Market Days in Cottbus

Walk near University

In this post, I want to talk about some of thoughts as I walked around town last week on Wednesday, which is a market day in Cottbus.

For the next few months, I will be taking some classes at the  university.  I'm looking forward to it, but I'm freaked out.  I signed up for classes so that I can figure what kind of profession I want to go into, and can catch up on some requisites.  The picture taken below is on my walk back from the university along a side street after matriculating.  Below is the building in the above picture, seen more closely. The building was built using plate material.  It doesn't look like a typical Plate building now though because the "green" in front of the building has been turned into parking.

That reminds me of the "Office Parks" in the US, which, when first developed, were supposed to offer workers a view of rolling hills and green surrounding their offices.  In actuality, the green was sacrificed for rolling, meandering parking lots and roadways.  But, I digress.  The picture speaks for itself.  It was a beautiful day!

The next picture, below, really shocked me!  It was taken as I approached the Old-City, on a very vibrant street with lots of cool restaurants and bars.  The shocking thing is that there is a wooden star of david tied to the little balcony toward the top of the house.  I tried to zoom in, but I don't think it turned out.  Whenever I see anything Jewish in Germany, like the remains of old synagogue, a jewish graveyard or a star of david (should that be capitalized?), I always pause to think about the situation.  I mean, it isn't common to see Jewish things in Germany.

Interestingly, Lars always remarks when he hears or sees a last name which is Jewish-German.  Be it in a film or book, be it an American or a German, or a name on an advertisement, he seems to know if the name is Jewish-German.  I asked him, "How do you know the names are Jewish?"  He answered, "The Jewish names are prettier."  "Really???," I ask.  "Yeah... I don't know why."   It seems strange to me that the names should be "prettier."  An example is "Rosenblatt", or Roseleaf, the name of the craftsman we met yesterday, who showed us some antique furniture.   Roseleaf is a very pretty name!

House with Star of David on the balcony

The picture below is of an Art-Nouveau house directly across from the house with the Star of David.  I love Art-Nouveau and liked the look of the posters on vacant store front.  I also liked how one can see the fading lettering on the building, left from a past tenant a century ago. The house will probably be renovated soon if it follows the trend of renovation on the street.

House on vibrant street, near Old-City

Later that day, I stopped by the street market to buy some groceries.  Mmmm.  I bought a delicious loaf of bread called, Crusty-Bread, no joke.  And it was!  I also got some cured-ground pork, which I cooked anyway-I am distrustful of ground meat-- and cured slices of ham.  I also bought lots of vegetables and a strainer.

These market stalls appear and disappear on the day of the market.  It's hard to believe how big a space can seem when it gets crowded!  I mean, this little plaza seems so small most days, but so many little stalls can fit in here for the market; you would think it is a very big place!

I guess that is how downtowns and dense cities work and end up seeming so big.  The space can be so small, but can fit so much, that you think it is much "bigger" than it is!  (On a side note, I remember the first time I walked across Center City in Philadelphia.  It only took 30-45 minutes! So much in such a small space.  I couldn't believe how small it is, when it always seemed so big.)

There are numerous markets in the Old-City.  This one is only Wednesdays and Fridays.  Another one is on Tuesdays, and another on Saturdays.  The market square is in front of the Town Hall "Stadt Halle" and Courthouse "Rathouse."  Directly next to the square is a shopping mall, so to speak, but it is more of a glassed in shopping passage.  Isn't that an interesting idea?  Instead of a parking lot in front of the mall, have a market!

Street markets are so common in Europe.  I took the pictures below to show the types of things bought and sold at the market.  They are so particular, that I chuckled from time to time.

Wednesday Market in Front of Stadt Halle

Vendor selling kitchen supplies- I bought a strainer!

Flower Bulbs for sale

Fruits and Vegetables for sale

Shoes and Slippers for sale to the right

Autumn Plants and Flowers/Grasses

Currywurst and .... Pantyhose?  Ok!

The picture above needs more than a caption.  To the left is a Bratwurst Stall, where one can buy a hot Currywurst with Brötchen (hard roll) or a steak, or a stuffed potato, perhaps.   Bratwurst is the most common thing to find at the food stalls, ready to eat.  I have never seen such a Currywurst Stall before, but we are close to Berlin, and Berliners love Currywurst!  To the right is a stall for pantyhose!  Check out the mannequin legs.  The tough guys, who love their wurst, won't be scared off by a few mannequin legs, or even think twice.

Meatwagon

The above picture shows a Meat-wagon, for lack of a better word.  Here you can buy all types of non-vegetarian, mostly pork vittle, and cheese.  In comparison, Americans are way conservative when it comes to how we like our meat cuts and cheese.  In Germany, butchers (an actual profession) mix cheese and meat with all kinds of vegetables, fruit, cheese, meats or spices.  After all, meat cuts and cheese play a central roll in breakfast and dinner here and is eaten on top of sliced rolls for breakfast or sliced bread for dinner.

Sausage, ham, and all kinds of bologna, sometimes also some pickled meats like pickled fish, or some type of spiced pate or Leberwurst are commonly on display for buyers.  Beef and chicken is not so common.  It may seem strange to see so much pork for some Americans, but at least you don't see heads, legs or other less appetizing animal parts, as is common in lots of the world, I hear (certainly in Spain!).  Below is a Stall selling Spices, 250 Sorts to be exact.

Spree Gallerie (Shopping Mall)

Next to the Street Market is the entrance to the shopping Mall.  Shopping Malls in Germany tend to feel like outdoor shopping streets with a glass ceiling overhead.  They are called "Arcades" sometimes.

Overall, I think it is really fantastic that, at a street market, many people can still make a living selling one particular thing at different markets.  Aren't all markets the same the world over, whether in Jeruselum, Lyon, London or Philadelphia?  Is this not the epitome of entrepreneurship, the foundation for how the modern free-market economy evolved into it's modern self?  I think so, but I'm no expert.  But I wonder why markets hardly exist in the US, but are abundant in the social-market economy in Germany?  Is the root of the problem more economic in nature or is it a problem of urban design?
I am reading a book online called Unplanning: Livable Cities and Political Choices by Charles Siegel.  He commented on this relationship between non-traditional home choices (outside the city) and real estate prices after WWII. 

"We often hear that suburbia expanded so quickly only because people wanted to live there. It is true ...that many people wanted to take advantage of postwar prosperity to buy their own houses. But there is no reason to think that they wanted houses in postwar suburbia, designed according to the planners' principles, rather than similar houses in neighborhoods designed like old-fashioned streetcar suburbs.

In fact, the data we have shows that most of the people who moved to the new postwar suburbs did not particularly want to live in this sort of neighborhood. When Herbert Gans interviewed the residents of Levittown, a name that was symbolic of the mass suburbs of the fifties, he found that 72% of them had moved there for reasons that had nothing to do with its suburban setting. ...But streetcar suburbs were not being built at the time because they were not allowed by zoning laws."
-Charles Siegel

So what came first: the economic problem or the urban design problem?  It is food for thought.

Speaking of food, I realize that a lot of the food at the market is imported from other countries, especially the vegetables, so the market isn't a market for local goods, necessarily.  Street markets don't have to be local, and they aren't anti-globalization, per sé.  Moreover, my favorite market experience was when the french marketeers visited St Albans in England for a week (such delicious cheese, bread, olives and sausage!!)    But still, I like markets because I feel as if the person selling me a product is profiting from my business, and cares about my business.  No offense to workers at chain stores, but sometimes they have a glassed-over look in their eyes, and I can tell they aren't thinking about me at all, just thinking about how long until they can clock out.   It is a nice feeling to know that my business at the market is helping someone become a small business owner.  Unfortunately, the prices can be higher. But they aren't are the German market in Cottbus.  The market is just an alternative to the mall.

I ask myelf sometimes what kind of world my kids will grow up in.  Will there still be small markets, small businesses and the option of a personal connection to where our food comes from in Germany and in the US?  Lars says that he thinks so, at least in Germany.  We talk about economics and quality of life a lot.  Germans don't make as much money and pay very high taxes, after all.  But, so many basic things are lacking n the US, like small markets.  They are becoming fashionable in American dense residential areas, but these dense urban centers are so expensive, that only "richer" people, for lack of a better word, can afford to live there.  That phenomenon is called gentrification.

Oh well.  I enjoyed the market very much!  I plan to become a regular at the Baker's Stall with the crusty bread.

The Mall that feels like a street.

Poznan, Poland with Agata!

Me (left) and Agata in the town square of Poznan

Agata D. is a friend of mine I met during my studies at the University of Pennsylvania.  She did a semester at UPenn while working on her thesis, and we met in one of our professor's classes.  She has done a lot of interesting work on creole languages and even spent some months in the Caribbean doing field work.  We hit it off right away and had a blast discovering the Philly bar scene and talking our heads off about all types of things: linguistics, sociology, philosophy, .... and all the linguistics gossip!

She has just finished her Ph.D. in Sociolinguistics at the University of Edinburgh.  I was thrilled to come visit her in her home town, Poznan, Poland, while she was on holiday there.  I stayed with her family and enjoyed their hospitality (Poles are very hospitable!) while she mostly translated Polish-English so that I could talk to her parents.  I even had the chance to learn a little bit of Polish and would love to learn more. Tak, tak! (Yes, yes!)

Agata in front of new Retro-Classical fountain (only a few years old)

Agata told me that the town square has been under renovation and the old fountains, lost at some point, have been reinstalled in their original position for everyone to enjoy.

I learned that each off these little houses, repainted with special graphic style, were designed and built by a different builder.  I wonder what they are like inside!

Here, Agata poses outside her favorite Cafe.  One has to go through the building, through the cafe seating area, to come to the outdoor garden.  This is similar to stuff I've seen in Germany.  I think this is a common European way of building, but I didn't look closely at all the buildings I've seen in Europe.  I know I saw similar back-gardens for pubs and cafes in Nottinghill, London. 

In the US, I don't recall ever seeing a back-garden (Innenhof in German).  In the US, we enjoy sitting in front of the cafe or inside, but behind it? ... Maybe this is the future for suburban cafes.

Brewery in the town Square

Agata showed me a great brewery in the town square.  We went inside to look at the brewing machinery, but we sat outside in the front.  I had a honey beer.  Delicious!

Our honey beers- brewed on-spot!

From atop a hill, looking down at the narrow streets.

 

Above is a picture taken from the hill in front of the cathedral.  I could see the town square from here.

The tower ahead is the top of the main building in the town square, which were in the first couple of pictures on this post.

 

And then we spotted a man running on top of the roof in front of us!!  Agata told me that there is even a sport, in which the competitors race across rooftops!  Losing must be fatal!

I love these roofs

At some point, we got hungry.  Yes, we had our beer before lunch!  Only in Europe. ;)  We went to a Rustic-Polish restaurant, which features polish specialties.  Guests enjoy their country-food in a rustic atmosphere.  The chairs, tables, walls, decor, everything looked like the inside of a country home.

Appetizer: Bread with chive-creamcheese (left) or salted lard (!) with bitts of ham

Country-Polish decor

Our table looks like a bed!  Notice the folk stitchwork on the comforter and pillow.

 

Plate-buildings and look out of Agata's living room

The above picture and below two pictures were taken from Agata's parents' condo in a Plate-development.  Plate developments were commonly built during the communist era.  They house a lot of people and depart from the traditional street-grid building pattern.  The advantages of such a development is that many people can have affordable housing with a balcony overlooking green.  This type of building isn't always popular, although, according to Agata, 70 percent of the town resides in such a building.

Renovating older pre-WWII building and building larger villa-style apartment buildings is coming back en vogue, I believe.  It turns out that renovation of the Plate-buildings is costly and, besides that, it reminds many people of communism.  In Germany, Plate-buildings are described in planning books as being more difficult to retrofit for other purposes (shops, industrial buildings, lofts, etc.), which makes the area resistant to the natural evolution of use that occurs in all city buildings.

I think it is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the built-environment.  The Plate-buildings were built based on ideological principles, but how could I live with myself (if I were a developer or planner) if I devalued them based on some other ideology?  The truth is that there is no point in regretting the way we built in the past, and there's no point to tear everything down and try to forget it didn't happen.  I guess I fall into the category of urban thinkers who believe that a city can heal itself, if planning is democratic and constructive (not destructive).  I found Agata's neighborhood very pleasant and green: green,  a common good for everyone to use, even if under-utilized. I judge it to be better than suburbia, becuase the green is a shared good, like a park..

Green between Plate-building: soccer field to the right and elementary school to the left.

Looking out of the balcony over the flowers

Below are some pictures taken on our tour of the city.  I forget exactly what the buildings are below.  The picture on the left may be a police station.

Wall and building-needs renovation, but beautiful

I really liked the contrast of the wall and this building above.  It contrasts very nicely with the buildings in the other pictures, which had already undergone renovation.  Fixing up older "Altbau" buildings can be very costly, but seem to be well worth it, if you have enough money.  I wish I had the means to do that!

The picture above is of a red tower and the left side of the building in the previous picture.  I believe that both buildings below to the university.  The red building is the economics building.  I never really like lonely towers, but the view must be nice from inside.

Retrofit brewery-now shopping and cultural center

The following pictures are of a renovated brewery converted into a huge shopping center.  The building is supposed to also include a cultural center, but I don't know what that was.  Maybe the cultural center was supposed to be the food eateries.. haha.  I met a girl at a bar in the last night who just graduated with a degree in architecture and had been working on the building.  I should have asked her about that!

In any case, I was immensely impressed by the architecture of the building.   The combination of red bick, glass and blue/purple steal reminded me of King's Cross Station in London, which is one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen, and is modern.

Seats inside glass walls.  Where's the entrance?  Interesting to look at, anyway!

Yes, shopping malls exists in Europe too.

The above building contrasts very nice with the previous highly-modernized shopping mall.  Agata and I came to this "Innenhof" or inner courtyard behind a building (remember the back-gardens?) in order to find a second-hand shop.  It might have been there in the little orange building in the center.  We didn't find it, or it had moved site, so we had to keep looking for other second-hand shops.

A cool thing about Poznan, or maybe all Polish cities, is that sometimes you see a door with little signage, and it turns out to be an underground one-room store.  Agata took me to one of these in her neighborhood when we needed to get computer paper for printing. (No picture)

A mainstreet-only Ped-Zone

 

I really liked the above museum's architecture.  I like the clean facade, even if it is a bit flat.  I guess that was 50's or 60's style.  Old enough now, it must come back into fashion.  I read in some book (can't remember which book now) that building are in the most danger of their whole life between 30-50's years after their construction. That is when they are old enough to be out of fashion, but too young to be consider old, and worthy.  That is when most buildings get torn down.

Aren't cities fascinating!  Thank you, Agata, for showing me your wonderful town.  I will never forget our night out to the Ukranian folk-concert with bon-fires and our walk through the cobblestone streets.  Our last bar was one to remember, with three stories of hidden courtyards and a free shot of Vodka on the house.  I have made some wonderful memories. :)