[I present the following request for assistance on behalf of Mr. Thomas Theisinger ...
he of "nopsing" fame, that is, and well known for showing the way to rebuilding an
existing folding boat to take account of personal requirements and preferences. ;-)
RCH]
When this mailing list started someone mentioned a strong desire for touching upon
subjects of history from time to time. We saw some of the worlds shrewdest
philosophers exchanged endless quotations and deepest thoughts instead. The list-owner
had to put on his hat and did the same as his famous hat-colleague in Great Britain is
wont to do sometimes - he uttered a strong declaration of non-amusement. Now the list
is very quiet. Such a hat seems to be very effective a tool.
[I did not!! RCH]
Back to the list. No, I do not just cut long folding boat frames into short ones
(http://www.pouchboats.com/theisinger.html). I have other interests besides.
Therefore, let me ask now, if anyone among the list members knows the name or the
person of William van Til.
Van Til wrote the book <The Danube Flows Through Fascism - Nine Hundred Miles in a
Fold-Boat>, 1938 Charles Scribner's Sons, New York and London.
One of my projects and my pastimes is the research of the history of canoe-sports in
Germany in the time of fascism, compared with the years before and afterwards.
There was a famous writer in Germany, Herbert Rittlinger, who published a bibliography
covering every aspect of canoe-sports and he did mention this book - long before H.
Kropp issued his famous web-site. [I was prvileged in having had the opportunity to
perform my part in ensuring that Herbert now has his own copy also. Those interested
to have a go themselves might try www.alibris.com. RCH]
I recently obtained a copy of the book. That was hard enough. Few libraries in Germany
have it - I know only one, the Bayerische Staats-Biblitohek in Munich, I know that a
colleague in Hamburg could read it, too. That is not astonishing, but in the year of
1938 it was a forbidden book and therefore was held "in special security". Germans had
other things to do back then.
Now in the year 2001, the book is very rare in Germany, and therefore it must be held
"in special security" once again -- if of a different kind. It is possible to travel
to Munich and to see it in the reading room. For a copy, one must ask and pay for a
microfilm. This trip I made last year and it was successful. Let me quote here the
very first words of van Til:
< Men may differ philosophically but all share two extremely human desires - they want
to keep on living and they want to stay out of jails. Even anti-Nazis in Germany ... >
By way of example van Til describes a scene in the year of 1936 when they met by
chance two young Jews going downstream together - down the river Mosel that is - in
folding boats with van Til and his wife. Heartbreaking impressions. The story is
closed by the words <They were as cowed as Alabama Negroes.> And so on. [A telling
comparison indeed, if one considers that at that time or shortly afterwards perhaps,
about 150 German Jewish academics escaped to the USA and could find employment only in
certain "negro colleges" of the South. A recent PBS documentary told the story well.
RCH]
In 1937, they made the Danube trip. Together with a couple Janet and Paul Weinandy. W.
took some of the numerous photo-pictures in the book. Van Til was a real "prophet in a
folding-boat". 1938, he wrote, he wanted to get inside Europe <... in these last
years before the war gods bellow for flesh.> I really hope, they did not get the flesh
of him.
And now my question: Who knows something about William van Til, his < First Mate >
called Bee or their companions, Janet and Paul Weinandy? They all were about 40
then, of course. Is there anybody over on the other side of the pond to help me with
details about these persons?
Cheers Thomas
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