h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Time Travel Photo Journal #5: Going to School with Beethoven (and Marx and Goebbels) - A87815433

But where is it?

Gah! That's what happens when you do this before your first cup of coffee. I apologise.

It's the University of Bonn.

I went back and put that in.

Thanks, Pastey.

A small town in Germany, according to David John Moore Cornwell

Ooh, it's years since I read that one

I preferred the spy who came in from the cold.

>>I went back and put that in.<<

My gods, Dmitri can *really* time travel

Bet he skipped having with Goebbels, though

Definitely. Although I once had with a man who had met Mussolini.

I thought 'A Small Town in Germany' was fun, too.

In Bonn, either it's raining, or the level-crossing barriers are down. That's an old saying. And back then, they warned you that the better restaurants were bugged by spies.

One day, I was on my way to class. And there, on this old, august building, was spray-painted 'Bonn ist ein Kuhdorf!'

Rough translation: Bonn is a one-horse town.

I can do one better :

I know this is not a contest, but seriously, I knew a man who was present when this painting was revealed 18. July 1937 in "Haus der Deutschen Kunst", Berlin:

http://www.thule-italia.net/lanzi.jpg

Hitler was present himself and delivered a speech on art and culture. The man I knew - Jakob Kronika - was a young Danish journalist at the time, working in Berlin and writing for several Scandinavian Newspapers. Years later he went on to become the editor-in-chief of the newspaper that hired me as an apprentice 42 years ago (plus 36 days, but who's counting? )

(Little did the Germans know that Kronika was gay. He probably wouldn't have been able to stay in Berlin very long had he not kept quiet about it...)

He was a fine journalist, well read, intelligent - and very elegant and charming on top of that. And I will never forget the very very nice obituary he wrote after my father had passed. I'm said I never got to thank him for that before he passed on himself.

Oh well, this was all many years ago - but thank you for reminding me! I shall end this rant now

What a great story! This just gets better and better.

I remember first seeing that picture in one of my textbooks in college. I appreciate knowing more of the story behind it.

Your family friend sounds like a great guy.

The man who had met Mussolini was just a casual acquaintance. We were in the breakfast room of our little hotel in Gotha, Germany, and he was there with his grandson, who was about 12. We got to talking, and it turned out the grandfather had been in the propaganda film, 'Hitlerjunge Quex'. He was a Hitler Youth at the time, about the same age as his grandson was now.

He regaled all of us with the tale of that film, and how he and the other boys were used for propaganda purposes. Of course, he didn't know what he was doing at the time. What he remembered most was meeting the King of England and Mussolini. Probably because they got airplane rides.

Dang! There was a documentary about that film on television here only a couple of weeks ago (or was it a film based on the story about the film? I'm not quite sure now.) I wanted to watch it, but I didn't get the chance. It dealt with what the boys were thinking looking back after the fall of the third Reich. How they had been used for propaganda.

As for the ludicrous painting of the mounted Hitler in medieval armour Danish historian Stig Hornshøj-Møller has this to tell about the revealing of it in his book "Førermyten" (The Myth of the Führer) - and this is undoubtedly based on Kronika's eye witness report which I read many years ago:

“A functionary explained the meaning of the picture to the assembled foreign journalists - among them Jakob Kronika: "You gentlemen are completely mistaken should this painting perhaps make you think of the Jews' so-called archangel Michael. Of course this in no way about this Jewish figure who hasn't achieved anything useful in thousands of years. No, gentlemen, you are confronted with an inspiring portrait of our Führer as standard-bearer in the absolute winning struggle against the inner Schweinehund - and our Führer vill win totally, as opposed to the incapable Jewish archangel Michael!"

The third Reich in a *nut*shell - literally!

Priceless!

[Amy P]