Every tourist to #Heidelberg sees the New University Building in University Square. 2/
I gave my @CAPASHeidelberg lecture here last year, as does every other fellow, in a lecture hall named for American alumni.
But few know it’s dark #nazi history. 3/
This is a thread about #heidelberg history, which typically combines the commemorative of progressive politics against the city's spießig (petit bourgeois meanness) history.
Trattoria Toscana stands at Marktplatz 1. @CAPASHeidelberg folks often eat here after our lectures. 1/
In the 19th century, this was the location of the Schwanen-Apotheke (not to be confused with the contemporary Schwan Apotheke on Hauptstr).
More than just a drug store, it was a pharmaceutical institute, an independent site of scientific discovery.
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The Schwan-Apotheke was created by Georg Friedrich Walz (1813-62).
shortly before I leave Heidelberg, I made it up into the Honor Cemetery, a Nazi project in 1934 where WWI soldiers were exhumed and moved into a new ceremonial space. 1/
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The photos don't adequately convey the monumental landscaping, where the eye is drawn to a stone plinth and then beyond.
I want to commemorate Kenneth Jacobson, who recently passed at 92.
Like many I knew Ken from @actupny, where he calmly chaired the tempestuous Treatment & Data committee during my time.
Ken's in the black jacket here; 1/
ACT UP was one of the rare American organisations where people didn't ask immediately what your "profession" was, so many were unaware that Ken was an accomplished composer, including a song that Sinatra choose for his standard book: "Golden Moment"
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There's been no obituary for Ken, but here's an oral interview from his undergrad @ColbyCollege mainejews.org/docs/Colby/Ken…
It's painful, though to me that even as late as 2010, Ken was asked (and graciously let pass by) questions like this: 3/
To be honest, my recollection is that this did not cause a moral panic, since it was widely assumed that the husband had done it, what did unnerve folks more were the earlier Alphabet Killings: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet_…
as my sister fit the age group of the victims, as was the case with many of my friends, there was a lot of worry for a few years, this faded but the culture of cross-town hitch-hiking vanished, never to return.
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