The far east

Germany might seem uninteresting compared to some of the places we've been on this trip, but I am going to the deep east. Saxony (along with Thüringen) is the traditional heart of the German left. Here is a gymnastics festival in Leipzig from the 1970s.

This is an election year in Germany and the left is still strong in the east. Here is a rally for the far left party Die Linke I happened upon while I was there.

The speaker was the former head of the PDS (former communists) Gregor Gysi. He was outed as an informant for East Germany's secret police the Stasi a few years ago, but he still has a large following.

Saxony is also a center of the far right. The neo-fascist anti-immigrant party the NPD won ten percent in the last elections. I orignally thought this was one of their posters which translated as away with the brown "muck." You can see from the drawing what they mean by muck.

That was unbelievably offensive, even for Germany. On a second reading, I think it is anti NPD and says "no voice for the NPD." Brown is what they are, brown shirts or Nazis. They did have some interesting graffiti on this poster for the leftist candtidate.
I'm not sure how well they understand Obama's politics to align him with the far left here, but I guess they have their reasons for disliking him.

They do have a lot of brown people here, in any case. Turkish food is popular. They eat something like a burrito called dürüm (it is fun being on this german typewriter).
This place was actually good for what it was and had a line out the door. I didn´t love it, though, because döner is not that good. Sorry kendi.
I don´t remember seeing this in Turkey, so I´m not sure how authentic it is either. However, döner (or gyro) is a modern invention with the mid-century advent of that machine that heats it on the side. In that case, does Turkish-German cuisine from the 1950s and 60s have as much authenticity as Turkish cuisine from Turkey which came along at the same time?

Speaking of brown people, the other thing that is popular here is currywurst, which is a sliced-up sausage covered in spicy sauce. Here is a menu with names (in English?) for how hot you want it, like with Buffalo wings. What is up with the most mild?
The real attraction of Leipzig is the beer. One beer, at least, gose which is a traditional style that exists only in Leipzig. It may be related to Belgian gueuze and is sour for a German beer so that these losers usually drink it with syrup made from raspberries or woodruff. I couldn't bring myself to order either of those, eventhough they would have made for much better pictures as they make it a bright red or green.
Even in Leipzig, gose has only recently started being brewed again and only at two places. One of those places, Bayerischer Bahnhof, actually puts coriander and salt in the beer. This might be the only place in Germany where you can buy a german made product labeled beer that has ingredients in it other that the four allowed by law (notice how I am always the first person at the beer hall).

The more I learn about that law the worse the whole idea sounds. I understand there is an escape clause in it for local specialties, but nowhere other than here takes advantage of that. If anything, they need a law here, and in other parts of Germany, that allows for underground water pipes.