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Leipzig: A walk around a city reborn

literaryreview.co.uk

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Re: Leipzig: A walk around a city reborn

#21

Post by swayvil »

inglor_cz wrote: post #15

Go visit the Völkerschlachtdenkmal at the outskirts of Leipzig to get a visceral understanding of the dark undercurrent of Teutonic culture that led to militarism. This is a war memorial that celebrates war and military sacrifice, no pacifist message there at all. It was inaugurated less than a year prior to the outbreak of the Great War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_Battle_of_the_... The feeling you…

Teutonic culture didn't spawn the militarism. That's just the angle that was exploited by the propaganda campaign.

It's how you turn an innocent population into a unified fighting force (or whatever). You exacerbate and channel existing tensions and/or exploit a crisis. You frame your story in terms of popular narratives.

They teach this stuff in Dictatorship 101

Re: Leipzig: A walk around a city reborn

#22

Post by inglor_cz »

swayvil wrote: post #21
inglor_cz wrote: post #15

Go visit the Völkerschlachtdenkmal at the outskirts of Leipzig to get a visceral understanding of the dark undercurrent of Teutonic culture that led to militarism. This is a war memorial that celebrates war and military sacrifice, no pacifist message there at all. It was inaugurated less than a year prior to the outbreak of the Great War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_Battle_of_the_... The feeling you…

Teutonic culture didn't spawn the militarism. That's just the angle that was exploited by the propaganda campaign. It's how you turn an innocent population into a unified fighting force (or whatever). You exacerbate and channel existing tensions and/or exploit a crisis. You frame your story in terms of popular narratives. They teach this stuff in Dictatorship 101

Well, I specified it as "dark undercurrent". Every culture has its own dark undercurrents. This specific undercurrent worshipped German-ness a lot. As a Slav you definitely feel as an alien visitor there :)

Re: Leipzig: A walk around a city reborn

#23

Post by tgv »

maze-le wrote: post #4

Nice to see my hometown on HN! It is also one of the most affordable cities in Germany in terms of housing, and probably the best in terms of quality of life / cost of living ratio... If you plan to visit: be sure to check out the Museum der bildenden Künste and a boat-tour through Plagwitz / Karl-Heine Kanal (esp. nice in spring at night).

I was most impressed by the Stasi museum and the City museum. The town sure has a lot of history.

Edit: And Bach, of course.

Re: Leipzig: A walk around a city reborn

#25

Post by beefman »

I traveled in East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, as well as Western Europe, in the 1980s. Visited Leipzig in 1986. Also visited Beijing in 2015 on the worst air-quality week of that year. Leipzig was by far the most polluted place I have ever been. It's wonderful to see its transformation. I hope to see it in person again some day. (Pittsburgh and Bethlehem, in my native Pennsylvania, as well as major cities like Philadelphia and NYC, are all far cleaner and nicer today than in the 1980s. NYC is dramatically cleaner than it was as recently as 1999.)

Re: Leipzig: A walk around a city reborn

#26

Post by wirrbel »

k__ wrote: post #8

I was visiting it 2010 and it had many empty houses. I even read the Deutsche Bahn wanted to cut them off from long-distance trains. Today it's the new hip location to live at, like Berlin. People are gentrifying it in swarms. It's a pretty nice place and compared to the rest of east Germany pretty leftist. But, yeah, when you leave the city there is nothing much.

When I visited the streets were fairly dark at night. Albeit beautifully renovated houses. My cousin who lived there said that everyone rented Appartments that would not face the street because there were much more appartments available than renters, the apartments facing the street were mostly vacant and thus dark in the evening.

Re: Leipzig: A walk around a city reborn

#28

Post by entropie »

I live in Leipzig.

The best thing is IMHO that we have the Grüner GÜrtel ("green belt") which is a pretty large area of real primeval forest right crossing through the town and suround the city core.

In future outer leipzig will be surrounded by seas (7 Seen gebiet) which emerged from old mining holes and are all connected with each other.

Re: Leipzig: A walk around a city reborn

#29

Post by AlexanderDhoore »

entropie wrote: post #28

I live in Leipzig. The best thing is IMHO that we have the Grüner GÜrtel ("green belt") which is a pretty large area of real primeval forest right crossing through the town and suround the city core. In future outer leipzig will be surrounded by seas (7 Seen gebiet) which emerged from old mining holes and are all connected with each other.

"surrounded by lakes", not seas. European languages are weird for lakes and seas. French mer != Dutch meer. German see != English sea.
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