Queen of Pickles

Deep in the marshes east of Berlin lies an ancient land, er, forgotten by time, where people travel by barge from farm to farm, a former hot-spot of East German tourism (the "Venice of Germany") where the mail is delivered by punt and members of an ethnic/cultural minority (the Sorbs) won fame for their pickle recipes: the Spreewald.


I have wanted to go here for a long, long time, but no one else wanted to go--until CC! [Birds chirping, puppies frolicking, flute music.]

(Picture: we rented a canoe and paddled around. Sadly my camera ran out of batteries.)

By canoe, we reached a village beer garden and the Pickle Museum. The Pickle Museum underwhelmed (until, at the end and after trying unsuccessfully to talk us into buying sausages, they gave us those same sausages for free.) But, at the Pickle Museum, I found out about the Queen of Pickles Pageant.

Each year, ladies of the Spreewald dress in traditional costumes, fix up a basket of pickles according to an original recipe, embody Spreewald culture, and arrive by barge to be judged by one old man and two old ladies. The winner is crowned Queen of Pickles.


The Sorbs of the Spreewald endured some harassment by the Nazi regime, which wanted them to stop speaking their dialect, etc. Under the communist East Germany, flocks of tourists included a friend of mine who went for a day. Her family lived in West Germany. When West Germans went into the East, they had to buy 25 Marks worth of East German money. They weren't allowed to take any back with them--they had to spend it all in the DDR. My friend said the canoe rental cost them 1 Mark, and at the end of the day her dad was left with like 20 M, which he had to get rid of. So he tipped the woman selling french fries 20 M. This was apparently very embarrassing for my friend because the french fry seller took offense.

(Picture: mail delivery by punt)

(About the french fry story: me being an American*, I was like, "Why was she offended? Hey, free money!" My friend was like, 'well it's like, you big rich West Germans come and eat our pickles, and lord it over us, you think you're so great, etc.')

*Read: insensitive

Archives compete in a friendly way for socialist glory!

Landesarchiv!

Cappuccino?
Cafeteria and 'auto cappuccino' machine that unlike wretched auto cappuccino at Bundesarchiv, does make delicious soda-sweet “cappuccino”.

Located in a former Nazi army base?
Located in a former Nazi munitions factory!

Yelling staff members?
No, everyone is lovely. Sometimes they even load the microfilm for you.

Fun stuff to read?
How can you ask that--this archive, after all, is home to court file A Rep. 358 Acc: 2666, "Anton Sander: Dancer and Transvestite."

Most fun stuff read so far?
The fun stuff is few and far between here--random court cases--but court cases are so interesting. I guess the Sander file is my favorite, but honorable mention has to go to the case I read yesterday of a guy who chanted a little rhyme while he flashed pornographic pictures at people on the street. He seemed nice.

Special powers?
When I was starting my diss research in the fall, I thought I'd do most of my work at the Landesarchiv. I ended up finding very little there and spending most of my time at other archives. Not that that's its fault.

Main special power is the incomprehensible catalogue. (pictured) Other powers include e-mails from helpful archivist recommending files, however e-mails have the wrong file signatures, and when I mail her back saying, 'I'd like to order these files,' she can't order them for me because I have the signatures wrong. (Signature confusion in this case is due to the switch to microfilm. By the way, I agree with CBAM that microfiche is far superior to microfilm. This may be the topic of a future lavish post.)

It's my only archive not within biking distance, and it takes a long time to get there on the subway. Uh, but that is not really a special power. Uhm, 26 cent printing from the microfilm machines?

Socialist competition

OK, so in socialist competition the workers would have a contest to see, like, who was a hero of work and could mine the most ore. But since it is just me working in this socialist democracy, the archives are going to have a contest. To see which is the best! Starting....now!:

Bundesarchiv
(pictured)

Cappuccino machine?
Yes.

Lunch room?
Yes.

Located in a former Nazi army base?
Yes.

Fun files to read?
Sort of, eh.

Most fun thing read so far:
Report from one of the venereal disease society meetings that was basically like, 'Now that, since the new 1927 law on VD, we are locking up large numbers of men, women and children who have VDs in hospitals and not letting them out for weeks and months at a time, we should find something for them to do, like a choir, or sewing, because they are bored and fighting with the nursing staff. Also, if not distracted, the children will turn to masturbation.'

Special powers:
Despite being intimidatingly named "the federal archive," is run by a jovial bunch of long-haired guys who resemble Fabio.

Tschuss, Palast der Republik

Berlin was divided into east and west according to what was occupied by the Red Army when the war ended in '45 and what was occupied by the Brits, U.S., and French (yes, they gave the French a zone of occupation). The Red Army fought the battle of Berlin, so they had the best parts of the city under their control. As the 1940s wore on, the split became permanante. So, the DDR got the best parts of the city--the main drag (Unter den Lindin) with the major government buildings, the cathedral, the university, the opera house, and the library. West Germany built new versions of these things.

The communists tore down a baroque 19th Century castle to build their new capital building, the Palast der Republik. (Down with the monarchy, up with socialism!) But it was the 1970s: it's got bronze curtain walls, and clashes with its 19th C surroundings. After communism fell, the Palast was deserted save for the occasional rock concert. They found asbestos in it. It sat across from the cathedral and rotted away, the ruins of East Germany. I thought it was grand.

But now, they're tearing it down. There was a big debate over whether to keep it as a historical monument (I mean, duh, obviously that's the way to go). But, guess what. The parliment voted to demolish the Palast and to reconstruct the 19th Century castle that it replaced. Talk about whitewashing German history. Below, it's the demolition work from the canal side. You can see in the first image that they've torn the whole front off it. Do you still believe in socialism?

Hallo Karl und Friedrich

In the old downtown of East Berlin, there's a park, and in the center of the park, there are two huge statues of Marx and Engels. I've always wanted a picture of myself with the guys. I went running by the park the other day. There was a big group of tourists taking pictures with the statues. I had my camera, so I figured what the heck. I asked this guy to take my picture. Not only did he oblige, he had his entire tour group jump in the picture with me. So here is me, a bunch of Israelis, and the fathers of scientific socialism.