Burger Blues: Ailing Fair a Measure of German-American Ties

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-woes-of-a-fair-for-germany-and-america-a-985876.html



The German-American Folk Festival has been going for 54 years now. But it is suffering along with relations between the two countries.

Burger Blues: Ailing Fair a Measure of German-American Ties
By Simon Pfanzeit
August 14, 2014 – 12:59 PM

Richard Simmons says he knew a few spies in Berlin back in the 1970s. "Everyone spied at some point for someone," he says of the Cold War era. And why, Simmons admits to sometimes wondering, should something that was considered normal back then be seen as unacceptable now?

Simmons gazes into the urban canyons of New York City; not far away, the Golden Gate Bridge arching through the air. At the German-American Folk Festival in Berlin, prints of America's most impressive sights are on display. Sand has been spread out to create a beach-like atmosphere and flower pots have been carefully wrapped in the colors of the US flag. Palm trees dot the landscape.

Simmons, 67, is sitting in front of the hamburger stand he operates. He's wearing a casual shirt and his accent when he speaks German quickly betrays his American origins. When he talks about the fair, which is now celebrating its 54th year and is meant to be a celebration of German-American relations, what comes out is a story of rapprochement and transience.



Richard Simmons and his wife Irene operate a hamburger stand at the German-American Fair in Berlin, a carnival that has seen better days.

Earlier, the fair had been held in the American-occupied sector of West Berlin, where US soldiers were stationed and lived alongside their German neighbors. Germans came to the carnival in droves. At the time, they were still grateful for Germany's liberation but particularly for the Berlin Airlift, which had seen the Americans deliver provisions to the city after land routes were completely cut off by the Soviet Union in 1948. It was a time when there were clear boundaries between friends and foes. The final day of the first German-American Folk Festival was on August 13, 1961, the day construction of the Berlin Wall began.