#Der Geograph

[fabiansteinhauer]

Camera Obscura

Das zweite Kapitel seines Buches zu den Techniken des Betrachters widmet Jonathan Cary der camera obscura. Im Verlauf des Kapitels kommt er auf zwei Gemälde von Vermeer zu sprechen. Cary schreibt Anfang der Neunziger, dass die camera obscura ein erstens 'dominantes' und zweitens historisches, also aufkommendes und vorübergehendes Modell des Sehens gewesen sei. Die camera obscura ist ein dunkler Raum, oder wie John Locke schreibt dark room oder closet. Der Begriff, der weniger frivol klingt, wurde in Deutschland eingebürgert, man sagt, er hätte es selbst getan, er hätte sich eingebürgert.

Die camera obscura ist eine Architektur, ein Möbel und ein Apparat, eine artifizielle oder technische Einrichtung. Crary betont einen Effekt der camera obscura, den man mit dem Vokabular aus Niklas Luhmanns Rechtstheorie als Retention und mit dem Vokabular des Rechtshistorikers Fritz Schulz als Isolation bezeichnen kann. Der Betrachter steht in einem Raum, der von der Außenwelt abgetrennt ist. Man sieht aber auch etwas (Durch-)Gehendes, Locke zum Beispiel sieht einen Letter (ein Objekt, das lässt, eine Klamm und eine Sendung) in dem Fall das Fenster, das Licht durchgehen lässt. David Hume sieht in der camera obscura penetration. Wer hier wieder Frivolität assoziiert dem kann gesagt werden, dass die sprachlichen Beschreibungen der camera obscura und auch Vermeers Bilder den Verkündigungsszenen historisch und theoretisch mehr oder weniger nahestehen, den nordalpinen Versionen, die aus der Szene ein Interieur machen, sind sie ähnlicher, man assoziiert die camera obscura vielleicht auch deswegen mit der Innnerlichkeit der permanten Reformation; den mediterranen Versionen, die die Szene in den Stadtraum verlegen, sind die Beschreibungen der camera obscura und Vermeers Bilder eher unähnlich.

Die Fenster sind in Vermeers Entwurf geschlossen und das Glas (das hier weniger unerbittlich erscheint als bei Jacbus Vrel, aber immer unerbittlich bleibt) ist nicht gebrochen. Dass man durch Schuld zur Wahrheit kommt, das ist nicht gesagt, auch nicht bei Hume oder Locke, deren Formulierungen uns heute ein bisschen wie Matrosensprech' klingen.

2.

Die camera obscura ist historisch, Crary beschreibt ihre Vergänglichkeit und einen Bruch, nachdem sie durch andere Apparate, beispielhaft das Stereoskop, abgelöst sein soll. Wie immer kann man Autoren klug lesen und doof lesen. Dass es immer noch eine camera obscura gibt, sie also entfernt aber nicht weg ist, wird Crary wissen. die Unterscheidung, die Crary macht, muss man nicht leugnen, mit ihr kann man sich ohnehin nicht begnügen. Man sollte solche Differenzierungen wie die, die Crary für die Geschichte und Theorie der Betrachtung macht, gerade weil er sie auch in Bezug auf die Geschichte und Theorie juridischer Kulturtechniken macht, als Teil eines Bilderstreites verstehen. Wenn die camera obscura überhaupt jemals dominant war, dann war sie es, weil ihre Technik bestrittten wurde. Alle Abbildungen, die Crary im zweiten Kapitel zeigt, zeigen die camera obscura als Architektur und dabei als einen Haushalt, der bestritten werden soll. Der Streit, von dem hier die Rede ist, bringt nicht weg, was er bestreitet, er macht es mit, in widerständigen und insistierenden Verhältnissen. In meiner besonderen Perspektive, die sich daraus ergibt, dass das die Perspektive einer Bild- und Rechtswissenschaft und damit immer auch Teil einer Geschichte und Theorie des Bilderstreits, sind Bilder überhaupt nur deswegen gegeben, weil sie bestritten werden.

3.

Auch wenn Crary seine Unterscheidung zwischen camera obscura und Zentralperspektive plausibel macht, möchte ich darauf Hinweisen, dass dieses Objekt in die Geschichte und Theorie gründlicher Linien involviert ist, zu deren Geschichte und Theorie Vismann ein fünfaches Modell geliefert hat. In dem Sinne ist die camera obscura eine Kanzel und ein Sekretariat. Eventuell haben der Geograph und der Astronom, die Vermeer zeigt, trotz stickiger Luft die Fenster geschlossen um sie als velum (veil) oder Raster zu nutzen.

Crary benutzt, wie Fritz Schulz das in Bezug auf die Prinzipien des römischen Rechts tut, den Begriff der Isolation, qualifiziert ihn aber und spricht insoweit von einer melancholischen Isolation. Der Geograph ist ein Landvermesser, das ist wiederum eine kafkaeske Gestalt. Der Astronom ist derjenige, dessen Geschichte und Theorie des Bildes Warburg nahe kommt. Für Warburg sind erste, elementare und prinzipielle Bilder Sternenbilder - und Warburg interessiert sich nicht für Bilder in ihrer Funktion, Abwesenheit zu überbrücken und einen Abgrund zu meistern. Die Sterne kommen nicht weg. Sieht man sie nicht mehr, dann hat man sie im Rücken, dem eigenen Rücken oder sie sind gerade 'auf der Rückseite der Welt', und sie rücken immer weiter. Für Warburg sind Sternenbilder erste, elementare und prinzipielle Bilder, weil sie die Funktion haben, Regung oder Bewegung händeln zu können, zum Beispiel dem Reisenden Orientierung und allen anderen Zeitmessung zu ermöglichen. Was Crary eine melancholische Isolation nennt, das verbindet Warburg mit seiner Polarforschung. Die Melancholie geht wie die Polarität mit einer Situation einher, in der man hat, was einem fehlt oder aber einem fehlt, was man hat.

[endlich-allein]

"Der Rhein" is back to pre-order !

After Yukon and Amazon, part 3 of the river trilogy by Till Lindemann and Joey Kelly follows: Myth of the Rhine

Two men, two extremes, one river. Till Lindemann, singer of Rammstein, and Joey Kelly, member of the Kelly Family. What unites them is their passion for nature. After "Yukon" and "Amazonas", both now explore the Rhine, Germany's longest river and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and tell in an interview what their fascination with the river in the heart of Europe lies in.

The Rhine meanders from the Alps to the North Sea through breathtaking landscapes and connects several countries and cultures. Historic cities such as Cologne, Mainz and Basel adorn the banks of the Rhine and tell their centuries-old stories.

With breathtaking landscape photographs by Thomas Stachelhaus

Exceptional, bibliophile equipment in exclusive landscape format

With poems by Till Lindemann and an interview

Gift illustrated book for photography enthusiasts, Rhine residents, fans of Rammstein or the Kelly Family

Release date : 27.09.2024

The next book by Till and Joey Kelly will be published on October 18 ! This time the two friends have traveled the Rhine and it is a magnificent 240-page photo book entitled : "Der Rhein: Tiefe Wasser sind nicht still" in partnership with National Geographic ! You can now pre-order 👆🏼

[julietherebel]

(National geographic voice)

"Every january the Spatort fandom awakes from its hibernation. They are starving, as they have not fed in one whole year. Hungry for just one sad look, just one light shoulder touch, they yearn the new episode. Their instinct tells them to be ready an exactly 8.15 pm. And there it is. A feast! They hear "bis ans Ende der Welt". They drink in "gute Nacht, Tiger". They devour "dein Herz gehört ohnehin schon mir". Then - peace sets in. The fandom returns to its cave, mind and hearts full. They have been fed and they know it has to last until next year.

[zero-zoxx-international]

Johannes der Täufer am geographischen Nordpol (John the Baptist at the Geographical North Pole), 1981 by J.G.Wind

[hydro-filia]

Day 1

How did you first discover the Nibelungenlied

So the first time that I remember stumbling upon it I must have been eight or so, sometime in elementary school. My family was subscribed to the National Geographic Kids Magazine, and in Germany they always came with a CD about a rat called Marvi Hämmer (until they stopped doing those around 2014 I think). They always had the same structure which always included a quiz. One of the first issues of that, that I got was about dragons, so of course one of the questions on that quiz was: “what was the name of the dragon killed by Siegfried?” After that Marvi also went into a bit more detail about the story but not that much.

Anyways after that the Nibelungenlied was just a thing that was around for a while. In school there were always some people that did book reports about it, but I never experienced any of those (they were held in different classes), but the posters of such presentations would always hang on some classroom wall for a while. Our teacher also once gave us a brief plot summary in school but it was nothing too important. And I can’t really remember if this was the case but I think the first stanza of the Nibelungenlied: “Uns ist in alten maeren wunders vil geseit” etc. must have been printed in at least one school book, because when I later read the text for the first time, I immediately went: “Wait I know this. I’ve read this before.”

So when I was about 14 I was gifted a children’s version of the Nibelungenlied written by Auguste Lechner. I say children’s version, but it was really just exactly the Nibelungenlied written in modern German prose with relatively easy language. The people who gifted it to me were family friends who had that sort of: “this is so you can read proper literature instead of your fantasy stuff” attitude about it, which is extremely funny in hindsight. But anyways since then I’ve known the complete plot of the Nibelungenlied without ever really having read it.

Then after 2022 something happened which would later make me read the actual Nibelungenlied for the first time. In the time between when I graduated and when I started my first semester at university one of my hometown’s two amateur theatre groups decided to perform a production of the Nibelungen Mythos. It was called “Das Ding der Nibelungen”, had no relation to Wagner’s “Der Ring der Nibelungen” whatsoever, but was instead a comedy about the Nibelungenlied. It was really really bad, and I’ll get into why in one of the later days of the challenge but it was so bad that after it was over I started ranting to my dad about just how bad it was. It was a really nice conversation and we ended up forming some headcanons together. This was when I realized, maybe for the first time, that I actually like the Nibelungenlied a lot.

Then finally about half a year later, it was during my first semester of university, I went into Augsburgs public library for the first time (because I moved there) and found the Nibelungenlied, original text and modern German translation by Ursula Schulze, just lying there. In plain view on a shelf. So I borrowed it, took it home and then finally read the Nibelungenlied for the first time.

Technically the story doesn’t end there because I later found out that what I read was the manuscript C of the Nibelungenlied instead of the manuscript B which is the most commonly discussed one, an probably the one you’ve read, but I have yet to read that (and also other things), and this is getting way too long anyway, so I think that I’ll just stop here.

[thatswhywelovegermany]

Verdict concerning urinating at the beach of the Baltic Sea

A man emptied his bladder in the protection of the dark and was confronted by watchful upholders of law and order. The case went to court - and the judges felt challenged to show their craft.

It is one of the advantages of nature that your view of the magnificent landscape is not obstructed by an outside toilet. That's why you simply have no choice but to pee outdoors every now and then. Under the cover of a bush, tree, hill or even the night, an unproblematic affair that should not upset anyone.

Something like that may have gone through the thoughts of the wild wee'er who removed himself about twenty meters from his friends gathered on the Baltic Sea beach in a summer night of July 2022 and urinated protected by the darkness – the act was committed around 00:36 – with his back facing the beach towards the water. Children building sand castles or girls playing volleyball were not active at this time. Nor was the beach frequented by walkers. However, law enforcement officers of the city of Lübeck armed with flashlights patrolled the beach, who confronted the perpetrator – but only after he had emptied his bladder, order must prevail. The man was supposed to pay sixty euros for the administrative offense of "annoyance of the general public by a grossly indecent action", which the man refused to pay. The case went to the district court of Lübeck.

Among other things, the question whether the wild wee'er had violated the public sense of shame was on the table. The court found: no. The person concerned had entrusted himself to the protection of the darkness and did not have to expect to be suddenly illuminated with flashlights and to be approached in a targeted manner. It has to be redounded to the district court's credit that it has also kept an eye on the geographical peculiarities. "The fact that there were no other ways to retreat behind landscape features at the drift line of the Baltic Sea, unlike in mountains and at forest edges, except to turn away, cannot be stacked against the person concerned. That's how it is at the coast."

Yes, that's the way it is at the coast. Continue in the court text, on to the next setback for the Hanseatic city of Lübeck. According to the district court, no discommoding pollution or impairment by odor had occurred. The Baltic Sea is not a puddle, the wild wee'er had determined correctly. The court has researched that it contains "an amount of 21,631 cubic kilometers of brackish water. The degree of dilution would be so high that even in the event of a repeat or imitation a discommoding pollution or impairment by odor is impossible."

Finally, the district court comes to the beautiful, almost poetically formulated judgment that under the vastness of the firmament, man has no less rights than the deer in the forest, the rabbit in the field or the seal at the drift line of the Baltic Sea. And since, in case of doubt, we are sometimes deer, rabbits or seals, depending on the region, the state treasury has to bear the costs of the legal proceedings and the expenses of the person concerned.

[violetmoondaughter]

Italian witch trials

Triora is a small village located in the region of Liguria in Italy, the town is known as the “Italian Salem” because of the famous Witch’s trial occurred there in the 16th century. It was 1587 when after two years of famine the village leaders and the elder’s council decided that such a tragedy was the result of the evil doing of a bunch of local women, all accused of mingling with the devil. The accused women were mainly prostitutes or poor women emarginated in the Cabotina, a district populated by meager people located outside the town walls. Nobody complained when a bunch of wretched women without a penny were accused of witchcraft, but things quickly changed when the accusations spread like oil and invested the wealthier women of Triora’s society.

Genoa sent over to Triora Giulio Scribani, a former local magistrate, nominated special commissioner for the case. Scribani sent thirteen women to the prison of Genoa and raged throughout the area opening new cases and causing innocent women to die. Genoa, the Inquisition, and the Church itself tried to intervene and to stop the trials but Scribani went ahead; in Triora and neighboring villages such as Andagna, Bajardo, and Montalto Ligure the deaths of many innocent people were recorded. In 1589 after two years of persecutions the trials were closed by the Inquisition, little is known about what happened to the women that were sent to Genoa, but dozens were the women imprisoned, and those who did not burn to death, died from the torture they endured. Historians agree in saying that the reasons behind the accusations, were possibly that local landowners wanted to rise food prices to increase their income causing people to become unable to buy food to sustain themselves and their families. Blaming the death of hunger-stricken people on witchcraft was a perfect way out.

Today the town honor the memory of the events with a museum dedicated to the witch hunt, trials and witchcraft, but the geographic area is still connected with its mysterious and magical past.

The heraldry symbol of the town is Cerberus, the infernal hound, the name Triora in fact comes from the Latin Tria Ora which means three mouths. Triora’s main church, the Collegiata it’s believed to be constructed on a previous pagan temple, a Fanum. Evidence of earlier pagan cults is also represented by an ancient menhir situated in the Mezzaluna Pass. But the area is full of places considered witching spots, natural spaces where it’s believed that withes organized their sabbaths, like the lake Lagodégnu, the field Ciàn der Préve, the fountain Campomavùe and the nearby walnut tree. These places, with the ancient Cabotina, can still be visited today and recall to the primeval traditions of Italian witchcraft. The village also organizes an annual festival dedicated to witchcraft and paganism.

[clandestone]

 //   (  reese witherspoon  .  cis-female  .  she/her  )  .    ⸻  charlotte  talbot  ,  a  forty-eight  year  old  ,  has  survived  another  day  in  red  creek  where  they  have  lived  for  twenty-eight  years .  the  caged  songbird  is  known  for  being  graceful  and  distrustful  and  is  often  associated  with  the  call  of  a  mourning  dove  in  the  distance,  rain  keeping  you  awake  as  it  thunders  on  the  roof,  the  weight  of  your  dog’s  head  in  your  lap.  in  a  small  town  where  they  work  as  a  photographer for the register,  word  travels  fast  .

the basics

Name: charlotte talbot Nicknames: lottie, char, anything but charlie Gender: cis-female, she/her Sexual Orientation: bisexual, biromantic Age: 48 Birthday: february 25, 1976  Occupation: photographer for the register Marital Status: publicly married to nathan talbot, privately separated  Pets: a rescued rhodesian ridgeback named Bear  Positive Traits: graceful, sweet, witty, generous Negative Traits: distrustful, cagey, gossipy, proud

aesthetics

Inspiration: esme (twilight), madeline mackenzie (big little lies), amy march (little women), lily van der woodsen (gossip girl) Animal: elk Tarot Card: the wheel of fortune Zodiac: pisces   Element: air Mineral: moonstone Song: Silver Springs - Fleetwood Mac (specifically the 1997 live version where stevie nicks tries to blow lindsay buckingham up with her mind) 

Backstory

It’s hard to ignore the whispers, the stares, the rumors. No one seemed to know what business Charlotte had in Red Creek, but the townspeople thought itt was strange, the way she kept to herself, the way she seemed to be entirely able to support herself at such a young age, the way she clammed up at the slightest question about her past. Especially when her story was so simple, so boring- she’d lived in Los Angeles for her entire life, and after falling out with her family, she decided she’d had enough of the traffic, the heat, the noise. Years before, she’d been enchanted by an article about northern Michigan in National Geographic, so at only twenty years old, she packed her car and drove thousands of miles away from home in search of a fresh start. After a few months, she was old news, and people stopped turning to stare when they saw her walk into a room. When she started to publicly date Nathan Talbot, the whispers died off completely. It was disorienting, being accepted into the community almost overnight after months of being the source of such gossip. But more than that, it was a relief to no longer be seen with those questioning, suspicious eyes. Charlotte’s marriage to Nathan only further cemented her in the community, and by the time they’d had their first child, no one could imagine a time that Lottie wasn’t floating around town, camera in hand. She didn’t know what a blessing it was to be so accepted, so loved- not until the first death.  Hannah Visser’s death affected her in such a profound, almost visceral way. She’d left home to escape chaos, and had somehow found herself in a situation that had her paranoid and terrified, unable to sleep at night. She came home one day, a great pyrenees puppy in her arms, and that seemed to put her at ease. Knowing she had something between her family and the danger kept her anxiety manageable, and she’s kept a dog of some kind in the house ever since.  Charlotte’s adoration for her children can be seen around every corner at her home- pictures all over the walls, sitting in frames on dressers and side tables. She would do anything to keep them safe, and they are at the forefront of her mind. She may not have always been perfect, but she feels she did the best she could.   Around town, Lottie can be found every morning at early rise bakery, having a cup of coffee. Photography is a huge talent and passion of hers, and working at the register is more about keeping busy and staying creative than making a living. She’s not entirely comfortable in front of a camera though, only having photos taken when absolutely necessary. Occasionally, she’ll sell prints of her favorite photos around town, but never online. 

Wanted Connections

With Charlotte and Nathan being privately separated, it would be fun to have a lil thing on the side to spice things up, as a treat. It would probably start slow and accidentally, since she really doesn’t want to make waves, but could eventually turn into full-fledged sneaking around.  Her group of friends, people she meets at the bakery every morning. Probably close-ish friends, people she can gossip and bitch with. I picture them having a book club, but it’s just an excuse to go to each other’s house and drink wine. A true BFF. Probably the only one who knows about her separation, and knows more about her than anyone else, really. This would have to be someone she trusts with her entire life, since she is a very closed book. Likely someone she’s been friends with since she came to Red Creek. Fellow dog-walkers!! Lottie’s dog has a lot of energy, so she gets her daily exercise in with two walks a day. Scary dog privilege is a lot of work! It’d be fun if this was a newer connection, someone she didn’t interact with much before she started taking a new route, or something like that. Now they purposefully go out on their walks at the same time! 

[variousqueerthings]

Dora Richter, the earliest known person to have received certain gender affirming healthcare at the museum of sexology, who for a long time it was unclear whether or not had survived the Nazis, has been confirmed to have survived WWII, changed her birth certificate, and lived to the ripe old age of 74 in a small village.

All of this was discovered through record archives, as pretty much every place that geographically located Dora were destroyed during WWII or due to other circumstances (her grave, for example, was returned to the municipality, and so no longer exists either).

The work done through sifting through archives cannot be overstated. I feel like someone has been brought back to life!

the article is auto-translated to English for anyone who doesn't read German, but can also be read here if that doesn't work:

[tanadrin]

I've recently come to the realization that Das Lied der Deutsch can be sang to the tune of Ode to Joy, and propose this be made official as it would surely solve all issues association with the Nazis has caused for the song

I mean as long as we’re using boring ass songs with dodgy associations, why not replace it with Auferstanden aus Ruinen, the DDR anthem. Doesn’t contain any awkward outdated geographical references at least.

[krinsbez]

A Request

OK, having watched eveyr episode of the BattleTech cartoon, trying to decide what youtube to obsess about next. Keeping in mind that, in no particular order some of what what I have currently Favorited:

-Linkara (Comic and general nerdery reviews)

-ProZd (Anime and general nerdery. I also try to watch his food videos)

-Tasting History with Max Miller (food history)

-Dom Noble (reviews of film/TV adaptations of books, general nerd stuff, with a book focus)

-B. Dylan Hollis (vintage food and comedy)

-Chris McFeely (Transformers Lore and history)

-Casual Geographic (animals)

-The Panda Redd (comic books and general nerdery)

-Colm McGuiness (Irish tradmusic, nerdcore music, but also he does pop songs from various eras and metal versions of things?)

-Jonathan Young (power metal and nerdcore music)

-Casual Geographic (animal facts+comedy)

-Sam O'. 'Nella (random trivia, humorously)

-The Longest Johns (folk music, sea shanties, etc.)

-Tex Talks Battletech (Battletech Lore and humor)

-Sven Van Der plank (BattleTech lore)

I'm too hungry to do a complete list.

What do you think, based on the above list, and what y'all maybe cna glean from what I post, do you think I should look into next?

[mariacallous]

There are two ways of looking at the outcome of the European Parliament elections in Germany. On the European level, the fact that Germany’s conservative opposition (the Christian Democratic Union, CDU) came in first helped the European People’s Party (EPP), the transnational grouping of Europe’s mainstream center-right parties, to gain seats. That makes the EPP likely to form the core of the coalition that will elect the European Union’s leadership for the next five years, probably reappointing EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who comes from the CDU herself. Despite the far right’s electoral gains across much of Europe, the EPP’s hold on power will provide some much-needed continuity and stability at a time of global uncertainty and strategic risks for Europe.

But inasmuch as the European Parliament elections are managed by the EU’s member states and contested by national political parties, they are always also a referendum on the incumbent national government. Here the picture is more fraught. And this, in turn, can have consequences for Germany’s ability to pull its weight in Europe.

The election shows a Germany divided—politically and geographically

According to the preliminary final count of the German votes, the CDU and CSU together got 30% of the vote (a 1.1% increase from the last election in 2019). The hard-right AfD received 15.9% (up by 4.9%), putting it in second place nationwide (and in first place throughout the five eastern German states).

The parties of the ruling traffic light coalition, meanwhile, were given a trouncing: Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats got 13.9% (down by 1.9%), their worst result ever in a European election; the Greens came in at 11.9% (down by a stunning 8.6%), and the Liberals at 5.2% (down by 0.2%).

The Left Party continues its downward trajectory at 2.7% (down by 2.8%), while its renegade offshoot, the hard-left BSW party founded only in January by the fiery populist Sahra Wagenknecht, achieved 6.2%. Voter turnout in Germany was at 64.8%, the highest since 1990 and more than 10 percentage points above the EU average. Clearly, voters were galvanized and wanted to send a message.

The drubbing for Scholz’s team in Berlin came as no surprise, given consistent poll predictions and the coalition’s very public infighting in recent months. But for a government hoping to recover some mojo before three bellwether eastern state elections in September and national elections a year later, it is nonetheless demoralizing. Scholz’s “I-am-the-chancellor-of-peace-and-prudence” message left voters deeply unpersuaded. The Greens alienated Germans with a combination of maximalist climate policies, amateurish governance blunders, and naïve nepotism; the Liberals’ rigid hawkishness on defense and fiscal probity obviously isn’t working for them either.

Snap elections are rare, so the government will struggle on

Unlike in France, however—where President Emmanuel Macron immediately dissolved the parliament and announced new elections to be held on June 30 and July 7 after his party’s devastating defeat by far-right leader Marine Le Pen and her National Rally party (see my colleague Tara Varma’s analysis), early elections are highly unlikely in Germany. The German constitutional court has made it abundantly clear that it frowns on a chancellor calling a confidence vote in order to wrongfoot his opponent with an early election. And there are no signs that the CDU with its leader Friedrich Merz has the political capital (or the necessary coalition partners) to win a parliamentary vote of no confidence against Scholz; especially since it hasn’t even formally decided yet that Merz will be its candidate in 2025. Demands by the opposition leaders for Scholz to follow Macron’s example are just political kabuki.

Germany’s traffic light coalition will therefore struggle on unhappily—and the CDU has every reason to temper its swagger with self-awareness. The net result, alas, may be a German political center that becomes more nervous and more inward-looking at precisely the time when Europe could use energetic leadership from Berlin.

Extremists on the left and right are the election’s real winners

So, at the national level, the real winners of this election are arguably the AfD and the BSW. They have real differences: Segments of the AfD have been designated as right-wing extremists by Germany’s domestic intelligence agencies, whereas the BSW, while distinctly populist, has not come under similar scrutiny. Many of the BSW’s voters are defectors from the mainstream left and skew toward older age groups; the AfD’s vote share was especially strong among young and first-time voters.

But they also have some big things in common. Both are skeptical of the European Union and have a distinct nationalist bent. They play on voters’ fears about migration, the economy, and security; they sharpen polarization by decrying their centrist opponents as out-of-touch elites; they share a notable warmth toward Russia and China.

Finally, look at a map of which party came in first in the weekend’s European Parliament election in Germany, and it looks shockingly like a map from 34 years ago. The territory of the former West Germany is almost uniformly black (the color of the conservative CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union or CSU), while the territory of the former East Germany—part of the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989—is blue (the color of the hard-right Alternative for Germany, AfD) except for the country’s capital, Berlin. It is as though the reunification of Germany in 1990 had never happened.

In fact, both the AfD and the BSW have their greatest followings in the former East Germany. There has been much debate about why this is the case—and there is conflicting evidence about whether their voters cast their ballots in protest or out of conviction. Also, party identification is weaker in Germany’s east than in other parts of the country. But clearly, 34 years of reunification have not sufficed to erase the wounds of 44 years of Communist rule and the tremendous costs of transformation after the fall of the wall. The populists and extremists are exquisitely skilled at exploiting these divides. That is a lesson the mainstream parties would do well to heed.

The fact remains that the largest gains of the weekend’s vote in Germany were made by the AfD, which is Europe’s most overtly radical far-right party. Earlier in the year, it unleashed week-long protest marches across the country after revelations of a secret meeting between AfD members and other figures of the extreme right to discuss the “remigration”—deportation—of immigrants, including German citizens with an immigrant background. One of its legislators was stripped of his immunity because of links to Russian oligarchs peddling disinformation. Its top candidate for the European election, Maximilian Krah, saw one of his staffers arrested on suspicion of espionage for China and was later sidelined (but not removed as a candidate) by his own party for saying that not all members of the SS had been criminals.

The AfD uses and abuses history

It so happens I am writing this blog from southern Germany, near Munich. The day after the election, I went to see the Dachau concentration camp—built in 1933 for political prisoners, and now a historical memorial. Between 1933 and 1945, 200,000 people were incarcerated there, abused, tortured, and finally, as the Allies advanced, sent on death marches; at least 41,000 were killed. The camp was run by the SS, and it was where the Nazi regime’s most-feared paramilitary group developed the methods it later perfected in extermination camps across Germany and Eastern Europe, killing millions.

The AfD delegation in the European Parliament has expelled Krah from its group—but many other key figures have repeatedly made a point of minimizing Germany’s guilt in the Holocaust. And Krah remains a sitting member of the European Parliament from Germany. That is still shocking. Thankfully, memorials like Dachau continue to display and teach the historic truth to visitors; and there were many on the day I went.

[germanpostwarmodern]

With the Robie and Farnsworth Houses Chicago and „Chicagoland“ are home to two icons of 20th century domestic architecture. At the same time these two houses also epitomize two important strands of Chicago architecture, namely Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School and Mies van der Rohe’s glass-and-steel universalism taught at Armour Institute (later IIT). Unsurprisingly these two heavyweights of 20th century architecture had a lasting impact on Chicago’s architects as Susan S. Benjamin and Michelangelo Sabbatino demonstrate in their book „Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses 1929-1975“, published in 2020 by Monacelli Press, in which the authors zoom in on four-and-a-half decades of domestic modern architecture in and around Chicago. In their comprehensive introduction Benjamin and Sabbatino go into detail about the book’s title which refers to Chicago’s geographical location, the chosen time frame as well as the predominantly middle and upper middle class clients. Furthermore they recount the development of modern residential architecture in the area and embed it within 20th century modern architecture.

In the catalogue part the authors present 53 houses by well-known names like Harry Weese, Bertrand Goldberg, Stanley Tigerman, FLW and Mies but also by largely unknown local architects. This carefully selected range of buildings and architects brings to light numerous gems like Clarence Krusinki’s Walgreen House (1970) or Jacques Brownson’s and Le Roy Binkley’s own houses (1952 and 1950), all presented in predominantly historic photos, plans and an essay shedding light on the architect and the building’s history.

„Modern in the Middle“ is rounded out by Benjamin and Sabbatino reflecting on their own (modern) houses, a personal touch that again emphasizes their love for modern residential architecture in Chicago, an appreciation the reader will easily subscribe to after finishing the book.

[lepreuxchevalier]

My latest retouch of the second illustration of some "Schwarze Reiter” that I have officially designed to feature the faction iconography of “Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland" or "House Rotbart of The Kingdom of Middenland," one of the most iconic and prolific factions of my "homebrew" low-fantasy setting. Both this artwork and it's associated faction iconography were officially designed for a "homebrew" low-fantasy setting of my original conception with technology and material culture roughly equivalent to European History during the compounded advents of The Italian Renaissance, The Protestant Reformation, and The Discovery of America. Where formations of heavily armoured and mounted, aristocratic and noble knights in either suits of full plate armour or heavy coats of chainmail fight alongside professional regiments of pikemen and matchlock musketeers. Where medieval-style stone castles are gradually being outsourced in favour of lavish country estates and devoted military fortifications, or “bastions,” due to the technological advancements being made in gunpowder-based, siege artillery. And where fledgling nation-states in the form of both kingdoms and empires look beyond the great oceans and the terrestrial frontiers of “The Known World” in search of exotic riches and territory.

In context to the canon lore of my "homebrew" low-fantasy setting, “Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland" or "House Rotbart of The Kingdom of Middenland" is loosely inspired by Medieval and Renaissance Prussia under The Theocracy of The Teutonic Knights as well as Ducal Prussia during the 16th and 17th centuries. “Friedrich I, Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland und Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart," with his legislative decree to formally convert to “The Luxembourgian Reformation” on behalf of both his dynastic household and his hereditary subjects being highly analogous to "Albrecht von Hohenzollern's" or "Albert von Preußen's" formal secularization of “The Monastic State of The Teutonic Knights” or “Des Deutschordenstaat” to The Lutheran, East Prussian Duchy as it's last effective grandmaster and it's first hereditary duke in the early 16th century.

Designated in my "homebrew" low-fantasy setting as “Shwarze Reiter” or “Black Riders,” the constituent “Bruderschaften” or “chapters” of “Der Schwarze Reiter” are the elite, pseudo-monastic, martial fraternities of aristocratic and noble heavy cavalry paying direct homage and military service to "Den Könige von Middenland" from "Hohenrotbart." "Die Brüderschaften" or "The Brotherhoods" as the constituent "chapters" of "Der Schwarze Reiter" drew manpower from a network of logistical and recruiting districts geographically situated within the frontiers of Des Königreich Middenland known as "cantons" each centered around "Eine Ordensburg" or "a chapter castle." Each “Brüderschaft” or “chapter” of "Der Schwarze Reiter" was assigned to the personal command and the direct supervision of “Ein Großmeister” or “a grandmaster,” who were each personally and individually charged for life by the persons of "Der Könige von Middenland" from "Hohenrotbart" to be given personal command and direct supervision over an individual "Brüderschaft" or "chapter" within "Die Schwarze Reiter." "Die Großmeister" or "The Grandmasters" of "Der Schwarze Reiter" were personally and individually appointed from "legitimate issues" or "dynastic scions" of Des Königreich Middenland's princely "great houses" of "junker" aristocrats and nobles in order to "bind" or otherwise "insure" both their hereditary, dynastic loyalties and their feudal homage to the feudal suzerainty of "Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland. "Die Könige von Middenland" from "Hohenrotbart" are the traditionally hereditary holders for the technically appointed office of "Des Hochmeister Der Schwarze Reiter" or "The Supreme Grandmaster of All Schwarze Reiter." A military tradition meant to engender "Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland's" dynastic traditions of martial discipline, martial professionalism, and crusading, warrior ethos of worthy of the commaders-in-chief to all the constituent "Brüderschaften" or "chapters" within "Die Schwarze Reiter." In order to "strengthen" or otherwise "reinforce" the bonds of professional loyalties and direct homage of the constituent "Brüderschaften" or "chapters" of "Der Schwarze Reiter" to “Den Könige von Middenland" from "Hohenrotbart" as the traditionally hereditary holders for the technically appointed office of “Des Hochmeister Der Schwarzen Reiter” or "The Supreme Grandmaster of All Schwarze Reiter." Both the personal livelihoods and the unit upkeep costs of the constituent “Brüderschaften” or "chapters" of "Der Schwarze Reiter" were funded through a combination of the seasonal land tax generated by “the demesne” or “the crownlands” under the direct administration of "Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland" and their civil administrators, through any tariffs imposed on the commerce and the industry of Des König von Middenland’s charter companies and the local trade guilds, as well as through any tithes and benefices generated by the religious services of, donations to, and property owned by The Conservative Church of The New Gods in joint partnership with "Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland" over the sovereign and legitimate rulership, the state administration, and the systematic, mass conversion of the autochthonous, apostate, Albic tribes religiously subscribed to the druidic, cult worship of “Erdøk,” "The Great Bastion," or ”The Great Forest” geographically situated directly beyond the easternmost fronters of “Das Selbst Kaiserreich Der Menschheit” or “The Empire of Mankind Proper.”

Alongside "Hohenbiermann Der Markgrafschaft Brannenborg," "Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland" collectively forms "Die Sudkreuzritterstaaten," "Die Teutogenstaaten," or "Die Sudentscheidenstaaten." Essentially a "Teutogen" or "Southern Austere" cultural and linguistic bloc born of the subsequent and complimentary events of "The Southern Crusades" and "The Sudsiedlung." "The Southern Crusades" essentially being the religious warfare and the territorial conquests formally preached and prosecuted against the autochthonous, apostate, Albic tribes religiously subscribed to the druidic, cult worship of "Erdøk," "The Great Forest," or "The Great Bastion" geographically situated directly beyond the easternmost frontiers of "Des Zweiten Kaiserreich der Menschheit" or "The Empire of Mankind Secundus." While "The Sudsiedlung" generally denotes the gradual, mass migration and the effective resettlement of culturally and ethnically "Austere" or "Northern Imperial" settlers and immigrants hailing from "Das Selbst Kaiserreich der Menschheit" or "The Empire of Mankind Proper" alongside the systematic, mass conversion of the indigenous, apostate, Albic tribes back into the fold of The Conservative Church of The New Gods officially seated within The Holy Sept of Romulus, Cosmopoleis synonymous and complimentary with their thorough assimilation into the "Austere" or "Northern Imperial" culture and language of their feudal and ecclesiastical lords and masters using the religious services and the church schools officially sponsored by a culturally and ethnically "Austere" or "Northern Imperial" Conservative Clergy with their traditional monopolies over knowledge, learning, and education in general. The thorough and effective cultural assimilation of the autochthonous, apostate, Albic tribes of Des Königreich Middenland and Der Markgrafschaft Brannenborg being a practical necessity for their systematic, mass conversion back into the fold of The Conservative Church of The New Gods due to the practical realities associated with the inherent shortage and lack of any literate and formally educated indigenous Albic Clergy who could effectively and efficiently preach and proselytize the conservative liturgy of The Holy Canons of The New Gods to the pious masses in "Die Sudkreuzritterstaaten, "Die Teutogenstaaten," or "Die Sudentscheidenstaaten." With any autochthonous, apostate, Albic tribes who had both violently resisted and openly protested against the legislative marginalization of their religious liberties meant to encourage their systematic, mass conversion back into the fold of The Conservative Church of The New Gods traditionally seated within The Holy Sept of Classical Romulus facing mass genocide at the hands of the fledgling, yet brutally effective and efficient professional armies paying direct homage and military service to "Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland" and "Hohenbiermann Der Markgrafscaft Brannenborg," or those of the feudal, aristocratic levies of knightly retinues and pike-and-shotte infantry regiments paying direct homage and military service to the aristocratic and noble "great houses" of "junker" princeps and magnates in either Das Königreich Middenland or Die Markgrafschaft Brannenborg. "Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland," in particular, was born out of Bishop-Prince Friedrich Albrecht Von Rotbart's "Midlands Crusade" formally preached and prosecuted on behalf of "Archpatriarch Vexillarius IV, 299th and Reigning Bishop of Romulus and Current Head of The Conservative Church of The New Gods" against the autochthonous, apostate, Albic tribes geographically situated directly beyond the southernmost frontiers of "Des Zweiten Kaiserreich der Menschheit" or "The Empire of Mankind Secundus." With "The Midlands Crusade" finally concluding, in stunning and overwhelming triumph, in favour of Bishop-Prince Friedrich Albrecht Von Rotbart and the conquering, crusading host of "The Midlands Crusade" at the climactic "Battle of The Godswoods."

With the stunning and final conclusion of "The Midlands Crusade" formally and officially preached and prosecuted against the indigenous, apostate, Albic tribes religiously subscribed to the druidic, cult worship of "Erdøk" or "The Great Forest" by Friedrich I's far more prestigious, prolific, and illustrious older brother Friedrich Albrecht Von Rotbart, "Bishop-Prince of Elchingen," "ecclesiastical, invested Kurfürst Des Selbst Kaiserreich der Menschheit," and above all "The Archpatriarchal Legate" or "The Pontifical Representative" to "Vexillarius IV, 299th and Reigning Bishop of Romulus and Current Head of The Conservative Church of The New Gods" for "The Midlands Crusade" with the stunning and overwhelming victory for the sanctioned host of The Conservative Church of The New Gods at the climactic "Battle of The Godswoods." "The Godswoods" as the holiest shrine and the sacred grove to the autochthonous, apostate, Albic tribes geographically situated directly beyond the southernmost frontiers of "Das Selbst Kaiserreich der Menschheit" or "The Empire of Mankind Proper" was subsequently and consequently desecrated and demolished by the conquering, crusading knights of "The Midlands Crusade." With it's constituent lands being formally consecrated as the site of the new basilica town of Marienburg, where Friedrich Albrecht Von Rotbart would be invested, with The Bishop of Romulus' explicit blessing, the awesome and prestigious ecclesiastical office of "Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg" in order to facilitate the systematic, mass conversion of the indigenous, apostate, Albic tribes back into the fold of The Conservative Church of The New Gods traditionally seated within The Holy Sept of Romulus. By sheer virtue of his fraternal ties to both "The Archpatriarchal Legate" or "The Pontifical Representative" to Vexillarius IV for "The Midlands Crusade" as well as the seminal and founding "Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg," Friedrich Von Rotbart was naturally prioritized over all other prospective candidates for his formal coronation and anointment as "Friedrich I, Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland und Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart" as The Former Kingdom of The Midlands' first hereditary monarch and dynastic household since the extinction of the legitimate, male bloodline of The Late House Bartholemew almost an entire century ago. Using the awesome power, prestige, and authority inherently tied to the venerable and prestigious ecclesiastical office of Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg, Friedrich-Albrecht Von Rotbart would use his ecclesiastical office within The Conservative Church of The New Gods to leverage the unanimous political and religious support of all the high ranking ecclesiastical and monastic offices of Conservative Clergy within Das Königreich Middenland.

Although having won the unanimous religious support and the political backing of the ecclesiastical and the monastic clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods in Das Königreich Middenland. Friedrich I's coronation as "Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland und Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart" was initially and generally received with both icy anticipation and subtle dread, in equal measure, by the newly established aristocratic and noble "great houses" of "junker" princeps and magnates who formed from the cream, core, and bulk of the conquering, crusading knights originally involved in Friedrich-Albrecht Von Rotbart's "Midlands Crusade." Many of whom felt personally that they were better suited towards, or otherwise felt that they were more entitled to the formal and official coronation for the hereditary, dynastic title of "Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland" due to the equal degree of suspicion and skepticism they generally held in regards to Friedrich Von Rotbart in most part due to his minor aristocratic and noble birth within the "Austere" or "Northern Imperial" cultural and linguistic hemisphere of "Des Zweiten Kaiserreich der Menschheit" or "The Empire of Mankind Secundus," as well as his professional background as a mercenary captain to pike-and-shotte infantry, as opposed to aristocratic and noble heavy cavalry due to the historical precedence of the militaristic traditions and the ideology of professional chivalry. To placate the residual and looming suspicion, skepticism, and subtle dread initially and generally expressed by Das Königreich Middenland's greater and lesser dynastic houses of "junker" aristocrats and nobles, while also further "entrenching" or otherwise "reinforcing" their feudal homage and their hereditary, dynastic loyalties to "Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland." Friedrich I, with Bishop-Patriarch Friedrich-Albrecht Von Rotbart's explicit blessing, would award hereditary, dynastic enfeoffment over Das Königreich Middenland's most arable and lucrative lands, titles, and estates which had not been previously claimed as the legal property of The Conservative Church of The New Gods to the greater and lesser dynastic houses of "junker" aristocrats and nobles. Later on into the decades of his long, prolific, and illustrious reign as "Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland und Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart," Friedrich I would decree state legislation to award Das Königreich Middenland's greater and lesser dynastic houses of "junker" aristocrats and nobles the exclusive, feudal privilege for state appointments as judges and magistrates for the new, secular, "royal" law courts officially established by Friedrich I since the aftermath of "The Midlands Crusade" with his formal coronation as "Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland und Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart." The voluminous bodies of secular law codes, traditions, and customs governing the provincial jurisdiction of Friedrich I's "royal" law courts essentially being derivative works of those of "Die Freie Reichsstädte" or "The Imperial Free Cities" within the "Austere" or "Northern Imperial" cultural and linguistic hemisphere of "Des Zweiten Kaiserreich der Menschheit" or "The Empire of Mankind Secundus." With the exception of the provincial jurisdiction of the episcopal diocese of The Archbishopric of Marienburg, which was governed directly by the canon law courts answerable only to The Archpatriarch traditionally seated within The Holy Sept of Romulus.

In direct cooperation and in joint partnership with his far more prestigious, prolific, and illustrious older brother Bishop-Patriarch Friedrich-Albrecht Von Rotbart. "Friedrich I, Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland und Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart" worked in direct cooperation and in joint partnership with both the ecclesiastical and the monastic clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods over the sovereign and legitimate rulership, the state administration, and the systematic, mass conversion of Des Königreich Middenland's autochthonous, apostate, Albic tribes back into the fold of The Conservative Church of The New Gods officially seated within The Holy Sept of Classical Romulus. With any indigenous, apostate, Albic tribes who had both violently resisted and openly protested against the legislative marginalization of their religious liberties meant to encourage their systematic, mass conversion back into the fold of The Conservative Church of The New Gods facing mass genocide at the hands of either the fledgling, yet brutally efficient and effective professional army paying direct homage and military service to "Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland," or those of the feudal, aristocratic levies of knightly retinues and pike-and-shotte infantry regiments paying direct homage and military service to Dem Königreich Middenland's aristocratic and noble "great houses" of "junker" princeps and magnates. The systematic, mass conversion efforts to bring the autochthonous, apostate, Albic tribes back into the fold of The Conservative Church of The New Gods was facilitated exclusively by a culturally and an ethnically "Austere" or "Northern Imperial" Conservative Clergy, who had maintained their traditional monopolies over knowledge, learning, and education in general. A practical necessity meant to compensate for the inherent shortage and lack of any literate and formally educated "autochthonous" or "indigenous" Albic Clergy who could effectively and efficiently preach and proselytize the conservative liturgy of The Holy Canons of The New Gods to the pious masses of Des Königreich Middenland. The systematic, mass conversion of Des Königreich Middenland's indigenous, apostate, Albic tribes necessitated the practicality of their thorough and effective assimilation into the culture and language of their "Austere" or "Northern Imperial" feudal and ecclesiastical lords and masters using the religious services and the church schools officially sponsored by a culturally and ethnically "Austere" or "Northern Imperial" Conservative Clergy.

In order to "revitalize" or otherwise "encourage" the growth of Das Königreich Middenland's internal economy, industrial base, and cultural and scholastic activity. Friedrich I's first and most enduring policy as "Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland und Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart" was to encourage both the mass immigration and the thorough and effective resettlement of skilled, educated, and moneyed commoners hailing from his native "Austere" or "Northern Imperial" cultural and linguistic hemisphere within "Das Selbst Kaiserreich der Menschheit" or "The Empire of Mankind Proper." Using the allure and the promise to permanently resettle, in free hold, within the newly established castles and fortified cities of Des Königreich Middenland, as well as the most lucrative and arable rural estates of their attached countryside. Friedrich I hopes to stimulate the growth of both the rising class of urban "burghers" or "bourgeoisie, merchants, professionals, and artisans," as well as the rising class of rural "kollmers" or "country gentlemen." In order to relieve the societal tension caused by the cultural and religious differences between the more-than-significant influx of culturally "Austere" or "Northern Imperial" settlers and immigrants with the indigenous, apostate Albic tribes. Friedrich I as "Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland und Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart," in direct partnership with the ecclesiastical clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods in Das Königreich Middenland, officially decreed state legislation to offer church-sponsored dowries to any autochthonous Albic families who had both openly and officially converted back into the fold of The Conservative Church of The New Gods in return for marrying off their daughters to any male settlers and immigrants hailing from the "Austere" or "Northern Imperial" cultural and linguistic hemisphere of "Des Zweiten Kaiserreich der Menschheit" or "The Empire of Mankind Secundus." By officially endorsing both a political and a religious campaign to encourage intermarriage between the daughters of any indigenous Albic families who had both openly and officially converted back into the fold of The Conservative Church of The New Gods with male settlers and immigrants hailing from the "Austere" or "Northern Imperial" cultural and linguistic hemisphere of "Des Zweiten Kaiserreich der Menschheit" or "The Empire of Mankind Secundus" using dowries officially sponsored by the ecclesiastical clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods in Dem Königreich Middenland. Friedrich I hopes to "stimulate" or otherwise "encourage" the rate and the efficiency of the systematic, mass conversion of Des Königreich Middenland's indigenous, apostate, Albic tribes while also placating any political and social instability agitated by the cultural and the religious friction between the more-than-significant influx of "Austere" or "Northern Imperial" settlers and immigrants with the Albic natives.

With the untimely passing away of Bishop-Patriarch Friedrich-Albrecht Von Rotbart as Friedrich I's far more prestigious, prolific, and illustrious older brother, "The Archpatriarchal Legate" or "The Pontifical Representative" to Vexillarius IV for "The Midlands Crusade," and the seminal and founding "Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg" formally invested during the stunning conclusion and aftermath of "The Midlands Crusade" with the official consecration of the site of the basilica town of Marienburg over the lands of the former "Godswoods" as the holiest shrine and the sacred grove of the autochthonous, apostate, Albic tribes of "The Former Kingdom of The Midlands" since before it's untimely and final collapse with the extinction of the legitimate, male bloodline of "The Late House Bartholemew" and the subsequent and consequent warring and political feuding between The Former Kingdom of The Midlands' aristocratic and noble "great houses" of feudal princeps and magnates over the issue of legitimate succession to the then extinct, legitimate male bloodline of The Late House Bartholemew. The venerable and ailing Archpatriarch Vexillarius IV as "The 299th and Reigning Bishop of Romulus and The Current Head of The Conservative Church of The New Gods" formally and officially invested in, with his explicit blessing, "Wolfgang Amadeus Von Holswig-Schlestien, Bishop-Prince of Griffenheim and ecclesiastical, invested, Kurfürst Des Selbst Kaiserreich Der Menschheit" as the lawful and legitimate successor to the late Friedrich-Albrecht Von Rotbart for the venerable and prestigious ecclesiastical office of "Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg." Unlike Bishop-Patriarch Friedrich-Albrecht Von Rotbart as his immediate predecessor and the seminal and founding Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg, this new Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg was particularly hellbent on both maximizing and prioritizing the spiritual, cultural, and moral power, authority, and influence of The Conservative Church of The New Gods formally seated within The Holy Sept of Romulus as the historic capital, civilizational kernel, and titular namesake of The Cosmopolitan, Classical Romulan Republic and "The Empire of Mankind Primus" at the expense of marginalizing the secular, worldly, and temporal power, authority, and influence of "Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland" to a purely nominal level, in order to improve the rate and the efficiency of the systematic, mass conversion of Des Königreich Middenland's autochthonous, apostate Albic tribes religiously subscribed to the druidic, cult worship of "Erdøk" or "The Great Forest" geographically situated directly beyond the easternmost frontiers of "Das Zweiten Kaiserreich Der Menschheit" or "The Empire of Mankind Secundus," which he deemed as being facilitated "reluctantly" or otherwise "inadequately." Stating at one point during his brief and untimely tenure as The Second Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg that "The Midlands Crusade was formally and officially preached and prosecuted against the autochthonous, apostate, Albic tribes in the name of The Canon Pantheon of The New Gods, not in the name of the selfish and conceited ambitions of prospective monarchs and aristocrats. And it was through their sheer grace and divinity that The Midlands Crusade had finally concluded, in stunning and overwhelming triumph, in favour of the sanctioned host of The Conservative Church."

"Friedrich I, Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland und Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart," in direct response to this seemingly existential threat to his sovereign and legitimate rule posed by this new Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg and his clerical and lay administration, formally decreed state legislation as "Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland und Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart" to officially convert to "The Luxembourgian Reformation" to the religious establishment of, and the institutions of organized religion within The Conservative Church of The New Gods traditionally seated within The Holy Sept of Classical Romulus as the historic capital, the civilizational kernel, and the titular namesake of both The Cosmopolitan, Classical Romulan Republic and "The Empire of Mankind Primus" during "The Civilized World's" historic epoch of "Classical Antiquity" on behalf of both his dynastic household and his hereditary subjects. Karl Von Luxembourg essentially being a learned church doctor of theology from "Die Universität Wörtzburch" in "Das Herzogtum Solingen," a prestigious graduate of "The Imperial Academy" at "Nymphenburg," and the official head and the former heir apparent to "Hohenluxembourg Des Königreich Schönbrunn," the only hereditary monarchy within "Das Zweiten Kaiserreich der Menshheit" or "The Empire of Mankind Secundus" who is best known for his drafted and published thesis openly condemning the corruption, the abuses, and the worldly excesses of both the ecclesiastical and the monastic clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods and the appeal for a general, sweeping, and universal theological reformation to the religious establishment of, and the institutions of organized religion within The Conservative Church of The New Gods officially seated within The Holy Sept of Classical Romulus. In the process of decreeing state legislation to become the first hereditary, dynastic ruler in both the recorded histories and the geographic enormity of "The Known World" to officially convert to Karl Von Luxembourg's general, sweeping, and universal theological reformation of The Conservative Church of The New Gods, Friedrich I would enact "the formal assumption of supreme authority over matters of religion" as “The First Supreme Head of The Reformed Church of The New Gods in Das Königreich Middenland." Thus subsequently and consequently endowing himself with state investiture over new bishops and abbots for "The Reformed Church of The New Gods in Das Königreich Middenland," including state investiture over the venerable and prestigious ecclesiastical office of Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg since the historic consecration and founding of the basilica town of Marienburg over the site of the former "Godswoods" in the aftermath of Friedrich-Albrecht Von Rotbart's "Midlands Crusade," with the formal investiture of his brother as the seminal and founding "Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg" charged with the systematic, mass conversion of the indigenous, apostate, Albic tribes religiously subscribed to the druidic, cult worship of "Erdøk" or "The Great Forest." Friedrich I's formal assumption of supreme authority over matters of religion through his legislative decree to officially convert to "The Luxembourgian Reformation" on behalf of both his dynastic household and his hereditary subjects would naturally culminate in the systematic persecution, the legislative marginalization, and the confiscation of the lands, estates, and treasuries of any ecclesiastical and monastic clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods who had both openly and stubbornly refused to submit before, and openly protested against Friedrich I's formal renunciation of his spiritual, cultural, and moral ties of fealty to “The Archpatriarchs” or “The Bishops of Romulus” as “The Anointed, Acolytic, and Universal Heads of The Conservative Church of The New Gods.”

Friedrich I's first official policy as "The First Supreme Head of The Reformed Church of The New Gods in Das Königreich Middenland" was to decriminalize both the vernacular translations and the private ownership of "The Holy Canons of The New Gods" in direct accordance with Karl Von Luxembourg's essential and defining theological tenets of "sola fide" or "salvation by faith alone," "sola scriptura" or "salvation by scripture alone," and "sola gratia" or "salvation by the god-king alone." Which had always been traditionally codified in "Classical Cosmopolitan" or "Ecclesiastical Cosmopolitan" as the conservative liturgical language of The Conservative Church of The New Gods since the original composition, codification, and canonization of the most widely attested and popular oral mythologies of The Cosmopolitan and The Mycenean Pantheons into the canon theology of The Faith of The New Gods traditionally attributed to the theological reforms officially decreed under the reign of The Cosmopolitan, Classical Romulan Imperator of Mankind "Cassadorian the Great." While both the private ownership and the strict interpretation of The Holy Canons of The New Gods had remained the exclusive, legal reserve of the ecclesiastical and the monastic clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods since it's original institutionalization under The Cosmopolitan, Classical Romulan Imperator of Mankind "Demetrius Superbus" as an "administrative organ" or an "administrative body" within the civil magistracy of The Cosmopolitan, Classical Romulan "Empire of Mankind Primus," as well as the exclusive, feudal privilege of the hereditary, dynastic, greater and lesser houses of feudal aristocracy and nobility as both "the traditional" and "the preferential" source for aspiring and prospective clergymen. With Friedrich I's legislative decree to decriminalize both the vernacular translations and the private ownership of The Holy Canons of The New Gods officially opening both it's reading and it's strict interpretation to all social classes outside the ecclesiastical and the monastic clergy of The Reformed Church of The New Gods in Das Königreich Middenland as well as the greater and lesser hereditary, dynastic houses of "junker" aristocracy and nobility.

In order to effectively "bolster" or otherwise "reinforce" his legislative decree to open both the private ownership and the strict interpretation of the vernacular translations of The Holy Canons of The New Gods to all social classes outside the ecclesiastical and monastic clergy and the feudal aristocracy and nobility. Friedrich I had actively campaigned to proliferate both the spread and the growth of mass literacy within Das Königreich Middenland using the religious support and the political backing of any professional printers, missionaries, and church schools personally sympathetic to Karl Von Luxembourg and his general, sweeping, and universal reformation to the religious establishment of, and institutions of organized religion within The Conservative Church of The New Gods officially seated within The Holy Sept of Romulus as the historic capital, civilizational kernel, and titular namesake of The Cosmopolitan, Classical Romulan Republic and "The Empire of Mankind Primus." With Friedrich I's formal issuance of the deed of foundation for "The Collegium Fridericium" or "Die Universität Königsberg" to serve as both the earliest and the greatest official centre for the ideological proliferation of Karl Von Luxembourg's general, sweeping, and universal theological reformation of The Conservative Church of The New Gods, as well as a religious and cultural monument quite literally "set in stone" dedicated in homage to his equally timeless and enduring legacy and infamy as the first hereditary, dynastic ruler in both the recorded histories and the geographic enormity of "The Known World" to formally renounce his spiritual, cultural, and moral ties of fealty to The Holy Sept in Classical Romulus. In the process of formally issuing the deed of foundation for the levying of a new university at his historic capital and personal seat of power in "Königsberg." "The Collegium Fridericium" or "Die Universität Königsberg" would serve as a mighty bastion and stronghold of religious and cultural education explicitly founded with the intent of producing aspiring and prospective bishops and abbots formally schooled and educated in the intellectual framework and methodology of renaissance humanism most popular within the scholastic and academic communities and circles native to the "Frivolous" or "Southern Imperial" states of "L'Impero Secundo dell'Umanità" or "The Empire of Mankind Secundus" and charged with the clerical maintenance and the administration of religious orthodoxy within "The Reformed Church of The New Gods in Das Königreich Middenland," as well as literate and formally educated missionaries and preachers charged with the mission of preaching and proselytizing the theological reforms of Karl Von Luxembourg throughout and beyond the established frontiers of Das Königreich Middenland.

[yamayuandadu]

the fact this was published in 2009 and not 1899 baffles me to no end First, as stressed by Reallexikon der Assyriologie, calling anything but languages “Semitic” should be avoided in scholarship, not just for the obvious historical reasons but also because it is incredibly foolish to pretend that there was much of a single shared culture from the Ethiopian highlands all the way up to modern Fars province in Iran, ie. the full geographic extent of this language family in antiquity. Nanaya was a Mesopotamian goddess all the way through but she’s not even attested right next door in Middle Euphrates states, Khabur Triangle, Ugarit... hardly an universal “Semitic” deity, no reason not to call her “Mesopotamian”, true to her origin and extent of her cult. It doesn’t even work as the designation of the linguistic affinity of her name, as it has no certain etymology, and not all Mesopotamian deities had names originating in Semitic languages (chiefly Akkadian, sometimes Amorite); the obvious other major source of theonyms was Sumerian, but there’s also Hurrian, Elamite, random possible substrates... Second, Nanaya was not really a lunar deity. In fact, while surveying the literature while working on her wiki page I learned she had no strong astral connections save for being linked to Corona Borealis in astronomical treatises, but these give virtually every deity listed an astral connection. Nanaya’s primary sphere of activity was consistently love, lmao, and the sources can be pretty explicit when it comes to that. How explicit? Find out for yourself. Worth noting the only sources given are from 1970s which is frankly insane considering there was no study of Nanaya that holds up to modern standards before the 1990s (”Nanaya, Lady of Mystery” by J. G. Westenholz from 1997, followed by all of the subsequent in depth studies, of which tbf there aren’t many). Last but not least: someone enlighten me what a “semitic lion” is. To sum up, classicists writing about Mesopotamia: never a good mix.

[nightsidewrestling]

D.U.D.E Bios: Yorath Rhydderch

The Hunter King of C.R.C Yorath Rhydderch (2020)

Kirby's uncle and the brother of Hywel, Yorath. An Irish-Catholic living in Wales and a reclusive, intelligent and deceptively lean father. Don't let his lack of confidence outside of the ring fool you into thinking he isn't incredibly strong.

"I like my solitude, it lets me think of better strategies."

Name

Full Legal Name: Yorath Éimhín Pryderi Mathgamain Rhydderch

First Name: Yorath

Meaning: Anglicized form of 'Iorwerth', meaning 'Worthy lord' from Old Welsh 'Ior' 'Lord' and 'Gwerth' 'Value, Worth'

Pronunciation: yawr-WERTH

Origin: Welsh

Middle Name(s): Éimhín, Pryderi, Mathgamain

Meaning(s): Éimhín: From Old Irish 'Éim' meaning 'Swift, Prompt'. Pryderi: From Welsh 'Pryder' meaning 'Care, Worry'. Mathgamain: Means 'Bear' in Old Irish, a compound of 'Math', itself meaning 'Bear', and 'Gamuin' meaning 'Calf'

Pronunciation(s): Eh-vyeen. pri-DER-ee. math-GHAM-hain

Origin(s): Irish. Welsh, Welsh Mythology. Old Irish

Surname: Rhydderch

Meaning: From the given name 'Rhydderch' from the Old Welsh name 'Riderch', derived from 'Ri' 'King' and 'Derch' 'Exalted'

Pronunciation: HRUDH-ehrkh

Origin: Welsh

Alias: Hunter King, Yorath Rhydderch

Reason: This is Yorath's ring name

Nicknames: Iolo, Iolyn, Math

Titles: Mr

Characteristics

Age: 71

Gender: Male. He/Him Pronouns

Race: Human

Nationality: Welsh. Irish-Welsh Mix. Dual Citizenship ROI-UK

Ethnicity: White

Birth Date: November 7th 1949

Symbols: Bows, Arrows, Swords, Crowns

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Religion: Irish-Catholic

Native Language: Irish

Spoken Languages: Irish, Welsh, Scottish (Scots Gaelic), English

Relationship Status: Married

Astrological Sign: Scorpio

Theme Song: 'I've Got The World On A String' - Frank Sinatra (1967-)

Voice Actor: Jason O'Mara

Geographical Characteristics

Birthplace: Tullahought, Kilkenny, Ireland

Current Location: Llanfaethlu, Anglesey, Wales

Hometown: Llanfaethlu, Anglesey, Wales

Appearance

Height: 5'11" / 180 cm

Weight: 173 lbs / 78 kg

Eye Colour: Blue

Hair Colour: (Born Blond) Black

Hair Dye: None

Body Hair: Hairy

Facial Hair: Clean Shaven

Tattoos: (As of Jan 2020) 5

Piercings: Ear Lobes (Both), Bridge

Scars: None

Health and Fitness

Allergies: None

Alcoholic, Smoker, Drug User: Smoker, Social Drinker

Illnesses/Disorders: None Diagnosed

Medications: None

Any Specific Diet: None

Relationships

Allies: (As of Jan 2020) The Rhydderch Clan

Enemies: (As of Jan 2020) None

Friends: Naoise Rhydderch, Rhodri Rhydderch, Uinseann Rhydderch, Bran Rhydderch, Delwyn Rhydderch, Fergus Rhydderch, Hywel Rydderch, Conall Pritchard

Colleagues: The C.R.C Locker Rooms / Too Many To List

Rivals: None

Closest Confidant: Deryn Rhydderch

Mentor: Gearalt Rhydderch

Significant Other: Deryn Rhydderch (72, Wife, Née Heffernan)

Previous Partners: None of Note

Parents: Gearalt Rhydderch (R.I.P, Father), Angharad Rhydderch (101, Mother, Née MacMathan)

Parents-In-Law: Kerr Heffernan (R.I.P, Father-In-Law), Lina Heffernan (R.I.P, Mother-In-Law, Née Wallace)

Siblings: Naoise Rhydderch (80, Brother), Rhodri Rhydderch (77, Brother), Uinseann Rhydderch (74, Brother), Bran Rhydderch (68, Brother), Delwyn Rhydderch (65, Brother), Fergus Rhydderch (62, Brother), Hywel Rhydderch (59, Brother)

Siblings-In-Law: Talulla Rhydderch (81, Naoise's Wife, Née MacGinnis), Grania Rhydderch (78, Rhodri's Wife, Née Kavanaugh), Odharnait Rhydderch (75, Uinseann's Wife, Née MacCarthy), Meinir Rhydderch (69, Bran's Wife, Née Gallagher), Rhosyn Rhydderch (66, Delwyn's Wife, Née Dougherty), Aoife Rhydderch (63, Fergus' Wife, Née Daugherty), Oda Rhydderch (60, Hywel's Wife, Née Gilchrist), Chedomir Heffernan (69, Deryn's Brother), Fatimah Heffernan (70, Chedomir's Wife, Née Assendorp), Fatiha Baardwijk (66, Deryn's Sister, Née Heffernan), Vlastimir Baardwijk (67, Fatiha's Husband), Mirche Heffernan (63, Deryn's Brother), Fidda Heffernan (64, Mirche's Wife, Née Bakhuizen), Fatin Benscoter (60, Deryn's Sister, Née Heffernan), Gidie Benscoter (61, Fatin's Husband), Juan Heffernan (57, Deryn's Brother), Gathbiyya Heffernan (58, Juan's Wife, Née Boerefijn), Gazbyya Haenraets (54, Deryn's Sister, Née Heffernan), Ciardha Haenraets (55, Gazbiyya's Husband), Vauquelin Heffernan (51, Deryn's Brother), Hadiyya Heffernan (52, Vauquelin's Wife, Née Hendrickx), Ghadir Kuijlaars (48, Deryn's Sister, Née Heffernan), Hafsa Kuijlaars (49, Ghadir's Wife), Eochaidh Heffernan (45, Deryn's Brother), Khadija Heffernan (46, Eochaidh's Wife, Née Paulissen), Hafsah Rademaker (42, Deryn's Sister, Née Herrernan), Gudbrand Radeamer (43, Hafsah's Husband)

Nieces & Nephews: Too Many To List

Children: Vaughan Rhydderch (41, Son), Neifion Rhydderch (38, Son), Olwen McDermott (35, Daughter, Née Rhydderch), Gwen McCracken (32, Daughter, Née Rhydderch)

Children-In-Law: Maeve Rhydderch (42, Vaughan's Wife, Née Pelletier), Beatrix Rhydderch (39, Neifion's Wife, Née Patenaude), Caden McDermott (36, Olwen's Husband), Caderyn McCracken (33, Gwen's Husband)

Grandkids: Abigail MacChruim (21, Grandaughter, Née Rhydderch, Mungo MacChruim (22, Abigail's Husband), Zechariah Rhydderch (18, Grandson), York Rhydderch (15, Grandson), Xaviera Rhydderch (12, Granddaughter), Wendy Rhydderch (9, Granddaughter), Varg Rhydderch (6, Grandson), Ulf Rhydderch (3, Grandson), Tallulah Rhydderch (18, Granddaughter), Saffron Rhydderch (15, Granddaughter), Rafferty Rhydderch Rhydderch (12, Grandson), Quasimodo Rhydderch (9, Grandson), Pallas Rhydderch (6, Granddaughter), Olivia Rhydderch (3, Granddaughter), Nash McDermott (15, Grandson), Mack McDermott (12, Grandson), Lark McDermott (9, Granddaughter), Kaylyn McDermott (6, Granddaughter), Jameson McDermott (3, Grandson), Ian McCracken (12, Grandson), Halcyon McCracken (9, Granddaughter), Genesis McCracken (6, Granddaughter), Farley McCracken (3, Grandson)

Great Grandkids: Elain MacChruim (1, Great Granddaughter)

Wrestling

Billed From: Kilkenny, Ireland

Trainer: The C.R.C Wrestling School, Gearalt Rhydderch

Managers: Deryn Rhydderch

Wrestlers Managed: Deryn Rhydderch

Debut: 1967

Debut Match: Yorath Rhydderch VS Gearalt Rhydderch. Yorath won via submission

Retired: N/A

Retirement Match: N/A

Wrestling Style: Technician

Stables: The Rhydderch Clan (1967-)

Teams: No Team Names

Regular Moves: Knife-Edged Chop, Back Suplex, Delayed Vertical Suplex, Atomic Drop, Inverted Atomic Drop, Bridging Belly To Belly Suplex, Dropkick, Top Rope Dropkick, Indian Deathlock, Sleeper Hold, Snapmare, Swinging Knee Lift

Finishers: Diving Knee Drop, Figure-Four Leglock, Fisherman's Suplex

Refers To Fans As: The Fans, The Family

Extras

Backstory: Yorath Rhydderch of the C.R.C (Welsh Wrestling League / Cynghrair Reslo Cymru) owning Rhydderch family. Yorath has a 1/8th ownership of the promotion and is the head 'Hunter Style' (Technician) trainer. He's Half-Welsh, Half-Irish.

Trivia: Nothing of Note