Fontane's poem : Lord of Ribbeck, it is even today

If a passengers falls the name tag on his breast pocket with the engraving "C. von Ribbeck" in the eye, sees the man again and again in astonished smiling faces: "you mean like the good Lord from the famous pear tree-poem..." Christian von Ribbeck, Boeing-747-cabin – in-chief, a so-called Purser so – in the case of Lufthansa, could respond in such moments: "my name is not the only way – I am the Lord of Ribbeck at Ribbeck in Havelland," only nine generations later. He's not but.

Not many poems in the German language are as famous as the 1889 by Theodor Fontane to eighth paper romantic Poem about the kind and wise Lord of the manor, Hans-Georg von Ribbeck, who was friendly to the "farmers and Büdner" and the village children delighted with the fruits of the pear tree touching-and thanks to a List – "to lay me a bulb to the grave" – about his death, anno 1759. Was self of the Wall, as the Land around Berlin was, for the majority of West Germans, and a number of West-Berlin little more than a white spot on the map, it's hardly a reason students between Flensburg and Berchtesgaden, which had not been aware of the rhymes on "Mr. von Ribbeck on Ribbeck" with relish rolled "R" by heart.

he was Born in South Africa

Little language back then, before the turn, Christian von Ribbeck would get to know the village of his ancestors ever personally. He was born in southern Africa, where his father for Volkswagen, as Zimbabwe Rhodesia, and its capital, Harare was still called Salisbury. Later, he grew up in Leverkusen, Germany, on the Rhine, studied in Cologne and a hotel management apprenticeship and worked a year at the reception of the Hamburg hotel Atlantic, to him then, in 1986, "aviation called". to pull

in Order to come up with the idea, according to Ribbeck, it took the fall of the Berlin wall and the legacy of his uncle, Friedrich-Carl. The former Thyssen managers from Düsseldorf open had a statement of German history; his grandfather, the Rittmeister Hans von Ribbeck, had been imprisoned in 1944, because of his all-too-demonstrative rejection of the Nazi terror the Gestapo in the concentration camp Sachsenhausen and there, in February 1945, died.

The Couple purchased a dilapidated carriage barn

Although the 2007 restored castle is for those of Ribbeck – times of the GDR an old people's home – long ago in the possession and direction of the district Havel country, it houses as the centre of the Havel, foreign tourism offices, a Restaurant, an office, a hall, a small Museum, and a Museum shop. However, Friedrich Carl von Ribbeck and his wife Ute fell in love with the village, the duck, fold to the 5 just past the small town of Nauen, a little shy in a gentle Terrain. They decided that the almost 800-year family history in place to continue. In the vicinity of the "double-roof house," from the poem, on the grounds of a dilapidated carriage barn, they built a new family seat. Ribbeck reloaded.

Beate and Christian von Ribbeck.Photo: private

Further back in the village, past the little village Church, in the historical preciousness of a tree stump of "the Original pear tree" is kept, the had been like in 1911 by a lightning strike, bought Friedrich - Carl von Ribbeck of the old, brick-built former distillery. From the distillery, whose no-longer-used brick chimney of Brandenburg is perhaps crowned highest-altitude inhabited stork's nest, has now become a venue where weddings and birthdays are celebrated.

brandies and Vinegars in the offer

on the Well-being of the couples or those celebrating an anniversary toast with pear brandy from the brand "Herr von Ribbeck". There is the "Williams pear brandy" in small and large fillings, on request, in a bulbous bottle "in-grown pear". Also a wide range of vinegar varieties on the bulb base, from "pear and elderberry", "pear vinegar-rose balm" up to "pear vinegar balsamic Queen Luise", the distillery-liquor store, whose management is handed over to the health ailing uncle soon to Christian von Ribbeck and his wife, Beate.

"We also sell brandies from sloe, plums, wild raspberries, or Plums," says Christian von Ribbeck, of the flies now only in part-time, "but the vast majority of the guests ask for our bulb brand." Only the Vinegars in the house, the fires, however, are produced not in Ribbeck, but in the distillery of a fellow master distiller in Alsace – "the", says Christian von Ribbeck, "is globalisation on the Havelland region type". Another Bestseller in the family operation, the illustrated poem book "Mr. von Ribbeck on Ribbeck", on request, with the dedication of the house of the Lord.

200 years Ago, Fontane was born in Neuruppin

Especially in the Winter, Beate von Ribbeck is happy if you can accompany your husband on one or the other multi-day orbit with a 747 or an Airbus A340. She was also for many years, short-purser route with Lufthansa. Than she gave up in 2016, the aviation, she was ready for a change in culture: from Wiesbaden, according to Ribbeck, the Hessian state capital in the Brandenburg 300 residents of the village, nearly 50 kilometers West of Berlin.

2019 is "Fontane-year" in the state of Brandenburg. Nearly 200 years ago, on 30.December, 1819, was born Fontane in Neuruppin. With exhibitions and events is the Brandenburg honor, from the pharmacist to the newspaper correspondent, war correspondent, theatre critic for the "Vossischen newspaper" and, finally, to the writer.

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200 years Ago in Neuruppin program for Fontane was born-the anniversary year

Bernd Matthies

Christian and Beate von Ribbeck, therefore, do well to remember, in their distillery, the stock of pear brandy, and vinegar balsamic until the spring to significantly increase. Clearly, it is possible to order the fires in the shop. But you can hear it in the Branches of the pear tree next to the old village Church, quiet whisper: "Wiste a Beer?"