Susanne's Bavaria 1971-72
The 18 months we spent in München in 1971-72 have left intense memories which have changed all of our lifes - and especially Suschen's. Therefore this labor of love is dedicated to her. It was the first time that we were on such an extended adventure together.
There
exists no calendar for this year and only a few not particularly good
photos. For this reason I have added a few pictures from the internet
and from Cornelius' lot taken 2002. Others of the churches I took in
subsequent years.
The
following is a reconstruction based on Barbara's and my memory –
and the dates on the original slides.
The
yellow links
connect to the various sections of this diary.
1971
5
Aug Barbara and children fly to
Frankfurt
........Gelnhausen
........Barbara
picks up new yellow VW-squareback in Wolfsburg
...........drives
Susanne to Hamburg (Klaus and Lilo) and
...........Cornelius
to Dettenhausen, with Grandparents to the Bayerische Wald
20 Aug
Rolf arrives and drives with Barbara to München
Sep Barbara and
Rolf in Greece
-
Mykonos, Santorini, and Ios
Sep Garching, Otto-Hahn-Strasse 4,
11th
floor
later Otto-Hahn-Strasse
2,
5th
floor
........Susanne
in Heisenberg Gymnasium, Cornelius in first-grade at Garchinger
Volkschule
Memories of München
Oct
Königssee,
Brünnstein
Nov
Linderhof,
Ettal,Graswang, Neuschwanstein
Dec Wasserburg
Christmas
in Gelnhausen,
Nürnberg Christmas
Markt
New Year's
Skiing
in Obertauern,
Tauernhaus Wiesegg
1972
Jan
Dettenhausen
– on
return Zwiefalten,
Steinhausen,
Ottobeuren
Jan
Kloster
Seeon
Feb
Rolf and Barbara Fasching
Feb
Andechs
and Diessen
Mar
Skiing with Maibi on Kitzsteinhorn-Kaprun,
Austria
May Andechs with the Mays
Jun Barbara with children
in Hamburg and Sylt
.........Rolf:
discovers Dietramszell,
visits the Wies
Jun
Rolf at conferences in Montreal,
LA, Santa Fe
Jul
Gisela
and Charlie's Wedding
in Bad Godesberg
Aug With Julia Euling to the Kampenwand
Aug
Olympics
– Istria:
Groznjan,
Oprtalj and Venice
Aug
Rottenbuch
Sep
Bought orange BMW 2002, shipped yellow VW to Los Angeles
Oct
Salzburg,
and the Wolfgangsee
with
the Mays
Oct Rott
am Inn
Oct
Rohr
and Weltenburg
Oct..Rolf
conference in Paris
Nov The Kirchsee
Dec
Chiemsee
Fraueninsel
Dec
Gelnhausen: Barbara and Children fly home
Dec Rolf in
Moscow
Christmas - reunited in Pacific
Palisades
For a Google-Earth map of all places click on Bavaria1972.kmz
Another
GE map (included in the above map) shows the the locations of special
places in München
and
a third shows Istria
How the Idea of spending a year in München came about.
One of the participants
at the 1969 Moscow laser symposium had been Karl Kompa, the original
discoverer of the hydrogen-fluorine (HF) laser which had been the
basis of our work at Aerospace. I had talked to him about a
sabbatical year at his lab in Munich. He enthusiastically invited me.
When the tensions of my work at Aereospace became unbearable high in
1970, I took him up on this invitation, and within three weeks we
agreed on the terms of such an arrangement. With an official
invitation from Kompa in my hand I told Wally Warren, my departmental
boss that I wanted to "drink German beer in a historical place."
He understood and to my complete surprise offered to pay the
difference between my Munich pay and my salary at Aerospace....
Barbara and I were in agreement that we would not burden our minds
with the complicated question of staying in Germany, just make the
year a grand vacation. Within a couple of months everything was
settled. - Wally was convinced he would never see me again.
We
leased the house at $1500 per month, stored our precious personal
possessions in Susanna's unfinished bathroom, sold our cars and
ordered a new Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, and flew to Frankfurt. Barbara
and the children left Los Angeles on 5 August 71. I flew a couple of
weeks later. During those two weeks Barbara picked up the car in
Wolfsburg, deposited Susanne with Lilo and Klaus in Hamburg, took
Cornelius to stay with Marga and Father - and picked me up. We drove
to München - where we boarded a cheap flight to Athens. I was
determined to show Barbara the land of my dreams. I had never been in
the Aegean Islands, that was were we would go.
Gelnhausen Marienkirche
|
Cornelius at grandfather Gross' lily pond |
Cornelius with
grandfather Lattmann and Marga |
Rolf and Barbara in the Greek Islands - September 1971
For that wonderful, sensual vacation click on: Mykonos, Santorini, Ios 1972
We found ourselves among scores of beautiful young people. Some are still close friends, like John and Mary Robertson and Herbert, an American lawyer in Paris. And we ran into Guy de Bissel, the cultural attaché of the Belgian embassy in Paris.... A highly educated shy, gay man who, over fried sardines and frittes, described the colorful literati he had hosted in Paris - and his annual Christmas trips to the Vienna Opera with his mother.... When he had to leave he tracked us down in some hidden cove and without blinking an eye presented me with his card de visite, - I was completely naked....
Garching Otto-Hahn-Strasse 2 - September 1971-December 1972
On our return from Greece we arrived in München sun-drenched and drunk on physical beauty. Someone persuaded us to go to the Oktoberfest on its last weekend.... I had never seen so many ugly people.
München and the Alps from our balcony in Garching when the Föhn blew....
Good Frau Tretter at the Max-Planck-Institute had found us an apartment in Garching, two bedroms, living room, kitchen, bath and a small balcony on the fifth floor of a high-rise building on Otto-Hahn-Str 2- surrounded by open fields. When the Föhn blew one could see the Alps a hundred kilometers south floating unreal above the Munich skyline. The place came equipped with everything from Federbetten-featherbeds to knives and forks, pots and pans and even a working telephone, which otherwise would have taken months to acquire. We bought two Klappfahrräder-folding bicycles for the children. I could bike to work. Cornelius - if he didn't get lost - walked 5 minutes to his first-grade Hauptschule, and Susanne was reluctantly accepted as a guest-student "on probation" at the Garching Heisenberg Gymnasium.
Garching Klasse 6b Heisenberg Gymnasium
Susanne was only 11 but much bigger and stronger than that.... Barbara enrolled her in a ballet school on Schellingstrasse. She had first to take a bus to Stdentenstadt, then the U-Bahn and finally another bus down Schellingstrasse, twice a week. In the dark winter evenings she had to learn to negotiate so much freedom by herself. In the States her mother had driven her everywhere. Now she learned to hide from the prying eyes of the Turkish men behind one of the many Omchens on the train.... She had never encountered so many old people before, rather a shock to Suschen. She didn't last long at ballet school: “the place reeked for sweat, and they were way beyond me”, but this experience contibuted unmeasurably yo her self confidence.
|
Rolf at work at the Institute |
Schnuckchen in der Badewane on Otto-Hahn-St. |
Cornelius started school in German at the Garching Hauptschule. He had learned not to fall on his head, but it was still to big - he had turned into a Träumerchen, a dreamer. At school he was better than his sister, but on the way home - Barbara could see him coming across the fields - he would take his shoes off and then forget them someplace. Like his grandfather Hans he would whistle a little tune when his life was getting tight. Everyone loved him, while his sister was more often admired for her aplomb and directness. Both found playmates among the many children in the apartment house - Susanne even a dubious "boyfriend” named Blacky, who tried to drag her into dark places.... Naturally we spoke German with them. Susanne was even given some special German lessons, because competition was high at the gymnasium, and the teachers disregarded her and gave her only little help. Barbara was told that if she could not compete with her peers she shouldn't be in this school. In addition she spoke American English which drove her English teacher to distraction: a truck is a lorry not a truck, dummy.... See the special GE map of München
Memories of München September 1971
Suschen this link is especially for you: Münchener Kirchenglocken
I also made a Google-Earth file for München with many places and the houses of our friends: Muenchen1972.kmz
During those 18 months we roamed Munich. Too many memories drift up to tell here. I recall whole-day outings to the Deutsches Museum (of Sicence and Technology) with the children, to the underground exhibition of Italian Christmas creches in the Bayrische Landesmuseum, to the Beergardens with my colleagues in the summer – and to the Viktualienmarkt with Suschen, where we would buy ourselves a large piece of French camembert and two Brezeln and right there devour them for lunch....
|
München,
Marienplatz Altes Rathaus |
München,
Viktualienmarkt |
|
München, Asamkirche |
Theatiner Kirche from the Feldherren Halle |
The Autumn of 1971 was exceptionally dry and warm. Every weekend we drove somewhere, went for hikes, and visited Bavarian Baroque churches. One of our first excursions was to the Königsee near Berchtesgaden.
|
|
|
The Königsee in October
We went on a hike along the eastern shore and lay in s sunspot in clearing in the woods – in October! - with this view. The famous trumpeter was playing against his own echo at noon. Later we took one of the small electric boats to St. Bartholomä for Kaffe and Kuchen.
I had found a slim Wanderführer by Walter Pause, and we set out for a hike below the Brünnstein. We never made it to the nearby mythical Tatzelwurm Waterfall east of Bayrischzell.
Austria, Oberaudorf and the Inntal seen from a meadow below the Brünnstein
Brünnstein, Barbara and Susanne with an illegal Silberdistel which Barbara later wove into a lose wall hanging
On the way home from the Brünnstein hike
Linderhof, Ettal, Graswang, Neuschwanstein, Aller Heiligen, November 1971
That year the Disney movie “Chitty, Chitty Bang-Bang” had been a great success with Susanne. What lay closer than Neuschwanstein? In Bavaria we had more Catholic than national “Feiertage”, holidays. In November was “Aller Heiligen-aller Seligen” – “Totensonntag” among Protestants. On a gray, overcast weekend we set out for Neuschwanstein. On the way we visited Linderhof, the other König Ludwig Schloss. It was closed for the season. Cornelius weaseled behind the wooden enclosure of a boarded-up kiosk in the park and brought back fantasic tales of the wonders he had seen.
Organ
above the entrance to the church of Kloster Ettal
(photo
Panoramio)
We stayed overnight in the extra bedroom of very nice people on the Hof of Andreas Bissel in Graswang – plenty of Federbetten - and an evening talking with them in their warm Wohnstube. As it turned out this night became the highlight of this trip through Oberbayern...
Schloss
Neuschwanstein on a gloomy November day
(photo
Panoramio)
...Neuschwanstein was closed on the high holiday – and we never returned.
Wasserburg am Inn December 1971
Wasserburg am Inn
Christmas in Gelnhausen and Nürnberg on the way
We spent Christmas with my parents in Gelnhausen. No photos have survived from this visit. My mother had baked loads of cookies and made marcipan. There was a tree, which father and I decorated with stars and real candles. On the way we stopped a the Christkindlmarkt in Nürnberg and visited the Frauenkirche next to it. They had taken Veit Stoss' “Englischer Gruss”, his annuncuation down for renovation, which gave us the opportunity to look at all the figures close up and photograph some.
Nürnberg Frauenkirche, Veit Stoss, Annunciation “Englischer Gruss”
Look at these two lovelies from the Annunciation
|
A minor Witch with a modern haircut |
Trompeter Angel from the Annunciation |
New Year 1972 Skiing in Obertauern, “Tauernhaus Wiesenegg”, followed by Dettenhausen
We
had made new friends: Richard and Kristin Sigel, and revived others
Maibi Beyerle and Wolfgang Michel, Uli May and his newly acquired
wife Margit and little Kira on Otto Strasse, and Helmut Reeh and
Edda-Ute, the "Russian" beauty whom I had met at a
Faschingball a year before Barbara in Göttingen.... During the
winter museums, concerts and Bavarian folk-theater plays followed
each other - and especially for Suschen the "Grateful Dead"
with – Papi...! Everyone got new ski boots and skis with
convertible cross-country bindings and two days before New Year we
drove to Radstadt-Obertauern in Austria for a week of skiing as the
guests of Frau Baronin Miller von Eichholz at the Hotel
Wiesenegg - an aunt of Maibi
Michel-Beyerle.
Everybody, Barbara including became expert
downhill skiers, only Pappi struggled in the steep valleys searching
for a cross-country path.
Obertauern
and its eastern ski-area: Plattenspitz, Gamskarspitz, and Hundskogel
(photo Panoramio)
From Obertauern we drove to Dettenhausen to make up for neglecting Barbara's parents on New Year. - On the way back to München we visited Swabian Baroque churches - Zwiefalten, Steinbach, Ottobeuren, - which despite the bitter cold inside the churches have continued to glow in Susanne's mind like the candles we lit everywhere.
Zwiefalten and Ottobeuren are the work of Bavaria's most prolific Baumeister Johann Michael Fischer - Steinhausen, like the Wies, was built by its loveliest Dominikus Zimmermann.
|
|
|
Zwiefalten, the Interior
Steinhausen
Steinhausen is a tiny village in Schwaben south and halfway beteeen Zwiefalten and Ottobeuren. It would be unimportant stood not one of Dominikus Zimmermann's lovely churches among its houses. He built it before the Wies and after Günzburg on the Donau with which it shares the same subject and painter of its ceiling. A fantasy of the four continents then known and the Dominican order in the middle.
Steinhausen the ceiling. The green in the arches is a sure sign of Zimmermann's hand
Ottobeuren
the huge nave.
They had spanned nets under the ceiling to catch
pigeon droppings!
(photo
Panoramio)
Ottobeuren is the largest and most impressive monastic building of the German Baroque with three fabulous organs. On a later visit we attended an organ concert there with my old high-school friend Gritta and her husband Dieter Gunkel.
Ottobeuren
the high altar and bishops' stalls in front of the third organ
(photo
Panoramio)
Kloster Seeon in Seebruck Winter 1972
Kloster Seeon, the children skating on the lake, Barbara sits on the landing
In January all the smaller lakes had frozen but it continued to be sunny. After skating on the lake, we had Kaffee and Kuchen in the cavernous dining room of the Klostergaststätte. Mozart once spent a month here composing religious music for the monks.
The
foot bridge to the monastery in the late winter light
(poto
Panoramio)
Fasching in München February 1972
At Fasching Barbara and I danced three nights in a row on different balls. The first one was the “Weisse Fest” at the Max-Emanuel Brauerei in Schwabing. Everything on that night was white: Weisswürste mit weissem Senf, Sauerkraut and Weissbier. We went costumed in bedsheets – like in Göttingen....The last ball was a more formal affair in the Hotel Bayerischer Hof with Uli and Margit. After these excesses we slept all through Ashwednesday – but so did all of Munich....
Andechs and Diessen February 1972
I cannot for sure remember the first time we went to Andechs, the Heilige Berg of Bavaria - was it in October 1971? We have since been there uncounted times and still make a pilgrimage to Andachs on every visit to München. In 1972 we would take the S-Bahn to Herrsching and from there hike through the woods for an hour-and-a-half to the church
|
|
|
Andechs from our beloved pigrimage path
Andechs is a Gothic church unhappily connected to German and Bavarian history since the 10th century when its holy relics were brought from Rome or the Holy Land. In the 11th century Andechs was destroyed, but its relics resurfaced in the 16th and the present church was built. It became the Bavarian pilgrimage place and was redone in the Baroque style in 1712 by Johann Baptist Zimmermann the brother of Dominikus. - Notice the reseda green under the arches the brothers' signature.
|
|
|
The glorious interior of Andechs
Diessen March 1972
Klosterkirche Diessen
Across the Ammersee from Andechs lies Kloster Diessen. Built by Johann Michael Fischer (1732-39), its church became Cornelius's favorite.
|
|
|
Diessen the interior
|
The four of us in the summer of 1972 |
Pappi removing a splinter in Sannchens finger |
Diessen on two different occasions
Skiing with Wofgang and Maibi on the Kitzsteinhorn near Kaprun in Austia, March 1972
The seemingly crazy idea to go skiing in late March was Maibi's. A long drive across the mountains to Kaprun got us to the Talstation of an underground rack-railway. From its end continued a cable car to a lower Bergstation at 2450 m. The sudden change in altitude had a debilitating effect on me and Cornelius, the others were ok.
Kitzsteinhorn
Bergstation 2450 m
(photo
Panoramio)
I don't recall how Barbara got Schnuckchen down. I slowly skied down across well-groomed slopes, sat on a piece of wood and vomited miserably. After that I felt better and eventually struggled down to the railway station. White, cold and weak I waited for an hour for the arrival of Susanne, Barbara and Cornelius.... Mit dem Skiing war's nichts. - We reached Munich late during the night.
Andechs with the Mays, May 1972
On the way to Andechs with Kira, Margit and Uli May
Brotzeit and Spetzi in Andechs, Sommer 1972
Andechs, Die Klosterhof Gaststätte.
This picture must have been taken in September 1972, because our new orange BMW 2002 is parked in front of the Gasthaus. During the cold months when it was too cold for a Brotzeit outdoors, we always had Mittagessen hier.
Barbara and the Children in Hamburg and Sylt, May 1972
Keitum, Sylt, Susanne and Grossvater with Cornelius
Rolf discovers Dietramszell and hikes to the Wies May 1972
While they were enjoying themselves at the Nordsee, I drove through Upper Bavaria by myself staying at small village inns overnight. I don't know which Kunstführer sent me to Dietramszell. It is not one of the celebrated Bavarian churches. Various architects have been invoked for its exquisite Baroque interior, the young Johann Baptist Zimmermann is the most likely candidate. I fell in love with it, and the blue curtain behind the altar remained on my retina for many years.
A Wedding in Dietramszell
We visited it many times and on one such occasion I was the univited photograper at a wedding – The idea of getting married in Dietramszell became one of Susanne's visions. And not only she, I too used this image twice in my writings....
A
mummified Abbot on a side altar
Cornelius fascination were the
skeletons on two of its side altars. Worthy abbots in full regalia.
The
Angel over the Altar
And then there is this photograph of an angel
descending in great strides among the puttos on the altar.
An
enlargement hung for years over my desk.
The
church at Thankirchen
(photo
Panoramio)
Dawdling, deep in thoughts outside the entrance, a middle-aged Curé approached me. Would I be able to drive him back to his church in Thankirchen, some 10 km west of Dietramszell? - Why not? He became very friendly on the way, and upon arrival offered to show me “his precious treasure”, the church in Thankirchen which they didn't show to anybody for fear of being robbed by art-thieves. Surprised, I found this photo in Panoramio. The church looks like any other early Gothic village church, but its altar wa a wonderful collection of village puttos and clouds that looked like gilded cow droppings.... The curé engaged me in a discussion on what he could and could not expect from his parishioners. I had visited a small church the day before where a (city) wedding had been accompanied by a small jazz band. - That would be out of question here, said the curé - He became more solicitous all the time during our conversation, and I had the strange impression he was about to expose himself to me. - The appearance of a woman from the village ended our tet-a-tet and I drove off with mixed feelings.
Along the way I passed the lovely pilgrimage church of St. Leonhard. It was locked, thieves had recently stolen two sculptures from its Baroque altar....
Pilgrimage
church St Leonhard north of Dietramszell
(photo
Panoramio)
I spent the night in a simple Gasthaus in Steingaden. After visiting the Romanic Kloster there with a pretty cloisters, early next morning I drove to the small hamlet of Hiebler (see the GE-map), left my car there and walked to the Wies on the “Brettelsteig”. An idyllic path through woods and moors (Filz) for long stretches on boards (Brettel). We have never walked this path again, the only quiet way to the Wies.
The
Brettlesteig durch das Hieber Filz to the Wies
(photo
Panormio)
The Wies
Notice how the church's roof-line echoes the mountains behind it. The church is the most intimate, joyous crowning of the Bavarian Baroque. Its beauty is such that one has to reminded oneself that it was erected to house a miracle dispensing image of a scoured Christ, the center of its high altar.
The
suffering Savior
(photo Cornelius 2002)
The figure was found 1740 crying tears of blood in the attic of the nearby farmhouse. Soon a pilgrimage to the miraculous Christ developed and grew large enough that a church was needed. The brothers Dominikus and Johann Baptist Zimmermann took on the commission of the abbot of Steingaden. Dominikus' last church. Dominikus Zimmermann built the square two-story house to right next the church for himself. He spent his last years there (1745-1754).
The
Wies interior
(photo Cornelius
2002)
The Wies, columns on the left of the altar
One of its abbots scretched “In hoc loco habitat fortuna, hic quiescit cor” into the glass of his loge below these columns.
Gisela and Charlie's Wedding in Bad Godesberg 25-26, August 1972
|
|
|
|
|
Rolf at conferences at Aerospace, Santa Fe, and Montreal August-September 1972
I had agreed to be at Aerospace for 10 days in August- September and also went to a special topical meeting on lasers and laser isotope separation in Santa Fe. Ray Kidder put me on a DC3 and flew me to Los Alamos for a very cordial meeting. Afterwards I flew to Montreal for the big international Laser Nonlinear Optics show (IOC), where Basov sat next to Teller when the Livermore people gave a highly, over-optimistic series of talks on Laser Fusion. It was all very exciting. Christian Hora who was to report on his iodine laser experiments in Garching quit before his talk and flew home. I presented his slides with only a few hours of preparation – of course, I had worked closely with him and knew his material well. Still this wa the most difficult talk I ever gave before a full auditorium of people from Los Alamos, Livermore and Moscow. On the flight back I sat in Zürich airort among the Israeli olympic delegation for a couple of hours....
Julia Euling's visit : The München Olympics and the Kampenwand August 1972
In
July Julia Euling stayed with us and the Olympics descended upon
Munich. To avoid the strenuous climb we went with her by cable car to
the top of the Kampnewand just south of the Chiemsee and the hiked
down. A suggestion by Walter Pause.
All during our stay a great
renovation had been going on everywhere in town: houses were painted,
the U-Bahn was put into top shape – and, of course, the massive
construction of the olympic venues. A great festive mood took hold
all over München. Somehow Barbara garnered tickets for a number of
pre-events for Julia and herself. I didn't join them.
München
the Olympic Stadium
(photo
Panoramio)
To avoid the commotion we decided to flee to Istria. Andrea von Ramm hat rented us her old house in Groznjan in Istria. After we had left, disaster struck Munich: the Israeli Olympic team was murdered by Palestinian terrorists.... Nobody was prepared for this massacre not even the Israelis. A great trgedy to be followed by others in the years to come
Istria with Monica Willumsen August 1972
A Google-Earth file for Istria: Istria1972.kmz
Andrea von Ramm, an unhappy friend of Maibi with a beautiful alto-soprano voice left us her summer house in Groznjan on the Istrian Peninsula in Yugoslavia - a ghost town from which the original Italian inhabitants had been driven by the Croatians in 1950. I was soon pursued by visions of Habelschwerdt.... although the setting was very different. We cooked on an open fire pit - Andrea even showed us how to bake a cake - and Susanne and Monica Willumsen from Pacific Palisades whom we had invited secretly smoked in their room under the roof. Every night we had to scan the walls of our bedrooms for scorpions! The heavily polluted Adriatic sea, a half-an-our-drive from town, was the only place to swim. The Croatian population considered us undesirables, during the War the German army had heavily oppressed the Slavic majority... It was a mixed experience
Groznjan view from Susanne's and Monica's room
Excursion to Porec and Oprtalj, Susanne, Monica, Cornelius and Barbara
|
|
|
Susanne, Monica and Cornelius making the best out of the rocky Groznjan “beach”.
On our way back to München we spent a day in Venice, rode the vaporettos to San Marco's square and walked back to the parking at the railroad station through narrow vicolos and across bridges. In San Marco I discovered the gold mosaics in the proscenium - illuminated by the low afternoon sun. The photos were taken free-hand and at full opening.
Venice, San Marco, ceiling mosaic in the proscenium, Noah's Ark
Venice San Marco, ceiling mosaic in the proscenium, the Creation of the Earth
Rottenbuch church from an gate in the wall of the former monastery.
Rottenbuch
Interior
(photo Cornelius 2002)
Rottenbuch is a Gothic church sensitively encrusted with exquisite Baroque stucco. Music making angels are everywhere flying from the organ and into the high altar. .A Baroque tromp-d'oeil of stucco, frescoes, and music in a Gothic church!
Rottenbuch high altar: King David with his harp and trumpeter angels
Bought new orange BMW 2002, shipped the yellow VW to Los Angeles September 1972
After a long deliberation we ordered an American-model BMW 2002 in September 1972. The entire family went to pick up the shocking-orange driving machine at the factory. We had to be careful driving in it. After the olympic disaster all during Autumn the police was hunting for German Baader-Meinhof terrorists who made their escapes preferentially in BMWs and 2 people had been shot for not stopping when ordered to....
Salzburg and the Wolfgangsee with the Mays October 1972
Salzburg
and the Hohensalzburg
(photo
Brodyaga.com)
In July we drove with Uli and Margit to Salzburg, where we visited Mozart's Geburtshaus and took the rack-railroad to the castle. For two nights we stayed in a simple hotel in St. Wolfgang and went on a long hike along the lake. Another idyllic place.
Altar in St Wolfgang by Michael Pacher (1471–1481)
Rott am Inn, Michael Fischer's last church
The church in Rott shows the end of Fischer's Baroque and the beginning of Classicism. Cool almost bare after Ottobeuren and Zwiefalten:. Decorated with a minumum of stucco it exposes Fischer's life-long experiments with pure architecture and the problem of joining their ovals by a semi-spherical dome over the quadrature. His design is emphasized and crowned by a large, elaborate fresco in the copula.
Ceiling
fresco by Matthias Günther
(photo
Panoramio)
Rohr and Weltenburg October 1972
Rohr and Weltenburg are the culminations of the architecture of the brothers Cosmas Damian and Egid Quirin Asam. The lie north of Munich in Niederbayern.
Benedictine Abbey Rohr, Niederbayern
Kloster Rohr was a large monastic complex but its church and the buildings are conservative and simple.
Egid Quirid Asam - the stuccateur - filled it with the most dramatic Assumption of Mary
Mary's Assumption by Egid Quirin Asam
Six apostles, each individually characterized, surround the empty cenotaph gesticulating wildly in expression of their joyous surprise...
...while above Mary rises triumphantly to heaven.
Kloster Weltenburg an der Donau October 1972
The
Klosterhof in Weltenburg
(photo
Panoramio)
It
seems unthinkable that the Asam Bothers would be able to create a
more exalted church than Rohr or the final Asamkirche in
Munich.
Working together they did in Weltenburg.
St.
Georg, the dragon and the Lydian Princess on the main altar
(photo
Panoramio)
In Weltenburg they were in full control of the architecture (Cosmas Damian) and the interior (Egid Quirin) of the church. The result was a dark oval-shaped space, heavily gilded with only two openings: a window behind St. George riding in full armor onto the high altar casually threatening the dragon with a flaming sword and reassuring the Lydian princess's - who, as I later learned in a Russian church, held the half-tame beast by a thin woolen thread.... But St. George the Dragon Slayer had to be shown in full regalia!
Weltenburg, the ceiling opening
The other window is a large oval view of Benedictine Heaven surrounded by a ballustrade from which Egid Quirin is watching the blinded visitors below.
On
the Donau from Kehlheim
(photo
Panoramio)
We left the car in Weltenburg and hiked through the woods along the dramatic canyon of the Donau Durchbruch, narrows, to Kehlheim, where we boarded a small boat (smaller than this one) back to the monastery. Late in the year as it was, the Donau was at a very low water level, and on a command by the captian we had all to run to the stern or the bow to ease the good ship off a sandbank it had got stuck on. An exciting journey!
Rolf conference in Paris October 1972
Another informal conference took me to a suburb of Paris. Basov was there, and we were shown the French laser fusion facility in Saclay.
The Kirchsee south of Dietramzell November 1971 and December 1972
The
northern shore of the Kirchsee
(photo
Panoramio)
On a hike across the hills and woods south of Dietramszell we had discovered the Kirchsee. The path to the lake is confusing, there are several roads, a small church, and a green Marterl in the dense woods. We have visited it many times and occasionally have got lost on the way. Somehow the lake has always had a mysterious aura to me. On the north it is bordered by the woods and on the south by a Filz, moorland. In annother half hour through the Filz you conveniently find Kloster Reutberg with a welcome Braustüberl where you can drink a Radlermass or have Kaffe and Kuchen. Unfortunately there are only few photos of our hikes there.
Kirchsee Filz, Susanne and Cornelius 1971
Stockschiessen
on the Kirchsee below Kloster Reutberg
(photo
Panoramio)
Some of the strongest memories are from visits in Winter. When the lake is frozen a crowd of villagers would come out in curious old-fashioned sleds on which the children or grandmother would sit on a high chair being pushed by their fathers of sons on skates. Of course, there were also always groups of men playing Stockschiessen. A particularily Bavarian game in which, like in boule, the participants hurl heavy round plates with a stick-handle (Stock) over the ice trying to displace a marker. Every time someone hurls a plate skidding down the ice the entire lake makes a disconcerting rumbling sound like an earthquake or a bull in the lake....
The Chiemsee and the Fraueninsel December 1972
The Pilgrimage Church of Wilparting
When one drives along the Autobahn from München towards the Chiemsee, rolling down the Irschenberg, one passes this church in the meadows to the south. I have never been to Wilparting, but this romantic, quintessentially Bavarian image has remained with me.
In Gstadt we took a boat to the Fraueninsel: a few fisher houses and an old convent. Very peaceful and idyllic. The ostentatious but tasteful Herrenchiemsee with King Ludwig's unfinished copy of Versailles we only visited in 2002.
Kloster
Frauenwörth on the Fraueninsel
(photo
Panoramio)
The
hidden Romanic frescoes in the attic of the church of the
monastery
The frescoes are inaccessible, (photo from a postcard)
Frauenwörth, one of the oldest Bavarian convents (10th century)
A last view of the Chiemsee and the montains from the Fraueninsel
Gelnhausen: Barbara and the Children fly home December 1972
Late in December 1971 Barbara and the children flew to Los Angeles, while I spent another week in Moscow. We had sent the VW to LA ahead of us, Gerhard picked it up at the the harbor. I found the BMW in Gelnhausen where Barbara had left it, drove it back to München, consigned it with a shipping agent, and flew at last home to Los Angeles.
Rolf in Moscow December 1972
Basov had invited me to a week in Moscow to dicuss Christian Hohla's iodine laser experiments. Basov's group had tried to build an unorthodox iodine laser (for military applications) and had failed. Karl Kompa had given me special permission to talk freely about their work. This talk opened the doors for me in Moscow. From then on I had only to let Basov know that I would like to visit the USSR again, and he would send me an official invitation by the Soviet Academy. Otherwise Moscow in December without any snow was sad. I was nearly killed by a huge Christmas tree when it was lowered by a crane in front of Dietsky Mir, “Children's World”, a 4-story toy department-store on Dzerzhinsky Square....
Christmas 1972 - reunited in Pacific Palisades
Rarely did our house look so good than after this long absence. A week later we celebrated Christmas our way with a wild seven-foot tree which we had selected together at the LA railroad yards and decorated with oranges, paper angels, straw-stars, and real candles. In January we started to redo the living room. The old carpet had been chewed up by the dog of the last renters. I finished Susanne's bathroom with the help of a plumber. Her own huge new room was a great success
Our Livingroom after the renovation 1973
Susanne's room – the former garage – finished 1973
Susanne's desk
