In The Guardian: Ten objects that made modern Germany.
This is gearing up to the British Museum exhibition and BBC radio series. They offer:
wetsuit used for attempting to escape GDR via Baltic; Tischbein’s portrait of Goethe; Würstchen; Dürer; Meissen (I feel that Dürer’s porcelain rhinoceros is misphrased); Volkswagen; Kollwitz; Buchenwald; Trümmerfrauen; and Barlach’s Angel.
I would like to offer an alternative set. The term ‘objects’ is used loosely so I have a wide field:
Aldi
Birkenstock
Dr. Oetker’s blancmange powder
Das Dampfen der aufkochenden Milch, das Rascheln der kleinen Tüte, das Schlagen des Schneebesens, der Duft von Vanille. Und dann – endlich! – der erste Löffel, so warm, so süß, so lecker. Genießen auch Sie Pudding von Dr. Oetker!
The dirndl
The autobahn
Adventsplätzchen
Balconies
Denke an die Kinder! (when crossing against the light)
Dogs wearing scarves
Draußen nur Kännchen
Additions welcome. There will be more in the British Museum exhibition, of course.
Ach ja, Dr. Oetker… Whenever I came back to Bielefeld to visit, the train passed the factory and the most delicious smell of Vanillepudding wafted in through the open window. Es war nicht alles schlecht.
For me it will always be Lufthansa. You can’t return to Germany without LH (well, maybe you can, but its not the same).
Yes, Air Berlin just doesn’t cut it.
I thought the Lufthansa pilots went on strike the other week. So much for the Sozialpartnerschaft of my student days.
Anyway, let us add to this formidable list:
to juxtapose with the Volkswagen car made in Adolf’s ‘Wolf’s Lair’ of Wolfsburg:
1. a Trabi/Trabant East German stalwart of a 2-stroke car
2. The Berlin Wall, or fragments thereof to count as an ‘object’
3. Rote oder grüne Grütze, also from Berlin
4. A bottle of beer, preferably Weißbier
5. A Georg Grosz (Metropolis) or Otto Dix ‘degenerate art’ painting
6. Marzipan rolls from Lübeck
7. Das Beil von Wandsbeck
8. The Swastika
9. A Neckermann – aliasKarl/Billy Joel – travel or mail order catalogue
10. and – Margaret – a near-Fürth hit: gingerbread/Lebkuchen from Nuremberg