At the podium disscusion - Can we save the world. In this photo from left to right: Annika Böhmer who
led the disscussion. Hanna Poddig who was in the Anti-Atom movement and climate movement, Me,
Gandolf in various save the forest groups who organized the juristic part of a tree saving group,
Pia Klemp a Captain who sailed a ship in the Mediterrean picking up Asyl seekers from Africa,.
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I arrived in Kusel the day before the podium discussion. This was lucky because the trains were virutally
all caput. Arriving at the station, I discovered that the train only went Frankfurt, broken something or other
there, not to Mannheim at it was supposed to. I got to Frankfurt and couldn't find a train to Mannheim. Finally did
and got to Mannheim. There I searched for a train to Kaiser's Lautern. This was impossible. I finally found
a place to ask and he told me track 1. I got on that train, but could see not sign anywhere saying Kaiser's
Lautern, so got off at the next stop. There was a train to Kaiser's Lauern, so I got on that. It went as
far as a town called Neustadt or some such thing and broke down. We sat there for a while then the conductor
said, get off, the train won't go any further. There is a bus in town that will take you to kaiser's lautern.
So we wandered about the town and found no bus. After feeling completely helpless and thinking I guess I'll just have
to stay here and go home tomorrow, finally some people started whispering, the train is repaired. Well, this was just
an ordinary passenger, so I didn't know if it was true, but went back to the train. Unbelieveably it did go. I
arrived in Kaiser's Lautern who Basti, also unbelieveably found me quite quickly although it was about two
hours later that I supposed to arrive. Basti drove me to Kusel about a 30 minute drive. There I was brought
to a family who were willing to put me up. This was Betty and Roland. They offered me some supper and then
we talked a while. Betty had spent the years from about age 1 to 15 in the USA.
The house they lived in was 3 stories with bedrooms on 2nd and 3rd floors. I slept in a room that obviously
was used by their grandchildren when they came. When we got up the next morning Roland asked if I wanted to go
to the castle which I did. So after a nice breakfast of muesli and fruit we headed off.
The castle was huge and on a hill over the town. Some of it was left as remains, some of it had been rebuilt.
There was a youth hostle there, a restaurant, a geological museum and a music museum. The youth hostel was
a new section, the geological museum was even newer, the other buildings were rebuilt. So the inside of the
castle was made up of buildings from many periods.
Roland had led a festival at the castle for many years and there were sheds where some of the food and drinks
were served.
Although the original castle was in ruins, it had never been conquered. The ruins happened because people in
the town simple took bricks and other objects for their own purposes.
We ate lunch at the castle in a renovated room. It was good.
The church was build inside the castle much later, in the 18th century.
In the evening we went to the Bio store where the podium was held. Kusel is
the administrtion center for it area of Pfalz, so it had all the necessary buildings
but isn't that large, about 5500 people. There had just been a large demonstrtion of
400 people demonstrating for the AfD in the town, which had been very upsetting. The
growth of the AfD was rapid. So the podium was mainly thinking about what they could
do to stop it. That meant that question like what role does Capitalism play in the
hindrence of climate questions which I mentioned, but which was not discussed, nor
was the mention of what role can workers play, the people who run the factories was
also ignored. But although I understood why they were concentrated on the AfD, but the
question we were supposed to give answers to was ignored.
Although the town was not large, there were about 70 people at the event. Most of
them knew each other.
These are the people where I stayed overnight.
Here is also their son Nelson. Two other children lived elsewhere.
Although Kusel was an old town, nothing remained of the medieval village. Apparently
it was destroyed by the French who had mistaken it for another town.
This object was build for the fish to get from the lower river to the upper one.
The statue is a chicken. There were several chidkens in various places, so it must
have had some meaning.
The next day I had decided to stay there, as the trip was very long. I hadn't realized
it was so far away. Roland decided that I should see the town, so we set out by foot.
Although the town wasn't large, it was stretched out kind of in a valley. So it was not
a short walk.
I believe Roland said Betty lived here before they moved to the wooden house.
by chance we walked past this house and Roland said, I think that's our burgermeister, so
he called him and it was indeed. He introduced us and then they talked a bit. The burgermeister
was sitting on his balcony reading a book.
This house has bells on the front which play the Kusel song. The Kusel song was written
by Kusel's most famous son: Fritz Wunderlich, who was an opera singer. We saw two exhibitions
about Wunderlich, one in the castle and one in a museum in town.
Kusel once had a gate and probably a wall, but nothing remained except the rather strange
contraption showing where the gate was.
This object was apparently a roof which decked over a large area that was used form festivals.
This was the house where Wunderlich grew up.
A very large object showing the businesses in town.
This is the evangelical - protestant church.
One night I stayed in a hotel. This is a view from the window of the hotel. Roland and Betty thought it was strange that Basti had put me in
a hotel one night, but I guess it was because I stayed an extra day.
The next day Betty brought me to the train. It took a whole day to get home, but at least all the
trains managed to get there without breaking down.
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