On the 8th of October I wrote a letter to the editor to the local paper in response to a letter which has expressed some doubt about the efficacy of public transportation safety training for children:

Ich teile Donatus Thaers Skepsis, was ein Sicherheitstrainingfür Bus und Bahn angeht. Gut, dass es diesen Crashkurs als Anfang gibt. Dem Staat wird es aber nicht gelingen, den Kindern ordentliches Verhalten, höfliches Benehmen und Geduld beizubringen. Da sind wir alle gefragt. Die Medien machen uns Angst, aber ich behaupte ganz frech: Man kann ja eingreifen und mit einigen höflichen Worten und Gesten etwas machen, ohne gleich von einem Jugendlichen abgestochen zu werden.

Die Frage ist, ob wir Erwachsene heutzutage dazu in der Lage sind. Das sind ja schließlich die gleichen Erwachsenen, die in der Bäckerei oder Metzgerei demonstrativ keine übersichtliche Schlange bilden. Es sind die Gleichen, die im Supermarkt aneinander vorbei stürmen, wenn eine zweite Kasse aufgemacht wird anstatt geduldig und ethisch-logisch den weiter vorne Stehenden die erste Wahl der Kasse zu lassen.

Es sind auch nach meiner Bahn-Erfahrung Erwachsene, die direkt vor der Tür stehen, wenn ich mit einem schweren Koffer aussteigen will. Dabei gucken sie mich genervt an, als würde ich im Wege stehen. Ich muss zugeben, dass dort auch meine Hemmschwelle liegt. Ich sage auch nichts, wenn die Herde die Kasse stürmt. Dabei kriegen die Kinder alles mit und machen uns nach.

Yesterday's paper has now reported that a 28-year-old man who tried to stop some men who were insulting customers in a supermarket was beaten up by the men he approached: http://www.tagblatt.de/Home/nachrichten/nachrichten-newsticker_artikel,-Supermarkt-Poebler-greifen-Mann-an-_arid,82330.html.

I don't know who the victim was, but I would like to offer him my thanks for speaking up.

Ich habe ein Chorheft von einer Hannah Meret Mohr gefunden. Darauf steht "3/4er Chor bei F. Mahl". Ich habe bei vielen Schulen in Tübingen nachgefragt und noch keine/n "Mahl" gefunden. Noch habe ich im Telefonbuch die Eltern von Hannah ausfindig machen können.

Das Heft fand ich in der Bäckerei beim Hallenbad Nord.

This morning at 11:00 on the Tübingen Market Square 1701 recorder players (Blockflöte) from Tübingen and nearby towns gathered to perform two German Christmas songs (Mach hoch die Tür and Morgen kommt der Weihnachtsmann) directed by Christina Schütz-Bock from the music school. That breaks the previous record of 556 players set in Hong Kong in July of 2003.



The event was sponsored by the local newspaper Schwäbisches Tagblatt and the Tübingen music school and attended by mayor Boris Palmer. The newspaper encouraged participation by agreeing to donate 1 Euro to a local charity (Youth-Life-Line) for each participant. Each recorder player who showed up and participated was also given a certificate. More players came than expected, however, so they ran out of certificates at 1200 and several hundred people had to go without!

	Gottfried warming up.
	Lots of music clubs brought their signs.
	Tagblatt editor Janßen introduces the mayor.
	Tuebingen showing off and getting ready.
	The crowd filled the market square from front to back.
	Noemi and Katharina playing along.

Lots more pictures and video (in German) available at http://tagblatt.de/35659352

What a fantastic place to live.

A short time ago, it became known that the so-called Young National Democrats, a group of what are essentially neo-Nazis, was going to have a demonstration here in Tübingen. The city council tried to prevent it, but there were no legal means of stopping the demo from going forward. So instead, the city and people of Tübingen decided on a counter-demonstration. Quickly, the forces of societal self-organization kicked into motion and literally dozens of projects and ideas were underway.

When Saturday finally came, I went into town with my son to see what was going on. It was unbelievable. We had missed the central demonstration at the market square and the political speeches, but the "Citizens' Festival," as it was being called, was in full swing. There were anti-fascist and "autonomous" groups of youth near the train station which made it look like Tübingen was gearing for a fight. But further into town, everyone was out and about. There were stands and activities by political parties, Greenpeace, churches, unions, choirs, the German-American-Institute, and other organizations. There was street basketball, a moon bounce, singing, musicians, sidewalk cafes, etc. There was a strong police presence, but so far, it didn't look like they had anything to do. On our return home about noon, we detoured past the train station. That is where the Nazis were still "hiding" and lots of people - hundreds, thousands - had shown up to "greet" them.

It did not have the look of a normal political confrontation. The demonstrators were everyone. It was a total demographic reflection of the city, not a mob of angry youth or a chorus of striking doctors or anything else at all unitary. There were lots and lots of "normal" people: old people, parents with their small children, baby buggies, toddlers up on shoulders carrying balloons, some "leftist"-looking youth, students, etc. There was a percussion group raising a storm with their drums. There were banners against Nazis and pro-tolerance. There were sunflowers. There were red and black flags, including the flag of the Marxist Leninist German Communist Party. There was a Christian banner as well and an Israeli flag! It was simply unbelievable.

Someone was exhorting the people in the crowd to not engage in violent acts when the police took down the barrier and the Nazis marched out. We were supposed to be especially careful for all the children nearby!

We had to go and didn't see what came of it. A witness later told us that he saw about 15 Nazis later that day, standing in a small bunch, surrounding by hundreds of normal people. According to the news, there were about 230 Nazis total - vs. about 10,000 counter-demonstrators. The encounter at the train station took the form of purely verbal altercations and nobody was hurt.

The Nazis had known Tübingen to be what they call a "white area" - an area where they have no influence. They came to show themselvse and exert influence. My suspicion is that they only discovered how totally hopeless their cause is in Tübingen.

Here are some pictures of the counter-demonstration at the train station. Click to enlarge:


Links:
The main link for pictures, videos and news in German is: http://www.tagblatt.de/index.php?artikel_id=35642979
See lots of pictures at http://www.tagblatt.de/index.php?artikel_id=35642863

A friend of mine over at Tübingen Progressive Americans just set up a Wiki http://bluwiki.com/go/Tuebingens_Coopfor discussing issues of economic justice and alternatives to capitalism. I have joined and already started in. The examples for things like using Tü-Taler as alternative currency and "the Smal-Mart Revolution" are going to be primarily about local doings here in Tübingen, so it looks interesting.

Intellectual towns like Tübingen hold all kinds of surprises. You can even run into Montana-educated Hondurans! That happened to me recently, as a matter of fact. I met Miguel Romero teaching English classes at the German-American Institute. He does several classes including the English conversation group for bilingual kids that my daughter goes to. We got to talking about this and that and it turns out his "real" job is art. Check out the sketches, paintings and sculptures at his webpage: www.miguelromero.net.

My friend and co-conspirator David Whizen has opened his mediation practice here in Tübingen. He doesn't have a webpage yet, but you can call him about conflict resolution in families, the workplace, and among neighbors, for consulting in German or English, at 07071-992025.

This afternoon and evening I will be attending anniversary events in remembrance of Reichskristallnacht in Tübingen, the day in 1938 when synagogues were torched and Jews harassed and murdered all over Germany. I will blog them at my Sites of Memory blog soon.

I reported on two of these events last year.