"Schneider's glasses"

“Swastikas everywhere”

The basic shape of this new school in Liechtenstein is a real eye-opener.(Bild: zvg)

People are becoming ever more attentive and sensitive, discovering hidden messages even in the seemingly banal. However, "Krone" columnist Robert Schneider is still struggling to come to terms with this new world.  

It's not news to me that a church steeple is a giant phallus, a celery stalk too, that an almost closed tulip or cut-open orange is reminiscent of a vulva, two cherries on a stalk of testicles. Nevertheless, I don't associate my vegetable shopping with what I think are genitals. When I walk through the Churer Tor in Feldkirch, it doesn't feel like I'm entering a vagina. I'm more worried about getting a parking ticket because I parked the car briefly in the parking spaces of the bank opposite. When I look at a chessboard, I don't recognize a swastika symbol, and even less when I see the rotating VW logo.

Because I'm just not sensitized enough. But I should start sensitizing myself now. Away with the church steeples, the shameful symbols of past power! Ban celery sticks and VW! Wall up the Chur Gate! That's what the architects who drew the plans for a new school in Liechtenstein must have thought. From a bird's eye view, the whole thing would look like a swastika, they suddenly said. Baffled, the planning office justified itself by saying that the symmetrical building layout was only about creating optimal learning conditions and that this would significantly shorten the distances for pupils.

Lazy excuse, thought a few do-gooders from Liechtenstein. That's re-activation, not architecture. Incidentally, there were similar discussions in Bregenz when the floor plan of a kindergarten bore obvious similarities to the swastika. I am now sensitized. When I enter a public building, dubious symbols always appear on tiled floors or wrought-iron railings. It's maddening!