Hello Sunshine
German speakers were a big name in popular music before there was a Germany. Just look at folks like J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, or L. van Beethoven. They all lived in pre-nationalist statelets within the larger Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, a former country that spanned a millennium—one of Europe’s longest-lived confederations. Napoleon overran it while raging across Europe and ended it, leaving much improved and uniform statecraft in its place, along with early inspiration for merging linguistic identity with government into what would emerge as a nation state. Germans got their first one only in the 1870s.
The fragile form of representative democracy that emerged from the ashes of the post-World-War-One German Empire gave rise to a new wave of artistic creativity. New wealth from the industrial revolution created a growing market of increasingly wealthy consumers. Popular culture in the arts grew in that Weimer Republic interwar interregnum. One of the popular musical performers of the era was Hans Albers, a silent film actor whose popularity grew into the age of talkies, where he found increasing success. Famous for his North German Hamburg accent and identity, he popularized the Hanseatic seafaring culture of his home city, often singing about sailors and similarly laddish romantic figures. But also about travel generally, as in today’s example extolling the freedoms that came with early air flight.
The refrain isn’t at all eloquent in translation—not if you stick closely to the original meaning. He’s telling fellow pilots to say Hi to the sunshine for him, singing about the unrestricted, free life in the sky, flying freely from pole to pole. Corny maybe by today’s standards, it was and remained a popular song from the 1930s onward.
Albers stayed in Germany during the Nazi period without openly supporting the Hitlerites. His post-war success wasn’t as great as it had been in the interwar era. But his music lives on in modern German culture.
Albers’s Wiki biography neatly sums up who he was.
Evening, all. Day 1 success. The worst of the rain was when we were indoors for lunch. Tomorrow I do BB guns instead of archery.
Just read this, Sec of State after meeting with Chinese head of state:
"We do not support Taiwan independence," Blinken said in a press conference on Monday. "We remain opposed to any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side. We continue to expect the peaceful resolution of cross strait differences. We remain committed to continuing our responsibilities under the Taiwan Relations Act including making sure Taiwan has the ability to defend itself."
"At the same time, we and many others have deep concerns about some of the provocative actions that China has taken in recent years going back to 2016," Blinken added. "And the reason that this is a concern for so many countries, not just the United States, is that were there to be a crisis over Taiwan, the likelihood is that could produce an economic crisis that could affect quite literally the entire world."
"Fifty percent of commercial container traffic goes through the Taiwan Strait every day. Seventy percent of semiconductors are manufactured in Taiwan. If as a result of a crisis that was taken offline, it would have dramatic consequences for virtually every country around the world," he added.
I am sad, disappointed, angry and outraged. Among other flaws in this monstrous statement, there is no concern for the people of Taiwan, only concern for the economic impact we'd suffer in the event of a Chinese attack or takeover of Taiwan. What about the people now living in freedom? What about the lives, and what about the oppression and murders that would surely follow? Semi-conductors. Shipping containers. This is a national embarrassment.