What a lush summer. The garden was so happy and green in August. And when the hazelnuts were ripe, Wolfgang and his squirrel-colleagues went crazy. Who finds the woodpecker in the pictures?

What a lush summer. The garden was so happy and green in August. And when the hazelnuts were ripe, Wolfgang and his squirrel-colleagues went crazy. Who finds the woodpecker in the pictures?
The 8th of May, the day of the unconditional capitulation of the German Wehrmacht, is finally a holiday in Berlin. We decided to take a road trip towards the East to visit some relevant locations in the area. We went to the honorary cemetery of soviet soldiers in Müncheberg, to Seelower Höhen, where one of the last big battles of WW2 took place and to Küstrin, where the Red Army crossed Oder River to close the ring around Berlin and initiated the end of WW2.
And again: We still learned something new.
Some years ago, a friend asked me, if I could take someone his buddy with me in my car to Hamburg. I was delighted, because I don’t like to drive alone and so I had a very interesting trip with someone I didn’t know before. The guy told me, he grew up in Eastern Germany and graduated from High School when the wall came down and he went directly to the United States afterwards. Clash of cultures and everything. Not only because America but also because of small town Iowa Christian environment. An adventure.
When he was asked about the Nazis – because every German in a foreign country is asked about the Nazis – his first inner reaction was something like “Wait. That’s not us. That’s the other Germans.”, but he quickly noticed, that something was strange about his inner dialog.
In Eastern Germany, kids at school and citizens in general were taught, that the Nazis are the people on the other side of the wall. The wall between the two Germanys was called “Antifaschistischer Schutzwall”, protective wall against fascism. And of course, while my (western socialized) grandmother in the 1980th still had a fearful expression on her face when she saw anything Russian, resulting from cruel wartime experiences augmented by western propaganda during cold war – Russians, in the eyes of Eastern Germans, were seen as saviors from evil.
History and education made, that Eastern German people today write thank you letters to the Red Army which liberated Germany from the Nazis. Which is of course completely true. But it is also true that the concerned Nazis may have been the grandparents of the authors.
There is no clear line between good and evil. The more you learn and know, the more it becomes obvious. You can observe it in everyday news. Black and white in history and communication – nothing is as untrue as that.
The landscape on the picture above is the battlefield of the fight between the Red Army and the German Wehrmacht from 16th to 19th April 1945. It was the last big obstacle for the Russians on their way to Berlin. Many lives were lost in this battle and in those last days of war. 11 days later, Hitler killed himself in his bunker and 8 days later, war was over.
This autumn sun! It’s out rather rarely but if it’s there it shines like gold and steel. Every year, the waterbirds who will go south gather here. There is ranting, shouting and quacking everywhere and everyone gets ready for the big adventure.
Our private wilderness changes its face every week and shows us what nature can do without any influence. Tobias. the apple tree who was just a stick with roots four weeks ago has grown a lot of leaves and a lot of birds come to see us every morning. And Wolfgang the squirrel becomes less and […]
We hired some bikes and made a tour in the direction of the famous lighthouse. It was so hot this day that we didn’t get there but already the part we did was wonderful. It’s pure green and dark blue vastness with horses, birds and endless, empty beaches.
At the end of the day there was one more color: The shiny red of my sunburn.
How the light and the colors change when you approach the sea! What a difference some kilometers make.
The “Dicke Marie” She is supposed to be more than 800 years old and the oldest tree in Berlin, much older than the oak in Grunewald near to Schwanenwerder. The name was given to her by the Humboldt Brothers after a well known overweight cook in the Castle Of Tegel. In 1778 even Goethe […]
Ketzin From Ketzin to Paretz Wild Gooses Meet Up Schleuse Pareetz Paretz Paretz is an “experimental and exemplary” village from the 18th century. King Friedrich Wilhelm III bought it in 1800 to live there with his wife Queen Louise and to redesign it with architect David Gilly. The […]
There is a Laguna – la Poza Puerta del Jeli – near to the center of Puerto Villamil where Flamingos and other birds find rest in the evenings.