Tag: Germany
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GEORGE AUGUST WEBERT (1819-1903)
George August Webert was born on 25 August 1819 in the village of Olberode, which is now located in Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, Hessen, Germany. His parents were Johann Webert (1788-1869) and Anna Fröhlich (1785-1856). He had one known sibling, Magdalena Webert (1816-1884). Magdalena remained in Olberode her entire life and married Johann Adam Diehl. Olberobe Olberode lies almost in the center of Germany about 100 km northeast of Frankfurt. It is located in the Knüllgebirge, which is a low mountain range in the Aula river valley. The area is characterized by rolling hills, forests and agricultural…
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THE LEGEND OF THE ULM SPARROW
My friend, Karl-Heinz Linke, has a reputation for exaggerating the truth when he tells stories. He’s the kind of guy who is always pulling your leg, so to speak. So, when he told Padma and me about the legend of the Ulm Sparrow, we assumed it was another one of his yarns. Karl-Heinz insisted it was true and to prove it he and his wife, Hiltrud, took us to Ulm to learn of the legend ourselves. We were told that 80% of the city had been destroyed during World War II,…
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UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE LAST WINE WALK
A year ago today I became unemployed. It was a great day. A fantastic day, in fact. My dearest German friends, the Schnells and Linkes, drove many hours from Tauberbischofsheim and Illerbachen to help Padma and me mark the day … and for the more sombre task of helping us pack up our household for shipping to Australia. When our friends arrived at our home in Oberwinter they felt they made a wrong turn and ended up in Bavaria instead of Rheinland-Pfalz as I greeted them in my Oktoberfest garb, which…
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ALL BY OURSELVES.
I finally got that long-awaited gin and tonic. Or rather three gin and tonics. The Qatar Airways flight attendant keep bringing them to me. Maybe he sensed the cloud of stress above me, the mild stench of anxiety surrounding me or the furrows of worry on my face. With each G&T all of those emotions were replaced with just one: relief. We are on our way home to Australia. After three months of living in limbo with the constant fear of not getting home as the Australian Government played with our…
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ON THE TRAIL OF MARTIN LUTHER
Padma and I look at a different kind of map these days when planning our travel destinations. Instead of maps with tourist attractions we look at the map showing the incidence of COVID. And after studying the map we could tell that the former East German states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt had very low rates of COVID infections. So we packed the car and embarked on a roadtrip. But we did have a mission in mind. We wanted to explore the old stomping grounds of arguably the most famous German –…
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STRANDED!
Padma, Joseph and I have something in common with 19,000 … or 100,000 depending on who is counting … Aussies. We can’t get home. Yet there are plenty of airlines eager to fly us to Australia and no shortage of hotels who will quarantine us and who are desperate to fill empty rooms. In July, the Australian Government capped the number of incoming passengers to 4,000 a week. Out of that pool, Western Australia can receive 575 a week and the airline we booked on, Qatar Airlines, can only take 30…
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NEGATIV
‘Are we being responsible?’ Padma asked me on the first day of our journey through France and Spain. I thought for a long time and tried to spin it so that I could justify our travels during a global pandemic. ‘No,’ I said. ‘Responsible people would stay home.’ But like tens of thousands of other Europeans we were on the road for summer holidays. Non-essential travel. But does a global pandemic really mean we can’t have some vestiges of our former lives? Before leaving we consulted many friends who strongly encouraged…
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THE RETURN TICKET
Three years ago today, I got a bit emotional as I bid farewell to the family home and friends of 22 years. Joseph and I were en route on an epic father/son adventure to the Georgian Caucasus Mountains and after that I was heading off to an even greater adventure – a new job in a new country, all sight unseen. If you gamble, you either win or lose. Three years ago, Padma, Joseph and I gambled everything we had. We sold our beloved home in the Adelaide Hills, packed everything…
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WE’RE NOT KARNEVAL PEOPLE
Karneval has once again arrived in Germany; and once again Padma and I have tried to avoid it. The partying, the drinking, the craziness, the costumes … it’s just not our scene. Maybe we’re just fuddy duddies. So when our neighbour sent a text and asked if we wanted to join them at a Karneval parade, Padma and I instantly went into ‘think up of a good excuse’ mode. Padma started typing our apologies and then abruptly deleted the message. ‘No,’ she said. ‘This year we’re going to make an effort.’…
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