MUNICH : Lessons From The Past — Roaming with Roth

I love Munich. Munich stands stately in structure, in scale and in psyche. Notice I say ‘stately’ with a small ‘s’. I am not referring to the municipal State associated with past authoritarian regimes; nor am I referring to the ‘stiffed-back’ stateliness of politicians as in ‘Person of State’; and, I am not referencing the imposing Imperial State of kings and crowns and courtly manners.

A monument stands in tribute to Max Joseph Pettenkofer, a German chemist and hygienist.

What I am referring to is the sophistication of a casually formal, maybe slightly ceremonious and measured, urbane society. For sure, along with the sense of cultural propriety there exists a somewhat self-imposed communal protocol that has been mistaken for ridgedness and conformity, particularly in light of the rigorous compliance by many Germans during the Fascist regime of the thirties and forties. However, that acceptance and attachment to order and the ‘general good’ also represents profound social distinctions between our American way of life and that of the Europeans. Community recognition and approval of benchmarks, ‘rules’ if you will, are a necessity to the ease of order and assent. In Germany, people are not automatons. To the contrary, they are a highly educates and activists group with civic-minded awareness.

Looking from a bridge onto Maximillaneum

It seems to me that Americans are pretenders to equality, abhor any form of conformity (although we are so obsessed with ‘style that we unconsciously participate and follow unwritten rules of behavior and appearance) and an American Dream that really never existed. In grade school I was taught that the settlers risked their lives for an ideal of religious freedom. In truth, those who risked their lives traversing ocean, starvation and disease were rigid adherents to highly restrictive Calvanist teachings. They were, themselves fanatics. That is to say extremist and bigoted and intolerant followers who simply wanted what they wanted.

Asam Church, one of the finest examples of Baroque and Rococco architecture

Religion is political. At its core is the establishment of belief systems formulated to retain power, maintain control and enhance privilege. We experience this today the world over. There is hardly any distinction between governments and institutions of religion. And, like the Calvinists of old who justified the genocide of Native Americans by suggesting they were ‘uncivilized’, {“the U.S. government authorized over 1,500 wars, attacks and raids on Indians, the most of any country in the world against its indigenous people. By the close of the Indian Wars in the late 19th century, fewer than 238,000 indigenous people remained, a sharp decline from the estimated 5 million to 15 million living in North America when Columbus arrived in 1492”} worldwide faith-based politics is asserting itself and once again in our own country in its most vile, racist and fascist forms, evoking fear and hatred and intolerance.

Germany, however, has learned it’s lessons from its own past behavior. Ironically, it was the Americans who assisted in not merely demanding but guiding the German society in establishing educational-based instruction teaching about the period for which the Germans are, still today, so embarrassed and ashamed. In this case, the student has become the teacher. German society, certainly not without its own disturbing right-wing proponents and advocates of extreme immigration bias, is a most permissive and progressive nation.

The only real fault that I can see is that practically nowhere in Germany is there anything green on a dinner plate. Oh, they have “mixed salads” which offer leafs and a sundry assortment of various veggies beneath the greens including cucumber salad, carrot salad, bean salad, etc. but no spinach, kale, or string beans and no broccoli, cauliflower or eggplant. Tonight I had a German specialty, Kartoffelkloesse, sautéed potato dumplings with fried onions on salad. I swear this could have been prepared by my Jewish grandmother. It was so delicious. The dumplings were sautéed to a crispy exterior and a light, airy yet chewy interior that contrasted with the caramel sweetness of the onions. So yummy.

A view of the Deutsche Museum through the branches

The problem was that we had dinner at a jazz club, Jazz Unterfarhten (an underground venue in which there are theaters, a cinema and galleries along with this cool, night music place) and while the drummer was drumming, and the bassist was plucking, and the pianist was plunking and singing in perfect pitch, and the lead saxophonist, a thirty-five year veteran of the horn, was blowing, I was in pain refraining from ‘tooting’ along with the group. There must have been two dozen small dumplings on the plate and I didn’t leave a single one…and they didn’t leave me alone for the next several hours.

I don’t know, can’t imagine at this moment how we, as a society, will ever discover a unified vision that will unite and sustain us at a nation. It is a consummate wish.