Green and Pleasant Land | …A Blog about Culture and Writing

This morning, as I was drinking my coffee and reading the paper, I came across an ad for Katzenstreu. That got me thinking about Streu, which relates to an old word in English: to strew. Die Streu is anything we strew, sprinkle, spread about, or scatter (streuen). This means it can crop up in all sorts of combinations. Das Streusalz is salt we scatter, so it’s salt used for de-icing roads and sidewalks. Das Streulicht is scattered or stray light. Die Katzenstreu is kitty litter, which cats like to scatter around even if we don’t want them to. Die Einstreu is animal bedding–something we scatter in a place (einstreuen).

But streuen and einstreuen are also actions we perform in cooking, and that brings us to an interesting relative of Streu: der Streuselkuchen, or the streusel coffeecake. Die Streusel (English: streusel) is a crumb topping that’s been sprinkled over a dessert. Not so far from die Katzenstreu, when you think about it.

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Clare Dunkle | Comments Off

The Month of the Dead

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Clare Dunkle

Photo taken in November, 2011

In Germany, November is the month of the dead, a special time to remember lost loved ones. German Catholics set aside the first two days for this purpose: Allerheiligen, the Feast of All Saints, and Allerseelen, the Feast of All Souls. German Protestants remember the dead toward the end of the month, on Totensonntag, or Ewigkeitssonntag, the last Sunday before the beginning of Advent. On these days, Germans visit the graves of their dead and get them ready for winter.

The photo above appears to show an old grave that is charmingly untidy. In fact, it’s the opposite of a typical German grave. This is one of a cluster of monuments near the memorial for Rodenbach’s war dead, and I suspect that it memorializes a long dead soldier. This photo shows a much more typical cemetery view of graves tidied up and recently decorated.

Photo taken in November, 2011

Winter decorations need to be able to handle cold, wet weather. Fir boughs, pine cones and branches, and heather plants are favorites. Here’s a grave that makes creative use of ornamental kale:

Photo taken in November, 2011

I particularly enjoyed the graves lit with their flickering spirit candles. Some dedicated Germans keep candles lit on their loved ones’ graves all year. The indentation in the grave stone below is deliberate, by the way. It’s a place for birds to drink. Some of these hollows have little brass birds perched by them, just in case the real birds don’t figure things out.

Photo taken in November, 2011

Sadly enough, these decorated graves make the neglected ones stand out even more. But they won’t be neglected for long. The grave in the image below has had its nameplate removed because its rent hasn’t been paid. Soon the granite will be broken up as well. The other graves around it have already lost their stone coverings. They’re ready to be rented to new occupants.

Photo taken in November, 2011

These desolate graves remind us that even love, grief, and memory come to an end. It isn’t just people who pass away. Graves have a lifespan as well.

To read my latest blog posts, please click on the “Green and Pleasant Land” logo at the top of this page. Photos taken in November, 2011, at the Rodenbach Friedhof, Rodenbach, Germany. Text and photos copyright 2011 by Clare B. Dunkle.

Posted in Churches and religion, Daily life, Festivals, Folk traditions, Gardening, Holidays | 4 Comments

Being sick gives a person little motivation to change the channel, so the other day, Joe and I watched an entire television program about toast. The highlight of the show was the making of what was then the world’s largest toast mosaic. (It’s since been surpassed by this one.) What’s the German word for toast? It’s der Toast! Because sometimes, German isn’t all that hard.

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Clare Dunkle | Comments Off

The Big Sleep

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Clare Dunkle

Photo taken in October, 2011

When we place a city on the imaginary globe in our minds, we tend to think first in terms of weather. Kaiserslautern, Germany, has a wonderfully mild climate: the average daytime temperature in winter here hovers several degrees above freezing. That puts it on a par with places like Atlantic City and Baltimore. Really, how far north can it be?

Answer: way far north. Sweater-weather Kaiserslautern is north of the 49th parallel: 49° 26′, to be exact. This is further north than Minnesota, Glacier National Park, and snowy Buffalo, New York. It’s even further north than a number of major Canadian cities like Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax. And now is the time of year when we start to notice.

Photos taken in October, 2011

German clocks fell back this weekend, and commuters are now driving home in the dark. Since I got here in late August, we’ve lost over four hours of daylight. By the time we get to the winter solstice, the sun will be working an eight hour and ten minute day. No wonder the trees have given up on photosynthesis.

But it gets darker.

Photo taken in October, 2011

The fact that we live on a ball has implications beyond sunrise and sunset. Only at the equator does the sun strike the earth at ninety degrees and make the dawn come up like thunder. In the far north during the summertime, the sun doesn’t set at all, and if you slide down the globe, twilight lingers all night. Germany isn’t that far north, but it does receive a generous allotment of “the blue hour” during the summer. In the winter? Not so much.

Nautical twilight is the time after sunset when sailors can still make out the horizon. At the summer solstice, Kaiserslautern enjoys over three hours (214 minutes) of nautical twilight, but at the winter solstice, nautical twilight shortens to a mere 158 minutes. This means that in addition to losing over eight hours of daylight between June and late December, Kaiserslautern loses almost an hour of twilight too.

What fills in the gap? Lots and lots of night. So nature is settling in for her long sleep.

Photos taken in October, 2011

To read my latest blog posts, please click on the “Green and Pleasant Land” logo at the top of this page. Photos taken in October, 2011, at Mehlinger Heide, Mehlingen, Germany. Text and photos copyright 2011 by Joseph R. Dunkle and Clare B. Dunkle. Statistics on sunrise/sunset and twilight times from Timeanddate.com.

Posted in Daily life, Europe, Rural scenery, Seasons, Weather | Comments Off

Recently I’ve been watching the comedy series Scrubs in German. Why, given all the wonderful German programming, would I choose to watch a dubbed American show? First, the German dubbing for Scrubs is very well done–really top-notch. (Kudos, Axel Malzacher!) It’s actually a pleasure for an American Scrubs fan to watch. Second, I know exactly what the English means, and that means I know the intent of the German. That’s very important, especially in comedy, because I can look up every word in a German sentence and still not know what it means to a native speaker, but with good dubbing from English, I can catch a break. (Don’t race out and order Scrubs in German if you’re in the States, though: it’s Region 2 and won’t play on your American player.)

In the first episode, J.D. is running to answer a Code Blue when he recollects that the doctor who gets there first will be responsible for the life or death of the patient. He immediately veers off into the supply closet. But Elliot is already hiding in the supply closet, so with great indignation, J.D. tells her, “Du Feigling!” Naturally, der Feigling is a coward.

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Clare Dunkle | 1 Comment

Yet Know I How the Heather Looks

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Clare Dunkle

Photos taken in October, 2011

Where I live in Texas, we have only two seasons: blazing hot and “I wonder if I should take a sweater.” The chance to watch four seasons unfold is a precious gift to me. A month ago, I wrote a post on the arrival of autumn: the flowers were still blooming, but a few trees had begun to change. Now we’re in the middle of deep autumn, and the year is really dying. So on an overcast day this weekend, Joe and I donned our jackets and grabbed our cameras and headed out to record it.

Photo taken in October, 2011

We went to Mehlinger Heide (Mehlinger Heath). Just fifteen minutes north of Kaiserslautern is the largest stretch of contiguous heath in southern Germany. Heather to the horizon: Emily Dickinson (quoted above) would have been in heaven! The preserve stretches for almost a thousand acres (400 hectares) and requires active management to keep it from turning back into forest.

Photo taken in October, 2011

Mehlinger Heide came about by accident. The military cleared the land of forest growth before World War II to practice tank maneuvers. The soil is as sandy as a beach, and heather took hold. By the beginning of the 21st century, the area had become an important habitat for plants, birds, and insects adapted to this unusual terrain.

Our landlord, Rainer Müller, worked with the U.S. military officials in Germany and the local, state, and federal government agencies to help found the Mehlinger Heide preserve. The United States contributed funds to help get Mehlinger Heide started. So Germans and Americans alike can be proud of the international cooperation that turned this former battle exercise ground into a place where some of the smallest, most fragile life-forms can find shelter and grow.

Photo taken in October, 2011

The heather appears brown right now from a distance, but up close, we could see bright red and pearly beige. No wonder heather inspired the creation of tweeds and plaids.

To get to Mehlinger Heide, take the A63 to the Sembach exit, turn in the direction of Mehlingen, and travel about four kilometers. Or travel up B40 from A6, Kaiserslautern exit, for about five kilometers.

Posted in Recreation, Rural scenery, Seasons, Tourist destinations | Comments Off

This weekend, Joe and I encountered a traffic jam. “I can’t get around this,” Joe complained. “We’re all stuck behind this Oldtimer, putting along, out for a Sunday drive.” Do you think he was being insensitive? He wasn’t. Der Oldtimer is the German word for a classic or vintage car.

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Clare Dunkle | 1 Comment

The Witching Hour

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Clare Dunkle

Photo taken in October, 2011

Last Saturday evening after dark, Kaiserslautern held its third annual Halloween City-Parade through the downtown streets. The parade a year ago apparently brought out 80,000 people, and this year’s events were heavily attended as well. A lot of the spectators were in costume since nice prizes were being offered and since the children’s parade had happened earlier in the day. The young ghost and witch in the photo above were impatient for the parade to start.

Halloween is not a celebration native to Germany, and when we lived here before, no one trick-or-treated except for the American children. But thanks to our movies and television shows–not to mention the strong American presence in the area–Halloween is starting to catch on here. After all, no child needs a thousand years of entrenched local custom to convince him it’s a good idea to dress up in a cool costume and eat extra candy. And the German adults we were with on Saturday night said the events made for a pleasant change from the Fasching parades they’re used to.

Photo taken in October, 2011

Here’s something you won’t see in an American Halloween parade. Glühwein is a spiced wine drink traditionally served at Christmastime.

Photo taken in October, 2011

Nothing says “Boo!” like a bunch of dead Bavarians. Apparently, you can take it with you–if it’s beer.

Photo taken in October, 2011

The ZAK (Zentrale Abfallwirtschaft Kaiserslautern) sanitation workers did a great job. They dressed up a backhoe to be a dragon. It roared and spouted “smoke” as it lurched along.

Photo taken in October, 2011

Of course, this author was happy to see that dead maids were well represented. This is one of the Kaiserslautern Pikes American Football Club cheerleading squads.

To read my latest blog posts, please click on the “Green and Pleasant Land” logo at the top of this page. Photos taken in October, 2011, at the third annual Kaiserslautern Halloween City-Parade, Kaiserslautern, Germany. Text and photos copyright 2011 by Clare B. Dunkle.

Posted in Festivals, Holidays, Seasons | 1 Comment

This weekend at the Glockencafé in downtown Kaiserslautern, the funk/soul band Back Beat Business played two fantastic sets. When they finished, the crowd was hungry for more, but how do you call for more in German? Die Zugabe is a bonus, an additive, a free gift, or something you throw in for good measure. And when the crowd chants, “Zu-ga-be! Zu-ga-be!” as it did four times Friday night for Back Beat Business, die Zugabe is an encore.

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Clare Dunkle | 4 Comments

The Passing of a People

Posted on October 29, 2011 by Clare Dunkle

Photo taken in October, 2011

At the end of October, nature is preoccupied with death. Leaves fall, plants decay, and even we modern humans feel a shiver pass down our spines and race out to purchase plastic skulls and polyester costumes–which, sadly, will last long after we have turned to inattentive dust. So it seems fitting to pause here and reflect on mortality. Here’s mortality on a grand scale: the passing of Celtic Germany.

Photo taken in October, 2011

This is the Rodenbach Fürstengrab, a Celtic grave mound just down the road from me. It was built for a man so important that an intricate band of pure gold was put around his wrist when he was a child and apparently never taken off. The culture that produced him dug mines, kept bees, worked iron, stamped coins, practiced elaborate religious rituals, and fought their enemies from war chariots. The German Celtic town of Duensberg covered over 200 acres (90 hectares) and had a system of city walls with forteen gates.

Now all that is left of the Celts in Germany are a few exhibits in museums and some cryptic monuments among the hills. The culture, the language, and the people themselves … all gone. Enslaved by the Romans in 124 BC, they retreated before waves of migrating German tribes until at last they abandoned the continent almost entirely. Today, Celtic culture survives only in the westernmost tips of the westernmost parts of Europe.

Photo taken in October, 2011

Glauberg, Germany, was once a Celtic fortified town. A remarkable statue has been found there: The Glauberg Keltenfürst, an armed warrior more than six feet tall (1.86 m) and already hundreds of years old when the Celts retreated and left him behind. Maybe he was a legendary ruler who was supposed to protect his people from beyond the grave, like the Celtic Arthur, the once and future king. Maybe his people were angry with him for having failed them.

Whatever the reason, evidence suggests that when the Celts abandoned Glauberg, they placed this statue so that he would have to watch them leave. And then they cut off his feet so that he couldn’t come with them.

Photo taken in October, 2011

For more on Celtic Germany, see my post on the Heidenfelsen. To read my latest blog posts, please click on the “Green and Pleasant Land” logo at the top of this page. Photos taken in October, 2011, near Rodenbach and Kindsbach, Germany. Text and photos copyright 2011 by Clare B. Dunkle.

Posted in Folk traditions, German history, Rural scenery | Comments Off