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Scheibenschlagen

Scheibenschlagen in Zams

Scheibenschlagen (traditional disk flinging) is a traditional event in Central Europe in which glowing wooden disks (10 x 10 cm / 4 x 4 inchs) are flung from a hazelnut stick off a mountain side into the valley below.

History

Scheibenschlagen was first recorded as early as 1090 C.E. On March 21st 1090, a building neighboring the Lorsch Abbey was accidentally set on fire by a disk which had been flung during the event.

Prevalence

Nowadays, Scheibenschlagen is most popular in the Swabian-Alemannic areas, South Tyrol and Vorarlberg. In the County of Tyrol, where the tradition was once wide-spread, it is now only actively carried out in the area of Landeck and in the lower Virgental valley. However, in many rural areas (such as "Scheibschlagalm" in Brixental, "Scheibenbichl" in Imst, etc.) the tradition is still preserved.

The tradition of Scheibenschlagen is particularly wide-spread in and around the area of the Upper Rhine Plain (in the Black Forest, Breisgau, Basel-Landschaft, Alsace,) as well as in Vorarlberg, parts of West- and South Tyrol, in Bündner Oberland Breil/Brigels and in Churer Rheintal Untervaz.

The northern-most place where Scheibenschlagen still regularly occurs, is in the district of Ersingen in Kämpfelbach,Northern Baden. Other than that, Scheibenschlagen is also popular amongst the Satu Mare Swabians in Romania.

Practice

This traditional event is held either on the weekend of Septuagesima or during Easter. Depending on the region, these days have different names: Funkensonntag, Holepfannsunntag, Kassunnti (Käsesonntag), Küachlisunntig, Küechlesonntag Alti Fasnet. An exception is Bernau im Schwarzwald, where there are up to 8 bonfires in which the discs are lit throughout fasting week (except Ash Wednesday). In the Elztal valley and in adjacent valleys in the Black Forest the Scheibenschlagen traditionally takes place on Laetare Sunday.

Scheibenschlagen is usually organized by various local clubs, scouts, Funkenzünften (for example traditional Alemannic carnival group) or the Volunteer fire department. Locally, in the Alemannic language area it is organized by current confirmands.

In Danis (Swiss canton Graubünden) the custom is called trer schibettas (Rhaeto-Romanic for Scheibenschlagen). Here the Scheibenschlagen is usually organized by a so called Jungmannschaft (a group of young people, similar to scouts). All boys from the 3rd grade onwards and all bachelors in the town may participate in the trer schibettas. Whilst hitting the disk, the words Oh tgei biala schibetta per la ...(Name of a girl) are said. Translated it means: Oh what a beautiful disk for … (Name of a girl). If a hit turns out badly the words Oh tgei tgagiarar per il scolast are said. In Untervaz (Swiss canton Graubünden) the event is only meant for bachelors, young boys and the fathers of young boys; there the word Schybaschlaha is used, which is the common dialect word for Scheibenschlagen.

In Alsace the custom is called Schieweschlawe; in some small towns of the alsation-swiss valley Leymental it is also called Reedlischwinge (swinging wheels).

The place where the bonfire is lit and the disks are hit is called Scheibenbühel (disk hill)or Scheibenfelsen (disk rock) in many towns.

Preparation

Not only the Scheibenschlagen itself but also the collecting of wood for the bonfire, usually also done by the Army recruits or the confirmands of the town, is accompanied by rituals in certain regions: In the county of Ortenau, for example in Rammersweier, participants walk through the town with a cart singing this song, asking for wood and wishing people luck:

Wohl, Wohl Waihe,

Soll, soll saihe!

Gän mer au e Stierli

Zu unserm schöne Fierli!

Glück ins Hüs,

Serme rüs!

Alles guet, was 'r gän:

E Serme od´r e´ Well

The event begins in the late afternoon, with the villagers meeting and having hot beverages and pastries from their region. In the alemannic area, the event sometimes also begins with a traditional torchlight procession.

Scheibenschlagen

Scheibenschlagen begins at dusk. After saying a few words, either as a greeting to the next participant or by reciting a short verse, each participant flings the disk into the darkness. In some regions the event is over when all households have thrown their discs and there are no more left. In Mals, Upper Vinschgau, on the same day a 12m long tree trunk called “Hex” is put up with a cross-piece wrapped in straw. This cross gets put up on a little hill outside the village and gets burned after sun-set. After all discs are used up a torchlight procession to the village begins. Afterwards the boys go home to the girls and are served food and drinks until the early morning hours. In Danis, Tavanasa, the youths come back to the village and do the same thing in small groups.

Verses for Scheibenschlagen

Alemannic region: Schiebi, schiebo, die Schieebe soll go, die Schiebe soll suure, em (Name des Opfers) an d' Schnuure. Oder: Schiebi, schiebo, wem soll die Schiebe go? Die Schiebe soll em ... go. Goht sie it, so gilt sie it. Translated: disc, disc, the disc should fly, the disc should whirr in the snout of (name of the victim). Or: disc, disc, for whom should that disc fly? The disc should fly for (…). If it does not it does not count.

County of Tyrol: Dia Scheiba, dia Scheiba, dia will i iatz treiba, Schmolz in dr Pfonna, Kiachli in dr Wonna, Pfluag in dr Eard, dass dia Scheiba weit außi geat! Translated: disc, disc, it is you I want to propel, lard in the pan, cake in the tub, plow in the mud, that the disc may fly far.)

Mals, Upper Vinschgau: Oh reim reim, wem weard eppar dia Scheib sein, dia Scheib und mei Kniascheib kearn dem Hanssmerl und der Seffa zur a guate Nocht, daß die Bettstatt krocht. Geaht sie guat, hobn si's guat, schaug, wia mei Scheibele ausigeat.

Breil/Brigels (Graubünden): Oh tgei biala schibetta per la (Mädchenname)! Translated: Oh what wonderful disc for (maiden name)! If the disc fails: Oh tgei tgagiarar per il scolast!

Equipment

In the Alemannic region one traditionally uses a wooden stick and a wooden launch ramp called Scheibenbock to fling the disk. A wooden square with an edge length of about 10cm and a height of 2cm is used as the disk. Usually the disk is made out of Hardwood (Fagus sylvatica). In the middle there is a drill hole which has two purposes. One reason for the drill hole is to be able to carry many disks on a cord or wire and above all to put them on the stick. With the stick the disks are held in the fire or embers until they are also glowing. This glow is intensified by swinging the stick before hitting the disk. Production and naming of the disks can vary from region to region. In Leimental some disks are carved with a Billhook, others are shaped with a Drawknife depending on the village and it can vary from town to town. Besides the name Schiibli (“little disks”) the wooden disks are also called Reedli (“little wheels”) – the tradition is then called Reedlischwinge.

Worpswede cheese cover

Worpswede cheese cover is the colloquial term for a residential building which is located in the artists´village Worpswede in Lower Saxony. It was built by the writer Edwin Koenemann in 1926 according to the plans of the architect Bruno Taut. Nowadays the framehouse is under preservation order and was fully renovated in the last couple of years. The builiding which caused a sensation due to its unusual shape of an igloo, was given the name "cheese cover" by the inhabitants of Worpswede.

Edwin Koenemann

Edwin Koenemann came to Worpswede as a young man in 1908 with the aim of becoming an artist. After failing in different genres he managed to get by as a tourist guide. Today Koenemann is one of the most well-known citizens of Worpswede. His former home was opened to visitors on May 1st 2001. The story of Koenemann’s posthumous fame started in the early 1920s. The architect Habich was based in Worpswede and worked closely with the German artist Bernhard Hoetger. Habich gave Koenemann, who was interested in expressionism, a particular edition of the Taut-magazine Frühlicht published in 1921/22. In the magazine Frühlicht, Koenemann came across the plans for a Taut-one-family-house, which was supposed to be built on the Central-German Exhibition in Magdeburg. However the building had never been built there. The talk was about a house with a cupola or an igloo shape, which at that point in time had never been built before.

Initial Draft by Bruno Taut

The main idea for the igloo had already been expressed by Taut at the Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in 1914, inspired by the Glass Pavilion. The igloo belongs to a series of post-war experimental architectural trials which took place at the beginning of the 1920s. Living in the igloo allows one to reside cosily whilst feeling protected. Architecture is devised as an organic form of nature without any décor or any applied academic rules. The Chimney of the igloo forms the main axis, around which the stairs lead to individual chambers, similar in appearance to a snail shell. The Dormer windows look as though they have simply opened up out of the shell, thus making a concession to human use.

Koenemann, who also dabbled as an architect, recognised his opportunity in the draft which was only published in limited circulation. He took the rough sketches from the magazine "Frühlicht" and used them as direct templates for his own house on the Weyerberg in Worpswede. Koenemann’s house, which he called “Glockenhaus” (the bell house), was completed in 1926. Koenemann and his appointed carpenter closely abided by Taut’s specifications when constructing the outer façade. Changes were only made to the detail, such as both of the small windows next to the front door not being rectangular as in Taut’s design, but instead were triangular.

Interior Design

Inside, Koenemann designed an extremely unique room layout. The central hall, which was arranged with an expressionistic mantelpiece composed from misfired pottery, became the principal position, while the living room was the central room in Taut's design. On the ground floor of the igloo, situated next to the hall and a small toilet, are the bedroom and the kitchen. Upstairs there are two tiny guest rooms and a generous studio room.

The house, with a diameter of ten meters and exclusively sloping walls, proved so spacious that the upstairs was repeatedly rented out by Koenemann. Problematic, however, was the heating of the two separate flats, which was done by the central heating system of the fireplace in the hall.

Place of Interest

Comparable to the Hoetger-buildings, the “Cheese Cover” became an attraction of the artists’ village. During his life-time the house was already known as a museum for an outsider. In the late 1920s, while Bruno Taut was working on the "Hufeisensiedlung" Britz in Berlin, he repeatedly visited the Worpswedian garden planner Leberecht Migge. As Migge lived right next to von Koenemann, Taut must have seen an imitation of his draft. It is not known exactly how he felt about the plagiarism committed by Koenemann. The latter, however, still presented himself as the ingenious creator of this type of architecture.

Long after Koenemann’s death an art historian noticed Taut’s drafts for “Frühlicht” and thereby discovered a building of Taut in Worpswede. The registered association “Freunde Worpswedes” (“Friends of Worpswede”) acquired the dilapidated building “Cheese Cover” from the estate of Koenmann’s widow in 1994. With the financial support of the preservation orders a detailed and devoted restoration of the dome building began, which is situated under treetops. Lacquer coats were removed and colors true to the original were applied. Some of the pieces were specially manufactured and door handles were reconstructed. The green tar paper, which is similar to the dilapidated original version, had to be shipped from Canada.

Koenmann’s life and living environment is displayed inside the „Cheese Cover“. The original furniture did not remain intact, thus the association “Friends of Worpswede” presents not only traditional but also modern arts and crafts works, such as rustic furniture, chairs made by Bernhard Hoetger and cupboards made by Heinrich Vogeler, including an arm’s cupboard of the pacifist.

The garden, a disarrangement of wall fragments and grotto buildings, is also a draft of Koenmann, which is most likely inspired by Bernhard Hoetger. The construction is currently being restored to it's original condition. Another project of the “Friends of Worpswede” on Koenmann’s estate is the reconstruction of the guesthouse from the 1930s: a narrow ‘Nurdach’ house.

Cartwheeler of Düsseldorf

The Düsseldorfer Radschläger (Boy who does cartwheels) is said to be the oldest tradition of the city of Düsseldorf and became one of its main landmarks. The symbol of the cartwheeler can be found on many souvenirs and various things in Düsseldorf have the cartwheelers to thank for their names. This tradition was honoured in 1954 by the erection of a fountain, the Radschlägerbrunnen, on the Burgplatz in Düsseldorf.

Cartwheelers in the cityscape

Cartwheelers can be found by several fountains within the city. The most famous is Cartwheeler’s Fountain in Burgplatz with an inscription of a quote by Hans Müller-Schlösser: “Radschläger wolle mer blieve, wie jeck et de Minschen och drieve“ (No matter what happens, we will always be cartwheelers.). The fountain was designed by Alfred Zschorsch in 1954 and donated by the Heimatverein Düsseldorfer Jonges, which is a club devoted to the maintenance of local and regional traditions. There are other cartwheelers that decorate storm drains and the door knocker on the Church of Lambertus, which was designed by Friedrich Becker. He also created the cartwheeler in front of the Schadow Arcades.

This tradition has been kept alive by the Alde Düsseldorfer Bürgergesellschaft von 1920 e. V. , a society founded in 1920, who organized the first cartwheeler competition on 17 October 1937. Since 1971 this event has been held annually in cooperation with the Stadtsparkasse( a local bank) but formerly took place in the Königsallee. Since 2006 it has taken place on the Rheinwerft, near the old part of town. This is a fixed date in the city’s calendar of events. About 500 boys regularly participate in this event and since 1971 girls have also taken part.

In 2001 the art project Radschläger-Kunst (Cartwheeler Art) began, due to which over 100 cartwheeler sculptures have been designed by various artists. The door knocker on the Church of Lambertus functioned as a model for the sculptures that are 2 meters high, 2 meters wide and 30cm deep. They were positioned around the city center. Some of the sculptures have been auctioned off to companies and some to private owners.

Legends of its origin and history

The tradition cannot be linked to one specific historical event, instead, there are several stories surrounding the beginnings of the Düsseldorf Cartwheelers.

Probably the most well known version is Battle of Worringen. In the battle of 1288 Count Adolf devastatingly defeated the Archbishop of Cologne. As a consequence of this victory, Dusseldorf obtained Town privileges. The inhabitants, especially the children ran joyfully on the streets and performed Cartwheels.

Another story talks of a wedding procession during which one of the wheels of the wedding carriage broke. In order to fend off the threat of bad luck, a boy supposedly jumped to the carriage, took hold of the wheel and thus became a living part of the wheel. Whether the story is about the marriage of Jan Wellem and Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici or the wedding of Margravine Jakobea of Baden and Johann Wilhelm is debatable.

Another story gives an account of this wedding between Margrave Jacobe von Baden and Johann Wilhelm in 1585. According to legend, she felt miserable about her marriage, but the cartwheelers who displayed their skills next to her carriage were able to make her smile.

Numerous travelers were attracted to the city by great exhibitions - the forerunner of todays fairs between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.

During this time the children who did the cart wheeling found out that it was a profitable source of income. The bourgeoisie accepted this in good humor as a symbolic act of local patriotism.

In the beginning the lads shouted „för eene Penning schlage ich das Rad“(“cartwheel for a penny”). Today they almost certainly ask for a higher fee. The Jan Wellem monument was brought back to Düsseldorf in 1945, at the end of the Second World War. The procession was accompanied by torches, fanfares and the cartwheeling boys.

SS13 Friday group

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Mundenhof

Freiburg im Breisgau

Mundenhof is situated on the western suburbs of Freiburg im Breisgau. With its 48 inhabitants it is by far the smallest district of Freiburg. The animal and nature adventure park which is located there is a popular destination for many day-trippers. The municipal nursery can also be found in this area.

History

Aerial View of Mundenhof in Freiburg

The Mundenhof estate was first mentioned in 864. The Günterstal Monastery owned Mundenhofen from 1294 to 1806. With the end of the monastery, it became the property of the Grand Duchy of Baden, who then sold it to the University of Freiburg. In 1892 the city of Freiburg bought a larger part of the Mundenhof in order to farm the nearby Rieselfeld, a natural sewage plant for the waste water from the city of Freiburg.

Although the territory of the estate was owned by the city of Freiburg, it was located on the district of Umkirch until 31 December 1977. Due to a referendum it was politically affiliated to the city of Freiburg on 1 January 1978. In exchange Umkirch received a small area as partial compensation. In the past this area was part of Lehen, which is a district of Freiburg west on the Bundesautobahn 5.

With the end of irrigation in 1985 - the waste water is now cleaned in the municipal sewage treatment plant in Forchheim (Kaiserstuhl) - there was a conversion from intensive agriculture to ecologically aligned extensive management for the adventure park`s own use.

Animal Enclosure

Since 1968 the territory was transformed into a small zoo, however in order to differentiate it from larger zoos of its kind, it is now called an animal enclosure. Today you can mainly find breeds of domestic animals from all over the world and there are also some species of wild animals. The Mundenhof´s special concern is to show and care for endangered domestic animals. Besides the aquarium, the open-air site is divided into eight sections which provide space for the various animal species. In the animal enclosure there are amongst others peafowls, gibbons and Javanese monkeys, brown bears, emus, ostriches, alpacas, yaks and llamas. It is possible to see around 30 animal species and a total of approximately 180 animals. Moreover, the park offers an extensive trail network with many diverse viewpoints from which it is possible to see the city of Freiburg and its surrounding area. In addition to a restaurant, there is a playground just next to it; furthermore, one can observe storks nesting in the area via camera. The farm is open twenty-four-seven. There is no charge for visiting; the animal enclosure finances itself through donations and parking fees which are to be paid on site. It is possible to reach the park without a car by travelling on bus number 19.

KonTiKi

The educational project „KonTiKi,“ short for „Kontakt-Tier-Kind“ (animal-child contact), was created in order to bring children from all walks of life into contact with animals and nature. KonTiKi gives children from the age of six the opportunity to get to know plants and animals, to learn how to treat them respectfully, to assume responsibility and to gather social experiences.

Zelt-Musik-Festival

Aerial Photo ZMF in Freiburg 2005

There is a designed open space near the animal enclosure in which the international “Zelt-Musik-Festival” (ZMF), an open-air festival, takes place annually. The festival is one of the oldest events of this type in Europe. With its mixture of classical art and modern popular music, it attracts numerous music-lovers to its circus tents and its Spiegeltent.

External Links

Zelt-Musik-Festival

Official Website of the Mundenhof

Fördergemeinschaft Freiburger Tiergehege e. V.

DeinBus.de

DeinBus.de is a German bus company whose headquarters are in Offenbach am Main. Besides the so-called bus version of car sharing, DeinBus.de offers long-distance bus routes between Baden-Baden, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Konstanz, Munich, Plzen, Prague, Regensburg, Singen, Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Tubingen and Villingen-Schwenningen. A few months after the coach operator was put into service, Deutsche Bahn (German national rail company) sued DeinBus.de, wanting them to stop. The case was rejected in April, 2011.

DeinBus.de
Basic information
Headquarters	Offenbach am Main
Website	DeinBus.de (http://www.deinbus.de/)
Legal entity	GmbH (Company with limited liability)
Chief executives	Alexander Kuhr, Ingo Mayr-Koch
Bus routes
Routes	Munich-Regensburg-Plzen-Prague Freiburg-Singen-Konstanz Freibrug-Villingen-Schwenningen-Tubingen-Stuttgart Tubingen-Stuttgart-Frankfurt Tubingen-Stuttgart-Munich

Establishment & lawsuit

DeinBus.de was established as DeinBus GmbH in March 2009 by Alexander Kuhr, Christian Janisch and Ingo Mayr-Koch, who were all students of the Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen. The bus-sharing service’s first bus journey was at the end of 2009. Shortly afterwards, Deutsche Bahn took action against the company and after some time they filed a lawsuit to them stop running their service . Deutsche Bahn criticised DeinBus.de for offering unauthorized public transport. However, the concept of the bus-sharing service is designed to find a group of people who want to travel to the same place at the same time by bus. A passenger registers the route on the company’s website and if a minimum of 30 passengers are found up to a week before the trip, DeinBus.de rents a bus and the trip takes place . The company refers to these as non-scheduled services, and therefore has no obligation to obtain a permit .

Among others, a report in the magazine Der Spiegel, whose article about DeinBus.de was the most frequently read and shared on the day of publication, brought great attention to the case and support to the company . To finance the trial, DeinBus.de started a fundraising campaign and a petition against the monopoly of long-distance transport by Deutsche Bahn . Before the judgement was announced the petition was signed more than 7,500 times . Further support of DeinBus.de came from the State Secretary of Hessen, Steffen Saebisch, and other politicians .

After the first trial in November 2010 the Country Court in Frankfurt adjourned the decision until the following January, and then later until April 2011. Until then, DeinBus.de was permitted to continue running the bus service . On 20 April 2011 the Country Court in Frankfurt judged that DeinBus.de does not act in an anti-competitive way, but implements non-scheduled services which have been legalised through the District Office of Friedrichshafen . The Country Court did not deem itself competent of checking the decision of the District Office for legitimacy, and accordingly rejected the complaint of Deutsche Bahn . After the verdict Deutsche Bahn decided not to appeal, and the judgement became final in May 2011 .

Route Development

After the rejection of the law suit, DeinBus.de could now offer more routes due to greater awareness of the company. The route from Dusseldorf to Frankfurt via Cologne and back is the most frequently used route offered by the company and runs several times a week . In November 2011 DeinBus.de introduced the first approved intercity bus routes in South Germany. The company created links between Tubingen, Stuttgart and Munich which operate twice a day . By 2015 the company plans to offer a nationwide intercity bus network .

In July 2012 Deinbus.de announced that on 3rd August 2012 an intercity bus route between Freiburg, Singen and Constance would open, followed by a route between Freiburg, Villingen-Schwenningen, Tubingen and Stuttgart on the 31st August. On the 14th September 2012 new intercity bus routes were launched between Freiburg and Heidelberg via Strasbourg, the Baden-Airpark and Karlsruhe; as well as between Tubingen and Frankfurt via Stuttgart; and between Munich and Prague via Regensburg and Plzen. The route between Freiburg and Heidelberg has been temporarily discontinued as of December 2012.

In 2010 the news website Deutsche Start-ups named DeinBus.de as the third best German start-up company .

External Links

• Offizielle Website

Kai Meyer

Kai Meyer (* 23. Juli 1969 in Lübeck) is a German author, journalist and screenwriter. He is one of Germany's most successful fantasy authors.

The Dark Reflections Trilogy

The Dark Reflections trilogy, published in 2001 and 2002, is a series of novels written by Kai Meyer. The Dark Reflections novels are among the author’s most successful works and have so far been published in approximately twenty languages.

The Flowing Queen, also The Water Mirror Volume 1, 2001

The first volume is set in fictional Venice. The Egyptian Pharaoh has been resurrected by his archpriests and is now conquering the entire world. Only the Czardom and Venice, where Merle and her friends live, have remained unharmed. But Venice is in danger of being taken by assault by the Pharaoh. Merle and Junipa, who were raised in an orphanage, become apprentices of the mirror-maker Arcimboldo. On their nightly wanderings with Serafin, the two discover a conspiracy that seeks to defeat the Flowing Queen. Merle and Serafin manage to rescue the essence of the Flowing Queen, but Serafin is arrested and incarcerated. Merle is able to escape and drinks the Flowing Queen, who entrusts her with the quest of rescuing Venice. When a messenger of the Venetian underwold makes a proposal, Merle succeeds in freeing the stone lion Vermithrax and flees with him across the ocean.

The Stone Light Volume 2, 2002

In the second volume Merle, with the Flowing Queen inside her, and Vermithrax fly to Lord Light, the ruler of Hell. In the meantime, owing to the absence of the Flowing Queen, the Egyptians are conquering Venice, where a resistance movement forms to which Serafin and the apprentices of the workshop of mirrors also belong. This movement is headed by Lalapeja, a sphinx, who, as it turns out later on, is Merle’s mother. She is planning the Pharaoh’s assassination. Meanwhile, Merle, the Flowing Queen and Vermithrax have arrived at Lord Light, who has put a heart of stone in Junipa, who has been handed over to him by Arcimboldo. Lord Light shows them the stone light, which can control people through a heart of stone. As a consequence of an experiment of Lord Light, Vermithrax falls into the stone light, and later returns unharmed but changed. The boys’ assassination attempt fails. They flee across the ocean on the shell of a turtle. Merle, the Flowing Queen and Vermithrax together with Junipa escape from Hell.

The Glass Word Volume 3, 2002

Merle and her companions find themselves in Egypt only to discover that something is really wrong as everything is covered in snow. Together with the Egyptian Seth, the highest of the Horus priests, they travel to the Iron Eye, the vast fortress of the sphinxes. In the meantime Serafin and Eft dive into the depths of the ocean to ask the sea witch if she can take them to Egypt. There, all of the friends meet again and together Merle, Junipa, the Flowing Queen, Serafin, Eft and Lalapeya must fight their final battle as the Son of the Mother has awoken.

Characters

• Merle is the leading character of the series. She grows up in an orphanage. At the age of fourteen she and Junipa become apprentices at the workshop of Arcimboldo, the maker of magic mirrors. Merle’s only keepsake from her mother is a magic mirror whose surface is made out of water instead of glass. She falls in love with Serafin, an apprentice at a weaving mill and former master thief.

• Junipa (13) is Merle’s best friend and also grows up in an orphanage. She is blind but Arcimboldo restores her sight by replacing her eyes with two round silvery bits of mirror. In the second volume, her heart is replaced by the Stone Light. In the last volume she tries to help Merle finding her biological father.

• The Flowing Queen/Sekhmet is the guardian of Venice and lives in the lagoon. Egypt Alchemists plan to kill her so that the Pharaoh, who has been reborn, can conquer Venice but Merle is able to rescue her by drinking her essence. The true name of the Flowing Queen is Sekhmet, goddess of the lions and sphinxes. She is an immortal lioness that gave up her physical body.

• Arcimboldo owns a workshop for magic mirrors. There are rumours that he has been involved in dark affairs and thus is excluded from the crafting guild. He often receives apprentices from orphanages like Merle and Junipa. It is because of the order from Lord Light, Merle’s grandfather, that he takes in the two girls.

• Eft works as Arcimboldo’s housekeeper but her relationship to him is not that of a normal employer-employee-one. She is a mermaid that has got two legs.

• Serafin is an apprentice of Arcimboldo’s arch-enemy Umberto, a weaver. In a fight between the apprentices of the mirror and the weaver workshop Merle sees him for the first time. Throughout the story Serafin falls in love with Merle. At the end of the third volume he sacrifices himself for her.

• Vermithrax is a winged stone lion who can fly as well as talk. He has been incarcerated for years until Merle frees him, whereupon he accompanies Merle. In the second volume he falls into the Stone Light and therefore becomes stronger, taller and is glowing like the Stone Light itself.

• Seth is the vizier of the Pharaoh and the highest priest of the Horus cult. Effectively, he is the ruler of Egypt until displaced by the sphinxes and also the one to kill Amenophis.

• Dario, who is a trainee of Arcimboldo, joins the resistance movement with his friends Tiziano and Boro. He has always detested Merle, but Serafin even more.

• Lalapeja is a sphinx and, as we get to know later on, Merle’s mother. She is the guardian of the Son of the Mother and can take man-shape. She is the leader of the resistance movement.

• Winter is a season which came to life. In the second volume he is in Hell in search of Summer whom he loves. This is where he meets Merle and helps her until Lord Light gives him a hint, which is why he leaves for Egypt.

• Professor Burbridge is a scientist who was the first to discover Hell. He is Merle’s grandpa and Lord Light, ruler of the underworld, at the same time.

• Steven is Merle’s father but does not show up in the trilogy. He escaped from Hell and later on fled from Lalapeja and Merle by getting to a different world through the mirrors. At the end of the trilogy Merle is determined to find him.

• Amenophis is the Pharaoh who was revitalised by the priests of the Horus cult. He is killed by Seth in the last volume.

• The Son of the Mother is the prime father of the sphinxes. He keeps the Stone Light inside of him and is killed twice by Sekmeth with whom he begot the sphinxes. He is a mountainous, malformed sphinx with diabolical intelligence.

• The Czardom is the only area - apart from Venice - which resists the empire of the Pharaoh. It is under the protection of the witch Baba Jaga.

Baden Revolution

The term Baden Revolution refers to the regional part of the revolution of 1848/1849, which nearly encompassed the whole of Middle Europe and happened in the Grand Duchy of Baden.

As a part of the liberal-minded bourgeoisie movement in the states of the German Confederation, called March Revolution, the reolution in Baden (South West Germany)was mainly influenced by radical democratic ideas. It endeavoured to establish a republic in Baden - and, on a higher level, in Germany - under the rule of the people, and fought against princely rule in Germany.

The culmination if the revolution were the Hecker Uprising in April 1848, the Struve Uprising in September 1848 and the uprising in the context of the campaign for an imperial constitution (German: Reichsverfassungskampagne) from May 1849 onwards, which assumed civil war-like dimensions and became known as the May Revolution. The revolution was ended by Prussian-led armed forces who used military force to quell the last uprising and sacked the fortress in Rastatt.

Historical Overview

After the outbreak of the February Revolution in 1848 in Paris and the proclamation of the Second republic in France, Baden was the first state to pick up the revolution before there were riots and rebellions in other German States.

There were two stages of the Baden Revolution: Between the beginning of March 1848 and September 1848 there were two attempts to enforce a republic in South West Germany, the Hecker Uprising and the riots of Gustav Struve in Lörrach. The first phase ended in September with the defeat of Friedrich Hecker and his followers at Kandern as well as Hecker’s escape into exile and the imprisonment of Gustav Struves.

The second stage was the May Riots in 1848, which attempted to forcefully assert the constitution in Baden and in other German states, after all the nobles of the German Constitution had rejected the Frankfurt Constitution (for more information see: Germ. Reichsverfassungskampagne). After the last riots in Rastatt in July 1849 and with the suppression of the revolution, this second stage ended.

In contrast to all other uprisings within in the German Confederation, the Baden Revolution most consequently demanded a democraiv republic. The councils and the revolution parliament of the other principalities of the German Confederation on the other hand mostly favoured a constitutional monarchy with a hereditary monarchy.

Radical democratic and Utopian socialist revolutionaries were high in number in Baden. Some of the most prominent leaders were Friedrich Hecker, Gustav Struve and his wife Amalie, Gottfried Kinkel and Georg Herwegh and his wife Emma. Wilhelm Liebknecht was also involved in the riot in Lörrach in September 1848, and a participant of the Baden revolution as adjutant of Struve in May 1849. Liebknecht, who was relatively unknown at that time, later cofounded the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (German: Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, abbreviated as SDAP), the precursor of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (German: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD). Even the socialist Friedrich Engels actively participated in the battle against the counter-revolutionary Prussian troops during the final phase of the Baden revolution in 1849, after having written for the Neue Rheinische Zeitung (“New Rhenish Newspaper”), published by Karl Marx in Cologne during the March Revolution. Eventually, the married couple Fritz and Mathilde Franziska Anneke from Cologne joined the Baden franctireurs.

The People's Associations (German: Volksvereine), founded in many places, established the foundation for the Baden revolution.