Leipzig

In 2022, like a month and a half before he invaded Ukraine.

So, I mean, there is a kind of a credibility problem with what Vladimir Putin says, but they reacted rather angrily to Friedrich Merz saying explicitly that Russia had... was responsible for the Leipzig bombings, plus followed by the closing of the, as we mentioned last week, the Bonn Consulate and shutting down Russia House, Russland House in Berlin.

And, of course, in these kind of cases, you know, the Russians always do.

reciprocate doing exactly the same thing.

Russia's bullying and threats are unacceptable, so Germany has expelled 150 Russian diplomats and their families.

Germany reached the decision following the sabotage incident at the Leipzig airport.

Well, I'm glad they did something.

They should have put them on notice first, but I'm glad they're doing something now at least.

For several nights afterwards he dreamed of that most ugly, cold, unrecognizable piece of flesh that had been his friend, and his distaste for the name and manuscript of the peahens lasted a whole year.

End of Part One Recording by Expatriate in Bangor, Maine Part Two Chapter Eight of Martin Schuler by Romer Wilson This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Recording by Expatriate in Bangor, Maine Part Two Leipzig Chapter Eight As an oyster covers a pearl with scales, so Martin covered Werner's death in Lili and the Peahens with days and months of forgetfulness.

Twenty-eight months lay smooth over the past, and only those with long memories and awkward imaginations thought less well of him than he did of himself, and saw the little piece of grit that had got into his shell.

Martin was now in the first fullness of manhood.

The newspaper was so eulogistic, and the parents, aunts, and lovers of the actors so dithyrambic, that Heidelberg was full of swelled heads for several weeks.

This again did not affect Martin.

There was at the University of Heidelberg at that time a young man of the name of Steinbach, an ugly and thick young man who had come to Heidelberg for a summer course to fill in the time between the end of his career at Leipzig University and the beginning of his career at he knew not what.

Like many other brilliant young men who are too rich and not scholarly enough to enclose themselves for life in a classical or philosophical world, he was lost when his terms at college came to an end.

It's what exactly was transferred.

And it's why Russia chose this specific moment, September 2026, while Iran is actively striking US military bases in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, while Trump is demanding that NATO allies pay back the cost of weapons Biden gave to Ukraine for free, while a Russian drone just penetrated airspace at Leipzig Halle Airport, a NATO logistics hub in the middle of Germany.

Three stories running simultaneously this week, and if you're watching them as separate stories, you're watching them wrong.

Does that make sense? Let me show you why that distinction matters.

Germany's military budget is already stretched to its limit, just meeting the 2% NATO commitment.

And Germany is simultaneously dealing with something the Trump White House is pointedly not helping with.

German security services just traced a drone that penetrated restricted airspace over Leipzig Halle Airport, a critical NATO logistics hub, back to Russian-linked operators.

And former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev publicly stated in writing that German factories supplying weapons to Ukraine are, and I'm quoting, legitimate military targets.

He shed tears of joy, exclaiming, I had thought that this art would die with me, but I see that in you it will live.

How sweet was that praise! Finally, in 1723, after many disappointments, I became cantor at the Thomas School at Leipzig and held this position for 27 years.

My duties here were most laborious.

They began at five o'clock in the morning in summer and at six in winter.

I had to supply with choir boys from the school four churches in Leipzig, attend funerals, weddings and concerts.

For all my services I received a mere pittance.

but dear children i went contentedly on doing my work delighting in my art bringing up my family carefully and was never so happy as when after a hard day's toil i could sit down at my own fireside surrounded by my loved ones my art and my family those were the two poles around which my life moved my activity was unceasing and remarkable besides my official duties and my labour as a composer i made copies of other composers works i engraved on copper and even manufactured instruments i invented one which i called viola pomposa and also devised a piano with catgut strings i gave special attention to the musical education of my sons emmanuel became a musician at the court of frederick the great king of prussia where he held the position of cembalist i was finally prevailed upon in seventeen forty seven to pay a visit to the king who had repeatedly invited me frederick was a great lover of music and regularly every evening had a concert he played on the flute and very cleverly too for a king when fredman and i arrived at the palace it was about time for the evening concert frederick when he heard of our arrival exclaimed gentlemen old bach has come at last there was no concert that night the king was most gracious to the old man whose one attraction was the glorious gift bestowed upon him by a great and generous deity though he was a king and i a musician poor in a worldly sense in another rich above all kings my art made me his equal i tried all the silbermann pianofortes and organs at potsdam and delighted and surprised every one by my improvisations on themes either given to me or chosen by myself on my return to leipzig i worked out the theme given to me by frederick and sent it to him i called it a musical offering Before I finish this letter to you, my dear little friends, I must say a few words about my compositions.

After a long and very careful preparation of one of his earliest operas, Rehenzi, I produced it in Berlin in 1847 with marked success.

I know you have to run, but a few developments happened on Ukraine, and you mentioned that.

Last month, there was an investigation concluded in Germany that attributed to Russia this armed drone that was found in Leipzig airport, which really would indicate Russian involvement in kinetic action against NATO.

ally right and if if that is the case uh meanwhile you have like some shuttle diplomacy seems to be underway on ukraine you had we talked a couple weeks ago about uh cia director john ratcliffe going to moscow but now we've had jared kushner and steve whitcoff u.s special envoys uh uh going to moscow and kiev what's going on in the ukraine talks from from what you can see

I don't know.

And so in a situation like that, outside mediators can often be very helpful.

The United States is arguably well-positioned to do that mostly because of the prestige that they have on both sides but also because of the leverage that they have with both sides because they provide a lot of capability to the Ukrainians and they have a lot of ways of hurting Ukraine.

the Russians, and also because they're incentivized by a sort of fear of escalation that the Leipzig airport represents um but this administration hasn't been particularly good at that they've recognized the need but um they've been sending negotiators who in my view don't seem to understand the situation very well it's very complex um and haven't uh have barely even touched the ukrainian side This was Witkoff and Kushner's first visit to Kyiv, which is an extraordinary statement.

And it was very, very hard to get them to go.

He himself noted this coincidence in a letter to Moscheles, and built the themes of the various numbers almost wholly upon them.

however this may be he certainly had a great admiration for clara even in her early years he took piano lessons from her father and became for a time an inmate of their house he owed much to the teaching but still more to the stimulating artistic society of the weak family in eighteen twenty nine he left his teacher and made a final effort to prepare for the legal career that his mother had planned for him it was of little avail however for in the next year we find him writing home that his entire life had been but a twenty years strife between poetry and prose or music and law and it must now cease so earnestly did he plead his case that his mother at last yielded to his wishes though with fear and trembling and the final decision was referred to That artist, who had by this time fully recognised Schumann's great gifts, gave his decision in favour of music, and the young enthusiast, after having his affairs duly settled, returned to Leipzig and devoted himself altogether to art.

It is probable that he would have given himself wholly to the career of a successful pianist, but for an accident.

after a year of painstaking practice he invented a contrivance by which the weaker fingers were allowed to gain strength by usage while the third finger was held back this mechanism was altogether too successful for after using it some time he found his third finger so badly crippled that he was forced to give up hope of ever winning fame on the concert stage What seemed a catastrophe to him was proven a blessing to the world, for if he had spent his life in executing the works of others, he would never have had the leisure to create his own immortal compositions.

You know, it's cause to come to think of it, I mean, I didn't poke around too much before or after, or after the match, but I didn't see much difference, uh, or police presence.

Whereas like, I remember very specifically, again, this is top flight, uh, a match against Leipzig, uh, Um, and it was like, that was the most police presence I'd ever seen at the Olympia stadium.

Like you, where they were visible, you know, riot gear, uh, blocking things off the, most of the red bullshit.

Like, uh, fans showed up on their own, uh, train.

He'll never be any good if he can't go away and study somewhere.

If it isn't Berlin or Leipzig, it ought to be London.

But Father can't live there, and the mater won't go anywhere without him.

So poor Colcol's got to stick here doing nothing, with the same rotten old masters telling him things he knew years ago.