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Germany: two unamalgamated worlds?

Miscellaneous: April 4th, 2008 at 11:43 am by JS

Germany’s perception of its immigrants is pretty different to perceptions in other European countries. This article in the Economist outlines how the country’s large Turkish community is still struggling to integrate. With two thirds of Turks in Germany not German citizens, there is a long way to go, and resistance to integration exists both among the immigrants and among Germans. Among some immigrants there is a resentment of strictures requiring immigrating spouses, for instance, to learn German. For many Germans, there are fundamental questions of what nationality means:

Even six decades after Hitler, Germany has not sloughed off the idea that Germanness is a matter of blood rather than of culture or allegiance.

Mo’ money for RapP€€r Steinbrück

Media: March 20th, 2008 at 2:17 pm by KA

It was supposed to be the private joke of a German PR agency, but a spoof which features German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück rapping a song called “I love cash” found its way online recently. The agency, artegic AG created the site to celebrate the completion of a joint project with the Finance Ministry press department.

Steinbro generally makes a gruff impression, but his office said he enjoyed playing with the site options that allow internet surfers to “pimp” the face, outfit, headgear and flow of the official. (Pimp the face??)

“Why not?” his colleagues told news agency DPA. “It suits his sense of humor.” Not to mention, it’s kind of fitting for the man in charge of Germany’s coffers to have a big gold grill and some bling.

Check it out

Why Dr. Rice should steer clear of Germany

Miscellaneous: March 14th, 2008 at 7:40 pm by JS

Germans are well-known for being sticklers for titles, but when it comes to academic titles only German doctorates count, as many American researchers are finding out to their cost. A number of US academics based in Germany have faced action from prosecutors for daring to assume that a Phd from an Ivy League school might entitle them to call themselves ‘doctor’. As this article in the Washington Post points out, Condoleezza Rice and Henry Kissinger had better be on their guard.

Video: Eurovision plagiarism?

EU, Media: March 10th, 2008 at 6:01 pm by JS

Germany’s Eurovision entry No Angels have been accused of plagiarising another artist, Steffi List, in a case being investigated by radio station NDR. It’s unlikely they’ll get far, though – accusations like this are two-a-penny in Eurovision.

Indeed, during last year’s heats in Sweden The Local reported accusations that The Ark, which went on to represent Sweden in Athens, had plagiarised its song from a sixties hit. The claims went nowhere, though, and it seems unlikely that No Angels have much to worry about either. Judge for yourself:

Video: French Resistance comedy is about all Europeans

EU, Media: March 10th, 2008 at 5:30 pm by JS

German television is finally to show ‘Allo ‘Allo, the British TV comedy about the Resistance in World War II occupied France.

The 1980s classic BBC series is essentially a farcical look at European countries’ stereotypes about each other, and manages to warmly mock not only the Germans, but also the French, Italians and the British themselves. In ‘Allo ‘Allo, the French and Germans understand each other perfectly, while the Brits (speaking a kind-of Wodehousean English), are unintelligible for all.

The middle-ranking German officers are a bit venal (they spend much of the series trying to smuggle out a painting, ‘The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies’, wrapped up in a knockwurst), but are as scared as everyone else of the senior generals and the Gestapo. The Gestapo agents are kinky, limping, leather-clad pervs. The French, with stereotypically complicated sex lives, resist the Germans by night and collaborate by day. The Brits, dropped in as undercover agents or stranded as downed airmen, are portrayed as twits, speaking such bad ‘French’ that they constantly risk blowing their cover.

It’s as much a comedy about Europeans’ views of each other as about the war or the resistance. The humour might have dated a bit by now, but there’s plenty here to make a German audience laugh. Here’s a clip of one episode that illustrates the point nicely:

“Hitler’s Titanic” TV saga buoys ZDF ratings

Miscellaneous: March 4th, 2008 at 11:30 am by MY

The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff in the closing days of the Second World War has sparked the imagination of the German public in recent years. Nobel Prize winner Günther Grass wrote about it and now German public broadcaster ZDF has a ratings success on its hands with a TV mini-series dramatizing the deadly Soviet submarine attack on the ship transporting German refugees over the Baltic Sea. The show has been getting big press both inside Germany and abroad such as this recent article in The Independent.

“Nazi Germany’s responsibility for the Holocaust meant that the plight of the Wilhelm Gustloff remained a taboo subject for decades after the war. There were fears that it would be seen as an attempt to equate German suffering with that of the Jews in Auschwitz.”

Germany’s ‘new eating class’

Miscellaneous: March 4th, 2008 at 11:03 am by JS

Germans’ have developed a taste for fine food over the past decade – but only at the top end of the market. Poorer Germans eating habits are getting worse, according to this article in the International Herald Tribune:

“We have more and more people in Germany who know what they are doing when it comes to eating,” said Gunther Hirschfelder, a professor at the University of Bonn. “But the other side of this societal development is that we have a growing underclass that is detached from the phenomenon. We don’t have a single eating culture in Germany, we have a divergence of cultures.”

Video: Lufthansa plane’s scary landing

Miscellaneous: March 3rd, 2008 at 10:30 am by JS

This video of a plane trying to land at Hamburg airport during the storm ‘Emma’ on Saturday is not recommended for nervous flyers:

Passengers were offered therapy afterwards, according to Lufthansa.

Welcome to The Local!

Miscellaneous: February 29th, 2008 at 12:29 pm by JS

If you’ve found this blog entry, you’re likely one of the first to read The Local’s new German news site.

We aim to give you an informative and entertaining take on what’s happening in Germany each day from the perspective of someone living here. Our editorial motto is simple: Germany’s news in English. Like our successful sister website in Sweden, The Local in Germany will offer a cosmopolitan point of view on predominately domestic matters.

We will have a lively mix of news, features, and opinion on the most important events and issues affecting peoples’ lives from Flensburg to Freiburg. And though we’re based in bustling Berlin, Germany is a big place and we welcome our readers from across the country and around the world to join our forums to discuss those German issues dearest to their hearts.

Marc Young – Editor
The Local, Germany

The Local – for a globalized age

Miscellaneous: February 29th, 2008 at 12:25 pm by JS

Look up the word ‘globalization’ on a search engine or in an online quotation directory and the words that seem most closely associated with it are all negative.

For many of us, though, globalization is a fact of life. When The Local was founded in Sweden in 2004, it was a response to the fact that events there were of interest not only to Swedes, but also to foreigners inside and outside the country.

Hundreds of thousands of people have now discovered The Local in Sweden. We are now bringing a similar mix of up-to-the minute news, features and comment to Germany.

While politics, business and serious societal issues are of interest to foreigners, we realize that people also want a taste of the lighter side of life. Our journalists in Sweden can be chasing stories about drunken elks one minute and election debates the next. While the elks might be thin on the ground in Germany, The Local’s journalists here are driven by the same desire to be both informative and entertaining.

Reporting on these events in the global language, English, helps us give a greater insight not only to native English speakers, but also to the many who have English as a second language. And while we might be a symptom of globalization, our focus, content and – most importantly – our journalists are all, as our name suggests, locally anchored.

I hope you enjoy reading The Local!

James Savage

Managing Editor

The Local Europe