Coopers & Brewers

One day last week, President Paul von Hindenburg stood in a public square in Munich with a large gold ring in his hand.

Of course, a large crowd gathered about him. But anyone would have noticed that this was a very unusual crowd indeed.

For they were all dressed in colorful Bavarian costumes, and they sang lusty German songs and strewed flowers over the pavement. Many buxom daughters of wine growers came up to Old Paul and offered him sips of Bavarian wine. And the President sipped.

Also there was a parade of butchers, millers, coopers and brewers. Standard bearers held aloft their ancient guild emblems and heralds, twinkling in gilded costumes, blew trumpets.

So, had it not been for the familiar square head of Old Paul von Hindenburg, an observer would have thought that this was medieval Germany.

But it was not medieval Germany. Instead it was the ceremonies attending the laying of a corner stone of the new Germanic Museum at Munich. The gold ring in the President's hand was the honor ring of the Museum with which Herr Goldenberger, the Bavarian Minister of Education, presented him.

Then spoke Old Paul, serious amidst much jollity:

"May this building serve German labor, German reconstruction and the entire future of Germany. May all who strive here be guided by the thought: 'Everything for the Fatherland.' "

Then he struck the corner stone three times with a hammer, and that ended the ceremonies.