Archive for 'Culture'
Tradition: How Germans celebrate the adolescence of young people Posted by Sandra Rösner on Nov 24, 2011
In the years of the separation of Germany (1949-1989/90), the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic) refused to nominate a state religion and propagated a non-religious Weltbild (worldview), instead. Thus, the East German government neither supported Christian ceremonies that celebrate the reception of a child or adolescent into a society, e.g. communion and confirmation, nor…
Tradition: How Germans celebrate a child’s first day at school – Einschulung Posted by Sandra Rösner on Nov 22, 2011
A friend of mine, who studies French, is currently in France, where she teaches French students German. In one of her first lessons she wanted to find out to what extend the students were able to communicate in German, so she showed them a picture and asked them to describe what they could see. Although…
Some simple facts about Germany Posted by jan on Nov 21, 2011
Germany is located in the heart of Europe. It has nine Nachbarstaaten (neighboring states) and it naturally borders the Nordsee (North Sea) and Ostsee (Baltic Sea) and the European Alps in the south (The borders to all neighboring states are open, by the way. The only exception is Switzerland). With its 357.111,92 km², it is…
German cooking: “Grünkohl” – Kale Posted by Sandra Rösner on Nov 17, 2011
Grünkohl (kale) is a very popular dish for the Adventszeit (Advent Season) and Weihnachten (Christmas) in Germany. And I also like it very much. It is one of my favorite dishes. As someone of you asked how to prepare it, I’d like to address myself to this topic. First of all, you need to…
German movies: Lola rennt (Run Lola Run) Posted by jan on Nov 16, 2011
The movie „Jeden Tag, jede Sekunde triffst Du eine Entscheidung, die dein Leben verändern kann.“ („Every day, every second you make a decision that could change your life.“) You can say that this Satz (sentence) is something like the credo of this fast-paced movie made by Tom Tykwer in 1998. The story of the movie…
Das Wiener Gemüseorchester – The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra Posted by Sandra Rösner on Nov 15, 2011
Do you play an instrument? Maybe the carrot? The cucumber? The pepper? The celeriac? Leek? Or parsley? What sounds like a vegetarian shopping list are, for some people, indeed tools to make music. How can music be fresher and healthier than that? The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra was founded in 1998 and consists of twelve…
Gesetzliche Feiertage in Deutschland – Religious holidays in Germany Posted by Sandra Rösner on Nov 3, 2011
I have recognized that some of you wondered whether October 31 and/or November 1 are gesetzliche Feiertage (official holidays) in Germany or not. Well, both is right and wrong at the same time. Thus, it seems that Germany is still not completely (re-)united!? Although church and state are separated in Germany and Religionsfreiheit (freedom of…