Manching

It seems to have been a professional job. They broke into a telecommunications sub-station, and cut off the out-going fibre optic cables, what effectively stopped all internet (and communications in general) traffic in the community (Ger., Eng.) : No internet, no phone.
Then they broke into the museum (Ger.), and grabbed the gold (pic). They left with nearly five hundred gold coins (Ger., Eng.). The ongoing coverage reports nothing new. The police showed up only late in the morning (around 9:45), so the thieves had effectively some hours to transport die Sore (rotwelsch for stolen goods) away. And given the amount of criminal energy shown – this was no impulsive smash & grab action – one can be sure that they did use their time.
Mad collector, who ordered the heist ? Possible, but not that probable. Blackmail ? Possible. I think the more belike state of the affaire is that the coins will be melted down.
It is a cultural crime, a crime against the European culture, executed by barbarians. I hope they left a trace, will be caught and punished. Bastards.

To Chip In My Three Pennies

I do not see the fact that Donnie Rotten payed 750 $ federal tax for the two last years each as a scandalon. It is capitalism at work*, and I feel certain that the people responsible, surely mostly tax lawyers, did their job well – so it is without doubt all legal, and watertight.
It is also brazen, remarkably shameless, and morally banquerotte – but hey ! Look at the client – and if you are still surprised, I must ask you seriously where you spent the last four years ?
I find two things much more interesting. When you channel money away from the stately authorities, you create “black money”, Schwarzgeld. Where did it go to ? Of course there are the usual suspects, like Ireland, South Africa, Channel Islands, some Carribean affairs. This is a nice job for some agents, who like puzzles.
The other question is of course, where did the money come from ? Remember that Donnie Rotten payed for some things, for example that Scotish golf nonsense, in cash. And if I remember correctly for one hotel (in Atlanta ?) too. This does not reek, it stinks of money laundering. As I read, the files go back eighteen years. When was Donnie so active in Russia, together with his old “friends” (who now are out of jail) – wasn’t that in the early twothousands ? Maybe these files help to explain what exactly the connections are between Donnie Rotten and Deutsche Bank – that criminal institute that runs to this day the National Bank of Cyprus, the biggest money laundering machine of them all back in those years … why does the word “statutory period of limitation” pop up in my head right now ?
These files are a map. And in the hands of a good pathfinder, this map could lead to something interesting. Or disappointing – when we finally learn for how cheap the Russians bought their man.

* Wer hat, dem wird gegeben. Oder : Der Teufel scheißt auf den größten Haufen.

Back Home

Yes, I’m back ! To be precise, I am back since Tuesday evening. I spent some days in Suebia, climbing on hills mountains, waiting, having an interview, and finally travelling back by train. In the evening I collected my car from the colleague who thankfully had stepped in for me on Monday & Tuesday, and Wednesday morning saw me driving again.
Sadly I had to hand my vehicle in on Wednesday morning because it is needed at another station, and on an interim basis I was given a German product – a real bad deal !
The thing is cramped, and quickly was nicknamed “Blechdose” / tin can by the boys. Some things are simply done without second thought (e.g. the hand brake lever is nearly unreachable when someone sits next to me !), while other stuff is over-engineered : It took me nearly twenty minutes to get my head around the basic settings of the ultra modern, fully electronic air con that was slowly freezing my head off. In the Ford you have three knobs to turn, and that’s it.
A real letdown is the absolutely insufficient adaptability of the interior. There is only one single seat, and I can put it in one place or remove it – cool. It is not possible to install this heavy thing somewhere else. Two-seater-banks can be put in, in three positions only – this is simply not enough, lacks necessary flexibility.
Thankfully this unprofessional tool is a) only rented, and b) only temporarily in use – I am promised my vehicle back next Tuesday.

After this short update about the actual Stand der Dinge here, I must ask you, venerated readers, for help.
As you may have learned over the years – if you had thankfully the patience to read this drivel for so long – I am interested in deceptions, impostors etc. For years I try to remember the name of someone about whom I read when I was still in school – maybe in the late seventies or early eighties. The man whose name I forgot is an impostor who tricked British journalists into paying him money for stories. He must have had his heyday in the sixties and seventies, his scam only worked in the days of the Cold War.
If I remember it correctly he would typically phone some journalist from a Swiss phone booth that stands next to the Soviet embassy, tell a shocking story, and set the trap up. He would creat an air of conspiracy, have the journalist travel, meetings would fail,  finally he’d cash in.
He did this not for “fun” or to transport some whatever political / artsy / trallala message, he did this for the benefit of his portemonnaie only, and it worked.
He formed a certain reputation over the years, and older British journalists had an expression for this, or for him, but I do not know the expression, and I forgot his name. As I remember he looked absolutely unremarkable, bowler hat, moustache, colours from I-don’t-know.
Does this ring a bell ? Can one of my venerated readers help me with this ?

… That Becomes Even Stranger

The mentioned “Aktwerk” contains 24 photographs by 14 different photographers, all names unknown to me – here’s the list : Willy Zielke (3), Heinz von Perckhammer, Bruno Schultz (8), Carl Semon, Alfred Grabner, Viktor Hayd, Trude Fleischmann, Max Rothkegel, Franz Grainer, Heinz Hajek-Halke (2), Franz Kepler, Ewald Hoinkis, Ursula Lang-Kurz und Heinrich Iffland.
I looked through the names and read wikipedia-articles, as far as they exist, and the last one – yes, I do lists from behind, the “wrong” way ; I simply do this, I can’t explain – and the last one was Willy ZIELKE (Ger.) (1902-1989) “…. photographer … expressionistic … who did “Das STAHLTIER” …” – ?
What ?
I thought I knew the canon of expressionistic German fillums from the 1920s & 1930s, but this one had escaped me. Also ZIELKE’s biography. He learned in Munich at the Staatslehranstalt für Lichtbildwesen in 1923 and 1924 (what later became the Fachakademie für Fotodesign), and was teaching there from 1928 until 1936. He took part in the Werkbundausstellung “Film und Foto” and so became known to a wider audience. In the early 1930s he started to make films, his first independent solo work was “Arbeitslos – Ein Schicksal von Millionen” (Unemployed – One of Millions) from 1933.
ZIELKE was commissioned to produce a film for the hundredth “birthday” of the Deutsche Reichsbahn, this is the already mentioned “Stahltier” from 1935. The heads of the railway expected a nice advertisement or promotion picture, and were less than underwhelmed with the finished product – much to ZIELKE’s shock and dismay.
He constructed a story around a Werkstudent / student employee who has to complete field training with a group of workers ; the relationship between the group and the “intellectual”, ongoing engineer, develops, especially because the young man knows the history of the railroad and tells & explains it to the workers. As I read the picture does not follow ns aesthetics, does not use contemporary symbols, depicts neither student nor workers as aryan superhumans or lies about the history of the steaming engine. In fact ZIELKE did an aesthetically outstanding artful picture in the category corporate film / Industriefilm that the purchaser did not like : They blabbed something about “communist aesthetics” and threw the thing in the drawer.
Interestingly this film later was used within the training of cameramen for German propaganda units, as example for what is possible.
After the war a complete copy was found in Paris, but the successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the Deutsche Bahn, still regarded the film as “not publishable”, and urged ZIELKE to shorten his work. So from circa 1955 onwards exists a crippled 50 (?) minutes version of the original 70 minutes film. Only much later, in the 1980s, the uncut original was shown publicly.
ZIELKE’s STAHLTIER (GOd, what a title !) brought him to the attention of Leni RIEFENSTAHL. She had him as collaborator for her Olympia films, and ZIELKE independently made the “Prolog” for the pictures. There was a contract, and he had it notariazed, nevertheless he is not in the credits of said picture(s), RIEFENSTAHL just dispersed him.
What follows is disputable. It is a fact that ZIELKE from February 1937 until August 1942 was held as patient in the mental asylum / Kreisirrenanstalt Haar. He describes it as kidnapping and accuses RIEFENSTAHL of pulling strings. I am not convinced, RIEFENSTAHL simply would have not needed to do something like that. She was in a nearly untouchable position in Nazi Germany. Earlier she even had shown the STAHLTIER to GOEBBELS and argued for the picture – in vain, GOEBBELS simply did not like it.
I think ZIELKE suffered from a nervous breakdown, the diagnosis “Verfolgungswahn” / paranoia / delusions of persecution may be valid or not, I have no clue. ZIELKE was castrated while in Haar, against his will, but according to the law, as a German judge told him after the end of the Third Reich when he asked for compensation. ZIELKE says he was subjected to experiments, but I think that was not verified. He was glad not to be executed (Ger., Eng.), Haar was part of the murder machinery.
In August 1942 RIEFENSTAHL – of all humans ! – took him out from Haar, and used him as cameraman for Tiefland (Ger., Eng.).
ZIELKE survived the war, started to produce small films in the 1950s and worked as cameraman again. I read that at the beginning of the 1970s, when he was completely out of the public’s eye and forgotten, a French collector “borrowed” his collection of negatives, and “forgot” to give it back. At least one of his negatives was sold for a pretty large sum via an auctioneer’s house while ZIELKE had to live from benefits. He died in June 1989, 86 years old.
What a life.

*

The only account of ZIELKE’s biography and his film is found here (part I) & here (part II) (Go there for pictures !), written by Manfred POLAK. Of course my scribble heavily relies on Herr POLAKs work.
It would be very helpful if the article by Herr POLAK would be translated professionally into English. Also English versions of the German wikipedia articles about ZIELKE and Das STAHLTIER would be very helpful.