Word: rhineland
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...smalltown lawyer, he became an able mayor of Cologne and an effective figure in the pre-Hitler Catholic Center Party, but he has no experience in national administration. He has often been accused of being provincial, and he makes no secret of the fact that he prefers his native Rhineland to the raw, "uncivilized" Prussians; once he cracked to a Berlin friend: "Why do you go on living in a town where the monkeys still swing from the trees?" With his imperious eyes, his thin, determined lips, and his rather high, monotonous voice, Adenauer is not a popular leader...
...swordmakers of Solingen, in Western Germany, knew a thing or two about cutting edges long before Richard the Lionhearted matched blades with wily Saladin. Roman soldiers who had served in the East brought many of the steelmaking secrets of Damascus into the Rhineland, and in the 6th Century Theodoric the Ostrogoth pronounced Solingen's swords worthy of Vulcan's own forge. Charlemagne armed his warriors at Solingen's smithies. During the Crusades they produced the finest blades in Christendom. In the 16th Century the smiths of Solingen engraved the proud label, "Solingen made me," on their blades...
...later chief of staff of all the International Brigades. He was really Hans Zaisser, born in 1893 in the Ruhr. In World War I, Zaisser fought as a German noncom. Later he joined the Red military organization (M-Apparat), was a leader in the 1923 abortive uprisings in the Rhineland. When Hitler came in, he fled to Soviet Russia...
Adenauer's devotion to Cologne and his native Rhineland gave rise to an abiding dislike for Prussia. His eyes were turned West (he is known for his strong pro-French sympathies). Adenauer-who does not drink-once said...
...There is not one Germany. There are three. One (Bavaria) is the Germany of beer, a second (Prussia) is the Germany of schnapps and the third (the Rhineland) is the Germany of wine. The only people sober enough to rule all three in a sane, sensible manner are those from the wine country...