Host Nation Update, Aug 2, 2023
New festival in Stuttgart starting Thursday
Starting this Thursday until Saturday, the Stuttgart city center will be celebrating in a new, enjoyable way. After more than 30 years, the once so popular “summer festival” has said goodbye to Schlossplatz and Eckensee due to Shortage of staff, farewell to sponsors, growing dissatisfaction with the culinary offerings – the organizers of “in.Stuttgart” cite several reasons why they venture something new. The new fest is called “Genusstage” (days of pleasure). The successor festival is changing from XL size to the S variant at urban areas – and wants to be small but nice.
The festival starts this Thursday at 5 p.m. with the booths of 15 restaurateurs, who will offer delicacies away from brats and fries in white tents. In view of the weather forecasts, the organizers are setting up an additional tent in front of the market hall, which will be illuminated in the evening for the guests to stay dry.
“It also rained a lot at prior summer festivals, therefore, they’ll make the best of it.
For the kick-off on Thursday, the weather is not supposed to be that bad, after all. “We had summer festivals where people drank mulled wine,” says Marcus Christen of in.Stuttgart. Guests will experience street performers and music as they walk around the fest area. The market hall will be open until 11 p.m. on Saturday to mark the occasion. On Thursday, the celebration is from 5 to 11 p.m., and on Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. (Stuttgarter Nachrichten, Aug 1)
Test run by “Trumpf” company: Green laser beam illuminates the sky
On Monday evening, a green laser beam was suddenly visible in the sky. A number of calls from concerned citizens were apparently received by the Ludwigsburg police. However, it was by no means the landing of aliens, but a test for an anniversary campaign of the Ditzingen company “Trumpf”. The laser manufacturer is planning a laser light campaign from this Wednesday until Sunday to mark the company’s 100th anniversary. According to the company, the “world’s longest birthday candle” will shine from sunset until shortly after midnight. The beam has a height of ten kilometers and can be seen within a radius of 80 kilometers during good weather. During the test run on Monday evening with a cloudy night sky, it could be seen within a radius of about 30 kilometers. (BB/Sifi Zeitung, Aug 1)
Weather in Stuttgart much more rain than usual
With umbrella and jacket in high summer? Within 30 days it has rained at the station of the German Weather Service (DWD) at Schnarrenberg currently 120.3 liters per square meter. This is above what used to be normal: at the measuring point between the districts of Münster and Zuffenhausen, between 38 and 93 liters normally fell in the same period from 1961 to 1990, and between 47 and 110 liters were normal from 1991 to 2020. Over 30 days, it has rained more in Stuttgart than in 80 percent of the comparable years, as the data of our climate center project show. Land rain is long-lasting, steady and not too heavy rain. This is because heavy rain flows immediately back to the sea via the rivers and is thus lost to nature. And in summer, even weeks of land rain can be too little: “Plants are constantly pulling water out of the ground with their roots, and at higher temperatures more water evaporates,” she explains. Real moisture builds up in the deeper layers of the soil during the winter months (Stgt Nachrichten, Aug 2)
Closure A8 “Drackensteiner Hang” – Only one lane open
After the A8 between Ulm-West and Mühlhausen was fully closed for four days in mid-July, the next traffic congestion has been announced: From Friday, August 4, 8 p.m., to Monday, August 7, 6 am, there will be only 1 lane open on each side. (Suedwest Presse, Aug 1)
Wilhelma Zoo: The koalas are here -Terra Australis is ready to move in Stuttgart
The time had finally come: the four koalas, whose enclosure forms the centerpiece of the new Terra Australis at Wilhelma, arrived in Stuttgart. The marsupial quartet from Down Under landed in Frankfurt. The four koalas were accompanied to the other end of the world by an Australian animal keeper who will stay at the Zoological-Botanical Garden for a few more days to accompany the acclimatization process.
The two males Aero and Navy, five and two and a half years old, are half-siblings. They are joined by two female koalas, Scarborough (4 years old) and Auburn (2.5 years old). All four come from the Australian Dreamworld Wildlife Foundation, a foundation dedicated to the protection and preservation of endangered native species. To this end, it not only initiates conservation projects in its own country, but also releases animals to foreign zoos, where they act as ambassadors to draw attention to their fellow species that are threatened in their native countries. However, strict conditions and husbandry requirements are attached to this: “Koalas are extremely difficult to obtain because they are not easy to keep,” says Dr. Thomas Kölpin. For example, koalas feed exclusively on the leaves and bark of certain eucalyptus species. In the future, a refrigerated truck will bring freshly cut eucalyptus branches from a specialized nursery in Leipzig to Stuttgart twice a week. In order to have reserve food in case of possible delivery failures, Wilhelma had to grow about 100 eucalyptus trees in advance. In Germany, koalas can only be seen in three other zoos. The furry sympathetic bearers are classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List. Their habitat is threatened mainly by large-scale deforestation of eucalyptus forests. Added to this are natural disasters: The devastating forest fires on the east coast of Australia in 2019/20 are estimated to have killed 30 percent of the animals. In order to maintain a diverse gene pool, reserve populations are being established in zoos with the animals living there. Wilhelma will also enter the breeding program with its cute “gang of four.” The new Terra Australis, in which eleven animal species from Down Under will be on display, has been opened to the public from 25 July. (BB/Sifi Zeitung, July 31)
