European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 13, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A a Young visitor examines a Well in the gardens at the former Home of Johann Sebastian Bach in Eisenach. Treasures of the act continued from Page 11 the system that ruled in the bad old Days movies robotically to the next instrument plays turns c and smiles and the tourists applaud politely. I Bach was t overwhelmed with applause in his lifetime. Though he spent 25 years playing the Organ and directing the choir at the famous St. Thomas Church in Leipzig his music says one account Quot met with no response on the part of Leipzig citizens of that t me. He had almost fallen into oblivion when he died a july 28, 1750, there was not even a Tombstone to Mark his  a later More appreciative generation of Leipziger found his remains and he is now buried at St gliomas where the choir still sings like soaring Angels. In quaint Erfurt one of the oldest towns in Germany a luckily spared heavy bombing in world War ii i there is one of the More imaginative Bridges of the to rid. Crossing the Little Gera River is the Krame Brucke or Bridge of traders dating from the Middle Ages land built with houses and shops on it like it was a Reg Harl Road. Quot Why build All that on a Bridge Quot asks a tourist.,1so you won t have to go to the other Side Quot says an inspired guide. Travelling on to Weimar the difficulty of separating the Art of Germany from the wars of Germany again i intrudes itself. Quot Why Weimar Quot wonders the tourist. H a Weimar Quot in that town which was a leading cd Tural Center for Art music and literature one can vier v the houses where Goethe and Schiller Germany s great poets worked. And just outside Weimar at the Buchenwald concentration Camp he can View the houses where the nazi is  Goethe and Schiller Are still widely read. The is Are not though is thought and ways still seep Frorer some of the Earth s bloodier cracks. The Weimar of Tod y seems dedicated to showing that the soul of Germany is closer to Johann Wolfgang Goethe than to Art lovers of t in ilk of Hermann Wilhelm Goring whose fondest Desi e besides collecting masterpieces he never paid for was o see Quot All of Germany armed and marching in  deep in the East Dresden is called the Quot Vail by of the innocents Quot by easterners who Are soon to become whole germans again. Dresden s location did t allow it to catch Many of the other Germany s television shows say Dresden ers and thus the lust for the Good life is less heated than in towns that saw pictures of the glitzy West night after night. The Quot Golden age Quot of Dresden the East s third largest City occurred in the 18th Century when it was called the Quot Florence of the  the Florence of the Elbe was blasted nearly into history in murderous world War ii firebombing. Much of the Art of the Ages that was hidden and survived can be viewed today in the architectural splendours reconstructed according to original plans like the Zwinger Palace the Semper gallery and the Semper opera. In Many cases however historic paintings photographs chunks of rubble and human memory formed the Only evidence on which reconstruction could be based. The Semper opera with its huge Golden chandelier often described As the most magnificent baroque building in the world was meticulously rebuilt Stone by Stone. There Richard Wagner celebrated the premiers of his greatest triumphs in the 1840s a Renzi the flying dutchman and Tannhauser. There Richard Strauss gained acclaim in the Early 1900s with Salome Elektra and Der Rose Kavalier. But the landmark of Dresden and again regarded As one of the Quot True jewels Quot of european architecture is the Zwinger Palace with its fabulous Art collections. First built in 1732, the rebuilt jewel is so gashed and darkened by polluted air that it looks to have been built around 1732. Nearby is the Al Bertinius with major paintings of German and French artists and Germany s largest collection of works in Gold Silver and precious jewels a rooms whose Blaze of rubies sapphires diamonds and emeralds Ricochet off the eyeball like tiny dazzling bullets. Not All tourists Are understanding of what they re seeing. Quot when Are we going to the museum Quot asks a woman As she stands in a room with mummies on one Side of her and medieval figures encrusted with glittering Gold and jewels on the other. Quot this is the museum Quot says a fellow tourist gently. The mummies have no comment but seem amused. Outside an elderly woman sits thoughtfully munching a banana while waiting for the Germany to merge. A tourist asks her if she thinks All the getting together is a Good thing. Quot a 1st  a year ago no big domed think Tanker or Horoscope clairvoyant had even dreamed much less predicted that she would be in position to sit there eating a banana and utter such Radical words. There was an acute shortage of bananas in the bad old Days and no surplus of Freedom above a musician plays for visitors to Johann Sebastian Bach s House in Eisenach. At left pedestrians rest on the benches in the Square outside Dresden s Semper opera. At right a Leipzig statue erected in Honor of Bach. Above tourists relax at a Fountain and Pool beside Zwinger Palace in Dresden and a Cannon stands guard beside the restored Wartburg Castle in Eisenach. Below Martin Luther s desk is displayed in the Wartburg Castle. V. A amps photos by Ken George 12 stripes Magazine september 13, 1990 september 13, 1990 stripes Magazine 13