I first became a fan of Annik Rubens a few years ago when I discovered her Schlaflos in München (SiM, Sleepless in Munich) podcast, which, as I write this, is now on episode 506. I wrote about her unique podcasts in German — and others — in 2005, when I was still the Guide for German at About.com (“Listening to Podcasts in German“). Since then she was on hiatus from “Schlaflos” for a while, and I lost contact with her podcast. But now she’s back — and has added a special podcast for people who may not be able to keep up with SiM (in regular German). Logically and simply titled “Slow German,” this newer podcast by Rubens is designed for people who want to improve their German skills, particularly listening. READ MORE »
Monthly archives for December, 2008
Germany and Hollywood
Besides the glaringly obvious World War II thriller Valkyrie, opening Christmas Day in the U.S., there are several other current or upcoming German-Hollywood connections. The more dazzling Tom Cruise blockbuster about the attempted assassination of Hitler by German Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was directed by Bryan Singer (Apt Pupil, X-Men) and filmed largely in Germany for an estimated $80 million. But the much quieter film, The Reader, which opened recently in U.S. movie theaters, was not only filmed in Germany, it is based on a German novel, Der Vorleser (The Reader), by Bernhard Schlink — a book made famous in the U.S. by Oprah Winfrey. Directed by Stephan Daldry (The Hours), the film features Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, and a German actor by the name of David Kross, who plays the young character of Michael involved with Hanna (Winslet). It’s a Holocaust film with an interesting twist, looking at morality and guilt in a very personal way.
When I was living in Berlin last year, I kept reading and hearing about Cruise’s problems with German authorities about filming locations (and a film lab disaster in Germany that led to the re-shooting of some key scenes). Later READ MORE »
Save our Deutsch! Can the German language be saved by a sentence in the Grundgesetz?
If you’re an American expat living in Germany, you’ve heard this debate before — in the U.S.
It’s such a simple little sentence that some people want to insert into the German constitution: “Die Sprache der Bundesrepublik ist Deutsch.” (“The language of the Federal Republic [of Germany] is German.”) Who would have thought that five German words could provoke such a debate? This quote from Berlin’s Tagesspiegel sums it up pretty well: “Die Idee der CDU, die deutsche Sprache im Grundgesetz zu verankern, hat eine heftige Diskussion ausgelöst: Läutet der Beschluss einen ‘Anti-Einwanderer-Wahlkampf’ ein oder die Rettung der deutschen Leitkultur?” (“The CDU’s idea to anchor the German language in the German constitution has set off a vigorous discussion: Does the resolution herald an ‘anti-immigrant campaign’ or the rescue of the German core culture?”)
When the German language gets mixed into German politics, the results are rarely good. READ MORE »
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