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The Mysterious World of German Tea

by | Feb 1, 2017 | , , , , | 0 Comments


I just tried to close my kitchen cabinet – thunk. Tried again – harder. Thunk! Sighing, I opened it to have an armload of tea rain down upon me. It’s just that time of year.

My husband works as an Erzieher, and one of the funny little perks of the job are the Christmas presents from the kids. Sometimes he gets chocolates which is terrible for his diabetes but great for his attitude. Sometimes it’s candles, or homemade cookies or occasionally an art project. Unfortunately, one of the most common gifts is tea (or Tee in German).

Tea time in Germany

Tea time in Germany. PHOTO: Erin Porter

As we live in Germany, this shouldn’t be a surprise. Germans are obsessed with tea. If you are sick, or pregnant or feeling gloomy – there is a tea for that!

That said, my husband and I don’t much care for tea. We’re from Seattle, the land of coffee, and feel completely overwhelmed with the whole tea brewing process, varieties and homegrown remedies.  And yet, I have a cabinet full of tea and a country full of Germans to tell me what to do with them. Let me try to unlock the mysterious world of German tea. read more…

Auto Factory and Museum Tours in Germany for Car Buffs and Car Buyers

by | Jan 25, 2017 | , | 0 Comments

Tours: From Audi to Volkswagen

Audi | BMW | Ford | Mercedes-Benz | Opel | Porsche | Volkswagen

LAST UPDATED: 7 July 2022.

Seven major automakers manufacture automobiles and trucks in Germany. The automobile is a German invention, and the auto industry in Germany is one of the country’s largest employers, with a labor force of over 747,000. Germany is among the world’s top four car producers.

Below you’ll find our guide to automobile factory tours in Germany and the option of buying a German car in the United States and taking delivery at the factory in Germany (European delivery).

BMW Welt - night

Munich: BMW Welt by night, with headquarters tower and museum on the right. New BMW owners can pick up their new car here. More below. PHOTO: Richard Bartz, Wikimedia Commons

All the German automotive brands offer factory tours, in some cases combined with optional auto museum tours. German car buyers also like to pick up their new Audis, BMWs, Mercedes, Porsches, and Volkswagens directly at the factory. (See How to Buy or Lease a Car in Germany for more.) Ford and Opel are the only automakers in Germany that do not allow buyers to take delivery of their new vehicle at the factory, but they do offer factory tours.

You may not think of Ford as a “German” auto company, but the American Henry Ford opened his first auto plant in Germany in 1912. Some Germans don’t even realize that Ford (pronounced “fort” in German) is not a German company. The American car giant General Motors planted its flag in Germany a bit later, when it purchased an 80 percent interest in Adam Opel AG in 1929. Opel was still a division of General Motors until 2017 when France’s PSA Group (now Netherlands-based Stellantis) bought Opel.

KIA
The South Korean automaker Kia has its European design center in Frankfurt, but its only European auto factory is located in Žilina, Slovakia. That plant supplies almost 60 percent of Kia’s European demand. The facility produces three vehicles for the European market, with brands that few Americans would recognize: the cee’d model family (hatchback and Sportswagon, as well as the pro_cee’d coupe), the European bestselling Sportage crossover, and Venga compact MPV.

European Delivery for US Customers
Factory delivery is a popular option for German car buyers. Four German automakers – Audi, BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche – also offer their US customers the option of picking up their new car in Germany and combining that with a European trip. All but Porsche offer a 5 to 7 percent discount on the vehicle, combined with free or discounted air fares. Some also offer additional perks such as free meals, museum entrance, and a factory tour. Volkswagen, alone among German car producers, does not offer European delivery for its US customers. (Opel sells its cars in the US through its owner, General Motors. The Swedish carmaker Volvo also offers European delivery in Sweden for US customers.) read more…

Those little things

by | Jan 17, 2017 | , , , | 0 Comments

Whilst the hard and fast legal rules of German society can be easily found and obeyed, like the red man and riding your bike in the bike lane for instance. Unwritten rules can be hard to pick up for foreigners in Germany and although you won’t be arrested for committing a faux pas it is always better to try not to cause offence unnecessarily. These are geared towards life away from work and the office, where different rules can exist. read more…

Long-Distance Grandparenting

by | Jan 11, 2017 | , , | 2 Comments

Riasing Kids Away From Family

Opa Fresh off the Train Photo: Erin Porter

It is that time of year where our latest visiting family member is on their way home (bye Opa!) and we are reminded how very hard it is to have a baby abroad. We have no one to call about a sickness in the middle of the night, no family at her birthday party, and nary a date night in sight.

While there are many positives of raising a child in Germany (hello practically free child care), nothing replaces family. Though we took two periods of parental leave to stay with family in the States – this is a far-cry from being based in the same city, same state, same continent. Through no-fault of their own, our parents are trying to make Long-Distance Grandparenting work.

read more…

It’s not all about the fireworks – 4 other New Year’s traditions in Germany

by | Jan 5, 2017 | , | 0 Comments

I’ve written about the German obsession at New Year’s with pyrotechnics for this blog before. This year Berlin was the same as always – air thick with smoke, sky alight with brilliant explosions of colour, and our ears filled with the constant cracking of bangers. After nearly seven years of living in the Hauptstadt, I’m entirely used to it. For all the bewildering bluster of the country’s firework mania, the other rather quaint German traditions for Silvester and New Year become overlooked. It’s those I want to explore here.

1. Bleigießen

Popular with small children and adults alike, Bleigießen (‘lead pouring’ or ‘molybdomancy’ – to give it the proper English name) is an elaborate method of fortune telling for the coming year. It requires a bowl of cold water, a candle, a spoon, a few small metal objects (traditionally lead, but most likely tin today), and a list of interpretations – the latter two can be acquired in any local corner shop or supermarket. Each person at the party is invited to place a small metal piece on the spoon and hold it over the candle flame. As soon as the metal melts (which is very quickly with these little pieces), the molten metal is tipped into the water and whatever the shape emerges is then used to divine the future. Depending on your Bleigießen kit, the interpretations range from the charming (field = luck and happiness) to the bizarre (trumpet = you will gain public office). The whole process does make a mess of your spoon though, so be sure to use an old one! – More about Bleigießen… read more…

Hollywood Movies in Germany – “Krieg der Sterne” becomes “Star Wars” and “Moana” turns into “Vaiana”

by | Dec 28, 2016 | , , , , | 0 Comments


These days, many Hollywood movies screened in Germany keep their original English title. But it was not always that way. In the past, especially from the 1940s to the 1980s, there was almost always a special German title created for German audiences. Often the German title simply reflected the film’s story, as with The Caine Mutiny (1954), which starred Humphrey Bogart (voiced in German by O.E. Hasse) as Lt. Commander Philip F. Queeg. The title that Germans saw on their movie screens was Die Caine war ihr Schicksal (The Caine was their fate).

Moana and Maui

Disney’s Moana (left) became Vaiana in Germany, while Maui got to keep his name. Why? See more below. (Also see the Vaiana movie trailer below.)
PHOTO: Walt Disney Animation Studio

North by Northwest

Cary Grant was a victim of “the invisible third man” in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959). This is the cover of the German DVD version.

In Germany, the Hitchcock classic North by Northwest (1959), starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, is called Der unsichtbare Dritte (The invisible third man), which is only a little less vague than North by Northwest. The classic Bell, Book and Candle (1958), with Kim Novak, James Stewart, and Jack Lemmon, bore the rather prosaic title of Meine Braut ist übersinnlich (My bride is paranormal). But Vertigo, another Hitchcock film released that same year, also pairing Novak and Stewart, kept the “Vertigo” while adding the German tag line: Vertigo – Aus dem Reich der Toten (Vertigo – From the realm of the dead).

But it’s another, earlier Hitchcock picture that has one of my favorite German titles. Rope (1948), Hitch’s first color film, is about a murder committed in the New York City apartment of two college students trying to commit the perfect crime by strangling a fellow student with a rope. To create an alibi, they throw a dinner party in their apartment – with the dead body of their victim hidden literally under the guests’ noses inside a wooden chest. The German title: Cocktail für eine Leiche (Cocktail for a corpse). read more…

A small festive treat

by | Dec 21, 2016 | , , , | 0 Comments

Plätzchen

It would appear that Christmas has been very well covered here on The German Way. Check out the A-Z Guide to Christmas Traditions and the interactive Advent calendar of Christmas facts if you don’t believe me. So between you and me, I was a little stumped when trying to pick a festive angle for this post. As a Brit I tend to stick to British traditions at Christmas. A taste of the homeland, mince pies and hot toddies are the order of the season in this house. As I rolled out the dough for my last batch of festive spiced biscuits, I suddenly realised that I what I was doing was something I had never done before moving to Germany. Making Plätzchen (Christmas cookies) is one German advent tradition that I’ve been happy to adopt. read more…

New Laws in Germany for 2017

by | Dec 14, 2016 | , , , , | 0 Comments


As the new year approaches, many new laws and regulations are about to take force in Germany in 2017. Some of them are welcome changes (no more cell phone roaming charges in the EU), while others don’t make a huge difference (a modest minimum wage increase) or really aren’t all that welcome (higher electric rates).

Let’s start with a new law that most people in Germany will enjoy: a new nationwide holiday!

Wittenberg Rathaus

The City Hall in the Luther City Wittenberg. All of Germany will observe the Reformation Day holiday in 2017. Currently only five Bundesländer observe this holiday. PHOTO: Hyde Flippo

REFORMATIONSTAG
For the first time ever, Reformation Day (October 31) will be an official holiday all across Germany in 2017. Currently the Protestant Reformationstag is a holiday only in the German states (Länder) of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Sachsen (Saxony), Sachsen-Anhalt (Saxony-Anhalt), and Thüringen (Thuringia). Reformation Day commemorates the date when Martin Luther supposedly nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg 500 years years ago. Because 2017 is also The Year of Luther (das Lutherjahr), German lawmakers decided to make Reformation Day an official holiday all across Germany for that year, even in Catholic Bavaria. But it’s a one-off just for 2017. After the special nationwide observance on Tuesday, October 31, 2017, the holiday will return to being observed only in the five states mentioned above. read more…