fragments from

here and there

the smell of freshly cut lawn, humid earth after rains. loud ticking of grandfather’s Standuhr in the empy house.footsteps echoe in the hallway. the noise of aeroplanes taking off.sand between toes.gooseberries. cinnemon on milk rice. baked potatoes wrapped in silver foil. fingers covered with bicycle oil. nutella on knäckebrot. peaches. muesli with oranges, apples, banana. no milk.streuselkuchen. salad with sugar, bread with butter and cheese.nitted clothes for the teddy bear

memories of this kind are absent in the photos taken on several occasional visits to the place of childhood and teenage times.

the place with 6 constituent communities, each neatly seperated from one another an aspiration of intergrated denial

an approch to the place is the place itself, as a place

approaching the place from a distance.fragmentation generates focus and detachment

here the coincidence which tells a story :: ::

recently I was going through too many books which had been dormant for the last 10 years, while I was staying and moving in the Middle East. amongst a thematical diversity of all sorts of publications there was a worn out paper book published by Ullstein in 1957.then the following happened: flipping through the book, reading here and there. I realized that not only the stories are alive. the drawings, looking at them after all those years and more, now on yellowed pages conveyed the same somber atmosphere as in happy childhood days.

Die schönsten Gute Nacht Geschichten the most beautiful bed time stories

words and imagesfalling asleep with

words and imagesinspiring dreams

words and imagesfeeding theunconsciousness

Oberlinden

Ober Linden

upper linden

Neurott

Neu Roden

new clearing

the stories behind words and images remained concealed

listening to my mother’s voice. she showed me the drawings. read good books. educate children. teach them right and wrong.

the names of the editor and the illustrator did not ring a bell.

here are some missing links

Jella Lipman edited Die schönsten Gute Nacht Geschichten 1957–1968and established the International Library for the Youth in Munich 1949. she organised the conference for International Understanding through Children’s Books 1952 and a committee was appointed to form theInternational Board on Books for Young People, IBBY. this organisation became a registered NGO in Zurich, Switzerland in 1953.http://www.ibby.org/

born in Stuttgart 1891 to liberal Jewish parents Jella Lipman immigrated to Englandwith her children in 1936

she came back to Germany in 1945and started working for the US-Army as a consultant for women’s and young people’s affairs

Jella Lipman died in Zurich, CH 1971 http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jella_Lepman

Günther Strupp, the illustratorwas born in Johannisburg, Masuria 1912.he survived the Kemna Concentration Camp near Wupperthal, Germany and was liberated from Gestapo imprisonment in Stadelheim by American troops on 1st May 1945.

a renowned illustrator, artist and set designer he died in Augsburg, Germany 1996. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnther_Strupp

die letzte buche http://www.citysharing.ch/invited-projects~93~media-23.html

a narration on loosing homeland by a local woman

the last beech

the gravel quarry http://www.sehring.de/ Langener WaldseeZabriskie Point http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zabriskie_Point_%28film%29Point of Anger http://www.gruene-langen.de/ after renatrualizing some parts of the gravel quarries, Sehring Consortium demands 83 ha of the protective forest to expand growth and secure labor. groundwater resources are in danger.

some more related random facts and memories

ponmlkjihgfedcba z y x w v u q t s r

American Housing Area

http://forgotten-frankfurt.blogspot.ch/2008/11/langen- langen-terrace-family-housing.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhein-Main_Air_Base

GIs stationed at Rhein-Main-Airbase, Frankfurt/ Main live/d in Housing Areas around their Airbase, for some a temporary work place to protect West-Germany. for others it serves as a stopover to future destinations :: Iraq, Afghanistan ...

In September 2008, the US Army returned the Langen Terrace Family Housing Area to the Federal Republic.

only dollars were accepted in their supermarket, access with Army-ID-Card only. a long dark blue bus drove the American children to school on the AirBase premises and back home.

first school I ever went to bears the name of a great man http://www.albert-schweitzer-schule-langen.de/ this primary school won one of the five first prizes in the UNICEF contest 2012 - children’s rights in schools http://www.op-online.de/nachrichten/langen/unicef-lobt-albert-schweitzer-schule-langen-umgang-rechten-nachwuchses-2341104.html http://www.unicef.de/presse/2012/einladung-juniorbotschafter/ Albert Schweitzer, Peace Nobel Prize winner 1951 for his philosophy of Reference of Life, which found its implementation in Lambaréné, Gabun in 1931 - a hospital, today comprising departments of Internal Medicine, Surgery, Paediatrics, a maternity clinic, a dentistry clinic. since 1981 a Medical Research Unit focuses mainly on malaria. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Reverence_for_Life http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/delta/index.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Schweitzer

a place which gave me my first lesson in appreviations :: EKZ Einkaufszentrum, shopping mall the priest who took our confirmation and taught us about the Jesus People, liked to hang out there having a beer or two, alone or with anyone joining him

town flag :: 3 red oaks on a yellow background, 8 green leaves behind a piece of trunk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langen,_Hesse a castle called Wolfsgarten - literarely :: the garden of wolves; former hunting lodge teachers and parents made children stand along the road on a rainy summer sunday to welcome the Queen of England, small hands waved Union Jack Flags http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlo%C3%9F_Wolfsgarten http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Wolfsgarten pics here

an outdoor swimming pool - 50m pool Adolf Hitler commissioned the construction of Freibad Langen/Hessen for the swimming athlets to train for the Olympics in Berlin 1936 http://www.freibad-langen.de/

from the centre of the town, family Oppermann moved to the outskirts in 1962, then a place without any industry. the legend has it that the family sold a lot of their land by a very high prize, to the city council, the Constituency and private companies. sometimes our family would go and watch the riding, jumping, dancing contests at the horse ranch once a year, in eraly autumn, meeting neighbours, getting bored, hanging out with friends. http://www.kronenhof-langen.de

airfield runway 18 West Startbahn 18 West 1981, on 14th November 120.000 people marched against the expenssion of the airfield runaway 18 West in Wiesbaden, the capital of Hessen Constituency; a prelude for more to come > a village of huts became the hub of protests, resolutions, music http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startbahn_West#Demonstrationen http://www.fr-online.de/fotogalerien,1473788,2908380.html since 1992 - the company in charge of air traffic control settles down, German headquarter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Flugsicherung

housing the Paul-Ehrlich Institute, The Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedicines http://www.pei.de/cln_101/nn_162438/EN/home/node-en.html?__nnn=true http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul-Ehrlich-Institut_%28Germany%29

German Metereological Service provider - Weather Service Schoolweather technician wettertechnikerhttp://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wettertechnikerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutscher_Wetter-dienst

Cyclone LOTHAR speed :: 150kmh - 270kmh 25th - 26th December 1999huge damages to forests, buildings and lives http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cy-clone_Lothar

drawings by Günther Strupp inspired by Die schönsten Gute Nacht Geschichten compiled by Jella Lepman photographs by rn page 14 :: music by Heiner Goebbels 1982 maps by google map compiled by Rayelle Niemann, Zurich, September 2012