Word of the Day: Bürgerstolz

I love my home town.  By “home town,” I’m not speaking of Leipzig, my current place of residence, nor am I speaking of Abilene, the place where Tara and I own a house and hope to spend the rest of our lives.  When I say I love my home town, I am speaking about the town where I spent my childhood–Brookville, PA.  I couldn’t say I loved the town growing up, but after nearly 25 years away my affection for the town and the community where I was raised has deepened.  I return home about once every year or so with much affection for family and old friends who still live in the area. I love Brookville.  I was thinking about this tonight while walking home from a British pub–yes, in Leipzig–amid falling snow that reminded me of winter nights at home hoping that the snow would fall deep enough that school would be cancelled the next day.

Today’s word of the day is Bürgerstolz.  A Bürger is a “citizen,” and Stolz is a word that is often translated as “pride.”  Thus, Bürgerstolz means “civic pride.”  While I finally settled on this word late this evening, I’ve been thinking about it since this afternoon when I visited the Forum Thomanum offices.  The Forum Thomanum is one of the final volunteer sites our students are considering.  Kayli (one of my students) and I met with Rolf Ahrendt, the Forum Thomanum headmaster, and Sulamith Bronner, the project manager.  Our meeting also included Elfi, who I’ve mentioned in earlier blog posts, and Doris Benner, a lawyer in Leipzig who has worked with ACU for several years in dealing with important logistical matters pertaining to our work in Leipzig.

It was a great pleasure listening in to Doris and Rolf, to hear them speak so effusively about the city of Leipzig.  They described Leipzig’s historical identity as a city of trade and manufacturing, a feature that leads Leipzigers to embrace a spirit of freedom and openness and resistance to authority.  “Is there a German word that describes this spirit?” I inquired.  Rolf coined a compound word that I’m not convinced I’ll reproduce correctly here, but it sounded something like this: Leipzigerischefreiheit.  The general idea here was that there is something unique about the Leipzig spirit, a liberal acceptance of the world that embraces freedom and the independent, entrepeneurial spirit.  Who can’t appreciate that?

And of course, as headmaster of the Forum Thomanum, Rolf is in fitting position to speak of the cultural wonders that cities much larger than Leipzig could only dream to have.  The Forum  Thomanum is an educational institution that is best known as the home of the world famous St. Thomas Boys Choir, the Thomanerchor.  Literally hundreds of composers have some sort of connection to Leipzig, including the cities most famous son, J.S. Bach.

Our meeting took place in a home located adjacent to the Thomaskirche. Once the home of the school’s headmaster, the home now serves as the offices for the Forum Thomanum.  The home is “only” 115 years old, replacing the former residence that occupied that spot from the middle of the 16th century. Entering the Forum Thomanum office space, I whisper to Kayli, “I feel like I’m walking onto the set of a Harry Potter film.”  And once again I forgot my camera. Sigh…

I won’t spend much time here recounting all of the things that Doris and Rolf shared about Leipzig, which in their opinion absolutely rivals Vienna as a center of European musical culture.  As an outsider who is learning about Leipzig, I can appreciate this civic pride, this Bürgerstolz.  Visiting with Rolf got me excited about the Forum Thomanum’s future plans, which include the construction of a music school that they hope will become an educational site for students of music from around the world.  How extraordinary it would be for music students at my own university to come to Leipzig to study as part of their education! Kayli was inspired enough by the visit that she has agreed to volunteer there for the semester.  I’m so excited for her!

Well, I’m off to bed.  Sorry that I don’t have many pictures to share from today.  Hope to remedy this over the weekend, our first independent travel break.  Our plan is to take the kids eastward to Saxon Switzerland. We should have plenty of pictures to share from this excursion.