German Of The Day: Rosinenbomber

That means raisin bomber. Or candy bomber, if you prefer.

Dignitaries from around the world have gathered in Berlin to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of the Berlin airlift.

The Soviet Union entirely blockaded the western parts of the German capital in June 1948, when the country and the city were divided into US, UK, French and Soviet occupation sectors after World War Two.

“I did not ask permission.” – Gen. Lucius D. Clay, the U.S. commander in Berlin who started the airlift without clearance from Washington.

Marginal Art Marginalized In Berlin

April 28, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, High Art, Hostility, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: Art, Art Galleries, Artists, Berlin, German, Germans, Germany, Kunst, Marginalization, Protests, Whiteness Leave a comment

Marginal art made by marginal artists, that is. Actually, the story’s about the marginal artists who are upset about being marginalized, for being marginal.

There is a difference here, of course, albeit a marginal one. I have an idea. Perhaps, just maybe I’m thinking, if they made their art better and not so marginally successful they could stop being so marginal and protest about something else a little less marginally interesting.

Earlier this week, stickers and posters started circulating in and around the city of Berlin that point to a disparaging fact: according to a group of arts activists, 75% of the artists being platformed at Berlin Gallery Weekend are white and male.

The stickers protesting the lack of diversity within the Berlin art scene feature a white sausage — known in German as Weisswurst — against the blue background of Berlin Gallery Weekend’s main logo and branding typography.

Real American Boys

April 9, 2019 By Hermann Observer in High Art, Home Cooking Tags: Athletes, Basketball, Dirk Nowitzki, German, Germans, Germany, Sports, USA Leave a comment

Thank you, Dirk, Uwe and Detlef!

Watching Dirk run/stumble around the American Airlines Center on Friday night against Memphis in a glorified preseason game was bittersweet, and an ideal reminder there is no Dirk without the two Germans who came long before him.

Mavericks fans, when you thank Dirk, be sure to nod and clap for Uwe Blab and Detlef Schrempf. That duo didn’t make Dirk, but they made what he did possible.

“When I was a kid growing up in Germany, I was a complete outcast,” said Blab, who is 57 and lives in Dripping Springs and works in Austin. “I was 7-foot-2, 180 pounds. I was a freak. No girls. Nothing. Many negative comments, and just this general attitude when you walked into a place. I came to America, and it was, ‘Ohhhhhhh — look at that guy.’ I had a new life here. I was totally accepted.”

How Could It Not?

February 18, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Hideology, High Art, Home Cooking, Hysteria Tags: Art, Berlin, Berlinale 2019, Films, International Berlin Film Festival, Movies, Politics 2 Comments

Not win, I mean. This is the Berlin Film Festival, after all.

Argentine LGBTQ Sci-Fi Film Wins Berlin Festival’s Teddy Award.

That’s the Berlinale for you. If it’s not about LGBTQ Sci-Fi films it’s about politics. Or should I say other forms of politics?

Santiago Loza’s Brief Story From the Green Planet, an odd genre-mixer involving a trio of LGBTQ friends who discover an actual alien sleeping in the house of one of their late grandmother’s, won the Teddy Award for best LGBTQ film screening at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival.

The Berlin International Film Festival has always been a political stage for filmmakers, and the 69th edition is no exception.

Even I Can See That These Are Fakes

January 25, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, High Art, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hustle (Hoax), Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Adolf Hitler, Art, Auctions, Berlin, Fakes, Forgeries, Kunst, Painters, Paintings Leave a comment

A. HitPer? Never heard of him.

Three watercolour paintings attributed to the former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler have been seized by German police.

The works were up for sale at the Kloss auction house in Berlin, but taken on suspicions of forgery, police say.

“Wir verwahren uns mit aller Entschiedenheit dagegen, dass uns von unberufener Seite eine Nähe zum nationalsozialistischen Gedankengut allein deswegen unterstellt wird, weil wir – ähnlich wie andere Auktionshäuser weltweit, gerade auch in Deutschland – Gegenstände aus dem Nachlass Hitlers versteigern.”

Germans Have Chutzpah, Too

October 22, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, High Art, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: Chutzpah, Fraud, German, Germans, Germany, Jews, Religion 2 Comments

Jew got to hand it to this guy.

A 71-year-old chairman of the small Jewish community in the city of Pinneberg in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein faces an accusation from the magazine Der Spiegel that he is not Jewish, deceiving Jewish members since 2003.

When confronted with this fact, the man went ballistic.

“Walter, come off it. You’re not even fucking Jewish.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You’re fucking Polish Catholic.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? I converted when I married Cynthia!”

“Yeah, and you were divorced five fucking years ago.”

“Yeah? What do you think happens when you get divorced? You turn in your library card? Get a new driver’s license? Stop being Jewish?”

“It’s just part of your whole sick Cynthia thing. Taking care of her fucking dog. Going to her fucking synagogue. You’re living in the fucking past.”

“Three thousand years of beautiful tradition, from Moses to Sandy Koufax, YOU’RE GODDAMN RIGHT I’M LIVING IN THE PAST!”

Der gefühlte Jude.

Alien Crop Circle Discovered In Prackenbach

September 18, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, High Art, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: AfD, Aliens, Chemnitz, Crop Circles, German, Germans, Germany, Migrants, Nazis, Political Parties, Protests, Refugees, Swastikas Leave a comment

That’s in Germany.

Actually, it’s in Bavaria. But still.

And it’s not really an alien crop circle, either. It’s more like an alien cross. It’s a strange geometrical figure and ancient religious icon most likely stemming from the cultures of Eurasia where it remains a symbol of divinity and spirituality in Indian and East Asian religions, to be exact.

So I guess this crop circle didn’t come from outer space after all. It’s also made of manure. That, too, is pretty weird and strange. And the letters “AfD” are also clearly visible next to it. Nope, no alien would write those letters. Not even an illegal alien from outer space would do that, I suppose. This was the work of human beings. Human being artist types who use manure for their shitty works of art. This, too, is weird and strange. And eerie.

Aufregung in der kleinen niederbayerischen Gemeinde Prackenbach (knapp 3000 Einwohner)!

German Of The Day: Sitzfleisch (vs. Aussitzen)

September 16, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, High Art, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Humor, Hypocrisy Tags: Angela Merkel, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Migrant Crisis, Migrants, Politics, Refugees Leave a comment

Take Angela Merkel. Please.

To have Sitzfleisch (sitting meat) means, on the one hand, to be able to sit still for the long periods of time required to be truly productive; it means the stamina to work through a difficult situation and see a project through to the end. On the other hand, it can also refer to someone who doesn’t know when to leave. You know, like the guest who won’t go home or the chancellor who won’t go home, either?

Aussitzen (sitting something out), however, is to deal with a difficult situation or crisis by not doing anything about it. That is, to just wait it out until it finally goes away – or until the person waiting it out claims that it has gone away. You know, what Angela Merkel and other politicians like her regularly do?

“German condenses what would take about seven or eight words in English into one particular word. The humour comes from the density of the word and the fact that it expresses something in such condensed form that we can’t get anywhere near.”

Riots? Havoc?

September 2, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, High Art, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hustle (Hoax), Hype, Hypocrisy Tags: Chemnitz, Crime, Fake News, Far-Left, Far-Right, German, Germans, Germany, Journalists, Lügenpresse, Lying Press, Media, Migrants, Murder, Neo-Nazis Leave a comment

“The Riots in Chemnitz and Their Aftermath.” Strange. I must live in another Germany than the one Der Spiegel is reporting about. I can’t find any serious reports about riots or havoc having taken place in Chemnitz. But what can you call “serious reports” these days, anyway?

Maybe, just maybe, these riots and this havoc stuff is going on in another parallel universe we are all familiar with: The parallel universe of the Brain Police mind. As usual, the story one wants to tell depends entirely upon what one insists on looking at.

In Chemnitz, refugees find themselves under threat by neo-Nazis and hooligans. Politicians have pledged to take a hard line against right-wing extremist violence, but they look helpless nonetheless. Meanwhile, the right wing seems to have the upper hand in Saxony.

Ruhige Nacht in Chemnitz. (That means “peaceful night in Chemnitz,” as another report put it).

Germans Confused By Erdogan Statue

August 29, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, High Art, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: Art, Biennale, Erdogan, German, Germans, Germany, Gold, Kunst, Saddam Hussein, Statues, Wiesbaden Leave a comment

What’s there to be confused about? It’s a golden statue of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In front of the fire department in freakin’ Wiesbaden, Germany. Or it least it used to be there.

The 4-meter (13-foot) statue of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had been erected in Wiesbaden on Monday much to the surprise and confusion of the residents of the southwestern German city.

The larger-than-life effigy installed in the city’s Platz der Deutschen Einheit (German Unity Square) depicts Erdogan with a raised right arm, a pose reminiscent of the famous statue of the late former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, which American forces tore down in 2003 during the Iraq invasion…

It was an art installation, part of the Wiesbaden Biennale for Contemporary Art, but was erected without the knowledge of city officials, a Wiesbaden spokesperson told German news agency dpa on Tuesday. This year’s art festival is taking place under the motto “bad news.”

“Wir haben eine Reihe von irritierten Bürgern, die bei uns anrufen. Es ist für viele nicht erkennbar, dass es im Rahmen der Biennale läuft.”

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Category Archives: High Art