Local news translated – Nov. 10, 2022

Graphic by U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart Public Affairs Office

Host Nation Update, Nov. 10, 2022

Stuttgart – It’s getting louder again around the airport

Every month, Stuttgart Airport publishes a noise report. In July, for example, the first heading before the more than 20 pages reads: “Our goal: Reduce aircraft noise”. Of course, this brochure is of particular interest to those who live close to or further away from the airport. They are particularly interested in how aircraft movements are handled, how the ban on night flights is observed, what types of aircraft are in operation, and how the airport supports particularly low-noise and environmentally friendly aircraft.

This is one side of the coin: the effort to measure, control and observe the inevitable in the vicinity of an airport, in order to be able to describe a dynamic on this basis that promises improvement. Or at least to demonstrate: We observe this, we care.

And there is the other side: the subjective perception of the citizens who are more or less directly affected by all these takeoffs and landings.  On a purely factual level, the aircraft noise report provides information on this: the basis for this are eight external measuring points. They are in Berkheim, Neuhausen, Bernhausen, Stetten, Steinenbronn, Echterdingen and Denkendorf. Currently, there are again about 8500 takeoffs and landings per month. In July 2021, there were around 6700, in June 2021 just under 5000.   As of March 25, 2023 the summer flight schedule will come into effect, in the course of which the U.S. carrier Delta Airlines will once again launch the direct transatlantic connection between Stuttgart and Atlanta in the U.S. state of Georgia. At last: Stuttgart Airport is delighted about this rare, prestigious long-haul destination for the airport. Travelers get numerous transfer options at the Atlanta hub to destinations throughout the USA.  Members of the U.S. Army in Stuttgart and their families, as well as business people, especially from the automotive and supplier industries, greatly appreciated this connection before first the partial renovation of the Stuttgart runway prevented the comparatively heavy Delta aircraft from taking off, and then the Corona pandemic caused a lull in flying. In addition, a great deal of freight was also transported on these flights.  More details are available on the Internet at www.stuttgart-airport.com/reisezeit.  (Stuttgarter Nachrichten, Nov 9)

Great adventure in Africa – Böblingen: Mayor Dr. Stefan Belz climbs Mount Kilimanjaro

Together with his partner Manuel Zimmerer, Böblingen’s city leader has climbed Africa’s highest mountain. Impressive experiences in thin high-altitude air.

The last meters to the peak of Kilimanjaro take what feels like an eternity. Böblingen’s mayor Dr. Stefan Belz, his partner Manuel Zimmerer, accompanied by two mountain guides, set off from the base camp at 4700 meters for the summit stage at midnight. They mastered the arduous walk uphill in the dark with relative ease. (BB.heute.de, Nov 8)

New disaster warn system – All cell phone owners get test warning via SMS

All owners of a cell phone in Germany will be informed about the new disaster warning system Cell Broadcast via SMS in the coming days. This was announced by mobile phone providers Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica (O2) on Thursday. The providers’ explanations refer to the planned nationwide warning day on December 8, when the new warning system will be tested for the first time in all 294 counties and 107 independent cities in Germany.  In the system, messages are sent like broadcast signals to all compatible devices logged into a cell – hence the name Cell Broadcast. Unlike other warning systems like Nina or Katwarn, you don’t have to have an App to be alerted. One also doesn’t need to open a messaging app to read SMS, as the warning text appears on the screen without any additional application. With the arrival of the warning text, a loud sound signal also sounds.

The reason for the introduction of Cell Broadcast in Germany was the severe storms in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate in July 2021, which resulted in dozens of deaths. The flood disaster had shown that the warning apps and classic sirens were not sufficient to warn the population of the danger across the board. Cell Broadcast is already in use in other EU countries.  After the accident in the Ahr Valley and other affected areas, a discussion ignited as to why the introduction of Cell Broadcast is taking so much time. However, lawmakers had given participating providers and smartphone manufacturers until February 2023 to technically implement the warning system.    In order for people in Germany to receive the warnings, a cell phone or smartphone compatible with Cell Broadcast must be turned on and ready to receive. For smartphones, the warning system will be compatible with Apple’s iPhone with operating system versions iOS 16, 15.7.1 and 15.6.1. Devices with Google’s Android operating system are compatible with version 11 and higher.  (Stuttgarter Nachrichten, Nov 10)

Esslingen Medieval and Christmas Market

After the lockdown in the first Corona year and the last-minute cancellation last year, Esslingen Mayor Matthias Klopfer is full of confidence that he will actually be able to open the medieval and Christmas market at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, November 22.

In the coming week, the Christmas market organizers will set up a total of 70 booths between Kielmeyerhaus and St. Dionys. The medieval folk will pitch 68 tents and board shacks at the Old Town Hall and on the harbor market. “We have twelve less stands than before the pandemic,” calculates Metzler. But that does not detract from the quality, emphasizes market manager Petra Pfeiffer. Once again, a good balance has been achieved between food standss and sales booths. And in addition to familiar faces such as minstrel Bijan or the stilt and fire artists Marco and Lidia, new artists such as the Czech music group Braagas also appear in the daily cultural program. (Stgt Nachrichten, Nov 10)

Commemoration in Stuttgart  the night of “Reich Pogrom” – Never again

In the night from November 9 to 10, 1938, in Stuttgart, as in the whole German Reich, the stores of Jewish owners were destroyed, Jewish men were picked up, humiliated, beaten, thrown into prison or taken to Dachau. And the synagogues in Hospitalstraße and Bad Cannstatt burned. “This night of the great Reich pogrom is deeply etched in our memory, we remember this night when Jews were taken away by the thousands and the thought of emigration gave way to that of panicked flight,” said Mihail Rubinstein of the board of the Israelitische Religionsgemeinschaft Württemberg (IRGW) at the memorial hour in the synagogue on Wednesday evening.  Rubinstein asked for a moment of silence, “because what happened cannot be grasped with the mind and we can only listen to our hearts. But the history of the Jews in Germany and Stuttgart did not end there.”   Rubinstein was referring to the 1952 reopening of the new synagogue on the same site, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. “Deeply moved, we stand on this site where our house of worship once stood, until that night in 1938 when sacrilegious hands turned it into a smoking pile of rubble,” Michal Zamir, a student at the IRGW’s School of Religion, read from the speech given by Reinhold Maier, the first minister president of Baden-Württemberg, at the reopening.  Interior Minister Thomas Strobl called the “absolute breach of civilization and a crime against humanity” the Reich Pogrom, which is considered the starting signal for the deportations and thus the Shoah. “The fact that today we are once again able to experience Jewish life and Jewish culture, as an integral and self-evident part of life in Germany, we feel as a gift,” the minister emphasized. Young people like student Alon Bindes, who made a resolute appeal: it should not remain only with the affirmation “never again,” “action must follow.” As a Jew alone, he could not counter the daily shitstorm in the social media, he said, there was a need for solidarity-based resistance. “Because what happened could only happen because togetherness was undermined.”  Remembering the Shoah is ambivalent, and forgetting the cold, hunger, agony and fear of death is also a blessing, Rabbi Yehuda Pushkin said. “But remembering helps us find the stones in the terrible past to build the future.” (Stgt Nachrichten, Nov 10)