Final Blog

This semester, in this class, we studied a broad section of topics. The first thing we had to do was learn the states and all about each one including population, square footage, and average income. Leaning about each state gave me a lot of insight to some of the parts of Germany. Germany isn’t a very large country and yet, each state seems to have its own system and different way of thinking. Certain states that were originally considered a different country gained their influences that way and other states vary because of their population or business potential. Even as short as thirty years ago, part of the country was governed by Russia.

The next thing we studied was about the political parties. The political system is very much like our own in many ways. There are two main parties, a party that is used for swing votes, and then your small parties with a small following whose views can get to be a little out there but connect with enough people in enough ways. My group studied the FDP. The FDP was the party that was used for swing votes. They never gained a whole lot of voter strength, hitting an all-time high of 14.6% of the national vote and hitting an all-time low (shortly after the high) at just under 5%. One thing I found interesting about the party system was that you didn’t have to be one of the two main parties like in the US system to gain high positions in the government i.e. the FDP having members hold the vice chancellors seat.

After that we read All Quiet on the Western Front. This was based during World War I and was set in the German camp following a particular set of high school friends and showed their plight. The book cased how pointless the war was. The characters talked about the uselessness because they would never see any gains of the war and that they had no quarrels against any of the opposing soldiers. The enemy soldiers were humans and just as frightened as they were and felt the same about there being no gains in war. We watched the movie after reading the book and, though it may have brought to life some of the things that you didn’t catch in the book, overall I wasn’t as impressed with the movie. As with any movie, certain parts of the book had to be left out and emphases on more questionable parts of the story are brought out.

Towards the end we got on a movie watching binge. All four of the movies were based on causing or going through change. Three of the four were on political or governmental change and the fourth was on personal change. In all four of the movies, the main characters were put through a struggle in their change making them question everything that they hold to be true. Most of them fought through the adversity and even though they knew that what they were doing may not have much influence on what they wanted, they still pushed on hoping for a better day to come.

Overall I learned that Germany isn’t far off from how we live here in the US; day to day struggles and issues are mostly the same. Women’s rights, the need and want for political change, finding good work at a young age, worker’s rights and unionizing are some of the problems faced with the everyday people of Germany. Where similarities do differ is in the past, Germany’s past is filled with a lot of war and struggle. Many much more difficult times and hardships were faced and through them, came a tough, steadfast people. In many ways, I believe that Germany’s people are better off than the people of the US. Here, when little things go poorly many people see them as such tragic instances in their lives when they really aren’t. I think that we could use more hardships in our lives so as to appreciate the things we do have going right for us more.

Kasseler Rippchen

http://www.germanfoods.org/consumer/facts/traditionaldishes.cfm

 

 

Kasseler Rippchen, also known as Kasseler Kotelett, is a smoked pork chop dish. The pork chops are smoked and ripened in a salt brine. There are other cuts of meat that can gain the "Kasseler" name. In general, any cut that goes through the process of ripening in salt brine receives the term "Kasseler". It is a meat the is similar to ham except not as salty, drier, and a bit smokey. It is often served with kinds of cabbages such as sauerkraut. When using the Kasseler process of smoking and ripening with brine salt, the meat becomes virtually ready to eat. The process draws the moisture out of the meat and prevents bacteria from spreading. Since the meat is ready to eat, the cooking time is very low since all you pretty much have to do is heat it up.

 

Sources: 

http://www.germanfoods.org/consumer/facts/traditionaldishes.cfm

http://www.germanfoodguide.com/cookingdetail.cfm?cooking_nr=4

Baader Meinhoff Complex Questions

1. The first generation organized their protests with a series of documents and articles written by Ulrike Meinhoff. The actions that they executed were a string of explosions in government offices and buildings.
2. In the beginning, even before they started their bombings, they were a bunch of hooligans and trouble makers. They did whatever they wanted when they wanted with no real cause. I gained more respect for them when they went underground and started a unified plan to protest against the government. I never agreed with what they did so I didn't become attatched to them with the exception of their die-hard will and steadfast morals. I lost any respect for them when they started to get caught. Instead of laying down arms and surrendering they lost all nobility for their cause when all they cared about was themselves and did whatever they could to not get caught.
3. Andreas's determination was a huge deal. He showed that he was determined to continue no matter what. His determination was a large part of why they followed him. His rudeness on the other hand was a bit of problem. It sometimes got them in trouble and it over pressured the rest to do what ever he wanted without objection.

The RAF

The beginning of the RAF was what we see in the movie; a left wing, political activist part that was considered communist. They were influenced by the Watts Riots in 1965.  What they believe was that many lawmakers were continuing on in a Nazi, fascist form of ways.

The second generation began after the originators were captured and put in jail. The force feeding and eventual death of Holger Meins was the main event that kicked off their generation. They generally worked during the times of all of the trials and convictions of the first generation of the RAF members. The “suicide” of Ulrike was widely disputed and many believed conspiracy which only further drove them to continue their ways. The events in the fall of 1977 was called the German Autumn. It was regarded as possibly the biggest criminal and political showdown that Germany had experienced since the end of World War II. The second generation was brought to an end with the death of Hanns-Martin Schleyer.

The third generation was leading to the end of the RAF as a whole. The fall of communism and the leaving of the Soviet Union from Germany took a hit on the association’s foundation. However, attacks and bombings continued well into the nineties. It became clear that their goals became more about freeing their leaders that had been captured and less about political change. The German government agreed to release some of the prisoners as long as the RAF promised to no longer take such aggressive and violent actions. They agreed to the offer and in 1993, the RAF came to all but an end.

Baader-Meinhof Complex

The movie Baader-Meinhof Complex was a pretty extreme movie about political change and sticking to moral values. Ulrike is in part the main character of the movie. She is a writer who opposes a lot of the political action at the time but does so in a manner that isn't extreme. She writes about how wrong things are and how things need to change but never takes any real action towards changing things until the jail break of Baader. You can see that earlier than the jail break she was tempted to take more of a physical action in a riot. She picked up a rock to throw in the midst of all of the commotion. She starts to get arrested before she can make up her mind about throwing it or not. It’s not until she panics and leaves during the jail break that she is forced to take physical action. She is never directly involved in causing the violence and destruction still, she prefers her words. The most appalling thing I found about her was that even though she strongly stated that she would never jeopardize her children’s safety or losing them, when the time comes to stand up for herself, she allows Gudrun to agree that her children be taken and she would never again see them. While the whole group sticks to their revolution they lost my respect as to at what costs they fight to maintain their own freedom. They must be doing this knowing full well that their actions are wrong, when it comes time to be caught by the police, you can’t fight and shoot at them. Try to avoid being caught, yes, but endangering more lives for your own needs, no. As Baader explains, as a group they are right and aren’t making mistakes (debatable) but as individual people, they are completely wrong.

Edukators & Good Bye Lenin

The movie Edukators was a very impactful movie. The position of the Edukators was a very powerful and moving voice. They were truly fighting and supporting a heartfelt position that is really relatable to the general population. The conversation between Jan and Hardenberg in the cabin about how he spends his money and how the whole population is blinded by television really stuck out to me. It made me want to be a better person; it made me want to try harder to do for others. On the opposite side, the conversation Hardenberg had about when he was younger and how growing up and caring for a family changes your whole outlook on life hit home base too. I'm getting married this winter and I recently bought a house this last spring so I the thought of losing sight on my original morals and goals is a very intense thought to sit on. In the end, as things get thicker for me (kids), I probably won't stay as steadfast as I would like to, but I know that I wouldn't be the one to send the cops looking for Jan, Jule, and Peter.

The movie Good Bye Lenin did not strike me as interesting of a story as Edukators did. It does a good job of making you care about the main character Alex from the very beginning, but it did not strike deep into me. I did learn through it though that there did seem to be a fair amount of East Berliners that did not care for the loss of the GDP. It was mostly the youth that did not care for the GDP and fought against it. The older generation seemed more content and felt that change was a bad thing. These are very common views that you see in all places. The story took a turn when you find out that Alex's father was not who they made him out to be and that he was very much indeed a loving, caring father; just one more depressive thing to add to the Kerner family's problems. The ending was troubling for me because even though Alex had created a world that his mother would have loved to see happen, you can see that she knows the truth about it all by the way she looks at him. I know that the point is that she's happy to have a son that loves her enough to go to such lengths but it just troubles me that the lie was upheld to the very end.

The similarities between the two movies (besides having two of the same main characters in both) would lie in how the youth vie for change. They aim to change what they see as bad in the world around them. Not everyone feels the same about what's wrong in the world and so it creates a conflict.

Berlin Calling

1. Drugs to Ickarus are a way of relaxation; to him they are a stress reliever.
2. They are all taking the drugs at the concerts in the bathroom. They are mostly all taking cocaine and it seems as though it's just what everyone does. Maybe it's a way to get into the music more.
3. I don't really understand the question.
4. The difference is in how people react to the drugs. Here it is a very big and serious deal, there it isn't. A lot more people there do it and it only becomes a problem when it goes too far. Ickarus's drug problem is looked at in more of a psychological way than a physical way.
5. The youth culture in this movie seem to focus more on the party life than on the working life. There are a couple that do work, but most don't. They have their club parties in the day time all the time. Ickarus and Alice are hard workers. Ickarus, though misguided at times, only cares about being able to work on his music. Alice was hard at work trying to get shows and labels for Ickarus and when she couldn't do that she got a different job in between.
6. I have not seen much.

Berlin Calling was definitely a different movie than what I had expected to see. It seemed different to me because I am not used to seeing such cultural attitudes and behaviors. There were many differences in cultures that stood out right away. First I found was the music; there were no words. It was different from what I’m used to and it wasn’t real fast paced either which is what I expected. It was slower, meaningful, and soulful. Personally, I couldn’t pick apart the sound and intention like the people in the movie could. I did not notice the depressed feeling in his first work or how the end music was much better than the first but that’s not for me to judge. The important thing was that the people who know that kind of music could pick it apart and tell. The other big thing I noticed was how it seemed that everyone there did drugs; it wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t just harmless marijuana either, it was cocaine and ecstasy. They did it all the time as if nothing ever mattered. Even Alice, who was upset and trying to get Ickarus clean of his issues, was implied to have done at least one line in a scene where she was talking to the club owner. Overall, it was a good movie. It showed a real struggle and transformation of character that could be relatable to many (with the drug addiction removed, many more). It ended very well too because even in his struggle to overcome the adversity put upon him, Ickarus came through it and cut ties with his past. Because he was able to overcome it all he was able to get Alice back in the end which was a second part of why he was trying to get better.

Literature

Having selected this topic for my own presentation I learned a fair amount.  Goethe was a very influential writer and it inspired many writers in centuries to come.  Writing styles, once established, do not change much from era to era.  Most new styles or forms of writing were called by something different but remained very similar to previous styles.  Only in late twentieth into the twenty first century did things dramatically change.  In these days it's hard to know if we have a great or influential writer of our time because of the vast amount of people out there now trying to make themselves known.  Personally, I would prefer living in a simpler time.  A time where everyone out there is "the next big thing."

Women

My reaction to the role of women in Germany throughout the centuries was one of surprise.  I'm not surprised that women were persecuted and denied rights, but what I am surprised about is to what extent it was carried out and for how long.  Talking about the "three K's" sounds like the beginning of a sexist joke.  The forced sterilization came as a big shock to me, I found out later that Germany was not the only place to do this but it was still shocking to learn about.  Since those days, Germany has come a long ways; from the entering of women into the workforce, to the gaining of voting rights, all the way up to the first female chancellor.  Things may have started out much worse and strict for women, but it seems as though rights and equality for women has progressed much faster in Germany that in other countries such as ours.

19th Century Literature

http://prezi.com/p8ohm0z32wwc/19-century-german-literature/

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Chapter ten begins in protecting the supply drop.  They have a royal time eating their share of the drop and collecting things from around the shelled town.  They find an officer's quarters filled with food and cigars and roast their succling pig that they also find near there.  The enemy spots the smoke and they try their best to finish up cooking, afterall it would all be a waste if they couldn't eat what they risked their lives to make.  Barely they make it back alive and they all have a hearty good time eating, and afterwards they have a good long night of the shits.  Afterwards, they get split up and Paul and Kropp get injured and taken on train.  Paul bribes the seargant into placing them in the same cart.  When they get to the church where they stay, they realize just how bad and everlasting things are.  Kropp gets quite down on himself and doesn't want to go on as a cripple.  It is up to Paul to stay close and make sure he is alright.  Another soldier meets up with his wife and they all collude to make sure that her visit "goes well"

Five Talking Points on All Quiet On the Western Front

1. Senselessness of war
2. Rest of the country thinks their life is worse
3. Death and injury
4. "Luck"
5. Going back to a normal life

1. The senselessness of this war is seen in the slaughter of so many young men.  Men that are barely old enough to know anything of a happy life.  Men that aren't men at all but merely boys.  They don't know why they're fighting these other countries.  They have no quarrel with any of them and have barely even met anyone from these other countries.  They discover that it dying for your country is completely overrated.  Dying for the fatherland means nothing to them because they have nothing to gain for it.  Even if they live through and win the war, what do they personally gain from it? A lifetime of post traumatic stress syndrome? Not worth it.
2. When Paul goes back to visit his hometown, everyone there thinks that the hard times they are struggling are much worse than the war.  They have no idea that their lives are so many times better.  On the front they have constantly worry about if they are about to get shot, blown up, lose a leg, or go insane.  There is barely enough food to be fed to the troops and that is one of the misconceptions the townspeople have.  They don't understand that the troops have to portion out a loaf of bread that is barely enough to feed them let alone the rats that are trying to eat it as well.  The townspeople say that it's just the way of war.  Most of which have never been at war and have certainly never been in this traumatic of a war.
3. Throughout the book they discuss so frequently about death.  Around every corner there is death and injury.  There was so much death and injury in this war that there was no way to keep up with medical supplies or even doctors.  Noone was given a close look, an amputation was their first resort because it was the easiest.  There was so much of it that even after being treated and fixed up that because of the vast amounts, nobody had a good job done on them and often died afterwards.  Character after character died off until, literally, there was noone left.
4. Paul talks about playing cards in one bunker, going to the next for a bit and returning to the first bunker completely gone and then going back to the second bunker and finding that bunker burried from a near fatal shell as well.  The sheer luck of one person not dying in a battle was so immense.  There was no super soldier, or actively avoiding injury and death, it was pure and simple luck that kept soldiers alive.
5. After everything that had happened, after everything they had seen, there was no way any of them could go back and live out a happy life.  They were too young to have experienced love, or made a career for themselves, or even had a chance to think about such things.  What were they supposed to do.  After being in this kind of war, after seeing the things that they have seen, going back to a normal life would not be possible.  At the end of the war, this "lost generation" is exactly that, lost, never to find happiness again.  And how could they? How could they look into the eyes of another person and feel any kind of connection?  There is no possible way to describe the things that they have gone through and it is too much to even ask of.

Kat

Stanislaus "Kat" Katczinsky

Kat was a soldier in the book, All Quiet On the Western Front.  He was there from the very beginning. When Paul and the rest of the gang came in as new recruits, he was already a veteran.  He taught them what to listen for, when to drop down, how to stay alive and many other important things.  He was their leader, he was their mentor, he was their protector, and he was their friend.  He was always out looking for food and supplies to keep his men fit.  None of them could explain how he could do it, but "magically" he was always able to find to find food.  When things were the bleakest, they would always look to him for guidance and like a father or big brother he would care for them.  When the troop morale was down, he lifted their spirits.  In the times that he, himself, was bleak, you could tell things were at a very low point.  Kat was the reason for Paul to go on. Kat was why Paul made it.  Kat and Paul had a deep connection. Without ever talking, at times, they connected and were so very close.  Kat had no real position on whos fault was whos for the war, all he knew was that it was happening and they were in it. Noone on either side had any reason to be fighting, but they were.  It was us or them to him.  Kat's death was very unexpected to me.  I'm glad that it waited until the very end of the book because without Kat, Paul was miserable.  Without Kat, even I felt no reason to go on.  If the end of the book wasn't but a few pages away, I don't think I could've gone on with it. To me, Kat was the most important part to this story.  He was the reason that Paul went on, and his bond with Paul was so immense that without Kat, the story was too tragic.

Group Evaluation

FDP Group Project

 

Working on this group project was a fairly fun project. It was rather hard to do considering the group size though. Working with such a large group was difficult to do in such a short notice because of having to find a time for every group member to get together. This was a goal that we were not able to fully achieve. Having so little free time for everyone to get together forced us to meet more than one time; the second time being the day that the project was due. Only after we were finished working on our project, did I think it was appropriate to do this part. Having class immediately after and all the way up to this class gave me no time to work on this. It was for this reason that I believe many people, including I, were not able to have this part of the project done and posted in time.

Having had that said, working on the FDP gave me an insight on how the government works in Germany. There was a lot of extra searching that had to be done to be able to understand what it was that we were learning about our own party. It’s interesting to see such a small political party that has a fairly important role. Being a “kingmaker” party makes them an important party for other parties. In our research we found that the FDP has been in a constant struggle to keep enough votes to stay in parliament. As a constantly struggling party it was interesting to find some of the ways, in the past and even in very recent months, that they have attempted to reach out to get votes.

If I were a voting person, I do not know if I would choose to vote for the FDP. The party isn’t focused on who I am, a construction-worker-type. Also, as a party that is constantly struggling for more votes, I am not sure if I can always count on a party that goes to such lengths to get votes. Having a soon to be political leader be on a tv show or holding “skeptical” meetings just to get more votes doesn’t seem like a party I would put my faith in.

FDP

(1)

"As much government as necessary, as little government as possible," (2)

Overview

• Histroy
• major events
• current standing

History

• Theodor Heuss first chairman 1948
• Heuss was first president of federal republic of germany from 1949-1959
• free democratic party is a centrist german party that advocate individualism, captialism and social reform.
• It was established in December 1948 at a conference attended by delegates from liberal parties in American, British and French zone occupation.
• Formed from nine regionally organized parties: BDV, DemP, DP, DVP (Northern Württemberg-Baden), DVP (Southern Württemberg-Hohenzollern), FDP from the Brtitish Zone of Occupation and The Free State of Bavaria and the LDP from the State of Hesse and Berlin West.

Major events

• 1970 to 1990s Hans-Dietrich Genscher led the fdp as the forgein minister of germany
• During the 2002 elections, Juergen Moellemann published an anti-Semitic pamphlet and was forced to leave the FDP before commiting suicide in 2003.
• Guido Westerwelle 2009 best result in federal election and second-longest serving chairman
• 2009 party support collapses (dropped to as low as 5%)
• 2011 Guido Westerwelle stepped down after party was wiped out in select states.

Guido Westerwelle(3)

Phillipp Rosler(4)

Current Standing

• Guido had to step down from vice-chancelor in 2011 due to being unable to lower taxes as promised in 2009 election
• Phillipp Rosler succeeded Guido as chairman of FDP and vice-chancelor in May 2011
• "kingmaker"

Fun Facts

• Guido on Big Brother germany in early 2000s
• Guido first openly gay vice-chancelor and foreign minister

References

1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FDP-Logo_2011.svg, 17 Sep 12
2.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Democratic_Party_(Germany), 17 Sep 12
3.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Guido_Westerwelle_(Foreign_ministry_in_Stockholm,_2010).jpg, 19 Sep 12
4.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Roesler-klein.jpg, 19 Sep 12

Saxony-Anhalt Group Project

1. Saxony-Anhalt

1.1 Saxony-Anhalt is bordered by Brandenburg in the nottheast, Saxony and Thuringia in the south and Lower Saxony in the northwest.
It has a population of 2.34 million people, as of 2010.
Anhalt's size is 20,445 sq. km

1.2 Anhalt's economy nearly collapsed in 1990. Since then, their economy has transformed into a modern market economy. Today, Saxony-Anhalt has the lowest rate of unemployment throuighout Germany.
The main industrial sources of revenue in Saxony-Anhalt are: Chemical plants, wind farms, and farming, due to their extremely abundent soil.
Saxony-Anhalt has numerous trade partners around the woeld, due to their dealings with chemical plants and farming.


1.3 Saxony-Anhalt offers a unique geography. There are vast plains, tall mountains, numberous vinyards, and also rural and metropolitain cities.
The biggest cities are: Magdeburg, which is the capital city, and Halle.
Some smaller cities are: Altmark, and its bordering cities.

1.5 Saxony-Anhalt joined the federal republic in the year 1990. Before 1948, Anhalt was ruled by the US Army, as well as the Soviet Union.
Saxony-Anhalt was named after Anhalt Castle, which is near Hazgerode. The origins of the naming of the castle remain unknown.

2. Saxony-Anhalt offers a very old fashioned and unique architecture. There are old cathedrals and monuments which use a more Gothic type of architecture.The Cathedral of Magdeburg, and the market places of both Halle and Wittenburg were among the most impressive looking building structures that I found.
One thing that I found interesting about their local customs is their religion. The religion is mainly Luthern, but under a Communist rule. Due to this rule, more people are leaving churches rather than attending them. As of 2010, over 80% of the population no longer attended church in Saxony-Anhalt.
The most famous person from Anhalt, is Martin Luther. Mathin Luther founded the Luthern belief, which he based off of Christianity.
Hugo Junkers is also another famous man from Anhalt.

3. The resources used in this blog were: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LandkreiseSachsenAnhalt2007.png
www.sachsen-anhalt.de/index.phd?id=21182
www.citypopulation.de/Deutschland-Sachsen-Anhalt.html