Tales from Germany

Afrikaans in the heart of Berlin

2011-08-05T13:34:00.000+02:00

Beeld at Bahnhof Zoo (c) Anli Serfontein 2011

I had to do a double take as I walked in the crowdy Bahnhof Zoo in the heart of Berlin last Friday: There was the front page of the Afrikaans newspaper Beeld prominently displayed among the bustle of one of the busiest train stations in Europe. Up there with the journalism elite of the Washington Post!

Thousands of tourists, locals and visitors passing by were greeted in my mother tongue Afrikaans!

After attending the Festival for Afrikaans in Amsterdam in June, it looks like Afrikaans has truly arrived on the world stage in the most positive way possible. Its is no longer the Pariah language of the apartheid oppressors!


Beeld at Bahnhof Zoo in Berlin on July 29, 2011(c) Anli Serfontein 2011

To Copy and Paste or not to Copy and Paste: that is the Question

2011-02-23T20:19:00.003+01:00

It has been a week where I was once again confronted with cultural differences in interpreting core social values.

A popular, key Minister in the Cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel is caught out: a great chunk of his summa cum laude doctorate of Law was plagiarised. A scandal!

Der Spiegel this week on the plagiarism scandal surrounding Germany's Minister of Defence

But what shocked me most is not the fact that his doctorate was plagiarised. What shocked me was how the general German public viewed his plagiarism and how they urged him to stay on as a Minister. Worse still how his popularity rose with each passing day of this scandal week.

Der Spiegel article

A Facebook page was set up in support of him and it is growing rapidly day by day; the mass circulation red top newspaper Bild seems to support him. And a political survey shows that nearly 75% of the population thinks he is doing a great job, compared to 68% at the beginning of the month, before the scandal broke.

In my day, when I studied at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, cheating during an exam could certainly see one expelled from University and deprived of a Certificate of Good Conduct that was needed to change universities. Wits was no exception in this, it was and is general practise at elite universities all over the English speaking world, to act decisively against such deception. However the easy access to information on the internet has changed the game world-wide.

A few hours each semester I teach Business English at the University of Trier. Year after year I struggle and battle and plead and have angry debates with non-plussed German students about plagiarism and copying from each other in exams. We have different interpretations of the same act: I see it as cheating; they see it as a minor misdemeanour.

While marking exams this week I can clearly see who copied from whom and there is not much I their lecturer can do. There is no system of invigilation like we had at Wits; a single lecturer is supposed to sometimes invigilate classes of 200 students while they write. An impossible task.

Even if I can proof they cheated, there is little support from the University authorities. In this country primary school children already learn that copying in exams is a mere trivial offense, without any serious action taken against them. The wonderful German word Kavaliersdelikt. As a mother I battled to tell my kids that it was wrong to cheat when all around them it was being done on a regular basis. Only fear of my ire, kept my older daughter from cheating and being caught. So whenever I have raised this issue, professors shrugged their shoulders and I get the sense that I have not arrived in academic Germany.

Even is there is proof, universities are reluctant to act. Officially universities warn against plagiarism; in practise they do little to curb it.

I have failed students who wrote essays in the journalistic style of The Economist or The Financial Times. I simply argued if I,as an English journalist, struggle writing in that style, how come they can with such ease write such flowing sentences? Only to then go on and fail the next English grammar or Business English vocabulary test? But as I quickly found out when they complained to the department: that is certainly no argument. And trying to catch them out is time-consuming work, for which we freelance lecturers are not paid. So we all tend to turn a blind eye.

Stern Cover July 2009

In the case of Merkel’s most popular aristocratic Minister, Baron Karl-Theodor zu und von Guttenberg started off arrogantly defending his thesis against the "audacious" accusations that he plagiarised. It took a couple of days after a Law professor pointed out that there was plagiarism in his doctorate, and that he should not have gotten the degree conferred on him, before hundreds of volunteers took a closer look at his copy and paste master piece on Guttenplag Wiki website. By last Monday (21.2.2011) they had found plagiarism on no less than 286 pages of his doctorate. Statistically 72.77% of the 475 page thesis was copied and pasted without any reference to the sources. Therefore three quarters of his “first rate” doctoral thesis was NOT his own work.

By Monday evening, with overwhelming evidence against him he pre-empted the University of Bayreuth stripping him of the title, by voluntarily returning the title. In return he hoped to stay on as Minister of Defence.

Unrepentant he argued there are more important issues at stake, than forgetting a few hundred sources. In my opinion the University in Bayreuth, only got active because of the bad publicity. It is the heartland of his CSU (Christian Socialist Union) party, where zu Guttenberg’s grandfather was already a key politician. Normally this baron could do as he wished here.

Zu Guttenberg's doctoral thesis that he got summa cum laude

In some ways his summa cum laude doctorate underlines what again and again is shown in OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) studies: That in Germany, like in no other OECD country, academic success depends who and what your parents are.

Today Bayreuth University has moved to the top of their website the heading how they deal with academic transgressions. And on Wednesday evening (23.02.2011) merely a week after the accusations first surfaced, the University acted swiftly and stripped him of his doctorate.

Der Spiegel summarised what has been happening in German society when it wrote today that “Guttenberg’s honour: Lying has become suitable for ministerial office”.

It is a blow for academic standards.

And what values do we give our children and students in this country? Are we telling them that it is okay to plagiarize but don’t transgress the 11^th Commandment – “Thou shalt not be caught”

BBC Correspondent Brian Hanrahan dies: He represented a dying breed of journalist

2010-12-20T22:15:00.006+01:00

This morning I heard the sad news that Brian Hanrahan, one of the BBC's finest correspondents had died. I've worked with Brian, many times in the last decade covering mostly stories related to recent German history. He was thorough, seeking the truth, a sticker for details, good research and facts and more facts. So many times when I rambled on, giving my personal take on events, he said to me "Just give me the facts"

He was fair on those who worked with him and those he interviewed. He was a Mensch.

Today I remember after a heavy day of filming, the many thought-provoking conversations we had over dinner in Berlin and Leipzig and Dresden and Cologne. We talked about the media, current affairs, history, books and art. He certainly shaped my view of the role of journalists in our day and age. At every shoot I learnt something from him. In Dresden he encouraged me to still visit the world-famous Zwinger art museum with only an hour to spare on the morning we left.

Brian was far too young to die. May you RIP, Brian!

Here is an extract from my book, "From Rock to Kraut", about the first time I worked with Brian in November 1999 in Berlin to cover the 10th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall.

"In late October 1999, almost ten years after the fall of the Wall, BBC News contacted me to ask whether I would be able to do some research for them on the fall of the Wall. I was busy celebrating my daughter’s 11th birthday party when the call came. As so often happens with the BBC, things were left way too late, and I had literally five days to try and find the people who correspondent Brian Hanrahan met on the night the Wall fell in 1989.

Brian was in East Germany at the time and heard the Wall was falling via word of mouth. He went to the Bornholmerstrasse crossing. That night it was the first border post to open its barriers to the West. Brian and his camera team were there, going with the flow and talking to Ossis crossing into the West for the first time. Based on his footage, the Germans later made a film, and ten years later I had to find these people on the basis of very skimpy information…….

For a start, the British, not being the greatest of linguists, made things extremely difficult. So all I was given was a list of people to contact, plus, in some cases, phone numbers from early 1990. Now it may sound as if my colleagues were being incredibly helpful. Well, there were some minor hiccups to start off with. For example, after unification in 1990, all old East Berlin phone numbers changed. I had also never seen the film and therefore did not know whether the names of the interviewees fitted East or West Germans. So where should I start to look?

Single women may have married in the meantime and changed their names. And some names are very common. There was a certain Susanne Fischer whom they interviewed on that evening, and I counted seventeen Susanne Fischers living in Berlin. I gave up after phoning half of them.

There was a particular waiter who Brian interviewed in a disco on the Kudamm—the famous and fashionable West Berlin shopping street—and who he was keen to have in the film as he was young and from the East. He came from Burg and I was given a number for him. With all East German telephone numbers no longer valid, this turned me into a super sleuth.

There are only twenty-seven villages called Burg in Germany. So I required a map to try to work out which ones were in the former East Germany.

There were three near enough to Berlin. BBC producer Paul Simpson, looking at the notes and having to deal with my calls of desperation then deciphered “Burg bei Magdeburg”.

Now a young guy like that would have lived with his parents. I was told there was a restaurant in the castle in the village and assumed that he probably worked there. But then the restaurant no longer existed so I called the Tourist Information who passed me onto someone else: I called random people in the village, and it emerged that he had left Burg, like so many young people did after unification, and that he went to the West.

(c) Anli Serfontein 2009. Brian Hanrahan in Leipzig 2009, the last time I worked with him

Eventually I was given the number of a relative of his, who told me that he had moved to Munich, but was doing a course in Spain at the present time. Ten years after Brian filmed him, I reached him in Spain on his Spanish mobile phone and as fate would have it, he was going to be back in Munich on the weekend we were planning to finish filming. Having gone to such lengths to find him, I never met Marko. On the Sunday Paul and Brian flew down to Munich from Berlin to interview him, while I flew back to Trier, mission accomplished. Of all the sad stories of people who did not adapt to the pace of the West, Marko was one of the success stories, embracing the possibilities the West had to offer."

The interview with Steffi Rühmann that I found for Brian 10 years after his chance encounter with her on the night the borders opened. 20 years later, she has moved once more and I found her once more for Brian for a last interview. There will be no 25th or 30th anniversary interview!

German Protestant head says a European Islam needed for dialogue

2010-11-23T22:19:00.001+01:00

By Anli Serfontein

Trier, Germany, 23 November (ENInews)--A European form of Islam needs to develop before a meaningful interfaith dialogue can take place on the continent, the new leader of Germany's 24 million Protestants has said.

"We are only at the beginning of a serious inter-religious discussion on a theologically high level and that is because there are problems with finding counterparts," the Rev. Nikolaus Schneider told ENInews in a 17 November interview in Trier.

"The imams who come from Turkey to Germany can hardly speak German and that means that we need to train imams in Germany at our universities," said Schneider, who was elected the new chairperson of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) on 9 November during a meeting of its governing synod in Hanover.

He had been the EKD's acting leader since February, when his predecessor, the Rev. Margot Kässmann, stood down after a drink-driving offence.

Schneider said that one of his priorities in his new post is to set up as soon as possible a meeting with representatives of Islam in Germany, which has about four million Muslims.

In recent weeks an intense debate has raged in Germany about the willingness of Muslim immigrants to integrate and learn the language. A book claiming that Turkish Muslims are not willing to integrate reached the top of the non-fiction bestseller list.

In a speech to mark Germany's 1990 unification, the country's President Christian Wulff also stirred controversy when he stated that Islam is part of Germany, alongside Christianity and Judaism.

Schneider told ENInews he welcomes the newly established Islam theology faculties at three German universities, as well as efforts to introduce religious education in Islam at schools.

In most of Germany, religious education is an obligatory part of the curriculum with separate classes for Protestant, Roman Catholic and Jewish students. There are however no classes for Muslim students.

"We need an Islam that has an academic formation in our country and at our universities, an Islam that is able to enter into dialogue with the social sciences and with the natural sciences in our country," said Schneider.

Referring to imams, he said, "They don't know our cultural background, and they cannot preach in such a way so that they can provide orientation to the conditions of our society, but they preach as if the people are still living in Turkey."

Schneider is also president of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, one of the 22 regional Lutheran, Reformed and United churches that make up the EKD.

On 20 November, he was a special guest at the Vatican of Archbishop Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising who was installed as a cardinal by Pope Benedict VXI. Marx is the former bishop of Trier that is within Schneider's Rhineland church area and they worked together during Marx's tenure in Trier.

All articles (c) Ecumenical News International Reproduction permitted only by media subscribers and provided ENInews is acknowledged as the source.

Vatican cardinal says lack of shared communion his greatest regret

2010-07-25T22:54:00.006+02:00

By Anli Serfontein

Stuttgart, Germany, 22 July (ENI)--The recently retired senior Vatican official responsible for ecumenical affairs has said his biggest regret during his tenure in Rome is that he did not achieve an agreement on a common communion with Protestants.

"Today, there is a lot of convergence. So, we got closer to each other but we could not achieve the final breakthrough. I regret it very much but you cannot push the issue," said Cardinal Walter Kasper, who retired on 1 July as president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

"The main thing that I did not achieve is the sharing of Holy Communion," Kasper told ENInews in an interview in Stuttgart, while attending, as a special guest, the 20-27 July assembly of the Lutheran World Federation.

Kasper, now 77, became president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in 2001; he had served the previous two years as its secretary. Originally from Germany, Kasper is a former professor of theology in Münster and Tübingen, and was bishop of Stuttgart from 1989 to 1999.

Soon after he became secretary of the Vatican's unity council, Kasper took part in the signing on 31 October 1999, Reformation Day, of the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" between the Roman Catholic Church and the LWF. This aimed to overcome condemnations, dating back to the 16th century, between the papacy and reformer Martin Luther and his followers.

However, sharing in the Eucharist, or Holy Communion, the central Christian sacrament that commemorates Jesus' last meal with his disciples, remains a point of contention. Catholic teaching prevents Protestants in most situations receiving communion from Catholic priests, and says Catholics should not receive communion in Protestant churches.

"Of course, I regret it very much because I know the concrete problems in families, and between good friends and partners," said Kasper. "I know what these problems are but I cannot jump over the whole existing doctrine. It is a problem that still exists but I think we also achieved some things. Maybe not consensus but convergence."

Kasper's words echoed those of LWF president Mark S. Hanson from the United States, who earlier in the day told a media conference that the Lutheran commitment to ecumenism will not end until Lutherans can share the Eucharist with other churches.

"We must continue the dialogue about theological issues that still prevent us from communing together," said Hanson.

The LWF president had been asked if he could envisage a day when a married couple in which one partner was a Catholic and the other a Lutheran could share in communion together with the blessing of both churches. Hanson responded by saying that it is the lay people of the churches who are driving and sustaining these conversations, and he acknowledged the "grassroots ecumenism" that is alive among lay people.

"If Roman Catholics and Lutherans can feed the hungry together, wouldn't it be good if they could be fed at the Lord's Table together?" Hanson said.

Kasper said in an address to LWF assembly delegates, "In the last years, we have been harvesting the fruit of the dialogue. I was more than surprised to see such a rich harvest, and that we have achieved much more than we could even dream before. There has been no ecumenical winter."

Still, he acknowledged that there is an unfinished agenda and that this should be the reason to continue the search for unity. "We can no longer afford to stick to our differences," Kasper told delegates.

In his ENInews interview, the former Vatican official stressed that dialogue and debate should continue. "I think for both sides it is the same thing. You must be patient, and you must be impatient at the same time," he said with a smile.

Kasper explained that he thought it may have been easier for him to engage in ecumenical discussions, since he had experienced division at first hand in the land of the Reformation. In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg, thus setting in train the breach with the Catholic Church.

"The Reformation started in Germany. We are at the origin of the Reformation, and therefore Reformation and relations with Lutheran Evangelical people are a concern for us because it divided us for many centuries. It still divides families today," Kasper said.

He noted that he had studied and later taught theology at German universities that each had two theological faculties, one for Protestants and the other for Catholics.

"So, ecumenical relations belonged to our life. One has many Protestant friends. I was bishop in this diocese, which is half Protestant and half Catholic," he said. "It is a normal reality for us, and I think this helps us
a lot to understand the other angle, and to understand the urgency to work for unity and communion."

In an interview in November 2009 in Wittenberg, where Luther worked and lived, Kasper noted, "We have learned a lot in the last 50 years. At the university, I spent a lot of time teaching about Martin Luther, and I have learned from that experience too."

In his Stuttgart interview, Kasper acknowledged that some sections of the Catholic Church have difficulties with such ecumenical developments but said he had the backing of both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.

Looking back at what has been achieved in terms of ecumenical progress in the last decade, Kasper said it would not have been possible without friendship with his counterparts from other traditions. He said a deep friendship had developed between him and the Rev. Ishmael Noko, the Zimbabwean-born LWF general secretary.

"Personal friendship and personal relations are fundamental to ecumenical work and for pastoral work because without personal relations, personal friendships and trust you can do nothing; it is the basis of all. Then, when you have friendship, if there is trust you can also speak about the differences and you
can also achieve good results," Kasper said.

Introducing Kasper to LWF assembly delegates in Stuttgart, Noko said, "You embody in your soul the spirit of ecumenism. You have been an encourager, when obstacles seemed insurmountable, and a truth teller." [

All articles (c) Ecumenical News International Reproduction permitted only by media subscribers and provided ENI is acknowledged as the source.

World Cup 2006 changed the perception of Germany

2010-07-06T13:30:00.003+02:00

With the German team firing on the World Cup fever in South Africa, I had to think back of what it was like when the World Cup was held in Germany four years ago. I ended my first book with the World Cup 2006 which forever changed the perception of the way the country was seen by the outside world. Here is an extract from the last chapter of my book:

"For a month in the warm early summer of 2006, Germany was transformed into one big party venue, as the nation played host to the 2006vSoccer World Cup. Their catchy host slogan was “Die Welt zu Gast bei Freunden—A time to make friends” was the official translation, which does not catch the spirit. “The world are our guests: at home with friends,” might have captured it better.

When I first saw the slogan, which was on billboards everywhere, I thought it was quite kitsch, but as the tournament went on, it absolutely caught the spirit of the new Germany. They were the perfect hosts and showed the world an unexpected side—they truly knew how to party!

Everywhere there were Fanmeilen—fan miles and Fan Fests set up where people could watch the games together. I was cynical of these venues at first, seeing them as something for the young. Louise went to watch the first game with friends on one of the squares in Trier. I stayed at home and watched on television, telling her I wanted to see the game and not be part of a communal piss-up. She came back and said no drinks were allowed in, but the atmosphere was brilliant.

When the World Cup started, Germany had a young, inexperienced soccer team and the decade since they last won a major tournament, the European Championships in 1996, had been marred by bad performances.

As the World Cup approached, they had very little local support. The hero of the 1990 World Cup, Jürgen Klinsmann, had taken over as trainer and was being criticised by Franz Beckenbauer, the legendary German player and coach, for his revolutionary training methods. Beckenbauer was responsible for bringing the World Cup to Germany, outbidding South Africa by one vote. While the BBC’s Gary Lineker was saying before the World Cup that one could never quite write off the Germans, no local soccer commentator gave them much of a chance to get beyond the Round of Sixteen. The team was made the focus of everyone’s disappointment about everything that had gone wrong in Germany since reunification—large debts, huge unemployment, and people’s dreams shattered. My German friends were joking and making bets about how long it would be before they were out of the tournament.

But it was my daughter’s generation that went to the Fan Fest for that first crucial opening game to show some belief in their players......"

Read more:

"She concludes with the event which reconciled us with the world, the World Cup in 2006”. " Vito von Eichborn, veteran German publisher

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Service: desert or dessert? Wie bitte?

2010-06-06T23:11:00.000+02:00

Germans are reliable, is one of the myths that we foreigners have. And on a hot early summer Saturday in June, they have once more shown themselves more reliable than I actually wished them to be.

In my book on Germany I have lamented the fact that service as we know it in the Anglo-Saxon world is not a word understood in the same context or intent by people here. To make things worse we live in a border area where the locals have unfortunately adopted the worst of the German idea of no service and the absolute top of the French concept of bad service: a toxic combination.

So on this hot summer’s long-weekend Saturday, my husband and I decide to take the scenic route through the hills and woods of the Hunsrueck area to fetch our daughter in Idar Oberstein from the Youth Camp 2010 of the Evangelical Church in Rhineland.

Idar Oberstein is famous for its precious stones and a mere 80 kilometres from our home. So we set the GPS system to take the minor roads, dreaming that we will stumble across some secluded beer garden on the edge of a forest with views going on forever over the hills. As the temperatures soared, the first beer garden we saw in Reinsfeld was closed.

After about 45 kilometres of only seeing ugly 1950’s buildings to eat indoors, we saw a sign for Erbeskopf, high in the hills of the Hunsrueck: the highest point in our state of Rhineland Palatinate. It is a winter a ski area. In summer there are challenging children playgrounds and a summer tobbagon run. The parking lot was fairly deserted for a long weekend Saturday afternoon, but my optimistic husband saw the sign for a Waldgaststätte (a forest restaurant) and so high in the hills there was a pleasant, cool breeze. Alas through the windows I saw the chairs were on the tables. He trusted the other side would still be open - nope it was very much closed and there was no tobbagon run on this perfect day for outdoor activities. Not taken aback we saw some people on a sun deck and wandered over to the Hunsrück House, where the café owner was happy to serve coffee and cake. At 12h30 in the afternoon it was not quite what we had in mind.

So we continued on the scenic precious stone route, through small villages and thick woods. I enjoyed the beauty, asking myself why people go to the much more touristic Black Forest, if they can have it all here. Woods as far as the eye can see plus precious stones.

In the next village we saw a sign for a beer garden called Hühnerstall (chicken coop) and a quick drive over the parking lot confirmed that held true to its name; nothing to entice us to eat there. We followed and lost signs for another Waldhotel (Forest hotel). On the outskirts of Idar Oberstein we pulled into a lovely beer garden, under some big oak trees. "Third time lucky," I proclaimed. However the outdoor terrace was deserted and twe were quickly told they only opened at 6 pm.

A few kilometres further we saw another sign for a beer garden. Again no luck as the original beer garden was now used for second hand sales, but a few metres further on, next to a small pond, we settled at a pleasant-looking outdoor restaurant called Zur Weiherschleife.

The waitress came quickly. We ordered the two specialities of the house; a Chili bread with a chicken salad and a schnitzel. The bottle of water also came quickly. The place was not full, only about every second table was occupied. We talked; I tried to better my tan, after my botched self-tan attempt. We drank water. We phoned our daughter to say we will be a bit late; we were still waiting for our food.

After 45 minutes our glasses were empty and my husband politely enquired where the food was - we are used to bad service, but by now we were going past 14h00.

The waitress did not know what we ordered, she came back to say the order got lost and the cook is refusing to let our order jump the queue. My small muesli and yoghurt breakfast was now seven hours earlier.

We were feeling sorry for ourselves, why us? Why do we time and again get hit by German lack of service? She disappeared and came back after a while, offering us a quick meal of fried egg and “Bratkartoffeln” – fried potatoes. No apology – she blamed the cook. Sorry is certainly not a word that exists in service here. By now the temperatures were heading for 30°C and I could not face gobbling down a heavy winter’s meal. I said a curt “Nein”; my irate husband joined my boycott.

Nothing in this city could please us, anymore. “McDonalds,” I whispered. “At least I know the service is quick and I know I will get what I ordered.” But alas this third-rate provincial town does not even possess a McDonalds. So three hours after we started looking for a location to eat, we headed to the town centre of

Idar Oberstein stopping off at a Turkish street food stall where my husband got himself a sausage roll and I opted for a potato salad. We ate in the car. A cheap outing costing us just over three Euros.

Luckily we did not try the town centre as my daughter told me there 2,000 youths were trying to eat in 13 restaurants!

So yes the area is beautiful and yes it is even worth a day-trip. But take your own picnic basket! By the way it is a poor area of Germany and people DO live off tourism: every second shop sells gem stones. Just don't try to eat there!

(c) Text & photos - Anli Serfontein 2010

German Police Inter-Cultural Sensitivity

2010-05-31T13:09:00.004+02:00

One day each year, foreigners living in Trier, - and they make up 8% of the local population after all - can celebrate their cultures on one of the city squares.

Yesterday on a rainy Sunday as people from the Middle East and Asia and Africa cooked their specialities, danced and sang, they were also introduced to German culture.

Coming from South Africa and having worked in the townships during the Unrest of the late Eighties and early Nineties, I for one, for many years after moving to Germany, made a wide berth around anyone in uniform. Too many bad memories clouded my rationality. I wonder how many of the foreigners on the Kornmarkt yesterday are political exiles who still have nightmares from the way they were treated by men in uniform? Maybe even tortured? In my experience many of us coming from the Third World fear dogs. However they were introduced to the law in their new country.

With intercultural (in)sensitivity the German police put their police dogs through their paces in dealing with criminals. In an impressive display an Alsatian jumped through an open car window and swiftly pushed the drug dealer out of his vehicle.

Now what was the message? If you are criminal (and many in the population still think only foreigners are criminals) this is how we will deal with you, so don't try? Or on a friendlier note "Welcome to Germany!"

Intriguing display!

German Catholics launch helpline for abuse victims

2010-03-31T12:15:00.002+02:00

It is seldom that I can just get on my bike and go to a press conference, but this one in Trier yesterday was a welcome change!

Trier, Germany (ENI). The Roman Catholic Church in Germany has launched an official telephone hotline for victims of sexual abuse in its institutions.

At a press conference in Trier, Bishop Stephan Ackermann of the German Bishops' Conference said on 30 March the helpline will be staffed by psychologists and social workers from the diocese of Trier.

Ackermann was appointed in February by the German bishops to handle mounting allegations of abuse in Germany's Catholic Church.

The crisis began when a school in Berlin run by the Jesuit order announced in January that there had been systematic abuse of pupils by three priests in the 1970s and 1980s. After the school had appointed a lawyer, it appealed for victims of abuse to come forward.

Soon it emerged that the priests involved also worked at other church-run schools and the problem grew. The scandal has so far affected most German dioceses.

Ackermann looked distressed when he told journalists, "I have in the past weeks had to read shocking examples and learned how strongly such an experience influences the life of every person." He said even long after they have happened, the occurrences have "really destructive traits".

Ackermann said, "Victims can now get a chance to come forward and report what they have kept silent about for decades because of shame." The bishop noted, "I have read many emails in the last weeks where victims have in detail portrayed their abuse and the after effects, and I must tell you honestly that I can only read that in small doses. It is shocking and one cannot just read it like regular post."

On 29 March Ackermann announced that 20 priests have been embroiled in cases of sexual abuse in his diocese between 1950 and 1990. He said although he was shocked by the number involved, "It is the reports of the victims that really upsets me and shocks me."

Asked whether the church was guilty of a cover-up, Ackermann said, "Those in church positions who did not clear up the problem, although they could have and should have, are of course guilty [of covering up]."

The bishop repeated an appeal to perpetrators of sexual abuse to admit their deeds, saying, "Only then will a way be possible to get to the truth and reconciliation."

The helpline should serve as a "door opener" for victims, said Andreas Zimmer, who runs the Counselling Services in the diocese of Trier. After an initial conversation with victims and listening to their wishes on what further action should be taken, they will be passed on to other professional counselling services in their own dioceses. "We (as the Church) have an obligation to fulfil," he said.

Zimmer said they chose "experienced counselling staff [psychologists or social workers] with many years of professional experience, who are highly qualified to deal with traumatised people and are competent in the field of sexual violence".

A spokesperson for the movement We are Church, Christian Weisner, told Ecumenical News International he thought that a service operating three days, and afternoons-only will not be enough for a country-wide helpline.

"It can only be a beginning," Weisner told ENI. "It is a step in the right direction, but should have been done in 2002 already. It is too little, too late."

We are Church has run a telephone helpline for victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy since 2002 when the Catholic sexual abuse scandal broke in the United States. So far 400 victims have called in, 90 in the last two months.

Weisner said that questions around the cause of the sexual abuse in church institutions will be debated for a long time. His organization has called for the policy of mandatory celibacy of Catholic clergy to be abolished.

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Books, people, publishers and blisters

2010-03-21T12:19:00.025+01:00

The annual Leipzig Book Fair is truly a people's book festival and in stark contrast to the Frankfurt Book Fair which is all about deals.

Ever since Johannes Gutenberg invented his book printing machine (I visited the museum two years ago in Mainz), Germany has been the centre of the publishing trade.

From 1632 to 1945 Leipzig was the biggest book fair in Germany and in Europe. However after the divide of Europe and Germany into East and West after the Second World War in 1945, the festival continued in East Germany. It was however was overtaken in importance by Frankfurt.

This get-together of the publishing and media sectors with writers, readers and publishers has an invigorating air about it. In the hustle bustle of some spring sunshine the famous mix with booksellers, readers, plebs and wannabe authors like myself.

Nobel Prize Laureates Günter Grass and Hertha Müller were walking around being interviewed and talking to people, as was South African author Deon Meyer.

One hall is mainly for comics and cartoons and many young readers come dressed as their favourite manga figures.

Leipzig is Europe’s biggest Reader’s Festival with nearly 2,000 author events during the four days in 350 venues spread through the city. Over 2,000 publishers from about 35 countries display their books and authors here.

My book Basteln, Wandern and Putzen: From South Africa to Trier published in 2008 in Vito von Eichborn’s Edition BoD was again on display at my publisher’s stand in Hall 3. I was grateful for the welcome cup of coffee offered, while quickly catching up, taking a few pics and moving on.

I concentrated mainly on two halls - Halls 3 and 4 - looking at trends, new publications, making new contacts and having interesting conversations. Unlike Frankfurt it is so much easier to talk to the publishing industry here.

With my second manuscript now finished, it is time again to look for a publisher, while the translation rights of Basteln, Wandern and Putzen, are still being discussed. For someone as impatient as me, the cogs of this business moves very slowly.

I enjoyed the Fair much more than in 2008 - it was less overwhelming. And next year I will make sure I spend more time there; one day is far too short. And as we nurtured our blistered feet, next year it will be flat tackies (sneakers). (Or a wheel chair) Smart and comfortable are mutually exclusive!

Latter-day Latin Lamentations

2010-03-13T21:57:00.012+01:00

There I stood this week at the grave of Erasmus of Rotterdam in the Basel Münster at a loss to read the inscription in the lingua franca of Europe. Albeit the lingua franca of an earlier Europe, when a common written language prevailed - Latin. That was the world of this Dutch Renaissance humanist.

Coming from Africa I never saw the advantages of Latin as a subject. Moving from Jozi barely a century old to Germany’s oldest Roman town, a mere 2,000 years old , I was soon confronted by Latin.

In our area some secondary schools offer the option of pupils starting with Latin as their first foreign language when they, aged barely ten, start Gymnasium, the most academic of the three-tier secondary schools. Because numbers are low a lot of marketing goes into attracting pupils.My tri-lingual daughter was seen as a natural candidate.

„Latin is a dead language,“ I proclaimed loud enough for all to hear. Whereas the German intelligensia, in other words the professors, the architects, the doctors and lawyers were cajouling their reluctant offsprings to start with Latin, my kids started with French. My then 9-year old daughter duly reported my philistine views to the primary school headmistress, married to a top notch specialist.

„Mrs Fischer said Latin is not a dead language,“ she told me over lunch. „Oh and who speaks Latin?“ I retorted. „The Romans,“ came her quick answer. „And do you see any around here?“ I asked waving my arm around what used to be the Roman Zoo where they kept their wild animals, but where we now live, before readily supplying the answer, „No, we only have Roman ruins and dead Romans.“

So my children started with French – the only language they did not know. I scoffed at people who started off with Latin, as often in my experience teaching students, they were later in life very poor in speaking English. In my daughter’s class there were even pupils who started off with French and then took Latin, finishing school without any English at all, and this in this day and age.

I myself have learnt French and Portuguese without feeling a need for Latin and have dabbled in Spanish. But the German education system always catches up with us boorish halfwits from Africa.

And they eventually got my daughter. Any student studying for a Bachelor degree in either German or English in this country is obliged to have studied Latin. I always thought both are not classified as Roman languages. But my now student daughter explains, “Some Middle High German texts are only in Latin and the professors need to translate from those original texts.” For the three idiots who want to spend their lives in dark cellars translating those texts, it may be fine, but why punish everyone? And more effort seem to go into acquiring Latin, than Middle High German.

Studying German as a sub-major at Wits University all those many years ago, I managed in two short years to read Middle High German texts like the Nibelungenlied, read Faust One and Two, read Schiller and Goethe and novels from the Enlightenment to Expressionism. We read modern authors (well in 1979 they were modern) like Peter Handke, Günter Grass and Heinrich Böll. Now doing four hours of Latin a week, my student daughter seems to lack the vast knowledge of German literature, such as we acquired all those many years ago in southern Africa.

The same applies to English. I have now battled for a decade with incompetent English school teachers who marks what is right as wrong and often have absolutely no grasp of, or feel for the English language. It is rather different to Latin. They were most probably struggling with Latin, when they could have explored the vast literatures of the English language.

That probably explains why a professor of English here in Trier would in his introduction to World English literature tell students that Nadine Gordimer is a writer from the southern hemisphere (right), specifically from the New Zealand, Australia region (wrong). Did my learned friend ever open ONE of her books?

Our other South African Nobel Literature Prize winner, JM Coetzee, the only Commonwealth author ever to win the Booker Prize twice, no-one teaching English in Trier, ever seem to have heard of. And yes, Professor Doctor English, he actually lives in Adelaide in Australia these days.

PS As an afterthought, could anyone translate the Erasmus inscription for me.

Protestants, Catholics regret resignation of German bishop

2010-02-25T22:42:00.006+01:00

A story that continues to rock the Protestant Churches in Germany and that I did for Ecumenical News International in Geneva.

Trier, Germany, 24 February (ENI)-- Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders have expressed their regret about the resignation of Bishop Margot Kässmann, the first woman to lead 24 million German Protestants, who belong to the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD).

At a 24 February press conference in Hanover, where she was resident bishop, Kässmann said she was resigning from her leadership positions, only days after she was stopped for a drink-driving offence. When she made her announcement she was flanked by her four grown-up daughters.

Kässmann said she had given up her posts as a bishop and as head of the EKD but would continue as a pastor.

One commentator said the resignation would hurt the EKD more than it would help it because of a shortage of well-known leaders in the church grouping. Still, one cleric from a theologically conservative group said her resignation was necessary.

"Last Saturday, I made a serious mistake that I deeply regret," Kässmann told the press conference. "I would not have in future the freedom to name and judge ethical and political challenges as I had before. I hereby declare that with immediate effect I am resigning from all my church positions. I have given all my energy to these offices."

Kässmann, who is a Lutheran, said, "I remain as a pastor of the Hanover church."

She had been the chairperson of the EKD, the umbrella organization for the majority of Germany's Protestants, until she was caught drink-driving on the evening of 20 February in Hanover. She allegedly jumped a red traffic light, and was found three times over the legal limit.

The general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, the Rev. Ishmael Noko, told Ecumenical News International, "As a church leader, Kässmann has made invaluable contributions to the work of the LWF and to the wider ecumenical circle not only in Germany but globally." Noko recalled a speech of Kässmann's in 2003 in Canada in which she expressed the need for "a society that does not follow the law of the strongest, of power and assertiveness, but practices solidarity, loves justice, makes peace, and safeguards creation".

The vice-chairperson of the EKD, Nikolaus Schneider, who is president of the Evangelical Church in Rhineland, and also president of the EKD Council, plus the Green Party leader and vice-speaker of the German Bundestag, Katrin Göring-Eckardt, issued a joint statement regretting Kässmann's decision to resign.

"The Evangelical Church in Germany will miss her straightforwardness and clarity in her theological, socio-political and societal positions," they said. "Her resignation is a heavy blow for German Protestantism. It personally hurts us a lot. At the same time, her decision to resign also reflects this straightforwardness that we appreciate from Margot Kässmann."

The chairperson of German's Catholic Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, commented, "I regret the resignation of the EKD chairperson, Bishop Margot Kässmann, with whom I have just started to work on matters of common concern. I have known Ms Kässmann for some time as a person who is prepared to take responsibility, and therefore I respect her decision and can understand this step."

Commentator and journalist Heiner Bremer told the German television news channel n-tv that the resignation could damage the EKD. He described Kässmann's resignation as the "second serious loss" for the EKD following the retirement of Wolfgang Huber as EKD head in October 2009.

There were no comparable figures in the "second row" of church leaders, said Bremer. He did not think that Kässmann needed to resign but that the decision might also reflect that she had been the target of a hostile campaign since her controversial statements earlier this year in which she criticised the role of Germany's armed forces in Afghanistan.

In an apparent reference to the drink-driving incident, Bremer said he felt that Kässmann had come under stronger fire than she would have done if she had been a man.

The EKD elected Kässmann, the bishop of Hanover, to be its new leader on 28 October 2009. It was first time a woman had become the most senior representative of German Protestants. The decision was made during a meeting of the EKD's governing body, its synod, in Ulm, southern Germany.

Günter Beckstein, a former Christian Social Union prime minister of Bavaria and vice-president of the EKD's synod, had spoken in support of Kässmann. "A bishop is no saint but just human and fallible," Beckstein told his local paper, the Nürnberger Nachrichten. He believed that Kässmann had made a mistake and should have taken a taxi or used a chauffeur but he did not see it as a reason to resign from her post.

Still, Pastor Ulrich Rüss of Hamburg, who heads the Conference of Confessing Communities, seen as a theologically conservative group, told n-tv that Kässmann had made the right decision. "This step was necessary," he said, adding that through her "misdeed", Kässmann had lost her credibility as a "moral authority".

Rüss said that as the head of the EKD and a bishop, Kässmann, "represented the church and in a certain sense also Christ and the Gospel".

Fifty-one-year-old Kässmann, who is divorced, became the youngest-ever chairperson of the EKD council, and was the successor of Bishop Huber, who retired at the end of 2009 at the age of 67.

The EKD is the umbrella organisation for 22 regional Lutheran, United and Reformed churches. It accounts for most of the country's Protestant Christians.

Kässmann had been bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover since 1999.

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To Cheat Or Not To Cheat

2010-02-07T22:16:00.009+01:00

Invigilating my students while they wrote their Business English Exam last Friday, I realised how complacent I have become in Germany.

Instead of like a few years earlier standing like a hawk over them, I was sitting at my desk marking. Now in my own defence I should add I was pretty weak and sick on this day.

However German students and pupils are absolutely notorious for cribbing from each other and yet I was not going to even try and find out if they did.

Unlike Anglo-Saxon countries where one can be expelled from an institution for cheating during an exam, it is by no means seen as an a remotely serious crime in this country. No much worse, most Germans (including my own children) can relate some pretty hair-raising stories of either copying from others during exams or being put under such social pressure to put your exam paper in such a way that others can copy from you. Even my brainy husband did not escape this pressure of others copying from him at his elite Bavarian Gymnasium.

A German friend of mine related how many years ago when he sat an exam at Harvard, he noticed that the moment they got their exam papers how all the German eyes started darting around, before they realised it is absolutely not done at such a prestigious institution. They had to rely on their own knowledge (probably for the first time in their lives).

So there I was last Friday in Trier adapting a very German line: “If you feel like cheating, please be my guest and do so. I will anyway notice when I do the marking.”

I was amazed at the amount of marking I got done in three hours and how relaxed I was. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

German Advent Faux Pas!

2009-11-29T18:26:00.006+01:00

A "normal" German Advent's wreath

"The layers of meaning in a new society are never explained explicitly to newcomers and sometimes I wish that I had been handed my bible of In Germany thou shalts and thou shalt nots as I crossed the border.

Our first Christmas was one case in point. Christmas is a serious, more contemplative time here and full of old traditions. During the season of Advent, every German family has a pine wreath with four candles on it. On each of the four Sundays in Advent, the family sits down for afternoon tea and Stollen—the traditional fruit loaf, eaten only at Christmas time—and another candle gets lit, until all four are burning on Christmas Eve. It is a wonderful tradition but not mine, and my children have suffered from their non-German mother’s inability to “bastel”—to make things with one’s hands—and to make an Advent wreath ourselves.

Our first Christmas here, my husband decided, as the German contingent in our marriage, that he would make an Advent wreath with Louise, thinking it couldn’t be that difficult. He and Louise sat down on a Sunday with some wire and pliers and pine branches taken from the neighbour’s trees. After much intense work, I was called to admire our very own and first Advent wreath. I had to bite my sharp tongue and suppress a chuckle, while hypocritically telling them how great it looked.

On the table was a rather South African, rugby-ball-shaped advent wreath—it was after all 1995 and the year of the Rugby World Cup in South Africa. MM looked at me apologetically, “I’m sorry! The wire frame just did not want to bend round.”

I was despatched the next day to get some candles for our very own wreath. I was lost. Germans love to burn candles in their houses during the dark months and one gets them in all shapes and colours and designs.

There is nothing I love more than to put on candles for atmosphere in the winter months and there I have adapted to my new home. MM, on the other hand, cannot read with dimmed lights and will always walk in and switch on the brightest light.

The other fear MM has is that his house will burn down because of us burning candles. So there I was standing in the DIY shop, trying to make my choice. Finally I found some sturdy, if not the most attractive, long- burning candles in a thick red plastic cylinder shape form, with white wax inside. Red is the colour of Christmas and the form looked ideal to me as the candle was protected. The dry pine needles could not catch fire and that would shut my husband up. As it was my first Christmas here, long-burning looked like a good additional feature—the candles had to last a month after all. Proudly I put them on the Advent wreath as a surprise for MM and Louise when they got home.

MM was rather horrified. “Those are grave candles!” It was still November, the month of remembrance in Germany. Inadvertently, I had bought candles that people put on the graves on All Saint’s Day. They are long-lasting and extremely safe candles, as they are supposed to last through the winter on the graves.

That first year we had the only rugby-ball-shaped Advent wreath with grave candles on it in the whole of Germany! Germans can sometimes be incredibly polite to bumbling foreigners: no one who came to our house that Advent commented on our unique wreath."

To my family's horror: my idea of an Advent's wreath - no needles, no mess, no sweat!

Intercultural Relations Repaired

2009-11-28T15:48:00.015+01:00

Seldom before in my life have I experienced how from the depths of despair, life can suddenly turn around into pure joy and pleasure and fresh experiences completely wiping away all bad memories that have gone before.

The mayor of Florange and our daughter (in white) laying a wreath in France on Remembrance Day 2009

An ordinary November week started with A., the French exchange pupil we hosted in September, writing to our daughter, saying she would refuse to have anything to do with our daughter Rose once she came to France. It was only days before Rose had to go and stay with this family. The visit was part of a regional Schumann exchange organised by the Education Departments in the four bordering countries and is meant to foster inter-regional understanding.

We were aghast by the turn of events. Even more hurtful was watching the toll it took on our daughter. Both we and her French teacher kept on telling her, not all French are like that. So while all her close friends were packing for France, my daughter (and I) had sleepless nights and teary evenings.

My husband had the task of informing the German and French authorities and we were resigned to her staying here. Then suddenly out of the blue, two days after the bad news, we got an unexpected email from the German teacher at the French school in Florange. She had read my husband’s correspondence with the authorities, read my blogs and the rude email of one of her pupils. She was totally dismayed. Beyond the call of duty, she then offered to find Rose another family. This was now Thursday afternoon. And from there on things moved at breakneck speed.

When by Friday afternoon that did not work out, she offered to put her up herself. Events were changing rapidly. Friday morning Rose had still told her teachers she would probably see them on Monday. Saturday, we rushed to town to do last-minute shopping - winter boots, a new jacket. When we got back there was a welcoming email with pictures waiting from the teacher’s ten-year old daughter describing the family members, their house and their pets.

On a sunny autumn Sunday afternoon, we drove the 85 kilometres to Florange, passing through Luxembourg. Three countries in less than an hour. After the drama of the last week, we were all feeling upbeat.

Walking into their welcoming home we knew instinctively this was going to work out. Over home-made apple cake we spent some time with this lovely family. We were given her French timetable, asked what she ate. That evening my husband and I drove back to Germany with not a worry in the world.

Tuesday Rose called to say she would probably move to another family on Wednesday where there were two girls her age, but that she could always move back to Madame. We then got an email from Madame saying how wonderfully Rose had fitted into her family but that she also did not sleep the night before moving her to another family. She was having second thoughts, asking herself if the move was right for our daughter. So much care and love moved me to tears. But we did not have to worry.

On her first day in the new family, she phoned to say that at the 11 November remembrance ceremony on the local cemetery, a public holiday in France, she was asked to lay the wreath with a French girl. I told her that Chancellor Angela Merkel on that day became the first German Chancellor to be at a Remembrance Day ceremony in Paris. Merkel laid a wreath with President Sarkozy at the Arc d’Triomphe.

A few evenings later, my daughter phoned out of breath “I have no time to talk. I am so lucky, I am happy, France is great.” And she put the phone down again. What more does a mother want to hear?

After 13 days we drove to fetch her from the French family we have never met. We were met by a smiling, happy daughter, conversing in French with the other girls. Their granny and aunt had come to join us for coffee and cakes and to say goodbye to our daughter. This was final proof of how completely she had been integrated into the family.

Their Daddy came home and there was more laughter. Then Monsieur announced that they had invited our daughter to go along on their summer holiday to Brittany. We in turn invited their girls to come and stay with us during the Christmas holidays.

As we drove away Rose rolled down the car window and shouted "Salut", like a real French girl to her friends who were running alongside the car. She dared her German father to hoot (unheard of in Germany). He did; but without the gusto of a South African or French HOOOOT

We drove on to the teacher’s house to thank her too. They repeated our daughter can come over any time she wishes to visit them.

We are in for a busy Advent. We will be showing both families around Trier and our wonderful Christmas market. My daughter has her address book filled with French pupils wanting to visit her. One French father wanted advice on buying DIY in Trier. As my husband said quite pleased with himself, as we drove back that evening, “It looks like we are going to become the place to stay and the place to get advise about Trier, for the French from Lorraine”

Driving back through three countries again, our daughter was bubbling and could not stop talking about life in France, her experiences at school and on outings, while mixing some French into her German and English. She was definitely going to live there one day, she warned us!

In one week in early November, our lives went from absolute horror, depression and tears into the most touching experience, we never in all our dreams envisaged! Thank you Madame K. Thank you Famille C!! Merci! Vive la France!

Intercultural Mis-Communication

2009-11-05T22:18:00.014+01:00

We as a family had to this week painfully experience how an intercultural, inter-regional pupil exchange between our daughter and a pupil in the northern French region of Lorraine, barely 60 kilometres from Trier completely collapsed.

For 12 days in September, we played hosts to a homesick 12-year old French pupil from a migrant family in Loraine. We thought we did our best: investing time, energy and money to make her time in Germany special. Every day there was an activity: an outing with French and German pupils or visiting some of our eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites. One day they had a home-made pizza and film party with 12 French and German girls here in our house. On the Saturday we did a day-trip to Eltz Castle, 100 kilometres away.

After receiving no thank you note from her, she deemed it fit to write my daughter an email this week, less than a week before my daughter was to go to France to tell her how she hated her time with us, that my daughter did not suggest any activities, undertook nothing with her, and made no effort to give her a good time in Germany. Therefore she refuses to undertake any activities with my daughter when she comes to France. All blatant lies as our French pupil probably did and saw more than any of the other exchange pupils.

An intercultural exchange is taxing on all involved - also on the parents. And I, as a former exchange pupil always take great care that pupils see and experience Germany in a wide range of ways – language; food; history; music and culture.

We were all reeling under the shock of her email. My husband was philosophical saying her sojourn did improve our French, as she refused to even say the simplest of sentences in German. Bitte and danke never crossed her lips. My older daughter now a student who had to keep her busy the last two days when her younger sister got sick, was wondering why as a third generation migrant she did not want to break out of the mould. Normally, in her experience of Germans with a migrant background, she said, the first generation comes for the money; the second try and adapt and the third generation break loose.

With so much intellectual analysis going on all around, I had to think positive too: Her stay with us did give me an insight into an Algerian migrant extended family in France, that I would normally not have had. She has 32 cousins in France alone and we lost count how many in Algeria. She was texting them all the time. What amazed me was how they are content to only have social relations within this extended family and are quite insular. It reminded me of my mother’s childhood in a rural South African family in the 1930’s and 1940’s. But these were third generation migrants to France in the 21^st century.

After we received the email, my husband called the fairly hostile mother, who told us she absolutely supported her daughter’s decision not to have anything to do with our daughter when she visited. However, as an afterthought our daughter may still come if she wishes so. Fearing that she will be treated like a leper we decided to keep her here.

We have had exchange pupils before and we did have contact with the parents when there were minor hiccups, which invariably in a long intercultural exchange can pop up. We had to conclude this time it was not the language that hampered communication, but the cultural communication framework.

To put it bluntly, the educated bourgeoisie communicate within a certain globally accepted framework, no matter what the language is, that is understood among each other. We reflect, we analyse and we set certain values for our kids. This week my husband and I were incapable to reach a common language with people whose horizon is a small village in northern France and a small village in Algeria. People who do not reflect. Having had their daughter in our house we could read that it was people for whom books have little value. People for whom the normal polite phrases like thanking your hosts have little value.

As all her friends are packing for a fortnight in France, my daughter is staying and that is the hardest part. It breaks my heart, knowing how she made such a huge effort to make A’s stay pleasant, especially when she was sad all the time. Now she is sadly the duped one. A. cried from the first day because she did not want to be here but was forced by her parents to go to Germany.

(c) Anli Serfontein 2009. My husband, daughter and the French pupil at Eltz Castle. According to her we did not undertake anything with her

My daughter wanted to go to France to experience school life there. She had organised who would send her homework; what books to take along; what magazines she would like to buy in France, what television she would like to watch. In hindsight we should not have put all our efforts and energy into trying to make a spoilt French pupil stay and only pandering to her needs in order to keep her happy; we should have let her go home after two days! We have wasted our energies completely. Unfortunately our daughter will now not benefit at all!

Read my blow by blow account of our Intercultural Nightmare

Carsten Semenya: Unfair bigotry?

2009-08-24T12:11:00.005+02:00

The World Athletic Championships in Berlin which ended last night should have been a moment of triumph for South African athletes, giving their best performance since returning to the international stage in 1991. Yet bigotry and nastiness of the highest order marred it for those athletes who have spent days and hours to prepare. Sitting in Germany this week, I was getting thoroughly sick of the narrow-mindedness of so many.

A lot have been written about Carsten Semenya but I would like to add my few thoughts.

She looks like a man her accusers say:

I worked as sports stringer for Reuters and SID (Sports Informationsdienst) in the early 1990’s in South Africa. The then long distance star of the day, Elana Meyer also had no breasts, a boyish figure and boyish facial features. She did however have a domineering husband who acted as her manager, which I suppose acted as an alibi. Today she has remarried and has a baby. Maria Mutola, the 800 metre Mozambican star was also not that feminine.

On pictures where her hair is longer, Carsten look much more feminine. I personally think it is a racist issue here; alas not coming from South African whites but from Europeans. Unlike her Kenyan counterpart she wears her hair au natural African. As South Africans we know there are many Black women in the rural areas of South Africa who wear their hair like that because they cannot afford expensive and long hairdresser appointments. And yes they do not fit in a western mould of beauty and femininty, that most Afro-Americans like First Lady Michelle Obama embrace.

She has a deep voice. Again, all South Africans speak quite a few decibels lower than the high-pitched Brits. I listened to Carsten’s one interview where she is supposed to have a deep voice. It sounds to me as low as Winnie Mandela’s voice (Or Zindzi’s). Now Winnie may have more balls than most men, but no-one would argue she is a man.

Her performance improved remarkably:

If one reads Carsten's CV and listens to what she herself said, it makes perfect sense why. Anyone who has ever been to the rural areas of the Limpopo would know that the athletic fields there cannot be compared to anything nearly approaching international standards. In fact that can hardly be recognised as such. And that is where she trained till she finished school. She also said she rested for three months – which may be logical as it is the time between school finishing and university starting. Only arriving in Pretoria earlier this year as a student, was she given the opportunity to train professionally at the High Performance Centre of Pretoria University with a trainer and excellent supervision.

As one of the unfittest people around, my power walk times through the vineyards have also improved fast this summer after regular daily walks. How much more should times not improved when such a natural athlete is training professionally?

The IAAF

The leak by the IAAF a mere three hours before her race and the interview full of inuendo by their press officer Nick Davies, was mean and low. Given Germany's strict privacy laws it is remarkable that the leak according to Davies, emanated from Berlin where tests were done.

What I found even more disturbing is that while she was doing her round of honour, German television switched to discus thrower Robert Harting who had just won a gold medal. Earlier in the week Harting insulted a group of former East German athletes, all doping victims with considerable damage to their health, who were protesting againt doping in sport. Harting’s trainer has links to Thomas Springstein, Katrin Krabbe’s trainer who in 1992 thought training and doping in Stellenbosch was save, because South Africa had just returned to the international sporting arena. He got caught out by the South African doping controllers.

Black Out?

Dying to see Carsten’s round of honour with the South African flag, I was seething. Here someone had just won one of the most amazing 800 meter races in history and German television determined that we should see Harting celebrating, this uncouth macho instead.

I am told that in the internal IAAF magazine distributed at the Championships every day for athletes and officials, Carsten also did not feature, nor does she on the IAAF website. Other gold medal winners did. Are they trying to erase her from our memories? Do they think she will then just go away?

But obviously the television people had something against us South Africans. They gave a repeat performance of not showing the winner’s round of honour when Mbulaeni Mulaudzi suprisingly beat the favourites in the men’s 800 metres on Sunday.

Tests

Apparently tests were done in Berlin and in South Africa, but everyone around Caster is keeping mum on the issue. Amnesia?

Zola Budd

Sources in the team say she is mentally incredibly strong: a shy, serious person who spent a lot of time on her own preparing mentally for the race. A true professional athlete. reminding me of Zola Budd. The people I know from the Limpopo area are very private people. So having your gender discussed all over the world must be shattering for her.

My advice to her is not to give up, but to use her anger positively and show the world what she can still achieve. Maybe she can takesome advice from Zola Budd who at a young age was also scrutinized and under enormous pressure for political reasons. In a 1992 interview with me shortly before the Barcelona Olympics, I asked her what makes her run?

"It was the only sport at school in which I could not hurt someone with my aggression. I get aggressive in about 90 per cent of all races. Sometimes I get incredibly angry," she said.

So Carsten use that anger! And you must have a lot of that right now!

Olewig Wine Festival, Trier

2009-08-03T23:04:00.007+02:00

The annual Olewig Wine Festival in Trier, Germany's oldest town is ending tonight.

Once again we celebrated at Weingut Deutschherrenhof. Where else? Good music, good wine, good food. Ate lovely vegetarian Flammkueche.

This is what I wrote in my book about it. On the left vineyards of Olewig.

Annual Olewig Wine Festival:

“In the last few years we have preferred to sit in the garden of the wine estate Deutschherrenhof, belonging to the family Schieben-Oberbillig. The wines are excellent, the cuisine good and the music is normally to our taste.

The problem with German wines is that they are so completely confusing. In South Africa my favourite wine for many years was a Boschendal Blanc de Blanc or for special occasions a Backsberg Chardonnay. With the French Huguenots bringing the wine culture to South Africa, I have no problem choosing a good French wine. But German wines, even after thirteen years of living in a wine growing area, give me the jitters. Is aRiesling dry or semi-sweet? Unless it is written explicitly on the bottle, your guess is as good as mine.

Recently I have discovered a wonderful Pinot Blanc at Deutschherrenhof. And while grape varieties internationally stick to the names of their countries of origin, French or German or Italian, the Germans translate Pinot Blanc as Weissburgunder, which means the same as “white Burgundy”.

The garden of Deutschherrenhof was also a place for our children to play nearby when they were younger, safely away from mainstream pedestrian traffic, which can get very congested as the evening proceeds. And by eleven o’clock one has a wonderful view of the fireworks in the steep vineyards from their garden........”

Rome comes to Trier

2009-05-25T08:45:00.011+02:00

Sunday the 24th of May

The faithful gather for outside the Roman Cathedral, dating from the fourth century, in Trier.

Bishop Stephan Ackermann, Germany's newest and youngest bishop, exists his official residence to go to the Cathedral for the official ceremony.

Looking for a shady place to sit down in Trier on a hot Sunday, the church bells started peeling at full volume from all directions. Trier has more churches on a square kilometre than any place I know, but today was different: The new bishop of Trier, Stephan Ackermann was being inducted.

And that is when we ran into a procession of Roman Catholic priests and bishops.

In the hot-humid early summer air ancient traditions mixed with modern times. The procession was headed by a priest carrying a huge old Bible. All the great religions of the world are based on scriptures and this symbolised 2,000 years of Christian tradition. We are just small cogs in the wheel of time.

Trier is not only Germany's oldest town founded in 17 BC by the Romans, but it is also Germany's oldest Catholic Diocese. Emperor Constantine allowed Christianity in Trier in about the fourth century and started to build the Cathedral that still today towers over the square. All the bishops of Trier are buried here.

As the procession came to a halt in front of the official residence of the bishop of Trier, across from the Kesselstatt wine café, Ackermann emerged to be greeted by dignatories. They then descended the steps so that Germany's youngest bishop could join his fellow German bishops and proceed to the Cathedral for the official ceremony.

He briefly hugged his predecessor the charismatic Reinhold Marx, now Archbishop of Munich and Freissing who looked quite jolly in the heat, laughing and joking while everyone else looked pretty solemn.

Rome has come to Trier once more, like it has done for nearly 16 centuries. The procession proceeded to the Cathedral.

A short while later sitting in the shade of those old trees at Kesselstatt, finally drinking a colddrink against the sweltering heat, Trier's tousseld-hair troubadour, Wolthär or better known as Walter Liederschmitt emerged and came to a halt under the trees across from the bishop's residence. An old hippie in the classical sense, he had some people in tow with concertina's and they started to belt out protest chansons.

A Sunday in Trier!

Hiking Into a Stupor

2009-05-03T15:32:00.011+02:00

„Basteln, Wandern and Putzen” is the name of the second edition of my book in Germany. The name comes from a chapter in my book listing the things I negatively associate with living in Germany.

"She pokes fun at her own inability to spotlessly clean her house, make anything with her hands or go on compulsory but torturous hikes - all prerequisites to living in the country", the publicity blurb said.

With some wonderfully warm days here in Trier, the wandern (hiking) season is truly upon us. With May and June full of public holidays, the season is traditionally opened on May 1, when families go on loooong hiking outings with friends. It is definitely a group activity, which involves a picnic or a meal somewhere. As I wrote in my book I am completely allergic to this type of activity.

As I sat on my stoep with my laptop last Friday, Labour Day, trying to overcome my writer’s block and write in some wonderful spring weather: group after hiking group went past our gate as the afternoon dragged on. Our problem is that just beyond our house is a wine farm, vineyards and some woods with wonderful hiking paths - and on public holidays the traffic increase considerably.

If these groups, by late afternoon already fairly pickled, would just have gone past quietly, I could maybe have worked in peace. But no - they were fairly noisy and not only that, many felt they had to comment on me sitting there trying to write.

"Mommy why is that lady sitting outside at her laptop”, Mommy would stop and try and peer through our shrubs, to get a better view of me, so she could answer her brat’s question. While staring she would come up with some stupid answer, totally distracting me.

Or people would stop and comment on my wonderful spring garden of tulips and daffodils which because of the sudden heat have now dried and died. “One should cut these dead flowers, otherwise they do not bloom next year,” one know-it-all told her group. By now I felt like storming to the gate, wagging my finger at them and saying: “No, they bloom every year and more beautiful than the year before, and guess what: I do nothing, but just let nature take its course!!!”

Worst of all are still the male chauvinists already VERY, very pickled from all the schnapps supplies in their rucksacks, laughing out loud at someone so stupid: Just imagine writing on what should be one’s day off!!

Sadly for me this was just a practise run for Ascension Day, also Father’s Day in Germany. It involves men-only hiking groups, who by late afternoon would walk past our gate, pissed out of their minds and commenting rudely on whatever takes their fancy.

Luckily modern fathers, who increasingly do take care of their off-springs, do not participate in such folly – Father's Day male-only hikes are strictly an activity for male dinosaurs.

No More Borders

2009-04-04T12:29:00.003+02:00

This week again brought the realisation how we have completely come to accept a Europe without borders and the enormous advantages of such a Europe. In the run up to the NATO Summit, Germany reactivated its border controls with neighbouring countries and those of us living in border areas felt the effect.

Yet it is only 14 years ago this month that Schengen came into operation and the border controls between EU countries fell away. The first borders to go were between the Benelux, France and Germany before in the last decade most others followed suit. For me, as a South African, it brought so many advantages and freedom!

When I first arrived here in 1995, I needed a visa for Luxembourg – to put in petrol or go to the post office or the cinema. Yes it is true! And every time we drove over to Luxembourg we had to grab the purse with Luxembourg money. And if we drove a bit further to shop in France we needed three purses and three currencies for a day trip.

Living only 15 kilometres away from the border to Luxembourg where petrol and alcoholic beverages are taxed less and therefore cheaper, a common European currency has enriched our lives.

We are only 40 km away from Luxembourg City itself: I (and a lot of other expats) go over, to see English films in their original language in Luxembourg, because here in Germany most films are dubbed. Or we go to the theatre as they quite often have world-class guest performances.

But now and then, most recently during the Soccer World Cup in 2006, the border controls are put up again and long delays have to be taken into consideration and we all moan and groan.

So this week, because of the NATO Summit in Baden-Baden and Strassbourg (France) the border controls, even at the little bridges only we locals know about were resurrected. And I had to postpone an ordinary trip to put in petrol and post some books. Postage to overseas destinations is cheaper from Luxembourg. I also had to postpone watching Slumdog Millionaire, which is not showing in this part of Germany, but is only on in cinemas in Luxembourg City.

Commuters who work in Luxembourg and live in Trier complained all week of long delays. I am lucky that I can just wait for the open borders again next week! And the side-effect was that I used my bike a lot to save the low tank from dropping even more: In the process I got a little bit fitter in perfect spring weather! I even have some aching muscles - a good sign!

Bread Marvelous Bread

2009-03-28T12:25:00.004+01:00

The art of breadmaking and baking in this country is on par with their engineering skills.

German expats and those of us who have lived in Germany for years, all miss German bread once we are out of the country. It is one of the first thing German expat communities do when they are abroad, set up their own bakeries.

My husband had his best ever pretzels outside of Bavaria, at the German bakery in Cape Town.

Now one thing that the German bakers even do better is to take a bread recipe from anywhere in the world and turn it into a masterpiece. I spent weeks in Tuscany trying to find a Ciabiatta that was not dry and tasteless. My favourite in this area is with feta cheese and olives on top. Add to that a glass of red wine and it is a meal.

Or take baguette, which is big in our area on the border to France. The bakeries here have all sorts of healthy baguettes with muesli, with all sorts of nuts and corns, with cheese. A feast!

And on Fridays I buy organic health bread from the market here in Trier and week after week let the baker convince me to try a new type of bread. I am an easy sucker, but it is always delicious.

Moi, at the Leipzig Book Fair in 2008

2009-03-12T22:17:00.010+01:00

The Leipzig Book Fair which started yesterday is a real feast for authors and readers. Unlike Frankfurt which is THE International Book Fair for rights, Leipzig has a Carnival atmosphere and is designed for readers to hear, see, meet and even touch (well shuffle and push past) authors. It is tangible and real, whereas Frankfurt is haughty and more for agents and publishers and VIP authors and DEALS.

1,900 (mostly German) authors are reading at the Fair and all over Leipzig, as part of the “Leipzig liest” – Leipzig Reading -festival. The organisers are expecting 120,000 visitors and there are exhibitors from 38 countries.

I displayed my book From Rock to Kraut there (that's me and my book), last year just as it came onto the market. Well, display is a great word, it was sort of hidden behind a bookcase at Books on Demand’s (BoD) stand and they probably did not think that I would travel across Germany just to check it out . But if you pushed a few people out of the way and put your head around the bookcase, there it was: in all its glory! I felt like a proud new mother - and writing a book is an extremely difficult birth.

Leipzig has something of a first-kiss-feel for me, as it was my first ever Book Fair. As I was leaving from Berlin in the morning , a short hour by train, my friend who has been to a few Book Fairs suggested I take some flat shoes. Deep down, I am still a Johannesburg girl: I had my killer high-heel boots on. So I swopped them for a pair of flat sensible boots. A tip that absolutely saved my day, as I trekked from hall to hall. Looking back, I was so ill-prepared for the five enormous halls.

When I much later wide-eyed and highly impressed related my experiences to my German friends, it seemed as if every German has been to a Fair. And yes, Fairs in Germany are just huge affairs. How could I help that the only Fair I had been to previously, had been as a young child: the Rand Easter Show in Johannesburg in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Compared to Leipzig it was like a miniature Fair.

This Carnival atmosphere in Leipzig started on the train carrying me from Berlin to Leipzig, where I only found standing room and everyone was studying their brochures and mapping out their Fair routes – absolutely the only way to handle these Fairs. Then it continued at the station which was primed for the Fair and everyone seemed to be heading there - laughing and chatting. Arriving at the Fair, people were rushing past the fountains and flags outside and into airy, light-drenched glass halls, housing thousands of books. And then one gets the shocking perspective – with 800 books produced a day in Germany alone, my book was just one of thousands!

Compared to Frankfurt, I found the attitude of the exhibitors and publishers so different. People had time for an informal chat and were quite approachable and helpful to bumbling first-time authors like myself. Compared to Frankfurt six months later this was an easy entry. In Frankfurt everyone seemed to be running around, power-dressed and frantically making deals while hurrying to meetings simultaneously barking instructions on their mobile phones. No-one gave a thought to new authors, unless you have sold a 100,000 copies!

This year the second edition of my book - for the German speaking countries – and now called “Basteln, Wandern AND Putzen: From South Africa to Trier - Living among the Krauts”, will be on display with veteran German publisher Vito von Eichborn’s Edition BoD. This time there will be five copies on display and hopefully it will be presented much more prominently, along with the other Edition BoD Books.

Prost Leipzig!

Leipzig Book Fair 2009

2009-03-12T22:04:00.007+01:00

The Leipzig Book Fair is a feast for readers and authors. It has a magic, carnival-like atmosphere and is not as haughty as Frankfurt.

I will be at the Fair on Saturday 14th March. Last year I had my first taste of Book Fairs in Leipzig and took this impressive picture.

The German Edition of my book Basteln, Wandern and Putzen: From South Africa to Trier - Living among the Krauts, will be on display with Vito von Eichborn's Edition BoD - Hall 3 D 200

German Theatre Torture

2009-03-10T10:25:00.008+01:00

I am a theatre buff and some of my earliest childhood memories are of being taken to the theatre in Johannesburg. One of the joys of living in Germany is its rich theatre tradition. Even a small city like Trier with its 100,000 inhabitants has a small tripartite theatre.

However despite the money being spent on the physical structures, I believe that the vast majority of German actors are lousy. The biggest torture for anyone coming from the Anglo-Saxon world is to watch original English-language plays being performed in German, especially Shakespeare.

As far as I am concerned most German actors just can’t do Shakespeare or any monologues. If they are angry they scream and if they are emotional or moved they whisper that you can’t hear a word of what they say in the third row from the front. I don’t know whether it is the language or their training but German actors just don’t know how to use the variety in their vocal cords. They obviously have never been trained in the subtle differences of monologues: for them it is just all a rant.

Recently I attended the opening night of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day's Journey Into Night in the Theatre in Trier. It was an experience which can only be described as pure theatre torture with all those monologues, while I was looking surreptitiously at my watch, checking how much longer I had to endure. Even drinking a glass of Sekt during the interval did nothing to shorten the torture. My daughter and I left the backslapping first night party in a great hurry.

Now a university student reading English, my daughter had to remind me how watching Hamlet in the same theatre a few years ago nearly put her off Shakespeare for life. All that ranting and fake emotion.

And then last night we watched Romeo and Juliet performed by the American Drama Group in Europe and TNT Britain. English actors, performing Shakespeare. What a pleasure, what a joy to watch! Sitting next to Irish and New Zealand friends, we laughed aloud, we chuckled and smiled and we were moved by the poetry of the language in those soliloquies and monologues of Shakespeare’s Verona. And maybe it is the cultural differences – yes even a drama like Romeo and Juliet has its funny moments and yes one is allowed to laugh. My dear Germans, I get the impression theatre is either serious drama for you - no laughs allowed - or satire and comedy. But never the twain should meet.

The two hour Romeo and Juliet performance was over far too soon. We walked out of the theatre, coming from different Continents in the English-speaking world; all smiles at such a world class performance. 'Tonic for the soul', my Irish friend called it. Just a pity I did not see any of the Trier theatre’s German actors in the audience – they could have learnt a lot from this classy performance.

Panzer Pope

2009-02-08T12:44:00.010+01:00

The Pope, or I should rather say the German Pope, caused the Germans a lot of headaches this week.

The week started off with the influential political and cultural magazine Der Spiegel putting the Pope on their cover, saying a German Pope embarrasses the Catholic Church. They went further to dissect him and his views in detail.

The problems the Germans have with this conservative Pope, is that denying the Holocaust is a serious punishable offense in this country. It seemed that years in the Vatican had made the Pope forget this fact. Why else would he have pardoned a Holocaust denier?

In fact he was called the Panzer Cardinal by his detractors here in Germany long before he became Pope, because of the way he bulldozed through his conservative theology.

By Tuesday last week, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel entered the fray more or less telling the Pope to sort out the mess. She got a lot of flak for that, but she had to save Germany’s reputation. This Pope was doing a lot of damage to it. By Wednesday it was a free for all and when I tried to get Protestant reaction, they politely said they are staying out of it. By late afternoon the Vatican retracted.

By then the Pope had managed to anger Jews, progressive theologians and even most of the German Catholic bishops. Some years ago he already angered the Muslim world and gays are also persona non grata with him.

So spare a thought for the poor Germans who are so embarrassed by this guy. And the lonely Panzer Pope in the Vatican – there are not many people left he can anger, as women anyway don’t count in his world.

Here's the link to the story I did:

http://www.journeyonline.com.au/showArticle.php?articleId=1914

Iraq Christianity 'facing total annihilation'

2009-01-29T21:54:00.005+01:00

Doing a story on a conference on Christian persecution worldwide, but specifically in Iraq that was held in Trier last weekend I could not help to think who caused the problems.

Speaker after speaker, including many German Catholic Church leaders and lay people, warned that Christianity in Iraq is faced with annihilation and that little is heard about it.

During the civil war that erupted between the Shiite and Sunni Muslims in Iraq after Sadam Hussein was overthrown from his post as Iraqi dictator in 2003, Christians were often caught in the middle, participants were told. Before the U.S.-backed forces occupied Iraq, 1.5 million Christians lived there, but today it is estimated only about half a million are left. 40% of the refugees in the neighbouring countries are Christians although they only made up 5% of the population.

"Fleeing cannot be the solution to the problem," declared Marie-Ange Siebrecht, head of the Asia-Africa Department of Aid to the Church in Need. "The Christians in Iraq belong to the oldest parishes there are in the world; they have a nearly 2000-year-old tradition. Without them, the country loses its history and identity."

Author Berthold Pelser, introducing his book “Freedom of Religion worldwide” cautioned, "In Iraq today there is the threat of the total extinction of Christianity”

And who are responsible for this? No Arab or Muslim leader. No, two upright Christians: George W. Bush and Holy Tony Blair.

Who is Goethe?

2008-11-16T15:34:00.006+01:00

We are living in the land of Goethe and Schiller and more recently Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass – both worthy Nobel Laureates in Literature. But there is no official body saying that a child should have been introduced to certain authors by a certain stage.

Recently an Irish mother told me how her daughter's German class full of 17-year olds, was asked who Goethe was and 75% of them have never heard of him. I am not even shocked anymore by the ignorance of pupils who selected German as their main subject.

After ten years at school, my daughter had read one poem by Goethe and one play by Schiller. Pandering to the needs of the youth, some teachers try to read modern German texts that in many cases disappear again after a few years. A nation of ignoramuses is waiting to be let loose on the world.

When I was getting worked up about the ignorance about Goethe – my daughter was in the tenth grade and sixty percent of young people never get beyond that grade, my husband admitted that he had never read Goethe in school even though he had been to one of the top grammar schools in Bavaria. He only started to read Goethe because he was interested in literature.

I was slowly staring to feel like a freak. After all, I have read Goethe’s Faust One and Two. Or rather, Prof. Karl Tober, later Vice-Chancellor of Wits University in Johannesburg and a native Austrian, took us through Faust with great enthusiasm. I cannot exactly say that I read it with great relish, but he was enthusiastic enough for it to become contagious, and twenty-five years later I am thankful to him for making us read it.

A Russian friend of mine told me that in Russia they had two subjects – Russian Grammar and Literature, which was mostly Russian literature, but also involved reading literature from other countries. Like me, she was shocked that the German schools seem to neglect their literary traditions. She had also read Faust and Shakespeare and that in Russia.

When I asked my German managers where I taught Business English at a German multi-national company who had read Goethe or Schiller at school. Not a single one of them had read any Goethe. Some, but not all, had read Schiller, whom I personally also prefer. I was in a state of shock. I cannot think of anyone in an English-speaking country, as widely apart as South Africa or the UK or Ireland or Australia of my generation, who would have gotten a matric or A-levels or a school-leaving certificate who would confess to not having read a single line of Shakespeare.

In this country, with one of the richest literary traditions in the world, it seems to be the prerogative of a very small elite to read the great works of literature - and then only on their own initiative.

Roman(tic) Trier

2008-09-19T11:08:00.011+02:00

This is where I live

Since being founded by the Romans in 17 BC, Constantine the Great bestowed Trier with its Golden Age; Karl Marx was born here and the apostle Matthew is supposed to be buried here; while the French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre was here as a Second World War POW, and William Turner painted it.

This has become my home: Germany’s oldest town with its Catholic conservatism, its staggering beauty, its steep vineyards, its Moselle viniculture and traditions, the Roman ruins scattered around every corner and its architectural sins dating from the sixties right through to the present day.

I have developed a deep love for the region. That includes an appreciation of the Moselle cuisine and steep viniculture and, after the high pressure, quick-paced life in Johannesburg, its charming, laid-back lifestyle.

And trust me the living is good! We live the vineyard seasons. Big cities are still fun to visit - but to live in, no thanks!