Tag Archives: germany

Karfreitag Abendmahl Gottesdienst

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On Good Friday this year, in addition to the evenlng servce at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, I went to the German language Karfreitag Abendmahl Gottesdienst (Good Friday Communion service) at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ. I am not fluent in German, but I know enough to get by at such an event, especially since the general layout of the service was quite similar to the eucharist in the Episcopal Church, which, however, is not celebrated on Good Friday.

A few notes:

  • I liked singing ‘O Sacred Head, Now Wounded’ auf Deutsch (O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden)
  • The Kingdom (of God) is das Reich. This appear in the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. I know too much 20th century history to be comfortable hearing that in church.
  • The Sermon was the biggest challenge for my poor German. The Preacher spoke about how the cross of Jesus relates to all human evils, e.g. Gaza today, Berlin 1945, Coventry 1940, and other examples. A lot of it I did not get, but it seemed appropriate.

    • feel free to ignore the liturgical minutiae if that is not your thing

Hitler, Mussolini, and Rommel

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In Some of my summer reading (2020), when discussing James Holland’s The Rise of Germany, 1939-1941: The War in the West, Volume One:

…. while Italy was allied with Germany, it was a net liability rather than an asset. The Italians failed in North Africa and the Balkans, and so Germany had to commit substantial forces to bail them out.

Grant Piper makes the same point, arguing that The Real Reason Germany Lost World War II was that Italy was a German ally.

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The Shadow of the Past

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From the buried bunker, Hitler’s ghost still haunts Berlin’s psyche, 70 years on

There are few surviving buildings or monuments to testify to the period in which Berlin was the Nazi capital, when it was to become Welthauptstadt Germania – an Albert Speer-designed world capital of a massively expanded German nation.

The Olympic stadium, site of the 1936 Games, still exists, the disused Tempelhof airport and, most notably, the forbidding former ministry of aviation from which Hermann Göring boasted of dominating the European skies.

It is now the home of the ministry of finance, which many believe dominates Europe in a far more effective manner than the Luftwaffe could ever have done.