A Snowy Weekend in Vienna

I took the train to Vienna this weekend to visit my friend Sara. (Thank you for being a wonderful host, Sara!) It snowed just enough each day that there was always a fresh blanket of white covering the city before eventually giving way to the urban gray.

Vienna is a strange city: it takes a while to grow on you, but when it does, it anchors itself deep. It becomes part of you. Jo ... ich hab schon Heimweh. Vienna: I'll be back soon. Take care of that snow and I'll come back for the May flowers.

Volxküche

I first learned about the Volxküche when I was living in Vienna in 2007. Volk means "the people." The "x" is a tribute to the common people and to local communities, as opposed to a nationalistic concept of "The People". Küche is German for "kitchen", and therefore, the Volxküche (Vokü for short) is the people's kitchen. Voküs exist all over Germany and Austria and are similar U.S./English-language based organizations such as Food Not Bombs, Seeds of Peace, and Everybody's Kitchen. People know them best for serving hot, cheap (or free) vegetarian and vegan meals. The food brings people together to meet their neighbors, to network, and often to organize around political and environmental issues.

There is a weekly Vokü only ten minutes from where I'm living, so I went this past Saturday to check it out. It may have been the best decision I've made in Stuttgart yet. One of the toughest parts of moving to a new city is trying to find and/or build a new community. From the moment I walked in the door of the Vokü, I instantly felt at home. The venue itself was bright and welcoming and filled with people working to change their communities: from environmental educators teaching about the Stuttgart 21 train project (more details on that fiasco later) to an anti-drone peace collaborative to intercultural awareness groups and so much more. (For you Pittsburgh readers: imagine the Thomas Merton Center with a quarter of the number of project groups but with people just as passionate and as dedicated.)

I ate dinner with three people who I had never met before. The first person turned out to work for Facilities at the same place where I'm working and the second person was a doctoral student in Molecular Chemistry. I don't know what the third person did for school or work, but she loved to correct my German, which I always appreciate. When we finished eating, three of us (minus the chemist), walked up a snow-covered hill to tour a small, organic grocery store that the person who works for Facilities co-founded. The store is called "Plattsalat" and is opening as a co-op on March 2nd. It is rare to get a tour of a store before it actually opens, and that's exactly what I got. Right now, the store looks like a (nice) warehouse with a few long shelves in the center. Everything is painted and the space is almost ready; it just needs those shelves and some food for people to buy! I look forward to seeing the transformation over the next couple weeks. If you're in Stuttgart and want to come with me to the opening, leave me a comment and we'll plan together!

You never know what opportunities can present themselves when you take a leap and try something new. I'm so glad I found the Volxküche this weekend, and the people associated with it. I definitely plan to return soon.

Fasnet, otherwise known as Fastnacht

Donuts lined up for Fasching customers.

We have entered the season of Fasching in Southern Germany and Austria. The rest of Germany calls this holiday Karneval, which also coincides with Mardi Gras in New Orleans and with Carnaval in Brazil. All of these traditions celebrate the time before Lent, which is when Christians begin the 40-day fasting period leading up to Easter. (Remember: Southern Germany is a deeply Catholic part of the country.)

This coming Tuesday, February 12, is Shrove Tuesday, more commonly known as Fastnacht, or the night before the fasting begins. (Nacht is "night" in Germany and fast is the root of the verb fasten, meaning "to fast.") Originally, this was the night when people ate donuts and celebrated with a feast, knowing that they would be fasting for the next 40 days. Nowadays, at least in Southern Germany, Fasching has become a weeklong event and the donuts appear in bakeries on Thursday or Friday of the preceding week. If you're lucky, they also appear at work. Case in point: on Friday, my group leader at work sent one of our student helpers to buy the special Fastnacht donuts, Berliner. These donuts tasted just like any jelly or cream donuts you would get in the U.S. (Berliner don't have the hole in the center.) The only difference is that they were extremely fresh, as if they had just come out of the fryer, which they probably did. My only complaint about these donuts is that they were also very sweet. However, on Saturday, I had a different kind of donut, which resembled more of an oversized Munchkin (essentially the hole of the donut, for you non-U.S. readers). It was called a Quarkbällchen. Bällchen refers to a "small ball" and quark is a type of cheese that we don't have in the U.S. It is similar to the cheese in cheesecake, but not quite as rich. I don't like quark by itself, but it's great in baked goods. The Quarkbällchen was made of plain dough on the outside, filled with dough mixed with quark on the inside, and dusted with sugar on the outside. It definitely won my donut taste test.

Another benefit to the Fasching season is that some of the days are public holidays. Tuesday, for instance, is a half-day at work, so that people can properly celebrate Tuesday afternoon. I'm going to try to go to one of the parades in the city. If I do, I'll definitely take some pictures!

Schwäbische Wurzeln (Swabian Roots)

I have been discovering that many of the foods and traditions I have known as "German" actually come from the region where I'm living, the Schwabenland, or Swabia in Southwestern Germany. My first discovery was the most surprising. I was wandering through a neighborhood of Stuttgart called "Bad Cannstatt", when I came across a club (Volksfestverein) called the "Cannstatter Volksfestverein". One of Philadelphia's oldest and largest German-American clubs is named--you guessed it--Canstatter's. I was intrigued by this similarity and so I looked up the history of the Philadelphia Cannstatter's. Canstatter's website gives a detailed history of the Philadelphia club and confirms that the club does indeed stem from the neighborhood of Bad Canstatt! I have known the Philadelphia club since I was four years old because that's where my German Saturday School put on its biannual concerts and recitals. I have vivid memories of the food, the dancing, the polka band, and even Old St. Nikolaus, who gave presents to children at each Christmas concert. How bizarre that I end up in the exact Stuttgart neighborhood from which this club originated!

The proof.

Bad Canstatt alleyway where the original Canstatter's is located.

The other surprises are nowhere near as exciting, but still interesting. I learned that the German noodle, Spätzle, also comes from Swabia. One of my co-workers from Northern Germany told me that she had never had Spätzle before she moved to Stuttgart. Weird. I've always thought of Spätzle as a German staple.

Today I discovered a new food, or rather learned what it was after having heard the term for weeks: "Maultaschen".  We had a group lunch at work today and on the table were two huge pots with what appeared to be oversized ravioli in a vegetable broth. These turned out to be the Maultaschen (one pot meat, one pot vegetable) that I had heard so much about. Inside the vegetarian Maultaschen was spinach, leeks, and onions. Inside the meat Maultaschen was minced meat, more meat, spinach, and onions. There's a story behind the name Maultaschen: they are also called "Herrgottsbescheißerle", which roughly translates from Swabian dialect to English as "little cheaters on God". They were supposedly invented by a monk during Lent, when Catholics and other Christians are supposed to refrain from eating meat. Since the meat is concealed inside the dough (just like a ravioli), God cannot see the meat and therefore it's okay to eat meat inside Maultaschen during Lent. So goes the story.

I was reminded this week that no matter where you go, food is always one of the best ways to get to know a culture. Of course it helps to have people with you who can explain all the fun background stories, too!

Stuttgart Art Museum & Otto Dix

Sorry for the long pause between posts. I have been busy with my new post-doc and will write about that next. For now, I just wanted to share two photos from my trip to the Otto Dix exhibit at the art museum last weekend. Honestly, I have seen more compelling exhibits. Dix's work is interesting--he focuses on the everyday realities of post-war Germany and the Weimar Republic--but the exhibit did not live up to the hype that preceded it. I'm still glad I went, though. Maybe future exhibits will be more interesting.

The art museum itself was built in 2005 as a glass cube that "floats" over Stuttgart's center square, Schlossplatz. The museum offers a great view of Schlossplatz and, depending on the weather, you can see for miles into the distance.

Schlossplatz in Stuttgart Mitte

 And just in case you were wondering who was writing (or not writing) these blog posts ...

Yours truly in the art museum.