{"id":1735,"date":"2010-04-21T17:33:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-21T17:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hub-dev.bates.edu\/magazine\/?page_id=1735"},"modified":"2017-09-06T11:40:51","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T15:40:51","slug":"torpedokafer","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/back-issues\/y2005\/spring05\/features\/uncovering-berlin\/torpedokafer\/","title":{"rendered":"Torpedokafer"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Torpedokafer <em>\u2014 by\u00a0Michael Wilson &#8217;07<\/em><\/h3>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 4px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/Images\/Bates_Magazine\/spring05\/features\/berlin\/wilson2083WEB.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" hspace=\"4\" vspace=\"4\" align=\"middle\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 8px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/Images\/Bates_Magazine\/spring05\/features\/berlin\/Wilson-2088web.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" hspace=\"8\" vspace=\"8\" align=\"right\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I asked the bartender at my favorite caf\u00e9, the Torpedok\u00e4fer (Torpedo Beetle) if Phyllis Graber Jensen, the Bates photographer, could take pictures. \u201cThat would be&#8230;impossible,\u201d he said. So we walked down the street to a less-secretive caf\u00e9, pictured here.<\/p>\n<p>But if we were at the <em>Torpedok\u00e4fer<\/em>, instead of pony-tailed girls you\u2019d see a young man discussing a mathematics text book with one of his friends, as his girlfriend dangles a cigarette and talks to herself about her photography. Or you\u2019d see a man who calls himself \u201cButte,\u201d after a road in France.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Torpedok\u00e4fer<\/em>\u2019s d\u00e9cor reflects its founding: an anarchy symbol behind the bar, an antique typewriter nearby, a collage showing regulars and owners, a 10-foot mural of a beetle, and photos of Franz Jung.<\/p>\n<p>In the power vacuum after World War I, Jung envisioned a new society predicated on self-sufficiency and love. His prose tried to agitate Berlin toward his view, but the city did not change.\u00a0 He compared himself to the African torpedo beetle and its inclination to fly into walls, slide off, and try again. Four East German publishers tried to spread the same ideas in 1989, in the wake of the GDR, but failed utterly as well.<\/p>\n<p>They founded the <em>Torpedok\u00e4fer<\/em> as a final reference to Jung. They talked with me about their work, bought me drinks, and we toasted to Jung\u2019s best ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Torpedokafer \u2014 by\u00a0Michael Wilson &#8217;07 I asked the bartender at my favorite&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":0,"parent":1728,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_dimp_site_id":"","_dimp_override_contact":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"class_list":["post-1735","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11103,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1735\/revisions\/11103"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}