German Memories in Asia

Otto Von Bismarck and the Unification of German States

2007-12-23T01:15:00.000-08:00

When my discussion with Pascal turned into the unification of the German Nation and its emergence of the new European super power, how Otto von Bismarck played diplomacy and statesmanship surprised us.

Bismarck took advantage of his great skills in the field of diplomacy and led two wars which turned Prussia into the most powerful state among other states of the German Confederation and a major power in Europe. He ultimately made the German Nation an European super power by the unification of various states in to a single entity.

At the very early stage in his career, he opposed the unification of Germany, arguing that Prussia would lose its independence in the process. He accepted his appointment as one of Prussia's representatives at the Erfurt Parliament, an assembly of German states that met to discuss plans for union, but only in order to oppose that body's proposals more effectively. The Parliament, in any event, failed to bring about unification, for it lacked the support of the two most important German states, Prussia and Austria.

In 1852, Friedrich Wilhelm appointed Bismarck as Prussia's envoy to the Diet of the German Confederation in Frankfurt. His eight years in Frankfurt were marked by changes in his political opinions. No longer under the influence of his ultraconservative Prussian friends, Bismarck became less reactionary and more moderate. He became convinced that Prussia would have to ally itself with other German states in order to countervail Austria's growing influence. Thus, he grew more accepting of the notion of a united German nation.

Shortly after he served as the Prussian envoy in Frankfurt he had undertaken an ambassadorial position to Russia. While Bismarck was promoted, Helmuth von Moltke and Albrecht von Roon were appointed as the new Chief of Staff for the Prussian army and the Prussian Minister of War respectively and these three men over the next 12 years transformed the German Nation by unifying it into a powerful nation of Europe.

Before unification, the German Nation consisted of a multitude of principalities loosely bound together as members of the German Confederation. The Germanic Confederation of 39 states which was created from the previous 300 was under the heavy influence of Austria and its emperor as the president of the Confederation. Only portions of the territory of Austria and Prussia were included in the Confederation.

Holy Roman Empire Era War to Napoleonic Wars

2007-12-23T01:14:00.000-08:00

In a while Pascal Sadune, the leader of the tsunami survey team joined me and my discussion with him digressed into many of the German historical events. As he did political science for his Masters degree, he had shown more interest in historical issues. His confession on the conflicts since the medieval times and major world wars showed how Germany had undergone many a destruction since historical times.

The reformation and Thirty Years War in German states from 1618 to 1648 totally ravaged the German Nation. The conflicts between Catholics and Protestants by their efforts in various states within the Holy Roman Empire to increase their power and the emperor's attempt to achieve religious and political unity of the empire caused the total devastation of the German Nation. The war resulted in a loss of something like a third of its population and large areas of the German Nation being laid waste.

Another major factor that threw the German Nation into a mess was the rivalry between Prussia and Austria for the leadership over other German states which began since 1640. After the Peace of Hubertsburg in 1763, Prussia too became equally powerful and exerted a powerful influence on German affairs.

Thereafter the Congress of Vienna, a conference between ambassadors from the major powers in Europe affected many of the German affairs.

The foundation of the Congress of Vienna was to reshape Europe's political map after the defeat of Napoleonic France in the previous spring. The Congress continued its discussions despite the ex-Emperor Napoleon I's return from exile and resumption of power in France in March 1815. The Congress's Final Act was signed nine days before his final defeat by Prussia's Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher with the help of the United Kingdom's Duke of Wellington at Waterloo on June 18, 1815.

The Congress finally reshaped entire Europe after the Napoleonic wars, with the exception of the terms of peace with France, which had already been decided a few months ago by the Treaty of Paris.

Most of the work at the Congress was performed by Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria and France, the major powers of Europe at that time. The "Congress of Vienna" never actually occurred, as the Congress never met in plenary session, with most of the discussions occurring in informal sessions among the Great Powers. Most of the delegations, however, had nothing much to do at the Congress, and the host, Emperor Francis of Austria, held lavish entertainment to keep them occupied. This led to the Prince de Ligne's famous comment that "le Congres ne marche pas; il danse." (The Congress does not work; it dances.)

The Congress of Vienna was an integral part in what became known as the Conservative Order in which peace and stability were traded for liberties and civil rights. Though the Congress was frequently criticized for ignoring national and liberal impulses, and for imposing a stifling reaction on the continent, it had prevented another European general war for nearly a hundred years 1815 to1914.

Roman Expansion in Ancient France & Germania

2007-12-23T01:13:00.000-08:00

Julius Caesar invoked the threat of Germanic attacks as one justification for his annexation of Gaul ( modern France ) to Rome.

As Rome expanded to the Rhine and Danube rivers, it incorporated many Celtic societies into the Empire.

The Germanic tribal homelands to the north and east emerged collectively in the records as Germania. The peoples of the Germania were sometimes at war with Rome, but also engaged in complex and long-term Alps relations, military alliances, and cultural exchanges with Rome as well.

The initial purpose of the Roman campaigns was to protect Trans-Alpine Gaul by controlling the area between the Rhine and the Elbe.

In 58 B.C. Julius Caesar, governor of the Roman province of Southern Gaul, conquered the remainder of Gaul, which had been free until then: Thus, for the first time, the powerful Roman Empire moved into immediate vicinity to Germania, and further expansion and colonization on part of the Germanic tribes were blocked.

Caesar defeated Germanic warlord Ariovist, who had tried to conquer Gaul himself, and pushed back the Germanic Tencterians, who had crossed the Rhine from Upper Hesse. He had a 400-meter bridge built over the Rhine in 10 days, marched to the Germanic right bank of the Rhine, showed off the power of his army, won over the Germanic Ubians as allies and forced some other tribes into peace agreements.

In 38 B.C. Augustus' general Agrippa resettled the Germanic Ubians, allied with Rome, in a new town at the left bank of the Rhine in order to protect Roman Gaul from raids by uncontrolled Germania. This was the founding of Colonia Agrippinensis, today's City of Cologne.

The wealthy country of Gaul seemed firmly and safely in the hands of the Romans. Even before the Roman conquest, the Gauls had already lived in towns, and they started to get used to living under Roman rule. But in 16 B.C. Gaul was raided by the Germanic Sugambrians, Usipians, and Tencterians. They severely defeated Roman governor Lollius and freely looted the wealthy country and then returned to their homeland with heavy booty.

Emperor Augustus had led many wars, but this was the heaviest defeat his forces had suffered so far. Though Gaul was only looted, these attacks made Rome afraid that one day it could lose Gaul, a country that by then was yielding more taxes and crop than the fabulously wealthy Egypt.

In order to avoid this danger in the long run, Germania had to be conquered - though the country itself neither offered cities, nor treasures, nor a food surplus.

Augustus moved to the Rhine border and prepared the big offensive in person. First, all the territory between the Alps and the Danube was to be conquered, and then Germania was to be attacked simultaneously from the Rhine, the Danube, and from the North Sea coast with a fleet.

As a starting point, the Romans established 50 legion camps along the Rhine and connected them by army routes (these camps turned into modern cities Xanten, Bonn and Mainz).

Along the left bank of the Rhine, a considerable Roman fleet was being built. Emperor Augustus appointed his adoptive son Drusus governor of Gaul and made him commander-in-chief of the Rhine troops - probably 5 to 6 legions, or about 50,000 men, expected to conquer Germania.

While the Romans were preparing the war against Germania from their province of Gaul, the Gauls were embittered over the Roman tax collection: Apparently several Gaullic tribes were ready to risk an uprising against the Roman rule. But Drusus fell with his horse, broke his thigh, and died of wound-fever after one month, being only 29 years old.
He had been successful, and popular with Romans, and favoured by the Emperor: It is likely he would have become Augustus' successor - instead of his uncanny brother Tiberius.

After the death of the victorious general Drusus, 33 years-old Tiberius assumed continuation of the war. In the spring of 8 B.C., he once again crossed the Rhine with a large army.

The Germanic tribes were too weakened from the continuous warfare of the last years to put up any resistance: For four years, they had been attacked every year by superior Roman armies, their settlements had been regularly burnt down, and their fields devastated. In the countless bloody battles and skirmishes during these four years, probably all tribes had lost a significant proportion of their men.

Already in the previous year, the allied tribes had been unable to prevent Drusus' army from marching through their territories. This year promised to be equally unsuccessful. It seemed better to capitulate now - and not to wait until one would be totally defeated and defenseless. Probably out of these considerations, all Germanic tribes sent envoys to the Romans, asking for peace.

In an unpopular manner that was typical to Emperor Augustus, he simply arrested all the men, and had them brought to several Roman cities as hostages and they evaded this imprisonment by resorting to suicide. Now the Romans succeeded peace treaties with most of the Germanic tribes. They accepted Roman rule, and started to pay tribute and provide troops for the Romans.

Ethnic Germans' Sufferings After World War I in the United States and Europe

2007-12-23T01:11:00.000-08:00

German-Americans were the most visible non-Anglophone group in the US during the 18th and 19th centuries. But the hostility against these groups took place during the nineteenth century, but were largely non-systematic. The Germans' stance of anti-slavery position in the Southern United States brought about violent clashes in slave states such as Texas during the American Civil War.

The pacifist Mennonite and Amish communities attracted considerable hatred, particularly during the American Revolution and the US Civil War, when many Mennonites and possibly Amish were imprisoned or forcibly conscripted. There was a popular view that Germans did not consider themselves part of America.

Upon the outbreak of World War I, anti-German sentiment quickly reached fever pitch. Many Germans supported their (former) homeland's side in the war, in which America long remained officially neutral. The situation came to a crisis with America's entry into the war in 1917. By the time the troops returned from Europe, the German community had ceased to be a major force in American culture, or was no more perceived as German.

When in France during World War I, members of the Yale University had learned about the German song Die Wacht am Rhein and were apparently shocked to discover the fact that Yale's traditional song "Bright College Years" had been written to the "splendid tune" of Carl Wilhelm. Suddenly hating this melody, Yale Alumni sang "Bright College Years" to the tune of the Marseillaise instead, and after the war the German melody was banned for some time until it was reinstated in 1920.

In Canada, thousands of German born Canadians were interned in detention camps during World War I and World War II and subjected to forced labour. Many Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans were also detained during the First World War as were Japanese and Italian-Canadians during the Second World War.

In Britain, Germans were demonized in the press well before the First World War, when the Kaiserliche Marine started to challenge the Royal Navy, but particularly around 1912 and during the First World War. Anti-German sentiment was so intense that the British Royal Family (which was, in fact, of German origin) was advised by the government to change its name, resulting in the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha becoming the House of Windsor. The German Shepherd dog was renamed as Alsatian. The waters that had been known as the 'German Ocean' were also renamed; the North Sea (as in German Nordsee) despite being east of the British Isles.

Germans' Sufferings

2007-12-23T01:09:00.000-08:00

Stephan, a Saxon-Anhalt in our discussion on various Second World War issues, posed vaguely the world should know how the Allied Forces destroyed buildings and killed thousands of people ruthlessly.

There was frustration always in Germany though they apologized to the world for the massacres of Jews, Gypsies and other atrocities committed by Adolph Hitler and his Nazi Forces, the world has not so far apologized properly for the atrocities against the Germans around the world.

Germany apologized in 2004 for the colonial-era genocide, which killed 65,000 Herero people in what is now Namibia. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's development aid minister, at a ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the Hereros' 1904-1907 uprising against the German rulers said: "We Germans accept our historic and moral responsibility and the guilt incurred by Germans at that time".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel shared her grievances in front of Israel's national flag during a tree-planting ceremony near the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem on January 30, 2006 and laid a wreath for the six million Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust.

But the Germans had a general opinion of the world's resentment over the German people's sufferings.

Ethnic Germans were systematically targeted based on their ethnicity in various parts of the world. Anti-German hostilities had been developed after the major World Wars of recent past, for which the German state had been held responsible. The German populations were identified with German nationalist regimes of Kaiser Wilhelm or Nazis.

This was the case in the World War I era; persecution of Germans in the United States and in Eastern and Central Europe following end of World War II. Many victims of these persecutions did not in fact have any connection to those regimes.

In other cases, German populations had been persecuted because they were perceived as lacking proper ties to the country in which they lived. This includes the persecution of ethnic German Mennonite, Amish and Hutterite communities in the United States and of Tyrolean Germans in South Tyrol.

In the case of South Tyrol, these hostilities hit the historically German population of an Austrian territory which had been annexed by Italy after World War I. Following the rise of the Fascist movement of Mussolini, the ethnic Germans of South Tyrol faced growing persecution. Their names, and the names of the towns and places in the area, were forcibly changed to Italian.

In addition, Mussolini engaged in a vigorous campaign to resettle ethnic Italians in the region. Many Tyroleans fled to Germany during this time, and the matter of South Tyrol became a source of friction between Hitler and Mussolini.

After the end of World War II, the organised persecution of Germans in the South Tyrol largely came to an end, although ethnic strife continued for decades.

A Discussion with Bavarian, Swabian, Franconian and Saxonian students

2007-12-23T00:13:00.000-08:00

Wolfgang Schabert was from Stuttgart and proud of his Swabian sub-culture which is dominantly in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg and the western part of Bavaria. He told the Swabians still preserve their unique culture and speak the melodious Swabian dialect among them frequently.

Jasmine, Marco, Susanne and other students were discussing range of issues relating to current Germany and Asian history. Jasmine is a Frankfurter, a highly observant student and not given to much talk.

Susanne, a Franconian came out with an interesting point on the Alsace-Lorraine area, which is currently a French territory. She said Alsace-Lorraine changed hands between Germany and France. She told most of the people there of German origin spoke these days French and their way of life was also French because of their cultural assimilation.

Katrin, a Saxonian came out with various facts about the Saxonians and their own distinct culture. Christiane Glettler, a Bavarian spoke of Bavarian history.

Bavaria has a long historical background with the Bavarii tribes who were large and powerful and emerged late in Teutonic tribal times, in what is now the Czech Republic (Bohemia). They replaced, or perhaps are simply another phase of the previous inhabitants - the Rugians. They swiftly expanded their influence southward, and occupied the area which still bears their name: Bavaria.

There is some argument as to the origins of the Bavarii. Until recently, modern day Bavarians were thought to be descendants of the Bavarii, who themselves were direct descendants of the (most probably) Celtic Boii, who settled in what is now Bavaria perhaps as much as two centuries before the birth of Christ. The Boii may in turn have also lent their name to Bohemia, an area that has at times been part of Bavaria proper.

Over the last half of the 20th century, historical and archaeological research has increasingly supported the theory that the remnants of the Celtic Boii were absorbed into the Roman Empire and later intermingled with other Germanic peoples who chose to stay (or were stationed by the Romans) in the area.

By the 6th century AD, the evidence was found for the foundation of a Bavarian Stem-duchy whose leading men were related to the ruling Frankish (and possibly Alemannic/Swabian) houses. However, there is no longer real evidence that the rulers in Bavaria belonged to a people called the Bavarii. It is in fact likely that, after the name of the region became known by the name of the early inhabitants, later inhabitants became known by the accepted geographical name.

Latin American-Germans & Their Early Migration to Brazil

2007-12-23T00:11:00.000-08:00

Birget, a student on city planning was telling her experiences in Cuba. Her experiences in the Caribbean Island were quiet strange. While she was narrating some of her observations, my discussion with walker came to mind.

Walker had a marvelous experience in Belize and other Latin American countries with German descendant Latin Americans.

There are German descendant minorities in almost every South American and Central American countries including Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

In the eighteenth century some isolated and small groups of German immigrants came to Latin America mainly from Germany, but also from Switzerland, Austria and Russia. Though the US was the main destination for immigration in the 19th century, the immigration to Latin America also was significant for various other political and economic reasons. Ninety percent of them came to Latin America mainly for Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile.

When the first group of Germans arrived in 1824 to Sao Leopoldo, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul in the southern Brazil, after 4 months of traveling, there were 39 people, being 33 Lutherans and 6 Catholics. They found a country with a climate, vegetation and culture very different from those of Germany. Southern Brazil was a land of gauchos, the cattle herders who used, and still live, in the Pampas region of Southern Cone.

In the next decades, however, waves of Germanic immigrants arrived to many areas of the Southern Brazil. They mostly settled in rural areas called colonies. These colonies had been created by the Brazilian government, and the lands were distributed between the immigrants. They had to construct their own houses and cultivate the land.

Germans came to Brazil to work as farmers because there were many lands and job opportunities. The Brazilian government had promised large lands to attract the immigrants, where they could settle with their families and colonize the region. In fact, these lands were in the middle of big forests and the first Germans had been abandoned by the Brazilian Government. The first years were not easy. Many Germans died of tropical diseases, others left the colony to find a better life elsewhere.

In fact, the German colony of Sao Leopoldo was a disaster. Nevertheless, in the next years another wave of 8, 000 Germans arrived to Sao Leopoldo, and then the colony started to develop, and the immigrants established the town of Novo Hamburgo (New Hamburg). From Sao Leopoldo and Novo Hamburgo the German immigrants spread into other areas of Rio Grande do Sul, mainly close to spring of rivers. All the region of Vale dos Sinos has been populated by Germans.

During the 1830's and part of 1840's German immigration was interrupted due to the "War of the Farrapos" in Brazil. The immigration restarted after 1845 with the creation of new colonies. The most important ones were Blumenau in 1850 and Joinville in 1851, both in Santa Catarina state and attracted thousands of German immigrants to the region. Some of the mass influx was due to Revolutions of 1848 in the German states.

In the last third of the nineteenth century immigration to Brazil became so difficult with the "Heydtschen Reskript" (1859) and they started to migrate towards Argentina. In the 1880's and 1890's German immigration to Latin America once again increased with the thirty percenatage of the total emigration from Germany towards Latin America.

Until the end of the 19th century 122 German colonies were created in Rio Grande do Sul, and many others in Santa Catarina, Parana, Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. Germans had established the first middle-class population of Brazil, in a country divided between slaves and their masters. Germans immigrants in Brazil were the fourth largest immigrant community to settle in the country, after Portuguese, Italians and Spaniards.

German Migration to Brazil After Major World Wars & Assimilation

2007-12-23T00:10:00.001-08:00

Not all Germans who settled in Brazil became farmers. In the early 20th century most of the Germans immigrated to Brazil settled in big towns. Some of them settled in the old rural German colonies as well. The German immigration to Brazil had its largest numbers during the 1920s, after World War I. These Germans were mostly middle-class laborers from the urban areas of Germany.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Brazil also attracted a significant number of German Jews, who settled mostly in Sao Paulo. During the Nazi period and thereafter until the ban on emigration came into effect in 1941, some 100,000 Jews from Central Europe, the majority of them were German speaking moved to South America. Most of them nearly ninety percent moved towards Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile.

Many immigrant Germans were not counted in the early censuses. Often the spouses of immigrants were not listed as having entered into the country.

During the Second World War Brazilian ships were attacked by Germans and influenced by the US government, Brazil declared war against Germany. Brazil feared whether the German community in Brazil could rebel against the government.

President Getulio Vargas initiated a strict program of forced cultural assimilation - Nacionalismo- that worked quite efficiently. He forbade any manifestation of the German culture in Brazil. German schools were closed, houses with German architecture were destroyed and the use of the German language in Brazil was also forbidden with the publication of German newspapers (together with Italian and Japanese).

Since then, the southern Brazilian German regional language and culture was in decline. Some decried it as a tragic loss for the country while others felt that this meant national progress, saying assimilation will ultimately lead to a feeling of "getting together".

Many Germans also adopted voluntarily from German to the national languages mainly for their safety. Germans in other parts of Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe adopted this pattern of language change to avoid the anger of the Governments which were against or fought against Germany.

With this change in situation the members of the German minorities, previously communities of status and prestige, were turned into undesirable minorities though there were widespread elements of sympathy for Germans in many of the South American countries.

When Germanic immigrants first arrived in Brazil starting at the beginning of the 1800's they did not identify themselves as a unified German - Brazilian group. However, as time went on this common regional identity emerged for many different geo-socio-political reasons and was the major cause for their victimization as well.

After natural and forcible assimilation, Germans in Brazil currently speak a variety of German dialects in the south of the country. These German dialects originated from a variety of German dialects which were spoken by the German immigrants from Germany, Switzerland and Austria with the foreign borrowings from other immigrant languages especially Italian, Spanish, Japanese and the Brazil's national language, Portuguese.

The most dominant spoken Brazilian German dialect is Riograndenser Hunsruckisch, a Brazilian variation of the Hunsruckisch dialect of German. But other dialects are also spoken as well, like the Austrian dialect spoken in Dreizehnlinden, Pomeranian (Pommersch or Plautdietsch) dialect spoken by ethnic German Mennonites from the former Soviet Union and Danube Swabian (Donauschwabisch) dialect.

Although Riograndenser Hunsruckisch has long been the most widely spoken German dialect in southern Brazil, it is currently experiencing a very strong decline. A strong stigma has been forming around the public use of this language. Today it is spoken mostly in private, in family circles and by the elder members of the community and in the rural areas. It is very common for people not to admit that they know it. They speak it in their most private environs, although there are cities where you can hear German on streets or parks.

German-Brazilians Today

2007-12-23T00:08:00.000-08:00

Most German-Brazilians speak only Portuguese nowadays. However, German was still spoken by over 600,000 Brazilians, as first or second language according to 2005 survey.

German influence can still be seen all across the southern states, be it in architecture, shops, and town names or in the way of life. Many German schools have re-opened during the 50s and are regarded as some of the best places to send children to.

Most German-Brazilians started to get married out of the German community after the 1940s. Some of them mixed with other Europeans, such as Portuguese, Italians and Poles. A few also have mixed with Afro-Brazilians and Brazilian native Indians.

Germans are regarded as good industrialists in Brazil in manufacturing shoes, leather goods, furniture, textiles, charcoal and mechanical devices.

Ernesto Beckmann Geisel, the one time president of Brazil was also a German descendent Brazilian.

Geisel was a son of Lutheran German immigrants. Geisel witnessed and participated in the most prominent events of Brazilian history in the 20th century, such as the revolution of 1930, the Getulio Vargas dictatorship and the 1964 military coup d'etat that overthrew the leftist President Joao Goulart. In this military intervention, Geisel was an important figure and he became Military Chief of Staff of President Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco.

In 1973 Geisel was appointed by President Emilio Garrastazu Medici and other military leaders to be the candidate of the National Renewal Alliance Party (ARENA) for the presidency. At that time, the president of Brazil was chosen by the military and then approved by the Congress in order to give an impression of free elections. Geisel was elected by a vast majority and during the Geisel administration, Brazil imported technology from Germany to install nuclear power plants that gave Brazil a regional superpower status.

Germans participated actively in the industrialization and development of big cities such as Curitiba and Porto Alegre in Brazil.

Many Brazilian towns were built under German architecture and many aspects of the Brazilian culture also were influenced by Germans. Today Brazil hosts an Oktoberfest in Blumenau, Santa Catarina, which is second only to Munich, Germany in size.

Most of the German-Brazilians live in Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Parana, the southernmost states of Brazil. There are around 10 million Brazilians who have German ancestry by some estimates. The percentages become higher in some cities, for example, in the town of Pomerode, in Santa Catarina, 90% of the population are Brazilians of German descent, and the main local language is Pomeranian dialect. It is considered the most German city in Brazil and the Germans there are the richest people in Brazil.

The state Santa Catarina is with the lowest levels of unemployment and illiteracy found in the country and still retain a strong influence of German culture. Even after three or four generations, the Germans there still consider themselves as Germans.

Many towns in Southern Brazil have a majority of Germans descended people, such as Sao Leopoldo, Novo Hamburgo, Nova Petropolis, Sao Bento do Sul, Blumenau, Joinville, Santa Isabel, Gramado, Canela, Santa Cruz do Sul, Estancia Velha, Ivoti, Dois Irmaos, Morro Reuter, Santa Maria do Herval, Presidente Lucena, Picada Cafe, Santo Angelo, Teutonia and Brusque.

Austrian History

2007-12-23T00:07:00.000-08:00

While I was talking to Andrea, a student came to us and showed a questionnaire, which was about the ethnic issues of the Island. I observed from Andrea's face that she was keen to know what it was all about.
The questionnaire was supposed to have been circulated among people to get their opinion. Some of the questionnaires were very tricky and sensitive.

I was reading each questionnaire and looked at Andrea's face. She was intent on what my answer was going to be.

When I gave my answers, she took it with much enthusiasm, giving them serious analysis.

Andrea narrated in between our discussion about the experience of her last visit to Sri Lanka with her parents.

Austrians are really international-minded. Former UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, an Austrian, had made some lasting impact in the recent past about Austria to the world though he was identified with the Nazis. I had heard about his friendly approach from Dr. Gamani Corea, who served as Secretary - General of UNCTAD, when Waldheim was the Secretary-General of the UN.

Andrea had traveled vastly in Europe and covered a number of sporting events for the PRESS in Austria. When I asked her about the Austrian economy, she said with a sense of pride that it was a very rich country amongst the European Union. She said after the Second World War, there was a steady growth in the economy. She mentioned that recurrent flooding was a major catastrophe in the history of Austria. Her deep love towards her motherland was reflected in her facial expressions when describing various historical issues of Austria.

The territory of Austria, originally known as the Celtic kingdom of Noricum, was a long time ally of Rome. It was occupied rather than conquered by the Romans during the reign of Augustus and made the province Noricum in 16 BC.

Later it was conquered by Huns, Rugii, Lombards, Ostrogoths, Slavs, Bavarii, Avars and Franks. Finally, after 48 years of Hungarian rule (907 to 955), the core territory of Austria was awarded to Leopold of Babenberg in 976 after the revolt of Henry II, Duke of Bavaria. Being part of the Holy Roman Empire the Babenbergs ruled and expanded Austria from the 10th to the 13th century.

After Frederick II, Duke of Austria died in 1246 and left no successor, Rudolf I of Habsburg gave the lands to his sons marking the beginning of the line of the Habsburgs, who continued to govern Austria until the 20th century.

With the short exception of Charles VII Albert of Bavaria, Austrian Habsburgs held the position of German Emperor beginning in 1438 with Albert II of Habsburg until the end of the Holy Roman Empire.

During the 14th and 15th century Austria continued to expand its territory until it reached the position of a European imperial power at the end of the 15th century.

Modern Austria's history started on the eve of the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire.
Just two years before the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Empire of Austria was founded, which was transformed in 1867 into a dual-monarchy Austria-Hungary. The empire was split into several independent states in 1918, after the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I, with most of the German-speaking parts becoming a republic.

Between 1918 and 1919 it was officially known as the Republic of German Austria (Republik Deutschosterreich). After the Entente Powers forbade German Austria to unite with Germany, they also forbade the name, and then it was changed to simply Republic of Austria. This democratic republic, the First Austrian Republic, lasted until 1933 when the chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß established an autocratic regime oriented towards Italian fascism (Austrofascism).

Austria became part of Germany in 1938 through the Anschluss and remained under Nazi rule until the end of World War II. After the defeat of the Axis Powers, the Allies occupied Austria until 1955. Austria became a fully independent republic under the condition that it would remain neutral in the growing conflict between the Communist East Block and the non-Communist West.

Though Austria is a small country, its historical power-centered position in Europe and its cultural environment have made a great contribution to art and science. It has been the birthplace of many famous personalities such as composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven.and was home to psychologist Sigmund Freud, Management Guru Peter Drucker and engineer Ferdinand Porsche.

Pennsylvania's Amish County & Mennonite Communities in Mexico

2007-12-23T00:05:00.000-08:00

Pennsylvania's Amish county in Lancaster has turned into a wonder land after the Harrison Ford movie "Witness" filmed in 1985. Thereafter each year, a large number of visitors journey to Amish land to experience the excitement.

The Amish Experience, the largest and complete interpretive touring center is located in the heart of the oldest Amish settlement in the world, the county's only designated "Heritage Site" surrounded by Amish farmlands. The customs and life-styles of simpler times still lasting with homes without electricity, and transportation limited to the horse and buggy.

Community celebrations and special events with shopping by roadside stands and quilts to furniture and hex signs, add to the area's unique allure. The Amish Experience in the area's original family-style restaurant and Plain & Fancy Farm will excite the visitors with a la carte dining and the legendary all-you-can-eat dinner of local Pennsylvania Deutsch specialties.

Aaron and Jessica's Buggy Rides and the luxurious Amish View Inn & Suites will add further excitement to visitors.

Today, Amish farming communities are generally prosperous and stable.

Agricultural exchange, a unique exchange program with an Amish order in Pennsylvania made it possible for some Low German Mennonites to survive in Mexico.
Many Low German Mennonites in Mexico are second and third generation immigrants, trying to make their living as farmers in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. Their life has become difficult by the poor returns for their wheat and dairy products due to drought.

In 1994, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) helped by organizing a group of eight Amish men from US to visit Mennonite businesses, schools and churches in Chihuahua. Since then, the Amish have worked with MCC to raise a dairy herd, build a modern cheese factory and initiate a teacher training exchange in Chihuahua.
Amish in Pennsylvania along with two other groups in Ohio and Indiana enabled to reduce the poverty in the Mexican Mennonite colonies.

A large number of Mennonites have left to Canada in search of a better economic future. But there are Germans originally settled from then USSR who are very rich and influential in Mexico.

Amish and Mennonite communities are having a common Anabaptist history.
The Amish are conservative descendants of Anabaptists who fled to escape from religious persecution in southern Germany and Switzerland in the 1700s. They settled in Pennsylvania and the U.S. Midwest.

During the Reformation era in Europe the Anabaptist Christians rejected infant baptism and chose believer's baptism. Since many of them had been baptized in their infancy, they chose to be rebaptized as believing adults. So their enemies called them Anabaptists -- "re-baptizers." Mennonites are also descendants of Anabaptists.

Both the Amish and Mennonites speak German dialects, but they still require translators to communicate. As the two groups learned during an evening of singing, they share similar chant-style songs as well.

The establishment of a dialogue has helped to foster discussion. They have established enough trust to discuss painful issues such as divisions within the church. The recent introduction of electricity and rubber tires in some communities has prompted church leaders and many other residents to leave for more conservative colonies in southern Mexico and Bolivia.

German - Americans

2007-12-23T00:04:00.000-08:00

At the student meeting, I was amazed by many of the new faces. Dietmar Doering enumerated the various activities in which students would be involved.

He turned his topic and was proudly telling about some of the German historical and notable personalities. Some of the Germans and their achievements are forgotten by the majority of German people.

Doering was continuing on Germans and German origin names around the world. Ethnic German minorities live in many countries in all six continents including the former Soviet Union, Poland, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Belgium, Italy, the United States, Latin America, Namibia, and Australia. These German minorities, through their ethno-cultural vitality, exhibit an exceptional level of variations.

Amongst them are small groups (such as those in Namibia) and many very large groups (such as the almost 1 million non-evacuated Germans in Russia and Kazakhstan or the near 500,000 Germans in Brazil), groups that have been greatly "folklorised" and almost completely linguistically assimilated (such as the Germans in the USA or Australia), and others, such as the true linguistic minorities (like the German minorities in Argentina and Brazil, in western Siberia or in Romania and Hungary); other groups, which are classified as religio-cultural groups rather than ethnic minorities, (such as the Eastern-Low German speaking Mennonites in Paraguay, Mexico, Belize or in the Altay region of Siberia) and the groups who maintain their status thanks to strong identification with their ethnicity and their religious sentiment (such as the groups in Upper Silesia, Poland or in South Jutland in Denmark).

Dietmar Doering was telling enthusiastically that Frankfurter, Hamburger and other famous fast food names were derived from German places and cities.

He was proud to speak of the well-to-do Americans of German ancestry. While he was telling, the students' faces took on a lively expression. They were talking to each other and nodding and exchanging notes silently among themselves.

Americans of German ancestry are the major European ethnic group in modern America.
As of a 2000 census, more than 45 million Americans claimed they had German ancestry but only 1.5 million of them spoke the language at that time.

German is the second most spoken language in the US states of North Dakota and South Dakota and the third in popular foreign language after Spanish and French in the US.

There are varieties of German dialects in the US. Texas German based in the Texas Hill Country in the vicinity of the town of Fredricksburg is a dying dialect. Hutterite communities speak Hutterite German, an Austro-Bavarian dialect in the US States of Washington, Montana, North and South Dakota and Minnesota and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

In Canada there are people of German ancestry throughout the country and especially in the west as well as in Ontario. There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario.

The US state Kansas is having more Mennonites and Volga German communities.
There are German commnuities in Wisconsin and Indiana.

In the early twentieth century immigrants mainly settled in St. Louis, Chicago, New York, and Cincinnati.

The German immigrants after World War II came primarily to New York, Los Angeles and Chicago urban areas and to Florida.

Generally, German immigrant communities in the USA have lost their mother tongue more quickly than those who moved to South America, possibly for the German speakers the Germanic based English was easier to learn than the Latin based Portuguese or Spanish. The strong anti-German sentiment and attacks on German-speakers in the US before and after the major World Wars also contributed to change their mother tongue into English.

The teaching of the German language to latter-age students has given rise to a pidgin variant which combines the German language with the grammar and spelling rules of the English language in the US. This variant is often understandable by the English and the German speakers and is called American German and often referred to as Amerikanisch or Amerikanischdeutsch. However this is a pidgin and not a dialect.

German Americans in the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa speak Amana German.

The Amish and other Pennsylvania Germans including Mennonites speak a dialect of German known as Pennsylvania Dutch also known Pennsylvania Deutsch (a West Central German variety). The eastern Pennsylvania is a remnant of what was once a much larger German-speaking area.

German Memoirs in Asia - US President Herbert Hoover in the Post-World Wars Era Europe

2007-12-23T00:03:00.000-08:00

Philipp Staebler, a first year student of business economics was narrating the difficulties in the reunification of the separated Germanys.

He said after a brief pause "Well, it is difficult for sometime for some people in West Germany, but East Germany is also part of our nation and somehow or other way we will have to bear the burden".

Philip elaborated some stories of the Second World War era, which separated Germany, and many yet unresolved chaos. When our discussion turned on the rehabilitation of post-war Europe, a German university student referred to one person who left a lasting legacy. It was none other than Herbert Hoover, an American of German ancestry and was the 31st President of the United States of America (1929-1933). He had taken bold initiatives which saved the lives of millions of Germans and other Europeans in the Second World War that ravaged Europe.

Hoover was born into a Quaker family of distant German and Swiss descent, in Iowa. He helped millions of starving people by his charismatic negotiations between the opposing parties on relief assistance in post-war Europe. He exemplified the Efficiency Movement component of the Progressive Era, arguing there were technical solutions to all social and economic problems - a position that was challenged by the Great Depression that began while he was President.

When Belgium faced a food crisis after being invaded by Germany in the fall of 1914, Hoover undertook an unprecedented relief effort as head of the Commission for the Relief of Belgium (CRB). The CRB became, in effect, an independent republic of relief, with its own flag, navy, factories, mills and railroads. Its $12-million-a-month budget was supplied by voluntary donations and government grants.

In an early form of shuttle diplomacy, he crossed the North Sea forty times seeking to persuade the Germans in Berlin to allow food to reach war victims.

After the United States entered the war in April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover as head of the American Food Administration, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. He succeeded in cutting consumption of food needed overseas and avoided rationing at home. After the end of the war, Hoover, a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration, organized shipments of food for millions of starving people in Central Europe. To this end, he employed a newly formed Quaker organization, the American Friends Service Committee to carry out much of the logistical work in Europe.

He extended aid to famine-stricken Bolshevist Russia in 1921. When a critic inquired why he should help Bolshevist Russia, Hoover retorted, "Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!"

In June 1931, Hoover issued the Hoover Moratorium that called for a one-year halt in reparations payments by Germany to France and in the payment of Allied war debts to the United States to deal with a very serious banking collapse in Central Europe that threatened to cause a worldwide financial meltdown. The Hoover Moratorium had the effect of temporarily stopping the banking collapse in Europe.

Based on Hoover's previous experience with Germany at the end of World War I, in the winter of 1946 - 47 President Harry S. Truman selected Hoover to do a tour of Germany in order to ascertain the food status of the occupied nation. Hoover toured what was to become West Germany in Field Marshall Herman Goering's old train and produced a number of reports sharply critical of U.S. occupation policy. The economy of Germany had "sunk to the lowest level in a hundred years".

As the Cold War deepened, Hoover expressed reservations about some of the activities of the American Friends Service Committee, which he had previously strongly supported.

He impartially helped not only his distant German relatives of the German Nation but the Russians, and other Europeans as well and showed great human kindness.

Europeans who survived in the Second World War used to praise him that they were still alive because of Hoover's meals. The Belgian city of Leuven named a prominent square after him. In addition, the Finns coined a new word hoover, meaning "to help," to their language in honor of his humanitarian work.

German Memory - US President Gen Dwight D Eisenhower in the German POW Crisis

2007-12-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States (1953-1961) who was in charge of the Allied Forces during the Second World War, made the controversial decision to reclassify German prisoners of war (POWs) in U.S. custody as Disarmed Enemy Forces (DEFs). As DEFs, they could be compelled to serve as unpaid conscript labor. An unknown number may have died in custody as a consequence of malnutrition, exposure to the elements, and lack of medical care.

Canadian author James Bacque in his book "Other Losses" heavily criticized Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower for his involvement in treating the German prisoners of war. James Bacque's comments in "Other Losses" were widely discussed on American and German televisions and received a mixture of excitement and anger.

The reason for the reaction was the author's conclusion that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, as head of the American occupation in Germany in 1945, deliberately starved to death German prisoners of war in staggering numbers. Bacque holds that "the victims undoubtedly number over 800,000, almost certainly over 800,000 and quite likely over a million. Their deaths were knowingly caused by army officers who had sufficient resources to keep them alive."

Eisenhower's method, according to Bacque, was simple: he changed the designation of the prisoners from "Prisoners of War" (P.O.W.), which required by the Geneva Convention to be fed the same rations as US Army's, to "Disarmed Enemy Forces" (D.E.F.), which allowed him to cut their rations to starvation level.

Bacque says the D.E.F. were also denied medical supplies and shelter; because of that they died by hundreds of thousands. Their deaths were covered up on Army records by listing them as "other losses" on charts showing weekly totals of prisoners on hand, numbers discharged and so forth.

Bacque was quoted in a wire service interview as saying, "Americans should take down every statue of Eisenhower, and every photograph of him and annul his memory from American history as best they can, except to say, 'Here was a man who did very evil things that we're ashamed of."

But the critics exclaimed if there were a million dead, where were the bodies? Did Eisenhower have such vast power that he could order starvation on a mass scale and keep it a secret? Was the undoubted suffering in the camps, especially the transit camps along the Rhine, the result of Eisenhower's policy or the result of the chaotic conditions that prevailed in Europe in the spring and summer of 1945?

Historian Stephen Ambrose criticised James Bacque for having had no previous historical research or writing experience. James Bacque himself admitted in his introduction to the book "Other Losses": "Doubtless many scholars will find faults in this book, which are only mine. I welcome their criticism and their further research, which may help to restore to us the truth after a long night of lies."

Some time back, the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans invited some leading experts to examine the charges. The conference participants, including historian Stephen Ambrose came to the first conclusion that James Bacque had made a major historical discovery: "There was widespread mistreatment of German prisoners in the spring and summer of 1945. Men were beaten, denied water, forced to live in open camps without shelter, given inadequate food rations and inadequate medical care. Their mail was withheld. In some cases prisoners made a "soup" of water and grass in order to deal with their hunger. Men did die needlessly and inexcusably."

Their second conclusion was, "when scholars do the necessary research, they will find Bacque's work to be worse than worthless. It is seriously - nay, spectacularly - flawed in its most fundamental aspects". They accused that, "he misuses documents; he misreads documents; he ignores contrary evidence; his statistical methodology is hopelessly compromised; he makes no attempt to look at comparative contexts; he puts words into the mouth of his principal source; he ignores a readily available and absolutely critical source that decisively deals with his central accusation; and, as a consequence of these and other shortcomings, he reaches conclusions and makes charges that are demonstrably absurd."

The final conclusion of historians was that Eisenhower was an enthusiastic supporter of denazification, but not because he hated the Germans or believed in collective guilt. On the contrary, he believed that there were Germans who were committed to democracy and that the task of the occupation was to find them and bring them to the fore.

In a speech in Frankfurt in 1945, he declared, "The success or failure of this occupation will be judged by the character of the Germans 50 years from now. Proof will come when they begin to run a democracy of their own and we are going to give the Germans a chance to do that, in time."

Historians exclaimed, "This does not sound like a man who simultaneously was directing the death by starving a million of young Germans."

German Memory - US President Gen Dwight D Eisenhower in the Crisis of Starving German POWs

2007-12-22T23:59:00.000-08:00

Canadian author James Bacque in his book "Other Losses" heavily criticized Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower for his involvement in treating the German prisoners of war. James Bacque's comments in "Other Losses" were widely discussed on American and German televisions and received a mixture of excitement and anger.

Historians criticized Bacque, "He completely misunderstands Eisenhower's position and activity in the occupation. He puts full responsibility on Eisenhower for every policy decision, never recognizing that he had superiors from whom he took policy directives and orders - specifically, the Army Chief of Staff, the European Advisory Commission, acting in the name and with the authority of the British, Soviet and American Governments."

The report at the New Orleans conference with the diplomatic background, by Brian Villa of the University of Ottawa, noted that the policy of Eisenhower's superiors was to impress upon the Germans the fact of their defeat, the fact that they had brought it on themselves and in other ways to "treat 'em rough." Denazification was one aspect of that policy. Another was that German prisoners would not be fed at a higher level than German civilians, than the civilians of the liberated nations, or than the displaced persons (DPs).

An assertion that was central to Bacque's accusation was his contention that there was no European food shortage in 1945. He pointed to warehouses in Germany full of food. He stated that the Red Cross had enough food available. One of his pieces of evidence was that a train from Geneva loaded with food parcels sent by the Red Cross to feed German prisoners was forced to turn back.

But historians denied Bacque's accusation and came out with the revelation that the Allied Governments had decided those Red Cross food parcels were to feed displaced persons, of whom there were more than two million in Germany.

They also pointed out the fact denying Bacque's accusation of no food shortage that Eisenhower wrote to the Chief of Staff, Gen. George C. Marshall, in February 1945: "I am very much concerned about the food situation... We now have no reserves on the Continent of supplies for the civil population."

Eisenhower wrote to the Combined Chiefs of Staff on April 25, 1945: "Unless immediate steps are taken to develop to the fullest extent possible the food resources in order to provide the minimum wants of the German population, widespread starvation and disease are inevitable during the coming winter."

Historians pointed out Eisenhower had sent many messages before the surrender of Germany on the expectation of possible inadequacy of food. After the first week of May, all of Eisenhower's calculations as to how many people he would be required to feed in occupied Germany became woefully inadequate. He had badly underestimated, for two reasons. First, the number of German soldiers surrendering to the Western Allies far exceeded what was expected (more than five million, instead of the anticipated three million) because of the onrush of German soldiers across the Elbe River to escape the Russians. So too the German civilians - there were millions fleeing from east to west, about 13 million altogether, and they became Eisenhower's responsibility.

Eisenhower faced shortages even before he learned that there were 17 million more people to feed in Germany than he had expected.

The report of the Military Governor for Germany in July 1945 stated, "The food situation throughout Western Germany is perhaps the most serious problem of the occupation. The average food consumption in the Western Zones is now about one-third below the generally accepted subsistence level."

The September report declared, "Food from indigenous sources was not available to meet the present authorized ration level for the normal consumer of 1,550 calories per day."

Historians criticized Bacque's accusation that the prisoners were receiving 1,550 calories a day and his observation that such a ration meant slow starvation. They pointed out he apparently never looked at what civilians were getting in Germany or in the liberated countries. In Paris in 1945, the calorie level was 1,550 for civilians. It was only slightly higher in Britain, where rationing continued. It was much lower in Russia, where rationing also continued. As noted, the official ration for German civilians was 1,550, but often not met. In Vienna in the summer of 1945 the official ration sometimes fell to 500. Historians noted anyone who was in Europe in the summer of 1945 would be flabbergasted to hear that there was no food shortage.

German Memory in Asia - An Exploration Into Austrian-German Dialects

2007-12-22T22:52:00.000-08:00

While I was talking to Dietmar Doering , a student entered into the office exclaiming, "Oh! I couldn't believe it, such a big change?" Doering told she was a former student and introduced Andrea. She was visiting Sri Lanka after her stay as an intern student in 2004. She was working in a leading Austrian newspaper as a sports journalist.

In the middle of our conversation, she smiled at Doering and said, "You are talking with an Austrian accent". He with a smile accepted her remark. Doering has been living in Sri Lanka for more than twenty years with his mother and he might have adopted that accent for her benefit.

Austrian German is a variety of the German language and mostly a High German dialect.
Dialects are receding in Austria as they are in some other areas of Europe, but it can safely be said that they are more persistent than in most of Germany.

Dialects are frequently used in TV series or movies where it is appropriate for a particular character and situation. Educated people in Vienna usually speak a very slight form of dialect or simply Standard German, but with the characteristic Viennese accent.

Austria's mountainous terrain led to the development of many distinct German dialects. All of the dialects in the country, however, belong to Austro-Bavarian groups of German dialects, with the exception of the dialect spoken in its west-most Bundesland, Vorarlberg, which belongs to the group of Alemannic dialects. There is also a distinct grammatical standard for Austrian German with a few differences to the German spoken in Germany.

German Memory - US President Gen Dwight D Eisenhower & The "Other Losses" of German Prisoners

2007-12-22T22:51:00.000-08:00

According to Canadian Author James Bacque, Eisenhower personally, secretly, and with sinister intent changed the status of surrendered German soldiers from prisoners of war to Disarmed Enemy Forces.

But the historians argued that the change in designation was a policy matter. The decision was made not by Eisenhower but by his superiors, specifically by the European Advisory Commission. Nor was any attempt made to keep it secret. All those involved acted with the authority of the British, Russian and American Governments, and they were perfectly straightforward about the reason for the change in status. The Allies could not afford to feed the millions of German prisoners at the same level at which they were able to feed German civilians, the civilians of the liberated countries of Western Europe and the displaced persons. But the United States and other Allied nations had signed the Geneva Convention, which had the force of a treaty. They did not wish to violate it, so they used the new designation of "Disarmed Enemy Forces."

The greatest number of "other losses" revealed in the August 1945 Report of the Military Governor. (These monthly reports are in the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kan., in the National Archives in Washington and elsewhere; they are a basic source on every aspect of the occupation, including food shortages and prisoners). Historians accused Bacque that he did not cite them and there was no evidence that he examined them even.

The August report lists the numbers of disarmed enemy forces discharged by American forces and those transferred to the British and French for forced labor.

The report states: "An additional group of 663,576 are listed as 'other losses,' consisting largely of members of the Volksturm [Peoples' Militia], released without formal discharge."

The People's Militia consisted of older men (up to 80 years of age, mainly World War I veterans) and boys of 16 or sometimes less. American guards and camp authorities told the old men to go home and take care of their grandchildren, the boys to go home and return to school along with the transfers to other zones. Historians criticized James Bacque that he ignored all these facts for his 'missing million'.

They further criticized Bacque was wrong on every major charge and nearly all his minor ones. Eisenhower was not a Hitler, he did not run death camps, German prisoners did not die by the hundreds of thousands, there was a severe food shortage in 1945, there was nothing sinister or secret about the "disarmed enemy forces" designation.

Nevertheless, Historians agreed with Bacque on one point, that some US Army soldiers and their officers were capable of acting in almost as brutal a manner as the Nazis.

But number of historians has commented in their reviews in Britain, France, Germany and Canada, "they cannot believe what Mr. Bacque says about Eisenhower is true, but they cannot also disprove it."

Eisenhower, the German descendant American who showed his statesmanship and greater humanity by ending the Korean War and avoiding military intervention in Vietnam finally left a controversial legacy in his ancestral Germany; once said, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children... This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."

German Memory in Asia - A Discussion With German-Spanish Student

2007-12-22T22:50:00.000-08:00

Aquarius resort's indoor stadium was flooded by visitors for an unusual event, the German university student's fashion show.

When I was moving around I found there were some students struggling with their own make-up to make it match their dresses and to gain a right balance. They were bothering so much for a mere fashion show. I wondered how participants in a world beauty contest would care over their attire and make-up.

The lights were switched off other than a few red lights. The students were making elegant body movements and gestures just like what one sees at fashion show. They were dancing and singing at times to some melodious German songs.

Once the fashion show was over, I extended my congratulations to Nita who had performed so excellently. While I was talking to her, she related some stories and said that her mother was a German and father a Spanish.

She asked me whether I had heard of Valencia and when I said "No", her face darkened and asked me repeatedly "you never heard about Valencia?" Then she asked after a brief pause whether I heard about "Barcelona" and when I said "of course yes", she smiled and said just north of Barcelona was her father's native place "Valencia". "Do you know how beautiful that Mediterranean city is?" and continued, "I like Valencia very much" and narrated the historical importance of Valencia. Her narration was expressive of the love she bore towards her father and his land of birth.

German Memoirs in Asia - Austria & Divided German States

2007-12-22T22:49:00.001-08:00

Andrea was narrating various issues about Austria. When I asked Andrea how most of the Austrians identify themselves as Austrians or Germans, she said, "there are complex issues. We have a unique culture in Austria. So we feel comfortable when we identify ourselves as Austrians". She also said, "We are less in number compared to those who are in Germany and that is the primary reason why we like to identify ourselves as Austrians".

That the German Nation and its people should be divided was a notion held by many European nations. Foreign powers had long interceded in German affairs, pitting one German principality against the other.

In the 19th century, after the Napoleonic Wars and the fall of the Holy Roman Empire (of the German nation), Austria and Prussia emerged as two opposite poles in Germany, trying to re-establish the divided German nation. In 1870, Prussia attracted even Bavaria in the Franco-Prussian War and the creation of the German Empire as a German nation-state, effectively excluding the multi-ethnic Austrian-Habsburg monarchy. From this time on, the connotation of Germans came to shift gradually from "speakers of the German language" to "Imperial Germans."

The dissolution of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire after World War I led to a strong desire of the population of the new Republic of Austria to be integrated into Germany. This was, however, prevented by the Treaty of Versailles.

Trying to overcome the shortfall of Chancellor Bismarck's creation, the Nazis attempted to unite "all Germans" in one realm. This was welcomed among ethnic Germans in Czechoslovakia, Austria, Poland, Danzig and Western Lithuania, but met with resistance among the Swiss and the Dutch, who were perfectly content with their perception of separate nations established in 1648, and the Dutch, in particular as they had never even spoken a form of the modern Germanic language.

Before World War II, most Austrians considered themselves German and denied the existence of a distinct Austrian ethnic identity. It was only after the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II that this began to change. After the world war, the Austrians increasingly saw themselves as a nation distinct from the other German-speaking areas of Europe, and some polls in 2000 indicated that no more than ten percent of the German-speaking Austrians saw themselves as part of a larger German nation linked by blood or language.

Germans, would hold that they belong to the German culture, which is what decides if someone is considered a German or not. On the other hand, Austrians often prefer to see the same persons and institutions as Austrian. Particularly, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven - who spent most of their lives in what is Austria today - may be considered to have been central within the German culture but may nevertheless often be characterized as Austrians, not as Germans.

The beginnings of a divided Germany may be traced back much further; to a Roman occupied Germania in the west and to Free Germania in the east. Starkly different ideologies have many times been developed due to conquerors and occupiers of sections of Germany. Poets talked of Zwei Seelen in einem Herz (Two souls in one heart).

German Memories - Kaiser William II & The First World War

2007-12-22T21:46:00.000-08:00

William gave the German nation an extra strength on the international level only by constructing a powerful navy which he had inherited from his mother, a love of the British Royal Navy, the world's largest at that time. He made a reality of what he once confided to his uncle Edward VII that his dream was to have a "fleet of my own some day" like the British. William's personal "likes and dislikes" caused by his fleet's poor show in front of his grandmother Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations led him to take steps towards the construction of a powerful navy against his cousins in Britain.

William well utilised the talents of the dynamic naval officer Alfred von Tirpitz. He appointed him as the head of the Reich Naval Office in 1897 and the new admiral had come out with his Tirpitz Plan, the "Risk theory" where he advocated how Germany could force Britain to accede to German demands in the international arena through the threat posed by a powerful battle-fleet concentrated in the North Sea. But building this powerful fleet of more expensive Dreadnought type of battleships cost a lot to Germany imposing financial strains in the coming years.

William got into the trap of the First World War when his close friend the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was murdered on June 28, 1914. William offered Austria-Hungary to crush the secret organization that had plotted and slayed the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He encouraged Austria to use force against the suspected Serbian movement which was responsible for his murder. But he was further trapped by his exploitative elites in Berlin by sending him away to his annual cruise of the North Sea on July 6, 1914, as they wanted to manipulate things in his absence for war to increase German dominance in Europe. They feared William might undermine their war effort - something of which William, for all his bluster, was extremely apprehensive.

William made erratic attempts to stay on top of the crisis via telegram, and when the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum was delivered to Serbia, he hurried back to Berlin. He reached Berlin and started his last minute attempt to avert the war.

But beyond his knowledge and control in Austria the warring-attempts were in full swing. Unknown to the Emperor, Austro-Hungarian ministers and generals had already convinced the 84-year-old Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria to sign a declaration of war against Serbia.

When William learnt that the First World War was unavoidable by a document stating that Russia would not cancel its mobilization on the event of Austro-Hungarian mobilization against Serbia, he wrote a lengthy commentary containing the startling observations: "For I no longer have any doubt that England, Russia and France have agreed among themselves........knowing that our treaty obligations compel us to support Austria.......to use the Austro-Serb conflict as a pretext for waging a war of annihilation against us.......Our dilemma over keeping faith with the old and honorable Emperor has been exploited to create a situation which gives England the excuse she has been seeking to annihilate us with a spurious appearance of justice on the pretext that she is helping France and maintaining the well-known Balance of Power in Europe for her own benefit against us."

German Memories - Volga Germans Under Bolshevist Atrocities

2007-12-22T21:45:00.000-08:00

Following World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Russia experienced mass starvation from 1920 to 1924 caused largely by a government policy of forced grain requisition.

When the Volga Germans resisted, they were completely stripped of all grain and mass executions were carried out. More than thirty percent of the Volga German population was deliberately starved before relief was permitted.

Starting in 1921, the Volga Relief Society in America raised money and bought supplies for the starving Volga Germans.

The cruelties against the Volga Germans was better revealed to the world in 1922 when a former Sheboygan resident John Hermann returned to Sheboygan, Wisconsin and told his story of survival and escape from Russia. He left from Sheboygan, Wisconsin to his Volga German settlement in Russia just before the opening of the war and returned to Sheboygan after the Bolshevist atrocities to Volga Germans which made them impoverished and nearly dead.

His story was published in the Sheboygan Press on Jan 24, 1922.

The story went as - John Hermann, residing at 1018 N. Ninth street, returned to Sheboygan early last week with reports of conditions in the Volga river region of Russia which corroborate the wildest reports of correspondents abroad. Tall, haggard, careworn, his face furrowed by worry and privation and with eyes saddened by scenes of horror, Mr. Hermann has returned after an absence of seven years to his family circle, whose happiness knows no bounds.

Mr. Hermann who had been here several years, left Sheboygan in May 1914, starting on his return journey to Russia where he intended to settle his estate and divide it among his sons.

The World War made his return impossible and he was forced to stay in his native village. During the war, Mr. Hermann stated, the conditions were not bad. There was plenty of food and though extensive requisitions had to be filled to the government, they willingly complied, for the armies had to be fed.

As soon as the bolshevists came to power, their merciless rule was felt in the Volga river region. Hordes of them swooped down upon the hamlets and villages and ordered election of councils of government, consisting of twenty-four men and a president, which body was authorized to carry out their orders and instructions.

Every village naturally had a dissatisfied element, which was in sympathy with the bolshevist, and this element was elected into office. The wealthier people were barred from election. The bolshevists supplied the candidates for election and the citizens had no choice in the matter.

Through this council a systematic plan of impoverishing the Volga river region was carried out. Orders stipulating great quantities of corn and wheat were continually given and these orders had to be obeyed.

Tardiness of only one hour in the delivery of the demanded quantities meant either a fine of twenty "boots" of wheat (one boot being equal to about forty pounds) or if the officers were so inclined - death.

After a few months the conditions became deplorable. The supplies for man and beast were exhausted. Lack of fodder put the draft animals in poor condition.

Often the bolshevists demanded horses at a moment's notice and the least resistance upon the part of their owners meant death. Horses and wagons with driver were commandeered to haul away the grain and many of those unfortunates never returned to their native home.

A neighbor of Mr. Hermann's who begged to be excused from hauling some grain to the territorial headquarters twenty versts away on the ground that he had just then returned from an extensive trip and his horse needed rest was shot down where he stood. Then other inhabitants of the village were killed at another time.

Some of the inhabitants of the village Schaefer, where Mr. Hermann had his home, being unable to bear the tyranny of the invaders, revolted, dethroned the council installed by the Soviet and elected their own from the fair-minded citizenship. As soon as the news of this occurrence reached headquarters of the bolshevists, troops were sent to capture the village and the newly elected council was put on horses, taken to the neighboring village, Reinwald, where they were executed.

The crop in the year of 1920 was a good one, said Mr. Hermann. It was well able to sustain the population of the stricken country had not the demands of the bolshevists been so great.

Seeing that starvation would be certain if provisions were not made in time, Mr. Hermann conceived the plan of completely closing the chimney and fireplace in his home. This he filled with 36 boots of wheat. The hidden store saved the lives of his immediate relatives for a time. He would gladly have shared it with others had not fear of detection prevented him from doing so. A hint of the priceless treasure to the authorities would have meant certain death.

All grinding mills were destroyed by the bolshevists to stop private manufacture of flour. Driven by desperation, ingenious minds experimented with coffee mills with no mean result though others also used meat grinders to obtain a little coarse flour.

Most of the passenger trains were crowded so that many who were anxious to escape death, climbed aboard boxcars and made their way in this manner. Men and women alike huddled on the top of these cars hoping against hope to reach a more fortunate region. It so transpired that the wife of a friend of Mr. Hermann's gave birth to a child while riding on the roof of a boxcar, exposed to the elements and the winds.

The favorite pastime of the bolshevists was the use of these destitute men and women as a means of target practice and it was considered a feat to pick off one of those huddled forms from a moving train. Mr. Hermann is hardly able to realize that he survived the ordeal. Repeatedly taken from trains, forced to slave labor, and after numerous escapes from the clutches of the revolutionists, he finally reached Novo sew (New Russia) at the Black Sea. This place is about 800 versts distant from his native village and it took him nearly six months to traverse the distance.

He was successful in getting a job as stevedore on a tramp steamer and passing through the Aegean Sea down into the Mediterranean and Italy. Traveling through Italy and Austria Hungary he crossed into Germany where he found employment at Bremen and awaited the time when his relatives in Sheboygan could provide for his steamship passage.

He said to the Press by Telegram, "The people of Sheboygan do not appreciate enough the great quantities of food they possess. Smiles of contentment are upon the faces and the children know no want. But for the starving people in Russia, these smiles of plenty and contentment are no more.

Their eyes are turned to America and the hope that help will come gives them courage to battle another day against their enemy - death. Still, I do not see how any of them can live today, for they lack food, clothing and fuel. There is plenty of fuel, yes - but no one has the energy left to get it. With them it is a problem of conserving their strength to fight the hand of famine."

German Memories - Kaiser William II & the End of the First World War

2007-12-22T21:43:00.000-08:00

Though William was not a clever statesman like his erstwhile chancellor Bismarck, he tried his best diplomacy to avoid the war with Great Britain as it would attack if Germany would start its warring frontier in France through Belgium.

Though he was not actively sought to unleash the First World War, he had a dream of building a powerful German Empire. But he wanted to achieve it without bloodshed. His inability to scheme things like Bismarck made him to end up with unrealistic plans and chaotic statements.

But his better judgment at one point indicated a world war was imminent and tried his last resort of personal diplomacy to preserve the peace by his "Willy and Nicky" correspondence and influencing after the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum that Austro-Hungarian troops should go no further than Belgrade, thus limiting the conflict.

But by then it was far too late, for the eager military officials of Germany and the German Foreign Office were successful in persuading him to sign the mobilisation order and initiate the Schlieffen Plan. William was trapped by his military elite and made the First World War to be called his own initiation by the British and unfairly named it a "the Kaiser's War" of which he was personally not responsible by unleashing the conflict.

Nevertheless, his own love for culture and trappings of militarism pushed him to endorse the German military establishment and industry most notably the Krupp corporation into a prominent and influential position in the affairs of the German militia. The Krupp corporation which supported and enabled his dynasty to rule ultimately pushed his empire into an armaments race to compete with European powers.

At one point William reminded his Generals before the war expressing his pessimism as "You will regret this, gentlemen". But he encouraged Austria to pursue a hard line with Serbia and the subsequent German actions during the war gained him the title of "Supreme War Lord".

As the war progressed, his influence receded and inevitably his lack of ability in military matters led to an ever-increasing reliance upon his generals, so much so that after 1916 the Empire had effectively become a military dictatorship under the control of Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff.

Increasingly cut off from reality and the political decision-making process, William vacillated between defeatism and dreams of victory, depending upon the fortunes of "his" armies.

Though he was used by the military Generals as a useful figurehead and made him to award medals and courageous speeches, at one point he realised the necessity of a capitulation and influenced the military and political hierarchy. He really felt the German Nation should not bleed to death for a dying cause.

But over time things started to move in a different way and his abdication was necessitated by the popular perceptions that had been created by the Entente propaganda against him. He realised the situation and crossed the border by train the following day and went into exile in the Netherlands, which had remained neutral throughout the war.

Upon the conclusion of the Treaty of Versailles in early 1919, Article 227 expressly provided for the prosecution of William "for a supreme offense against international morality and the sanctity of treaties", but Queen Wilhelmina refused to extradite him, despite appeals from the Allies.

Ironically, prior to the outbreak of the First World War, while the young Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands visited Prussia, William II boasted to the child-Queen that "my guards are seven feet tall and yours are only shoulder high to them." Wilhelmina smiled politely and replied: "Quite true, Your Majesty, your guards are seven feet tall. But when we open our dikes, the water is ten feet deep!". William II had to swallow his pride under her custody during the rest of his political exile.

Ironically in William's absence the German Government finally accepted, as a basis of peace negotiations, the program laid down by the President of the United States in order to avoid further bloodshed and brought about the immediate conclusion of an armistice on land, on water, and in the air.

Pathetically some years ago only William hosted US President Theodore Roosevelt in a review of the German army on parade and Roosevelt exclaimed, "My God, if I had an army like this, I could rule the world!"

German Memory - Dresden Bombing & the World's Reaction

2007-12-22T21:12:00.001-08:00

Overall, Anglo-American bombing of German cities claimed between 305,000 and 600,000 civilian lives. But the devastation in Dresden made a great impact on neutral countries at that time. Howard Cowan, an Associated Press war correspondent, subsequently filed a story saying that the Allies had resorted to terror bombing.

There were follow-up newspaper editorials on the issue and a long-time opponent of strategic bombing, Richard Stokes MP, asked questions in the House of Commons. The destruction of the city provoked unease in informed circles in Britain.

The bombing of Dresden was the first time Allied populations questioned the military actions used to defeat the Nazis.

The nature of the bombing of Dresden has made it a unique point of contention and debate. Critics of the attack come from across the political spectrum, from far left to far right.

Gunter Grass, the German novelist and Nobel laureate for literature and Simon Jenkins, the former editor of "The Times" referred to the Dresden bombing as a "war crime".

Harald Jaehner, a German literary critic stated: "Look at the bombing of Dresden, which was really an assault on the civilian population."

Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, president of Genocide Watch, wrote: "The Nazi Holocaust was among the most evil genocides in history. But the Allies' firebombing of Dresden and nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were also war crimes.............".

Before the bombing, Dresden was regarded as a beautiful city and a cultural centre, and was sometimes known as Elbflorenz, or Florence on the Elbe. Its notable architecture included the Zwinger Palace, the Dresden State Opera House, and the Dresden Frauenkirche, its historic cathedral.

According to Friedrich: German forces were in full retreat by February 1945, and the impact on civilians was out of all proportion to the military goal. He argued that the bombing was a war crime even under the legal standards of that time, because the Allies intended to cause as many civilian casualties as possible.

Friedrich also contends that the outcome of previous bombing attacks well demonstrated that the Allied forces were aware of the destruction caused by incendiary bombs, and that due to the collapse of German air defense and improvements in bombing accuracy, future attacks were likely to cause ever increasing numbers of civilian deaths.

But the United States military made the case that bombing of Dresden did not constitute a war crime, based on various reasons that the raids had legitimate military ends according to the military circumstances at that time.

The US also argued the military units and anti-aircraft defenses were sufficiently close to the city and it's not valid to consider the city was "undefended".

The US also pointed out the raid achieved the military objective, without "excessive" loss of civilian life.

The US legitimacy of the military ends were based on the rail-yards which were subjected to American precision bombing as they assumed the rail-yards had beyond their ordinary value as a transportation center.

An inquiry conducted at the behest of the US Secretary of War, General George C. Marshall also concluded that the raid was justified by the available intelligence. The inquiry also justified the military operation by eliminating German ability to reinforce a counter-attack against Marshall Konev's extended line and to regroup using Dresden as a base of operations. As Dresden had been largely untouched during the war, it was one of the few remaining functional rail and communications centers.

A secondary objective was to disrupt the industrial use of Dresden for munitions manufacture, which American intelligence believed to be the case. The city contained the Zeiss-Ikon optical factory and the Siemens glass factory, both of which, according to the Allies, were entirely devoted to manufacturing military gun-sights.

They believed immediate suburbs contained factories building radar and electronics components, and fuses for anti-aircraft shells and other factories produced gas masks, engines for Junkers aircraft and cockpit parts for Messerschmitt fighters.

Because of the concentration of undamaged industry, unusual in Germany at the time of the raids, the allied planners very strongly believed that Dresden had strategic importance to supply material for the defense of German military.

After the firebombing they estimated that over 25% of industrial capacity was disabled or destroyed, eliminating potential use of Dresden by the German military to launch counter-strikes against the Soviet advance.

German Memories in Asia - A Visit to Indian Ocean's Kayts Islands

2007-12-22T21:02:00.000-08:00

Torsten Kapeller, is a student from Stuttgart, Germany. He traveled in the war-torn North and East of the island on a tsunami-relief mission to provide tsunami warning sirens and telling various stories on his mission.

The tsunami sirens were brought from Germany and could be operated manually to alert the coastal villages up to a few hundreds meters.

Torsten said his mission to North was exhaustive. He visited a beach and was struck by the beauty of its shallow sea-bed. From his description, I guessed it was the "Saddi" beach in the Kayts Islands.

Visiting Kayts Islands from the Jaffna Peninsula, crossing a mile-long narrow way had been a fascinating experience since my school days. We could see the shallow sea on both sides of the way, which is an extension of the Palk Strait connecting the Gulf of Mannar and the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean.

We could always see in the shallow seas, the sea-gulls, the Brahmin kites and other birds of different varieties busily fishing all the time. Some of the large Brahmin-kites used to rest on the top of fixed fishing nets everywhere in the sea. It was fascinating to see their take off from the nets and I was surprised in my early school days how large birds like them could uplift their bodies using their wings.

When Torsten was sharing his experience about his travel to Kayts, my thoughts went back to the Dutch Sea Fort, which was built by the Portuguese and then reconstructed by the Dutch in the sea off Kayts Islands.

The Portuguese not only constructed Forts in the island but also in other parts of Asia.
The Portuguese, Dutch, English, Danish, French even German and other European cultures and architecture heavily influenced Asian art, culture and architecture and my maternal ancestors' house in Kayts resembled that of a small Dutch Fort with inside gardens and large rectangular verandahs and corridors, which made me to wonder about the different types of architecture.

Torsten was telling about the soothing climate of the Peninsula. As the Jaffna Peninsula sets a breeze from the Bay of Bengal and Indian sub-continent by its close proximity, there is an effect on the humidity, the climate and even on the monsoon system.

German Memory - Firebombing on Dresden and the Devastation

2007-12-22T21:00:00.000-08:00

The firebombing campaign was supposed to begin with an USAAF Eighth Air Force raid on Dresden on February 13 but bad weather over Europe prevented any American operations. So it fell to RAF Bomber Command to carry out the first raid.

During the evening of February 13, the RAF bombers 796 Avro Lancasters and 9 De Havilland Mosquitoes were dispatched in two separate waves and dropped 1,478 tons of high explosive and 1,182 tons of incendiary bombs in the early hours of February 14.

The second attack, 3 hours later, was an all-Lancaster attack by aircraft of 1, 3, 6 and 8 Groups, with 8 Group providing standard Pathfinder marking. The weather had by then cleared and 529 Lancasters dropped more than 1,800 tons of bombs with great accuracy.

Later on the 14th 311 American B-17s dropped 771 tons of bombs on Dresden, with the railway yards as their aiming point.

Part of the American Mustang-fighter escort was ordered to strafe traffic on the roads around Dresden to increase chaos. The civilians were fleeing the firestorm engulfing Dresden. During this raid there was a brief, but possibly intense dogfight between American and German fighters around Dresden.

The Americans continued the bombing on February 15, dropping 466 tons of bombs.

During these four raids a total of around 3,900 tons of bombs were dropped.

The firebombing consisted of dropping large amounts of high-explosives to blow off the roofs to expose the timbers within buildings, followed by incendiary devices (fire-sticks) to ignite them and then more high-explosives to hamper the efforts of the fire services. This eventually created a self-sustaining firestorm with temperatures peaking at over 1500°C. After the area caught fire, the air above the bombed area became extremely hot and rose rapidly. Cold air then rushed in at ground level from the outside and people were sucked into the fire.

After the main firebombing campaign between 13th and 15th, there were two further raids on the Dresden railway yards by the USAAF. The first was on March 2 by 406 B-17s which dropped 940 tons of high-explosive bombs and 141 tons of incendiaries. The second was on April 17 when 580 B-17s dropped 1,554 tons of high-explosive bombs and 165 tons of incendiaries.

Out of 28,410 houses in the inner city of Dresden, 24,866 were destroyed. An area of 15 square kilometres was totally destroyed, among that: 14,000 homes, 72 schools, 22 hospitals, 18 churches, 5 theatres, 50 banks and insurance companies, 31 department stores, 31 large hotels, 62 administration buildings as well as factories such as the Ihagee camera works. In total there were 222,000 apartments in the city. 75,000 of them were totally destroyed, 11,000 severely damaged, 7,000 damaged, 81,000 slightly damaged.

The city was around 300 square kilometres in area in those days. Although the main railway station was destroyed completely, the railway was working again within a few days.

The precise number of dead was a mystery by the fact that the city and surrounding suburbs was with a population of 642,000 in 1939 and was crowded at that time with up to 200,000 refugees, and some thousands of wounded soldiers. Some of them might have been killed and incinerated beyond recognition in the fire-storm. Earlier reputable estimates varied from 25,000 to more than 60,000, but historians now view around 25,000-35,000 as the likely range with the latest research by the Dresden historian Friedrich Reichert in 1994.

The ideal weather conditions at the target site, the wooden-framed buildings, "breakthroughs" linking the cellars of contiguous buildings and the lack of preparation for the effects of air-raids made the attack in Dresden a devastating. For these reasons the loss of life in Dresden was higher than many other bombing raids during World War II.

German Memories - Kaiser William II & His Personal Diplomacy

2007-12-22T20:56:00.000-08:00

He believed in personal diplomacy the same way as he had in mind with his British cousins, with his cousin-in-law Tsar Nicholas II of Russia also to build up a greater relationship between the two nations in the event of war. His unrealistic understanding of European power politics made him to sign an agreement with Tsar Nicholas at a private meeting at Bjorko in 1905. But on his return to Germany his Chancellor Bulow obstructed the personal treaty of alliance between the two cousins. In the same way Tsar Nicholas was confronted by his policy makers and elite in St. Petersburg on his return, which reduced the treaty to the status of a dead letter.

European power politics once again undermined his effort to avoid the war with Russia. His telegram to Nicholas II failed to yield the result on the eve of the First World War because of the existing German commitments to Austria-Hungary. William in 1889 gave his assurance to Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph in a chivalrous fidelity that "the day of Austro-Hungarian mobilization, for whatever cause, will be the day of German mobilization too" and made the German-Russian Alliance impossible as the Austrian mobilization for war would most likely be against Russia.

He blundered in German foreign relations either by his own mistake or by the combination of his foreign policy elites. On one occasion he visited Morocco and created the Moroccan Crisis of 1906. His visit to Tangier in Morocco on the encouragement of his foreign policy elite was seen as German interests in Morocco. He further aggravated German relations with France by his remarks on Moroccan independence as France was expanding its colonial interests in Morocco. The chaos finally led to the Algeciras Conference, which severely isolated Germany in the whole of Europe.

William further aggravated the relationship with many of the countries in Europe and outside by his controversial comments in the British newspaper "The Daily Telegraph" in 1908 where he started to comment in the beginning with the intention of building up the Anglo-German cooperation, but in the course of the interview he went to say something else out of his emotional outbursts, saying the French, Russians, and Japanese were united together against Germany and the Germans cared nothing for the British. He attacked the French and Russians that they had attempted to instigate Germany to intervene in the Second Boer War. He said the German naval buildup was targeted against the Japanese, not Britain. He finally ended up attacking severely the English people saying: "You English are mad, mad, mad as March hares."

After that interview, even in Germany the reflection was severe and even there were protests to remove him. William kept thereafter a very low profile for some time, but took revenge on his chancellor Bulow by forcing him to resign for his public disclosure that he did not edit his interview, which appeared in The Daily Telegraph. The Daily Telegraph crisis had reduced his influence in domestic and foreign policies and he lost his self-confidence and personality altogether.

German Memories - Volga Germans Migration Towards Americas

2007-12-22T20:51:00.000-08:00

A century after the first Germans had settled in the Volga region, Russia passed legislation that revoked many of the privileges promised to them by Catherine the Great. The sentiment in Russia became decidedly anti-German.

Russia first made changes to the German local government. Then in 1874, a new military law decreed that all male Russian subjects, when they reached the age of 20, were eligible to serve in the military for 6 years. For the German colonists, this law represented a breach of faith.

The Volga German men also had to join in the military and fought in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. One of these men died in the war. In the 1880s Russia began a subtle attack on German schools and other German institutions.

When Russia was reducing the privileges granted to the Germans, several nations in the Americas were attempting to attract settlers by offering inducements reminiscent of those of Catherine the Great.

Soon after the military service bill became law, both Protestant and Catholic Volga Germans gathered and chose delegations to journey across the Atlantic to examine settlement conditions in the United States. They started arriving in the USA in the mid 1870s. Early destinations were in the heartland of the country around Kansas and later spread west to Washington, Oregon and California and East to Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio.

Volga Germans started arriving in Canada in the 1890s, later than other countries. They settled in 3 provinces in Canada: Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. They settled primarily in 2 countries in South America: Argentina and Brazil. Starting in 1876 these countries were settled primarily by Catholic Volga Germans. While Brazil was the first South American country to be settled by them, Argentina ultimately contained a vastly larger population of Volga Germans due in part to better farmlands.

In their new homes overseas, they initially continued their pattern of introverted closed German communities. The people of individual villages tended to travel together and settle together in their new homeland. It was not uncommon to find hundreds of them from one village in one location in the new world. First they primarily settled among people of their own village, then among other Volga Germans, next among other Germans.

There was also emigration to North Caucasus in Russia where a number of colonies were established. In the 1890's when land became scarce there, migration was diverted eastward to Siberia. As the fear of a world war grew among the Volga Germans, it too encouraged emigration. What started as a trickle became a flood after the turn of the century. In spite of the large emigration, the population increased to 345,000 by 1897 and to over 500,000 by 1914.

German Memories in Asia - Adam's Peak of Sri Lanka

2007-12-22T20:48:00.000-08:00

A visiting German team became familiar to me when we were having dinner at the beach-end restaurant at the Aquarius resort as we were sitting at adjoining tables. They were going to Adam's Peak in a few hours just before midnight as they could reach Adam's peak in the early morning hours of sunrise.

Adam's Peak is a beautiful place, which is more divine than mere fun to visit. There were many visitors from around the world who visited Adam's Peak, which is jutting out, sharply skyward from the lush jungles of southwestern Sri Lanka since historical times. This is also called Sri Pada, the 'Holy Footprint'. The mountain has the unique distinction of being sacred to the followers of four of the world's major religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.

Long before the development of these religions, however, the aboriginal inhabitants of Sri Lanka, the Veddas worshipped the Mountain. Their name for the peak was "Samanala Peak", Saman being one of the four guardian deities of the island.

For Hindus, the name of the mountain is "Lord Shiva's Holy Foot", because it was the world-creative dance of the God Shiva that left the giant footprint.

According to Buddhist traditions from as early as 300 BC, the real print actually was left by the Lord Buddha during the third and final of his legendary visit to Sri Lanka. When Portuguese Christians came to the island in the 16th century they claimed the impression to be the footprint of St. Thomas who, according to legend, first brought Christianity to Sri Lanka.

And finally, the Arabs recorded it as being the solitary footprint of Adam where he stood for a thousand years in penance on one foot. An Arab tradition tells that when Adam was expelled from heaven, God put him on the peak to make the shock less terrible.

Adam's Peak is more easily seen from the sea than from land. Early Arab seafarers fascinated with the pyramidal peak wrote of it as "the highest mountain in the world". The early tribes also believed it to be of great height and a native legend tells "from Seyllan to Paradise is forty miles, and the sound of the fountains of Paradise is heard here".

Many early world travelers including the Arab traveler and explorer Ibn Batuta and the Venetian Marco Polo visited the mountain, which had attained a legendary status as a mystic pilgrimage destination.

The German team's visit was well timed as the pilgrimage commenced in December and continued until the beginning of the monsoon rains in April. Visitors might experience panic when they travel along certain parts of the path leading up to the mountain, as they are extremely steep.

There is a mythical story prevailing that Alexander the Great had fastened chains in certain sections to make the climb less arduous. But there is no evidence that Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king, made it to this far south in Sri Lanka on his Asia travels, though his empire extended in Asia up to the Indus River in the Indian subcontinent.

The area people still believe the rain - water taken from the footprint has a wonderful healing power. Adam's Peak is also called 'butterfly - mountain' because of the myriads of small butterflies that fly from all over the island to die upon the sacred mountain.

The Mountain has many myths, mysteries and wonders surrounding it from historical times but what struck me was what made the team from Germany to be attracted to that extent.

German Memories - Volga Germans

2007-12-22T20:47:00.000-08:00

Volga Germans and other ethnic German repatriates including Black Sea Germans and Germans from other regions from the former Soviet Union are a separate group in Germany.

Since 1950, about 2.2 million ethnic Germans have left the former Soviet Union for Germany, in search of better economic and social conditions and an escape from post-World War II persecution. Most of these people come from from Kazakhstan particularly the northern part near Siberia. Another 1 million Germans still remain in Russia, Kazakhstan and the Ukraine.

The history of these ethnic Germans, especially the Volga Germans, had a hazardous past since they left the German soil centuries ago.

In 1763, Catherine the Great issued a persuasive manifesto inviting foreigners to settle in Russia. Because of the impoverished conditions in Europe due to the Seven Years War, and the aggressive campaign of immigration agents, many Germans answered the call to 'paradise'.

During the four years from 1764 to 1767, Germans colonized 104 villages in the desolate Volga Valley of Russia near the city of Saratov. Of these, 44 were on the West side, the hilly side (Bergseite) of the Volga River and 60 villages were on the East side, the meadow side (Wiesenseite).

The villages ranged in population from 225 to 250 people each. The emigrants numbered a total of more than seven thousand families, an estimated 25 thousand people.

The majority came from Hesse Germany, with southwest Germany well represented and less coming from other countries. Separate religious affiliations were of primary importance and interdenominational villages were extremely rare. With few exceptions, all of the villages were Lutheran, Reformed or Catholic and later Mennonite.

Divorced from their fatherland, the Germans turned inward to form an isolationist attitude that would characterize their behavior for years to come. No farmer lived isolated and alone on their farm but they resided in a village where they enjoyed communal amenities in conjunction with the church and school. The church was the center of community life.

The Germans maintained their way of life and had minimal interaction with the Russians. For the most part they only spoke German and did not learn the Russian language except for essential government and business dealings. They built German schools, practised their German religion, Lutheran, Reformed or Catholic, and only married other Germans, usually from their own village.

They faced many hardships since their arrivals from Germany. The first problem for the immigrants was houses. The emigrants had been promised that these would be ready upon their arrival, but in most cases the newcomers found neither house nor lumber to build them. The settlers were shown how to make themselves mud huts, Russian style, in which they had to live sometimes for as long as two or three years before their houses were ready.

Other needs of the settlers were not met. Domestic animals were in short supply; the farm implements furnished were crude, the seed grain was always late. There were shortages of clothing, so essential in the cold winters and even shortages of food.

Russian officials profiteered at the expense of the immigrants.

Nature was also against the newcomers. After the bitterly cold winters, came the spring floods to wash away their mud huts and make them flee to the hills. The summers were hot and dry and crop failure followed crop failure. Ignorance of the qualities of the soil and the kind of cultivation it required were difficulties that could only be overcome with experience.

Not until 1775 did the colonists harvest their first good crop and finally became independent of government help.

German Memories in Asia - Chris Patten's Peace Mission & German Involvement in Ireland Crisis

2007-12-22T20:46:00.000-08:00

While we were moving in the Northern highway in Kilinochchi, the huge board of the LTTE Finance Division took my memories back to my recent meeting with its head Thamilendhi, a political strategist. As he was an ex-banker his knowledge on post-conflict and economic issues was comprehensive.

I was discussing with him some time back the awareness program on "Strategic Post-Conflict Economic Development Initiative" of the Princes Diana Institute of Peace (PDIP), a Think tank on Post Conflict, Economic and Gender issues in its bid to promote re-building the war-ravaged Island's economy based on then Sri Lankan Premier Ranil Wickremeshinghe's "Regaining Sri Lanka" initiative. The initiative was well supported by Dr. Gamani Corea, a former Secretary-General of UNCTAD with the guidance of the PDIP's Patron Dr. James W. Spain, a former US Ambassador for Sri Lanka and the UN.

I had a chance to share with Thamilendhi his recent meeting along with LTTE Chief Vellupillai Prabhakaran with Chris Patten, the last governor of the British era Hong Kong and the European Union's External Relations Commissioner and his suggestions to resolve the island's decade-long ethnic crisis.

Chris Patten's years of experience in handling the smooth transfer of Hong Kong back to China and tackling sensitive issues in the unification of the European countries had made him a seasoned diplomat. But his involvement in finding a lasting solution in Northern Ireland might have made him adept at resolving international conflicts and to be admired as an international statesman.

As I was traveling with German university students, some interesting German involvement in the Irish Republican struggle struck my mind.

In the Easter Rising of 1916, the nationalists staged a rebellion against British rule in Dublin and other isolated areas. Weapons had been supplied by Germany under the auspices of a leading human rights campaigner, Sir Roger Casement. However, the secret plan had been discovered and the weapons were destroyed in mid sea.

The leaders seized the General post office, raising a green flag bearing the legend "Irish Republic" and proclaiming independence for Ireland and some Republicans talked of crowning Prince Joachim of Prussia King of Ireland if Germany won the First World War. But the fate of the First World War changed the whole scenario in a different way.

German Memories in Asia - A Discussion on Danube Swabians

2007-12-22T20:43:00.000-08:00

Our talks on war-torn issues of the Jaffna Peninsula digressed into various issues of Stuttgart in Germany, which was a home for Turks and other minorities.

In recent years, the German-speaking countries of Europe have been confronted with demographic changes due to decades of immigration. These changes have led to renewed debates in Germany about who should be considered German. Turks, Italians, Greeks, and people from the Balkans in southeast Europe form the largest single group of non-ethnic Germans in the country.

In addition to the non-ethnic Germans, traditionally considered ethnic Germans also form a significant portion of the immigrant population. The ethnic Germans are foreign-born and often retain the cultural identities and languages of their native countries in addition to being Germans. The repatriation provisions made for this group of Germans are unique and have a historical basis, since these were areas where their ancestors traditionally lived.

Danube Swabians and Volga Germans are the major group of these ethnic Germans who immigrated or were forcibly sent back to Germany from their adopted lands by their ancestors several centuries ago.

The Danube Swabians (Donauschwaben) is a collective term for Germans who lived in the former Kingdom of Hungary, especially in the Danube River valley. Because of varying development within the territory settled, the Danube Swabians cannot be seen as a unified people. They include the Germans of Hungary (Ungarndeutsche), Satu Mare Swabians, the Banat Swabians (Banater Schwaben), and the Danube Swabians in Serbia's Vojvodina (Wojwodinedeutsche).

The Carpathian Germans and Transylvanian Saxons are not included within the Danube Swabian group.

Danube Swabians had an interesting history of origin. Beginning in the 12th century, German merchants and miners began to settle in the Kingdom of Hungary at the invitation of the Hungarian monarchy. Although there were significant colonies of Carpathian Germans in the Spis mountains and Transylvanian Saxons in Transylvania, German settlement throughout the rest of the kingdom had not been extensive until this time.

During the 17th-18th centuries, warfare between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire devastated and depopulated much of the lands of the valley, referred geographically as the Pannonian plain. The Habsburgs ruling of Austria and Hungary at that time resettled the land with people of various ethnicities including Magyars, Slovaks, Croats, Serbs, Romanians, Ukrainians, and Germans.

The German settlers came at this time from Swabia, Hesse, Franconia, Bavaria, Austria, and Alsace-Lorraine. However, despite their origin, they were all referred to as Swabians.

The first wave of resettlement came as the Ottoman Turks were gradually being forced back after their defeat at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. The settlement was encouraged by the nobility whose lands had been devastated through warfare, and by military officers including Prince Eugene of Savoy and Claudius Mercy.

Many Germans settled in the Bakony (Bakonywald) and Vértes (Schildgebirge) mountains north and west of Lake Balaton (Plattensee), as well as around the town Buda (Ofen), now part of Budapest. The area of heaviest German colonization during this period was in the Swabian Turkey (Schwabische Turkei), a triangular region between the Danube River, Lake Balaton, and the Drava (Drau) River. Other areas settled during this time by Germans were Pécs (Fünfkirchen), Satu Mare (Sathmar), and south of Mukachevo (Munkatsch).

After the Banat area of Central Europe was annexed from the Ottomans by the Habsburgs in the Treaty of Passarowitz (1718), plans were made to resettle the region, which became known as the Banat of Temesvar (Temeschwar / Temeschburg), as well as the Backa (Batschka) region between the Danube and Tisza (Theiss) rivers.

Fledgling settlements were destroyed during another Austrian-Turkish war (1737-1739), but extensive colonization continued after the suspension of hostilities. The resettlement was accomplished through private and state initiatives.

After Maria Theresa of Austria assumed the throne as Queen of Hungary in 1740, she encouraged vigorous colonization on crown lands, especially between Timisoara and the Tisza. The land steadily rejuvenated: marshes near the Danube and the Tisza were drained, farms were rebuilt, and roads and canals were constructed. Many Danube Swabians served on Austria's Military Frontier (Militargrenze) against the Ottomans. Between 1740 and 1790 more than 100,000 Germans immigrated to the Kingdom of Hungary.

The Napoleonic Wars ended the large-scale movement of Germans to the Hungarian lands, although the colonial population grew steadily and was self-sustaining.

Small daughter-colonies developed in Slovenia and Bosnia.

After the creation of Austria-Hungary in 1867, Hungary established a policy of Magyarization whereby minorities, including the Danube Swabians, were induced by political and economic means to adopt the Magyar language and culture.

German Memory in Asia - Dresden Bombing

2007-12-22T20:42:00.001-08:00

Mirko joined me at the restaurant. He was from Dresden, an eastern city of Germany.

He said his city was the most ravaged in the Second World War. He repeated over and over again that Dresden was heavily devastated by the Second World War. I felt sorry for him, as he seemed traumatized by the memories of the ravages of his native city.

But the Dresden bombing has made a lasting impact on Germans around the world. The devastation of the bombing has influenced their art, culture and literature as well. Science fiction novelists Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle placed the General who ordered the bombing of Dresden in Hell in their novel Inferno.

The Dresden bombing was one of the world's worst tragedies of the twentieth century.
The bombing of Dresden by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) remains one of the more controversial events of World War II.

Historian Frederick Taylor says: "The destruction of Dresden has an epically tragic quality to it. It was a wonderfully beautiful city and a symbol of baroque humanism and all that was best in Germany. It also contained all of the worst from Germany during the Nazi period. In that sense it is an absolutely exemplary tragedy for the horrors of 20th Century warfare..."

In the summer of 1944, plans for a large and intense offensive targeting the Dresden and other selected cities had been discussed under the code name Operation Thunderclap, but then shelved.

But early in 1945, the Allies' political-military leadership started to consider how they might aid the Soviets with the use of the strategic bomber force. The plan was to bomb Dresden, Berlin and several other eastern cities in conjunction with the Soviet advance.
Sir Charles Portal, the Chief of the Air Staff, noted on January 26, 1945, that "a severe blitz will not only cause confusion in the evacuation from the East, but will also hamper the movement of troops from the West".

Sir Norman Bottomley, the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff requested Arthur "Bomber" Harris, Commander-in-Chief of RAF Bomber Command and an ardent supporter of area bombing, to undertake attacks on Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, and Chemnitz as soon as moon and weather conditions allowed. The Allies had in mind to exploit the confused conditions in these cities during the successful Russian advance.

Western Allies (US, France and Britain) had already decided to target Dresden when they met at the Yalta Conference with Russia on February 4.

RAF Air Staff documents state that it was their intention to use the RAF bomber command to "destroy communications" to hinder the eastward deployment of German troops, and to hamper evacuation, not to kill the evacuees. The priority list drafted by Bottomley for Portal, so that he could discuss targets with the Soviets at Yalta, included only two eastern cities with a high enough priority to fit into the RAF targeting list as both had transportation and industrial areas. These were Berlin and Dresden. Both were bombed after Yalta.

RAF briefing notes mentioned a desire to show, "the Russians, when they arrive, what Bomber Command can do." It was not clear whether the Allies wanted to really help the Soviets or they wanted to show their abilities in advance to the Soviets on the event of a possible Cold War.

German Memories - Crisis With Denmark and Austria - Otto Von Bismarck's Diplomacy

2007-12-22T20:26:00.000-08:00

Bismarck faced a diplomatic crisis in November 1863 over the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein; they were claimed by Denmark and by Frederick von Augustenburg, a German duke. Prussian public opinion strongly favoured Augustenburg's claim; however, Bismarck took an unpopular step by insisting that the territories legally belonged to the Danish monarch under the London Protocols signed a decade earlier. Nonetheless, Bismarck did denounce Danish decision to annex the duchy of Schleswig to Denmark.

With support from Austria, he issued an ultimatum for Denmark to return Schleswig to its former status; when the Danes refused, Austria and Prussia invaded, commencing the Second War of Schleswig.

As a result of the German victory, Denmark was forced to cede both duchies. Originally, it was proposed that the Diet of the German Confederation where all the states of Germany were represented should determine the fate of these duchies; however, before this scheme could be effected, Bismarck induced Austria to agree to the Gastein Convention. Under this agreement, Prussia received Schleswig, while Holstein went to the Austrians.

In 1866, Austria reneged on its prior agreement with Prussia by demanding that the Diet of the German Confederation determine the Schleswig-Holstein issue. Bismarck used Austria's demand as an excuse; charging that the Austrians had violated the Convention of Gastein and sent the Prussian troops to occupy Holstein. Provoked, Austria called for the aid of other German states, who quickly became involved in the Austro-Prussian War.

With the aid of Albrecht von Roon's army reorganization, the Prussian army was nearly the equal in numbers to the Austrian army. With the organizational genius of Helmuth von Moltke, the Prussian army defeated Austria and its allies, concluding the conflict with a crushing victory at the Battle of Koniggratz. The silent rivalry between Austria and Prussia finally ended up with the Battle on July 3, 1866, with casualties of more than 30,000 soldiers dead and wounded on both sides.

As a result of the Peace of Prague, the German Confederation was dissolved; Prussia annexed Schleswig, Holstein, Frankfurt, Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, and Nassau; and Austria promised not to intervene in German affairs. Austria was excluded, and remained outside of German affairs for most of the remaining 19th and 20th centuries.

Bismarck played a crucial role in uniting most of the German states into a single unit in the absence of Austrian influence.

In his first speech Bismarck referred to the issue of German unification by his famous remark: "the great questions of the day will not be decided by speeches and the resolutions of majorities - that was the great mistake from 1848 to 1849 - but by blood and iron." He was referring to the failed Frankfurt Parliament as the great mistakes of 1848 and 1849. Bismarck used both diplomacy and the Prussian military in order to achieve German unification.

To solidify Prussian hegemony, Prussia and several other North German states joined the North German Confederation in 1867; King Wilhelm I served as its President, and Bismarck as its Chancellor.

German Memories - Kaiser William II & His "Love-Hate" Relationship With Great Britain

2007-12-22T20:25:00.000-08:00

The German Empire without Bismarck had started to experience a general lack of coherence and consistency in the foreign policy issues towards other powers. William's "love-hate" relationship with Great Britain and in particular with his British cousins further made chaos in the consistency of foreign policy while the elite had their own agenda and further messed foreign affairs.

William never had in mind an open armed conflict with Britain or never even imagined it, but his general anti-British sentiments, which arose within him from his youth by his own prejudices, reflected among the elite of the German government and created further confusion.

William's prejudices towards Britain made him to believe when war came about in 1914, his late uncle Edward VII trapped him into a diplomatic mess by the British attempts to encircle Germany under the Entente Cordiale with France in 1904 and with Russia in 1907. He was unrealistic about the constitutional set-up in Britain and believed that his late uncle had a say on British foreign policy.

This mental paranoia made him to give importance to personal diplomacy with his British cousins to shape British - German relations where they had no power at all. Through Queen Victoria, William was a first cousin to many of the crowned heads in Europe most notably George V of the United Kingdom and Nicholas II of Russia through his consort, the Empress Alexandra.

Kaiser William II, the first grandchild of Queen Victoria had lasting affection from the British Public as he was at his maternal grandmother's deathbed, holding her in his arms as she passed away. But his immature political and diplomatic blunders spoiled that in the coming years.

William gave importance to his personal appearance and emotions than to his statesmanship. He had a vast collection of uniforms and costumes and used to wear different ones for each occasion, often four or more a day and was treated as a joke, saying that when eating plum pudding the emperor would dress as a British Admiral, the honorary rank he had been awarded by his grandmother in 1889.

German Memories in Asia - German Colonies in Asia and the Pacific

2007-12-22T20:01:00.000-08:00

The European colonial era Jaffna reminded one of how the European powers established their colonial empires in Asia, Africa and Americas with a long and hazardous past.

Germany also colonised many of the Asian and African countries with other European nations after the development of imperialism and the awareness of having colonies around the world.

The colonialist thinking was that colonies were ideal to support the economy in the motherland. So, densely populated China came into view as a potential market. Thinkers like Max Weber demanded an active colonial policy from the German government. In particular the opening of China was made a question of life or death, because it was thought to be the most important non-European market in the world.

But a global policy without global military influence appeared impracticable, so establishing a strong Navy came into the scene and the result was the German East Asia Squadron and the European stationed High Seas Fleet. This fleet was supposed to give German interests for a gunboat diplomacy keeping peace and to protect the German trade routes. They had in mind a powerful Navy might help to destroy the hostile enemy navy fleets during war by the cruiser war tactics. Germany wanted to establish a network of global naval bases having in mind the cruiser war tactics and acquired a harbour in China.

In 1860 a Prussian expedition fleet arrived in China and explored the region around Jiaozhou Bay. The following year a Chinese-Prussian trade contract was signed. In 1896 Admiral von Tirpitz, at that time commander of the German East Asia Squadron, examined the area personally.

When on November 1, 1897 two German missionaries of the Steyler Mission, which had been protected by the German Empire since 1890, were murdered in China, Kaiser Wilhelm II used this as a pretext to occupy the Bay. Even before the Chinese government was informed about the murder, Admiral von Diederichs, commander of the East Asian Squadron, was ordered on November 7 to carry out the occupation. On November 14 German naval infantry landed on the strands and occupied the area without any possible confrontation.

After the German-Chinese negotiations which resulted into a settlement of the missionary incident and a few months later the German Empire leased the Bay for 99 years from the Chinese government. As a result of the German-Chinese lease contract the Chinese government gave up the exercise of all its sovereign rights within the leased territory other than the city of Jiaozhou. The "Government Kiautschou" remained part of China under imperial sovereignty but because of the duration of the lease turned it into a German Protectorate. Because of the importance, which the protectorate had, it was not put under the supervision of the Imperial colonial office but under that of the Imperial naval office.

In the middle of the First World War, on 23 August 1914, imperial China cancelled the German lease and on 7 November 1914, the bay was occupied by Japan.

The German colonies faced the same repercussion in other areas of the Pacific. The German New Guinea too was a strategic-zone for the German colonization in the Pacific from 1884 to 1914, consisting of the northeastern part of New Guinea and several nearby Pacific island groups including the German Solomon Islands with other smaller islands, the Carolines, Palau, most of the Marianas, the Marshall Islands and Nauru. A treaty with Spain ensured German control over the island groups.

But following the outbreak of World War I, Australian troops captured areas in New Guinea which was then known as Kaiser-Wilhelmsland and the nearby islands in 1914, after a short resistance led by Captain Carl von Klewitz and Lt. Robert von Blumenthal. The Australian Military and Naval Expeditionary Force attacked a wireless station where the Australians suffered six dead and the German forces fared much worse, with one German officer and 30 native police killed with the final surrender of Germans to Australians. Japan occupied most of the remaining German possessions in the Pacific later on. After the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Germany lost all its colonial possessions in the Pacific and New Guinea.

German Memories - German Colonies in Africa

2007-12-22T19:59:00.000-08:00

The German colonial empire penetrated Africa as well. Namibia in the southern coast of Africa was a well known one. A German trader Adolf Luderitz bought some area from a local chief in 1883 what would become the southern coast of Namibia and founded the city of Luderitz.

After the German government annexed the territory with it and named it South-West Africa. Thereafter a number of Germans migrated as soldiers, traders, diamond miners and colonial officials. During World War I Germany lost South West Africa and it became a South African mandate. German-Namibians who descended from the ethnic German colonists are today an influential community in business, farming and tourism and Government sectors.

But the German colony Wituland was a rarity among other short-lived German colonies of Namibia, Togo, Cameroon, Tanzania where colonial rule was harsh. In the short-lived Wituland the local population rioted against the Germans because they were leaving in 1890.

Wituland, located just inland from Indian Ocean port of Lamu in the today's Kenya was a silent testimony to German colonial expansion in Africa. The Wituland had a long-standing conflict with the powerful Sultan of Zanzibar. The town lived under constant threat from Zanzibar attacks as it was a free haven for slaves fleeing from the island.

Sultan Ahmed of Witu who happened to meet the German Africa explorer Richard Brenner in 1867 expressed his desire for Prussian protection. But Prussia was not interested in African territories as they were unifying Germany and Brenner's request was rejected in Berlin.

But the two German travellers to Witu in 1878, the brothers Clemens and Gustav Denhardt, had more luck as Germany was participating in the scramble for Africa in 1885. Denhardt brothers concluded a treaty with Sultan Ahmed. The brothers' request for German protection for their interests was considered favourably by the famous German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck as he was in the middle of his one and only year of interest in African territories.

Bismarck sent the warship SMS Gneisenau to River Tana where a terrestrial command of 3 officers and 30 soldiers marched 3 days through the bush towards Witu and reached the Wituland and helped to establish the German Protectorate in1885. Clemens Denhardt was solemnly appointed Minister of Home and External Affairs by Sultan Ahmed of Witu in appreciation of his success in achieving German protection. A few German soldiers were stationed in Wituland to establish German sovereignty and protect against Zanzibar attacks.

The Denhardt brothers meanwhile tried to make monetary value out of "their" colony by establishing a company in 1887 in an era where there was a colonial enthusiasm in Germany by raising a fund for their 'German Witu Society' to develop the trade on the protectorate. But their business was a complete failure.

In the meantime Bismarck lost his interest in Africa. Bismarck was concentrating to establish a new a powerful Germany than sharing the colonial benefits in Africa. He was trying from 1889 to improve the German-British relations, which was tarnished by the colonial competitions in African continent by the British goal of a Cape to Cairo Empire and the German's goal of a Central African Empire, uniting Cameroon and German East Africa.

Secret negotiations between Berlin and London were initiated and the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty was arrived at top diplomatic level in 1890. Germany was about to leave its interests in Zanzibar, Uganda and on the Kenyan and Somali coasts. Germany acquired the tiny North Sea island of Heligoland, off the German coast and accessed the Zambezi River through the 'Caprivi Strip' for the German interests in Namibia.

How the German Wituland was established for Bismarck's likes it was abolished according his dislike. German colonial enthusiasts were angry over the treaty and blamed Bismarck's prudence in exchange of Uganda, Witu, and Zanzibar for the tiny Heligoland. But Bismarck's far vision was proved later on when Heligoland was the only new German territory that survived with Germany after the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

In German Wituland, reactions were even stronger than in Germany. They were disappointed enormously by the German Government's announcement that they violated their protection obligations. They rioted against Germans and killed a number of them. The Denhardt brothers narrowly escaped from the angry mob but they later died in Germany out of disappointment and impoverishment.

German Memories - The New German Empire and the Lagacy of Otto Von Bismarck

2007-12-22T19:58:00.000-08:00

The new German Empire was a federal one: each of its twenty-five constituent states (kingdoms, grand duchies, duchies, principalities, and free cities) retained its autonomy. The King of Prussia, as German Emperor didn't have sovereignity over the entirety of Germany but as the first amongst equals. Bismarck was also appointed as the Imperial Chancellor of the German Empire, but retained his Prussian offices including those of Minister-President and Foreign Minister; thus, he held almost complete control of both domestic and foreign policy.

He almost changed the course of the German Nation by his tireless efforts and built it into one of Europe's superpowers. The credit of the German Nation's unification belongs to Bismarck from the collection of separate principalities and Free Cities since the era of Charlemagne. Over thousand years various kings and rulers had tried to unify the German states without success until Bismarck came into the scene and made it into a single country and one of the most powerful nations in Europe.

Bismarck by the realisation of the Austro-Hungarian problems of different nationalities within one state, tried to Germanize the state's national minorities, situated mainly in the borders of the empire, such as the Danes in the North of Germany, the French of Alsace-Lorraine and the Poles in the East of Germany.

Although Bismarck had no personal hate against Poles, his policies concerning them, which were usually motivated by tactical considerations of what was best for Germany and were generally unfavourable to Poles, became a grave burden for German-Polish relations for a long time.

In order to avoid alienating the United Kingdom, he declined to seek a colonial empire or an expansion of the navy. In 1872, he extended the hand of friendship to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia, whose rulers joined Wilhelm I in the League of the Three Emperors. Bismarck also maintained good relations with Italy.

During 1873, Germany, and much of the rest of Europe, had endured the Long Depression since the crash of the Vienna Stock Exchange in 1873. For the first time in Germany since vast industrial development in the 1850's after the 1848-49 revolutions, a downfall had hit the German economy. To aid faltering industries, Bismarck decided to abandon free trade and establish protectionist tariffs and created chaos in the relations with neighbouring European nations.

After Russia's victory over the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War, Bismarck helped to negotiate a settlement at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. Russia had previously secured great advantages in southeastern Europe when it made peace by ratifying the Treaty of San Stefano. Bismarck and other European leaders, however, opposed the growth of Russian influence, and sought to protect the power of the Ottoman Empire. The Treaty of Berlin revised the Treaty of San Stefano, reducing the concessions offered to Russia. As a result, Russo-German relations suffered; the Russian Prince Gorchakov denounced Bismarck for compromising his nation's victory. The relationship between Russia and Germany was further weakened by the latter's protectionist policies.

In February 1888, during a Bulgarian crisis, Bismarck addressed the Reichstag on the dangers of a European war. For the first time he dwelt upon the imminent possibility that Germany would be forced to fight on two fronts and he spoke of the peace at the final years of his tenure.

Bismarck's astute, cautious, and pragmatic foreign policies allowed Germany to retain peacefully the powerful position into which he had brought it; maintaining amiable diplomacy with almost all European nations. France, the main exception, was devastated by Bismarck's wars and his harsh subsequent policies towards it and became one of Germany's most bitter enemies in Europe.

During most of his nearly thirty year-long tenure, Bismarck held undisputed control over the government's policies. Bismarck proved himself as one of the most capable European statesmen of the nineteenth century by his clever statesmanship and proved himself as the "Iron Chancellor".

Though he was forced to resign from his office over disputes on domestic policies with Emperor William II, Bismarck left a lasting legacy in Europe and around the world. The German Nation and the Germans around the world remebered him by the creation of numerous statues and memorials around the German cities, towns, and countryside including the famous Bismarck Memorial in Berlin, Bismarck Sea and Bismarck Archipelago in the vicinity of then German colony in New Guinea as well as the City of Bismarck in the US State of North Dakota.

German Memories in Asia - German Royals

2007-12-22T19:57:00.000-08:00

Some of the German music which was coming from the resort was really a combination of spiritual and romantic pieces of their centuries old classics by renowned composers Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Richard Wagner.

While the music from the resort was mixing into the roaring waves of Indian Ocean, Maritsha was belly-dancing marvelously on the beach-sand stage. The surrounding greeneries of coconut trees gave her belly-dancing a spiritual blend. My discussion continued with Pascal Sadune and touched on the German royal families and their so-called descendants. He said they were still enjoying many privilleges in modern Germany.

As an unwritten law, the class differences had emerged well back in medieval times in Germany. In 14th century, early-modern German society gradually came into being as a result of economic, religious and political changes. A money economy arose which provoked social discontent among knights and peasants. Gradually, a proto-capitalistic system evolved out of feudalism. The Fugger family gained prominence through commercial and financial activities and became financiers to both ecclesiastical and secular rulers. The knightly classes found their monopoly on arms and introduced mercenary armies and foot soldiers.

Predatory activity by "robber knights" became common and after massive resistance in 1763 by the citizenry, an "enlightened absolutism" was established in Prussia and Austria, according to which the ruler was to be "the first servant of the state". Though the gap between the nobility and the citizenry was reduced to some extent, the impact of class differences is still a continuing phenomenon in modern German society.

German Memories in Asia - Kaiser William II and His Diplomatic Chaos

2007-12-22T19:54:00.000-08:00

While I was continuing my talk with Marita on various issues, I asked her how she felt about the massacre of Jews by Adolf Hitler. She paused for a while and burst out at one point by saying that the act of one person for his political gain had damaged their entire image.

I placated her saying the act of one person does not necessarily tarnish all Germans. I said not only in Germany but even in other countries because of the act of some of the reckless leaders, their nation and people have become villains for other communities and nationalities.

But for Marita's frustration, it was not only Adolf Hitler but also the last German Emperor and the King of Prussia Kaiser William II too contributed a lot.

He ruled both the German Empire and Prussia since 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918 and was viewed as the main personality in German history to determine the First World War. Though later on there was a confusion of his real influence on German policy, which led to the war. But his recklessness undoubtedly contributed a lot for the subsequent downfall of Imperial Germany. His premature attempt to rule the German Empire and Prussia at the age of 29 cost a lot to both nations.

The new Emperor opposed Bismarck's careful foreign policy, preferring vigorous and rapid expansion to protect Germany's "place in the sun." Although in his youth he had been a great admirer of Otto von Bismarck, William's characteristic impatience soon brought him into conflict with the "Iron Chancellor", the dominant figure in the foundation of his empire.

Furthermore, the young emperor had come to the throne with the determination that he was going to rule as well as reign, unlike his grandfather, who had largely been content to leave day-to-day administration to the brilliant Bismarck. Early conflicts between William II and his chancellor soon poisoned the relationship between the two men. When Bismarck, gained a favorable absolute majority toward his policies over the anti-socialist laws their relationship worsened. Finally Emperor William II forced the Iron Chancellor to resign when the amalgamated Conservative Party and the National Liberal Party was favorable to make the anti-socialist laws permanent in the Reichstag.

Emperor William II thereafter promoted chancellors who were senior civil servants and not seasoned politician-statesmen like Bismarck to preclude the emergence of another Iron Chancellor. But what something Bismarck created as a "Myth" by his careful diplomacy and statesmanship, William II's new chancellors failed to create.

After the dismissal of the Iron Chancellor, William II effectively destroyed any chance Germany had of stable and effective government. William's own way of governance put the German ship of state going out of control and eventually led to a series of crises.

William's impatient nature further aggravated German foreign policy and led to much chaos. His reactions were characterised by sentiment and impulse and not by any rational means. While the Bismarck articulated things on his own in the international sphere, William depended on the German foreign policy elite to undertake decisions.

Sometimes he made a mess in the international sphere by his chaotic statements and messages, especially the famous Kruger telegram of 1896 where William went to congratulate President Kruger of the Transvaal on the suppression of the Jameson Raid, and aggravated British public opinion and Germany felt its full impact many years later on.

His impolitic public utterance on 27 July 1900 exhorting German troops to quell the Boxer Rebellion to emulate the ancient Huns caused the origin of the usage of the word Hun in the English-speaking world to tarnish the image of the German soldier.

His emotional weakness also made him vulnerable to manipulation by interests within the German foreign policy elite and he became too vulnerable to the interests of those elites. He blundered by not renewing the secret Reinsurance Treaty with the Russian empire, which Bismarck had concluded in 1887 in association with his new chancellor Caprivi and made the worst offense in the sphere of international foreign policy issues. The agreement guaranteed Russian neutrality in the event of an attack by France.

German Memories - Franco-Prussian War and Otto Von Bismarck's Diplomacy

2007-12-22T19:53:00.000-08:00

Prussia's victory over Austria increased tensions with France. The French Emperor, Napoleon III, feared that a powerful Prussia would upset the balance of power in Europe. Bismarck, at the same time, sought war with France; he believed that if the German states perceived France as the aggressor, they would unite behind the King of Prussia.

A suitable premise for war arose in 1870, when the German Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was offered the Spanish throne, which had been vacant since a revolution in 1868. The French not only blocked the candidacy, but also demanded assurances that no member of the House of Hohenzollern become King of Spain.

Bismarck then published the Ems Dispatch, a carefully edited version of a conversation between King Wilhelm and the French ambassador to Prussia. The publication was intended to provoke France into declaring war on Prussia. The Ems Dispatch had the desired effect. France mobilized and declared war, but was seen as the aggressor; as a result, German states, swept up by nationalism and patriotic zeal, rallied to Prussia's side and provided troops.

The Franco-Prussian War in 1870 was a great success for Prussia. The German army, commanded by Moltke, won victory after victory. The French were defeated in every battle. The remainder of the war featured very careful German operations and massive confusion on the part of the French.

At the end, France was forced to pay a large indemnity and surrender Alsace and part of Lorraine. Though Bismarck opposed the annexation, arguing it would be the "Achilles' Heel" of the new empire, Moltke and his generals insisted that it was needed to keep France in a defensive position. He broke France's supremacy over continental Europe after the Franco-Prussian war.

He carefully built the external security of the new German Nation upon his skillful diplomacy, which isolated France internationally and created a vast and complex system of alliances for mutual military support with most of Europe's nations.

In the role of an 'honest broker', Bismarck was also successful in maintaining peace and stability in Europe by settling French political conflicts through negotiations. Essentially a cautious politician, Bismarck never pursued an imperialistic course in Europe. In Africa however, Bismarck followed for some time a policy of imperial conquest, in a manner similar to the other European powers.

His most important tool in politics was his talent in the successful planning of complex international developments.

Bismarck decided to act immediately to secure the unification of Germany after his victory over France. He opened negotiations with representatives of southern German states, offering special concessions if they would agree to unification. The negotiations were successful; King Wilhelm was crowned "German Emperor" on 18 January 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors in the Chateau de Versailles for the further humiliation of France.

German Memories - Roman Rule in Germania

2007-12-21T22:21:00.000-08:00

During the year 7 B.C., the Romans had to put down only smaller unrest in some places and they didn't need to engage in any major combat operations, since the exhausted Germanic tribes mostly respected the peace and recognized the Roman rule.
The newly-conquered area was secured with army routes and camps. In the winter, the Roman army retreated into the camps along the left bank of the Rhine. But during the entire summer, all strategically important parts of Germania were occupied by Roman soldier camps.

Apart from this military presence, the Romans also set up numerous markets and founded trading posts: Slowly an extensive peaceful exchange of goods began between the Roman Empire and the Germanic tribes, who formerly had to purchase all Roman products indirectly over Gaul. These trading posts probably contributed much to make Germanic people familiar with the Roman way of life, language, laws and customs.

Besides, countless Germanic men served in Roman auxiliary troops. In return, they received generous payment and valuable weapons. Apart from Roman military know-how, they inevitably learned the Roman language, Roman customs, and often even got to know other countries of the Roman world empire: Many Germanic noblemen came to Rome; some even acquired Roman citizenship. A loyal and brave squad of Germanic warriors served at the Emperor's palace in Rome as bodyguards. Other Germanic warriors came as far as Palestine, where they served as bodyguards for the tetrarch Herodes, whom the Romans had installed as king of the Jews.

A few years later, probably many Germanic men had to fight for the Romans in Pannonia (today's southern Hungary), when an uprising against the Roman rule broke out there. All of these men inevitably acquired the Roman way of life and mentality, and after their return to their tribes, they passed some of that on to their families and friends.

The Roman commander-in-chief still marched through the tribal areas of Germania with his army every summer - not with the purpose of conquering anymore, but rather to speak Roman law, mediate in tribal disputes, and to remind the allies and subdued tribes of the lasting power of Rome.

In Rome, Emperor Augustus contented himself with the title 'first citizen', but in the provinces he let himself be worshipped as a god. He was indeed mighty like a god, whose every wish was law for over a third of the world's population, and who could order hundreds of thousands of soldiers to crush every resistance to his will.

A temple was dedicated to him in Germania too - in the newly founded Roman City of Cologne, where the Ubians had been settled. Some of the Germanic aristocrats became priests of the divine emperor.

There were uprisings but they had remained regionally confined - no other tribes had dared to join the rebels. Roman rule seemed to be generally secure, and now, after the last resistance had been broken, Germania could be declared a province of the Roman Empire. Its center probably was what later became the City of Cologne; or perhaps the administrative and trading city which was recently discovered close to Waldgirmes near the river Lahn.

After the soldiers came the officials: A Roman governor had a staff of approximately thousands of men, hundreds of officials, countless assistants, and a mounted guard of several hundreds of men. This province administration was supposed to raise taxes and draft men as soldiers, depending on whether a tribe was subdued or an ally, or liable to military service, or exempt from dues.

Only the Germanic Marcomanians could have become dangerous for the Romans: Some years earlier (9 B.C.) they had fled from the army of Drusus, and now they were residing on the other side of the Elbe and Danube rivers, as neighbors of the Roman-controlled Germania. Their king Marbod had set up an enormous army of allegedly 70,000 men and had subdued several neighboring tribes. He kept peace with the Romans, but to them his kingdom appeared as a continuous threat.

Therefore, in 6 A.D., Rome set out up to 100,000 legionaries in order to conquer and break up Maroboduus's empire. But the attack had to be aborted. The reason was that the peoples of today's South Hungary and Yugoslavia rose against the Roman rule: Up to 200,000 enemies of the Romans were under arms - an enormous danger even for Italy and the capital Rome itself. Augustus ordered a hasty peace with Maroboduus and sent all available legions into the rebellious provinces, where it took several years to strike down the rebellion.

Despite the favorable opportunity for a rebellion on their own, the weakened Germanic tribes kept quiet. The Roman rule between the Rhine and Elbe continued to exist undisturbed. Also the neighboring Marcomanian kingdom of Maroboduus continued to keep peace. Germania really seemed on its way to develop into a peaceful Roman province like Gaul.

German Memories - Germanic Victory Over Roman Forces

2007-12-21T22:19:00.001-08:00

Arminius (Hermann) was a 28-year old Germanic aristocrat from the Cheruscans tribe. As a leader of Germanic auxiliary forces he had been serving Rome for a long time, and had even obtained Roman citizenship and the title of a Roman knight. Arminius had learned enough of the Roman art of warfare in order to know that he and his warriors would definitely fail in an open battle against the disciplined and well-equipped legionaries.

Therefore, in 9 A.D, he told Varus of an alleged rebellion and then made guides available to him. The guides were his loyal men to lure Varus into a trap.

As usual, Varus and his entire army were about to move to their winter camps. Along the way they intended to quickly strike down the rebellion. Though having been warned of betrayal by one of Arminius' relatives, he trusted his Germanic guides. So with three legions and an enormous baggage, totaling more than 20,000 men, he moved through a swampy, complex and unfamiliar forest area (probably north of today's German city of Osnabruck).

The soldiers were marching in comfortably free order with their helmets off and shields on their back, when they were suddenly ambushed by the men of Arminius who were Germanic and had formerly served in Roman auxiliary troops. Arminius' men had been equipped by the Roman arms and turned against their former allies and masters.

The fights stretched over more than three days. As for the legionaries, continuously strong rain affected visibility, silted up the ground and - along with cold weather - started to waste away their endurance. The slowly moving baggage prevented them from a fast withdrawal out of this adverse setting.

Above all, they were not able to carry out effective resistance because after each attack the Germanic units pulled back into the protective forest. While at first the Roman army had withdrawn in an orderly fashion, soon a general panic set in where everyone was only trying to save their own life.

What followed was a terrible slaughter: Some Romans would not even show resistance anymore, others would kill themselves, and most of them, disoriented and weakened, fractured into small groups - would be slain one by one by Arminius' warriors.

There were virtually no Roman survivors. Three of the best legions were not just defeated, but annihilated. One sixth of the entire armed forces of the Roman Empire was destroyed.

For 30 years the Romans had been arduously exploring the Germania. They had won over Germanic tribes as allies or had subdued them, they had built roads, they had established a province administration, they had founded cities. Over 50,000 men had been employed for three decades in an effort to civilize Germania and to make it part of the Roman empire, and had been paid for their work, equipped, accommodated and provisioned by the Roman state.

But ultimately more than 20,000 of their men had been killed within a few days. Now Germania was a province no more, but a free and hostile country.

Arminius had sent to Marbod Varus's head as a call to join the war against Rome, but he was satisfied with his own empire. He didn't want to take part in a risky war; so he sent Varus's head back to Emperor Augustus in Rome.

To the Romans' surprise and joy, the rebellious and victorious Germanic tribes did not attack Gaul or Italy. They seemed content with having regained their old way of living and their independence, and leading numerous small wars against each other. Actually, they were in no position to attack the Roman Empire.

The Germanic tribes in the north were still allied with Rome. In the west and south there were the legions of Roman Gaul and Rhetia, and in the east the Germanic kingdom of the Marcomanians was holding out, showing ominous neutrality. The Rhine river remained the border between Roman Gaul and the free Germania.

Arminius would not become king of a united Germania. Rather, he was murdered by his relatives, and his wife and son were captured and handed over to the Romans by Arminius' father-in-law. The outcome of the battle established the Rhine as the boundary of the Roman Empire for the next few hundred years, until the decline of the Roman influence in the West. The Roman Empire never was able to conquer Germania, although many attempts were made thereafter.

The battle had a lasting setback on the Roman attempt of taking over Germania which seriously started in 14 BC and had long term historical consequences as it set the boundary between Romance languages and Germanic languages.

German Memories - Ancient Germans Migration

2007-12-21T22:09:00.000-08:00

I remembered an incident in my CARE days, when I visited an NGO near Nallur, the once flourishing city of the Nagas in the coastal Jaffna lagoon. I asked an elderly person who had an inkling of history as to what happened to the Nagas and the Yakkas. He told me they were all in our blood.

The assimilation transmitted genetically beneficial traits among the people all over the world and an interesting study recently revealed in the ice age old Europe, how the Germanic element of the genes helped for the survival of the dying Finns.

As ice melted about 10,000 years ago, stone-age men, perhaps early Finns, occupied the rich new lands between Norway and the Urals. Other wanderers in the North, many of whom were Germanic, followed them into those areas. According to Matti Klinge of the University of Helsinki, the dominant "genetic element" in Finland today is Germanic.

Germanic people had followed the Finns northward since the dawn of history and were accepted there amongst them. When the waves of disease swept over Europe, it is possible that the Germanic genetic traits which was the ones carrying specific immune factors, such as blood type A, survived because the immune factors were already there and did not have to be produced by a human immune response.

Even during the second and fifth centuries as the western Roman Empire lost military strength and political cohesion, numerous Germanic tribes migrating en masse in far and diverse directions. Taking them to England and as far south through present day Continental Europe to the Mediterranean and northern Africa passed on the beneficial Germanic genetic elements to other tribes.

The Germanic tribes intruded into other tribal territories, and the ensuing wars for land escalated and then the wandering tribes began staking out permanent homes as a means of protection. Much of this resulted in fixed settlements from which many, under a powerful leader.

A defeat meant either scattering or merging with the dominant tribe. In Denmark the Jutes merged with the Danes; in Sweden the Geats merged with the Swedes; in England, the Angles merged with the Saxons to form the Anglo-Saxons.

Outside of Scandinavia, present-day countries speaking a Germanic language have mixed ethnic roots not restricted to the earliest Germanic peoples. Germanic peoples were often quick to assimilate foreign cultures.

There were Romanized Norsemen in Normandy, and the societal elite in medieval Russia among whom many were the descendants of Slavified Norsemen, though it was contested by some Slavic scholars in the former Soviet Union calling it the "Normanist theory".

In England assimilation happened by the migrating Angles, Saxons and Jutes who merged with the indigenous Celtic speaking Britons, resulting in an English identity for the inhabitants of that land.

In the latter part of mid-11th century, French-speaking Norsemen arrived and similarly altered what was known as Anglo-Saxon England and set the English language on the path from Old English to Middle English.

As in England, Scotland's indigenous Brythonic Celtic culture succumbed to Germanic influence due to Teutonic invasion; while the Scottish Highlands and Galloway retained a Gaelic heritage due to the recent invasions from Ireland which supplanted the British culture there, the Scottish Lowlands became English speaking.

France saw a great deal of Germanic settlement, and even its namesake the Franks were a Germanic people. Entire regions of France (such as Alsace, Burgundy and Normandy) were settled heavily by Germanic peoples, contributing to their unique regional cultures and dialects. But most of the languages spoken in France today are Romance languages, while the people have a heavy Gallic substratum that predates Latin and Germanic settlement.

Portugal and Spain also had a great measure of Germanic settlement, due to the Visigoths and the Suevi (Quadi and Marcomanni), who settled permanently. The Vandals were also present, before moving on to North Africa, where they were absorbed into the local population. Many Spanish words of Germanic origin entered into the Spanish language at this time and many more entered through other avenues (often French) in the ensuing centuries.

Italy, especially the area north of the city of Rome, has also had a history of heavy Germanic settlement. Germanic tribes such as the Visigoths, Vandals, and Ostrogoths had successfully invaded and sparsely settled in Italy in the 5th century AD. Most notably, in the 6th century AD, the Germanic tribe known as the Lombards entered and settled primarily in the area known today as Lombardy. The Normans, a partially Germanic people, also conquered and ruled Sicily and parts of southern Italy for a time.

Germany itself assimilated Slavic and Baltic peoples to the east in medieval and modern times; after World War II their descendants spread to other parts of Germany.

Going further back, most of the current territory of Germany was occupied by Celtic and Nordwestblock tribes who were eventually linguistically assimilated into the Germanic peoples.

German Memories In Asia - Roman Era Europe And West Asia

2007-12-21T22:05:00.000-08:00

The early events of Jaffna by the Portuguese recalled the historical events in the Roman era Europe and West Asia.

In the course of the centuries the Roman Empire steered into a heavy and lasting crisis.

Constant wars for the defense of borders, rising military expenditure, excessive taxes, repressive laws, rampantly growing bureaucracy and all-present corruption - all this undermined the loyalty of the Romans and provincial residents to the Roman state.

The taxes were so high that many citizens had to work for the state for most of the year, while only a little was left for themselves. The Roman citizens had turned into slaves of the state and they didn't care after sometime whether their ruler and oppressor was a Roman or a victorious Germanic conqueror.

Similarily destructive was the new religion, Christianity, starting from 313 A.D., which disapproved of the old ideals. In 390, Roman emperor Theodosius banned the old Pagan religion. The worship of gods of Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Venus and Mars was declared a crime. Led by their bishops, Christian mobs destroyed most of the pagan temples, the most beautiful buildings of ancient times, massacred philosophers and intellectuals, and destroyed the large library of Alexandria.

Even the Germanic paganism, the religion and mythology of the ancient Germanic nations with the principal gods Odin, Thor and Tyr preceding Christianization were destroyed by similar means.

The best documented form of Germanic paganism, the10th and 11th century Norse paganism with other European and West-Asian pagan traditions, such as Finnish, Slavic, Baltic, Roman and Greek were lost from the practice.

The Franks, Alamanni, Anglo-Saxons, Saxons and Frisians were christianized forcibly between the 6th and the 8th century.

The Frankish King Charlemagne conquered the Germanic tribesmen and won in all eighteen battles which were fought in the areas of northwestern Germany. The result was the incorporation of Saxony into the Frankish realm and their conversion from paganism to Christianity.

The King Charlemagne allegedly ordered at the Blood court of Verden to behead 4,500 Saxons who had been caught practising paganism after converting to Christianity. The massacre led to two straight years of constant warfare (783-785). In 783, battles in Saxony saw Saxon women throw themselves barebreasted into battle. One of them was Fastrada, daughter of a Saxon count, who, in 784, became Charlemagne's fourth wife and gradually the Franks gained the upper hand in Saxony.

In 800 A.D. Charlemagne's authority in Western Europe was further increased by his coronation as emperor in Rome and by the establishment of Holy Roman Empire. He further increased his ruthless christianisation of people who were practising Paganism.

Northern Germany had seen an aggressive Christianisation between 1096 and 1291 in the period of the crusades where the Knightly religious orders the Templars, the Knights of St John and the Teutonic Order established new towns, imperial strongholds, castles, bishops' palaces and monasteries and conquered the native Baltic Prussians and Christianized them.

German Memories - Germans Against Roman Rule

2007-12-21T21:59:00.000-08:00

In 7 A.D. a new governor became commander-in-chief over Germania: 55-year old Publius Varus who had married a niece of the Roman Emperor Augustus. He had earlier served as governor in Syria, which led the first century Roman historian Velleius Paterculus to say, 'He came to the rich land poor and left a poor land rich.'

He wanted to civilize the Germanic tribes by consistently introducing Roman laws. He tried to overcome with the sword those he couldn't subdue by law. He came to central Germania and spent the summer time with jurisdiction and law-abiding proceedings before his bench among the people who were enjoying the sweetness of peace.

Yet the Germanic tribes had a different understanding of law than what Romans imposed on them. The tribes - used to liberty and savageness - felt that the modern Roman state was enslaving and burdening them: In former times, dues had to be paid only by slaves.

Now with the Romans requiring taxes from them, the Germanic tribes felt humiliated. What also filled them with bitterness was the fact that matters of dispute were decided by a Roman official - and not by an assembly of all free men. It was as if a slave master mediated disputes among his slaves.

In part, the dues were too high. The Roman officials were accustomed to high revenues from other provinces. But for the Germanic tribes who were barely able to feed themselves, such tax demands necessarily resulted in hardships.

Even the Germanic aristocrats were discontent. Over the last couple of years, they had ruled their tribes with Roman assistance according to the Romans' wishes. Now they feared Varus' policy of a faster Romanization: If the Romans ruled Germania directly and extended their control to local matters, they would no longer need any indigenous stooges or collaborators. They feared that they would very soon lose their power, wealth and privileges.

Apart from these general objections, most Germanic people were probably irked by the many small everyday humiliations, conflicts and quarrels. Roman officials objected to the insufficient size of the cattle skins delivered as tribute. But the race of cattle bred by the Germanic tribes was comparatively small at that time. They knowingly ignored the fact and demanded additional payments. The corrupt officials were not indicted when they demanded bribes, customs and taxes which appeared too high to the locals.

When soldiers of the occupying forces raped indigenous women, they were not punished or their punishment was not severe enough by the Roman authorities.

All of these may have raised people's nostalgia for the 'good old time', when they were their own masters, when they could fight for themselves when faced with injustice, when they had to obey no one at all, and when their tribe's fate was still decided by free voting of their own popular assembly - and not by the often unreasonable commands of subaltern Roman officials, who sometimes had arrived in Germania only a few weeks ago, who knew nothing about the previous customs of the people they governed and didn't care to know about the Germanic traditions.

German Memories - Attack on Roman Forces by Germanic Teutons & Cimbri

2007-12-21T21:25:00.000-08:00

During the late 2nd century BC, the Teutons were marching south along with their neighbors, the Cimbri and the Ambrones, and attacking Roman Italy.

The Cimbri were ferocious warriors who did not fear death. The host was followed by women and children on carts. Aged women dressed in white sacrificed the prisoners of war and sprinkled their blood, the nature of which allowed them to see what was to come.
Evidence that the Cimbri may have practised ritualistic sacrifice is found in the nearly 1500 year-old Haraldskaer Woman discovered in Jutland in the year 1835. Noosemarks and skin piercing were evident and she had been thrown into a bog rather than buried or cremated.

After several battles with the Boii and other Celtic tribes, the Cimbri and other tribes appeared 113 BC in Noricum ( the today's Austria), where they invaded the lands of one of Rome's allies, the Taurisci. On the request, the Roman consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, sent to defend the Taurisci, they retreated only to find themselves deceived and attacked at Noreia, an ancient city in the eastern Alps as the capital of the kingdom of Noricum.

In a bloody battle, they defeated the Romans. Only a storm, which separated the combatants, saved them from complete annihilation.

Thereafter the road to Italy was open, but they turned west towards Gaul (modern day France). They came into frequent conflict with the Romans, who usually came out the losers. In 109 BC, they defeated a Roman army under the consul Marcus Junius Silanus, who was the commander of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis. The same year, they defeated another Roman army under the consul Gaius Cassius Longinus, who was killed at Burdigala (modern day Bordeaux). In 107 BC, the Romans once again lost against the Tigurines, who were allies of the Cimbri.

It was not until 105 BC that they planned an attack on the Roman Empire itself. At the Rhone River, the Cimbri clashed with the Roman armies. The Roman commanders, the proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio and the consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus, hindered Roman coordination and so the Cimbri succeeded in first defeating the legate Marcus Aurelius Scaurus and later caused a devastating defeat on Caepio and Maximus at the Battle of Arausio.

The Roman force was completely overwhelmed and the legate was captured and brought before Boiorix. Scaurus was not humbled by his capture and advised Boiorix to turn back before his people were destroyed by the Roman forces. The king of the Cimbri was indignant at this impudence and had Scaurus executed by being burned alive in a wicker cage.

The Roman force had witnessed the complete destruction of their colleagues. In other circumstances the army might have fled, but the poor positioning of the camp backs to the river caused their total annihilation. The Romans lost as many as 112,000 men including the lost auxiliary cavalry and the non-combatants.

German Memories - Germanic Migration From Scandinavia to Southern Europe

2007-12-21T21:24:00.001-08:00

While I was narrating the migration of Nagas and other tribes towards the Island, our discussion went back to before the Christian era of Europe where some of the Germanic tribes from Scandinavia were migrating towards the Northern Part of today's Germany.

The southward movement of Germanic tribes were probably influenced by a deteriorating climate in Scandinavia around 600 BC - 300 BC. The warm and dry climate of southern Scandinavia which was a couple of degrees warmer than today, deteriorated considerably, which not only dramatically changed the flora, but forced people to change their way of living and to leave their settlements.

At around this time, this culture discovered how to extract bog iron from the ore in peat bogs. Their technology for gaining iron ore from local sources may have helped them expand into new territories.

After they learnt new technological advancements, the Germanic tribes Teutons and the Cimbri were moving towards the southern parts of Europe. The Teutons were mentioned as a Germanic tribe in early historical writings by Greek and Roman authors, Strabo and Velleius.

The concept of 'Germanic' as a distinct ethnic identity was hinted at by the early Greek geographer Strabo as an adventourous group who dwelt in northern Europe. It was quoted by early chroniclers that "The Germani at noon serve roast meat with milk, and drink their wine undiluted". The Germanic tribes were each politically independent, under a hereditary king. The kings appear to have claimed descendancy from mythical founders of the tribes.

According to Ptolemy's map, the Teutons lived on Jutland, whereas Pomponius Mela placed them in Scandinavia. More than some hundred years before the birth of Christ many of the Teutones, as well as the Cimbri, migrated south and west to the Danube valley, where they encountered the expanding Roman Empire.

In the densely forested north of Europe, there lived more people than could be nourished by the primitive agriculture techniques. The fertile farmlands and pasture grounds of the south and the west were attractive to the Germanic tribes as battling for these areas was far easier than clearing their own forests with iron axes.

The Germanic tribes had been spreading out deeper and deeper into the west and south. At the same time they displaced the Celts up to the Rhine and the Danube, which now would be the borders to Celtic Gaul (today's France) and to Celtic Rhetia (today's South Germany and Switzerland).

German Memories - Victory of Roman Forces Over Germanic Teutons & Cimbri

2007-12-21T21:18:00.000-08:00

In 103 BC, the Cimbri and their Proto-Germanic allies, the Teutons, had turned towards Spain where they pillaged far and wide. During this time Roman general Gaius Marius had the time to prepare and in 102 BC, he was ready to meet the Teutons and the Ambrones at the Rhone River. These two tribes intended to go into Italy through the western passes, while the Cimbri and the Tigurines were to take the northern route across the Rhine and later across the Tyrolian Alps.

At the estuary of the Isere River, the Teutons and the Ambrones met Marius, whose well-defended camp they did not manage to overrun. Instead, they pursued their route, and Marius followed them. Marius took up a strong position on a carefully selected hill and enticed the Teutones to attack him there using his cavalry and light infantry skirmishers by using the allied Ligurians. The leading Teutone elements, the Ambrones, took the bait and attacked. They were soon foolishly followed by the rest of the horde.

Meanwhile, Marius had hidden a small Roman force of 3,000 nearby. At the battle's height this force launched an ambush, attacking the Teutones from behind, and throwing them into total confusion. In the ensuing massacre 90,000 Teutones were slain including their King Teutobod, captured.

The captured women committed mass suicide, which passed into Roman legends of Germanic heroism: By the conditions of the surrender three hundred of their married women were to be handed over to the Romans. When the Teuton matrons heard of this stipulation they first begged the consul that they might be set apart to minister in the temples of Ceres and Venus; and then when they failed to obtain their request and were removed by the lictors, they slew their little children and next morning all were found dead in each other's arms having strangled themselves in the night.

The Cimbri, however, had penetrated through the Alps into the areas of today's northern Italy. However, the consul Quintus Lutatius Catulus had not dared to fortify the passes, but instead he had retreated behind the Po River, and so the land was open to the invaders. However, the Cimbri did not hurry, and the victors of Aquae Sextiae had the time to arrive with reinforcements.

The Cimbri desired battle, and according to their custom sent to the Romans to settle the time and place for it; Marius gratified them and named the next day - it was the 30th July 653 (101 BC) - and the Raudine plain, a wide level space, which the superior Roman cavalry found advantageous for their movements.

Here they fell upon the enemy expecting them and yet taken by surprise; for in the dense morning mist the Cimbrian cavalry found itself in hand-to-hand conflict with the stronger cavalry of the Romans before it anticipated attack, and was thereby thrown back upon the infantry which was just making its dispositions for battle. A complete victory was gained with slight loss, and the Cimbri were annihilated. The Cimbri were virtually wiped out, with over 140,000 killed and 60,000 captured, including large numbers of women and children in the fateful battle of Vercellae in the Raudine Plain near the settlement of Vercellae (modern Vercelli) around 101 BC.

Thereafter the human avalanche had alarmed for several decades the nations from the Danube to the Ebro, from the Seine to the Po, rested beneath the sod or toiled under the yoke of slavery; the forlorn hope of the German migrations had performed its duty; the homeless people of the Cimbri and their comrades were no more.

German Memories - Early European Migration & Life-Style

2007-12-21T21:17:00.000-08:00

Though our discussion touched on many of the early human migration what attracted us most was the 400, 000 year old wooden projectile spears which were found at Schoningen in northern Germany. These wooden projectile spears are thought to have been made by the Neanderthals' ancestors.

The Neanderthals disappeared completely from this world some 30,000 - 40,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnon probably came in contact with the Neanderthals, and is often credited to have caused or finalized the latter's extinction. To what extent Cro-Magnons interbred with Neanderthals - if at all - is still a matter of debate and we came out with some controversial argument.

The Cro-Magnons could be descended from any number of subspecies of Homo sapiens that emerged from Africa approximately 100,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnons were the earliest modern humans to enter into Europe perhaps around 50,000 years ago, during a long interglacial period of particularly mild climate, when Europe was relatively warm, and food was plentiful.

Some of the oldest works of art in the world, such as the cave paintings at Lascaux in southern France came into our discussion which were as old as shortly after the Cro-Magnons' migration. These early humans used manganese and iron oxides to paint pictures and even they were believed to have created the first calendar around 34,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnons even knew how to make woven clothing and constructed huts out of rocks, clay, bones, branches and animal fur.

The last ice age plunged Europe into a much colder and harsher environment, and covered much of the north of it with inhospitable glaciers. As the glaciers began to retreat, about 20,000 years ago, humans migrated northward again. It was this Mesolithic population, the descendants of Cro-Magnons who were dwelling in Europe around 7000 BC when the Neolithic people first began to enter there from the Asiatic portion of today's Turkey.

If the Neolithic immigrants to Europe were indeed Indo-European, then populations speaking non-Indo-European languages in today's Europe the Basques of the Pyrenees are the descendants of Mesolithic people since their language is related to none other in the world and also the Basque population has a unique genetic profile. The Uralic speaking peoples, the Finns and others represent this Mesolithic generation.

The other current non-Indo-European languages of Europe - Turkish, Maltese, and Magyar - were introduced in pre-historical times.

Our discussion went back into the Neolithic European lifestyle in between the Mesolithic and Bronze Age periods in Europe, roughly from 7000 BC to 1700 BC. The Neolithic Europeans were living in small-scale, family-based communities, subsisting on domestic plants and animals supplemented with the collection of wild plant foods and with hunting, and producing hand-made pottery, that is, made without the potter's wheel.

There were some Neolithic Europeans in southeastern Europe living in heavily fortified settlements of 3,000-4,000 people in Greece whereas in England there were 50-100 people together as highly mobile cattle-herders.

The Neolithic European peoples were warlike, and they imposed themselves as an elite on the Mesolithic populations, who adopted their language. The Neolithic Proto-Indo-Europeans were a patrilineal society. They had domesticated the horse and the cow which played a central role, in religion and mythology as well as in daily life. A man's wealth would have been measured by the number of his animals.

They practised a polytheistic religion centered on sacrificial rites, probably administered by a priestly caste. Important leaders would have been buried with their belongings, and possibly also with members of their household or wives under the human sacrifice called Suttee.

German Memories in Asia - A Discussion With Baltic German

2007-12-21T21:07:00.000-08:00

My conversation with the students from various leading German universities who were in their exchange programs and doing their undergraduate and postgraduate studies in the fields of economics, political science, social science, engineering and other disciplines gave me a chance to know more about the German history, economy and cultural issues.

Marita was doing an interesting assignment on a topic on Germans and their perception on the benefits for going abroad for a better living in their retirements for her Diploma at the University of Applied Sciences, Technology Business and Design in Wismar. As Walker told me, she is from the plain land which has a vast horizon on land and with its Baltic sea; she has shown some natural intelligence in her arguments. She answered intelligently to certain complicated issues on Germany.

While we were discussing at the restaurant, some German students were sun-bathing on the beach. They were shining when the sun-rays reflected on their swim-suited white skin. The sunshine penetrated everywhere in the restaurant through the wall-less space facing the Indian Ocean and made the restaurant into a sudden surge of brightness.

The sea wind was flowing towards the restaurant gustily. The whole atmosphere in the restaurant something different from the normal and Marita was fascinated by the change. But, the sunshine and its rays when time was passing into early twilight were cooling and the reddish sky looked so unique. The sun was about to be set in a short while.

Though Marita was traveled vastly in Europe, she hardly made any comments on other nation's social or economic issues. She said firmly, "I can't comment about other countries by staying just a few days on their cultural, social and economic issues." I also agreed with her.

Even people living together in one country are failing to identify other communities who are living with them for centuries. They fail to identify different aspirations, cultural differences with acceptance and religious differences with understanding for some reason or other, causing many of the world's conflicts from time to time. It is sometimes very difficult for a visiting tourist or a trouble-shooting diplomat to get the right picture of the social aspirations of different communities in a short stay.

Darkness had spread everywhere over the Indian Ocean and the restaurant balanced by its lights to make the whole environment out of darkness and the atmosphere had become such a fascinating place for those who want to be away from worldly struggles and problems.

German Memories in Asia - A Discussion on Volcanic Winter & Human Evolution

2007-12-21T20:28:00.001-08:00

When I was talking to Walker on the beach, a large wave from the Indian Ocean frightened me making wonder whether the tsunami wave was on its way once again towards the Indian Ocean rim countries. The worst Tsunami which hit the Indian - Ocean rim countries in recent history subsequently formed after the earth quake of 26th December 2004 off the coast of Northern Sumatra, the fourth largest earthquake of this century.

Though the sea has risen in the Marawila coastal area and has reached up to the Aquarius Resort restaurant's beach - side garden area, there were no casualties around the Marawila's coastal areas. Marawila and other near by western coastal areas escaped from the tsunami disaster, as the epicenter was located under seawater in Sumatra right opposite that of Marawila.

But the Sumatra region has a record of having faced many disasters and re-shaping human evolution itself on Planet Earth. A new hypothesis about recent human evolution suggests that we came very close to extinction because of a "volcanic winter". Professor Stanley Ambrose of the University of Illinois advocated this idea. He believes that the eruption of Mount Toba in Sumatra caused the bottleneck.

"Modern human races may have diverged abruptly, only 70,000 years ago," he writes in the Journal of Human Evolution.

Geneticists have thought for some time that humans passed through a recent evolutionary bottleneck but they had little idea what may have caused it. Scientists believe that an eruption of Toba caused a volcanic winter that lasted six years and significantly altered the global climate for the next 1,000 years. During those six years, there was substantial lowering of global temperatures, drought and famine. No more than 15,000 people survived. When better conditions returned, the human population was able to grow once more and develop the genetic diversity we see today.

"When our African recent ancestors passed through the prism of Toba's volcanic winter, a rainbow of differences appeared," Professor Ambrose said.

While we were enjoying our chat, in the distance from the Bandaranaike International Airport, a passenger jet was taking off over the Indian Ocean taking a course, which could lead to the Gulf or straightaway to Europe.

German Memory in Asia - Memories of the Old Europe

2007-12-21T20:26:00.000-08:00

While we were passing a junction, the driver told, he wanted to visit a deity, because he had made a vow some time back and turned the vehicle towards a more isolated passage. Though he was Catholic by religion his faith in deity worship is not strange in Sri Lanka.
Ancient nature worship and Hindu traditions are deeply rooted in the daily life of many people.

Steffani, a German Praktikum (Internship) student and Romy were watching intently what was happening in that small temple of deity worship. But the deity and nature worship is not strange to Europe. Before Christianity was introduced into Europe, there were deities and also everywhere a variety of Pagan religious practices.

Pagan practices were only abolished when the Pagan temples were demolished by the later emperors of the Roman Empire and others in the Europe. Germanic Pagan religion played its own part in ancient Germany.

Germanic paganism refers to the religious practices of the Germanic nations preceding Christianization. The well documented form of Germanic paganism is 10th and 11th century Norse paganism. There are various references found in the ancient writings of Germanic peoples and in Roman descriptions. The information can be supplemented with archaeological findings and from the remnants of pre-Christian beliefs in later folklore.

Germanic paganism was a polytheistic religion with similarities to other European and West-Asian pagan traditions, such as Finnish paganism, Sami religion, Slavic paganism, Baltic paganism, Roman paganism, Greek paganism and Vedic religion. The principal gods are known as Odin, Thor and Tyr.

The surviving accounts indicate spectacular human sacrifices. A unique eye-witness account of Germanic human sacrifice survives in Ibn Fadlan's account of a Rus ship burial, where a slave-girl had volunteered to accompany her master with his burial.

The Heimskringla tells of Swedish King Aun who sacrificed nine of his sons in an effort to prolong his life until his subjects stopped him from killing his last son Egil. According to Adam of Bremen, the Swedish kings sacrificed male slaves every ninth year during the Yule sacrifices at the Temple at Uppsala.

The Swedes had the right not only to elect kings but also to depose them, and both King Domalde and King Olof Tratalja are said to have been sacrificed after years of famine.
Odin was associated with death by hanging, and a possible practice of Odinic sacrifice by strangling has some archaeological support in the existence of bodies perfectly preserved by the acid of the Jutland peat bogs in Denmark, into which they were cast after having been strangled.
An example is Tollund Man. However, there were no written accounts that explicitly interpret the cause of these strangling, which could obviously have other explanations.

German Memories in Asia - The German Kindness

2007-12-21T20:24:00.000-08:00

I recalled memories of two months ago. At the event "Night of a Thousand Dinners" I gave a brief speech on various issues ranging from landmines to world affairs. I can't forget those moments when the German Praktikum (Internship) students were spellbound listening to my speech. I was amazed by their eagerness to know about contemporary world issues affecting Germany and around the world.

Having delivered my speech and moving away from the table, the way the students were greeting me by tapping slowly on the table is ever memorable. The simultaneous tapping on the table was creating a new kind of melodious music. I accepted their greeting with a smile. I was really amazed by their greetings and the way they did it. After being there for few more moments, while I was leaving the dinning table, Marita was coming towards me. She greeted me in a soft manner and shook my hand saying: "thanks for your speech".

When I saw Marita, still those memories came to mind and I was able to re-live them. Her kind remark was an added encouragement to me and was coming to mind. I remembered those moments of my speech and the excellent coordination of Marita to make the event a success. I met Marita at the Aquarius Resort lobby to brief her on the final arrangements relating to the "Night of a Thousand Dinners" and the purpose of having it. I explained to her in detail about the event and how she will have to explain to the students before my speech. I told her that I would be there in a short while and went to my room.

When I was walking down the narrow passage towards the restaurant, I observed there were around twenty-five students at the lengthy oval-shaped dinning table. Marita was seated at one corner of the table facing the Ocean. When I reached the table, she came out and asked me whether I wished to be in her place or to be in the upper platform of the restaurant to deliver my speech. I said I would prefer her place as I would be able to see all the students from there and being close to them whereas the upper platform would have distanced me.

She agreed and sat in one of the chairs, which was vacant. She was kind enough to help me develop a rapport with the internship students within a short while. As most of the students came from Germany recently, I was not close to them that much. The student-team with whom I went on our tsunami-relief mission to the northern region had already left the Island.

I had met Marita only once before while we were having breakfast at the restaurant and thereafter once at the discotheque. I didn't have enough chance to become friendly with her. But her caring nature towards me by listening to my ideas and then translating them into reality instantly amazed me as to how she and the German people are so accommodative.

German Memories in Asia - Traveling Through the Ancient Kingdoms

2007-12-21T20:23:00.000-08:00

While I was watching the Lagoon I pondered how the capital of Nagas had shifted from Kudiramalai to Nallur. Ruins of the palace of the then Naga capital in Nallur have been revealed in recent excavations embodying many stories of the lost Naga kingdom.

The vicinity of the lagoon was suddenly lost by the mangroves aside of the highway by the speedily hurrying vehicle and brought my attention to the northern highway towards Jaffna town. While our vehicle was passing the Jaffna Lagoon and the then Elephant Pass camp vicinity we reached the Iyakkachchi area, an early settlement of Yakkas, a tribal group who were living in the era of Nagas together in the Island.

The 'Yakkas', possibly early immigrants from Persia, were numerous and very powerful, and held themselves aloof and confined themselves mostly to the mountain fastnesses of the North- Central region of the Island, whereas the 'Nagas' confined themselves to the seaboard. Ptolemy, the famous Greek-speaking geographer and astronomer who lived in the Roman Egypt called the Mahaweli River as Phasis fluvius, which means the Persian river, indicating that the Yakkas, who dwelt there, were connected to the Persians. The Yakkas also could have been the indigenous people of Persia and might have escaped to Sri Lanka when the invaders were advancing towards their territory by sea or land from Persia.

Kuveni was the queen of Yakkhas and became the consort of Prince Vijaya(B.C. 543-504) who eventually became the first Indo-Aryan king of Sri Lanka with the Kalinga ancestory. Later he married a princess from the Dravidian Kingdom of "Pandy" in South India.

Some of the German Praktikum (internship) students were tired and in a sleepy mood. They might have not had enough sleep because of the strange environment. For students it is an option to travel out of Germany to complete their internship. Several students are coming to Asia, especially to AGSEP in Sri Lanka. The students who were with me in the Northern relief mission are also one batch of students of those who were in their overseas study tour.

When we were passing by the last end of the then Elephant Pass Military camp, sea birds were flying around the shallow water and busily fishing for their night meal.

After nearly a decade when I was traveling with the German students through Elephants Pass, watching the same Lagoon where I crossed at midnights struck how things were changing the world over in an unbelievably short time.

German Memory in Asia - The War-Torn Memories in Asia

2007-12-21T20:22:00.000-08:00

The German tsunami relief convoy reached the Paranthan junction, which is the last northern point in the mainland of Indian Ocean's war-torn island, where people lived in the midst of the civil war in 1996.

I had been there for a brief period of time when I was working with CARE International. The Elephant Pass strategic military camp of Sri Lanka Army was stationed there. The camp was a major coveted target for LTTE since their failed attempt in 1991 along with heavy losses of cadres.

When I was staying in that vicinity in 1995, the vulnerability of that area was an every day presence. The artillery shells were pouring at times like thunderstorm. Some of the shells had fallen near my house and in one incident I narrowly escaped. But a known girl nearby died, of shock caused by the heavy explosion of an artillery shell. I was able to recall how her two sisters were crying when her body was being taken for cremation along the same high way on which I was traveling with the German Praktikum (Internship) students in the relief mission.

After that incident and continuous artillery shelling, the Area Director of CARE International in Kilinochchi asked me to get away from that area a number of times. But I was reluctant to leave as I was used to the artillery shelling and aerial bombings since my childhood in the war-torn northern Jaffna Peninsula. But for the Area Director, her upbringing in the New York City in a calm and quiet atmosphere made it hard for her to accept my explanation.

Finally I left that area for a while. But memories still came alive when I was looking at the demolished buildings and the surroundings on the way. Our five-vehicle convoy was now speedily hurrying through a one-time No-Man Zone.

German Memories in Asia - A Visit to the Rebel-Held Jungle Interior

2007-12-21T20:20:00.000-08:00

While we were leaving the political wing of the LTTE, I thought rather than leaving for south straightaway to visit a relative of mine somewhere near the Iranaimadu Tank and introduce Steffani and others so that they could regain their cordiality.

The way towards the Iranaimadu tank was full of a scenic beauty, and once again I was lost in contemplation. The rural area always has its own rich serene beauty. The canal which takes the overflowing water from the Iranaimadu tank to the Jaffna Lagoon, has its own splendour. Some of the jungle birds used to fish in the canal hiding in the bushes along the slope of the canal and it was thrilling to watch them in the act of fishing.

When we reached the house, the infant child of my relative was lying on the front verandah which had more ventilation and the dust raised by our vehicle was blowing toward the little infant. Steffani, a German Praktikum (Internship) student and others were shocked for a while.

I introduced them to my relatives and when they told of our plight the previous night they were shocked and asked me why I did not bring them to their residence to spend the night. Steffani spent more time in tending the little infant and hugging her. The mother of the infant was fascinated by this and started to video the event with a small cam hoarder. I was very happy that at least Steffani had cooled down after all.

After a brief a stay which reflected a combination of Asian and European ways of hospitality and affection, our journey started once again towards the south.

We were moving towards the Iranaimadu Tank area. Our jungle-bound journey was to prove memorable. Moving along the gravel passage made the vehicle bob up and down all the way.
Though it was almost noon, wild birds were crossing the passage from both sides of the bushes.

While we were turning into the Iranaimadu Tank area, we could see that the area was well guarded by the LTTE. There was speculation as to whether the LTTE Air Force Wing's runway was near the Tank.

They were trying to stop the vehicle, but never did on seeing the European faces inside it. But there was a surprise in their faces. They were wondering as to what made these Europeans come all the way into the interior of a highly restricted rebel-held area.

We turned into the corner which was almost V-shaped and our journey was again towards the Alpha-Nine highway. Steffani and Romy were gazing at the wondrous jungle there.

While we were going through the Alpha-Nine highway the driver who was unaccustomed to that area as it was his first visit to the LTTE-controlled area drove all the way at high speed. Somewhere before we reached the LTTE barrier, we were stopped by the LTTE traffic police who were hiding behind a tree. They might have used a speedometer and spoke of us having broken the speed limit.

They questioned whether we didn't observe the sign board which was few meters away. Though we said it was the driver's first visit into the LTTE-controlled area, they refused to excuse us. Finally we had to pay a fine for breaking the speed limit. Steffani was little upset, why we didn't observe the sign board. She did not hesitate to express what she felt at any time on our mission.

We didn't have as many problems crossing the LTTE and Sri Lankan Army barriers. Our journey was continuing without any stop-over and still Steffani was moody over our failure to undertake the survey in the LTTE-controlled areas.

It was too hard for me to explain to her the complexity of the LTTE administrative issues and the way they were taking decisions at times.

German Memory in Asia - A Night in the Rebel-Held Jungle

2007-12-21T20:18:00.000-08:00

We were moving towards the political office in Kilinochchi passing the Finance Division and stopped near the "Pandyan" restaurant for dinner.

As I had come with on our previous trip with the German Praktikum (Internship) students, when I was moving towards the restaurant front entrance, the earlier incidents came to my memory. There were sweet memories to be recalled over and over again.

When we were seated, I watched there were a few European ladies and a lady with an infant having dinner at the next table. The staff of the restaurant amused the infant with many pleasantries. Steffani was trying to smell out who these European ladies were.

She might have guessed already that they were probably from Germany or around and tried to confirm her guess by observing their lip movements to identify in which language they were speaking.
She said at one point they were speaking German and approached them and had a good chat.

When we walked into the garden after having our dinner I found a number of Europeans who were working in the various NGOs, entering the restaurant.

Once again our journey in the jungle highway started with our witnessing the nearly stone-age life-style and the strange silence everywhere. The twinkling lights from chimney lamps in the houses were a reminder of the people who were undergoing various hardships in the war-ravaged areas which could be hardly expressed in words.

It was only when we met the LTTE media coordinator and its spokesman that I realized the difficulty we were to face in undertaking such a survey in the LTTE - controlled areas. The prominent columnist and a Pro- Tamil nationalist Sivaram's murder had put everyone in a sad mood in Kilinochchi. They had forgotten to arrange accommodation for us and the alternative accommodation after many failed attempts was congested and far from comfortable.

The rooms had been by occupied by many foreigners, leaving us only one room with a broken bed. We were truly in a mess and as it was late in the night we had no option other than staying there.

Steffani was running here and there as the leader of our team and decided who and who should sleep where and told the driver should take the room for the night. It was such interesting to see Steffani who was in her early twenties acting as commander in the isolated deep rural jungle surrounded by LTTE-controlled areas as though she did things at her home. She was at times shouting at me saying it was my fault for ending up here for the night. Steffani decided to stay in the van and I went to sleep in the hall and Romy and Yong in the front veranda which they preferred as there was more ventilation.

The Jaffna Lagoon's mild wind wafting from the jungle soothed my mind and drifted me into sleep.

The place where we were spending the night was just close to where the Irish-American Area Director of CARE International was staying.

I could recall an incident vividly. At times we used to have meetings with dinner at her residence when there were officials visiting from CARE head office in Colombo or from overseas. Once a visiting evaluation team had come and I had an unforgettable experience with a Scottish young lady while at dinner. She was such interesting person and in her late twenties but a little aggressive when our discussion touched on Scottish issues in medieval times.

She burst out at once, placing her palm on my chest, told how the Scottish people had been deprived by the then English rulers some centuries ago and asked me whether I would accept that. I was shocked by her emotional outburst and was able to imagine to what extent the Scottish people had been affected by the practices of various atrocities by the English Lords.

I couldn't reconcile myself to the practice of newly married Scottish brides spending their first night with English Lords instead of their newly-married husbands.

German Memory in Asia - Exploring the Ancient Kingdom of Indian Ocean's Island Paradise

2007-12-21T20:17:00.000-08:00

The driver was used to the area and having traveled extensively in the rural areas of Sri Lanka, he chose more interior-roads than the main roads in the last hours of our journey.

He asked all of us whether we liked to visit an ancient Kingdom of the Island and the ruined fortification and the archaeological interests.

Though I heard about Panduvasdeva's Kingdom in Panduwasnuwara I hadn't visited it. I thought it was a good opportunity. There was an apparent excitement in Steffani, Yong and Romy's faces as well.

He was driving through a narrow passage along the isolated rural areas. The remaining walls of the ruined ancient Kingdom were the first sight for all of us.

Still the walls were standing so strongly, proclaiming its glorious majestic days several centuries ago.

Panduwasnuwara, the oldest of the capitals in Panduwasnuwara, which according to legend, was the capital of king Panduvasdeva, who succeeded Vijaya, the first king of Sri Lanka around 5th century B.C.

The moated tower where Princess Unmada Chitra, so beautiful that she drove men crazy, was confined because of an ominous prophecy of untimely death in the family. A forested mound is also identified as the tomb of king Vijaya.

Panduvasnuwara's many other archeological remains date from the 12th century when it was known as 'Parakramapura' and was used by Sri Lanka's great medieval king Parakramabahu I as a stepping stone to his great capital - Polonnaruwa.

Among the many impressive ruins are the citadel walls and moat, the royal palace with carved pillars and guard stones, and a beautiful Bodhigara, the edifice round the bo-tree, sacred to Buddhists.

Street vendors were selling various flowers and ritual items for those visiting the adjoining Buddhist temple. Everywhere around there were small shops selling various items, targeting those who were visiting the ruined kingdom. When we visited some areas of the ancient kingdom, I saw a culvert with a Tamil inscription which was a pointer to Tamil influence in the Kingdom.

That the ancient culture of the Island of some thousand years was a blend of Sinhala and Tamil was evidenced in the culvert.

Yong was asking me, when we went inside a Buddhist temple a lot of questions to which I had no answer.

We bought some jaggery which was filled in a tiny pockets weaved either by a kind of weed or palm leaves. My German friends were savouring to the full the culture and the way of living around there which hasn't lost its centuries old purity in that highly isolated rural area from the rest of the world.

The calm and quiet that pervaded the surroundings was enchanting. We walked amidst the ruins of the ancient Kingdom which were under large shady trees which might have been centuries old.

The large trees and ruined remains of the kingdom was reminiscent of the scenes of Angelina Jolie casting Hollywood blockbuster "Tomb Raider" which was filmed around the temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, one of the world's most isolated and strife-torn countries.

It was such a marvellous experience to walk in the ruined palace where memories of the past glories of the Kingdom captivated my mind and took on a reality though I had never heard anything about the Kingdom in the past.

Romy was capturing the ancient wonder with her digital camera. I too went near a Buddhist ruined statue and took some photos to remember the lost kingdom and its wonders several centuries old.

We departed after reliving some of the ancient past and our passage was once again through the rural area of the Island passing many beautiful ponds with lotus flowers and paddy lands.

A Visit to Malaysia - Thailand Border Area

2007-12-21T20:15:00.000-08:00

My thoughts recalled my visit to Southeast Asia some time back on the invitation of then Sri Lankan High Commissioner for Malaysia, Mrs. Rosy Senanayake. I wanted to crossover by land the Malaysia-Thailand border, though many friends advised me it was too risky. Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand is a major problem in Southeast Asia.

Though I had the visa to travel to Thailand from Malaysia, I stopped my journey from Kuala Lumpur at the Butterworth station and visited the Penang Island of Malaysia, the one-time British colonial capital of Malaysia. I thought of the risk at that time as the turmoil was very high in crossing the Malaysia- Thailand border. I had to study more ground realities and situations before I stepped into the border.

While I was waiting for the Kuala Lumpur Express at the Butterworth station, there was a Malay young lady waiting for the same train at the next table. My casual chat with her had given me a chance to weigh the ground realities better than I assumed. She was from the neighboring Keda state of Malaysia bordering Thailand's Muslim province.

When I spoke to her about the political unrest of Thailand's southern Muslim areas, she came out with sorrowful stories. She told, "The Muslim province in southern Thailand was annexed by Thailand in 1902 as a buffer against British Malaya" and she further went on, "the Islamic Sultanate of Pattani is considered by some to be the cradle of Islam in Southeast Asia".
She told about the history of the origin of the Muslim insurgency in Thailand. She said with a smile that the southern Thailand Muslims are only a reflection of Malaysia's rural Muslims.

I little understood her worries and as she had visited these areas, she was not only well informed about the problems but emotionally attached to those areas and problems too. She came out in a disappointing voice that the Thailand government's oppressive policies had not been beneficial to the Muslims. She pointed out, "the southern provinces of Thailand where the Muslims are located are some of the country's poorest and undeveloped provinces to date".

She continued, "The reason for this is the corrupt officials pilfered funds earmarked for development. The mis administration of the government combined with the high- handedness of the army personnel aggravated the alienation that was already prevalent. The daily life in the urban areas was affected by common banding and lawlessness making it difficult for the authorities to differentiate activities from that of the separatists or militants".

After a brief interval I asked her what their needs were if the situation was prolonged without any solution. She thought for a moment and came out with the fact that southern Thailand remains relatively poor, alienated, and misunderstood by Bangkok's government and military officials.
The Muslim way of life is based on survival and they are not benefiting from the development of large industries in their provinces.

She also pointed out importantly that in fact, as these industries continue to expand, the Pattani are being pushed farther and farther out of their markets. Agriculturists were needed to teach the small-scale land owners how to get the most out of their land. She further went on to say that the Muslims do not object to the government or its representatives but they do object to the oppressive and exploitative nature of these entities' presence.

She enumerated some of the flawed policies of the government such as, the village fund programme and legalization of lotteries in the area which are against the tenets of Islam.

German Memory in Asia - A Discussion on American and World Affairs

2007-12-21T19:58:00.001-08:00

Lionie, a German Praktikum (Internship) student entered the discussion speaking on various interesting issues.

She was sharing her ideas to organise an awareness program on landmine issues between the AGSEP and the PDIP. John Stephen III, a Foreign Affairs Officer at the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement of the Bureau of Political and Military Affairs of the US State Department was so helpful and has taken a personal interest to help us, to make the awareness program a success by sending various materials from the US State Department.

Leonie is from Düsseldorf, a city located in the Western part of Germany close to The Netherlands. She told she had come across various Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka and asked various issues on the region. Though it was her first visit to Asia, she is well-informed on various Asian crises.

She said she is a vegetarian because she couldn't bear the way they are rearing poultry in congested cages, giving no chance for those birds to feel free during those few weeks in the world before they were killed. She was a lover of animals and in Germany many homes have pets such as dogs, cats, guinea pigs and even birds. I found her to be a sincere animal lover when she said, "Even I won't eat eggs if those are from hens which are denied a comfortable living".

She had switched on to a new subject and said, "Number of universities in Sweden especially the University of Uppsala, is offering master degrees without any charges" and came out with the fact that, "The British and the American University Programs are very expensive".

She left Germany to study in The Netherlands and France because of the benefit the International exposure. Sometimes certain universities have more international exposure in their curricula than others. Recently a friend of mine told me that the American education is more American-based than International.

When my friend told me this, what struck me was the statement by Dr. Mahathir Mohammed, the one-time Malaysian Prime Minister: "Most Americans, I think, know very little about East Asia or Southeast Asia. American business people who have been here, they are very knowledgeable about this area, but the average America? No. We are horrified to find most Americans do not know the capitals of foreign countries or even the capitals of American states. I mean, our education system emphasizes knowledge of the outside world. The America education system apparently stresses knowledge of the United States. An American [baseball] tournament, for example, is called a world series, but is confined only to America. It's not a world series at all".

But some time back when I spoke to a friend of mine who was a manager at a firm in the State Minnesota of the USA and then as the head of IBM in Sri Lanka, he said, "There are people in the US, who haven't visited even New York, Los Angeles or other major American cities in their life. So how can we expect they should look or travel into other parts of the world?" The American way of life is more individualistic and achievement-oriented and its life-style is not based on living in common harmony. He pointed out that there was no need to look to other countries if it wouldn't help to earn their daily bread.

Lionie is a student of the popular Maastricht University in The Netherlands and had spent a year at Bordeaux University in France. Her specialization in European studies at Maastricht and Political studies at Bordeaux was well reflected, in her advice to me on various issues. When spoke of the Lebanon crisis, she said that it would become more political and supported my earlier viewpoint on landmine issues.

She said, "I can't understand why people are spending so much of money at the famous Italian Bocconi University for MBA to learn something in a year so much".

She asked me whether I think, we could learn something unique within a year in proportion to the money spent which is more than 30,000 Euros.

German Memory in Asia - My Jungle Memories in a Tsunami Mission

2007-12-21T19:49:00.002-08:00

When we were at the tail end of our journey back to Kilinochchi, I observed there were some people crying under a mango tree in the front of the hospital premises.

Their story was too pathetic. One person had lost her sister and the other one her entire family. I realized the tragedies beyond consolation and words so trivial. The German Praktikum (Internship) students too were listening to them patiently. I didn't know how they would adjust themselves to the future. We reluctantly left them to join our team who were about to leave.

Our six-vehicle convoy sped along the path, which we came by an hour ago. We passed through the devastated Mullaitivu area again, without stopping, as we had to reach the Jaffna Peninsula at our earliest possible. But the silently waving Indian Ocean in the distance brought so many memories back to my mind once again.

After a few miles of traveling I joined the German T.V. in their vehicle, as they wanted to go early to Dambulla Hotel, which is in the midst of dense jungle. With a better-fixed satellite antenna it would enable them to quickly transmit the documentary rather than with their mobile-antenna devices which they were carrying all the way with them.

They had had a bitter experience when they used mobile-antenna devices the previous day night at the Pandyan Restaurant in Kilinochchi. The transmission was disturbed a number of times and they had lost the prime time News hours in Germany to telecast the documentary which they had taken in on the way to Kilinochchi about the war-torn jungle terrain of the Island.

I became very friendly with the German T.V. personnel on our way back to Kilinochchi. We met the LTTE media coordinator and had a brief conversation with him. After few minutes the TV crew left towards their southern destination. I arranged a vehicle and traveled to the Iranaimadu Tank, one of the largest reservoirs in the Island, a place in the world, where I was enchanted by the serene beauty of its surrounding greeneries and circling of birds over it since my CARE days.

When I was traveling, I passed the area where once the LTTE's Economic Development Wing was based. During my CARE days, I visited it a number of times on project issues on how to resettle the displaced refugees in the jungles. I could still remember the number of field visits, which I paid in dense jungles.

It was a habit of mine on my visits, to take some magazines either TIME or Newsweek and read them on the bunds of the reservoirs. I experienced a different perception of life when I read about the space-age society of the outside world from the environment of the nearly stone-age society in the jungles and their surroundings. I had visited several times the Iranaimadu tank and experienced the difference.

When I reached the tank the circling around of birds over it once again enticed me.

I found myself lost in a different world, which was free of all worries and troubles!

German Memory in Asia - A Visit to Tsunami-Hit Jungle Areas

2007-12-21T19:49:00.001-08:00

Archaeological findings show that the Poompugar City, which was inundated, was off the coast of Tamil Nadu of Southern India as mentioned in Tamil texts.

Some other older texts like Tolkappiyam, the oldest surviving Tamil text and grammar book written supposedly around 500 B.C., says that the Pumpugar City was supposedly flourishing there 7000 years ago before tsunami tidal waves took the city beneath the sea. Most of the people thought it was only a myth until they experienced the 2004-tsunami tidal waves and experienced its massive devastation.

With drifting memories of the ruined Poompukar and walking along the destroyed marine drive in the Indian Ocean's coastal Mullaitivu, the LTTE member showed me a well near the beach and told me that that was pure water well now turned into salt water. I stepped up a ladder and peeped into the well, there was a motor for pumping the water out from the well. Though they had been dredging continuously for days, there was no significant difference in the water. The tsunami waves might have changed the underneath water system.

When I was about to step into the vehicle, the Catholic priest of the ruined church arrived. We went to him to hear of the tragedies of that fateful day and how he had survived. He had narrowly escaped as he was in a different church at the time when the tsunami demolished his church. God had saved the life of a spiritual leader to console the people who had lost their kith and kin and almost everything. We condoled with him on what had happened.

We started our journey towards Mulliavallai hospital, which was originally a maternity hospital, but now turned into an emergency ward for tsunami victims as well. A decade ago in the CARE days I have visited that area a number of times. But now the landscape had changed a lot.

When we were reaching the Mulliawalai area, old memories came alive. At the Mulliavalai hospital we heard many horrific stories of tsunami tidal waves. Entering the hospital we saw pregnant women, mothers with newborn infants and those who narrowly escaped housed there together in the same ward. The German Praktikum (Internship) students, I noticed were a little puzzled by the hospital and its set-up.

They might have wondered at the unusual combination of patients with different ailments being brought together or at the condition and the available facilities of the hospital to serve many an affected victim. The large hospitals they were accustomed to in Germany might have disturbed them when they compared them with the Asian jungle's tiny hospital. They might have well experienced the disparities of the very first Planet Earth where they were living on many grounds.

We went to meet the doctors and other health officials attached to the hospital in the front office of the hospital, and they came out with many pathetic stories about the condition of the hospital. They had only two medical officers for medical services, which are normally provided with twenty medical officers in a developed country, which run them efficiently. Dr. Jayalath, Dietmar Doering and the team had a lengthy discussion and came out with alternative arrangements in order to compensate for the shortfalls.

When I came out of the office the young students who were busily unloading medicines and medical instruments from a medium sized lorry of the six-vehicle convoy surprised me.

Immediately after the unloading, the tired Fredrike Wagnar, an undergraduate student of a Munich-based university was giving an interview on her experience about the tsunami devastation, which will be telecast all over Germany by satellite transmission. She was shaking her hands while talking as though she wanted such gestures to enhance her expressions of the extent of the tsunami devastation.

Her eyes were expressive adding more meaning to the tragedy. The eyes had a gleam in the mid-noon daylight.

Immediately after the interview I talked to Fredrike Wagnar. As she has a grasp of economics, her view about the disaster had a different dimension towards sorting out and coping with the crisis. The way she was behaving to express the tragedy was heart-rending.

German Memory In Asia - A Tsunami Mission On The Shores Of Bay Of Bengal

2007-12-21T19:38:00.000-08:00

While I was approaching the edge of the Indian Ocean, I observed there were some sea gulls speedily hurrying from sea to land. I was terrified thinking that another tsunami was approaching us. Though I didn't feel any strong quake, I was aware that an earthquake can trigger killer waves thousands of miles across the ocean and could generate hours later the tsunami waves.

I observed closely the Indian Ocean to see whether there was a difference since an approaching tsunami is preceded by a noticeable fall in the water level. A big wave was on its way.

I had heard of stories how people were killed, when they went down to the beach to view the retreating ocean exposing the sea floor unaware that the strange phenomenon was a forerunner of killer waves. I made a quick retreat to a nearby high ground. When I turned and looked at the German Praktikum (Internship) students they were at a distance discussing something with some locals.

The tsunami expert's recent statement that a receding ocean may give only five minutes' warning to evacuate the area has started to bristle within me, because tsunamis can approach the shore as fast as 100 miles per hour. I realized it would be too late to see the wave and then confirm whether the tsunami was on the way.

Though I moved back to the ruined high ground, I started to observe again the ocean movements. There were no receding waters but large waves had come towards the shore. It was so horrific to think that many of the tsunami victims were seen being swept out to sea when the ocean retreated.

A tsunami surge may be small at one point of the shore and large at another point a short distance away. I didn't want to assume that this was a minimal sign of a tsunami and was trapped by the retreating tsunami flood later on from other directions. I further went near the high ground and approached the place where the German students were. I was comparatively in a safe place and a little relieved from the tsunami fear. I observed a number of wrecked boats were on the ruined buildings.

As tsunami wave activity is imperceptible in the open ocean, if those vessels had not returned to port they might have escaped that fatal end. The way the boats had been flung to the interior of the land and the extent of the wreckage frightened me how the tsunami can cause rapid changes in water level unpredictably with dangerous currents and cause massive destruction in the harbor and port areas. If the fishermen had the right information on time and took their vessels out to sea, they might have saved their lives and boats as well.

The Pacific Ocean is fixed with sensitive recorders on the sea floor to measure pressure changes in the overhead water, sending the information to sensors on buoys, which, in turn, relay the data to satellites for immediate transmission to warning centers. As there was no warning system for tsunamis in the Indian Ocean, the tsunami eluded and caused the worst disaster in the history of the Indian Ocean Rim countries.

We moved towards the narrow lane, which was now everywhere covered with the sand and debris. We found it difficult to determine whether the lane through which we were walking was a busy thoroughfare just a few days ago. We were roaming over the ruined buildings and then walked along the beach. It was difficult to reconcile to the fact that a once flourishing heavily populated coastal hamlet had been annihilated in just a few minutes. Meanwhile the German T.V. crew was busy, documenting those devastations.

The LTTE member who was familiar with that area pointed at a ruined road and told us it was a marine drive earlier, linking the coastal areas. He told how the sea had made incursions into the land.

The tectonic plates at the bottom of the southern Andaman - Nicobar Island had been shifted upward and the seabed subsequently. The tectonic plate movement and the tsunami tidal waves are not new to this world. Tectonic plate movements have taken place for billions of years resulting in tidal waves as well when they emit energy out to the surface as massive earthquakes. Turning my direction towards the north, I was reminded of how some thousand years ago the city of Poompoogar was sunk by tidal waves.

German Memory in Asia - A Visit to Tsunami-Hit Coastal Areas of Indian Ocean

2007-12-21T19:37:00.000-08:00

I had a fine view of the mangroves in the both directions of the passage, recalling memories of the good old days in Mullaitivu.

When we reached the tsunami-hit bridge, we stopped over it and had a close view of the devastated bridge and the surrounding area. In the vicinity we could see that LTTE cadres were reconstructing the bridge and excavating the debris under it to enable an uninterrupted water-flow over the narrow canal which links the Indian Ocean and the interior Lake. I approached them and inquired about the tsunami devastation and its effects. They narrated the terrific moments and how they managed to escape at the time of the tsunami tidal waves by jumping onto the upper-side of the area.

I was horrified when they told how all the passengers and the vehicles passing by were washed away by the mighty tidal waves as though they were driftwood. The tidal waves had not only devastated human lives but also deprived the survivors of all hope and the meaning for existing. The tsunami waves have given a lasting message to the human race that worldly life is highly illusive and natural forces could triumph over their planning and execution. It had washed away everything in seconds.

We had conquered the outer space and successfully landed on the moon but were still struggling to cope with our own world's natural calamities. We had failed in controlling nature's furies. Technological advancement and other scientific inventions have been of no avail. The tsunami had smitten our conscience and posed the question as to why we bothered so much about the outer space wonders than finding solutions to our own world's disorders.

While my thoughts turned back to the tsunami-hit bridge and the surroundings, I focused my attention on the path we traveled by. I noticed our six-vehicle convoy was on its way towards us. The waving banners in front of the vehicles identified that those were our vehicles.

Suddenly I was terrified thinking of those fateful moments on the bridge and what would have happened to me. Oh! I just couldn't imagine it. Those horrific moments were again and again assailing me. The convoy had approached the bridge and stopped near us. Some of the German Praktikum (Internship) students got down from their vehicles.

The scenic beauty of the narrow lagoon and the surrounding Palmyra trees everywhere cast a fascination over all, despite having depressed moments. But I had mixed feelings of whether to enjoy the tropical beauty or mourn for those who were washed away there a few days ago.

In a few minutes most of the students who came with us in the convoy, even the girl intern students got down from the vehicles. The German television crew was busy in documenting the lagoon and the surrounding devastation, which they could telecast over satellite transmission throughout Germany.

The BBC correspondent with whom I traveled requested me to join him. But I decided to accompany the convoy and thanked him for his request. I joined the German team once again. I could see in their faces a difference. They too might have realized the illusiveness of this worldly life after having seen the devastation. A nauseating stench emanating from decomposed human bodies assailed our noses from the bridge area and all the way thereafter for some time.

We had passed the devastated Mullaitivu town, which was now beyond recognition. Then we returned back and reached the demolished town. When we approached the heart of the Mullaitivu town, we could see the havoc wreaked had completely destroyed the buildings. It was difficult to reconcile that there was a town there earlier.

The Sea Tiger unit of the LTTE cadres at the Junction stopped us. They inquired about our mission, as that was the first time that the AGSEP had come into the heart of the LTTE stronghold in Mullaitivu. I explained to the LTTE officials and they allowed us to proceed to the tsunami-devastated areas. They sent with us a member of the Sea Tiger unit to guide us.

Our vehicles were passing the sandy passage very slowly, following the LTTE cadre who was riding a motorbike. We stopped our vehicles near the beach after passing massive debris of tsunami devastation everywhere in the vicinity. We could hardly see a building, which had withstood the tidal waves. We all stepped down from our vehicles and spoke to the LTTE member who was assisting us about the severity of the devastation.

He told us they were still excavating the dead bodies from a nearby pond, which was once a tiny rainwater reservoir and now turned into a saltwater pond. The tsunami had smitten once again our conscience and posed the question as to why we bothered so much about the outer space wonders than finding solutions to our own world's disorders.

German Memories in Asia - Crossing the Jungle Highway

2007-12-21T19:06:00.000-08:00

Our motorbike was going at a controlled speed because the Paranthan - Mullaitivu highway was heavily damaged by the on-going war and also heavily mined. There were a few miles of repaired roads, after which you would be getting on to a graveled passage. Along the highway good stretches of road alternate with bad ones. We had to reduce speed often and then step up. I wondered how our German friends managed to travel through this road.

While we were passing the "Bamboo-River" settlement my CARE day experiences came back to me.
The displaced people from Trincomalee, a North Eastern coastal town of the Island, were settled down there several years ago and it is now a flourishing tiny hamlet. Once I attended a function there nearly a decade ago and delivered a speech, which was unforgettable to me.

While our motor - bike was quickly passing the "Bamboo-River" area; we reached close to the "New settlement scheme," a relatively new town of some forty years, nestling in the dense jungle area.
While going, we were stopped by LTTE policemen, but as we had permits to enter the high security zone of the LTTE, we managed to pass the checkpoint without any hassle.

Our bike sped fast and we reached within half and hour the "New settlement scheme" town. When we reached the junction, which connects the road to Mullaitivu Island and the other into dense jungle area in the mainland, our six-vehicle convoy was slowly negotiating the bend towards Mullaitivu. I signaled with my hand and stopped the vehicle, which was foremost in the convoy. I spoke to the German Praktikum (Internship) students and continued my journey on the motorbike, thus spearheading the convoy.

When I was traveling on the path, which was going towards the dense jungle area made me recall my scouting days. When I was a boy scout we camped in these jungles. That was nearly 25 years ago and still memories of those good old days were rekindled. How we had improvised what we termed as 'get-a-pull", which comprised two strips of rubber attached to a forked piece of wood, known as a catapult. This was a protective weapon with which we could pelt stones even at wild animals to scare them away.

I had taken the catapult solely for fun as well as for self-defense because I had a terrible experience some time back when I encountered a number of monkeys in the jungles of Mannar, a western coastal area of the Island on a trip there, when I was returning after a brief exploration in the jungle, which had lot of edible fruits, all over its shrubs and small tropical trees.

I heard that monkeys sometimes gather in a group and attack humans who are even known to suffer severe injury. In a jungle - based school ground, I had pelted one or two shots towards a group of monkeys who were perched on a tree. One of the monkeys when hit by one of my shots jumped angrily towards me. We fled screaming and the incident reached the ears of the master-in-charge.

He punished me by getting me to put the catapult over my neck and asked me to tell the scouting principle. He warned me and confiscated the catapult. That was an unforgettable incident and while I was passing that area I could not resist such evocative memories.

Another incident too came to my mind. We six boy scouts went deep into the jungle and lost our way. I had to climb to the top of a tree to try and regain my bearings. But I realized after I climbed to the top, all I could see was the rich greenery of the jungle. We had blown a few whistling signals but received no return. We had to grope our way and as though by instinct we discovered a path, which ultimately led us, back to the camp.

To be lost in a jungle is a horrifying experience.

German Memories in Asia - A Visit to Rebel-Held Area

2007-12-21T19:05:00.000-08:00

We started our journey towards Kilinochchi and reached the Omanthai Military Check Point, the Northernmost Frontier of the Sri Lanka Army in the mainland and stopped for clearance.

Dr. Jayalath Jayawardene spoke to the Military Officials and we were cleared after a few procedures and set on our journey towards North. In a few minutes' time by passing the No Man Zone, we reached the LTTE Check Point. I spoke to an LTTE member who questioned me about our mission. I explained our mission and introduced the German team and others there. I told we had already informed the Political wing of the LTTE about our mission.

They were highly concerned about our mission as we were about to visit the Mulaitivu region which is an LTTE stronghold. The German Television crew had come with satellite equipment for direct transmission of disaster immediately from the spot. We thought whether we would be facing any difficulties because of the security issues. But we had been cleared and were on our way to Kilinochchi.

While we were traveling we found both sides of the highway were a blend of dense forests and the paddy lands created a lot of excitement within me. Peacocks were everywhere, busily foraging in the paddy lands.

After two hours of our journey we reached Murukandy, a stopover for passengers where a small Hindu temple is found. It has become a tradition for passengers to stop there and worship the God, which was enshrined in that small temple especially if they were Hindus. Others too used to stop there as a pastime and buy a variety of foodstuff available there. We too stopped for a while but not very long, as we were already late according to our schedule to reach Kilinochchi. We had to arrange accommodation for more than twenty-five persons. I was highly worried as there were fifteen German nationals, and they would expect reasonable accommodation for the night. When we reached Kilinochchi it was early night.

We went to meet LTTE's media spokesman who was coordinating our mission in the LTTE-controlled areas. He was startled at the number of people on our mission. He asked his subordinates to look around for places to accommodate us. Visiting NGO members and the media people had already occupied the available places. We were stalled for a couple of hours.

The German T.V. crew and the German Praktikum (Internship) students were in their vans for hours and it was sad to see their situation. Some of the youths who came with us from a local T.V. channel started to scold me, as I was the coordinator in those areas. But I had to pacify them saying after all it's a relief mission, and we were prepared to bear the hardships.

Some how or other the LTTE's Political Wing found accommodation and I had to take some of the German students to the lodgings, which had been arranged for them. My responsibility had been narrowed down. The German Television crew had also been assigned a place.

Some of the students were asking whether their rooms were equipped with mosquito nets. I had to find rooms with mosquito nets for them. But one room with nets, I had to reserve for a Sinhalese couple as promised. I had taken some extra care that they should not feel that they had been discriminated in a Tamil area. I had told the students I had to keep that room for the couple. All the students got rooms with mosquito nets in that complex except two students. Then I went to the LTTE's Political Wing office to check what was happening there.

AGSEP's Director Dietmar Doering said he would be staying where the female students and some of the AGSEP staff were staying for their safety and went with them. The young Sinhalese couple got a room at the LTTE's Political Wing office. The incident might be as surprising as an Israelit couple taking night shelter at the office of the Palestinian rebels.

I returned to one of the lodgings, where the students were staying and got into the room, which had a mosquito net, which became available, as the couple had found room at the Political Wing. I was a little worried staying in my room because of my German friends. Would they have any misgivings about me? So, I knocked at their room doors, but got no response from them.

The exhausting day-long journey had overcome them with deep slumber.

German Memories in Asia - A Visit to War-Torn Area

2007-12-21T19:03:00.001-08:00

Our six-vehicle convoy reached Vavuniya, the Northern-most border town of the Island, which separates the LTTE-controlled areas and the Sri Lankan Government-controlled areas.

The German Praktikum (Internship) students were enjoying the surroundings.

When we stopped near the Vavuniya clock tower along the highway, there were people, who gathered to see what was happening. It is a usual phenomenon in Asian rural areas when Europeans make visits. Whatever the hidden motive or drive which impels them to meet the white-skinned foreigners, especially the Europeans, it is something they would not miss as it is a chance in a lifetime among these village folk.

The obvious reason is that they hardly come across them in their remote places and do not have the wherewithal to travel to Europe and meet them. The combination of human aspiration, which drives one to see its fellow humans and an attraction towards the distant Homo sapiens cousins, is not something strange.

While we were discussing our next step towards entering into the LTTE-controlled territory, the LTTE's political wing head of Vavuniya Gnanavel came there with a Member of Parliament Kishor Sivanathan. After the Ceasefire Agreement between the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE there has been a new development, which enabled the LTTE's political wing to operate in the Sri Lankan Government-controlled traditional Tamil areas.

I knew Gnanavel from my CARE days. He was attached at that time to the LTTE's section of Economic Development, a sub unit of their Political Wing. The Economic Development section was overseeing economic developmental issues ranging from minor and major tank renovations, Agriculture, Fisheries, Industries, Environmental protection, and so on in the LTTE-controlled areas and coordinating with local and International NGOs in various ways. Gnanavel is a friendly person and though he was attached to a rebel organization he would freely discuss various issues which are normally difficult to think of for a person who is from a militant movement.

He once asked me at one of the meetings what I would have to say regards setting up a village, which only accommodates women who have lost their husbands at war. I simply said you don't make an unofficial red light area in the eyes of others, for if one woman commits a mistake it would reflect on the rest of the women. He agreed with me.

There are widows not only on the Tamil side but also on the Sinhalese side as well and is problematic as it creates a lot of social and economic problems to the Island. Women are grief-stricken and traumatized when their husbands sacrifice their lives in confrontations.

German Memories in Asia - A Mission in Asia

2007-12-21T19:01:00.000-08:00

In a week's time I came back to Aquarius Hotel to assist the team which wanted to survey the tsunami-hit areas.

I was waiting in the lobby, expecting Pascal Sadune, the leader of the survey team and others. In a few minutes' time, Pascal came to meet me. He was wearing a sarong, a usual casual and traditional dress of Sri Lanka and South Indian to some extent. There were two others, Mike and a female German Praktikum (Internship) student . I shook hands and went with them to the restaurant.

The wind was blowing a little heavily from the Indian Ocean.

Pascal holds a Master of Arts in Political Science and had worked for some time in the German Ministry of Defense. Pascal is a simple guy. He said his maternal grandfather was from France and in the Second World War while serving in Germany, had fallen in love with his to-be grandmother. There were many inter-marriages in Germany and Europe in the Second World War and before.

Pascal is now attached to the International Institute of Ratings and Consultancy. The tsunami disaster had activated the Institute to survey the needs of the people in the tsunami-hit areas. The tsunami survey was coordinated with the leading University in Germany with its three professors. While we were on an interesting topic, a new female student whom I had not met before came to us. She said she is Stefani and part of the surveying team. I greeted and conveyed my good wishes.

Pascal held forth about the rest of Europe and Germany. He confessed this was his first visit to Sri Lanka and before he came some of his professors who had already visited Sri Lanka had told him that Sri Lanka looks more like some of the Latin American countries.

On the subject of Sri Lanka's infrastructure he praised it and said he visited Morocco sometime back and it is only in city only you feel at ease, but when you go interior you feel you have lost contact with rest of the country. I told him the ethnic crisis severely hampered Sri Lanka's progress and now it's far behind compared to its once neighbouring countries of Southeast Asia.

Once, Singapore's then Prime Minister Li Kuan Yew was impressed by Sri Lanka's economic progress and wanted to model Singapore along the lines of Sri Lanka. But now if Sri Lanka wanted to progress like Singapore it was a Herculean task and would take a very long time. Singapore has gone far in rescheduling their resources and given maximum effect to their strengths and reduced their weaknesses and created the opportunities or tapped it in the right way.

Even neighboruing Malaysia which was struggling with tin and rubber, identified the new world trends and collaborated with various combines in the Asia-Pacific region and around the world and established manufacturing Industries that started to export high-value hi-tech goods. Later it joined the information super high-way club, by introducing the multi-media super corridor. Though the dot.com burst troubled its new IT ventures, it is still coming up with its own unique strategies to play a major role in Industry.

Pascal was listening carefully to my points on the Southeast Asian super-hubs developments in the economic sphere and asked me about the currencies which are pegged and the Asia financial crisis. Now, our discussion were on how we were going to undertake the survey in the Island and assessing the difficulties we would face when in the LTTE-controlled territories as they are very strict on surveys, without their permission.

We decided to identify some local NGOs from the war-torn areas and coordinate with them our survey. The hours-long venture had come finally to an end. I left the Aquarius with a new understanding of many European and worldly issues. We selected a few people from a church in the eastern province of the Island to participate in our survey of the tsunami disaster.

We all came to the Aquarius for a meeting. In a while, Pascal also joined us. We then joined the other surveying team at a meeting. Stefani, Romy and Mike also were also there with Dietmar Doering who presided and lots of controversial issues came in for discussion. The recent breakaway within the LTTE also came up for discussion and caused a lot of confusion among the German participants.

Though internal rivalries are not common to the world within liberation and other organizations, it always appears hard and complicated a topic to discuss and is a matter of debate as to how it could have been averted.

German Memories in Asia - The German Hamlet

2007-12-21T19:00:00.000-08:00

I once again came to the German hamlet of Asia.

I was invited by Dietmar Doering for the AGSEP's largest get-together at the discotheque and this time with a difference.

My visit to Aquarius this time was many-faceted.

I was supposed to meet Gunder Wagnar, a director of the International Institute of Ratings and Consultancy. Gunder Wagnar served the then East German Air Force as an officer and later started his entrepreneurial activities in the field of insurance. Pascal said he played a key role in insurance for Munich. Latter he directed his interest on the assignment of surveying the tsunami disaster which paved the way for concentrating on the activities of the IIRC.

While I was entering Dietmar Doering's room, I saw a well-built person and I guessed he was Gunder Wagner. I introduced myself. Gunder Wagner was surprised and asked me whether I was the one who wrote those articles. I had sent some of my articles which appeared in the local newspapers, the 'Ultimate Peace or War Again' and 'The Messed Paradise' where I had discussed local politics and international affairs.

Later we both went to our usual meeting place, the restaurant of Aquarius Hotel. While talking I sensed his disappointment with the US Administration of the present and past over several issues.

He is a less-talk and think-more person like his daughter Fredrike and left me to talk more and listened patiently and carefully all the time. His analytical and fact-finding mind kept the flow of information within him.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war, the Russian troops had been completely withdrawn and Russian influence in Germany was a forgotten matter, but the American bases were still occupying German territory under various acts or NATO agreements, giving the impression that Americans are aggressive and intruders.

A similar was felt some time back in Japan after some incidents where US soldiers from the US base in Japan misbehaved with some Japanese girls. There are generally suspicions on countries which have military bases in other countries. There are misunderstandings over even the UN Peace Keeping Forces, though they are under multilateral decisions and their operations were executed by the UN Secretariat and its chief independently. But the misunderstanding over the IPKF in Sri Lanka led both confronting forces join together to pull out the Indian Forces under the Peace-keeping flag.

After a lengthy discussion with Gunther Wagner, I left to have a small nap. The discussion with Gunther Wagner kept recurring, especially the issues on greater European Union and the United States and the future of world peace and harmony in the coming centuries. It is a truism that all major world wars started over minor or even unrelated issues. Hostility on many issues such as economic and military superiority went to create another cold war between the major economic blocs by aligning with some of the Asian and Latin American economic blocs.

After the tsunami disaster, I was extra cautious with the sea, though I could swim fairly well. The sea has more density than tank water, but the waves are always turbulent. I enjoyed sea swimming at the Mount Lavinia beach on the western coast of the island, which is famous since Dutch times. Maritsha was telling some jokes and Stefani, Romy and other Praktikum (Internship) students were laughing all the time. I was laughing without knowing what the jokes were all about. But one knows that laughter is infectious.

Romy spoke once in a way in English and in return I told Maritsha seemed a good joker. I met Maritsha at dinner yesterday. I never met or spoke to her, but gazed at her contemplative expression while she was having her meals. But now looking at her in swim suit and the hectic joking, I thought was work-hard and play-well type of character. My guess was confirmed in a few minutes.

She was a good belly-dancer also, and she was dancing marvellously for a while. The ocean's roaring sound gave good music and melody to her dancing and the beach-sand stage with the surrounding greeneries of coconut trees made it a fascinating time for all of us. Her belly dance took me back to the belly dance performances of Lebanon and Egypt

The German hamlet of Asia is a fascinating for both intellect and fun, giving a sense to life!

German Memories in Asia - The Unsafe World

2007-12-21T18:58:00.000-08:00

Still in South India, some tribal groups who have been marginalized heavily by the rigid Hindu religion and cultural system and caste orthodoxy are still eating rats for their protein as other sources are beyond their means. In India there is competition in every field though one would think the vast Indian Ocean's Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea could give some employment by way of fishing as a source of food. The level of competition could be understood if one moved closely in Indian society. Colonial invaders from Europe and the rest of the world to unknown places of the world from time to time was only part of the problem for those native inhabitants. The world is at times not a safe place for living and creates tragedies and costs lives.

German Memory in Asia - A Day With the Sea Snake

2007-12-21T18:57:00.000-08:00

Marita and Miriam Swimming in the near distance brought my attention back to the world.

I thought it better for me to go back from the sandy beach shore to the restaurant and indulge in my favourite pastime of Ocean watching.

While I was turning my glance from the swimming German Praktikum (Internship) students in the southern direction of the western coastal beach shore, I saw number of tiny crabs. They were very busy on the shiny beach searching food. When I started to move towards the restaurant the crabs suddenly disappeared one by one into little holes on the beach, which was their shelter.

While walking towards the restaurant, a large wave struck against the shore passing me and receded slowly. When the waves receded, a moving object in the distance caught my eye. I wondered what it might be and rushed towards it before it disappeared into the sea. I found it resembled a sea snake or a different variety of fish. At times it looked like a snake moving towards the sea in a snake-like glide.

Before I could get near it, a large wave rolled turbulently towards the shore and the moving object disappeared with the wave into the deep ocean. The Indian Ocean is the home for some of the deadliest sea snakes; the yellow-bellied sea snakes and the black sea snakes. These are widely scattered and more venomous than the rest. The yellow-bellied sea snake which resembles an eel is often mistaken for an eel, accounting for several lives. But the yellow-bellied sea snake rarely comes to the surface confining itself to the seabed of the Indian Ocean.

I worried if it was a sea snake it might reach the students who were just a few meters in a few minutes' time by swimming on the surface with side-ward movements with the help of its laterally compressed tail, which acts as a paddle. The yellow-bellied sea snakes can move quickly by floating by ocean currents.

I stepped further towards sea, but it was a hard task to discern what it was in the heavily moving sea waves from the shore. Though my mind alerted me to quickly warn the students to come out of the sea, I decided to watch the sea surface and the shore for some time to determine whether the object I saw was a live or a dead snake or any other object. I was watching the sea waves closely but saw no sign of it.

I was scared of sea snakes which are venomous and capable of killing a human being within just two hours. The internship students were still in the sea and showed no sign of coming ashore.

I had heard of stories about this particular species of snake, which fisherman occasionally sold as exotic eels when they accidentally get caught in their fishing nets. I have heard stories of its powerful swimming with side-ward floating and being the only sea snake extant on both sides of the Pacific and having the distinction of having reached the Hawaiian Islands other than its habitats in the Indian ocean and its seas around Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, India and Sri Lanka.

Though the yellow-bellied sea snakes are found throughout coastal south eastern Asia, Indonesia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands extending to the western coast of the Americas from Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands north to Baja California and the Gulf of California is very common in the Sri Lankan seas.

A large wave interrupted my thought and the water moved passing me towards the sand shore and observed again there was a tiny thing moving with the returning waves. As I was close by this time I have noted that it was not a deadly sea snake but a dead-sea creature resembling a snake, but not even a fish. When I went close and I found it was a cut-off part of a large cuddle fish's tail.

I heaved a sigh of relief.

My eye sight was turned towards the happily bathing students in the waters of Indian Ocean. I wondered whether they were aware of these tropical sea snakes. The yellow bellied sea snake gripped my mind. I saw some time back a documentary film either in the National Geographic or Discovery channel when it was moving so vivaciously and catching fish. It infuses its neurotoxin venom into the fish and will let it die or partially paralysed and then swallowed it.

The fascinating and terrible way of living in the undersea marine world always makes me wonder.

German Bavaria - The Economic Miracle

2007-12-21T18:56:00.000-08:00

The Aquarius Sports Resort Hotel, though it is located in the sleepy western coastal town of Marawila has got a superb Internet and communication facility, which connects the visiting German Praktikum (Internship) students to Germany and rest of the world. Information & Communication Technology leads the modern world in every field.

One internship student has given me some facts with just a few numbers that will speak louder than words about Germany and especially Bavaria's success in Information & Communication Technology.
I was surprised that the foremost communications site in Germany has more than 100,000 employees and 1,800 companies of which 586 are U.S. companies, all of which are in Bavaria. In fact, Bavaria shares the number one primacy with London for all of Europe and it ranks number four worldwide. How did this happen you may wonder. While there is no single answer, there are numerous contributing factors why so many companies in any imaginable industry felt they needed a base here. Certainly, it has a lot to do with the Bavarian government's tremendous initiative and support through financial incentives and action programs.

An early foray into Internet communications also ensured a rapid dissemination of information and communication technology. Their "Software Initiative" aimed at developing and marketing software sees a close cooperation between research and industry. Last but not least, there are 20 municipal and 9 technology-based incubator centers providing excellent infrastructure close to wherever you may want to locate your company.

Bavaria has its own merits to be proud of its economic achievements. If Germany could be proud as one of the major components, making the European economic-power base, Bavaria could also be proud of its vital role in making Germany a powerful economic nation in Europe. The motorcycle and automobile makers BMW, Bayerische Motoren-Werke or Bavarian Motor Works and Audi, the consumer electronics Grundig, the electricity, telephones, informatics and medical instruments Siemens, Adidas and Puma have or had a Bavarian industrial base to give Bavaria economic super status.

Some students are proud that Bavaria is the only state renowned for its spectacular vistas and unparalleled beauty and comprises more than a third of all German employees in the aeronautics and space technology sectors. They further said that no other single state could make this claim. Furthermore, they pointed out that that is because the state government recognizes the importance of fostering new developments and encouraging the enhancement of existing technologies.

They once again proudly pointed out that it is no surprise that, DASA, Germany's equivalent of NASA, is located in Bavaria. The students went on to say that since 1990 Bavaria has spent about 200 million DM for the promotion of aeronautics and space technology projects called TETRA to develop new materials for reusable space transport systems with an additional 50 million DM spent for research projects.

Now the sky is their limit.

German Memories in Asia - The Beach-Side Celebration

2007-12-21T08:19:00.001-08:00

Walker was very friendly. His long and curly hair resembled that of a Hindu priest.

He was strange looking among the other Germans, especially the German Praktikum (Internship) students. He was a good conversationalist, and though he was not fluent in English, he managed to express himself excellently. He always asked me after every word whether his pronunciation was correct, because the same word in English and German have different sounds.

He told me in the middle of our conversation that the Germans in the northern part of the Germany are very intelligent because the northern land is a so flat everywhere and you could see the horizon everywhere, which induces the people to imagine more and become naturally more intelligent. But he quipped receding from his earlier stand that the people surrounded by the Alps and the surrounding valley regions in Bavaria too could go to the mountaintops and get a wider vision and they too could become more intelligent.

I didn't know whether it's true or not, but in my own experience and by my observations, the people in the northern part of the Indian Ocean's Island - Paradise too were usually considered as intelligent people. I wondered because of these factors, whether others too considered them as intelligent. The flat land everywhere with Palmyra trees in the vicinity might have promoted the intelligence of the people in the Northern flat land too if the Walker was right in his argument.

Walker and his friend who came with the table tennis team from Germany invited me to the beach where the team was playing volleyball. We were seated near the playing field and watching the marvelous finesse of these players. The team has come to celebrate the 2006 New Year celebration in Sri Lanka from Germany and a happy team of many who are in their late sixties to the teens, with a mixture of men and women. There is a girl in her late teens, who attracted me a lot as she was directing her staring eyes to everything in the vicinity around her, and making a deep study of everyone and everything. Two other young ladies and a young girl with an elderly person in his late sixties were playing so marvelously and enthusiastically in the playing ground adjoining the beach near the Indian Ocean.

The twilight has started to turn into complete darkness everywhere. All who played volleyball went towards the sea for a dip after having the long hours of hectic play. The sea was a little calm and quiet and they went a few meters away from the beach and now we couldn't see them as the beech has a steep end towards the sea - level from our sandy beach location. If we wanted to have a look at them we would have to standup, for they may go further towards the deep-sea area. They were there in the sea for nearly half an hour and returned back to the beach.

The young girl was coming towards us as her towel was placed near us. Her slim body silhouetted against the background of deep reddish dark sky, evoked the image more or less of an Angel coming towards us. Her smiling face while she was bending to take her towel was charming adding more to her beauty. She gazed at me with a smile, as I was the only Asian among the Germans in the area. It would have aroused her curiosity as to why I was so attached to the Germans.

She became familiar to me when we were having our dinner at the beach-end restaurant of the Aquarius Sports Resort Hotel as we were sitting at adjoining tables. After the dinner, at her table, those who came from Germany with her started to celebrate the New Year fun - game. They started to play some innovative game, which I haven't come across before or heard about. They were rolling a dice and then the winner in the rotation could select what he wanted from a covered pool of things. They had collected those valuables in Germany and brought them all the way from Germany to hold a celebration in Sri Lanka.

While there were shouting and clapping in the course of the game, she used to look at me often to see whether I was watching the game and enjoying it or drawing my attention towards them.

I gazed with fascination at the stars in the dark sky over the Indian Ocean through the wide window-less side - wall of the restaurant and then turned my attention towards the happy Germans' fun and fantasy in Asia.

The fascination of being at one with two worlds was an unforgettable experience in my life.

German Bavaria - The Wonder Land

2007-12-21T08:17:00.000-08:00

I was seated in one of the chairs at the beach - end table facing the Indian Ocean.

I had hardly seen any objects in the Ocean, but the shining stars in the far distance and the Bavarians near me triggered my thoughts back into the good old Bavaria over the Alps.

Now I could see the several beautiful rivers across Bavaria. The Danube, the Main, the Isar and the Inn were passing so silently. I could also visualise the largest lake in Bavaria, the lake Chiemsee with other picturesque lakes Starnberger and Ammersee near Munich and in the little distance the lake Königssee in Berchtesgaden, which is surrounded by the impressive mountains of the Alps. The lake Bodensee, one of the largest lakes in Europe, which belongs to Bavaria, is silently shining to sun beams.

The scenic panorama of the Bavarian beauty in the vicinity of the Alps lasting for many centuries was saturating my mind. Now I could see with my inward eye the very impressive Alps Mountains with its highest peak Zugspitze offering a breathtaking panorama across several hundreds of peaks with a scenic view of four countries, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. Bavaria is one of the oldest states in Europe.

The ethnic group of the Bavarians had come to be mixed with Romans, Celts and Teutons some 2500 years ago. The Otto of Wittelsbach founded the State of Bavaria. Hitler took over power in 1933 and Bavaria became no longer an independent state. After Germany's capitulation in 1945, the American Forces occupied Bavaria.

The events were moving in my inner eye one by one towards the present day Bavaria. Fredrike Wagner has inspired me a lot on Bavaria and the Munich on our tsunami visit to the Northern part of the Island. When I remember Fredrike Wagner, my mind used to recall the legendary Richard Wagner who revolutionized German opera by making the music secondary to the dramatic action. Still in Bayreuth every year the Wagner festival takes place - a high society event. Wagner's most famous works "The flying Dutchman", "The ring of the Nibelungen" and "Tristan and Isolde" are such fascinating works which could inspire any one in the world.

Bavaria is the largest land of the federal republic of Germany with nearly 18 million people. Munich, the capital of Bavaria with more than 1.2 million inhabitants is one of the dynamic cities in Europe and in the world. A number of German Praktikum (Internship) students from Bavaria told me that the culture in Bavaria is very distinct from the rest of Germany. They have told the differences are very marked still in the rural areas but are less significant in the major cities.

The religious faith in Southern Bavaria is the predominant faith of Roman Catholicism, contrasting with the more Lutheran-Protestantism in the Northern parts of Bavaria. The students told the typical expression of greeting in Bavaria and Austria is: "Grüss Gott!" which means God greet you. Bavaria could be proud of the present pope, Benedict XVI, his name being Joseph Alois Ratzinger who is from the Marktl am Inn in Upper Bavaria.

But when I asked Fredrieke Wagner which religion she is practising, she told simply, "I don't have religion". I wondered and couldn't make out whether she does practise a religion in the Catholic-dominated Bavarian region or she had expressed a mere pleasantry.

I heard that Bavarians resemble the inhabitants of Latin countries and tend to give great attention to their personal appearance, while folks in some other parts of Germany dress more casually. It is fascinating even at business meetings to see southern Bavarians wearing traditional clothing.

Bavarian cities and towns, whether they are rich or poor, are the best looked-after locations in Germany. The students also told me that Bavarians are very proud of their different dialects and most of them speak with a Bavarian, Franconian or Swabian accent.

I also heard from some of the German students and others that the Christian Social Union, which has ruled Bavaria uninterruptedly since 1957, is arguably the most inward looking of the major German political parties, which combines socially conservative positions with an advocacy for extensive involvement of the state in its economy.

German Memories in Asia - Tsunami Memories

2007-12-21T08:16:00.000-08:00

I was a little paralysed over the phenomena, which had suddenly developed in the region by the tsunami tidal waves.

But I took firm hold of my mind and started to speak to people as to what we could do for those who had been affected. I started to phone all my friends who are in influential positions and one was Karu Jayasuriya, a former minister of the Sri Lankan Government for Power & Energy and the Deputy Leader of the main Opposition United National Party. I knew him since he was the Mayor of Colombo.

I asked him for urgent help for the Mullaitivu area where at least 4000 - 5000 people had died. I had visited that area a number of times when I was an officer at CARE International in the war-torn period. Mr. Jayasuriya said Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena, a former Minister for Refugees and Resettlement was coordinating the Party's Northern relief mission.

When I contacted Dr. Jayalath Jayawardene, he showed a great interest and told me there was a German NGO unloading plane load of goods and medicines from Germany to distribute among the tsunami affected people. He told he was planning to visit to North and asked me to coordinate with the Northern Relief Mission.

As the Mullaitivu region was under LTTE control, I spoke to Thaya Master, the LTTE media spokesman and a member of the LTTE's Peace Secretariat. The Peace Secretariat was formed after the Ceasefire Agreement was signed by then Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the LTTE's leader Vellupillai Prabakaran. I finalized with him the arrangements for our visit which would take place in a couple of days time regarding the accommodation for visiting German team.

Dr. Jayalath Jayawardene asked me to visit where the plane-bound cargo containers were being sorted for various tsunami-affected areas in different shipments. When I visited there I was surprised, there were no labourers, only the German intern students were sorting out and packing goods and medicines.

The following morning we were bound on our northern mission, which recalled my days in the CARE International nearly a decade ago as an officer in the UNHCR funded micro projects to assist locally displaced people by the on-going war.

It was so hard to accept an offer to work in a war-torn area leaving my career at a consulting firm, which was headed by Dr. C. Perumal Pillai, a retired Senior Official at the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization. There were many things I gained at Dr. Pillai's consulting firm. While on my fund-raising missions, I met the CEO of Colombo-based Deutsch Bank. He invited me very cordially for a discussion and that was my second encounter with Germans. I explained to him the mission of the NGO, an affiliate of the consultancy firm and its various activities. After he listened to the facts he offered a substantial amount as donation within a few minutes of our meeting.

My first experience with German generosity and kindness nearly a decade ago has gone a long way and when I joined with the German relief mission it once again evoked memories in me. As I traveled with Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena, he introduced me to the German team in Dambulla, a sleepy town in the central part of the Island. The first meeting itself helped me a lot to make friendlier encounter with many of the students. I couldn't meet them the previous day, as they were busy unloading and sorting out goods. I met Dietmar Doring, the founder Director of the Asian - German Sports Exchange Program (AGSEP) which was responsible for the shipment of the plane load of goods and medicines from Germany. I spoke to Ramige, a veteran German documentary filmmaker and his team. We have reassessed our plans once again and moved towards the Northern frontiers.

Our six-vehicle convoy was moving in the Alpha-9 highway, which was famous when the military operation was in full swing some years ago. While I was traveling with the German Praktikum (Internship) students, I was wondering again as to what motivated these young students to serve the affected masses in far away destinations in Asia. The same question assailed my mind a decade ago when I met Maura Barry, then Area Director for Kilinochchi for the CARE International at the first interview at the Colombo head office.

I asked her what made her to leave New York, the world's busiest and technology savvy city to Sri Lanka and especially to Kilinochchi, a war-torn area and the Administrative capital of the LTTE, which was so vulnerable to any aerial attacks.

Her answer was more to analyse than to accept the human instinct to help other wherever they were from.

German Memories in Asia - The Memorable Moments at the German Restaurant

2007-12-21T08:14:00.000-08:00

While I was lost in the beauty of the scenic Indian Ocean's panorama, some movements in the restaurant draw my attention.

Casting a glance over there, I noticed that Marita Kantar is just wandering there, thinking of something seriously in the center part of the restaurant. She has come back again to continue her research after two months away from the Resort in Germany.

Marita is a dynamic student from the then East German part of Germany. She was doing her undergraduate studies in the field of managing social sciences at the Wismar University in the scenic Wismar City of Baltic sea area. She coordinated with me to organize the "Night of a Thousand Dinners" - a success at the Aquarius Sports Resort Hotel.

While I was approaching her she was surprised and said: "It is nice to see you again". I too felt so and as was the first day of the New Year, I greeted her with New Year Best Wishes. I once again thanked her for her valuable coordination in organizing the event.

Suddenly interrupting my thought, a small girl around four to five years came screaming and shouting towards us. She had come with her parents from Germany for the New Year vacation. She was playing with all of us around there. Eva was holding one of her hands and hugging her. They were standing near the dinning table next to our chairs.

When I looked at her and said: "Hallo" she too repeated it with a smile.

After I wished Eva a happy New Year and extended my hand towards the small girl, she so smartly took my hand and greeted me with gentle smile. I was surprised by her etiquette. I just rubbed her upper shoulder and asked: "How are you", she broke into a lovely smile as an answer to my question.
When Marita extended her hand, she wished her with great cordiality.

The following day when we were at breakfast, she was running around every table and telling a number of stories to each and every one around there. She came to me and was waving a coconut-leaf said that it was a "snake". I was wondering as to where she has seen a snake whether in Germany or in Sri Lanka or in a zoo.

Walker was translating to me all her stories, which she was narrating to me in her mother tongue, German. Her father was watching from a distance at the restaurant with a smile. I felt from their joyous mood that they were relishing their trip to Sri Lanka. Her mother was tenderly hugging her infant son on her lap.

A driver of the Aquarius Resort approached them and greeted them affectionately.

The whole atmosphere in the restaurant was one of love and fascination.

German Memory in Asia - Memories of the War

2007-12-21T08:11:00.000-08:00

Our vehicles were moving on the Palaly road, my one time usual path in the school days, which link the Jaffna town and the Palaly Airport.

The German Praktikum (Internship) students were keenly gazing at the surroundings.

We were passing the junction where once thirteen Sri Lankan soldiers died in an LTTE ambush and the event thereafter erupted into terrible violence in the South of the Island where at least thousands of Tamils were massacred by the angry mob in 1983 and turned the ethnic crisis into one of international import. Sri Lanka also became one of the world's severe examples where lack of political system to govern the different ethnic, religious, language groups harmoniously led to chaos.

The colonial forces that united different politico-cultural territories and people together failed to come out with a suitable political system when they left their colonies and left us with mess and chaos.

Our vehicles were moving near Kondavil, a sleepy village in the Peninsula where my family was there for more than a decade.

Once in the very beginning of the war in the early eighties, we some friends were talking under a large shady tree. When a jeep was turning at the junction some hundred meters away and coming towards us, the speed we showed out of panic to escape was a silent witness to the horror of the war and the terror under which we were living then.

In the middle of the war in the late eighties one day, we all were highly puzzled by the fast moving supersonic jets circling around over the Peninsula in the sky. We were wondering which country had entered the sky and was wondering whether it was India, China or the US. While we were in highly anxious speculation, we had seen number of cargo planes in the sky releasing parachute-aided cargo everywhere in the Peninsula. We realized in a while what was happening.

The Indian Government had sent the message to then Sri Lankan government to halt its operation in the Peninsula.

The military offensive had caused hundreds of civilian casualties in the Peninsula. India sent initially by sea the food and medicines but the Sri Lankan Government prevented it. This led to the so-called "Operation Garland" that we had seen over the Peninsula on June 4, 1987; the air-drop of 24 tons of relief supplies by five AN-32 Russian Antanov cargo planes escorted by four French Mirage 2000H Supersonic fighter Jets.

Later on Rajiv Gandhi, then Indian Prime Minister visited Sri Lanka and signed the Indo-Lanka Agreement on July 29, 1987 with then Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene. Immediately after the announcement of the Agreement through media, we had seen India's superiority in the region by the flight of large Jets over the sky towards the Palaly Airport.

The LTTE leader was airlifted from India to the Jaffna Peninsula.

The Sri Lankan Army arrested LTTE senior members in the shallow seas of the Bay of Bengal. When they were forcibly taken to Colombo for investigation, they swallowed cyanide and died instantly.

In the Jaffna peninsula warring clouds started to loom once again. The LTTE blamed the Indian forces for their cadres' death and started to attack the Indian troops. Indian troops also started to attack in a massive way. Diplomacy was at its lowest ebb.

The IPKF commenced its operations, code-named 'Operation Pawan' on the night of October 11, 1987 in the Peninsula against LTTE. The Indian Army started to advance towards LTTE-controlled Jaffna Fort from all directions from the Palay Airport and other areas.

Soviet infantry BMP-1 fighting vehicles and Soviet-designed main T-72 battle tanks were rolling over the Palaly Road which was heavily mined.

The LTTE used snipers from the buildings, treetops and even coconut palms equipped with powerful telescopic infrared sights causing heavy casualties to the IPKF.

The events were moving like a Hollywood action- thriller.

People were fleeing from the heart of the peninsula leaving the Palaly Road and other major roads to interior areas. My mother, brother and sisters fled to the nearest small Islands. I was left alone with my sick grandmother and the poultry, which I was rearing as a hobby and for my pocket expenses.
While I was shifting the poultry after my grandmother the artillery shells were falling everywhere and blasting like thunder.

I had hardly seen people in the streets on my way. Even I couldn't see the dogs in the streets. Broken branches of the trees caused by artillery shelling, littered the streets. The exploding shells were at times deafening my ears while I was riding on the pushbike and I thought I might have ended up in a disaster very soon. But nothing happened fortunately and I escaped from the shelling range. I managed to sell the poultry to a farm and joined with my grandmother.

The old events were just like yesterday rolling into mind when our vehicles were moving on the Palaly Road.

German Memories in Asia - A Tsunami Mission to Northern Jaffna

2007-12-21T07:08:00.000-08:00

We reached closer to the high security zone of the expanded Palaly Army camp area.

Our vehicles stopped near a military barrier manned by the Sri Lankan Army. There were two pick-up vehicles coming towards us, and the officers started to check our identification. Thereafter one pick-up vehicle drove in front of our vehicles and the other one came behind. We were travelling under military escort towards the Palaly Army camp, the main base in the Jaffna Peninsula.

We could see both sides of the road-abandoned houses once occupied by the Jaffna residents. By the on-going war, they deserted those houses and after the consecutive governments declaration as the high security zone, the one residential area had become a ghost - area. Only the Army points at every other few meters were seen. The destruction resembled worse than that of the Bosnian and Afghan ghost towns.

Our vehicles were passing the abandoned houses into the military camp area negotiating many bend and curves and reached near the Airport area. The Palaly Airport had turned into a domestic Airport and an Air force base. It doesn't have a long runway. Those days the Airport was a stopover for many school-going students on visits.

I had visited in the school days nearly three decades ago that area. I had hardly seen any military base at that time. Even near the runway, we could have seen farmers busy in cultivation. But those days were beyond recall now.

Our vehicles were finally stopped near the military hospital in the base. The German relief team was waiting for the visit of Major General Sunil Thennakoon, the Sri Lankan Army Commander of Jaffna.

The students started to unload the medicines and handing them over to the Army officers. But Fredrike Wagner suddenly interfered and asked other intern students to stop for a while the unloading. She told, "We should wait until Dietmar Doring comes". He had gone to meet the Maj. Gen. at his office with Dr. Jayalath.

When Maj. Gen. came to the premises and met the German Praktikum (Internship) students and others, I had a good conversation with him for a while. He told us how a Sri Lankan Army soldier helped to rescue a Tamil boy when he was carried away by the tsunami waves, but he died by subsequent heavy waves.

We finished our mission in the Army base and proceeded to the next destination, a collecting center for tsunami victims in a far-flung northern part of the Jaffna Peninsula. We were passing nearly a three-mile long road passing over the Jaffna Lagoon in its both sides.

Sea gulls were in the distant vicinity circling over the Jaffna lagoon with other small seabirds and creating various sounds. The kites in their turn in the distant sky were moving and turning like gliders in slow motion and making the evening lagoon a carnival of birds. We were moving enjoying nature's wonder along the narrow and lengthy passage.

For the German internship students the tropical Asian beauty of different kinds might have created a joy in their mind. They were filming the beautiful scenes with much enthusiasm.

We had finally reached the last destination of our northern mission. The collecting center was looking after various camps, which was harbouring some of the affected families in the Northern coastal areas facing the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean.

Dietmar Doring and Dr. Jayalath were having a meeting with the relief coordinators there. The students were keenly watching, pondering on what they were discussing. After the meeting the students were once again busy in their relief work by unloading the final stock of medicines and equipment. Once the unloading was over a smile of satisfaction seemed to dwell on every face.

We began our journey back to the south.

German Memories in Asia - The Memorable Moments of Our Tsunami Mission

2007-12-21T07:07:00.000-08:00

We were moving fast and in a few minutes we reached the military barrier. We didn't have any difficulty crossing the military and LTTE barriers.

While on our way the kerosene-lit houses made us wonder whether we were in this century or some centuries behind. By the time we reached the Kilinochchi town the German Praktikum (Internship) students were in a sleepy mood.

We stopped at the "Pandyan" restaurant for dinner. We savoured the hospitality of the restaurant during the last two-day stay in Kilinochchi. I was sitting next to Dr. Jayalath and at our table were Fredrike Wagnar, Dietmar Doring and some other German intern students.

Fredrike Wagnar had had stomach up-set for a few days since her visit into the jungle interior. The spicy foods might have caused it. But one cannot rule out that the micro-organisms in the water too might have contributed to it. Some of the micro-organisms in the small ponds were deadly and caused even deaths in the past. Fredrike was using canned mineral water and there was no chance micro-organisms got into her system.

Dr. Jayalath was telling me "why you can't advise her that what she is eating is not good for her". But I kept silent not wanting to spoil her appetite. Though Dr. Jayalath repeatedly asked me to advise her, I refrained.

One could not help watching Fredrike's care and concern at the restaurant garden when she was tending to an infant who was with the mother inside a van. Fredrike extended one of her fingers into the tiny palm, and the infant immediately seized Fredrike's finger as tightly as possible. I noticed Freidke was enjoying those moments. The basic mother-child instinct was reflected in those moments.

We began our departure from Kilinochchi and our vehicles sped along to reach the barriers of the LTTE and Sri Lanka Army. The students were in a drowsy mood. We reached the LTTE barrier in a couple of hours and passed it without difficulty.

We were moving in the no-man-zone, a one-time heavily mined territory. Though at the LTTE barrier a huge board gave warning of land mines, there were casualties. A herd of cattle and wild animals were maimed or killed. Such deadly mines around the world were laid even in deserts. Ironically while the cost to produce a landmine is as little as three US dollars removing it cost much more than thousand US dollars.

We approached the military barrier and again we had to stop for the clearance. The military officers were coming to us in a jovial mood and trying to talk to some of the German students. We couldn't use the usual main highway and had to deviate from it before we joined the highway again. It was likely that the highway could have been mined.

I was worried when the students stepped into the side-ways as though to satisfy an adventurous instinct or may be out of happiness. The landmines issue is a global problem. These deadly landmines kill and maim hundreds of civilians every year in Iraq.

In the Kurdistan territory of Northern Iraq about one person a day steps on a mine. Afghanistan is boasting ironically having the largest industry not other than the de-mining.

We finally cleared from the last barrier of our northern mission and were moving further towards South. Our vehicles in a few minutes drive, stopped near the Vavuniya town once again for having tea break. Vavuniya is the heavily guarded last town in the northern mainland of the Island, which is controlled by the Sri Lankan Government. But the town is under the heavy influence of LTTE.

As it was midnight, and the streets were deserted, We could hardly see people in the streets. Some of the students roamed the streets leisurely. They awed by the eerie atmosphere of the war-ravaged town's calm. We had short eats and tea at one of the few open hotels.

After a while of relax we started our journey once again. We reached a junction in Anuradhapura, an ancient historical city of the Island, where one road led to the hill country and the other towards the western coastal area of the Island.

The time had now come to bid goodbye. I wished them all and when Freidka's turn came I observed that she looked uncomfortable. Her soft nature once again confirmed her emotional reactions.

I got in to Dr. Jayalath's vehicle, which was going to Colombo. Dietmar Doring, students and others were heading towards western direction to Aquarius Sports Resort Hotel in Maravila where the AGSEP in operation.

Our memorable tsunami relief mission had thus come to an end.

German Memory in Asia - Crossing the War-Torn Border

2007-12-21T07:01:00.000-08:00

German Praktikum(Internship) students were keenly watching the evening phenomenon over the Jaffna Lagoon. Twilight was in its last moments of our Northern Mission for the second day.

We reached the LTTE checking point in another half an hour's time and the night was upon us. We all parked our vehicle for clearance. Though we had a clearance from the LTTE in a few minutes, the LTTE had to determine from the Army checking point which was few meters away, whether they could allow us to enter into the Sri Lankan Army-controlled territory as we were past the deadline of the day to cross the No Mans Zone.

The new development in having a direct rapport between two points of the frontiers of the warring factions was a credit to the Ceasefire Agreement between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government, which was facilitated by Norway with the backing of the international community. There were times they used to infiltrate into opposite areas and inflicted heavy casualties and losses.

We had come near the barrier of the LTTE's exit point, but had to wait as we were still not given clearance to enter into the Army's front. Some of the students got down from the vehicle. I too got down from the vehicle and went near the barrier, which was heavily guarded by LTTE male and female cadres.

Some female LTTE cadres in their unique uniform approached us. The German female students smiled at them and developed cordiality with them. The students gifted some chocolates, which they had brought with them to the LTTE's female cadres. I introduced the Singhalese couple to the LTTE's female cadres.

They were trying to speak to the Singhala couple with the few Singhala words they knew.
The female cadres had shown more interest to acquaint themselves with the German female students.
While we were passing our time so leisurely and joyfully, we could sense a fusion of the different cultures and tastes. It was a fascinating moment on our northern tsunami relief mission.

The LTTE officer in charge of the point informed us that we could move towards the Sri Lankan Army-controlled area. The German female students and female LTTE cadres greeted each other once again.
Our vehicles started to move towards the military checkpoint. Two officers came towards us and Dr. Jayalath spoke to them. We were allowed to get in. Passing the barrier we stopped near a military camp.

A captain who was in-charge of the point came near us and was talking to Dr. Jayalath and Dietmar Doring. The students alighted from the vehicle and were taking in the surroundings with much enthusiasm.
For them it was such a strange experience. They were quite young when the Berlin Wall, a vestige of the Second World War was demolished after the reunion of both Germanys at the end of the cold war and the collapse of the USSR. They didn't experience the hostility of the occupied forces and the trauma, which was caused by the erection of the Berlin Wall, but had only heard about it.

After the European Union emerged as the central body to keep Europe free of wars and economically united, it further removed hostilities between the adjoining European countries and to the German students the past nightmare was mere recall.

But when they were exposed to the military points and the warring hostility in a foreign land, they might have harked back to the events in Germany several decades ago, giving them a feel of the experience of a past coming alive. They were startled whenever they closed in on military camps.

We were talking to few of the junior officers about our mission. The hostile environment was still prevailing. The area was so vulnerable to confrontation though there had been a written Ceasefire Agreement with a new development where after the General Election in 2004, the Government, which signed the agreement with LTTE, lost at the polls.

The change of governmental power impacted on military affairs as well, and created chaos in the warring fronts. The Army gave us clearance and we started journeying towards Jaffna.

We were moving fast as there were no vehicles around which would have made our progress slow.

German Memories in Asia - An Exploration Into Ancient Jaffna

2007-12-21T06:59:00.000-08:00

When we reached Jaffna, the German students were gazing at the surroundings of the Jaffna city. My mind went far back when looking at those war-ravaged buildings to the times where the Naga Kingdom was flourishing in various parts of the Jaffna Peninsula.

But the Jaffna Peninsula since then had a hazardous time for long periods as history tells us.

It is said that Lord Buddha visited Jaffna to resolve a crisis over a jewel between the Naga Chieftains and introduced Buddhism to them. Archeological findings in Kantharodai, Nagadeepa, and Vallipuram areas in the Jaffna Peninsula are evidences to prove the existence of Buddhism. Long before Buddhism crept into some areas of the Jaffna peninsula the Nagas who lived in Jaffna were worshiping Lord Shiva. The Nagas were good sea traders and Ptolemy who lived between 85 A.D. and165 A.D. and travelled around the Island observed that one of the oldest seaports of Sri Lanka was in the Northern part of the Jaffna Peninsula and was used since 6th century B.C.

Though the Nagas ruled the North of the Island, a formal Jaffna Kingdom came into being by the ambitions of two chieftains, one Kalinga Magha from Orissa, India and Chandrabhanu from Malacca in the Malay Straits region of Malaysia.

In 1215 the aggressive Kalinga Maga conquered Sri Lanka with his powerful army from Kalinga. Kalinga was an ancient Indo - Aryan Kingdom of central-eastern India, in the province of Orissa. The kingdom had a formidable maritime empire with trading routes linking Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Bali, Sumatra and Java. Colonists from Kalinga settled in far away places such as Sri Lanka, Burma as well as the Indonesian archipelago. Even today Indians are referred to as Klings in Malaysia because of the early Indian invasions from Kalinga into Malaysia. Many Sri Lankan kings, both Sinhalese and Tamil, claimed to have descended from Kalinga dynasties.

TheYakkas and Nagas might have become the outcasts as bondsmen and slaves, after the Indo-Aryan immigrants conquered them and became the lords and aristocrats. And finally they might have assimilated within the dominant society.

What happened to Nagas and Yakkas in the Island points to the ultimate cause of the rise and fall of the civilizations are according to their racial homogeneity and nothing else - a nation can survive wars, defeats, natural catastrophes, but not racial dissolution.

Jaffna Peninsula under Kalinga Maga's rule was so controversial. His rule was the worst marauding regime that had existed in the Island according to historians.

In 1247 Chandrabhanu invaded the Island with the aid of Indian armies from the Malayan peninsula and inflicted heavy damages on the Kalinga Maga domain. Although Chandrabhanu's invasion was repulsed in 1263 he managed to capture the areas in the Jaffna Peninsula that were then under Kalinga Maga.

The Jaffna Kingdom was dominated by the South Indian Pandyan Empire, a dravidic empire in the 13th Century after they defeated Chadrabanu. The development of the Dravidic tribes in the past twenty centuries gave rise to states like Pallava, Pandy, Chola, Chera and Vijayanagar kingdoms in Southern India. From time to time one or the other of these Dravidian states reached pre-eminence but indubitably the greatest of these was the Chola Empire, which encompassed not only south India but the entire region up to the Ganges in Northern India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives to the south to Malaya and Sumathra in the east.

The political socio-economic and cultural impact and influence of this empire was very great. All these Dravidian kingdoms had a lasting political socio-economic and cultural impact and influence on Sri Lanka and in the region to a very great extent.

After lasting for over 400 years the Dravidian influenced Jaffna Kingdom finally lost its independence to the Portuguese in 1621. The Portuguese captured the King of Jaffna Sangili Kumaran and had taken him to Goa in India along with his sons. After trial, the Portuguese found him guilty of treason and hanged him along with his sons. With the Jaffna Kingdom's demise, the only indigenous independent political entity that was not Sinhalese and Buddhist in character came to an end in the Island.

While we were moving along the Jaffna streets, the repercussions of the fall of Jaffna Kingdom seemed to reverberate with a mysterious silence everywhere.