Good Morning, George!

220 steps to heaven: high up in the church tower of St. Jacobi, music is made at altitude. Martin Begemann plays the one-and-a-half tonne instrument here – the carillon of St. Jacobi. Like an organ, the carillon is played with hands and feet. At a so-called baton keyboard with wooden keys and foot pedals, the tower bells are struck by means of a mechanical system. The Göttingen physicist Ernst Puschmann, who died in 2024 and was also known as the “bell-ringer of St. Jacobi”, expanded the tower chimes into a concert carillon with 23 bells.

High above the rooftops of Göttingen’s old town – and once the morning delivery traffic has eased – we would like to ring in the new day and this year’s Festival quite literally: Good morning, George! And good morning, Göttingen!