Yes....yes....yes it is about the Pope again! What can I say? The good must give way to the better!
We have one! The catholic church has a newly baked Pope. He was just baked? Yes he was. He was Jorge Mario Bergoglio, and today he was baked Pope by 115 electoral candidates. And he baked himself to be Francis I. or Francisco I. or Francesco I.
The Jesuit is from Argentina, he loves football and prefers to drive with the public transport instead of taking a car, what do we want more?
Is he going to be the pope of the public again? Just as JP II was? Is he going to be a mixture of Ratzinger and Karol Wojtyla? The theological sharpness combined with an immense charismatic approach in addition to a particular humour? Possibly we just have to give him time and freedom for him to settle down and find out how to best steer this big ship.
Benedetto XVI. & Jorge Mario Bergoglio
If you ask my personal opinion, which you possibly do not do, but which I will give anyway, have a very good feeling about him. And I think we can look forward to a enthralling, revolutionary time, accompanied by a good portion of humour.
115 cardinal-electors come together today at 10 am to celebrate the mass "pro eligendo romano pontifice" in the St. Peters Basilica in Rome.
The rock´n roll in the Sistine Chapel starts at 4.30pm.
The Cardinals met on monday in order to discuss the biggest current problems of the catholic church and discussed about the requirements the next Pope shoul fullfil.
A 2/3 majority is needed until the election can be called final. The previous elections of Benedict XVI took 4 ballots. John Paul the II. election took 8 ballots. Is it today only going to take them 2 ballots?
When Ratzinger got elected in 2005, he was standing out as clear favourite. Is that the case today?
There are some names that every now and then get dropped by the media such as Milans Cardinal Angelo Scola, Peter Turkson from Ghana, Brasilian Odilo Scherer, the Canadian Marc Ouellet or the Archbishop of Vienna cardinal Schoenborn. But there is no constant spot on one of them.
Angelo Scola, Italys dreamcandidate
Cardinal Peter Turkson, Ghana
Cardinal Marc Ouellet
Cardinal Odilo Scherer, Brasil
Cardinal Schoenborn, Austria, Vienna
We did have two European, non italian popes, is the next one going to be an italian again? Or is there the need of a South American or African one, since those countries make a huge amount of the catholic Population. Is it not only just that the next Pope is going to be "one of them"?
"We stay Pope" claim the German newspapers, "Soon a Pope with a generous heart" claims the Italian newspaper Corriere dela Sera. We are Pope. Who is Pope?
The election could last days, weeks or month, but the cardinals agreed that they will want to get through with it as soon as possible so that at the highest feats of the Catholic Church, Easter , the seat of the Pontifex will no longer be empty.
It is a pulsating time that is lying infront of us and all that we can do is pray that the holy spirit travels into the hearts and minds of the 115 cardinal electors and that the best possible candidate is elected to lead the 1,2 billion big Catholic community.
The ballots have been printed and cut, the two stoves have been installed, and the chimney has been put in place. Ready to rumble.
Sometimes there is just a proudness overcoming oneself. Not being proud of yourself but of somebody you know or you admire or simply respect for the great thing they have established.
Today there was such a moment.
I came across with a genius idea a friend together with some friends had. A newsportal where just one topic is published daily and one has the possibility of finding out what each newspaper thinks about this particular topic. The webpage is called pressekompass.net and deserves every right to be celebrated!
It is the old often asked question, who was there first, the chicken or the egg?
Who was actually first? Someone must have laid the egg so defenitely the chicken was first, but did the chicken not come out of the egg? It is a fiddly question and I think that the chicken is actually not a chicken but a stork, well it is a chicken now but it was a stork then. So the stork laid the egg, so the real question must be was the egg there before or was it the stork, but no one eats stork eggs so the question is irrelevant and afterall the egg was not produced by the stork it was just brought by it.
Once in a quizshow. There were an Australian and a priest competing
against each other. Their scores were equal, so they had to create a
verse about "Timbuktu".
The priest began:
"I was a father, all my life,
had no children, had no wife.
I read the Bible, through and through.
On my way to Timbuktu."
Then the Australian told his version:
"When Tim and I to Brisbane went,
we met three ladies cheap to rent.
They were three and we were two,
so I booked one and Tim booked two!"
Where is your home? Where you grew up? Where your family is?
I have one strong continous home which was always there and which marked me tremendously but I have other homes, which I call my home, because I lived there with my family and they grew to an important part to my life. I never called a home my home, where my brothers and parents did not live.
Until some days ago, where for the first time I referred to Buckingham as my home. Is that growing up?
MY homes, and is it not incredible that you can just easily go on googlemaps and actually allocate the houses you are looking for, eventhough you are miles away from them?
Donnerstag, 28. Februar 2013
Max Raabe has the astonishing gift of taking you back into the 20s. His facial expressions can be of tremendous wittiness as well as of seriousness. Listening to him allows us to travel back in time and get the slightest feeling of how things were back then.
It is one of those books that you can read when you are twelve and read it again when you have grown older, it will satisfy you at both times because the depth is an incredible one.
“I am looking for friends. What does that mean -- tame?"
"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. "It means to establish ties."
"To establish ties?"
"Just
that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little
boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have
no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you I am
nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you
tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in
all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world....”
“Goodbye, said the fox. And now here is my
secret, a very simple secret. It is only with the heart that one can
see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
It was in St. Petersburg 13th of February 2007, the whole airport was covered in snow a black Volga picked me up and brought me to"my babushka" driving through the big alleys, moskovskian Prospect being one of them. Everyone is covered in warm thick jackets, the young ladies would not even think about giving up their elegance just because of some metres of snow. In Other words a high heel is dressing every second female foot.
It was the first time that I set ground on russian territorry, a decision my heart will never regret and it was in this night that I made a first relationship with the OSCAR Nominations.
When you opened the heavy iron door after having inserted a pin you had to open another door with two keys. Running upstairs one could already smell the good old onions - which in no russian meal ever lacks.
My babuschka and her daughter were watching the Oscar and in the moment I entered into the kitchen parts of The life of the others (Das Leben der Anderen) could be seen. My heart started to beat faster, a strange feeling climbed up my throught.
It was a fantastic movie that I had seen 2 days before I left home, together with my mother, directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. No words can explain the movie, it is a must, playing during DDR times in East Germany. Directed with so much thought and with consideration of little detail that one could watch it another 3 times in a row and would still find out more things, which were unseen before.
The Sonate about the good human being. This movie deserved an Oscar, that is for sure. And it was in this night, the second one in this new foreign country that I built a relationship with the Oscars. The nomination of this Movie , "my movie", "my german movie" that I climbed up a ladder from the lonelyness in russia to the feeling of security and love at home, which was given by this unique movie and its nomination.
Can anyone believe that he is 76 years old? Possibly not, no wonder if one takes into consideration the tons of make up he uses or the hours he spends in the toaster (aka solarium). His hair looks fake just as his politics do.
Pierre Luigi Persani is the winner of the elections in Italy. Well at least he, as so far counted does have the most votes but Italy would not be Italy if an election would be as simple and easy going as this.
The good old italian roller coaster is back. The parliament sonsists of two parts a.)The House of representatives and b.)The Senate. It is in the Senate that Persani and his center-left have the majority of the voices of Italys people.
At this point it is essential to mention how terribly low the number of participations in the election was. 75%, the lowest since the foundation of the Repubblica after World war II.
And it is in the Senate that Berlusconi has the majority. In order of being able to govern properly a majority in both houses is needed.
What is it with Italy? Why is it sleeping? It is not only the pizza and the pasta and the good lifestyle, the motorinos speeding through the allies, the carabinieri going every morning to the same tabacchi to get his esspresso, there is much more potential in Italy and its inhabitants.
They have the third largest economy in Europe, not to mention the tremendous culture. Why do they not care who rules their country? Why is there not someone young and dynamic trying to become Prime minister? Is the active nationalism the thing that is missing ?
Why is it that there might has to be another election, why can Italy not pull on one string in order to safe their asses and their awesome country?
Enough about corrupt politics and more about the beloved Oscars.......tomorrow the golden pieces of the Oscar night on http://victoriatrott.blogspot.co.uk/
"The Lord is calling me to climb the mountain - prayer is not an isolation from the world," he said.
"I
am not abandoning the Church and shall continue to serve it in a manner
more adapted to my age and strength," through prayer and meditation, he
added.
Pope Benedict will hold his last public
appearance as pope in the square on Wednesday before he retires to a
life of seclusion and prayer.
Germanys Federal Minister Joachim Gauck is calling for "european patriotism".
With his first big speech the Federal Minister shows how important Europe for him is.
Gauck has a persuasive power because he himself is persuaded. "The European Union is complicated because she has to achieve something complicated." His speech is a call to every Eurosceptic within or outside the EU.
"More Europe does not mean German Europe but European Germany."
He campaigned for further joint economic and financial policy and more unification in security, defense and foreign policy. He called for Courage in everyone and he is convinced that even if some Euro rescue programmes failed, the whole european project is not questioned.
What are the fundaments of an european identity?
The sense of community can not be based on the founding myth but on a common canon of values. "We come together for something. For peace and freedom, democracy and constitutional legacy. For equality, human reights and solidarity" he said on Friday morning infront of 200 listeners in Schloss Bellevue.
It is thanks to Europe that the young generation has the values they have. "The first pocket money you received is in Euro, you study at least two languages in school, your school trips go to Budapest, Madrid, London or Paris. No generation before you ever did have this privilege of being able to say "we are Europe". In fact you experience more Europe than any generation before you" he said.
"Die Weisse Rose" was called a group of students that started to show resistance against the Nazi regime. They thought it wrong what Hitler and his followers did and printed off flyers stating what the Nazis really were doing.
They met at night in the cellar of one of the friends, thought about the texts, typed them with wiriting machines and send them to intellectuals within Germany.
On the 18th of February 1943 (70 years ago) there were still some left overs from the 6th flyer, and Sophie and Hans Scholl (Geschwister Scholl) decided to distribute the rest in the LMU, Ludwig-Maximilian-Universitaet in Munich.
They run up the stairs put them infront of the halls. The doors were still locked, since lecture was going on. They run back to one of the entrances when they decided to run to the top part of the University. They through down the flyers when the concierge saw them and turned them over to the Gestapo.
They were condemned to death.
What impresses me is the Courage that stands behind the whole action. You do not just continue living within a regime even though you stronlgy disagree with it. You stand up and you try to do something. I am sure the young students from the weisse Rose were also at times filled with fear, but they knew it was the right thing to do, therefore they did not hesitate.
How much can we learn from this generation. And how simple and small are our problems of today in comparison. How often do we stand up for something or someone? Is the easier way not always to go with the flow?
Sophie Scholl sais Goodbye to Hubert Furtwaengler, Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell, who were about to leavein order to fight at the east front.
The one who tries to safe his own life will loose it.
Is following your interests, being ambigous already trying to safe your life, or is it rather trying to make the best out of your life.
It is a tough question where to draw the line. I believe that the most important thing of everything is to always have all the other human beings that share this world with us and their existence, their feelings, their neccesities, simply themselves in your highest priority.
We are not made to live by ourselves, we are made to share everything we have with others. Our thoughts and feelings as well as our belongings. In the end we are not happy if we keep everything to ourselves. It is the other persons happy ness that makes us happy. Sometimes we unlearn that but it defenitely is a truth that lies in the core of every heart.
Does our environment and the technological advances force that we more and more built our own world with MY i pad, MY i pod, MY apple, memememe everything is personalized and we spend an IMMENSE time with these things - on our own. It is nothing that socially cultivates you. You just have to press a button "I like" you do not even have to say why.
I believe there are many good things in the technological advances and in the ambigousness people create nowadays to get a good degree etc. The important thing, however is, to never forget the people standing next to you. Because in the end it is them who make a change in our lifes. And it is together with them that we can achieve great, unexpected things.
There is nothing on earth that can compete with friendship and love.
In that sense....(well well well that << is a really horrible german saying)
They are a legend since almost 20 years, they founded the band in 1984. And they are one of the few of this type of German rock bands who still have millions of followers today.
Is everything an illusion? What is real of that what we see? Do I see things different than others do?
Two people experience the exact same thing on the same time at the same place, when you ask them afterwords to tell you about the event, you will get two different stories.
They may only vary a little, but there also is the possibility, that they differ quite a lot from each other. That is because every human being has a different apperception. But which of the two apperception will be the right one in the end? Who is allowed to judge the rightness of these two subjective apperceptions?
Is everything always about being right or wrong? Or are there just many different views and solutions to one question?
Why does a woman in her 30s start to scream when her husband slowly starts to take off with his chair and flies towards the ceiling? And why does his 7 year old daughter just look at him as if it was the most normal thing.
The longer we life on earth the more our head distinguishes between things that are normal and work and other things that are not normal and simply do not work. We are a product of our world and the society that we live in.
If it has not happened for 30 years it must be something very strange. Why can we not take the openness and phantasy which every child has into our growing older?
“Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect
whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper
classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.”
“To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”
“You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of
allowing our only daughter – a girl brought up with the utmost care –
to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel?”
“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”
Why did Hitler decide to invade the Soviet Union in 1940?
After the successful invasion of Poland on the 1st of September 1939 and the similarly successful invasion of the west, Hitler decided to invade the Soviet Union, the country with whom he had one year earlier invaded Poland together and a country which might could have been described as an ally, at least from Stalin’s point of view. As for Hitler it was clear that “What India was for England, the territories of Russia will be for us.”
The aim of this essay is to explain and analyse the reasons, which drove Hitler into the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1940. Was there one crucial factor that animated Hitler to carry out this invasion or was it a combination of reasons? There are a variety of motives for Hitler’s decision, starting with the expansion of the Lebensraum and ending in the underestimation of the Russian army. Some of those reasons are of higher importance than others. Firstly, I will provide an insight into the situation of 1941. Secondly the different reasons for invasion will be exposed and analysed. Thirdly the importance of this invasion and its consequences will be briefly examined.
In 1941 the Nazis, one could say, were at the peak of their success. After the annexation of Austria, the invasion into the Czech Republic and the invasion into Poland, they even managed to conquer France, Belgium and the Netherlands and were occupying them. As soon as the Nazis invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany. “There is no chance of expecting that this man will ever give up his practice of using force to gain his will. He can only be stopped by force.” These were the words spoken by Chamberlain, coming out of the radios in British homes.
On the 22nd of June 1941 at 3.40 am G.K Zukhov, the Soviet chief of Staff telephoned Stalin at his Villa outside of Moscow and told him that Russia had been invaded. “Stalin sitting pale and silent, an unlit pipe in his hands” , was hit quite badly by this news, hence he would not have expected this move and it took him 11 days until he finally addressed his nation in order to inform them. Stalin for some reason had trusted Hitler and had believed in the Nazi – Soviet pact, which herewith was broken. An evidence for this trust is the fact that Stalin briefly before the invasion still attempted to maintain good relations with Germany and continued to fulfil his treaty obligations to supply Germanys war machine with raw materials. Paradoxically, those raw materials were possibly used to construct war machines, which were later on used to battle Stalin’s nation.
Operation Barbarossa, named after Friedrich Babarossa the medieval holy Roman Emperor, was the largest operation in history. 5.5 million troops consisting of people from Germany, Finland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Italy and Spain attacked on a front stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. Smolensk, Minsk, Kiev and Karkhov fell, Leningrad was besieged and initially the attack was tremendously successful, pushing hundreds of miles into soviet territory. “Before the end of the year the Germans had taken 3.5 million prisoners an killed or wounded another million” . This success however withered away. In July Hitler was convinced that wars had been won, he slowed down tank production and wanted to switch from army to naval and air force orders, hence he wanted to pull back infantry by August to then concentrate on the invasion into the Middle East and India. Because of economic reasons Hitler decided to immerge into the Ukraine, which delayed the drive towards Moscow. A sheer imbecility considering, that the drive actually only begun in the beginning of October, a time when heavy rains soon developed into snow. The German people had to deal with -20 until -60 degree. They were not used to these temperatures and due to a lack of appropriate clothing, it was impossible for them to move. Tanks stopped 20 miles before Moscow, were the Russians attacked the Germans. The Historian Ian Kershaw remarks very direct “the military setbacks of the first winter in Russia marked the end of the “sunny Hitler weather” “. The Blitzkrieg tactic, which had been successful in Poland and France did not work out in Russia and Hitler’s believe, that he would have conquered Russia within 6 weeks remained a dream.
For Stalin the invasion was a surprise even though Hitler had been planning it for month and Britain as well as Japan and the USA had warned him. What were Hitler’s motives behind his invasion?
The Historian P. Johnson argues that there were two main reasons for the invasion to Russia. The first of which was Extermination and the second Expansion. By Extermination the complete elimination of both Bolsheviks and Jews was meant. Hitler’s belief of the one strong pure race, which the Germans were, was one of his primary driving forces, as he also stated in Mein Kampf. That Jews were one of Hitler’s biggest thorn in his sight was not a novelty, as he had already killed thousands of Jews and Concentration camps had been built. Simply, because he considered them to be Untermenschen, as stated in the Nuremberg laws of 1935. “The Nazis refashioned warfare was a means of achieving the racial “purification” and involved killing every single Jewish man, woman and child that they could round up or capture. The Nazi onslaught against the Jews was both the centre element of a broader bio logistic framework and sui generis, in terms of how the Nazis perceived Jews as an existential threat, and the implacable ferocity of the campaigns implementation.”
He wanted to eliminate other impure races and saw them as a poison and threat to the world and especially to his master race.
Additionally Hitler strongly believed in the Jewish conspiracy, which consisted of a tract named “The protocols of the learned Elders of Zion” purporting to be the manual of a Jewish secret society planning the world domination. Furthermore Hitler blamed communism, capitalism and the economic decline after WW I on the Jews. He continuously used them as a scapegoat.
The hatred for both Jews and Bolsheviks was deeply rooted in the Nazi ideology. Which becomes very clear when listening to Hermann Görings words: “ This war is not the second world war. This is the great racial war. In the final analyses it is about whether the Germans and Aryan prevail here or whether the Jew rule the world and that is what we are fighting out here” Hitler made his hatred for bolshevism clear and saw the coming war with Russia as the great climactic fight of the year.
The second big motive for invasion determined by Johnson, was Expansion. Hitler had this Idea about expanding the Lebensraum. With the idea of Lebensraum, which means nothing else but living space, Hitler wanted to create a big living space for the German Volk.
Actually the idea of Lebensraum was not something new to German history. It was coined by Friedrich Raetzel (1844-1904), who was a German geographer and he developed a theory to which “the development of all species, including human beings, is primarily determined by their adoption to geographic circumstances.” He believed that Species that successfully adopted to one location would spread naturally to others. The idea of Lebensraum fitted to German imperialism, hence in the 1880s and 1890s the way to increase Germanys strength was by encouraging migration to German colonies. The development of Lebensraum experienced a crucial turning point in 1914 when the German army conquered Poland and Russia.
This idea could therefore be seen as something that had been unfinished by the Germans, due to the loss in World War I, nonetheless there was still considered to be huge potential in the idea as stated in Mein Kampf, where Hitler concluded that Russia would become the target for Germanys way to acquire Lebensraum. Hitler wanted to invade Russia so that he then could break through the Ural to then arrive in India. “He envisaged settling Germans as a master race in western Russia, while deporting most of the Russians to Siberia and using the remainder as slave labour.” Another nice side effect of the expansion into the east would be the conquest of the Oil sources in the Caucasus, which Hitler was very eager on. His desire for acquisition of territory for colonial settlement was a big one. Hitler’s ultimate aim was “to create a German Volk of 250 million.” Once the Nazis had conquered all these territories, a population transfer should happen, which was already accurately planed most detailed. Since the number of the Volksdeutsche from south and east Europe was only as high as 5 million, Alfred Rosenberg developed the marvellous idea of “drafting” Scandinavians, Dutch and English settlers being “racially approximate to Germans” Hitler was very much influenced by Rosenberg, especially in questions concerning the Jews and Bolshevism. Rosenberg was a Baltic German studying in Moscow, which implied that he witnessed the Revolution in Russia. He was convinced that the Bolshevik revolution was the work of the Jews. A fact, which strengthened Hitler’s hatred towards Jews and Bolshevism.
So it can be said that on the one hand there was the idea of extermination, which could be seen as a an ideological motive, given that anti-Semitisms and anti-Bolshevism were deeply rooted in the Nazi Ideology. And there was the desire of expansion on the other hand. One could debate that Hitler used the Lebensraum theory to justify the Nazi ideology, hence after Rosenbergs theory “in order to remain healthy, species must continuously expand the same amount of space they own.” If his people did not have enough space, more Jewish people and other poisoned cultures needed to be eliminated. The German Volk should grow to a strong healthy master race, if one condition of the health is expansionism, it is quite evident that a clear out had to occur. Expansionism and Extermination one could consequently argue even went hand in hand. As Hitler said after the Invasion of Poland “ “Even the Jewish question was really a space question”, since he “did not even have sufficient space for his own people” “
Hitler wanted the Crimea after being “cleansed” of the Jewish and Slavs to become a gigantic German spa receiving its old Greek name Tauria. In a monolog in the Führerhauptquartier Hitler gave an example of how he imagined the Lebensraum to be, using the example of the Crim: ”The area must lose the character of the Asiatic step, it must be Europeanized. The Reich peasant is to live in outstandingly beautiful settlements. The German authorities are to have wonderful buildings, the governor palaces.“
While Karl Dietrich Bracher believes that reasons for Hitler’s invasion into Russia were both a “forward push and the consequence of ideological obsession” , I believe that there were a few other motives for his invasion. Even though they might be considered as minor reasons.
One of them was the need for a way to make Britain drop out of war after Germany had lost the Battle of Britain. Britain’s hopes were lying in the USSR and the USA, if one of them would have dropped out the picture, in this case Russia, Britain could not hope for America any longer. Hence Japan would have used the shining hour and would have expanded into defeated Russia, which would have converted her into a strong power, which the USA would have to concentrate on.
Another point, which should not be seen as a motive for invasion but definitely as a comforting fact leading to invasion was the fact that Hitler, as the British, completely underestimated the Russian army, which was due to the fact, that Russia failed its invasion into Finland in 1940.
Additionally one could even argue that after the invasion of France and Poland went so smoothly, Hitler even had developed a kind of Megalomania, which animated him to conquer even more territory.
A further theory, which, however was never fully developed is, that Hitler feared Russia to become too strong and consequently would interfere into Hitler’s expansionism. Therefore Hitler decided to strike first. This theory however would contradict the fact that Hitler underestimated the Russian army. Unless one would argue, that Hitler feared the strength of Russia on a long-term basis.
Either way the invasion into Russia marked a turning point in Nazi Germanys history. Many historians remarked the invasion to have been Hitler’s biggest mistake and believed that the third Reich surrendered because of this invasion. Even though some historians believe that the invasion would might have been saved, if Hitler would not have done the stupidity of declaring war on the USA after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour. This is considered to have been a shot in his own foot, since the USA now did have a reason to bring in front of Congress and was legally allowed to join in the World War. Which left Hitler with the “big three” (Russia, Britain and USA) to fight against.
The invasion into Russia, which was supported by so many patriots, even inside Russia and was seen by them at first as a war of liberation, might would have been a success, if Hitler would have gone along with him them. As there were “many Russians themselves, at home and abroad, who saw the occasion of Hitler’s assault as an opportunity to seize their own freedom and destroy the regime which had brought more than twenty years of misery and cost over15 million lives.” Hitler could have established himself to be the head of this crusade, in order to conquer Russia. At least he would have had the opportunity to turn many Russians on his side, since the dislike of Stalin in his own country, especially after the Purges was immense. Stalin was seen as a complete Tyrant, whilst Hitler could have wisely chosen the opportunity to be the liberator. Even if only for ostensible reasons. That might would have made it possible to win over the USSR. Nonetheless “Hitler was not in the business of Liberation. Like Stalin, he was in the business of Slavery.” Which led to the fact that the Red army inspired by nationalism, which Stalin very cleverly arranged, comparing Hitler with Napoleon and calling for “guerrilla warfare and a vast “scorched earth” policy” transformed the red army into a barbarian, highly determined army which additionally did have an warfare material advantage (T 34 ) and consequently took down the Germans. So at the end the boot was on the other food, hence in 1945 it were the Russian tanks triumphantly rolling into Berlin instead of the Germans marching into Moscow.
In conclusion the invasion into Russia had already been planed when Hitler was imprisoned in Landsberg in the 1920s. The main motives for this invasion were Expansionism and Extermination. Additionally there were a few other minor reasons, such as the need to convince Britain to drop out of war and the megalomania, which Hitler might have developed after the successful Blitzkriege in Poland and France. The underestimation of the power of the red army might also have played a role in the decision-making.
Overall one can say that whilst Hitler was trying to achieve the main goals of the Nazi ideology, which were the complete execution of Jews and Bolshevists and an immense expansion to enlarge the Lebensraum were the master race could then live in health, he actually slowly but surely destroyed the whole Third Reich.
It was the first movie I saw in the cinema. 4 Deutsch Mark did the ticket cost and the popcorn with it possibly 2 Deutsch Mark. But you did not neccessarily need the popcorn since the fact of just going to the cinema was already exciting enough.
Lion King produced by Walt Disney was screened in 1994. It is the horrible story of Simba loosing his beloved father in a tragic accident, wehre he got run over by thousands of buffalos. Not that this was already quiet something for the little lion that did not age more than 7 years. Additionally his uncle Scar, who lives up to his name tells Simba that it was actually his fault.
Simba, filled with sadness and fear that he could never tell his mother that it was actually his fault, run and left his future Kingdome.
Scar, the legacy hunter started to rule the beautiful kindmoe which soon turned into a dry place, filled with thousands of hzgenies, of which my favourite is Ed.
Simba meets two wonderful true friends, which whom he spends a fantastic time. But as time passes on Nala, the old fiend of Simba also leaves the bedraggled Kingdome and sooner or later Simba and her meet. As in every good movie there has to be a love story.
The end is to be left open. It is a must. Especially for children but also as grown up I do still get carried away.
"Benedetto, Benedetto" these are the words that people start shouting on the crowded St.Peterssquare in Rome, as soon as the man in the white robe enters the square being driven in his papamobile. Young and old, people from all over the world cheer him on and he waves back to them with a friendly, firm and at the same time shy expression on his face.
Before a general audience on Petersquare, Rome, 2006
He was not the person that wanted to have the spotlight on him. If he could have chosen he would have chosen backstage instead of performing on stage. After starting his pontificate in spring 2005, he did however grow into his role, every day more.
He had to leave his studytable where he was dealing with the most difficult, challenging theological issues and he had to step outside and become the Pope of the world. Especially after having had such a charismatic and extroverted predecor as John Paul the 2nd this was not the easiest task. But he managed, because he was elected to this post and because he trusted.
John Paul II and Kardinal Ratzinger (before becoming Pope Benedikt XVI).
Humbleness and heartiness are caracteristics that can not be found very often. In Benedikt XVI they are present and alive, as can be noticed once again with his withdrawal from his post as Pontifex.
He thourougly thought the decision through and is "aware of the consequences" but he said:"Both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the
last few months has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to
recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to
me."
As Pope Benedikts 89-year-old Brother Georg Ratzinger said: "Age is weighing on him. My brother would like more rest at this age."
He made this decision for him and the sake of the catholic church, its future aims and its progress.
After 8 years of being the Pontifex he will hang back his white robe into the wardrobe and so will he leave behind his red shiny shoes. Whether he will stay in Rome or return to his beloved Bavaria in Germany to live together with his brother as had been planned in 2005, is still unclear.
As the Vatican Speaker Federico Lombardi said Joseph Ratzinger would like to move to a monastery within the Vatican to dedicate himself completely to praying, thinking and writing.
A great instance and theologist is leaving the head of the catholic church, but the marks of his extraordinary work will remain visible.
I still very much remember the weekends in Milan. Either we did an excursion to the surrounding towns, Turin, Venice, etc. or we stayed in Milan and went to exhibitions at the day and the theatre or opera in the night. I was 11-16 years old and there often surely were other things that I was interested than in all this "cultural stuff".
But today I can say that I am immmensly thankful, that my mother "dragged" us to all these things. It was in these days that I developed not only my love for Russia but also for Kandinsky.
Wassily Kandinsky who lived from 1866 until 1944 was an influential russian painter and theorist. As an Expressionist, he was the first one to use abstractism in his work.
Unbroken line
Prominent Curve
Wassily Kandinsky himself
Kandinsky:
Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the
piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching
one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul."
"Love is always patient and kind, it is never jealous, love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence, and is not t3eresnt ful. Love takes no pleasure in other people`s sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to ecxuse, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes."
Drama, action, love, laughter, tears, threat, it is the emotions that make us alive, the concern for other people, the joy about small and big things, the unsuspected astonishes us, the suspected we are greatful for. We live for emotions. These ones were unexpected.
Enjoy one of the most fabulous guerilla marketing on earth:
Everything started in a small town in the even smaller Belgium...
Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Daniel Craig it does not matter. The main point is, that it is James Bond what your monitor is screening. Is that so? If I personally could choose, I would always go for Sean Connery or Roger Moore preferably. Or is it rather the direction behind the movie that I would change. Afterall, it is the director that chooses the actor.
James Bond 007 movies are the only movies, next to Marry Poppins,
Raeuber Hotzenplotz and Spukschloß im Spessart (by the way: those are 2 fantastic, highly
recommended pieces of culture and entertainment) that have accompanied
me since I am six years old.
Since they did accompanie me for 20 years, I see myself (possibly wrongly) in the position to critizise. I critizise after comparing and because of love to the "old" James Bonds. And because of hope that they might one day be quite like the old ones again.
It is in these "old" James Bonds that class is still playing a role. The "old" James Bond is a gentlemen an excellent agent, a perfect shooter, a womanizer, but in the elegant way. He does care whether his Martini is "shaken, not stirred" or shaken and stirred. Not like Pierce Bruceman who believes or rather is made to believe by his director, that this little detail is unessesary.
All inventions "Q" comes up with are living of their detailed thought behind it.
It is the small things, at least for me a constant James Bond follower and admirer that make the difference.
Having seen Skyfall I must say that it is a good, exciting piece of script. Very well directed. But how much does it still have of Ian Flemmings James Bond whose soul was so very well presented in the productions by for instance Tarence Young or Guy Hamilton.
Does the new always have to be so very different in order to be a success?
When I was 7 years old and my family, all admirers of James Bond, started to watch James Bond on a sunday evening, I was always only allowed to watch the very beginning, hence I was not only the youngest but also too young. Everytime I tried strongly to find an argument that would make my parents change their decision. Sometimes it worked but most of the times it did not - but that is not the question. The question is whether today being 7 again and having seen the beginning of a James Bond, I would still put such an effort on converting my parents decision.
