Stolpersteine
by Nemorino
"If one person dies, it's a tragedy. If a million people die, it's a statistic." This cynical statement was attributed to the late Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (1879-1953). It was quoted to me by a Russian orchestra conductor who spent his childhood in Moscow under Stalin's rule.
Like many other German cities, Freiburg is trying translate the statistic of six million Jews murdered by the Nazis back into the tragedy of individual people dragged from their homes and put to death. They do this by setting little squares of metal into the street or sidewalk in front of the houses where the people used to live. The two in the photo are embedded in the street in front of my hotel in the Rathausgasse in Freiburg. The one on the left reads:
Here lived
Sofie Rosentahl
neé Bloch
Born 1889
Deported 1940
Gurs
Murdered in
Auschwitz
and the one on the right:
Here lived
Julian Rosenthal
Born 1878
Deported 1940
Gurs
Murdered 1942 in
Auschwitz
These little squares of metal are known as "stumbling blocks" (Stolpersteine), but you can stumble over them only in a figurative sense, meaning you are made aware that these two murdered people used to live right here, so they aren't just statistics, but real people.
The "stumbling blocks" are an initiative of the artist Gunter Demnig, born 1947 in Berlin.
http://www.stolpersteine.com/
Fastnacht: Breisgauer Narrenzunft (BNZ)
by Kathrin_E
The Breisgauer Narrenzunft is actually not one single guild but an association of 35 different carnival guilds in town. Each of the guilds does its own carnival programme but the association keeps them together and organizes some central events - like the big parade on Carnival Monday where all the member guilds and many many guests from all over Baden-Württemberg participate.
The variety of masks and costumes among the member guilds is enormous. I'm presenting some of them in my travelogue pages (work in progress).
List of all member guilds with links to their individual websites
Vauban
by Nemorino
For 47 years after the Second World War the French army maintained a large base in Freiburg, three kilometers south of the city center. When the last French troops left the site in 1993 it was bought by the city of Freiburg for the development of a "Sustainable Model District Vauban", a new district for more than 5000 inhabitants and 600 jobs.
The new district was intended to use renewable energy resources and was planned for the needs of people, not automobiles. About 40 % of the households agreed to live without having their own cars, and the rest park mainly on the outskirts, so the residential areas are not cluttered with automobiles. None of the houses has a garage, but nearly all of them have sheds for bicycle parking.
Second photo: Painting on the side of a building at the entrance to the Vauban District. The text reads: "We are re-making the world -- the way we like it."
Third photo: A street in Vauban, with covered bicycle stands in front of the houses.
Fourth photo: Bicycles in Vauban.
Animalpark Steinwasen
by Zandra
This animalpark, located in Oberried in the Schwarzwald, (from Freiburg; follow the signs towards Titisee and then Kirchzarten) has all kinds of dears, marmots, some birds and rabbits. Thus, not very exotic animals, but the park is still nice because of its "unspoiled" nature.
There's also a cool suspension bridge (218 m long and 30 m high) to walk over, and two toboggan slides. Great fun for kids!
Tittisee / Neustadt - 20km north-east of Freiburg
by globetrott
Tittisee / Neustadt is a small town in the Black Forrest, 20km north-east of Freiburg im Breisgau, and as you may see on the facade of of the Hotel Adler Post in Neustadt, this place had always been an important station of the mail-carriages going through Europe:
1516 - Tax'sche Postlinie Vienna-Brussels
1816 - Großherzogliche Poststation
1870 - Kaiserliche Reichs-Postagentur.
Tittisee is a lovely and well-known resort directely on a lake, while Neustadt is a small town close to it. In Tittisee you have to reserve your hotel well in advance, in Neustadt you will easily find a room most of the year.
Sign in with Facebook
Käsespätzle
Crocodile in the waters of Gewerbebach
Sculptures from a Mount of Olives scene
Apple
