s future in a job she wants to do rather than at a job she has to do, because she has yet to find a male sponsor?
Joyce may have lacked the opportunities to explore her potential, but what is modern woman’s excuse?
There is no primary difference in intelligence between the sexes.
It is in the decisions made to develop or let disintegrate one’s intelligence that makes differences between people.
I also find myself wondering how many modern women are like Joyce using her self-development, whether in the world of academia or in the business world, in order to simply find a life partner.
I think part of the problem with academia is that we confuse the memorization of knowledge for the true acquisition of wisdom.
There seems to be an unwritten myth that a woman rarely needs to win through her industry, ambition or perseverance, but simply through an attractive appearance.
Beauty can sleep while waiting for her prince to rouse her.)
You look like A perfect fit For a girl in need Of a tourniquet
But can you save me? Why don’t you save me? If you could save me
From the ranks of the freaks that suspect They could never love anyone
‘Cause I can tell You know what it’s like A long farewell Of a hunger strike
But can you save me? Come on and save me If you could save me
From the ranks of the freaks that suspect They could never love anyone
You struck me dumb Like radium Like Peter Pan or Superman You will come
To save me Why don’t you save me? If you could save me
From the ranks of the freaks who suspect They could never love anyone Except the freaks that suspect They could never love anyone But the freaks that suspect They could never love anyone
Come on and save me Why don’t you save me? If you could save me
From the ranks of the freaks that suspect They could never love anyone Except the freaks who suspect They could never love anyone Except the freaks Who could never love anyone
Witgood tells his friend Host (an innkeeper) that he is about to marry a wealthy widow whom he plans to take to London so that she can be introduced to his uncle (the ‘widow‘ is actually Witgood’s courtesan).
He asks the Host to pose as the ‘widow’s‘ servingman while they are in London.
This favour is necessary,
Witgood claims, because when she ran away with him, the ‘widow’ abandoned all of her servants.
To convince his uncle of her wealth, appearances have to be maintained.
The Host knows that Witgood intends to trick his uncle, but he does not know that the ‘widow’ is, in fact, Witgood’s courtesan.
(“Appearances have to be maintained.”
But what lies beneath the appearances?)
Witgood and the Host arrive in London.
The Host assures Witgood that the ‘widow’ has been provided with good lodgings.
Dampit and Gulf (two usurers) enter.
Witgood tells the Host that Dampit is “the most notorious usurering, blasphemous, atheistical, brothel-vomiting rascal that we have in these latter times.”
(Shakespeare’s insults are good, but Middleton’s may be better.)
Above: Scene from Full Metal Jacket
He also says that, although Dampit dresses like a beggar, he is, in fact, very rich — he earned all his money with the Devil’s help, by cheating and trampling the law.
As much as Dampit is a reprehensible scoundrel I cannot admire, I see wisdom in his choice of attire.
(José Alberto “Pepe” Mujica Cordano (born 20 May 1935) is a Uruguayan politician, former revolutionary and farmer who served as the 40th President of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015.
A former guerrilla with the Tupamaros, he was tortured and imprisoned for 14 years during the military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s.
A member of the Broad Front coalition of left-wing parties, Mujica was Minister of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries from 2005 to 2008 and a Senator afterwards.
As the candidate of the Broad Front, he won the 2009 presidential election and took office as President on 1 March 2010.
Mujica has been described as “the world’s humblest head of state” due to his austere lifestyle and his donation of around 90% of his $12,000 monthly salary to charities that benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs.
An outspoken critic of capitalism’s focus on stockpiling material possessions which do not contribute to human happiness, he has been praised by the media and journalists for his philosophical ideologies.
The Times Higher Education referred to him as the “philosopher president” in 2015, a play on words of Plato’s conception of the philosopher king.)
Above: José Alberto “Pepe” Mujica Cordano
I grant you that Dampit is in no way the kind of idealist that Cordano is.
But there is wisdom in not displaying your wealth ostentatiously.
For bling and bounty only create envy and greed in others.
Also the reason that many rich folks have gotten rich and have remained rich is that they are rarely generous with the blessings that good fortune has given them.
In my own travels I have also been impressed by the selfless generosity of those who have littie left to give and yet do so without hesitation nor expectation of reward.
They help others simply because they are compelled to.
Above: The widow with two mites
I am also reminded of the legendary tales of King Arthur and F. W. Woolworth.
“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.”
(Rudyard Kipling)
Above: English writer Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936)
One of the best known stories in English history is that of King Alfred and the cakes.
Children are taught the story where Alfred is on the run from the Vikings, taking refuge in the home of a peasant woman.
She asks him to watch her cakes – small loaves of bread – baking by the fire, but distracted by his problems, he lets the cakes burn and is roundly scolded by the woman.
Would he have been so roundly scolded had the peasant woman seen Alfred as King?
Above: King Alfred and the cakes
There is the legend of Woolworth visiting his stores disguised as a customer to gauge how customers were being served and then returned as himself to give feedback on the customer service he received (or didn’t receive).
Clearly, he understood that he would be treated quite differently had it been known who he really was.
Above: Frank Winfield Woolworth (1852 – 1919)
I want to be judged by the size of my manners and not by the size of my wallet or bank account.)
Above: Scene from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
(Dex: These Kamino keep to themselves. They’re cloners. Damn good ones.
Obi-Wan: Are they friendly?
Dex: It depends.
Obi-Wan: Depends on what, Dex?
Dex: On how good your manners are and how big your pocketbook is.)
Dampit greets Witgood and rhapsodises about his rise to wealth, repeatedly referring himself as “a great trampler of time“:
“Thus was poor Harry Dampit made rich by others’ laziness, who, though they would not follow their own suits, I made ’em follow me with their purses.”
I won’t reveal any more of the story here.
Above: Ebenezer Scrooge
In A Mad World, My Masters, Richard Follywit enters with his cohorts, Mawworm (intestinal worm), Hoboy, and other hangers-on.
He jokes with his companions about their wild ways and sarcastically repents and says he is now a man who “swears without number, gulls (to cheat) without mercy and drinks without measure“.
He tells his cohorts of a plan he has hatched to get some more money:
His grandfather, Sir Bounteous Progress (a rich old knight) has left him everything in his will, but refuses to give him as much as £10 while he is still alive.
Despite his frugality concerning Follywit, Bounteous loves to entertain noble guests with extravagant feasts.
Follywit therefore plans to disguise himself as a great lord so that he can capitalize on his grandfather’s hospitality.
As Follywit and companions exit, Penitent Brothel, a country gentleman, enters.
Penitent remarks on Follywit’s reputation as a wild prankster, but notes that he is not so much better because he is subject to “wild passions and deadly follies himself“:
He is in love with Mistress Hairbrain, who is extremely difficult to get to because she is kept under strict guard by her obsessively jealous husband, Mr. Hairbrain.
In order to get to Mistress Hairbrain, Penitent says he has contracted the services of ‘The Courtesan‘, a prostitute who poses as Mistress Hairbrain’s friend and moral instructor but is in fact working to corrupt her.
The Courtesan enters and tells Penitent that Mistress Hairbrain’s corruption is going very well.
The only problem is Mr. Hairbrain, whose excessive jealously is likely to make the project very difficult.
Penitent frets, but the Courtesan tells him not to worry:
She won’t take any money unless the project is a success.
Penitent praises the Courtesan’s business ethic and exits.
The Courtesan’s mother brings the Courtesan a token from Sir Bounteous Progress (the Courtesan is Sir Bounteous Progress’ mistress).
Luxuriating in the subtlety of her own craftiness, the Mother tells how she has prostituted the Courtesan 15 times in order to save up enough money for a good marriage dowry.
She tells the Courtesan it is all worthwhile if, by sinning, she can secure a good name for herself:
“Who gets the opinion of a virtuous name
May sin at pleasure and never think of shame.”
The Courtesan exits.
(Consider this:
The Courtesan suggests that losing one’s virtue is OK if it secures a good name for yourself.
As in the end justifies the means.
How is Follywit any different than the Courtesan?
They both do want ever they want to achieve their aims and both are unshamed of doing so.)
Receptionist: How do you write women so well?
Melvin Udall: I think of a man. And I take away reason and accountability.
Inesse and Possibility enter.
They are the eldest brothers from two different families:
The former holds his lands “in esse” (in actual possession) and the latter holds his lands “in posse” (in anticipated possession) — either of these men could be a prime source of revenue for the Courtesan.
Inesse and Possibility ask the Mother where the Courtesan is;
The Mother tells them she is studying the Bible.
They ask if they can see her.
The Mother says she will only grant permission after they have sworn to refrain from using coarse language.
(Even Trump sells Bibles.)
Obsessing over the possibility that his wife might cheat on him, Harebrain hires two watchmen to guard his house, telling them that he has heard a rumour that he might be robbed.
In an aside, he reveals that the ‘jewel’ he really intends to guard is his wife.
The Courtesan enters (posing, as Mistress Hairbrain’s friend and moral instructor).
Hairbrain tells her that he is very worried about his wife’s chastity and mentions that he has taken away all of her erotic literature (which includes Shakespeare’s narrative poem, Venus and Adonis).
He asks the Courtesan to read some religious literature to Mistress Hairbrain:
“There’s a good chapter on Hell that will terrify her in this cold weather.
So read to her the horrible punishments for itching wantonness.”
The Courtesan exits.
(Literature is moral or immoral depending upon whether thoughts turn to deeds.)
Talking to himself, Hairbrain says that, with the help of the Courtesan, he will keep his wife honest, only performing sexual favors for her husband.
(He regards sex as the payment she owes him for room and board.)
(He will provide for her if she will provide for him?
Sounds more like business than love?)
Mistress Hairbrain and the Courtesan enter.
The Courtesan instructs Mistress Hairbrain in the art of appearing chaste and avoiding any traps her husband might set for her.
Mistress Hairbrain gives the Courtesan a jewel to present to Penitent Brothel as a promise of her love, which she says she will demonstrate as soon as she manages to escape from her husband’s strict guard.
When Hairbrain joins them, the Courtesan tells him that Mistress Hairbrain believes that every sin is damnable — an opinion that the Courtesan has been trying to refute.
Hairbrain laughs at his wife’s alleged moral strictness.
He says that sins such as usury, bribery, sloth, pride and gluttony are permissible — the only truly damnable sin is adultery.
When the Courtesan exits, Hairbrain orders his wife to follow her instructor’s advice faithfully.
Above: An allegorical image depicting the human heart subject to the seven deadly sins, each represented by an animal (clockwise: toad = avarice; snake = envy; lion = wrath; snail = sloth; pig = gluttony; goat = lust; peacock = pride), Taolenn de François-Marie Balanant, 2010
(Is it only sinful if we deem it so?)
I must confess I find a sad sameness to the entire body of Middleton’s work.
Almost every character is greedy, selfish and self-absorbed like characters in a never-ending soap opera.
Middleton’s cynicism is as palpable as a cold puddle splashed from a passing car onto a well-groomed pedestrian.
I have read what I could through Google on this day, but despite my best efforts I could not find an open manuscript of Middleton’s Penniless Parliament of Threadbare Poets, but the title has triggered ideas I wish to share in my next post….
Though the stage is lit, the theatre is shadows.
Though daylight shines through my windows, reading Middleton I feel that I am in the middle of a long dark night.
My mind, that everpresent jukebox, finds Middleton making me think of Leonard Cohen:
Like a bird on the wire Like a drunk in a midnight choir I have tried in my way to be free Like a worm on a hook Like a knight from some old fashioned book I have saved all my ribbons for thee
If I, if I have been unkind I hope that you can just let it go by If I, if I have been untrue I hope you know it was never to you
Oh, like a baby, stillborn Like a beast with his horn I have torn everyone who reached out for me But I swear by this song And by all that I have done wrong I will make it all up to thee
I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch He said to me, “You must not ask for so much.” And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door She cried to me, “Hey, why not ask for more?“
Oh, like a bird on the wire Like a drunk in a midnight choir I have tried in my way to be free
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 AlsaceAbove: Flag of ItalyAbove: Lanzarote (red) of the Spanish Canary IslandsAbove: London, EnglandAbove: Flag of Porto, PortugalAbove: Flag of SerbiaAbove: 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 JudaismAbove: The cross of Christ, symbol of ChristianityAbove: 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 (primascriptura / “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, GermanyAbove: 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 “onetrue 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.
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.
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.
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, GermanyAbove: St. Gallen, SwitzerlandAbove: Old town, Biel, SwitzerlandAbove: Mühlhausen, GermanyAbove: Basel, SwitzerlandAbove: 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, SwitzerlandAbove: Flag of the Canton of UriAbove: Schwyz, SwitzerlandAbove: Zug, SwitzerlandAbove: 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 ZugAbove: 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 HesseAbove: Images of Venice, ItalyAbove: 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.
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, SwitzerlandAbove: 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).
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: WildhausAbove: 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, ZürichAbove: Uetliberg, seen from Lake ZürichAbove: Hotel Uto Kulm, UetlibergAbove: Balderen houseAbove: FelseneggAbove: Restaurant Chusperhüsli, BucheneggAbove: NäfenhüserAbove: Rüschlikon and AlbispassAbove: Albis Hochwacht (lookout)Above: SchnabellückenAbove: 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, ZürichAbove: 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 StationAbove: 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 StationAbove: Schweighof StationAbove: 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 StationAbove: 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 ruinsAbove: Old mill, Friesenberg CastleAbove: Original location of Baldern CastleAbove: Schnabelburg Castle ruinsAbove: 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, GermanyAbove: Klopstock Memorial Stone, Pforta School
Klopstock read the Greek and Latin classics: Homer, Pindar, Virgil and Horace.
Above: Bust of Homer, Glyptothek, Munich, GermanyAbove: 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.
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.
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, GermanyAbove: 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, GermanyAbove: Klopstock’s grave under the linden tree, Ottensen bei Altona
In Quedlinburg, the Klopstockhaus provides information about the poet.
Above: Klopstockhaus, Quedlinburg, GermanyAbove: 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, AustriaAbove: 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 GoetheAbove: 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, UetlibergAbove: 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 PlanetTrail 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, ZürichAbove: Fraumünster, ZürichAbove: Müri MonasteryAbove: 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.
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 QuarterAbove: Wipkingen
Later he attended the collegiate school of Einsiedeln Monastery and the Jesuit college in Feldkirch.
Above: Einsiedeln MonasteryAbove: 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 Etruscanshe 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 NetherlandsAbove: Flag of Denmark
He made further trips to Italy (1958) to Bergamo and Verona, then to Sicily (1966) and Tuscany (1967).
Above: Bergamo, ItalyAbove: Images of Verona, ItalyAbove: Flag of SicilyAbove: 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 Lifeof 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 RothAbove: 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 (TheSuspicion), 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 CriminologicalSociety (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 ZürichAbove: 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.
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.
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 poemwas 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 Napleswas followedin 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, MexicoAbove: 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 representativeof 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 Kraskaof Zurich and Bilbao, ruler ofthe 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 theenvironment”) 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 fraudulentactivity“.
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 NaegeliAbove: 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. GallenAbove: 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, GermanyAbove: The Bavarian Court, Munich, GermanyAbove: Stadt Theater, Bern, SwitzerlandAbove: Stadt Theater, Bern, SwitzerlandAbove: 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 (TheJungle Book) for the Bernhardtheater.
Above: Virginia Theater, Broadway, New York CityAbove: Theater am Hechtplatz, ZürichAbove: Bernhard Theater, Zürich
The family musicals Der Zauberlehrling (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice), De chli Isbär (The Little PolarBear), s’Dschungelbuech (The Jungle Book) and D’Schatzinsle (Treasure Island) toured Switzerland for several years.
Krejci wrote the scripts for TheSorcerer’s Apprentice, The LittlePolar 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: TürlerseeAbove: Common frogAbove: 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 symbolAbove: 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, ViennaAbove: 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: BaronRudolf 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, BernAbove: 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, ItalyAbove: Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian, Frauenkirche, Munich, GermanyAbove: 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 ZwingliAbove: 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 Kappelagain.
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 BiblianderAbove: 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 theAlps” 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 descriptioTopographica (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.
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, IndiaAbove: 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 WashingtonPost, 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 “veryfine 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 SalvadorAbove: Flag of HaitiAbove: Flag of HondurasAbove: 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.
“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‘, ‘cryinglowlife‘, ‘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 HarthAbove: E. Jean CarrollAbove: Summer ZervosAbove: Alva JohnsonAbove: Jessica LeedsAbove: Kristin AndersonAbove: Lisa BoyneAbove: Cathy HellerAbove: Temple Taggart McDowellAbove: Amy DorrisAbove: Karena VirginiaAbove: Karen JohnsonAbove: Mindy McGillivrayAbove: Rachel CrooksAbove: Natasha StoynoffAbove: Juliet HuddyAbove: Jessica DrakeAbove: Ninni LaaksonenAbove: Cassandra SearlesAbove: 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
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 theTwelve 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.
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.
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
Landschlacht, Switzerland, Friday 13 November 2020
I have, since 12 November 2017, written a series of posts 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.
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 translated sections of the Steiners’ book and have quietly and slowly explored their Zwingli walks, discovering places filled with heritage and surprisingly interesting.
What I want to make clear is that I am not a man of faith.
I am not a follower of any religion.
It is not my life’s purpose to steady the Ark.
It is not my desire to question someone’s faith in the idea of Noah’s salvationary floating zoo or in virgin births or in any manner of religious imagery.
I won’t question someone’s faith, but I do question someone’s insistence that I share that faith.
I seek neither to defend or attack faith.
I seek rather only to (somewhat, somehow) understand belief and why so many are compelled to follow its tenets.
I respect the notion of faith’s attempts to provide humanity with a moral compass, but I do wonder how many believers actually heed the bearings of the compass they profess to follow.
I am fascinated (and often repulsed) at both the moral and immoral acts that are committed in the name of a God whose existence is proven only by the argument that this existence cannot be disproven either.
I am surrounded by mankind’s monuments to faith but I am unconvinced that mankind practices what it professes.
There seems to be few places that mankind dubs “civilized” where monuments to faith are not present.
I am undecided as to whether this is a good or a bad thing.
I am not suggesting that all those of faith are bad individuals, but I do question whether one needs faith to act morally or whether faith can be justified when immorality is committed.
I have followed Zwingli’s life and footsteps not as a disciple following a chosen leader but rather as a simple man trying to comprehend the religious impulse that drove him (and drives others) to justify the things that are done in the name of faith.
Above: Huldrych Zwingli (1484 – 1531)
Between posts alternating between:
Alsace (France)
Italy
Lanzarote (Canary Island)
London (England)
Porto (Portugal)
Serbia (Belgrade and Nis)
Switzerland
….I have written of my explorations, of Zwingli’s life and the lands through which he travelled and sojourned, from Wildhaus to Kilchberg.
Above: Lake Zürich (Zürichsee)
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)
Today, I want to start writing of the discoveries the walker can make following the shore of Lake Zürich from Kilchberg into downtown Zürich itself.
Above: Kilchberg
Above: Lake Zürich and the Limmat River as seen from Zürich’s Grossmünster
The Steiners recommend walking from Kilchberg via Nidelbad and Wollishofen, following in parallel fashion the route of the Lake Zürich railway line.
And certainly the Steiners’ idea has merit, for their path meanders through forest and offers wonderful glimpses of the beautiful panaroma of the entire Lake below.
Above: Lake Zürich in winter as seen from Uetliberg
There were two reasons I opted against this idea:
First, I wanted to walk beside the Lake despite the urbanization and traffic a stroll here meant.
Second, the Steiners’ book was not the only book I carried.
Duncan J.D. Smith’s Only in Zürich: A Guide to Unique Locations, Hidden Corners and Unusual Objects, based on the author’s personal experiences walking through the city on the Limmat, offers new and innovative perspectives on this region.
Smith reveals the Zürich of Roman ruins and medieval walls, of hidden gardens and little-known museums, of unusual shops and converted factories.
So it was Smith’s guide rather than the Steiner book that I followed from Kilchberg to the Grossmünster in downtown Zürich, even though the sites seen in this walk were not as focused on Huldrych Zwingli as Zwingli Wege.
What follows below is a description of that walk.
It is my hope that you will enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoyed walking and describing it.
Kilchberg to Zürich, Saturday 19 August 2018
I descended from Kilchberg down to the water’s edge and eventually my feet found their way along Seestrasse (Lake Street) heading ever northward to the Big City, where all roads in Switzerland seem to lead.
Above: Images of Zürich
When Zürich was “zu reich“
Fear.
Anxiety.
Anger.
Desperation.
These are the moods of the moment.
Moods that drive people to the streets, bounded into a movement, draped in hopelessness and yet driven by hope.
Protesters protest in the belief, however modest, that their voices on the street will be heard.
On 30 May 1980, a protest staged by youth activists outside Zürich’s Opera House (Opernhaus Zürich) turned violent.
A three-day celebration of the Zürich Opernhaus and the opening of a festival was celebrated on 30 May 1980.
Uninvited, about 200 protesters crashed the festival opening and demanded an autonomous youth center.
The communal Stadtpolizei Zürich (Zürich city police) and state Kantonspolizei (Zürich canton police) police corps were informed beforehand and were stationed in the foyer of the opera house as a precautionary measure.
As the youths occupied the exterior stairs of the Opera House, the demonstration degenerated into a street battle between demonstrators and the police, who were equipped with water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets.
The youth protests culminated on 30/31 May 1980, at the present Sechseläutenplatz square in Zürich, but later spread throughout the whole city.
A public referendum also contributed to the riots, as the city of Zurich planned to grant CHF 61 million for a renovation and an extension of the Opera House, but nothing for the planned Rote Fabrik cultural center in Zürich-Wollishofen, by the Zürichsee lakeshore.
The protestors felt that the demands of the young people for their own cultural center had been ignored for years and that the astronomical grant for the Opera House demonstrated this lack of commitment to youth by Zürich’s conservative government.
Their reaction was a “long pent-up anger” as seen on a newspaper headline.
“Züri brännt” has since become a household word, and is the title of a punk song by the band TNT.
Andreas Homoki, director of the Opera House, described the situation in the “hot summer of 1980” as explosive, and that “there was not enough room for a youth culture” because of a lack of alternative governmental cultural programs for the youth in Zürich.
Above: Opernhaus Zürich
Months of rioting between police and protesters ensued and the orderliness for which the City was renowned was turned upside down.
By the time peace was restored, shops were wrecked, cars burned, thousands arrested, many injured, and one woman had died after setting herself on fire in protest.
Zürich was like a war zone and the outside world was stunned.
Most surprising of all the cause was less about political ideology and more about the lack of government support for the city’s alternative arts scene.
Above: The Opernhauskrawalle (opera house protest)(or Züri brannt – Zürich burns), 30 May 1980
The Zürich riots were played out against a backdrop of a society in flux.
A rebellious European youth counterculture was manifesting itself in punk music, anarchistic art movements, and squatting protests.
The conservative authorities in straight-laced Zürich struggled to accommodate it – and little wonder that the city was ripe for rebellion as at the time there was an 2300 hours curfew and dancing was forbidden on religious holidays.
One of several watering holes that defied the curfew was the Helvti Bar in the basement of the Hotel Helvetia at Stauffacherquai 1 in the district of Werd.
Students, artists, musicians and journalists from the leftist newspaper Tages Anzeiger regularly discussed the countercultural revolution here well in the wee hours of the morning.
They also assembled here to take part in the great street marches that defined the era.
Since the early 1970s Zürich’s youth movement had been growing steadily more frustrated at the lack of public funding and work space for a new generation of artists.
Pleas for the establishment of youth centres were repeatedly turned down and so instead the counterculture focused itself on two big community squats.
(The film is in German – worse yet, Swiss German – but I think the images need no translating.)
The first took place in 1980 inside a former silk mill at Seestrasse 395 (Wollishofen district) on the shore of the Zürichsee.
Constructed in 1892, the building had been set for demolition before the Council earmarked it for use by the Opera, which was about to be renovated at taxpayers’ expense.
It was this decision that triggered the protest in May 1980 by those who felt ignored in favour of “elitist” venues.
Whereas squats in municipal premises elsewhere in Switzerland have remained illegal it is indicative of Zürcher pragmatism that in 1987 the Rote Fabrik (red factory) collective voted to apply for permanent legal status and an arts subsidy from the City Council.
They were successful.
Above: The Rote Fabrik (red factory)
Today the alternative heart of the Rote Fabrik still beats loudly by providing studio and performance space for artists thanks to public funding.
Indeed, even Zürich’s most conservative newspaper the New Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) has been known to review the avant-garde dance and drama performed at the venue!
The second great squat occurred in 1991 when a group of artists moved into the newly empty Wohlgroth gas meter factory on Zollstrasse (Gewerbeschule district) alongside the city’s main railway line.
The squatters quickly erected a sign on the building to greet arriving trains that imitated an official Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) sign.
Instead of “ZÜRICH” it read “ZUREICH” (too rich) and guaranteed fury from the Establishment.
The Wohlgroth squat became a cause célèbre and quickly developed into a thriving alternative arts centre.
Concerned at not being able to generate income from the building the owner eventually offered to relocate the squat elsewhere but his offer was rejected.
Shortly afterwards in 1993 the building was cleared by police using tear gas and water cannons.
It might have pleased the squatters to know that the Industrie Quartier (industrial quarter)(District 5) to the west of Zollstrasse would later be transformed into Zürich West, the pulsating heart of the city’s new subculture.
(The Rote Fabrik is open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from 1100 to 0000 and on Fridays and Sundays from 1100 to 0100.)
The Kaiser’s paddle steamer
It is a little-known fact that Europe’s first iron-hulled ship was the steam ferry Minerva, which made its inaugural cruise across the Zürichsee on 19 July 1835.
Above: The Minerva
Many vessels have worked the Lake since then and the ferries of the Lake Zürich Shipping Company (Zürichsee Schifffahrtsgesellschaft).
In amongst the modern ferries, however, there is one especially historic vessel.
Built a little over a century ago the Stadt Zürich (city of Zürich) is the oldest paddle steamer (Raddampfer) on the Lake and a piece of floating history.
When not racing from port to port the Stadt Zürich can be found moored at the shipping company’s harbour on Mythenquai in Wollishofen (Wollishofen Schiffstation).
A visit to the dock around 0700 hours or 1900 hours provides the opportunity of having the vessal to one’s self (albeit viewed from the path overlooking the harbour) as opposed to sharing it with the 750 passengers it can hold when in service.
The Stadt Zürich was built for the Lake Zürich Shipping Company by the Zürich engineering firm Escher, Wyss & Cie.
Launched on 8 May 1909 she was the 32nd commercial ferry on the Zürichsee after the Minerva.
Her maiden voyage took place on 12 June and immediately it was clear she was something special.
Like her sister vessel the Stadt Rapperswil (1914), also built to satisfy the increasing popularity of lake steamers, the Stadt Zürich had several novel features, including a spacious Art Nouveau-style First Class saloon on the upper deck and short smoke stacks.
In her first year of service the Stadt Zürich sailed over 12,000 kilometres and burned over 250,000 kilos of coal.
Although many cantonal and municipal dignitaries sailed on the maiden voyage of the Stadt Zürich, undoubtedly the vessel’s most famous passenger was German Kaiser (emperor) Wilhelm II (1859 – 1941).
Above: Kaiser Wilhelm II
On the evening of 4 September 1912, Wilhelm boarded the steamer with his retinue and made a tour of the Lake.
The vessel was adorned with flowers, strict dress regulations were applied, tea and German beer were served.
Fireworks were let off along the shoreline as the vessel steamed by.
It is interesting to note that ship’s stoker Jakob Stampfer was replaced for the evening because of his anti-imperial and Social Democratic political views.
During the First World War ferry services on Lake Zürich were reduced and in December 1918 stopped altogether by the Swiss Federal Council because the country had to import coal.
Service resumed in 1919.
Between 1922 and 1939 the Stadt Zürich was overhauled on several occasions, receiving new boiler tubes and new paddle wheels.
In 1938 the vessel was fitted for the first time with electric heating.
During the Second World War the boilers of the Stadt Zürich were kept filled around the clock and her engines in perfect running condition in readiness for possible military activity.
Her services were not required and instead she was upgraded from coal to oil in 1951, at which point her original crew of eight was reduced.
It was also during the 1950s that the sun awning on the upper deck was replaced by a solid roof and the original Art Nouveau salon fittings stripped out.
By the 1980s the two paddle steamers were the last of their type and had been replaced for daily ferry services by modern diesel powered vessels.
The old steamers were not to be abandoned though and instead the Lake Zürich Shipping Company decided to preserve and restore them and use them for special services.
It was at this time that the interior of the Stadt Zürich was lovingly restored to its original appearance.
Further upgrades occurred in 2003 with the result that today both vessels offer the thrill of travel by paddle steamer combined with all the comforts of a modern ferry.
Still going strong a century after her launch the Stadt Zürich has now travelled well over 700,000 kilometres.
(For more information, including prices and timetables, please see http://www.zsg.ch.)
(Another relic of the steam age is the little locomotive Schnaagi Schnaagi built in 1899.
It runs on the last Sunday of the month between April and October along the Sihl Valley between Bahnhof Wiedikon and Sihlwald. )(http://www.museumbahn.ch)
Above: The Schnaagi Schnaagi
The Island of Women
Themiscyra (Greek: Θεμίσκυρα Themiskyra) was an ancient Greek town in northeastern Anatolia.
It was situated on the southern coast of the Black Sea, near the mouth of the Thermodo.
According to Greek mythology, it was the capital city of the Amazons, a tribe of warrior women.
Themyscira is a fictional unitary sovereign city-state island appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics.
Themyscira is a segregated nation of women — regarded as a feminist Utopia — governed by Aphrodite’s Law, which declared that the Amazons would be immortal as long as no man set foot on their island.
Subsequently, any man attempting to set foot on Themyscira, does so under penalty of death.
Themyscira is the theocracy and capital city that serves as the Amazonian government and the place of origin for Wonder Woman.
Just north of the Wollishofen shipyard, where the ferries of the Lake Zürich Shipping Company are docked, lies the tiny island of Saffa.
Connected to the shore by a bridge, and with little to distinguish it beyond a clump of trees, Saffa ain’t much to look at.
The island’s unusual name, however, recalls a very interesting story.
Above: Saffa Island
Saffa today is an island for all seasons.
In summer it is popular with bathers.
It autumn it doubles as a theatre stage.
In winter, when the Lake is frozen, Saffa provides a welcome feeding ground for swans and ducks.
It is hard to imagine that barely more than 50 years ago the island did not exist at all.
So what does Saffa mean?
Is it perhaps Greek?
Does it have some connection to saffron?
Above: Saffron crocus, Crocus sativus, with its vivid crimson stigmas and styles
SAFFA is an acronym for the Schweizerische Ausstellung für Frauenarbeit (Swiss Exhibition for Women’s Work), which took place on the shoreline here between 17 July and 15 September 1958.
Material excavated for the construction of the exhibition buildings was not taken away but rather dumped offshore, together with material from the excavation of the Enge road tunnel, creating SAFFA Island in the process.
The exhibition’s landmark was a 35-metre high, eight-storey tower erected immediately north of the island on the Landiwiese.
Visible for miles around the tower acted as an advertisement for the exhibition, which the locals dubbed Frauenland (women’s land).
Above: SAFFA Tower
Above: SAFFA exhibition, Zürich, 1958
The exhibition, the 2nd of its type after an earlier one staged in Bern in 1928, was organized by numerous women’s groups and was a major national event.
Above: SAFFA exhibition, Bern, 1928
Its purpose was to illustrate the position and importance of Swiss women in the family, the workplace and in Swiss society as a whole.
With a daily programme of concerts, congresses and other events, it proved a great success, attracting two million visitors.
Inside the tower were constructed a series of rooms in which the many and varied roles of Swiss women in the 1950s were represented, from the young apprentice in her rented room and the well-to-do homemaker in her detached family home to the retired lady in an old people’s home.
SAFFA presented women who were wanted in the booming economy as consumers and workers, their possibilities in the areas of education, employment, shopping and leisure.
Emphasizing that women had to absorb negative impacts of the rapidly changing world, nevertheless, by spreading harmony inside and outside of their families.
Men should be made aware of women in the service of the general public, of their indispensability and so be motivated to fix the social discrimination against women.
With the profits from the two exhibitions, solidarity works were established for women.
Tradition dictates that the place of Swiss women is in the home in charge of housework and child care.
Being in a society with strong patriarchal roots, Swiss tradition also places women under the authority of their fathers and their husbands.
Such adherence to tradition changed and improved when the women of Switzerland gained the right to vote on the federal level on 7 February 1971.
However, despite gaining status of having equal rights with men, some Swiss women are still unable to attain education beyond the post-secondary level, thus they earn less money than men and occupy lower-level job positions.
According to swissinfo.ch in 2011, Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) were encouraging business companies to “appoint more women to top-level positions“.
Those who are already working in business companies, according to same report, mentions that “women earn on average 20% less than men” in Switzerland, and the ratio was six out of ten women were working part-time.
The novel idea for the SAFFA tower came from the exhibition’s chief architect, Annemarie Hubacher.
Her celebration of womanhood was an early stab at Swiss feminism, although it may now appear tame to some.
Notably it still clung to the traditional three-phase model laid out for women – training for a career, motherhood, and the return to gainful employment.
Hubacher typified the situation for some women at the time in that she was 37 years of age, a mother of two and expecting a third, and a partner in her husband’s architectural practice.
Above: Annemarie Hubacher
Men were also represented in the exhibition – and again in a stereotypical manner.
Alongside the nearby railway a cable car was erected for male visitors, as well as an artificial petrol station, a punching bag and a rifle range.
One must remember that women were still in the thrall of men and that prior to the exhibition an attempt at granting Swiss women the right to vote had been rejected.
The first federal vote in which women were able to participate was the 31 October 1971 election of the Federal Assembly.
Above: Chamber of the Swiss National Council
In 1991 following a decision by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, Appenzell Innerrhoden (AI) became the last Swiss canton to grant women the vote on local issues.
Above: Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, Lausanne
AI is the smallest Swiss canton with 14,100 inhabitants in 1990.
Above: Flag of Canton Appenzell Innerrhoden
Hubacher was no political activist though and it seems unfair she was criticized for not pushing female emanicipation farther with her exhibition.
Her son, however, was incisive about her lot as a Swiss woman:
“She was always both: a family and a career person, but above all with love and soul an architect.“
On a personal level he was referring to the fact that architecture ran in the family’s blood, one of their ancestors being Zürich city architect Gustav Gull (1858 – 1942) responsible for building the Landesmuseum Zürich (Swiss National Museum) at Museumstrasse 2 and the Amtshaus (administrative building) at Bahnhofquai 3.
(The Landesmuseum is open year-round Tuesday to Sunday 1000 – 1700, on Thursdays until 1900.
Above: Landesmuseum
The Amtshaus, with its glorious Giacometti Hall at its entrance, is open daily (0900 – 1100 / 1400 – 1600).
Identification must be shown upon entry.)
Above: Amtshaus
Above: Giacometti Hall
On a broader level, Annemarie’s son was speaking for many Swiss women who juggled with varying degrees of success their roles as wife, mother and professional woman.
Swiss women eventually gained the right to vote in 1971 (despite it being one of the demands of a general strike as far back as 1918) and a triumphant bronze statue by Swiss sculptor Hermann Haller (1880 – 1950) entitled Girl with Raised Hands still reminds the passer-by of the part Saffa Island played in the process.
Above: Hermann Haller’s Mädchen mit erhobenen Händen (Girl with Raised Hands)
(Haller’s studio is a highlight of Zürich’s Museum Bellerive at Höschgasse 3, open March to October, Tuesday / Wednesday / Friday / Sunday (1000 – 1700) / Thursday (1000 – 2000), and November to February, Tuesday to Sunday (1000 – 1700)
Above: Museum Bellerive (design museum)
Quite by coincidence, an equally triumphant but far smaller work called Girl in the Wind by German artist Otto Münch (1885 – 1965) has graced the nearby main road since 1936, when it was placed there by the City of Zürich.
Münch’s work is one of the most charming but little-known public sculptures in Zürich.
Above: Otto Münch, Mädchen im Wind (Girl in the wind)
Against the odds several Swiss women have left an important impression on their country during the 20th century, especially in Zürich.
They include Paulette Brupbacher (1880 – 1967), who promoted the rights of mothers and wives despite a ban of her speaking publically.
Above: Paulette Brupbacher
Brupbacher is recalled together with her husband in a monument in the church cemetery in Höngg.
(The small Höngg church with its cemetery at Am Wettingertobel 38 is accessible Sunday to Friday (0800 – 1800). )
Above: Kirche Höngg (Höngg Church)
Another woman who encountered problems in her work was Emilie Kempin-Spyri (1853 – 1901), niece of the Heidi author Johanna Spyri.
Emelie was the first Swiss woman to graduate in law but was denied access to the bar because of her gender.
Above: Emelie Kempin-Spyri
Artwork in her memory by the artist Piplotti Rist (famous for St. Gallen’s City Lounge) can be found in the courtyard of the University of Zürich.
Above: The Spyri chair, Pipilotti Rist
Despite these events being a long time ago, women are still not allowed to join Zürich’s guilds.
(It was the brave women of Zürich who defended the Lindenhof against attack by the Habsburg Duke Albrecht I (1282 – 1308) as far back as 1292.
Above: Duke Albrecht I
At the time the men of Zürich were away waging a battle in Winterthur.
This episode is recalled by the Hedwig Fountain on the Lindenhof, which includes the helmeted figure of a female warrior.)
The Succulent Collection
The suburban quarter of Enge lies on the western shores of Zürichsee.
For the most part a residential area, Enge numbers among its attractions the Museum Rietberg (a museum dedicated to non-European art) and the Seebad Enge Lido (an open-air public bathing area).
On the same road as the Lido, however, there is something quite unique for Switzerland:
One of the largest and most important collections of succulent plants in the world.
Zürich’s Succulent Collection (Sukkulentensammlung) at Mythenquai 88 is easy to find since the nearby bus stop is named after it.
The Collection was inaugurated in September 1931 after Jules Brann, a local department store owner, donated an already renowned collection of succulents to the City of Zürich, which still maintains it to this day.
Above: Interior at visitors’ entry
The statistics of the current collection are impressive:
50,000 individual plants representing 6,500 species from more than 80 botanical families, displayed across an area of 4,750 square metres, including six show houses, 700 square metres of glasshouses (for acclimatization, breeding, over-wintering and protection), 550 square metres of heated bedding frames, as well as open-air rockeries for frost-hardy plants.
There is also an extensive seed collection and a herbarium containing 14,000 dried plant specimens for botanical reference and research.
Little wonder that the Collection is the official repository for the International Organization for Succulent Plant Study (IOS).
Today there are basically two large international organizations conducting research and conservation on succulent plants:
International Organization for Succulent Plant Study (IOS)
Sociedad Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Cactáceas y otras Suculentas (SLCCS) (Latin American and Caribbean Society of Cactaceae and Other Succulents)
Above: Austrocylindropuntia shaferi, San Lucas, Chuquisaca, Bolivia
The IOS
In 1947 the Swiss gardener and cactus expert Hans Krainz (1906–1980) dealt with the idea of uniting existing national cacti organizations (for example, the German Cactus Society, the Austrian Cactus Society, and the Swiss Cactus Society) under a single umbrella organization, the European Cactus Society, while maintaining their independence.
However, a first call, which had been sent by him at the end of 1947, found no resonance, just after the end of World War II.
Above: Hans Krainz
In spring of 1950, a letter signed by Hans Krainz, Franz Buxbaum (A) and H. Michael Roan (GB) was sent by the Board of Trustees of the Scientific Fund of the Swiss Cactus Society to about 50 well-known succulent researchers and other botanists, which invited to the 1st International Congress of Succulent Researchers for 27 September 1950.
The participants in this congress agreed in just a few days on a statute on which basis the IOS was founded on 30 September 1950 with the aim “to promote the study and conservation of succulent and allied plants and to encourage international co-operation amongst those interested in them“.
Above: IOS logo
The Organization reached significant international status at the 3rd IOS Congress 1955 in London with the accession of 15 members from non-European countries.
From 1984 until 1998, the members met annually with the introduction of Inter-Congresses.
In these years the reports in the IOS Bulletins show high productivity, an active participation, and a challenging academic program.
In 1994, the number of members reached an all time high of 239.
Around the turn of the century, IOS seems to have lost its drive and drifted into a ‘crisis of meaning’.
The membership began began to decrease considerably.
In a somewhat unfriendly takeover of the IOS Board in 2006, the new Secretary, Dr David Hunt, attempted a revival of IOS.
For some time the membership increased slightly again to about 160 – on paper.
However, Hunt’s endeavour for gaining, maintaining, extending and securing his exclusive control over the IOS and its financial resources, his refusal to unclose financial documents even to members of the IOS Executive Board, and the oppression of a free election for the Executive Board 2014-2016, eventually led to the demand of a worried group of members to immediately exclude Dr Hunt from the IOS for his continued acts against the interest of IOS, the IOS Statutes and the IOS Code of Conduct.
With the support of the President of the IOS, Hunt remained in the position of Secretary, which resulted in great loss of (mainly continental European) members.
Above: Dr. David Hunt
The time-honored IOS continues to exist in elitist seclusion at the brink of irrelevance.
Many see the survival of the IOS in a move “back to the roots“.
Above: Espostoa guentheri, Nuevo Mundo, Santa Cruz, Bolivia
As an European Organization for Succulent Plant Research (EOS), as originally envisaged by Hans Krainz.
This way, today’s IOS could become a valuable partner on an equal footing, for example, with the modern-run Latin American and Caribbean Society of Cactaceae and Other Succulents, which has similar goals.
A division of tasks between researchers in the homelands of succulent plants and researchers in Europe, focussing more on conservation and well-maintained and documented living collections, could be of benefit for both sides and lead to significant synergy effects and cost savings in joint projects.
Considering that mainly European plant collectors have explored the habitats of cacti and other succulents over a long period of time (not seldom causing damage), a repatriation program of species in vitro could be considered to areas where populations have been lost.
The SLCCS
The Latin American and Caribbean Society of Cactus and Other Succulents was founded in 1989 and the official statutes were approved in Havana, Cuba, on the V. Latin American Congress of Botany in 1990.
The mission of the SLCCS is to encourage and stimulate scientific research on cacti and other succulents in Latin America and the Caribbean, support initiatives for the conservation of these plants, disseminate the information generated from the studies carried out and contribute to the professional training of people interested in acquiring basic and applied knowledge about cacti and other succulents.
To fulfill this mission, SLCCS sets the following objectives:
Involve people interested in the study and conservation of cacti and other succulents in Latin America in the activities of the Society, through the membership program.
Encourage the creation of national representations of the Society in each Latin American country.
Conduct periodic organizational meetings of the members of the Society.
Disseminate scientific information and general interest about these plants throughout Latin America.
Support local initiatives focused on the study and conservation of these plants.
Encourage the creation of botanical gardens and protected areas dedicated to the care and propagation of these plants.
Since September 2004, SLCCS has been offering a public electronic newsletter (Boletín), which is a very practical mass communication channel among people interested in the study and cultivation of cacti and other succulents in Latin America and elsewhere.
Regrettably, this excellent service had to be temporarily suspended in 2013 due to staff shortages.
Some very basic botanical knowledge would certainly enhance a visit to the Succulent Collection.
Most importantly it should be borne in mind that while cacti are classified as succulents, not all succulents are cacti.
The word “succulent” is a descriptive term for plants living in dry areas of the tropics and subtropics, such as steppes, deserts, sea coasts and dry lakes.
They have adpated to high temperatures and low precipation by storing water in their leaves or stems, enabling them to survive long periods of drought.
Cacti form a distinct group of succulents known as Cactaceae, but it is not their spines that create the distinction, since some cacti are smooth (like most Lophophoras) and there are some prickly succulents (such as Agaves and Euphorbias).
Classification is made not on external characteristics such as the presence of spines or leaf shape but rather on the basis of their reproductive systems.
All cacti have spine cushions known as areoles, which usually appear like small, fluffy cotton-like protusions.
The spines, hairs, branches and flowers of a cactus will only grow out of these cushions, whereas the prickly parts of other succulents exhibit an entirely random growth pattern.
The taxonomy of the plants on display can be complex, but need not concern most visitors, who will be more than happy just to marvel at some of the most curiously shaped plants in the world.
Representing every arid region on Earth they include towering prickly cacti, lethally spiked Agaves, rosette-shaped Aloes, Euphorbias exuding bitter milky juice and tropical Epiphytes suspended from the glasshouse ceilings.
Above: Agave Americana
Above: Aloe africana
Above: Euphorbia baylissii
Above: Epiphyte Tillandia bourgaei growing on an oak tree in Mexico
Probably the most curiously shaped is the blue candle cactus (Myrtillocactus geometrizans) from Central America, which because it is prone to abnormal growth patterns at its tips is nicknamed “dinosaur back“.
Above: Myrtillocactus geometrizans, UNAM Botanical Garden, Mexico City
20% of the Collection’s plant holdings come from a variety of horticultural origins, with 45% hailing from the wild, mainly in the form of seeds.
The rest come predominantly from seed obtained through controlled pollination and the propagation of plant cuttings.
Flowering time for many of the plants in the Collection is between May and June, although some are still blooming in September.
Most unusual of all is the night-blooming Selenicereus grandiflorus from Central America.
Known also as the Queen of the Night, it starts its annual bloom at dusk and is finished by dawn.
It is considered so unusual that that the blooming is announced on local radio and the Collection opens all night for visitors.
One of Zürich’s loveliest public green spaces is the Rieter Park at Seestrasse 110 (Enge district) on the west bank of Zürichsee.
Within this leafy parkland stand no less than three grand villas.
Once private they are owned today by the City of Zürich, which uses them to house one of Switzerland’s few museums dedicated to non-European art.
Fortunately for visitors the internationally-renowned collection is usually referred to by the easier-to.remember name of Museum Rietberg!
Above: Villa Wesendonck / Museum Rietberg
The magnificent neo-classical Villa Wesendonck at Gablerstrasse 15 was erected in 1857 for the wealthy silk merchant Otto von Wesendonck and his poetess wife Mathilde.
Above: Bas relief of Otto von Wesendonck (1815 – 1896)
Above: Mathilde von Wesendonck (née Luckemeyer) (1828 – 1902)
In 1852 the pair encountered the composer Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883) and his wife Minna, who had fled to Zürich following the 1849 May Uprising in Dresden.
Above: Prussian and Saxon troops assault revolutionary barricades in the Dresden Neumarkt
Above: Warrant for the arrest of Richard Wagner, 16 May 1849
Otto was a great admirer of Wagner and in 1856 offered him the use of a cottage on the Wesendonck estate.
Above: Richard Wagner
During this time Wagner became well acquainted with Mathilde Wesendonck and used her poems in his Wesendonck Lieder, a five-song cycle composed while working simultaneously on Die Walküre.
Some commentators claim that Wagner and Mathilde had an affair.
Above: Wagner Stele, Rieter Park
Above: Wagner Stele in Rieter Park
Whatever the truth their mutual infatuation contributed to the intensity of the first act of Die Walküre, as well as having a discernible effect on Mathilde’s poems during this period.
Incidentally, Wagner once sang the first act of his Die Walküre in Zürich’s luxurious Baur au Lac Hotel, accompanied by Franz Liszt on piano!
Above: Baur au Lac Hotel, Zürich
Above: Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886)
In 1872 the Wesendoncks sold their mansion and gardens to the family of cotton manufacturer Adolf Rieter.
Above: Logo of Rieter AG, Winterthur-based manufacturer of textile machinery
It was during this period that the German Kaiser Wilhelm II (1888 – 1918) stayed for several nights as a guest.
Above: Potrait of Kaiser Wilhelm II
At the end of the Second World War, the City of Zürich acquired the Villa and Park, and renovated both.
Around the same time the City was bequeathed the private non-European sculptural collection of Baron Eduard von der Heydt (1882 – 1964) and it was decided to house it in the Villa, as a result of which the Museum Rietberg opened in 1952.
The collection is today spread across four different buildings.
The Villa Wesendonck is used to display religious and ceremonial objects from America, India, Oceania and Southwest Asia (as well as some unsettling Shrovetide masks from Switzerland).
In Room 28 amongst the wonderful Buddhist art from India and Pakistan is the bronze of a four-armed dancing Shiva, surrounded by a ring of fire.
An underground extension to the Museum was opened alongside the Villa in 2007, more than doubling the exhibition space.
Designed by Alfred Grazioli and Adolf Krischanitz, the extension is called the Smaragd (an allusion to a poem by Mathilde Wesendonck used in Wagner’s third song) and is entered by means of a green glass pavilion.
Above: The Smargd, Museum Rietberg
Of particular note amongst the African, Japanese and Chinese holdings is the Han Dynasty bronze horse in Room 2, the colourful glazed Tan Dynasty figurines in Room 4, the 17th century Noh theatre masks in Room 11 and the large cloisonné Ming jar in Room 7.
On the two floors of the nearby Park Villa Rieter are displayed exquisite examples of Islamic, Persian and Indian paintings, prints and calligraphy.
The collection of North Indian miniatures is one of the world’s finest.
Above: Park Villa Rieter, Museum Rietberg
In the northern part of the Park at Gablerstrasse 14 stands the 4th and final element in the Museum complex.
The red brick Villa Schönberg was built in the late 19th century by the Rieter family and remained in private hands until the 1970s.
Narrowly escaping demolition it too was acquired by the City of Zürich and is used today as a specialist non-leading library.
Above: Villa Schönberg
Worth noting are the orangery, grotto and turret-shaped pavilion in the garden.
As well, look for the bust of Wagner lurking amongst the shrubbery.
(The Museum Rietberg – including Villa Wesendonck, Smaragd and Park Villa Rieter – is open Tuesday / Friday / Sunday (1000 – 1700) and Wednesday / Thursday (1000 – 2000). ) (https://rietberg.ch)
(Another charming former private estate lies between Rieter Park and Lake Zürich, Belvoir Park at Seestrasse 125 was purchased in 1826 by Heinrich Escher, who erected a neo-classical Villa there.
His railway-building son Alfred Escher (1819 – 1882), whose memorial fountain stands in front of Zürich Main Station (Hauptbahnhof Zürich), later occupied the Villa, which like those in Rieter Park was eventually acquired by the City of Zürich.
Above: Alfred Escher statue above fountain, Bahnhofplatz, Zürich
The Park is today open to the public and the Villa serves as a restaurant and school of catering.)
Above: Villa Escher, Belvoir Park, Zürich
The Island of Tranquillity
Zürichsee stretches from the City of Zürich and the Limmat River as far south as the Seedamm at Rapperswil, beyond which point it is known as the Obersee (Upper Lake).
Within Zürich’s city boundaries the shores of the glacial lake contain many popular attractions, most notably Zürichhorn Park in Seefeld, where one can find the Johann Jacobs Museum (a shrine to coffee), the Centre Le Corbusier (the only structure of its kind in the world, a total work of art), the aforementioned Museum Bellerive, and the Chinese Garden.
Above: Zürichhorn
Above: Jean Tinguely’s Heureka, Zürichhorn
Above: Johann Jacabs Museum
Above: Centre Le Corbusier
Above: Chinese Garden
Budding Robinson Crusoes, however, might prefer to escape the crowds – and indeed the city – by boarding a ferry at Bürkliplatz and sailing down into the Canton of Schwyz to visit the historic island of Ufenau.
Above: Bürkliplatz
An hour and a half sailing time brings ferries to the south side of the island and it quickly becomes apparent that Ufenau offers an intimate experience, since it measures only 470 by 220 metres.
(Despite this, it is the largest island in Switzerland!)
A designated Insel der Stille (Island of Tranquillity), Ufenau has been a protected nature reserve since 1927, where swimming and camping are strictly forbidden.
Above: Ufenau Island, Zürichsee, Canton Schwyz
At the end of the jetty a wheelchair-friendly track signposted “Inselweg” makes an anticlockwise circuit of the Island.
Above: Inselweg
The most prominent structure other than the popular restaurant Zu den Zwei Raben is the Church St. Peter and St. Paul, which was erected in the 1140s.
Above: Restaurant Zu den Zwei Raben (of the two ravens), Ufenau Island
Documentary evidence points to an earlier church on the same site around 970, although worship here dates back farther than that.
Archaeologists have uncovered walls beneath the church that belonged to a Gallo-Roman temple from the 1st or 2nd century.
The temple was connected with the Roman trading centre of Centum Prata (today the modern village of Kempraten), which acted as a commercial centre on the alpine trade route out of Rome.
The route also included the Roman trading post of Turicum where modern Zürich now stands.
Even older Stone Age remains on the Island from around 4000 BC may also have had some religious significance.
Above: Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Ufenau Island
The temple was destroyed sometime after the Roman withdrawl from the area in the early 400s.
Thereafter the first Christian church was probably erected on the former site of the temple during the 5th century.
The Island is first mentioned by name in 741, when it is referred to as the Island of Huphan.
After the first church was destroyed by the Huns around 900, Burchard II Duke of Swabia (917 – 926) appears on the scene.
In 919 he defeated King Randolph II of Upper Burgundy (912 – 937) and seized the area around Zürich.
Above: Rudolph of Burgundy
Burchard’s son Adalrich died on Ufenau in 973 (he was canonized in 1659) and his wife was buried at Einsiedeln Abbey, to whom Ufenau was given in 965 by the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I (962 – 973).
The Island is still in the hands of the Abbey’s Benedictine monks and the wooden bridge straddling the Lake between nearby Rapperswil and Hurden is used by the Abbey’s pilgrims walking the Way of St. James (Jakobsweg).
The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul served for many years as parish church for the villagers of Lake Zürich’s upper shores, a task it shared with the more modest Chapel of St. Martin a few metres away from it.
Above: St. Martin’s Chapel, Ufenau Island
In 1523 the pastor of Ufenau advised the leader of the Swiss Reformation Hildrych Zwingli (1484 – 1531) to offer sanctuary on Ufenau to the outspoken Lutheran reformer Ulrich von Hutten (1488 – 1523).
Above: Relief of Ulrich von Hutten on door of Zürich’s Grossmünster
Hutten died on Ufenau two years later and is buried alongside the church, which since the 1980s has been flanked by a vineyard.
Both church and chapel were damaged during the Second Villmergen War (Toggenburg War), waged between Reformed and Catholic Swiss cantons in 1712 from 12 April to 11 August.
Above: Switzerland during the Toggenburg War: Protestants (green) / Catholics (yellow)
The Protestant side was successful, bringing to an end Catholic hegemony in the Old Swiss Confederacy, and staving off further conflict until civil war broke out again in 1847 (3 – 29 November), the Sonderbundskrieg (Sonderbund War) that led to the formation of Switzerland as a federal state in 1848.
Since then peace and tranquillity has returned to the Island of Ufenau.
Above: Ufenau Island
From Ufenau Island I take a boat back to Burkliplatz.
I am in Zürich proper now and soon I shall, soberly as I can, consider the value of a man’s life and whether faith followed fanatically is wise in emulating….
Above: Grossmünster, Zürich
Sources: Wikipedia / Google / YouTube / Duncan J.D. Smith, Only in Zurich / Yvonne and Marcel Steiner, Zwingli Wege / http://www.iosweb.org
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 (TheTravnik 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 – “theCursed 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
Above from the top left corner clockwise: Clérigos Church and Tower; Avenida dos Aliados; Casa da Música concert hall; Ribeira district; Avenida da Boavista business hub; Luiz I bridge and Porto from Vila Nova de Gaia
“The facades of the colourful houses line the streets, displaying their elegance in full sight of the sweet and beloved River Douro.
It is the tale of a platonic love with no end in sight and so each house adopts its own adornment with clothes on the balcony or flowerpots in the windows, impressing those who pass.
These facades, accompanied by their beloved River, the narrow lanes bearing the marks of time, the majestic Clérigos Tower and the rabelo boats are part of this unique place, captured by the lenses of tourists.
I know of what I speak, for I have often witnessed admiring glances being exchanged and heard flattering phrases in many languages of the world.
I myself feel special to be part of this space, belonging to mankind.
I know also that one day it will be my turn to leave and by then my duty will be done, for I will take with me a piece of this city, made of mists and smiles.
Ever since I was brought here, every single morning I am placed outside, within view of visitors.
During the night I rest in a dark shop surrounded by objects that show the city photographed, illustrated, magnetized, embroidered, carved and even spiritualized.
Whilst I repose, I think how much I will miss the authentic warmth of the population, who welcome people with smiles of gold and gruff voices.
Even so, I am prepared to be removed quite soon from the postcard display and be sent, with a message, to a distant place, where I will continue to display the facades of my colourful and aligned houses, eternally in love with a golden river.”
(Susana Fonseca)
It is true.
It is hard to hate Porto.
Yes, it is a large city, but it is also a beguiling one, with a lengthy history and a constant Catholicism, but where Coimbra is Saint Augustine, Braga the Virgin Mary and Lisbon Mary Magdelene, Porto is Martha.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus visits the home of two sisters named Mary and Martha.
The two sisters are contrasted:
Martha was “encumbered about many things” while Jesus was their guest, while Mary had chosen “the better part“, that of listening to the master’s discourse.
Above: Jesus at the house of Mary and Martha, Harold Copping, 1927
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, He came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.
She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.
But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.
She came to Him and asked,
“Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?
Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered,“you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.
Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her.”
Above: Christ with Martha and Maria, by Henryk Siemiradzki, 1886
Perhaps it is my manual labour background, but I find myself more sympathetic towards Martha than I do towards Mary, and, by extension in this city-to-Biblical-personality analogy, more sympathetic towards Porto than Lisbon.
For me, this wee Biblical passage sums up Porto’s attitude towards the rest of Portugal.
Above: Flag of Portugal
Porto may never feel it is properly rewarded for all the hard work it provides, because Porto is more than just another prettified tourist destination, it is a busy commercial city whose fascination lies in its riverside setting and day-to-day life.
Porto is cramped streets and ancient alleys and antiquated shops.
During our week’s sojourn in this northern Portuguese metropolis, my wife and I did all the touristy things that tourists are advised to do.
And of Porto I have described much already in this blog:
Canada Slim and the War of the Oranges (6 August 2018)
Canada Slim and the Station Sanctuary (19 January 2019)
Canada Slim and the Voices without Echo (3 June 2019)
Canada Slim and the Harry Potter Fado (11 October 2019)
As well, there is much more to be said about Porto in the months and years to come.
(My wife and I have already spent time on the Algarve and in Lisboa, but as these visits occurred prior to the commencement of this blog I have not described my two previous visits to Portugal – a land I love with a passion fierce.)
Above: Coat of arms of Portugal
In my last Porto post I described the sites within the city that Harry Potter fans flock to and some to where we followed the flock of Potterheads.
I mention this Potter post, for the sole reason that the bookshop (Livraria Lello) that Ms. Rowling once haunted and wherein her books are perpetually offered for sale, therein I discovered a Portuguese poet’s work.
And as French author Jacques Salomé so wisely wrote:
“Un livre à toujours deux auteurs: celui dui l’écrit et celui qui le lit.”
(A book always has two authors: he who writes it and he who reads it.)
Above: Jacques Salomé
Fernando Pessoa (1888 – 1935) was a Portuguese poet and writer born in Lisbon, but whom I did not discover until this trip to Porto.
Pessoa is considered one of the greatest poets to have ever written in the Portuguese language and a giant of world literature.
Above: Fernando Pessoa, 1914
At the age of six, Pessoa moved to Durban, South Africa where for nine years he learned to read and write English perfectly.
Of the four books he published in his lifetime, three were written in English.
Above: Modern Durban, South Africa
On leaving South Africa Pessoa returned to Lisbon, wherein he spent much of the rest of his life.
Above: Images of Lisbon
During his life, Pessoa worked in various places as an English and French language correspondent.
He also worked as a businessman, editor, literary critic, journalist, political commentator, translator, inventor, astrologer and advertiser while producing his works in verse and prose.
And yet, despite this, during his life, Pessoa was virtually unknown, avoiding society and the literary world.
As a poet, Pessoa was known for his multiple pseudonyms, what came to be known as “heteronyms“, which were and still are today the subject of many of the studies produced on his life and work.
On 29 November 1935, Pessoa was taken to Lisbon’s Hospital de Sao Luis, suffering from abdominal pain and a high fever.
There he wrote, in English, his last words:
“I know not what tomorrow will bring.”
He died the next day, 30 November 1935, around 8 pm, aged 47.
Above: Pessoa’s tomb in Lisbon, at the cloister of the Hieronymites Monastery since 1985.
In his lifetime, he published four books in English and one in Portuguese.
However, he left a lifetime of unpublished, unfinished or simply sketchy work in a domed, wooden truck (25,574 manuscript and typed pages, which have been housed in the Portuguese National Library since 1988).
To get a grasp on this unusual man, one diary entry stands out:
“8 March 1914
I found myself standing before a tall chest of drawers, took up a piece of paper, began to write, remaining upright all the while since I always stand when I can.
I wrote some 30 poems in a row, all in a kind of ecstasy, the nature of which I shall never fathom.
It was the triumphant day of my life and I shall never have another like it.
I began with a title, “The Keeper of Sheep”, and what followed was the appearance of someone within me to whom I promptly assigned the name of Alberto Caeiro.
Please excuse the absurdity of what I am about to say, but there had appeared within me, then and there, my own master.
It was my immediate sensation.
So much so that, with those 30 odd poems written, I immediately took up another sheet of paper and wrote as well, in a row, the six poems that make up “Oblique Rain” by Fernando Pessoa.
Immediately and totally….
It was the return from Fernando Pessoa / Alberto Caeiro to Fernando Pessoa alone.
Or better still, it was Fernando Pessoa’s reaction to his own inexistence as Alberto Caeiro.”
In a sense this duality – (or in Pessoa’s case, multiplicity) – is something I can identify with.
Sometimes I write as purely and simply myself.
Within these blogposts I am both Canada Slim and myself, for the censor and critic that is the latter persona, the pseudonym persona liberates from myself the self-expression I need.
Just six hours from the moment I began this post (4 July 2020) I posted this on Facebook:
In preparation to write my much-interrupted, long-intervalled “Chronicles of Canada Slim”, I found again, like the passion one possesses for someone who is loved, some collected works purchased the last time I was in Portugal.
A Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa, speaks to me in sonnets that sing and poems that praise and persuade a person of the majesty of existence.
He writes:
“I have in me all the dreams of the world.”
And to dream seems to be lacking within the soul of too many in Deutschschweiz and Deutschland.
“Sad is he who dwells in pleasure,
Content with his abode,
Without a dream, as it ruffles a feather,
Fanning the glow of the embers
In the fire as it doth erode.
Sad is he who lives contented!
He lives because life doth endure.
Nothing in his soul ever suggested,
More than the basic truth imparted,
That of only one’s grave can one be sure.“
And this it seems to be the be-all and end-all of those I have known in the lands where German (or variations thereof) is spoken.
Make one’s fortune, secure one’s comfort, do the practical and know one’s limits.
But I say with Pessoa, that I am misjudged and misunderstood in these lands (where I followed my passion for a woman far wiser in the ways of her language-linked companions than I could ever be)….
“Because I am the size of what I see and not the size of my height“.
I am as I see, not as I am seen.
It saddens me that we judge one another by standards that mean so little: the size of a bank account, the coziness of one’s castle, the reputation that precedes and follows a fellow far beyond his reach, the illusion of beauty, the prejudices of one’s age.
We see only the green of our sofas not the blue of jazz in the ether.
We hear only chaos from without and fear the calm from within, for the former we comprehend, the latter is a land too quiet and thus disquieting.
The wisdom and power of words are the worlds I see and they fill a universe that defines me far beyond how I am seen.“
Such is how Pessoa inspires me.
This maverick, this undefinable, undeniable spirit wrapped up in a carapace of conformity has been described by Mexican poet Octavio Paz (1914 – 1998) as a “solemn investigator of futile things“, the epitome of an empty man who, in his helplessness, creates a world in order to discover his true identity.
Above: Octavio Paz
In a sense I see myself as a funhouse mirror of Pessoa, not so much an echo of his disquiet about life and the world we occupy, but rather I see the world as an echo of myself.
The world I see in the places I describe is less a reality of what is, but rather is more a reflection of who I am.
A regular follower of my writing responded almost immediately to the aforementioned Facebook post:
“If I may be allowed to offer an uninvited opinion as a sincere reader, writing teacher, professional editor and translator, your secret mentor, and increasingly your appreciative, possibly infatuated fan girl.
You have really found your voice and your writing has become effortless, more honest and less contrived and therefore so much more relatable.
There are fewer experimental verbal arabesques and palpably more consolidated content and purified emotion.“
High praise indeed, from a woman for whom I have nothing but a universe’s worth of respect.
But praise I am uncertain of whether I am worthy to be given.
There is still so much I have to learn.
There is still so much I have yet to say without the expertise and experience so critical for expression.
How I long to be able to capture the beating of a heart, the symphony of a soul that Pessoa so eloquently elucidates!
Oh, to write as Anthony Trollope, whom Henry James describes as:
“He felt all daily and immediate things as well as saw them.
He felt them in a simple, direct salubrious way, with their sadness, their gladness, their charm, their comedy, all their obvious and measureable meanings.“
Above: Anthony Trollope (1815 – 1882)
I am reminded of another writing hero of mine, Hermann Hesse (1877 – 1962) and the manner in which he describes himself and how he is described:
“He does not want to follow the path trodden by many, but to resolutely plow his own furrow.
He is not made for the collective life.“
“I have been, and still am, a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books.
I have begun to listen to the teachings my blood whispers to me.
My story is not a pleasant one.
It is neither sweet nor harmonious as invented stories are.
It has the taste of nonsense and chaos, of madness and dreams, like the lives of all men who stop deceiving themselves.“
“What torments Hesse is the difficulty of being authentic – of staying true to who you really are, despite the enormous pressures of alienation and conformity.“
“If I search retrospectively for a common thread of meaning, then I can indeed find one.
A defense of (sometimes even a desperate plea on behalf of) human personality, the individual.“
“Hesse was forced to confront the entire weight of the institutions ranged against him – family, church, school, society – and to do battle with them in the name of defending his individuality.“
“The only way I can conceive of writing is an act of confession.“
When I describe a place I am not describing what it is, but rather how I see it.
I am not describing a place, as much as I am describing how that place makes me feel.
Of who I am rather than where I am.
I am, in some ways, very Portuguese, at least when I try to write.
I am reserved.
I leave gesticulating exuberance to others.
I am mild-mannered, gentle and homely, and yet my vision seeks to encompass the world.
I seem placid and harmless and it takes much to provoke me, but much lies beneath the surface, where there is a temperament one would expect from a land of mist and bogs.
I am not one for golden descriptions of sandy beaches, but instead I possess like my Portuguese brethren an eternal saudade, a feeling of longing for what could have been, a nostalgia for what has gone, when I sit at my keyboard and try to inadequately capture a sense of what a place really is (or at least myreality through which I see it).
Above: Saudade (1899), by Almeida Júnior
Oh, to write as one born Portuguese!
To write in a manner akin to how a Portuguese farmer farms, with a knack of conjuring a harvest even from the most barren of ground.
And so I stare at my screen seeking seeds of expression from the blank face of an unsympathetic computer.
Sometimes I think I will never leave Schulstrasse here in Landschlacht, that my mind like my body remains a prisoner of the choices I have made.
Once written down, words captured for eternity, are forever frozen in paralytic prose.
Above: Landschlacht, Switzerland, as seen on a clear day from the German shore of Lake Constance
When I consider much that is travel writing….
When I consider how Pessoa viewed life….
When I consider how I have on occasion viewed life….
Above: Saudades de Nápoles (Missing Naples), 1895, by Bertha Worms
I think about “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty“.
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (1939) is a short story by James Thurber.
The most famous of Thurber’s stories, it first appeared in The New Yorker on 18 March 1939, and was first collected in his book My World and Welcome to It (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1942).
It has since been reprinted in James Thurber: Writings and Drawings (The Library of America, 1996, ISBN 1-883011-22-1), is available on-line on the New Yorker website and is one of the most anthologized short stories in American literature.
The story is considered one of Thurber’s “acknowledged masterpieces“.
Above: James Thurber (1894 – 1961)
It was made into a 1947 movie of the same name, with Danny Kaye in the title role, though the movie is very different from the original story.
It was also adapted into a 2013 film, which is again very different from the original.
The name Walter Mitty and the derivative word “Mittyesque“have entered the English language, denoting an ineffectual person who spends more time in heroic daydreams than paying attention to the real world, or more seriously, one who intentionally attempts to mislead or convince others that he is something that he is not.
The short story deals with a vague and mild-mannered man who drives into Waterbury, Connecticut, with his wife for their regular weekly shopping and his wife’s visit to the beauty parlor.
During this time he has five heroic daydream episodes.
The first is as a pilot of a US Navy flying boat in a storm, then he is a magnificent surgeon performing a one-of-a-kind surgery, then as a deadly assassin testifying in a courtroom, and then as a Royal Air Force pilot volunteering for a daring, secret suicide mission to bomb an ammunition dump.
As the story ends, Mitty imagines himself facing a firing squad, “inscrutable to the last.”
Each of the fantasies is inspired by some detail of Mitty’s mundane surroundings.
In a way, it is like inventing a clear day from a dark reality, a hero out of an ordinary human, a Paradise out of Purgatory.
Above: Expulsion from Paradise, painting by James Tissot (1902)
From Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet:
“The journey in my head
In the plausible intimacy of approaching evening, as I stand waiting for the stars to begin at the window of this 4th floor room that looks out on the infinite, my dreams move to the rhythm required by long journeys to countries as yet unknown, or to countries that are simply hypothetical or impossible.
Above: Pessoa’s birthplace: a large flat at São Carlos Square, just in front of Lisbon’s opera
Today, during one of those periods of daydreaming which, though devoid of either purpose or dignity, still constitute the greater part of the spiritual substance of my life, I imagined myself free forever of Rua dos Douradores, of my boss Vasques, of Moreira the bookkeeper, of all the other employees, the errand boy, the post boy, even the cat.
Above: Pessoa’s last home, from 1920 till his death, in 1935, currently the Fernando Pessoa Museum
In dreams, that freedom felt to me as if the South Seas had proferred up a gift of marvellous islands as yet undiscovered.
Freedom would mean rest, artistic achievement, the intellectual fulfillment of my being.
But suddenly, even as I imagined this (during the brief holiday afforded by my lunch break), a feeling of displeasure erupted into the dream:
I would be sad.
Yes, I say it quite seriously:
I would be sad.
For my boss Vasques, Moreira the bookkeeper, Borges the cashier, all the lads, the cheery boy who takes the letters to the post office, the errand boy, the friendly cat….
They have all become part of my life.
I could never leave all that behind without weeping, without realizing, however displeasing the thought, that part of me would remain with them and that losing them would be akin to death.
Moreover, if I left them all tomorrow and discarded this Rua dos Douradores suit of clothes I wear, what else would I do?
Because I would have to do something.
And what suit would I wear?
Because I would have to wear another suit.
We all have a Senhor Vasques.
Sometimes he is a tangible human being, sometimes not.
In my case he really is called Vasques and he is a pleasant, healthy chap, a bit brusque at times but he is no doubledealer.
He is selfish but basically fair, much fairer than many of the great geniuses and many of the human marvels of civilization on both left and right.
For many people Vasques takes the form of vanity, a desire for greater wealth, for glory or immortality….
Personally I prefer to have Vasques as my real life boss since, in times of difficulty, he is easier to deal with than any abstraction the world has to offer….
Above: Actor Steve Carell, Emmy Awards 2010, for his role as boss Michael Scott, in US series The Office
And I return to an other’s house, to the spacious office in the Rua dos Douradores, the way some return to their homes.
I approach my desk as if it were a bulwark against life.
I feel such an overwhelming sense of tenderness that my eyes fill with tears for my books that are in reality the books of other people whose accounts I keep, for the inkwell I use, for Sergio’s stooped shoulders as, not far from me, he sits writing out bills of lading.
I feel love for all of this, perhaps because I have nothing else to love or perhaps too, because even though nothing truly merits the love of any soul, if, out of sentiment, we must give it, I might just as well lavish it on the smallness of an inkwell as on the grand indifference of the stars….
With the soul’s equivalent of a wry smile, I calmly confront the prospect that my life will consist of nothing more than being shut up for ever in Rua dos Douradores, in this office, surrounded by these people.
I have enough money tp buy food and drink, I have somewhere to live and enough free time in which to dream, write – and sleep – what more can I ask of the gods or hope for from Fate?
I had great ambitions and extravagant dreams, but so did the errand boy and the seamstress, for everyone has dreams.
The only thing that distinguishes me from them is that I can write.
Yes, that is an activity, a real fact about myseof that distinguishes me from them.
But in my soul I am just the same.
I know that there are islands in the South and grand cosmopolitan passions and….
I am sure that even if I held the world in my hand, I would exchange it all for a tram ticket back to Rua dos Douradores.
Perhaps it is my destiny to remain a bookkeeper forever and for poetry and literature to remain simply butterflies that alight on my head and merely underline my own ridiculousness by their very beauty.”
Above: Crimson Assurance, Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life
Porto, Portugal, Wednesday 25 July 2018
The morning has begun, poorly.
Somehow, in all our running around the day previously, our one city-specific, Porto-focused guidebook, specially ordered for this trip, the book has vanished.
We stumble across a bookshop (Leya) that sells English language materials and we fortuitously find a copy of the lost travel guide.
The Swabian soul of my wife, as thrifty as a Scot, is displeased with this development and thus the tone of the day is set, with much of the morning lost.
After a visit to the Sé (Cathedral) we discover that though not quite all roads lead to the city centre’s Avenida dos Aliados, ours do.
At the foot of the Avenida – in the area known as Praca da Liberdade – are a couple of sidewalk cafés and an equestrian statue of Dom Pedro IV.
Dom Pedro I (1798 – 1834), nicknamed “the Liberator“, was the founder and first ruler of the Empire of Brazil.
As King Dom Pedro IV, he reigned briefly over Portugal, where he also became known as “the Liberator” as well as “the Soldier King“.
Born in Lisbon, Pedro I was the fourth child of King Dom João VI of Portugal and Queen Carlota Joaquina, and thus a member of the House of Braganza.
When the country was invaded by French troops in 1807, he and his family fled to Portugal’s largest and wealthiest colony, Brazil.
The outbreak of the Liberal Revolution of 1820 in Lisbon compelled Pedro I’s father to return to Portugal in April 1821, leaving him to rule Brazil as regent.
He had to deal with threats from revolutionaries and insubordination by Portuguese troops, all of which he subdued.
The Portuguese government’s threat to revoke the political autonomy that Brazil had enjoyed since 1808 was met with widespread discontent in Brazil.
Pedro I chose the Brazilian side and declared Brazil’s independence from Portugal on 7 September 1822.
On 12 October, he was acclaimed Brazilian Emperor and by March 1824 had defeated all armies loyal to Portugal.
A few months later, Pedro I crushed the short-lived Confederation of the Equator, a failed secession attempt by provincial rebels in Brazil’s northeast.
A secessionist rebellion in the southern province of Cisplatina in early 1825, and the subsequent attempt by the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata to annex it, led the Empire into the Cisplatine War.
In March 1826, Pedro I briefly became king of Portugal before abdicating in favor of his eldest daughter, Dona Maria II (1819 – 1853).
The situation worsened in 1828 when the war in the south resulted in Brazil’s loss of Cisplatina.
During the same year in Lisbon, Maria II’s throne was usurped by Prince Dom Miguel (1802 – 1866), Pedro I’s younger brother.
The Emperor’s concurrent and scandalous sexual affair with a female courtier tarnished his reputation.
Other difficulties arose in the Brazilian parliament, where a struggle over whether the government would be chosen by the monarch or by the legislature dominated political debates from 1826 to 1831.
Unable to deal with problems in both Brazil and Portugal simultaneously, on 7 April 1831 Pedro I abdicated in favor of his son Dom Pedro II, and sailed for Europe.
Pedro I invaded Portugal at the head of an army in July 1832.
Faced at first with what seemed a national civil war, he soon became involved in a wider conflict that enveloped the Iberian Peninsula in a struggle between proponents of liberalism and those seeking a return to absolutism.
Pedro I died of tuberculosis on 24 September 1834, just a few months after he and the liberals had emerged victorious.
He was hailed by both contemporaries and posterity as a key figure who helped spread the liberal ideals that allowed Brazil and Portugal to move from absolutist regimes to representative forms of government.
Above. Monument to the Independence of Brazil where Pedro I and his two wives are buried
I am told, by the sheer fact that a statue stands here to honour him, that we should regard Pedro as a hero, but I find myself wondering….
How much blood was spilled to realize his goals?
At the head of the Avenida dos Aliados stands another statue of another man we are meant to honour and this one is of less difficulty.
João Baptista da Silva Leitão de Almeida Garrett, 1st Viscount of Almeida Garrett (1799 – 1854) was a Portuguese poet, orator, playwright, novelist, journalist, politician and a peer of the realm.
A major promoter of theatre in Portugal he is considered the greatest figure of Portuguese Romanticism and a true revolutionary and humanist.
He proposed the construction of the Dona Maria II National Theatre and the creation of the Conservatory of Dramatic Art.
Garrett was born in Porto, the son of António Bernardo da Silva Garrett (1739–1834), a fidalgo of the Royal Household and Knight of the Order of Christ, and his wife (they were married in 1796) Ana Augusta de Almeida Leitão (b. 1770), the daughter of an Irish father born in exile in France and an Italian mother born in Spain.
At an early age, Garrett changed his name to João Baptista da Silva Leitão, adding a name from his godfather and altering the order of his surnames.
In 1809, his family fled the second French invasion carried out by Soult’s troops, seeking refuge in Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira Island, Azores.
While in the Azores, Garrett was taught by his uncle, Dom Frei Alexandre da Sagrada Família (1737 – 1818), the Bishop of Angra.
In childhood, his mulatto Brazilian nanny Rosa de Lima taught him some traditional stories that later influenced his work.
In 1818, Garrett moved to Coimbra to study at the University law school.
In 1818, he published O Retrato de Vénus, a work for which was soon to be prosecuted, as it was considered “materialist, atheist and immoral“.
It was during this period that he adopted his pen name Almeida Garrett, seen as more aristocratic.
Although Garrett did not take active part in the Liberal Revolution that broke out in Porto in 1820, he contributed with two patriotic verses, the Hymno Constitucional and the Hymno Patriótico, which his friends copied and distributed in the streets of Porto.
After the “Vilafrancada“, a reactionary coup d’état led by the Infante Dom Miguel in 1823, he was forced to seek exile in England.
Above: Prince Miguel saluting soldiers on arrival at Vila Franca
Garrett had just married the beautiful Luísa Cândida Midosi who was only 12 or 13 years old at the time and was the sister of his friend Luís Frederico Midosi.
While in England, in Edgbaston, Warwickshire, he began his association with Romanticism, being subject to the first-hand influences of William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) and Walter Scott (1771 – 1832), as well as to that of Gothic aesthetics.
Above: House on Farquhar Road, typical of the Edgbaston area, demonstrating the affluence
In the beginning of 1825, Garrett left for France where he wrote Camões (1825) and Dona Branca (1826), poems that are usually considered the first Romantic works in Portuguese literature.
In 1826, he returned to Portugal, where he settled for two years and founded the newspapers O Portuguez and O Chronista.
In 1828, under the rule of King Miguel of Portugal, he was again forced to settle in England, publishing Adozinda and performing his tragedy Catão at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth.
Together with Alexandre Herculano (1810 – 1877) and Joaquim António de Aguiar (1792 – 1884), Garrett took part in the Landing of Mindelo, carried out during the Liberal Wars (1828 – 1834).
Above: Landing of the liberal forces in Porto on 8 July 1832
When a constitutional monarchy was established, he briefly served as its Consul General to Brussels.
Upon his return, he was acclaimed as one of the major orators of Liberalism, and took the initiative in the creation of a new Portuguese theatre (during the period, he wrote his historical plays Gil Vicente, Dona Filipa de Vilhena, andO Alfageme de Santarém).
In 1843, Garrett published Romanceiro e Cancioneiro Geral, a collection of folklore.
Two years later, he wrote the first volume of his historical novel O Arco de Santana (fully published in 1850, it took inspiration from Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame).
O Arco de Santana signified a change in Garrett’s style, leading to a more complex and subjective prose with which he experimented at length in Viagens na Minha Terra (Travels in My Homeland, 1846).
His innovative manner was also felt in his poem collections Flores sem Fruto (Flowers without Fruit, 1844) and Folhas Caídas (Fallen Leaves, 1853).
Nobled by Dona Maria II of Portugal in 1852 with the title of 1st Viscount of Almeida Garrett, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs for only a few days in the same year (in the cabinet of the Duke of Saldanha).
Almeida Garrett ended his relationship with Luísa Midosi and divorced in 1835 to join 17-year-old Adelaide Deville Pastor in 1836.
She was to remain his partner until her early death in 1839, leaving a daughter named Maria Adelaide, whose early life tragedy and illegitimacy inspired her father to write the play Frei Luís de Sousa.
Later in his life he became the lover of Rosa de Montúfar y Infante, whom he celebrated at his last and probably best poetry book Folhas Caídas.
Garrett died of cancer in Lisbon at 6:30 in the afternoon of 9 December 1854.
He was buried at the Cemetery of Prazeres and, on 3 May 1903, his remains were transferred to the national pantheon in Lisbon’s Jerónimos Monastery.
I find myself more forgiving of those that write over those that rule.
Behind Garrett stands Porto’s city hall, the Câmara Municipal.
(The metropolitan area is governed by the Junta Metropolitana do Porto (JMP), headquartered in Avenida dos Aliados, in downtown Porto under the presidency of Hermínio Loureiro, also the mayor of Oliveira de Azeméis municipality, since the Municipal Elections held in 2013, when he succeeded Rui Rio, mayor of Porto.
The Assembleia Metropolitana do Porto (Porto Metropolitan Assembly) is composed of 43 MPs, the PSD (Social Democratic Party) party has 20 seats, the PS (Socialist Party) 16, the CDS (the People’s Party) three, CDU (Unitarian Democratic Coalition) three, and the BE (Left Bloc), one.
Although the government has halted the intention of creating new metropolitan areas and urban communities, it is keen to ensure greater autonomy to Porto and Lisbon metropolitan areas.
Greater Porto is the second largest metropolitan area of Portugal, with about 1.7 million people.
It groups the larger Porto Urban Area, the second largest in the country, assembled by the municipalities of Porto, Matosinhos, Vila Nova de Gaia, Gondomar, Valongo and Maia.
A smaller urban area of Póvoa de Varzim and Vila do Conde, which ranks as the six largest in continental Portugal.
The new regional spatial planning program (PROT-Norte) recognizes both urban areas and engages in their development.
There are some intentions to merge the municipalities of Porto with Gaia and Matosinhos into a single and greater municipality, and there is an ongoing civil requisition for that objective.
The government also started to discuss the merging of some municipalities due to conurbations, but gave up.
There is a similar idea for the conurbation of Póvoa de Varzim and Vila do Conde, and both municipalities have decided to work as if both are the same city, cooperating in health, education, transports and other areas.
Several municipalities of the metropolitan area also moved closer, thus becoming a cohesive group.
The urban-metropolitan agglomeration known as the Northwestern Urban-Metropolitan Agglomeration or Porto Metropolitan Arch is a regional urban system of polycentric nature that stretches far beyond the metropolitan borders, and includes circa 3 million people, which takes in other main urban areas such as Braga and Guimarães, the 3rd and 8th largest cities (as defined by urban areas) of Portugal.
One should also note that the entire region of Northwestern Portugal is, in fact, a single agglomeration, linking Porto and Braga to Vigo in Galicia, Spain.)
“I went up towards the Town Hall.
The sky rumbled and opened onto Porto, unleashing laments that included steady rainfall.
One could barely distinguish the white pedestrian crossings under the downpour that shook my poor umbrella, already twisted by other storms.
As soon as I reached the door of Guarany Café, I walked in on an impulse, leaving trails of water wherever I passed.
Thus I remained for a few moments, drenched and momentarily wretched.
As if by magic a cup of hot coffee eased my discomfort.
I watched the storm and the dark morning.
I remembered the story a friend had told me about an Englishman (John Whitehead: 1726 – 1802) who had lived at Porto (1756 – 1802) in the 18th century.
He is believed to have been responsible for supervising and executing several urban works in the city, but people also considered that he had made a pact with the devil, for he was able to attract the grey lightning-bearing clouds to his gardens.
No doubt, today would have been a perfect day for his experiments with the lightning conductor, which certainly involved science rather than witchcraft.
What would he think of this avenue he never knew?
This avenue which welcomes the rain and the sun with the same generosity?
All these cars, which pass by taking people to their destinations, or these buses which carry tourists to the Palácio da Bolsa, to the Church of Sao Francisco and to the Torre dos Clérigos?
All these imposing buildings which stretch granitically upwards to the sky?
This set paving?
Would he call us witches?
Eccentrics?
I looked at my watch and I let out a scream that crashed against its face.
I was late!
Outside, the sky calmed its fury, making the pedestrian crossings visible….”
(Susana Fonseca)
It seems on every street corner, the defeated, but undaunted, People-Animals-Nature Party (one sole MP) has young people standing with clipboard petitions that seek support to continue their battle against bullfighting, a bid beaten in Parliament on 6 July.
From the Câmara to the Mercado to the Torre dos Clérigos to the Café Majestic, the morning and much of the afternoon pass quickly.
West of the Torre we find ourselves threading our way between the faculty Buildings of the Universidade do Porto.
Below the main University building spreads the Jardim da Cordoaria (garden of the ropemakers), also known as the Jardim de Joao Chagas, sheltering impromptu card and chess schools beneath giant plane trees.
It is a small, historic urban park with a serene vibe featuring a variety of trees, plants & sculptures.
The garden was founded by the Viscount of Vilar d’Allen in 1865 and was designed by the German landscaper Émile David (1839 – 1873).
In 1941, a cyclone altered the appearance of this romantic garden.
In preparation for the celebrations of Porto as the 2001 European Capital of Culture, the garden was the target of an intervention by the architect Camilo Cortesao.
His work was highly contested by some celebrities and associations in Porto, because it implied a major change in the space in question.
In the garden space are the sculptures:
Rapto de Ganimedes (the rapture of Ganimedes)(1898) by Fernandes de Sá (1874 – 1959)
Flora (1904) by Antonio Teixeria Lopes (1866 – 1942)
Ramalho Ortigao (1909) by Leopoldo Almeida (1898 – 1975)
Antonio Nobre (1926) by Tómas Costa
Thirteen to laugh at each other (2001) by Juan Munoz (1953 – 2001)
The garden’s namesake João Pinheiro Chagas (1863 – 1925) was a Portuguese journalist and politician.
He was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, of Portuguese parents who soon moved back to Portugal.
He was an editor at the newspapers O Primeiro de Janeiro, Correio do Norte, O Tempo and O Dia.
After becoming a republican, he also founded the República Portuguesa and was the director of O País(1898).
The monarchist government’s reaction to the British Ultimatum of January 1890 (that forced Portugal to renounce its extravagant claims to the territories that lay between Portuguese Angola and Portuguese Mozambique), made him a fierce republican and one of Portugal’s most fervent anti-monarchy journalists and propagandists.
After the proclamation of the republic, on 5 October 1910, he was appointed minister in Paris, and, the following year, after the end of the term of the provisional government, he was chosen to lead the first constitutional government of the Portuguese First Republic.
It was in power for only two months, from 4 September to 13 November 1911.
This was a sad prelude to the political instability of the First Republic.
On 17 May 1915, he was again appointed President of the Ministry (Prime Minister), but he didn’t take office.
He remained a diplomat until his retirement in 1923.
He died in Estoril, aged 60.
Above: Joao Chagas
Two of the garden’s statues are of Portuguese literature, the writer Ortigao and the poet Nobre….
If there is one art form the Portuguese are proud of, it is literature.
You cannot be Portuguese unless you have read The Lusiads, Luis de Camoes‘ (1524 – 1580) epic poem narrating Vasco da Gama’s sea voyage to India, complete with tales of sea monsters.
Portugal’s Jane Austin is Eca de Queirós (1845 – 1900), whose studied portraits of life in 19th century Lisbon are every bit as witty.
Then came Fernando Pessoa, despite a multiple personality disorder, who with his musings on the meaning of life is remembered as a Modernist genius.
José Saramago (1922 – 2010) carried the torch of experimentalism, writing whole books without punctuation, and one, Blindness, without naming a single character.
The current golden boy of Portuguese literature is José Luís Peixoto who writes fractured mosaics of books that are like assembling a jigsaw puzzle.
Portugal’s greatest writers are glorified wherever you go in the country.
Statues commemorate their places of birth and death.
Even the town of Barcelos’ football team is named after a writer, Gil Vicente (1465 – 1536).
The garden’s Ramalho Ortigão (1836 – 1915) spent his early years with his maternal grandmother in Porto.
He studied law in the University of Coimbra, but he did not complete his studies.
After returning to his home town, he taught French at a college run by his father.
Among his students was Eça de Queiros.
In 1862 he dedicated himself to journalism and became a literary critic at the Diário do Porto and contributed to several literary magazines.
At this period, romanticism was the dominant trend in Portuguese literature, led by several major writers, including Camilo Castelo Branco (1825 – 1890) and António Augusto Soares de Passos (1826 – 1860), who influenced Ortigão.
Above: Camilo Castelo Branco
Above: António Augusto Soares de Passos
In the 1870s, a group of students from Coimbra began to promote new ideas in a reaction against romanticism.
This group, eventually called the 70s Generation, was to have a major influence on Portuguese literature.
As a supporter of romanticism, Ortigão became involved in a struggle against them and even fought a duel with Antero de Quental (1842 – 1891).
Above: Antero de Quental
In spite of this early opposition, Ortigão afterwards became friendly with some members of the group.
It was at this period that he wrote The Mystery of the Sintra Road and created the satirical journal As Farpas, both in collaboration with Eça de Queiros.
When Queiros became a diplomat, initially in Cuba, Ortigão continued As Farpasalone.
Ortigão also worked as a translator.
In 1874 he produced a Portuguese translation of the English satirical novel Ginx’s Baby by Edward Jenkins (1838 – 1910).
Above: “Ginx’s Baby” Jenkins as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, August 1878
Ramalho Ortigão died in Lisbon on 27 September 1915.
The second literary person honoured by a statue in the garden, António Nobre (1867 – 1900) was a member of a wealthy family.
He was born in Porto, and spent his childhood in Trás-os-Montes and in Póvoa de Varzim.
Above: Images of modern Póvoa de Varzim
He studied law unsuccessfully at the University of Coimbra from 1888 to 1890 when he dropped out.
As a student in Coimbra, and according to his own words, he only felt at ease in his “tower” (referring to the Torre de Anto – Anto Tower, in upper Coimbra, where he lived) during the “sinister period” he spent studying law at the University of Coimbra.
An unknown fiancée more fictitious than concrete, his friend Alberto de Oliveira, and a brief intervention in the literary life, through some magazines, did not conciliate him with the academic city of Coimbra where this predestined poet flunked twice.
He went to Paris where he earned a degree in political science at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques.
There, he came in contact with the French coeval poetry, where he met Paul Verlaine (1844 – 1896) and Jean Moréas (1856 – 1910), among others.
Above: Paul Verlaine
Above: Jean Moréas
He also met the famous Portuguese writer Eça de Queiros in Paris, who was a Portuguese diplomat in the city.
It was from 1890 to 1895, that Nobre studied political science in Paris, where he was influenced by the French Symbolist poets and it was there that he wrote the greater part of the only book he published.
The Paris exile, sad by his own words (poor Lusitanian, the wretched, lost in the crowd that does not know him), was not a time for happiness.
The aristocratic shutting up caused nausea or indifference.
Frustrated and always marginal experiences made him bitter.
He was far from the sweat and from all sorts of fraternity, from desire and hate, and from the wailing of the breed, a childlike, lost, instinctive and princely life, a souvenir of the sweet old landscape that memory seems to encourage.
In his tender but never rhetorical mourning Nobre manifests himself and mourns over himself as a doomed poet, with a hard soul and a maiden’s heart, which carried the sponge of gall in former processions.
His verse marked a departure from objective realism and social commitment to subjective lyricism and an aesthetic point of view, walking more towards symbolism – one of the various modernist literary currents.
The lack of means, aggravated by his father’s death, made him morbidly reject the present and the future, following a pessimistic romantic attitude that led him to denounce his tedium.
However excessive, this is a controlled attitude, due to a clear aesthetic mind and a real sense of ridicule.
He learned the colloquial tone from Almeida Garrett and Júlio Dinis (1839 – 1871), and also from Jules Laforgue (1860 – 1887), but he exceeded them all in the peculiar compromise between irony and a refined puerility, a fountain of happiness because it represents a return to his happiest of times — a kingdom of his own from where he resuscitates characters and enchanted places, manipulating, as a virtuoso of nostalgia, the picturesque of popular festivals and of fishermen, the simple magic of toponyms and the language of the people.
Above: Jules Laforgue
In his prescience of pain, in his spiritual anticipation of disease and of agony, in his taste for sadness, in his unmeasured pride of isolation, António (from Torre de Anto, at the centre of old Coimbra where the poet lived an enchanted life, everywhere writing his mythical and literary name: Anto) keeps an artist’s composure, always expressing the cult of the aesthetic life and of the elegant personality.
In his courtship of death (to whose imminent threat he would later answer with dignity), he takes his spiritual dandyism to extremes, like in the “Balada do Caixão” (The Coffin Ballad).
His poetry translates the lack of a total maturation, an adolescent “angelism” present in fabulous confirmations:
He is “the moon”, “the saint”, “the snake”, “the sorcerer”, “the afflicted”, “the inspired”, “the unprecedented”, “the medium”, “the bizarre”, “the fool”, “the nauseated”, “the tortured”, “D. Enguiço”, “a supernatural poet.”
Above: The Divine Comedy, Paradise, illustration by Gustave Doré
Narcissus in permanent soliloquy, whether he writes nostalgic verses to Manuel or speaks to his own pipe….
Above: “La Trahison des Images” (“The Treachery of Images”) (1928-9) or “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (“This is not a pipe”) by René Magritte, 1898-1967.
António Nobre (A. N.) makes poetry out of the real.
He covers what is prosaic with a soft mantle of legend (“My neighbour is a carpenter/he is a second-hand trader of Mrs. Death”) and creates, with a rare balance between intuition and critique, his familiar “fantastic” (“When the Moon, a beautiful milkmaid / goes deliver milk at the houses of Infinity”).
His catholic imaginary world is the same as in a fairy tale, a crib of simple words, but with an imaginative audacity in the scheming of those words that separate him from the consecrated lyrical language.
His power of “invention” comes forth in the inspired, yet conscious, use of the verbal material (“Moons of Summer! Black moons of velvet!” or “The Abbey of my past”).
Between the Garrettian and the symbolic aesthetic, the most personal and revealing feature of his vocabulary is naturally — even for his longing for the childhood aesthetical retrieval – the diminutive.
A man of sensibility rather than of reflection, he took from French symbolism, whose mystery and deep sense he could never penetrate, the repelling of oratory and of formal procedures, original imagery (“Trás-os-Montes of water”, “slaughter house of the planets”), the cult of synaesthesia, rhythmic freedom and musical research.
Above: In the slaughterhouse, Lovis Corinth, 1893
A. N. had a very thick ear.
All his poetry is rigorously written to be heard, full of parallelisms, melodic repetitions, and onomatopoeias, and is extremely malleable.
Its syllabic division depends on the rhythm that obeys feeling.
However, the images or the words of his sentences rarely have the precious touch of symbolic jewelry.
Evidently, in “Poentes de França”, the planets drink in silver chalices in the “tavern of sunset”.
However, his transfiguration of reality almost always obeys not a purpose of sumptuous embellishment, like in Eugénio de Castro, but an essentially affectionate eager desire of an intimism of things (“the skinny and hunchbacked poplars”).
António Nobre died of tuberculosis in Foz do Douro, Porto, on 18 March 1900, after trying to recover from the disease in Switzerland, Madeira and New York City.
Other than Só (Paris, 1892), two other posthumous works were published: Despedidas (1st edition, 1902), with a fragment from O Desejado, and Primeiros Versos (1st edition, 1921).
António Nobre’s correspondence is compiled in several volumes:
Cartas Inéditas a A.N., with an introduction and notes by A. Casais Monteiro
Cartas e Bilhetes-Postais a Justino de Montalvão with a foreword and notes by Alberto de Serpa, Porto, 1956
Correspondência, with an introduction and notes by Guilherme de Castilho, Lisbon, 1967 (a compilation of 244 letters, 56 of which were unpublished).
“When he (Nobre) was born, we all were born.
The sadness that each one of us brings with him, even in the sense of his joy, still is him, and his life, never perfectly real and certainly not lived, is, after all, the summary of the life we live – fatherless and motherless, lost from God, in the middle of the forest, and weeping, weeping uselessly, with no other consolation than this, childish, knowing that it is uselessly weeping.”
Fernando Pessoa, February 1915
The artist that made Nobre’s garden statue has been called “the most significant of the first generation of artists to achieve maturity in post-Franco Spain, and one of the most complex and individual artists working today.”
Juan Muñoz (1953– 2001) was a Spanish sculptor, working primarily in paper maché, resin and bronze.
He was also interested in the auditory arts and created compositions for the radio.
He was a self-described “storyteller“.
In 2000, Muñoz was awarded Spain’s major Premio Nacional de Bellas Artes in recognition of his work.
He died shortly after, in 2001.
His works are displayed in such galleries as the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Guggenheim Museum New York, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Tate Modern in London.
In one unpublished radio program (Third Ear, 1992), Juan Muñoz proposed that there are two things which are impossible to represent:
The present and death.
The only way to arrive at them was by their absence.
Above: Created by Juan Munoz in 1999, this work celebrates the Tyne Salmon. The 2008 Tyne Bluetooth Salmon Trail Cubes are seen with the 22 bronze life-size figures that command a view of South Shields Harbour and the Tyne Piers.
The ropemakers’ garden, this garden in memory of Joao Chagas, is close to the Torre dos Clérigos, the General Hospital of Santo António and the Portuguese Centre of Photography.
The Portuguese Centre of Photography was founded in 1997.
The first exhibitions were held in December of that same year on the ground floor of the building until 2000.
The building was temporarily closed for renovation and reopened in 2001.
Following the advice of the working group established by the Minister Manuel Maria Carrilho, in 1996, the then Ministry of Culture created the Portuguese Centre of Photography.
The photographic culture began then to revive by the appearance of photography schools, festivals and galleries attracting photographers that were exiled during the Salazar regime, publishing internationally relevant work.
The exhibition rooms of the ground floor were used that year, starting in December, but the building would only be occupied entirely by the CPF in 2001.
I do not know why the Centre in 2018 (6 July – 4 November) decided to focus on her photographs, but I do know why my wife needed to visit the Centre:
My wife has always been a huge fan of Mexican artiste Frida Kahlo.
The attraction for me, besides keeping my significant other happy, is Kahlo’s ability to invent herself.
Frida Kahlo (née Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón) (1907 – 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico.
Inspired by the country’s popular culture, she employed a naïve folk art style to explore questions of identity, postcolonialism, gender, class, and race in Mexican society.
Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy.
In addition to belonging to the post-revolutionary Mexicayotl movement, which sought to define a Mexican identity, Kahlo has been described as a surrealist or magical realist.
Born to a German father and a mestiza mother, Kahlo spent most of her childhood and adult life at La Casa Azul, her family home in Coyoacán—now publicly accessible as the Frida Kahlo Museum.
Although she was disabled by polio as a child, Kahlo had been a promising student headed for medical school until she suffered a bus accident at the age of eighteen, which caused her lifelong pain and medical problems.
During her recovery she returned to her childhood hobby of art with the idea of becoming an artist.
Kahlo’s interests in politics and art led her to join the Mexican Communist Party in 1927, through which she met fellow Mexican artist Diego Rivera (1886 – 1957).
The couple married in 1929, and spent the late 1920s and early 1930s travelling in Mexico and the United States together.
During this time, she developed her artistic style, drawing her main inspiration from Mexican folk culture, and painted mostly small self-portraits which mixed elements from pre-Columbian and Catholic beliefs.
Her paintings raised the interest of Surrealist artist André Breton, who arranged for Kahlo’s first solo exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York in 1938.
Above: André Breton (1896 – 1966)
The exhibition was a success and was followed by another in Paris in 1939.
While the French exhibition was less successful, the Louvre (pictured above) purchased a painting from Kahlo, The Frame, making her the first Mexican artist to be featured in their collection.
Throughout the 1940s, Kahlo participated in exhibitions in Mexico and the United States and worked as an art teacher.
She taught at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado “La Esmeralda” and was a founding member of the Seminario de Cultura Mexicana.
Kahlo’s always-fragile health began to decline in the same decade.
She had her first solo exhibition in Mexico in 1953, shortly before her death in 1954 at the age of 47.
Above: Kahlo’s death mask on her bed in La Casa Azul
Kahlo’s work as an artist remained relatively unknown until the late 1970s, when her work was rediscovered by art historians and political activists.
By the early 1990s, she had become not only a recognized figure in art history, but also regarded as an icon for Chicanos, the feminism movement and the LGBTQ+ movement.
Kahlo’s work has been celebrated internationally as emblematic of Mexican national and indigenous traditions and by feminists for what is seen as its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form.
Above: Frieda and Diego Rivera by Frieda Khalo (1931)
Frida is a 2002 American biographical drama film, directed by Julie Taymor, which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
(In an interview, Taynor said this about Kahlo:
“She painted what she painted because she had to, because she was passionate about it.
She didn’t care at all if people bought her paintings.
As she said, she painted her reality.“)
Above: Julie Taymor
Frida begins just before the traumatic accident Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek) suffered at the age of 18 when the wooden-bodied bus she was riding in collided with a streetcar.
She is impaled by a metal pole and the injuries she sustains plague her for the rest of her life.
To help her through convalescence, her father brings her a canvas upon which to start painting.
Throughout the film, a scene starts as a painting, then slowly dissolves into a live action scene with actors.
Frida also details the artist’s dysfunctional relationship with the muralist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina).
When Rivera proposes to Kahlo, she tells him she expects from him loyalty if not fidelity.
Diego’s appraisal of her painting ability is one of the reasons that she continues to paint.
Throughout the marriage, Rivera has affairs with a wide array of women, while the bisexual Kahlo takes on male and female lovers, including in one case having an affair with the same woman as Rivera.
The two travel to New York City so that he may paint the mural Man at the Crossroads at the Rockefeller Center.
While in the United States, Kahlo suffers a miscarriage, and her mother dies in Mexico.
Rivera refuses to compromise his communist vision of the work to the needs of the patron, Nelson Rockefeller (Edward Norton).
As a result, the mural is destroyed.
The pair return to Mexico, with Rivera the more reluctant of the two.
Kahlo’s sister Cristina (Mia Maestro) moves in with the two at their San Ángel studio home to work as Rivera’s assistant.
Soon afterward, Kahlo discovers that Rivera and Cristina are having an affair.
She leaves him and subsequently sinks into alcoholism.
The couple reunite when he asks her to welcome and house Leon Trotsky(Geoffrey Rush), who has been granted political asylum in Mexico.
She and Trotsky begin an affair, which forces the married Trotsky to leave the safety of his Coyoacán home.
Kahlo leaves for Paris after Diego realizes she was unfaithful to him with Trotsky.
Although Rivera had little problem with Kahlo’s other affairs, Trotsky was too important to Rivera to be intimately involved with his wife.
When she returns to Mexico, he asks for a divorce.
Soon afterwards, Trotsky is murdered in Mexico City.
Rivera is temporarily a suspect and Kahlo is incarcerated in his place when he is not found.
Rivera helps get her released.
Kahlo has her toes removed when they become gangrenous.
Rivera asks her to remarry him and she agrees.
Her health continues to worsen, including the amputation of a leg, and she ultimately dies after finally having a solo exhibition of her paintings in Mexico.
Being a photography museum, the focus of the Kahlo exhibition was not so much upon her paintings as it was on photos she took or were taken of her.
(Later, across the Douro River, we would stumble across a small gallery where her art was displayed and duplicated.)
And, though Kahlo wasn’t Portuguese and possibly never set foot on Portuguese soil, her life story somehow fits into our Porto experience seamlessly.
Art is open to individual perception, but words offer individual definition in far starker forms.
Some of what Kahlo wrote in preserved letters and diaries strikes me closer to the core of who she was far more powerfully than the visual impact of her vibrant paintings or expressive photographs.
“They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t.
I never painted dreams.
I painted my own reality.”
“I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.”
“I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.”
“His (Diego Rivera’s) supposed mythomania is in direct relation to his tremendous imagination.
That is to say, he is as much of a liar as the poets or as the children who have not yet been turned into idiots by school or mothers.
I have heard him tell all kinds of lies: from the most innocent, to the most complicated stories about people whom his imagination combined in a fantastic situation or actions, always with a great sense of humour and a marvelous critical sense.
But I have never heard him say a single stupid thing or banal lie.
Lying, or playing at lying, he unmasks many people.
He learns the interior mechanism of others who are much more ingenuously liars than he.
And the most curious thing about the supposed lies of Diego is that in the long and short of it, those who are involved in the imaginary combination become angry, not because of the lie, but because of the truth contained in the lie that always comes to the surface.”
The overall message that this day taught me is the solitude of individuality.
We may be within the crowd of a famous bookstore (Livraria Lello) or walking together in the intimacy of a married couple’s strolling through a park.
And yet each of us is alone.
Above: René and Georgette Magritte with their dog after the war
We live alone and we die alone, for we are prisoners within our bodies and exiles within our minds.
Above: Thomas Wolfe (1900 – 1938) who in an often quoted passage stated: “The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.”
I may know my wife better than any other person in my life, and yet is there any man who can truly say that a woman cannot still continually surprise him?
My wife is convinced to her core that she knows exactly who I am, but how can she, when I am continually discovering myself as I evolve within the passages of life and time?
Perception is the expression of that solitude of individuality.
The Porto I see and feel is a universe removed from the Porto that my wife sees and feels.
Though we share the same experience, we see and feel that experience through the prism of our own individual selves.
As we wind our way through some of Porto’s oldest and most atmospheric streets, ascending from the Baixa (lower town) to the Sé (cathedral) that looms high above the city like a guardian god, then down to the Ribiera (riverside) where we are magnetically drawn to the historic heart of the harbour hub….
We are together, hand-in-hand.
We are apart, mind from mind, emotions unspoken as words fail miserably to adequately express the thoughts that flood our souls unbidden.
We descend with the setting sun, down to the chaos of hotch-potch houses that breathe in the vibrancy of cafés and restaurants replete with tired tourists and working waiters, bustling buskers and enthusiastic entertainers.
We dine beside the river on a shore between bridges.
We share a bottle of port wine, for this is what is done in the birthplace of this beverage.
The waiter defines what we are drinking as one would explain electricity to an infant.
Words like ruby and reserve, LBV and colheita fill the air and cross our consciousness, all to no avail.
We are no gourmets, no vintners nor clever connaisseurs.
We have seen so much and learned so much and felt so much, in this our first full day in Porto, and yet have understood so little.
Husband and wife share a meal and a bottle, unable or unwilling to share souls.
How can she politely express her annoyance with some of her husband’s boorish bumbling behaviours without causing a beastly reaction by expressing this?
How can I lovingly criticize her impatience while simultaneously admiring her imagination in the usurped planning of our days, without a contradiction that confuses more than it cooperates?
We are together.
We are apart.
How very human.
How ironic it is that the individuality of Each binds the Every together.
We are united by our separateness.
The Douro defines the night.
A river shared by two shores, binding and blessing while dividing and differentiating.
The river rushes beside us and through us.
There is wisdom in wine and knowledge at night.
(Update: Sunday 5 July 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
Above: Corona Virus cases in Portugal (the darker the area, the more cases therein)
On 2 March 2020, the virus was confirmed to have reached Portugal, when it was reported that two men, a 60 year-old doctor who travelled to the north of Italy on vacation and a 33 year-old man working in Spain, tested positive for COVID-19.
March 12: The Portuguese government declared the highest level of alert because of COVID-19 and said it would be maintained until 9 April.
Portugal entered a mitigation phase as community transmission was detected.
Above: São Bento Palace, Lisbon, is the seat of the Portuguese Legislature.
March 18: The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, declared the entirety of the Portuguese territory in a State of Emergency for the following 15 days, with the possibility of renewal, the first since the Carnation Revolution in 1974.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa declares that a national state of emergency will take effect from the next day, with Finance Minister Mário Centeno unveiling €9.2 billion in economic assistance to households and companies.
As of this day there have been 642 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with two deaths.
March 24: The Portuguese government admitted that the country could not contain the virus any longer.
March 26: The country entered the “mitigation stage”.
The health care sites dedicated to fighting the disease started.
The Bank of Portugal estimates that the economy will contract by between 3.7% and 5.7% of GDP in 2020 in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, with unemployment rising to between 10.1% and 11.7%.
April 2: Parliament approved the extension of the State of Emergency, as requested by the President.
The State of Emergency will remain until 17 April, subject to further extensions of similar duration.
Under the new regulations, for the Easter celebrations, from 9 April (Maundy Thursday) to 13 April (Easter Monday) the Portuguese government decreed special measures in restricting people movements between municipalities with very few exceptions, closing all airports to civil transportation and increased control in the national borders.
Above: Letter from the Portuguese President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, to the Speaker of the Assembly of the Republic, Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, requesting Parliament for authorisation under the terms of the Constitution, for a declaration of the state of emergency in the context of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
4 April – Government figures indicate that more than 500,000 workers are in danger of temporarily losing their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, after almost 32,000 businesses apply to the government to furlough employees.
The day also sees the total number of COVID-19 cases surpass 10,000, with 10,524 cases and 266 deaths reported.
12 April – Reuters reports that one in eight of Portugal’s 504 deaths from COVID-19 to date have occurred in care homes, with officials concerned about the spread of the corona virus among the elderly residents.
As of this day there have been 16,585 recorded cases in the country.
14 April – The International Monetary Fund forecasts an 8.0% drop in Portuguese GDP for 2020 as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, with unemployment predicted to rise to 13.9%.
The economy is forecast to recover in 2021 with unemployment falling to 8.7%.
16 April – MPs vote to further extend the national state of emergency until the beginning of May.
The vote comes amid a declining growth in infections, prompting the Health Secretary Antonio Sales to praise the “excellent behaviour and civic-mindedness of the Portuguese people“.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 to date stands at 18,841 with 629 deaths.
28 April – President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announces that the national state of emergency in place since 18 March will begin to be lifted from 3 May.
April 30: The Portuguese Ministers’ Council approved a plan to start releasing the country from the COVID-19 container measures and cancelling the State of Emergency.
The Automóvel Club de Portugal confirms the cancellation of the 2020 Rally de Portugal due to the COVID-19 pandemic, abandoning plans to reschedule the event’s planned 21–24 May date to October.
1 May – The Directorate-General of Health confirms that the number of fatalities from COVID-19 in Portugal has surpassed 1,000, with eighteen deaths in the preceding 24 hours bringing the country’s total to 1,007.
As of this date there have been 25,531 recorded cases and 1,647 recoveries.
2 May – The State of Emergency was cancelled.
3 May – The national state of emergency is lifted after six weeks, with the country downgraded to the lesser state of “calamity“.
4 May – A three-phase re-opening plan for the country begins, with small retail businesses allowed to open and the Lisbon and Porto Metro systems resuming at a reduced capacity.
The use of face masks is made compulsory for those using public transport and visiting enclosed public premises such as supermarkets.
9 May – Organisers of the Vuelta a Espana announce that the two stages of the 2020 bicycle race set to take place in Portugal will not go ahead.
May 18: Portugal entered the second phase in easing restrictions.
Nurseries and the last two years of the secondary school reopened, along with restaurants, cafés, medium-sized street stores and some museums, all with mandatory usage of mask and distance rules.
20 May – Data from the Institute for Employment and Vocational Training reveals that the number of people registering as unemployed across the country increased by 48,500 in April, a rise of 22% compared to April 2019.
The total number of people out of work now stands at approximately 392,000.
1 June – The government reveals a four-fold increase to €108 million to the total funds made available to companies shifting production towards tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.
Above: Portuguese €1.00 coin
As of this date there have been 32,700 cases and 1,424 deaths from COVID-19 recorded in the country.
3 June– The Primeira Liga resumes competition with all remaining matches of the 2019–20 season set to take place without spectators.
6 June – Thousands attend anti-racism protests in Lisbon and Porto in response to the death of George Floyd in the United States on 25 May.
As of 6 June 2020, there have been:
43,156 confirmed Covid-19 cases
20,475 active cases
386,926 suspected cases
6,500 critical cases
39,500 hospitalized cases
28,424 recovered cases
1,598 deaths
9 June – Finance Minister Mario Centeno announces his resignation from the government for reasons undisclosed.
Joao Leao, the current Budget Minister, is confirmed by Prime Minister António Costa as Centeno’s replacement beginning on 15 June.
The Assembly officially recognises diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes (1885 – 1954), who in his capacity as consul to France in June 1940 issued thousands of visas to Jewish refugees in Bordeaux, allowing them to escape the advancing German army by crossing south into neutral Spain.
In recognition of his actions, a monument dedicated to him within the National Pantheon is also planned.
Above: Aristides de Sousa Mendes
10 June – The European Commission approves a €1.2 billion loan from the government to TAP Air, the nation’s flag carrier airline, whose debt at the end of 2019 amounted to €800 million.
25 June – A rise in the recorded number of cases of COVID-19 in Lisbon prompts the government to re-impose certain restrictions in 19 of the capital’s parishes to stem transmissions.
From 1 July, measures such as restrictions on travel, an 8 pm curfew for businesses, and limiting the size of social gatherings to five people will be enforced.
1 July – After being shut for more than three months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Spanish-Portuguese border is formally re-opened in a ceremony attended by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Prime Minister António Costa, King Felipe VI, and the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.)
I find myself wondering if I will ever return to Portugal, ever return to Porto.
Perhaps I don’t need to, for in the attempt to capture what they mean to me, within me they live.
“Do I contradict myself?
Very well, then I contradict myself.
I am large.
I contain multitudes.” (Walt Whitman)
Sources: Wikipedia / Google/ Susana Fonseca, Porto and Northern Portugal: Journeys and Stories / Matthew Hancock and Amanda Tomlin, Pocket Rough Guide Porto / Lonely Planet Portugal / Rough Guide Portugal/ Jürgen Strohmeyer, Nordportugal (Müller Verlag) / Matthew Hancock, Xenophobe’s Guide to the Portuguese / Fernando Pessoa, Message / Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet
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 Wertherand 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 הַקּוֹדֶשׁEretz HaKodesh, Latin: Terra Sancta; Arabic: الأرض المقدسةAl-Arḍ Al-Muqaddasah or الديار المقدسةAd-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-1Milano 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.
Landschlacht, Switzerland, Monday 17 February 2020
There is only one certainty in life:
Nothing is certain in life.
I have an ever-growing amount of writing projects that I wish to complete, but they are often delayed and sometimes replaced by other priorities that demand my time and attention.
One such unfinished self-assigned task is the writing (and continued incomplete exploration) of Alsace in France on the border with Germany and Switzerland.
In two previous installments in this blog…..
(Please see Canada Slim and the City at the Crossroads & Canada Slim and the Swedish Pinot of this blog.)
(Please see Canada Slim and the Burning King in the Building Everest blog.)
…..I wrote of travelling along Alsace’s Wine Route, a winding ribbon of flower-bedecked villages stretching 170 kilometres from Cleebourg in the north to Thann in the south.
In the three aforementioned blogposts, I wrote of my travels between Wissembourg to Drachenbronn-Birlerbach and including Strassbourg.
Above: Wissembourg
Above: Strasbourg
Where most sensible folks would drive or take public transportation I attempted last summer (17 – 24 June 2019) to walk part of the length of the Bas-Rhin (lower Rhine) Département from Wissembourg to Saverne.
Above: Château des Rohan, Saverne
Improper footware resulted in blistered feet before my week’s journey ended, but I did my best at the start to walk as much as I could.
On Monday 17 June 2019, I travelled by train from Landschlacht to Wissembourg via Romanshorn, Zürich, Basel and Strasbourg.
On Tuesday 18 June 2019, I journeyed from Wissembourg to Seltz.
I have already described my walk from Wissembourg to Drachenbronn-Birlerbach.
What followed is what follows below…..
Seltz, Alsace, France, Tuesday 18 June 2018
While Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was trying to assure America that “Iran will not wage war against any nation.” after being accused by the United States of attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman…..
Above: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
While 41 people were being killed in an attack in the Yoro and Gangafani villages in Mali…..
While Google announced that it was setting aside $750 million in land and $250 million in financing to encourage developers in the San Francisco area to build and rehabilitate housing in order to ease the homeless crisis in a region where Google has 45,000 employees…..
While Boeing was selling 200 of its 737 MAX planes…..
While Columbian authorities were deporting Venezuelan refugees from the border town of Cúcuta…..
Above: Cúcuta
While US federal appeal court judges from the 9th Circuit were hearing arguments concerning the holding of undocumented immigrant children in unsafe and unsanitary conditions…..
While Donald Trump’s speech at a rally in Orlando was being billed as the official launch of his re-election campaign for the 2020 US presidential election…..
While Britain’s Conservative Party was in the midst of their leadership election…..
While Patrick Shanahan resigned as US Secretary of Defense…..
Above: Patrick Shanahan
…..I was walking the Maginot Line.
The Maginot Line (French: Ligne Maginot), named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by France in the 1930s to deter invasion by Germany and force them to move around the fortifications.
Constructed on the French side of its borders with Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Luxembourg, the line did not extend to the English Channel due to French strategy that envisioned a move into Belgium to counter a German assault.
Based on France’s experience with trench warfare during World War I, the massive Maginot Line was built in the run-up to World War II, after the Locarno Conference gave rise to a fanciful and optimistic “Locarno spirit“.
From left to right, Gustav Stresemann (Germany), Austen Chamberlain (Great Britain) and Aristide Briand (France) during the Locarno Conference
After the bitter experiences of the First World War, from which France had emerged victorious, but in the course of which large areas in the north and east of the country were devastated and 1.4 million dead and 3.5 million wounded were mourned, the decision was made to to protect the border against Germany and later also against Italy.
Above: Scenes of World War One
The defense system was planned by the Minister of War, Paul Painlevé, and was built under his successor André Maginot between 1930 and 1932.
Above: André Maginot (1877 – 1932) was a French civil servant, soldier, and Member of Parliament.
He is best known for his advocacy of the string of forts known as the Maginot Line.
After Hitler came to power, the system was expanded.
For a total of 700 km, 200 of them on the Alsatian-German border, ground-level, but mostly underground forts, artillery, infantry casemates, large shelters, observation bunkers, etc. were lined up, between which tank blocks and mine fields were built.
The individual facilities were not connected by corridors.
The larger fortresses, around so-called combat blocks with extendable turrets, ran through an often kilometer-long network of passages in which rails were laid in order to be able to transport the ammunition with wagons.
Their own power plants provided the necessary energy.
Up to 1,000 soldiers could be stationed here.
Dormitories, showers, canteen kitchens, medical wards and even wine cellars were set up for them.
The smaller casemates were occupied by up to 20 soldiers.
Above: The view of the village of Lembach in Alsace (northeast), taken from the combat unit number 5 of the fortress ouvrage Four-à-Chaux
French military experts extolled the Line as a work of genius that would deter German aggression, because it would slow an invasion force long enough for French forces to mobilise and counterattack.
The Maginot Line was impervious to most forms of attack, including aerial bombings and tank fire, and had underground railways as a backup.
It also had state-of-the-art living conditions for garrisoned troops, supplying air conditioning and eating areas for their comfort.
Above: Combat block 1 at the ouvrage Four à Chaux, showing signs of German testing of explosives inside some fortresses between 1942 and 1944
Instead of attacking directly, the Germans invaded through the Low Countries, completely bypassing the Line to the north.
French and British officers had anticipated this:
When Germany invaded the Netherlands and Belgium, they carried out plans to form an aggressive front that cut across Belgium and connected to the Maginot Line.
However, the French line was weak near the Ardennes forest.
Above: Location of the Ardennes
Above: View of the Meuse in the French Ardennes
Marshal Maurice Gamelin, when drafting the Dyle Plan, believed this region, with its rough terrain, would be an unlikely invasion route of German Forces.
Above: Maurice Gamelin (1872 – 1958) was a French army general in the French Army.
(Gamelin is remembered for his disastrous command (until 17 May 1940) of the French military during the Battle of France (10 May–22 June 1940) in World War II and his steadfast defence of republican values.
The Commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces at the start of World War II, Gamelin was viewed as a man with significant intellectual ability.
He was respected, even in Germany, for his intelligence and “subtle mind“, though he was viewed by some German generals as stiff and predictable.
Despite this, and his competent service in World War I, his command of the French armies during the critical days of May 1940 proved to be disastrous.
Historian and journalist William L. Shirer presented the view that Gamelin used World War I methods to fight World War II, but with less vigor and slower response.)
(The Dyle Plan or Plan D was the plan of the Commander-in-Chief of the French Army, Général d’armée Maurice Gamelin to defeat a German attempt to invade France through Belgium.
The Dyle (Dijle) river is 86 km (53 mi) long, from Houtain-le-Val through Flemish Brabant and Antwerp.
Gamelin intended French, British and Belgian troops to halt a German invasion force along the line of the river.
The Franco-Belgian Accord of 1920 had co-ordinated communication and fortification efforts of both armies.
The Belgian government let the accord lapse after the German Remilitarization of the Rhineland on 7 March 1936, to adopt a policy of strict neutrality, with the German Army (Heer) on the Belgian border.)
If the Ardennes were traversed, it would be done at a slow rate that would allow the French time to bring up reserves and counterattack.
The German Army, having reformulated their plans from a repeat of the First World War-era plan, became aware of and exploited this weak point in the French defensive front.
A rapid advance through the forest and across the River Meuse encircled much of the Allied forces, resulting in a sizeable force being evacuated at Dunkirk leaving the forces to the south unable to mount an effective resistance to the German invasion of France.
Above: Allied evacuation of Dunkirk
Opinions differ on the effect of the Maginot Line, which is sometimes even compared to the Great Wall of China.
Above: The Great Wall of China at Jinshanling
In 1940 the Germans simply bypassed it.
They disregarded Belgium’s neutrality and invaded France from the north.
Many of the fortifications, however, could not be captured despite the most violent bombing.
Their crews surrendered only days after the armistice came into force on the orders of the French High Command.
The Line has since become a metaphor for expensive efforts that offer a false sense of security.
After the war the line was re-manned by the French and underwent some modifications.
With the rise of the French independent nuclear weapons by 1960 the line became an expensive anachronism.
Some of the larger ouvrages were converted to command centres.
When France withdrew from NATO’s military component (in 1966) much of the line was abandoned, with the NATO facilities turned back over to French forces and the rest of it auctioned-off to the public or left to decay.
A number of old fortifications have now been turned into wine cellars, a mushroom farm and even a disco.
Besides that, a few private houses are built atop some of the blockhouses.
Ouvrage Rochonvillers was retained by the French Army as a command centre into the 1990s, but was deactivated following the disappearance of the Soviet threat.
Above: Bloc 5 of the Ouvrage Rochonvillers
Ouvrage Hochwald is the only facility in the main line that remains in active service, as a hardened command facility for the French Air Force known as Drachenbronn Air Base.
Above: Maginot Line – Ouvrage Hochwald (Lower Rhine, France), Block 6. Artillery casemate block for 3 75mm model 29 guns
In 1968 when scouting locations for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, producer Harry Saltzman used his French contacts to gain permission to use portions of the Maginot Line as SPECTRE headquarters in the film.
Saltzman provided art director Syd Cain with a tour of the complex, but Cain said that not only would the location be difficult to light and film inside, but that artificial sets could be constructed at the studios for a fraction of the cost.
The idea was shelved.
Today, the military is no longer interested in the facilities, some casemates serve as storage rooms for farmers, mushrooms are grown in some forts, grenade launcher turrets have been removed, and the metal is often recycled for other purposes.
Few of the once 2,000 buildings in Alsace have been restored by the Association des Amis de la Ligne Maginot d’Alsace and are now accessible to interested visitors:
the Esch (near Hatten) infantry casemate
the Schoenenbourg artillery
the Four à Chaux fortification near Lembach
the casemates Dambach-Neunhoffen and Marckolsheim.
I had walked from Wissembourg that morning to Drachenbronn and was still quite distant (in walking terms) from my pre-arranged hotel accommodation in Seltz.
But I was determined, I was gung-ho, I had gumption.
I would reach Seltz before darkness descended if I was not distracted en route.
I would be distracted….
For the Maginot Line would remind me of how Alsace has been, for generations, a battlefield.
Ouvrage Schoenenbourg is a Maginot Line fortification.
It is located on the territory of the communes of Hunspach, Schœnenbourg and Ingolsheim, in the French département of Bas-Rhin, forming part of the Fortified Sector of Haguenau, facing Germany.
At the east end of the Alsace portion of the Maginot Line, its neighbour is the gros ouvrage Hochwald.
It is the largest such fortification open to the public in Alsace.
Officially recorded as an historical monument, it retains all its original structural elements.
Above: The main entrance to Ouvrage Schoenenbourg
In 1938, soldiers were bored guarding the Maginot line, against the Germans who were not coming.
Two generals sponsored a subscription to flower the casemates.
In a few months, 10,000 roses were planted.
The Germans continued to make cannons.
Their tanks did not respect flower beds.
Schoenenbourg was heavily bombarded during the Battle of France in 1940, receiving more enemy ordinance than any other position in France, with no significant damage.
The fortification at Schoenenbourg is the one that saw the most combat between September 1939 and June 1940.
Over this period, over 17,000 shells were fired from the fort, and it was itself the target of over 3000 shells and 160 bombs.
Schoenenbourg was in action against the German 146th Infantry Division, which applied pressure along the Line.
On 19 June 1940, German Stukas attacked Schoenenbourg and other ouvrages, returning on the 20th and 21st.
The attacks on 21 June were joined by a bombardment with 420 mm siege mortars, lasting three days.
The bombardment cracked walls, but did not disable the position.
Schoenenbourg fired during this period in support of nearby casemates, not seriously affected by the bombardments.
Schoenenbourg’s turrets were retracted to receive the heavy shells, and raised during the lengthy reloading period for counter-battery fire.
The inventory of German ordnance fired against Schoenenbourg was assessed after the armistice, and found to comprise 160 aerial bombs, 50 42 cm shells, 33 28 cm shells, and approximately 3000 smaller projectiles, the most ammunition used against any fortification in France.
The Ouvrage de Schoenenbourg was one of the most fought in June 1940.
From 3 September 1939 to 25 June 1940, the Guardians of Schoenenbourg shot 15,792 grenades of 75 mm caliber and 682 of 81 mm caliber.
That was a total of 16,474 grenades in 10 months, of which 13,388 in 10 days (from June 14 to 25), including 723 120mm-sized grenades.
During this time, the plant received 56 hits from 420 mm grenades, 33 from 280 mm grenades, 160 from aerial bombs and 3,000 from 105 or 150 mm grenades.
The final surrender of Schoenenbourg was effected on 1 July 1940, in accordance with the terms of the Second Compiègne armistice.
Above: Hitler (hand on hip) and German high-ranked Nazis and officers staring at WWI French marshall Maréchal Foch’s memorial statue before entering the railway carriage in order to start the negotiations for the 1940 armistice at Rethondes in the Compiègne forest, France.
The armistice will only be signed the next day (June 22), Hitler being absent, by General Keitel on the German side and by General Huntziger on the French side.
Screenshot taken from the 1943 United States Army propaganda film Divide and Conquer (Why We Fight #3) directed by Frank Capra and partially based on news archives, animations, restaged scenes and captured propaganda material from both sides.
Above: Ferdinand Foch’s Railway Car, at the same location as after World War One, prepared by the Germans for the second armistice at Compiègne, June 1940
Following the surrender Schoenenbourg was used as a backdrop for propaganda films and as an indoctrination center for Hitler Youth.
Above: Flag of the Hitler Youth
In 1945, retreating German troops used explosives to destroy much of the ouvrage.
No fighting took place in the area of Schoenenbourg during the American advances of 1945, but the retreating Germans of the 245th Infantry Division caused extensive damage in March, using explosives to wreck the entrances and turrets, along with a number of nearby casemates.
The US 36th Infantry Division took possession of the damaged ouvrage on 20 March 1945.
Above: Ensignia of the US 36th Infantry
After the War it was fully repaired and placed back into service as part of a programme to use Maginot fortifications to resist a potential Warsaw Pact advance through Europe.
Above: Logo of the Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance
In the 1950s interest in the Maginot Line was renewed.
In 1951, Lembach, Four-à-Chaux, Hochwald and Schoenenbourg were designated the Môle de Haguenau, a point of resistance against a potential invasion by forces of the Warsaw Pact.
Lembach was repaired and put in a state of readiness in 1951-52.
Above: Four à Chaux, Lembach
Wartime damage was repaired.
The reconstructed entries took on a form that was modified from the original design, using the old foundations.
By the late 1950s interest in fixed fortifications was waning after France developed a nuclear deterrent.
The money needed to maintain and upgrade the fortifications was diverted for the nuclear programs.
Schoenenbourg was not manned or maintained after the early 1970s.
By the 1970s the plan had lost favour and funding.
Schoenenbourg was abandoned.
In 1987 a local organisation undertook Schoenenbourg’s preservation and today it is open to public visitation.
In 1987 the French Army allowed the Association des Amis de la Ligne Maginot d’Alsace (Alsace Association of Friends of the Maginot Line) to conduct tours of the fortification.
From 1987 the group has worked to restore Schoenenbourg.
The gallery system was used by the army for training until 2001 and the surface hosted three field emplacements for anti-aircraft missiles.
On 4 September 2001, Schoenenbourg was the first gros ouvrage to be sold by the Ministry of Defense to a local community.
And it is the local community of nearby Schoenenbourg village that determines when the Ouvrage is open.
Above: The Village of Schoenenbourg
Tours, for safety reasons, are no longer self-guided.
Prepared with warm clothing, the Visitor should be also prepared to be impressed by the underground facilities, once garrisoned by 620 soldiers at any given time.
The Fort with its three kilometres of underground galleries, equipment, infrastructure, casemates and towers, kitchens, machine rooms, the infirmary and all the living quarters have been restored in graphic detail.
Mannequins in uniform sleep in the dormitories or gorge themselves on local produce.
The huge underground fortress belonging to the Ligne Maginot is very close to the village of Schoenenbourg.
A staircase takes you about 30 meters down, first you visit the supply bunker with a fully equipped team kitchen (there was even a potato peeling machine), barracks and power station and then walk about one kilometer along the rails to one of the battle bunkers with a retractable armored turret.
The Fort is open every day for organized groups.
Individual visitors are admitted from 1 April to 31 October.
As the right cornerstone of the Maginot line, the Schoenenbourg group is a typical medium-sized artillery group (size class 2).
The shell was built from 1930 to 1933.
In 1935 the interior and armament were installed.
They were further improved and would have been expanded beyond 1940.
Most parts of the plant are 17 to 30 m underground.
Only the two factory entrances and the battle bunkers are on the surface of the earth.
The two entrances, one for the crew and one for the material delivery, are on the opposite side of a hill.
Shafts with stairs and elevators lead from the entrance structures to the underground parts of the factory.
There is a barracks with a kitchen and a hospital, a power plant, workshops, ammunition depots and command posts.
There was a narrow gauge railway in the plant that transported the material from the material entrance through a tunnel over 1 km long to the combat blocks.
The battle bunkers on the enemy side in the hill consist of two side-flanking infantry casemates (blocks 1 and 6), a retractable MG tank tower, two retractable tank towers with cannons and a retractable tank tower with a grenade launcher.
Above: Cross-section of a 75mm combat block showing the operation of the turret
The crew consisted of about 20 officers, 70 non-commissioned officers and 500 team ranks.
The crew size often fluctuated between 510 and 630 men. 183 of the crew, including about eight officers, were infantry, 230 men including ten artillery officers and 133 men including two to three officers were pioneers and members of the utility services.
Some of the crew were handed over to the Hoffen, Aschbach and Hatten observation bunkers as artillery observers.
The work group was commanded in 1939/40 by Major Reynier, who was supported by Captain Cortasse as the commander of the factory artillery, Captain Kieffer as the commander of the infantry and Captain Straw as the pioneer commander.
The individual systems of the work group and their armament:
– Block 1: Infantry Casemate North. 1 × 4.7-cm-Pak (Canon de 47 mm AC modèle 1934), 2 twin MGs, 2 MG armored domes.
– Block 2: MG tank tower. 1 twin machine gun in tank tower, 1 machine gun dome.
– Block 3: Panzerturm. 2 × 7.5 cm howitzer (model R 32), 1 MG armored dome.
– Block 4: Panzerturm. 2 × 7.5 cm howitzer (model R 32), 1 observation dome, 1 MG armored dome.
– Block 5: tank tower. 2 × 8.1 cm grenade launchers, 1 grenade launcher dome, 1 MG tank dome.
– Block 6: Infantry casemate south. 1 × 4.7 cm pak, 1 twin machine gun, 1 machine gun dome.
– Block 7: Ammunition entrance. 1 × 4.7 cm pak, 1 twin machine gun, 2 machine gun domes.
– Block 8: Team entrance. 1 × 4.7-cm-Pak, 1 twin machine gun, 1 grenade launcher dome, 1 MG tank dome.
The original planning had planned two artillery casemates, each with two 7.5 cm howitzers, which were to act as flanks, and an artillery armored turret as a frontal defense.
Because of the flat terrain, the two mighty gun casemats were replaced by armored turrets and their number was reduced from three to two.
A tank tower with two 13.5-cm howitzers, moved as combat block 9 to the second construction phase, was never built because the outbreak of the war meant that the second construction phase was not realized.
During normal operation, the Maginot Line plants were supplied with 22,000 volts from the outside via an underground cable.
Because an interruption in the external power supply had to be expected in the event of war, all plants were equipped with their own power plants.
Many functions of a Maginot plant depended on the supply of electricity:
– Lighting (approx. 2000 lamps)
– Transport (six elevators, two electric locomotives)
– Message transmission (radio, telephone, machine telegraph)
– Ventilation (35 fans)
– Water supply (ten pumps)
– Operation of the turrets
– Kitchen (electric stove, boiler, etc.)
There were four diesel generators in the machine room of the power plant.
Two generators were sufficient for normal operation.
When the plant was in a fight, a third generator was switched on to compensate for the increased energy requirements due to the lifting, lowering and turning of the armored turrets, the more frequent ammunition lifts, the increased traffic of the electric narrow-gauge railways and the increased use of ventilation.
The fourth generator was in reserve.
In the event of a sudden power failure, a small emergency generator was available in the power plant for a black start, which could be started manually and only supplied the power plant with power until the large diesel generators could be started.
These units were diesel engines from Sulzer with four cylinders each and a total output of 117.68 kW with a consumption of 20 liters of fuel per hour.
They were started using compressed air.
Each engine drove a generator that delivered 115 kVA in 440 volts.
All four generators could optionally be coupled together.
The very robust engines came from submarines and were dismantled by the German Wehrmacht for this purpose after the plant was abandoned.
The power station also has a transforming and transformer station that spans the 440 volt alternating current into 110 volt alternating current for the lighting network, 600 volt direct current for the electric locomotives and 3000 volts for the supply of the combat blocks.
Due to the higher voltage, the transmission losses were reduced, in the combat blocks the 3000 volts were switched over again according to your own needs.
In addition to the machine room and the forming station, the power plant also includes workshops, offices, spare parts stores and large storage tanks for 96,000 liters of diesel oil, 184,000 liters of cooling water and 6,000 liters of lubricating oil.
The main ventilation of the plant with a filter room is also housed here.
In an emergency, all of the plant’s electrically operated facilities could also be operated by hand.
Because of the dramatic events that forced the surrender of Fort Vaux during the First World War, because the garrison was close to dying of thirst, special attention was paid to the water supply of the Maginot works.
Above: Fort Vaux, Verdun
Above: The exhausted defenders of Fort Vaux
The Schoenenbourg plant had 263,000 liters available in 14 reservoirs.
These reservoirs were fed from a 117 meter deep well that guaranteed the independence of the plant.
Also, when the tunnel was driven, three water veins were cut, which were caught and added to the water supply.
The barracks are located near the team entrance and not far from the power station.
It housed accommodation for crews and officers, the kitchen, the hospital, washrooms and showers, the clothing store, and food and drinking water supplies.
There were toilets in every battle block.
In the main command center, all communications came together.
The reports from the individual combat blocks and also from other bunkers and plants were recorded and evaluated here.
Here was the fortress commander’s room and the telephone exchange, which was also in constant communication with the radio room, which was in the ammunition entrance for technical reasons.
Once the reports received had been evaluated and there was an overview of the situation, the fire control center of the artillery issued the commands to the combat blocks.
The commands were issued from here via machine telegraphs directly to the gun turrets.
So it often only took a few minutes from a reported enemy sighting to opening fire.
It was the local community volunteers who encountered a certain tall, thirsty Canadian hiker that horribly warm Tuesday afternoon.
When I arrived all tired and thirsty, hot (high 20°s) and bothered, as Google Maps and poor signage had been distinctly unhelpful in navigating through the Outre Fôret, I was informed that I was too early for a guided tour and that the tour would last two hours and that the warren labyrinth of tunnels required a guided tour.
Having to wait two hours for a tour and being still four hours’ walking distance away from Seltz and my pre-booked hotel room, I regretably had to give the Fort a pass.
The voluntary guides were obliging enough to allow me to drink a belly full of cold water and to refill my water bottle, but I was deeply saddened not to be able to have the opportunity to hear the human side of these fortifications beyond the facts I had previously garnered.
A few kilometres away from the Fort I see a sign at the entrance to the town of Hunspach (population: 700) which informs the visitor that he has arrived in one of the most beautiful villages in France.
Hunspach can be rightly proud of their blossom-white plastered half-timbered houses from the 18th and 19th centuries with characteristic gable canopies and large courtyards.
Together they form a picturesque ensemble.
Still one of the most attractive villages that I have seen, Hunspach was rebuilt by the Swiss after the ravages of the Thirty Years War (which perhaps explains this solemnity and cleanliness of the place).
Some curious details to note:
Several residences have curved panes which formerly allowed residents to see outside while preserving their privacy.
The village is a member of the Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (The most beautiful villages of France) association.
Hunspach has retained much of its traditional architecture.
The houses are white and in the Alsatian half timbered style.
Open central yards offer glimpses of the working farms within.
Hunspach really deserves attention.
Without being particularly spectacular, it exudes a great sweetness of life.
Above all, it is not a village museum, unlike many listed villages.
It is a village that lives!
Everywhere in the village, old draw wells remind us that water once had to be laboriously brought into the houses by hand.
The Hunspacher are also tradition-conscious when it comes to eating.
For Sunday breakfast, the thick cake, a yeast pastry, is served almost everywhere, and every housewife has her family recipe for the village specialty Flaaschknepfle (meatballs in white sauce).
The only famous personality that Hunspach seems to have produced is Hans Adam Rott.
Hans Adam Rott (1876 – 1942) was a German historian, especially an art historian.
He was the director of the Baden State Museum in Karlsruhe for many years.
Above: Baden State Museum (Badisches Landesmuseum), Karlsruhe
After attending grammar school in Weissenburg, Hans Rott initially studied law at the University of Freiburg, where he obtained his PhD.
Subsequently, he studied history, art history and church history at the University of Heidelberg, where he earned another doctorate in 1904 with a thesis on Friedrich II.
Above: Friedrich II (1482 – 1556), also known as Frederick the Wise, a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty, was Prince-Elector of the Palatinate from 1544 to 1556.
In 1906 Rott undertook a trip through Asia Minor to research the Christian monuments there.
Rott succeeded Max Wingenroth as assistant to the director at the Badisches Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe in 1909, where he also worked on the inventory of Baden art monuments.
From 1919 until his retirement in 1938, he was director of the State Museum.
He was awarded the title of Professor for his services.
He researched and published primarily in the field of art history in Baden and southwestern Germany at the time of the transition from late Gothic to the Renaissance, for which he mainly evaluated archival sources.
Above: Hunspach, Rott’s birthplace
The next village (population: 1,200) I visited first appears in surviving records in 1052 as Hoffen.
Hof is a Germanic word denoting a farm, a homestead or a settlement.
The village coat of arms comes from the Trautwein family who founded Hof: the family died out in 1664.
The story of Hof has been a turbulent one.
In the 14th century there were two settlements: Hoven comprised a dozen farms and Buren just four houses.
These were the property of St Peter the Younger in Strasbourg.
Above: Church of St. Peter the Younger, Strasbourg
However, in 1450, the villages were surrendered to the lords of Hohenbourg and Fleckenstein.
Above: Château de Hohenbourg, Alsace
Above: Chateau de Fleckenstein, Alsace
Then from the end of the 15th century possession of these settlements passed into the hands of the Counts of Zweibrücken.
During the 17th century Hoffen became attached to the Bailiwick of Cleebourg.
Above: Cleebourg, Alsace
The Thirty Years War (1618 – 1648) was devastating for many villages in Alsace, and in 1633 the hamlet of Buren disappeared following the passing of Imperial Catholic troops.
Above: Illustration from Jacques Callot’s Les Grandes Misères de la Guerre (The Great Miseries of the War), 1632
There were further destructive wars for much of the 18th century, but 1748 probably marked the end of the most deadly of them all for Alsace.
Many villages were left depopulated and were subsequently resettled by migrants from Switzerland, higher up the river Rhine or from other parts of France which emerged from the war in possession of most of the major towns and cities in Alsace, and controlled the whole province by the time of Louis XIV’s death in 1715.
In September 1939 the population of Hoffen was evacuated to Haute Vienne as the government reluctantly planned for another territorial struggle with Germany.
In 1974 the communes of Leiterswiller, Hoffen and Hermerswiller merged.
Hoffen is a typical and charming village with its flowering houses of geraniums, its portals and its wooden balconies.
I like the main square and the old half-timbered town hall, with an elegant wooden gallery on columns.
Next door, I see a majestic lime tree planted during the Revolution.
Above: City Hall, Hoffen
By the time I leave Hoffen I find myself feeling worried.
I am still, according to my calculations, three hours’ walking distance from Seltz, and the sun will be setting soon.
I really don’t wish to be walking in darkness in unfamiliar territory and as it seems that my slow ambling at the Fort and in the picturesque hamlets of Hunspach and Hoffen, I decide to chance getting a lift with a driver to Seltz.
His name is Thierry Labbé.
He is a phys-ed teacher at a high school in Hagenau heading home to Hatten and welcomed the distraction of a Canadian hitchhiker on this oft-travelled commute.
Above: Hagenau, Alsace
(He knew I was Canadian as I sported my flag on my backpack.
Subsequent questioning and my ability to speak French confirmed my status.)
Thierry volunteered to drive me right to the door of my hotel outside Seltz even though this was several kilometres away from his original destination.
Our journey took us right through Hatten and past Esch.
Hatten marks the start of the Outre Fôret in the north of the Bas-Rhin, at the northern edge of the Haguenau forest.
The town, although located in the plain of Alsace, has a hilly type relief.
A collection of Neolithic objects has been unearthed beneath the town hall.
The Hatten chariot tomb attests to the geographical belonging of the tumuli culture of middle Europe.
However, it is necessary to consider globally the extensive site of the Hatten forest and the Bois de l’Hospital, a necropolis of more than 300 mounds identified.
The first cartular occurrence of the temporal possessions of Wissembourg Abbey mentions this village-domain for a few scattered properties.
The village initially belonged to the county of Alsace and was in the Hattgau.
In 1332 the Lords of Lichtenberg bought it together with a number of other villages and rights.
The office had developed in the 14th century and was an office of the Lichtenberg rule, from 1480 Hanau-Lichtenberg county, from which it passed to Hesse-Darmstadt county in 1736.
Hatten Castle was built by the Lichtenbergers before 1354.
It was handed over to the Kurpfalz by the Lichtenbergers and received back as a fief.
The local farmers saw themselves as free farmers. So they had no need to get urban liberties.
They were already free.
That is why Hatten was never granted city rights – in contrast to other larger places under the Lichtenberg rule.
Anna von Lichtenberg (1442 – 1474) married Count Philipp I the Elder of Hanau-Babenhausen (1417 – 1480) in 1458.
The county of Hanau-Lichtenberg was formed through the marriage.
After the death of the last Lichtenberger, Count Jakob, an uncle of Anna, Philipp I ruled Hanau-Lichtenberg, which also included Hatten.
This remained under the authority of the Landgraves of Basse-Alsace before being sold to the powerful lords of Lichtenberg in 1332.
They bequeathed it to their heirs, the Hanau-Lichtenberg in 1448, then the Hesse-Darmstadt in 1736.
Count Philip IV of Hanau-Lichtenberg (1514-1590) consistently carried out the Reformation in his county after he took office in 1538, which now became Lutheran.
Around 1680 parts of the county of Hanau-Lichtenberg in Alsace fell under the sovereignty of France, including Hatten.
In 1736 Count Johann Reinhard III, the last male representative of the Hanau Family died.
Due to the marriage of his only daughter, Charlotte (1700 – 1726), to Prince Ludwig (1691 – 1768) of Hesse-Darmstadt.
Before the Revolution, Hatten was the capital of a bailiwick grouping ten villages.
It was animated by an almost negligible commercial life, apart from three big annual fairs.
As a result of the French Revolution, the part of Hanau-Lichtenberg on the left bank of the Rhine – and thus also Hatten – fell to France.
Above: Storming of the Bastille
During the demographic peak in 1849, with 2,139 inhabitants, the town hosted various houses of trade in fabrics, iron, wood and wine, in addition to a notary and a collector of direct contributions.
The village was even the seat of a small Protestant consistory of the Augsburg Confession, since it counted among its population 1,131 Protestants and 22 Anabaptists for 765 Catholics and 222 Jews.
Above: Europe, 1618
From 1871 until the end of the First World War, the municipality belonged to the German Empire as part of the Empire of Alsace-Lorraine and was assigned to the district of Weissenburg in Lower Alsace.
During the German Belle Époque, a brigade of gendarmes, three doctors, a pharmacy, a bookstore, a savings bank, a public cash register, grain wholesalers, hops, cattle, wood and charcoal were added.
In 1939, Hatten was on the Maginot Line, so as a precaution the 1,500 inhabitants of the village were evacuated to Château Ponsac in Limousin by the French authorities.
They left behind everything that didn’t fit in a suitcase.
But luckily, the village did not suffer then.
So in 1940, the inhabitants of Hatten were able to return to Alsace, then annexed by the Germans.
On 13 December 1944, after 4 years of occupation, the village was liberated without fighting by the Americans and the inhabitants then felt safe.
But on 1 January 1945, the Germans launched one of their last war offensives, Operation Nordwind, which aimed, among other things, to reconquer Strasbourg.
Hatten was then a must for the German tanks and, during the tank battles between Germans and Americans between 8 and 20 January, the village was almost entirely destroyed by a succession of tank fighting, with the enormous power of American artillery fire completing the destruction operation.
Indeed, after 12 days of fighting, of the 365 houses in the village then, 350 were destroyed.
2,500 soldiers and 83 civilians were killed there.
After the war, the martyred village was rebuilt.
A bunker museum and a commemorative plaque in the center of the church testify to the losses.
The town of Hatten is actually an unassuming residential village, but if you are interested in military history and the Ligne Maginot, you will see a lot here.
The Cour de Marie is a delightful and atypical museum which pays homage to village traditions with agricultural equipment, Raynal dolls, baby carriages, 19th century sewing machines, gallery radio sets….
Not forgetting the hairdressing salon and the grocery store from the 1950s.
In the west of the village, an open-air museum has been set up on the site of a former large shelter.
This shelter museum (Museé de l’abri) is set up in a large bunker, which the French military built in 1930 as a defensive structure against the German Empire and which was given to a volunteer association for use in the 1990s.
The museum is not subsidized by the state and is financed by donations and entrance fees.
Their exhibition concept is unusual:
It sees itself as a museum against oblivion.
Therefore, relics from the Second World War have been gathered from everywhere, including from Germany.
Among other things, models illustrate the devastating tank battle at Hatten in January 1945.
The documents on everyday life during the Second World War are particularly impressive.
To the east of the village you can also visit the Casemate d’Esch with two restored original rooms and a small exhibition.
Built in 1931, Casemate Esch was occupied by the 23rd Fortress Infantry Regiment, which assisted in combat in June 1940 during the enemy attack on the Aschbach and Oberroedern casemates.
In January 1945, Esch was successively taken and retaken by the Germans and Americans and was the scene of fierce fighting of which it still bears traces today.
Above: Casemate Esch
After a pleasant drive and conversation where he explained to me the sites we passed, Thierry left me at my hotel, asking me to befriend him on Facebook.
The Hôtel des Bois in Seltz is a quiet resting place near the German border with:
15 rooms
4 studios
1 apartment
All are on offer for an overnight or a longer stay.
The Hôtel did its best to provide for my comfort.
The front desk is open 24 hours and free Wi-Fi access is provided in the entire hotel.
Bicycle storage and free private parking are possible on site.
All the rooms were renovated in 2017.
Though they would offer breakfast in a well-lit dining hall, supper had to be catch-as-catch-can from the Super U mall besides Autoroute A35.
The A35 autoroute is a toll free, 137 km / 116-mile long highway in northeastern France.
It is also known as the Autoroute des cigognes (storks) and the Voie Rapide du Piémont des Vosges.
It connects the German border in the Rhine valley with the Swiss frontier via Strasbourg.
The road forms part of European routes E25 and E60.
At the northern end, where the road reaches the German frontier, it becomes a single carriageway road controlled by a speed camera.
On the German side of the frontier, plans to build a final stretch of Autobahn to connect the French A35 directly with the German A65 at Kandel were not implemented during the 1990s when the focus of Autobahn construction switched to the eastern side of the country.
The project remains unimplemented:
It is contentious because of the ecological impact it could have on the Bienwald (wooded area) through which the road would run.
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 Rougechronicles 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.
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.
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.
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
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 Atlanticmagazine.
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 Mailthat 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 Stonewhich 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 Potternovel 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
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