EUROPEAN TOUR BEGINS IN GERMANY

After another month at home, backing up video, reviewing notes, making new travel and interview arrangements for Europe, and going over video equipment one more time, we set sail (actually flew) to Munich.

We arrived at our hotel late in the evening, and asked for a nearby restaurant location. We walked the several blocks to the restaurant, and found ourselves at a traditional German beer garden, the Augustiner. Dave was overwhelmed with memories of his childhood, with outdoor accordion bands, dancing, singing and just great fun in Dayton, Ohio. The beer and soft pretzels weren't bad either!

The Inevitable Yarn Shop Visit

After that amazing immersion into Dave's youth, we left Munich to get a broader perspective of Germany. Via Germany's splendid rail, we journeyed to Pffaffenhofen to visit a yarn shop (of course), followed by a sobering visit to Dachau. The following day, we again boarded a train to visit Mittenwald, which some is the most representative and beautiful Bavarian village. We were delighted to visit the famous Mittenwald violin museum, and to discover that there was a very prominent violin maker family with the last name nearly the same as Dave's mother's family name, Reger.

Dachau Remembered



The Elusive Software Cluster FOUND!



From Munich, we traveled to Darmstadt, primarily to check out Dave's family roots on the Schwinn side, and to track down the hard-to-find Gino Brunetti, head of the coordinating body of Germany's famed software cluster. We were determined that while in Germany, we would learn more about clusters as a form of enterprise that is gaining more interest in the United States as a way to promote and grow regional entrepreneurship and innovation. After a visit to the Technical University of Darmstadt, we traveled around and around the city looking for the cluster's offices, only to find that they were directly across the street from the hotel  that held our original booking. We were moved into the center city due to an overbooking, only to return to the original neighborhood for our interview in Germany. 

 The software cluster was established as the result of government-sponsored competition, in which the entrants needed to provide evidence of potential success based on a specialized skillset, comprehensive plans, and committed partners. Gino was happy to tell us that he wants to set up another Silicon Valley in Germany. He shared with us the challenges, opportunities and occasional amazing synergies of having people who naturally perceive each other as fierce competitors in a room together.