Word: berlins
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...that question, I wish Jesse Owens were alive to answer it. Most American schoolkids, and anyone who has seen at least five episodes of ABC's Wide World of Sports, know about Owens. He was the Black athlete who participated in the 1936 Olympics--held in, of all places, Berlin. And not just any old Berlin, but a Berlin awash in swastikas. A Berlin presided over by a man with a funny mustache who spouted ludicrous theories about the superiority of the Aryan race and the inferiority of most others, including, of course, the Black race...
...Owens went to Berlin, however much he was disgusted by Hitler, the Nazts, and the swastikas. He happened to win some gold medals, too, right under Hitler's nose...
...Chapter One Vonnegut describes the difficulties involved in visiting Dresden today, because it is in East Germany. Mr. Kladko's poor reading habits could have been excused if he had bothered to look at a map, which would have shown him that Dresdon's position, "98 miles south of Berlin" as he says place it close to the Czech border, deep in Warsaw Pact territory Although a ceremony at Dresden recognizing the alliances between the United Germany, and East Germany would be welcome. I don't think we can expect it to happen in this decade...
Dresden was a beautiful city on the Elbe, 98 miles south of Berlin. Dresden was called "the German Florence" because of its magnificent rococo art collections and baroque buildings. It had very little strategic value, especially that late in the war, and had escaped Allied bombing attacks until 1945. But for very dubious reasons, the Allies ruthlessly fire-bombed the refuges-packed city on February 13-14, 1945, creating a firestorm that could be seen for 200 miles. Though the numbers of deaths have been disputed, the figure quoted by historian David Irving, author of "The Destruction of Dresden...
...World War II, or the cold war either, one of the main events of the year is the 300th birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach.* Anyone who missed the St. Matthew Passion in Bach's hometown of Leipzig on his actual birthday, March 21, can sample Bach festivals in Hamburg, Berlin, Heidelberg and Stuttgart, as well as the nine-day Bachanalia on the island of Madeira in June. And if this seems a surfeit of baroque music, remember that June 16 is Bloomsday in Dublin, when admirers of James Joyce spend 18 hours retracing the steps of the hero of Ulysses...