February 14th, 2010
A segment of the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Vine Street.
Photo: Hyde Flippo
Things can move slowly in Germany and Berlin. Especially things having to do with “the war” and the Nazi past.
The German-born film actress Marlene Dietrich falls into this category. Some Germans (the dumb ones) still view Dietrich as a traitor to Germany. They fail to grasp the big difference between being anti-Hitler and being anti-German. Dietrich, working in Hollywood in the 1930s and ’40s, refused to support the Nazis. She became an American citizen and entertained US troops. Her return to West Germany in 1960 drew a mixed reception. She was cheered and jeered. Later she said famously: “The Germans and I no longer speak the same language.” But after she died in self-imposed exile in Paris in 1992, Dietrich was buried in Berlin, at her request. In 1993 Berlin purchased her vast memorabilia collection for the film museum there for $5 million. (more…)
Categories: History and culture |
Tags: Berlin, Berlinale, cinema, culture, Germany, Hollywood, Hyde, Marlene Dietrich, walk of fame | No Comments
January 20th, 2010
German culture at the “Goldenen Thor”
During a recent visit to San Francisco I got a surprising reminder of how truly widespread and important German culture once was in the United States – before two world wars drastically changed the role it played in America.
My wife and I were standing in a very long line of people, slowly making our way towards the entrance to the California Academy of Sciences building in Golden Gate Park. (And we all already had tickets!) As the line flowed at its glacial pace, I noticed a statue of two figures standing on a stone pedestal. I remarked to my wife that it looked like a German or European statue. As we got closer, the bronze figures seemed even more familiar.
Once we were standing right in front of the statue, I was amazed to read the inscription on the reddish stone base: “Goethe. Schiller.” As I gazed up at the large bronze figures of Germany’s two greatest poets and philosophers, I realized why they looked so familiar. This statue seemed to be the same one my wife and I had seen a few years earlier in Weimar, Germany. How the heck did it get here? What was the story behind this larger-than-life symbol of German culture standing in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco? Did any of these people in line, besides my wife and me, even know who Goethe and Schiller were?
I took out my iPhone and snapped a picture of the statue (see photo), thinking I would try to solve this mystery later. (more…)
Categories: German language, History and culture |
Tags: Cleveland, culture, German-Americans, Germany, Goethe, Golden Gate Park, Hyde, Milwaukee, monuments, San Francisco, Schiller, statues, Syracuse, USA, Weimar | No Comments
December 21st, 2009
Germans don’t do small talk. (Well, sometimes they do – but they rarely admit it.) Most German-speakers will tell you that their language is too serious and precise to be wasted on small talk or chitchat, especially with strangers. Anyone who has lived in Berlin for any length of time knows that Berliners in particular aren’t prone to idle chatter – even if they know you fairly well.
So I was amused to read an article on German stereotypes and “Chatiness” in the latest issue of The Atlantic Times (Dec. 2009). Jabeen Bhatti writes of her astonishment when – in a single day in Berlin – she experienced several strangers chatting with her, something “as rare as seeing a white Rhino.”
In the US, such banter among perfect strangers is nothing unusual. (more…)
Categories: Daily life, Expat issues, German language |
Tags: American, culture shock, Germany, Hyde, shopping, social rules, speaking German, USA | 2 Comments
November 24th, 2009
Martin Luther King, Jr. (left)
at the Berlin Wall in 1964.
Photo: Landesarchiv Berlin
I’m still stunned. How could I never have heard of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s visit to Berlin? He even outdid JFK and Reagan by not only going to West Berlin in 1964, but crossing the Berlin Wall into East Berlin – where he gave not one, but two sermons!
Why did Barack Obama fail to mention this not so minor detail during his own 2008 Berlin speech at the Siegessäule? A fellow African-American he greatly admires paid a Cold War visit to both East and West Berlin, and Obama not only ignores it, but evokes two white guys by saying: “I know that I don’t look like the Americans who’ve previously spoken in this great city.” No wonder MLK in Berlin is one of the best kept secrets in modern history.
Even with Google, Bing and all that, it took me hours of searching to find any concrete information about King’s Berlin trip – and most of it was in German. That’s even more ironic when you realize that the East German media never uttered a word about King’s historic visit to the GDR. Sure, King fit many things the communist German government liked; hell, even the FBI labeled MLK a commie. But on the other hand, Rev. King kept saying things about democracy, freedom and breaking down barriers. (more…)
Categories: History and culture |
Tags: Baptists, Berlin, black history, Checkpoint Charlie, civil rights, communism, East Berlin, East Germany, GDR, Germany, history, Hyde, Kennedy, Lutheran, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King, Obama, religion, West Berlin | No Comments
October 26th, 2009
This sign means the sidewalk is shared by pedestrians and cyclists. It screams: “Pedestrians, watch out for your lives!” Photo: Hyde Flippo.
I don’t think there’s a German over the age of five or six who doesn’t know how to ride a bike. Seeing an 80-year-old German lady zipping along on her bike is nothing unusual in Germany.
I have witnessed rush hour in the small town of Burghausen, Bavaria, which means swarms of bicycles, not cars, going to and from the Wacker chemical plant. In much larger Berlin and other German cities, the bike is also a popular mode of transportation. An estimated 400,000 bikes stream across Berlin on an average day. If we compare the USA and Germany, travel to work or school makes up only 11% of all bike trips in the US, compared to 28% in Germany. Shopping trips account for only 5% of all bike trips in the US, versus 20% in Germany. (McGill Univ. (TRAM) - “Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany”)
So you might think that cyclists have a special place in the hearts and minds of most Germans. Well, they do, but it’s usually a negative place. The average German motorist despises cyclists (and vice versa). Although Germans often maintain that most people are both motorists and cyclists who should not hate each other, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Once a cyclist gets in a car, a Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation takes place as the driver grasps the steering wheel and heads out to do battle with people on bicycles. And there are a lot of them in the average German municipality, large or small.
But that’s a topic we’ll save for another day. (more…)
Categories: Daily life, Expat issues, Tips, advice, suggestions |
Tags: bicycles, bike lanes, bike riding, cycling, cyclists, Germany, Hyde, pedestrian zones, pedestrians, traffic laws | No Comments
September 28th, 2009
“No HD transmissions” is all you can see currently from Germany’s TV broadcasters.
Americans used to watching hi-def TV from the major networks and on cable/satellite channels are surprised when they get to Germany and discover the total lack of over-the-air HDTV and a dearth of HD programming of any kind. Although Europe in general has been slow to get on the HDTV bandwagon, Germany has been bringing up the rear of this parade. Neither the public TV channels (ARD and ZDF) nor the private TV broadcasters in Germany currently offer any regular HD programming of any kind. DirecTV and Dish Network offer over 100 HD channels in the US. Germany’s Sky offers seven (7)!
The pitiful state of HDTV programming in Germany is surprising for several reasons: (more…)
Categories: History and culture, Tips, advice, suggestions |
Tags: atsc, blu-ray, cable, dvb, dvb-t, Germany, hdtv, hi-def, high definition, Hyde, ntsc, pal, satellite, television, tv | No Comments
August 30th, 2009
He looks pretty good for a 75-year-old duck. The German Donald Duck lives in the town of Entenhausen (Duckburg) with his nephews Tick, Trick and Track (Huey, Dewey and Louie). His wealthy uncle Dagobert Duck (Scrooge McDuck) and the inventor Daniel Düsentrieb (Gyro Gearloose) also live there - in a fantasy world invented by…
If you wanted to say Walt Disney, you’d be wrong. The man who actually invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants was named Carl Barks (1901-2000). Barks was a Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who went to work for Disney in 1935. It was Barks who invented most of Donald Duck’s world. (Donald was created originally by Disney in 1934, as a minor character and foil for Mickey Mouse.)
In Germany, Donald and the duck tales are no Micky Maus operation. (more…)
Categories: German language, German vocabulary, History and culture |
Tags: Carl Barks, comics, Disney, Donald Duck, Erika Fuchs, German culture, Hyde | No Comments
August 14th, 2009
The Berlin Wall: Checkpoint Charlie in 1969.
Yesterday marked the 48th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall. (I actually wanted to post this on the 13th, but…) During the night of 12-13 August 1961, East German soldiers and other workers began stringing a barbed wire barrier along the intra-German border (innerdeutsche Grenze) in Berlin. As time went by, the barbed wire fences were replaced by concrete: the Berlin Wall (die Berliner Mauer). It was East Germany’s desperate attempt to stop a serious brain drain and what was known as “voting with your feet” (i.e., escaping to the West). Berlin was the most serious “leak” — one that had to be plugged if the East German dictatorship was to survive.
I first experienced die Mauer personally in 1969, when it was still a crude, slapped-together, eight-year-old youngster, not the smoother, slicker version after 1975. (more…)
Categories: History and culture, Tips, advice, suggestions |
Tags: Berlin, Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Cold War, communism, German history, Hyde, Kennedy | 1 Comment
August 3rd, 2009
A German EC/Maestro bank card.
Another EC card (photo)
When I was traveling in France recently, I rediscovered some of the differences among the European countries in the area of banking and credit card use. Credit cards are more common in France than in Germany (but not as common as in the US), and the French still write personal checks, just like in the US, but very unlike in Germany.
Expats in Germany already know that Germans just don’t use checks. A check drawn on a US bank account is virtually useless in Germany. It takes a lot of effort, a German bank account, and some financial savy to cash or even just deposit a US check at a German bank. (more…)
Categories: Daily life, Expat issues, The euro and money matters |
Tags: bank accounts, banking, cash, checks, credit cards, ec card, Hyde, maestro card, money | No Comments
July 6th, 2009
Germany and I have a long history when it comes to cigarette smoke. Ever since my first visit to Germany — oh those many years ago — I have loved the many differences and unique characteristics of life in Europe as compared to the USA… except for one thing. Smoking.
For many years it was almost impossible for a non-smoker like me to avoid “Qualm” — clouds of cigarette smoke almost everywhere you went. Back in the 1970s and ’80s, just about the only non-smoking zones were on German trains in the “Nichtraucher” cars. (more…)
Categories: Daily life, Expat issues, History and culture, Medical matters |
Tags: cigarettes, Germany, health and fitness, Hitler, Hyde, laws and regulations, Nazis, smoking bans, tobacco | 1 Comment
