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170 years ago William Heerlein Lindley was born

170 years ago William Heerlein Lindley was born, the first of four children of William Lindley and Julia Heerlein. His father briefly noted this fact in his diary: 30 January 1853 [Sunday] "William Heerlein Lindley (my first child) born at Hamburg, 50 Ferdinandstrasse 8 p.m."

We know from German sources that January in Hamburg was a relatively warm month and that day the temperature was still positive at 2 degrees Celsius.In the next two months, it dropped to about -3 degrees, which meant a mild and healthy winter.

On that day, European opinion was alive with the news of the wedding of the French Emperor Napoleon III Bonaparte (1808-1873) and Eugénie Maria, a Spanish-Scottish aristocrat (1853-1871 Empress of France).Their civil wedding took place on Saturday, January 29, in the Salon of the Marshals, in the Tuileries, and a church wedding a day later, in Notre-Dame Cathedral.

For William Lindley, the day of the birth of his firstborn son was the greatest reason to celebrate..He was 45 at the time.He made the decision to marry when he was 44, so he was mature and certainly dreamed of a successful future for his son.William Heerlein's baptism took place at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. James (St. Jacobi) on Wednesday, September 7 this year. The witnesses were William's siblings - sister Caroline and brother Joseph, and father-in-law Martin Eduard Heerlein.

Corner of Ferdinadstrasse and Gertrudenstrasse

The house at 50 Fedinand Street was located in the Old Town, near the of Inner-Alster Lake (a river of the same name, a tributary to the Elbe). It belonged to his wife's parents and was the mainstay of William's family during his European travels. His other children were born at this address. Currently, this house does not exist. At this point, the transverse street Gertrudenstrasse was pierced and part of the former residential house was occupied by a huge building of Hamburg's Hapag-Lloyd. 

Christmas and New Year 2022/2023

"Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection." Winston Churchill

Another difficult year is coming to an end. It is true that covid no longer disturbs the festive atmosphere, but we are overcome with sadness when we look at the fate of our eastern neighbors, brave Ukrainians.There are reasons to be happy, but we are also concerned about the news coming to us from this part of Europe. Let's remember at the holiday table those who are not given it.

Let's forget about the disputes that divide us for a moment, let's enjoy the moment and do good around us.

May this holiday, our dear friends, bring you a moment of oblivion, happiness and joy, and may the New Year 2023 make your dreams come true.

Societas Lindleiana

Alfons Grotowski (1833-1922), on the hundredth anniversary of his death.

Alfons Grotowski, chief engineer of the city, councilor of the city mayor, builder of the Praga waterworks and, above all, deputy chief engineer of William H. Lindley, died in Warsaw on November 18, 1922, at the age of 90, almost five years later than the two decades younger British engineer. He was famous for his punctuality and longevity. Until 1919, he worked at the Water and Sewerage Office.

He had a great sense of humor and a few anecdotes were remembered by posterity. One of them was quoted by Feliks Ornowski years ago. During a water ceremony, a visiting participant, seeing a gray-haired old man bustling about briskly, approached him and apologized for his audacity and asked about… his date of birth. At first engineer  Grotowski was surprised, but turning the whole thing into a joke, he replied: ‘Oh, there was no one in the world at that time’. Gentleman from the province continued ‘How about Adam? ‘But he was a gardener, not a man from our water supply branch, so he does not count’ calmly replied Grotowski.

Alfons Grotowski was born on February 23, 1833 in Żarnowiec, now a village in the Silesian Province. The future engineer graduated from the Gymnasium in Kielce and from 1850 began working in the Transportation Board in Warsaw. In 1868, he designed and built the Praga waterworks, which operated in the years 1869–1896. In 1875 he participated in the commission delegated to inspect water supply facilities in England. On the way back he visited Hamburg and Frankfurt am Main, where he got acquainted with the works of William Lindley. After returning to Warsaw, the Commission recommended that the city council commission the relevant projects by a British engineer. Grotowski was a member of the new Sewage and Water Supply Construction Committee. At the request of W.H. Lindley was nominated in 1888 as Deputy Chief Engineer.

He was a co-founder of the Hygiene Society and the organizer of the first hygiene exhibition in Warsaw. On May 31, 1906, on his way to work, he was shot by unknown perpetrators who blamed him for contributing to the arrest of the striking water workers, wrongly according to the domestic press. Engineer Grotowski survived this attack and lived to an old age.

In 1936, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Lindley's waterworks on pl. Starynkiewicza in Warsaw, a square named after him was created. Alfons Grotowski was buried at the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.

The Warsaw water tower undergoes renovation

Maacha Deubner's new CD on Austrian Radio Ö1 (ORF)

There is a unique opportunity to listen to “our star” Maacha Deubner on podcast of Austrian Radio Ö1 (ORF). Maacha presents  her last CD  "Bessonnitsa /Insomnia - A Mandelstam Album" composed of chamber music by Elena Firsova, Sofia Gubaidulina, Edison Denisov and Valentin Silvestrov. The radio program includes also master pieces of W.A. Mozart, Giya Kancheli, Valentin Silvestrov, Gustav Mahler.

Maacha Deubner, soprano

"The voice of Maacha Deubner is a revelation in and of itself."

follow Maacha Deubner on:

Maacha Deubner - Soprano - Official website (maacha-deubner.com)

Maacha worked on CD together with Tatjana Frumkis, a composer, born and educated in Tallin (Estonia), living last 30 years in Berlin. Maacha Deubner and Tatjana Frumkis give also interviews on their musical inspirations.

Take a listen and enjoy.  

https://oe1.orf.at/programm/20220423/675925/Maacha-Deubner-Tatjana-Frumkis

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Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam, a Russian and Soviet poet,  born on 14 January 1891 in Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire to a wealthy Polish family. Soon after Osip's birth, they moved to Saint Petersburg. In 1907 his first poems were printed in 1907 in the school's almanac. In April 1908, Mandelstam decided to enter the Sorbonne in Paris to study literature and philosophy, but he left the following year to attend the University of Heidelberg in Germany. In 1911, he decided to continue his education at the University of Saint Petersburg, from which Jews were excluded. He converted to Methodism and entered the university the same year. He did not complete a formal degree.

Mandelstam's poetry, acutely populist in spirit after the first Russian revolution in 1905, became closely associated with symbolist imagery. In 1911, he and several other young Russian poets formed the "Poets' Guild", under the formal leadership of Nikolai Gumilyov and Sergei Gorodetsky. The nucleus of this group became known as Acmeists. Mandelstam wrote the manifesto for the new movement: The Morning Of Acmeism (1913, published in 1919).[8] In 1913 he published his first collection of poems, The Stone; it was reissued in 1916 under the same title, but with additional poems included.

Osip Mandelshtam was arrested during the repression of the 1930s and sent with his wife into internal exile to Voronezh in southwestern Russia. In 1938 Mandelstam was arrested again and sentenced to five years in a corrective-labour camp in the Soviet Far East. He died that year at a transit camp near Vladivostok.