Das Esslinger Entenrennen

Earlier this month I was fortunate enough to have been informed about and invited to a peculiar, yet exciting, local tradition: the Esslinger Entenrennen (Esslingen Duck Race in English). As I intend to be exploring space and community as touchpoints for cultural difference in this blog series, das Entenrennen feels like the perfect place to start.

What is the Entenrennen?

The Esslinger Entenrennen is a charity raffle where around 7000 numbered rubber ducks are dumped into a canal along the Necker river in Esslingen. Each duck is numbered and locals are encouraged to buy tickets which each correspond to a duck. The ticket holders of the fastest 125 ducks win prizes, donated by local sponsors, ranging from coupons to the grand prize of an E-bike.

Why?

The Entenrennen is a component of the broader local festival of "Esslinger Frühling" (Esslingen Spring), a weekend-long local market festival held every year to mark the beginning of Spring. From11am until 6pm the town center is alive with local venders, musicians and street performers, food, and anticipation for the Entenrennen. It was really cool to walk the streets which felt distinctly alive—the purpose of "Esslinger Frühling." While the city coordinates "Esslinger Frühling," the Entenrennen is organized by Esslingen's chapter of "Round Table," a mens club which uses the money it raises for charity.

My Time at the Entenrennen

I had been invited to the Entenrennen by my, I guess the best word would be, host-family who live in Esslingen, so after a painless 40 minute train ride from Tübingen, I met up with them and they showed me around the market and the best places to see the canal. In a lot of ways it felt like other charity events I had seen in the United States; the MCs thanked everyone and talked about the event while the same Black Eyed Peas song played in the background, but it was also distinctly different because of how much of a community event the Entenrennen is. Despite the near freezing temperatures, thousands of people turned out to watch the ducks slowly race with the current.

Analysis

In the States similar events would be taking place at a fairground, somewhere remote where participants made a choice to go, or a big city. The Entenrennen on the other hand, takes place in downtown Esslingen, a small city that feels smaller than its 90,000 inhabitants. The location turns an otherwise cute charity event into a feature of the community for a day, and that was exciting to see. Sadly my duck was a slow loser duck, but it did provide me with a chance to be a part of something bigger than myself.

Everyone there was some extension of the community, and if only for a few hours, so was I.

Comments

Die Kultur und ihre Nacht

I've gotten into the habit of writing my way into these posts; and while I have attempted not to do that presently, my point, and the topic at hand, is ultimately far too broad not for me to be a bit speculative and indulgent. I want to talk about die Kultur. Admittedly, that is impossible in a blog post. In fact, the point of these Blocker-blogs is to peel back the layers of die deutsche Kultur from an American perspective—so saying this weeks post is about Kultur is a little bit like saying today I am writing about Germany. More specifically I am going to talk about Tübingen's recent "Kultur Nacht," a citywide celebration of the arts and culture, which in my experience, felt quintessentially German. So what is "Kultur Nacht"? "Kultur Nacht" is an annual event put on by das Kulturnetz Tübingen , a regional organization and intermediary for the arts, which for one spring night converted downtown Tübingen into a a display. With well over 100 differ

The €9 Ticket—or the Time the German Government Wrote my Blocker Blog

In the past few months I have claimed that the unifying "Theme" of this blog has been an exploration of space and culture, as this is already the type of casual analysis which I bring to my Alltag. A large part of what drew me to study in Germany in the first place was the way in which I felt Germany, and the Germans, value culture and community more than us Americans. While a lot of what I have written about in the past has fell into the category of cultural generalizations today I am excited to be talking about a real piece of policy—the locally infamous €9 Ticket. A few weeks ago the German governing coalition; consisting of the center left SPD, Liberal FPD, and Greens announced a plan designed to alleviate cost of living increases and encourage environmental travel by subsidizing public transit during the summer months. Since the beginning of the war in the Ukraine gas prices in Germany have been shockingly high by American standards (the equivalent of $12 per gallon bein

Die Romantik und Wandern Gehen

As a lifelong runner and nature-lover finding new places to run, and hike, was the my most anticipated part of moving to Germany for the semester. There is no better way to discover a place than on foot, and Tübingen has not disappointed by offering up the most extensive and stunning network of trails I have ever lived near in the form of Schönbuch Naturpark . While this post could easily go in the direction of me gushing over my love of this space and recounting in far too many words how I have been truly alone here, without the sound of a car or plane to keep me company, I want to instead focus in on the concept of Wanderung , or w andern gehen as a facet of German identity. So what is Die Wanderung? For most English native speakers, the word offers up images of wandering, an almost aimless journey, but to the Germans it suggests something completely different. The most direct translation of wandern would be "to hike" but in many way s this guts Wanderung gu

Ian's Blocker Blog 2022

Search This Blog