The Top of Germany: A Wondrous Place

At the "top of Germany", the Zugspitze in May this year. (Not sure how the crow got into the photo at the upper right!)

Janice and myself on a Swiss Peak near Engelberg, in August, 1985.

Why ascend to some of the highest mountains, or any mountains? Well, perhaps because one can - but also perhaps because the view is radically different: the air is fresher (though much colder), and the altitude - looking down on tiny human habitats below- confers an adjusted perspective. Let's say it clears the mind and shows that we humans also need to tend more care (as stewards) to the planet in our charge. One of the worst experiences one can have, in ascending to any of these majestic places, is seeing human-created consumer trash tossed about. Thankfully, in the various European cities and destinations we've visited over decades, we've seen little of that. Not like when one goes to Yellowstone, or Rocky Mountain National Park.

In August, 1978, Janice and I took a cable car to the base of Jungfraujoch then hiked the rest of the way to the peak. It was exhilarating, and the only down note was when an elderly  fellow hiker fell down in the snow - and had to be airlifted out by chopper. He'd apparently died of a heart attack, the exertion at that altitude (11, 388 ft.) simply too much for his age (in his 70s). We both discussed this sad event afterward, then concluded - what better place to die, if you had to - doing what you loved in such surroundings!

Our visit to the Zugspitze in May echoed similar exhilaration, and though this time we had to take a bus, a train, then a funicular (cable car) to reach the peak in two hours, it was well worth it. We joined four German friends as we enjoyed the mutual experience, including in the Gipfel Restaurant where Germans all around broke into the German national anthem Deutschland über Alles :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2IaFaJrmno

In my humble opinion, this anthem is the best of all (and I've heard just about all), rising above all others in the melodies, language (German) and resonance. It is a masterpiece, created by a master. And no, not the 'master race"! Let me put the kibosh on that right now.

Contrary to myths circulated by disaffected 'Muricans (perhaps jealous their own national anthem isn't as beautiful),  Deutschland über Alles is not the "Nazi national anthem". It was in fact composed by Joseph Haydn as part of his Haydn quartet over a hundred and fifty  years before the Third Reich existed. Whether or not the Nazis or their sympathizers  appropriated it is neither nor there. The anthem was set out long before Hitler or the Nazis arrived on the scene to contaminate all things German - and which the Germans are sensitive about to this day.

Anyway, the collective singing (and in the link above you can see images of the Zugspitze if you look carefully) transformed the experience for  us all into one of solid gemütlichkeit .  This paved the way for a frank and open discussion of the JFK assassination, e.g. http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2013/06/germans-tom-hanks-wasting-his-time-with.html

Who knows, whether or not in fact our collective insights into the horrific event were much better, in that atmosphere of friendship, at the top of Germany? I believe they were.

Fortunately, we kept contact with Reinhart and Elli after the "peak experience" - since both of them also had a hotel in the village of Garmisch-Partenkirchen where we were for the next four days.  So we learned much more about the town itself (made famous during the 1936 Winter Olympics - when Hitler visited) but also the country as a whole. After our last night, dining at the Braustuberl Restaurant, Reinhart gave me a complete road map of Germany, and asked Janice and myself to think of coming back again. Well, how the country had changed - since we last saw them in 1985! At that time, Reinhart and I had ventured within 400 ft. of a guard tower near the town of Allendorf, at the East German border. As the guard jokingly pointed his rifle at us, Reinhart muttered: "He won't dare shoot at us unless we get within five feet of the barbed wire fence!  Furchtbar! Bad image!"

Now, nearly some 30 years later, Germany had been unified, though as Reinhart told us, some integration problems to do with the East remained. But at least now people were in contact with families again, and no electrified barbed wire fences separated them,

Will we get back to Zugspitze or other German peaks? Who knows? What we were most happy about is the decision to choose to go there - which led to fortuitously seeing Reinhart and Ellie at the same train station-  as opposed to the much hyped "Eagle's Nest" - Hitler's redoubt during World War II. Why go to visit the former lair of a thug, when you could ascend to Zugspitze?

Anyway, we shall see!

A Visit To A Beautiful, Schizoid (and Forgetful) German Twin-Town

                   Rudolph Hess and Hitler inspect at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch

                         One of the posters announcing the 1936 Winter Games.

Arriving in the Bavarian Alps twinned villages of Garmisch-Partenkirchen from Munich, we beheld very little immigrant upheaval or in fact, immigrant presence. What we did see - from our hotel in Partenkirchen (http://www.hotel-schatten.de/ ), was a beautiful alpine scene of a bucolic, friendly village set amidst the grandeur of majestic mountains - including the Zugspitze, Germany's tallest peak.

We spent five days here, enjoying the incredible scenery and in the company of our German friends, Reinhart and Elli.  Assorted trips included forays not only to Zugspitze (which took some two hours to ascend, including via train, bus then cable car) but the roaring (actually defeaning) gorge known as "Partnachklamm" and hikes through the town centers of Partenkirchen and Garmisch. (Reinhart and Elli stayed in the Bavaria Hotel of Garmisch)

First, some basics - including of geography. Although mistakenly called "Garmisch" - or more commonly people carelessly referring to "going to Garmisch", there are actually two separate village entities: Garmisch and Partenkirchen. However, the two became yoked together in history as "Garmisch-Partenkirchen" once the bidding for the 1936 Winter Olympics arrived. This was because adequate facilities were needed, so Hitler decided to forcibly create one single site entity in order to provide the adequate resources, housing, etc. After this was done, and the Games awarded by the Olympic committee, construction began and ski jumps, skating rinks etc were completed. Then there appeared the many posters heralding the Games. (Which for reasons I will go into became known as the "Nazi Olympics" and also set up a propaganda preview for the more famous 1936 Summer Berlin Olympics- with which most Americans are familiar- perhaps because of sprinter Jesse Owens.)

At the "Gipfel" restaurant at the summit of Zugspitze, Reinhart, Elli, Janice and I sat down with a Bavarian couple - Heinrich and Maria. Over Lowenbrau and Schweinebraten (with red cabbage) we chatted for nearly an hour and at some point the conversation turned to the dark history of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Heinrich, whose father was involved in the Winter Games preparation, told us the villages were ferociously anti-Semitic even before Hitler forced the towns together for the Olympics. Signs rudely declaring "NO JEWS!" or "Jews Not Allowed!' were everywhere. It was only after the games were awarded that Hitler ordered all the signs be removed, lest the world receive a bad opinion of Germany and the Olympics' twin villages, and villagers.

To see  more image from these Olympics go to: http://www.olympic.org/garmisch-partenkirchen-1936-winter-olympics

Despite such attempts at trickery and propaganda, we learned from separate sources that Western journalists at the time did detect troop movements near Garmisch. Worse, Hitler had actually been photographed in February, 1936 inspecting a troop contingent in Garmisch. Heinrich informed us that despite this the level, intensity of anti-Semitic vitriol was barely recognized.  Indeed, he observed that for a long time the twin villages hostility had seen Jews leaving the region in droves so that few remained by the time of the Winter Games. Those that did remain kept a low profile.

Most irritating, to him: the memory of those times had been sanitized and wiped away over successive generations. In the first generation after the games, when he would express brief interest in how they were conducted and whether there was any Nazi influence, he was informed curtly: 'Nein! They were just games! Games! That's all!"  Over the next generations they became a "great Olympics" but all connections to Hitler or the Nazis were dissolved.

Today, no one wants to talk about Hitler, the treatment of the Jews in the twin villages, or the hostility experienced before and after the Olympics.  Heinrich did recount one incident in which a determined tourist - staying at a Gasthof- did manage somehow to excavate an old "NO JEWS!" sign from an attic some years ago. But so far as he could tell, that was the only evidence there'd ever been any anti-Semitism in the region.

For our part, in our separate comings and goings or with Reinhart, we found the townspeople of both villages to be friendly and hospitable, but were warned by Reinhart not to bring up the 1936 Olympics. This despite the fact Reinhart actually drove us past the still extant ski jump used then, as well as some of the Olympic buildings. (In effect, the towns sought to embrace the Winter Olympic Games of '36, but not the other political baggage attached to them- truly schizoid!)

When I asked Reinhart if any Jews remained anywhere in this region he replied he "didn't think so". His best guess is that most left long before the Olympics commenced.

Observing scenery in various places of interest, and even the restaurants, one might well see why. At each place or venue we beheld large, adorned crucifixes displayed on foyer walls or in dining areas. Even the summit of Zugspitze itself featured an immense cross of "the Savior crucified" (in Reinhart's words).  Well, ask yourself how might you feel if you were a Jew frequenting these places, establishments on encountering a large cross - many up to 3' long- with a bloodied Christ image hung from it - red paint generously applied to each nail wound.

Sensibly, if you were also aware of the "Christ-killer" meme replete in the German Völkisch tradition (which also gave rise to the Passion Play at Oberammagau) you'd be horrified. In effect, you'd be faced with constant reminders of your "role" in the slaying of Christianity's founder at every turn. Well, why would you need to put up a swastika in that case?

Sadly, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, to paraphrase George Santayana. The fact here is that the residents of Garmisch-Partenkirchen if they do have any knowledge of what transpired more than 77 years ago, don't wish it bruited about and they certainly won't repeat it.

That was fine with us, since we enjoyed our time there anyway, both the splendid scenery and the people. We only wished that when we did our various strolls around the twin villages we'd have seen slightly fewer large crosses hanging with bloodied Christs suspended on them! A hundred crosses in each town might be ok, but a thousand? Perhaps overkill! Or still transmitting too powerful a subliminal message to certain others.