Germany in Spring
Germans couldn't stop talking about the beautiful May weather they had last week. Winter here was long and hard, with record amounts of snow. This is not a warm country in the best of times--few homes have or need air conditioning for the summer, and "shorts day" is a meaningful phrase. After concluding my lecture tour, I spent the weekend visiting my relatives in the impossibly beautiful Tauberland/Hohenlöhe region of Baden-Württemburg. Rolling hills, forests, vineyards, and manicured farm fields cut by narrow and winding paved roads make this a step back in time. I shot the photo above near the tiny village of Lindlein.
Many Germans in this region have given up farming, stymied by the low prices and end to price supports brought about by globalization. My Freudenberger relatives in the village of Lindlein have thrown in the towel and now rent out their fields. So do the Dummlers in Elpersheim, the village where my grandfather was born in 1901. Only Walther Kilian, my cousin in Oberndorf, still actively farms. He raises hogs in an indoor system and farms 40 hectares of wheat, corn, oats, and rapeseed. Walther, like many German farmers, has a second job, in his case working for the local water system. Another thing I noticed since my last visit in 2003 is the number of windmills that have risen in the region. The state government here partners with farmers on these projects. Walther considered it, but decided he is too old (58) for it to have time to pay off. Renate, his wife, doesn't really like to see them on the horizon, a common sentiment.
My ulterior motive for the visits was to copy old family photographs. I brought along my laptop and a very small but effective Canon scanner and found a treasure trove that was both moving and disturbing. I always knew my grandfather's brothers and cousins, the ones who stayed in Germany, were drafted into the German Army during World War II like most men their age. But to see old black-and-white photos of them in uniform was jarring. In conversations with family members, it was clear they have moved on from the terrible losses of the war that Hitler started, but still think about them everyday. They are just below the surface.
Heading back to America where I can have pancakes for breakfast instead of cold cuts--a German standard that is great for a few days. I enjoyed the food, especially the spätzle noodles with beef stroganoff that my aunt in Lindlein prepared. And I'll miss that great, great German beer. Nothing like it in the world.