1.2 The disrupted red wine cask
“Christoph, Simon – stop it!” Are you still beating each other up?” The young Brauns’ tutor, Rudolf Vonecken stands in the doorway of their villa ...
19.09.1814
Opening of the Vienna Congress; formation of the German Union.
18.06.1815
Napoleon Bonaparte is conclusively defeated at the battle of Waterloo.
20.11.1815
The 1815 Treaty of Paris between France, Prussia, Austria, Russia and Britain is signed.
05.05.1816
The Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach obtains a constitution. This counts as the first constitutional monarchy on German soil.
04.03.1817
James Monroe replaces James Madison, becoming the fifth US president.
“Christoph, Simon – stop it!” Are you still beating each other up?” The young Brauns’ tutor, Rudolf Vonecken stands in the doorway of their villa. Down in the yard, the boys are waving wooden swords at each other. “You can’t get me!” calls Christoph, and he spins around so fast that he hits Simon on the seat of the pants with his 'sword'. “Ow! Just wait, you loser. Now it’s my turn!” Before Simon has a chance to finish his sentence, Christoph shaves the side of his face with his sword. Blood streams out of the graze on his left cheek, but Simon grits his teeth and gallantly fights on. Rudolf Vonecken knows that, in their imaginations, the boys are lost in a world from the past. No matter what he says, they won’t calm down. Stepping between them, he forces them apart by grabbing each boy from the back of the neck. With a calm, stern voice he announces, “That’s enough. You will both be seated at the living room table in five minutes. Simon, you go to Rosi in the kitchen, please and get your cheek attended to!”
Balthasar and Josephine-Christine place extraordinary value on raising and educating their children. All three – Christoph, Josephine and Simon-Balthasar, or Simon – have been receiving private tuition from early on. From the beginning, Josephine-Christine reached an agreement with Balthasar that English would be spoken in the Braun household. She did after all leave the Thames for a new life on the Rhine. The Belgian Rudolf Vonecken was chosen as a teacher because he spoke not only his native French, but also fluent Spanish and German. He travelled to most European countries at an early age, gaining a broad range of experiences, which he can now pass onto the children very descriptively. Thus the children take language, science and art lessons from Monday to Saturday, from morning until well into the afternoon.
Afterwards, Christoph and Simon usually disappear into the wine cellar, since there’s always something to see and experience there. On the other hand, the blonde Josephine is frequently called into the parlour by her mother. She’s afraid that it's no good for the girl to be overly influenced by the boys’ rough behaviour. She’d rather let Josephine escape to the kitchen with Rosi. Josephine is all too eager to take a glance inside the great, big pots; and sometimes she’s allowed to help with the cooking or baking. In such a large kitchen, that caters to more than twenty people, there’s always something happening. At the Brauns’, it’s normal for all office employees and other workers to receive a warm meal during the day.
The Brauns’ wine cellar buys white, rosé and red wines by the barrel from wine growers in the Mainz region. These are then either bottled or sold as they are to wine importers in England, Holland, Denmark and other countries. The most popular wines abroad are the tangy Rieslings.
The large, heavy, double-panelled, oak door opens just a crack, only to immediately close again mysteriously. In the large, rectangular room that lies behind the door, countless wine-filled oak barrels of all sizes rest in neat rows, stacked one on top of the other. It’s cool and relatively dark here. The only available light comes from a few small window openings at ceiling-level. When one visits for the first time, the hall is almost foreboding, like a cathedral. But Simon has had the habit of wandering around here for such a long time! In a single bound, he jumps as quietly as possible behind the first row of barrels piled up near the door. He remains crouched as his eyes slowly become accustomed to the darkness and then he begins to notice each individual row of barrels in the room.
Simon has searched for Christoph in every imaginable hiding place. This hall is the only place left to search. Staying low, the boy slowly slides through the rows. Each time he places a foot on the ground, the sound of grinding stones is heard, because the hall floor is covered in gravel. On the corner of each row of barrels, Simon stops to listen carefully for a few seconds. But everything remains absolutely silent. Slowly but surely, he places one foot in front of the other, heading ever deeper into the dark hall. Suddenly he hears a loud laugh that turns into a scream. Simon sees a shadow high up in the third tier of one of the barrel rows, and then the shadow is gone. Only the scream lasts a moment longer. Simon runs to the spot in the next row where he thinks his brother has fallen over. Then he sees Christoph stand up. In a daze, Christoph looks at Simon while shaking gravel out of his hair. A wooden creak is heard. Out of the corner of his right eye, Simon notices that a barrel on the topmost tier is moving. In a couple of seconds it will crash down and bury everything beneath it! Quick as a flash, Simon runs towards Christoph, literally flying over the last metres before leaping towards him and ramming his head into his brother’s chest. Within seconds, his brother loses his balance, falling backwards almost two metres. There's a loud bang on the gravel floor, followed by a huge splash of red wine that gushes over the barely recovering boys.
With a short, loud squeak, the large, heavy hall door panels swing open. Conical sheaths of light flood into the room, and the two boys can be seen sitting in a bright spot next to what was until a few seconds ago, a full barrel of wine. In the blinding light, Christoph and Simon can make out the outlines of two figures hurrying toward them. One is tall and thin. “Simon, Christoph, what in heaven’s name happened?!“ Balthasar kneels down next to his sons with a worried expression on his face. Christoph holds his chest with his right hand.
“Are you hurt?”
“Yes, that was close! If Simon hadn’t rammed into me with his head, the barrel would have fallen on my head.”
"That was once a fine Portuguese red," notes the other person dryly. Winemaker Wilhelm – short, round and bald – turns over one of the barrel’s staves in his raised right hand. “How did the barrel get from up there down here? They’re all individually secured.” Wilhelm attempts to climb up towards the row of barrels, but his big belly gets in the way. In a couple of well directed moves, Balthasar swings up to the top row and immediately realises that the safety wedges have slipped out of place. “Wilhelm, we really should consider fastening the ends of each tier more securely!”
“Yes, we should definitely look into it,” agrees Wilhelm. ”But first I’ll fetch a wheelbarrow and clean up this mess,” he adds, before heading off towards the exit.
“Right, you two are coming into the house with me now.” Balthasar places his hands on his sons’ shoulders.
“Father, are you angry at us?” asks Christoph. Then turning to his brother, he says, “Simon, that was truly at the last moment. Thanks. You rescued me!“
“We were all very lucky!” booms their father. “It’s not your fault. It could have happened to anyone. You’ve detected a fundamental problem. Whenever you’re in the cellar, keep your eyes open and your wits about you …”
Balthasar puts his arms around his sons and leads them into the equipment hall. They pass by the wine presses, the fermentation barrels, the pumps and other equipment used in a wine cellar. Everything is spotless. As was the case for his father, Balthasar sees cleanliness and orderliness as an important maxim. “We work with grapes, in other words, with food. And cleanliness is the most important thing here,” he keeps reiterating to Christoph and Simon.
Father and sons step through a wide, oak door into the large courtyard where horse-drawn carts can turn around without any trouble. All the buildings have been built around this courtyard. Behind the imposing looking forged iron gate, a well-manicured gravel path lined with gigantic old trees leads to the Brauns' villa.
Back then I was gripped to the bone with fear. And I must have thought about the situation for weeks afterwards. What did I learn from that experience? In some cases it’s better to think long and hard about situations and problems in order to be able to assess them more closely. And at other times it’s advantageous to undertake a task immediately. But when is each method appropriate?
Opening of the Vienna Congress; formation of the German Union.
18.06.1815
Napoleon Bonaparte is conclusively defeated at the battle of Waterloo.
20.11.1815
The 1815 Treaty of Paris between France, Prussia, Austria, Russia and Britain is signed.
05.05.1816
The Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach obtains a constitution. This counts as the first constitutional monarchy on German soil.
04.03.1817
James Monroe replaces James Madison, becoming the fifth US president.
“Christoph, Simon – stop it!” Are you still beating each other up?” The young Brauns’ tutor, Rudolf Vonecken stands in the doorway of their villa. Down in the yard, the boys are waving wooden swords at each other. “You can’t get me!” calls Christoph, and he spins around so fast that he hits Simon on the seat of the pants with his 'sword'. “Ow! Just wait, you loser. Now it’s my turn!” Before Simon has a chance to finish his sentence, Christoph shaves the side of his face with his sword. Blood streams out of the graze on his left cheek, but Simon grits his teeth and gallantly fights on. Rudolf Vonecken knows that, in their imaginations, the boys are lost in a world from the past. No matter what he says, they won’t calm down. Stepping between them, he forces them apart by grabbing each boy from the back of the neck. With a calm, stern voice he announces, “That’s enough. You will both be seated at the living room table in five minutes. Simon, you go to Rosi in the kitchen, please and get your cheek attended to!”
Balthasar and Josephine-Christine place extraordinary value on raising and educating their children. All three – Christoph, Josephine and Simon-Balthasar, or Simon – have been receiving private tuition from early on. From the beginning, Josephine-Christine reached an agreement with Balthasar that English would be spoken in the Braun household. She did after all leave the Thames for a new life on the Rhine. The Belgian Rudolf Vonecken was chosen as a teacher because he spoke not only his native French, but also fluent Spanish and German. He travelled to most European countries at an early age, gaining a broad range of experiences, which he can now pass onto the children very descriptively. Thus the children take language, science and art lessons from Monday to Saturday, from morning until well into the afternoon.
Afterwards, Christoph and Simon usually disappear into the wine cellar, since there’s always something to see and experience there. On the other hand, the blonde Josephine is frequently called into the parlour by her mother. She’s afraid that it's no good for the girl to be overly influenced by the boys’ rough behaviour. She’d rather let Josephine escape to the kitchen with Rosi. Josephine is all too eager to take a glance inside the great, big pots; and sometimes she’s allowed to help with the cooking or baking. In such a large kitchen, that caters to more than twenty people, there’s always something happening. At the Brauns’, it’s normal for all office employees and other workers to receive a warm meal during the day.
The Brauns’ wine cellar buys white, rosé and red wines by the barrel from wine growers in the Mainz region. These are then either bottled or sold as they are to wine importers in England, Holland, Denmark and other countries. The most popular wines abroad are the tangy Rieslings.
The large, heavy, double-panelled, oak door opens just a crack, only to immediately close again mysteriously. In the large, rectangular room that lies behind the door, countless wine-filled oak barrels of all sizes rest in neat rows, stacked one on top of the other. It’s cool and relatively dark here. The only available light comes from a few small window openings at ceiling-level. When one visits for the first time, the hall is almost foreboding, like a cathedral. But Simon has had the habit of wandering around here for such a long time! In a single bound, he jumps as quietly as possible behind the first row of barrels piled up near the door. He remains crouched as his eyes slowly become accustomed to the darkness and then he begins to notice each individual row of barrels in the room.
Simon has searched for Christoph in every imaginable hiding place. This hall is the only place left to search. Staying low, the boy slowly slides through the rows. Each time he places a foot on the ground, the sound of grinding stones is heard, because the hall floor is covered in gravel. On the corner of each row of barrels, Simon stops to listen carefully for a few seconds. But everything remains absolutely silent. Slowly but surely, he places one foot in front of the other, heading ever deeper into the dark hall. Suddenly he hears a loud laugh that turns into a scream. Simon sees a shadow high up in the third tier of one of the barrel rows, and then the shadow is gone. Only the scream lasts a moment longer. Simon runs to the spot in the next row where he thinks his brother has fallen over. Then he sees Christoph stand up. In a daze, Christoph looks at Simon while shaking gravel out of his hair. A wooden creak is heard. Out of the corner of his right eye, Simon notices that a barrel on the topmost tier is moving. In a couple of seconds it will crash down and bury everything beneath it! Quick as a flash, Simon runs towards Christoph, literally flying over the last metres before leaping towards him and ramming his head into his brother’s chest. Within seconds, his brother loses his balance, falling backwards almost two metres. There's a loud bang on the gravel floor, followed by a huge splash of red wine that gushes over the barely recovering boys.
With a short, loud squeak, the large, heavy hall door panels swing open. Conical sheaths of light flood into the room, and the two boys can be seen sitting in a bright spot next to what was until a few seconds ago, a full barrel of wine. In the blinding light, Christoph and Simon can make out the outlines of two figures hurrying toward them. One is tall and thin. “Simon, Christoph, what in heaven’s name happened?!“ Balthasar kneels down next to his sons with a worried expression on his face. Christoph holds his chest with his right hand.
“Are you hurt?”
“Yes, that was close! If Simon hadn’t rammed into me with his head, the barrel would have fallen on my head.”
"That was once a fine Portuguese red," notes the other person dryly. Winemaker Wilhelm – short, round and bald – turns over one of the barrel’s staves in his raised right hand. “How did the barrel get from up there down here? They’re all individually secured.” Wilhelm attempts to climb up towards the row of barrels, but his big belly gets in the way. In a couple of well directed moves, Balthasar swings up to the top row and immediately realises that the safety wedges have slipped out of place. “Wilhelm, we really should consider fastening the ends of each tier more securely!”
“Yes, we should definitely look into it,” agrees Wilhelm. ”But first I’ll fetch a wheelbarrow and clean up this mess,” he adds, before heading off towards the exit.
“Right, you two are coming into the house with me now.” Balthasar places his hands on his sons’ shoulders.
“Father, are you angry at us?” asks Christoph. Then turning to his brother, he says, “Simon, that was truly at the last moment. Thanks. You rescued me!“
“We were all very lucky!” booms their father. “It’s not your fault. It could have happened to anyone. You’ve detected a fundamental problem. Whenever you’re in the cellar, keep your eyes open and your wits about you …”
Balthasar puts his arms around his sons and leads them into the equipment hall. They pass by the wine presses, the fermentation barrels, the pumps and other equipment used in a wine cellar. Everything is spotless. As was the case for his father, Balthasar sees cleanliness and orderliness as an important maxim. “We work with grapes, in other words, with food. And cleanliness is the most important thing here,” he keeps reiterating to Christoph and Simon.
Father and sons step through a wide, oak door into the large courtyard where horse-drawn carts can turn around without any trouble. All the buildings have been built around this courtyard. Behind the imposing looking forged iron gate, a well-manicured gravel path lined with gigantic old trees leads to the Brauns' villa.
Back then I was gripped to the bone with fear. And I must have thought about the situation for weeks afterwards. What did I learn from that experience? In some cases it’s better to think long and hard about situations and problems in order to be able to assess them more closely. And at other times it’s advantageous to undertake a task immediately. But when is each method appropriate?