Decay

Recently, I have watched a documentary about two German photographers who track buildings which are abandoned, forgotten and in course of decay. The images they took impressed me a lot. 

I knew immediately, I would find some snap shots of my own that catch decay so I looked for them among those taken 2009 - 2013. Then I looked up in the dictionary how to translate the German word Verfall and found 17 expressions. Quite impressive, the English language.

The Ukrainian Walls

Behind the facades of Lviv

Jesuit Church, Lviv

It is not really common to find a lot of decay within the touristic center of Lviv in the Ukraine. Of course, here and there it is obvious - people do not have always the money to take care of the houses. In many cases, there is not enough state money to restore major works of art like this ceiling of the Jesuit Church in the heart of the West-Ukrainian metropole.  

Ukrainian design

However, don‘t get me wrong! You breathe upswing in this city. Still, if you are looking for places designed with obviously no plan at all which is so characteristic for our Eastern European way, go to Lviv, you will get your money's worth.

The Polish polish

Polish sense of efficient commercial

Above a typical Eastern European concept of disinformation for clients. In the subcarpathian town Jaslo, at the local market there is this house standing. I honestly do not know what they sell. Can I go there for groceries? Or do I go there when I want to buy second hand clothing. Maybe I should go there to buy windows, doors and facades? Or I turn to these people when in need of some paint. The place makes on me the impression, that it is the rhythm of decay of the posters that dictates the current trade. As soon as some of the posters degrade, the actual economical activity expires and then a new sign is being hanged on the building and a new business starts. 

This example above shows rather the decay of communication range of the local hooligans in the Polish city Torun. Well, I do not want to translate it exactly to you. I think that somebody wants to do something really bad to Baca. Baca is the description for the supreme Goral - the chief of the shepherds from the highlands. I cannot believe that someone in Torun has a beef with a baca, Torun is far too far in the north. I think that Baca is maybe a nick name for someone. It must have something to do with soccer as ZKS Elana Torun is apparently a soccer club. But then again, I have been thinking a long time about the meaning of the sentence - do they want to f....k Baca because he is in ZKS or because he is not... I am confused.

Portugese inconsequences

Porto, Rua do Ouro

A very disturbing perspective on decay present the facades of Porto. When standing with your back to Vila Nova de Gaia, there are many houses on the left side of the bridge Ponte Dom Luis I who are in a good shape. On the right side, which is not so much frequented by tourists, the character of the houses changes dramatically and their formation resembles of slums. Storeys within just one building are in very different shapes. Whereas a storey in the middle seems to be frequently renovated by its inhabitants, equipped with new windows and covered with paint recently, the upper part of the building does not even have window glasses. And then on the top of the building there is a pair of intact windows and roller blinds again.

Creepy German stories

Kiel, Sternstraße (Germany), I guess some houses are cursed.

When decay happens in Ukraine, Poland or Portugal, it seems to be a natural consequence of the craziness of its citizens. When decadence happens in Germany, it is fishy. Here you see a fence in front of a mysterious house in the Sternstraße (Star street) in Kiel. After I googled for some time, I was able to find out that the house standing empty is not just a recent phenomenon. The house at Sternstr. 2a is listed in official documents from 1994 by the municipality as a possible social accommodation for homeless people. My friend living in the Sternstraße tells me that someone had been murdered in this house, then, the villains tried to burn the building down and after that the owner went crazy. The story became an urban legend in Kiel. The old house looks really spooky, the plants in front of the house take over the control of everything, the door is barred. For Germany it is quite unconventional.

One of the city models in the City Hall of Hanover - the city captured 1945, in ruins after allied bombings. In the very middle you see Cafe Kröpcke, a central point of the city till today. Nowadays the cafe house is rebuilt, as well as the Opera house on the first plan.

Germany does have a vital and painful collective memory of urban destruction though. 1945, all bigger cities of this country were turned to ruins. The reconstruction above of the World War II destruction of the city of Hanover illustrates the scope of decay people were confronted with back then. Because of the manifold industry in Hanover, the raid was thorough. So thorough that the authorities were considering abandoning the town and rebuilding it somewhere else. Thank God, many of the old buildings got reconstructed and restored, although the rest was demolished and replaced by very uniform and ugly concrete facades in the 60s and 70s.

Rotten bones for tourists

The process of decay is inspiring the human imagination so of course you cannot miss it when tourists are around. A good show is everything!

Viking museum at Ringkoebing Fjord, Denmark

A modern museum needs an attractive show. When your theme are the Vikings, a skull of whatever can't be missing.

Dungeon, Hamburg

The Dungeon in Hamburg is all about horrifying tourists. So why not storing skulls on the back of the building directly at eye height of pedestrians. The moment of shock generates a moment of clever marketing.

Bones of prehistoric animals in the Landesmuseum of Lower Saxony, Hanover

When the bones of some monstrous prehistoric animals rest in a museum like an accidental composition, they seem pretty abstract to most of us. I bet when a paleontologist convention drops by, the glass of the showcase gets all steamy and covered by finger and nose prints.

A bog body in the Landesmuseum (State Museum) of Lower Saxony, Hanover

What gives a thrill to any one is certainly an immediate and authentic presentation of a dead human body. For this kind of sensation, it is good to have the bog bodies in your collection. The State Museum of Lower Saxony in Hanover presents their bog body in a dark corner, behind a wall hindering the natural light of accessing the found. So you walk up really close to the show case before you realize at all what you are heading at. A horrifying surprise effect.

Museum Schloß Gottorf, Schleswig

The scull you see above appeared in this blog, just recently - in the post "Holy Odin!" on January 20th, 2013. What strikes me the most in this remain of human body is that hundreds of years have passed, there is not much left of the person but her hair still stays on. I would even go much further - I want to copy her hair style! I hope when I die, I will look so fine.

Dear reader, you now realize that this post is getting all philosophical. So here is your last warning: when I am done with you, you will have the Memento-mori-moment of the day. Let's continue.

The soles of sailors fished out of ship wrecks on the bottom of Baltic Sea, Gdansk, Shipping Museum

Museums tend to sort things. My theory on this phenomenon is that scientists mostly love to categorize and classify and they just cannot stop. So what they did here is to order the mess they found on the bottom of the Baltic Sea. They put all soles of sailors‘ shoes in a proper order. The diving archaeologists found these among wooden bars, cannonballs, weapons, dishes, and other sunken crap in a cocktail mix with marine fauna and flora. 

The smallest U-Boot from World War II, raised relentlessly rusty from the bottom of the Baltic Sea, rusting now in the Shipping Museum in Kiel.

Museums often do reduce the horror of wars by the way expositions are arranged (I start to think I should become a museum critic. The profession sounds really lame and I am such a fun person. Or maybe not?). What you see here is a rusty U-Boot. When submarine presented in the museum is rusty, then it was laying for a reasonable amount of time on the bottom of the sea. If so, everybody died inside. 

Maurizio Cattelan's untitled work in the Hall of Art in Hamburg

Then again, the museums of modern art try hard to horrify us by all artificial means that modern art can offer them.

Face off and Steel Magnolias

Lyczakowski Cementary in Lviv - a witness of multicultural character of the city: Polish, Ukrainians, Jewish and Armenians were being buried here for centuries.

Best place ever to write about descent: a cemetery. Even better - Lyczakowski Cemetery in Lviv because it contains both - a descent and an upheaval in its current shape. On one hand, there has been a strict policy of neglecting Polish graves by the totalitarian authorities after World War II. The tombs and chapels of Polish families carried names of Polish elite: aristocracy, intellectuals, war heroes, teachers, tradesmen. Nobody in the Soviet Union wanted a territory to remind of ethnical diversity or God forbid its former belonging to some "befriended" nation. This is how easily a cemetery can become a place of a viral political controversy, because the Polish started celebrating this place as Polish national monument. Times changed, Polish minority is allowed to take care now of many of the graves. While many of them return to their old glory, some remain still covered by wildly growing plants. Some tombs and statues had been damaged on purpose. When it comes to the upper snap shot I think that the missing of the head is not accidental, I just do not know whether it was a political statement or was it a simple act of vandalism. The clean cut makes me think someone needed money and sold the head at some flea market. Does anyone out there have a fitting head standing in their glass cabinet?

A grave at the old cemetery in Jaslo, Poland

It is very unlikely in catholic Poland that tombs are not beeing kept in good shape. The relatives, even very distant would regularly visit the graveyard, take care of the tomb stone, put fresh flowers on the grave and light candles. Even if there is no family left, chances are high that neighbors or friends would take care of the sepulcher. This tomb stone is being reconquered by nature however, it sinks into the soft grass. Still somebody layed down flowers. Artificial flowers. They look so fresh and will be looking fresh for a very long time. While everything around got decomposed by then. 

The deconstruction of communism

Poland is full of symbolic places. One of the most important ones is the gate to the  shipyard in Gdansk where the trade union Solidarnosc turned into an universal protest movement, spread around the country. Bye bye, communist system. Ok, it was not that easy but you have to admit - in deconstructing political systems Polish do pretty well. God's Mother assisting. By the way, similarly to popular belief in Brazil that Jesus was a Brazilian, Polish people - some of them at least think, Maria was Polish. And still, it is Maria on this picture fading away, giving to visitors the insight on how much time passed since Lech Walesa jumped over the fence of his shipyard. Artificial flowers remain.

The End of Love

The reason why I took the following picture in this bizarre second hand selling area in Jaslo was the wedding photography. So somewhere out there, there is this couple throwing their belongings away. And they trash their wedding memory? I do not believe that a couple which is still in love does it. 

Second hand whole sale in Jaslo, check this blog for more pictures of this place: the post from 28th of July, 2012.

I leave the scenarios up to you, we will never know anyway. It is bizarre enough that some German wedding picture turns up in a forgotten subcarpathian town and is for sale.

The End of the Party

Zapiekanka selling point in Cracow's Jewish district Kazimierz, Midnight.

In every bigger European city there are areas with a high bar density. What comes along this phenomenon is a big concentration of fast food restaurants. Because when it gets late and you had enough alcohol, the only thing you need is a portion of Frietjes Speciaal (my favorite after-party Dutch dish: French Fries with mayonnaise and onions), a Döner (Kebab - the most favorite German midnight snack) or a hamburger. In Cracow our favorite fast food is Zapiekanka. A crossover of baguette bread and pizza. And the Mekka for Zapiekanki (plural) is Nowy square in Kazimierz with its round brick building in the middle of the market. They sell Zapiekanki out of almost all windows of this house. And party people are queueing up to get the cult snack to finish the party procedure or as an intermezzo. Last time I was having my Zapiekanka I was with my oldest friends and the first snow of the winter came down. It was October. 

They have missed the end of the party by many years. Weißenkreuzplatz, Hanover.

Coming apart at the seams

The picture below is one further static experiment by the owner of the second hand whole sale near Jaslo. This slow inevitable state of decline is unacceptable for a German soul. The more acceptable for a Polish. See, I had book shelves exactly like this in my student room. I found them on "Sperrmüll". Spermüll is a description for certain times of the month when German put their old furniture in front of their houses so that other people who need them can pick them up. What is left is being collected by some municipal service. Or Polish lorries. So my book shelves were exactly the same, however I was able to stabilize them better by keeping in them heavy illustrated art history books. 

For some reason the snap shot above seems to me a fitting match with the awry book shelves. Obviously, the life of the man on the bench is fallen to pieces, in contrast to this grave yard statue in perfect contrapposto. That is the same grave yard in Hanover I have been writing about on January 20th, 2013: in the middle of the city, cut in fragments by an urban car-dominated inner city concept from the 50s. Here, like on an island surrounded by dangerous fish, homeless, junkies and drug dealers gather and hide between the graves . The municipality is now reorganizing the traffic to make the place more "citizen friendly".

Dereliction by inanimate objects

I was reporting in January: there was an election in Lower Saxony. In a very breathtaking nip-and-tuck race, the old government coalition had lost against Social-democrats and the Green party. By only one seat in the state Parliament (Landtag). The new Prime Minister, Stephan Weil, was up till this moment the Lord Mayor of Hanover. 

These election posters you see below were hung at the entrance of the city hall. It was Monday after the election, when the poster of former Prime Minister McAllister started to decline the wall on its own. That must have been an interesting experience for his follower who was back then still officially working here.

The snap shot below presents remains of a poster of the legendary Comic figure from Northern Germany. But Werner is not in decline, the dude abides.

This poster is hanging in Kiel, above the entrance of the pub Galerie Club 68 where the maker of the comic is a regular and he actually invented the character while spending time with the owner of the place. This bar has a strong Big Lebowski character.

Death

If you are still with me on this post, you are my hero. I feel like I am going on and on on creepy topics. But honestly? I just can't stop till I am done. 

But let's push on the things a little bit. There is an end to everything.

Seriously, it is a very strange experience when you take a walk and you see a dead bird which seems to you had just fallen dead of the sky. It happened to me 2012 twice:

Hanover, Voltmerstraße

Miedzywodzie, Polish Baltic Sea

The next picture was taken at the North Sea, at the Danish coast. I took it because it reminded me of abstract paintings of classical modern art. It is  a personification of fugacity.

Philosophical ending

O.k., o.k., I am finishing now - with the very icon of transience: a castle in the sand...

Jastarnia, Poland

And as a reward for staying with me untill the end - here is the internet site which inspired me by some amazing pictures:

http://blackbirdstreet.com

An ancient German village olympics called Boßeln

In the winter time, in Northern Germany a street game called Boßeln is being exercised. It has been invented a long time ago. In the country side. It is being played in the middle-of-nowhere - at least for most of the time.

What you need to play the game are to different colored wooden or synthetic balls.

That is not all. You need definitely a load of Schnapps.

I mean, a serious amount. 
For the Schnapps you need a proper transportation, a certain kind of wagon called the Bollerwagen.

A Bollerwagen can transport kids if necessary too.

A very typical landscape for Boßeln.
A middle of nowhere of Northern Germany.

And you need two teams. The teams should be between five and maximum nine people to play the game in the most fun way. And a middle of nowhere would be a good thing to have as well.

Furthermore, you need warm clothes.

Northern German winter is not a piece of cake. It is mostly moist and windy. We are talking here a fisherman's-friend-kind-of-weather.

 You have to play it in winter so that your path is frozen and the ball can roll and does not sink in the ground.

As you see, it is all about throwing the ball. How to do this?

First of all, you should provide yourself with an overview of the path you are supposed to throw along. There will be uneven spots, in case you are playing on a field path your ball might easily be catapulted out.

You can ask your team to "read" the road for you, if they are clever enough they will show you the danger zones and awry places on the road.

Focus...

And throw!

Here a side perspective on the throwing techniques.

Then a player of the opposite team throws their ball!

 

Hopefully your ball has not left the path and went a very long distance.

 The next throw will be performed by the next player in a row from each team from the place the ball of their team had stopped. So you need to guard the spot your ball had reached.

In case your team has not managed to make a longer shot than the other team in two rounds, your team needs to drink a shot. And the player from the other team who was so good in throwing, he or she needs to drink a shot too. The team who wins these two rounds gets one point, the points are called Schoet. You count your Schoets and the team which makes more, wins in the end of the track.

You will also have to drink in case your ball which you have just thrown left the path. There should be a measure established on the beginning of the game how much it means "out of the path" - for example two feet. Make sure you agree on the feet of one person on the beginning of the game, as you are still sober. Otherwise there will be confusion.

Because, surprise, surprise! There will be more opportunity to drink. When your team wins the entire distance, every one will get a shot of Schnapps. By the way, when you reached the end, you just turn around and play all the way back again.

Folks from the loser team will - of course - get each and every body a shot of Schnaps too. Also, it might happen that you make extra rules, like for example - both teams have to drink a shot at every crossing or each time a jogger or a car passes by.

So, make sure you are really well equipped with the Schnapps. And take with you shot glasses. 

There are some good tricks, especially known among mothers, how to carry the glasses around.

In case you have got the impression that the game is all about drinking, this is false.














 It is also about celebrating the sport challenge and victories.
































And it is about friendship...

 goofing around and...

 

...getting cold and hungry.

Because in the end of the road, there is a portion of Grünkohl waiting for every body.

Grünkohl is a German winter dish, it is a stew of curly Kale with bacon and piquant sausage. This traditional meal is also a reason to celebrate the Bosseln in winter: the green cabbage needs to get through the first frost to have produced a certain taste before you harvest it and prepare as a dish.

And after the meal, there is some delicious German beer at the After-Bosseln-Party awaiting you. It is the moment when beer drinking becomes an act of culture. Prost every one!

This Blog post is dedicated to our dear friend Ralf who infected our wonderful group of friends with the Northern German tradition of Bosseln 15 years ago.