On April 27, 2021, from Hamburg, we again took the route to the north of the country through federal highway 1, with heavy traffic, because it is the road that connects with Denmark.
At a distance of 84 kilometers and about 1 hour, we enter Schlagsdorf which is a small municipality located in the district of North-West Mecklenburg, in the federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Germany). Here we visit Grenzhus, a site that tells the story of the German internal border between the Baltic Sea and Elbe from 1945 to 1990, the perspective of the people on both sides in the border area, how they reacted to the pressure of the GDR border regime and the Cold War. This historic place of learning is divided into a museum, an open-air area with reconstructed barriers and a “Grenzwege Schlagsdorf” border camp. A border almost 1,400 kilometers long divided Germany for almost 40 years with painful consequences for people on both sides. After the demolition of the border barriers on the GDR side, a “green belt” of protected landscapes emerged from the death strip. The Grenzhus, opened in 1999, forms the core of the memorial site, in the middle of the former restricted area.
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After traveling 21 kilometers in 30 minutes, we arrived in Lübeck, which is one of the oldest and most picturesque cities in all of Germany, considered by UNESCO as the “prototype of the ideal 12th century city”. In the Middle Ages, it was the capital of the Hanseatic League or Hansa, the commercial federation that brought together almost 200 cities from all over Europe – from London to Russia. The Holstentor (Holsten Gate) is Lübeck’s Eiffel Tower. Its icon, its symbol par excellence, a profile that any German knows how to recognize and associates with the former capital of the Hanseatic League. It has been there since the 15th century reminding anyone who comes to Lübeck of the importance of the city, with an incline that is practically equal to that of the Tower of Pisa in Italy. Then, we looked for the church of Santa Marien and saw from the outside –because it was closed– its curious astronomical clock in operation, the crosses that remind us that the church was bombed during the Second World War, and we greet the bronze statue of the imp located near the entrance. My wife took a photo of me sitting with the devil, who was tricked by the builders of the St. Marien Church (Marienkirche), the third largest church in Germany. Legend has it that in 1200 AD, when they built this Catholic temple, the devil was moved thinking that it would be a great tavern, or at least the builders made it known to him, so he himself helped build it.When he realized the deception, he tried to destroy it with a large stone, but one of the workers, to appease his anger, promised to build a tavern right next door (in one corner is the Ratskeller Tavern that they say was the promised tavern), the Diablo accepted the deal and from then on he sat in front of the church to try to divert the men to his tavern.
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Several hours before leaving Hamburg, I had made the literary plan with my German friend to see the homes of those born in Lubeck and winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature: Thomas Mann (Author of the novels “The Buddenbrooks. Decline of a family “; And” The Magic Mountain “); and Gunter Grass (Author of the novels “The Tin Drum”; “Years of Dog”; “The Turbot”). Similarly, I wanted to see the home of former Prime Minister Willy Brand, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. However, the museum houses of the writers were closed to the public, but not to the politician. The Willy-Brandt-Haus Lübeck is a museum and monument to former German SPD politician, Federal Chancellor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Willy Brandt, who was born not in the building in the center of Lübeck, but in the district of St. Lorenz . The Willy Brandt House Lübeck was opened on December 18, 2007, when Willy Brandt turned 94 in his hometown of Lübeck. The plant exhibit comprises chronologically and spatially structured sections from the life of Willy Brandt.
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We say goodbye to the two German women who run the house, and to a city in which, unlike Berlin, all its inhabitants voluntarily wear “the mask” against the coronavirus on the street. However, there are shopping malls open as well as restaurants offering cookouts, and there is no indication of mass panic over the pandemic.
