In the Studio with Ruby Barber, the Florist Behind Berlin-Based Mary Lennox - W Magazine
Monday, April 6, 2020Ruby Barber in her studio, photograph courtesy of Becca Crawford.
Barber spends her days scouring Berlin’s parks for dry materials and visiting local growers in Brandenburg and Potsdam, returning to her studio to assemble dripping, plumed constructions from the spoils. While her regular haunts supply the materials for most of her creations, some of Barber’s favored brambles can only be found further afield—and sometimes for just a week or two at a time. In late summer, Dutch hydrangea farms dispose of several wheelbarrows’ worth of sun-crisped heads. On the island of Mallorca, the narrow country roads are littered with perfect gold-fringed palm fronds. In the southern Italian countryside, overgrown family greenhouses shelter dead plants that have dried perfectly in place. “No work needs to be done to make an installation from these things,” Barber says. “Nature’s done the work already.”
The daughter of two contemporary art gallerists, Barber’s rise has coincided with a shift in the fashion and visual art worlds, where a growing appetite for living designs has put her abstract installations in high demand. “There’s an increasing desire in modern times to feel close to nature. People want more and more to incorporate that natural language into their lives, and brands are starting to understand that.” But Barber’s designs, commissioned to reinvigorate established labels, are so rich in color and texture as to risk eclipsing them altogether. At last year’s Saut Hermès, an equestrian competition sponsored by the French house at the Grand Palais in Paris, Barber hung enormous downy columns of tea-colored amaranth like stalactites from the glass-paneled ceilings of the Grand Palais. For Loro Piana’s Fall/Winter 2020 presentation, her team scoured the Lombardy region of Northern Italy, sourcing a medley of local plants to construct a garden inside of the mid century modern venue.
The year has been a whirlwind for Barber; a steady stream of projects kept her bouncing between Hamburg, Paris and Milan until Germany’s recent lockdown order resulted in a sort of forced retreat. “It’s a relief in a way, and a chance to think about the sort of work I actually want to do,” she says of the imposed hiatus. Perhaps, while she’s confined to her apartment, Barber will make an exception to her no-flowers-in-the-home rule. Her window looks out onto a park, so she can keep an eye out for the first blooms.
...https://www.wmagazine.com/story/ruby-barber-mary-lennox-florist-berlin-interview/
Before It's Too Late - The Smart Set
Monday, April 6, 2020Laye, Versailles, or other post-war settlements contribute to the problems that the Munich Agreement supposedly solved?
PEC: First, I would like to clear the misconception that the post-Habsburg states were pure peace-treaty creations. These states benefited from Allied sanction during the last phases of the war and of rubber-stamping by the Versailles treaty. Their borders were finalized as part of the peace negotiations, and several of them benefited from allied military help. But these states actually arose, in late 1918, from the ashes of an economically bankrupt and militarily prostrate Austria-Hungary, usually as the result of popular revolutions and/or parliamentary takeovers. The idea that they were the creation of diplomatic diktat is misplaced. As to Czechoslovakia specifically, it was carved entirely out of Austria-Hungary. The Munich Agreement transferred a large part of it to Germany. One could not, therefore, remedy the other in the sense of reversing a situation created by the WWI peace treaties.
The Versailles Treaty, of course, was supposed to enshrine the idea of self-determination. Hitler played on this theme and on British guilt at the Versailles settlement. (The French felt no such guilt.) The idea was that the German-speaking population, the Sudeten Germans, were Germans and belonged in Germany. The case, however, was far from clear. Hitler himself, after Munich, did not acknowledge the existence of a historically and geographically defined Sudeten or Bohemian German community; the region was sundered and merged into neighboring German and Austrian provinces. Whether the Sudeten German considered themselves German rather than Bohemian — or “Czechoslovak Germans” as one writer put it — is meanwhile questionable at best. In the 1920s and ’30s, Sudeten Germans participated in Czechoslovak governments, where they held several ministerial portfolios. From the mid-1930s, a majority of them voted for a party, led by the activist Konrad Henlein, which ended up supporting Nazism. But whether they did so expecting Henlein to score political points for them within Czechoslovakia’s democratic system or whether they understood Henlein would lead them to annexation into the Reich is unclear. The anecdotal evidence is that many and probably most hoped things would not go as far as annexation.
Finally, even if we are to believe that a majority of the Sudeten Germans supported annexation, the Czechs and Jews living in these regions must be taken into account. If one factors them in, it becomes very unlikely that a majority ever existed, in the regions handed over to Germany at Munich, in favor of annexation. Perhaps conscious of this, Hitler always insisted, in the run-up to Munich, on a pure and simple, rather than a negotiated, transfer.
EPSON MFP image
AD: A fascinating aspect of the history you document in The Bell of Treason is how Hitler and his allies in Czechoslovakia accused the Czech of repressing Germans in order to justify the German invasion of Czechoslovakia. To what degree were Germans in Czechoslovakia clamoring for the Third Reich’s “protection?” To what degree was this all a charade?
PEC: Henlein benefited from a substantial core of pro-Nazi supporters, many of them prepared to resort to violence. These people were aiming at integration within the Reich. Even among the Henleinist core, however, there had always existed a component favoring authoritarian politics within the Czechoslovak system. These people looked not to Nazi Germany, which they perceived as godless and alien, but to Catholic, authoritarian Austria. It was only when Germany annexed Austria in March 1938 that t...https://www.thesmartset.com/before-its-too-late/
Pompeo lays flowers at German synagogue after far-right shooting - The Times of Israel
Monday, April 6, 2020America’s sympathy for what took place here and to remind the world that anti-Semitism is not just limited to certain places. We can find it everywhere… like in Pittsburgh. We must work together against this vicious attack on religious freedom,” Pompeo said.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, right, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, carry white roses to lay at the synagogue of Halle, Germany, November 7, 2019. (John Macdougall/Pool via AP)
At the memorial service, Herzog said: “There is no question as to the rampant rise of anti-Semitism across Europe. It’s truly a miracle that the Jews of Halle didn’t suffer a massacre on Yom Kippur. Global leaders must unite in a relentless fight against anti-Semitism by protecting Jewish institutions, and most importantly, by means of education and firm legislation against hate crimes.”
Herzog was touring Germany on a visit focused on combating rising anti-Semitism in the country. The visit coincided with the anniversary of Kristallnacht.
Kristallnacht — the “Night of Broken Glass” — when Nazis, among them many ordinary Germans, terrorized Jews throughout Germany and Austria. They killed at least 91 people and vandalized 7,500 Jewish businesses. They also burned more than 1,400 synagogues, according to Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.
“This Shabbat marks 81 years since Kristallnacht. It is inconceivable that today Jews need to remove their kippah (skullcap) in order to walk the streets of Europe,” Herzog said.
The suspect in the attack, 27-year-old German Stephan Balliet, had sought to storm the synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.
When he failed, he shot dead a female passerby outside the synagogue, and later gunned down a man in the kebab shop a short distance away.
Police subsequently captured the suspect after a gun battle that left him wounded.
Pompeo is on a two-day tour of Germany ah...https://www.timesofisrael.com/pompeo-lays-flowers-at-german-synagogue-after-far-right-shooting/
Dance of the honey bee reveals fondness for strawberries - EurekAlert
Sunday, January 26, 2020Bees are pollinators of many wild and crop plants, but in many places their diversity and density is declining. A research team from the Universities of Göttingen, Sussex and Würzburg has now investigated the foraging behaviour of bees in agricultural landscapes. To do this, the scientists analysed the bees' dances, which are called the "waggle dance". They found out that honey bees prefer strawberry fields, even if they flowered directly next to the oilseed rape fields. Only when oilseed rape was in full bloom were fewer honey bees observed in the strawberry field. Wild bees, on the other hand, consistently chose the strawberry field. The results have been published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment.
A team from the Functional Agrobiodiversity and Agroecology groups at the University of Göttingen established small honey bee colonies next to eleven strawberry fields in the region of Göttingen and Kassel. The scientists then used video recordings and decoded the waggle dances. Honey bees dance to communicate the direction and distance of attractive food sources that they have visited. In combination with satellite maps of the landscape, the land use type that they preferred could be determined. The team also studied which plants the bees used as pollen resources and calculated the density of honey bees and wild bees ...https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/uog-dot012420.php
German conservative politician resigns over far-right ties - DW (English)
Sunday, January 26, 2020Now, the local lawmaker has left Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union.
Robert Möritz, a local politician from the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, surprisingly announced his resignation from Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on Friday, saying he wanted "to shield the party from further harm" and calm the political uproar. It recently emerged that Möritz had ties to Germany's right-wing extremist milieu, and has a symbol tattooed on his arm associated with neo-Nazism. Möritz said his resignation was about sending a signal, and that "sometimes, life is about focusing on one's true priorities." He added that he nevertheless fully subscribes to the conservative CDU's values. News of Möritz' links to Germany's far-right milieu had brought Saxony-Anhalt's government — a coalition between the CDU, center-left Social Democrats and environmentalist Greens — to the verge of collapse. On Thursday, the state's CDU issued an ultimatum to Möritz, demanding that he distance himself from the far-right or face repercussions. Read more: Right-wing extremists in Germany to face amped up intelligence The CDU governs Saxony-Anahlt in a coalition with the So...https://www.dw.com/en/german-conservative-politician-resigns-over-far-right-ties/a-51756713
German Man Arrested After Failed Attack on Synagogue - The Wall Street Journal
Sunday, January 26, 2020Halle’s university hospital. A senior security official identified the suspect as Stephan Balliet, 27, a German citizen from the state of Saxony-Anhalt, where Halle is located, and said he wasn’t previously known to authorities. German Interior Minister
Horst Seehofer
said prosecutors had enough information to assume a far-right motivation behind the attack, even though it was too early to make a final determination. The 35-minute video of the assault was streamed live on Twitch, a streaming platform owned by
Amazon.com Inc.,
according to Storyful, a social-media intelligence company owned by News Corp, which also owns The Wall Street Journal. Christiane Prinz, 49, who owns a hairdressing salon opposite the synagogue, said she saw the suspect, dressed in a dark-green military outfit, launch a projectile over the synagogue’s gate into its front yard and cemetery, after which there was a loud bang.
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German far-right leader forms new party with a Nazi symbol - The Times of Israel
Tuesday, August 20, 2019PsR1YAT
— Arya ?? (@larry3119) January 11, 2019
Poggenburg led Alternative for Germany (AfD) to its strongest state election performance yet when the party won almost a quarter of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt in 2016.
In this Friday, March 11, 2016, file photo, Andre Poggenburg, former regional party leader of Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) in the German state Saxony-Anhalt, arrives prior an election campaign rally of his party in Magdeburg, Germany (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)
The 43-year-old resigned as regional party leader last year after labeling Turks as “camel drivers” and immigrants with dual nationality a “homeless mob we no longer want to have.”
In an interview with daily Die Welt, Poggenburg said AfD had made a noticeable “shift to the left” lately for fear of being placed under observation by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency.
Awakening of German Patriots is the fourth breakaway movement to emerge from Alternative for Germany since its founding in 2013.
In 2015, AfD founder Bernd Lucke quit after losing an internal power struggle. His Liberal-Conservative Reformers have one seat in the European Parliament — held by Lucke.
AfD co-leader Frauke Petry quit the party just after Germany’s national election in September 2017. She now leads the Blue Party, with two seats in the national parliament.
The same year the leader of AfD in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Bernhard Wildt, quit the party and formed a grouping called Citizens for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
...https://www.timesofisrael.com/german-far-right-leader-forms-new-party-with-a-nazi-symbol/
Greens want the right to free Heat and home office - The Crypto Coin Discovery
Tuesday, August 20, 2019DIY drugstore & Beauty electronics & technology, family & children, household & furnishing, Outdoor & sports Gulf of Mexico beach visitors people form a chain, to save float Saxony-Anhalt pensioner planting flowers – Halberstadt allows you to tear out and threatened with a 5000 Euro fine food bald man with trying to steal 35 bottles of Shampoo and all questions: Why? news a Buddhist monk after a pedal boat outing missing diver in use +++ Ticker +++ News today Manfred Uhlig is dead DPA Today, the maximum values expected heat record in Germany: these are the hottest cities DPA +++ Ticker +++ News today tank problems: thousands of beaches to play at Amsterdam airport Schiphol DPA 40 new Levels Mahjong – for free Now! Play attack in Freiburg man attacks a Jew in front of the municipal house – the woman says about the anti-Semitic Pöbelei Kyra Funk great Britain woman fakes cancer, in order to Finance the wedding of your dreams hunting accident Tragic accident victims: Hunter shoots man after he had hit a wild pig DPA Lotto on Wednesday and Saturday current Lotto numbers The training driving up, tied up and kidnapped: Triathlete in the Styria Missing Boy from Duisburg abducted, He sent a Whatsapp and disappeared – aktenzeichen XY is looking for the 15-year-old Marvin By Annette Berger process group rape in Freiburg: The victim says in court DPA Berlin refugee accommodation Died of an Unborn, because the Security did not call the rescue service? By Daniel Wüstenberg auction in New York A Pair of old Nike sneakers to achieve on auction 437.500 Dollar Alton Towers eight falls from train, passengers hanging 20 minutes upright in ten meters of altitude ...https://www.ccdiscovery.com/greens-want-the-right-to-free-heat-and-home-office