SZ: “Athens is waking up”

The Süddeutsche Zeitung is sporting an ambiguous title: “Athens is waking up” – from hibernation? Or is “Athens waking up” and returning as a tourist destination?

According to the Deutsche Welle article, the tour begins in Omonia and Christiane Schletzer, a longtime correspondent for the German newspaper in Greece, writes: refugees, drugs, prostitutes. Tourists were told not to approach Omonia, the lair of lawlessness. And yet today this square, in which six central avenues converge from all directions, defining the starting point for measuring all kilometers, the Greek point-zero we say, acquires a new glow with a fountain that has 200 beams of water, while the central jet launches water to a height of 20 meters “.

Then the correspondent of the Süddeutsche Zeitung presents the initiative of an Athenian, George Kagas, to organize tours with the cooperation of volunteers and with the help of the website “This is Athens”. Finally, there is some historical background: “The rule of the Bavarians lasted from 1832 to 1862 and was not very popular with the Greeks. But its influence on the image of the Athenian center remains evident to this day. Architects such as Leo von Klenze and Friedrich von Gerdner from Munich left behind, among others, the Parliament building, the old Palace. The anniversary exhibition for the 200 years (since the Greek revolution) reminds us of this at the Benaki Museum, on Piraeus Street. The first photographs of the Acropolis around 1870 are impressive, with the Parthenon dominating in the middle of ruins. Klenze insisted on saving the ancient heritage, while his rival Karl Friedrich Schenkel, from Prussia, wanted to build the Royal Palace on the Acropolis. Fortunately, Klenze’s opinion prevailed “