Arrows in the Fog
Or
The Hair of the Tortoise
By
Günther Bach
Günther Bach
Arrows in the Fog
© 2004 by Verlag Angelika Hörnig
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
without the written permission of the publisher.
Illustrations: Günther Bach
© quotation: Hans Magnus Enzensberger,
Vom Blätterteig der Zeit, aus:
Die Elixiere der Wissenschaft © Suhrkamp Verlag
Frankfurt am Main 2002
poem: Hans Magnus Enzensberger,
Das Einfache, das schwer zu erfinden ist, aus:
Die Elixiere der Wissenschaft
©Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main 2002
Thanks for the authorization.
Translation: Robert Dohrenwend
Cover design: Angelika Hörnig
according to a photo of Silke Lübbert
Lecturer: Mitch Cohen
© 2012 ebook
ISBN: 978-3-938921-26-5
Verlag Angelika Hörnig
Siebenpfeifferstr. 18
D-67071 Ludwigshafen
Germany
Table of Contents
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
Author
The Beginning
Evidently the time is gone
when you could believe that
it was possible to live
your life in step with the times.
Hans Magnus Enzensberger
For life doesn’t allow trial runs,
it’s happening – right now.
James Ogilvy
Bärger was packing up.
Even after four years with the company, he didn’t have a lot to pile into the two banana boxes. Really, Bärger thought, I shouldn’t lug all this stuff around with me anymore. Not after I finally figured out that domestic utilities were never my strong point. One more bit of misinformation passed on to me when I was a student, like statics. How did the professor put it: “As an architect, you need to understand only enough statics to make it clear to a construction engineer what you need from him.”
Right, Professor, but your exams looked a lot different!
That was a long time ago.
Bärger lifted the last pile of books from the shelves on the wall, building construction and building design texts; good old Neufert, the 33rd edition since 1936. The book had grown three times as thick since his days as a student in Dresden. Neufert, who had collaborated with Gropius on Measurements, Standards, and Codes, and then Bauhaus and the beginning of industrial construction.
How mixed all that was now, how easily blending ideas could become their exact opposite: the Gropius concept became the settlement in Dessau and the mass flats in Berlin, the capital of tacky buildings.
And now – the table lamps by Wagenfeld and the steel tube chairs by Breuer, Mies van der Rohe, and Mart Stam that were designed more than eighty years ago as economical purchases for everyday use by average people, were replicas offered as unique exquisite pieces at horrendous prices in today’s chic window displays.
Bärger unfolded a brochure printed on several pages of high gloss paper. The names of the inventors didn’t appear anywhere. It only referred to top creations of an international designer, as if this rubbish could be compared to the accomplishments of Mies and Mart Stam. The final sentence of the advertisement was a beautiful example of contemporary usage: “Ideal for raising your liquidity and for providing a quick tax shelter.” That sounded a lot better than Wagenfeld’s idea that the best features of the things around us should be the least obvious.
Through the open door, Bärger heard the noise of the elevator going down. Only now did he notice how quiet it was in the old corner house, which had been occupied by the Worker’s Council during the East German period. He looked at his watch; it was late. Glancing toward the window, he noticed that he had almost forgotten his small espresso coffeemaker. There was still enough black powder in the can, and as he shoved the small thick-walled mug under the spout and listened to the gurgling sound of the flowing coffee, he almost regretted that, once again, it was over.
He had had a very pleasant