Cultural Heritage - A Quiet Death

I think it only fair to warn you that this write-up is a bit of a raging rant and I took out all my swear words.  Feel free to substitute your own every time you read <Bleep> or <Bleeping>.  That way, if it doesn't make sense, then you only have yourself to blame.

I am a fan of Art Deco (or Jugendstil if you'd prefer).  And Wiesbaden is a city famed for its Jugendstil buildings.  I've blipped quite a lot of them and taken quite a bit of pride in showing Wiesbaden to people who have visited.

I can usually find a bit of beauty everywhere I go in the city.  And I had a favourite building in an otherwise ugly part of town. 

It was this building - Dotzheimer Straße 169.  It was built in 1905.

It had 9 balconies all differently designed and to my eyes they were astonishing and beautiful.

I noticed they were renovating the building on my way home one night a few months ago and thought "Good, those balconies need a bit of maintaining".

This is what they have done.

Go large and tell me what beauty you see in those 13 metal bars that have replaced each balcony?

Someone has to be held to account for this <Bleeping> terrible decision.

I know that some will say that it was only a couple of <Bleeping> balconies and it would have been really expensive to do the job properly, just make sure that people can't fall out and everyone should be <Bleeping> happy.

Except I'm <Bleeping> not.

There's a weaselly, narrow-minded, cut-every-corner, <Bleep>-You world view on show here.  A Beauty-Is-Only-For-Those-Who-Can-Afford-It attitude.  And I think it <Bleeping> stinks.

I see this a lot.  I call it psychotic economics and I can see it as a very logical extension of Homo economicus. Where concern for the concept of other plays no role.  Maximise what you get, that's all that's important.

<Bleep> that.

I believe we should be much better than that. Really.

<Bleep> I need a beer.