Die Tribute von Panem: The German Title for The Hunger Games The upcoming 2023 Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, is neither the first Hunger Games film nor the first major Hollywood picture to be filmed in Germany in recent decades. One of...
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Berlin’s Quirky and Unusual Museums
Germany's capital city is famous for its museums – and with good reason. Berlin's museum offerings are both wide and deep, covering just about any topic or field you can imagine. And some you can't. Updated for 2024! Unfortunately, not all museums stick around...
Count Zeppelin Visits America and Goes for a Balloon Ride
I never knew that the German inventor of the rigid-frame airship named for him, Count (Graf) Ferdinand von Zeppelin, had spent time in the United States during the American Civil War. But it turns out there are a lot of things I didn't know about the illustrious count...
Ten Ways That Germany is Different
Germans have their own way of doing things. True, not all Germans are alike, but... The German way of life is not the same as the American way of life, nor should it be. But US Americans (that's a German influence I've adopted as a US American) and other foreigners...
Texas: German Names and Connections
Texas Germans and the German Belt in Texas At various times in the past Texas was French (1684–1689), Spanish (1690–1821), and Mexican (1821-1836). From 1836 to 1845 it was the Republic of Texas – before becoming the 28th US state on December 29, 1845. But Texas...
Mark Twain in Berlin and Vienna
Mark Twain, whose passport bore the name Samuel Langhorne Clemens, crossed the Atlantic Ocean 49 times. In Europe the American writer visited many German-speaking cities, from Berlin to Vienna, and many points in-between. The future globetrotter's first foreign trip...
From Afri-Cola to Almdudler, Rivella and Beyond
The World of Germanic Soft Drinks Germany is famous for its beer. But it also has its own non-alcoholic drink brands. There's an entire world of carbonated fruit and cola drinks in German-speaking Europe that few outsiders have ever tasted. Yes, Coca-Cola and Pepsi...
The Crazy Bavarian and Kauai’s Russian Fort
Germans, Baltic Germans, and Native Hawaiians So how many German connections for a so-called Russian Fort on the Hawaiian island of Kauai could there be? More than you might expect. We'll start with a Bavarian/Franconian physician and adventurer named Georg Anton...
Louisiana’s German Names and Connections
Louisiana: The Pelican State, the Bayou State, the Creole State No. None of Louisiana's nicknames, official or otherwise, offer even a hint of how much of an impact German-speaking immigrants have had on the state. In fact, despite having lived in Louisiana as a...
Das schönste deutsche Wort – The most beautiful German Word
Wortschatz is a "word treasure"! Recently I happened to stumble across my copy of the book »Das schönste deutsche Wort«, first published back in 2005. That book was the result of a 2004 contest that encouraged people all across the German-speaking world – and...
Karl May: German Westerns, Winnetou and Old Shatterhand
If you've never heard of Winnetou, Old Shatterhand, Kara Ben Nemsi or Old Surehand, you probably didn't grow up in Germany or another German-speaking country. Those characters created by the German author Karl May (1842-1912) are as well-known in Germany and a few...
Bad Medicine: Germany and Homeopathy
Samuel Hahnemann and "Like Cures Like" If Samuel Hahnemann had remained a linguist and translator, or even a physician, rather than moving into experimenting with a new type of medical treatment, he and the world could have saved themselves a lot of headaches and...
The Two German Academy Award Winners for Best Actor
The Very First Academy Awards Ceremony Only two Germans have ever won an Academy Award for Best Actor or Actress in a Leading Role. One of them did so at the very first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929. Since then many other German-speakers have also won or been...
The Art and Tragedy of Albert Bierstadt
The German American landscape painter Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) The painting depicted below is not what most people consider a typical Albert Bierstadt landscape. It was created during the "tragedy" period of Bierstadt's life and career. Many art critics, art...
Weird in the USA: Things That Foreigners Find Odd
Cultural Differences in Reverse You never fully understand your own culture until you leave it and experience a different one. When US Americans (more about that term below) travel to Mexico or Europe for the first time, they immediately notice the differences in...
The True Cost of Gasoline in the USA and Germany
Gaining a Better Perspective on the Cost of Gasoline and Diesel Today You may have noticed the recent spike in gasoline and diesel prices caused by Adolf Putin's little war in Ukraine. But it's not the first time world events have made motor fuel prices fluctuate...
What’s in a Name? Exonyms: Köln vs Cologne, Donau vs Danube, Beijing vs Peking
Exonyms: Shape-Shifting Place Names "Munich" is the English exonym for the city that Germans call München. An exonym is a name used in a specific language for a geographical feature situated outside the area where that language is spoken, and differing from the...
How many lives does a cat have? What is Trick 17?
Number Idioms in German Cats have been around for thousands of years. They are said to have more than one life. Just how many lives depends on where you are. Arabian and Turkish cats have six lives. For some reason German or Spanish cats have seven lives. In the...
10 Things Expats Miss After They Leave Germany
Reverse culture shock can be disconcerting, even scary. While driving in my US hometown recently, I had a flashback to my time in Germany when I noticed a few things that Americans do that contrast with normal practice in Germany and Europe. Some of them are funny,...
Swiss Family Robinson: From Johann Wyss to Walt Disney
Some facts about The Swiss Family Robinson and Robinson Crusoe: The "Swiss Family Robinson" was not named Robinson. Robinson Crusoe was of German heritage. Daniel Dafoe, the man who started it all, published a sequel called The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,...
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