There is life in historical sites, buildings, monuments, antics, verbal stories, …lands and fields even. In Germany the gravity around these things is palpable. Europeans as a whole generally seem to be very rooted in cultural preservation, and holding strong attachments to their history.
Germany is not short on technology or new great ideas on how to step it up. Innovation is at the heart of even the smallest details to the household level. This has not deterred the people from keeping the parts of their environment that are old and dear. You see a 700 year old building standing beautifully magnificently tall right next to a 100 year old grandiose structure in the same lane with an opulent 21st century structure and this is all harmonious. No one thinks of any of these structures as being out of place. Nothing feels odd to the eye with this arrangement. Instead it is like reading a story that tells of things of old and arouses hopes for the future.
We have duped ourselves some times into thinking old is bad; into looking at our cultures on the part of Africans and being told (and believing to our detriment) that it ought to be thrown out. Old is gold they say and this I have witnessed in this time.
The eyes of their children look one way and see their roots, on another side they are aware of the stem that holds them up into the sky, and an extended view presents the purpose in their branches and leaves. They can tell what their fruits should be because history tells them who they are. It is in plain sight everytime they open their eyes; generations of progress.
These walls were of a church built in the 1400s which birthed The university of Leipzig and yet when the now splendid university was built years later, they chose to preserve these remains in their original state inside a modern complex.
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