Thinking about the next winter quickly puts you in a bad mood. Therefore only very briefly and also only in the margin: Maybe you should stock up on candles as a precaution, considering that a small tealight alone has a heat output of 40 watts. So ten tea lights add up to 400 watts, so you can keep the temperature in the living room above freezing for hours. Larger candles even get up to 100 watts each and still work even if the fuse has already been blown three times because of the fan heater.
When the old and the very old used to talk about the war and the time after, then as a child you covered your ears because the eternal stories of hardship and misery could get on your nerves. The first post-war winter in particular left lifelong traces on the elders. In any case, at that time it was not only outside, but also inside everywhere quite fresh. Those who studied in Munich had to bring a piece of coke or a piece of wood to the lecture as a kind of tuition fee. Back then, coal for stoking was as scarce as gas is now. If the universities were heated at all, then fuel had to be diverted elsewhere. Prime Minister Hans Ehard (CSU) nevertheless pushed for the reopening of Munich University. The students are in such great economic and social distress that quick help is needed, he said.
The situation is not that bad 76 years later, but it sounds alarming when the University of Passau announces, according to dpa, that it may have to stop on-site operations in the winter semester – not because of Corona, but because of the impending gas shortage. The university management wrote to its students that the war in Ukraine was also affecting the university in the form of massively increased energy costs. “Against this background, the 2022/2023 winter semester is characterized by uncertainty with regard to the heat and power supply – and thus also to the question of whether and how we will be able to maintain face-to-face operations.” On Wednesday came a denial from the university president Ulrich Bartosch: Online operations must be avoided at all costs. If it’s cold, then together in the lecture hall. Almost like after the war.