Barth's Basel

Monday. 

 With my Basel pass I can use the trams freely, so after breakfast it was onto tram 15 to ‘Kleiner’
Basel and then the 34 to the Friedhof am Hörnli, I knew which division, section, and grave number he was residing at, but it didn’t help as there very few numbers on the first few divisions….I had a map but it didn’t really help either, I found the right division but the section wasn’t listed, having checked several grave 14’s, I Googled the exact location co-ordinated and found it. Interestingly his assistant Charlotte von Kirschbaum Is buried in the same plot, alongside his wife Nelly. I was nearly run over by deer running through the cemetery. I then caught the tram back to the old town and had a wander around. 

I visited the university rooms he used to lecture from and then stopped for coffee. It is snowing today but I had another look round the market. I wandered back to the hotel and then did some work and read. 

 

Tuesday 

Today was the day, I was visiting the Barth archives, the house he lived in with Nelly and
Charlotte from 1955 to his death in 1968. I saw the room (now a study) where he took his last breath! More interesting was his study, where he has bookcase full of books, mainly German and French, although I did spot a couple of English ones. The famous Isenheim painting was there , mentioned in CD1.1 It was quite a simple study, which reflected the era he lived in. The Archive Manager Dr. Peter Zocher showed me around, he lives there and is editorial works etc. he was very helpful and formative, and offered me ‘proper’ coffee! Barth used the same Bible since 1912, which was on the bookshelf. 

 

Whilst in the area, I saw the Stucki restaurant (or Bruderholz Restaurant) as it was in Barth’s time), a few hundred yards down the road, where he used to have dialogue with his students, and then the Titus Church, he helped to design, in my view he was better suited to theology than church design! They were going to call the church Bartholomew but he was concerned it would be shortened to Barthli church and so wanted a different name.

 

Near my hotel is The ‘Odd Fellow Haus’ according to Google ‘The Odd Fellows are an
international politically and denominationally unbound association, their basic attitude is based on the Enlightenment, with progressive thinking and acting.’ I had a wander around the town again and then it started to rain so returned to the hotel, where there is free coffee. Then to pack my bag for the flight home tomorrow.

AI Conference - Germany Here I come.....

 

The ‘Corpo:reality – Body and Embodiment in AI and Robotics’ conference was being held in Würzburg which meant my first flight since 2020, fortunately I still had frequent flier miles to use. Our roles were reversed and Linda was my chauffeur to London City airport on Thursday morning, after I had de-iced the car.  I only had hand luggage, so quickly through security, although my shower gel was selected for a test, and then a quick coffee while waiting to board. I was flying with BA and it left just after 7am and we were in Frankfurt about 75minutes later. Due to Brexit you need your passport stamped at the border, although I was at the front of the queue.  Having negotiated the trip to another terminal for the train station I bought my ticket and waited. The trains are all running late, so I got the 10am train at 11am, which was fine for me as I didn’t get to the platform till 10.30. It was very busy, although I got a seat in the buffet car, so had a nice cappuccino while travelling and looking out the window, we went through some snow, but it was just cold when we arrived in Würzburg. The journey took about 75 minutes. 

 

I had walk around the town, there was a C & A and a Woolworths as well as other more modern brands. Trams are running in all directions, but I preferred to walk, even though I didn’t really know where I was going, but that is part of the adventure! Having (finally) located the City Hotel,  I just wanted to leave my bag, but they said the room was ready, which was even better. It was a basic room, with a shower, and the heating was on, it was so warm I had to open the window (and turn the heating off).

 

I then went for a little walk around the town, found the  Marktplatz where they were getting ready for the ‘der Weihnachtsmarkt,’ saw various churche and  located the conference centre for Friday. It was then time to  stop  for coffee Apfelstrudel and some Internet access. The weather was cold but pleasant and after calling at Aldi for some supplies I  went back to the hotel room and rested.

 

Friday

 

It had been snowing gently during the night, so there was a scattering of snow on the pavements and rooftops. Breakfast was bread, cheese and meat and of course coffee. I then went out for a walk to visit the castle at the top of the hill, it was quite icy which was not too bad going up, but more difficult coming  down.  It cost money to go in, so I stayed outside, took some photos and admired the view!

 

The conference started at 2pm, so I had time to wander around the Christmas market, which wasn’t dissimilar from those I had been to in Berlin, Nuremberg etc, food, glühwein, cakes and gifts, seen one seen them all!

 

The conference started at 2pm and we had a presentation on ‘Robots, Body and Religion’ before coffee.  Next was parallel  sessions and it was difficult to choose two out of the six offered. My first one was  on brains, and a talk about preserving the brain now for possible downloads in the future, and explaining about the brain archive.  The official title was ‘Life, Death and Reinstantiation. Brain Preservation from Neurobiological, Anthropological and Theological Perspectives’. Linda strangely wasn’t that interested when I tried to explain it to her later, the dogs will be when I get home. The second session was on ‘AI, Emotions and Ethics’ and a key part of this is about will AI ever show ‘true’ emotion (or can it!).

 

Dinner was provided and then we went out for the evening to a local Bier Haus, although I was drinking coke! Most delegates are from Germany or German speaking counties so the conversation was difficult to follow, sometimes they spoke English, but I was just happy to sit there and relax, I prefer the limited conversation.

 

Saturday

 

The conference started at 9 so it was an early breakfast, my hotel is about 15 mins walk from the building. The first paper was about what type of skins does a robot need to have an authentic relationship titled ‘ Robotics and Emotion’ and was based upon Karl Barth’s criteria for humanity (discussed in great detail in Church Dogmatics 3.2)? After, this the conference moved away from authentic relationships to thinking about friendship, love and sex robots……

 

In the afternoon we had the opportunity to design our own robot and my group had the religious robot to design, the group struggled with a single concept so we had an all singing (and dancing) machine which gave you advice, prayers, tattoos and even drawing - an interesting concept, but not sure of the practicalities.

 

It was a great conference, one of my colleagues from my previous Digital Theology course was there and we caught up, learnt lots and have a long list of areas to research and papers to read.

 

In the evening I visited the Christmas Market, and it was packed so I didn’t stay long, then back to the hotel to pack for the next stage of the journey.

 

Sunday

 

It was an early start and a quick breakfast before heading to the Hauptbahnhof as I was travelling by train to Basel. There has been considerable snow in Munich, which has closed the airport and affected the train system, so it was difficult to find the correct connections, I decided to go to Frankfurt on 08.24 and then get the next train from there, as all trains to Basel go through Frankfurt. The train was late, but I still had 20 minutes (time to get a coffee) before a train left for Basel, it didn’t go to the main station, but the one before and I could either get a tram or walk to the main station, it is only about 3km. The other option was to wait for a later train, which might or might not arrive, and would be busy. I decided to get the train, as I could worry about the last 3km when I got there, it was quite busy on the train, but I got a seat with a table!  I did some work, some service planning and reading. The journey is about 3 hours so I did visit the buffet car for a drink and cake, need to be ready for the walk!

 

The train arrived, about 15 mins late, so I followed the ‘sheep’ and they all went to another train which took everyone to the main station. I then had a 10 minute  walk to the hotel an Ibis Styles and my room is on the 6th floor.  After, a short rest I went into the city and had a wander around the Christmas markets, it was very crowded and not as good as Würzburg.
I visited Karl Barth Platz and the house he was born in (although it has changed since!) before returning to the hotel.

 

It was tiring all this travelling and walking so I stayed in for the evening and just read.