Scam, kidnap by South African police

Scam, kidnap by South African police

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Scam, kidnap by South African police

Scam, kidnap by South African police

 
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Escape through barbed wire in Germany click here

Latest Top (8) News


Until 3183 A.D., The ‘Time Pyramid’ Is a Work in Progress
The “Time Pyramid” is being assembled slowly by the residents of a German town, who can scarcely imagine the world in which the artwork will be completed.

Tue, 26 Sep 2023 03:31:37 +0000


La cerveza alemana podría perder su sabor por el cambio climático
Las estaciones más cálidas y secas están amenazando las tradiciones de los productores de lúpulo alemanes, que luchan por preservar una forma de vida y el sabor de su bebida favorita.

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 14:22:45 +0000


AfD Candidate Loses Race for Mayor in Nordhausen, Germany
Voters on Sunday rejected the candidate for the hard-line Alternative for Germany Party, which is rattling German national politics, in the race for mayor in the city of Nordhausen.

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 09:02:26 +0000


The Rise of Run Clubs
In Berlin, some marathon runners came for the party.

Sun, 24 Sep 2023 15:55:21 +0000


U.S. Army’s Landstuhl Hospital in Germany Treats Troops Wounded in Ukraine
The Army’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Center has quietly started admitting Ukrainian Army soldiers who were wounded in combat, most of them American volunteers.

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 09:00:45 +0000


Why More Countries Are Adopting Feminist Foreign Policies
More countries are prioritizing women’s rights and representation, but the movement’s future is far from certain.

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 00:22:53 +0000


Schiele Artworks Returned to Heirs of Owner Killed by Nazis
The Manhattan district attorney’s office arranged for the return of seven works to a family that has been seeking them for more than a quarter of a century.

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 21:06:00 +0000


Germany’s Far Right Uses Martial Arts to Train and Recruit
To increase their ranks, neo-Nazi groups in Germany and across Europe are using the sport as a training and recruiting tool.

Sun, 17 Sep 2023 09:00:11 +0000
Where is Lothar Blossfeld Dipl Physik? click here
A Hershey kiss or a blob of paint? The Paint Torch outside the Pennsylvania Academy of Art in Philadelphia click here

Germany

Location of  Germany  (dark green)– in Europe  (green & dark grey)– in the European Union  (green)  –  [Legend]
Freiburg im Breisgau Synagogue, burned to the ground 1938, memorial footprint until now click here
Finding my husband in Freiburg. Twice. SJ Dodgson MJoTA 2014 v8n2 p0831

I took a long time learning to be a good wife. The 3 times I tried were all to professional men with blue eyes, mostly German ancestry and Roman Catholic. My first was an Australian with a German last name, Gavan Schneider MD BS, my second was an American with a Finnish name that migrated to the coalfields of Pennsylvania via Poland, Raymond Pekala MD, which union produced Angus and Miles Dodgson Pekala. My third, whom I married for better or worse in June 1993, is totally German, Lothar Blossfeld Dipl Physik (Heidelberg). We have 2 children, Allister and Patience.

Almost as if I married the same man 3 times. Even more peculiar is that I was born in England in the long shadow of the second world war, and from when I could talk I knew that the Germans had tried to kill us all. Twice. World War I and World War II. And did succeed in killing at least a dozen or so of my close male relatives.


My mother came from 2 contrasting breeds of Belfast Irish: Quakers who tolerate everyone, and Presbyterians who tolerate hardly anyone. She caused quite a fuss when she told her parents she was bringing my father home to Belfast for the wedding: an Englishman named Michael? A name only used in Ireland by Catholics?

Lothar however, is not terribly Catholic. He is a mix of Catholic, Jewish and Lutheran, although when asked to pay the compulsory state tax for churches, he managed to wriggle out of it by saying he did not believe in anything. He always went to Catholic church with me on Christmas with my 2 Pekala sons and, after they appeared, our son and daughter.


I met Lothar in April 1986, in a pub in Freiburg-im-Breisgau and rapidly we moved into a pattern that lasted 12 years, of him visiting me in New Jersey or traveling with me, and me and the children visiting him in Freiburg and his parents in Frankfurt. After 6 years he bought a hotel in Breitnau. In 1998, 6 years after that, I started working as a professional medical writer, with no vacation time, and that was the end of my trips to Germany. In 2008, Lothar sold the hotel, without bothering to send me my possessions, and in 2013 was placed in an old people's home in Freiburg by his landlady. Who blocked all access to his family. My daughter and I found him in August 2014, after no replies from any of his contacts, and after going to the police in Freiburg to file a missing person's report.

Now that Lothar has Parkinson's Disease and needs his family, we were there for him. Doing our best to rescue him from his landlady whom he has said used threats to gain control over his health, residence, assets and block his family. German courts thought perfectly reasonable the concept that a man with dementia, who needs someone to wipe his bottom, could decide to never ever see his only family again. Our ties with Germany are severed.

During my father's trip before he died, he visited me in New Jersey, and then Lothar in Freiberg-im-Breisgau in 1986, to whom he spoke in German. My father learned German, from a German prisoner-of-war working on his parent's farm during World War II, and honed in Australia through a friendship with German refugees.


Germany. SJ Dodgson MJoTA 2013 v7n2 p1216

Today is December 16, Beethoven's birthday. I know that because I grew up reading a newspaper comic, Peanuts, for whom Beethoven's birthday was extremely important. The comic's creator, Charles Schultz, had a German name, as do a lot of Americans. America is very German: in the early 1900s more immigrants came from Germany than anywhere else and they influenced the foods we eat like pretzels.

News feed from Der Spiegel

Latest Top (10) News


Smoking Weed By the Book: Germany's Awkward Path To Legalizing Cannabis
The German government originally had ambitious plans for lifting its prohibition on the consumption of cannabis. But concerns about health and crime are growing and little more is expected now than a legalization light.

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 17:05:50 +0200


Germany: The AfD's Constant Drift Toward Extremism
The right-wing extremist Alternative for Germany party is increasingly open about its rejection of democratic principles. But public support is soaring nonetheless. The party's focus on professionalism could be one reason why.

Fri, 4 Aug 2023 21:27:23 +0200


Germany: Secret Messages Document Moscow Contacts with Staffer of Far-Right AfD
A pro-Russian activist who works for a politician from the far-right AfD party, sought support from Moscow for a lawsuit against the German government, DER SPIEGEL has learned. They aim of the legal complaint was to delay German arms deliveries to Ukraine.

Fri, 4 Aug 2023 17:22:17 +0200


Mounir al-Motassadeq: Hamburg 9/11 Conspirator Fights Entry on Terror List
The September 11 kamikaze pilots killed thousands of people in the United States. According to information obtained by DER SPIEGEL, Mounir al-Motassadeq, the man convicted of helping the Hamburg terror cell responsible for the attacks, now wants his name to be removed from an international list of terrorists.

Fri, 28 Jul 2023 09:32:55 +0200


Dangerous Liaisons: The True Proximity of Germany's AfD To Neo-Nazis
Officially, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party wants nothing to do with organized right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis. But reporting by DER SPIEGEL sheds light on connections that are deeper than those previously known.

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 10:39:24 +0200


A Giant Cesspool: Can the Baltic Sea Still Be Saved?
Tons of World War II munitions, a huge dead zone and global warming are putting the squeeze on the already highly vulnerable Baltic Sea. Can this crucial European body of water still be saved?

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 09:25:30 +0200


Outrage over Pro-Russian AfD Worker: Moscow's Man in the Bundestag
A pro-Russian activist with close ties to Moscow works for an AfD member of the federal parliament, giving him access to the seat of German democracy. Security authorities are alarmed by the man, who holds both German and Russian citizenship. Nevertheless, it seems there is little they can do.

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 18:22:24 +0200


Were Vladimir Putin's Years in Germany Less Thrilling than the Stories?
Wild stories have circulated for years about Vladimir Putin's time with the KGB in Dresden. There are even rumors he helped orchestrate a murder carried out by German terrorists. But reporting by DER SPIEGEL has found that the Russian leader was more of a pen-pusher than a top agent.

Wed, 7 Jun 2023 11:13:08 +0200


Suspicious Activity: What Are German Fighter Pilots Doing in China?
A handful of former German pilots are apparently now in China to provide military training – and are earning huge salaries for their services. Their activities have raised sensitive questions for German security officials.

Fri, 2 Jun 2023 13:56:53 +0200


Normalization on the Extreme Right: Alternative for Germany Party Again Gaining Ground
The far-right Alternative for Germany party is polling better than it has in several years. With elections approaching next year in a trio of eastern German states, the AfD is seeking to find its way even closer to the political mainstream.

Tue, 23 May 2023 14:01:44 +0200
Lufthansa Plane Lost in Switzerland SJ Dodgson MJoTA 2015 v9n1p0322

Is this tragic crash of a German plane flying from Barcelona, Spain to Duesseldorf, Germany, a metaphor for Germany losing control over European Union? The press conference given by the CEO of Lufthansa insisted that the pilots passed all medical and technical tests and no red flags were raised. I believe them. An airline has no upside in a crash, none at all, and ethical airline companies do everything possible to avert these crashes.

But I also believe that in Germany, rules are made for efficiency, not for humans.

I went to Germany in 1986 to learn some surgical techniques. I was a research assistant professor at an American Ivy League university (University of Pennsylvania) As the mother of 2 American adults whose father is a German scientist imprisoned in a hospital in Germany, I affirm their rules were not made for humans.

Picture below: Brilliant engineering, taking risks and doing everything they can to lower greenhouse gas output and water usage. Germany is leading the way, and US police need to be arresting parents whose children have access to guns, rather than parents who leave their kids outside a store, with the whole world watching them, so they can nip in and buy a loaf of bread.

These young people were enjoying the afternoon breezes on the arches of a footbridge, near the University of Freiburg and the main train station in Freiburg-im-Breisgau.
Where I took the background picture in July 2015.