“After the one-story brick desert on the north coast of the island, at the Silbersee Park there are still trees, landscape, carefully trained to form a trellis and wind protection. Gentle road humps, tolerant of the vibrations of the land. Country houses from yesteryear, loyally reinforced with pillar porches, Greek made of wood … Casing in colorful clinker cladding with neatly cut frames in white. High branches, eaten away by the breathing of the Atlantic, full, whispering clouds of leaves … grass between the pavement slabs, tall weeds and bushes around the stairs. Sloping gardens, cool, wildly overgrown. ”Little has changed in what the visitor gets to see along the way since the publication of Uwe Johnson’s monumental series of novels“ Anniversaries ”.
Staten Island plays an important role in German post-war literature – everyone who has ever poked their nose into Uwe Johnson’s classic knows that. This monumental novel is about the life of Gesine Cresspahl and her daughter Marie in 366 diary entries. It is set in New York during the historic years 1967 and 1968 – with student revolts and the murder of Martin Luther King.
Johnson describes very vividly “the strolling on the local route to the screeching loop of the subway around the South Ferry station”. Most of the time, mother and daughter travel from the southern tip of Manhattan to Staten Island and back.
Staten Island – that means suburban character, lots of green and tranquility
Quelle: AWL Images/Getty Images
– –
On the way Gesine Cresspahl tells the story of her family: from the Weimar Republic to the Nazi era to the dictatorship in the Soviet zone of occupation. It’s sad and funny and moving and exciting, you have to read it yourself. 50 years later, it’s worth taking a trip there to see what has changed and how.
Culture and nature at Snug Harbor on Staten Island
In one chapter of the novel, Gesine Cresspahl and her daughter take the Staten Island Railroad once the length of the entire island, from the ferry port St. George in the south to the terminus at Tottenville in the north. The train, writes Johnson, is “a jerky, shuffling suburban line” that stops “every mile … on narrow platforms under a tight roof”.
The only thing most tourists know about Staten Island is the free ferry that goes past the Statue of Liberty. The island south of Manhattan is (still) the most sparsely populated district of New York City with almost 500,000 inhabitants. Suburban character, lots of beach, lots of green, tranquil.
Snug Harbor is a large park with beautiful 19th century houses
Quelle: Snug Harbor High-Res Photography
– –
Perhaps Staten Island’s greatest attraction is in the north of the island, just across the New Jersey coast. It’s called: Snug Harbor. Originally, Snug Harbor was a retirement home for retired sailors – it’s a huge estate, a leafy park with beautiful 19th-century houses.
In 1976, Snug Harbor was converted into a cultural center. Since then there has been a botanical garden, a music hall, a theater where people dance, and an art museum. The visitor can stay here for many hours, stroll through all the greenery and marvel at the imposing hall of the main building with its high, blue ceiling. The Snug Harbor Music Hall has performed greats like Joan Baez and David Bowie.
