Tag Archives: berlin wall
How Two Families Escaped to West Germany in a Balloon Posted by Sten on Sep 17, 2021
It’s September 16, 1979. Germany is still separated in East and West. The Berlin wall has stood for almost 20 years. Germans live and grow up in two very different realities. One communist and supervised by the state, the other capitalist and free. Before the wall, things were easier. Many chose to leave their homes…
3 Words About Former East Germany Posted by Constanze on Jul 22, 2019
Guten Tag! I recently read a book about the history of Germany. It contained many words I hadn’t heard of before, that described specific aspects of eras in German history. The section on the post-war/Cold War period (1945-1991), in particular, mentioned several German words when discussing the topic of East and West Germany. We all…
Germany’s Historic Ghost Stations Posted by Constanze on May 8, 2019
Guten Tag! Today’s post is about die Geisterbahnhöfe – ‘ghost train stations’. This is a term you may already be familiar with, but in German, this word has a significant and interesting history. So, let’s delve right into it! Throughout this post I may refer to the word in its singular or plural form, so…
November 9 in German History Posted by Constanze on Nov 14, 2018
Guten Tag! November is a big month in German history, as many significant historical events happened on or around November 9th. In fact, so many things have happened throughout history on November 9th in Germany that this date is now known as der Schicksaltag – the ‘fate day’. Today I’m writing about two events from…
Urban German Graffiti: Berlin Posted by Constanze on Jun 21, 2015
Berlin has been called the most bombed city in Europe. It has also been called the “graffiti capital of Europe” . Coincidentally (or perhaps not so coincidentally), Berliners have a slang term known as Das Bombing, referring to the act of ‘bombing’ the streets with graffiti. This should be enough to tell you that Berlin…
Top 10 German Words of 2014 Posted by Constanze on Mar 12, 2015
When you learn a language, you are not just learning the words and phrases that make up that language; you learn about the culture of the country it’s spoken in, too. In fact, you can learn a lot about a country’s culture and politics from its words alone. There’s no better example of this than…
“Liebe Mauer” and debate: Are films effective language learning aids? Posted by Constanze on Nov 14, 2014
Hallo! Wie geht’s? 🙂 Inspired by the recent events in Berlin, I’d like to recommend a German film I watched a while back. It is called Liebe Mauer. PLOT OUTLINE Liebe Mauer (“Beloved Wall” in English) is set in Berlin in 1989, shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The story is about a…