Samuel Beckett German Diaries 1936-1937

Samuel Beckett German Diaries published by Suhrkamp, English (lots of German terms in it) with German translation. Leseprobe. Übersetzung von Gaby Hartel
Herausgegeben von Mark Nixon und Oliver Lubrich

Guardian article 

I have borrowed Nixon’s book about this project, Samuel Beckett’s German Diaries 1936-1937, 2011, but someone else wants it so I will return it. Nixon the editor, professor of English at Reading University, also compares Beckett’s approach to Germany with Isherwood’s “I am a camera”. Beckett listens

like a fool to 2 hours of Hitler & an hour of Goering (opening of Reichstag. Goering reelected President, laws controlling 4 years plan extended for another 4…the usual from A.H. with announcement of a 20 yr. plan for development of Berlin, ‘rely’ to Eden consisting mainly in repeated assertion that Germany’s policy is not one of isolation; then Goering announcing foundation of 3 years ‘cultural’ prices of 100,000 ? RM & prohibition imposed on any Germans to accept a Nobel Prize

(January 1937)

 

German breadcutting

A clip of a German cutting a “super accurate” slice of “very hard” bread has gone viral.

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DZeqv5_qHpP/

The reaction of some colleagues was “Why don’t they use a bread cutting machine?”

Years ago German bakeries would ask if you wanted the bread cut in a machine. I always said no. No need to let it dry out.

But who else remembers the times when a German woman (usually) would buy a huge loaf of bread and hold it against her waist to cut an even slice? Here’s the first example I found.

Here’s the Wired article in this connection.

Navigating Germany and the UK in a wheelchair

Christiane Link has written about disability law in the UK and Germany for many years. She is disappointed nowadays when she finds thoughtless provision in what used to be her home country. This is from her newsletter, The Reverse Culture Shock is real – my Berlin experience

Here is what people often miss: Germany does not have anything equivalent to the UK Equality Act 2010. The Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz and even the Anti-Discrimination Act, the main disability equality laws, apply either primarily to federal public bodies or are a paper tiger. Enforcement remains weak and difficult for individual disabled people in a service environment outside employment. It is nothing compared to the UK law. There is no meaningful compensation mechanism for disabled people who face barriers. It’s all very bureaucratic, and organisations rarely get a slap on the wrist. And they know that. You can complain, and you can be ignored or get a very German letter back, and that is largely the end of it. Often, you feel more offended than you were before.

Nuremberg 2025 – film

The first time I saw this film I did not realize how true to history it was – it is based on a minor and not wellknown episode – and also felt it was very Hollywood. I appreciated it better on a second viewing. This Smithsonian article is useful on the facts of history:

The True Story Behind ‘Nuremberg’, a WWII drama about Hermann Göring’s Cat-and-Mouse game with an American Psychiatrist

But a lot of the dialogue – which had to be invented, of course – was very heavy-handed. From Daniel Goldstraw’s review in The Independent (which is more balanced than this extract):

The film is one that is often also prone to moments that feel cliched or predictable: the Jewish army officer who states he will he smoke after the war is done and then finally pulls out a cigarette at the close of the film, or the judge who, for some reason, feels he can only hammer home his point about the evils of the Nazis by taking Kelley in the middle of the night to the site of Hiler’s rallies. These all stand out as scenes where one can practically feel the screenwriter typing away behind them.

Very small historical video clips in the trial scenes show how closely the trial was recreated – for instance, that Göring did not stand immediately when the other defendants did. I would have liked the clips to be longer but that wasn’t their purpose. I knew that the ashes of the hanged defendants were scattered along a river in Munich to prevent graves becoming sites of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis. I did not know that the hanging was done publicly – as of course it always was, there had to be witnesses, and these included two journalists for each of the four Allies.
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International Women’s Day

Roll on Friday has a poll on whether giving female staff a pink ice-cream maker on International Women’s Day is a good idea. There are four choices, depending on whether you are male or female.Law firm marks International Women’s Day by sending female clients a kitchen appliance

Toffy Ice Cream Maker

This reminds me of the time in 1989 when the German women’s football team won the European championship and were (each) given a Villeroy & Boch teaset.

Michael Moritz, Ausländer

Michael Moritz grew up in Wales as the son of Jews who left Germany in the 1930s but many of whose relatives did not escape the holocaust. He was diagnosed with a genetic form of cancer whose risk is greater for male Ashkenazi Jews. This perhaps concentrated his interest in the experiences and emotional life of his parents, which he had little considered when he was growing up. The book is an investigation of his history and life as a Jew.

There is a good extract at Granta.

The threat that so rapidly materialized in 1930s Germany is reflected for Moritz in Trump’s America. What he had heard as a young boy whenever his parents sensed disturbing political trends:

If it did happen, it can happen.
If it did happen, it will happen.
If it did happen somewhere, it can happen here.
It will happen here.

He is applying for German citizenship. One reason is the increasing anti-semitism in the UK, another the access to other EU countries he enjoyed before Brexit.

Part of it reminded me of Uwe Wittstock, Februar 33. Der Winter der Literatur, which shows how the literary life of Germany in Weimar was aggressively attacked in a period of a few weeks.