What would one have done?

 

On our way back from Denmark last Monday my husband and I took a bit of a detour to the west coast of northern Germany and stopped at the Emil Nolde Museum in Seebüll. You can't go much further north and stay within the borders of Germany. Lots of sky out there, 

 

and it is the location of one my absolute favorite novels by a German writer, "Deutschstunde" (The German Lesson in English translation). Last time I had been there was 15 years ago. That time the weather was fantastic, this time it was raining cats and dogs. We couldn't even go into the famous garden because the pathways were flooded and everything was closed off.

The museum itself hasn’t changed, but the paintings on display are different every year. 

 

I forgot to take note of the exact title of this watercolor, but it was something 
like "Three children in 1946 in (some place name)"; I noted the 
year as it was the year his first wife died.

And they are now showing a documentary film from 2017 about Nolde’s life - and his involvement with the Nazi-party, his continued attempts to find approval from the rulers even after he had been declared a “degenerated artist”, and his anti-semitic publications during that time. 

He was declared a ‘victim’ of the Nazis and very quickly received international fame again after the end of the war, scrapped a few anti-semitic sentences from his writing and went on to rebuild his fame. Most of this had not been talked about when I was at the museum last, and although I had heard about this through media I had not been quite aware of the extent of his involvement and political standing, I admit. It bothers me, of course, and I am still trying to figure out how it is going to affect my evaluation of him.

 

 His paintings are great. But can they be viewed completely separately from this political attitude? He was not known to express deomcratic opinions publically.

It is a topic that has been on my mind quite bit recently. It affected my father's coach, Karl Adam. He was not only the coach for that first Olympic gold medal in an eight in 1960 but coached several winning boats during the next 15 years before dying of a heart attack in June 1976. 

 

A bust of Karl Adam usually on display at his former school.

In honor of his achievements the German Rowing Association used to allot a prize to young rowers in his name, and he was made a member of the German Hall of Fame of Sports. But then a couple of years ago criticism appeared that he had been a member of faculty of a Napola school, and a member of the Nazi party as well. The prize was discontinued, and his admission to the Hall of Fame questioned. Historical experts have evaluated his history and his doings, and have exonerated him. The prize has not been reinstalled (yet?).

I am fully aware that many Germans covered up what they had done and thought during those times, and I am certain many of them did not change their opinions. But Karl Adam in particular was known for his attitude of helping young athletes develop as "mature persons", challenging them to arrive at their own decisions, and he was always outspoken about democratic principles and attitudes. Throughout the discussion around his person I kept discussing this issue with my mother - my father had already passed at that point - and she kept mentioning the fact that her father had been a member of the Nazi party because he was a teacher and simply had to be a member if he wanted to keep his job. He was never a follower of the Nazis, and the Sowjet occupiers wanted to put him into jail because he was not socialist enough but too oriented towards pre-Nazi times, which in the end led him to escape by swimming through a border river.

I keep asking myself  – what would I have done, had I lived in those times? I would not have had the privilege of having been raised in a democratic environment. How would that have affected my attitudes? Who are people of my generation or younger to harshly judge those who had to live through these times? Certainly, people who signed death warrants or shot others or were involved in concentration camps in any way must be held accountable. But a person who is not known to have done anything wrong and who turned an outspoken teacher of democratic principles after the war...

 These thoughts were also behind my involvement with refugees after 2015, and I still think I did the right thing at that time. We as an entire country could have done better, but I did what I could.

Now, a small federal state in Germany is having elections today, and prognoses are that the far right-wing party is going to win a majority, which will greatly affect national circumstances, connections, economy, citizens of the country who were not born German. What am I going to do? How will I get active?

A Visit to Denmark

 

During the last winter Anine Sluyterman, the International Representative of the Danish Patchwork Guild, had contacted me and asked whether I would like to come to their AGM in Odense at the end of August and bring an exhibition to show to the Danish Quilters. Of course I would! I had to make arrangements with a colleague at work to ‘swop’ our working weekends, but that worked out fine. Then I had to get an overview where my quilts were, after our moves, and which ones I still own, because I had given some away when leaving our old place.

A week ago my husband and I set off to the north. It had been more than forty years since I had last been to Denmark, I admit. Now I wonder why… Right behind the border we were pleasantly surprised at how nice the stop and rest area on the highway was arranged and constructed, much more comforting and enjoyable than those in Germany. And the entire stay continued like that. I fell in love with Denmark and the Danes! Hope to be back soon.

The exhibition location was marked by the Dansk Patchwork Foregning’s flag as shown above. I really like the way they have made the Danish Flag their symbol by transforming it into a patchwork pattern!

Arranging my quilts went quickly, I had a few ‘left-overs’ that I didn’t have enough room for, but better than I did not bring enough to fill the space!

trial layout - the quilt in the lower left did not make it into
 the final cut.

 

I was pleased with the way the quilts presented themselves on the wall. And I received quite a bit of positive feedback, had many nice conversations and was generally made feel very welcome throughout the entire two days. 

 

I met SarahHibbert, who was showing her quilts across the aisle from me 

 

Sarah Hibbert, Haiku

and we had a lovely and interesting conversation about our shared love of audio books, giving each other recommendations over the festive 40th anniversary dinner on Saturday night.

I did not take a whole lot of photos from the other exhibitions, but want to show this one made from men's striped shirts. Lovely setup and arrangement!

Else Graf Jorgensen (put a / across the o, please, 
don't know how to achieve that on the computer right now)
Striped Men's Shirts

 My husband got to do a bit of sightseeing, I only took a little time off to go and see the Hans Christian Andersen Museum downtown before returning for stewarding duty.

It was a lovely excursion and interesting experience. I really enjoyed seeing my quilts up on the wall again after almost three years. The mojo has definitely had a good push!

The Movie: Adams Acht (The Rome Eight)

 

About a year ago I witnessed the shooting of a movie, my son had a job as Junior Runner on site, and I was partly involved in some changes in the script. 

 

The movie tells the story of a young team of rowers and their coach who came from the middle of nowhere and went on to win the Olympic gold medal in the Eight in Rome, 1960. My father was part of that team and I grew up with that story. 

 

 

A magical part of it was that the coach, Karl Adam (1912-1976) used to be the high-school teacher of several of the team members, and in  a way he became their surrogate father. He gave them something to strive for,  and he was a male role model most of them didn't have. 

 

Certainly for my father he was extremely important and although It  would never have called him 'grandpa' I realized the significance of their relationship for my father early on.

I was only 11 years old when 'Kalli', as we talked about him, passed away completely unexpectedly, we were on a trip through the American National Parks of the Northwest and I remember sitting next to my father during an entire evening on the typical combined campground bench and table after we had heard the sad news.

That team and their victory was almost as important for Germany's feeling of rising from the ashes after the defeat in WW II as had been the soccer team a few years earlier. 

Now the film is finished and was premiered last Friday in an open air performance on the shores of the lake where they used to train, and where the rowing club is still located. 

 

 The film story is  - well, let's say rather improvised. The magical part is missing, which is a great pity on the one hand. On the other hand that way it's staying a private memory for the families, and that is good for us. The plot concentrates on mainly two team members, my father Hans Lenk (the first to cross the finishing line), impersonated by rising star Felix Kammerer, and the strokesman Manfred Rulffs (impersonated by prize Leonard Kunz)  and their love stories which are told completely differently than they actually happened. (My father's love, Ulla, is impersonated by Svenja Jung.) Some drama added, not always adhering to historical or geographical correctness. I guess the script is considered more marketable that way.

 

My mother and actress Svenja Jung

 

It was fun to be involved - if you knoŵ when and where to look (and have an inkling how I was dressed up) you can see my approx. 3 seconds appearance in the scenes in the tavern (offers for future Hollywood engagements please via email). 

 

  

It’s a cool film. And it's true insofar as there was a team of nine, they had an impressive coach, and they won the gold medal. Nothing much else is true. 

Coming to movie theatres in September - but I don't knoe about international showings. I assume they will try...