In the early months of 2004, Peace Marker Germany was a most welcome event. The presentation of Point of Peace No. 3 in beautiful Kassel was a pivotal occasion for the project. Since that day cultural exchanges including plans for a citywide school program have been organized by the Mayor’s office. And, the first intercontinental group of Peace Marker visitors has flown to Kassel to enjoy a personal welcome by the Mayor.

To tell the full story of Peace Marker Germany it must be noted that by 2004 over one year had passed since the first two markers were erected. This was a stretch of time when international attention was riveted on world news and passions boiled over as war escalated in Iraq and terrorism attacks continued all around the world. At the same time, a groundswell of anti-war sentiments led to a worldwide resurgence of anti-war activism and protest. Keeping a peace project alive in such a climate was about as difficult as selling chocolate kisses at a fist fight. 

Personally, I am respectful of the choice of war or anti-war efforts. But, it is important that the Worldwide Peace Marker Project, as a work of installation art, remains independent from such camps. WPMP addresses a far more fundamental element of the Peace / War equation. The installation and its198 Points of Peace are designed to reveal greater detail of the basic structure of peace independent of war at a whole new level.

Clearly these are complex issues that fortunately will become more accessible as the project moves on towards completion. In 2004, however, I was very concerned of the consequences if the project was not protected from being mixed with or watered-down by the super-charged culture of war and anti-war sentiment of the times. So I spent most of my time doing research and clarifying the design of the project.

Painter and Musician Mr. Edgar Plata, whose help was invaluable in the success of Peace Marker Germany.

It was in this environment that the artist / ambassador for Peace Marker Germany came on the scene. Ms. Beate Eliza Monet lives and works in Florida. As a longtime friend of mine she had encouraged and supported WPMP since its “drawing board” days. As a German citizen born in Kassel she had pledged to do what she could to help bring a Peace Marker to Germany. At one point she offered to help search for a worthy artist in Germany to serve as her nation’s ambassador.

Since Eliza is an accomplished artist in her own right, a wonderful singer and composer, I asked Eliza to consider the WPMP ambassadorship to Germany for herself. She accepted. It was early January 2004 at the time. Her next scheduled trip to Germany was for March 6th.

With only two months to work with we agreed to incorporate the Germany Peace Marker delivery with her scheduled trip. Her friends and contacts in Germany were willing to help coordinate the event. One of these colleagues and fellow artist, Mr. Edgar Plata, introduced the idea to the office of Mayor Lord Lewandowski. With the help of the mayor’s executive secretary, Ms. Anja Apostel, the road to the acceptance of the marker by the City of Kassel was paved.

On March 6, 2005, I drove Eliza to the Lee County International Airport where she secured her luggage and ticket assignments and proceeded through the boarding check and X-ray inspection. The moment Eliza placed her Peace                                            Marker box on the conveyor I crossed my fingers. Sure enough, the attending TSA agent saw the marker and immediately summoned two more TSA agents.

A moment later, Ambassador Eliza and the Peace Marker where directed to a nearby table for inspection with more officials coming to see the object. I had taken the precaution to make additional copies of information regarding the project that included a copy of the newspaper story published the day before in the Cape Coral Daily Breeze along with the Cape Coral Mayor's letter to the Lord Mayor of Kassel. I had in mind that in the event that the marker was to be examined, the examiners would have references that authenticated the object and the project.

Admittedly the Peace Marker, to someone in the security detail, looks like a suspicious object —maybe a bomb of some kind, even. Anyway just as the inspection was reaching a tense climax, a TSA supervisor, Doris Johnson, happened on the scene and noticed Eliza wearing a Peace Coin pendant. Tensions eased instantly as Mrs. Johnson explained to her security team that she was not only familiar with the project but that she also owned a Peace Coin —a sentimental surprise gift given to her by her husband a few weeks earlier.

I waved Ambassador Eliza “so long” as she was respectfully escorted to her plane. Shortly after, Doris Johnson summoned me to wait and came to greet and congratulate me for WPMP. The Peace Marker had its angel friend at the departure gate.

Ambassador Eliza Monet, Peace Marker Germany and Tiité at Lee County International Airport.

This was the photo and article that helped save the day at Lee County International Airport. Article and image by Lillian Parbot-Johnson.

From left to right Mayor Thomas-Erik Junge, Ambassador Eliza Monet and Lord Mayor Georg Lewandowski.

In the months to follow, Peace Marker Germany brought to the surface a whole new view of the beauty of WPMP as a seamless art and life experience. There is the experience of an American family from Poway, California with roots in Kassel, Germany that by chance found out about WPMP on the Internet while planning a visit to Germany to reconnect with their ancestry.

Mr. Paul Kassel (yes, this family's last name is Kassel) was to visit Germany and bring his father and his family to their original motherland to get acquainted with the culture of their German ancestry. Their visit to Peace Marker Germany became a high point of their journey. In a most peculiar way, their visit introduced a dimension of pilgrimage to the project that was a surprise to me –at least this early in its progress.

Mr. Kassel sent me a number of e-mails expressing his interest in visiting Kassel and the Peace Marker. Ambassador Eliza and I made the request for a visit by the Kassel family with Lord Mayor Lewandowski. The details were arranged by the very kind and able executive secretary to the Lord Mayor, Ms. Anja Apostel, for Wednesday June 29th, 2005 at 11:00 a.m.

Mr. Paul Kassel was very excited about the opportunity and submitted a short profile to Ms. Apostel of his family history that reads...

“Our Family immigrated to Buffalo, New York around 1850 from Kassel, Germany. There are a few renditions of the Kassel Family history that have been passed down ranging from Royalty to the suppliers of food-goods to the Kaisers.

 They settled into a community where church sermons were in German and folk songs on weekends were the norm.

    During WWI the "Kassel's" hung an American flag on the front porch of their home to show allegiance, as it was well known that the Kassel's were of German decent. The flag is still in the family and currently hanging in my home, in Poway California.

We had the "Kassel Coat of Arms" hanging in our family living room until a fire destroyed the house and all its contents in 1995.

My Father is a very coherent and entertaining person who would sit for hours telling tales of the past like it was yesterday. He welcomes any interview you may wish to hold.

The group going to Germany includes:

Arthur F Kassel (Art) 87 years old, Father WWII Veteran.

Paul T. Kassel 47 years old, son of Arthur.

Chase A. Kassel 15 years old, Paul's son.

Daniel M. Kassel 49 years old, son of Arthur.

Sincerely,
Paul T. Kassel, Poway CA.

On his return from Germany Mr. Paul Kassel sent me the following message on July 30, 2005.

Dear Mr. Tiité,

Our exiting pilgrimage to our ancestral homeland in Kassel, Germany was a wonderful success. Upon arrival we visited numerous points of interest including Hercules’ Castle and some of the incredible small outside communities.

Our family of seven was received by Lord Mayor Georg Lewandowski and his staff in his office on Wednesday the 29th of June. We sat at a round table forum and were presented with pastries, coffee, juice and wonderful gifts. We discussed the history of Kassel, Germany and the name that we brought back with us to this beautiful city.

The Lord Mayor explained to us how important the Peace Marker Program was to him and his city. He discussed the importance of peace and the damages that war places on all humans. It was amazing for us to learn that in WWII alone, over 90% of the city had been demolished by the allied forces bombings, then having to rebuild nearly the entire city.

Peace, along with our family heritage were the main topics of the morning. It was truly a moving experience to be brought together by the Peace Marker Program. We discussed the significance of the responsibility and commitment made by any city that accepts the Peace Marker Program.

 We were so honored to be the first family from the United States of America to make the pilgrimage to the Peace Marker in Germany and we wish the program continued success in bringing peace to our world… everyday.

Paul T. Kassel, Arthur F Kassel, Chase A. Kassel, Daniel M. Kassel, Holly H. Kassel -

Kyle C. Kassel and Myriam Neumann-Rystow .

Mr. Arthur F. Kassel and Lord Mayor Georg Lewandowsky holding Peace Marker Germany.

The Kassel Family and Lord Mayor Lewandowski

Ambassador Monet returned with  Brent Scheneman on November 2, 2005. At the Kassel City Hall they met with Nicole Holzapfel-Tater who on behalf of Mayor Junge announced that the City of Kassel is developing a citywide school project based on Peace Marker Germany WPMP.

Meanwhile back in Florida, Eliza Monet is collaborating with jazz great Jimmy Buchanan in the composition of an orchestral work about world peace titled "The Dream Asleep"

Mr. Jimmy Buchanan

Peace Marker Germany was made in Cape Coral, Florida. At the Waltzing Waters Inc. fabricating  facilities by Jeff Elliott and engraved at the TK Machine Inc. facilities by Timothy Morey and Kurt  Esposito.

Thank you

Tiité

Cape Coral, Florida 2005

Peace Marker Germany was installed at Stadtmuseum on October 22, 2007

Images by WPMP correspondent Brent Scheneman

Segment written by Tiité

This short essay will not do justice to the incredible event that took place at the Stadtmuseum, although hopefully it will illustrate the beginning of a great new story.

I'm referring to the introduction of Peace Marker Germany into the historical context of Germany, the city of Kassel and the history of world peace as a global phenomenon in progress.

Peace Marker Germany was first delivered to Germany by Ambassador Eliza Monet on March 12th, 2004. The Marker was accepted by Lord Mayor Georg Lewandowski  and Mayor Thomas-Erik Junge.

It was decided that Peace Marker Germany will require a special location to house it and the marker was therefore kept at the Mayor's office until the right location was found.

That location was provided by the Stadtmuseum and the incorporation of Peace Marker Germany within the cultural context of the historical museum was to coincide with the anniversary of the destruction of the city of Kassel in 1943 during WWII.

Here we have, an anniversary of a dark day in history being complemented by the presence of an emerging history of world peace being introduced to the museum 64 years later. Peace Marker Germany entered the historical context as a physical point of peace and as the developing history of a culture of world peace.

How significant was the event, is to soon to tell because frankly it is hard to take in, the full significance of a first time event in the history of human civilization. However, a few first glances can be brought up for observation.

It can be stated for instance, that the Stadtmuseum in Kassel became the first museum in the world to have an exhibit that showcases the developing history of world peace within the framework of the the history of war. That means that world peace on its own, is now a part of the historical context of civilization and therefore a culture of world peace is developing on the wake of the Worldwide Peace Marker Project.

Furthermore, since the WPMP will include 198 nations, it becomes a simple matter of arithmetic to deduce that 197 museums will have the opportunity to incorporate world peace into their national historic context and partake in the global context of a culture of peace.

Entry of the Stadtmuseum in Kassel, Germany

Closer to us as observers it becomes apparent that just outside of the Worldwide Peace Marker Project as a work of binary-art, lays a larger reality where the aesthetic reality of world peace becomes a part of the psychic space of human consciousness as well as a physical presence of something that did not exist in the 64 year history of the Stadtmuseum .

One of the reason why I'm so astonished by the event at the Stadtmuseum is because even though I designed the WPMP these results where made possible by the vision, knowledge and courage of  Mayor Thomas-Erik Junge and his staff, the remarkable Dr. Cornelia Doerr, curator of the museum and her staff, our wonderful WPMP Ambassador to Germany Ms. Eliza Monet and the assistance of our correspondent Brent Scheneman.

Dr. Cornelia Doerr, Mayor Thomas-Erik Junge and Ambassador Eliza Monet.

I express my deepest gratitude to all involved in this extraordinary effort and their collective contribution to the history of world peace.

The link below will take you to a collection of images about this event and other WPMP related image collections by our correspondent Brent Scheneman.

Thank you.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/peacecorrespondent/sets/72157602480666375/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/peacecorrespondent/page20/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/peacecorrespondent/page21/

WPMP Correspondent Brent Scheneman Exhibits in Kassel Germany.

By Tiité

The exhibit titled "Identifikation und Kontraste" (Identification and contrast) takes place at the newly remodeled Offener Kanal Gallery in downtown Kassel on December 1,2007

Brent Scheneman, participates in this exhibit representing the USA along with artists representing 15 other nations around the world. The exhibit was curated by the Colombian born artist Edgar Plata, an artist who works and lives in Kassel.

Brent presents an installation composed of two images and a narrative under the title "World Peace as a Binary Event" the work at first glance appears unprepossessing but upon close inspection the images become something of a transport shuttle to the new, bold and timely mindscape of Binary-Art.

Binary-art is a direction of thought that explores the dynamic effect of dualities such as art and life when they are reconciled or brought together to act as a binary entity. Binary-art is appearing at a time when the gap between art and life has become counter productive to the survival interest of art and to the cultural interest of civilization to life within and without the human perspective.

In the 21st century and particularly at present time, civilization is being challenged by the effects of an unsustainable rate of consumption of our finite natural resources and the absence of a  mechanism that can deliver to the masses the cultural substance needed to embrace the necessary changes. Binary-art seems to provide a way to model a cultural mechanism suitable to meet such challenge.

Peace is one part of a duality with war that has been absent from the human experience until now. The WPMP is the first effort to reconcile these tendencies into a binary entity and explore their combined effect.

Brent's Installation captured an instance that illustrates the wonderful path between the narrative of a work of art and the reality that lies behind it.

"The Birth of World Peace Into the Historical Context"

In this unique image Brent captures the moment at which the actual Peace Marker Germany becomes an official part of the historical context of the Stadtmuseum in Kassel, I may point out that the museum chronicles the history of Kassel and in particular the history of the city during  WWII when the city was utterly destroyed by war.

Peace Marker Germany was introduced into the museum's context on the 64th anniversary of the destruction of Kassel thereby marking the anniversary of such a dark day with the unveiling of the museum's first exhibit about the city's new role in the developing history of world peace.

One can deduce by the image that the light shinning atop of the marker is the result of the camera's flash striking the glass of the exhibition case, although one can also ascertain that the image illustrates the elusive and immaterial presence of peace as an energy that occurs exclusively in the psychic space of the human mind.

What makes the image extraordinary in this context is that Brent as a correspondent of world peace, has managed to present to us for observation the binary state of world peace as represented by; the Peace Marker as the point of peace that marks Germany's physical presence in the history of world peace and the light that represents the significance of the presence of world peace in the narrative of history.  

"Three Archetypes of World Peace"

The emerging history of world peace is being built one step at the time from the bottom up, by a collaborative of wonderful and courageous artists whose love for art and whose dedication to the urgency for a culture of world peace, are creating not just a model of world peace but tangible evidence of the human capacity to embrace peace across a global cultural diversity.

The show was attended by hundreds of visitors and was opened by Rogelio Barroso, Stadtrat der Stadt Kassel (Councilman of the City of Kassel) the musical portion of the event was performed by the Eliza Monet Band.

The Participating artists representing a number of nations are:

Edgar Plata, Pero Amusĭć, Marina Eimer, Betty Sarti de Range, Ivano Pellecchia

Pedro Soriano, Berahwa Massoum, Tiyan Idehen, Lisa Joseph,  Amiasih Amongsari

Flavio Garciandia, Shan Zeng, Jose Mauel Molina, Brent Scheneman, Chu Lily

Alexandra Holownia, Ruben Bonaparte and Manochehr Komravand

"Identifikation und Kontraste"

 Exhibit remains open to the public through January 15th, 2008

 Offener Kanal Gallery, downtown in Kassel, Germany.

Congratulations Brent I'm honored to journey with you towards world peace.