Saturday, October 31, 2009

My Halloween Posting: The Private Property Ghost

You may be wondering what happened to my blog: Not much about quilting, embroidery or painting... Well, until my husband will start in his new job, we try to enjoy every hour together and take walks, visit relations and tell them about the great news.
But today, I started thinking about something different.

This was one of the slides my father took back from the USA in 1955, on the peak of anticommunist efforts of the U.S. government and other supporters of the campaign. It seems that since then, also Germany on the western half adapted the horror vision of communism, and obviously, this weapon isn't blunt yet, but on the contrary, it is still being used in order to reject any attempts to install more justice.
In the west of my home country, this seems to be accepted without protest.

We took a walk along a lake which was created by industrial brick making from the middle of the 19th century on. In summer, it is an open air pool. We walked around the lake. No way to reach the water. Around the whole lake, every foot of soil is private property. There are tiny gardens around it where people grow their own flowers, fruit and veggies. Sure, they should! I'm not a communist nor their victim (top picture. Any similarities?) -- I just want to reach the beach in some place. Just a tiny path between the gardens. Please... I don't know why I have this desire, there is a bottle of water in my rucksack. In many places I can. There is access to lakes via public roads and trails. But when such trails cross private property, there are more and more owners in Germany who barricade the path and deny access. Illegally. And they fight with the help of solicitors for their rights. The community fights back. No barbed wire along trails, says law.
In the east, people don't accept these changes, and they lack understanding. They are used to public interest dominating over private interest. That's what they learnt during communism.

Beware of a holy privatism in a densly populated land. It only works in vast areas.
In England, there is a right of the public to maintain walking and biking trails over private property. As far as I learnt, it is not a communist country yet.

5 comments:

ArtSparker said...

My sister lives in England...yes, this is the law in england, but frequently the people with land adjacent to the right of way will "disappear" the signs. Oh, humanity...I can imagine it being frustrating not to be able to reach the water.

Deborah said...

How unfair, to be so close but not be able to get there.

jude said...

ownership can be a disease when accompanied by greed. i live on large land. i have put no fences even though my neighbors have suggested it... in the past years we have cleared a large pathway through the woods. to encourage passers through. i think WAS came through that way.

Robbie said...

Eva, so interesting to have you share your thoughts and ways with us. Thanks so much!!

Clare Wassermann said...

Yes and we go further in England - we have "common land" where we all have rights to graze our sheep. Also the National Trust owns great tracts of land which cannot be built upon but which is criss-crossed with public footpaths. We're not communist in this respect but the land is ours if it's not someone"s!