TODAY

June 11, 2021

NIELS’ MORNING GREETINGS

ON: JUNE 11

New 2021 edition

TODAY’s LENGTH:

This day is here in Belgium 8 hours and 27 minutes longer than December 21. Its length is 16 hours and 25 minutes – from 05.30 to 21.55.

See more – also in English – about where you are on: www.dagenslaengde.dk

TODAY’s NAME:

Today’s name is BARNABAS’s DAY. He was one of the disciples of Jesus. He was closely related to the apostle Paul and took part in several of his trips. During a stay in Salamis in Cyprus Barnabas was caught by Jews and dragged through the streets with a rope around his neck. At the end he was thrown into a fire, where he died. It happened in year 61 AC.

In Denmark this day was until recently also called ”The Birthday of the Devil”. Why? Because today ( and December 11 ) was the last day to pay your regular down-payment and interest on your property loans.

In Belgium the day’s name is the same: SAINT BARNABÉ.

TODAY’s EVENT:

1972: Piet Hein receives the degree as honourable doctor at the Yale University in the US.

TODAY’s QUESTION:

Emperor Wilhelm II – what is the short important story about him?

Wilhelm II was the last German emperor. He lived in the years 1859-1941 and was on his father’s side out of the Hohenzollern family from the South-West of Germany. Through his mother he was the oldest grandchild of Queen Victoria. At his great embarrassment she kept calling him (until she died in 1901) “My dear little boy!”.

Wilhelm became emperor in 1888 following his father Wilhelm I. And one of his first acts was to dismiss Otto von Bismarck, the strong German chancellor, who had worked very closely to his father. Wilhelm wanted to govern his country himself. And following many visits to his grandmother in England he was very impressed by the huge British navy. “So ein Ding müssen wir auch haben”, he said to himself. And that’s what happened. You can see from the enclosed picture that the emperor probably did not have any inferiority complexes. Or perhaps he did?! See photo below.

It was these two huge navies, which run decisively into each other in the “Battle of Jutland” in 1916, about 145 km west of the Danish coast. Both sides suffered huge losses, especially the British, because many of their ships were badly constructed.

By the way, Wilhelm was almost all his life bitter against the British, primarily because he claimed that it was the fault of British doctors that he during his birth got an almost paralysed left arm.

As is well known the Germans was only no. two in the 1^st world war. Wilhelm excaped during the last days of the war to neutral Holland, where he bought the castle Doorn near Utrecht. He lived here until his death in 1941 and was served by a handful of his old generals. The allied countries requested that the Netherlands handed the emperor over to them, but the Dutch refused. And he expected all the rest of his life that he would be called back to Germany to govern his country. But this was not an idea which Adolf Hitler was keen about.

QUESTION FOR TOMORROW:

Verdun 1916 - what is the story behind?

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47 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT EUROPE:

EUROPE AT WORK www.europe-at-work.be

TODAY’s QUOTE & FAMOUS PEOPLE :

1. Yesterday’s quote:

In love you should not tell everything, because an emotional relationship needs something untold, around which the conversation can take place.

This was once said by the Danish-Norwegian author Sigrid Undset.

2. Today’s quote:

Today many men look like girls, who look like men.

Who among today’s persons has said that?