Blogs from Halle an der Saale, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, Europe

It is pretty hard to find internet in rural Germany, so it has taken me a while to post this. I was walking along the R1 bicycle route, which goes from Riga on the Baltic Sea all the way to Antwerp on the North Sea. I had not seen anyone for hours, just myself, the forest, the birds, and the last few chapters of Catch 22. I saw some buildings off the path, and I proceeded to unshoulder my pack and looked at the buildings. It was a former Russian Army base, with colossal tank garages and decrepit barrack buildings. What drew my eye was a bit of cyrillic graffitti. The words were crudely scratched into the whitewash. I could not read any of it, but it ended with a cryptic, large 1990. The year the ... read more

Halle and Germany in general have a very advanced environmental management system. It is probably not unique to this country because the lack of space in Europe is common. The city has a comprehensive environmental management department that includes waste management, recycling, forestry, water/air quality provision and protection, nature preservancy, wastewater/stormwater GIS and aything else you can imagine that would be "Umwelt" in nature. The department produces multiple brochures and even a calendar for sale that describe waste collection and environmental protection requirements. Each household gets waste receptacles for waste, compost, paper, plastic ad metals. Can you imagien trying to fit all these in your Milwaukee alley? I can't. Most environmental issues are regulated federally which means that each locality only has control over the nuances of their own system. F... read more

After our short train ride from Berlin, we were greeted at the station by Mandi, a former McCloy fellow that works in this beautiful city’s business development division. Halle was founded on salt mining but was also the location of an ancient observatory earning it another fond relationship with the sun, moon and stars (you can google the Nebra Sky Disk). It is the birthplace of Händel, place of learning for Martin Luther and Our first stop was city hall. Halle's city hall was originally an annex building that was built in the 1920’s (see picture in previous inapproriate post). The old city hall was destroyed in WW II - one of only a few bombs that struck Halle. The building is somewhat unremarkable with the exception of these really cool elevators that remind me of ... read more

5-7 July: AN OPERATIC PLAY about Joan of Arc with full orchestral complement set in St. Marien cathedral; a Dr. Marcuse horror show interpreted by a dance troupe in two-dimensional fashion behind a black-and-white screen to a constant underlying droning sound. One earns ten minutes of applause, the other yawns and walk-outs. This is the nature of the performing arts during this Theater der Welt festival -- so varied, so unpredictable. Then a rather conventional play with corner staging -- audience on two sides -- three men fishing (not an exciting premise to start with) in an abandoned underground shaft (that's better), the dialogue full of allusions to Argentina's political past. Sunday's finale is a collage of graphic arts and photos projected onto two buildings at University Square, various visiting multi-media artists capturing Halle's theatre history ... read more

24 June: THREE UNUSUAL city tours are on my program. 1. A fleet of "Trabbis" (pet word for Trabant), those notorious yet oddly endearing people's cars without frills but plenty of gasoline fumes from the German Democratic Republic days, chauffeured by local actors, take us into the world of the old East. We shop for apple and plum pie at a bakery that has produced such goods since the old days under communism in a section of town that looks as if it's in a time warp. Finally, with a backdrop of tacky cookie-cutter subdivision of cheap townhouses (that look like something from the days before reunification but are in reality a not-so-flattering product of the new West) the chauffeur/actors serenade us with songs parodying those state-prescribed tunes of old, before jumping back into the drivers' ... read more