kindness of strangers
Department of Honour
I just acquired the most beautiful new German word. We are discussing privilege and a new acquaintance says he has to do something ehrenamtlich – oh, how divine, can ‘ehrenamtlich’ mean ‘voluntary’? An ‘Amt’ is a bureau, government department or office. But ‘Ehre’ means honour.
Germany is overrun with Amts. Ordinarily they sound faintly menacing: the Ordnungsamt, Department of Order, takes care of ticketing people’s unlicensed dogs, illegal parking &c: a histrionic graffito in the local drug park screeches, in orange, Ordungsamt = Terror!!. Online I find a website called Ehrenamt Deutschland, which offers a definition: honourable offices can be anything which is performed “freiwillig, gemeinwohlorientiert und unentgeltlich,” that is, anything that is pursued of one’s own free will, is oriented towards the common good, and is unpaid. The formality makes it sound almost stultifying but there is all this generosity and warmth beating away underneath.
As Australia turns itself into a vast gulag for imprisoning children, and other countries up and down the escape corridor into Europe close and razor wire their borders, Berliners are opening refugee cafes, holding garage sales and donating food, organising ‘Asylum Seeker Airbnb’ to help match people’s spare rooms with exhausted new arrivals. I find it so moving to think that by teaching German once a week in the giant refugee camp that was once the old Tempelhof airport, this Berliner becomes part of the Department of Honour.
17 comments on “Department of Honour”
Leave a comment
You might also like to read:
The young man in the place where we are staying is Moroccan and comes from the desert, which he describes to me as 'sympa', sympathetic, a kind place. As opposed to the hustle and throng ...read more
My parents have a spare room which they have been eager to put to use as Dad's medical expenses mount, so I offered to manage it for them as an Airbnb listing. Airbnb has been ...read more
We went out to the white people's restaurant, as he calls it, which is a street stall on a dirt laneway behind the supermarket. There's no street lighting, no cutlery. Collapsible plastic tables are set ...read more
Wunderbar ????
Danke sehr!
Ausgezeichnet
Stimmt, oder?
Sicher
We need all these Amts in Brighton. Especially the Irdnungsamt to tackle those bleudige hunde on strings! However I have escaped schmutziger Brighton for an indulgent weekend in Wien. Still have not had Kaffee und Kuchen but went to the wonderful Flohmarkt at the Naschmarkt.
Ordnungsamt
I am thinking maybe the Irrdnungsamt would be the Department for Resolving Ludicrous Crazy Errors.
*Gesamt: the Department for Patrolling and Governing all the other Amts.
Cathoelamt!
The Department for Picking Up Flattened Things in the Street and Trying to Convince People They’re Beautiful can be condensed into the one long word, in German
Fine piece!
Thank you!
A language which can scoop life’s complexities into single words? Yes!
What a lovely way to put it, Alison, you have opened my eyes. So thank you for the Augeneröffnungsgrosszügigkeit.
I think you do a fantastic job of capturing Berlin, Cathoel — your posts were so nourishing during the winter for me, and continue to be, as a writer from far away finding my way here, and finding my way into a difficult project. Thank you ❤️
This is wonderful to hear, Hinemoana, thank you for saying so. Berlin in the winter can feel so alienating. The golden candles flickering indoors while one trudges past. I am glad you are here to write & am very much looking forward to reading and enjoying the fruits of your difficult Berlin residency. X