German Traces in Ireland

Joseph Beuys, one of the major figures in postwar German art was always strongly attracted to Ireland, which he called "The Brain of Europe."

The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies owes its reputation, in part, to German physicist Walter Heitler, who carried out fundamental research there in its early years.

Agnes Bernelle’s journey from Berlin to Dublin created a living link between the German cabaret of the 1920s and contemporary Irish music.

One of the glories of German music, Handel’s oratorio “Messiah” was first performed in Dublin at the New Music Hall in Fishamble Street at noon on April 13th 1742.

John Hennig is a fine example of the small but influential number of refugees from Nazi Germany who enriched Irish intellectual life in the 1940s and 1950s.

His name holds a clue to his profession: Richard Castle, born in Kassel, Germany, was an architect. While he built few castles, he designed many landmark buildings in Dublin.

The pioneering German historian Leopold von Ranke was married to a Dublin woman Clarissa Graves, who became influential in Berlin.

The first known piece of German technology in Ireland dates to the mid-9th century. It is a superb sword marked with the name of its maker Ulfberht.

Roger Casement landed on Banna Strand from a German U-boat on April 21st 1916. He was quickly captured by the British authorities and later hanged.
 

Rainer Maria Rilke wanted to send her “all the flowers I can lay my eyes on“, Erich Kästner described her as “Munich’s first lady” and for her publisher, Gottfired Bermann Fischer, she soared “like a monument out of the chaos of the times”: Annette Kolb.

Read by millions of Germans since 1957, the Irish Journal and its author, Heinrich Böll, have had an unsurpassed impact on the German image of Ireland.

Most Irish people may not know her name but almost all know at least one of her sculptures. The work of the German-born Imogen Stuart is everywhere – in churches, shopping centres and public buildings.

The hydroelectric plant on the River Shannon in County Clare, built by the German firm Siemens-Schuckert, can be described as a milestone in Irish history.

Beautiful and frivolous, vain and extravagant, loved and hated, she caused mayhem at a Bavarian king’s court and was the subject of a Max Ophüls film.

Friedrich Engels, co-founder of communism, lived much of his life with an Irish woman Mary Burns. She, her sister Lizzie and his visits to Ireland had a big influence on his thought.

In the early 18th century, thousands of German Protestants fled as refugees from the Lower Palatinate and hundreds settled in Ireland.

He was born in Germany but made music history in Ireland: Aloys Fleischmann was a key figure in the world of music and the arts in twentieth-century Cork.

He was elected a Saoi, the highest honour given by Ireland to an artist, yet the controversy surrounding his links with Nazi Germany never went away.

German philologists played a significant role in the development of Celtic Studies, or Celtology. Nowadays, the subject is taught only at a small number of German universities.

He has played a psychologist and an IRA hunger-striker, a superhero and a slave owner: Irish-German actor Michael Fassbender is a bright star in the Hollywood sky.

Rudolf Heltzel, born in Berlin, has been a key figure in Irish craft and design for 50 years. His sumptuous jewellery, made with gold, silver and precious stones, has given his workshop in Kilkenny international standing.

In Ireland, the Second World War was euphemistically called “The Emergency”; the country was neutral, prisoners of war were “guests of the state”, and they were interned in very comfortable camp: the Curragh.

After the Second World War, Ireland not only provided £12 million in aid to Germany but also took in 500 traumatised children.

Between the sixth and eighth centuries, Irish monks spread Christianity all the way from Iceland to the north of Italy. Among the best-known names is that of St Kilian.

“Samson” and “Goliath”, two Belfast landmarks: dominating the city skyline, these yelllow gantry cranes belong to Harland & Wolff, the shipyard where the “Titanic” was built.

Frederick Schomberg, once called “the ablest soldier of his age”, was a key figure at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.