bratislava (=: BA), SK

i was not sure, should i call this blog post 'mama, next chapter' or 'bratislava 2022'. well, bratislava (=: BA =: blava, as the locals say) is more neutral, isn't it? 🍀

the castle of pressburg (DE+AT) / presporok (SK) / poszony (HU)

/ posonium (latin) = today the capital of slovakia, bratislava (SK)

i welcomed the chance, that slovakia (slowakei, slovensko) finally terminated its mad corona quarantine regulations (even for negative tested (!) unvaccinated people like me) on april, 6th and i could visit my brother's family who take care of our ailing mother. as i still could work mobile at that time, i spontaneously deciced to stay for the whole easter week. what a good idea! just a week later i had to come to the office 3 times a week 😂

what about my mother? well, she is soooo weak and forgets everything, even how and why to eat. on the other hand, she's fine in many ways. she has no body aches, get's everything she needs and even smiles from time to time, especially when she gets something sweet. the whole situation is worse for my sister-in-law and the whole family than for my mother, if you asked me. good luck + all the best, dear mama 💗🍀💔

 

mother and son. google's AI still recognizes her fast changing face even with closed eyes as my mother and suggests to marke her as my mother. how do they do it? 😄

 

as there is a war in ukraine, less than 100 km east from my home city kosice (SK), i will direct your attention also to bratislava's multi-language, multi-national, multi-cultural and  peaceful past, okay?

pressburg (DE+AT) / presporok (SK) / pozsony (HU) => bratislava (SK): after the mongol invasions and conquests 1206 - 1405 was today's slovakia a quite empty place and many german settlers came here. therefore was bratislava (then called pressburg) many hundred years a german (speaking) city. before the austro-hungarian compromise of 1867 were approx. 75% of the inhabitants germans, followed by slovaks und hungarians. pressburg was also the place where the austrian kings were crowned. after the austro-hungarian compromise started a hungarisation of the city. in 1919, when the first czechoslovak republic was formed, were 36% germans, 33% slovaks and 29% hungarians. today are more than 90% slovaks. if interersted, you can read even more detailed data copied from wikipedia.DE below. how did the folks live together in former times?

i will tell you about the coexistence of nations in slovakia as i know from my parents and grandparents from einsiedel an der göllnitz, a village founded by german settlers in 1230 in eastern slovakia. before WW II, there were more than 95% germans. they married and got children in german communities among the neighbouring villages / cities, but worked all together with other nations [germans, slovaks, rusyns (russinen, ruthenen, rusnaci - today belong mostly to ukrainians), hungarians]. my grandpa as a mason / bricklayer thus spoke not only german, but also some basics in the other languages. my grandma as a housewife spoke german only. 

=> it there was no politics, the people could probably live in peace an cooperation with all other nations, couldn't they?

enjoy few pictures:

pressburg's / bratislava's city mayor heinrich justi (1804–1878) changed the city to a modern and better place in many ways and was also the founder of the forest park in pressburg.

me, trying to take care of brother's children, #1 😍

mill klepac, zelezna studienka, BA

 

 

 

 

beer with my father and with my brother's family. btw, the patronka brewery was an ammunition factory before. beer is better than war, what do you think?

kosice (SK), painted by the ukrainian painter curej / tschurei / czuray

today's western ukraine (called zakarpatska rus with the carpatian hills and the cities uzhorod, mukacevo) belonged to czechoslovakia before WWII. painted by the ukrainian painter czuray

 there is the ukrainian ambassy close to my brother's home

probably some russian beauties from vk, the russian facebook

arts?

there is also the chinese ambassy close to my brother's home.

what a nice mission statement for the (new) SILK ROAD ~ peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit

china along the new silk road

 the patronka brewery was an ammunition factory before. beer is better than war 🍺

  

me, trying to take care of brother's children, #2 😍

 

gruber family tree ~ stammbaum ~ rodokmen.

my mother was special in many ways. she could take so much effort in order to finish s.th. important for her. thanks, dear mother 😍

 

historic electric busses in bratislava today

 dubravka, the former croatian village in the hills above BA

 new dubravka

~~~

source wikipedia.DE 26.05.2022:

• 1850/51 hatte Bratislava 42.238 Einwohner. Davon waren 31.509 (74,59 Prozent) Deutsche, 7.586 (17,9 Prozent) Slowaken und 3.154 (7,4 Prozent) Magyaren. Nach dem Österreichisch-Ungarischen Ausgleich von 1867 setzte eine intensive, von der ungarischen Regierung geförderte Magyarisierung ein. 
• 1890 wurden 52.441 Einwohner gezählt, davon 31.404 (59,9 Prozent) Deutsche, 10.433 (19,9 Prozent) Magyaren und 8.709 (16,6 Prozent) Slowaken. 
• Unmittelbar nach der Gründung der Tschechoslowakei wurden im August 1919 insgesamt 36 Prozent Deutsche, 33 Prozent Slowaken, 29 Prozent Magyaren und 1,7 Prozent andere gezählt.
• Im Jahr 1930 waren 25 Prozent Deutsche, 33 Prozent Slowaken, 23 Prozent Tschechen, 16 Prozent Magyaren und 3,833 Prozent Juden in der Stadt ansässig. Die Bevölkerungsstruktur hatte sich vor allem durch Zuzug von Tschechen verändert; außerdem wurden nun Juden separat erfasst, die sich zuvor aufgrund ihrer Sprache entweder als Deutsche oder als Magyaren deklariert hatten. Die Gründung des Slowakischen Staates im Jahr 1939 hatte die Ausweisung vieler Tschechen zur Folge. Die slowakischen Juden wurden zwischen 1942 und 1944 deportiert und ermordet.
• today vs. 2001: Die größte Ethnie sind die Slowaken mit 373.568 Einwohnern (90,84 Prozent, 2001: 391.767), gefolgt von Magyaren mit 14.119 (3,43 Prozent, 2001: 16.541), Tschechen mit 5.445 (1,32 Prozent, 2001: 7.972) und Deutschen mit 963 (0,23 Prozent, 2001: 1.200). Weitere ethnische Gruppen sind Mährer (783 Einw., 2001: 635 Einw.), Russinen (747 Einw., 2001: 461 Einw.), Kroaten (649 Einw., 2001: 614 Einw.), Ukrainer (454 Einw., 2001: 452 Einw.), Russen (446 Einw., 2001: 399 Einw.) Polen (404 Einw., 2001: 339 Einw.), Roma (370 Einw., 2001: 417 Einw.) und Bulgaren (368 Einw., 2001: 475 Einw.). Bei 10.016 Einwohnern konnte die Ethnie nicht festgestellt werden (2001: 5.680).

~~~

many, many additional pictures here.

pictures from my last visit to slovakia in 2021.

ukraine 2022, UA

the following opinion is my personal one, so it will most likely differ from the official western aka NATO point of view on this sad issue. if you have some different opinion & information, do not hesitate to discuss or post some proof of evidence / links in the comments area bellow, will you?

ukraine war by ben garrison, february-march 2022 💣

a proxy war? source: xbrchx - stock.adobe.com

true?

 

however, the facts / insights are based on my own research + my knowledge of russian and ukrainian languages. i've learned 11 years russian at school, so i understand some 70-90% of russian and some 60-80% of ukrainian sources. it is enough to catch the message of the particular youtube video + telegram channel, if you asked me. there will be maybe also some information from our polish family and from eastern slovakia, too. my home town kosice is less than 100 km away from the ukrainian border (SK-UA), thus me + my friends + family have interesting informations or know personally some important people like the current slovak ambassador in the ukraine (we often played as children together as our parents were very best friends at that time and still are in some way today). of course, i have no secret informations or direct contact to him or other government sources today, but the close distance to the ukrainian war area allows more insights than the official NATO propaganda and the lack of access to censored / blocked russian channels in the mainstream media in germany otherwise allowed. i hope you still remember how badly does the west lie about war issues? hussein's not existent WMD, assad's gas attack on syrian children just 10 km away from the airport (false flag attack done by the CIA financed white helmets in a hollywood like manner, not by assad's regime as it maked no sense for assad both militarily and politically), russian (not realised) attack on the nuclear power plant in zaporozje in march 2022. you probably still know, how do the western officials hate those who demonstrable speak the truth like edward snowden + julian assange, don't you? i'm sure, russian official war coverage is a propaganda too, especially the always proclaimed strikes on military-only-targets, the unbelievable low own losses or the official explanation for the recent russian withdrawal from the kiew area. let's search for some obvious facts & reasons & conclusions, ok?

where should i start? let's start in 2014, the year of the western orchestrated and financed coup d'état in kiew (maidan events). the u.s. 'fuck the EU' official victoria nuland publicly confirmed that it was sponsored by the USA with 5 billion USD at that time. that coup was succesful, the democratically elected president yanukowitch fled to russia and a new nationalist government under the president poroshenko took over (that election was held only in southwestern part of ukraine, UKR / UA. there was no election held in donbass).

• the first bill of the new administaration was to ban russian language (as official language). not nice. there are/were more than 8 million ethnic russians (22% of all population) and many more native russian speaking people in the ukraine according to wikipedia, you know? how can you ban 8 million people to speak / use / learn their language?
  
• the ukrainian nacionalists massacred and burned peaceful people in trade unions house in odessa. there was a massacre in mariupol, too ... not nice ... i will not post the links to this ugly action of  fascist soccer fans in odessa on may, 2nd 2014. it is much, much, much too bad to see it again.
  
• the eastern ukraine and crimea rebelled and with russian support formed the doneck + lugangs 'novorossija' republics (DNR, LNR). the autonomous region of crimea voted for its junction to russia
• the real war in donbas started. not nice
  
• ukraine stopped to deliver (to sell) water to the crimea. not nice
  
• the peace talks in minsk marked the official end of the war. nice
  
• the war never ended, the ukrainian army and battailons never stopped firing grenades on donbass. not nice
• the ukrainian side haunted pro-russian activists and assassinated many heroes of the resistance. the best known among them were the DNR commanders motorola + givi and the president of the DNR zacharchenko. not nice

 

donbass 2014- 2022 (source here)

• biden got elected in the usa and the ukrainian army / nacionalists immediately shot a mass amounts of grenades on donbas. they knew, when trump will be away they'll again get support for their war from washington. a friend of mine who lived many months in doneck (donetsk) told me at that time that an open war between ukraine and novorossija / rossija is only a question of time. how right he was! so sad. not nice
• usa never stopped to move more and more troops and weapons & rockets to its eastern european vassals slovakia, poland, czech republic, romania .... or to carry out NATO manoeuvres on russian borders in poland, baltic sea (e.g. operation northern coasts 2021 in september (initiated by germany in 2007) with partner armies of belgium, canada, denmark, estland, finnland, france, germany, holland, latvia, lithuania, poland, norway, sweden + usa). NATO's push to the east and an increasing threat against russia is obvious for everyone. not nice
  
• usa + slovakia decided to expand their common air force base in sliac (SK) in order to accomodate much bigger u.s. military airplanes as today possible, which is openly aimed against russia (u.s. contract signed in early 2022). not nice
  
• russia (putin) accredited DNR + LNR as independent countries (in their former borders, not in the currently military controlled areas) in february 2022
• february, 24th 2022 russia under putin attacked ukraine from north + east + south and the open war started. not nice
• millions of war plagued refugees fled from ukraine, mostly women and children as the men have to stay there and fight against the united forces of russia + DNR + LNR. not nice, but at least are the refugees safe from bombing / military strikes for the moment
• why did russia attack ukraine now in febrauary 2022? my own speculations: 
• putin / russia know for sure that USA / NATO will not stop threaten them and will come closer and closer to russian borders (e.g. orchestrated color revolutions in belarus, kazakchstan & co., placement of new u.s. troops in poland, slovakia, romania in 12/2021 - 02/2022. military u.s. air base in slovakia. NATO summits and manoeuvres in lithuania / baltics 2021-2022).
• the west is a little bit weaker than in the previous years (e.g. u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan, brexit, ...)
• the DNR + LNR could not protect themselves much longer
• the west is not a reliable business partner any longer (american sanctions / suspension of the finished but not operating gas pipeline north stream 2 despite all contracts made even before the attack on ukraine)
• the winter olympics in russia's partner country china was over
• in february there is still cold enough and the european countries need russian oil + gas much more than they would in summertime
  
• the biggest ukrainian war ship was under reconstruction in the dockyard of mariupol and thus not ready to fight. it was sunken by ukrainian forces before the russian army arrived
• when they attacked ukraine now (02/2022), they could hope they will face the ukraine only. in the near future they would possibly have all the NATO powers against them in such a case. that's a big difference!
• anything else?
  
• the danger of WW3 is real! why? the NATO countries deliver weapons, volunteer fighters, money + provide support to the ukraine like e.g. sanctions against russia. it is probably only a question of time, when the russians will bomb a weapons transport in SK, PL, RO, TR, LT, EST, LV or a false flag attack in one of these countries occurs and thus the NATO alliance case will be forced. isn't it? not nice at all.
  
• etc.

if interested, i will provide few pictures below. i will not concentrate on destruction and death. i will show few peace protest actions and some historical or background information in order to better understand the conflict instead. war is an ugly issue. i could show similar pictures from any other other ukrainian front lines, but here are just two war pictures from mariupol and 1 from the completely anti-russian coverage of the war in german media. not nice at all 😭

 

40,000 of us demonstarated for peace in the ukraine and against the russian aggression on march 2nd, 2022 in munich

 

mariupol 2022. source here 

mariupol and eastern ukraine 2022. source here

zaporozje (wiki) ~ Схили_над_Дніпром - Anatoliy Volkov - собственная работа

source faz.net - DE, 23.04.2022

the first ukrainian refugees in munich

how the ukraine progressed to its today's size =>

territorial gifts by the russian czars, lenin, stalin, chruschtschow

donbass, source wikipedia 09. april 2022

an interesting tweet by elon musk (in october 2022?) on twitter: BLUE are the pro-russian regions in the ukraine in the last regular election before the american led coup d'etat in 2014. of course, just add the RED communists in odessa to the pro russian wing as well.

the west is unbelievable dishonest. about war and U.S. + EU sanctions by jürgen todenhöfer (JT)

 

george orwell

 

sanctions are the equivalent of the medieval besiegement, you know?

 
so sad, so true :(

western weapons and money for the war?

will the west fight against russia up to the last ukrainian soldier?

will we face WW3?

there is no chance for an independent ukrainian way. is there? (source: the daily bell, 2014)

this picture is 8 years old (~ 2014). today, 8 years later, the same situation. sooo many dead, so much sorrow and the danger of WW III on top. will the steering 'elites' never stop that madness? source: here

how the mainstream media propaganda works. west vs. east.

this picture is also 8 years old (~ from 20214). source: here

kiev / kyiv vs. gaza. just in case you think putin is equaly evil as biden or netanyahu (netanjahu)

do you agree?

let's hope for PEACE 😉

let stop wars

let's hope the war will be over soon. especially before also other parts of the ukraine would be destroyed and before many more people (civilians & soldiers) die on both sides ... PEACE 💗

addendum 11/2022:

the war is still going on and worse than ever. there was an ukrainian rocket attack on NATO-member poland which killed at least 2 people few days ago. ukrainian president zelensky tried to blame russia for that attack and western media celebrated this issue. soon was clear it was not russia but the ukraine ... for me it is so obvious the west wants the WW3, so sad ... according the NATO treaty, the NATO should attack ukraine now, isn't it? so sad, there are really powers who want the ultimative war ... so sad, but is there any hope? 💗

YES, if you asked me. MY HOPE ARE WE THE PEOPLE! just watch the following 2 chat roulette videos where two russian musicians play russian, ukrainian and tatar songs for accidental viewers and gape what happens, when there is a listener from ukraine .. soooo touching .... THERE ARE NO REAL PROBLEMS BETWEEN PEOPLE AND NATIONS, if you asked me ... just the political powers (often wrongly called 'elites') and the economical interests are the real problem, isn't it? 

part #1

part #2

here belove the ukrainian original, okean elzy with two beautiful songs in ukrainian language. for me as a native slovak speaker, sounds ukrainian somehow between slovak a russian. imho and in any case, all slavic nations should behave as brothers and not as enemies ... of course, after such a war like this one in the ukraine or the former one in yugoslavia, it will be really, really difficult. but maybe in two or three decades not impossible ... we have to forget & forgive in order to function live worthwhile further, havent we?

okean elzy - obijmi (take me in your arms) from 'battle for sevastopol'

okean elzy - strilyai (shoot!)

few more pictures here.