Today is the 100th anniversary of my mother's birth

Today would have been my mother's 100th birthday. She was 90 when she died in 2012.

The photo above from 1928 (another treasure from the archive) shows my mother dressed for Fasching, the Bavarian version of Mardi Gras held Tuesday, Feb. 21, 1928. She would have witnessed the Schäfflertanz, or Cooper's Dance, performed in Marienplatz, Munich, which is the subject of the second photo below and the video I found on YouTube.

This video from Reuters news service shows the Schäfflertanz as it was performed in 1928.

The coopers dance every seven years. It allegedly had its beginnings in 1517, when the plague wiped out a good portion of Munich. I guess the town needed some cheering up. The last time the coopers performed the Schäfflertanz was in 2019, so you still have time to mark your calendars for the next event.

Or, you can witness a mechanical recreation every day in the clock tower of city hall on Marienplatz in downtown Munich.

German barrel makers wearing tailcoats, black trousers, white stockings and a bright leather apron dance in front of crowd in Munich in 1928.

Wolf Moon Over Marriott Park — January 2022

The moon is a curious presence. It’s always there, somewhere, but modern humans don’t always pay much attention to it, unlike creatures of the night.

I took my camera with its primary 50mm lens on our evening walk the other day and was rewarded with the sight of the mist-shrouded moon peering through the oak branches in the park across from our house.

Back home, in front of my computer, I created the triptych effect in Adobe Photoshop. Maybe we’ll hang it on the wall one day.

And now, a word from my German grandfather: Fischerstechen

I had to look up the word Fischerstechen. It's the only comment under a photo that shows a person with a spear on Würmsee or Starnberger See (Lake Starnberg) just outside Munich. My grandfather took the picture in 1928.

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My grandfather Paul Oeser and my mother Elisabeth, age 6 on Würmsee, 1928.

Fischerstechen is the German word for water jousting; a sport practiced principally in France, Germany, and Switzerland back in the day. The opponent has a similar rig. The point? To knock the opponent into the water using the spear, of course.

 Starnberger See has been a favorite destination for my family for almost 100 years. My father went there with his girlfriend (my mother) in 1945 after the war ended. My grandmother took me there in 1972 for some coffee and kuchen. We rode the S-Bahn train from Munich's downtown. And, I took Fabienne there in 2018 for some coffee and kuchen. It rained, but it was still charming.

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 The photo caught my attention for another reason. The person with the spear is wearing what looks to be a grass skirt. That reminded me of the opening scene of the German mini-series streaming on Netflix called "Oktoberfest: Beer and Blood" or, as one reviewer called it, "The Hops of Wrath." It's a fascinating look at the origins of the modern Oktoberfest in Munich, more or less based on actual events (names have been changed). In that opening scene, you see a tribe of south Pacific islanders fishing along a river. As the camera pulls back, you discover that the campsite is along the Isar River that flows through Munich from the Alps.

 What the what?

 It was the first I heard of German Samoa, a German protectorate from 1900 to 1914. Just as England showed off Native Americans to the public, the Germans brought a few Samoans to Germany as "human ethnological displays" or Volkerschauen. According to the book "From Samoa with Love," published in 2014, "the Samoans — many of high social status — traveled to Germany to take part in "Volkerschauen” because it was an opportunity for them to establish political ties with the colonial power.” In other words, the book implies they wanted to be there.

 What this has to do with a photo taken in 1928? Not sure. Maybe my Starnberger See followers can tell me.

#starnbergersee #1928 #familyphotos #bavaria #würmsee #familyphotography #blackandwhiteart #sepia #Fischerstechen