Slag heap stairs
In the middle of the wild, untended forest north of Malstatt, you will find this grey mound — a slag heap from an old mine. On the top is a rustic plaque with the following inscription:
Auf der Spitze der 91-jährigen silbergrauen Schlackenhalde des Steinbachschachts hat sich eine Betula pendula angesiedelt und beobachtet dich. Das wärs schon für den Augenblick, das muß genügen.
(On the top of the 91-year old, silver grey slag heap of the Steinbach Shaft a Betula Pendula has made its home and is watching you. That is all for the moment, it will have to be enough)
Ellen Diesel 1994
It's a bit strange, but again looks familiar, even trees the same as here!
ReplyDeleteHave a nice week:)
A kind of mystery mood to let fly the imagination, great post!
ReplyDeletejoo:It's a bit strange, but again looks familiar, even trees the same as here!
ReplyDeleteI am not surprised the trees are similar. The woods around Saarbrücken were cultivated for use in the coal mines. I imagine the same is true in Upper Silesia.
Carraol: A kind of mystery mood to let fly the imagination
ReplyDeleteMystery indeed! Who is Ellen Diesel? And did anyone celebrate the 100th anniversary of this silver grey giant?
That's interesting, and I just discovered that a Betula pendula is a Silver Birch tree. So we have a silver birch on top of a silver slag heap.
ReplyDeleteCheers!
Love the stairs in the middle of the forest. Sounds like their is a mystery to be solved there...
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the inscription, do you? Why is the tree watching me? Is it an official plaque? Did you google Ellen Diesel?
ReplyDeleteFragen über Fragen ... ;-)
I would be happy to be watched by a birch tree...I always think that the marks of their bark look like eyes anyway. Is the tree big or small?
ReplyDeleteMartina: Google? And spoil mystery?
ReplyDeleteWell, Google comes up with several links. Link number two is to this page, which is not much help. Otherwise, Ellen Diesel would appear to be either a porn star, whose works include "Passion of Ass", or a writer from the Saarland, who in 1990 was the Stadtteilautorin from Von der Heydt, Saarbrücken. Given that the pit heap is a kilometre or so from Von der Heydt, I think the second Ellen Diesel is the more likely author of the plaque.
The only mystery now is what is a Stadtteilautorin? Does every little village in Germany have its own Poet Laureate?
The railroad in the forest...
ReplyDeleteOf course we have - this is the "Land der Dichter und Denker" ... ;-)
ReplyDelete