Transblawg

This is a photo of part of Nuremberg city wall, for those who don't know it.

It's close to the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. They had an exhibition on castles (there's a parallel one in Berlin) so I went and had a look.

Scarcely had I entered the first room when I was overcome by a sense of information overload. I don't like these audio guides, as they are so long-winded. Looking at the explanatory texts by the exhibits was also difficult with bifocals. I looked at a couple of castle models and some Playmobil knights' castles, but I wasn't in the mood for it.

This Püsterich appealed to me. I sneakily photographed it in the guide (photography not allowed in exhibitions). It is made of ceramics or metal, is filled with water and put in the fireplace, and when it is heated it starts blowing out steam through its mouth. No-one knows why. It may have been to increase the flames, but water is not usually good for that. This is the most famous one and is probably from the 13th century.



In fact it is on the Web too. It is usually at Sondershausen Museum. Google image search reveals a couple of other Püsteriches too. And Sondershausen has a mining museum and an underground marathon (Untertage-Marathon). You have to wear a helmet.

The first time I came here, it was winter.

Now at last I have worked out how to tell where the famous tombs are:







Fortunately Google books helps decipher this (translation from Albrecht Dürer. A Guide to Research, by Jane Campbell Hutchison:

Hier ruhe Künstlerfürst
Du mehr als grosser Mann!
In Vielkunst hat es dir
noch keiner gleich getan.
Die Erd war ausgemalt
der Himmel dich jetzt hat;
du malest heilig nun
dort an der Gottestatt
Die Bau- Bild- und Malerkunst
Die nennen dich Patron
und setzen dir nun auf
im Tod die Lorbeerkron.

Rest here, oh artist prince
Thou more than worthy man!
In mastering all arts
None equalled thee.

Thy work on earth complete
In heaven is thy home;
Thou paintest, saintly now,
Beside God's sacred throne,
The builders, sculptors, painters
Call thee Patron (saint)
In death they now award thee
The (artist's) laurel crown.

Vixit Germaniae suae Decus
ALBERTUS DURERUS
Artium Lumen, Sol Artificium
Urbis Patr. Nor. Ornamentum
Pictor, Chalcographus, Sculptor
Sine Exemplo, quia Omniscius
Dignus Inventus Exteris,
Quem imitandum censerent.
Magnes Magnatum, Cos ingeniorum
Post Sesqui Seculi Requiem
Qui Parem non habuit
Solus Heic cubae jubetur
Tu flores sparge Viator.
A.R.S. MDCLXXXI
J. De S.

The glory of Germany is dead.
ALBERTUS DURERUS
Light of the arts, Sun of the artists
Ornament of Noris, his native twn,
Painter, Graphic artist, Sculptor
Without precedent because ominiscient,
Found worthy by foreigners who
Recommend to imitate him.
Magnet of Magnates, grindstone for talents,
After one hundred fifty years
No one having been equal to him
He must repose here alone.
Traveller, strew flowers.
In the year of Salvation 1681
J.D.S.

I didn't strew any flowers because there were more than enough there anyway.



Here's the text of this one, in case anyone is searching for it:

Resurgam
Ann Mary
Wife of Edward Dunscomb,
New York
Republic United States N.A.
12. Nov. 1842
16. Mar. 1851. Nürnberg Bayern.
Apalachicola Ann Mary Seon
Daughter Edward,
and Ann Mary Dunscomb
12. Apr. 1842. Brooklyn New York
20 Mar. 184. Halle an der Saale Preussen
Lucas 18, 16 ('Let the litte children come to me')

Market of Nürnberg's twin cities (English, German) - Venice:



Gera:



Glasgow:



Children's market - Christkind cleaning window:



A shock in the crib:



Ass:



Outside the market (I can't believe Dürer could bake Stollen):

The most beautiful view of the city can be had from the Festung Marienberg (fortress). From the 15th-century Old Main Bridge, with its statues of the Franconian apostles of Lilian, Totnan and Kolonat, the Romanesque Cathedral dominates the view.

Found here.

I was actually wondering whether it was OK in English to refer to Kilian, Kolonat and Totnan as the Franconian apostles. Apparently it is, although this site would not persuade me.

Time for the annual sorry picture. Nuremberg, Hauptmarkt.

One wonders why the Germans integrate paper labels in their bread, but when trying to distinguish several dozen types, it's quite useful.

Feinkost Nikolaus Schwarz, Winklerstraße, Nürnberg.

The clergyman Markus Bomhard loves Playmobil figures and created a Playmobil Bible. However, in order to crucify one of the figures, he had first to warm the plastic and remould it, and he put some breasts and a penis on Eve and Adam respectively (I used that 'respectively' for the benefit of non-native speakers of English to see how it works). The Süddeutsche reports:

Ein Playmobil-Männchen kann man nicht so einfach kreuzigen. Dazu sind die Arme der fingerlangen Plastikfigur zu starr; sie lassen sich nicht seitlich ausbreiten. Der evangelische Pastor Markus Bomhard weiß, wie es trotzdem geht. Man müsse sie nur lange genug über die Flamme einer Kerze oder unter einen heißen Föhn halten, sagt er: "Dann wird das Kunststoffmaterial ganz leicht weich und lässt sich formen." Anschließend lasse man das Figürchen noch kurz aushärten, ehe man es ans Kreuz nageln könne. Gottesmann Bomhard treibt bei alledem nicht etwa Sadismus um, sondern religiöser Eifer.

But the Franconian company Geobra Brandstätter object to the alteration of the figures, which they say is a breach of copyright. They don't mind if someone alters the figures on a small scale, but this pastor actually set up a Playmo-Bibel website (though the SZ reports that when Harald Schmidt changed one of the figures into Hitler on TV, the company took no action). Their lawyers require him to stop using the domain name playmo-bibel.de (he has to call it Klicky-Bibel) and stop printing photos of the figures.

Even the Pope was in favour of the procedure:

"Möge Ihr Projekt vielen Kindern wie auch den Eltern und Erwachsenen auf spielerische Weise einen Zugang zur Heiligen Schrift ermöglichen, der die Grundlage für eine fortwährende Vertrautheit mit Gottes Wort im weiteren Leben bildet", schrieb Benedikt XVI. an Pastor Bomhard.

LATER NOTE: Roger Heyes on Twitter reports that a Lego version has existed for some years.

(Via Wortistik)

Frau Marion Schreiber, formerly the principal of the Institut für Fremdsprachen und Auslandskunde, died on March 7 2009. There was a notice in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of March 14. I can't yet find any information on the site of the IFA, so this is for any readers who happen to have missed this.

Frau Schreiber was born in Leipzig. Her father died when she was 12. After the war she passed her Abitur, but of ten people in her class, only one went to university. She could not go to university in what was then the Russian zone, later the GDR, because her parents had both studied (they were graduates in librarianship). She crossed to West Germany alone (her mother later followed her) to a contact in Erlangen. There she was a part-time secretary at the institute founded by Dr. Karl Friebel and Dr. Isolde Friebel, and eventually managed to complete university studies in economics. She was Schulleiterin from 1978 to 1993, and after that she remained the treasurer. She originally intended to spend her retirement with Isolde Friebel in Tutzing, but after Friebel's death in 1992 she lived in Tutzing alone. The funeral was in Tutzing on March 20th.

I have at last succeeded in photographing Quaks. I phoned the Bavarian Bird Association pelican 'hotline' and they suggested I parked in the centre of Frauenaurach and walked down the Brauhofgasse, since the pelican has been spending the night on the Schwarzer Adler:



I saw two pairs of storks on chimneys. They were quite noisy:



I didn't think I was going to see the pelican, but he was standing there next to a pond, beside a small pollarded (and dead) willow, unfortunately behind barbed wire and small branches:







Google Maps shows Frauenaurach. The pond can be seen near Brauhofgasse and the River Aurach.

After that he flew away. Later, I saw him flying over the bridge over the Regnitz.

Brewery cat:



Now my pelican pictures have joined the rest on the website of the Landesverband für Vogelschutz in Bayern.

Quaks is the name given to the pelican that has been following storks for a couple of years and has now been spotted in Fürth and Erlangen, but alas not by me.

The Bavarian bird organization is providing updates so I have a rough idea of where to drive.

Der Pelikan ist bei Frauenaurach

Recent pictures

Train without driver:



Goethe weilte in Nürnberg! was it in Goethestraße at Maxfeld?





Rathenauplatz:

When I first moved to Fürth, in 1987, I lived in a new flat in the south part of the town. Our landlord was Hans Beck, who was famous as the inventor of Playmobil toys. He didn't, as far as I know, own other flats. He was always very pleasant to deal with, on the few occasions we had any contact with him. He died recently, and I nearly blogged it, but only now have I realized that his obituary has appeared in English in so many papers: the New York Times, the Times, the Independent (the one I saw today) and many others. It's also been widely blogged.

I haven't seen any of these people in Nuremberg yet. I am particularly worried about the ones with paper-white faces.