Читать книгу Germany's Freefall - Hermann Dr. Rochholz - Страница 15

Some time ago I read from a journalist: “In the past, everything used to be organic.” My response to this at the time was rather clumsy: “Beating women used to be standard. Animals used to be petted?”

Kings had died from their beautiful red and green wallpaper. The colors of these had been made with mercury salts in combination with lead or copper. At some point people had realized that these bright colors were poisonous. They were then used as insecticides and fungicides. Today, organic farmers continue this beautiful tradition with copper.

Washing clothes was a challenge. You washed them with soap and a washboard – a thing with a metal sheet in the middle that was folded in a zigzag, and an insane hassle to the housewife.

Less than sixty years ago people had used a radioactive radiator with a shield affixed on top of it. People used to put their foot and their new shoes into it and could directly see the space left by their toes in the shoes. This wasn’t done at the hospital, but in the shoe store. It was considered progress when you could immediately see how your new shoes fit.

Fifty years ago, people who ate schnitzel received the same dose of hormones as from a birth control pill.

There were no nicotinamides for insects and no glyphosate. Smoking wasn’t harmful to your health. “Better reach for an HB (cigarette) - then everything will work out like a charm” was the motto. Beriberi was on everyone’s lips (which is why we should always eat “whole grain” food). Copha (“Palmin”) closed the pores of the meat. Scurvy was caused by a vitamin C deficiency, and the power of Omo detergent “went through the knot”. All this, by the way, “allegedly”.

What’s more, “innovations” hadn’t existed yet. These were dubbed “progress”. In the past, people moved forward, today everything is new.

Wikipedia reports that potato varieties were still being cultivated in the Third Reich (variety “Forward!”), which had about ten times as much solanine, the poison of the nightshade plant, as today’s varieties. Times back then were so good because less poison had to be sprayed because the poison was in the potatoes. One small disadvantage: If you ate 1 kg of potatoes you were dead. Rudolf Steiner (philosopher and founder of the Waldorf schools) said: “Eating potatoes makes you stupid”.

Since people knew about such things, no one would ever come up with the idea of doing something like that. The purpose of food was to get calories into your body – in contrast to today where we avoid calories in order to chase after an ideal of beauty.

No decent drugs were available. Women had a hard time: They died of childbed fever, or their children did, or both together.

Many people died of syphilis, which usually ends in dementia in its final stage. The first effective drug against it was called “Salvarsan”. It was a mixture of heavy metals. The Farbwerke Hoechst chemicals company produced the toxin during the Second World War. Local residents were often forced to shut their windows, as everything often became covered with the yellow factory dust. Near blast furnaces, on the other hand, the factory dust was red. Epidemics abounded as well as children’s diseases that resulted in permanent damage or death. Letterpress printing letters were made of lead, which is why many printers died of lead poisoning. Sweetening was done with lead sugar. Cars were operated on leaded fuel. The lead dust was blown into the environment. Water pipes were made of lead as well, but this was regarded relatively uncritically.

Plants were fertilized with excrement. It's well known that it can be toxic. EHEC sends its regards.

Since no insecticides existed, every household was plagued with insects such as cockroaches and the like. Windows had no glass – only the upper class had glass windows. The English word “window” comes from the word “wind-eye”. It was for ventilation purposes so that you didn’t die of carbon monoxide poisoning when heating your quarters. As mentioned before, Immanuel Kant was also plagued by vermin in his study and certainly in bed as well. It would be interesting to know how many people suffered from arachnophobia, i.e. a fear of spiders. I almost wrote “arachidophobia”. No: Peanuts were unknown in Europe.

To stay with the subject: The old railroad trains used to be pulled by beautiful steam engines. The ride used to be quite ramontic – excuse me, I meant “romantic”. Apart from the fact that many stokers in locomotives went stupid because they suffered from continuous carbon monoxide poisoning (tunnels...). In December 1952, 12,000 people had died from the smog in London.

Romantic relationships were uncommon in earlier centuries. “Romantic love” was promoted in poetry, by the theater and the media. Marriage was for convenience and only had to do with “love” in exceptional cases. Children were needed to feed you in old age.

Five droughts were recorded in Germany around the year 1240, similar to that in 2019. This is evidenced by “Hungersteine” (“hunger stones”) that served as famine memorials in rivers, which had showed up again for the first time in 2019. There were no trucks and no water pipes. Thousands starved to death. First, the old people were left to starve and then the children. Survivors were marked for life.

In contrast, about 1600 people had experienced a cold period. The sun was at its “Maunder Minimum”, as sunspots had become extremely rare. The result was the Thirty Years’ War. This war may have triggered by the Defenestration of Prague and different political and religious objectives within and outside the territory of the Reich at that time, but the cause was certainly the migration of people as well, which was triggered by the cold temperatures. As a result of the effects of the war and the associated epidemics, famines and rabid wolves, the population was so decimated that no one believed in a possible recovery.

The Holy Roman Empire had no bathing facilities. In the Middle Ages, communal bathing establishments did exist in urban areas, but these were closed again for moral and hygienic reasons. Even in baroque castles you had to search a long time to find any bathing facilities. These were the high times for Europe’s perfume makers. The ordinary citizen in town or out in the countryside had to resort to the wooden tub. Travelers to Italy were not welcome there because of their body odor. Showers had not been invented yet.

When the farmer and his wife went to church, they came from the fields and often had to march to church for hours. That’s why the churches stank. Pastors often burned incense as a remedy. The social elite could already afford a lot at that time. Incidentally, the Native Americans employed the same method after the Spanish sailors had invaded America and brought their deadly diseases with them.

As far as the economy was concerned, most people worked in the fields or raised livestock. One farmer was able to sustain about five people. There was no social security and there were no kindergartens.

Colicky kids (“Schreikinder”) existed even back then. While their parents worked in the fields, their kids had to be kept quiet. Probably some of them had to be tied up. Another method was common as well: a pacifier trenched in beer or poppy extracts/opium was put in the mouths of children – lethal, but highly effective and certainly “organic”, even by today’s standards.

As far as education was concerned, compulsory schooling was introduced at the beginning of the 19th century. Learning meant multi-class, teacher-centered teaching. The cane was the means of choice when teaching discipline and the curriculum to students. This was the “pedagogy” of the time.

Until the introduction of forensics through genetic fingerprinting (DNA detection) a few years ago, it was not possible to convict many criminals, especially sex offenders.

Now to our terrible present time and its “plastic waste”.