Credo LGT Journal on Wealth Culture
CURIOSITY | XVII 2013
Contents | Credo XvII 2013
Credits Publisher H.S.H. Prince Philipp von und zu Liechtenstein, Chairman LGT Group
Curiosity
Advisory board Thomas Piske, CEO LGT Private Banking Norbert Biedermann, CEO LGT Bank Ltd. Heinrich Henckel, CEO LGT Bank (Switzerland) Ltd.
02
Editorial office, Layout Sidi Staub (executive editor) LGT Marketing & Communications
02 Portrait | Ian Baker This American explorer of the Himalayas succeeded where many before him had failed: he discovered the gates of paradise.
Picture editor Lilo Killer, Zurich Design concept, Coordination Thomas von Ah, Zurich Chris Gothuey, Zurich
10 Portfolio | Children’s questions What do they really want to know or understand, and where do they get the answers? We asked children from Chongqing, New York, Beira, Zurich and Moscow.
Translation Syntax Translations Ltd., Zurich
E-mail for correspondence lgt.credo@lgt.com
Printer BVD Druck+Verlag AG, Schaan
15 Essay | Lifelong learning Education specialist Salman Ansari knows the secret of keeping a zest for lifelong learning.
Subscriptions Are you interested in receiving future editions of CREDO? We will be happy to send you CREDO free of charge. Subscribe to CREDO online at www.lgt.com under “Order print versions of LGT publications.”
Lithographer Prepair Druckvorstufen AG, Schaan Energy efficient and CO2 compensated print.
18 Report | Urban explorers The explorers of today no longer travel to distant continents. They travel into the past and find their “terra incognita” on their own doorstep.
Picture credits Cover, pages 4, 6, 7: Sascha Zastiral Pages 2, 5, 8, 9: Ian Baker Page 10: pixelio, clipdealer Pages 11–14: Polaroid frame: 123RF Page 11, left: Alja Kirillova Page 11, right: Nicola Scevola Page 12: Sacha Batthyany Page 13: Ruth Fend Page 14: Dennis Eucker Pages 16–17: Illustration Markus Roost Pages 18–25: Simon Cornwell Pages 22, 24: Bradley Garett Pages 27, 28, 30: Julian Salinas Page 29: Illustration Markus Wys Page 32: Princely Collections Page 34: Christian Breitler Page 35: Magdalena Weyrer Page 36: Pius Theiler Page 37: Manfred Schiefer
New: The “LGT Bank app” provides editions of the LGT client journal CREDO as well as further LGT publications which can be downloaded to iPads free of charge.
26 Interview | Barbara Hohn This 74-year-old scientist knows that groundbreaking dis coveries only happen when we give free rein to our curiosity. 32 Masterpieces | Peter Fendi A young girl peeks through a keyhole. Curiosity? No, just cautiousness. But to realize this, you have to look very carefully.
36 Carte Blanche | Pius Theiler His invention won a special prize at the “Schweizer Jugend forscht” competition. And he only wanted to know how a handy camming device might function.
36
18
32
LGT Bank Ltd. Herrengasse 12 FL-9490 Vaduz Phone +423 235 11 22 Fax +423 235 15 22 info@lgt.com
LGT Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. Lange Gasse 15 CH-4002 Basel Phone +41 61 277 56 00 Fax +41 61 277 55 88 lgt.ch@lgt.com
LGT Bank (Singapore) Ltd. 3 Temasek Avenue #30-01 Centennial Tower Singapore 039190 Phone +65 6415 3800 info@lgt.com
LGT Bank (Hong Kong) Suite 4203, Two Exchange Square 8 Connaught Place, Central Hong Kong Phone +852 2868 0201 info@lgt.com
www.lgt.com LGT Group is represented in more than 20 locations in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. A complete address list can be seen at www.lgt.com
50319en 0913 1.6T BVD
34 Literary choice | Christoph Ransmayr In 1872 a seafaring expedition was caught in pack ice for two long winters. A hundred years later, an inquisitive Italian retraced the journey to the far north made back then by his great-great-uncle.
Editorial
Dear Readers, Is curiosity addictive? The American neuroscientist Irving Biederman believes he has found out why we human beings are so full of curiosity and a thirst for knowledge: in the moment of discovery, when our curiosity is satisfied, our body sets free its own opiates in the brain. The resulting feeling of elation is what motivates us to strive continually for new knowledge. One thing is certain: without curiosity, mankind would not be where it is today. The search for knowledge and understanding – condemned as a vice before modern times – is regarded today as a virtue that stimulates progress and prosperity. A virtue that becomes even more important in times of crisis. That’s no doubt why US President Barack Obama urged the American people to display greater curiosity in his first inaugural address. We have taken a peek over the shoulder of people for whom curiosity is a way of life. For example, there is a researcher whom the National Geographic Society has declared one of its “Explorers for the Millennium.” Then there’s a scientist who has retained her spirit of curiosity well beyond the age of retirement, and an urban explorer who investigates abandoned buildings and disused factories. And of course a number of children and young people also have their say here, for by virtue of their age they enjoy the privilege of innocent curiosity. This issue of CREDO is also a plea for you to remain curious yourselves! For as Goethe already knew: “Whoever is not curious will learn nothing.” I wish you a fascinating reading experience!
H.S.H. Prince Philipp von und zu Liechtenstein Chairman LGT Group
CREDO | 01
Portrait | Ian Baker
Discovering
a lost paradise Text and photos: Sascha Zastiral
There are some places that are deeply rooted in our belief system but that hardly anyone has ever seen. One such place is a legendary region in the heart of Tibet’s Tsangpo Gorge. American Ian Baker has succeeded where many past expeditions have failed: the Himalayan researcher has made it right to the gates of paradise. One of the greatest explorers of our times lives in an unassuming row house in Bangkok. Tall metal gates shield the inhabitants of the small side road in the city’s Ekkamai district from the outside world. Some two dozen identical-looking houses line the street on both sides. They have large, gothic windows and bal conies reminiscent of the European Renaissance – the typical, slightly kitschy mix of styles that is common in Asian countries. Ian Baker – US citizen, Himalayan researcher, author and explorer – stands on the driveway to his home. A few years ago, the National Geographic Society named him one of its seven “Explorers for the Millennium.” Baker is slim and wears his medium-length black hair in a ponytail. He has a well-groomed full beard and wears a black collarless shirt. Only the wrinkles around his eyes betray his 55 years.
02 | CREDO
Ian Baker: He knows the Himalayas from countless expeditions.
CREDO | 3
Portrait | Ian Baker
scribed by Briton James Hilton in his 1933 novel “Lost Horizon,” takes these beliefs as its basis. And Ian Baker’s sensational discovery, which years later was to make him famous, also has a connection with such a place, shrouded as it is in myth.
“He said that they were places that were from earth but at the same time beyond geography.” After studying for degrees in religion and literature in London and Oxford, Baker moved to Nepal in 1984. Over the years that followed, as part of a university program, he organized seminars and language courses for US students in Nepal and Dharamsala, the small town in northern India that houses the residence of the Dalai Lama in exile. At this time, Baker could not get the story of the “Beyul” out of his head. During an audience with the Dalai Lama in the late 1980s, he learned a bit more about them: “He said that they were Souvenir from the Himalayas – a chod drum.
places that were from earth but at the same time beyond geography,” Baker explains. According to many Buddhist writings, these places are valleys of heavenly beauty that can only be reached by undertaking the most arduous of journeys. Pilgrims
When asked about the house, Baker readily explains that
who attempt to go there tell of extraordinary experiences, while
he actually likes being anonymous in sprawling Bangkok. When
those who try to enter these places by force risk failure or even
he returns from expeditions to the Himalayas – as he has done
death. “All of that was very appealing to me when I heard of that
recently, after traveling for two months in the tiny kingdom of
when I was just 19 years old. That is what has remained, the fas-
Bhutan – he often stocks up on enough food to last him a week,
cination to document those hidden lands.”
saying that he enjoys not having to go out for a few days. “In a way, coming back, the house here is a sanctuary,” says Baker.
According to legend, one such place can be found in Pemako. Here, the Tsangpo River, whose source lies over 1000 miles to
Baker discovered his fascination for the Himalayas at an
the west on Mount Kailash, cuts a great arc around Namcha
early age. He took his first trip to Nepal as a 19-year-old art
Barwa, a mountain rising over 25 000 feet, before flowing
student at Middlebury College in Vermont. In the third year of
south toward India, where it becomes the Brahmaputra. Some
his degree, he decided to fly to Nepal to study religious scroll
researchers believe that the gorge it flows through is the
paintings. “I fell in love with the country straight away,” he says.
deepest in the world. And even by the late 20th century, a
“It was very much like coming home.”
section of this gorge some six miles long still remained completely unexplored.
The hidden gorge It was at that time that Baker first heard of the “Beyul”: legend-
Countless past attempts to uncover the gorge’s last secrets
ary places hidden deep in the Himalayas that play an important
failed. As early as the end of the 19th century, the British colo-
part in traditional Tibetan beliefs. The legend of Shangri-La, de-
nial rulers of India launched several expeditions. The explorers
04 | CREDO
believed that they would find a giant waterfall at the heart of
told the Royal Geographical Society that the stories of the giant
the gorge that could rival Africa’s Victoria Falls in terms of size.
waterfall at the heart of the Tsangpo Gorge were most likely to
“It was a geographical grail for the expanding British Empire at
be nothing but a myth.
the time,” says Ian Baker.
Barking dogs in Middle Earth But it was not only the difficult terrain and the unpredictable
The political upheaval of the 1930s and 40s in neighboring
weather that made the region such a challenge: many of the
countries put Pemako firmly out of the reach of Western re-
tribes that inhabited Pemako at the time were hostile to stran
searchers. The region, which today lies in the disputed border
gers. The first expedition to find the legendary waterfall in 1890
zone between China and the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh,
ended with the members of the expedition being impaled on
remained closed to foreigners for over 50 years. Not until the
spears and beheaded by tribesmen.
1990s did it once again become possible to travel into the region from the Chinese side.
The last British expedition in 1924 also ended in failure. Try as they might, the researchers were unable to penetrate the last
Ian Baker seized the first available opportunity to explore
few remaining miles in the inner region of the Tsangpo Gorge.
the gorge. “Back then, I didn’t believe in the slightest that the
Although the explorers did discover a small waterfall, which
waterfall actually existed,” he says today. And initially, it was
they named the “Rainbow Falls,” they failed to find the mighty
not even that important to him. “What fascinated me was the
waterfall of legend. After returning to London, the explorers
fact that this several-mile-long section was still undocumented
Ian Baker in the Tsangpo Gorge with local hunters.
CREDO | 05
Portrait | Ian Baker
and unknown.” He also found the idea of going there “absolutely captivating” due to the many myths and legends surrounding the place. He joined a group of adventurers planning to explore inside the Tsangpo Gorge. Accompanied by hired porters, Baker set off in April 1993. All the team had to help them find their way were the records of a Buddhist lama who had visited the region in the 18th century. After several weeks in the deepest wilderness, the expedition risked ending in disaster: the explorers had almost run out of food, and the porters were refusing to go any further.
“It was very much like coming home.” Baker managed to persuade them that the next village could not be far off. They snared wild animals to eat. From the towering peaks high above them, avalanches crashed down the mountainside. Heavy rain prevented any progress for days on end. Then, finally, the adventurers came upon a snow-covered pass that would allow them to reach Pemako. Shortly afterward, they heard the sound of dogs barking.
Collectors’ items covering three centuries in Asia: a scroll painting, ...
“We came upon two hunters. They were utterly shocked; they had never seen anyone coming from our direction.” The hunters took the group to their village, a further two days’ journey away. Here, Baker says, they came across two bear
However, Baker remained bewitched by the magic of Pe
cubs. Hunters had killed the mother and had brought the cubs
mako, and the thought of the last few unexplored miles turned
with them back to the village. “This place was like Middle Earth
into a complete obsession. “There has to be something, even if
in ‘The Lord of the Rings’!” Aside from a few knives, pots and
there is no waterfall. Why would the Tibetans describe it as a
primitive weapons, the place showed few signs of being in the
gateway to a lost paradise?”
20th century. “There was this intoxication of being lost in such a primordial world, like how the earth was when it was young.
In the years that followed, Baker returned to Pemako six
You just wanted to get lost. You wanted to disappear.” Baker
times with different companions to study the region and make
laughs. “Dangerous. I guess it was my particular psyche that
further headway. Each time, he was thwarted by the extremely
worked that way.”
difficult terrain or the unpredictable weather. Eventually, a local lama let him into a secret: he told Baker that he had to go on a
A secret key to paradise
pilgrimage to a certain mountain in the region, where he would
As far as the waterfall was concerned, the explorers drew a
find the key to unlock the innermost part of the gorge.
blank. The local people dashed their hopes, claiming that the innermost part of the steep gorge was impenetrable and that
Lost in the clouds
there was also no waterfall there. After a few days, the team
Baker set to work. In 1995, he undertook a six-week expedition
turned back, defeated for the time being. But as things turned
to the mysterious mountain. “It was like being in a Harry Potter
out it was not to be their last visit to the area.
story,” he says today. And indeed this trip was to bring him
06 | CREDO
... wall hangings from Nepal and Tibet as well as artistically decorated furniture from the whole region of the Himalayas adorn Baker’s house.
closer to his goal: when Baker returned to the Tsangpo Gorge,
Bryan Harvey to accompany Baker. The group also included
the villagers were impressed that the foreign explorers had
Baker’s close friend Hamid Sardar, and Ken Storm Jr., who had
respected their traditions. “They said: ‘OK, now you’ve been
been part of Baker’s first expedition to Pemako back in 1993. In
initiated, we’ll tell you how you can get down there,’” Baker says.
late 1998, the men set off.
Hunters led Baker and his companions across snow-covered
In Pemako, hunters took the group across snow and densely
passes, landslides and steep slopes to a ledge from which they
thicketed slopes, deeper and deeper into the gorge. The weather
could see the Rainbow Falls that had been described by the
was mostly extremely poor. “We couldn’t see a thing and were
expedition of 1924. Then, from the depths of the gorge more
simply lost in the clouds.” For virtually the whole time, the men
than half a mile below him, Baker heard a thundering noise and
were unable to see the source of the thundering noise far below.
saw swirls of spray. Whether there really was a waterfall down there, Baker could not see for sure. He decided to take climbing
Down into the thundering depths
equipment with him on his next trip.
It took several days of difficult descent using professional climbing gear before Baker and his team caught sight of their
Back in the USA, Baker presented his project to the National
goal: the waterfall they saw was nearly 100 feet high and thun-
Geographic Society. Straight away, the society’s leading lights
dered deafeningly into the depths below. And there was more:
embraced the idea of supporting the researcher’s quest to find
on the other side of the gorge, some 30 feet above the water, was
the legendary waterfall. They engaged documentary maker
an oval-shaped entrance, about 20 feet in size, leading into a cave.
CREDO | 07
Portrait | Ian Baker
However, the men were unable to get to the mysterious tunnel on the other side of the gorge. Baker tried all he could think of to find a way over to the other side, he explains today. There was no way of bridging the raging torrents of the Tsangpo. According to prophecies from centuries ago, the waterfall conceals the way into a hidden paradise. Baker is still asking himself the same question: “Would the tunnel simply have come to an end after 60 feet or could we have walked along it for days?” Even now, he still does not know the answer.
A turning point Shortly after the Chinese authorities found out that foreign explorers – and not a Chinese team – had been the first to discover the legendary waterfall in the Tsangpo Gorge, China banned foreigners from the region. “Since then, I’ve tried to go back,” says Baker. As a foreigner, however, he has no chance. “We partly succeeded because we discovered it on the terms of the people who live there,” Baker concludes. “The fascination was to follow this Tibetan treasure map.” In the days following his discovery, he slowly began to realize that his life would change dramatically, he says today. You can still sense how overwhelmed he was by what came next. The media acclaimed Baker’s discovery as a sensation. He gave countless interviews in New York, Washington and Hong Kong. “Then people were coming up to me...,” Baker says, taking a deep breath. “It was insane! They were offering me 60 000 dollars, 100 000 dollars to take them there.” Of course, he refused the lot, he adds. “But I understood how dangerous it can all become.” Well-known publishers were suddenly lining up, bidding against one another for The Dalai Lama wrote the foreword for Baker’s book about the Tsangpo expedition.
a book deal. Baker signed a contract with Penguin Books, which published “The Heart of the World” in 2004, a detailed account of Baker’s expeditions to Pemako between 1993 and 1998.
“Actually, it was amazing when you realize that the things that
Hidden promise in the magic of plants
even I had written off and that 75 years earlier had been dis-
Baker is currently busy preparing for his next expedition,
missed as a romance of geography and a mythological marvel
which he plans to launch later this year. He will be returning to
suddenly turn out to be real!” says Ian Baker. “And the fact that
the Pemako region but entering it from the Indian side this time.
there is this tunnel that goes into the rock is just mind-boggling.”
Once again, he hopes to get to the bottom of a great mystery: together with a Bhutanese plant collector, Baker will travel to an
The adventurers found themselves in strange surroundings.
isolated region that, according to tradition, is home to five plants
“You’re in a subtropical world suddenly. You’re looking up at
with magical powers. One of them, Baker explains, reputedly
an area with hanging glaciers, but you’re in an area where
allows people to remember their past lives. Another harbors
there’s wild banana trees and tropical foliage,” Baker explains.
the power to transform them into wild animals. “We don’t
“So you’re in this place where every geographical zone is com-
know what kind of plants they are,” says Baker. “But they’ll
pressed into one.”
be psychoactive for sure.”
08 | CREDO
“There was this intoxication of being lost in such a primordial world. You just wanted to get lost. You wanted to disappear. Dangerous.”
And this is the guiding principle behind his expeditions, he explains: the journey is as important as the destination itself. This is entirely in keeping with a motto of the Tibetan pilgrims that he embraced a long time ago: “Whatever happens, carry it along the path.” Thus, with hindsight, Baker is almost happy that he was unable to discover what lay beyond the mysterious tunnel mouth he saw opposite the waterfall on the other side of the Tsangpo Gorge. “It’s important to still have places in the world that keep us dreaming.”
The task is unlikely to be easy this time around either: the
Sascha Zastiral is the Bangkok correspondent for the Weltreporter network,
people living on the mountain on whose slopes the mysterious
a group of freelance correspondents based all around the world, and has
plants are said to grow are thought to be hostile to strangers.
reported from South and Southeast Asia since 2007. He writes regularly for
Once again, Baker will have to use all his skill and imagination to
the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” among other publications. His articles have also
reach his goal.
appeared in “Der Spiegel,” “Stern” and “Geo.”
Ian Baker in front of the mystical waterfall, the gateway to a lost paradise.
Portfolio | Children’s questions
Why? How come?
It’s child’s play, isn’t it? Not exactly. When children ask questions, things really get interesting. We’ve asked around a bit. Just out of curiosity.
10 | CREDO
Do you have other questions? I could try and answer them for you. I want to become an artist because they always wear great clothes. What do you have to do to become an artist? You have to be able to sing well, or draw, play an instrument. Something like that. I like to dance. But now I’ve remembered what I always wanted to know. Why is it always so cold here? I don’t understand. My Mommy says that all the time and she curses when she says it. Maybe … Well? Maybe it’s so cold here because it’s always warm somewhere
Sonya, seven
Father: journa
else. The sun can’t be everywhere.
years old, M
list, radio pres
oscow, Russia
enter, mothe
r: illustrator
That sounds logical. What does that mean, “logical”? “Logical” is what grown-ups say when they mean: “That
Are there things that you’d really like to know?
makes sense.”
We’re going on vacation soon, to a country called Croatia. They
Ah.
say it’s always warm there and there’s a beach. My Daddy says people there speak another language that we can’t understand. Why do they talk differently?
“Why is it always so cold here?” Sonya What do you think? My Daddy says: people speak differently in every country in the world, and in Croatia people speak Croatian. Does your Daddy know everything? Of course. And if there’s something he doesn’t know, who do you go to and ask then? My teacher. She’s very nice, but very strict too. She was pregnant for a long time and now the baby is here. She always explained exactly how everything works and how the baby grows in her tummy and manages to survive. For example, she told us that when she eats something, the baby eats too. That always interested me. Now I know.
Leora
A
ew York), US
, Harlem (N , six years old tist
her, father: ar
Mother: teac
“Why are there flying squirrels?” Leora CREDO | 11
Portfolio | Children’s questions
Do you know what curiosity is? My mother explained it to me. It’s when you absolutely want to know something. That’s called curiosity. Exactly. Would you say you’re a curious kid? I think so. What would you absolutely like to know? I want to know how you make movies. I don’t understand that. I always watch movies on our DVD player and ask myself: “Where do all the pictures and the sounds come from?”
nd
rich, Switzerla
years old, Zu Leonin, eight
And otherwise?
: photographer
erman, father
t of G Mother: studen
Why are there flying squirrels? I’ve never seen one, but a friend of mine told me they exist. But how are squirrels supposed to fly? They’ve got no wings. What do you think?
Leonin, what questions are bothering you at the moment?
Maybe they fly with their tail or maybe they have paper wings.
Lots.
Are there any other questions that interest you but for which
For example?
you simply can’t find an answer?
Why does the TGV train from Zurich to Paris always leave from
Yes. How do you make babies? I asked my Mommy but she said
platform 15? Who decides that? I don’t understand.
it was too complicated to explain to me. And otherwise? Does it make you angry that she won’t explain it to you?
I’d like to know where words come from. Why is a table called a
No. I just want to get big very quickly so I’m like a grown-up and
table and not just “Hawaii”? And if a table were called “Hawaii”,
understand everything.
what would Hawaii be called? Who can decide what things are called? Grown-ups always say: “That’s just the way it is.” But I
Who do you go to when you have questions?
want to know and it won’t let go of me. My Mommy then says I
To my Dad, he really knows a lot.
should think of something else, but I can’t get these questions
Does he know everything?
“Why do people have hairs in their nose?” Leonin
No, sometimes he only knows part of the answer and then he says to me: “Let me think about that, then I’ll tell you the rest.” What have you been learning recently? I’ve learned to swim. Are you interested in grown-up things? Do you understand
out of my head. Why don’t we stay in the air when we jump up?
everything that your parents talk about and do?
Who invented soccer? Or last week: we were in the zoo and on
No. I only understand a little. Can I go out and play again now?
the way back we found a dead swallow on the ground. I put leaves over it, so it wouldn’t get wet, it was raining so much. But if it’s now dead, where is it?
12 | CREDO
What do you think?
Are there things that you don’t understand but would like to
In heaven. But then it came from there. Under the ground,
know about?
perhaps. I don’t know.
When Mommy and Daddy talk about adult stuff, I hardly understand them. Then I ask what they’re saying and they say I
What do you do when you want to find out things like that?
shouldn’t stick my nose in it.
I ask Daddy or Mommy. Or my teacher. I once asked her: why do people have hairs in their nose? And she thought it was so that
What would you like to know?
all your snot doesn’t drop out. Is that right?
When do we learn about fractions in math? I would also really like to know how my cousin learned Japanese. Lots of games
Is there something that you’ve learned recently that really
come from Japan and I’m envious that he can understand them.
impressed you? What? I don’t understand. Something that you’ve learned in school, maybe, and where you thought: “That’s really cool!” We’ve been looking at the world. It’s a ball. I didn’t believe it because when I look out of the window it’s all flat and you can
“Is it true that people die if they swim in the Dead Sea?” Xia Jiayi
see right up to the mountains. So there’s nothing round there, is there? I found that pretty cool. Back when I was little, I had lots more questions because I knew less. Now I know a lot more so I ask less things. How is it when you’re grown up, do you then
What do you do when you don’t understand something?
know everything?
I look it up in a dictionary or I ask Mommy. The kids in my class haven’t got a clue either. Is there anything that’s really impressed you recently? Hm ... a girlfriend of Mommy gave me a Barbie that I hadn’t ever seen before. It was really impressive with lots of clothes and accessories. Here it is! (fetches the Barbie doll) I was very excited on my first day at school about making lots of new friends. I was very shy when I had to go to the principal. Is there anything you would like to know about countries abroad? What language do dogs bark in? And do parrots abroad still speak Chinese? What time is it now in America? My Daddy explained that it’s night there when it’s day with us. How much money do you earn in America? And what about the song “Big City” – do you sing that too? Are there differences between Chinese people and foreigners? Foreigners say “hello” and Chinese say “nihao.” That’s the big-
Xia Jiayi, nicknamed “Bebe,” seven years old, Chongqing, China
Father: engineer, mother: uni
versity administrator
gest difference. And Daddy says foreigners eat their food raw. Italians eat ginger as if it were fruit. The parents of one of the kids in my class say that. And you’ve got a high nose.
CREDO | 13
Portfolio | Children’s questions
Regarding “Big City,” did you know that your hometown is
And otherwise?
the biggest in the world?
I’d like to know what the sun does when it goes down.
I didn’t know that. I only know that Russia is the biggest country in the world.
Who could give you an answer to that? Hm, maybe ... my teacher?
Do you know how many people live in Chongqing? At least 1300! More? Let me guess, maybe a million? Still more?
Is there something that he’s already taught you and that you
The number for China surely has hundreds of digits. Let me tell
think is really great?
you something, auntie: blue whales are much bigger than us
Yes. We’re learning about children’s rights. I think it’s great that
people. What would you like to know about your hometown? I want to know why it’s so hot. I’ve heard that Chongqing is the hottest of the three hot cities in China. Is it true that people die
“What does the sun do when it goes down?” Joia
if they swim in the Dead Sea? they exist. Here lots of kids live on the street, but really they should be able to live with their family and in a house. They’ve got a right to that! And all children have a right to have enough food and to go to school and to learn something. But there are lots of people who make children work. Sometimes it’s even their own children. So that they can have something to eat. Then it’s very complicated. The children do the work that really a grown-up should be doing. And then they can’t play anymore and can’t go to school. Is there a place that you’d like to visit one day? Yes, the public pool! I’d like to go to swimming lessons with my Mommy. Is there anything else that interests you? Perhaps about boys? I’d like to know why they’re always arm-wrestling. Even though they’re not strong at all (laughs).
ique
, Mozamb
ld, Beira ht years o
ity lic Univers the Catho t a ig ff a e st , h Joia s: researc ccupation Parents’ o
What would you really like to know? What do you want to learn? How you bake cookies. Especially the “Maria” cookies, they are my favorites.
14 | CREDO
Essay | Lifelong learning
Stimulating
knowledge As we move towards a knowledge-based society, it is
is what prevents us from learning, what makes us reluctant to go
never too early to start promoting children’s learning.
to school and weakens our sense of curiosity. This is an issue
Or so you might think. Yet education specialist Salman
that concerns the quality of our learning environment.
Ansari takes a very different view: he argues that education is basically useless unless the acquisition of
Grasping concepts
knowledge is fueled by natural curiosity.
There is a direct link between a child’s learning and the application of acquired knowledge. Children who devote themselves to
A person’s eagerness to learn and gain new experiences is more
the painstaking process of learning to walk, for example, will
pronounced in early childhood than at any other stage of life. The
practice this activity tirelessly until they have mastered it. It
driving force behind this thirst for knowledge is curiosity, or in-
would never occur to a child to suddenly give up, however many
quisitiveness; a craving for all things new, a desire better to under
failed attempts are made in the process. Any offers of help from
stand ourselves and the world at large and to explore our own
adults are often vehemently refused. There are plenty of similar
limits. To maintain this sense of curiosity, it is important to encour-
examples that illustrate this point. Learning is initially based on
age this appetite for discovery and stimulate the imagination, to
sensory experiences: children are eager to understand, feel,
strengthen and develop the personality, to impart knowledge to
touch, smell and listen – and they want to try out all these things
children in a way that is appropriate for their age and – above all
in their own way and at their own pace. Adult intervention is
– to link new insights to previously acquired knowledge.
often perceived as disruptive and can lead to excessive levels of anxiety and demoralization in the long run.
How to keep curiosity alive over an entire lifetime is a burn ing question in our ever more complex society. Nowadays, the
Investigation and integration
skills we acquire at school and in training are no longer any
Young children are unable to decide for themselves which learn
where near sufficient for making sense of our increasingly ex-
ing experiences further their intellectual and emotional devel
tended working lives. The assertion that the foundations for life-
opment and which do not. It is up to parents, significant figures,
long learning must be laid at an early stage therefore requires no
educators, developmental psychologists and neurobiologists
further explanation, nor does the fact that we all have a natural
to investigate this. Ultimately, every action in which we are
inclination to learn. What does require an explanation, however,
unable to engage on an emotional and creative level is reduced
CREDO | 15
Essay | Lifelong learning
to simply going through the motions or done for the sake of pure
“drink” water from their roots. “What do you mean?” I asked.
amusement and does not leave any lasting impact on or estab-
“When you water a plant, you don’t water the leaves,” was the
lish connections in the mind.
answer. Then we imagined how nature would look after heavy rainfall, and together we came to the conclusion that the leaves
Another barrier to learning is created when teachers and sig
would not grow any thicker and the grass would look the same.
nificant figures try to impose their own ideas and life experi ences on children. The extent to which curiosity can be continu
We took the leaves into the common room, and I suggested
ously reignited and maintained depends largely on whether the
putting drops of water on them so that we could watch and see
significant figures in a child’s life are able to recognize the child’s point of view and state of intellectual, emotional and linguistic development and integrate this into well-thought-out concepts.
Identification As a teacher, I am keen to encourage kindergarten children to tell me about all sorts of things and to express themselves with the help of familiar images from their world when they talk to me. This enables me to find out what they already know and how they learn about the world and to understand the children’s thought patterns. Since they are in the company of other children, they also learn to listen to what others have to say, what experiences they talk about and what linguistic forms they use. In doing so, they become curious about one another and learn to understand what the others are saying – they share their knowledge. Dif ferent ideas, beliefs and views can only be expressed once a dialog has been established. Allow me to give an example: today I brought in leaves from various trees and shrubs found on site for each child in the kindergarten. Their task was to sort the leaves according to similar ity, and they quickly identified matching pairs. We compared the leaves and tried to describe their shape, which is not an easy task, but they still managed to find a number of adjectives to describe them, such as “oval,” “round,” “smooth,” and “jagged.” Then we went out and looked for the trees that the leaves came from – in our case, chestnut, oak and copper beech. We examined and touched their bark and branches and recognized the clear differences between them. The bark varied between smooth, gray, gray-green, silvery-green, black-brown and cracked, while the branches might be springy, rigid, bent or green-brown. The children were astonished to find that there was so much to discover and describe in a single tree.
Experimentation We asked ourselves how trees take up water – was it through the leaves or the roots? One child believed that plants would only
16 | CREDO
whether they would gradually absorb them all the same. Each
“drink” water, but aluminum foil cannot. By now they were al-
child was given a beaker of water, and in actual fact the drops
most sure that plants can absorb water through their roots and
did not penetrate the leaves, although they did make them glis-
distribute it to the stem, branches and leaves, although they did
ten beautifully. Then we raised the question of which materials
not ask how the water can rise up to the tops of large trees.
“drink” water and which do not. The suggested materials were paper, aluminum foil, a cotton towel, greaseproof paper and a
This example is intended to give an impression of the endless
chamois leather cloth, so we gathered these items and carried
variety of topics available and the possibilities for consolidating
out an experiment. The children discovered that cotton can
this knowledge over the next few days or in years to come. There are no right or wrong answers here; we are feeling our way, just as people have always felt their way further and further towards understanding phenomena that seem incomprehensible at first. We consider every solution put forward and test it together. “What do you mean?” is an important question that a teacher must always ask to prompt further explanation or reflection.
Motivation One kindergarten teacher who took part in one of my training events came to the realization that it can be very easy to strike out in new directions if you adjust your point of view – even just a little. In this case, the children were given dried beans, juniper berries, peas, lentils, corn kernels and raisins and were tasked with comparing them, naming their properties – and expanding their vocabulary in the process, and learning how to estimate proportions in size and quantity. Many of them had never heard the word “raisin” before. Two of the children debated whether raisins and grapes had anything in common. The kindergarten teacher immediately intervened and explained that “A raisin is a dried grape.” This action was assessed in the discussion later on, and in a subsequent interview the kindergarten teacher said: “It suddenly became clear to me that this is what I have always done. I gave the children a direct, explanatory answer to a question. Now I realize that giving children such direct answers to their questions stifles their curiosity. However, responding with the counter-question ‘What do you mean?’ encourages them to think about the question more deeply and to come up with their own thoughts about a phenomenon.” This realization is a prime example of lifelong learning and the opportunities that are open to us if we, as adults, discover the world together with the children. Salman Ansari was born in India in 1941 and has worked in Germany since the 1960s. A graduate in chemistry and an expert in education, he has taught at the Odenwaldschule and is now in great demand as a lecturer. He recently published a book entitled “Rettet die Neugier! Gegen die Akademisierung der Kindheit” (“Give Curiosity a Chance! Arguments Against the Academization of Childhood”).
CREDO | 17
Report | Urban Explorers
Entering uncharted territory
18 | CREDO
Text: Sacha Batthyany | Photos: Simon Cornwell and Bradley Garrett They climb up skyscrapers, spend nights in disused
to be heard. Along with ferocious security guards and vicious
bunkers and explore abandoned castles: this is what
dogs, asbestos is one of the things Simon cannot stand. He
it is like to go on expeditions with urban explorers,
seems to ponder this for a moment and run through everything
the adventurers of the modern world.
he knows about the hospital in his mind: its history, the type of construction, the materials, the entrances and exits. Then he
“How much further?” shouts Tom.
shakes his head. “It’s plaster. Let’s keep crawling.”
“About 200 meters,” replies Simon, “maybe more.” He looks at his floor plan. “We’re right underneath the kitchen.”
Simon, Tom and Mark had never met before this expedition.
“You said that ten minutes ago,” says Tom.
At Colchester station, their rendezvous point, they recognized
“Stop panicking and keep crawling.”
each other by the builders’ hard hats dangling from their backpacks and their dark hooded sweaters. Simon Cornwell, aged 42,
It is seven-thirty on a Saturday morning, and most of the
works for a software company in London. Tom Nelson, who is
inhabitants of Colchester, a small town north-east of London,
ten years younger, is an architect and author of science fiction
are still fast asleep. Some will soon shuffle into the kitchen in
novels, while Mark Simmons, aged 25, is a philosophy student.
slippers, make themselves coffee, toast and eggs for breakfast
Their paths do not cross during the week, but at the weekend
and gaze out into the rainy sky. Simon, Tom and Mark are crawl
they become what they call urban explorers, climbing through
ing along the damp heating duct of a former mental asylum, ten
disused subway tunnels, swimming in subterranean rivers
meters below ground, looking for the laundry room. “Once
and discovering forgotten caverns and abandoned buildings.
we’ve reached the laundry,” Simon had said in the pub the
Equipped with old maps obtained from the land registry, they
evening before, “then we’ll be in. There’s a wastewater drain
set out in search of uncharted territory – terra incognita –
there we can pry open.” And they were all excited at the pros-
spurred on by sheer curiosity.
pect, giving one another pats on the back and ordering another round of beers. At that moment, none of them – apart from Simon – gave any thought to how difficult it would be to find their way through the musty ducts of a hundred-year-old hospital in total darkness. “I hate this duct,” says Mark, cursing to himself. The trio
“I often wonder what it’s like on the roof of the Tate Modern.” Mark Simmons
have spent most of their time on hands and knees, their faces just a few inches above the loamy ground – an experience that is all the more unpleasant when they come across a dead rat blocking their path. Or the rotting carcass of a fox.
“I often wonder what it’s like on the roof of the Tate Modern or ten meters below the Eiffel Tower,” says Mark, sitting in the pub with his mouth full of chicken on garlic bread, “and then I
Ten meters below the Eiffel Tower
set off, because it drives me crazy if I don’t do it.” These are the
Mark, who has fallen back slightly, shouts from behind: “That
kind of questions children would ask, although that is not to say
white dust there – do you think that’s asbestos?” Simon and Tom
that they are childish: after all, it is questions like these that got
stop in mid-crawl. Asbestos? Their breathing is the only sound
mankind to the moon.
CREDO | 19
Report | Urban Explorers
They drive in Simon’s car from the pub to a location near the hospital and sleep for a while before fastening on their headlamps and getting going. Simon uses a piece of metal to raise a manhole cover, lets the other two go ahead of him and slips down the hole, closing the cover from inside with a loud clang – this is the moment when they leave the real world of Colchester behind them: the coffee shops where pale-looking children sit eating cinnamon buns, the red-brick houses, the meticulously pruned gardens where the first tulips are coming into bloom. As they shut the manhole cover, it is as if they are entering another dimension: this is the world of the urban explorer.
Just like sailors of old making landfall after weeks at sea It all started – as these things so often did – in San Francisco, when a group of performance artists called the San Francisco Suicide Club set about redefining urban spaces at the end of the 1970s. They lived on roofs, slept on bridge piers and held parties in the sewage system. They were hippies, and this was an era of social movements. Everyone in San Francisco was either for or against some cause or another, and many campaigns eventually fizzled out. The term “urban explorers” did not re-emerge until the mid-1990s, when the Canadian Jeff Chapman – better known by his pseudonym “Ninjalicious” – started publishing a fanzine entitled “Infiltration” both in printed form and online from 1996 onward. He used it to describe urban expeditions and visits to places where people would not normally venture. He later went on to write a book, “Access All Areas,” which is now regarded as
“Welcome to Severalls,” says Simon Cornwell, the leader of the expedition into the disused sanatorium north-east of London. “Abandoned rooms are full of life,” says Mark – a student of philosophy and an enthusiastic urban explorer.
the “bible” among the urban explorer community, with Chapman hailed as their hero.
Another man, this one British, is said to have fallen from a ladder and is now thought to be confined to a wheelchair. Yet the sen-
Chapman devised a code that urban explorers should adhere
sation of discovering something new and seeing places no one
to: do not break anything, never smash a window to get into a
else would ever see outweighs any doubts. “There is nothing
building – this is what distinguishes them from thieves and van-
better than sitting on the bus after an expedition,” writes
dals. In this spirit, today’s urban explorers have adopted the un-
Vanishing-Girl, a well-known forum member. “I like to pick some
written rule that they must “take nothing but photos and leave
one out, a really arrogant businessman on his way to the office for
nothing but footprints” as their own. Chapman died of cancer in
example, and think to myself: ‘You have absolutely no idea where
2005 at the age of 31, a few weeks before his book was pub
I’ve just been: on top of Big Ben, in one of Churchill’s disused war
lished, yet his followers continue to grow in number. These en-
bunkers, or 20 meters below ground right under your bed.’”
thusiasts meet virtually through online forums such as “28 Days Later” and “Urban Exploration Resource,” share their experiences, supply one another with maps, offer tips, and issue warnings about the police, rusty nails – or, of course, asbestos. Urban exploration is like mountaineering: there are risks involved and fatal accidents happen. The forums report, for ex-
“Take nothing but photos and leave nothing but footprints.”
ample, that a Russian drowned in London’s sewers because he failed to take into account that the Thames is a tidal river.
20 | CREDO
Codex of Urban Explorers
“We’re here. This is the laundry,” says Simon. He shines his
theater. Yet Severalls has simply been left to rot and silence now
headlamp upward and climbs up the ladder. “Are you sure?”
reigns where some 3000 people used to live. There is decay
Mark responds, but Simon has already pushed the hatch open
everywhere. The site is surrounded by an electric fence with No
with his back and climbed out. Mark and Tom follow him. They
Entry signs and cameras positioned at every corner. “That is
brush the dirt off each other’s pants and take a look around, just
how it has to be,” says Simon. “If any old tourist could get into
like sailors would have done 600 years ago when they finally
the building, it would lose its appeal for me.”
made landfall after weeks at sea – only instead of palm trees and mysterious species of birds, Simon, Tom and Mark are met with
Bursting with energy, Simon, Tom and Mark rush down the
the sight of old boilers and walls covered in fungal infestations,
long corridors, taking photographs and reading yellowed patient
with wallpaper hanging off in strips. “Welcome to Severalls,”
records that have carelessly been left lying around. They pick up
says Simon, and you can tell from his voice how proud and ex
children’s shoes and speculate about what the child who once
cited he is. If he knew the other two better, he would hug them.
wore them might be doing today. They clamber under the roof,
Instead, Tom hands out cans of lukewarm beer.
sit on the beds and pause in old padded cells to imagine what it used to be like there. They take the same approach as an ethnog
“I was born with the adventurer gene”
rapher or an archeologist – yet above all they are adventurers.
Severalls Hospital is situated on the outskirts of Colchester, and
Simon delivers monologues on the conditions in the “mad-
between 1913 and 1997 it housed up to 2000 patients and 900
houses” at the beginning of the 20th century, where mentally ill
staff. It was virtually a small village in itself, built in a red-brick
people were often admitted in handcuffs and effectively im
Victorian style, with its own chapel and a kitchen the size of a
prisoned for years on end. “They started using electric shock
CREDO | 21
Report | Urban Explorers
Bradley Garrett, geographer, wrote his doctorate on urban exploring and inspected over 300 abandoned sites. In 2012 he was in Detroit (photo at right), and two years earlier in the Abbey Mills Pumping Station for foul water in London (photo above). Garrett: “For some of us this urge to explore things is simply too great. Curiosity wins.”
Simon Cornwell’s favorite occupation is exploring shafts (see photo below).
22 | CREDO
therapy to treat patients in the mid-1940s,” he muses, and a mo-
spent two years following the adventures of a group of young
ment later his face lights up like a child’s as he manages to open
explorers. “In the field of ethnology, it is quite common to live
a locked door. They scramble down the shaft of the old kitchen
among the people you are studying and to follow them wherever
dumbwaiter as if it were a playground.
they go. This is known as ‘going native.’ You can go hunting with the indigenous people of Papua New Guinea, but you can also go
“Whether I like it or not, I was born with the adventurer gene,” says Simon. “I always have this urge to go out and see
exploring with a group of young people in the subway tunnels of London, which is what I did.”
places that spark my curiosity. This isn’t prohibited in England. As long as you don’t damage anything, you can venture wher
According to Garrett, they investigated 300 places, including
ever you like, with the exception of military facilities. My wife
ruins, tunnels, skyscrapers and churches. In April 2012 they
can barely stand it. When we go on vacation, I don’t see beaches:
made their way to the top of the Shard in London, Europe’s tall
I see bunkers, shafts and abandoned lighthouses, and I wonder
est building at the time, and the pictures they uploaded onto the
what it is like in there.”
Internet attracted a great deal of media attention. “We went up there because we wanted to know what it was like, but also be-
“Visually, the world as we know it bores me.” Mark Simmons
cause we wanted to show what is possible in a city where hun dreds of thousands of CCTV cameras are supposed to be provid ing security. London is a fortress, an apparently impregnable city, but it was child’s play for us to climb buildings and explore subway tunnels in spite of the heavy surveillance. We stayed overnight in disused bunkers and navigated the sewage system – an architectural masterpiece in itself – in a rubber dinghy.”
Simon describes himself as a “guerilla historian,” because he
Garrett believes that the security implied by the cameras is
is interested in documenting the decay of the places he visits.
pure fiction. “I have already offered my services to the police. I
For others, urban exploration is all about the pure adrenaline
know every weak spot in the city. I’m like a hacker, except that I
rush, while some crave the distinctive atmosphere that lingers in
work on the ground rather than on a computer: I know how to
these forgotten places. Mark, the philosophy student, calls it “the
get in and where to find the best places to hide, but the police
esthetic of decay.” In today’s towns and cities, where everything
weren’t interested in my help. They thought I was crazy.”
is so clean, slick and ordered and one Starbucks looks the same as the next, he finds such places fascinating: “Visually, the world as we know it bores me: Paris, London, Rome – it’s a homogenous mass. I like things that are simply there next to each other, with no one to clear them away: a chair, a cup, an old doll – lots
“Too many security guards. Forget it.” Simon Cornwell
of little stories.” According to Mark, abandoned spaces are full of life. While he is busy taking photographs of old electricity gener ators, Simon is looking for the shower rooms on the old floor
Garrett is keen to point out that urban explorers are not
plans and Tom is taking notes for his next science-fiction story,
dreamy hippies who do not know what to do with their time. On
they hear dogs barking – quietly at first, then getting louder.
the contrary, they are liberal-minded people who believe in tak
Tom: “The security guards must have heard us.”
ing personal responsibility. “Most of them have an academic
Simon: “Let’s get out of here. Through the duct.”
background, enjoy photography and are committed environmen-
Mark: “I hate this duct.”
talists. Their penchant for exploring new places is also a reaction to the restrictions imposed on public spaces.” Everywhere you
“We are not hippies”
go, you are bombarded with warnings: don’t do this, don’t do
It would be hard to find anyone more intensively involved in
that, don’t go in here, don’t go in there. “The government would
urban exploration than Bradley Garrett. The 32-year-old Ameri-
prefer it if we all spent our time in front of the television, stayed
can, who sports a goatee, once ran a skateboarding store in L.A.
at home and didn’t cause any mischief. But some of us have this
but now teaches at the prestigious Oxford University. He has
urge to discover things, and it is simply too strong to resist.
just completed a doctoral thesis on urban exploring, having
Curiosity wins. We have to get out. We have to keep on going.”-
CREDO | 23
Report | Urban Explorers
“Cut from the same cloth as Cook or Scott” Garrett is not remotely surprised to find that so many urban explorers live in Britain. “It is an island, surrounded by the sea. There is a more pronounced sense of wanderlust here.” He points out that Britain has a long tradition when it comes to exploration: Henry Morton Stanley, who explored Africa, James Cook, who sailed the Pacific Ocean three times, and the polar explorer Robert Scott are just a few of its illustrious adventurers. The desire to venture into underground tunnels is, accord ing to Garrett, the same as the urge to sail oceans or scale mountains. “What we lack is public acceptance. People regard us as jokers, but we are actually cut from the same cloth as Cook or Scott.” It is six o’clock on a dark, cold evening. Most of the people of Colchester are sitting in their comfortable armchairs and watch ing one of those TV talent shows that seem to be broadcast on a
Blank spots on the map
loop, while Simon, Tom and Mark are once again crawling
Academic and urban explorer Bradley Garrett’s four dream destinations:
through the heating duct, past the dead rats, the fox and the white dust. They have spent a whole day investigating the prem
1. Kwangmyong: The subway system in the North Korean city of Pyong-
ises of what was once Severalls Hospital, spread over more than
yang uses trains from pre-unification Berlin. There are a number of
a square kilometer, thinking about the patients who lived there
stations that are not accessible to the public. These are known as
in the last century. The sound of barking dogs jolts them back to
ghost stations, and one of them is called Kwangmyong.
reality.
2. Fordlândia: A ghost town south of Santarém in Brazil. Henry Ford
They are tired and hungry. Their pants and jackets are cover
acquired a piece of rainforest here in 1928 with the intention of
ed in sludge. Mark, who is once again lagging behind slightly,
cultivating rubber. Now much of the settlement has been swallowed
calls to the others: “There is apparently one of those turbine fac-
up by the jungle.
tories from the fifties that were top secret at the time. Near Guildford.” They keep crawling. “Have you heard of it?” Simon
3. Metro 2, Moscow: Rumor has it that, from 1935 onward, the Soviet
pauses: “The testing site for jets? Is that what you mean? No
dictator Joseph Stalin planned and partially built a secret metro
chance. We’d never get in there.” Mark: “Are you sure?” Simon
network for himself and the Soviet elite. There is said to be one
stops and turns around, his headlamp shining straight into the
line connecting to an airport and another that leads to the city’s
others’ faces. “Too many security guards. Forget it.” Tom says:
Ramenki district, where various underground bunkers were sup
“I’m up for it.” They carry on crawling in silence. Just before
posedly built.
they reach the exit, Simon says: “All right then. I’ll get hold of the plans.”
4. The torch on the Statue of Liberty: There is said to be a ladder inside the arm of the statue that takes you up to the top of the torch. If that turns out not to be true, you could run a rope from the crown to the torch and climb across.
Further reading Bradley L. Garrett: “Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City from Tunnels to Skyscrapers.” The book is due to be published in October 2013.
Sacha Batthyany is the editor of “DAS MAGAZIN,” the weekend supplement of the Zurich “Tages-Anzeiger.”
24 | CREDO
Simon Cornwell, a pioneering urban explorer: “I see myself as a guerilla historian. I document decay.”
CREDO | 25
Interview | Barbara ReinhardHohn Schulze
Researchers have to be allowed to play Interview: Mathias Pl端ss | Photos: Julian Salinas
Even plants have a memory, as the biologist Barbara Hohn found out. Such groundbreaking discoveries only come about when scientists give free rein to their curiosity.
26 | CREDO
Molecular biologist Barbara Hohn: she just can’t switch science off.
CREDO: Professor Hohn, what is it that drives researchers?
You are 74 years old. Have you never thought of stopping?
Barbara Hohn: The origin of science is curiosity. When I was a
The question never arose for me. I can’t simply switch science
student and first heard of the structure of the genetic material
off. That doesn’t mean that there is nothing else in my life – I
DNA – which had only recently been decoded – it fascinated me
have a home, a garden and five grandchildren.
straightaway. I wanted to hunt for basic biological principles. I wanted to know how nature functions.
Some people say that their grandchildren help them to stay mentally active. You probably don’t need that.
And that curiosity stays with you throughout your life?
It’s a different kind of “active” – rather a physical kind. It’s tiring
Yes, that is correct. However, I have noticed that my cu-
to keep those wild beasts in check! (laughs) But the kids are
riosity horizon is becoming broader the older I get, and I am
really sweet.
becoming increasingly interested in other research fields too, like art, nature and people. But I do also try to stick to my
Do you look after them regularly?
own topics.
Not regularly. It’s perhaps a bit egotistical, but I have to be
CREDO | 27
Interview | Barbara Hohn
flexible: sometimes I’m here, sometimes I’m not. I go to seminars, travel to meetings. Because I want to keep in touch with the scientific mindset. You’ve been working for 35 years here at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel. Is it a good place for you? Oh yes. We’ve got decent basic funding, and a refreshing intellectual spirit predominates here. The Institute belongs to the Novartis Foundation. Is it at all possible to research independently here? We have the freedom to research whatever we want. Otherwise the good people would have left long ago. People realized that nothing of interest can emerge if you constrict researchers. And I’ve also always kept my colleagues on a long leash. Has it worked out for you? Yes. I gave them a free hand and as a result they often came up with great ideas. We repeatedly stimulated each other. Only rarely did I put a stop to anything – because young people should be able to develop. And they’re all grateful to me for it. I’m still getting letters from former colleagues all over the world. Just how do you make discoveries? You can’t exactly hunt for what you don’t know. There’s a nice expression in English, namely “serendipity”: the chance discovery of something for which you weren’t even look ing. For that you naturally need a little freedom to maneuver. You have to be able to play a bit. And do the discoveries then come automatically? Not automatically. You need intuition to divine what could be interesting and what not. Whenever a former Chinese colleague of mine came across something unexpected and I asked him whether he didn’t want to pursue it, he used to answer: “Well, that would be a little difficult.” Which roughly means: No – because the Chinese are known for not saying “no” directly. Another colleague remarked on this with the words: “You have to pick the flowers on the way.” Is curiosity really the sole motive of a scientist? Don’t some just want to pursue a career? Of course some scientists have a certain craving for recognition. And some are so success-oriented that curiosity and creativity get left by the wayside. But on the other hand you have to understand that the pressure to publish is incredibly intense today. If you apply for a position and haven’t got any publications Barbara Hohn in her garden: “You have to pick the flowers on the way.”
28 | CREDO
in respected journals, then you won’t make a good impression.
This naturally means that researchers are stuck in a straightjacket and have to keep publishing something all the time.
Passing on what you learn The “plant memory” discovered by Barbara Hohn also occurs in ani-
Does this perhaps mean good people are lost along the way?
mals. For example, some mother rats lick their young, while others do
I once had a very good student who fell through the cracks. She
this only rarely. If the baby of a non-licking mother is added to the lit-
was incredibly interested in research. She was always saying:
ter of a licking mother, it will itself later become a mother who licks its
“That interests me,” and she had outstanding ideas. But her am-
young. This licking behavior is thus adopted and even passed on to the
bitions were centered only on research. Her career did not inter
next generation.
est her. And that’s not enough to get on. That would perhaps have worked in the Middle Ages if you had a patron to support you. But today we have to live from what we research. You have published in the most renowned journals. One of your research results got worldwide attention in 2006: together with your team, you proved that even plants have something along the lines of a memory. What was this, exactly? In our experiments we were able to show that plants increase their recombination rate when they are affected by a pathogen. To put it simply: when it’s under attack, the plant gives its genes a good shake. The biological significance behind this is perhaps that new genes or combinations of genes are formed that might just lead to an increased degree of resistance against the pathogen. What is really astonishing is that the descendants of the affected plants still have an increased recombination rate, sometimes into the fourth generation. So the plants “remember” that their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents were afflicted. And that is what is meant by a “plant memory”? Yes. This kind of memory also exists in animals, by the way. It’s always a matter of environmental influences having an impact not just on the current generation but on its progeny. Put simply: what you learn can also be passed down. How did you come to science in the first place?
finally, with a few detours, she found a chemistry professor. I
I originally studied chemistry – and that was because of my
spoke with him for a while, and then he said to me: “But I still
chemistry teacher in Vienna. I was at a girls’ high school in
don’t understand why a young, pretty girl should so want to
the 19 district and the chemistry teacher gave really excit-
study chemistry.” (laughs)
th
ing lessons. And that made you really want to study it? Wasn’t it rather unusual for a girl to study chemistry back
Yes, that comment was a challenge to me. In that sense, it was
in the 1950s?
something positive for me.
That’s right. There were just a few of us students who were girls. There’s a story about that: when I told my mother that I wanted
Did people put many obstacles in your way later on?
to study chemistry, she had no idea what to think of it because
It wasn’t always easy. My husband went to the famous Stanford
she was an artist. She sounded out the people she knew until
University in 1967. When I also applied for a job there, it turned
CREDO | 29
Interview | Barbara Hohn
out that the Department of Biochemistry wasn’t accepting any women. So I ended up in the Department of Pathology. In 1971 we moved to the newly founded Biozentrum of the University of Basel. But it wasn’t easy here, either – women had only just got the vote in Switzerland. You started in chemistry, but over the course of your career you’ve delved ever deeper into biology. My husband and I were among the very first molecular biologists anywhere. At first I was busy with viruses most of all, and with the question as to how they package their genetic make-up. Later you turned to bacteria and plants. Some of your research results still play an important role in agriculture today. Was that your goal? No, I have always pursued my research out of sheer curiosity. The applications are then usually completely unexpected. Such as the agrobacterium tumefaciens on which I have researched a lot myself. It’s a soil bacterium that can infect plants. It’s a highly subtle thing! It inserts part of its genetic make-up into the DNA of the plant so that it will produce food for the bacterium. The genes that have been transferred are at the same time responsible for the plant developing tumors. When that was discovered, it never would have occurred to anyone that it might one day be useful. How is it useful? You can use the bacterium as a gene shuttle by taking away the tumor genes and replacing them with other genes. Thus you can
become resistant to the poison produced by a transgenic plant.
create transgenic plants that are very important in agriculture
That’s only natural, that’s evolution. But then nothing speaks
all over the world today – in maize, wheat and rice. If you insert
against deciding to implant another new gene in the plant.
the right genes, then you can get the plant to produce its own pesticides, for example.
Last year a French study was published, claiming that gen etically modified maize caused tumors in rats.
Genetically modified organisms are not exactly popular
That was a disaster! The statistics were wrong and the rat family
in Europe.
used was in any case prone to develop cancer. You can’t do that.
No, and that’s a delicate topic. And yet transgenic plants can
The real scandal is that a journal actually published this com
make a contribution to ecologically friendly agriculture: if the
pletely spurious study.
plant produces its own pesticides, then you need less poison. Apples are sprayed with pesticide up to twelve times a year here
Do we really need genetically modified plants?
in Switzerland! For me, the resistance to such genetically modi-
People have it good here, so they think that they don’t need
fied crops is not really comprehensible.
them. But surpluses don’t exist everywhere. We have to carry out research into transgenic plants, if only to help people on
Are there no dangers at all?
other continents. But most people don’t think so far. The media
I know of not a single case in which genetically modified plants
with their biased reporting have sadly been playing a negative
had any dangerous consequences. It can happen that pests
role in all this.
30 | CREDO
In recent years you have been awarded numerous scientific
Barbara Hohn was born in Klagenfurt in 1939 and studied chemistry in
prizes. What do they mean to you?
Vienna. As a molecular biologist she was active in research at Tübingen, Yale
Of course I’m happy about them. On the other hand, you have to
and Stanford before moving to Basel in 1971. She first worked at the uni
ask what a 74-year-old woman scientist is supposed to do with
versity there and then, from 1978, at the private Friedrich Miescher Institute
such a prize. Young people are more in need of support.
for Biomedical Research. She officially retired in 2004 but continues to work. In 2010 she was awarded the Ludwig Wittgenstein Prize of the Austrian Research Association in honor of her exceptional scientific achievements.
Mathias Plüss, born in 1973, is a freelance science journalist.
CREDO | 31
Masterpieces | Peter Fendi
ﾂｩ LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vaduz窶天ienna
The peek through the keyhole
32 | CREDO
I
t is a little scene of great suggestive power. It features a young
in her “maidenly caution” to take a peek to see who the guest
girl who awakens our own curiosity as she peers through a
might be who stands outside the front door, awaiting permission
keyhole. Her white blouse leaves her shoulder uncovered, and
to enter. Since then the work has been entitled “The Cautious
while her hair is pinned up, a wisp of it gently flows downwards.
Parlourmaid.”
She is dressed in an undergarment that leaves her arms and legs bare, and she is wearing house slippers on her feet. The girl seems quite agitated. What might she have seen?
Still enchanted by the grace that the girl radiates, the observer might now feel inspired to imagine that she is expecting a secret visitor. This charming ambivalence between the virtue of
The artist Peter Fendi (1796–1842) gives us no answer to
prudence and the sin of a secret dalliance maintains our curios
this question in his genre painting of 1834. Instead, the physical
ity. And the small format of the painting also seems to support
presence of the girl awakens provocative expectations that we
an ambiguous interpretation. Like any miniature, it demands of
endeavor to satisfy with our wandering gaze. A hand brush leans
the observer that he take an inquisitive yet cautious step closer
against the door, and there are water and a sponge in a bowl
to it. The painter Peter Fendi here follows the historical models
next to it. Has a parlourmaid interrupted her work in order to
of Dutch genre painting, but also the French artist Jean Siméon
take a cheeky peek into the private sphere of her masters?
Chardin, of whom four such miniature masterpieces were held by the Princely Collections in the 19th century; they, too,
Such a reading has presumably been prevalent since the
en gaged with domestic everyday scenes. However, Fendi’s
painting was made, right down to our own time. We can observe
technique is quite individual, and he remains devoted to the
this in the variant titles that have been assigned to this painting
idea of transparent color application such as is characteristic
and to a second, quite similar one. It was bought for the Princely
of watercolors.
Collections in 2005 by Prince Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein and its initial title was “The Inquisitive Parlourmaid.”
Curiosity is not just thematized in artworks: it was and re-
The Belvedere Gallery in Austria owns a version of it from the
mains one of the major reasons for our engagement with art and
year 1833, for which it lists the alternative titles “The Inquisitive
for collecting it. It allows us to open up doors to whole new
Girl” and “The Eavesdropper.”
worlds – and this has been true of the Princely House of Liechtenstein for hundreds of years. The Latin concept of “curios
But if we look more closely, we realize that such an interpret
itas,” which since Antiquity has been passed down to us in phil
ation – probably not wholly unintended by Fendi – is a result of
osophy and is derived from “cura,” brings all these facets
one’s own desire. For then we notice the items in the back cor-
together: curiosity and a striving for knowledge of the world, but
ner of the room. To the left, a coat and a hat with a ribbon have
also the qualities of care, endeavor, heedfulness and interest.
been thrown over the back of a chair, and a woman’s black boots
Happy is he who knows how to maintain this view of the world in
lie next to it. To the right of the chair there stands a table with a
all its sensual and intellectual richness.
water jug and a candle, while a front door key hangs on top of a white towel over the door hinge. And indeed – are these really the lock and fittings typical of a door in the interior of a house? In 2005 an Austrian art historian took a closer, unbiased look
Dr. Johann Kräftner is the director of the Princely Collections of the House of
at this little genre painting and came to the conclusion that the
Liechtenstein and from 2002 to 2011 was director of the LIECHTENSTEIN
parlourmaid must have been disturbed while at work in the
MUSEUM, Vienna. He is the author of numerous monographs on the history
foyer of the house. The general disorder we can see prompts her
and theory of architecture.
CREDO | 33
Literary choice | Christoph Ransmayr
The urge to explore T
here are books that make you want to wrap up warm. “The
culminated in the accidental discovery of the group of islands
Terrors of Ice and Darkness” is one of them. The debut
now named “Franz Josef Land,” the crew’s unstinting efforts to
novel by Christoph Ransmayr, one of the literary greats writing
get their ship, the “Admiral Tegetthoff,” back to open water, and
in German today, first appeared in 1984. Before it had become
finally their utterly improbable return on foot across the ice.
fashionable to base stories around the tales of explorers and their fates, his book brought to life the North Pole expedition,
The author skillfully blends his factual account with the
begun in 1872, of Carl Weyprecht and Julius von Payer in a mas-
story of his fictitious friend Josef Mazzini, who, on discovering
terful mix of reconstruction and fiction so atmospherically vivid
that his great-great-uncle Antonio Scarpa was part of the origi-
that the reader cannot help the occasional shiver.
nal expedition, travels to the far north over 100 years later to retrace the adventure in every detail. The Italian Mazzini, who
Yet even permanent ice cannot temper curiosity, just as van
uncovers the original documents describing the polar journey,
ity and passion will not ebb away on the fringes of civilization.
sees his research as a backward-looking “game with reality” and
Ransmayr tells the story of the Austro-Hungarian expedition,
sets out on the trail of the Arctic seafarers. Unlike his heroes,
which spent two whole winters trapped in pack ice between 1872
however, Mazzini does not return from the ice but vanishes
and 1874. He recounts the trials and tribulations of a journey that
among the glaciers of Spitsbergen.
34 | CREDO
Ransmayr resurrects some unforgettable characters: Carl Weyprecht, the expedition’s commander at sea, is the epitome of the fearless pioneer, a man who keeps his cool even in the most difficult situations. By contrast, Julius von Payer, in charge on land, is obsessed with the idea of an undiscovered paradise and sees himself as its ruler, simply because he was the first to set foot there. The most fascinating aspect of the expedition, how ever, is that each one of its participants experiences it in a dif ferent way. Ransmayr described his book as a novel and himself as a chronicler. By quoting repeatedly from the diaries and accounts of the crew of the “Admiral Tegetthoff,” the author brings together the views and experiences of men with completely differ ent backgrounds, professions and beliefs. These original documents in particular help create something magical because the reality that emerges does not reflect a sober account but rather a tale bordering on the fantastic.
Christoph Ransmayr Christoph Ransmayr, born on March 20, 1954, in the Upper Austrian
With “The Terrors of Ice and Darkness,” Ransmayr, the com-
city of Wels, grew up in Roitham near Gmunden on the shores of Lake
passionate chronicler of that “unimaginable sensation” he distills
Traunsee. After studying ethnology and philosophy in Vienna, he
from the stories handed down to him, proves that elucidation
worked as cultural editor of the Viennese magazine “Extrablatt” while
and enchantment are by no means mutually exclusive. By not
also writing for journals including “TransAtlantik,” “Geo,” and “Meri-
only taking the historical figures seriously but also sticking to the
an.” Ransmayr became a freelance writer in 1982, publishing his book
rules of his story, he highlights the huge gulf between the Arctic
“Strahlender Untergang” (“Triumphant Extinction”) in the same year.
of today and that experienced by Weyprecht and von Payer.
The work was reissued in 2000 with the added subtitle “Ein Entwäs serungsprojekt oder die Entdeckung des Wesentlichen” (“A Drainage
Astonishingly, Ransmayr himself had never traveled further
Project, or the Discovery of the Fundamental”). “The Terrors of Ice and
north than Copenhagen when he wrote his novel. In a subse-
Darkness” (1984), his first novel, brought him numerous awards. In
quent newspaper interview, he revealed that he had known
1988, he published “The Last World,” a novel about the Roman poet
nothing about pack ice, polar night, or the immense desolation
Ovid, who fell from grace in the year 8 AD and was exiled to Tomis on
of these landscapes. He did not make his first trips to the region
the Black Sea, where he died nine years later. Following the major suc-
until nearly 20 years later. When he wrote “The Terrors of Ice
cess of this book, Ransmayr embarked on extensive travels. In his third
and Darkness,” the Franz Josef Land archipelago was a restrict
novel, “The Dog King,” published in 1995, he creates an alternate uni-
ed zone and part of the Soviet Union. Whatever he was able to
verse with echoes of post-war Germany and Austria. Since then, Chris-
say or write about the ice at that point he had learned from arch
toph Ransmayr has published several volumes of essays and a book on
ives, libraries and documentaries or by talking to polar explor
storytelling, “Die Verbeugung des Riesen. Vom Erzählen” (“The Defer
ers. This tremendously absorbing novel thus not only illustrates
ent Giant. On Storytelling”) (2003), as well as a number of plays. His
the dramatic limits that nature can impose on the human desire
fourth novel, “Atlas eines ängstlichen Mannes” (“Atlas of a Fearful
to explore but also shows the triumph of literary curiosity over
Man”), appeared in 2012.
the author’s experience.
Felicitas von Lovenberg, born in 1974, is head of the literature section at the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” and hosts the TV program “Literatur im Foyer” for SWR in Germany (Southwest Broadcasting Company).
CREDO | 35
Carte Blanche | Pius Theiler
Scaling new heights
Recorded by: Manfred Schiefer Being free to explore the world yourself is more import ant than formal learning, believes Pius Theiler, multiaward-winning young scientist and inventor of the πCam, speak: Pi Cam. Having this freedom not only fueled his urge to make new discoveries, it also gave him an unshakeable belief in his ability to find a so lution to any problem. My brother and I did a lot of experimenting when we were little. Particularly the vacations we spent in a house on the edge of the woods; that was a time for exploring and experimenting. Like all children, we were fascinated by fire. We made charcoal or tried to get metal to melt. All this experimenting was our own idea. When we failed to make charcoal and were left with ash instead, we kept tinkering. Finally, we discovered that you have to weaken the burning process by limiting the oxygen supply. We then tried it in cans, and it worked. It also took us some time before we managed to make our first aluminum casting, in the fireplace of our vacation home. We had more setbacks than successes. But nobody stood in the way of our desire to achieve our goal. In hindsight, that was much more important than being given any conscious encouragement. My parents didn’t support us with any special programs. Rather, they gave us the freedom to gain experience by ourselves and acquire knowledge in this way. None of our questions prompted them to criticize our ignorance. That gave us the courage to delve further into the things that interested us. That’s something I’m still benefiting from today. When we did metallurgy at university, I was able to link the theory to the experience I had gained as a child.
36 | CREDO
I feel our society has become very comfortable and doesn’t
The prizes that I won for developing the πCam weren’t the
want to take any risks. But without the courage to make mis-
motivation behind my work. I had asked myself why nobody had
takes, you can’t develop as a person. Because ultimately it’s the
come up with a sensible, handy camming device like it before,
mistakes we make that move us forward.
which other climbers are bound to have missed too. I was curi ous to see how it might work.
If I build something that works straight away, I don’t learn anything new. So for me it’s more exciting to develop something that doesn’t work right from the start. Because although I have
Pius Theiler was born in 1992 in Stans, Switzerland, the son of an architect
to deal with setbacks, if I don’t give up and find out why
and a landscape gardener. Winner of a special award at the “Schweizer
something isn’t working, then ultimately it’s not a defeat but
Jugend forscht” competition, he caused a stir at the EU Contest for Young
an experience that increases my knowledge.
Scientists in Helsinki in 2011 with his π Cam (pronounced “pi cam”). His handy camming device for rock climbers won no fewer than four prizes, a
When I laminated the carbon-fiber-reinforced bow for the
degree of success previously only achieved by those working in teams. Since
first time when developing my πCam camming device, the result
2012, Pius Theiler has been studying mechanical engineering at the École
looked a bit like a banana with fibers protruding like the quills of
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He is supported by the Swiss
a hedgehog. The second attempt, although better, only with-
Study Foundation as part of its “Univers Suisse” program, which is funded
stood one-fourth of the calculated load in the stress test. While I
by the Sophie and Karl Binding Foundation. The Swiss Study Foundation
was developing the πCam, I would have had no shortage of rea-
supports particularly talented students at universities and universities of
sons to give up. But each failure leads me to ask “Why?” – and to
applied sciences throughout Switzerland.
an answer that I am curious to find out. I have had this confidence ever since my early experimenting and tinkering around enabled me to gradually expand my knowledge and experience. Following a harmless fall while rock-climbing, I wanted to create a camming device for my final high-school project – and in the process I learned much more than I had ever dreamed would be possible. And not just in terms of the specialist skills that I can now put to good use at university. As I didn’t have the technical knowledge, I had to get help from experts. This taught me not only how to approach people but also how to present an idea convincingly. To meet the deadlines for the high-school project and for the creation of another two, improved prototypes for the national and the European young scientist competitions, I had to speed up my product development. I learned to concentrate on the fundamentals to achieve my goals and developed the feel for interdisciplinary working that you need to have.
CREDO | 37
Order
Interested in back issues of CREDO? Tolerance, Freedom, Beauty – over the past few years, our client
Are you interested in back issues of CREDO magazines? Under
journal CREDO has addressed many fascinating and enter
www.lgt.com/credo you can order the journals illustrated below.
taining topics and dimensions of wealth culture. Each edition
You can order future issues of CREDO online at www.lgt.com
profiles a different personality.
under “Publications/Order print versions”.
Tolerance | XVI 2013 Kiran Bedi Fighter for tolerance among India’s religious and ethnic groups.
38 | CREDO
Freedom | XV 2012 Shirin Ebadi The Iranian Nobel Prize winner fights for human rights.
Beauty | XIV 2012 Wolfgang Fasser How the blind music therapist opens up the world to disabled children.
Contents | Credo XvII 2013
Credits Publisher H.S.H. Prince Philipp von und zu Liechtenstein, Chairman LGT Group
Curiosity
Advisory board Thomas Piske, CEO LGT Private Banking Norbert Biedermann, CEO LGT Bank Ltd. Heinrich Henckel, CEO LGT Bank (Switzerland) Ltd.
02
Editorial office, Layout Sidi Staub (executive editor) LGT Marketing & Communications
02 Portrait | Ian Baker This American explorer of the Himalayas succeeded where many before him had failed: he discovered the gates of paradise.
Picture editor Lilo Killer, Zurich Design concept, Coordination Thomas von Ah, Zurich Chris Gothuey, Zurich
10 Portfolio | Children’s questions What do they really want to know or understand, and where do they get the answers? We asked children from Chongqing, New York, Beira, Zurich and Moscow.
Translation Syntax Translations Ltd., Zurich
E-mail for correspondence lgt.credo@lgt.com
Printer BVD Druck+Verlag AG, Schaan
15 Essay | Lifelong learning Education specialist Salman Ansari knows the secret of keeping a zest for lifelong learning.
Subscriptions Are you interested in receiving future editions of CREDO? We will be happy to send you CREDO free of charge. Subscribe to CREDO online at www.lgt.com under “Order print versions of LGT publications.”
Lithographer Prepair Druckvorstufen AG, Schaan Energy efficient and CO2 compensated print.
18 Report | Urban explorers The explorers of today no longer travel to distant continents. They travel into the past and find their “terra incognita” on their own doorstep.
Picture credits Cover, pages 4, 6, 7: Sascha Zastiral Pages 2, 5, 8, 9: Ian Baker Page 10: pixelio, clipdealer Pages 11–14: Polaroid frame: 123RF Page 11, left: Alja Kirillova Page 11, right: Nicola Scevola Page 12: Sacha Batthyany Page 13: Ruth Fend Page 14: Dennis Eucker Pages 16–17: Illustration Markus Roost Pages 18–25: Simon Cornwell Pages 22, 24: Bradley Garett Pages 27, 28, 30: Julian Salinas Page 29: Illustration Markus Wys Page 32: Princely Collections Page 34: Christian Breitler Page 35: Magdalena Weyrer Page 36: Pius Theiler Page 37: Manfred Schiefer
New: The “LGT Bank app” provides editions of the LGT client journal CREDO as well as further LGT publications which can be downloaded to iPads free of charge.
26 Interview | Barbara Hohn This 74-year-old scientist knows that groundbreaking dis coveries only happen when we give free rein to our curiosity. 32 Masterpieces | Peter Fendi A young girl peeks through a keyhole. Curiosity? No, just cautiousness. But to realize this, you have to look very carefully.
36 Carte Blanche | Pius Theiler His invention won a special prize at the “Schweizer Jugend forscht” competition. And he only wanted to know how a handy camming device might function.
36
18
32
LGT Bank Ltd. Herrengasse 12 FL-9490 Vaduz Phone +423 235 11 22 Fax +423 235 15 22 info@lgt.com
LGT Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. Lange Gasse 15 CH-4002 Basel Phone +41 61 277 56 00 Fax +41 61 277 55 88 lgt.ch@lgt.com
LGT Bank (Singapore) Ltd. 3 Temasek Avenue #30-01 Centennial Tower Singapore 039190 Phone +65 6415 3800 info@lgt.com
LGT Bank (Hong Kong) Suite 4203, Two Exchange Square 8 Connaught Place, Central Hong Kong Phone +852 2868 0201 info@lgt.com
www.lgt.com LGT Group is represented in more than 20 locations in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. A complete address list can be seen at www.lgt.com
50319en 0913 1.6T BVD
34 Literary choice | Christoph Ransmayr In 1872 a seafaring expedition was caught in pack ice for two long winters. A hundred years later, an inquisitive Italian retraced the journey to the far north made back then by his great-great-uncle.
Credo LGT Journal on Wealth Culture
CURIOSITY | XVII 2013