A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor

I'm very much enjoying this 1977 book about PLF's trek across 1930's Europe.

I've just got to the bit where PLF is staying with Baron Rheinhard von Liphart-Ratshoff after he had his rucksack, journal, passport and everything stolen from the youth hostel in Munich. PLF writes that the Baron is a displaced Baltic German who'd lost his estate of Ratshoff in Esthonia (sic) after WW1.

Curious to find out more I turned to Google: the Baron's name as spelt by PLF turned up zero as did Ratshoff as spelt with double f.

However, lopping off an f came up with this Wikipedia page on List of German exonyms for places in Estonia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_German_exonyms_for_places_in_Estonia

Ratshof is now called Raadi, now a suburb of Tartu. Indeed, as PLF states, the grand manor house became the National Museum of Estonia in 1922.


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There is a fascinating summary with some evocative photos on the website of the Estonian National Museum here:
http://www.erm.ee/?lang=ENG&node=199&parent=64

Raadi manor, located right next door to Tartu, was notable for its well-endowed collection of books and art, and the salon evenings held there. For several generations, the owners, the von Lipharts, were key figures in the educated local German classes and the St. Petersburg intelligentsia. Raadi’s golden age was the first half of the 19th century, when musicians and artists frequented the manor. The wife of Czar Paul I, Maria Fyodorovna, was enthralled by the manor park.

The German manorial culture entered a period of decline at the turn of the century, one reason being its relative isolation. This tendency is noticeable in the case of Raadi manor: the former stylistic sensibility disappeared as seen by the extensive and stylistically ham-handed renovation of the palace.

The Lipharts left Estonia around World War I taking with them the most valuable part of the collection. The manor was acquired by the University of Tartu. From 1922–1944, it was leased to the Estonian National Museum.

In autumn 1940, over 100 hectares (250 acres) of the estate was annexed for the expansion of the Soviet airfield. In 1944, the manor caught fire during a Soviet bombing raid.

The lake seen in the old B&W photos and the Soviet airfield can both be seen in the aerial photo above.

Furthermore there is another tantalising postscript regarding Karl von Liphart before whom PLF sat for his portrait (p. 112) . Google turns up a 4-page pdf of the Claims Resolution Tribunal re Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation. A descendent made a successful claim against a Zurich bank and was awarded 26,750 Swiss Francs.

Karl (Charles) Edouard von Liphart (de Liphart), who was born on 23 August 1900 in Ratshof (Tartu), Estonia. According to the Claimant, her uncle was an artist who resided in Munich, Germany, from 1923 until 1929; in Paris, France, between 1929 and 1932; and in Munich from 1933 onwards. The Claimant stated that her uncle was targeted by the Nazis because he was homosexual.

The CRT notes that a search of the internet for Charles Edouard von Liphart indicated that he was born in 1900 and died in 1976, and that his artworks included Baltisches Dorf ( Baltic Village ) and Weg Zu Den Tuillerien ( Path to the Tuilleries ).2 The search did not reveal information about von Liphart s life during the period from 1933 to 1945.

The Claimant has made a plausible showing that the Account Owner was a Victim of Nazi Persecution. The Claimant stated that the Account Owner was homosexual, and that he resided in Nazi Germany from 1933 onwards.

Crossing streets in Athens

I'm waiting alone at the pedestrian crossing by Hadrian's Arch; the lights turned red and four lanes of heavy traffic stop reluctantly. 

I set off. 

My eye catches a twenty-something on a mobylette weaving determinedly through the cars. We are on a collision course. He shows no sign of slowing; probably hasn't even seen the red light, he is too focussed on avoiding door mirrors and bumpers. 

As he gets closer, I slow and shout "OPA!" with my best Greek arm waving. He looks up and squeals to a stop right in front of me. "Sorry," he says (in English) with a cheeky grin.

Protestant Cemetery in Athens

I went to have a look at the Protestant Cemetery today which is tucked away in a corner of the First Cemetery (Proto Nekrotafio) up on a hill behind the old Olympic Stadium.

I spent 3 hours reading almost every gravestone and took 150 photos.

I reckon very approximately that there are 150 British, 75 German, 50 American, and 25 other nationalities, mostly northern Europe nationalities including a lady born in Estonia.

A quick Google came up with:
Taken from the book Athens: A Cultural and Literary History by Michael Llewellyn Smith pub. 2004 (p.100)

After several pages on the First Cemetery (which includes this passage: In the entrance to the first cemetery, outside the cemetery office there is a notice listing grave plots available for purchase or rent. A family buys a lease on a plot from the Athens municipality and pays an annual surcharge. if the family dies out or fails to keep up its obligations, the plot reverts to the city and is put up for sale again.

These graves are for the well-off. A select few (29 in 1972), such as Makriyiannis, were given their plots free as a mark of respect by the city. According to Greek legislation there is no cremation, which the Orthodox Church prohibits (though there are signs that this position is under threat). The pressure on space is therefore considerable. The standard practice is for burial of the dead to be followed in three years by their exhumation, the bones being returned to the families, and then placed in a family grave or a common ossuary. Three years is not a long time and lime is used to assist the process of decomposition. Sweet-smelling bones are regarded as a sign of sanctity.)

The Protestant cemetery
In a corner of the First Cemetery is the extensive Protestant Cemetery of Athens, which was moved here early in the twentieth century from its original position at the corner of the Zappeion Park, across the way from the stadium. It contains some interesting finds for British, American and German visitors. Besides the names of families well known in the history of nineteenth-century Athens, I stumbled upon the graves of TH White the author of the Arthurian trilogy The Once and Future King, of the documentary film maker Humphrey Jennings (1907 - 1950) who died in Poros, and the Cambridge Historian A H M Jones (1904 - 1970) who died at sea off Athens. The most prominent of the Protestant graves is that of George Finlay. The iron rails round his grave are broken and twisted, the marble is chipped and the plinth just below the bust of his head is cracked and repaired. Finlay awaits a new Scottish philhellene to repair his monument. [End of Chapter]

The damage to Finlay's tomb looks to me like that caused by the falling of a now long gone tree.










For the first 2 hours I saw not another soul. It was very quiet and peaceful, only the very occasional unseen lizard scuttling through the dry leaves and pine needles. Some of the graves have broken.

As I was passing such a broken grave, a cat jumped out of the hole in the grave and ran off to the sound of my startled yell echoing off the high wall.