Sunday, January 27, 2013

Beer drinking statues, heads on the street

Hannover Photo Safari, continued:
On the street leading up to the opera house in Hannover are three statues. After a year and a half of walking past them, it's time to figure out who they are supposed to be.

You'll notice that they seem to be drinking bottles of beer. I am going to assume that this was someone's hilarious late night idea, after he/she (come on, you know it was a he) had had a few himself. But the funny thing is that no one has removed the bottles from their hands for months. It is legal to drink on the street here, after all. Why can't a statue pretend to do it too? (click on the photo if you would like to see it bigger).

Note/Disclaimer: I thank Wikipedia and various internet sources for the following info. I am not citing it in APA or any other format, probably to the dismay of my grad school professors and the numerous librarians in my family. They would be dismayed that I used Wikipedia at all.

Marschner
Our first subject is Heinrich Marschner. He was a composer who wrote 23 operas and is regarded as a big deal in German opera.
He came from Zittau, Germany, which is in the east, near what's now the border with the Czech Republic. He studied operas, started writing them, and moved to Dresden. Starting in 1831 he moved to Hannover and stayed here, working as the conductor for the Hannover city theater, for the rest of his life.


Karmarsch
Karl Karmarsch, the second beer drinker in line, was an educator who founded the Higher Technical School of Hannover in the 1830s, which later became the Leibniz University of Hannover. He was a mechanical engineering professor, and led the university for over 40 years. He was also the main person to introduce the metric system to Germany and Austria in 1872.



Stromeyer
Louis Stromeyer's statue is the most attractive of the three. Probably that's because he is not tarnished and moldy, like maybe he has recently showered. It's fitting because Stromeyer was a surgeon, and probably knew that it's good to wash your hands a lot. He is considered a pioneer in orthopedic surgery and founded an orthopedic institute in Hannover. For 16 years, Stromeyer served as a military surgeon. He developed the procedure to correct club foot and first performed it in 1831.

And just down the street are these sculptures:

 Interpret on your own. This is what I have grown to like about Hannover: a little bit classic, cultured, traditional, but with a good (or bad) dose of the modern. It's not always guidebook-worthy but it's got personality. You can see the remains of a 14th century church right next to a 1960s-era office building. Most of Hannover was destroyed by bombing during WWII, and it has an old/new identity as a result. You'll see more of that contrast coming soon. Until then, crack a German beer and say "prost" to Karmarsch and the metric system.

1 comment:

  1. Your Grampa Gray was a mechanical engineer as well (Purdue).

    ReplyDelete

About Me

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Thanks for coming to my blog. It started as a way to keep in touch with family and friends, and now has become an ongoing project. I'm an American living in Germany and trying to travel whenever I can. I write about my experiences as an expatriate (the interesting ones and the embarrassing ones), and about my travels. There are some recurring characters in this blog, particularly my husband Brian and several of our friends. The title comes from the idea that living in a foreign country means making a lot of mistakes. So the things you used to do easily you now have to try over and over again. Hopefully, like me, you can laugh at how idiotic it feels. If you have happened upon my blog, then welcome. Knowing that people are reading what I write makes me keep going. Feel free to write comments or suggestions for future posts.