Dvorak, the Father of American Music?

Posted by golfkat on October 21, 2017
Posted in: Cultures, Music, Travel. Leave a comment

 

I will bet you would never come up with Antonin Dvorak as the real Father of American Music.  You might guess George Gershwin, or Stephen Foster, who died at the age of 37 with 38 cents to his name. My guess would have been Chuck Berry or Buddy Holly.  Antonin Leopold Dvorak (dvorr-zhak) was a Czech composer of romantic music.  His most famous works are his New World Symphony, the Slavonic Dances, “American” String Quartet, and Cello Concerto in B Minor.  And for your edification, I thought there was a “z” in his name for the longest time!

 Antonin Dvorak in 1868

Fast forward to his arrival in the United States where he became director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City in 1892-1895.  He was paid the rather handsome sum of $15,000, the result of American philanthropist, Jeanette Thurber.  He felt his goal in America was to discover “American music”.  He firmly believe that Native American and African-American music should be the foundation for the growth of American music.  He believed that Americans would find their national musical style through these two cultures (similar to Gershwin).

He met Harry Burleigh, a pupil of his, and one of the earliest of African-American composers.  Burleigh introduced Dvorak to traditional American spirituals at Dvorak’s request.  In 1893, Dvorak wrote his Symphony No. 9, “From the New World”.  He even took his family to Spillville, Iowa one summer to visit cousins who lived in the Czech speaking community.  While in Iowa, he composed  his “String Quartet in F” (the “American”), and his “String Quintet in E Flat”.

In 1895, he wrote his Cello Concerto in B minor, about the time his recognition in Europe was increasing.  So, combined with salary problems with Mrs. Thurber, and his honorary membership in Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, Dvorak decided to return to Bohemia.  His New York home at 327 East 17th Street was demolished to make way for Beth Israel Medical Center.

During his final years, he composed mainly opera and chamber music.  He also became director of the Conservatory in Prague until his death in 1904 from heart disease.  His nine symphonies follows the classical models that Beethoven would have recognized.  But he also developed the symphonic poem form and often borrowed from Czech folk music.  His ideas carried over to his work in the United States.  As a result, his symphonic poems are among his most original symphonic works.  He output of chamber music was equally impressive with over 40 works for ensembles with strings.

Among his most famous students:  Harry Burleigh, Will Marion Cook, William Arms Fisher, Rubin Goldmark (who taught Copeland and Gershwin), Oskar Nedbal, Vitezslav Novak, Harry Rowe Shelley (who taught Ives), and Joseph Suk (his son in law).  As to why he is not more highly recognized and honored in the United States is just beyond me.  I guess he was just ahead of his time.

Tonight (Sunday evening), is the San Francisco Symphony debut of Arabella Steinbacher on the violin, playing Mozart’s Concerto No. 4 in D major for Violin and Orchestra, K. 218.  Mozart primarily played the piano, but also was a renown violinist.  An authority, no less than his father, Leopold Mozart, described him as the first violinist in all of Europe.  After the 1770s, he primarily played the viola in chamber music with his friends.
 Violinist Arabella Steinbacher

Truth be known, I skipped the Bach presentation last week, as his Mass in B minor is not my cup of tea, as the Shogun once said.  I am certain J.S. Bach will forgive me.  And I was too tired to BART into the city for last night’s concert.  Shame on me!

I highly doubt if I can talk Mike into a classical concert.  But I may just go tonight or tomorrow night, since one of the small concert halls is walking distance.  So, does anyone out there really know how to pronounce his name?

He is a national hero here.  He has his own museum, a Baroque summer house built in 1720.  Everything is old here, but his music is rather timeless, right Ludwig?dvorakdvorak1

Coughing Up Kafka

Posted by golfkat on October 21, 2017
Posted in: Cultures, Travel. Leave a comment

Franz Kafka was born in Prague, now Czech Republic on July 3, 1883.  He died on June 3, 1924 near Vienna, Austria.  He was born into a prosperous Jewish middle class family.  He was drawn to his maternal ancestors because of their spirituality, intellectual distinction, piety, and delicate physical and mental disposition.  He became the oldest child after the death of his two older brothers.  Ottla, the youngest of his three sisters, became closest to him.

Kafka was overshadowed by a tyrannical, successful, but overbearing father, who worshipped financial success and social advancement as a shopkeeper. He attempts an autobiography (Letter to Father) in 1919 in a letter that never reaches the addressee.  He blames his father for his failure to marry and enter fatherhood, as well as his escape into literature. He felt his will was broken by his father, as evidenced by his 1913 book, The Judgment.

His anxiety and despair go well beyond his father and family (The Trial, and The Castle), though he chose to live close to them. Kafka’s despair lies in a sense of ultimate isolation from true communion with all human beings—the friends he cherished, the women he loved, the job he detested, the society he lived in—and with God, or, as he put it, with true indestructible Being.

But Kafka did become friendly with some German Jewish intellectuals and literati in Prague.  In 1902, he met Max Brod, a minor literary artist, who later became his agent, literary executor, promoter and savior.  They became acquainted while Kafka went to the University of Prague to study law, where he received his doctorate in 1906.

Contrary to his early life and his writing, he was an ambitious and tireless worker, and liked by all who worked with him.  He was known to be charming, intelligent, and humorous, but found office work both exhausting and routine.  It forced him into a double life, where his nights were spent writing.  His deeper personal relationships were also neurotically disturbed.  This internal conflict was expressed in his sexual relationships, with three failed engagements to two different women.

His office work exhausted him, and he was later diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1917.  He spent periods of time in sanitariums, and finally retired with a pension in 1922.  He moved to Berlin in 1923, to write, and later met a socialite, Dora Diamont, with whom he lived until 1924.  After a brief return to Prague with Dora, he died in a clinic near Berlin.

These are his notable works (few were published during his lifetime):

Just another interesting story about Prague.

Now, just so you don’t ever think Dr. Kafka was a boring writer, check this out:

  1. Kafka was a vegetarian and loved gardening.
  2. He owned a boat on the Vltava River.
  3. He co-owned an asbestos factory with his brother in law.
  4. He did not live alone until he was 32.  He only lived to age 41.
  5. He was engaged three times to two different women, but never married.
  6. He earned a Doctor of Laws from Charles University in 1906.
  7. He has two weird monuments in his honor in Prague,
And this email would not be complete with a definition of an often used word, one which I first heard in college, at the University of California, Berkeley.  I never heard it in our little country high school in the Valley.  The word is Kafkaesque.  What does it mean?  Characteristic or reminiscent of the oppressive or nightmarish qualities of Kafka’s fictional world. I would add surreal and evil to that description.  Well, please use it in a sentence.  The long wait at the DMV is a Kafkaesque experience.
Understandably, Kafka is rarely quoted by other authors.  He is more noted for his visions and perspective.  His influence has perhaps been strongest on more recent authors like Jean-Paul Sartre.  His Der Process was ranked the second most influential German novel of the twentieth century, and that his pervasiveness and enigmatic style has not been emulated.  He wrote in a aloof manner with many legal and scientific terms.  M. Bossy writes: “His characters are trapped, confused, full of guilt, frustrated, and lacking understanding of their surreal world. Much of the post-Kafka fiction, especially science fiction, follow the themes and precepts of Kafka’s universe.”
I would be interested to know what you think about Kafka.  I am going to visit him tomorrow morning.

 

Best Beer in the World?

Posted by golfkat on October 21, 2017
Posted in: Cultures, Food, Travel. Leave a comment

 

The Czech Republic has the highest per capita beer consumption in the world.  More than a college campus of homecoming weekend.  That amount is 160 liters per year, while the US languishes at 76 liters.  That is one bottle of beer per day for every man, woman, and child!!!!  But be careful, as beer can come anywhere from 6% to 19%, as determined by the amount of malt extract used in the brewing process.

The beer of choice here is a pale lager of the pilsner type, with a typical transparent golden color, light flavor and lots of foam.  Sounds, looks, and taste similar to ours in the U.S.  Beer was made here as far back as 993 at Breznov Monastery in Prague.  Brewing was done primarily in monasteries, since the Czech Republic was under a 250 year ban on nonmonastic brewing, ultimately lifted in 1250.

Once the ban was lifted, breweries were granted the right to brew beer for the first time outside of monasteries. The cities of Ceske Budejovice in 1265, Plzen in 1290, and Svitavy in 1256 were some of the first cities to be granted the right to brew some of the first beer in the Czech Republic.

The first beer brewed here was known a bile pivo or “white beer”.  Incidentally, beer is also called pivo in Russia.  According to Beer Prague:

The brewing technique used a top-fermenting yeast, producing a cloudy wheat beer. Stare pivo, or “old beer” was brewed with a bottom-fermenting yeast; these beers were brewed at low temperatures for longer amounts of time, producing some of the first lagers. It’s believed that lagering originated in Bohemia, and the practice passed on to Bavaria and beyond during the second half of the 15th century.
Czech breweries were destroyed during wars and various conflicts over the years. But the Czech tradition of brewing beer carried forth focusing on top fermenting beers, made mostly from wheat.  The nineteenth century brought back bottom fermented beers from Germany.  The Czechs fell in love with these beers, and began making their own dark beers.

The origin of pilsner beer here can be traced to 1842 in the city of Pilsen, though the ingredients are different than what is used today.  Hops have been grown here since the 12th century.  Most towns have at least one brewery, though breweries began consolidating in the 20th century.  And wheat beers disappeared.  About 97% of the beer made here is pilsner, light and bottom fermented.

But with the onset of communism in 1948, many breweries closed.  Those who survived made just two beers, pale or dark lager.  The dirty pinkos limited the Czechs to these two types of beer for the next 40 years!!  But on the plus side, this forced the breweries to preserve old fashioned techniques for brewing and malting, which disappeared in other parts of Europe.

But the mighty rise of capitalism also help reintroduce smaller pubs and breweries.  Fortunately for us, these breweries began to experiment with brewing techniques, flavors, and even renewing wheat beer production.  Now, more than 250 breweries (20 in Prague alone) maintain the long history of beer production despite the setbacks and restraints.  They now produce some of the world’s best beer, leaving us to understand why the Czechs are the number one consumer of beer per capita in the world.

Some other tidbits of information follow.  Beer is best consumed at a temperature between 7 to 10 degrees C., achievable by the 7th step down the cellar.  Always use a beer coaster, and place it down before the server brings your beer.  And it is well known that beer is cheaper than water here!

When you toast, say “na zdraví,” which roughly means “to your health” in English. Be sure to make eye contact with each person as you touch glasses (rumor has it 7 years of bad sex will afflict anyone who doesn’t), and if toasting in a larger group it is bad form to cross arms with anyone else at the table. Lastly, when ordering beer at the bar, use your thumb to represent “1” beer, your thumb and forefinger for “2,” and so forth.

No problem, as soon as we sat down, the waiters says two beers?  Were we that obvious???20171005_13150920171005_13151420171006_11401520171006_100459

Uniquely Prague

Posted by golfkat on October 21, 2017
Posted in: Cultures, Entertainment, Food, Travel. Leave a comment

 

Writer, Neil Wilson had this to say about Prague:  How can you not love a city that has a pub with vinyl cushions on the wall above the gents’ urinal, so you can rest your head while you ‘go’? For you ladies, I know that is TMI, just make sure the guy at the urinal is not your date, and ready to pass out!

Where you can order a beer without speaking, simply by placing a beer mat on the table? I might like this, at least for the first or second beer.

And where that beer is probably the best in the world? I have read and heard from many sources that this is TRUE!!!

But it’s not just exquisite ale and a wonderfully relaxed drinking culture that keep bringing me back to Prague. There’s also wit and weirdness in equal measure: a public fountain where two figures pee in a puddle, spelling out literary quotations; a 1950s nuclear bunker hidden beneath a city centre hotel; and a cubist lamppost. Quirky doesn’t even begin to describe it.

You gotta love these Czechs, as they have a Beer Museum.  And the beer renaissance has been happening since WW2, with now about 250 breweries of all sizes in Czechia.  Back to the museum, they have a 90 minute tour followed by a choice of tastings in TWO showroom pubs, one from the 19th century, and one from communist times.  Best of all, anyone can bottle their own beer.  They give you a bottle, let you fill it up on their tap, then create your own label!  What a great souvenir of Prague!
While in Prague, it is not uncommon to drink more beer than water.  And it is cheaper too!  What else?
Sometimes Czech eats Chex mix, just kidding, but may eat dessert before dinner.  Called ovocne knedliky, or fluffy dumplings, filled with fruit, topped with butter, sugar, and maybe a side of sour cream.
Sadly, smoking is still allowed indoors.  Some pubs still sell cigarettes behind the counter.  The more touristy places tend to be smoke free.
You also might see a police officer light up a joint.  You are more likely to get fined for selling it instead of smoking it.  But it is up to the officer, at that moment.
If you ask “How are you?” to a Czech, you might get their life story.  I hear it is best just to say “hello” or good morning” instead of the traditional “How are you?”
Fashions of the 90s are still popular.  So, I plan to bring my mullet, faded jeans, flannel, and dial-up modem.  Yes, they live in a time warp of sorts, but at least it was a fun filled decade!
People care little about religion, as about 60% of the people are agnostics.  But they still go to church or temple!  Strange!!!
Too bad it is not Easter now.  During Easter, Czech women can expect to be spanked on the backside with a willow whip and the men can expect to have cold water thrown on them. This is all part of the fertility rites which Czechs still strongly associate with Eastertime.
One tradition that might appeal to some of us is the practice of wearing very little inside the house.  Though not in a sexy way, undershirts on men, and slips on women are common.  Children run around naked or wear just t shirts with no bottoms!
There are about half a million foreigners living here.
The average Czech salary is about $1000 USD per month.  A meal for two costs around $12 US.  But they have the highest living standard of any former Soviet Bloc country.
Do not EVER call a Czech a Czechoslovakian!  Though the Czechs and Slovaks consider themselves brothers, Czechs are more laid back or placid, Slovakians more fiery.
Remind me to visit again when it is Easter!!!  Should be fun!  It is fine now too!  Very nice people, I say, and seem to tolerate Americans just fine.

So far, Prague is both safe and charming, but almost sedate.  Locals do not seem happy unless they are drinking beer with their friends.  And multitudes of tourists, many from Asia, somewhat less from the US.DSCN9458DSCN9459DSCN9460DSCN9480DSCN9481DSCN9482

Cheap and Cheerful in Prague

Posted by golfkat on October 21, 2017
Posted in: Action, Cultures, Entertainment, Food, Travel. Leave a comment

How about some good, cheap entertainment?  As our friend Debbie says, “cheap and cheerful” is sometimes more fun.

The famous Lennon Wall-

If you have friends who’ve been to Prague, you may recognize this wall from their profile pictures, but this wall is more than just a good photo op. The wall’s origins go back to when Prague was still under a Communist regime. In 1988, a group of young Czechs started writing grievances with the regime in protest, including John Lennon-inspired graffiti and lyrics from Beatles’ songs, which led to a clash between hundreds of students and security police on Charles Bridge. Today, layers and layers of new marks and messages cover the original Lennon portrait, and the wall represents global ideals of love and peace. If you stop by multiple times throughout your trip, it will probably look completely different since visitors add new marks constantly.

Free farmer’s markets-

Holešovice Market and Náplavka Farmers Market are both great options for picking up produce, flowers, a cup of coffee or snack. Even if you don’t purchase anything, these spots are great places to people watch and interact with locals. If it’s raining, opt for Holešovice Market since it’s partly located inside a former meat factory. Look for the word “pěstitlel” on the signs here, which means the produce comes directly from a farmer. You might find that fewer people speak English fluently at farmers’ markets. When I visited, I still managed to communicate how many peonies I wanted though a few Czech words and hand gestures. For situations like these, here are a few good-to-know Czech words to help initiate a conversation or accompany your finger point toward that bushel of arugula you have your eye one.
How about a cold one?
Fun fact: The Czech Republic consumes more beer per capita than any other country, so they know a thing or two about beer. Letná Beer Garden boasts one of the best views in the city. The beer selection isn’t as expansive as some of the other beer gardens, but they’ll definitely have a staple pilsner, which you should order since you’re in Prague and all. There’s no entry fee, and a pint of beer costs less than $2, which is totally worth the view alone. Explore the rest of Letná Park while you’re there. Wear comfortable shoes because you have to take a few flights of stairs to get to the top of the park, but it’s worth it because… that view!
And the Franz Kafka Museum ($8)-
For about $8.50, you can view the works of Prague native Franz Kafka (1883-1924), one of the most important figures in world literature of the 20th century, at the museum. The museum displays most of the first editions of Kafka’s works.  Personal note:  I had to read some of his works in German!
Need a break or a quick pick me up?
If you’re like me and require extra coffee when traveling, hit up a local coffee shop for some caffeine and people watching. Some good spots to try include one sip coffee, EMA Espresso Bar and Muj salek kavy, the flagship cafe of the double shot coffee roasters.
From a local tour guide:
No matter the season, a “must” in Prague is Choco Café, a family-run chocolate factory and cafe serving 50 flavors of European-style (aka: thick) chocolate – my personal favorite is the chili chocolate. The traditional hořické trubičky are also to die for! – Mirka Charlotte Kostelkova, tour guide 
 
How about something offbeat?
An old Soviet bunker might be interesting. Many call it their highlight of eastern Europe.  This ex-Soviet bunker, made during the Cold War, is located 5 stories under the ground. It is crammed with paraphernalia including gas masks, medical kits, and uniforms. The ambience is evocative of the paranoia and violence of the Cold War years and it is bound to send a chill down your spine.
I could go for the best cup of hot chocolate ever.  It can be found at Café Kaficko20171006_133847DSCN9407DSCN9412DSCN9448, where it is so think, it must be eaten with a spoon!  And better yet, it is near the Kafka Museum.
On the other hand, or should I say foot, what is the best way to forget about Stalin?  The world’s largest Stalin statue was erected in 1955, then destroyed in 1962.  In a real counter culture move, the skateboarders who frequent the area built their own
We had to take the hop on, hop off bus this morning due to the rain.  So, we have seen the major landmarks and touristic sites.  Best of all, we went to a beer tasting at a brewery, had a light lunch, and soon headed for nap or email time.  Interesting and beautiful city!!!!

Czech Mate Country

Posted by golfkat on October 21, 2017
Posted in: Action, Cultures, Entertainment, Food, Travel. Leave a comment

 

I have not played chess since I was last snowed in during a heavy storm in Evergreen, Colorado.  But Czech mate or not, this country, formerly Czechoslovakia, became the Czech Republic after the peaceful Velvet Revolution of 1989.  The Communists were ousted, allowing democratic rule and a true market economy to begin on January 1, 1993.  The Velvet Divorce created the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.  Czech joined NATO in 1999, and the European Union in 2004.

Why do tourists love to visit the Czech Republic?  Obviously, the beer, always ranked the best in the world, according to serious beer drinkers.  The invented (in 1118) the best beer in the world, and continue to reinvent beer through its innovative microbreweries.  Since the invention of Pilsner Urquell in 1842, the Czechs have been famous for producing some of the world’s finest brews. But the internationally famous brand names – Urquell, Staropramen (better) and Budvar – have been equaled, and even surpassed, by a bunch of regional Czech beers and microbreweries that are catering to a renewed interest in traditional brewing. Never before have Czech pubs offered such a wide range of ales.

But what about the country itself?  They prefer to call themselves Czechia now.  They are bordered by Poland, Germany, Austria, and Slovakia.  The total land area is almost 79,000 square Km, slightly smaller than South Carolina.  Agricultural land is 55% of the country with 35% forested.  The population runs just under 11 million, with ethnic Czechs making up 65%, but many claim partial German ancestry.  Czech and Slovak languages are mutually intelligible.
Czech is also the official language.  The currency is not the Euro but the Czech crown (koruna), about 26 for each USD.  Only 19% of Czechs believe in God, about 65% are agnostics.  The most popular sport is ice hockey, which may explain the religion.  Yet the literacy rate is 99%.  It is the second richest country in eastern Europe after tiny Slovenia.
The chief of state is the President, Milos Zeman.  The head of government is the Prime Minister, Bohuslav Sobotka.  It is a parliamentary republic, since the death of Communism.  Citizenship is not by birth but whether at least one parent is a Czech.  Maybe we ought to consider that?  Prague was the only major city in Europe that was not bombed during WW2.
Remarkably, the auto industry is bigger than the beer industry, with over a million cars produced annually since 2010.  The GDP is roughly $351 billion.  Their main agricultural products are what, potatoes, sugar beets, hops (of course), fruit, and farm animals.  Tourism rates highly too!  The country is famous for its many spa towns.
I will let you read about the dark and dreary days of this country, both prior to Communism, as well as during it.  But there have been some remarkable people from Czechia, such as Martina Navratilova, Ivan Lendl. Gustav Mahler, Franz Kafka, Alphonse Mucha, Antonin Dvorak, Milos Forman, Gregor Mendel, Sigmund Freud, Tom Stoppard, Vaclav Havel, and Emil Zatopek.  Otto Wichterle, a Czech, invented soft contact lenses in 1959.  The sugar cube was invented here in 1843.
Czech food is hearty, meaning heavy and fatty.  But the best part of dinner is the great beer.  Lunch is the main meal of the day, with three courses.  It always begin with hot soup and bread, followed by a meat and side dish, then topped with a vegetable salad or a sweet treat and coffee.  Czechs loves their sweets!
But getting back to beer, Czechs are the heaviest drinkers in the world at 160 liters per capita per year.  Real Czech beer is served only on tap, never from a bottle.  Most beer contains about 4-5% alcohol.  Czech lager is strong, hoppy, and almost bitter.  They do well with their heavy meals.  And much like Guinness, it has a thick head on top of it.  And it must be cold!
Waiters do not wait until you are done with a glass before placing the next one in front of you.  Nobody should sit in a Czech pub with an empty glass!  Actually this evening, the waiters were a little lax, too many pretty tourist and Czech girls around.
The only thing Czechs love more than eating mushrooms, is hunting for them. If town is empty on St Vaclav Day, it’s because everyone’s fungi picking in the forest.  Being bohemian isn’t just Czechs being cool, it’s their heritage. This area was once the Kingdom of Bohemia.  The word robot was made famous in a play by Czech, Karl Capek. His brother, Josef, was the one who made it up.
Well, there you have it, three days here, and hopefully, I can add to this phantasmagoria of trivia and useless information!20171005_13151420171005_19494420171005_19514820171006_181203

The “Iron” Curtain

Posted by golfkat on October 4, 2017
Posted in: Cultures, Travel. Leave a comment

Where did the term, Iron Curtain get coined first?  From the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences:

The term iron curtain was coined by the British author and suffragette Ethel Snowden in her book Through Bolshevik Russia (1920). In her very early and negative critique of the Bolshevik form of communism, this British feminist referred to the iron curtain simply as the contemporary geographical border of Bolshevik Russia in 1919 (‘We were behind the ‘iron curtain’ at last’).
At the end of the Nazi regime in Germany the minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, used the term in a journal article and several times in his private diary in February 1945, and the minister of finance, Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, used it in a radio broadcast on May 2, 1945. Both Nazi leaders argued that the Soviet Army is occupying one country after the other, lowering an iron curtain immediately afterward on these occupied countries in order to commit war crimes, without being observed and controlled by the outside world. During the last months of the Third Reich, both ministers regarded the iron curtain as a moving part of the ongoing occupation process by Soviet troops within the territorial scope of the Yalta agreements from 1943. This analogy with an iron curtain in a theater (Goebbels was in charge of German theaters and culture) in this usage of the notion refers to the fact that events behind the theater curtain are not visible by the audience and somehow cut off from outside observation.
The British prime minister Winston S. Churchill used the term in a diplomatic telegram to President Harry S. Truman in May 1945, and in a public speech in the British Parliament on August 16, 1945, but the term was not popularized until the following year, with Churchill’s speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, on March 5, 1946.
Further:

The iron curtain refers to the boundary that divided Europe politically and militarily from the end of World War II until the end of the cold war. Geographically, the borderline ran from Estonia in the north to Yugoslavia in the south. Churchill’s famous 1946 address, which is sometimes referred to as the “Iron Curtain Speech,” is regarded as marking the commencement of the cold war between the democratic Western world and the Communist Eastern bloc with the Soviet Union as its political center. Between 1946 and 1989, the existence of this symbolic boundary forced many Central and East European countries to join the Communist bloc under the control of the Soviet Union. These countries—Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and (until the 1960s) Albania—were labeled “Iron Curtain countries.”
 
The most notable border was the Berlin Wall, between east and west Berlin. I went through Checkpoint Charlie to East Berlin back in 1971.  It is an experience I will never forget, one of the most memorable travel experiences of my life.
 
Growing up, learning world history, and reading about the iron curtain, I never thought I would visit these places.  While not originally a physical barrier, it might as well have been!  At first just a metaphor made famous by Winston Churchill’s 1946  address in Missouri, the divide soon became physical with boundary walls erected with heavy military protection, the most famous section being the Berlin wall and check point Charlie where tanks from the US and USSR had a stand off. Many believe Winston Churchill’s speech marked the commencement of the cold war between the democratic Western world and the Communist Eastern bloc with the Soviet Union as its political centre.
 
Why was it established and built?  The Soviets wanted to protect themselves from another invasion from the west.  It formed a buffer with border countries it controlled.  Bottom line, Stalin ignored the Yalta Agreement, and installed communist governments in Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland, and Yugoslavia.  And I plan to visit many of these countries.
 
What did this curtain look like? “The iron curtain was manned and defended militarily against the West by the Warsaw Pact, which combined the Soviet Red Army and troops from the new Communist one-party states (referred to as the Eastern Bloc countries) after the end of WW2. It served as a wall to prevent citizens of Eastern bloc countries migrating to the west. In Berlin, the section of the iron curtain dividing West from East Germany took the form of the Berlin Wall, a long concrete wall separating Berlin into democratic and Communist parts; many East Germans lost their lives trying to escape over the wall to the West. In other areas, the iron curtain was constructed of nearly impenetrable steel fencing, creating a long and narrow strip of no-man’s-land of untouched wildlife.”
 
And the best part:  

“The iron curtain was finally lifted on June 27, 1989, at the border between Austria and Hungary by the foreign ministers Gyula Horn (Hungary) and Alois Mock (Austria), forty-three years after Churchill’s historic speech. This first crack in the long border between the western world and the Soviet communist world was the beginning of the final collapse of communism in November and December 1989, and the first sign of the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The fall of the iron curtain coincided with the end of the cold war, signifying the end of a crucial and dramatic period of European and world history. The events that demolished the Iron Curtain started with discontent in Poland, and continued in Hungary, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. Romania was the only communist state in Europe to violently overthrow its communist government.”  The discontent in Poland is thought by many to be the first crack in the curtain.
One wonders, was the wall built to protect the border, or keep people from entering or leaving?  Propagandists say that the wall, much like the Berlin Wall, was built to keep the hordes of free and happy West Germans form storming into a better life in East Berlin.  I am sure this story was repeated in these other iron curtain countries.  I am free to come and go today, thanks to many who have given their lives for freedom and the American way.  Thanks to all of you!!!!iron curtainiron curtain1iron curtain2iron curtain3