The Last Day

The Last Day

The last and 8th day of Datscha Radio stood under the star of the “Quattroflex”: Hannes Wienert, multi-instrumentalist from Hamburg, unpacked his suitcase and introduced this item to a wide-eyed audience – next to a Tibetan conch, two Korean and Japanese oboes and the Chinese sheng. The “Quattroflex” is a variant of the customary garden water hose, in the inside equipped with a quadruple lining of rills. Therefore, the sound obtains a particular frequency which reminds the listener of electronically processed vibrations. Wienert equips his tubes and shell conches with fitting mouthpieces from various saxophones, such creating a new breed of “hybrid instruments”.

Our guests of honour this day were the chairman of the “Gardening and Housing Society “Einigkeit”, Werner Bär and his wife. Another guest was Gerd Haertl, the event manager of the Rosenthal Autumn Festival. He talked about the history of the village which, having been founded in 1230, is even older than the city of Berlin. And he  also played “The Hymn of Rosenthal”. Much to our delight, Mr Bär agreed to do a radio interview on the current and historical situation of the “Einigkeit”, and to emphazise the importance of this greatest of all garden parks in Berlin for the city – and of course, as the home stead of Datscha Radio. Naturally, the Datscha team seized this opportunity to thank Mr. Bär personally for his enduring support by word and deed: Since both, the tent that protected us, our guests and the tables and benches were provided by the “Einigkeit” club house for free. Together with the Liebram couple who maintains the heritage of Rosenthal at the “Altes Landhaus”, our editor Diana McCarty and our Datscha Radio artist Frau Puschel, we formed an agreeable round with coffee and beer and the apple cake vanishing by and by.

At this point, it is fit to refer to the peculiar phenomen of the tomato, being picked, resting on the table, disappearing and reappearing in a constant flow and go these days (as can be observed by looking attentively at our photos). Tomatos were in everybody’s mouth, went through everybody’s hands, they flew through the air, rolled in the grass, fell from the trees, and they ended either in a dish or immediately in somebody’s stomach. They dematerialized and rematerialized, either in a little basket presented by Peter oder in the hands of Diana, were they transformed into little red birds nesting in her hair.

And behold! Late at night, the guests gone, Mr. Wienert on his way back to Hamburg, the moon in the sky and the night owls busy in the trees while Ihlenfeld, Schultz and McCarty were  talking around one table (Ms Schaffner already brushing her teeth): Three REAL night owls landed on the datscha trees and took position in a triangle around the tent. So, there were the owls talking to each other and below, the people were talking to each other. And the people laughed at their table and the owls laughed perched up high on their posts. And they hooted “hooho” and “yiipee” and “croocro”. And: “Datscha Radio- ohh-ohh”. We took this as a most positive omen, and afterwards…

we carried on celebrating.

… ganz besonders mit unserem Nachbarn Peter Ihlenfeld, dem König der Königinnen der Nacht. Ohne ihn wäre Datscha-Radio nicht möglich gewesen! Großer Dank vor allem hier also an ihn!!!

Pictures: One of Peter’s precious Queens of the Night – this one had it’s blossom on Thursday night… together with the wonderful scent of cocoa, it’s spirit was with us, glooming from the disco apple tree. And of course Peter himself, here on a sunny morning in his garden, with one of our guest artists interviewing him. [Licence: VK cc-by-nc-sa]

This post is also available in: German