Pleasant Advent Season!

My hometown: Bad Mergentheim pedestrian zone with the Deutschorden Castle in the background,

this afternoon. 

Persian Poem 'Bani Adam',

the Children of Adam.

 

In Persian:

بنی آدم اعضای یک پیکرند
که در آفرينش ز یک گوهرند
چو عضوى به درد آورد روزگار
دگر عضو ها را نماند قرار
تو کز محنت دیگران بی غمی
نشاید که نامت نهند آدمی

A simpler translation that I like:

The sons of Adam are limbs of each other,
Having been created of one essence.
When the calamity of time affects one limb
The other limbs cannot remain at rest.
If you have no sympathy for the troubles of others,
You are unworthy to be called by the name of a Human.

- See more at: http://www.zaufishan.co.uk/2011/09/iranian-poetry-bani-adam-inscribed-on.html#sthash.yUMKKC5Y.dpuf

In Persian:

بنی آدم اعضای یک پیکرند
که در آفرينش ز یک گوهرند
چو عضوى به درد آورد روزگار
دگر عضو ها را نماند قرار
تو کز محنت دیگران بی غمی 
نشاید که نامت نهند آدمی

A simpler translation into English that I like: 

The sons of Adam are limbs of each other,
Having been created of one essence.
When the calamity of time affects one limb
The other limbs cannot remain at rest.
If you have no sympathy for the troubles of others,
You are unworthy to be called by the name of a Human.

Und auf Deutsch:

Die Menschenkinder sind ja alle Brüder
Aus einem Stoff wie eines Leibes Glieder

Hat Krankheit nur einzig Glied erfasst
So bleibt anderen weder Ruh noch Rast

Wenn anderer Schmerz dich nicht im Herzen brennt
Verdienst du nicht, dass man noch Mensch dich nennt.

 A Pleasant and Peaceful Advent Season to all of you!

In Persian:

بنی آدم اعضای یک پیکرند
که در آفرينش ز یک گوهرند
چو عضوى به درد آورد روزگار
دگر عضو ها را نماند قرار
تو کز محنت دیگران بی غمی
نشاید که نامت نهند آدمی

A simpler translation that I like:

The sons of Adam are limbs of each other,
Having been created of one essence.
When the calamity of time affects one limb
The other limbs cannot remain at rest.
If you have no sympathy for the troubles of others,
You are unworthy to be called by the name of a Human.

- See more at: http://www.zaufishan.co.uk/2011/09/iranian-poetry-bani-adam-inscribed-on.html#sthash.yUMKKC5Y.dpuf

In Persian:

بنی آدم اعضای یک پیکرند
که در آفرينش ز یک گوهرند
چو عضوى به درد آورد روزگار
دگر عضو ها را نماند قرار
تو کز محنت دیگران بی غمی
نشاید که نامت نهند آدمی

A simpler translation that I like:

The sons of Adam are limbs of each other,
Having been created of one essence.
When the calamity of time affects one limb
The other limbs cannot remain at rest.
If you have no sympathy for the troubles of others,
You are unworthy to be called by the name of a Human.

- See more at: http://www.zaufishan.co.uk/2011/09/iranian-poetry-bani-adam-inscribed-on.html#sthash.yUMKKC5Y.dpuf

Bani Adam

Bani Adam

Test your geographical knowledge!

Last week I had the opportunity to travel to a country in Middle Europe
where most of you haven't been before - I suppose.

Because it was a business trip and I had to work from dawn to sunset, I only had the chance to visit the old town of my hosts together with some collegues in the dark.

Enjoy some of my night shots of my host city and try to answer my question:

Where did I travel to???

(Country & City!)

Any ideas???

Try your best!!!

;-)

25 years ago - the fall of the Berlin Wall 9.11.1989

Welcome to an interesting chapter of German history.

The fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago.

Unfortunately I was not directly on site in Berlin to witness this dramatic historic event of the younger German history. I was sitting in front of the TV screen to trace the fall of the Wall.

But shortly afterwards (January '90) of that event we were able to visit Berlin and see the Wall riddled with holes already.

And we traveled the first time in our live to East Berlin, the border was already open, but you were still able to see and feel all the "original" Eastern Berlin aura (?) / flair (??)

I still have strong memories of the moment when I tried to took a photo in a pub and the innkeeper verbally abused me and asked me for my permission to take photos... ;-)

Most of the pictures I post here I took in the "Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland" at Bonn some weeks ago. There you find many interesting testimonia of the German history of the last 80 years.

But  the following photo of the wall remains I took two years ago on the Podsdamer Platz in Berlin.

The start of the construction of the Wall was in August 1961.

Hans Conrad Schumann (March 28, 1942 – June 20, 1998) was an East German soldier who famously defected to West Germany during the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.

On 15 August 1961, the 19-year-old Schumann was sent to the corner of Ruppiner Straße and Bernauer Straße to guard the Berlin Wall on its third day of construction. At that time, the wall was only a low barbed wire fence. From the other side, West Germans shouted to him, "Komm' rüber!" ("Come over!"), and a police car pulled up to wait for him. Schumann jumped over the barbed wire fence and was promptly driven away from the scene by the West Berlin police. West German photographer Peter Leibing photographed Schumann's escape.

Between 1961 and 1989 everybody had to pass the rough and restrective cross-border controls between West Berlin (BRD) and East Berlin (GDR).

Here are some impressions of a narrow original border control cabin between West and East Berlin.

*   ***   ***   ****   *****   ****   ***   **   *

Walter Ulbricht,  leader of East Germany from 1950 to 1971, and Erich Honecker, who replaced Ulbricht 1971.

By 1961, 1.65 million people had fled to the west.

Fearful of the possible consequences of this continued outflow of refugees, and aware of the dangers an East German collapse would present to the Soviet Union’s Communist satellite empire, Ulbricht pressured Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in early 1961 to stop the outflow and resolve the status of Berlin.

When Khrushchev approved the building of a wall as a means to resolve this situation, Ulbricht threw himself into the project with abandon.

"Tear down this wall!" was the challenge issued by United States President Roland Reagan to Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to destroy the Berlin Wall, in a speech at the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987, commemorating the 750th anniversary of Berlin.

Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Mikkail Gorbachev und Helmut Kohl 14. July 1990 in the Caucasus
talking about the future of the reunified Germany.

Good bye, DDR (GDR) ...

... welcome united Germany!