The Baana and Lapinlahti in Helsinki

Can you imagine what the title "The Baana and Lapinlahti in Helsinki" means? Well, before this visit to Helsinki I had no idea what it could mean. But now I can report on it and there are plenty of surprises in stock. The Baana is a disused freight railway line that can now be used by cyclists and pedestrians. Lapinlahti is a western district of Helsinki.

Baana is a term that is now also used in Finland for other bicycle rapid transit lines [1]. The original, however, refers to a popular bicycle and pedestrian route from Helsinki Central Station, which can be reached through a tunnel, and the Lapinlahti district. The route runs in a trench of the Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu, which is the street that runs past the Helsinki Art Museum HAM, for example. The route is 1.3 to 1.5 km (approximately one mile) long and has no intersections. This is not only an advantage for cyclists, pedestrians in particular run into red lights much more often, so maybe we change run for stroll. The trees, bushes and flowers planted in the ditch make you feel detached from the hustle and bustle of the big city. In the wider parts of the ditch there are places to sit or pingpong tables, even tennis and boule are possible. You can also rent bikes there. Wikipedia gives the number of annual bike users as 700,000.

The Lapinlahti district (Swedish: Lappviken) [2] is interesting not only because of the cemeteries, which I would like to make an own topic later. I had walked through the cemeteries as dusk fell and came to the bay, where young people also like to spend the evening. You can sit on benches or on the cliffs that jut out into the bay. There the city has a very beautiful evening atmosphere. I also found a table decorated with craftwork and poems. It was in a small forest and you can see gardens right next to it. I walked further and then looked at the Lapinlahden sairaala, and that has nothing to do with a seraglio (Serail). It is the former or rather the first psychiatric hospital in Finland [3], but it is no longer in operation because it was closed in December 2008 despite opposition from the citizens of Helsinki. The third head doctor of the clinic, from 1904 to 1922, was Christian Sibelius - you guessed it - the brother of Jean Sibelius.

Baana is a beautiful route if you are in a hurry, but also if you want to take your time.

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baana I also used German texts: https://www.dfg-ev.de/news/3048/helsinki-quotbaana-von-der-bahntrasse-zum-fahrradweg and https://rad-spannerei.de/2012/06/20/baana-in-helsinki-fahrradweg-unter-der-stadt/ as well as https://finland.fi/de/leben-amp-gesellschaft/gut-in-fahrt-helsinki-baut-das-radwegenetz-weiter-aus/
[2] Forget the English Wikipedia article as a source of information. However, you don't have to use the Finnish (Suomi) article as there is a good French one: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapinlahti_(Helsinki)
[3] There ist also a very good aricle in French on Wikipedia: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B4pital_de_Lapinlahti     

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Kadyny – a small Village in Poland with Historical Relevance

 

Kadyny (German: Cadinen or Kadinen) is a village on the Vistula Lagoon (German: Frisches Haff, Polish: Zalew Wiślany) on the Baltic Sea. It has 500 inhabitants [1]. That sounds unspectacular and it is, because I didn't visit the entire village and the entrance to the lagoon, but on the edge I visited the Cadinen estate with a palace, stud farm and pastures as well as the Bażyński Oak.

The place was first mentioned in a document in 1255 as terra kadinensis. In 1354 it was called Kudien, which is derived from the Old Prussian "kudas" and means "meager, miserable". Old Prussian is one of the West Baltic languages, which I did not mention in the article on religion in the area [2], because that was about the East Baltic languages; Old Prussian is one of the West Baltic languages, all of which died out between the 14th and 18th centuries, with Old Prussian lasting the longest. It also did not appear in the blog post about languages in Poland, because we were dealing with the West Slavic languages and especially the Lechitic subgroup there [3]. So further research is worthwhile on this topic. There used to be a castle in Kudien, of which only the ruins of a monastery remain, which I was not able to visit. An old legend tells us, that the castle was named after Cadina, the daughter of a Prussian chieftain. Now a little history, because in 1415 the Baysen family came into possession of the place. Baysen is Polish Bażyński and the Bażyński Oak was named after Jan Bażyński. Now we'll skip a part of the local history.

In 1898, Kaiser Wilhelm II came into possession of the country estate and had it expanded into his summer residence, which was then called Cadinen Castle. He also placed the surrounding forests under protection. Kaiser Wilhelm II then ordered the establishment of a tile workshop. The Cadinen tiles were used, for example, in several subway stations in Berlin. There is Kadiner Straße in Berlin, which is located about 5 km east of the Brandenburg Gate (German: Brandenburger Tor) near the Frankfurter Tor subway station.

"After Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II, in 1945, the area was turned over to the Republic of Poland under the Potsdam Agreement, and renamed to its historic Polish name Kadyny." [4] The stud farm survived the People's Republic of Poland and after 1989, the transition to the Third Polish Republic, the whole place was declared a protected monument. It is now a popular tourist destination.

I had looked at the stud farm with the meadows, the horses and the castle from the outside. A wedding party had just arrived who wanted to celebrate there in a dignified setting.

Finally, I looked at the Bażyński Oak [5], which is one of the oldest trees in Poland. The oak is now 748 years old, so there is a significant anniversary to celebrate in two years - we'll see if I remember this date. I doubt whether the size information in Wikipedia is still correct, as it is about 10 years old, but perhaps I shouldn't be too picky.

I would like to go to Kadyny again, because then I would like to see the monastery ruins, a little chapel, the lagoon there, the neo-Gothic protestant church and one or two other things that I could find. I strongly recommend visiting Kadyny.

 

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadyny  
[2] Religious Affiliation in the recently visited States of the Baltic Sea https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2024/09/religious-affiliation-in-recently.html
[3] Languages on my recent Journey through some States around the Baltic Sea - Part 1: Polish and other languages of Poland
https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2024/09/languages-on-my-recent-journey-through.html
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadyny  
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba%C5%BCy%C5%84ski_Oak

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Religious Affiliation in the recently visited States of the Baltic Sea

 

Archcathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
and St. Andrew, Frombork in Poland,
where the astronomer and mathematician
Nicolaus Copernicus worked a canon

When I recently traveled through the states around the Baltic Sea, namely northern Germany, Poland, the Baltic states and Finland, I noticed that the individual countries have very different religious affiliations. I will explore this in this blog post.

Germany
As I began my journey in Germany and ended it in the north (Lübeck), I will also start with Germany. Christians make up around 55% of the population in Germany as a whole, with Catholics and Protestants each making up around 28%. Catholics predominate in southern Germany and Protestants tend to be more prominent in northern Germany [1]. Germany was christianized from the fifth century onwards. Starting in the 13th century, German crusaders, the Teutonic Knights, conquered pagan Prussia and converted it to Catholicism. In the 16th century, Martin Luther and the Swiss reformers (Zwingli and Calvin) started the Reformation. The Thirty Years' War from 1618-1648 resulted in a division into Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed churches [2].

Lübeck is located in Schleswig-Holstein. In 2011, 51.5% of the population there were Protestant, 6.0% Roman Catholic and 42.5% were non-denominational, belonged to another religious community or did not provide information. In 2022, however, things looked significantly different: 39.1% Protestant, 5.5% Catholic and 55.3% were non-denominational, belonged to another religious community or did not provide information [3]. In any case, a move away from the major Christian churches can be seen.

In neighboring Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the situation is completely different. According to a study from 2022, 83.7% of the population are non-denominational or belong to small religious communities. Over the last 150 years, the proportion of Protestant and Catholic church members has fallen from 99% to 16.3% of the population [4]. These figures can be traced back to the 40-year policy of the SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany) in the GDR (German Democratic Republic). In 1950, 85% of the population of the GDR were Protestants and 10% Catholics. By 1989, these figures had fallen to 25% Protestants and 5% Catholics. The GDR constitution of 1949 provided for "complete freedom of belief and conscience" in Article 41, Paragraph 1, but the constitutional reality was different [5]. From 1954, the SED introduced the ritual of socialist youth consecration, which was intended to "form the growing generations into socialist personalities" and alienate them from the churches. As one can see, this was successful. They were not very successful in anti-fascism, as can be seen, but that is another topic.

Lübeck Cathedral (Lübecker Dom), a brick-built Lutheran cathedral

Poland
For many people, Poland is still a predominantly Catholic country. But the number of Christians in Poland is also decreasing. At least in a 2021 census, 71.3% of Poles were Catholic, the other Christian denominations made up only 1.2%, 6.9% had no religion and 20.6% left the question unanswered [6]. The forerunners of the Poles are considered to be the West Slavic and Lechian peoples, who practiced different forms of pagan belief ("rodzimowierstwo"). Lechian goes back to the forefather of the Polish people, Duke Lech, named in a legend, and is perhaps more commonly known from the term Lechian languages [7], which are used to group together Kashubian, Slovinian (extinct), Polabian (extinct) and Polish. In the early days of the Polish state, different religions coexisted, but after the beginning of christianization in 966, the pagan religions were gradually eradicated over the next few centuries. We should not forget the Jewish faith either, because until World War II, a large proportion of Eastern Jews lived in Poland, so that about 10% of the population was of the Jewish faith. The Shoah destroyed Jewish life, culture and religion. The percentage was particularly high in Poland, because after the German invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War II, escape was hardly possible. In a 2011 census, the percentage of people of Jewish faith was given as 0.004% [8]. While the GDR managed to reduce the number of believers from 95% of the population to 30% within 40 years, Catholics in Poland proved more resistant to the socialist maxim of atheism. Pope John Paul II played a major role in ensuring that this remained the case, perhaps also through his support of the Solidarity trade union federation (Solidarność) [9].

Christ's Resurrection Basilica in Kaunas (Lithuania)

Lithuania
In Lithuania, too, the dominant religious group are the Catholics. Through the Union of Lublin, Lithuania was united with Poland from 1569 to 1795 as the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth or simply as Poland-Lithuania. Before that, however, there was already a personal union of the country's rulers through the Krewo Agreement of 1385 [10]. Catholicism was the state religion. While the nobility converted, the common man or the peasants continued to follow pagan beliefs for a long time. According to a census of 2021, 74.2% were Catholics, 4.4% Orthodox, 0.6% Lutherans and those without a religious affiliation made up 13.7% [11].

Window in the Riga Cathedral (Latvian: Rīgas Doms; German: Dom zu Riga)

Latvia
In Latvia we find a completely different situation, and the country's history is also decisive for this. Latvia was christianized late, partly through what was later called the Northern Crusades, when the kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden but also the German military orders (Livonian and Teutonic Orders) not only wanted to christianize but also to stake out their spheres of influence. Finnish paganism and Baltic mythology persisted in the region for a long time, and some festivals retain pagan roots to this day.
Let's look at today's figures, or rather the 2019 census. 31.1% did not state any religion, but the largest proportion is Lutheran with 36.5%, followed by Catholics with 19.0% and Orthodox with 13.5%. During the Soviet era, some places of worship were used ecumenically, as I have already reported [12].

Estonia
In Estonia, things are significantly different from the other two states of the three Baltic republics. We have already looked at the historical ties between Poland and Lithuania. Lithuania and Latvia are connected by a branch of the Baltic languages. Without wanting to anticipate, because I would like to look more closely at the languages of the region, Latvian and Lithuanian belong to the East Baltic branch [13] – we will also have to look at extinct languages, but that would not take us any further here. Estonia is linguistically very different, because Estonian is a Finno-Ugric language like Finnish and Hungarian. Historically, Estonia was a Lutheran Christian nation like Finland, although Christianization began in the 13th century with the Livonian Crusade. Before World War II, 80% of the population were Protestant, mainly the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Estonia. Here too, the influence of Stalinist-style socialism seems to have been greater among religious communities.
The picture today is rather frightening. Religion plays an important role in the lives of only 14% of the population. In the 2021 census, the statement "no religion" leads with 58.4%, Orthodox Christians make up 16.3%, which probably corresponds to the Russian minority, and Lutherans 7.7%.

Church of the Holy Spirit, Tallinn (Estonia)

Finland
Finland is a predominantly Christian nation [14]. It has two national churches, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, to which 65.2% belong, and the Finnish Orthodox Church, to which 1.1% of the population belong. Other Christian groups or non-Christian religions play a subordinate role, but are present in public life, for example through their own cemeteries. 32.0% of the population in the above-mentioned census described themselves as having no religious affiliation.
Finland was Christianized in the 11th century, before that Finnish paganism was the predominant religion in the country. The Church in Finland was part of the Church of Sweden, so that with the confirmation of the Reformation by the Swedish Diet in 1527 (during the reign of Gustav Vasa), the Roman Catholic confession was replaced by the Evangelical Lutheran confession [15]. And so it remained, despite all political perils.

I hope I have not gone into too much detail, because that is what you should do yourself. The Wikipedia articles alone provide material for a long reading, but we know that there is much more to be found behind these articles.

Tempelbau Church, a Lutheran church
in Töölö (Helsinki, Finland) aka the Church of the Rock

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://www.familysearch.org/de/wiki/Kirchengeschichte_des_Deutschlands
[2] https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Germany_Church_History
[3] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schleswig-Holstein#Konfessionsstatistik
[4] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecklenburg-Vorpommern#Religion und
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecklenburg-Vorpommern#Religion
[5] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Demokratische_Republik#Religionen_und_Religionsersatz
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Poland
[7] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lechische_Sprachen
[8] https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religia_w_Polsce
[9] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarno%C5%9B%C4%87
[10] This is far too extensive, but also quite interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Lithuanian_Commonwealth
[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Lithuania
[12] Sigulda 4 – Evangelical Lutheran Church https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2024/08/sigulda-4-evangelical-lutheran-church.html For ecumenical use of the church: https://caminolatvia.com/object/sigulda-evangelical-lutheran-church/?route=646&stage=636
[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_languages
[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Finland
[15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelical_Lutheran_Church_of_Finland

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Languages on my recent Journey through some States around the Baltic Sea - Part 1: Polish and other languages of Poland

 

When I recently traveled through some States around the Baltic Sea, mostly but not exclusively the Baltic States, I came into contact with many interesting languages and I continue to stay in touch by studying about the languages. Well, for Poland [1], that is Polish, but Kashubian [2] also belongs to Poland. I will go into these languages in more detail.

The journey took me through Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and back to Germany. I didn't really want to write about Germany. But there is one language, and that is Sorbian. It should not go unmentioned here, as it is a West Slavic language, like the Polish language and others. So which  languages are there in Poland? First of all, in addition to the Polish and Kashubian (in the Gdansk region) already mentioned, there is also German in Opole, Belarusian on the border with Belarus and Lithuanian on the border with Lithuania. And what surprised me a lot is that Karaite [3], which is spoken by the Karaites, also belongs partly to Poland. However, I only got to know the language in Lithuania, so I will mention it in more detail in the section on Lithuania.

Polish [4] usually appears to native speakers of Romance or Germanic languages as a cluster of consonants. [Język polski dla rodzimych użytkowników języków romańskich i germańskich jawi się zazwyczaj jako zbitka spółgłosek.] In addition, unusual diacritical marks or letters are used that we are not familiar with. But let us first consider that our alphabet has a history. It was developed to represent the Latin language. And even in Italian there are difficulties in representing sounds with it. Most Germans, for example, pronounce gnocchi or zucchini incorrectly. This is because the Italian language had to adapt the letters to the sounds. And so it happens that one letter stands for several sounds and this has to be indicated by another letter (to avoid ambiguity). In English it may be even worse. After all, fish can also be written ghoti, which is not my idea. This is a very old example to illustrate the irregularities in English spelling and pronunciation. This can be read very well in Wikipedia, which has its own article for ghoti [5] and of course it says that James Joyce used this example in "Finnegans Wake", as he alludes to ghoti in: "Gee each owe tea eye smells fish."

I had wondered whether Poland would have done better if it had used Cyrillic letters to represent its language, but then it would of course seem even more exotic to us. That was not the reason why Latin letters were chosen. Poland belongs to the Catholic circle of influence, while Russia, for example, belongs to the Orthodox circle of influence. The first writings were therefore already in Latin letters.

For the orthography of Polish, letters had to be expanded with diacritical marks, such as Ą, Ć, Ę, Ł, Ń, Ó, Ś, Ź and Ż. The letters Q, V and X only appear in foreign words. If we take the word for consonants „spółgłoski“ (plural, spółgłoska singular) from our example above and try to represent the sounds in English, then we could try "spoowhgwhoskee", but there is probably a less absurd possibility to do so.

Would you like a little bit of grammar? In the German language there are a total of four cases: nominative, genitive, dative and accusative, which are also used, although a large part of society neglects the genitive. Hungarian has 25 cases, English has four cases, but only the genitive is different from the others; practical for learning, because with two forms each for singular and plural, you can quickly tick off tedious learning. With Polish you have to learn more, because Polish has seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, vocative.

Let's look at some phrases:
Good evening!                        Dobry wieczór!
Good morning!                        Dzień dobry!
I'm sorry.                                 Przepraszam.
Do you speak English?          Czy mówisz po angielsku?
I don't speak Polish.               Nie mówię po polsku.
The last sentence probably sums it up best. I myself am curious to see if I will ever get around to reading “The Very Basic Guide to Polish”. It would be interesting enough.

There are a number of minority languages in Poland, such as the aforementioned Kashubian and further as national minority languages: Armenian, German, Hebrew, Yiddish, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak, Czech, Ukrainian and Belarusian, as well as ethnic minority languages: Karaite, Rusyn or Lemko, Romani and Tatar. Don't worry, we won't cover all of them.

Kashubian (Kashubian: kaszëbsczi jãzëk; Polish: język kaszubski) is a West Slavic language and belongs to the Lechitic subgroup. I won't elaborate on this. Kashubian is understood by about 300,000 people living west and south of Gdansk and about a third still speak this language in everyday life. Kashubian is an endangered language. Why am I interested in it now? The mother of Günter Grass [6] has been of Kashubian-Polish origin and Günter Grass indentified himself as Kashubian.

Let's take a look at the Lord's Prayer in different languages [7]:
Our Father in heaven                          English
Ojcze nasz, któryś jest w niebie          Polish
Wójcze nasz, chteri jes v njebjesech  Kashubian
Wótče naš, kiž sy w njebjesach          Upper Sorbian
Here the question will probably arise as to what extent we are dealing with languages or dialects. I myself am more in favor of the term languages.

And now Sorbian [8], of which there are two languages: Upper Sorbian (hornjoserbšćina) in Upper Lusatia and Lower Sorbian (dolnoserbšćina) in Lower Lusatia. These two languages also belong to the West Slavic languages. They are mutually intelligible. Since there are only about 60,000 Sorbs left in Germany, both languages are threatened, although experts assume that one of the two, Upper Sorbian, will survive the 21st century.

Wikipedia has a table, a small part of which I would like to quote:

I think you can see how close the languages are to each other in terms of basic concepts. But there is also history and its influences and so these languages, like all languages, do not have the same loanwords or the same developments. To give a completely different example: the language that is closest to Spanish is not Italian but Portuguese, as spoken in Brazil.

I still have a lot to discover in the West Slavic languages and I hope that I have inspired people to study these languages as well. Learning all languages as not possible, but also not necessary.

 

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polen#Sprachen and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland#Languages
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashubian_language and https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaschubische_Sprache
[3] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaimische_Sprache and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaim_language
[4] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polnische_Sprache and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_language
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Grass
[7] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprachvergleich_anhand_des_Vaterunsers
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbian_languages and https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbische_Sprache

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Jean Sibelius and the Monument in Helsinki … and Problems to take a Photograph

 

My last trip also took me to Finland, to Helsinki. And apparently every tourist in Helsinki has to go to the Sibelius Monument. That's not a problem, because first of all I like Sibelius' music and visiting a monument is nice. If it weren't for … this one problem. But first things first!

Johan Julius Christian Sibelius, also known as Janne or Jean, is definitely the most famous Finnish composer. He represents the transition from late romanticism to modernism and lived from 1865 to 1957. Well-known compositions include the Valse triste, op. 44 from 1904, the Violin Concerto in D minor, op. 47 (Allegro moderato, Adagio di molto, Allegro ma non tanto), and the Karelia Suite, op. 11, is also often played. That's how far I know Sibelius, or rather I read it up on Wikipedia [1].

Now to the Sibelius Monument [2]. The monument dates from 1967. It consists of more than 600 hollow steel pipes that have been welded together in a wave pattern. The sculpture is reminiscent of a stylized organ. However, it must be noted that Sibelius hardly ever composed for the organ. That is why Sibilius' face was placed next to the sculpture. The idea for this sculpture won a competition held by the Sibelius Society. The artist has been Eila Hiltunen [3] and she titled her work: Passio Musicae.

Apparently not only does every tourist have to go to the Sibelius Monument, but tourists also have to climb up the monument in droves to photograph the tubes or take selfies. And when there is no bus group there, which only lasts for a few seconds, then these ladies in green dresses, there were two of them taking photos of each other, even though they could hardly climb up onto the pedestal. That was particularly annoying because there was no one else there and I actually didn't want to photograph these ladies at all. And the photo that I took then ... well, I had to solve a three-body problem for that. Fortunately, the monument didn't move, but the woman in the green dress stumbling down [4] and the group of tourists rushing towards the monument did. I managed it, ithere were only two seconds and here's the photo.

The world is crazy. And I'm glad that I, also crazy, live in it.

Addendum:
Now an addendum is necessary, because I have found old books about Finland. In Hubert Kröning's book "Land of a Thousand Lakes“ [5] I found a photo of the Jean Sibelius Monument. The book dates from 1970 and was published in the GDR. But I also see a large crowd of people in front of and on the monument. Interestingly, only women can be seen and yes, one is wearing a green summer dress, too.

Thank you Hubert Kröning for taking us back more than 50 years.

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Sibelius and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Sibelius
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibelius_Monument
[3] Eila Vilhelmina Hiltunen (1922–2003) was a Finnish sculptor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eila_Hiltunen
[4] I prayed that she didn't fall! Of course, I would have helped her.
[5] Hubert Kröning: Land der tausend Seen [Land of a Thousand Lakes]. With 8 color and 48 black and white plates and 1 map. VEB F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1970. Opposite p. 17. (Still sold, but postage is more expensive than the book.)
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Almost 30 years ago the Ferry M.S. Estonia sank

 

Almost 30 years ago, the ferry M.S. Estonia sank on the way from Tallinn to Stockholm. Why am I writing about it on this blog post? When we visited St. Nicholas Church in Tallinn, I noticed a painting that commemorates this accident. It is a memorial site. Another point was that later, after visiting the church, we talked about this tragic accident in the tour group. At that point, I thought that the cause of the accident had been clarified. I had promised to find out more about it. Another point was also important to me, namely that it was almost 30 years ago and it didn't seem that long to me. Of course, I can't try to solve this complex problem here and I've only read the Wikipedia articles to give a condensed view of some aspects of the accident.

In St. Nicholas Church, there is a picture hanging on the wall showing a stylized ship and a figure of the Virgin Mary with her arms outstretched. Next to M/S "Estonia" is the date of the disaster (September 28, 1994) and reference is made to the ninth verse of Psalm 28, which reads: "Oh, save your people and bless your heritage! / Be their shepherd and carry them forever." This is one memorial site, but there are others, such as the Broken Line Monument in Tallinn [1], which I unfortunately wasn't able to visit. There are other memorial sites in Estonia and Sweden. Why Sweden in particular? The French Wikipedia text helps us here [2]: of the 852 victims of the disaster, 501 are from Sweden and 285 from Estonia.
One might argue about the place for the picture with the heating and the pipes. But I think it's a good place as I at least felt like being on a ferry.

Reason for the disaster
In the following I refer mainly to the text of the German Wikipedia article [3], because it is the most detailed one. The Estonia sank on 28 September 1994 on its way from Tallinn to Stockholm off the Finnish island of Utö. With 852 victims, this was the worst shipping accident in post-war European history. The course of the accident has been largely clarified, but not the cause of the accident. The ship was built in 1980 by the Meyer Werft in Papenburg [4].

What happened?
In heavy seas (waves up to 10m high), water entered the Estonia. The hinges of the bow hatch were subjected to great stress in the rough sea and broke during the journey, allowing water to enter. When the ship did not reduce its speed, the bow visor finally broke off, allowing large amounts of water to enter the ship unhindered. The ferry quickly began to list heavily and sank within a short time. Just a few minutes after the first distress call "Mayday" at 1:22 a.m., radio contact was lost and shortly afterwards the Estonia disappeared from the radar screens of the surrounding ships, which then headed towards the scene of the accident. The MS Mariella was there just an hour later. The rescue was made difficult by the rough sea and the 13°C cold Baltic Sea water. Only 137 people were rescued and young men had the best chance of survival. Most of the dead are still in the ferry because the list and the rapidly penetrating water meant that most of the passengers had no chance of getting from inside to the deck of the ship.

What theories have been developed?
A commission from the states of Sweden, Estonia and Finland investigated immediately after the accident until 1997; an investigation report was published. The locking mechanism of the bow visor failed under the weight of the waves. A deviation approved during construction, not having to extend the bulkheads upwards, may have contributed to the accident. The crew was not aware of the open bow visor, e.g. the sensors still showed a closed bow visor when it had already broken away. Meyer Werft assumed detonations for the blowing away of the visor, but a material report refuted this theory.

What about the concrete sarcophagus?
The Swedish government planned to ensure the peace of the dead by means of a concrete sarcophagus, but costs, protests and the fact that normal diving is impossible at the depth of the wreck led to a no-go agreement, which 8 of 9 Baltic Sea coastal states and Great Britain joined. Germany did not join because special regulations for later investigations into the cause were missing. Two Swedish members of a team of documentary filmmakers (depoying diving robots to the wreck in September 2020) were convicted of  violating the peace of the grave in 2022.

What happened next?
Sweden changed laws in 2021 to legalize investigations, but the investigations carried out subsequently did not produce any findings that contradicted the 1997 investigation report. Various conspiracy theories were still being investigated, such as a collision with a Russian submarine.
In 2019, a court in Nanterre dismissed civil suits against the Meyer Werft and the French inspection company Bureau Veritas, which had classified the ship as seaworthy, because neither gross nor intentional misconduct on the part of the defendants could be proven.

Have I been afraid on the journey from Helsinki to Travemünde? No, because the sea was calm, the sad experiences were incorporated into improvements to the ship and regulations, and the Russian submarine [5] travelled on the surface.
The next time I'll visit Tallinn, I will definitely visit the Broken Line Monument. And I am still pondering why the ninth verse of Psalm 28 was chosen for the picture in St. Nicholas Church.

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://www.visitestonia.com/en/the-broken-line-monument
[2] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia_(ferry)
[3] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia_(Schiff,_1980)
The articles in English, Swedish, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian are much shorter:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Estonia
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/M/S_Estonia
https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia_(laev_1980)
https://lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia_(pr%C4%81mis)
https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia_(keltas)
I already mentioned the French article.
The Spanish article provides an English transcription of the emergency radio traffic from 01:21:59 to 01:25:52 a.m. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/M/S_Estonia
[4] I was familiar with the shipyard because we surprisingly had a large number of patients from Papenburg on the Lower Rhine (Rheinisches Rheuma Zentrum in Meerbush-Lank) until a rheumatologist settled closer to the town.
[5] I'Ve already written about the Russian submarine: https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2024/07/an-encounter-in-baltic-sea.html

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An Encounter in the Baltic Sea

 

Last weekend I was on a ferry from Helsinki (Finland) to Tavemünde (Germany). In the evening I went on deck to watch the sunset, but fog had rolled in. I went from the starboard side to the port side of the ferry. There, a warship just emerged out of the fog. And then there also was -: the surfaced submarine that had also emerged from the fog. It was sailing between two larger warships. It was a Russian submarine. I can determine the time quite precisely from the pictures: July 11, 2024 10:28 p.m. - 10:36 p.m. The location is imprecise, but it was more or less 58.401922N / 20.682142E. Was it the TK-208 Dmitri Donskoj? I don't think so after the superstructure. 

 

 

For some photographs I chose the impressive mode of the camera, because it produces images with more contrast.

 

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