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Strange coincidence [message #60445]

Sat, 02 January 2010 16:03

Nigel

On fire!

Location: England
Registered: November 2003
Messages: 1756

From my studies as an undergraduate and later a schoolmaster I have a certain interest in the German sculptor Ernst Barlach. I have not concerned myself with him for years, but needed some information for the story I'm at present writing. "Imagine my surprise" when I turned up his details to find that my interest was re-awakened to the day on the 130th anniversary of his birth.

Hugs
N

I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.

…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.

Re: Strange coincidence [message #60446 is a reply to message #60445]

Sat, 02 January 2010 19:22

acam

On fire!

Location: UK
Registered: July 2007
Messages: 1849

What was it that originally sparked your interest in him, Nigel?

Love,
Anthony

Re: Strange coincidence [message #60447 is a reply to message #60446]

Sat, 02 January 2010 22:26

Nigel

On fire!

Location: England
Registered: November 2003
Messages: 1756

Hi Anthony!

The statue was an important element in a German novel by Alfred Andersch called 'Sansibar oder der letzte Grund' (Zanzibar or the Final Reason). Timed in 1937 there were many incongruities which were impossible to investigate until the fall of East Germany at the end of 1989. I spent a week in June 1991 on the Baltic coast of Mecklenburg in the newly re-united Germany. Part of the delights of that week was discovering the original statue.

One of the discoveries I made later concerned the red J that German Jews had stamped on their indentification papers. This was introduced at the instigation of the Swiss government, it is claimed, which would otherwise have demanded visas from all German nationals who wished to cross its frontiers. Whether this is true or not takes some subtle consideration of the argument according at least to this reference:

http://www.schweizerzeit.ch/1398/J_Stempel.htm

Sorry it's in German.

Another incongruity is that the action takes place in 1937 and the red J was not introduced until October 1938.

Unfortunately in those days when I was looking into this I did not have the internet.

Hugs
Nigel

I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.

…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.

Re: Strange coincidence [message #60448 is a reply to message #60447]

Sat, 02 January 2010 23:10

timmy

Has no life at all

Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796

Google Translate may help. The translation is adequate at best, though

[Updated on: Sat, 02 January 2010 23:13]

Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School

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