Masks – Carnival in Venice
We all wear a mask, only sometimes it has become so familiar to us that we may not even notice it anymore.
The longing to travel
In Europe, it is normal for young people to move throughout the European Union. School classes arrange trips at a young age going beyond the borders of their own nation, and it is widespread for students to visit the countries […]
Allie Barrera: Paths
The story I’m about to tell you is true. Please remember that when you get to the end. I say that because I’ve sometimes questioned if my recollection of the events that took place is accurate, or maybe the result […]
La Vieille Prune, or: How villages become communities
Once upon a time. There are also fairy tale beginnings in one’s own little life, but at some Point, these beautiful stories come to an end, and something else has begun. Then a village became the capital of the Crozon […]
Maryanne Becker: The Kaiserallee
I have walked the Kaiserallee (The Imperial Alley) many thousands of times, the hedgerow-lined path that has run along the border between Germany and Belgium since 1919 – with a four-year interruption. A narrow, bumpy path whose ground keeps the […]
The long road of a small pocket book
Paths are laid in our cradle at birth. They are the blueprint of our destiny. Just as we have a blood group, genes that determine our hereditary factors or have inherited physical characteristics from our ancestors, so each of us […]
Mr. B. by Monika Detering
Mr. B. scolds muttering into himself. “Elevator broken. The fucking thing’s always broken.” He stomped up the stairs. His apartment was on the third floor. Under his arm he carried a grey cardboard box. He had found it in the […]
De Strippkes Trekker
An autumn day that I didn’t expect like this in November. Luminous. A sky as if painted with sea blue. A drive from Düren, further through villages never seen. Road villages. Green, there is a lot of it on both […]
Families: Journey of life
As a child, you don’t realize the value of a family. The family is usually a matter taken for granted.
The lost F. Scott Fitzgerald
After Tod Browning surprisingly shot an early blockbuster for MGM in 1931 with the film adaptation of “Dracula,” the studio owners gave him a free hand for his next film. A decision they have been regretting a year later. “Freaks” […]
Family in the Federal Republic of Germany during the post-war period
An institution in the field of tension between politics, morality, dream, and trauma. An essay by Maryanne Becker.
1944, when the Americans dropped cigarettes from above
The village of Mirabel is located in the department of Ardèche. On the Plateau du Coiron. The tower above the basalt rock, the Château de la Roche can be seen from a distance. For a few years, this village was […]
An encounter in the stairwell
Among Neighbors, we greet one another politely, during an encounter. That’s common in Germany. It’s usually done with a pleasing gesture, changing a few phrases, then everyone goes their way. Germans don’t like to appear “snooping.” Scuttlebutt in the stairwell […]
Family of J. Monika Walther
When I was born in Leipzig, it was all over. The war and the family history. What began was the search for clean water, fat, wood, flour. After survivors and memories, after possessions on attics and silver buried in the […]
Ruth Geede – Mother of the East Prussian Family
It was a cold winter in 1916 in Königsberg. It was during the 1st World War, which was still called the Great War, which was already in its 3rd year. In the West, armies dug in and those who were […]
“Death Breathe” by Michael Sumper
Next, to other culinary delights, the Austrian author Michael Sumper is in particularly taken by whiskey. It is therefore not surprising that liquid gold also plays a vital role in the 3rd part of his Scottish trilogy.
Weather: Fickle. Emotions: set on storm
A book must make you think. It must change your view on life.”