Back From Germany

I Just got back from my trip to Germany and Switzerland last night. The main purposes were to visit the Erlangen Beer Fest, keep up local interest in my book about Erlangen and maintain my contacts with my colleagues in the town who helped me with my research. They have become good friends. My wife accompanied me.

In Erlangen, we joined up with two old friends from our time in Thailand, with whom we have stayed in contact. The husband is Swiss and the wife is Thai. They now live in Switzerland, and my wife went with them after a couple of days when they returned home. I stayed in Erlangen for another week before joining them in Switzerland (Amriswil).

The only negative  was the that the weather was not the best, and one night, the fest was hit with rain forcing drinkers to huddle under plastic sheets. I tried unsuccessfully to find shelter under a tree.

I did have a great meeting for lunch at the fest with ex-Erlangen mayor Dietmar Hahlweg and ex-city official Helmut Horneber. Ditto for a meeting (at the fest, naturally) with Helmut Haberkam, an English teacher and poet who writes in the Franconian dialect. My old friends, Juergen Lang and Beate Gresser from the Erlangen University, also provided me great hospitality as always by having me over for dinner.

I had intended to contact the head rabbi of the Erlangen Jewish community, Dani Danieli. Unfortunately, we missed connections while I was en route, and since I was away from computers for a week, we missed connections. I wanted to get his perspective on anti-Semitism in Europe. I had intended to contact him by phone, but had to go to Switzerland prematurely when my wife took ill (nothing serious). We did connect via e-mail, however, and will begin a correspondence on the issue. Only after I had left to Switzerland, did I get his message inviting me to come to the center for Chabad. I am sorry I missed him.  Erlangen's Jewish community today is chiefly comprised of some 100 older refugees from Russia who were re-settled in Erlangen.

Following the news in several languages, the chief topic in Europe is the bailout situation with Greece and what to do about it. The Greeks want money, but are being told by the European Union that to get it, they must implement austerity measures. The Greek people don't seem to want to accept that.

Erlangen is hardly a typical town when compared to major German cities, but it does have a university as well as the second hqs for Siemans. It has changed demographically since the 1960s when I was a young soldier there. Notwithstanding the fact that American soldiers are no longer present, the city is much more cosmopolitan than before. It is refreshing and encouraging when you see small children who obviously came from places in Asia and Africa with their families speaking German with no accent and mixing in with their German peers. There has long been a fair number of Turks in the town, and they seem to be working, running small restaurants or shops. In spite of past discrimination when they first began coming to Germany, many have managed to persevere and assimilate. I am not an expert on the issue, but I certainly don't think their situation is as bad as it used to be.

I took several pictures of the beer fest  and will post them as soon as I figure out how to do it from my digital camera.