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 GW Expat Blog
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History and culture
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...
Life in Germany since the Invasion of Ukraine
I was in the throes of Covid when the invasion of Ukraine began. In my own personal pits of exhaustion and despair, I watched in disbelief as a war in Europe began. The first 48 hours we were glued to the news. I watched line after line of Russian military vehicle...
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...
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,...
Differences Between School in Germany in the USA
We’ve been on a short visit back to the USA which has luckily coincided with Halloween. Our kids, 2 and 6-years-old, have only experienced the Germans’ half-hearted embrace of the holiday before. Our American friends and family have been fascinated by the differences...
Gendering and Sexism in German and English: das Gendern
In the last few years, Germans and other German-speakers have been embroiled in a debate over das Gendern, or "gendering." Anyone who has tried to master the German language knows that, unlike English, all nouns in German, not just proper nouns, are capitalized and...
Starting School in Germany
Starting school is a big deal no matter where you are. I’ve been seeing my friends in the States post pics of their kids in front of the front door, backpack on and smile on their face. I posted my own proud picture of my first grader at the beginning of August when...
The Matterhorn and Zermatt: What You May Not Know About the World’s Most Iconic Mountain
Berg der Berge (Mountain of Mountains) Let's start in Zermatt, a city without combustion-engine autos (to preserve its pure mountain air). Electric-powered shuttles provide local transport. Most visitors reach Zermatt via the cog railway from the nearby town of Täsch....
Germany in the USA and Canada: Part 2
A Preview of German Place Names and Connections: From Leipsic to Winesburg When I first wrote about German Place Names in the USA and Canada more than five months ago, I realized that the topic was far more vast than I had originally thought. Since then, as I have...
48 Hours in Leipzig
After over a year and half of going no further than Brandenburg, we had to get out. It was time to travel. But still only half vaccinated and with most places partially shut down we didn’t want to go too far. So we decided on a weekend trip to Leipzig. We had visited...
Exiles and Expats in Switzerland: From Albert Einstein to Tina Turner
Switzerland as a Refuge US-born Tina Turner lived in Switzerland with her German-born husband from 1994 until her death at 83 in May 2023. Albert Einstein did the same with his wife in Bern and Zurich about a century earlier. Both Albert Einstein and Tina Turner also...
Claus Spreckels: The German-American “Sugar King”
The Germans Who Built America's Sugar Industry Not all the early American sugar barons were German. But most of them were. If you don't know the story of sugar, you're missing a fascinating tale. We don't have room to tell you that whole sweet story here, but we do...
When Is Your Name Day (Namenstag)? Happy Name Day!
In some places your name day is more important than your birthday. If you don't know when your name day is, you live in a part of the world where the celebration of your given name (first name, Vorname, Christian name) is uncommon or even unheard of. That would be...
Germany in the United States and Canada
North American Communities with German Namesakes This was originally intended as a normal brief blog post about German (and Austria/Swiss) place names in the USA. However, as I was researching and writing this post, I began to realize that the topic was far more...
Is Christmas 2020 Canceled in Germany?
If you have ever been in Germany at Weihnachten (Christmas), you know it is a magical time. Christmas markets bring people together, the glühwein flows, the smell of Gebrannte Mandeln is everywhere, and Germans are at their jolliest. It is also a Coronavirus...
A Tale of Two Airports: From TXL to BER
Berlin Gets a (Fairly) New Airport It finally happened on the last day of October 2020 (Halloween!). It was a long wait, but despite scandals, false starts, huge budget overruns, and a major black mark against vaunted German efficiency, Berlin Brandenburg Airport...
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