"In Europe" thoughts of wars past, contrasting present

Over this trip to Germany, I have been reading a book that I thought was simply a travel narrative of Europe. The book, titled "In Europe", is actually an interesting journey through the last 100 or so years in Europa, from 1900ish to 2000ish. The writer begins the book at the turn of the 18th century to the 19th, contrasting the 20th as a litmus for all that was happening at the time.
This has also proven to be quite useful in my own personal journey during this time as I come to realize that I am also becoming part of Europe as more than half of my family presides directly on this contentient. Each day presents new challenges as I contrast my own life as an American with the lives of Europeans. The differences are seemingly large--we view this land in totally different ways because of the time that we have to interact with not only the spaces, but the times as well.

As an American, I think I seem to be obsessed with the wars that plagued this country for so many years, both devasting the land, the people and the culture. However, the more that I learn about it, the more I see that it is becoming so far of the past that it is rather difficult to draw the conclusions of how this place become now what it is from such devastation. The times, for the first time in nearly a century, have been, for the most part, calm for the last decade. The book, "In Europe" is more informative of the wars than anything I have come across here, either accidentally or intentionally--and its not because the people are willing to talk about it--it's moreso that they simply do not think about it. When I recite facts of things that I have been reading. For example: When the Nazi's working in the concentration camps would see someone with an interesting tattoo on their body, they would remove it from them (either killing them or just removing the skin) and make lampshades out it. When I told a couple people this, they nodded, knowing it, but of course where in conversation would that really come up. "I know the war was terrible and the Nazi's did terrible things like ________, but that's all in the past now, so...."
We all want to move on from the devasting parts of life and the reality is that the German people are now almost two generations gone from that period of time. The last super power to have a government that took its own people down a simillar pathway would have to be the Americans with the suspension of civil liberties and freedoms in the name of terrorism, led by George W Bush. That fact is still suppressed because, much like the aftermath of the war, it's too soon to really look at what has been done and accept responsibility. I wish Bush would read this book and think about the millions of people that were killed all because a group of people simply couldn't agree on things. As both wars dragged on, particularly the first World War, the people living in the trenches on both sides of the war began to realize that they had been duped into fighting for something that wasn't in reality, what any of them really stood for. The book constantly refers to the moments where the generals were running the battles from a safe distance with no regard to the people that were being killed off in the name of their own planning-- and this happened on both sides-- very little value was placed internally on the lives of soldiers. In the end the Americans were proclaimed as the victors because they had so little at stake in both wars-- America came into the first World War only when the Germans began to torpedo the American ships carrying supplies to England-- the war, just like the Second WW, had been going on for many years before the Americans got involved. When they did though, it was a massive operation with millions of fresh bodies entering a war that had all but destroyed everyone around them. The trench soldiers had been living in conditions that no one living would choose-- and were skiddish warriors at best.
Regardless, stumbling upon these moments of history on this trip are moments which I hold with very high regard. Having a book like "In Europe" makes me hungry to know more about a place which holds so much history--that makes our young country seem so young and inexperienced with tragedy. Perhaps that is why we made the mistakes we have in our young history -- we have so little history and understanding of the true tragedies of the rest of the world. That is what travelling, in a sense, is all about-- experiencing these other cultures in order to put it against our own. Read more!

Nuremberg

Lili and I have arrived in Nuremberg, Germany yesterday from Koln. We rented a rather lovely and fast Volkswagen Golf, for a very reasonable price. I am a bit sad to report that the Autobahn was not the uber fast speedway that we Americans dream to drive on-- at least not yesterday. There was more construction on the bit of Autobahn from Koln to the Bavarian border that it was very rare that I got the chance to hammer down the pedal. However, when I did, it was nothing short of exhilarating.

It took us about 4.5 hours to drive here and we arrived just after 5. Traffic was busy coming into town as everyone was just getting off of work and we headed directly to the hotel, which Lili claims to have found using her most excellent mapping skills, but I think it was more luck than anything else. We managed to find all three hotels like the one we are staying in -- ETAP. It's a budget hotel, 50 euro's a night, which is actually cheaper than staying in a hostel with a private room.

The city of Nuremberg is much more beautiful than I had imagined it and I was thinking it was going to be quite special. It ranks right up there with Dresden in the most beautiful German city thus far... and I think that once I actually soak it in, it will become my favorite German town.

There is a giant castle, schloss, at the top of the city gates, which is where the picture above is taken. It has a great overlook of the city itself, which was mostly destroyed in the WWII. In case you didn't know, Nuremberg was the center of the Nazi movement and also where the trails were held at the end of the war. It was destroyed in the war and rebuilt. Luckily, when the Nazi party was here, they were meticulous in photographing the city and all that it contained.

I have read quite a lot over the years about WWII and to be in the city where so much of it went down is quite a dream. Walking through the streets and thinking about the pleasantness that this city now offers and contrasting it with the days when the Nazi party was at it's height of control in Germany -- and most of the propagandist theater was staged right here. I imagined the city center streets lined with German soldiers as Hitler gives his speeches -- and how he watched the parades of soldiers march through the city.

Today we will walk out to the soccer stadium, which is on the same grounds as Zeppelinstadium, which is the area that he gave his speeches to hundreds of thousands of supporters. Again, most of that was destroyed by the Allied troops after the war, but they did leave parts of it. I will post those photos over the next several days.

For the record, I don't want this to seem like I am some war buff vacation, but there really are two stories to the German life-- the war and everything that happened after the war. This country has a lot of deep scars from that time period and the wound is finally healing, but that injury will forever be with the German people and it was an interesting period of time. Hitler and the Nazi Party were an evil regime and it was a dark period but they did some pretty historical things. To think that this is the hotbed of it all-- the wound runs the deepest here-- but it's also where the healing began with the Nuremberg Trials -- the fact that they tried and hanged the people that were left in the end here gives the place the opportunity to start anew--and it has.

In fact, one would have to know firsthand that the city was destroyed by bombs to realize that all of it has been completely redone because it very closely resembles a city like Prague, minus St. Charles Gate, of course.

Anyway, that's all for now as were headed to Zeppelin Field...

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Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellon_Collie_and_the_Infinite_Sadness

The common question when seeing people that I haven't seen in a bit is a mixture of questions of the past and the future-- how was the wedding and how is it without your wife not being in the country?
At this point in my life, I feel like I am in limbo, no direction, no way home, just waiting, lurking in the shadows, waiting for the moment when my wife is allowed to enter the country so that we can then begin our lives together.
This time has not been easy, so difficult that at times you try not to think of it, whatever you have to do to get away from it, to get away from the reality of your life being on hold because of the government.
During this time, I have had the opportunity to work on myself the way that I have wanted to since coming back from China-- losing the weight that I quickly put on from spending a year in China. I lost 50 pounds in China and gained 100 coming back. I made a promise to myself when I got married and could barely fit into a suit that enough was enough-- I was going to take my life back and begin to make decisions that need to be made because I want to have a life and I want to be a role model for my children-- someone that they can look up to in any case.
So I have spent the last three months going to the gym and trying to take care of myself, trying to develop myself into a routine, getting things straight, mentally and physically so that I could begin this new life with my wife, fresh and anew.
Today was a celebratory breaking point-- I reached the first of my goals since undertaking this challenge and it was done with the help of the Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness, a complex double album of songs that supposedly chronicle the different stages of life, from sadness to joy to anger to enlightenment...
I have listened to this album hundreds of times, seen the band perform it live in their pajamas and it is one of the en grained soundtracks of my life. It is one of the strongest albums ever recorded and each time I listen to it, I think about all the times around it in life.
In some ways it seems like the perfect thing to listen to while hitting the elliptical machine for 60 minutes-- and the first part of Mellon Collie lasts 56 minutes-- so I am looking forward to hitting the next part of the album on the next goal-- or maybe on the plane as I am going to see my wife for the first time in months...
But I am keeping my head up, looking forward to the future, one moment at a time...

Hope youre all well.

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Wedding reception site

Here are a small set of pictures of the reception site in Bremerhaven, Germany. The wedding date will be confirmed soon, but it is looking like the date will be June 28th, 2008. More details to come...

 
 
 
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