the plotki magazine (pdf) - Moving Baltic Sea

~Content.p. 02 My Sea. Male or Female? \ text: A n n a S u l e w s k a , B E R L I N / W A R S Z A W A\ photo: J a n H i l l e , H A M B U R Gp. 04 Cod Complexities. Sustainable Cod Fishing in the Baltic is Possible Just When?\ text: B j ö r n J u n g i u s , B E R L I N \ illustration: H a n n a Z e c k a u , B E R L I Np. 09 One Sunny Day. \ photo: S z y m o n S z c z e ś n i a k , W A R S Z A W Ap. 16 Baltic Sea Utopia. What to do with a Superlative Nazi Spa left on the Beach?\ text: M i l l a y H y a t t , B E R L I N \ illustration: H e r r M ü l l e r , B E R L I Np. 21 Latvian Morning. \ poem: B e t t y Q u a s t , B E R L I Np. 22 Rain on Rügen. \ photo: A n n e S c h u h m a n n , B E R L I Np. 28 Another Sea. \ text: D e n i s s J e r s h o v , T A R T Up. 29 La Mer. \ photo: S t e p h a n i e E n d t e r , B E R L I Np. 32 Waiting for the Weather near the Sea. \ poem: P a u l A r s e n e v , S T . P E T E R S B U R Gp. 33 Winter on Kihnu, an Island of Estonia. \ photo: S t e f a n V o l k , H A M B U R Gp. 40 The Kiss of the Sea. \ text: A d r i a n B r i e d i s - M a c o v e i , R I G Ap. 41 \ illustration: M a i j a K u r s h e v a , R I G Ap. 43 Freedom to think for Yourself… Even if that means to move a Whole University.\ text: S i l j e B e r g u m K i n s t e n , C O P E N H A G E Np. 46 A Better Forecast for the Abortion Ship on the Baltic Sea.\ text: A n n a S u l e w s k a , B E R L I N / W A R S Z A W A \ illustration: j a g a j a n k o w s k a . e u , P A R I Sp. 48 The Last Resort? Summer Houses and their Owners: Citizens of St. Petersburg.in Narva-Jõesuu, Estonia. \ text & photo: A l i n a G r i n c h e l , S T . P E T E R S B U R Gp. 55 How does a Sailor retire? \ photo: A c h i m H a t z i u s , B E R L I Np. 60 Telegram from a Sea. Examination. Nachmärz. night. violent sleep. \ poems: R o n W i n k l e r , B E R L I Np. 62 \ photo: C a r m e n v o n K e n d e , W A S H I N G T O N D . C .p. 64 The Key to Sea. \ poem: M a r i u s z W i ę c e k , G D Y N I Ap. 65 Coastal Moments. \ photo: D m i t r y V y s h e m i r s k y , K A L I N I N G R A Dp. 68 The Great King of the Baltic. A Pirate’s Story. \ text: M a r i - L i i s M ä g i , T A R T U\ illustration : J a r e k S i e r p i n s k i , B E R L I Np. 73 Stocznia. \ photo: M i c h a ł S z l a g a , G D A Ń S Kp. 78 The Black Hole. Three Boat Women and the Sea. \ text: N a d i n a W ó j c i k , B E R L I N\ photo: N a d j a B ü l o w , H A M B U R G

―← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈Editorial./ / / text: N a d i n a W ó j c i k , B E R L I NJust one year ago a walk on the beach on the German island of Usedom used to stop abruptly at a border post behind it: the same sand, the same sun, the same sea, but another state: Poland. Schengen came, and with theabolition of border checks the walk on the beach became boundless. At least between those two countries.The Baltic Sea is a small inland sea, but its coastline and culture is under permanent change. Once politicallyseparated by the Cold War, it today brings together the people of Northern, Central and Eastern Europe like noother waters a perfect sphere for PLOTKI to investigate the rumours from around the bloc, compiled in the followingSTORIES FROM THE SEASIDE.The Baltic Sea a clash of centrum and periphery, depending of one’s geographical position and point of view.Östersjön, Ostsee, Østersøen for the Swedish, Germans and Danes it is the “East Sea”, but for the Estonians itis Läänemeri the “West Sea”. On top of this confusion Anna Sulewska is not asking for directions, but consultsa compass of her own: My Sea. Male or Female? (p. 2)East or West Sea this question is also of little importance when it comes to maritime polution. In the1970s the Baltic Sea was known as the dirtiest sea of the world full of industrial waste water from all the riparianstates. Even though some of the biggest environmental sins are history today, some sea inhabitants like thecod fish do not feel as comfortable as they once did. The problems are being noticed, but theory and action aretwo pair of shoes, as Björn Jungius explains: Cod Complexity. Sustainable Cod Fishing in the Baltic is Possible Just When? (p. 4)While the population of some inhabitants of the underwater world decreases, the water surface suffers fromtraffic jam: Even though the Baltic Sea is only 1,600 km long and 190 km wide, it endures 15 percent of the worldwideshipping traffic. The Baltic Sea a place of employment for sailors (How does a Sailor retire? p. 55), pirates(The Great King of the Baltic, p. 68), boat women (The Black Hole, p. 78) and anti-abortion activists (A BetterForcast for the Abortion Ship on the Baltic Sea, p. 46).So young, so restless the Baltic Sea was born only some 15,000 years ago when masses of ice melted, just atiny moment compared to the existence of the world. Its coastline was more than once the place for histriography(Another Sea, p. 28). Some traces are loved like the historic ship yard in Gdańsk, the beginning of the end ofsocialism (Stocznia, p. 73). Some rather abandoned like the never finished seaside resort of Prora, a Nazi complexmeant to provide holiday pleasures for the German workers (Baltic Sea Utopia, p. 16). And some are still experiencedevery summer Alina Grinchel talked to people who suffer from the new Schengen barriers: The LastResort? Summer Houses and their Owners: Citizens of St. Petersburg in Narva-Jõesuu, Estonia (p. 48).And most likely, for many of you the Baltic Sea still is the closest, most familiar and most beautiful holidaycoastal resort. We surely agree. Get yourself a deck chair, lean back, feel the wind, free your mind and enjoyPLOTKI’s brandnew STORIES FROM THE SEASIDE!This special PLOTKI issue was created as part of the transnational project MOVING BALTIC SEA.Want to know more? Just flip this magazine!1

― S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →My Sea. Male orFemale?/ / / text : A n n a S u l e w s k a , B E R L I N / W A R S Z A W A / / / photo: J a n H i l l e , H A M B U R GKrystyna and Andrzej. Woman and man. They have noconnection and yet they are somehow alike: both are in lovewith the sea, both dedicated their lives to the sea. Passionand knowledge who is stronger on the waves?Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz is mostly looking atthe waves. The “First Lady of the Ocean” is 72 and wearsa short skirt, showing her sporty legs. Krystyna was thefirst woman in the world to sail alone around the globe.That happened between 1976 and 1978.Andrzej Dębiec is smiling. It is difficult to imaginehim not smiling. His light blue eyes are looking with attentionand openness. With a captain’s hat on his head,he is making coffee in an old sailor’s machine. Andrzejhas been the owner of Zejman Sailors’ Club in Gdańsksince December 1999. The club is located in an old granary,dating back to the 17th century.Gone with the SeaKrystyna’s sailing boat was designed just for her, byher husband. She started her journey from Las Palmas,Canary Islands. She then crossed the Atlantic Ocean,the Panama Canal, then Pacific Ocean, sailed aroundAfrica and finished at Las Palmas. Altogether 28,696sea miles. The course of her journey was not the shortestway around the globe but it was the safest one. Whitewomen in wild parts of the world have to be careful.Over the last twelve years Andrzej has collected5,000 exhibits for his club and today there is no moreplace on the walls or ceiling. Old photos, books, paintings everything somehow connected with the sea andsailing. Bottles, ship’s equipment, wooden parts, ropes,compasses, banknotes, coins from all corners of theworld. 80 percent of these souvenirs Andrzej collectedon his own. He was sailing on the Baltic Sea but also onoceans, looking for his favourite place in the world.Love at First SailKrystyna loved the sea from the beginning. She wasstudying ship construction, sailing in all her free time.She was very well prepared for her lonely trip in 1976.2

← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈Knew everything about all difficulties and dangers. Waslooking at the boat from a very professional point of view,reasonable, forgetting about romanticism.Since the Zejman Club’s beginning, Andrzej has alsobeen head of the Sailors Association. Every week thereare many guests in his club, captains from different countries.Andrzej likes to say that the Baltic Sea is connectingpeople, is a path that takes you to friends.Sailor RetirementKrystyna is still helping at a university and giving sailinglessons to students. But she is complaining thatyoung people are too weak to sail. That they prefer easiersports, easier ways of spending free time. So all her freetime, she spends on her boat. Not big but comfortable.Tomorrow she is sailing to Sweden.Andrzej’s sea story started with cruises for boys froma reform house. He was challenging them with the elements,showing simultaneously both the easy andmore difficult sides of nature. Re-socialisation by thesea. Now he is also organising sea workshops for 7 to8-years-old kids from the seaside. More than 1,000 kidstook part in it so far.What does the Sea Mean to You?Krystyna does not like this question. “Sea is sea,a big amount of water with its rights. You can respectthem or not. You can learn how to minimise risks or not.This is it.”Andrzej is sitting up on the wreck of an old ship infront of his club. “It is like a strong man, self-confident,courageous, knowing very well what he wants, respected,adored by men and women. No no... But wait. In theevening, when it is slowly getting dark, sea is like a mysterywoman: very sexual, tightening her body, secretlyasking for attention.”3

― S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →Cod Complexities.Sustainable CodFishing in theBaltic is Possible– Just When?/ / / text: B j ö r n J u n g i u s , B E R L I N/ / / illustration: H a n n a Z e c k a u , B E R L I N1 ―At the old stream everyone is interested in fish. Onthe embankment tourists queue up in front of the fishmarket’s takeaways for a fish roll, a cut of smoked fish andother fishy snacks; down on the river, flocks of seagullsnoisily struggle over the discarded scraps. Countless fishrestaurants, chairs and tables out on the terraces, facethe dark blue water of the old stream that just a coupleof hundred meters further down, will end its journey andjoin the Baltic Sea. Now in July the season is at its peak –the place is jampacked with fish hungry tourists.The old stream is the main artery of Warnemünde –an old fishing town and one of the most frequentedBaltic Sea resorts in Germany. Located at the mouth ofthe river Warnow, Warnemünde was incorporated to thecity of Rostock in the 14th century; the old stream runsjust to the side of the massive sea-channel, which formsthe entrance and exit gate to Rostock’s harbour. At regularintervals huge white passenger ferries outgrow thetiny rooftops of old Warnemünde, looking like movingskyscrapers sliding out to the sea.In the shade of these white giants, the small fishingboats lined along both sides of the pier seem even morepicturesque. Like an apt assurance that the fish sold hereis a fresh catch from the nearby sea, they seem to suggest is there a better place to enjoy your fish than here?And people eat. More than any other fish Ostseedorsch(Baltic cod) is favoured on Warnemünde’s menus. Someof the restaurants, with a focus on regional specialities,offer up to ten different cod dishes. Warnemünder’s liketheir cod so much that each autumn they dedicate anentire festival (the Dorschwoche cod week) to theirbeloved fish.However, it’s not exactly hot news that, according toenvironmental organisations like Greenpeace and WWF,Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) should be off the menu.Particularly, the fish of the Baltic stocks. The two codstocks that can be found here (there is a western andan eastern stock with the island of Bornholm roughlymarking the dividing line) are said to suffer from massiveover-fishing.Even though Warnemünde’s menus seem to suggestthe opposite, the fact is that cod catches in the Baltichave been dropping dramatically over the last two decades.In 1973, the annual catch was at 189,000 tonnes.In 1984, the year with the highest catch on record, an4

S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →and GPS to ensure that the recreational fishermen havea good catch. Curiously, these sports-fishermen arefacing no restrictions, such as individual catch limits in contrast to the professional fishermen whose catchis strictly regulated by EU quotas. And even if the codfishing isn’t what it used to be, Zimmermann gives assurancesthat the recreational fishermen on his vesseldo catch their cod. More cod than the remaining professionals,he adds with a sly smile.So, where then does all the cod on the Warnemündemenus come from, in an out of season month like July,with just a few fishermen left? Zimmermann gives assurancesthat the Warnemünde fishermen are not theones that deliver to the resort’s eateries; maybe hereand there they sell a couple of fish but that’s it. Theoverwhelming mass of Warnemünde’s fish comes fromaround ten Rostock based fish delivery companies. Oneof those grand distributors is F&F Fisch und FeinkostGmbH. F&F reports that the company delivers about60,000 kilograms of fish annually to Warnemünde, toabout 50 different restaurants, takeaways and hotels.Their cod is not solely of Baltic origin. They buy from thebig freezer trawlers that fish in the North Sea and theBarents Sea.3 ―If one wants to learn more about the situation of thecod in the Baltic (and, by implication, about the impacthumankind can have on the eco-system sea), onceagain a Mr Zimmermann is a good contact. ChristopherZimmermann is deputy director of the Institute of BalticSea Fisheries (OSF) in Rostock; an expert scholar oncod and herring, Zimmermann is probably more talkativethan all the Warnemünde fishermen together. Hiswelcoming and friendly way pleasantly contrasts withthe rather reserved manner of his namesake and theother Warnemünde fishermen (who somehow neverseemed to lose their slight suspicion of the strangerfrom Berlin).“In the Baltic Sea we have very special conditions”,explains Zimmermann. “This is why the cod stocks haveto be managed very carefully, if we want to ensure a sustainableharvest.”And, as if sensing that all the bad news on over-fishingand the depletion of the world’s fish stocks may makesuch a claim sound outrageous, he repeats, “Yes, we canharvest cod in a sustainable manner.”This is exactly the purpose of the OSF to study thepreconditions for sustainable fishing management inthe Baltic. The institute resides in a modern four-storysteel skeleton construction in Rostock’s Fischereihafen,about five kilometres up the Warnow from the oldstream. The location couldn’t be more suitable. Fromthe windows one enjoys a splendid view of the river and of the nearby cold storages of F&F and Venfisk, anotherone of Rostock’s fish delivery companies.The special conditions of the Baltic, Zimmermanngoes to explain, are the key to understanding the situationof the cod living there. Unlike in the North Sea,for instance, where commercial fishing is almost solelyresponsible for the poor state of the cod, the influenceof fishing on the Baltic cod populations can be saidto be maybe fifty percent. The other half can be attributedto environmental factors, which presently arenegatively influenced by human activity other thancommercial fishing.The most crucial adaptation of Baltic fish, is its abilityto cope with the Baltic’s low salinity. However, explainsZimmermann, to ensure successful reproduction,a minimum level of salinity is required. Cod do spawn inopen water but if salinity in the spawning areas dropsbelow a certain point, their eggs lose the ability to freefloat,they suck in water, sink to the bottom and explode.This is why the Baltic cod has chosen a few deep basins(such as the Gotland and the Bornholm deeps) of theotherwise shallow sea, as its spawning grounds. In thosedeep basins the salinity is the highest. Since salt wateris heavier than fresh water, the saline inflows from theNorth Sea are trapped there.These exact spawning grounds are threatened bya massive intake of nutrients. Fertilizer used in agricultureis washed to the Baltic via the rivers. The result is oxygendepletion, a process also observed and well knownin freshwater systems. If phytoplankton dies, it sinks tothe ground where it is decomposed by bacteria a processin which dissolved oxygen is reduced. In the deepbasins of the Baltic, oxygen-depletion has led to the lossof potentially successful spawning areas for the cod andthe eggs suffocate. According to Zimmermann, in someplaces cod find only one meter, within an 84 meter watercolumn, in which the conditions (oxygen level andsalinity) allow for egg survival.6

S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →With a limited space for successful reproduction, itis no wonder that the cod stocks are facing difficulties.A point often overlooked in the debate on over-fishingand the reduction of the Baltic cod stocks.Commercial fishing can add unwanted additionalpressures. Fishing doesn’t simply reduce the size ofa stock by directly taking away some of the fish. It canalso lead to changes in the structure of the affectedeco-system. Zimmermann gives an example with thedrop of the cod population, the stock of sprat explodes.As their main predator becomes less and less, spratsthrive. What is good for the sprat, however, is in turn badfor the cod. Since sprats feed on cod eggs and larvae,the increased number of sprats is capable of further reducingan already ailing cod population. In this scenariothe prey regulates the population size of the predator.This ecological turning of the tables has economicconsequences. “For the Baltic fishing industry, sprat isnot half as valuable as cod. From a strictly economicalpoint of view the present status quo doesn’t make sense.A healthy cod population would be far more profitable.”Theoretically the Baltic stocks are quite productive,says Zimmermann. If managed in a sustainable way, codstocks could recover; an intelligently managed fisherycould even increase the productivity of the stocks. Fishand fishermen would profit alike.and this may add limits to the “eco-balance” of a BarentsSea cod. Especially, since large amounts of thosecod are first transported to China; there they are defrosted,filleted, and refrosted before they finally findthere way to German markets. However, aren’t we alreadyused to the idea that our food has travelled a longdistance? In fact, all this is not stranger than buying anapple in the nearby supermarket that was shipped overfrom New Zealand.4 ―Why then is an intelligent management of the Balticcod stocks such a problem?This is a question to which one can find many smart,but no satisfactory answers. Let’s not go into the detailsof collective decision-making problems and the“tragedy of the commons. ”The fact is, the EU has all theinformation needed for intelligent action probablyno other maritime eco-system is as comprehensivelyresearched as the Baltic Sea. And, at least in theory,everything could be so easy: reduce the nutrient inflow,set aside some marine reserves, reduce the quotas for awhile and effectively control the fishermen.For the moment there are other paradoxes. If a codon a Warnemünde dinner plate comes from the BarentsSea this may be odd still, for a conscious consumerthis may even feel like a better choice. The Barents Seapopulation is again classified as healthy. Transport anddelivery of course are much more energy consuming 8

―← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈One Sunny Day./ / / photo: S z y m o n S z c z e ś n i a k , W A R S Z A W A9

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― S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →Baltic Sea Utopia.What to do with aSuperlative NaziSpa left on theBeach?/ / / text: M i l l a y H y a t t , B E R L I N/ / / illustration: H e r r M ü l l e r , B E R L I NWe were lured to the Baltic Sea by rumours of somethingugly hidden in the woods. That and the promiseof a getaway weekend in the Ostseebad Binz, hotel withsauna and fresh fish for dinner. We traveled by train fromBerlin, through drizzly depressing Brandenburg andMecklenburg with their forlorn towns and boarded-uptrain stations and forests blushing with vague light. Thesun came out for us as soon as we reached the islandof Rügen and we spotted some deer grazing on windymeadows, behind them bright flashes of the sea.We set out on our search the next day, strolling alongthe shore with the other tourists and locals and nordicwalkers, whose sticks left sharp holes in the sand, andone barefooted man (it was March, he was crazy), untilwe spied it through the bushes. Separated from thefriendly beach and the glittering sea by some scragglytrees loomed a brownish-gray building that immediatelybrought to mind twentieth-century madmen: a monumentalfascist structure, five stories high and stretchingto the vanishing point in both directions. This was whatwe’d heard about and wanted to see for ourselves, theKraft durch Freude Seebad Prora, one of its kind andeven more hideous and gargantuan than we had imagined.A monotonous slab of cement-framed windowswith identical side wings jutting out at right angles, itmakes you think of a prison or of the Ministry of Financeor War or something equally evil in an Orwellian vision ofthe future. It takes a while to remember what it actuallyis: vacation housing. Kraft durch Freude means Strengththrough Joy and was a Nazi organization belonging tothe Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Labor Front) thatorganized and supervised the recreation and leisure ofGerman workers. KdF set up sewing circles, put on concerts,offered gymnastics lessons and chess game evenings,and hosted holiday tours throughout the countryand abroad, refreshing work-weary assembly line workerswith hiking trips in the Alps or herding miners ontospecial KdF cruise ships for leisurely jaunts along theItalian coast. The idea was to make it possible for Germanworkers to enjoy some of the same perks as theiremployers, thus leaving them no grounds for developingan insurrectionary class-consciousness that couldupset the Nazi ideal of the Volksgemeinschaft onepeople fused together by blood and sweat and hostilityto everyone excluded by it, impenetrable by the wedgeof class. Well-rested workers could return to the plants,including, of course, the munition plants, with renewedvigor and productivity: strength through joy.And here was a building constructed for them, asmany of them as possible, 20,000, in fact, at once, a16

← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈concrete block extending in one interminable stretchparallel to the coast, making us feel very small and soft.With the standard holiday lasting ten days, it was largeenough for two million vacationers to enjoy the Balticseaside between spring and fall every year, for two millionpairs of eyes to look out of the windows every bedroomfaces the sea and take in the view, for two millionpairs of legs to cross the stretch of sand and plungeinto the blinking bracing water, for two million mouthsto open and close around forks in the vast dining hallsplaced at regular intervals between the dormitory wings.Everyone together, everyone the same, everyone happyand strong and joyful, thanks to the Baltic Sea, thanksto the air and the sand and the seagulls, thanks to therobust Aryan blood in their veins, thanks to the buildersand the architects one of whom was appropriatelynamed Clemens Klotz (German for big heavy shapelessblock) , thanks to the party. Generous funding of KdFprojects meant that the workers would only be charged2 Reichsmark a day, covering everything from room andboard to bath towels.All of this was hard to imagine as we stood in front ofthe empty shell of a building that spring morning, theweeds all along it crunchy with broken glass, slim treesgrowing on the roof, the 150,000 cubic meters of woodthat were felled to make room for the building slowlywinning back territory. Signs were posted at regular intervalswarning of risk to life and limb, the doors boardedup, but we finally found an unsecured entrance andwandered around the decimated insides of the place,stripped of every removable object, except for someposter scraps on a wall here and there (Tom Cruise andJohn Travolta who on earth hung those up?). On oneof the landings we found a neat pile of black fire stonesfrom the beach, each seemingly chosen with great careand left there, full of some kind of meaning we couldnot decipher. Otherwise the endless hallways and nakedrooms contained nothing but shards of glass, bits oftrash, and the unreal, gorgeous view of the sea throughthe windows. A quote attributed to Gorbachev waspainted onto the pocked plaster of one of the walls (“Inthe nuclear age, saving the earth from nuclear destructionis the responsibility of all of humanity, the concernof all peoples”). We had to pick our way around puddlesof black water ominously standing in the hallways andwe were cold, the thick walls having a refrigerating effect,so we didn’t linger long and were glad to be outsideagain in the sunshine.But then were drawn right back in, unable to resist thehysterically advertised private museum (“500 meters tothe museum!” “400 meters to the museum!” “300 metersto the museum!”) in one of the wings, which, alongwith a floor devoted to motorcycles made in the GDR,includes an exhibition on the history of the matchlessKdF project. Building began in 1936, we learned, andcame to a halt in 1939 when Germany went to war andall resources and manpower were diverted to what hadbecome the nation’s only cause and purpose, leaving notime or money for working-class leisure. The half-finishedconstruction was used for military training untilthe Soviets came and dismantled parts of it for buildingmaterials. They also interned dispossessed propertyowners, whose seafront villas were “refunctioned,” andhoused refugees from the East in the wings that remainedintact. We wondered if any of these involuntaryresidents knew or appreciated the fact they were livingin a holiday resort.The exhibition also boasts a continuously loopingdocumentary film in which every contemporary witnesswaxes nostalgic about the war (“Those were goodtimes,” a radio operator instructor reminisces, and seeingthe photo of him, one grinning young man and acheery gaggle of young women in a we’re-away-fromhomemood, we thought, “sure bet it was”), and a modelof what the finished 4.5 km-long structure was intendedto look like. Yes, that’s four point five kilometers. Eventhe model is overwhelming. The tiny trees and bushesneatly lining the cardboard paths are interspersed withlittle red and white flags, red with a blank white circle inthe middle, scrubbed clean of those indecorous swastikas,giving the impression the KdF Seebad Prora was aJapanese development, only backwards. The museumis an information overload, screaming block letterseverywhere, pointing you this way and informing you ofthat, reams of photocopied texts and newspaper clippingson every square inch of wall. But it wasn’t until wedid some research back at home that we confirmed forcertain that the “Colossus of Rügen” had never actu-17

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S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →ally fulfilled its intended purpose, had never providedholiday respite to a single worker. That information mustbe included somewhere in the exhibition, but it is wellhidden, as if the museum’s operators want to downplaythat one disappointing fact. It was just a dream after all,a utopian fascist fantasy that collided with other fascistfantasies and lost. Never fulfilling its destiny of becominga workers’ paradise, the bleak, uncompleted buildingwas passed from military command to military command(after the Soviets, the East German military, theNVA, moved in, followed by the West German military,the Bundeswehr, who made use of the crumbling monstrosityuntil they in turn abandoned it in 1992). At leastthe Prora Seebad has the distinction of being the onlyKdF holiday resort to make it past the planning stage, atleast it exists, seemed to be the message of the display.We did notice a more reflective-looking exhibition inanother part of the vast complex, the government andfoundation-funded Dokumentationszentrum Prora, butby then we were KdF’d out and skipped it in favor of the“Wiener Kaffeehaus” on the top floor of one of the wings,where we had some greasy food in the company of wistfulformer NVA men who had come to show their sons andwives the section of the museum commemorating theirpart of the story. From there we continued our walk alongthe endless building, past the disemboweled section thatfell prey to the Soviets, where we climbed a fence andcut across the freshly planted lawn dotted with spankingnew restroom buildings belonging to a new youth hostel/campsitefacing the KdF structure. Pitch your tentshere, kids, your view of the sea blocked by the wreckageof history, graffiti-smeared and shattered, where yourgrandparents and great-grandparents would have frolickedtheir summers away if things had gone differently.Evenings you can party at the Disko Miami that inhabitsanother wing, set apart from the rest by the bright pinkpaint on the façade. It must be dankly cavernous in there,and drafty and perfect for hard industrial music and asreminiscent of Miami as the café upstairs is of Vienna.On our way back to Binz we fantasized about makinggood on the utopian promise of the KdF building. Whynot put it to use as a holiday resort for today’s “workingclass,” J. suggested for immigrants, illegals, the precarious,and the unemployed. “Imagine Prora crawlingwith Africans and Arabs and Slavs and Turks, vacationingin the house Hitler built for his Aryan workers.”The idea made me a little giddy. Paint and gardensand curtains and art could take an edge off the uglinesswithout canceling the egalitarianism, I mused. J. madea big, enthusiastic gesture with his arms. “Just picture it:self-exploiting ‘free’ (here he made quotation marks inthe air with the index and middle fingers of both hands)lance cultural workers like us could be given a holidayfrom their laptops, we could sit under the trees on theroof of the KdF building, letting the waves and the sunand the Baltic breeze unbend our hunched spines andloosen our creaky joints.”“And the welfare recipients,” I crowed, “they wouldlose the pallor in their faces and the hopelessness intheir eyes as they wander through the forests overlookingthe sea and scratch their initials and those of theirlovers into the trees next to the gouged names of thegenerations that went before.”We were walking faster now, both talking at once. Wecould see it in front of our eyes: children of all differentcolors running wild on the beach, getting in the way ofthe silvery sedate health spa patients. The mysteriouslifeguard tower we had noticed on the beach in Binz,looking like a space ship about to take off, another pieceof local architecture no longer fulfilling its purpose,could be reclaimed for parties and reading groups, itsenormous oval windows framing the view of the gentle,clear fading sea. There would be evenings of dancingtogether in the Disko Miami or on the sand, learningeach other’s languages, borrowing each other’s sunscreen.After a couple of weeks we would start feelingit, the strength, growing gradually out of our joy, and wewould be so full of ideas of how to use it and of motivationand we would exchange addresses and return to ourcities and towns and villages and asylum-seekers’ hostelsand we would be different and stronger and most ofall, we would know each other and the different thingswe needed and wanted which have nothing to do witha Volk or a war but with life in a million different facets and we would get to work right away. And when our energiesstarted to flag or the everyday worries of rent andchildcare and dealing with the bureaucrats threatenedto sap our energy, we would head back to Prora, whereevery room faces the sea.20

← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈Latvian Morning. Lettischer Morgen./ / / poem & translation: B e t t y Q u a s t , B E R L I Ngreen and green againin gentle birch leavesbreathes the winda wide sky spanning them aboveand from the blue streaks of the cloudsseeps early more and more the whitish lightin the car Latvian radio is onunder the bridge the foamof deep-blue wavessmall timber-houses are warmingin the swardlike many little suns - dandelionfrom the sea ships are washed uppromising distant shorespigeons in the tree-tops, and thousandsupon thousands of sparrowsdiving in, translucentthe air, like clear water, mirror-glassthus the veil is liftingand I make out your facein this strange, beautiful landgrün und nochmals grünim sanften Laub der Birkenhaucht der Winddarüber sich ein weiter Himmel spanntund aus den blauen Wolkenstreifen sickertfrüh immer mehr das weiße Lichtim Auto spielt lettisches Radioprogrammunter der Brücke schäumentiefblaue WellenHolzhäuschen wärmen sichim Grasteppichwie viele kleine Sonnen - Löwenzahnvom Meer treiben die Schiffe anverheißen FerneTauben im Blätterdach, und abertausendSpatzentauchen ein, durchsichtigdie Luft, wie klares Wasser, Spiegelglasso hebt sich der Schleier anund ich erkenne Dein Gesicht,in diesem fremden, wunderschönen Land21

―Rain on Rügen./ / / photo: A n n e S c h u h m a n n , B E R L I N

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― S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →Another Sea./ / / text: D e n i s s J e r s h o v , T A R T UFrom the Greeks we get the saying that you can’tenter the same river twice. Well, it certainly works withseas too. Especially, when it is the Baltic. Having lived15 years at its shores, I can state that you don’t evenhave to enter the sea. It is enough just to havea look, to see that it is not the same, it has changed,it is already another.It was new, when tribes of Ugro-Finns finally reachedits shores after centuries of roaming, looking forhome, called Viru.It was expansionism, when the new kingdoms ofEurope, fed up of conflicts with their neighbours,headed their boats east and brought newtechnologies in exchange for local treasures, calledfur and honey.It was courage, when a young ruler decided to enterthe circle of the greatest of his time and built on itsshores a city, called St. Petersburg.It was beginning, when it became a part of a flagwhich a few young people raised on the ruins of war,giving birth to a new country, called Republicof Estonia.It was scared, when the battleships of the SecondWorld War cruised its waters and engineers filled itwith explosives so hard, that decades later there arestill places on the surface of the sea, which are notsuitable for navigation.It was news, when on a September night in 1994 itsstorms gave peace to passengers of a ship, calledEstonia.Rivers unite two banks, or two sides, or two countries.With seas it is different, as they unite cultures,nations, histories, geographical parts. Especially,when it is the Baltic Sea.It was future, when it allowed Lenin to cross its frozenwaters, escaping to Finland from Tsarist police, whichfollowed him for ideas that later built a brand newsystem of relations, called Soviet Republics.28

―← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈La Mer./ / / photo: S t e p h a n i e E n d t e r , B E R L I N / / / music: C l a u d e D e b u s s y29

S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →Waiting for the Weathernear the Sea. Ç éÜàÑÄçààèéÉéÑõ ì åéêü./ / / poem: P a u l A r s e n e v , S T . P E T E R S B U R G/ / / translation: E i r e e n e N e a l a n dFrom Russia — to Russiawith occasion, tangled lovingin hair, with the first favourable mission,sliding to the enclaveof memory; every minuterepeating to her and yourself,that it is a matter of the whole,that is obvious to everyone,but not to all(creatures, who caught a pair)straight awaythe arrival —to throw the netin the far drawer,not to make a conclusion,so push-drunkenby its rush(the same like hatchmaking you soberby its rush too),to do nothing by the plain counting,but only may be do something by chaoticreading,try to gain from this foggy daysany bright reminiscence,to put the ends with the beginnings together,not disturbing Fasmer,to wait for the rain on Thursday,to battle with the flu,knowing all the forecasts beforehand …àÁ êÓÒÒËË — ‚ êÓÒÒË˛Ò Î˛·Ó‚ÌÓ Á‡ÔÛÚ‡ÌÌÓÈ ‚ ‚ÓÎÓÒ‡ıÓ͇ÁËÂÈ, Ò ÔÂapple‚ÓÈ ÔÓÔÛÚÌÓÈ ÏËÒÒËÂÈ,ÒÓÒ͇θÁ˚‚‡˛˘ÂÈ ‚ ‡ÌÍ·‚Ô‡ÏflÚË; ÂÊÂÏËÌÛÚÌÓÂÈ ÊÂ Ë Ò· ÔÓ‚ÚÓappleflfl,˜ÚÓ ˝ÚÓ ‰ÂÎÓ ‚ÒÂÈ,˜ÚÓ Ë Ú‡Í Ó˜Â‚Ë‰ÌÓ Í‡Ê‰ÓÏÛ,ÌÓ Ì ‚ÒÂÏ(Ú‚‡appleflÏ, Á‡Îۘ˂¯ËÏ ÔÓ Ô‡appleÂ)Òapple‡ÁÛÊ ÔÓ ÔappleËÂÁ‰Â —Á‡·appleÓÒËÚ¸ Ì‚Ӊ‚ ‰‡Î¸ÌËÈ fl˘ËÍ,Ì ‰Â·ڸ ‚˚‚Ó‰,Ú‡Í Ô¸flÌfl˘ËÈÒ‚ÓÂÈ ÔÓÒÔ¯ÌÓÒÚ˲, ͇͂˚‚Ó‰ÓÍ — Ò‚Ó² ÓÚappleÂÁ‚Îfl˛˘ËÈ, —Ì ‰Â·ڸ appleÓ‚Ì˚Ï Ò˜ÂÚÓÏ,ÌÓ apple‡Á‚ — ı‡ÓÚ˘Ì˚Ï ˜ÚÂ̸ÂÏÔ˚Ú‡Ú¸Òfl ‚˚ÌÂÒÚË ËÁ Ô‡ÒÏÛappleÌ˚ı‰ÌÂÈ Ò‚ÂÚÎÓ ‚ÓÒÔÓÏË̇ÌËÂ,Ò·fl — ̇ ·Âapple„,Ò‚Ó‰ËÚ¸ ÍÓ̈˚ Ò Ì‡˜‡Î‡ÏË,Ì Ôapple˷„‡fl Í î‡ÒÏÂappleÛ,ʉ‡Ú¸ Û ÏÓapplefl ÔÓ„Ó‰˚,Òapple‡Ê‡Ú¸Òfl Ò Ì‡ÒÏÓappleÍÓÏ,ÔappleÓ„ÌÓÁ˚ Á̇fl ̇ÔÂapple‰…32

―← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈Winter on Kihnu,an Island of Estonia./ / / photo: S t e f a n V o l k , H A M B U R G33

S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →34

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―← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈Freedom to thinkC O P E N H A G E N/ / / text: S i l j e B e r g u m K i n s t e n ,for Yourself……Evenif thatmeansto movea Whole University.Demonstrations took place when PresidentLukashenko ordered the closing down of theEuropean Humanities University in Minsk, in2004. Back then Anastasiya was not yet a studentat the university, but she has clear memoriesabout the uproar that took place when thestudents and lecturers were denied access totheir university premises. They took to the streetsin order to protest and some were, asa result, forced to leave the country. The powerand will of the students impressed her, andin 2005 she enrolled for EHU - in exile.Anastasiya is a tough young woman, who wants tomake a difference. She is a student in exile at the EuropeanHumanities University (EHU) in Vilnius, Lithuania.“I am completely different than from when I enteredEHU,” says the determined and ambitious 21 year-old,now halfway through the third year of her bachelor inEuropean and International Law.She radiates self-confidence and single-mindedness,clearly thinks for herself and keeps up-to-datewith current affairs. According to Anastasiya, however,thinking for yourself, having your own opinions and expressingthem is far from the norm for the majority ofher fellow Belarusians. “It is very important for Belarusiansto think freely,” she says, and goes on to explainthat this was not what she learned at the state universityin Minsk, where she studied for a year before startingat EHU in Vilnius in 2005.43

S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →The university was originally situated in Minsk, butPresident Alexander Lukashenko closed it down in2004, after unsuccessful attempts at forcing the rectorAnatoli Mikhailov to resign. Officially the Ministry ofEducation revoked the University’s license for academicactivity, due to deficiency of classroom and officespace. Unofficially the EHU had become too westernorientedand unwilling to subordinate to the BelarusianPresident. The staff and students refused to be cowedthough and, in 2005, the University re-emerged in Vilnius,Lithuania, where humanities and social sciencesare now taught. EHU is sharing premises with anotheruniversity in Vilnius.Intellectuals in ExileWith help from the Lithuanian government, theUniversity moved students, staff, books and thoughtsfrom one country to another. It was a big operation. “Itis amazing how the institution could re-institute itselfand work in such a short time. It shows how committedpeople are to the cause,” says Artûras Vasiliauskas,project coordinator at the Nordic Council of Ministers’Office in Vilnius. He administers the 7.76 million eurosthe EHU receives from the Nordic Council of Ministersand the EU during the period 2006-2011. For him, EHUis one of the most solid EU democratisation projectsrelating to Belarus, because it gives Belarusian studentsan alternative to the less free thinking state universitiesat home. It opens the world for at least onegroup of Belarusians.From the mentioned funding, the students get amonthly grant and housing benefit, and according toAnastasiya it is enough to get by on. She opted for EHUbecause it is more interesting to study there and becauseit teaches in a completely different way to thestate universities in Belarus.“EHU is characterised by openness, independence,critical thinking and analysis, and the students arehighly motivated and ready to make choices. I feel freerhere. Here, I am independent. If I want to do somethingI will do it, even if my country does not want meto,” she says.Anastasiya seems very happy about being at EHU,even though she is forced to live far away from herfriends and family. It is not common for Belarusiansto move far away from home in order to study, thusfor many of the exiled students this can be very tough.However, the Belarusian students have their own expatcommunity in Vilnius and they stick together. “Becauseof the language differences it is difficult to integratewith the Lithuanians,” says the law student.Some students fled Belarus and started at EHU becausethey were politically active in opposition to thePresident at home, organised demonstrations or playedmusic in independent bands. Not things that wouldbother anybody in other European countries perhaps,but activities that can force a Belarusian to leave homenevertheless.No Good for the CV in BelarusBeing a student in exile is not necessarily easy. Accordingto Anastasiya, many of the students have experiencedharassment at the airport in Belarus on theirway to Vilnius. Unpleasant questioning and the checkingof laptop computers are common and it shows thatthe state is keeping an eye on them. Having EHU ontheir CVs also means their career opportunities are uncertain.What is certain is that they won’t be able to getjobs in the public sector while Lukashenko is in power.“I would like to work with Belarus in one way or another.Either for an organisation working with Belarus,or as a representative of Belarus in an organisation,”Anastasiya says, with the world at her feet.For lecturers in exile, the situation is even morecomplicated. There is a political risk connected toworking with EHU. Many of the lecturers have been expelledfrom Belarus because of their academic work,some of whom were the best in their fields. The lecturershave no job security. They cannot officially beappointed as professors or publish articles in Belarus.Nevertheless, some of them still do a lot of undergroundwork at home.Courage and DevotionOne of them is Professor Anatoli Mikhailov, rector ofEHU, an expert on German philosophy and one of theleading personalities fighting for democracy in Belarus.He looks like a healthy old man, his face marked byhistory and when he speaks he sounds almost intimidatinglyintelligent. Mikhailov refused to subordinateto Lukashenko’s will back in 2004 and fought for EHU’sacademic freedom. Since he left his motherland in44

← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈2004 he has not been able to return. Running a universityin exile is challenging, he admits.Mikhailov talks warmly about his students and lecturers.“They have courage and devotion to do somethingdifferent. They are ready to meet challenges and solveproblems that do not make their lives easier. For thisthey need support,” he says. “Belarus needs intellectualswho understand the issues of social transformationin post-totalitarian states,” Mikhailov adds with determination.He believes that is why EHU is important.As a member of one of the first groups of Belarusiansto experience their country from the outside,Anastasiya finds it interesting to see Belarus’ situationfrom this perspective: “You can analyse the situationwith knowledge. Who are we in Europe? How can weintegrate with the rest of Europe? I am sure Belarus willneed that knowledge,” says the young woman.EHU’s future depends, amongst other things, ondonors. The EHU Trust Fund is on constant lookoutfor new donors. But as for Belarus, it is not a matter offinances: its future depends very much on PresidentLukashenko. The day he is no longer in power, the hopeis that EHU’s students will be able to spread and makeuse of their knowledge at home and build a new futurefor their country. Anastasiya is deeply grateful to thosewho took the decision to support EHU.“It’s pretty early to judge now what value our situationthe future brings, but I am strongly convinced Iwill refer to it as something extraordinary and worthgoing through,” says the charismatic and determinedstudent. Her certainty, will and charm makes one thinkthat the world will see more of her in the future.FACTS► Lithuania has hosted EHU since 2005. The NordicCouncil of Ministers (NMR) began supporting theuniversity in early 2006, after being contacted byLithuanian officials.► The EU and NMR are providing EHU with a totalof €7.76 million during the period 2006-2011.EHU also has other donors. The EHU Trust Fundcoordinates this financial support and is now lookingfor more donors.► The university has some 900 full time Belarusianstudents on Bachelor’s and Master's programmes.Some also study via distance learning or part time.► The university cannot advertise in the usual way inBelarus. Much of its advertising is done through theindependent internet media and by word of mouth.► Belarus became part of the Soviet Unionafter World War One. It declared independencefrom the Soviet Union on July 3 rd 1990. Many westerncountries consider Belarus to be Europe’s lastdictatorship.45

← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈Langenort or Aurora from the outside there wasnothing extraordinary about the 40 metre Dutch fishingvessel. But for hundreds of women facing unwantedpregnancies, the floating termination clinic seemedthe answer to their prayers.The Dutch organisation Women on Waves uses theship to offer the “abortion pill” to pregnant women incountries where abortion is illegal. It docks in internationalwaters and members of Women on Waves offertreatment and advice to women who come onboard.The floating clinic, licensed by the Dutch government,was invited to Poland in 2003 by local women’s rightsgroups. On board there are two doctors and a nursewho are able to provide counselling, contraceptivesand the abortion pill to women no more than six anda half weeks pregnant. The mobile clinic is capable ofcarrying out twenty operations a day.In Poland abortion is permitted only to protect awoman’s physical health. It was legalised in 1956 butthe law was invalidated in 1997 by the constitutionalcourt, which found it violated the right to life of theconceived child. So with the powerful support of theRoman Catholic Church, Poland overturned its liberalCommunist-era abortion laws. Current law allowspregnancies to be terminated only if the mother’s lifeis in danger, if she was raped or if the baby has certaingrave genetic defects. Doctors face up to three years inprison if they are caught performing illegal abortions.In fact, the Polish abortion law is one of the most restrictivein the EU.In 2003, in Władysławowo, north of Gdańsk, protestersflung red paint and eggs at the Dutch ship when itentered a Polish port. Anti-abortion campaigners saythe ship is trying to import a banned abortion pill intoPoland. “Banning abortion has not, in any case, eliminatedit in Poland”, said Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka, thePolish government’s Secretary of State for GenderEquality, at the time. “It has simply moved it abroad orto private clinics in Poland, where an abortion can costup to $500, more than a month’s average wage here.”The founder of Women on Waves is Rebecca Gomperts.She does not pretend that her tugboat by itselfcan do much to alter this state of affairs. “It’s not astructural solution,” she said. “The only structural solutionis when the Polish abortion law changes.” Thearrival of the vessel always brings the abortion debateback to the headlines. After Poland, the boat was inPortugal, now it’s visiting ports in South America.In 2004, the Dutch law changed and the boat wasonly allowed to move in Dutch waters. But last yearDutch government changed its mind again and Auroraor Langenort could return to international seas. SomePolish people keep their fingers crossed that from2009 on, Women on Waves will visit Poland more often.Pro-choice activists are more than happy. Anti-abortionactivists are more than scared.47

← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈1.end of Estonia. “Why did your family keep the house afterthe Perestroika years?” I asked five St. Petersburgfamilies in Narva-Jõesuu.A Long and Hard Procedure: Lidia Verb and herHusband Michail (1.)A tidy fence circles a well-set brick-red country housebuilt in the 40ties and 50ties of the 20th century. Twofamilies (both from St. Petersburg) live here in summertime.I find my way to the remoter part of the building.Lidia waits for me. She is a gay and cheerful old lady thatlikes to dress up and to make a fuss about everything. Herhusband, Michail, has grown a paunch and grumbles but it doesn’t prevent him from being a tender friendto his wife, to dedicate poems to her on birthdays andnot only then. He is a lecturer on aesthetics in St. PetersburgPedagogical University. At first Lidia asks meto keep the interview a secret from Michail but later shecalls him to narrate several details and he willingly obeys.Lidia: We bought the house by good fortune. In thesummer of 1975 I took a holiday in Sillamäe (a smallindustrial town about 10 km from Narva-Jõesuu), thetime in the beach resort was paid for by reading publiclectures in Narva (a bigger town not far away fromNarva-Jõesuu). There, in the resort I met my formerstudent Valentine. She intended to sell her part of acountry house in Narva-Jõesuu and amiably allowedme to pay it off over nine years (big sums of moneyrarely happen in our family). However it did happen,the house became ours. We haven’t changed anythingin the floor plan; only light renovations were made.Our part of the building consists of a bedroom, sittingroom and two verandas; the first floor belongs totallyto our neighbours. There is also a wooden cottage onthe territory that we have recently reconstructed.I have liked Narva-Jõesuu since the first day theview of the seaside, pines and fir-tree that grow just onthe territory. But my two daughters, Ira and Lena, didn’tunderstand me. Only when Iliusha, my grandson, wasborn in 1977, they started to come here. The neighbourswere discontent because the child cried he was justa two-month-old baby by the time. Later, when threemore children were born, our limited home space49

S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →2.became too small for all the family. But in 1988 Lenamoved with her family to America and our other daughter,Ira, built a cottage in the suburbs of St. Petersburgin the 90ies. My granddaughters, Kira and Ksenia, arethe most frequent guests in the house now.The time when I was working and living in Estonia(1989-1999) is a very important period for me. WhenHigh Narva Pedagogical School was opened (the institutefor teachers in Russian-speaking schools) I was invitedthere. The school consisted of 4 departments andI read lectures in all of them, I have also been a pro-rectorfor scientific research. Yet in 1999 all the educationin Estonia was changed to be in the Estonian languageand the school was reorganised into a branch of TartuUniversity.While working in Estonia I wanted to get an Estonianpermanent resident card, but my request was rejected.Now we have to get visa every half year in the EstonianConsulate in St. Petersburg, this procedure is hard andlong. The 90-day visa can be given only once every 6months and only to the owners of a house. Their closestrelatives can get only a 30-day one. It’s only possiblefor me and my husband to spend the whole summerholiday here, our children and grandchildren come fora week or two once a year.Home with a Capital H: Ksenia Siposky and herDaughter Dina (2.,4.)The green wooden house stands at a distance fromthe road, an unfamiliar person would not be able tofind it immediately. Number 16 Nurme Street, is inhabitedby three St. Petersburg families all at once.Sipovsky, Orloff and Shuleshko have been the ownersof this estate for half a century. The house was constructedbefore the Russian Revolution, at the beginningof the 20th century. There used to be a tennisclub situated there. When digging, the inhabitants ofthe country house still find fragments of hard courtcovering in the soil.The Sipovsky family is big and friendly: 13 people gettogether in a rather small space (one third of the house,4 rooms) at times. But most often only Ksenia’s familyis there: her husband, daughter, son, Ksenia’s fatherAndrej and her mother Margarita.50

← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈4.↓ 5.↓3.↓6.↓51

S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →7.Ksenia: My grandmother, Irina Vasiljevna, boughtthe house at the end of the 50ies. She was a lecturer ineconomics at the university. Our family has a long-establishedpedagogical tradition: my great grandfatherwas a dean of the Faculty of Philology, his father too a dean, professor of history. As for myself, I graduatedfrom the Faculty of biology, received my PhD and nowI’m a professor at the medical college. My sister, who is8 years younger than me, will defend a dissertation atthe Faculty of Law soon.All members of the family have a completely differentattitude towards the house in Narva-Jõesuu. By theway, I perceive this place not as a resort, where I have arest, bath and get some sun. It is a “Home” for me (withcapital letter) where I do live. In St. Petersburg our flatis situated on the ground floor, and the feeling, atmosphereof the places is rather similar. Switching betweenthese two homes is effortless; life for me isn’t dividedinto “city life” and “country life.” During the last yearsI spent the summer holidays in Narva-Jõesuu, theweekends and, more rarely, winter holidays. That’s possiblebecause my holidays match the student’s ones.Normally, my 11-year-old daughter Dina stays withme, she has many friends here natives from Narva-Jõesuu and Narva she can spend whole days in theircompany in the streets. Though we try to do homeschooling with Dina every day. Both children and I playthe piano in St. Petersburg it is too wet in the house tokeep the instrument here.For me the most pleasant pastime in Narva-Jõesuu,is housework and gardening. The question of the repair,reconstruction of the house constantly bothers us, yetI’m the only person in the family who desires to workhere and who has leisure time to spend the whole summerhere. The others come for a week or two, they donothing and it’s normal. I would have done the same intheir place. Yet it is unfair to dump all the troubles onme. That is why the progress of repair is slow and insignificant.Last year we changed the electric wiring only in our part though, so fire is still highly possible.The first period of my life in Narva-Jõesuu was in myearly childhood and my next visit took place 30 yearslater, in 2000. In the 90ies it was my father who keptthe country house for us nobody wanted to come52

← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈8.↓9. / 10.↓↓53

S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →to Estonia. He also was a rare guest in Narva-Jõesuuand yet still he wished to save the property. I considerthat was a right decision I like most of all that it isanother state now. The safety of life, comfortable infrastructure,the sea you know. The summerhousesin the suburbs of the St. Pete can be devastated twicea year even the doors and the electric connectorsare usually robbed. Here at least the town is peaceful.A Period of Decline: Anna Orloff (3.,5.,6.)To reach the part where the Orloff family lives, I haveto walk around the house. The feeling is like being ina dwarf’s village or hobbit’s house. Everything is small,pretty, clean. The lady matches brilliantly for the household:not tall, pretty, talkative.Anna: My granny bought our part in 1958, directlyfrom the previous owner, an Estonian lady. As a child,I spent long school holidays here. Now the visa is oftentoo short (45 days) for an adequate summer rest.In general, I would say that Narva-Jõesuu is goingthrough a period of decline right now and it can be felt.If before the Perestroika the citizens of St. Petersburgwere the majority of the summer population and thepopulation was more than enough, now the populationis smaller and mostly consists of Narva citizens.House or Museum? Maria Shuleshko (7.)Maria was always considered by her parents a lightmindedperson, frivolous and unreflecting. Recently shedivorced with her sixth husband and now she is activelylooking for the next on the internet. Maria is an ironicperson she accepts that the idea of internet-datinghas turned out to be not very successful, smiles and tellsthe stories of the old house.Maria: Our part of the building and the territory aroundthe house was bought by my grandfather. After mymother’s death the house was formally registered in myname this is kind of my parents’ heritage. My sisterAnna, who also is a fan of Narva-Jõesuu and spent allthe summers of her childhood and youth here, now permanentlylives in Australia.The house inside is full of history. Part of the furnitureis as old as the house is and the head of Narva-Jõesuu town museum has, for several years, beenasking me to donate the museum our collection ofcarved wooden chairs. Ineffectively. These chairs arealso the part of sweet memory of my mother…This is Painful: Lubov Fedorova (8.,9.,10.)This time, the front of the building looks towards RajaStreet in Estonian that name means “Garden Street”.The weird fantasy of the inhabitants chose this name forthe street most removed from the centre of the settlement,although the number of gardens is no bigger thanon other narrow streets of Narva-Jõesuu. This houseis known to all elderly locals because of Lubov’s father,Ivan. This domesticated old gentleman, now almostblind, built a good dozen of the houses in Narva-Jõesuuin the 1950’s.Yet my interviewee is Lubov, Ivan’s daughter, who can beconsidered to be a representative of St. Petersburg in thishousehold. Her story is unlike the other 4 stories before.Lubov was born and grew up in Estonia in Soviet times.She and all her family are Russian-speaking. Lubov leftfor Leningrad (St. Petersburg) at the age of 17 to study.After marriage she put away ideas of returning to Estonia.Lubov: The house that you’re looking at was built by myfather when I was 5. We settled in Estonia (before that welived in Belarus) because my father was invited to takepart in a Makarenko system school. You know whenchildren do work with grownups and are studying at thesame time. The plots of land were given to the teachers.I finished secondary school in Narva, and thenI studied in St. Petersburg to become an engineereconomist.I got married to my colleague, Slava. Lastyear, I visited my home in Narva-Jõesuu with a visathat’s only valid for 45 or 60 days. Every year there is achance that the duration of a visa can be shortened orthat it can even be refused. This is painful. By the way,my father lives here alone, he needs care.Last year my father, Ivan, tried to solve the problemof care in his own way in a rather unexpected way!Our neighbours are two women, the old lady Polinaand her daughter, whose children have already grownup and left the house. Polina is a little bit younger thanIvan and she lost her beloved husband about six yearsago. So imagine my old papa has proposed marriageto Polina! She refused, of course, but the town had atopic to discuss through the winter.54

―← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈How doesa Sailor retire?Some go to war,some sail the oceans,some simply go to work./ / / photo: A c h i m H a t z i u s , B E R L I N1950s55

S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →56

← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈1970s57

S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →58

← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈now59

S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →Telegram from a Sea. Telegrammvon einer See.the shoreline: more or lessborderland. the water: stronger significancethe waves: free radicals.die Küste: mehr oder wenigerRandgebiet. das Wasser: eher signifikantdie Wellen: freie Radikale./ / / poems: R o n W i n k l e r , B E R L I N / / / translation: J a k e D . S c h n e i d e rExamination. Musterung.he has a quick maritime marvelin his glance, turned to the sea,in his lips a small phrase(prancing) such as: aquamarineterritory or gruesome greendepending on luminanceand cloud formation,and he chases the water’s caressmagnetized, as if there were nothingelse to do: no windswept treesto move into position, no reeds to persuade,no seam between firm and fluid countryto critically examine.man hat schnell ein seltsames Seestaunenim Blick, aufs Meer gewandtauf den Lippen einen schmalen Satz(tänzelnd) wie: Geländekennzeichen feinblauoder grüngrausig, je nach Lichteinschlagund Wolkenaufstellung,und verfolgt das Hautspiel des Wassersgebannt, als wäre sonst nichts zu tun:keine Windflüchter zum Bleibenzu bewegen, nicht dem Reet zuzuredenoder die Naht zwischen festemund flüssigem Land kritisch zu mustern.60

Nachmärz. night. violent sleep.Nachmärz. Nacht. Gewaltschlaf.← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈BALTIC SEVEN, GUSTY EIGHT, the night is clearly audible,the sleep porous as sea foam, if I am indeed asleep:sleeping the sleep of forgotten shutters,the light sleep of mouths given a cold start,the sleep of ears, those undisturbed wind harbors.reluctant mussels.and the wind prompts: tomorrow’s chairshave been set in motion, metal over wood,the rest in storm’s hand in hand.the outskirts rotate in an exercise circuit. branchesdoing pull-ups in trees, neck gymnastics in the grass.involuntary, as you might assume.it’s not only the bass notes, it’s also the profound odorof the air. as if someone outside were burningwinter. only winter won’t burn.OSTSEE SIEBEN, BÖEN ACHT, die Nacht ist deutlich hörbar,der Schlaf wie Meerschaum porös, wenn denn wer schläft:den Schlaf schläft vergessener Fensterläden,den leichten Schlaf auf Kaltstart gestellter Münder,den Schlaf von Ohren, die ununterbrochen Windhäfen sind.widerwillige Muscheln.und der Wind souffliert: die Stühle des nächsten Tagessind in Bewegung gesetzt, Blech folgt Holz,Sturmhand in Sturmhand der Rest.die Außenbezirke rotieren in einem Kraftkreis. Klimmzügeder Zweige in den Bäumen, Nackengymnastik im Gras.unfreiwilliger, als man vielleicht denken mag.es sind nicht nur die Basstöne, es ist auch der tiefe Geruchder Luft. als verbrenne man irgendwo draußenden Winter. aber Winter brennt nicht.for / für Björn Kuhligk61

―/ / / photo: C a r m e n v o n K e n d e , W A S H I N G T O N D . C .

S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →The Key to Sea. Klucz do morza./ / / poem: M a r i u s z W i ę c e k , G D Y N I A / / / translation: J e n n i f e r Z i e l i ń s k astars exist that are so far awaya lifetime is insufficient to reach themalthough we see them not through the crystalballsof magi the gouged out eyes offormer gods only ordinarilythrough telescopes we see somethingwhich is beyond the borders of our lifein the territorial waters of deaththe more perfect the telescope we havethe deeper we can look into the eyesof death to the very bottom certainlywe will discover God someday science willmeetwith religion knowledge with faith the Lord willbe distantby a million light years so the light thatcarries information about him will reach usa million light years too late maybeit will happen that when we discover Godhe will no longer exist ask the light itknows everythingistnieją gwiazdy tak odległeże nie starczy życia aby do nich dotrzećjednak my je widzimy nie przez szklane kulemagów wyłupione oczydawnych Bogów tylko zwyczajnieprzez teleskopy widzimy cośco jest poza granicami naszego życiana wodach terytorialnych śmierciim doskonalsze mamy teleskopytym głębiej możemy spojrzeć w oczyśmierci na samym jej dnie zapewneodkryjemy kiedyś Boga nauka spotka sięz religią wiedza z wiarą. Pan będzie oddalonyo miliony lat świetlnych więc światło któreprzenosi o nim informację dotrze do nasmiliony lat świetlnych spóźnione możesię zdarzyć że gdy odkryjemy Bogaon już nie będzie istniał‚ pytajcie światła onowie o wszystkim64

―← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈Coastal Moments./ / / photo: D m i t r y V y s h e m i r s k y , K A L I N I N G R A D65

S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →66

← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈67

― S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →The Great Kingof the Baltic.A Pirate’sStory./ / / text: M a r i - L i i s M ä g i , T A R T U / / / illustration : J a r e k S i e r p i n s k i , B E R L I NIt is Ants’ 75th birthday, but other than that it is justan average day by the Baltic Sea for him, sitting on therocks, skimming stones and stretching his stiff legs.Ants’ old brownish sweatpants have become intolerablybaggy and the left gumboot has a rather big hole in it,but that doesn’t bother Ants, because he knows that athis age, comfort is more important than appearance aten year old sweater, messy grey hair and a who-knowshow-long-to-growbeard proves it in a blink of an eye.In the remote distance, three 15 year-old boys aredragging their surfing equipment to the shore as theyget out of the water. The boys spot the old man immediatelyand start smirking.“Oh, look at the old pirate guy,” says one tauntingly. “Hemust be inventing new stories about how he was thegreat captain of the Baltic Sea or something.”“Give him a break, it’s his birthday today,” says the otherimperatively.“You’re only saying that because he’s your grandfather,”blurts the third boy.“So what if he is,” flares up the second boy, angry atwhat his friend said.“Well, it doesn’t make him less crazy,” states the first, ashe finds the old man kind of dubious.Ants spots the boys, waves at them excitedly and invitesthem to join him as he is known for his eager andrather annoying need to tell stories. In other words helikes a lot of attention.“Come on, Anti, get your friends and come sit down,I’ll tell you boys a little story about the time when I stillsailed the mightiest sea of them all,” shouts Ants in adeep, throaty voice.Anti’s friends, although rather intimidated by the oldman (as they think he is really crazy), still decide to sitdown and let their curiosity get the best of them. Antsdoesn’t look scary at all if seen up close, the boys notice.But still they feel their hearts racing strangely asthey look at him.“Please boys, come on let’s get going!” Anti tries toget his friends away from his grandfather, but the boysseem suddenly somewhat hypnotized by the old man.Anti gives up and also slumps into the sand next to hisgrandfather, rolling his eyes. It’s not enough that thestories of his grandfather were really weird, but he real-68

← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈ly believes what he tells, thinking of himself as a retiredpirate, the most feared, yet also most respected, in theBaltic Sea region, calling himself the Great King of theBaltic. Others simply knew him as Ants the Insane.“It was, I think, about a good 50 years ago, when myfeet touched these shores,” Ants takes a deep breathand begins his narration.It was a day like any other by the Baltic Sea whenI, still young and handsome, stepped out of the vesselI had called home for the last three years. There wassomething about these waters I thought as my rightfoot touched the ground it made me feel alive. I wasalmost as exited as on the day I was given the most powerfulsword the world has ever known the Sword of theKings and became the captain of the pirate ship Ahti.You know, for several years I was only a simple cookon my uncle’s pirate ship. But then, one day, on hisdeathbed, Mart the Mighty, my uncle and the captainof the very same ship, called me up to his bunk and entailedme with his last will: me the cook should gethis sword, the great Sword of the Kings, and becomethe future captain of Ahti, the pirate vessel named afterthe Finnish god of water. I didn’t quite understandwhy the captain thought I was the right person for theposition. I mean, I was after all just a simple cook. ButI took the sword, as it would have been foolish to let thatkind of power pass me by. And that was when the messbegan... of course not everyone of the crew was happywith my uncle’s last will. Actually, his right hand manRein Sharptooth wasn’t in the will at all! He’d had his eyeon the sword, as well as the captain’s position, all alongand couldn’t understand why Mart the Mighty gave thesword to some young inexperienced cook like me. In arage Rein left the ship and swore he would some day getwhat he thought was rightfully his the Sword of theKings. But oh well, back then I thought Sharptooth wasjust really upset and that’s it.The pirates of Ahti, or Ahtians as we were called, werethe most powerful pirates on the Baltic Sea. We were theRobin Hoods of our time, as we robbed from the richand gave to the poor. And we also never killed without agood reason we only took matters into our own handsif great injustice was done. And well, I have to admit, wewere also known for our obnoxious sloppiness and wilddrinking habits, but oh well, we were pirates after all. Andstill, it cannot be denied we Ahtians were local heroesand I, only 25 at the time, was their new leader.After sailing, robbing and sharing with the poor forseveral years, one day I decided to give me and the crewa break. With all these years of sailing, we definitelyneeded some entertainment. So I decided to take mycrew to the annual Pirates Parade in my hometown,Toila. The small Estonian coastal village was famousfor its spectacular banks and beautiful shores I hadmissed them so much! With the Sword of the Kingshanging on my waist, I walked on into town, holding myhead up high. The other Ahtians started unloading theembezzled merchandise.Right away I was spotted by townspeople who wereminding their own business and hanging around theharbour’s tavern.“Bloody hell, is that who I think it is?” shouted a manholding a mug of beer.“Well, you aren’t hallucinating if that’s what you think,”said another.“He has changed a lot he was a real wimp the last timeI saw him... I guess all that time sailing has done him69

S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →good,” stated the first one.Everyone turned their heads to look at me as I approachedthem with a rather confident stride. Anamazed look came over the townspeople’s faces, becausethe last time they saw me, I was just a young cookwho couldn’t seem to do anything right.“It’s the Great King of the Baltic himself,” said Toomas, a localfisherman and my old best friend. “Ain’t that right?” heasked me as he stretched his arm out toward me.“Greetings, old friend,” I said with a friendly smirk on myface as I shook Toomas’ hand. “It’s been a long time.”We entered the tavern accompanied by the townsfolk’scurious stares. Once inside, I told the barkeeperto pour some beer and prepare good meals for my menand started catching up with Toomas, who told me theunbelievable news my old enemy Rein Sharptoothsomehow heard about my plans to take part in the PiratesParade and is still looking for a revenge! And ofcourse, he is still after the Sword of the Kings!Still a bit shocked by the news, suddenly the gorgeousSilvia entered the tavern. Toomas’ face took up a smirkas he spotted her, “Talking about beauty, she has beentalking about you a lot lately.”Silvia was Toomas’ younger sister and my old love, aswe were once going out when we were still teenagers.We gazed at each other and I mumbled to Toomas, “Shehas become quite a lady.”“Hey, Silvia, come on here, the Great King of the Balticwants to exchange a few words,” shouted Toomas. Thepeasant girl modestly approached the table and said,“Good day, dear King.” Toomas rose from the table. “I’llgo now, fish need cleaning. Catch you later, my friend,”he said as he left.And there it was just like in the beginning, a tensionbetween us. You know, the kind of tension that emergesbetween two people who have a spectacular connectionwith each other. I was falling deeper and deeper intoher beautiful eyes, when suddenly I was brought back toreality again my men barged in shouting all at once.“Hey, hey, would someone please tell me what’s goingon, I can’t understand a word you’re saying,” I bristledat my men.“Well,” said one of my pirates, “Rein Sharptooth’s ship is approaching.We spotted it on the horizon. What do we do?”My face went serious in a blink of the eye as I heardthe news. I ordered my right hand man Otto to clearout the townspeople, for Rein Sharptooth was a pirateknown for his violence and cold blooded killing sprees.I knew that Rein would go to the limits this time, as hehad come to claim what he thought was rightfully his.By the time all townspeople were cleared out, Sharptooth’sship had almost reached the shore and we startedtaking our fighting positions.“Don’t worry boss, we’ll take them. They’re all words, noaction,” said Otto to make me feel better.“He won’t get the sword!” I barely had time to say, as ReinSharptooth’s ship reached the shore and he jumped off it.“You know why I’m here, so lets get it over with as quicklyas possible,” Sharptooth said with a grouchy deep voice.He looked plain ugly had vampire teeth, long dirty hairand blank eyes.“The Sword of the Kings has chosen its master and it’snot you, deal with it,” I yelled at him in anger.Meanwhile, Sharptooth’s pirates got off the ship andstood behind their master with a bloodthirsty look intheir eyes.“The Sword of the Kings belongs to me, I have slaved forover 20 years as your uncle’s right hand man and I amentitled to it. This time I’ll take it whatever the cost, soI suggest you give it to me now and I’ll spare your men,”Sharptooth yelled back at me.“You didn’t get the sword because my uncle knew youdidn’t deserve it. You are plain evil and I’ll fight you. Ifyou win, the sword is yours and you can kill me if youwish. Deal?” I proposed.Sharptooth smirked and said, “You just made it eveneasier for me, you dog. I’ll tell you what we’ll fight tilldeath, no weapons, just bear hands... and teeth.”“Deal,” I said as Sharptooth took a first swing at me.“So what happened then?” Anti interrupts his grandfather’semotional storytelling.“Well, I won the fight, if I remember correctly, ofcourse,” answers Ants.“And... did you kill Rein Sharptooth?” asks Anti’s friend.“No... no, I didn’t kill him.”“What do you mean you didn’t kill him?” asks Anti. “Butyou are alive, aren’t you? That means you had to havekilled him!”Ants averts his eyes and seems quite thoughtful fora moment, but then says, “I remembered what the oldcaptain said about the Sword of the Kings. It always70

← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈71

S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →needs a reason for killing... My reason wasn’t goodenough. In fact, it wasn’t a reason at all, because takingsomeone’s life just for a piece of metal wouldn’t bean admirable thing to do. I had found my truth long beforeI got the sword and I realized by killing SharptoothI wouldn’t truly make the sword my own, but quite thecontrary, give it away by selling out all I believed in...I didn’t become a pirate because of the power, I did notneed the Sword of the Kings for anything. Piracy for mewas about honour... about honour and freedom. Aboutthe cool waters of the Baltic Sea.”“What happened to Silvia?” one of Anti’s friendsasks. Ants starts laughing and answers, “I took her withme, of course. And we got married later. Silvia is after allAnti’s grandmother, you know.”“Oh, Grandpa, just stop it. You’re talking crazy,” Antibursts out suddenly. “It is not possible that all that happenedfifty years ago. There was the Cold War goingon during that time. We were under Soviet occupation.There were no pirates and even if there were, theywould have been killed in an instant... Why can’t youjust be a regular old man, why do you have to tell thesestupid stories? They are all just lies, just dumb stories.”After shouting these words Anti ran away from thebeach and went straight to his grandparents’ house andsat down on the stairs. From the house his grandmotherSilvia came.“What has happened? Where’s your grandfather?”Silvia asks.“He is telling his stupid stories again. Lying about beinga pirate... He said something about fighting some evilpirate called Rein Sharptooth and something about theSword of Kings or something.”Silvia sits down next to her grandson, pats him on theshoulders and says, “Oh, honey... He just wants to be apart of the Baltic Sea... I mean, look at these waters they connect some of the most beautiful shores onthe face of the earth of course, they might not be assandy and clear as the Caribbean’s, but the roughnessand the beauty of these waters contain more powerthan the huge waves of the Pacific Ocean. These waterscan survive anything from the coldest winters tothe hottest summers; they almost seem human.”“But why does he have to lie like that. He’s a crazy...”Silvia smiles cleverly and says, “Well, everyone hashis own truth... And now you run along to the woodshedand bring a few logs to put in the oven. I want to makesome homemade bread for dinner. It is your grandfather’sbirthday after all.” Then she stands up and goesinside.Anti starts to glumly stroll toward the woodshed, entersand takes few logs, and then he spots a huge dustysword in the corner. A hot wave passes through him ashe drops the logs and picks up the sword.“Could it be...?” he murmurs to himself as he gazes atthe most beautiful sword his eyes have ever met.72

―← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈When the historic strikebegan in August 1980,Gdańsk’s shipyard stillemployed about 16,500workers. Today justthree thousand.Stocznia./ / / photo: M i c h a ł S z l a g a , G D A Ń S KDemolitions, 200773

S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →Departement PW5, 2005Viva Lech Walesa an abandonedpost office building, 200574

← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈A documentation of “Solidarity”action by artist Piotr Uklański;it consists of arranging andphotographing inscriptions fromabout 3,000 soldiers, 200775

S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →w w w . s z l a g a . c o m76

← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈Skid K-3, 2004left: “Anna Proletariuszka” Anna Walentynowicz , thelegendary leader of the 1980’sstrikes, in the ruins of theDepartement K2, 200477

― S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E →The Black Hole.Three Boat Womenand the Sea./ / / interview: N a d i n a W ó j c i k , B E R L I N/ / / photo : N a d j a B ü l o w , H A M B U R GMore than sailing the traditional sailing ship LOVIS is an open space for allkind of projects, like a swimming seminar room. During sailing season fromMarch to October the skipper and a boat woman take care of the variousgroups. Kicke (32), Lea (29) and Anja (26) all left land for one whole sailingseason to become woman on LOVIS.Any special characteristics a boat woman should have?Kicke: Well, I think the most important thing is to beopen-minded. Almost every week there is a new group ofpeople on board. You always need to explain everythingwithout being unpatient. At the same time it is also veryimportant for me to be part of the group and to not justthe boat woman who is asked about the sails.Anja: You really need a lot of patience. For example,some people do not know how to clean up. This is reallya big issue. Some people really do not get it that the shipneeds to be cleaned up for the next group.Together with the skipper you are responsible for upto 30 people how do you deal with that?Kicke: Usually people on board are responsible enough.They realize quickly how to behave and what to do duringstorms, how to use both hands to hold onto the robs whilewalking over the deck and that they are not supposed tostand on deck right where the water is already coming in.And if people get seasick there are always those peoplewho feel better to help them.Anja: Those people who do not get sick during a stormusually start making food or tea, getting blankets foreveryone. You can feel real group dynamics in these moments.So, you are never alone. Sure, you have a lot of responsibility,but there are many other people helping you.Lea: You also learn to pull yourself together. There wasonce a moment when I was panicking a bit because ofthe big movement of the sea, but I knew I am not allowedto show this, because I was supposed to know that thiswasn’t really a critical situation. And if I start to even justlook a bit worried than the guests will feel even worse.The boat woman’s cabin is right in front of the ship,not connected with the other rooms what kind offeeling is it down there?Lea: It is tiny. We call it the black hole because it has no windowsand when the door is closed it is pitch-dark. That’sactually a good headline for our interview: the black hole!Kicke: Skew walls...Anja: And even though it is so small it is usually stillpacked with stuff like ropes.Kicke: A box full of flags, sawing stuff,....Lea: Stuff for fire protection...Anja: However, since 2005 there has been a big improvementbecause now the boat woman cabin has acupboard and shelves.Lea: And a heater.Kicke: And a reading lamp.Anja: Now it is really luxury.Lea: At the end of my season it was really hard to clearout the cabin knowing: this will be home for someone78

← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈new. Somehow this really was a place that was mine andthat was really important to me.What does sailing mean to you?Kicke: It is a great break from work. You have nothing onyour mind. Everything that was important at home staysthere you do not take it along.Anja: When everybody works to get the sails up and thensuddenly the engine goes off and you start sailing thisis really the best moment.Lea: I love the boat as a space very much. During my seasonwhen we stopped in a harbour I usually just went tothe toilet and to the next ice creme parlour and that was it.Anja: Sometimes I find myself padding the ship: oh, sucha brave ship! Caring words because it is such a nice ship.When it is out of the water it looks like a pregnant whale! Ireally have developed very caring emotions for this ship.What was the nicest moment on board?Kicke: Whale watching. And looking at the brightest starsever.Anja: Coming back from Spitzbergen I once saw whitenoseddolphins. That was really cool. And there were alsoso many nice group experiences, when you get alongvery well with the people on board.Kicke: Like, when you wake up in the morning findingout that someone dear baked rolls.Anja: You are happy with really little things, I agree!Kicke: Sunshine on deck...Lea: Like Anja said that there are so many little thingsthat made me happy. It is rather just moments, like steeringinto the sunset, totally calm and beautiful and somebodyplays the guitar for you.How was it like when you got back from your tour?Lea: On board I had always something to do. Even whenthe group was out making day trips on shore I usuallystayed on the ship repairing something or painting therailing. When I got back home I have lived already8 years in the same appartment the first thing I noticedwas: the door frame needed fresh painting! And thatwas the first thing I did back home (laughing).Anja: I got stuck with cleaning up. When I got back it wassuddenly not that hard for me anymore to clean up that didn’t last long though (laughing).Kicke: My turn is not over yet, but I guess I will be reallyhyper. First I need to stay at home a bit because my catmust have missed me much and needs my attention.Luckily, so far she was never offended when I was gonefor some time. And I need to see my friends as soon aspossible. Maybe somebody will be even smart enough toorganise a coming-home party for me (laughing)..lovis.de79

―Stories from the Seaside.Editor in chief: Nadina Wójcik (V.i.d.P.)Consultant language editor: Ian CookPicture editor: Stephanie EndterGraphic Design: jagajankowska.euSTORIES FROM THE SEASIDE cover photo: Stephanie EndterProofreading: Björn Jungius, Carmen von KendeGet more infromation about the PLOTKI project, join the PLOTKI mailinglists and read the latest rumours from around the blocon .plotki.netPublished in November 2008Printed by DruckVogt, Berlin―Moving Baltic Sea.Project Coordination: Suzana Radišić, Janosch Dietrich, Nadja Talmi, Anke MerzigerMOVING BALTIC SEA cover photo: Nadja BülowSailing Ship: .lovis.deSpecial thanks to all MBS partners from around the Baltic Sea!Ökohaus Rostock e.V., R O S T O C K \ G E R M A N YLoesje, B E R L I N \ G E R M A N YCentre for Ecological Information and Education, G D A Ń S K \ P O L A N DCulture Collective, University of Gdansk \ P O L A N DEcodefense! Education, K A L I N I N G R A D \ R U S S I AMuseum of the World Ocean, K A L I N I N G R A D \ R U S S I AThe Guide, K A L I N I N G R A D \ R U S S I AFoundation for Environmental Education, R I G A \ L A T V I A2Annas/Virtual Film Studio Urga, R I G A \ L A T I V ACentre for Applied Ecology, S I L L A M Ä E \ E S T O N I AKinobuss, T A L L I N N \ E S T O N I AGerman-Russian Exchange, S T . P E T E R S B U R G \ R U S S I AKeep St. Petersburg Tidy, S T . P E T E R S B U R G \ R U S S I A―This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commissioncannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.Finacially supported by :