Comment by weinzierl | Hacker News Reader

Comment by weinzierl | Hacker News Reader

Here is my story with a similar experiment:

I'm a conscientious objector. For justice reasons we had to be treated equally to the guys (and it was only guys back then) doing military service. That meant not only that we had a right to our service banana[1], but also that, at least a percentage of us, had to go through boot camp.

It was only a small percentage, but of course, I won the lottery ticket and was sent off for six weeks of conscientious objectors boot camp. Apart from the usual indoctrination, which I suppose was similar to military boot camp, we had to do things that were supposed to prepare us for our jobs in hospitals and homes for the elderly.

One of these things was the Wheel Chair Experiment. Groups of three: one guy in a wheelchair, one guy playing the nurse, third guy observing how people react. To make it interesting, we made a day trip by train to a nearby tourist town - and coincidentally place of pilgrimage. Of course, we were given stern warnings not to pull off what some of our predecessors allegedly had done: Roll into the sanctuary, jump out of the wheelchair and shout: "I am healed! I am healed!!"

Apart from the joking and fun young people have together, it was a very chilling experience. Going up, only a slight rise is strenuous, and for steeper rises, the pivoting front wheels of the chair always turned crosswise. Entering the train in the morning we cheated because we were overburdened with the task. That made our instructor really mad because we couldn't stay in character for not even half an hour. I never dared to lift the front wheels because I was too afraid of falling backward with my head hitting the ground. When it comes to people, most just look away from you, which made me very uncomfortable.

It was an experience I will never forget. I have the deepest respect for anyone managing life in a wheelchair.

[1] Service personnel on ships had the right to receive a part of their pay in fruit or vegetables for historical reasons. For equality, this was extended to every soldier and later to conscientious objectors too. Humorously this was called the service banana. I only know this because it was part of our boot camp curriculum.

>[1] Service personnel on ships had the right to receive a part of their pay in fruit or vegetables for historical reasons. For equality, this was extended to every soldier and later to conscientious objectors too. Humorously this was called the service banana. I only know this because it was part of our boot camp curriculum.

what country is this? I searched around on google and couldn't find anything relevant except this comment.

Late 90s Germany. Here is what German Wikipedia has to say about it (my own translation):

"In addition, the Zivildienstleistende had a claim to non-monetary benefits [..] the food allowance (maximum 7.20 Euro/Day = double food rate) was granted if the service office and the ZDL agreed to waive the right to non-monetary benefits in form of natural produce at the beginning of the time of service." [1]

Zivildienstleistender = ZDL = conscientious objector

Benefits in this context are strictly non-monetary claims (Sachbezüge) in contrast to monetary benefits which are discussed in the preceding paragraphs.

I couldn't find the text of the original law from that time. It could have been Ersatzdienstgesetz, Zivildienstgesetz, Wehrsoldgesetz or any of the associated administrative regulations. The changes to these laws are all publicly available but I couldn't find complete older versions. There are many changes and they always contain lots of modifications to other unrelated laws. Changes from the relevant timeframe are published as scans of paper documents and not searchable. Unfortunately this makes the relevant paragraph really hard to find. Maybe someone reading this could give a hint...

Also this would not answer questions about the history of the law but it would be a start to know the exact name and date of the law and more so the number of the paragraph.

Skimming through the old documents reminded me of another curiosity: The law regulating alternative service talked a lot about death of the ZDL. Again this only makes sense when you know that the law was derived from the law governing military service. The law defined several levels of disability for service and death was just the highest level.

[1] "Darüber hinaus hatte der Zivildienstleistende Anspruch auf Sachbezüge [..] das Verpflegungsgeld (maximal 7,20 Euro/Tag = doppelter Verpflegungssatz) wurde gewährt, wenn Dienststelle und ZDL bei Beginn der Zivildienstzeit einvernehmlich vereinbarten, auf Naturalien zu verzichten."

https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zivildienst_in_Deutschland

> When it comes to people, most just look away from you, which made me very uncomfortable.

I try very hard not to do this anymore. The isolation must be horrible.

It is not easy to find the right balance between not looking and looking too much, while keeping this natural.

I worked for years with a disabled colleague and it took me some time to actually not see the wheelchair anymore, and to wamk next to him in a normal, casual way (for lack of better words)

and to wamk next to him in a normal, casual way

It must have been very difficult for him too.

We did that too, and indeed, very memorable. Not in Barth by any chance? - wonder if that was something done in different places or a thing for that specific school.

Other end of Germany: Zivildienstschule Staffelstein near Bamberg.

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