Personal site of journalist, baker, and storyteller Tony Ganzer.
Blog posts on media, introspection, society, and more.
Religion is one topic many journalists won’t touch with a ten-thousand foot pole. Religion is complicated, people are passionate, and when one is working on deadline, a complicated and polarizing issue like religion doesn’t do good things for the blood pressure.
I’ve been cutting back on the coffee, though, so my blood pressure can take a subtle dose of religious analysis after a long few days in Munich.
Continue reading “Bavaria, Baroque and Religion”
If you’d ask someone what Karlsruhe was known for, the person would probably think you were joking–Karlsruhe doesn’t have the kind of tourist-money-attracting sights as its neighbors. The city is an hour or so from Stuttgart and decidedly separated from other major cities in Southern Germany. And this fact was a perfect reason to place one gem in Karlsruhe, the constitutional court, or Verfassungsgericht.
There’s nothing in Karlsruhe…but good old fashioned law and order.
Tourists also tend congregate in safe zones: monuments, cathedrals, shopping centers, etc. But fortunately tourists tend not to ride the city bus to the end of the line, and that’s where our troupe found itself earlier this week.
I’m not sure what one would expect to see at a prison that didn’t officially exist. On maps it was simply a grey block, and until one is right upon it, the prison fits into the surrounding apartments and factory buildings nicely.
But once a person takes a few more steps toward Genslerstraße, past a grocery store and pay parking lot, the feeling in the air is noticeably unheimlich: strange and unsettling. Entering the complex with an unsettled feeling highlights an irony of this terrible place. The Ministerium für STAatsSIcherheit (State security) provided anything but true security for its visitors.
Continue reading “Behind Stasi Bars”
On a whim, we and a colleague wanted to hit the Funkturm (Radio tower) last week.
The Funkturm is one of Berlin’s well-known structures, and looks a little like a miniature Eiffel Tower….constructed of steel and exuding that 19th century vibe. Unfortunately the tower was closed for renovation, but the regional public television headquarters was nearby. So a little farther than the Haus des Rundfunks (House of Radio) we stumbled into the lobby of RBB (public broadcaster).
Climbing a staircase in a pretty sterile lobby we found radio equipment being exhibited. Much of it was original–both in authenticity, and in the fact the equipment represented the most basic radio equipment ever to have existed. It was on loan from the Technology Museum…and today we turned that piece of info into a field trip.
It’s not obvious, but my current residence was once in British territory. As all segments of Berlin were divided among the Allied (Alliierte) powers Schmargendorf just happens to be British.
The last real signs of that occupation stand as a small RAF base to our West, and a British-run radio station with terrible pop music (just my opinion, of course, based on a limited sample).
But to the south of us, in Dahlem, was American territory, and in the former Allied Headquarters is a nice little museum documenting the interesting struggles for influence over Berlin.
Continue reading “Amis and Allies”